Tag: Podcasts

Road to the Hugo Awards: Fight the Future for Best Fancast

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Fight the Future
Hosted by: Dan Saunders and Paul Saunders
First Published: March 30, 2015
Rating: For teens, with light swearing; one episode has a trigger warning
Update Schedule: Fortnightly
Current Status: Final episode airs March 29, 2016 [Updated with new details]

Spout-Approved Hugo Noms_Fight the Future
Canadian brothers Dan Saunders and Paul Saunders read books and watch movies so you don’t have to! © Loading Ready Run

Not long after I published my list of what kinds of works should receive the Geeking Out About… seal of approval for celebrating inclusivity and diversity, I read a notice on the message board for this podcast that it was going to be going to be ending this year. This prompted me to fire off an email to Paul Saunders asking him if I could include the podcast as one of my platform planks because even though I was an infrequent listener (due to my not having read or seen all of the works they were reviewing), I really enjoyed the premise of the podcast and what it was attempting to achieve. His response was to be flattered but wonder if they were even eligible, something about which I was quick to reassure them. And yet, I am totally not surprised to know that was the first reaction from him, seeing as he is a member of my favorite Internet sketch comedy troupe Loading Ready Run.

The Five-Sentence Synopsis

Canadian brothers Dan Saunders and Paul Saunders (and their guests) first introduce, then recap the entire plot of a young adult dystopian science fiction movie or book as objectively as they can, perhaps with some comedic asides. Next, they discuss the plausibility of the worldbuilding as well as how scary the world is for its fictional characters. There’s a section where they talk about what kind of characters they would be in the fictional world, and then using either clues left by the creators or information from official sequels, they talk about what hope there is for the characters in the fictional world beyond the end of the book or movie. Finally, there’s either a snippet of a scene from the movie or a song which they feel illustrates the work the best, and a final summary from the hosts before the sign-off.

What Works

There are many podcasts out there which are dedicated to reviewing books and movies from a critics’ perspective. However, I believe this is one of the first podcasts I’ve heard of which reviews the actual worlds in which the books or movies take place. Of all the episodes I’ve heard, there are very few instances in which I feel that either Dan or Paul or their guests know or care too much about the current science fiction/fantasy literary blogosphere’s opinions of the works, its creators, its production team, or the actors portraying the characters. They are just there to discuss the work and only the work. When they do bring in references to other works or the greater outside world, they do it either near the beginning or near the end so that the discussion of most of the episode is focused on just the world inside the movie or book. It’s both fan discussion and literary criticism in its purest form, where the only clues you have are the work itself, the world you currently inhabit, your personal experiences, and that’s it. From the very first episode, I loved this premise and found myself wanting to join in on the discussion in either the forum threads or the comments on the YouTube version of the podcasts. (It’s also available on iTunes and well as having its own RSS feed as well.) They are never mean or cruel when they point out major flaws, which is very much in keeping with the whole Loading Ready Run ethos which I love. They’re also not slavish in their approval or disapproval, which I really appreciate. I even love the original theme song, composed by Bradley Rains.

Selected Highlights

Episode 8 – A Boy and His Dog: Dan reads out the email Paul sent to him with his concerns about how they’ll cover the movie. (“It ends with the hero KILLING HIS LOVE INTEREST AND FEEDING HER TO HIS DOG!”)

Episode 15 – Battle Royale: Dan and Paul pick out which of their former 15-year old classmates would they kill or be killed by. (“I see all these cute faces and I see them all as potential killers.”)

Episode 23 – The Knife of Never Letting Go: Guest host Emily explains why this dystopic world is particularly horrific to her. (“It’s pretty much my world anyway.” “It’s called ‘The Internet.'”)

What Doesn’t

As I begin to evaluate works for my platform, I’m starting to realize that just like the Bechdel or the Mako Mori test, just because a work can stand on my platform on a superficial level, it doesn’t mean that the work is a perfect example of a truly diverse work. In my email correspondence with him, Paul Saunders admitted that the podcast isn’t very diverse. “We have tried to get as many different special guests with different points of view as possible,” he wrote in an email, “but obviously the pool of people in our social circles that are available and have an interest in the topic is not that big.” My reaction to that is a hope that for any future podcast they do, he and/or Dan are able to reach out to members of the YA dystopia fiction community at large who can recommend more works by non-Caucasian, cisgendered Canadian authors and/or filmmakers or more guests who aren’t from just North America.

Final Thoughts

At last year’s CONvergence, the theme was all about dystopian futures. While at a MetaFilter meetup, I mentioned Fight the Future to a person I was meeting in person for the first time and extolled its virtues. Months later, she asked me about the podcast because clearly the idea of it was something that had stuck in her mind after all that time. Fight the Future is a podcast which was sadly limited in its length and lasted for only a year, but should be pointed out as one of the best productions of 2015. That’s why I’m nominating it for a Hugo Award this year and next year, and I hope that many of you agree.

Road to the Hugo Awards: Selected Fancasts, part 2 – The “Professionals”

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Road to Hugo Award Header_Part 1Continuing to go through the Best Fancast Hugo Award eligibility list on this Google Spreadsheet, there’s something I noticed which I thought was interesting: For a category called “Best Fancast,” there are an awful lot of “professionals” on it.

