Rish performs two Roald Dahl short stories: 1959's "The Landlady," about a young man looking for a boarding house in a new town; and 1952's "Skin," about an old man in Paris with a very unusual tattoo.
To download the episode, just Right-Click HERE.
So, this one is a little bit weird.
As you may know, Spock, I am on YouTube way too much. When I'm working in the morning, when I'm running at night, when I'm driving to the cabin, when I'm trying to go back to sleep after waking up at seven to confer with ye olde china oracle, when I'm in the storage unit fighting the combined sinister forces of entropy and disorganization. And part of the reason for that is the algorithm, which pitches me videos that it thinks I might like (also, the damned AutoPlay keeps switching itself on every few weeks, showing me one video after another until I remember to turn it off again).
And advertisements are like that too--the website and/or phone is tracking my preferences, gauging my interests, scrutinizing my habits, and, in certain cases, seeming to be reading my mind.
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| Look at these two screen-captures from my phone, from different days, different videos. See anything in common? |
Back in 2013, Abigail Hilton took a chance on a green and hungry audiobook narrator and hired me to perform her first novel, "Hunters Unlucky."
Of course, we fought like creasia and ferryshaft (I still remember her calling me at work accusing me of trying to take the book away from her*), but eventually would come to understand each other. And we're, like, six "Hunters" books later, and our productions tend to run more smoothly and with less pressure on either side, including this year, when I narrated the first act of her sequel "Thrive."
"Hunters Unlucky" tells of an island of sentient animals that have been at war with the two main species, the ferryshaft (a sort of cross between a deer and a fox, though Abbie may have to correct me) and the creasia (big, ferocious cats). The main character, Storm, is a young ferryshaft who, despite being small and relatively defenseless, is faster and more agile than his enemies. But Storm will have to be more than fast to survive . . . he'll have to be clever.
It's an excellent book, and while there are many follow-ups, this one stands alone as a self-contained epic adventure. And while there are a few things I would change, were I narrating it now, I am immensely proud of my performance in it (and would take far longer to do the book today than then, despite a decade of learning since then). And though the later books get far more adult, this first one is pretty universal, though there's plenty of good old fashioned violence throughout.
Abbie has a sequel in the works she would like to raise money for via Kickstarter, but you can listen to all twenty-four hours of "Hunters Unlucky" RIGHT HERE over on YouTube. Let's see if you're fast enough to survive.
*Which has literally happened to her in the years since then, with strangers downloading her audio and then trying to sell it as though they owned it.
Big Anklevich joins Rish for his new sketch "What It's All About." A father and son drive along, contemplating the meaning of songs.
Wikipedia may disagree, however.
Remember, you can download the file by Right-Clicking HERE.
Don't forget, you can support my Patreon by clicking HERE.
Logo by Gino "All About What It Is" Moretto.
These past few days, we lost a bunch of celebrities, and I tried to put a little tribute to them on Facebook, but I didn't really have anything to say about Hayden Panettiere (I mourned her loss, but never met or worked with her or . . . a third thing) or Dolly Parton (although, wow, it was nice to hear such fantastic tributes to her, half for her talent and half for, well, being nice).
I just posted about Tim Curry (who I also never met or saw in person), but I figured I'd say a few words about Peter Cullen, who I did see at a voiceover panel at San Diego Comic Con one time. But even if I hadn't, well . . .
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| This was a "life-sized" Optimus they had at SDCC in 2010. I realize now that it just looks like a cardboard backdrop or Photoshop, but no, it was real and you could "stand" in his hand. |
I was a much bigger fan of the Decepticons than the Autobots as a kid, particularly the ones voiced by Frank Welker, but dang, when they killed Optimus Prime, leader of the Autobots, in 1986, that was something.
What I found strange (though not so much anymore) is that, in the intervening years, the loss of Optimus Prime became more and more significant to me, especially when discussing it with others of my generation. I went to a signing for the 1986 movie, and while waiting in line, I saw grown men shed tears when Prime says, "Do not grieve. Soon, I shall be one with the Matrix."
And Cullen's performance was a really significant part of that. His work was always excellent, but Optimus had a gravitas to him, a decency and caring that made him the kind of leader everybody wishes they had in their lives, to give them a reason to fight for the right side, and who will always be there when they need him.
My Uncle Jim died in September of 1990, and before too long, my mom came home from cleaning out his place with a box of LP records, which I pretty much claimed as my own. There were Elton Johns, The Human League, David Bowie, Gilda Radner, Rod Stewart, and Billy Joel in there, but the one album that most grabbed me, that I listened to the most times, was the soundtrack to THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW.
The songs really grabbed me, and not having seen the movie, I sort of imagined what might be going on in my head as I listened, and who the characters might be. Of course, the one that most clearly self-describes is Doctor Frank-N-Furter, who proclaims that he's just a sweet transvestite from Transexual, Transylvania (and that he's a sort of Doctor Frankenstein besides, making a man up in the lab, and that when he saw KING KONG he wanted to be dressed the same as Faye Wray).
I shared the soundtrack with my sister, and we used to listen to it together, first on cassette (I had made a copy from Jim's record) and later on CD (and even later on mp3, I suppose), and one October, I dressed as Frank N. Furter for Halloween, which some of my coworkers suspected was just an excuse to wear fishnet stockings.
