Wow, two double-stuffed episodes in a row.  Weird.  At first I was struggling a little to get these up to 10 minutes, now I'm trying my best to keep them below 20 minutes.   Micropodcasting indeed.  Anyway, in episode 20 I spend some time discussing the 1993 action TV series Cobra…



I also talk about the show's prolific creator Stephen J. Cannell, the new FCC rules regarding "payments" for reviewing, the budget Millcreek DVD release of this series, and the soft-spoken, face-kicking Michael Dudikoff!

As promised in yesterday's Peel Here column, today's microcast is a double stuffed conversation/rant about Superman III.  From the madcap romp of an opening…



…to the uncomfortably underachieving comedy of the usually much better Richard Pryor…



There are still a couple of good moments though, including my favorite Superman movie moment, dark Supes versus Clark Kent (even if it doesn't make any logical sense)…



…and the seriously creepy Braniaic-like robot villain lady…

                                
In this episode of the microcast I'm reminded of my tenure in the YMCA sponsored Indian guides program.  Fake bearskin ponchos, gaudy feathered necklaces, goofy yellow headbands, and some great memories of my Dad.  Here's another interesting recollection of the Guides as well…



That's me in the middle with the tacky plaid shorts…



Again, me on the back of the fire truck and my dad marching alongside with the walking stick...

Oh my god, three microcasts in a row?   I suppose in this post Halloween afterglow it's sort of nice to just talk about some of the stuff that's on my mind rather than try and jump right back into writing columns.  I do have a Peel Here that I want to get to this week though, so look for that later on.  Anyway, in this episode of the Branded Microcast I ramble on about the Pryde of the X-Men cartoon for a bit…



If you're interested in watching this beauty of a one-shot cartoon, it's up on youtube in nice bite-sized chunks (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, and Part 5.)  I also talk about the X-Men arcade game that was sort of based on the cartoon..

Chugging along with another microcast.  Today features a rambling discussion of odd books including Choose Your Own Adventure style, sitcom adaptations, photonovels, the Pryde of the X-Men graphic novel adaptation of the cartoon pilot, fumetti, and Sadistik (Satanik/Killing) pulps.

In trying to get myself podcasting again I've decided to try and stop being so precious with the recording and research and just do it.  My new idea to is too keep these episodes short, like under 15 minutes.  Micro-podcasting.  Anyway, here's the first microcast which is all about the great golden age we're living in as far as toys are concerned…



In this episode I talk about all the properties and characters that have toys these days like the Goonies, Akira, Edward Scissorhands, Snake Plissken from Escape from New York, Ash from Army of Darkness, the new Matty Collector Ghostbusters figures, the new Matty Collector He-Man figures, as well as some older stuff that could use some new figures, namely the Karate Kid and V.

You can download the episode here.

 


This evening is was an extreme honor to sit next to my wife as she guest hosted an episode of the Art & Story Extreme!! podcast.  Jerzy, Mark, my wife and I spent a half an hour talking about scary movies, inspiration to get off our butts and do something creative, and her new project demonals.com!   It was a swell super rad conversation.

In the interest of seeing whether or not I can keep the Branded in the 80s podcasts flowing, here's another episode that's dedicated to some of my memories of the various bicycles I had growing up.  I talk for a little bit about my first two bikes, a hand-me-down yellow beauty that had a girl's frame an a great banana seat, and my first dirt bike, a Huffy that was white and black with red trim and a cushioned upper handlebar that saved me from cracking my skull open on a few occasions…

   

…as well as the bike love of my life, my 1987 baby blue GT Performer that had great white and pink trim.  Unfortunately I don't have any personal photos of that bike, but below there's an almost identical representation.   Mine had black dice for air nozzle caps and a set of white metal pegs that attached to the hub of the back wheel, but it’s pretty much exactly like mine…

   