This is not to say that someone who gets paid to write and/or edit and/or create science fiction and/or fantasy works by another company can’t be a fan and talk about the industry, the genre, and/or the people who are involved in it. It does set up a potentially unrealistic expectation about the quality of said works, and/or that the hosts have access to better equipment and a higher caliber of guests or material.

As a result, there’s a chance that as I review these “Best Fancasts” further, I may be a bit more critical of certain shows than others; I certainly hope that’s not the case. So here’s round two of my reviews of Hugo Award-eligible works for “Best Fancast”:

Hugo Fancasts_WhosRoundToby Hadoke’s Who’s Round
Episode 127: July #01 (feat. Keith Hodiak)
Hosted by Toby Hadoke
Date Published: July 3, 2015

First Impression: This is precisely the kind of stunt podcasting that I like. The premise behind British comedian Hadoke’s podcast is that for the 50th anniversary year of the BBC series Doctor Who he would attempt to interview as many people as he could who were involved with the show over its lifetime. For this episode, he caught up with dancer/actor Keith Hodiak who played the Raston Warrior Robot who annihilated a bunch of Cybermen in the 20th anniversary special episode “The Five Doctors”. Not being a true Whovian, I had no idea why Hadoke was so enamored of this minor character; subsequent research and some time watching YouTube clips has revealed that because the Raston Warrior Robot moved so differently and destroyed its enemies so completely in such a short amount of time, it instantly became a favorite Monster-of-the-Week for fans of the show. For a podcast with such a limited scope, Hadoke is a deft interviewer, starting off with questions and anecdotes about the filming of the episode, segueing into Hodiak’s post-Who career filming Full Metal Jacket with Stanley Kubrick and the genesis of his career as a modern dancer who was given a scholarship to a prominent British school, and then circling back around to the Doctor Who theme of the show to end the interview. It was very well-done, and I hope that Hadoke may eventually branch out into doing interviews with non-Doctor Who actors, too, for other British sci-fi franchises. Another thing I noticed that was a point against it was that for a podcast which had excellent audio for an interview being held inside a restaurant before and after a meal, the end bumper before the preview of the following episode had terrible audio. How does that happen?

Is this a Hugo Award-worthy work?: For a specific, single-subject podcast, sure.

Hugo Fancasts-UnattendedUnattended Consequences
You’re Gonna See Some Hogs
Hosted by Patrick Rothfuss and Max Temkin
Date Published: August 4, 2015

First Impression: While I know that Rothfuss is “not [my] bitch” and I’m sure he’s heard every joke under the sun relating to when the third book in the Kingkiller Chronicles trilogy will be published and out in the wider world, it is certainly no coincidence that the episode I picked to review would be the one where he and Cards Against Humanity co-creator Temkin talk about procrastination. As mentioned in a previous review, this podcast greatly suffered from a descriptive error because for about half of the time, Rothfuss and Temkin talked about GenCon, a convention for board and tabletop games which now has a writers’ track attached to it. There was also a brief segue where Rothfuss talked about the state of Wisconsin (the original home of the convention) and how excited he gets whenever a mainstream media product mentions the state and does a really excellent job of depicting the state and its people how they really are. Wow, I thought to myself, on another show, this would be an excellent way to get into the discussion of under representation in mainstream media and genre fiction for non-Caucasian people. But of course, Rothfuss and Temkin aren’t creating that kind of podcast; to me, this feels more like the All Work, No Play podcast created by voice over actors Liam O’Brien and Sam Riegel where they talk about the voice work they’re currently doing (which they really can’t talk about due to non-disclosure agreements) and try to find ways to have fun while having lives and raising families in Hollywood. There was a different weird turn to the conversation when Rothfuss was talking about how GenCon used to be a convention where there would be so few women that one easily could play the game “Where’s the Girl?” by taking a photo of the convention hall or one of the gaming rooms and trying to figure out where the lone female gamer was in the crowd. I expected the next words out of their mouths to be that of course now there are several women playing games in the halls and showing off their own games in the exhibit hall, but the next words were actually extolling the virtues of the kid-friendly options for GenCon. That was such an awkward transition because it made it feel like Rothfuss and Temkin were saying that because the con is more open to casual play and kid-friendly now, it’s now okay and welcoming to women, as if women couldn’t also be the “dark” rules-lawyering, uber-competitive nerds who used to comprise all of GenCon’s audience, or that it would be the “women’s” job to bring the kids to the conventions. It wasn’t until 30 minutes into the podcast that they actually started talking about procrastination, and the main takeaway I got from it was that while I was very glad that Rothfuss really understands the mindset of someone who works as someone else’s assistant for a living, I didn’t get a sense that he wasn’t about to make the same kind of leap which YA author John Green did last year in removing himself completely from most of his non-writing obligations in order to finish his next book. I hope he’s able to come to that kind of conclusion soon, if only for the sake of being able to spend more time with his young kids and his partner—and also so that he can finish his book.

Is this a Hugo Award-worthy work?: Nope, as it is only barely about the genre and/or even the life of a genre author.

