Rish and Big on "Journey Into..."

Marshal Latham's "Journey Into..." podcast probably has the best theme song of any show I listen to. Of course, I'm fond of the themes to Pseudopod and Escapepod, but neither of those have Jean-Luc Picard or Rod Serling in them.

This week, "Journey Into..." presents the story "The Mansion" by by Henry Van Dyke, a tale similar in many ways to Dickens's "Christmas Carol," except much more church-centric in nature.

I (Rish) was lucky enough to be cast as John Weightman, the pious rich man who makes certain that every good deed he does will profit him, and has his name attached to it. Bigglesby Anklevich also does a voice, that of the Ghost of Christmas Ye--er, the Gatekeeper. Sorry.

Also on there are pals of ours, Josh Roseman (narrating), Julie Hoverson (sounding all hot, despite not trying to), and Marshal himself (ditto). Check it out here, if you've got a spare hour and eight minutes.

That Gets My Goat 62: A December To Remember

Rish and Big have a gripe to make about those insipid car commercials with the giant bows.



Right click HERE to download the episode, select Save Link As, and save the file to your hard drive.

Related Links:
Lexus Commercial Parody

"Marley was dead . . ."

Rish here. Recently, Renee Chambliss told me about a podcaster, Douglas Welch, who was putting together a group of other podcasters to read his adaptation of Dickens's "A Christmas Carol." Since that's my favorite book, I leaped at the chance, and was hoping that my two favorite segments ("May you be happy in the life you've chosen" and "Oh, tell me that I may sponge away the writing from this stone!") were not yet taken.

They were, but I at least got to do the "It should be Christmas, when one drinks the health of such an odious, stingy, unfeeling man as Mister Scrooge" scene. There's about twelve different readers, including Renee, L. Scribe Harris, and Bryan Lincoln. In listening through, I found it odd that I was pretty much the only guy that did voices (Scribe and the Pendragon ladies also went for it), and that gives me pause. I could write an entire post on that. But I won't.

I also noticed that the quality of readers varied, but that the folks we've had on our show were among the best of the bunch. A little fatherly pride, that.

So, check it out here, when you get a chance.

Or, I suppose, I could try to figure out how to embed it on our own site. Someday.

I know that some may tire of "A Christmas Carol," since it's a bit ubiquitous, but I'm proud to have been part of an adaptation.

Rish "Ignorance & Want" Outfield

That Gets My Goat 61: Coulton in Concert

Rish and Big finish their conversation about their recent outing to a JoCo concert. Don't worry, they won't just talk about it the whole time, there will be music samples to make it bearable.



Right click HERE to download the episode, select Save Link As, and save the file to your hard drive.

Related Links:
Coulton does Mr. Fancy Pants 1
Coulton does Mr. Fancy Pants 2
Coulton does Mr. Fancy Pants 3
Photo by cfinke

Rish on Pseudopod

A few weeks back, Big got to read a story over at Pseudopod called "Killing Merwin Remus." Now it's Rish's turn.

The story is called "The Stink of Animosity" by Rob E. Boley, and it's one of those familiar yarns about a man who meets a mysterious stranger in a bar one night. Plus, you get the always-inspiring Alasdair Stuart putting in his two cents at the end.

Can I say something here about Pseudopod, all off the record-like? I have to admit that I don't always like the stories they run on there, maybe because I'm hard to please when it comes to Horror. But I ALWAYS appreciate, enjoy, ponder, and thrill to the sections at the end when Alasdair gives his opinion, life-lesson, or creepy inferences. The man is a consummate professional, with a voice like peach molasses, and manages to make not only every episode worth listening to, but even his plea for donations something unique and welcoming.

It's an honour to be able to share the podasphere with that man. And in the coming global apocalypse, I hope to be able to share a shopping mall with him as well.

That Gets My Goat 60: TMBG on TGMG

Big and Rish managed to take in a concert recently, and they didn't even consider inviting you. They Might Be Giants were the headliner. Rish isn't really a fan, but Jonathan Coulton was there, and though it was a snowy night, just act as though it's a blue sunny day, alright?



Right click HERE to download the episode, select Save Link As, and save the file to your hard drive.

Photo by cliff1066™

P.S. If Rish really hates James Blunt so much, why did he have a copy of that song lying around?

Rish on "Journey Into..."

Our pal Marshal Latham does great work over at the "Journey Into..." podcast.

