by Elisabeth R. Adams
Read by Christiana Ellis

Thank you everyone for listening!

Here is the podcast interview with Brandon that is mentioned during the episode.

Here is the Survivor Map we discussed.

BEHOLD!

Check out our tracking Spreadsheet as a Google Doc!

Movies discussed in detail this time:

Life of Pi

Les Miserables

Zero Dark Thirty

Silver Linings Playbook

Mirror Mirror

5 Broken Cameras

The Invisible War

How to Survive a Plague

Here’s the list.

And here’s that list of videogames I mention as well.

Check out our tracking Spreadsheet as a Google Doc!

Here is the video of Paul F. Tompkins singing Skyfall!

Originally posted at SpecFic Media!

Reminder… this show is NOT safe for work… just like Game of Thrones.

Six months ago a group of intrepid podcasters recorded a Season 2 Review and feedback podcast. Would you believe I was in a coma for awhile? Went to space for a month or three? Yeah, yeah, things just got away from me. But here it is. We hope you enjoy it!

SEASON 2 REVIEW AND FEEDBACK

P.G. moderates the mammoth two hours of yapping.

Hosts:

P.G. Holyfield (author of Murder at Avedon Hill and SFM Founder
Chooch (Into the Blender Podcast Co-Host, and bassist of Ditched By Kate)
Vivid Muse (Into the Blender Podcast Co-Host), Girls’ Rules Podcast Host)
Christiana Ellis (too many podcasts to list herebut you can check out all things Christiana at her site).
Nuchtchas (Host of Nutty Bites Podcast)

Contact Us:

Email: btw at specficmedia dot com
Phone: 6199-BTW-GoT (619-928-9468)
Comments: On the site

“The Persistence of Memory” by William Meikle.

“The Persistence of Memory” originally appeared in the collection DARK MELODIES (Dark Regions Press 2012). “Think of happy popular piano players/singers – Russ Conway, Liberace, Fats Waller, Fats Domino. And think of what’s behind the smiles.”.

William Meikle is a Scottish writer with fifteen novels published in the genre press and over 250 short story credits in thirteen countries. His work appears in many professional magazines and anthologies and he has recent short story sales to Nature Futures,Penumbra and Daily Science Fiction among others. He now lives in a remote corner of Newfoundland with icebergs, whales and bald eagles for company. In the winters he gets warm vicariously through the lives of others in cyberspace, so please check him out atWilliam Meikle.com. His Dark Regions Press collection DARK MELODIES (2012) is available now in hardcover and paperback – check it out here.

Your reader this week - Christiana Ellis - was last heard here reading PSEUDOPOD 268: Let There Be Darkness.

What’s a Stufflet?

What have I been up to lately?

Only one more episode before the finale!

Christiana Ellis, Adam Morey, Mike Meitin, PC Haring, and Kim Forturner get together to watch Star Wars.

Check out the Survivor Talk with D&D Podcast and Survivor pool!

56 – Jaws

55 – North by Northwest

Christiana and Mike watch movies number 58 and 57 of the AFI’s Top 100 Movies

58 – The Gold Rush

57 – Rocky

Christiana and Mike watch movies number 60 and 59 of the AFI’s Top 100 Movies

60 – Duck Soup

59 – Nashville

Links:

Fight for Space – Kickstarter

EPISODE 10 – VALAR MORGHULIS

P.G. moderates the mammoth discussion. Fisticuffs abound… well, maybe not. But it did get a bit heated near the end! We hope you enjoy it!

Hosts:

P.G. Holyfield (author of Murder at Avedon Hill and SFM Founder
Chooch (Into the Blender Podcast Co-Host, and bassist of Ditched By Kate)
Vivid Muse (Into the Blender Podcast Co-Host), Girls’ Rules Podcast Host)
Christiana Ellis (too many podcasts to list herebut you can check out all things Christiana at her site).
Nuchtchas (Host of Nutty Bites Podcast)

Contact Us:

Email: btw at specficmedia dot com
Phone: 6199-BTW-GoT (619-928-9468)
Comments: On the site

By Laura Lee McArdle
Read by Christiana Ellis
Discuss on our forums. 
An Escape Pod Original!
All stories by Laura Lee McArdle
All stories read by Christiana Ellis
Rated 15 and up for explicit language

Food for Thought
By Laura Lee McArdle

62 – American Graffiti

61 – Sullivan’s Travels

Notes:

Boston Freedom Trail
“The Big Dig”
Bunker Hill Monument
Film: In Bruges
Avenue Q
The Blue Man Group
Beatles Magic Mystery Tour
Mass Effect 3 Extended Cut

Then, together, Christiana and Mike  discuss Season 2, Episode 09 of Game of Thrones