I also talk about the wondiforous 80s BMX flick RAD, Eddie Fiola (pictured in the GT Performer ad above), Bart Conner (who played Bart Taylor the semi-evil BMX god that rode for Mongoose bikes in the Rad flick), Bill Allen, Lori Loughlin, Talia Shire, John Farnham (who gave us some great 80s anthems in Rad), and of course the infamous freestyle BMX dance sequence from Rad…



If you enjoyed this podcast and if you haven't read it, here's my more in depth review of the Rad movie, and here's some Rad trivia from star Bill Allen's site.  Also, if you're enjoying my rambling podcast then I'd also like to point you to the other show I'm doing now, the Saturday Supercast over at Sugary Serials.com where I'm joined by co-hosts Jerzy Drozd and Kevin Cross (two great comic artists.)  We deconstruct our favorite cartoons of the 60s, 70s, and 80s, and the first two episodes are available for download (parts one and two of a discussion on the first G.I. Joe mini series from 1983.)

Well, with all the podcasting I've been doing lately with the newly revamped Saturday Supercast, I got the bug to dust off the Branded in the 80s podcast as well.  Don't know how regularly I'll put one of these out, but it was fun to record just the same.

Basically I spend around 50 minutes talking about some of my general thoughts on cartoons.   Filmation, Hanna Barbera, animation cels, a deconstructive/critical eye towards cartoons, Action for Children's Television, and why you might want to listen to the Saturday Supercast.  I also threw in a bunch of cartoon theme songs (under the main conversation of the podcast), as well as the majority of the one Kidd Video studio album.



If you'd like to check out the Supercast, you can click on the link below and it'll whisk you away to the archives.

Wow, this month is flying by.  It's already the week of Halloween, how in the hell did that happen?!?  Well, I stumbled a bit last week in terms of keeping up a daily posting schedule, but it's certainly not the end of the world.  I am on vacation from the stupid day job this week, so I should be able to cram it chock full of Halloween-y goodness.

First up is my half of the Branded in the 80s/Art & Story Podcast cross over event.  When Mark Rudolph, Jerzy Drozd, my wife and I got together to talk about horror storytelling and Halloween we recorded enough material for both of our podcasts.  Their half, episode 61 of the Art & Story podcast is up and available at their site, and now here's the second half.  We end up talking for around 40 minutes about some Halloween memories past (in particular costumes and some fun candy gathering hyjinks) as well as talking a bit about how we celebrate the holiday today.  Talking with these guys is always fun for me, so I hope you can get some pleasure from the conversation as well.  To listen you can either click on the banner below, or right click and save it to your computer for ipod/mp3 player listening and such.



Again, if you enjoy this podcast, take a minute to check out the Art & Story show, as Mark and Jerzy have really put together a great podcast…

Well, I decided to record a podcast about some of my movie watching this Halloween season, and hopefully I'll get it in just under the wire for day 4 of the countdown.  It's about 25 minutes long, so it won’t melt your brains or anything, and for those of you brave enough to make it through the whole show there is a little treat at the end.  I basically talk about two movies, The Abominable Snowman (the 1957 Hammer Yeti flick starring Peter Cushing and Forrest Tucker) and the 1972 Amicus adaptation of Tales From the Crypt (also starring Peter Cushing and a young Joan Collins.)  Below are some screen captures of interest and the original movie posters.  Enjoy!





Above are stills of the amazing Peter Cushing, and Forrest Tucker (star of F-Troop and the 1975 Filmation Ghostbusters live action Saturday Morning show that I talked about some time back.)

Below is an example of the surprising cinematography in the flick…



I love how the Yeti were handled visually in the film.  Subtle, but effective.



Below, the awesomely creepy poster for the Amicus adaptation of Tales From the Crypt…



Here we have some still from TFtC including our unsuspecting tour patrons, and the understated Ralph Richardson as the Crypt Keeper…



Below we have some hints as to the dreadful fun that this flick contains…



Hopefully I'll be back tomorrow with a look at a couple of the 80s horror flicks that I loved growing up.