Rish has been fortunate enough to lend his voice to more than one episode, and here he is again, this time in a Tim Pratt story, called "The Dream Engine." It's a multi-part production, and the second part should be arriving any minute now.

Tim Pratt wrote my all-time favorite Escape Pod episode, and manages to produce knock-out stories with the consistency of a young Mike Tyson.

Renee Chambliss narrates, Abbie Hilton shows up for a moment, and our buddy Bryan Lincoln also contributes a voice to the story, so you're in for a treat.

That Gets My Goat 59: Punch The Keys!

Big and Rish finish their discussion about stories and Rish's problems with a recent story. If you got something positive out of this trio of episodes . . . then that makes two of us.



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That Gets My Goat 58: The Road Goes Ever Onward

Oh no. Another long one.

Or oh yes, if you're into that sort of thing. In this continuing discussion of a recent story reading, Rish talks about the ending of the story, how one knows when to end a story, and one particular Oscar-winner that ended over and over again (you know the one).



Right click HERE to download the episode, select Save Link As, and save the file to your hard drive.

That Gets My Goat 57: You Go Down the Stairs

This week (and next), Rish feels impelled to ramble on about a story he read recently, and ask the musical question . . . "Why?"



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Thanks For The Donation

The other day, producer extraordinaire, Scott Pigg, told me he had something he wanted to send our way. He said it was nothing fancy, just something he happened to come across that he thought we'd like. I agreed, and soon he said it was on its way.

Monday, as Rish and I arrived at my house for our weekly recording session, we saw a box on the front porch that had been left their by FedEx or UPS or whoever. It was addressed to Big Anklevich, and inside, we found a couple of nice boom-armed tripod microphone stands that would allow us to get our mics off the table, and prevent a lot of the incidental noise you might notice on our show when we bump the table or use the mouse on the computer while talking. We were really stoked. This would improve things a lot. Now all I had to do was find a way to get Rish to stop adjusting his mic while speaking, and we'd be in business.

We were both very thankful to Scott, but we had no idea that things weren't done. Not even close.

The next day, I came home to another box. This time it contained two very nice condenser microphones. Things were going to sound a lot better thanks to Scott. This had already become the biggest donation that anyone had provided to the show, but it still wasn't done.

When I arrived home from work the next day, there was a third box on the porch. Inside was a new stereo mixer, and some nice pop filters. Scott basically outfitted us with a new recording studio. I almost expected the doorbell to ring, and find a contractor there saying, "Hi, uh, Mr. Scott Pigg sent me over. He says to add a new recording studio onto the house. So, yous guys want I should get started on that right away?"

It's really a good thing that Scott did things the way he did, because we'd surely keep limping along with what we've got, rather than buying new equipment. And perhaps he talked with someone who might have clued him in on our reluctance to accept things like this from listeners, so he snuck it past us before we could say that we're fine the way we are. Whatever the deal was, we're really grateful for the donation. Things should start sounding better on our show pretty soon.

I'm sure he didn't do it to get recognition or wind up with a post about him on our blog, but we just wanted to express our appreciation to him. Thanks a lot, Scott.

Rish on "Old Year's Day"

Mike Murphy over at Misfits Audio writes a lot of audio dramas. It seems like there's a new one up every couple of weeks. I did a bit part in his newest one, "Old Year's Day," which is a fun story about an old woman who makes a deal with the devil to go back to when she was young and happy.

I might not even write about it, since I have three or fewer lines, but I really enjoy these type of stories, of people trying to best the devil, get out of their deals, or the clever way Old Scratch gets one over on them after all. I wonder if you could make a TV show with the devil as one of the protagonists. Every week, he meets somebody new, observes them for a while, then tries to offer them their heart's desire in return for their soul. Maybe there's another main character whose job it is to help the mortal win in the end. Sometimes it works out for the good guys, sometimes for the baddies. Heck, you could call it "Beat the Devil," I don't know.

Anyway, check it out if you have a few minutes and enjoy audio dramas over at www.misfitsaudio.com.

The longest fifteen-minute episode

Big and I got together last night to do our recording. We hadn't met up last Monday because of Halloween, and the week before that had just been re-recording things that were ruined from the week before that. We had no episodes of either show in the can anymore (except for that lost episode of TGMG that I frankly will probably never edit now), so we had to start afresh. But on what?

