Saturday, September 28, 2013

#014 - Goth Sausage Party

…in which our fearless podcaster becomes a fearless DVD commentator. It's episode one (or "Part One" rather) of "The Deadly Assassin". Also a preview of all the Doctor Who events happening at ARCHON 37, including the WHO 37 panel.

Right Click/Option Click for download.

SHOW LINKS

ARCHON 37 - St. Louis Sci-Fi Convention October 4-6.
Do Bats Eat Cats? My girlfriend's gothic chainmaille shop - Find us in the dealer's room at ARCHON.

Friday, September 27, 2013

The "Other" Doctor

Found this on Facebook tonight and wanted to share. For two nights, The Right Brain Project's summer production of "The Timey Wimey Fantastic Brilliant Extravaganza (Geronimo!)" needed to regenerate its Doctor as Tom McGrath was away for a friend's wedding. Orion Couling, who had worked with the RBP in the past (and is, in fact, a professional pirate), filled in and gave not only an extraordinary performance, but also his unique take on the 900+ year-old Time Lord. He also helped with choreographing all of the action and fight sequences for the play.

Incidentally, Orion is currently directing a production of "MacSith", A Shakespearian take on the Star Wars saga to be performed this holiday season at The Right Brain Project. I will be sure to post the performance dates once they are available, and I will certainly be checking out this production.

Saturday, September 21, 2013

WHO 37 at ARCHON 37

Just got the confirmation email from the programing director. I will be hosting my own panel this year at ARCHON 37.

ARCHON is St. Louis' annual science-fiction/fantasy convention. As in previous years, the convention will be held at The Gateway Convention Center (1 Gateway Drive, Collinsville, IL 62234), located off Interstates 64 and 255.

I will be hosting one of a series of "New Media" panels being put together this year. My panel is scheduled for 3:50pm Saturday. The room location is yet to be determined, and the programming schedule has yet to be posted on ARCHON's site, so keep checking their site for updates.

There will also be many more Doctor Who panels at ARCHON 37, in celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the program. These panels will be moderated by members of the St. Louis Celestial Intervention Agency and the St. Louis Costumers Guild. Again, keep checking ARCHON's site for updates.

I'm looking forward to meeting and conversing with all you Whovians who will be in attendance this year, and I plan on recording the panel for a future episode of the podcast.

Monday, September 16, 2013

Stage photos from "Timey Wimey" show now online

Forgot to blog about this. A few weeks ago, The Right Brain Project updated and redesigned their website and have now posted production photos from "The Timey Wimey Fantastic Brilliant Extravaganza (Geronimo!)" Photography is by Joseph Ramsky, who also designed the set and built our K9.

Click here to see the photos, and be sure to explore the RBP page to find information on their next production, the world debut of the musical "Hammer".

Sunday, September 15, 2013

#013 - Space: 1988

…in which we go back in time to when our fearless (future) podcaster had his computer drawings published in issue 138 of Doctor Who Magazine, an event considered worthy enough to be featured in the local newspaper. Topics include the horror of buying Doctor Who novels in 1988 bookstores, podcasts hosted by William Hartnell and William Shatner, what Matt Smith and David Tennant had for dinner, and the five-sided TARDIS console.

Right Click/Option Click for download.

Thursday, September 12, 2013

25 years ago...

...I was a 20-year-old still living at home in Marissa, Illinois, and I was taking classes at the nearby community college. My first computer was a Commordore 64. I did some basic programming on it, but it was mostly used to play games and for drawing computer pics and printing them out from a dot-matrix printer.

I was in my fifth year of my Doctor Who fandom, and every month I would drive myself to the local comic book store and pick up the latest issue of Doctor Who magazine. This was the only source of Who news I could rely on as there was no internet, and along with the latest news and reviews of upcoming episodes, cast and crew interviews, and the comic strip, was the letters page (called "You On Who") featuring artwork sent in by fans and readers.

I had mailed to the letters page a short letter along with a computer drawing of the seven Doctors. Several months had past, and then one day I picked up the latest issue, which was #138, publishing date July 1988:

I browsed thru the magazine before buying it, and as I turned to the letters pages at the back of the magazine, I let out a yelp of excitement. The magazine had published my computer drawings!

I was rather excited because not only was this the first time my artwork has ever been published, it was probably one of the first pieces of fan artwork from the United States published in this British magazine.

Mike Divardo, the proprietor of the building, heard my cry of excitement and thought someone had an accident. After explaining that my artwork was published, he (without my knowledge) relayed the incident to Phillip Bartell, a young journalism student who wrote for the local newspaper. Phillip was writing a series of stories about youth activities, hobbies and other endeavors, and he thought that it would be a good idea to write about Sci-Fi fandom with me as the subject.

So on the next episode of the podcast (which I'll be recording this weekend), I will be reading to you, faithful listeners, the newspaper story young Bartell wrote about a geek in 1998 who was very into Doctor Who and how the program would shape this young daydreamer from rural Southern Illinois into the man I am today.