Well, I recorded another show, though I'm kind of iffy about it.  Basically I'm trying to get back into the swing of podcasting on a regular basis and I thought it would be best to just record anything that I'm currently thinking about.  At first I was just going to keep recording shows without posting them, but after thinking about it some more I decided that if I don't post them I'm not going to get off my ass and record them in the first place.  I'm a goal-oriented person in this respect.

So what's in this episode?  Well it starts off with me getting cranky about the upcoming complete Real Ghostbusters DVD release (see the previous post for more), and that I slide into a one sided conversation about story telling conventions, in particular the whole idea of alternate history as a concept.  Is it in depth?  No.  Do I ramble like a goon?  Yes.  It is 50% shorter than the last episode though, which brings me back to my more normal running time.  Next time, there will be some research, or at least some notes to guide me along. Enjoy!

Oh yeah, I also mention the Art & Story podcast with Jerzy Drozd and Mark Rudolph, but I forgot to give a link to their show in the episode, so here it is!

Alright, I'm still not convinced that this is the brightest idea I've ever had, but I recorded a podcast last night talking about some of my experiences during the 2008 Wizard World Chicago comic con.  It's a little different than the normal Branded in the 80s podcasts as it's mired in the present and it's pretty freaking long (for me at least.)  So be warned that it clocks in at just over an hour.  Mainly I discuss how much WW surprised me in contrast to conventions that I'm more used to like Dragon con, as well as how easily (relatively) I was able to break out of my more normal introverted shell in the convention situation…

What's this?!?  Another Branded in the 80s podcast?  Well, no, not exactly (though I love using the above header...)  I recently took some time out to record a show with my wife and Jerzy Drozd (of MLaT Comics, Art & Story Podcast, and Sugary Serials editor and creator) about the upcoming Wizard World Chicgo appearance we're all going to make.  Basically we dig into the expectations, hopes, and fears we're going to have at the show as well as some thoughts on what it's like being an attendee versus being an exhibitor.  So if you are interested in hearing the soothing sounds of my voice (sarcasm folks) or are interested in listening to us chat about comic conventions, go on over to Sugary Serials and give it a listen (or click the picture below, it's episode 17 of the Saturday Supercast.)



You can also right click and download the show from this link.

I also pop up on this past Monday's Art & Story Alive, episode 18 (the sister podcast to Art & Story geared more towards furthering the conversation of the craft of comics art as well as encouraging listener participation), though only for a bit.  The topic was long form comics, how they work online, how to approach character and world construction and how they differ from short form comics (mainly strips, but also single issues and such.)  We also get into the concept of using photo reference to different degrees and whether this counts as cheating art-wise (if you're curious on my opinion on this topic, I wrote about my struggles with it back in 2006.)  You can get the episode by right clicking and downloading it here.

Lastly, and also on the podcast news front, Branded in the 80s was discussed on episode 105 of the Paunch Stevenson Show.  Greg and Rob take a little bit of time talking about the TV Guide and Peel Here columns as well as getting lost in my backwards site navigation a bit (just kidding guys, though I totally see your point on needing a "Next Page" navigation link at the bottom of the blogplane.)  You can get to the episode here.

I'm taking part in recording a new episode of the Saturday Supercast podcast tonight at 7 p.m. EST, and you are all invited! Join myself, HooveR, and Jerzy Drozd as we discuss some of the best X-mas mornings of our respective youths. This episode is designed for any reader (of Branded in the 80s or of the Sugary Serials comics) to attend, with no cartoon geek card required.

What was the best X-mas present you ever received as a kid? What was the lousiest?

It's easier than ever to participate. Here's how you do it:

Option 1 - Call in via phone:

Dial: (724) 444-7444
Enter: 38795 # (Talkcast ID)
Enter: 1 # or your PIN (No worries if you don't have a PIN. Just hit 1 and the # key to enter immediately.)
Regular phone charges apply, though! So if you don't have free long distance/minutes after 7 p.m., please stand warned.

