So, my siblings are visiting me for the weekend, and they report the following: You know those little machines that flatten pennies and imprint some little design (usually connected to the theme of the establishment) on them? Like, for example, we went to the Shedd Aquarium on Thursday, and we got a flattened penny with a fish on it.

Well, apparently on their way up to visit me, my younger siblings stopped off at the Abraham Lincoln museum, where they had the dubious honor and pleasure of paying 51 cents to get a penny imprinted with a picture of Abraham Lincoln.

Poor Alice Cooper

So, for purposes inexplicable, I happened by chance to go into a local pharmacy/convenience store the other day for some reason or another. We'll call the store...ummmm...CVS. Yeah. So, while I was there, the music was generally a directionless potpourri of songs from bygone eras, stretching from the 40s and 50s bubblegum music to synthed 80s pop, with some crossover country hits like "Heard it in a Love Song" mixed in. (I was there for a while, mind -- CVS sure takes its time filling prescriptions).

But one song jumped out at me. This was "School's Out for the Summer" by Mr. Alice Cooper. And suddenly, something in my heart just broke for poor Alice. I mean, here he is, the veritable Marilyn Manson of his generation, and what's he been reduced to? Background music in a CVS. I mean, what's this mean for the future, when the satanic of yesteryear becomes the elevator music of today?

Correct me if I'm wrong on this, oh ye few readers who were around when Mr. Cooper was still shocking. Was he relatively as notorious as Manson was in his heyday? Should I expect to hear "The Beautiful People" or "I don't like the drugs (but the drugs like me)" in the Wal-VS of the future?

No doubt it will be directly followed by "Down on Main Street". By Mr. Bob Seger.

Disillusionment and Disappointment.

Yesterday, April 9 of 2008, Wikipedia finally revealed to me the awful truth about the universe.

Apparently, there is a show called Torchwood, and another show called Deadwood. These are two different shows with no connection to each other aside from the deceptive "wood" that both shows have at the end of their titles.

There is, in other words, no western-themed spin-off of Dr. Who. Only a western (Deadwood), and an unrelated Dr. Who spin-off (Torchwood).

I go on with my life a little sadder, but a little wiser.

How Many CDs I've Bought This Year

So, since the music industry's attacks on its customers began, and since they've made it more and more difficult to download music on the internet, that probably means I've bought a lot more of their CDs recently, right?

Well, except for no. I haven't bought any CDs this year. And I'll tell you why.

I haven't been able to "borrow" as many "cds" from my close "friend" this year. So I haven't been able to find music that I care about nearly so much. Back in the day, when I was borrowing cds left and right? I was also *buying* cds left and right, more than I ever had before, and more than I have since. If the RIAA wants my money? They should give me back my AudioGalaxy (or rather, return the manhood they so callously neutered from it). Or at least give me back my Demonoid.

Of course, I was never really one to buy the latest Back Street Boys or the new Eminem or whatever is that people who listen to the radio are forced to listen to nowadays. So probably the RIAA doesn't care about my money. Which is fine. Because they won't be getting it. So there.

Addendum: I actually remembered that I did indeed buy one album this year: at Christmas, I got an itunes gift certificate, and bought an album by the Warsaw Village Band. I don't know whether or not the RIAA made any money from the purchase, but I rather hope not. Also. Care to guess how I found out about the Warsaw Village Band?

I'm sure you understand.

Of the two things that I don't blog about part-time, one of them ended today. It wasn't my fault really; it's just that, when I applied to not blog about it full-time, the powers that be decided that maybe I wasn't as experienced at not blogging about certain aspects pf it as someone else. So now I can blog about it. Except that now there's nothing to blog about. This is all a bit disappointing, and I'm really not looking forward to the long process of finding other things to not blog about.

So. Sorry for being such a raincloud; I just felt like I needed to blog about this, you know?

PodCasts

Here is a list of podcasts that I have caught up with recently while slaving away at that workplace I never seem to talk about. So far I've split my time between RPG casts and Sci-Fi/Fantasy casts, but of course I'm open to branching out if someone knows of anything worthwhile.

1. Sons of Kryos (RPG) - This was the first podcast to which I subscribed. I got interested in it because in a later episode they interview Vincent Baker, who wrote some of my favorite RPGs (Dogs in the Vineyard, In a Wicked Age, and Kill Puppies for Satan. Okay, that last one isn't one of my favorites, but it's fun to bring the name out now and again.) The cast was started by Jeff and Judd, and later joined by another member, Storn, and they basically talk about RPG techniques, tips, what have you, in a positive way. Sometimes they interview It's not specific to any mode of play ("traditional" vs. "independent"), though it does lean a little toward the small-press games (which is okay for me). They have, however, interviewed Ed Greenwood, who created the Forgotten Realms, and Monte Cook, who wrote the current incarnation of D&D, and...I'm forgetting the guy's name, but he created Rifts. So it's not exclusively small-press stuff. Listening to the 'cast at work, I would come home every afternoon excited about RPGs and wanting to play. That's probably the best praise I can give it.

