Friday, December 31, 2010

Rish's voice on "Doctor Who" audio drama

Rish recently voiced a character, Jerome Caldehay, in a "Doctor Who" audio drama entitled "Might of the Stormy Sea" over at www.dwad.com.

We're not really conneseurs of audio dramas over at the Dunesteef (in fact, we can't even spell "coneseuer"), but J.W. Smith and company really do a bang-up job on this one. Check it out, and find out how awful Rish's English accent is.

Or, if you're in a generous mood, find out how convincing Rish's English accent is.

Saturday, December 25, 2010

That Gets My Goat 17: I'm Goin' To Disneyland!

So, Big took his family to the Magic Kingdom. Was it all it was cracked up to be? And can Rish find an opening to make an offensive remark, here and there?

Let's hope so.



Oh, and before the claws come out, yes, it was Tommy James that sang "I Think We're Alone Now." You are indeed smart, as the Emperor has forseen.

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

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Rish reads a story on "Podcastle"

Unca Rish here. I was really pleased to be given the chance to read a holiday story on Podcastle (and vexed when they said they'd already asked once and I hadn't responded), and it turned out to be "The Christmas Mummy," by the lovely Heather Shaw and the almost-as-lovely Tim Pratt. And hey, they rated it G.

Go over and give it a listen. If you've ever wondered how horrible the show would be if it was all-Rish-Outfield-all-the-time, this is your chance to find out.

Monday, December 20, 2010

Retraction

Big here.

At newspapers, sometimes they screw up on the details of a story, and print something incorrect. Then, when they discover their foul-up, they have to print a retraction to inform everyone of the misinformation, and get the truth out there in its place.

Well, for the first time, I have to come on here to print a retraction for something that I said in our most recent episode. That's right, I blew it. I had the chance to be a real podcaster and I bleeeeewww it! If it wasn't such a big deal, I'd probably just let it ride, and never mention it at all, hoping that nobody noticed, and nobody would say anything. But this is really important, and I need to clear it up.

So, in our conversation, I mentioned to Rish that as he performed the part of Reginald Thracken in "Dax Plays Faire" he reminded me of the character Monterey Jack from Chip 'n' Dale's Rescue Rangers.


I'm not sure how I could have been so wrong. It wasn't Monterey Jack that I was thinking of at all. Monterey Jack is Australian. He may be big and mustachioed*, but that's really all he has in common with the guy I was in fact thinking of.

I had for some reason confused the picture in my mind. The cartoon character that had actually come to mind was Chief Quimby from Inspector Gadget.


As you can see, they both like to wear a shaggy mustache. So you can see where I might get confused. And Chief Quimby also smoked a pipe all the time (or he may have only held an unlit pipe between his teeth all the time. It was a kids show after all, why would they have a character that smokes? These days, the pipe would be out altogether. Can you imagine that kind of crap slipping past the censors and busybodies? How did they get it past them in the eighties, I wonder). The pipe may be the reason that I imagined Reginald Thracken as Chief Quimby. The entire time that Rish read Thracken's lines, he kept sticking a tootsie roll left over from Halloween in his mouth, pretending it was a cigar or a cigarette or maybe a PIPE!! Apparently, doing this helped him get into character.


It's still really weird that that is the image that came to mind. Someone else in their comment said they imagined Dax as David Boreanaz. That makes so much sense. But what kind of world does Dax live in when his chief is a cartoon character. What is this--The Last Action Hero.

Anyway, sorry to have led you all astray like that. It's a good thing that we got it all cleared up though. It's a real load off my mind.

* Mustachioed is one of those words that just needs to be used more often. It's just so great...er...wait, that's not what I meant to say. I mean, don't use mustachioed more often. In fact, I might reject a story simply for using the word mustachioed instead of the phrase, "he had a mustache," that everyday, normal well-adjusted people would use. It's not as high up there in the list of my pet peeves as the word 'said' when used in a phrase like, "the man had a mustache. Said mustache was big and bushy." Wow, now that I really hate. But mustachioed is pretty bad too.

Friday, December 17, 2010

That Gets My Goat 16: Goin' Southbound

Huzzah! Big is back from his trip to Nevada and Southern California. Will he have something interesting to say about it? You be the judge.



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

Thursday, December 16, 2010

Whoops

Rish here. Big and I got together a few days ago to record us talking about his recent trip to Southern California. We made fun of Californians, his children, our old age, the Disney corporation, Big's girth, his wife's name, the updating of Disneyland rides, mannequins with boob jobs, my own Disneyland experiences, and the contemplated sort of thing you'd never want to hear someone in a Goofy costume say.

Well, during the middle of our conversation, I got up to go to the bathroom while Big paused the recording, and then we started back up again, really getting into the swing of things. Man, it was some of our best stuff ever, and Big was actually crying from laughter toward the end (I don't know if that had ever happened before, in all our times doing podcasts). We got to the end of the two hour show, content that we had created something quite magical . . . when Big discovered something truly awful . . .