Option 2 - Call in on your computer:

Become a Talkshoe Memeber if you aren't already.
Download the Talkshoe Live Client.
Go to the Saturday Supercast Talkshoe page and click the "Join Now" button at 7 p.m. or after. Once you've launched the Talkshoe Live client, click the "Shoe Phone" link to dial in and talk on the show. You will need a mic and headphones to participate this way. However, you can instead use the Talkshoe Live client to listen live and participate in a chat room. We will respond to any thoughts and questions posted there. So you don't have to "go on the air" to participate.

I know it's on short notice, but I hope to see some of you there.

 

I swear this past week has been pretty weird for me. Nothing really important or interesting has happened per se, but I've just been busy or lazy. I keep bouncing from one to the other.

Anyway, I meant to post this over a week ago, but I took part in another episode of the Saturday Supercast podcast, episode 10 (which you can snag over at the Talkshoe page.) This time out Jerzy Drozd, HooveR and I spend some time talking about how our generation processes our 80s nostalgia influences, or more accurately why it seem in today's pop culture, instead of simply being influenced by the past, dredges up the exact same properties (Transformers, G.I. Joe, Thundercats, Robo Force, well, not really Robo Force, but we do spend some time getting to the heart of these hug-tastic robots.)

Since I'm on the subject, and since I really do love the project so much, I'd like to remind everyone that the Sugary Serials anthology comic is updating every weekday for free, and that you can now order a print copy of the first issue from Indyplanet if you are more into having a physical copy handy. So far there have been three stories updating, Dreamform Defenders (by Chet Lucero), Equalizers of the Divide (By Jerzy Drozd and Sara Turner), and Curse of the Pharaohs (by Mark Rudolph.) These are all really great stories with some awesome art to boot.

...I just wanted to take a moment and mention that I was a guest on another episode of the Saturday Supercast show, again with Jerzy Drozd and Mark Rudolph. It's episode five, Cartoon Geekery, which can be found on the show's Talkshoe page. It’s more or less a continuation of a discussion on Saturday morning cartoons that we began back on Jerzy's other podcast (the MLaT Cast, episode 16), where we try and get to the root of why SMC's are the way they are and why we love them so much.

I'd also like to point to another show that Mark and Jerzy host called Art & Story in which the duo pull back the curtain on their comics and process. If you're at all curious about the mechanics of story telling, drawing, or putting together a comic in general, this is the show for you. They're not claiming to be experts on the process, but between the two of them there's a lot of experience and insight into the craft.

You can also find both shows on iTunes.

For all of those lamenting my lack of podcasting or are just jonesing to hear my voice again (sigh, it is to laugh…), I took part in another episode of the Sugary Serials podcast this past weekend along with Jerzy Drozd, Mark Rudolph and Andrea L. Peterson (creator of the comic No Rest for the Wicked.) It was another round table discussion in which we mainly touched on the idea of positive content in cartoons and comics, in particular process and pitfalls of trying to instill specific morals as well as including straight up educational content. Jerzy and Andrea also discussed their upcoming Sugary Serials comic collaboration, Minimum Wage Mages. For fans of the 80s there is plenty of cartoon geek moments discussed, as well as the idea of cartoons as fodder for political change.



You can find the new episode up at either the Sugary Serials Talkshoe page, on the Sugar Serials website, or by subscribing to the podcast via iTunes.

Also, the Sugary Serials comic will begin updating with content at the end of the month, so check the site often, as there will be daily updates for the first two weeks (including weekends), and then updates every weekday after that. Comics are about to become a lot more fun…

Well even though I've been sort of quiet of late on the podcast front here at Branded, I did manage to end up as a guest on another show, namely the awesome Make Like a Tree Comics podcast, which is a forum for Jerzy Drozd and Sara Turner to take readers behind the scenes on the comic books they both write and draw. Jerzy wanted to start a discussion on the concept of All Ages material (stuff like super hero comics, cartoons, etc), so he invited Mark Rudolph of Control Voice Comics (CV Comics for short) and myself to a roundtable discussion on the topic (the mighty Hoover was also invited as he's a great friend of Jerzy and a bastion of knowledge on the subject, but unfortunately he couldn't make it), which we only really hit the tip of the iceberg.

