by A.J. Focht

PlayStation fans around the globe continue to QQ over the extended absence of the PlayStation Network. While original reports stated the network would return this last week, they all proved to be filthy lies. Recent statements made by a spokesperson from the company suggest it might not return till the end month. Luckily for all the PlayStation fanboys and girls, this last week was packed with plenty of nerdy happenings to distract them from their enforced gaming sobriety.

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by A.J. Focht

Welcome to the first edition of Your Week in Geek; catching you up on all your nerdy updates since… NAO!

Last week started right in the middle of the PlayStation Network outage. It wasn’t until Tuesday, April 26th, that Sony manned up and admitted their system had been hacked and that many of the network users may have had personal information stolen (such as user names, passwords, and credit card numbers). Sony is currently fighting on two fronts as they try to criminally pursue and prosecute those responsible for the attack, while fighting off a class action lawsuit filed by the raging masses. Despite the uphill legal battle, Sony has announced the PlayStation Network should be back online in the first week of May.

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by Blogbot

SuicideGirls caught up with William Shatner when he materialized on the black carpet at Revolver Magazine’s Golden Gods Awards last week. The OG Star Trekker‘s far out level of badass quotient was being acknowledged with an Honorary Headbanger Award, which was presented to him by SG’s own Food Coma columnist Scott Ian (who was there with his band Anthrax ahead of the monster Big 4 Fest).

Shatner is planning to follow up his critically acclaimed albums* The Transformed Man (1968) and Has Been (2004), with a third full length entitled Searching For Major Tom, which is scheduled to be unleashed on the world later this year.

Given that we were at the Golden Gods, which is a celebration of all things hard ‘n’ heavy, we had to ask Mr. Shatner if his release would include any metal tracks. He responded in the affirmative, and revealed that the collection of out-of-this-world covers will include Black Sabbath’s “Iron Man,” Pink Floyd’s “Learning To Fly,” and Deep Purple’s “Space Trucking.”

“There are some great musicians are on there,” Shatner enthused. Among the many guests confirmed are ex-Deep Purple guitarist and Rainbow frontman Ritchie Blackmore (who makes “Space Oddity” even more of an oddity), Peter Frampton (the not-dead-yet legend plays guitar on “Spirit In The Sky”), Edgar Froese of Tangerine Dream (who brings the weirdness on “Learning To Fly” to new heights), Kinks’ guitarist and frontman Dave Davies (who takes quirky to Mach 10 on “Mr. Spaceman”) and Stokes’ guitarist Nick Valensi (who is a grounding influence on “Major Tom”).

“It’s fabulous,” said Shatner. “I mean, it’s a happening. I can’t wait to see what the reaction will be.”

In related news, we can exclusively reveal that Priceline is planning to offer “Name Your Own Price®” trips to the Twilight Zone**.

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by Nicole Powers

May is Zombie Awareness Month. To mark it, and help you, dear reader, prepare for what many think is an inevitable and impending invasion, we organized a round table discussion (by phone) with one of the world’s leading zombie experts, Matt Mogk, the Founder & Head Researcher of the Zombie Research Society, and one of the world’s leading zombie enthusiasts, Scott Ian, of the heavy metal band Anthrax and the supergroup The Damned Things. Are you prepared for the apocalypse?

Read our exclusive interview with Scott Ian (Anthrax) and Matt Mogk (Zombie Research Society) on SuicideGirls.com.

by Morgan

After replaying Dragon Age II twice this past month, I’ve never been more convinced that casual gaming offers a really refreshing break from hardcore gaming. It also offers something for gamers who aren’t into level grinding for hours or first-person shooters. And if you have a portable device, they can provide quick bursts of entertainment when you’re sitting on a train or waiting in an office – or sitting on a couch, bored by whatever’s on TV. This month I’m bringing you some quick hits of mobile games I love!

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by Mur Lafferty

SuicdeGirls presents the third installment of our Fiction Friday sci-fi series, Marco and the Red Granny, which is brought to you by SG columnist Mighty Mur a.k.a. cyber commentator Mur Lafferty.

Marco and the Red Granny is set in a not-so-distant future where an alien species, the Li-Jun, has transformed the moon into the new artistic center of the universe, where the Sally Ride Lunar Base soon gains the nickname “Mollywood.” These aliens can do amazing things with art and the senses, allowing a painting, for example, to stimulate senses other than sight.

In the previous installments, Marco, a writer whose career has long been in the doldrums, gets a surprise call from an agent he thought he no longer had, informing him that he had received an offer from Mollywood for a much coveted Li-Jun patronage. Keen to catch up career-wise with his ex-GF Penelope, who’d unceremoniously dumped him after being recruited by the Li-Jun two years earlier, Marco jumps on the next shuttle to the moon. Once aboard, he finds himself sitting next to a seemingly unassuming old lady called Heather, who turns out to be The Red Granny, a legend in Li-Jun’s reality show world for being a three-time champion of The Most Dangerous Game (which requires contestants to sign away the rights to their life).

We rejoin Marco shortly after he lands on the Moon. Accompanied by Heather The Red Granny and her Li-Jun bodyguard Seven Blue, who are heading in the same direction, Marco sets off to House Blue to meet up with his new patron…

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by Blogbot

Artist, SG photographer and Coilhouse Magazine founding editor Zoetica Ebb has designed a super stylish series of iPhone and iPod Touch cases for indie arthouse Apple accessory company Izozzi.

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