Photo by Bruce PressDitch Diggers
Episode 10: Featuring Guest Host Gail Carriger
Hosted by Mur Lafferty and Matt Wallace
Date Published: April 30, 2015

First Impression: Despite the fact that I have known and loved Hugo-award winning creator Ursula Vernon’s work for a very long time, I did not choose to review the episode featuring her because I know that she and Lafferty are great friends in real life. Instead, I chose to review an episode featuring a writer with whom I’m not familiar, despite the episode notes stating that she is a New York Times bestselling author. Imagine my “surprise,” when it’s revealed that not only are Lafferty, Wallace, and Gail Carriger also good friends, she was also part of the impetus behind the creation of the podcast. And therein lies a bit of a problem. Listening to this conversation, it made me feel and really believe that there is a secret cabal of science fiction and fantasy authors who all know each other and support each other to the exclusion of others. There’s a verbal shorthand that they have with each other which to a longtime listener and fan sounds chummy but to a new listener feels a bit alienating. At the same time, this is the kind of “professional” podcast which both readers and aspiring writers need to have on their podcast rotation. For both audiences, it not only pulls back the curtain to show off the real life of a working writer, it also turns on all the stage lights and peers into the dressing rooms during intermission as well. The bits from Carriger I was fascinated to learn was that like me, she can’t stand when a book is poorly edited and has purposefully stopped buying books or reading some authors’ work because of it. She also revealed that she was able to circumvent her publisher Orbit’s usual “two-book contract” by deliberately dropping a cliffhanger into her second novel Changeless (which was the first one to hit the NYT list), just so her editor would want to ask her about the next book in the series. I also loved hearing her reaction to what she called the most polite piece of hate mail regarding two homosexual characters in the series, from a reader who had bought all five books but was disappointed by her positive treatment of the two characters. But perhaps the part of Carriger’s interview that I loved the most was when she mentioned that writers should not overly denigrate other writers whose books are bestsellers but not to their own particular taste because the sales of those books are paying for their advances with the same publisher. It’s a very business-first sentiment, and one I had not heard many other writers speak of before; now that I’ve heard it, it makes total sense to me. For their part, Lafferty and Wallace mostly let her speak her mind and helped the conversation along in a helpful way, except for one part about halfway through the episode where it felt like Wallace was re-explaining something Carrigan had just finished saying about how she tailors her social media presence to her established brand and what she knows her audience expects to see from her. He even lampshaded his own mansplaining (“I didn’t want to seem like I was regurgitating what Gail says…”) but to someone who’s never heard him speak before, that’s totally what he just did. The end of the podcast focused on listener questions about things such whether or not it’s a detriment if a person can’t afford to pay for something like the Clarion workshops or how viable the short story market is for a new writer, all of which was very interesting to hear. It was great to listen to this casual conversation between friends, and yet at one and a half hours, I think it was perhaps a bit too long—something which Lafferty, a veteran podcaster since 2004 should have known and tried to prevent.

Is this a Hugo Award-worthy work?: Yes, and bits of this should definitely go into their highlight reel.

Road to the Hugo Awards: Selected Fancasts, part 1

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Road to Hugo Award Header_Part 1Finding the time to listen to hour-long episodes of podcasts which are eligible for the 2016 Hugo Awards wasn’t easy for me, but that’s what today’s article is about. The eligibility requirements state that the podcast must be a “non-professional” production—that is, no other company paid the podcaster(s) to make it—and at least one episode has to have been produced during the calendar year in question.

As such, then, I decided to pick one episode from a currently eligible podcast whose description interested me the most and I’ll be basing my recommendations on just the one episode. Unlike the “three episode rule” which I’m borrowing from former GOA contributor Kara Dennison, I think that I’d be able to tell what’s going to be on my nomination and/or platform lists before March 31 from just one episode.

Once again, in no particular order, here are my impressions of podcasts which are currently eligible for the 2016 Hugo Award for Best Fancast:

Hugo Fancasts-BGNBlack Girl Nerds
Episode 43: Brotriarchy, The State of Sci-Fi, and NekoCon 2015
Hosted by Jamie Broadnax
Date Published: November 11, 2015

First Impression: This episode was a mixed bag for me, mostly because of the expectations which were raised due to a titling error. For an episode whose title claimed that it would talk about the state of the sci-fi genre, there was only a somewhat cursory examination of it. The episode began with a lively discussion between Black Girl Nerd website creator and podcast host Broadnax and contributor Lauren Warren, whose think piece for the website about how to fix Project Greenlight after Matt Damon’s “white mansplaining” gaffe to African-American producer Effie Brown caused a bit of a sensation. I appreciate how Broadnax and Warren talked about how the piece was written and that it went beyond hollering what was wrong about the gaffe but moved past and talked about how to fix the problem, something with which I’m very familiar. I loved the lengthy interplay between these two colleagues whose discussion ranged far and wide across the pop culture and media landscape, which was why I was surprised with Broadnax’s more laid-back approach to her interview with “Out of Time” webseries creator Steve Kasan. I appreciate that she allowed him the space to talk about how he felt about diversity in genre media, but to go from such a light-hearted and engaging conversation between equals to a more stilted and less conversational interview was jarring to me. It also doesn’t help that it doesn’t sound like Broadnax even watched an episode of the series at all. Why didn’t she ask more about the thought behind the diversity of the characters? Or how Kasan and co-creator Rodney V. Smith’s take on time-travel in sci-fi works and how it’s different than other people’s take? Those are the kinds of questions I would have asked myself as an occasional podcaster, and I’m disappointed that they weren’t asked. The final segment on NekoCon was another bit of a letdown for me because while her conversations with attendees were interesting for getting a perspective on diversity at anime conventions from the average fan, she never had her interviewee’s give their names or handles. And that’s a big no-no from a journalism perspective because as Sir Terry Pratchett commented in The Truth, getting the names of the people you interview helps you “sell” your work more.