Links:

Disasterpiece Theatre

Bulldogs (Galileo Games)

Miscellaneous life lessons
Civilization V and 1-star reviews: the value of critics
PaxEast
Civilization V: Gods and Kings
Battleblock Theater
Tanks for the Memories
Harbinger: Skeleton Crew (couldn’t find a current link)
Lawnmower Challenge
Bean’s Quest
Guacameleé
Awesomenauts
Monaco
Super Time Force
Mike interferes with my attempt to describe Crokinole
Contra and early “social” videogames
Videogame music going both ways, Legend of Zelda Symphony and Chiptune Music
The greatness of retro games

NM-47. Hubble Space Telescope Writing Contest, Funded by the Space Telescope Science Institute (New Media) A bigger, better, science focused writers challenge.

• 0 – 30 minutes — Here is the way the universe is: look it has green, hot hot hot clouds of gas that look like monsters, etc.

• 31- 90 minutes — Challenge! A panel of writers will write short stories about the green, monster shaped gas (each being given a brief plot idea like at Balticon last year).

• 91 – 110 minutes — Readings of the stories and voting on a winner.  If we get the grant, the writers would get paid, and the stories would appear in an activity book released at Balticon 47.

(M):  Pamela L. Gay, (S):  Nathan O. Lowell, Mur Lafferty, Scott Sigler, FDØ, Christiana M. Ellis, George Hrab

Saturday, 8:00 pm   (50 Minutes) (Derby)

NM-71. Beyond the Wall Live! (New Media)

A Game of Thrones Podcast presented by SpecFicMedia.com (M)  Chooch Schubert, (S) P.G. Holyfield, Christiana M. Ellis, Vivid Muse

Sunday, 9:00 am,   (50 minutes) (Garden Room)

R-53. The line between horror and paranormal fiction, and does it matter? (Readers)

Are these really two separate sub-genres or is that just nitpicking?

(M):   Christiana M. Ellis, (S):  T. C. McCarthy, David Wood, Paul Elard Cooley, Alan Zendel

Sunday,  2:00 pm   (50 Minutes) (Salon A)

F-17. Xenoarchaeology Road Show (Fan)

What will future archaeologists make of common 20th century household objects? Our panelists take their best guesses.

(M):  Jody Lynn Nye (Guest of Honor, (S):  Mark L. Van Name, Grig (Punkie) Larson, Christiana M. Ellis, John Hemry (Jack Campbell)

Sunday,  9:00 pm   (50 Minutes) (Chesapeake)

NM-41. A Spoonful of Sugar (New Media)

What movies would be improved with a re-cast and an XXX rating? What movies would be improved with a re-cast and an XXX rating? We’ve seen porno versions of good movies like Star Trek and Batman…but what about the bad ones? Our experts offer their suggestions.

(M):  Alex R. White, (S): Trish Wilson (Elizabeth Black), Christiana M. Ellis, Stephanie M. Burke

Reminder… this show is NOT safe for work… just like Game of Thrones.

We still haven’t recorded our feedback show. Use the contact info below to leave us a message, question, or comment for the feedback show!

EPISODE 6 – The Old Gods and the New

P.G. moderates this week’s panel discussion with Chooch, Vivid Muse, Christiana and Nutty. And it’s a biggun… almost 2 hours of discussion. Enjoy!

Hosts:
P.G. Holyfield (author of Murder at Avedon Hill and SFM Founder
Nuchtchas (Host of Nutty Bites Podcast)
Chooch (Into the Blender Podcast Co-Host, and bassist of Ditched By Kate)
Vivid Muse (Into the Blender Podcast Co-Host), Girls’ Rules Podcast Host)
Christiana Ellis (too many podcasts to list herebut you can check out all things Christiana at her site.

Contact Us:

Email: btw at specficmedia dot com
Phone: 6199-BTW-GoT (619-928-9468)
Comments: On the site

Contest for “Ep. 8″ – Fill out the survey here.

The Cabin in the Woods

Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol

Anonymous

The Adventures of TinTin

Reminder… this show is NOT safe for work… just like Game of Thrones.

EPISODE 4 – GARDEN OF BONES

P.G. returns from the dead to moderate this week’s panel discussion with Chooch, Vivid Muse, Christiana and Nutty.

Note: Discussion of P.G.’s S&M tendencies was for entertainment purposes only. Do not try this at home.

Hosts:
P.G. Holyfield (author of Murder at Avedon Hill and SFM Founder
Nuchtchas (Host of Nutty Bites Podcast)
Chooch (Into the Blender Podcast Co-Host, and bassist of Ditched By Kate)
Vivid Muse (Into the Blender Podcast Co-Host), Girls’ Rules Podcast Host)
Christiana Ellis (too many podcasts to list herebut you can check out all things Christiana at her site.