You can find the episode on the MLaT Talkshoe page; it's Episode 16, All Ages for All Ages. While you’re there I urge you to check out the other episodes where Jerzy, Sara & Hoover talk about the MLaT family of comics (like The Front and File 49), as well as heading over to the MLaT site and reading the comics and checking out Mark's stuff at CV Comics.

Since we mainly tried to focus on what we enjoy about the concept of All Ages material on the podcast I thought I'd add a little bit to the idea here by mentioning a few of the misconceptions of All Ages stuff. I'll be honest, I tend to be guilty of having that initial gut reaction to the phrase, the one where all I imagine is Mr. Rogers or the Sesame Street movie (Follow That Bird) and I tend to forget that All Ages doesn't mean "For Kids Only" which is sort of the rap it's been stuck with. I don't want to speak for everyone, but I believe that a lot of people have this reaction and I was trying to think of why that is. The best conclusion that I could come up with is that since the birth of film and comics there's been a push to segregate media due to its suitability for children and over time it's cemented this false notion that there are things for kids and things for adults and neither the twain shall meet. I mean if you take a gander at the whole Comics Code Authority debacle, the Hays code days, or the inception of the MPAA ratings system you can get an idea of how the idea of keeping adult material out of the hands of kids has shifted to creating content geared towards specific age groups.

For instance, using movies as an example, from 1968 through about 1984 the majority of films produced by Hollywood fell under either the G or PG (formerly GP) rating, so films like Rocky & Airplane! were rubbing shoulders with flicks like The Black Hole and The Black Cauldron. I'm not sure how long since any of you have seen Airplane! but it's pretty raunchy, I mean it's got BJ jokes for crying out loud and it's rated PG! But then, after Spielberg unleashed Temple of Doom and his produceorial effort Gremlins on the public parents groups got their panties in a bunch and started writing letters about how much of a travesty it was that these films were PG (now remember, PG more or less stands for Parental Guidance, which translates into suitable for some children, but not all and ultimately it's up to the parents to decide, which these groups can't seem to handle.) So Spielberg suggested to Jack Valenti that a new rating be created, a PG-14 that would indicate that maybe pre-teens shouldn’t be admitted alone.

Well Valenti and the MPAA settled on PG-13, and from then on Hollywood began to change. See PG-13 usurped aspects of both the PG and R rating in such a manner that with the exception of full frontal nudity and extreme bloodshed and language most films began to fall under the new rating. Because of this studios realized that if they toned down more adult fare they could now broaden their viewing audience on about 80% of their pictures, so for the first time in a number of years the studios began to take a heavy hand in the artistic side of things and pushed for a targeted and specific output from writers and directors trying to get flicks that met the expectations of the widest audience possible.

Well at the same time the public began reacting to these changes as well, and soon enough kids who were used to what would have fallen under the PG rating were now looking to PG-13 and PG gained a reputation for being "for kids", something to graduate out of. Films that were more or less for adults that were now slapped with a PG rating began to be ignored, the audience thinking it must be bad or "written down to a kid's level." A perfect example of this is the film Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow.

As for comics, after the CMAA introduced the Comics Code Authority with was a self censoring seal of approval that basically stated that the material in the comics was free from anything violent, gory, crime laden, horror filled, or sexy. The major publishers all adopted the comics code for the most part and from then on the comic book medium became synonymous with "being for kids" and honestly the publishers didn't help by more or less writing down to a child-like level.

