Quo Vadimus
Editorial:
Quo Vadimus. It means “Where are we going?” I first heard this expression in the series finale of Sports Night. I’ve been watching a lot of Aaron Sorkin TV shows lately. Mostly because they tend to be about groups of people working together to accomplish something special. It started when a series of crappy circumstances hit my family for the umpteenth time this year, and I just wanted to watch something that made me feel feelings. So I fired up a rewatch of The Newsroom. That gave way to a rewatch of Sports Night, which ends with the character Dana learning definition of Quo Vadimus, and what it meant for everyone on the show. It’s one of my favorite moments in TV history, and with the news of today being what it is, I find myself asking that very question.
Today is December 27th, and the latest in the onslaught of celebrity deaths in 2016 has just been brought to our attention. Carrie Fisher is dead at the age of 60. She joins the ranks of Alan Rickman, Prince, Muhammad Ali, Anton Yelchin, Kenny Baker, Gene Wilder, David Bowie, Garry Shandling, Abe Vigoda, Patty Duke, Doris Roberts, Steven Hill, and Jon Polito, and that’s just a small sampling of the stars we lost. But this year has been more than celebrity deaths. All manner of death and destruction is happening worldwide. Mass shootings and police violence have left the population angry and frightened. And let’s not forget the nonstop horror show that was the 2016 presidential election. No matter who you voted for, there’s no denying that things this year have been nothing short of toxic. For myself and many of the people I know, things aren’t great, and 2016 was like a concentrated dose of “F you” from the world.
2017 isn’t shaping up to be a walk in the park either. January 20th is Inauguration Day, and while I can only speak for myself, I personally fear that that will be the beginning of some of the hardest times we as a species are likely to see in our lifetimes. Things are going to get bad, and there’s no telling how fast. So what do we do? Where are we going?
Personally, that’s a tough question to answer, and the best I can come up with is “entertainment.” I for one desperately need entertainment to escape to, and 2017 looks like it’s going to have it in spades. Guardians of the Galaxy 2, Alien: Covenant, Spider-Man: Homecoming, Pirates, Wonder Woman, Thor, Kingsman, Beauty and the Beast, Power Rangers, Logan, and still, even following the loss of Carrie Fisher, Star Wars Episode VIII is coming. The Nintendo Switch has me more excited about a Nintendo console than I’ve been in years, and I’m certain that with it there will be some very exciting new games. TV is going through an incredible renaissance with all manner of great stuff to watch. Some of my favorite comic books have some fantastic-looking things on the horizon. No matter how you slice it, entertainment is looking good. No, entertainment is looking great.
And we here at Geekade are going to be right here talking about all of it.
No matter how bad things get out there, we still love what we love, and there is no shortage of quality entertainment to turn to during the dark times. No matter what, I get to talk to Dan about video games on The Stone Age Gamer Podcast every week. I get to talk about TV shows with Karen and Evan every week. I get to listen to Dan and Nick talk about comic books. I get to be confused by Cengiz and Dave talking about board games. I get to be fascinated by Brandon and Travis’ conversations on Apathetic Enthusiasm. I get to discuss video game music with Vicky. I’ll read crazy-entertaining sports stories from Dave, Conor, and Sizemore that I only partially understand, but I’ll enjoy anyway because of how much they love what they’re writing about. Ring the Bell will find new and exciting ways to make me laugh about professional wrestling, even though I couldn’t possibly care less about it. I’ll get to read articles written by my high school drama teacher that I get to publish on my very own website. Trish will introduce me to TV shows (and operating systems) that I never knew about, and Gabbie will show me windows into a futuristic world of technology and convenience. Dean will wear fabulous vests on YouTube, Alex will keep bringing awful movies to my attention, Matt Mutch will send me crazy news stories in the middle of the day, Jonathan and Patti will talk about X-Men with language colorful enough to make sailors blush, Dawn will make me want to watch Disney movies, Angie will continue to increase my appreciation for cross stitch, and if we’re all really lucky, Evan will read us a story about a ninja.
We’re going to continue to do our best to bring you entertaining content every single day, and no matter what happens, we aren’t going to let 2016, 2017, or any other year get us down. As we approach our third year of operation, I look back at where we came from and I’m amazed. We raised a couple thousand dollars for charity with a 24 hour livestream. We’ve grown and expanded with partners like Be Cosplay and Zwia Reviews. Have you seen Apathetic Enthusiasm’s website? It’s really pretty! We have an audience, albeit a relatively small one, but it’s growing. These are things that we have all accomplished both as individuals and as a team, and I couldn’t be more proud.
So what I’m getting at is, where we go from here is, well, here. We stay where we are, and we never stop trying to bring anyone who’s willing to watch, listen, or read, new and worthwhile content every single day. Those celebrities I mentioned at the beginning of this article were all entertainers, and we plan to honor them by being as entertaining as we can ourselves, and hopefully bring a little joy to your lives.
Even though the show got cancelled afterward, Sports Night left us with the knowledge that everything was going to be okay for the characters involved after they answered the question “where are we going?” and I’d like to believe that we are going to do the same here at Geekade. As Matt Raimo of Ring the Bell just said…
New beginnings. I couldn’t have said it better myself. Good luck in 2017, everybody. Keep playing games.
-Kris Randazzo
Editor-in-Chief
Geekade