Is this a Hugo Award-worthy work?: No, but I’m sure this would win several other awards in general geekery and lifestyle podcasts categories.

Hugo Fancasts-IDEOATVI Don’t Even Own a Television
Episode 44: Callahan’s Crosstime Saloon
Hosted by J.W. Friedman and Chris Collision
Date Published: December 9, 2015

First Impression: Instantly my back was up despite the excellently-produced original theme song because as the description states and as they say in the intro, this podcast is dedicated to talking about bad books. And even though I’ve read other Spider Robinson books and I don’t recall if I’ve read this specific one, I don’t think that Robinson is the kind of person you’d call a “bad” author. This meant that I was instantly inclined to think that this podcast was not for someone like me. And yet, I was completely surprised how fair they were with the material. Friedman and Collision gleefully point out the problems with tone and the problems with misogynistic and/or sexist attitudes towards women; listening to them talk about it in a completely fair and open way made me think about how I might be perceiving the book and its author through rose and nostalgia-tinted glasses. Another thing that I appreciated about this podcast was how both Friedman and Collision were unafraid to state that they thought a part of the book was bad, but then they thought a bit longer about it and changed their mind. The last 15 minutes of the podcast is dedicated to answering listener email, which shows that this show has definitely reached a critical-growth stage to where they actually have long-time listeners and fans. After finishing up this episode, my instant reaction was to wonder if they would ever read Lady Slings the Booze, just so I could see what they think of the characters in that Spider Robinson book.

Is this a Hugo Award-worthy work?: Yes, despite the fact that they denigrated the pun wars in the book.

Hugo Fancasts-SkiffyFantyThe Skiffy and Fanty Show
Episode 250: Emily Jiang, John Chu, and E. Lily Yu at ICFA
Hosted by Shaun Duke and Julia Rios
Date Published: February 4, 2015

First Impression: Unlike the co-hosts in this episode, I’ll put my disclaimer before the review: One of the contributors to this podcast is Mike R. Underwood, and he and I were on “The Smurfette Principle in Marketing” panel at CONvergence 2015; since then, we’ve followed and ReTweeted each other a lot. I deliberately chose to listen to this particular episode because I know that my reading shelf is very sparse when it comes to works by Asian and Asian-American authors. One of the things I immediately liked about this episode was how much it was like a casual, free-flowing conversation. Each of the guests were engaged on their own, but also allowed to chime in and comment on what the other guests were saying. Also, like the best in talk radio, there were several times where I wanted to join in the conversation as well; I credit this to co-hosts Duke and Rios’ skills as interviewers who except for two awkward bits (one with Yu and one with Chu) were able to manage this five-way conversation with ease. Based solely on her appearance in this episode, I got the impression that Yu’s author persona is gruff and prickly; both Duke and Rios were able to work with it and get her to open up when they asked her what her reaction was to getting the call that she was nominated for a short story Nebula in 2012. From a hindsight perspective, it was also very fun to hear Chu talk about his experiences as a beta-translator for Ken Liu, whose translation work for The Three Body Problem helped that book win a Hugo in 2015.

Is this a Hugo Award-worthy work?: Yes, despite the low fidelity of their recording. But if more people subscribe to their Patreon, I’m sure they could fix that.

Geekly Speaking About… Cameras, Cosplayers, and Consent

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Even though it’s been a long time since I went to an anime convention, I remember how exciting and how much fun they are to attend. I also remember how much drama can surround an anime convention, especially when it comes to cosplayers and the people who like to take pictures of them. The topic of today’s podcast surrounds the dealer’s room at the recently concluded AnimeNEXT convention in Somerset, New Jersey, and one dealer in particular who decided that the next innovation in images on body pillows should be actual human cosplayers. Read along with us using the links below, and then listen to the podcast to untangle the legal issues involved.

In short, this kind of incident could have been easily avoided by all 93 of the cosplayers if they’d just read the agreement carefully, questioned its provisions, and/or refused to sign. That’s why the “Contractual Obligations” episode of “Strip Search” has been the most important one, and the one that all creative fans need to watch.

Here’s hoping everyone involved has learned a valuable lesson.

Geekly Speaking About interviews Josh A. Cagan

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Josh A. Cagan performs at w00tstock 1.2. Photo by Adam Savage.

There have been many great things to come out of the invention of Twitter, and one of those things is the fact that Joe and Jane Average Geek can have a closer relationship to the celebrities they admire. Of course, sometimes what happens as a result of those Twitter conversations occurs in a completely unpredictable way, and the result can be something rather spectacular.

Take screenwriter Josh A. Cagan (@joshacagan) for example. One minute, he’s noodling around on Twitter, the next he’s starting a friendship with Adam Savage from “Mythbusters,” after that comes an appearance at the inaugural w00tstock shows, and just recently, a script he sold last year was on the 2011 Hollywood Blacklist of the year’s “most liked” spec scripts.