There were a couple of things I wanted to talk about on the air: the depression that comes for me every year around this time, how I listened to all of an audiobook I hated because the reader was so good, about going to a dance club on Saturday night and the girl who shrieked at me for spilling her drink and then said "That's hot" when I cleaned it up, the two dystopian future books I'm reading that make me really afraid of tomorrow, the concert Big and I went to together, the fact that I refuse to submit my stories anywhere even though I realize it's totally damning, two horror films I watched last week back to back and why one worked and the other did not, the outrage I felt at what happened to my character on the "Star Trek Outpost" stint I did, why we have closed submissions, the problems I observed with a story I recorded for another podcast and why the author made certain choices I didn't agree with, how the silly alternate reality Halloween podcast came about and why I wish we had known going into it what the other was going to do, and three stories Big and I ended up writing recently based on the same premise.

I told Big, "Hey, we've got all these things we can talk about, maybe we should just sit down for fifteen minutes each and get all these topics out there." He thought that was fine, so we started up the first one. An hour later, I was still talking. I could tell he wasn't really riveted by the conversation by the way had written "I pray to Shiva, let me die" on the kitchen counter with his own mucus. I apologized, and vowed to do better on the next topic.

And hour and ten minutes later, we finished recording that one. My hint that we had gone overtime on that "Gets My Goat" was that Big had bitten off his own tongue in an attempt to choke himself to death. By now, it was two-ten in the morning, and we hadn't yet recorded our next episode of the real podcast.

Well, we did manage that, and in record time, so that it was just after four when I got home. I don't know whether I should feel like we accomplished a lot or almost nothing.

Rish "Mister Brightside" Outfield

That Gets My Goat 56: The Dork Knight

Rish complains about BATMAN BEGINS, THE DARK KNIGHT, and THE DARK KNIGHT RISES. Or something. Maybe he was complaining about not complaining about them.



Right click HERE to download the episode, select Save Link As, and save the file to your hard drive.

Big on "Journey Into..."

Recently, Sir Bigglesby lent his voice to Marshal Latham's "Journey Into..." podcast, "Hop Frog" by Edgar Allan Poe. Big voices the character of Hop Frog, which isn't much of a stretch for someone who sounds that much like Kermit.

Check it out over at www.journeyintopodcast.blogspot.com.

Rish on "Night of the Living Trekkies"

As we've mentioned on the show, author Kevin David Anderson has written a Sci-Fi/Horror parody called "Night of the Living Trekkies," and the folks over at 3015 North Studios have adapted a short chapter of it for audio. It's called "The Cage," and Rish got to do a little narration on it. Also, our pal Tanja Milojevic does a voice, edited by Brian Lincoln, and foleyed by Scott Pigg.

It's pretty messed up, but you may well find it amusing. Check it out here! Romulan ale for all!

That Gets My Goat 55: 1,000,000 Words

The writing conversation winds down. How many words of crap do you need to get out? Does podcasting count? What about blog posts about podcasting?



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Rish on "Star Trek: Outpost"

I hadn't mentioned this before, I'm not sure why. I recently did a three episode arc over at Giant Gnome Productions' "Star Trek: Outpost" series. The storyline is called "The Melnoran Solution," written by Tony Raymond and Daniel McIntosh.

This Trek series is very dialogue-heavy (as would be expected in audio), and this series of episodes are heavy on politics and protocol. Audio drama is really hard to write and pull off. I don't really know the series, except that it is very popular, award-winning, and each episode is massive, around an hour ten.

I play the part of Kar'rl Droonga, a Betazoid emissary, and his character takes a bit of a turn in his later appearances. It surprised me, since I wondered if I played the part correctly, not knowing where it was going. It must be a bit like playing a part on a TV show with no idea what is to come, only to find out your character is a murderer, or a spy, or a love interest, or is killed, as soon as you get the next script.

It was one of the more difficult productions I've worked on, and required a hell of a lot more time than I'm used to. But the show is high-quality and professional, with original score, sound effects, and a full cast of better-than-average actors, so I guess it's worth it in the end.

Or you can be the judge.
Part I
Part II
Part III
Red Shirt Rish Outfield

That Gets My Goat 54: Write of Way

Big and Rish continue talking about writing. What happens when everybody loves your old stuff more than your new stuff?

I didn't listen closely, but I believe this episode was completely Hitler reference-free.



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That Gets My Goat 53: Big's Middle-sized New Goal

Recently, Big and Rish had another one of their go-to conversations, this one about writing. And Big presented his new goal for the month: to eat only clear things, like ice and soup and some kinds of gravy. Barring that, he's got a writing goal too.