This mentality has pervaded into the collected subconscious to such a degree, that it's become a common misconception to think that certain things are for kids, e.g. anything without extreme violence, without heaps of bad language, or tons of boobie shots. Think about all of the comic book flicks that have been hitting theater screens for the last 7 years, and try and come up with the one major complaint from most filmgoers. The one I hear the most is that these films aren't realistic because they aren't gritty, don't have enough real action, and there aren't in-depth convoluted stories. Hell, I'm just as guilty. When I think of the perfect Captain America movie for me, all I can imagine is Cap thrown into Saving Private Ryan, but with more red-skull-exposed Nazis running around for him to smack upside the head with his shield.

Anyway before I get off onto a rant about which is the right way to handle comic book properties, I have to say that neither, or more accurately both, are right. What we're missing in the world today is a tolerance for both mature and all ages material and that it's okay to like one, both or neither, and that's not what I see most of the time.

Anyway, getting back to the MLaT podcast that I was a guest on, what would you say are some of the aspects of All Ages media that intrigue you the most?

I forced myself to stop puttering around last night and climbed back behind the mic again for another Branded in the 80's podcast. I so need to get back into the swing of podcasting, but I am one lazy bastard at times. This episodes all about 80's stickers seeing as that's whats been on my mind lately. I also recap a buttload of 80's DVD news including some juicy, all-but-official news on a possible release for The Monster Squad.


For podcast listeners, here's a rundown of the stuff talked about:

Stickers Magazine

Zero Heroes Sticker Cards

X-Entertainment.com

Bubbledog.com (*Update, quick apology to Bubbledog, I think I came off like an ass in the podcast during my rant.  Btw, everything is right-clickable on the site now.  This is what I get for going off script...)

Panini Stickers

Here's some Amazon links to the various DVD releases I mentioned:

CHiP's

Airwolf Season 2

Airwolf Season 3

Bosom Buddies

Family Ties

Beauty and the Beast

Filmation's Ghostbusters Cartoon

Million Dollar Mystery

Harry and the Hendersons

Night of the Comet

Solarbabies

Here's some news and rumors on the Monster Squad Special Edition release for October, 2007:

Release Rumor

Possible DVD extras Rumor 1

Possible DVD extras Rumor 2

Episode Five repeat!  This one's all about 7-Eleven's.

Episode Four repeat!  This one's all about Garbage Pail Kids.

Episode Three repeat!  This one's all about weird toy nostalgia. 

Episode Two repeat!  This one's all about Showbiz Pizza, Chuck E. Cheese and birthdays.  Enjoy!

Episode One repeat!  It's all about Bigwheels folks.

So, everyone likes repeats right?  No?  Too bad.  iTunes dropped all my older podcast episodes, so I've decided to take the backasswards way of getting them back up.

In glorious crappy mp3 quality here is my first podcast.  Enjoy.

Okay, so I was checking my podcast account on iTunes the other day and I noticed that they're only carrying my most recent show and have dropped all the others.  That kind of pisses me off.  At times like this I wish my parents had gotten me into computers when I was younger so that I might be a little more up to date on how all this crap on the internets work.

Anyway, I'm sure there is a very easy way to get ahold of someone at the Apple helpdesk (snicker, laugh, guffaw) to get them to read my RSS feed correctly (I checked and Libsyn has the RSS feed set up fine), or to not drop older shows, but the heck with it.  To get around this problem I'm just going to repost my older shows real quick and be done with it. 

I'm not a "look at me, I'm doing great things" whore or anything and for the most part I don't mind if I don't get that much traffic on the site or anything.  When you get down to brass tacks though most of the people who have found my site have found it through iTunes, and I've met a lot of cool people that way, so I would kind of like to keep it that way.

So for all those who have already listened to my previous podcasts, just ignore the previous six posts, I'm just cleaning house, or drawing more attention to an older wing that's become dusty and forgotten (though not really.)

Well it sure has been awhile since I sat myself down and recorded a podcast.  Geez, what kept me?  Well, no time and the fact that it's been easier to blog I guess.  I do miss hearing how shitty my voice sounds to my own ears though, so I did one.