But as Lowell Greenblatt and I found out during our interview with him, Cagan’s life and career has had its low points, too:

  • Am I ever going to start one of these podcasts without some audio difficulties? Skype is great for doing long-distance conference calls, but for some reason we had to stop and start so many times. The best part is that after every time we stopped the call, Skype sent us a “So how are we doing?” feedback form. Also, if you hear clicking, that’s me attempting to log some of these notes during the interview. I promise to use a quiet pen and paper (or my boyfriend’s iPad) next time.
  • Here’s the w00tstock performance by Josh Cagan which got me interested in stalking him following him on Twitter:

    • Josh A. Cagan performing in w00tstock at Largo Los Angeles, CA, 2009. from Kayla Cagan on Vimeo.

  • I gotta say, I only ever listened to the audio and I still cracked up watching the video of Cagan’s performance.
  • The items on the American Science & Surplus Clearance page alone makes this worthy of linkage. No wonder Mrs. Adam Savage took a fancy to the cut of Cagan’s jib.
  • Homestar Runner was one of the best Internet things ever; I’m sad that it hasn’t been updated since December 2010.
  • Yes, Virginia, there was an unreleased Fantastic Four movie from 1994; I don’t encourage people to bootleg media, but it’s the only way you can see the whole thing.
  • Almost every geek knows about “Mystery Science Theater 3000,” but only a select few will recall The Golden Turkey Awards; an interesting side note is that one of its co-authors is now a conservative pundit.
  • Just like Coke and New Coke, some people like the post-MST3K stuff from Cinematic Titanic, others like Riff Trax. You can like both, too! As Tim Gunn says, “It’s all a matter of taste.”
  • Interestingly, this very thing happened again back in July 2009 when the co-heirs to the estates of Superman’s creators were able to get a few, but not all, of the rights to that character back. The result is that Man of Steel is now in production, and the U.K.’s Henry Cavill (“The Tudors”, Stardust) is stepping into the famous tights, sans red briefs.
  • Still going strong, FilmThreat.com is still the awesome resource that Cagan remembers, minus original founder Chris Gore who is now does the film beat at G4’s “Attack of the Show,” amongst other things.
  • Yeah, “Turkish Star Wars” is really a thing.
  • “Undergrads” still maintains an official online presence with two clips from the show on it; I’m sure more stuff is on the fan sites that are linked as well.
  • The Calgary Expo just announced that Cagan, Pete Williams, and Andy Rheingold from the crew of “Undergrads” will be attending their show, which runs from April 27 to April 29 this year. Other recently announced guests include Wil Wheaton, Richard Hatch (both versions of “Battlestar Galactica”), and Tom Felton (Draco Malfoy, from the Harry Potter movies). Get your tickets and/or your passports now!
  • Is now a bad time to confess that I’ve never read Charlotte’s Web?
  • I have to say that having worked with a celebrity’s management agency in my former profession as a luxury real estate broker’s executive assistant, I know from experience that they are the real deal and do a lot for the people they represent. Cagan’s lucky to have had the people at H2F Entertainment at his side for so many years.
  • Just so you know, Gary Glitter is out of prison, and back in the U.K.
  • The sad (or maybe awesome) thing is that Yaffa Blocks still exist at its original website.
  • You can buy The Duff for your Kindle or your bookshelf; author Kody Keplinger’s site is here.
  • According to Gawker.com, here are the “rules” behind the concept of director jail. As for Todd Graff, I’m not sure if he’ll be put behind bars for having directed Joyful Noise, a choir competition movie starring Queen Latifah and Dolly Parton. It made $11 million on a weekend where it went up against the Mark Walhberg vehicle Contraband, the re-release of Beauty and the Beast in 3D and the very awesome and still out in theaters Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol—but it has a 35% rotten rating from the critics. Sounds like Graff just can’t please everyone all at the same time.
  • I remember Adam de la Peña as being a very cool guy to know in high school, and I also remember for our school’s French club and Spanish club fundraiser, he and his classmates translated the witch scene from Monty Python and the Holy Grail into Spanish and performed it. Unfortunately, it bombed, because the audiences was all about the broad physical comedy, not the subtle foreign language wordplay comedy. (My original French skit about a writer and the characters in her private detective noir novel went over a little better.)
  • Cagan’s fellow writers in “The Job Factory” are: Rob McKittrick (Waiting…), Matt Allen and Caleb Wilson (Four Christmases and Soul Surfer), and John Davis (The Dukes of Hazzard, the Eureka: Dormant Gene miniseries).
  • Cagan’s comment about Wil Wheaton is referring to an interview I did with him for Sequential Tart.com in 2004 which was so long that it had to be split into two parts. A summer project I have is to convert those mini-tapes into something suitable for a podcast.

Our many thanks again to Josh Cagan for spending so much time with us. If you have suggestions for other people you’d like for us to interview who deserve a wider audience, please let us know in the comments below.

