A contributed perspectives piece by Glenn Logan Reitze
It was a balmy, sunny weekend in the Central Shenandoah region, and it got off to a fine start on Saturday with the Redbud Arts & Crafts Festival – The Town of Dayton’s sweet way of bookending winter by pairing it with its hugely successful annual Dayton Days Autumn Celebration.
By nightfall, however, things got considerably quirkier with the first local “Nerd Nite,” promoted by Harrisonburg Downtown Renaissance and the Massanutten Public Library. It was staged from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Sage Bird Ciderworks at 325 N Liberty St.
“Nerd Nite” is a format now used for monthly gatherings in more than 100 cities. It entails four 20-minute lectures, with a break, on random topics by local volunteer speakers. It’s sort of like YouTube, but with lots of friendly audience participation, as among good friends in a crowded living room. It’s a great place to meet people. Nice people. Nerdy, and not-so-nerdy, but mostly curious, interested, even beautiful people enjoying their present company.
Alternatively, it might be viewed as a sort of Alcoholics Anonymous for individuals with unquenchable passions for obscure subjects, sharing these passions with a generally interested audience. Fun for all. Sometimes academic, but not so much. Light. Bright. Often witty. And, well, sometimes a bit bizarre.
Saturday’s first little lecture, with suitably nerdy PowerPoint, was by a jubilant and entertaining Kris Wiley, who appropriately related the brief history of the term “nerd” from its first known printed use, in the illustrated children’s book, If I Ran the Zoo, by Dr. Seuss, in 1950, through its various twists in meaning to the present.
The final lecture of the evening was by Jason Barr, on the long and curious history of the 40 or so Japanese and American films about a radioactively transformed monster named Godzilla: a sometimes terrible, sometimes nice, even heroic creature. Perhaps like many of us.
The day ended almost alone in Regal Theatre’s Auditorium 5, watching a silly yet wonderfully funny new Hollywood romantic comedy, beautifully filmed mainly in Italy, called, You, Me, and Tuscany. Brilliant art. Sad that so few were there to see it with me.
But tomorrow will be another beautiful day.
Glenn Logan Reitze is an elderly retired journalist, attorney, and editor best known locally as the author/illustrator of the popular children’s book, Ernie the Easter Hippopotamus. He lives in Penn Laird writing more books for kids, plus plays and short stories for both adults and kids.
