Being Geek Chic is a blog about one woman navigating the male-dominated industries of production and tech. It's written by Elizabeth Giorgi, Founder, CEO and Director of Mighteor - one of the world's first internet video production companies. Learn more about Mighteor here.
Meet Rachel (@DarthRachel), a blogger and cosplayer who loves her spandex and wigs. She lives in an apartment chosen “in no small part for its proximity to a Lego store.” And, she’s a founding member of Geek Girl Brunch, along with previous Lady Geek and fashionista Yissel Ayala. (Psst: Live in the NYC-area? Sign up for August’s Marvel themed brunch here.)
When Rachel’s not inviting New York’s finest and brightest lady nerds for discussions over eggs and mimosas, she is rooting for the bad guys over at rooting FireandLunch, a podcast and blog sure to tickle your geeky bones.
Her Geeky Top Ten? “Star Wars, Dune, ASoIaF, Star Trek, Farscape, The Foreigner novels by CJ Cherryh, LOTR, Harry Potter, Avatar: The Last Airbender and anything Miyazaki (but Nausicaa is her favorite)."
Read on for Rachel’s Lady Geek of the Week interview!
Q: Favorite Geek Girls Brunch conversation topic?
A: The great thing about Geek Girl Brunch is that we are all automatically friends even if some of us have never met or only spoken on Twitter. You show up to that month’s brunch knowing that the other brunchers all like whatever that month’s theme is and you use that as a jumping off point to talk about everything else! We trade book and comic recs, talk cosplay, our day jobs, fashion, apartment hunting, whatever! There’s lots of phone passing, people showing each other web comics or cool items on Etsy. The brunches are definitely a space to share with each other and that is what I find most fantastic. Those face-to-face conversations create more momentum, in my experience, and lots of projects come out of them!
My favorite thing about any Geek Girl Brunch is that I always end up with a list of new stuff to check out. At our last GGB we all walked to the comic shop afterwards (JHU Comic Books!) and just started handing each other titles.
Q: Where do you find inspiration in life?
A: My friends, most definitely! I try to hang around creative people, enthusiastic people, people who want to know how things work or people who just flat out make cool stuff. You can feed off another person’s excitement in a way that motivates you to start a million related projects! I’m also just a true geek, I read a lot, watch a lot. I consume a ton of media, as most geeks do! I’ll get excited about a book release, read the book, talk to other fans about the book and suddenly I’m making a costume based on a character and I meet someone at a Convention that also reads that book and while we geek out about that we start geeking out about other things. It’s a cycle of enthusiasm!
Q: When did you discover you were "geeky”?
A: Always. I grew up in a family of movieholics. My mom used to take me for day-long marathons at the theater. I watched old movies, new movies, terrible movies, whatever but sci-fi was our favorite genre. When I turned 8 my mom looked at me in the video store and said, “You are old enough for Alien.” That was a big deal! I’d been waiting to be old enough to watch Alien! That early love of sci-fi films led to sci-fi novels and that lead to fantasy novels and as a child of the 80s I was playing video games. Sometimes I’m not sure how anyone couldn’t grow up geek!
Q: If you could take any fictional character out for a drink, whom would you choose and what would you drink?
A: I kind of want to cheat and say Bren Cameron from C.J. Cherryh’s Foreigner novels. He doesn’t go anywhere without his two bodyguards, Banichi and Jago, who are also favorites of mine. Bren is a little fancy though and would probably choose expensive liquor. Banichi and Jago would never drink “on duty” but if they did I would make sure they had the finest of whatever poisonous import they wanted. But me? I’d stick with a craft beer. Is that fancy enough to hang out with an intergalactic diplomat whose official job title is “dictionary maker”? Or is it really cheating?
If that’s cheating then I’d invite Jessica Atreides and drink whatever SHE brought. That would definitely be fun. We’d talk philosophy and she would teach me Bene Gesserit secrets to winning at life. And maybe I’d see the future a little.
Q: What would you tell your 13-year-old self?
A: I would warn her about the Star Wars prequels. My 13 year-old-self was a Star Wars maniac. The prequels was a very difficult time.
Emma Bauer is a Being Geek Chic Contributor. Clearly, she’s got great taste. She is a PR enthusiast, dog lover, tea drinker, art appreciator, and of course, aspires to Be Geek Chic. Follow her on Twitter: @emmalynnbauer
