Oh Yeah, Before I Forget

A final Halloween Extra has been posted on herogohome.com. It's a special audio presentation of the first Digger story I wrote (though it was the third published). You can find it here.

Special Super Halloween Bonus!

Yes, that's right. Once again, I have taken up The World's Cheapest Microphone to bring you another episode of They Stole Frazier's Brain! Since I'm no longer on box.net, there's no embedded player, but you can download the MP3 here.

And yes, there are clues to the theme of this episode in today's Out of the Vault.

Theme music is by Partners in Rhyme.

Additional music: "Destination Venus" by Man or Astroman?

They Stole Frazier's Brain Ep. 5

It's back. Yes, once again, I've dared to pick up the World's Cheapest Microphone (actually, I bought a new one, so it's actually now the World's Second-Cheapest Microphone). I've never been thrilled with the Internet Archive method of podcasting, so I'm trying something new. Click the widget below to listen to a streaming version or to download.

A New Old Secret Lab! Mysterious Noises! New Toy, Old Cliches! A Mysterious Enemy Arises! Running time: a little over 31 minutes.

Podcast Ep. 4 - Cloverfield

I keep thinking these things will get easier to make as I build a library of sounds and get more experience with the program, but I haven't hit that point yet. Instead of getting easier, they're taking more time because I get more ambitious with the effects. Anyway, have fun. (21 MB, 23:09)

Show Notes:

A Thanksgiving mishap.

Saw Cloverfield.

Ruminations on the history of giant monsters, including Godzilla, the Chicken Heart, King Kong, the Golem and others.

A brief commercial interlude (from Lights Out, available at Internet Archive)

Discussion of Cloverfield with comparisons to The Blair Witch Project

Danger Alert! A Surprise Attack! A Shameless Plug for Daikaiju!3!

Opening and closing theme music by Partners in Rhyme.

Sound effects obtained from Absolute Sound Effects Archive.

Superfriends theme remix, "The Time Is Now," by Blue Tube.

If you like the show, please drop me an email or a comment here.

New Podcast? Back From the Dead

So reaction to "Astromonkeys!" on Escape Pod has been mixed, but mostly positive (which is probably pretty normal--if they don't like, they'll tend not to comment rather than comment negatively). But listening to it got me listening to other podcasts again, as well as searching Jonathan Coulton, of whom I am now officially a fan.

Listening to other podcasts made me start itching to try my own experiments in the Secret Lab again, so once more, I have returned to the World's Cheapest Microphone for an Adventure in Mediocrity. This one was fun to make, and I hope will be fun to listen to. I rushed things a little at the end, but I hope it gives you a smile. (19MB, 20:06)

Show Notes:

Back from the dead, appropriate for a discussion of I Am Legend.

First film adaptation was "Last Man on Earth," starring Vincent Price.

Second film adaptation was "The Omega Man," starring Charlton Heston.

Commercial interlude from "Space Patrol" (available at Internet Archive)

Spoiler-filled discussion of new Will Smith version of I Am Legend, interrupted by a danger alert!

Opening and closing theme music by Partners in Rhyme.

If you like the show, please drop me an email or a comment here. These are fun to make, but they're even more fun if I think people are enjoying them. Oh, an you can find old episodes here
and here.

Podcast Ep. 2

Yes, I continue to give the world's cheapest microphone a workout. I'm getting better at this, although I'm spending way too much time on each show. If it continues to be this much effort, I won't keep it up for long, at least not regularly. So here's the show. (25MB, 27:15)

Show Notes:

Backward masking (actually "backmasking" according to Wikipedia) started with a hoax.

Discussion of bands purposely inserting backmasked messages in songs: examples include ELO, Weird Al Yankovic and Oingo Boingo. Yes, I misquoted Al: he said "Wow," I said "Boy."

Accusations of hidden satanic messages in reversed speech. Examples include: Cheap Trick, Popeye(!), and a random guy from the BBC.

Why does this happen? Three reasons discussed in some detail, with digressions into military radio procedures, Stairway to Heaven (Robert Plant backwards sounds like Brak, BTW), classified coded messages from North Korea, and more Oingo Boingo. Along with shocking revelations from the first podtest two weeks ago!

Most examples taken from backmaskonline.com and reversespeech.com. Theme music by Partners in Rhyme.

I need a new theme song, and a topic for next week. Let me know if you like this one, and if you'd like to hear more.

Pod-Test-Cast

So here's the learning experience. The audio quality isn't great, partly because I'm using the cheapest microphone on earth. It took a long time to download for me, even though the file isn't that big. It's about 18 MB and 19 minutes long. It's not great, but it can only get better, right?

Show Notes:

Opening theme, mixed by Tony Frazier from music loops from Partners in Rhyme.

Reflections about my introduction to fandom in the mid-70's, including Star Trek, Space 1999, UFO, and a passing mention of Starship Invasions.

My first con, where I met George Takei and Bret Morrison, and had them sign a Ray Harryhausen fan magazine.

Downer endings in 70's films. Lots of spoilers.

The episode of the Tomorrow show I never saw, until today. And yes, I mispronounced Harlan Ellison's name, sue me.

End theme also provided by Partners in Rhyme.

Lost and Test

We had the season finales of Lost and Heroes this week, and both pretty much kicked ass. I was a little, a smidgen, disappointed in the Heroes finale, simply because we're still not seeing these characters really cut loose. Well, that and the fact that master villain Sylar died, then came back long enough to set up the start of next season, then died again for real, and then... wasn't dead? I don't know. And of course, the fact that Peter didn't really need Nathan's sacrifice- he should have been able to do what Nathan did himself.

The Lost finale was exactly what a Lost finale should be. It answered a ton of questions, while setting up a ton of new questions, and ended with a twist which indicated that the show is once again going to be fundamentally different next season. I love the way that every season seems to be at once the same show and yet a different show from the season before. And the finale also made obvious that these guys haven't been blowing smoke when they say that they know where the show is going. They're not just making it up as they go along.

I put together a podtestcast, but I'm having trouble posting it. It was a lot harder than I'd though it would be, and the result is kinda dull, so I may redo it. Or not. We'll see.

Podcasting

So I mentioned Lileks's podcast a while back, and it got me searching for other podcasts. I've listened to a few here and there, and I'm thinking maybe I should give it a try. I like the concept of Kick Ass Mystics Ninjas, for instance. This is like a nostalgia podcast for old geeks like me, reviewing classic old books and not-so-classic movies and shows. Bester's The Demolished Man is an example of the former, and Airwolf an example of the latter.

If only the execution were a little better, I would seriously love this show. The audio is often of varying quality, and the shows often seem to run out of steam after a while, as the hosts all end up with long awkward pauses in the conversation.

Lileks's show is more polished, but hinges on obscure music. Anything I did would be more like the Ninjas, offering my own commentary on, you know, whatever. I have an idea for a first, test show. I have a microphone somewhere that I can scrounge up, and I've been learning how to use Audacity to put this stuff together. I may try to throw together a testcast (or is that podtest?) later this week and see if anybody likes it.