Right click HERE to download the episode, select Save Link As, and save the file to your hard drive.

Slutty Halloween Episode

So, next week we'll record our Halloween show. Last year (or it might have been two years ago), Big and I went to a costume shop and looked at all the outfits available for purchase. He was disappointed to find that a lot of them were risque or adult, yet marketed to kids (or "tweens," whatever the hell they are. I bet they don't have a word for "tween" in Chinese . . . which we'll all be speaking soon). He wanted to talk about it on the show, but we didn't.

So, this year, we will. We'll be giving a Top Halloween Costumes 2011 list, and here's how you can help: in the Comments section below, give us your suggestions. But the gag is, they have to be in the format Slutty ________, as in "Slutty Piglet Costume." We'll read the funniest ones on the show. It may be another Dunesteef disaster, but as a greatish man once said, "Why not?"

Big Anklevich Story on . . . YouTube?

I was messing around on YouTube today, watching interviews, when I stumbled across something I didn't know existed: a production of one of Big's short stories, "Breaking and Entering," produced by Scott Pigg. He posted a couple of instructional videos on his edit of the story "Whelp," and as a bonus, put up his production of B&E. It also included a bit of our shenanigans whilst recording it.
We have four or five very short tales we've written that Big and I will send out to potential producers or voice actors, and this was one of them. I can't figure out why our own voices would be on there, unless Scott said he didn't want to perform the characters, just edit it. But it was really well-done, and a nice surprise on a Saturday afternoon.

That Gets My Goat 52: Groan Ranger

Wow, seems like a while since Rish and Big were on here, doing what they do best: complaining about stuff. Actually, that's pretty much all they do on this series, when they're not droning on and on about movies.

This week, you get both! And twice as long! Who loves you, baby?



Right click HERE to download the episode, select Save Link As, and save the file to your hard drive.

Update On The Whale

Just wanted to make a quick update about that white whale that I mentioned a few posts back.

Last night, Rish and I recorded the story during our regular recording session. I had a good time doing it, and singing the title of the story to the tune of the "Go, Go, Power Rangers," song over and over and over again. I really like the story, and Rish had never read it before, so it was fun when he figured this thing or that thing out, and I got to see it on his face when they clicked in place for him. Not that there's a lot of mystery to the story or anything, but, you know.

I was glad to see that he liked the story too, because I've talked it up for so damned long that I was afraid that he'd be horribly let down by it. Nice to see that not happen.

Anyway, we're that much closer to the story with the best title ever hitting our show. There's still a big line of stories in front of it, but it's that much closer. Yeehaw!

That Gets My Goat 51: With A Name Like "Cowboys & Aliens..."

Big and Rish finish their conversation about COWBOYS & ALIENS, bringing to an end their movie rant series. What was wrong with C&A? Might it have something to do with the title? What's in a name?



Right click HERE to download the episode, select Save Link As, and save the file to your hard drive.

Big and Rish on "Journey Into..." podcast

Our pal Marshall Latham over at his podcast "Journey Into..." recently used us for a full-cast production of
"The Trial of Thomas Jefferson" by David Kirtley. It's something of an upsetting story, a dark vision of a murky future where, through the use of time travel, the greatest evildoers in history are finally punished. It's something of an all-star production, as Marshall voices the main character, Abbie Hilton voices his wife, and Podcastle's Dave Thompson voices a paralegal. Big voices the character of the Judge and Rish does the narration.

Check it out. This story upset me, but not in a bad way. May you be upset as well.

Big reads a story on Pseudopod

It's true, Lefou! I found it to be as unusual a request as you surely do. A few months ago, Shawn Garrett, the editor at Pseudopod sent me an email asking if I would read a story for his show. I squinted at the email, shook my head to clear and strangeness that might be going on, yet it persisted. The person they were requesting to read the story was Big Anklevich. Nobody wants Big Anklevich to read a story. That's like asking John Oates to guest on your album. If it was a Muppets tribute show or something, maybe I can understand, but even then, Rish does a better impression of Kermit than me. I just sound vaguely like Kermit or Ernie, so that it brings them to mind without actually sounding anything like them.

Anyway, I just figured that Shawn didn't know our show well enough, and had the two of us mixed up. So, I recorded the story, edited it, and sent it out to him, expecting that he'd get it, and swear when he realized the mix-up. I just hoped he didn't throw out my recording and hand it to some other non-Muppet sounding guy once he stopped swearing, because that would suck.