Geekly Speaking About… “Voices from New York Comic Con” Part 1

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Comics, gaming, anime... everything one could possibly "geek out about" was at the New York Comic Con

Once again, Geeking Out About was at the New York Comic Con, which was held at the Javits Center in New York City. Our review of the show will be uploaded later, but for now I’d like to present to you some highlights from how I spent my Saturday and Sunday. Complete information and links can be found below:

  • Kevin Bolk is the head guy behind Interrobang Studios, whom we’ve profiled before. If you’re interested in checking out the pages of Daddy Daughter Ninja Day: My First Ninja Training Manual, Bolk has generously uploaded some of the illustrations here.
  • Anime USA 2011 will be held this year from November 18 to 20; other guests at the con include voice actor Wendee Lee, the visual kei band BLOOD, and comedian Uncle Yo.
  • The two artists that Jane mentions in the “Art for Hope” book are Jacques Pena and Dave Guertin, and their pieces are pretty sweet. After the show, Jane said by email, “The anthology will be available December 2011 (pending Apple approvals). It will be available for a limited time only through the VIZ Manga apps for iPad, iPhone and iPod touch, as well as through VIZManga.com” and “People can donate directly at Architecture for Humanity.”
  • Anne Cain’s work is more awesome in person than on the screen; you can find her DeviantArt gallery here where she has some digital photography as well. You can also see her sister Deb’s work here under the name Studio Mia, where she has sequential pages up. Hey, DC Comics, why haven’t you scouted these talented ladies yet?
  • The Starfire controversy has been widely covered by the comics press, but I think it was this blog post by author Michele Lee wherein she asked her 7-year old daughter’s opinion of the art and depiction which went the most viral. The official DC response (via Twitter) was: “We’ve heard what’s being said about Starfire today and we appreciate the dialogue on this topic. We encourage people to pay attention to the ratings when picking out any books to read themselves or for their children.”
  • Laura Lee’s website is here, and her galleries are a joy to browse through. And while we’re at it, the trailer for Page by Paige is below:

  • I’d like to take this opportunity to apologize profusely to the always-awesome Dean Haspiel, whom I interviewed last year at NYCC, but I fell into a hole after a relationship ended and I never uploaded the interview. In addition to his numerous graphic novels, you can also see Dean’s work in the “Super Ray” comic (PDF) from HBO’s “Bored to Death”; elements of the Ray character are loosely based on him.
  • I started reading comic books back in the mid to late 1990s, and the first stories I loved were the stories of the Chris Claremont-written Uncanny X-Men. When I saw him in Artist Alley, I had wanted to do a quick interview with Claremont, but I decided instead to get audio of him explaining his “Mekanix” miniseries featuring Kitty Pryde to some of her 9th grade female fans who wanted him to sign their comic books. Hearing this old comics vet sharing his work with female fans was just wonderful to me. The woman who laughs at the end came all the way from the Czech Republic to meet him!
  • The questions I had wanted to ask were about the preview piece Claremont had on his table, Wild Blood and how it felt going back into the prose world 20 years after having published First Flight and its sequels. I’ll also add that when I first read them, I totally loved the books and his Nicole Shea is the template upon which I’ve based my female Shepard.
  • Writer Jared Axelrod wasn’t at the table, but artist Steve Walker was, and I was glad to hear him talk about their graphic novel The Battle of Blood and Ink: A Fable of the Flying City which will be coming out in May 2012 from Tor.
  • As always, that snazzy intro to the podcast was “Roma Pt. 2” by greyguy, which I found on ccMixter.org.
  • By the by, if you’re interested in either recording a bumper for the show or advertising with us, please email us at geekingoutabout@gmail.com, and we’d love to work something out.

Stay tuned for “Voices from New York Comic Con” Part 2, which will go up as soon as I finish editing it, which features a very special interview which I got at the very last possible second while NYCC was ending on Sunday.

Geekly Speaking About… “The Commander Shepard Challenge”

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Does a Shepard by any other gender kick as much ass? We're about to find out...

If you’ve been listening to our “Geekly Speaking About…” podcasts, you’ve probably heard co-editor Jillian Pullara and me talking about Commander Shepard from the Mass Effect series of games from Bioware. While she’s mostly played the PC game version and I rocked the Xbox 360 version, we both have a similar sensibility towards the main character in that we think she totally kicks ass. Lowell Greenblatt also loves playing Commander Shepard and thinks that he’s got a real compelling story to tell.

But the problem between us is that our Commander Shepards are different genders. And that got us to thinking: Could playing the character in the Bioware game as the opposite of your preferred gender change your perception of the game?

Reference links and show notes, after the jump:

  • Link dump ahoy! Here’s the PC Gamer editorial by Kim Richards, Kotaku’s coverage, and finally the Penny Arcade comic and newspost.
  • It’s also interesting to note that according to this newspost that Jerry Holkins has never played a male Shepard, saying: “I’ve made it pretty clear that I tend to play women in Bioware games – Shepherd (sic) is not now, nor has ever been, a man.  I don’t know who the dude traipsing around in the commercials is; a jerk, most likely.”
  • Here’s the most recent information about the Mass Effect movie adaptation. And speaking of movies, here’s the IMDB page for Doomsday, the movie that Lowell referred to when he was speaking about wooden female action heroes.
  • I messed up: Sarah Michelle Gellar originated the role of Kendall Hart, who was Erica Kane’s daughter on the AMC soap “All My Children,” for which Gellar won a Daytime Emmy. And then she became Buffy.
  • And once again, that snazzy intro to the podcast was “Roma Pt. 2” by greyguy, which I found on ccMixter.org.

Is your Commander Shepard female or male, and why? Would you be willing to play as the opposite gender for a while? Why or why not? We welcome all answers and feedback in the comments.

Geekly Speaking About… “Top Gear USA” Episode 3

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Adam Ferrara attempts to jump a $1,000 used Cadillac over a ramp

Thanks to a recent bout of insomnia, I finally finished leveling out and editing the second of the two audio podcasts that Kara Dennison and I recorded while we reviewed the first three episodes of “Top Gear USA.”