Unfortunately, the pause button was somehow still on from more than an hour before, when we'd stopped for a break and to look up the name of an obscure Disney character. All of that material was lost.

It was a bummer, and something we've had happen before (though not exactly under those circumstances). Big was really upset about it, and required that we walk three miles in the middle of a chilly December night to cool down. Afterward, we did attempt to recreate that conversation, and recorded another hour or so on the same subject, but it wasn't quite the same, and a lot of the inspiration had faded.

Ah well. I guess that sort of thing happens. It's all for you, Wendy.

Rish's voice on "19 Nocturne Boulevard"

Once again, Julie Hoverson over at "19 Nocturne Blvd" has cast me in one of her audio dramas. It's a very small part, a suspect in a man's murder named Peabody. In this one, she asked me to do a sort of Sydney Greenstreet voice for my character. Check out the episode "Seance" to see if I pulled it off.

Once again, I have no idea how Julie manages to write, direct, edit, score, and perform in these dramas, month after month (heck, she even did the artwork). Oh, and her show has a cool, ominous theme song, if I've never mentioned it before.

Friday, December 10, 2010

That Gets My Goat 15: Strangers In The Night

For a couple of weeks, Big and Rish are holding off on the complaints and talking about things that are on their mind. In this episode . . . Uh oh, stuttering, karaoke-singing Rish Outfield is thinking about romance. What could possibly be worse?

Besides people who love cats, that is.



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

Monday, December 6, 2010

Why No Episode?

Thought I'd post this on both my own blog, and the Dunesteef blog, since it's about me personally and the show too.

I'm here to beg your forgiveness. I continue to underachieve. It's been quite a dang long time since we put out our last episode, and it's all my fault. I hope none of you have gone into any sort of withdrawal. Some people have claimed that such a thing could happen to them in emails that they've sent in, so I'm praying that I don't have guilt to deal with too.

Why is it taking so long? Well, the second Broken Mirror episode it turns out is more than a short story. It falls soundly in the novelette category. The story is 10,000 words, which makes it one of the longest stories we've ever done. I think only "A Place So Foreign," by Cory Doctorow and "Casts A Demon Shadow," by Derek J. Goodman were longer, in all 85 or 90 or whatever episode were on. So, it's taking me a long time to edit my way through this story.

Add to that, my family and I took a trip to Las Vegas and then Disneyland this past week. So, I just plain wasn't working on it for that week. I'm back at it, and I have a strategy that I may put into action to try to get double the work done on the story, editing both the sound effects as well as the story reading at the same time. Normally I finish editing the story reading before I start on the sound effects, so doing this could save a decent amount of time.

Anyway, that's my deal. I'm excited to get this story done, and get the next Broken Mirror done as well. I hope you guys like to listen to them as much as I like to work on them. Broken Mirror is one of my favorite things of each year, and I really look forward to the reaction.

Sunday, December 5, 2010

A day late and a pound short

Not too long ago, one of our lovely listeners asked us to record a promo letting people know of an event she was organising in England (Reading, to be more exact). We were happy to oblige, but since she hadn't provided us with an outline or script, we created one of the worst commercials ever (I say "one of" because I listen to local radio, and their commercials are often worse).

Oh, but it doesn't stop there. Big went off to Disneyland, and when he returned, we discovered that the event had come and gone, with nary a word spoken of it by the Dunesteef. Could it get any sadder?

Well, for my birthday in 2004, I invited a bunch of co-workers to come out and celebrate with me . . . and nobody showed up. Sad now?

But our listener, who goes by Unascertained, forgave us, and even asked if she could still hear the promo. I figured it was the least we could do, so listen and . . . enjoy?



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

Thursday, December 2, 2010

That Gets My Goat 14: What's A Writer Do?

For a couple of weeks, Big and Rish are going to hold off on the complaints and talk about things that are on their mind. This week, Big talks about encountering a professional writer (or mayhaps, "professional" writer) at a party, and the thoughts it prompted.



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

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

To Air or Not To Air

So, Big finally finished up our latest episode, Liz's "Cinezas and the Ash King." It's the first of our Broken Mirror stories, and it was a long time in coming. A long time to think about what the reaction might be.

You see, we recorded the show like we regularly do, with no real planning for what we'd say, and certainly no intention to offend anyone* . . . but I have issues and things I'm passionate about, and Big's got his own opinions, and the conversation followed an unknown path.

As soon as the microphone came off, Big started to worry. What if we had said something that would truly bother people, would piss them off enough to stop listening to the show, or worse, shout out their righteous indignation in our forums, causing either Big or I to be so hurt WE quit doing the show? Big reminded me that we had two forbidden subjects on our show: Politics and Religion. And we'd just mentioned both of them.

Even though it was late at night, Big and I spent another hour talking about how divisive those two topics are, and he brought up my George W. Bush-bashing in an episode a year ago, and how he very nearly deleted it from the show for fear of alienating listeners.

So we talked, and I started to worry, and he was already worried, and I started to get paranoid about what to do about it. Was just bringing up the subject enough to offend people? Would a disclaimer be alright? Would it be enough? Might people choose to be offended?

