​Alright, slacker.

There's no more denying it: the holidays are here, and you need to get on that shopping list. Luckily, Up on the Sun has caught gift guide-fever, and over the course of this week we'll be offering you suggestions for the entire family.

It's hard to forget your metal-loving uncle -- even if you kinda want to.

Here are a couple of musical suggestions to slide under his mini-Jack Daniels bottle-bedecked Christmas tree.

More >>

​Local success story Digital Summer has a lot of fans around the Valley and nationwide after touring with hard rock draws like Sevendust, Saliva, and Drowning Pool. I'm not one of those fans; the band plays the kind of crunchy, nu-metal drives me up a wall.

But like I said, a lot of people like them, and we even put them on the cover of our paper back in 2008. Plus, the band's "extra-rockular" activities (you know, day jobs) make it nearly impossible to hate on them personally. Vocalist Kyle Winterstein is currently a firefighter; Guitarist Ian Winterstein, is a paramedic. Guitarist "Fish" Cenfield is a teacher; Bassist "Guido" Hernandez is a student; and drummer Ben Anderson is a studio engineer.

More >>

​Could there be any better Halloween gift than to wander around in Alice Cooper's brain for an evening, watching him teeter on the edge of sanity, just about to fall off?

Proooobably not.

That's why this year, Halloween Horror Nights 2011 at Universal Studios Hollywood will veer from its traditional horror movie theme with a personal addition from Alice Cooper himself: a haunted maze that draws on elements from the shock rocker's theatrical concerts and feature music from his 1975 concept album, Welcome to My Nightmare.

Imagine actual snakes, a sadistic insane asylum, Cooper's childhood bedroom where he turned from Vincent Furnier to Alice Cooper forever, and decapitations, all set to themes from some of his classic songs.

More >>

​ More >>

Cyndi Lauper is kicking some serious butt in the name of charity on Celebrity Apprentice.

​If you're anything like me, you really enjoy watching trashy television, but hate admitting it in public. I've decided to blow my cover for the sake of Cyndi Lauper.

I've been watching Celebrity Apprentice in quasi-secret. For two hours every Sunday night, we all have the opportunity to watch celebs plan elaborate marketing schemes for already well-known companies, in order to raise money for charities they support.

While much of the show involves watching these celebrities pull out their "rolodex" (a.k.a. cell phone contact list) and beg their high-brow friends to donate to a cause, they are also forced into bizarre situations where they must take it to the streets. They're forced to interact with the people -- the common people -- and simultaneously create ad campaigns for multimillion-dollar companies in about 48 hours.

This season features several notables from the music industry, including Sharon Osbourne, Bret Michaels, and my personal favorite, Cyndi Lauper. All three of the rockers are among the six remaining contestants. More >>

We're done with resolutions to eat healthfully and quit our vices. This year we're resolving to reconnect with our nerdolicious self -- basically to let our geek flag fly. And it looks like we won't be alone. 2010 is shaping up to be the year of the geek, with scores of filmmakers, software companies, sci-fi cons and game developers clamoring for our attention. 

Here are just a few of the geeky happenings we're looking forward to experiencing in 2010.  

www.freecomicbookday.com

​5. Free Comic Book Day (May 1)

​Free. Comic. Books. Those three little words should be enough to lure any adult who remembers huddling under a tent of blankets after "lights out" reading back issues of Superman or X-Men at Camp Whatamayahoochee (not that we're admitting anything, mind you).

The deal: Initiated in 2002, Free Comic Book Day started as a way to help small indie shops and comic publishers attract new customers. Every year a couple dozen publishers sign up to sell select books to stores at cost, which the stores give away on FCBD in early May.

The lowdown: You're not gonna land a copy of Marvel Zombies or Blackest Night, but this year's titles include a cool Iron Man/Thor pairing, War of the Supermen and Fearless Dawn.  Not every comic book store participates (and most won't let you hog every title) but Samurai Comics, Atomic Comics and a few other locals usually get in on the action.

More >>

Pocket protectors. Highwater jeans pulled up to the neck. T-shirts with slogans like, "Ethernet (n), something used to catch the etherbunny" and "Got D20?". Geeks aren't exactly known for their fashion prowess, but that hasn't stopped them from inspiring trends that would make any Mean Girl cringe. 