Contact Us:

Email: btw at specficmedia.com
Phone: 6199-BTW-GoT (619-928-9468)
Comments: On the site

Contest for “Ep. 3″ – Fill out the survey here.

Reminder… this show is NOT safe for work… just like Game of Thrones.

EPISODE 3 – WHAT IS DEAD MAY NEVER DIE

Chooch Schubert moderates this week’s panel discussion with Vivid Muse, Christiana and Nutty.

Hosts:
P.G. Holyfield (author of Murder at Avedon Hill and SFM Founder
Nuchtchas (Host of Nutty Bites Podcast)
Chooch (Into the Blender Podcast Co-Host, and bassist of Ditched By Kate)
Vivid Muse (Into the Blender Podcast Co-Host), Girls’ Rules Podcast Host)
Christiana Ellis (too many podcasts to list herebut you can check out all things Christiana at her site.

Contact Us:

Email: btw at specficmedia.com
Phone: 6199-BTW-GoT (619-928-9468)
Comments: On the site

Contest for “Ep. 3″ – Fill out the survey here.

Hosts:
P.G. Holyfield (author of Murder at Avedon Hill and SFM Founder
Nuchtchas (Host of Nutty Bites Podcast)
Chooch (Into the Blender Podcast Co-Host, and bassist of Ditched By Kate)
Vivid Muse (Into the Blender Podcast Co-Host), Girls’ Rules Podcast Host)
Christiana Ellis (too many podcasts to list herebut you can check out all things Christiana at her site.

Contact Us:

Email: btw at specficmedia.com
Phone: 6199-BTW-GoT (619-928-9468)

64 – Network

63 – Cabaret

The Mass Effect Trilogy

The Playstation Vita and the state of portable gaming

Trying to change personal habits – Getting up earlier and competitive swimming

Some good TV Shows, including Luck, Downton Abbey, and The Life and Times of Tim.

By Ursula Pflug
Read by Christiana Ellis
Discuss on our forums. 
Originally appeared in Anthology Series: Tesseracts # 3, 1991
All stories by Ursula Pflug
All stories read by Christiana Ellis
Rated 13 and up for language

Check out the Google Docs Spreadsheet!

The Vita feels very natural in the hands, comfortable to hold, feels like a well-manufactured product. It’s not too heavy, the buttons feel good and responsive, and the two analog joysticks work great. It doesn’t disappear into the hands like a regular PS3 dualshock controller, but that’s not a big complaint given that we’ve got a really big beautiful screen in the middle of it. I know I’ll be echoing a lot of other online reviews when I say this, but you really have to see the screen in person to fully appreciate it. The picture is big and sharp, the colors are bright. It really pops. You see this thing in action, you want to see more, you want to hold it, to play with it. It’s really a well-designed little gadget.

Setup:

So let’s get this out of the way. Setting it up is a moderate pain. Kind of a Sony thing already, and I got the 3G model, so add AT&T into that mix. First, the Vita requires a day one firmware update. Fine. But a firmware update that actively prevents you from following the quick start guide that ships with the device? It produces a loop of error messages that can only be bypassed by doing things in a different order. Embarrassing. Then there’s the fact that, apparently, I can’t have my iPad 3G plan and my Vita 3G plan use the same email address. What?

I eventually got all that settled, and it’s working fine now, but this sort of stupid crap can really sour the new buyer’s experience, especially for someone who may have less experience with Sony and AT&T’s crap.

User Interface:

However! Once you do get it going, the new UI is actually pretty slick. Unlike the PS3’s XMB, the Vita uses icons that evoke bubbles, and sheets that you flip through like pages in a book using the touch screen. It’s very intuitive and fun to navigate. “Welcome Park” places itself front and center, bouncing up and down when you first start up, leading you to a collection of minigames that introduce several of the features of the vita, (touchscreen, camera, microphone, rear touchscreen, etc.) Nothing too meaty there, but it gets the job done. More substantive is “Near” which I think may only be on the 3G versions. It’s sort of a GPS-enabled social-networky sort of thing. It’s a little inscrutable without much in the way of tutorial, but it seems like it could be fun and I look forward to playing around with it a bit more.

Games:

Before I get into the specific games, I think it’s telling that I ended up getting way more games more quickly than I expected. Originally, I planned to just buy Uncharted and Super Stardust Delta, but the more I held it in my hands, I just wanted to try more and more. Not from feeling that either of those games was lacking, but just a feeling of “Whoa, cool! What else can it do?” Now, onto the games I got.