The reason why I had to do a lot of editing work on this one is that while the audio tracks for Kara and myself were just fine, the one for our our special guest amateur autocross racer Rob Lantz was considerably quieter, and so I had to splice out and amplify almost every part where he was speaking.

Originally recorded live on December 5, 2010, I hope you enjoy this blast from the “Geekly Speaking About…” past:

Luckily, “Top Gear USA” has been renewed for a second season, so there’s a chance we could do another podcast like this again to see how it has improved over the first episodes of its inaugural season. If you’d like to download the audio, you can do so by going to our page at TalkShoe. And despite all the audio problems, it really was fun doing this, and I hope to be able to do more live podcasts soon.

Geekly Speaking About… “The Geek Chick Backlash”

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Behind the scenes, co-editor Jill Pullara and I have been recording podcasts while we work on something fun for our upcoming vidcast series, the first installment of which will be up in an hour. This particular one was recorded on May 7, 2011, and thanks to us finally getting some technical details worked out, it’s ready for public consumption. After the jump, I’ll give you the show notes:

If you’d like to download this show, you can go to the show’s home page at TalkShoe. I have to stitch the next podcast together, so expect that one to go up in maybe a week or so? Comments, questions, and kudos can be left here.

Geekly Speaking About… “Top Gear USA” Episode 2

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I still say the blue Aston Martin is prettier

My ongoing technical difficulties have persisted, but now that I’ve finally got a clue and later edited out the parts with the poor audio, I’m happy to say that the analysis and live commentary on “Blind Drift,” the second episode of Top Gear USA is ready for your listening pleasure.

You can check it out below or in the right sidebar:

Please join us next week on Sunday, December 5 at 10:00 pm Eastern, when Kara Dennison and I (and perhaps a special guest) will be concluding our three-episode test and hope to answer the question: “Is this show actually any good?”

COMING SOON: “Geekly Speaking About…” goes live!

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Due to my ongoing microphone problems, U.K. TV expert Kara Dennison and I are testing something new out tonight, courtesy of TalkShoe.com. Tonight, starting at/around 9:45 pm Eastern Standard Time (GMT – 5:00), we’ll be launching the “Geekly Speaking About…” live podcast series with our viewing and discussion of the second episode of “Top Gear U.S.A.” on the History Channel.

We’d love for you to join us, and to do so, all you have to do is sign up for an account, and after you’ve logged in and right around 9:45 pm Eastern tonight, click on the “Join In” button to hear the call and participate in the text chat room. The best part is that once we’ve finished recording the show and our afterthoughts, the show website will be automatically updated with a file you can download to listen to if you were unable to join us tonight.

If all goes well, we’ll be doing more live podcasts on a regular basis, and we look forward to hearing your thoughts.

Geekly Speaking About… the Original Saw movie

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In a wonderful bit of synergy, the last movie in the Saw franchise was released in 3D right before Halloween. Having never seen any of the movies before, Lyssa Spero and I decided to watch the first one a while ago and recorded the results for all of you to hear.

I must warn you that the audio in this is terribly NSFW if you don’t have headphones on because there were just that many moments of WTF going on. Also, it goes without saying that this commentary is full of spoilers for not only the first Saw, but a few of the others, and has casting spoilers for Saw 3D.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy listening to this as much as we enjoyed recording it.

http://www.geekingoutabout.com/wp-includes/Podcasts/GSA_Saw-1_Commentary.mp3

Trisha’s Take: How to get the most out of one day at a convention, part 1

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Approximately 10 years ago, I used to go to a lot of conventions, like the San Diego Comic Con (aka “Nerd Prom”) and Anime Expo. In fact, in 2001, I think I went to six different conventions on two different U.S. coasts.

My most traveled year was 2003 when I was working for the now-defunct Anime Insider as an associate editor and went to the Wizard World conventions in Chicago, Arlington (Texas), and Philadelphia; my busiest year was when I was an assistant editor for Sequential Tart and covered Anime Expo all by myself.

Being such an old hat at attending conventions, I knew what my preparations would be when I made the decision to attend only one day out of three for the New York Comic Con/New York Anime Fest mega-con which was held on October 8 through October 10 at the Javitz Center:

Make sure you have your badge and that your new digital voice recorder and your cell phone has a full battery.

Eat at least once in the middle of the day.

Stay hydrated.

Sit down if and when you need to do so.

One of the nifty things that Reed Expositions did for everyone who doesn’t have an iPhone or an Android phone to download their apps was to not only post their schedule online, but for the “cost” of signing in with your email address, you could create your own schedule of panel events and save them to your Microsoft Outlook calendar. Because my work Outlook calendar is synched up with my Windows Moblie phone, I did just that, and was able to cherry-pick the panels I wanted to attend. It was difficult to make choices, but in the end, I ended up choosing a few things that were different enough in scope to be interesting to me but familiar enough to where I’d be able to hang out with old friends.

Because I’m a wuss, after exiting the subway at 34th Street and Eighth Avenue, I hailed a cab and paid $5 plus tip to get to the Javitz on Eleventh Avenue, which was closed to cabs dropping people off. My cabbie had to make an illegal U-turn and dropped me off outside the concrete barricades. All during the trip, he kept asking me about why so many people were going there, so I helpfully explained.