Er...wow, this will be a long post if I describe all of these at this length. Hmm. Moving on...

2. Adventures in Sci Fi Publishing (SF/F) - There just aren't that many good sci-fi literature pod casts out there; and even less fantasy ones, it would seem. Most sci-fi 'casts include all this stuff about movies and comic books and video games; and while I like that stuff I wanted something condensed, something that would make me as excited about books and writing when I got home as Sons of Kryos had made me about RPGs. AiSFP is the podcast I settled on. The show is highly focused on interviews with sci-fi authors (with a few fantasy authors thrown in for good measure). They've had people like Dan Simmons, Michael Moorcock, Larry Niven, Jacqueline Carey...Names that you may have heard of, if you're into the genre much. I highly recommend this one.

3. The Independent Insurgency (RPG) - This one was easy to catch up with, because there's only six episodes to it so far. It's essentially recordings of game designer-to-game designer conversations; and so far they've all been fascinating and worth listening to. In fact, since it was so easy to catch up with, I hadn't had time to find another sci-fi/fantasy lit podcast to listen to, so I went with another RPG podcast, which is inexplicably easier to find.

4. The Durham Three - As seen in my previous post, where they mentioned a quick game that I had written. The Durham three is actually *four* people now; and they're basically a group of people, most of whom write indie rpgs (including the Shab Al-Hiri Roach), who play RPGs together every monday, and have started recording their conversations before and after the game in the form of a podcast. They're a lively bunch, to say the least, and the episodes are also relatively short (10-20 minutes).

That brings us to today. I'm currently listening to these podcasts:

Escape Pod-A sci-fi short story podcast. Every episode is another story, and there are some really great ones in here.
The Voice of the Revolution-The podcast to go along with the Indie Press Revolution website, where I buy all of my small-press RPGs. It's hosted by Paul Tevis, who does another podcast about tabletop games in general, and Brennan Taylor, who wrote a diceless RPG called Mortal Coil (which I own).

The following podcasts are on my to listen list:
Pseudopod (the horror version of Escape Pod and PodCastle)
Theory from the Closet (RPG)
Writers Talking (SF/F)
DragonHearth (SF/F)
SF Site Podcast (SF/F)
PulpGamer: Out of Character (RPG)
Virtual Play (RPG)

PodCastle, the fantasy short-story sister-site to EscapePod, hasn't started yet, but it's slated to begin in April. We'll see what I'm doing for a living then to see if I have time to follow podcasts still.

I'm sure there are more and better podcasts out there, and on other topics as well. There are also podcasts that I've been pretty much "meh" about, but I didn't think there was a need to mention them.

I should also mention, again, Podiobooks.com, which has a bunch of audiobooks in mp3 format that you can download for free.

An RPG Podcast, and My 15 Seconds (more like 2 seconds) of fame.

So, I need to tell you about some of the podcasts I listen to; but before I list out all of them, I need to highlight this one in particular. It's called "The Durham Three", and it's an RPG podcast involving a couple of my favorite game designers: Jason Morningstar, who wrote (among other things) The Shab-Al-Hiri Roach, and Clinton R. Nixon, who wrote The Shadow of Yesterday and The Princes' Kingdom. Yeah, sure, none of you readers have ever heard of them before (though I know a couple of you have played the Roach with me). That's not the important thing here.

They've been doing this podcast for a couple years now, though I only started listening a couple weeks ago. So in episode 21, way back in October of 2006, they're talking about 24 Hour RPGs, which is this site where anyone can write an RPG within a 24 hour period and post it to the site. There's all sorts of weird half-baked games there; mostly unplayable, but often with interesting fixes to problems, or sometimes they're just a way for the author to have written something and got it under their belt, y'know.

Anyway, so they're talking about the site and one of them says "Hey, recently someone wrote one of those based on As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner!" and the other guys are like "No way!" and he's all, "Yeah, there's totally an As I Lay Dying: The RPG!" and one of the guys says, "Hey, my turn [to GM] is coming up!" and they all laugh.

And of course, listening to the podcast, I was like YES!!!, because that As I Lay Dying RPG? It's called Lord Knows I Don't Begrudge Her It, and I was the one that wrote it.