Uncharted: Golden Abyss

This shows right away why the Vita’s dual analog sticks set it apart from other portables. An action game like Uncharted really demands it, and this is something that your iPhone or 3DS just can’t do. The game looks beautiful, almost on par with the first Uncharted on the PS3. I’m not that far into the game yet, but the action plays really well. I have to say the script isn’t quite up to the same standard I’ve come to expect from previous Uncharted games. That doesn’t make it bad, exactly, just ordinary. Still, this seems to me like one of the best games to really show off the system.

Super Stardust Delta

If you’ve tried the original Super Stardust on the PS3, then you pretty much know what to expect here, but it scales perfectly to the smaller screen and controls like a dream. Basically it’s a twin-stick arcade shooter, where you move around a planet with the left stick and fire in any direction with the right stick. You’re taking out asteroids and aliens and things get frenetic really quickly. No story really, but lots of fun.

Lumines: Electronic Symphony

I never played any of the other versions of Lumines, but I gather the basic game is the same. It’s a vaguely Tetris-y puzzle game with up-tempo electronic music and trance-inducing visuals. I don’t feel like I have a lot else to say about it except that every portable needs a solid puzzler and this’ll do just fine.

Tales from Space: Mutant Blobs Attack

“Nothing moves the blob!” Well, except for you, of course. This is another sequel to a PSN game, but it it’s beautiful and fun and funny and cheap. You control a blob, and in revenge for all the experiments that have been performed on you, you are going to eat the world! Well, absorb it and add its mass to your own, anyway. It’s a challenging platformer with a delightfully funny aesthetic. Loved it. It’s not long, but it’s the first vita game I’ve beaten and it was definitely worth it.

Rayman Origins

This is a port of the game that’s already been on other consoles, but I almost feel like I like it better here. I tried the demo on the PS3 but it didn’t grab me for whatever reason. However, on the Vita, the bright colors and the short portable-friendly levels make it a great fit.

PSP Games:

One of the very nice things about the Vita for me is that it is backwards compatible with PSP games. (As long as they are purchased through the PSN, anyway. The UMD’s don’t work.) However, because I never had a PSP, now I have access to that library of games, and there are some good ones! These are the three I’ve picked up so far. (Since they’re not new, I’ll be brief)

Half-Minute Hero

Another perfect fit for a portable. Imagine a Super Nintento Final Fantasy spit into a blender and shredded into dozens of frantic thirty-second chunks! Now add in shooter bits, RTS bits, and all sorts of other stuff. It sounds crazy and it is, but fun too.

Corpse Party

Speaking of the SNES aesthetic, who would have thought you could make an ACTUALLY SCARY horror RPG with it? I wouldn’t have, but here you go.

Patapon 2

Rhythm Game + RPG + Hyper-cuteness = Patapon 2. Better play it with headphones or anyone else in the room will try to murder you. http://penny-arcade.com/comic/2008/03/03

Check out the Google Doc Spreadsheet!

Movies discussed include:

The Descendants

The Help

Tree of Life

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Bridesmaids

Rio

Transformers: Dark of the Moon

Also check out “Survivor Talk with D and D“!

by Mike Allen

Click his name to visit his website, DESCENT INTO LIGHT. Mike is also editor of the critically acclaimed CLOCKWORK PHOENIX anthology series and the long-running poetry journal MYTHIC DELERIUM. This story first appeared in Penny Dreadful, and was reprinted in the anthology THE BIBLE OF HELL and Mike’s poetry collection STRANGE WISDOMS OF THE DEAD. He is planning a collection of his horror stories, including this tale and previous Pseudopod submissions “The Button Bin” and “The Blessed Days”.

Read by Christiana Ellis, who recently read “Plus Or Minus” for ESCAPE POD.

“A day will come when the sun’s pale yellow stare starts to fill with the taint of blood.

Among the confused and tremulous hordes of mankind, amidst the endless processions of grand towers forged from metal stolen from the moon, I will walk. One knowing face, one unique being traversing the rivers of humanity that flood this world.”

Check out the Google Doc Spreadsheet!

Movies discussed include:

The Artist, Hugo, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Midnight in Paris, Moneyball, War Horse, Kung Fu Panda 2, Transformers: Dark of the Moon, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

You can play along on our GoogleDoc Spreadsheet!

.

66 – Raiders of the Lost Ark

Raiders – The Adaptation

Raiders Opening matched with Adventure Serials

65 – The African Queen

Here is the IGN interview we mention:

http://tv.ign.com/articles/121/1215237p1.html

68 – Unforgiven

67  - Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

Yodeling Cat

Links:

Wikipedia entry on “Bath Stone”

DC’s “New 52″

Miles Morales is the new Ultimate Spiderman

Christiano Ronaldo: Tested to the Limit

Kindle Fire