Jan 28, 2012

Jason Heller Interview

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We sit down with Jason Heller, debut author of the political satire/speculative fiction novel Taft 2012. We chat about the recently released novel, his background in music, new projects that he's working on, and in his own words, his "beef with steampunk."

Taft 2012 can be found at ALD, your local library, on Kindle, and at Tattered Cover, among other booksellers. Check out Jason's music and book reviews at the AV Club and check out his blog for other updates.

Episode 017 - Twilight Impodcasting

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In this episode, we break up our nerd talk about pop culture and media with nerd talk about board games! During this episode, we are playing Twilight Imperium, a board game that would be best described as Axis and Allies meets Puerto Rico with a hint of Diplomacy. If that makes no sense to you, it involves lots of plastic ships and army building, trading, and a little bit of manipulating your friends. When we aren't threatening to send plastic ships after each other, we talk about Christmas blockbusters and we deeply analyze Craig Thompson's Habibi.

State of facial hair, favorite space race, playing as which race

Rob: European stubble, cat people from Red Dwarf, playing as Federation of Sol

Nick: Hopelessly nonexistent, space lions from Twilight Imperium, playing as Naalu Collective

Jeremiah: Evil universe goatee, Reagan era, playing as XXcha Kingdom

Jason: Mountain man fabulous, Kilrathi from Wing Commander, playing as The Emirates of Hacan

Mark: Normal and optimal, the greys, playing as the Universities of Jol-Nar

Midway through the game we talk books/film

Rob

Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson ALD | WorldCat

Nick

Haywire IMDb

The Adventures of Tintin IMDb

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo IMDb

Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol IMDb

Mark

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows IMDb

Jason

The Artist IMDb

Near the end of the game

Update on game: Jason and Mark have epic skirmishes, Rob takes over the middle of the board, screaming "ROOOOOOOOBBBBBB," Jeremiah sits on the edge of space, Nick remains a non-factor

Roundtable Discussion on Craig Thompson's Habibi ALD | WorldCat

Post Game

After an epic three way war, Mark, Jason, and Rob are weakened. Nick remains a non-factor. Jeremiah could have had an epic win if we'd had three more hours of patience. Winner for now: Mark kind of. Winner in the future maybe: Jeremiah.

Jan 12, 2012

Episode 016 - Awesome Is Not an Emotion

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In our first episode of 2012, Mark, Nick, and Jeremiah count down our favorite and least favorite topics, trends, books, and other media that came out or that we discovered in 2011. Resolutions are made and broken within the same episode, Nick takes 45 minutes to formulate a joke, and Jeremiah belts out monosyllabic laughs at our jokes. Enjoy!

3 Things we loved best from 2011

Nick

3. Alex Robinson, author of Tricked ALD | WorldCat

and Box Office Poison ALD | WorldCat

(ALD’s Graphic Novel Book Club)

2. X-Men: First Class ALD | WorldCat

1. Discovering lesser-known horror authors such as: Joe Hill, Stephen Graham Jones, and Graham Joyce

Jeremiah

3. Nights of Villjamur by Mark Charan Newton ALD | WorldCat

2. John Dies at the End by John Wong ALD | WorldCat

1. Better storylines in video games such as: Uncharted 3, Portal 2 and inFamous 2?<----we remain skeptical about that one Mark

3. Dr. Who Season Six ALD | WorldCat

(especially the return of Craig on “Closing Time”)

2. Embassytown by China Mieville ALD | WorldCat

1. A brief flirtation with being less cynical.

Things we disliked in 2011

Mark

Reamde by Neal Stephenson ALD | WorldCat

Jeremiah

Green Lantern film and comics of 2011

Nick

Vertigo comics’ poor showing in 2011, especially with the latest volumes of Walking Dead and Fables

2011 Resolutions

Mark

Be less cynical

Jeremiah

Just survive, yo

Nick

Watch more sci-fi television, MAYBE Dr. Who

Bonus mustache moment with last minute Jason picks!

Favorites of 2011

3. Peter Dinklage as Tyrian in A Game of Thrones TV show ALD | WorldCat

2. Ready Player One by Ernest Cline ALD | WorldCat

1. Syfy's Alphas

Least Favorite of 2011

A Dance with Dragons by George R.R. Martin ALD | WorldCat