Well, Big asked listeners in public what they thought, and I emailed a couple of people close to the show to ask their advice. Liz was willing to jump on the grenade and have the episode not air because she thought (at least I believe she did) that it was her story that was outrageous rather than anything we might have said. But pretty much everybody said, "Go ahead and air it, after a disclaimer, and if people have a problem with it, the problem is theirs."

Cool.

We have had headaches before due to statements on the show, but with no idea of what might happen, we forged on. We recorded an episode of That Gets My Goat inspired by an experience I had after work, and my hatred of the Lifetime Movie Network. We had a laugh, and I vented, and once it was done, and the heat of the moment had passed . . . I started to wonder again, if maybe this would be the show that folks would freak out about. Even though nobody listens to That Gets My Goat.

Well, the more I thought about it, the more worried I became. To me, context is a big deal--the kind of thing that everything hinges upon--but to a lot of people, there's no such things as circumstances and intention. Bad is bad, black is black, wrong is wrong, even if the picture is incomplete.

Ultimately, I decided to shelve the episode. I didn't set out to piss people off, but I didn't want any additional controversy or angry cowgirls on their moral high horses. I guess that was cowardly, but having not yet aired the potentially inflammatory Cinezas show, I was already in a sensitive place.

And I can always unshelve it later on.

It's nice to have a voice and a forum to speak, whether it's doing funny voices, making a statement, or just shooting the breeze. Big and I got together this week, and instead of complaining about things that upset us, we each talked about something positive(ish) that had been going on in our lives. I shared more than I had on the show before, and Big . . . well, he's just so darn handsome, isn't he?

I imagine those episodes will go over well.

I don't know if this blog entry was a worthwhile one or not. Perhaps I should've been more specific about statements made and worries I've felt, or maybe this wasn't necessary at all. Maybe nobody cares about the thought processes of a couple of podcasters.

If the latter's the case, though, I gotta wonder why you're reading this right now. Yes, sir, you.

Rish "Jean Doumanian" Outfield

*If you've listened to the episode, I really didn't cut much of what we said out. Maybe it was innocuous, but you really never know what will bother people.

Friday, November 19, 2010

That Gets My Goat: Unlucky Thirteen

TGMG returns with Rish complaining about Auto-Tune. There may be singing involved.

'Nuff said.



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

Friday, November 12, 2010

That Gets My Goat 12

We've decided to combine our regular Dunesteef podcast and "That Gets My Goat" this week, and stick it on the main page (and in the main feed), so people can tell us where it belongs. Also, to give us another week to catch up on story episodes.

Check it out here!

Friday, November 5, 2010

That Gets My Goat: The Outfield Strikes It Big

In the final part of our conversation about 3D, Rish and Big finally get back to the subject at hand . . . STAR WARS in 3D. Along with:

BACK TO THE FUTURE. THE NEVERENDING STORY. MARMADUKE. "Battlestar Galactica." TRON 2. "Thundercats." Pro football. It's too much for a regular-length episode. There's complaints about the release order, complaints about the 3D cash-in, complaints about "The Holiday Special," complaints about Pepsi cans, complaints about Lucas's priorities, complaints about CG, complaints about the Prequels, complaints about the scrapped attempt at a live-action TV series.

If you listen carefully, Rish gives his personal credo when it comes to movies. And then...one of them confesses that he enjoys giving George Lucas his money. And one confesses...that he likes the Smurfs. Parental discretion is advised, kids.



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

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Was It A Misstep?

Last night, Rish and I got together for our usual weekly marathon podcasting session. After stumbling out of the gate (we found that the battery in the mixer had died on us because we'd left it turned on for the whole week, so we had to back to the Walmart we had just come from a few minutes earlier to buy a new one), we got churning, and recorded a couple of stories.

Then it came time to do the episode to the first Broken Mirror story that we will be airing. The conversation strayed into realms that we almost always avoid like the plague. When we started the show we made two promises, we would never do a story that is religious or anti-religious in nature, because it's too divisive of an issue, and we're sure to anger a portion of our audience no matter what. The other promise, we wouldn't do anything political in nature, because, again, it's a divisive subject, and we want to bring folks together, not drive them apart.

For some reason, though, last night we started talking about subjects that were religious in nature and other subjects that were political hot points. After we finished the episode, even though it was super late, Rish and I stood around on the porch and talked about whether we'd made a mistake with this episode and how many listeners we might anger or lose because of it.

So, what's my point with this post? I'm not sure. I guess to warn you all that we went there, even though we said we never would. We didn't purposefully try to say anything offensive, disrespectful, or divisive. Please take it with a grain of salt, if you can. Don't turn your back on us if you are offended by what we say because it's not the same as how you feel, and we promise that we really won't go there again next time.

Rish wonders what kind of disclaimer we need to put on the show (so as not to offend religious people or political people, or the opposite of those), or if a disclaimer is enough?

