Thursday, March 26, 2015

AC Boardwalk Con Campaign


As promised, here's a update on Two True Freaks at ACBC for you. Right now we have the table booked and the hotel rooms reserved, so all systems are go. However, this is a rather costly endeavor for something that is, essentially, a hobby. To help offset some of these costs, we have couple of Booster campaigns set up. Both of which can be found here:

https://www.booster.com/twotruefreaks

As part of the campaign, you can buy a t-shirt with the above image on it, which will never be on another TTF t-shirt, so you can consider this a collector's item. If that's not your style, you could also donate money and enter a chance to win some cool TTF swag. Right now we have a Grand Prize that will go to the person who donates the highest amount, but anyone else will be entered into a raffle to win some other, as yet undetermined, swag.

Here's the rundown on the Grand Prize:

  • A GENUINE TTF PROGRAM NOTEBOOK - FILLED TO THE BRIM
    • Show notes, drawings, unreleased (thank god!) song lyrics, notes from the FIRST EPISODE and other embarrassing stuff!
  • A Marvel Star Wars comic from the original run featured in SWMM and the new Marvel Star Wars #1 (1st print) featured in Growing Up Star Wars
  • The novelizations of all 3 original Star Wars movies plus Splinter Of The Mind's Eye
  • Star Trek - City On The Edge Of Forever fotonovel #1
  • The rare and scandalous OJ SIMPSON poster advertising the old Libsyn site. 11 X 17 and suitable for framing.
  • A Two True Freaks T-SHIRT! (Original design)
  • RICHARD DRAGON - KUNG FU FIGHTER #14
  • Random Star Wars knick knacks from Garage Sale Gloat
If you are the super generous type and wants to do both things, you can add an additional donation when you buy the t-shirt and this will count towards the swag.

We appreciate any and all support, even if it's just sharing the booster link on Facebook or Twitter. Thanks in advance!

Thursday, March 19, 2015

I Love Minutia

Anyone who knows me knows that I love the minutia of stuff that I'm into. I think this comes from having "Mr. Scott's Guide to the Enterprise" and "The Starfleet Technical Manual" as a kid. Digging into how things work and why something is the way it is has always been a passion of mine, much to my dad's dismay considering just how many remote controls I took apart. This isn't just limited to technology, though, which is why the book "Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina" just leap off of the shelves and into my hand when I saw it in the campus bookstore 20 years ago. (Aside: Damn, I'm getting old.)

This book helped me find out who everyone was in that infamous scene in Star Wars and why they were there at that particular time. As with anything, some stories are better than others, but even the ones that weren't up to snuff filled in the blanks. I got to know these characters and, much like listening to John Williams' score on it's own, it added to the overall experience in watching the movie.

I told you that story to tell you this one. I have recently, thanks to my Anime Freaks co-host, Dr. Bill Robinson, discovered the NeoZAZ podcast network and their "In Character" line of shows. There's "Star Wars In Character", "Indiana Jones In Character", and "Muppets In Character", among many other kinds of shows. These are the podcast equivalent of the "Tales from ..." books, as they delve deep into a character/location/alien/etc and give you everything you ever wanted to know about it, and sometimes more that you ever needed to know.

If you are anything like me, and if you're reading this there's a fair chance you are, I'd give any (or all) of their shows a listen. You'll thank me.

Thursday, March 12, 2015

Podcast Update

I've had a busy week, so this post will just be an update on what I've been busy doing.

First off, there was the long anticipated return of The Quantum Cast! Jif and I worked out a time to get together and record, and the magic was still there. In fact, we were both so jazzed about this episode that we already have most of the next episode recorded.

You can listen to it here: The Quantum Cast - Episode 3









Next up we have the mid-season break of Anime Freaks, where we took a look at the movie "Ninja Scroll" This one is definitely NOT family or work friendly, so make sure you listen to this on your headphones.

The episode can be found here: Anime Freaks - Episode 7

The movie can be viewed here: Ninja Scroll on Hulu











Finally, I was joined by Matt and Chris from NeoZAZ to talk about the Disney XD show, Star Wars: Rebels. We had a great time recording this and I think we were both insightful and entertaining. I highly recommend all the shows over on their network.

You can listen to our discussion here: The Hammer Podcasts! - Episode 11

Thursday, March 5, 2015

He Lived Long and Prospered


As I write this, the news has just broken of Leonard Nimoy's death. I don't think that I can overstate the importance that Star Trek has had on my life, considering that it opened my eyes to geeky interests and led me to choosing engineering as my field of study. Spock was one of the stand out characters from the show and is immediately recognizable to anyone, geek or non-geek. And yet, Star Trek was only part of this man's long and varied career. He was also an accomplished director, a TV host, a poet, a singer, and an amazing photographer. He was married twice, for 33 and 26 years, respectfully, and had two children.

I think it goes without saying that he will be missed, but we must not forget that he had a long and prosperous life, so we should celebrate his accomplishments while mourning his passing. In that vein, here's probably his most famous song. Enjoy.