Unlike our esteemed gaming expert Adrienne Ryan, I had been to the Javitz for a previous NYCC and NYAF and so finding the press room wasn’t that difficult for me. I would find out later that they were charging something like $5.95 an hour for wifi access in the press room, where several people were already camped out with laptops and a few more were conducting interviews.

Had I more time, I probably would have investigated the press options more, but I was running late to the first panel on my schedule. As I walked towards the room, I saw voice actor/director Mike Sinterniklaas (Dean Venture of “The Venture Bros.”, Leonard from “TMNT”) chatting with a cosplayer. I gave him a hug and helped him by holding his smoothie and Danish while he got her contact information, for she wanted some more information about voice acting for his studio. Just as we were chatting, Rachel Lillis, another voice actor appeared and I walked with them to the panel room.

The title of the panel was “East Meets West” but as more American voice actors appeared (including Stephanie Sheh and Tom Wayland), they started to wonder if they were supposed to be on the panel or if it was a panel for Japanese voice actor Minori Chihara and maybe only one or two other people, for there were only three microphones on stage. Sinterniklaas volunteered to be the group’s spokesperson and after a quick conversation with the staff, another table and three more microphones came out. I was only able to stay for the first half of the panel, but one of the things I was glad to learn was that when Chihara-san records her audition tapes at home, she uses an Sony IC Digital Voice Recorder, just like the one I just bought in preparation for this weekend.

As I made my way through NYAF’s Artist Alley/panels area/Maid Cafe-and-stage, I remarked that the average age of the attendees seemed to be college-aged. For the most part, they were very rambunctious and giddy, and I’m sorry I wasn’t able to linger to find out how the artists were faring in the basement. I also ran into Japanator editor Brad Rice, who took great pains to explain to everyone who asked that no, he wasn’t cosplaying as Harry Potter, thankyouverymuch.

Upstairs, I wandered through the Autograph area section, waving hello to some friends staffing the Otakon booth as well as Eisner-award winning editor Adam P. Knave (Popgun) and Attila Adorjany, two friends who joined forces to form Voltron purchase some booth space in the small press area. They were located next to Chris Hastings (The Adventures of Dr. McNinja). I would find out later on that the ended up co-opting booth space from Flaming Carrot creator Bob Burden, who himself traded up to a corner booth in the Alley and then later on Sunday would move into the larger Exhibit Hall on the north side, proving that even in the comic book trade it’s all about “location, location, location!”

Just beyond that was the comics Artist Alley section, and I was on a mission to find Finder creator Carla Speed McNeil, because in addition to being one of my favorite artists ever, she’s also a real good friend whom I hadn’t seen in about five years. My plan was to hang out with her at her booth for a while to tease her about “selling out” to Dark Horse… except, I had no idea how to find her.

This was a problem earlier on the NYCC website, where when you clicked on an Artist Alley name and a large graphic of their came up, but no biographical information or location information. However, I thought by the time the show came around, there’s be some information in the program book, but no dice. I would find out later on that there was one sign in the Artist Alley area that had a list of creators and their booth numbers. Not good, Reed. Not good.

Instead, I decided to wander the AA to see who else had shown up that I knew and remembered from my comics-peddling days and ran into Kevin Bolk from Interrobang Studios, who had no idea that Kara Dennison had written about him for this very website. As I wandered about, trying to find Speed McNeil, I found children’s book author and illustrator Nick Bell who was giving out free mini-buttons which read “i am great” to promote his new book Brian the Great and his existing book Mary the Tooth Fairy.

Listen to the interview with Nick Bell

Ever since I became the aunt to two very adorable nieces, I’ve become fascinated with the idea of finding children’s books which are smart and encourage young girls to grow up to become strong women. Since I had it on me at the time, I decided to do a quickie interview with Bell on my new recorder, and the results will go up in a few days.

A person could spend hours wandering the AA, but I couldn’t linger, for I had to get over to the north end of the convention hall to attend the only panel to whose press release I responded favorably.

To be continued…

Geeking Out About… presents: Twilight: New Moon the Commentary and Discussion Notes

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As of this posting, you have a little over 15 hours left until the deadline to submit your answers to the trivia questions posed in our very first contest ever here at Geeking Out About.com. The trivia questions are here, the rules are here, and if you’d like a little insight into what we thought of the second movie and the Twilight phenomenon as a whole—although by now, I think you can hazard a guess that our thoughts are not in favor of it—you can download our commentary and discussion notes, below:

http://www.geekingoutabout.com/wp-includes/Podcasts/New-Moon-Commentary.mp3

http://www.geekingoutabout.com/wp-includes/Podcasts/New-Moon-Discussion.mp3

Over the weekend, we’ll be busy busy choosing the finalists and recording yet another podcast; good luck to all!

Geeking Out About… presents: Twilight the Commentary!

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As of this posting, there are a little over 48 hours left until the deadline to submit your answers to the trivia questions posed in our very first contest ever here at Geeking Out About.com. The trivia questions are here, the rules are here, and if you’d like a little insight into what we thought of the first movie, you can download our very first podcast ever, below:

http://www.geekingoutabout.com/wp-includes/Podcasts/Twilight-Commentary.mp3

Tomorrow (because it’s still about 15 minutes to midnight over here!) I’ll post up our shorter commentary to Twilight: New Moon, and over the weekend, while we’re busy choosing the finalists and recording yet another podcast, you’ll be able to listen to our thoughts about the first two movies.

Good luck to all!