Sunday, October 31, 2010

Big on "Cast Macabre"

Once again, our chum Barry Northern over at Cast Macabre has allowed the taint of The Dunesteef to affect his own podcast. The latest show is "Out and Back" by Barbara Roden.

This time, our own Big Anklevich performs the tale's main character, and our not-really-own Julie Hoverson rocks the mic on the female characters in the story. It's a nice long yarn, which is amazing considering we recorded it for him a couple of days ago.

And, if you want to hear what Big and Julie would sound like if they were in an unbearable, unloving relationship (and sharing an unpleasant brush with the supernatural), this tale is for you!

Saturday, October 30, 2010

Rish on "Strange Stories"

Rish was fortunate enough to voice a character on "Strange Stories," a podcast collection of tales by Mike Murphy. This particular episode, entitled "Doctor Hoyt's Remarkable Elixir," is a lovely audio drama about a concoction that can bring back the dead.*

The production is amazing, with sound effects, music, and a full cast. It's also narrated by friend-of-the-show Julie Hoverson, whose voice sounds like peanut butter tastes. It's something of a Halloween episode, but if you go there after October is over, it's just as good.

Check it out and hear Rish do the world's worst Italian accent!

Rish Buongiorno Outfield

*I hope somebody thinks to use it on Bea Arthur, and fast.

Friday, October 29, 2010

That Gets My Goat: Also Available In 2-D

In Part Two of our STAR WARS 3D conversation, the complaints about 3-D movies really begin to rush in, totally obscuring the topic at hand. Big wonders if the 3-D fad is going to hurt the film business in the long run, and what could generate new interest. Rish talks about what 3D contributes (or doesn't) to the moviegoing experience, and ends up bringing up his daddy issues.



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

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

G'day Post

Rick Kennett is a writer we've produced on the show a few times before. He's submitted us quite an interesting array of stories, and nearly all of them would make for great episodes. The problem is, the guy's Australian.

'Nuff said.
No, no, it's not what you think. Not really. Okay, it's PARTLY what you think, but it's more that I can't do a very good Australian accent. See, nearly all my accents have started out as impressions or imitations of someone famous, only later downshifting into my own voice. And my exemplar for Australian is Paul Hogan in CROCODILE DUNDEE. Hate me for it if you like, but that was my first major exposure to the Aussie way of speaking, and whenever I think of that accent, it usually involves "that's not a knife, this is a knife" in some way.

And I am constantly reminded that Australians just don't sound that way. At least most of them don't. The actual accent is kind of lovely (when it's not coming out of Nicole Kidman, that is), a slightly-harsher version of the English accent that I love, with differences here and there, often minor enough I don't pick up on them. I'm aware that my Australian accent rings untrue.*

So we try not to read Australian stories ourselves. And in the past, that's meant we were at the mercy of anybody willing to volunteer to read parts for us, no matter how awful their microphones. It could take months between accepting a Rick Kennett story to actually getting it recorded. And one he sent us

just languished nearly eternally, because it was an Australian Naval Ghost Story (a huge subgenre with a section in every city's library). British Navy? Sure, hand it over? Oz Navy? Uh oh.

Rick seems pretty patient. I know I wouldn't be. But hey, you know my failings.

Well, recently, our fearless and hardworking submissions editor SuddenDeath Nicole managed to go out and get some voices from Down Undah, and we were saved. All we had to do was read the text, give Big one of the characters, and we'd finally get this story out. Big got an email the other day from someone volunteering to edit an episode for us, and he/we decided to send him our reading for this new Kennett story (entitled "Out of the Storm") along with the voices Nicole had acquired for us. Plus, it was a short story, an excellent one for a new editor to cut his teeth on.

Simple enough, right?

O, fortuna. I struggled unbelievably on this story, literally screwing up at least once on every single paragraph.

In the past, I think I've struggled most with the Popoca stories (they're the ones set in a Steampunkish past where the great Aztec empire stayed great, and Ulrich Popoca is an Amerazteclan ambassador to England, using phrases like "Cihuatecuhtli, Fellucci," as though that actually means something. So it was with horror that I discovered that naval terminology was not my forte (at least, that's what Big Anklevich claimed, sitting next to me as I stuttered, stammered, stumbled, squandered, spindled, spatulaed, and mispronounced. He's a supportive guy, which is why there's probably a woman looking longingly in his direction at this very moment). Over an hour we spent, reading the damn thing, only to realize that I had pronounced Lieutenant as "Lieutenant" rather than "Lef-tenant, which Big insisted I go back and re-record.

And the accents? We tried our best to give everyone not only an Australian accent, but a different voice, just in case Nicole only got three Oz volunteers instead of eight. And I wonder if any of them are usable.**

Luckily, Rick's sent us another story for the holiday season or the new year that a couple of semi-educated Yanks can narrate perfectly.

Or at least adequately. So all is not lost.

Rish "On To New Zealand!" Outfield

*And Big? Well, he's just Big.