Here are 5 geeky fashion trends of the 2000s -- a few of which real geeks, dweebs and nerds wouldn't actually be caught dead in.   

http://www.flickr.com/photos/clickflashphotos/ / CC BY 2.0

​Thick Plastic Glasses

Guys don't make passes at girls who wear glasses. Yeah, whatever. Used to be that was somewhat true. The trend in the late '90s/early 2000s was paper-thin lenses and so-called "frameless" glasses which practically disappeared on your face. The thought was that the less visible your glasses were, the more attractive you'd look and the more confident you'd feel. Then the tides turned.

Midway through the decade, thick plastic rims became all the rage. We're talking everything from square, horn-rimmed '50s style frames to huge, clunky round nerd glasses. Some gals are even trading in their usual contacts for these puppies -- or wearing glasses for fashion when they don't actually need any vision correction.

"Do these black plastic glasses make my face look smarter?" Why yes, doll, yes they do.

 

More >>

When we picked up a flier for the "Midnight in a Winter Horrorland" fashion show at First Friday, we figured we'd go and possibly get a little last-minute holiday shopping in for those hard to buy for friends.

We ended up treated to a short but sweet bit of eye candy that included glow-in-the-dark skirts, leather pasties and Zombie Santa. The fashion show was originally supposed to be one of Black Light Mass's weekly affairs at Rasputin's Ranch in Chandler, but it was moved to Evermore Nevermore in Mesa. 

This is nothing compared to what you usually see at BLM gatherings. See more shots in our Winter Horrorland slide show.

​Perhaps the group lost their usual site because of the goings-on at previous BLM events: If you haven't been introduced to their delightful debauchery, check out their MySpace page. We're talking DJs with their "needles" hanging in the wind, serious B&D (if you have to ask, don't bother) and live buffets of doughnuts and cake served atop half-nude girls. But we digress.

There was no nudity at Sunday night's fashion show, though some of the models did come awfully close...

More >>

Doomsayers and the easily fooled are focused on 2012 right now (so much so that poor NASA had to issue statements debunking the movie myths). But we've got a different date in mind: 2010. The New Year begins the end of an era. Well, a decade actually.

Technology has certainly advanced in the past ten years. Flat screen TVs, GPS navigation and iPods are commonplace. E-books and mini-laptops are making it possible to do anything on the go.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/23182098@N07/ / CC BY 2.0

​But what of the other geek-friendly creations of the new millennium -- not just for the techie geek, but for fantasy geeks, sci-fi geeks, literary geeks and our other nerdy brethren? Here are just a few of the major obsessions that have made an impact on geekdom in the past decade. Feel free to add your favorites.

10. YouTube

Yes, everyone -- even our non tech savvy in-laws and grandparents -- watches videos on YouTube. But where else can you see "Death Star" black holes, original Star Trek bloopers and liquid nitrogen explosions all in one spot? This website is a universal geek pleaser. It even contains videos by geeks, for geeks, that subtly criticize other types of geeks. Sigh.  

 

More >>

Cannibals, cops, bird flu: All three of these things have grabbed headlines before, but probably not simultaneously. That's where comic book creator John Layman comes in. His runaway hit series Chew follows the adventures of Tony Chu, a detective turned FDA agent who lives in a world where chicken meat was outlawed by Big Brother after a bird flu scare.  

John Layman's awesome Chew series: Not what McGruff The Crime Dog had in mind when he said, "Take a Bite Out of Crime."

Sucks for Colonel Sanders.

​​If you thought that Medium chick has it easy when it comes to solving crimes, wait till you get a load of Layman's unlikely hero. Chu's a cibopath -- someone who can see the last minutes of anything he eats.

​Guy tries a radish and he gets images of pesticides and harvesters. Hamburger? Let's just say you might go vegan and join PETA after seeing a mallet swinging towards your head. And just imagine what Chu could see if, let's say, he were to take just a teensy weensy bite out of some serial killer's victim. 

We caught up with Layman at a signing this past Saturday evening at Atomic Comics' Chandler location and picked his brain about Chew.   

More from Layman -- and an illegal chicken eating contest!! -- after the jump.

More >>