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).



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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.



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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!