**In Big's defence, he seemed to understand this was just a template track, and his voice would not be used for the main character. I didn't realise that, and constantly asked him to alter his reading or performance, so it would sound more like the part did in my damaged, malfunctioning brain. Like C-3PO, why doesn't anyone listen to him?

Friday, October 22, 2010

That Gets My Goat: In 3-D

Oh kids, it had to happen. A topic Rish and Big had so much to say about, they couldn't limit it to one episode, or two, or even three.

Wait, what? Just three? Oh, okay, turns out they were able to limit it to three episodes. But in honor of what Rish proclaims to be "the greatest movies ever made," we're bringing you a . . . Trilogy . . . of episodes, lambasting 3-D, the greed of a certain bearded billionaire filmmaker, and complaints about the film industry in general.



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

Thursday, October 21, 2010

Big and Rish read a story on Cast Macabre

If you just can't get enough of us (no pushing, ladies), Big and I were able to perform a story over on Barry Northern's Cast Macabre podcast. The horror story was called Blind Man's Bluff, written by Brian Ross, and at first glance, seemed to be made for us, as it dealt with two guys lost in a snowstorm.

Unfortunately, somewhere toward the end, we realized that we were supposed to be from the Jolly/Bloody/Manky/Right-o/Ever-so/Sodding/Howdy,y'all/Gor Blimey U.K., and we'd been doing the wrong accent throughout. Whoops.

We hoped Barry could forgive us. But that remains to be seen.

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Rish's story on "The Way of the Buffalo"

Hugh O'Donnell's podcast, The Way of the Buffalo, recently aired one of Rish's short stories (a blink-and-you-miss-it-length tale about a cellphone called "Subtext." Afterward, he interviews a pair of ghost hunters, which is almost certainly more interesting than any of Rish's work.

TWOTB is a fairly new podcast, as ours once was, so it would be nice if people supported Hugh's efforts and encouraged the man not to pod-fade. He'd do the same for us, I'd wager.

Sunday, October 17, 2010

Lizanne Herd reads a story on "Starship Sofa"

Our lovely friend (and contributor) Lizanne has brought it to my attention that her reading of Jason Sanford's story "The Ships Like Clouds, Risen by Their Rain," is now up over at the Starship Sofa podcast. Jason Sanford is also a friend of the show, so go o'er there and check it out sometime.

Also, Rish voices the Mayor in that story. And has absolutely no memory of doing so.

Strange.

Friday, October 15, 2010

That Gets My Goat Ocho

Big Anklevich and Rish Outfield are back to grouse and growl. This time, they complain about online contests, chain emails, how there's no security on the internet . . . and how there's too much security on the internet.

Can nothing please these people?



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

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Rish on "Space Vessel Bird"

Recently, Big asked me why I hadn't used this blog to plug the voicework I'd done without him (ie on my own incredibly crappy microphone at home), and I told him I thought this blog was about the 'steef only, or at least the Dunesteef team.

But he disagreed, so I figured I'd mention something I stumbled across just today.

A few months ago, Big and I had a bit of a crisis of faith when it came to the podcast. We shut down production and didn't work on it for a while, choosing to lick our wounds and pursue other endeavors. But I still wanted to be able to act and read stories and such. One of our listeners (and I apologize for not remembering who it was) mentioned that he knew of an audio drama that was looking for voice talent, and recommended I give it a try.

I checked out what people were asking for, still wishing I hadn't missed the chance to try for my dream voicejob of Jayne Cobb in the "Firefly" podcast. I recorded a couple of auditions, and despite my laughably terrible microphone, I managed to snag a couple of really exciting roles (one of them, a fun adaptation of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer"'s Season Eight comic book, can be found here: www.lightningbolttheater.com/default.aspx).

Among them was an interesting and well-written adventure set in the "Star Trek" universe called Space Vessel Bird. I got the part of Captain Zachary Beck, the disgraced former starship captain now stuck in a Starfleet penal colony. I hadn't heard back from them in a while, but I checked their website today and found that their first episode went up in September. If you're interested, give them a listen (I'm doing so now, and it's an interesting experience. As we've dealt with on our own show, the audio quality of different participants really varies, which is frustrating. And, of course, I can't help but scrutinize my own performance, but ah well).

During that period this summer, I recorded quite a lot for a bunch of different podcasts and audio dramas, but if they don't tell me the shows have dropped, I'll never know. I'll keep y'all posted, though.

Rish "Master Thespian" Outfield

Friday, October 8, 2010

"Two Truths and a Lie" Really Gets My Goat

In place of our typical TGMG episode, here is the full game Big and I played of "Two Truths and a Lie." Entertaining fun or near-endless torture? You be the judge!



And hey, let us know if you want more of this sort of thing, or just the regular b**ch sessions.

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

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

This Week

Last night, Big and I got together for our weekly recording session. We were unable to do so last week because of familial obligations, so we really tried to make up for it. We recorded some lines for Abbie Hilton, a couple of promos, an episode for an upcoming Michael Stone story, and tried to finish up our next episode, a story called "Tattletale." In it, there are two children (ages six and four), and both of them have to give a fearful performance and do a lot of screaming.