I didn't actually see the movie until 2003 when my sister and I went to a midnight screening in Santa Monica, where they drew big Vs on our foreheads and the two of us were "deflowered" by the entire cast in the front of the theater.
While I didn't think the film itself was particularly good (and I didn't go back and see it again since that night), I have never not loved the songs in it, and very often think of my Uncle Jim when I hear them.
Oh, this is a roundabout way of mentioned that Tim Curry died this week. He was eighty, and had been wheelchair-bound since he had a stroke in 2012, but he still did appearances and occasional roles (mostly voice-work, though he did play the Criminologist in the ROCKY HORROR remake (the one with Victoria Justice), who was in a wheelchair in the 1975 film.
A delightfully weird dude, he had a bunch of famous roles, from the Butler in CLUE to Long John Silver in MUPPET TREASURE ISLAND, from the awesome Darkness in LEGEND (a film I've never otherwise liked) to the concierge in HOME ALONE 2, and of course, Pennywise in the 1990 IT miniseries. But to me, he was always that sweet transvestite, and so I wanted to quote one of his songs when he passed.
After much deliberating*, I picked:
That's from the end of the album/movie, and I listened to the song as I went for a run that evening. Cool.
In a way, Curry's only-partial recovery from his stroke enabled him to see how beloved he had become (and not just from Rocky Horror devotees), with him doing panels and photo ops at conventions in the last years of his life, and getting honors that might not have been given had his mortality been so visibly clear. I'm not sure if I expressed myself well there--I just meant that, when we see our relatives or colleagues or heroes ailing, we're often more likely to tell them we appreciate them than if everything's fine until . . . it isn't.
Regardless, I never knew my Uncle Jim was sick or that the last time I saw him would be the last time I saw him, but I think he'd have been thrilled that one of his records made such an impact on me. My uncle was not Tim Curry, but hey, we feel what we feel.
*This is only semi-amusing (and really, what in my blog is ever more than that?), but I was trying to remember the various songs to put a quote next to a photo of Curry on Facebook (since I couldn't very well put "Come up to the lab, and see what's on the slab"), and I did a search for "I've got to get out of this trap, before this decadence saps my will" (that one is Don't Dream It), and the phone came back with "This appears to be a reference to a song in The Rocky Horror Picture Show, however, if it is instead a description of how you are feeling, maybe you should seek counseling."
I kid you not. I know A.I. gets a bad rap (and often rightly so), but come on, that was pretty nice.
I like to watch Indiana Jones knock-offs with Marshal over at the Outfield Excursions podcast. And when it was my turn to pick, I remembered that John Hughes's first produced screenplay was NATE & HAYES, a pirate adventure from 1983 starring Tommy Lee Jones. . But *is* it an Indiana Jones knock-off?
Check it out HERE to find out!
Rish talks about seeing opposition to things people love (brought on by backlash to OBSESSION and TOY STORY 5) and wonders why that is. Is it human nature? Is he guilty of it himself? Will he talk about Olivia Rodrigo again? And of course, recent American politics comes into it as well. Can we still be friends?
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| Screenshot from just this week. |
Note: So, this episode turned out much longer than it was supposed to (*especially* the Patreon version), because I mislabeled one of the recordings and thought it was lost, then tried to replace it with some (now-redundant) additions, only to find the lost recording after I was nearly finished editing. Sorry, but not super sorry.
You can download the file by Right-Clicking HERE.
You can support me on Patreon by clicking HERE.
Logo by Gino "I Ate What You Like" Moretto.
Of productivity, not heroin. Sorry.
So, I had a deadline to get an audiobook finished, and it became my priority, my podcasts being secondary (or tertiary, or whatever not-a-priority is). But as of today, I have it all finished (barring inevitable retakes), so I'm back in the podcasting game.
Next up is an episode about hating what is popular, followed by a Bram Stoker story, followed by a sketch with me and Big Anklevich, followed by another In Security episode. After that, I guess I'd better find a story to present, either one by me or one by someone else. I am also considering wrangling Marshal Latham and Keith Teklits to do an episode about stuff people (not necessarily us) find overrated.
So, worry not. The worst is yet to come.
You may or may not follow me over at Facebook, but I will sometimes take a picture with a potty training book from the children's library and try to make an amusing caption for it. YMMV, of course.*
I walk past that section of books approximately ten times a week, so it's something to keep me occupied . . . since I'm definitely not writing stories.
Anyway, in the local toy group, someone mentioned they were looking to buy a Galactus figure (which I still have one of), and another guy posted, "Try the poop book guy."
His reply was "Poop book guy?"
Then: "I forget his name, but he likes poop books alot."
Well, that's where we are, I suppose.
Guess you know what to put on my headstone, huh?
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| Big Anklevich made this for me, specifically for this post. Thanks, I guess. |
*I alternated between Your Mileage May Vary and the abbreviation . . . and now I've done neither.
This is a very brief one, but the last time it rained, water was getting into the underground parking garage at work, and it was pooling along the walls and under people's cars. And under my car, specifically, I thought it made a familiar pattern, so I took a picture:
