She slices, she dices, she also makes julienne fries!
My name is Taryn Brenner and I’m a 29 year old gamer girl / movie junkie from Winnipeg, Manitoba. I’m a proud Canadian and am psyched to be bringing the digital esssence of maple syrup and back bacon to GEN. I have been a writer for many years but mainly for stage, having had two of my stage plays produced by a local theatre company and a radio play produced on CBC Radio. The stage was always my first writing love but I had always dreamed of being a movie or videogame journalist….wait….didn’t that just come true? Sweet! I am also a freelance digital artist. While I have produced works for several local charities and fashion companies, my favorite pieces are my little digital homages to my favorite movies and video games.
Unlike most of the girls at GEN, I never grew up with video games in my home. My parents believed that they would warp my young mind so I’d have to get my gaming fix at friends’ houses or escaping to the aracade. Not to worry - in the meanwhile I found other ways to warp my mind. But when I got my Nintendo Game Boy, you couldn’t find a happier kid! It was a shaky gaming start but now I’m gaming with a vengeance!
Other than games, my main passion is movies. Movie addiction and knowledge was almost a prerequisite in my family - if you couldn’t name the supporting cast of The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938), you were out of the family! I love the oldies as much (sometimes even more) than the new flicks. Even those classic silent films like Nosferatu and The Phantom of the Opera still find their way into my dvd player. There isn’t a movie type that doesn’t pique my interest. I like the deep, emotional dramas like Saving Private Ryan as much as I like silly, bodily-function humor flicks like Blazing Saddles. I can honestly say that if I did indeed have some super human power, it would be my ability to retain movie knowledge. Not as cool as invisibility but still very handy in a game of Scene It! Movies.
I’ve also just started getting into Cosplay as well. My first two major costumes but were a labor of love and I’m pretty proud of them. My first homage was to Oola the Twi’lek dancer from Return of the Jedi. Word to the wise : lekku are heavier than they look! My second was Demona from Disney’s Gargoyles which won me a slew of prizes last year. I hope to keep pushing the envelope every year and hold true to the philosophy that Wal-mart bought costumes are for suckers.
The Geekery of the Gun Street Girl
Video Games: While I love any games that show innovation or impressive art style , I’m an RTS fan at heart. 
Some of my other favorite game styles are survival horror, platformer, role playing games and simulations. I have always liked shooters but have never been very good at them……yet. Some of the games I love and would reccomend to anyone are: Elder Scrolls IV Oblivion, Fable, Patapon, Little Big Planet, Rise of Nations, Bioshock, Silent Hill series, Resident Evil Series, Loco Roco, Mass Effect, the Metal Gear series, Beyond Good and Evil, the Sims 2 and Guitar Hero.
Movies So many times I get asked what my favorite movie is and the thing is, it’s just impossible to pick just one. I’d be hard pressed to even pick just 20 favorites. When I find a good director, a good actor or good writer, I try to follow every piece of work they put out. Luc Besson and Quentin Tarantino are two of my favorite writers; in my opinion, they are just brilliant. Here’s a little taste of some of my favorite films: Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?, Kill Bill 1 & 2, The Alien Quadrilogy, Dead Poets Society, Carlito’s Way, A Fish Called Wanda, Leon (The Professional), The Dark Knight & Batman Begins, Blazing Saddles, Tenacious D and the Pick of Destiny, Cube, Terminator 1 & 2, Waking Life, Event Horizon, 28 Days & Weeks Later, Hot Fuzz, Good Fellas, Pulp Fiction, The Matrix, Shakespeare in Love, Platoon, The Goodbye Girl, The Philladelphia Story and Dogma.
Television: In past years, tv was just something I had on in the background while I cleaned my apartment 
but with the new edgy shows that have been coming out in recent years, I am once again hooked. LOST has become a serious addiction of mine and Wednesday nights are when I round up my fellow LOST geeks so we can salivate over it together. In that same arena is FRINGE. While my first impression was that it was just trying to be the new X-Files, this show’s wit and intrigue is what keeps me hooked. I am ecstactic that Breaking Bad is finally back, although I’ll never be able to look at Tim Whatley on Seinfeld the same way again. And Burn Notice, well, if you haven’t seen it FOR SHAME! Aside from watching gaming shows, I also love Rome, South Park, Robot Chicken, Simpsons, Spaced and Fawlty Towers.
Music My music tastes are kind of all over the place. I love everything from musical theatre to rock n’ roll, metal to folk. Anything that gets me moving, makes me wanna sing along at the top of my 
lungs, any music that makes it impossible for me to fight the urge to dance - that’s the music for me. Some of my favorite musicians are: The Beatles, Dave Matthews Band, Jamiroquai, Glenn Hughes, Eric Clapton, David Bowie, Liquid Tension Experiment, Tool, Tom Waits, U2, Ben Harper, Humble Pie, The Tragically Hip, Tom Petty, Stevie Wonder and Jamie Cullum. As for musicals, I gotta go with The Phantom of the Opera, Tommy, Les Miserables, Kiss of the Spiderwoman, Jesus Christ Superstar and Evil Dead: the Musical.