I never got an angry email from Shawn, and this week, the story went live on Pseudopod. So, either he was too worried about his release schedule to throw out my recording and start over, or he actually wanted me to read it not Rish. I suspect it was the former, and he is just too nice of a guy to say anything about it, but maybe that's just my own insecurities talking.

You can listen to the story here. Hope you enjoy.

That Gets My Goat 50: You Got Your Alien In My Cowboy!

Big and Rish have reached the end of their summer movie viewing. The last one: COWBOYS & ALIENS.



Right click HERE to download the episode, select Save Link As, and save the file to your hard drive.

Rish's Least Favorite Part of the Show

(I initially wrote this over at our forums, which is over at dunesteef.freeforums.org, but I thought I'd repost it here, so all my rambling wouldn't only be witnessed by the three users not checking those boards at 5K marathon rest stops.)

I'm not sure if it's obvious, but I really hate asking for donations on the show. Partly, it's my personality. It feels to me a little like like begging for money on a streetcorner, or at least asking a girl out on a date (repeatedly), and I'm no good with that. In my day to day life, I find it incredibly difficult to ask people for money (or sexual intercourse, but I think that topic's been covered).

The other reason, though, is that I often hear it on other podcasts: the obligatory plea for fan support. I know it's obligatory because it FEELS obligatory, as vital a part of their shows as a commercial break on television:
"Please give us money to pay our authors and cover our hosting costs!"
"Please vote for us in the Parsec Awards (or Hugo awards)!"
"Please give us five stars on I-Tunes or Podcast Alley!"
"Please tell your friends about us!"
"Please, please, please, let me get what I want. God knows it would the first time."

When I hear the way the other shows so shamelessly whine about needing money (jeez, there was one who said, "Look, we only got $100 in donations in the last two months. If we get even one more month with that little listener support, we're gonna have to quit doing the show." It repulsed me more than any "Me love you long time" prostitute spiel because it not only had no dignity, but Big and I would be dancing a merry Irish jig with KISS makeup on if we ever got $100 in donations), I shudder and/or roll my eyes. Because I could never do that. I could never come on that strong, hammer it home in such an uncreative, pontificating way, or act like somebody owed me money for the show that I do.

Instead, I've always tried making it funny. "Now's the time to BEG for donations!" "What, Bullwinkle, again? That trick never works." I try to make a mockery of the process, and switch it up every time. And my guess is that they're never funny (mostly because it's a drudgery, and it's hard to be funny when you're doing something against your will), not in the way that other parts of the Dunesteef might be.

I realize it's important to ask for donations. And that there are new listeners every couple of shows, who haven't heard that a free podcast isn't really free. But I simply won't read the same scripted thing every week (unless it's as a joke), and Big and I will even switch up what Announcer Man says at the end of every episode (hope you've noticed).

It's hard, though. Hard to humble myself and say, "We need your help. Don't make us pay for the show out of Big's pocket. We rely on your generosity to be able to buy Catastrophe Baker and Popoca and CHEMO and butthelmet-sorcerer-scorpion stories. Obi-Wan Kenobi, you're my only hope."

But do I really have a choice? I mean, we NEED donations to stay afloat. Big takes care of the financial upkeep of the site and podcast and payments, and he has more money problems than Peter Parker. Big constantly tells me he wants to pay the authors more (and he feels that the higher the payment, the higher-caliber of writers will submit, whereas I think we have pretty great writers now, and paying them more will just get us more submissions), and the only way to do that is to get the fans to toss us a few bucks now and then. If just a handful of people subscribe to that monthly/quarterly thing, we stay afloat.

We've got the whole incentive episode scam--er, service as well, which I think is a good idea, since I enjoy producing my own stories almost as much as Well-Told Tales used to, but Big thinks that is a case of diminishing returns. So what else can we do? Do listeners hate the pleas for donations as much as I hate asking for them? Do people even listen all the way to the end of the show? Is my way truly better than the shows that have a script they read from every week, asking people to send them money?

I don't know. Do you?

Rish "The Scrounge" Outfield

That Gets My Goat 49: What's the Score?

Rish and Big finish their conversation (wow, now months old) about CAPTAIN AMERICA, talking about the music of the film. Nice to hear them complaining again, isn't it?



Right click HERE to download the episode, select Save Link As, and save the file to your hard drive.