This one's all about school supply memories like mechanical pencils, Trapper Keepers and stuff.  Jerzy Drozd over at the wonderful Make Like a Tree Comics site (he does some great comics kids) suggested this topic, and I finally got around to recording it.  It's a little rough and not quite as filled with personal stories, but I need to get myself back in the swing of things.

Anyway, since I've been blogging about some of this stuff, here are some links to stuff that I've written about that pops up in this podcast, namely erasers, the Ideal Marvel books, and the Crestwood Monster series of children's books.

Also, as a request, does anyone know what the old Pentel mechanical pencils were called that I mention in this episode?  They were before quicker clickers and they were slim and you advanced the lead by clicking the back of the pencil.  They also had slim green erasers and came in various colors and I think only took .05 lead.

As always you can send me your comments, questions and concerns via email.  Thanks for listening.

In this podcast I round out my recent Long John Silvers review with some childhood memories of that fine eating establishment.

Wow, it's been awhile since my last actual podcast, so here we go.  First off, sorry folks but this is a big one.  I struggle with how to go about gathering my thoughts for these, and I go back and forth between working from a script and ad libbing my way through these.  This one was complete ad lib, so it's all over the place and it took me awhile to get to the end.  So sorry about that.  The file is roughly 49 megs, so there's that.

This one is all about horror and Halloweenhalloween memories per an idea from a piece of listener mail from Anjalee.  She suggested a horror podcast and that's what I delivered.  I wax nostalgic on horror themed children's books, halloween record albums, haunted houses, Disney World, horror video covers, and a few movies too (sort of.)  There's also some cartoon DVD release news (culled from the ever awesome tvondvd.com) and that's about it.

The one thing I didn't get to was a story about my scariest Halloween.  My mother had made me a super-man outfit and I went out with my dad trick or treating like normal.  Well, While we were gone, my mother dressed up like a witch, but she went a little wild (she looks a whole heck of a lot like the witches in the above picture considering that was her inspiration) and when we got back to the house she answered the door and scared the living bejebus out of me and five or so other kids.  I didn't believe it was her and I think I may have even wet my super suit.  But anyway...

So sit back, relax and listen to my dumb voice.

As always click here to send me an email.

In this episode I wax nostalgic on 7/11 convenience stores, Slurpees, and Nintendo Playchoice 10 arcade systems.

I think I've managed to fix the audio problem that's been bugging me about the podcasts, but we'll see.

As always click here to send me an email.

In this episode I wax nostalgic on Garbage Pail Kids as well as reviewing the GPK movie.  I also relate some rather old but fun cartoon nostalgia DVD news.
Click here to send me an email.

This is a between shows show.

Just trying to clear out my head.

Thanks for listening.
Click here to send me an email.

First off, I fixed the audio for this episode, so seriously your ears won't bleed. In this episode I wax nostalgia on some weird toy facts, I review two Monster Squad bootlegs, and I also repeat some great 80's cartoon on DVD news. So come on in and make yourself comfy. Click here to send me an email.

This one's all about birthdays, Showbiz Pizza mostly. Thanks and a shout out to www.showbizpizza.com for lending me some sound clips.

Click here to send me an email.

First sort of full podcast. In this episode I talk about Big Wheels, losing faith in Santa, and weird food phobias.

Click here to send me an email.

I swear to god, doing anything even sort of tech-savvy gives me one hell of a headache. I bought my first real new computer this past winter and it's opened a lot of doors for me as far as internet content goes. I'd never had a PC with sound for instance, or any decent amount of hard drive space either (I'm so not hip), though I've been playing on the web with my work's T1 connection for a while.

Anyway, one of the first things I stumbled upon while playing with my new DSL account was podcasts. I was turned on to Wil Wheaton's blog via some link or other and saw he was doing podcasts. What's a freaking podcast I asked the open air? So I downloaded it and realized it was just an mp3 file of him waxing intellectual. I was hooked. Sure I've been reading some pretty fun blogs, and adding his to the list was cool, but the podcast was great. For once, hearing inflection and sarcasm in a bolg, it was revolutionary to me (no matter how mundane it is to the mass amount of people already familiar with podcasts.)