I had my niece do one of the characters the other day, and she did well. For the other child, Big sat his little girl down in front of the microphone, and got what I think is the best performance out of her so far. He's a little more patient than--okay, he's a hell of a lot more patient than I am, and I hope that pays off in the finished product. My suspicion is that absolutely no one would have faulted us had we just voiced the little children ourselves (or gotten Liz to do it, since she sounds about thirteen on a good day), but I hope the story works better with actual children, even if it's a lot harder to get them to be natural and believable. We'll see in a few days.

After that, we went for our weekly walk (pretty much the only exercise I get nowadays), looked at Halloween costumes at Walmart, got some gas, and came back for (what we thought would be) a brief "That Gets My Goat."

And oh, the humanity, it spiraled out of control, to the point where we (or more accurately, I) were still yammering on at three in the morning. I'll probably end up cutting that show into two or maybe three parts, if you're interested.

And the episode of the show proper we recorded consisted of us spinning our wheels, since we both had very little to say about the story itself. We insulted each other and joked around for most of it, laughing harder than we do on three shows. So my prediction is thus: either it's going to be everybody's favorite episode, or it'll be the one that makes them quit the show.

Either way, should be fun.

Rish "The Mouth" Outfield

Sunday, October 3, 2010

Rish and Big read a story on "Drabblecast"

As mentioned previously, Big and I got to read a story over on Norm Sherman's award-winning "Drabblecast." It's this week's episode, part of one of his Trifectas, with three short stories by three different authors. As big fans of The Drabblecast, it was an honor to get to do it.

The story we performed is entitled "Toaster of the Gods" by Randall Coots. Believe me, it's every bit as fun as it sounds.

Friday, October 1, 2010

That Gets My Goat 7

Once again, Big and Rish have things to complain about. Rish is primarily pissed at the summer movie season, but somehow parlays it into anger at Disney and . . . Pixar? And Big just sits there and takes it.*

Also, it's October first, and that means The October Scary Story Event is underway. It's a contest to write a scary story (any length) within the month of October, and submit it to us (that's submissions(at)dunesteef(dotcom) and put OSSE in the subject line). Our favorite story or two will be made into an episode of our show.

Who knows, Rish may even have something to complain about there too.



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

*At one point, Rish refers to Don Hahn as the director of TANGLED. He was confusing him with Glen Keane, who was the film's original director, later replaced by the guys who directed BOLT.

Thursday, September 30, 2010

Big and Rish on "19 Nocturne Blvd"

So, once again, the talented and hard-working Hulie Joverson has used Big and Rish to voice characters on her podcast, 19 Nocturne Boulevard. This particular episode is entitled The Naked Truth. Julie writes at least one audio drama a month, and as far as I know, she edits them, mixes them, foleys them, and acts in them herself.

In "Naked Truth," Big voices a thug and Rish voices a movie producer, both in the olde tyme Film Noir style. Ish.

Recently, she also had us do voices on her Western audio drama, "The Deadeye Kid: Auld Lang Syne." We got to play the parts of villagers and also a couple of bandits. Amusingly, her directions told us to play one of the bandits as "vaguely Mexican." I had no idea how to play that, and I still don't. I can understand being "vaguely sleazy" or "vaguely drunk" or even "vaguely foreign," but I couldn't get my head around the Mexican thing. It would be like playing a character "vaguely white."

I never took the Kobayashi Maru Test. What do you think of my solution?

Sunday, September 26, 2010

Upcoming Schedule

So, we'll try and get one more regular story in this week, then start airing some spooky stuff for the (great) month of October. Either three or four episodes. After that, it looks like we'll do the Broken Mirror winners.

Also, I think I'll stick the unedited game of Two Truths & A Lie Big and I played here on the blog, like the TGMG shows. If you've got a guess for that, send it in soon.

Lastly, we're still taking zombie sounds if you'd like to contribute to our upcoming zombisodes. Just send your recording to submissions(at)dunesteef(dot com). Thanks again to those who've already participated.

It's possible we'll have a special mini-show written by yours truly the week of Halloween. If I can adequately motivate myself, that is.

Also, there was a moment in our last episode, where, in the midst of talking about masked characters in comic books, I began to talk about Doctor Doom, and a story I had been told about him with his mask off. I told the tale, then we talked a bit about the Fantastic Four comics and movies, and then went back to our regularly scheduled program. When it came time to edit the episode, I felt that the FF conversation didn't really belong in the episode, and I snipped it out, even though I normally love to hear myself talk. That's where our outtakes section can come in handy. Yeah, usually it's just us screwing up during the reading, or doing funny story voices, or saying something about minorities, but in this case (and my lengthy Comic-Con description), you can go to the outtakes section and hear another little anecdote.

Did it deserve to be cut out? You be the judge.

Remember, short, controlled bursts.

Rish

Friday, September 24, 2010

That Gets My Goat 6

Wow, looks like a feature-length episode today. I made Big stay up until past three to record this bad boy. What's worse, the last two shows were actually one massive one until saner heads prevailed and it got split into two. Chances are, it could've been split into three with no ill effects.