The Final White Whale

There's this story that I read...a few years ago now. I loved it so much that I insisted to Rish that we had to do it for the show. Now, Rish didn't need much convincing. All I had to do was tell him the title of the story, and he was on board.

I tried to contact the author, and was unable to. I let it sit for a while, then tried again, and was still unable to. I let it sit for a while longer, then tried again. I was still unable to get a response from him. At this point, it had been more than a year since I first read the story, and I was forced to admit that it was probably never going to happen. Of the many white whales that swim beyond our reach on the Dunesteef Audio Fiction Magazine, this one seemed to be the one we'd never be able to harpoon.

Last night, however, as I was preparing to write my 500 word quota for the day, I thought, out of the blue, that I'd give this author one last chance to be a part of our show. I fired off a quick email, and then got on with what I'd turned the computer on to accomplish.

I was very tired last night when I sent the email, and I'd almost completely forgotten that I'd even done it. As if I was drunk emailing or something. So this morning, when his response came back, it was like an unspoken prayer had been answered with a Christmas miracle. He agreed to let us do his story on the show.

I'm so stoked. You know, there's been many things that we've wanted to do with our show, and I think, once we podcast this story, we'll have accomplished them all. The final white whale will be harpooned, and I'll be able to die a happy man. Good thing Rish has got that final episode edited and ready to post, huh?

So anyway, I'm not going to tell you the author's name, nor the story's title. I want to keep that close to the vest so that you can't ruin your appetite by reading it ahead of time. Just know that, about six months from now, when a story with a completely unforgettable title appears in the queue, all things have been accomplished, and I can die satisfied with myself.

"Go then. There are other worlds than these."

That Gets My Goat 48: Avenge Me!

Big and Rish continue talking about CAPTAIN AMERICA...sort of. This seems to be mostly about World War II and the Avengers now.



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That Gets My Goat 47: Oh Captain, My Captain

Rish and Big went to see Marvel Studios' CAPTAIN AMERICA as soon as they were able, and only now can they tell the tale.

Or, a third of it, at least.



Right click HERE to download the episode, select Save Link As, and save the file to your hard drive.

That Gets My Goat 46: "I Was Harry Frigging Potter"

Bringing the "Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows: Parte Deux" conversation to a halt, Rish and Big talk about the legacy of these films, and the young actors that starred in them.



Right click HERE to download the episode, select Save Link As, and save the file to your hard drive.

Fake Connery Sings!

Have you ever heard the recording of Sean Connery covering "In My Life" by the Beatles?

It's actually rather glorious.

However, Connery's sing/speaking style is not perfect for just any song. Take, for example, that "Since You've Been Gone" song by Kelly Clarkson that Big's daughters love so much (for some reason). I got Sir Fake Sean Connery to do a version of it, and it's just dreadful.



What other songs would it be a mistake to hear Sean "sing?"

Or rather, hear "Sean" sing?

cool interview on Fullcast

I know this is supposed to be a blog where I blather on and on about the show, in between posting episodes of me blathering on and on on the show, but I just listened to a really cool interview with Norm Sherman over at Bryan Lincoln's Fullcast Podcast. Bryan and Abbie Hilton talked to Norm about how he does the Drabblecast, they joked around, and even talked about the Dunesteef a time or eight.

Bryan always does a butt-kicking job for us when he produces our episodes (new one up next), and Abbie once gave me money just to voice a character for her. This is a particularly hilarious episode, but their podcast is always informative, interesting, and comes out way more often than our show, I believe, so check it out over at www.fullcastpodcast.com sometime.

Tell 'em R080T sent you!

That Gets My Goat 45: Welcome Back, Potter.

Rish and Big continue their discussion about HARRY POTTER 8, and the franchise in general. Lots of superlatives are used.



Right click HERE to download the episode, select Save Link As, and save the file to your hard drive.

That Gets My Goat 44: Expecto Dunesteefum

HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS PART TWO has come and gone. But before that happened, Big and Rish got together to talk about it. A lot.



Right click HERE to download the episode, select Save Link As, and save the file to your hard drive.

Parsec Nominations Announced

I got an email today, from another podcast I lent my voice to, expressing disappointment that his show didn't get nominated for a Parsec Award, and he included all the shows that did, for some reason.

I looked it over. And the Dunesteef was on there. Thrice.