So anyway, I wanted more and started the search for podcasts directories, which I found though it was tedious to download a bunch of stuff that I may or may not like. So my next step was iTunes, which IMHO had the most user-friendly interface for snaggin podcasts and listening to them at my leisure. Anyway, I got the bug and for some demented reason I wanted to do one of my own. I can't explain this. I'm not outgoing, and I hate the sound of my own voice, but it just seemed like it would be a fun project to put together. So being the nerd I am I bought the "For Dummies" book on podcasting, picked up a cheap mic and started worrying about what I'd do for intro music and stuff.

The first thing I wanted to tackle was the music. I really wanted to use a bunch of 80's cartoon and TV theme songs, out of print stuff that the ordinary music industry litigious obsessed exec wouldn't dream of suing over, but I couldn't get the stupid image of me in handcuffs being whipped by a member of the supreme court in a thong shouting about music rights out of my head. When I first started playing on the internet in '97 or so the first thing I did was use a free service to put up one of the stupidest, most eye-achingly, mind-numbingly ugly simple websites dedicated to my then obsession with Yoo Hoo and how they were planning to take over the world through colorblindness. (There used to be this printed message on the bottom flap of the packaging of a 6 pack of Yoo Hoo bottles that read "Destroy All Colors", so I assumed the world domination part.) Anyway, the website was only up for a few months with like a total of 3 visitors when I got a cease and desist type e-mail from one of the Yoo Hoo beverage execs, who admittedly found the website funny. So me being sued for using copyrighted music doesn't seem that out of place to me.

So while listening to Wil Wheaton's 'casts, he mentioned Apple's Garage Band software that lets you play with samples and loops to make your own music, which sounded great to me even though I know nothing about music. Problem is, I have a PC not a Mac. So I began the search for a Window's equivalent, and found it in Adobe Audition. I got sticker shock though and went back to the drawing board. Because I didn't want to pump a bunch of money into this hobby that might not pan out I decided to download the free audio editing software, Audacity and I began scouring the nets in search of free samples and loops, hoping to find enough to construct at least one crappy theme intro. And I did, here, and I hated it. Mostly because it was the best I could do with what I had, but it didn't reflect me in the least. So I broke down and bought a copy of Sony ACID XMC, and gave it another go.

I think I did something a little better, it's the current intro music to the podcast above, but I was happy with it. So now that I had the music conquered, I figured why keep doing research and figuring out the logistics and just go ahead and record a podcast and see what you can do with the mp3 file afterwards. So last night I did just that and as of this typing I've gone all headache-y trying to figure out how to narrowcast my stupid podcast. I had signed up for a free ourmedia account to host the actual files already, so now I needed a place to showcase them. My next thought was iTunes. Which I'm still considering, but they wanted an RSS feed.

Without going into a sixty-page rant on why I don't completely understand RSS and XML, I'll just say this bummed me out. So I figured I'd need to subscribe to a free blogging service that I can use to link to the media files and that will also possibly do an automatic RSS feed for me. So I came to blogger, except blogger doesn't generate RSS feeds. They play with atom and XML. So after goggling this problem I came across a nice site that explained how to convert your blogger feed to RSS via feedburner. It took awhile to figure out, but I thought I'd done it. Well, not so much. Turns out that the RSS just wasn't right for iTunes, in fact it was really really wrong. So then I tried using the RSS feed from the ourmedia site where I was hosting the podcast files.

This worked and it showed up in iTunes, but is was buggy and I didn't have clear access to changing the RSS code to make it iTunes friendly. So now I'm at libsyn.com and it appears to be the answer to all my questions while staying within a price structure that I'm comfortable with. So now it's on to iTunes, hopefully.

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