In this show, Rish talks endlessly about getting old and not being able to enjoy amusement parks like a nine year old, Big talks about his awful internet/telephone service, and they both talk about being taken advantage of by, among other things, pushy salespeople on the phone.



Oh, and Sean Connery is eighty, folks.

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

Saturday, September 18, 2010

Big and Rish on "The Drabblecast"

We got to do characters on this week's Drabblecast episode, "Something Borrowed, Something Doomed by Robert Jeschonek. We do voices of hillbillies. It's fun stuff. But then, it's always fun.

Friday, September 17, 2010

That Gets My Goat 5

Still trying to get the hang of these. I thought it might be helpful--not to people searching for old, archived episodes; I'm not that deluded--to have a description of what we complain about in each episode. That way somebody can see that Rish complains about changing the name of RAPUNZEL to "Tangled" in an episode and say, "Oh, I sure don't want to hear that one," at a glance.

So, in this episode, Big complains about computer and car problems, while Rish complains about auto mechanics, his hate for cellphones, and his broken windshield. Then they talk about why they can only record for ten minutes at a stretch.

What happens next? Find out in Marvel Comics!




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

Friday, September 10, 2010

That Gets My Goat 4

I don't know about Big, but I've really enjoyed producing these little conversation podcasts. If anything, it makes it so we can sit down for twenty minutes, record one of these, and then go for a walk or watch a movie, yet still feel like we accomplished something.

I suppose that makes these incredibly bad for the Dunesteef, when you look at it that way.

Regardless, in this one, Big complains about people who can't spell or use correct grammar, and Rish complains about message board idiots.



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

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Whatever Happened To Baby BMSE?

Did you read that last post? I can't let Big be the only one painting his face with shame. Not when it's my fault the Broken Mirror Story Event still has no winner or announcement.

You see, a couple of months back, when we promoted Suddendeath Nicole to Submissions Editor, she wondered what to do about the Broken Mirror stories (which, you may recall, are a pseudocontest we do on the show every year where people can submit stories with the same fixed premise). Big told her to take care of those herself, but that he and I wanted to read the submissions too. So, she took all the entries, cut the name of the author off, and sent them out to a number of readers. Each reader went through and gave them a number grade between 1 and 10, and if they're like me, wrote a few words about what they enjoyed or didn't like. When all the reviews came in, Nicole would average out the scores, and viola, we'd have our winner.

But the days turned into weeks, the weeks turned into months, and the months turned into . . . hours, for some reason. And it just so happens that everybody–even lazy old Big Anklevich–had submitted their scores, and the only one who hadn't . . . was Richie Doody Outfield.

I don't know why it was so hard for me to get through them. It should have been fun. After all, this was my premise, and even if I wasn't personally able to come up with a good take on the idea (I wrote up a whole list of possibilities; I might even share it on the show), I could enjoy what other talented, hard-working people managed to pull off.

But one of the first submissions on my desk was my own. And I thought, "Last year, I recused myself from rating my own story high, since I didn't want to seem like a cheater, only to find that Big gave himself an 11. That can't happen again."

But instead of moving on, I moped around the house feeling sorry for myself for, well, a decade, more or less, and got no work done.

This is why we had such a long response time before we brought Nicole onboard.* It's difficult to be an editor, to read someone else's work, decide whether to accept it or reject it, and worse, decide the whys and the hows. I always struggled with coming up with things I liked about particularly bad stories, and conversely, with reasons I didn't want to take the pretty good ones. Not to mention the time(s) I sent my thoughts about a story to the author, thinking I was saying it to Big Anklevich. Whoops.

I vowed to Big last week that I would finish up all the submissions and get my scores to Nicole, so we could move on and let people know where they stand. But having said that, I found myself seriously unwilling to read them (even though there were only three left). I'm stubborn that way, and it's got to be one of the main reasons I'm as unsuccessful in life as I am.

But as of yesterday, I finally finished them (and the last one I read was particularly enjoyable), and sent off my thoughts. I imagine that means she's already got the scores all calculated, and we can start the lengthy process of doing them on the show.

I've met a couple of new voice actors recently who will probably do good things when we start handing them out. It would be fun to have different people produce each of the Broken Mirror finalists, just to make them all the more different from one another.

But those are decisions for another day. Right now, I must decide if I will get up and do something productive this afternoon.

It doesn't look good.

That was only a joke about the eleven, by the way. He gave himself a fourteen.

Rish "More-Broken-Than-Usual Mirror" Outfield

*Oh, and let me say that she has been tireless, and (mostly) cheerful, taking over a sweaty, thankless job for absolutely no pay and only the most minor appreciation from people like me. Without Nicole, our final episode would have probably already aired . . . even if we hadn't recorded it yet.

Monday, September 6, 2010

About This Week's Episode

I was way behind on this weeks episode, and I had no excuse. Rish had cut the story and the post-story chatter too. All I had to do was put the sound effects on, and get it out there. And yet, one week passed, then two...two and a half, and still the episode was not up. Things were getting in my way, you know, life and all that, and I was letting them.