Crazily, we're nominated for Best Speculative Fiction Audio Drama (Short Form) for our production of "A Place So Foreign" by Cory Doctorow (which Big produced), and for "This Must Be The Place" by Elliot Bangs (produced by Bryan Lincoln). It's really cool to be on the list of finalists. There were many readers, musicians, effects artists, and voice actors*, without whom those shows couldn't have happened. And the most credit, of course, has to go the generous writers, who created two entertaining and unique time travel stories (both with the word "place" in the title), and lent them to us for practically nothing. Kudos.

I am worried about being nominated in an "Audio Drama" category, since that's not really what we do on our show, but they classified anything with two or fewer readers simply as "Story," and anything with three or more readers as "Audio Drama." Somebody somewhere will probably pitch a fit, but until the powers over at the Parsecs create a "Fullcast Reading" category, that's where we find ourselves.

The other nomination was for Best Speculative Fiction Magazine or Anthology Podcast. That's kind of amazing, since it's a recognition of our whole body of work, at least in the last twelve months, and it's greatly appreciated. So, if you've contributed to the show in any way, feel free to slice off a little bit of the nomination for yourself.

I said last year--and still mean it--that it's an honor just to be nominated, but we do work awfully hard on our show**, and it's nice that somebody noticed.

Rish "Big-Head" Outfield

*Including my niece, who wouldn't say "hell" when a story called for it, so I had her say "shell" and trimmed the "sh" when she wasn't looking. Tee hee.

**But not enough to get a show out every week, sadly.

That Gets My Goat 43: Unhappy Feat

In this episode, Rish wants to talk about CARS 2 even though Big hasn't seen it, but then they talk about a trailer to an upcoming movie . . . and we discover more of Rish's latent serial killer tendencies starting to emerge.



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That Gets My Goat 42: Evil's Mite

So, the GREEN LANTERN conversation has not so much come to a close, as completely fallen apart in a digression of random topics like SUPER 8, trailers, Harry Potter, and "The Wonder Years." Would you have it any other way?



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A Conan Story By Any Other Name

Was it our last episode of the show where Big talked about his rule that we don't run stories that other shows have podcast? If so, then I'm a great big hypocrite, 'cause lookee what we have here.

Basically, I was over at Podcastle's site yesterday, looking through their story titles, and I came upon a Conan the Barbarian tale by Robert E. Howard they had run recently, "The Gods of the North." It didn't sound familiar, so I started to listen to it . . . upon which it sounded VERY familiar.

You see, for my birthday two years back, my buddy Jeff gave me a book of Howard's Conan stories, and the very first one in there (or it might have been the second) was one called "The Frost-Giant's Daughter," which told the same story. With the same words. Exactly.

Apparently, it was originally sent to (and rejected by) Weird Tales magazine, and Robert Howard rewrote it, changing Conan's name to "Amra of Akbitana," and changing the title to "Gods of the North." Then, Weird Tales was happy to run it.

Well, when Jeff gave me this book, it was during Big's last two week visit to Canada, and I so enjoyed the first two stories in the collection, that I decided to record a reading of them, either for our podcast, or just for the hell of it. You see, the majority of Howard's Conan stuff was written in the Thirties, and has fallen into the public domain, so I figured we could podcast as many of these stories as we wanted as episodes of our show, especially when money got tight to buy new work.

After laying down the straight read, I went back through and added tons of unnecessary sound effects. Sadly, doing the kind of stories we do takes loads of time, and though I finished "Frost Giant's Daughter," I ran out of time (and steam) in the middle of "The Phoenix On The Sword," and never finished editing it.

But in hearing the first story on Podcastle yesterday, I thought I'd grab the mp3 of my own reading, and stick it on here, just for fun.* Perhaps of the three of you that read our blog, one of you might enjoy comparing and contrasting the two readings. But we warned: MY Conan of Cimmeria tends to sound like a certain Austrian actor, Cyberdyne Model 101.

Rish Outfield of Stygia

*This is not to say that the Podcastle version, read by a friend of the show, Graeme Dunlop, is the inferior version. Hell no, I imagine there will be many that find my reading unlistenable. Still, what the devil are they doing reading my blog?

That Gets My Goat 41: In Blackest Night

"You're doing a superhero movie, you gotta spend at least two hundred million! You need extra explosions, and lots more CG suits and stuff!"



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That Gets My Goat 40: Green Lantern's Sh*te

What aspect of the GREEN LANTERN movie could bring back Angry Rish Outfield? And somehow, STAR WARS gets brought up...again.



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