So finally, I sat down to work on the show, and I tried to cruise through it as quickly as possible. I felt so bad for being so late, so I was going to do minimal sound effects. But of course, once I got working on it, I was just having too much fun. The Coleman lantern attack segment sucked me right in, and I was looking for and downloading whooshing noises from freesound.org, finding breaking glass and clanking metal on Soundtrack Pro, and then it got to the part where Ann One starts shooting lasers out of her hands. Well, I had to do that justice too.

Needless to say, I wound up taking another day on the sound effects and putting in a little more effort. In the end, I think the story turned out much better because of it. But I can take little credit for the most part. Rish was the one who put together the spoken part of the story. He sped up my voice, to make my rat guy sound cool, he roboticized Julie's voice to make Ann One so awesome. Did you notice how Ann One's voice sounded the same, but subtly different, or better once she'd gotten all her modifications at the end? Rish really rocked this one.

So, again, sorry this one took so long. Sorry especially to Rish, who put so much work in, only to have my laziness keep his work in the dark for far too long. I hope, at least, that you think it turned out really good. It would have been much better if the episode where we talk about being nominated for a Parsec didn't come out the day that the Parsecs were awarded. That was all my fault. It would have been better if the episode where Rish tells us about his experiences at Comic-Con didn't come out so far after Comic-Con that you already knew about everything he said. That was still my fault. Ah well. Next week's show will come out much sooner.

Thanks for sticking with us.

Friday, September 3, 2010

That Gets My Goat 3

We're not entirely settled on this being the title of our sub-cast (what happens if we get together and our goat remains ungotten?), but I think it's easy to remember, and almost catchy. So, here we are again, complaining in the middle of the night, about Big being accused of sounding like a Muppet, his Wolfman Jack impression, the "Thomas the Tank Engine" movie, and Rish complaining about people getting offended on behalf of other people.



I gotta warn you: once Rish opens his big mouth, these podcasts might not always be work-safe or TV-friendly.

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

Thursday, September 2, 2010

Big and Rish stories on the web

This week, both Big Anklevich and Rish Outfield found one of their stories published.

Big's short story, "The Search For Freedom" was printed on The Cavalcade of Terror on the 26th.

And Rish had his one hundred word story "Packets" read on The Drabblecast by Norm Sherman on September 2nd.

Feel free to check them out.

Friday, August 27, 2010

That Gets My Goat 2

As I mentioned last week, Big and I are recording little podcasts where we complain about whatever's bugging us today (in this case, Lady Gaga and not putting DVDs back in the case). I'm eighty percent sure we're gonna call it "That Gets My Goat," from a comment/joke Big made during recording. I'm not sure where that phrase comes from, but it's kind of neat. So here's our second of these. Hopefully second of many.

Of course, if you hate these, then let's hope it's the second to last one.



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

Thursday, August 26, 2010

New episode warning

Uh oh. It looks like this week's episode is going to be another long one.

I know y'all hate that.

Saturday, August 21, 2010

That Gets My Goat 1: New Blog-cast

Or sub-podcast. Or mini-cast. Or just a short podcast.

When Big and I got together this week, we accomplished almost nothing. I guess we had other things to talk about, and we recorded a story for somebody else, but we spent most of the night walking around the neighborhood, complaining and berating ourselves. When we finally came back to his house, it had burned to the ground.

Oh wait, no, that didn't happen (yet). When we finally came back to his house, it was nearly three in the morning, and I was a bit disgusted that we'd accomplished so little for the podcast. I somehow convinced Big to continue complaining with me, and record a tiny bit of it, so we'd have something new to offer people who donated.

Well, I found it pretty enjoyable, and figured I'd post it here, and see if we could do it as a weekly feature here on our blog. That way, the people who enjoy our banter can have something in between episodes, and the people who hate the post-show conversation can avoid this show altogether. I wanted to call it "Something That Pisses Me Off," but somehow it became, "That Gets My Goat."

Or will be, eventually.

Rish "Goatlad" Outfield



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

Sunday, August 15, 2010

Who's That Sposed To Be?

So, I got a digital camera in 2006, and I take a lot of pictures with it. Three years in a row I've taken it with me to Comic-Con, and one thing I've noticed is that I need to take a heck of a lot more photos of things than normal if I want anything salvagable.

I get home and check out my pictures of fat guys dressed as superheroes, celebrities half a mile away from me, and the one cute girl who showed up there by mistake and is now regretting that error. But more often than not, my camera simply doesn't work. It's nigh unto impossible to figure out who the subject of the photo is supposed to be.

But why not turn a sow's ear into a sexy manbag? I thought I'd stick a half-dozen or so pictures of celebrities on here (from SDCC 2010) and see if anybody could identify them all. I'll number them and everything!

If you want to give it a try, send your guesses to editor(at)dunesteef(dotcom). Good night and good luck.

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.

BONUS: This has two, so it's "harder."