GWC Podcast #215

Podcasts Galactic Watercooler
#41

Anyone interested in Ewok orgies needs to Youtube “Humpy the Ewok.” It might not be work safe, but… it’s only a little obscene. I can promise, there is no nudity or Ewok wang.

So the Avengers discussion at the beginning of the podcast made me call in, but in case it doesn’t get played, here’s my advice for anyone who wants to read Avengers but who doesn’t want either the decades of canon baggage or angst of the past few years. Go look up Marvel Adventures Avengers, stat. They’re geared towards young readers, but do not let that fool you. All it means is that nobody is: an alcoholic, a wife-beater, dead, shot into space, or crazy. Also there’s no cursing or gore. It’s smart, funny, the characters are recognizably themselves and very well written, the art is pretty good, and it’s funny. Funny is in there twice because it’s that important. The team makeup is different than mainstream Avengers–for example, Thor isn’t usually on the team but Storm is (in Ms. Marvel’s costume, but it works really well) (also she is AWESOME. She’s like Cap’s second in command and it rules). There’s a theory floating around certain comic communities that Marvel Adventures is where superheroes go when they die and they’re very good.

Also, this stuff happens!

Anyway, I’m off to check out the Project Gutenberg link. I might not have ever seen more than about ten minutes of a Conan movie (and that in Spanish) but I can read 'em while I’m waiting to go home!

#42

Oh yeah, Ewoks and Al Roker. What more can you ask for?

Aside from Natalie Portman and grits, I mean.

#43

It’s stuff like this that makes this forum special.

#44

Would an ewok orgy result in electrocution?

#45

Pardon me for bringing this up here but I did not see a misc thread in the other sci fi category . . .

I just saw this movie called ‘Outlander’ (my family netflixed it). We sorta liked it, but it reminded me a lot of this old fantasy movie called ‘Dragonslayer’. Sean mentioned Dragonslayer once or twice on the past 'cast episodes so I thought I’d bring it up. Who here has seen it yet?

Ciao!

#46

Ooh! I did, years ago! It helped me get over my Ghostbusters 2 induced fear of Peter MacNicol.

#47

Have i missed reference to it or has anyone pointed out that the wicked, insanely hot Companion who tricks everybody and has poison lipstick is none other than Christina Hendricks, She of the Many Curves from Mad Men?

#48

The Robert E. Howard Conan books were almost required reading in my family. This quote comes from the very beginning of the first novel, which is simply titled “Conan”:

“Know, O Prince, that between the years when the oceans drank Atlantis and the gleaming cities, and the years of the rise of the sons of Aryas, there was an age undreamed of, when shining kingdoms lay spread across the world like blue mantles beneath the stars–Nemedia, Ophir, Brythunia, Hyperborea, Zamora with its dark-haired women and towers of spider-haunted mystery, Zingara with its chivalry, Koth that bordered on the pastoral lands of Shem, Stygia with its shadow-guarded tombs, Hyrkania whose riders wore steel and silk and gold. But the proudest kingdom in the world was Aquilonia, reigning supreme in the dreaming west. Hither came Conan the Cimmerian, black-haired, sullen-eyed, sword in hand, a thief, a reaver, a slayer, with gigantic melancholies and gigantic mirth, to tread the jeweled thrones of the Earth under his sandaled feet. - An excerpt from the Nemedian Chronicles”

And the story begins…
“For two days the wolves had trailed him through the woods, and now they were closing in again. Looking back over his shoulder, the boy caught glimpses of them: shaggy, hulking shapes of shadowy gray, loping amongst the black tree trunks, with eyes that burned like red coals in the gathering murk. This time, he knew, he could not fight them off as he had done before.”

How can you not want to read on? These books are incredible. If you’re going to read the Howard books that L. Sprague de Camp and Lin Carter edited, you should start at the beginning. I believe there are twelve books overall. I’ve heard that at one time you could buy all twelve on kindle for a dollar. I’ve also heard that they recently released Howard’s un-edited stories, which are not in chronological order, and they are supposed to be great.

Great arc, Sean!

#49

Wow, good info. Yes, Amazon, here I come. Welcome to the boards.

Daisytown? Are you from WV or Daisytown?

#50

Thanks for the welcome. I’ve lived in Daisytown, PA for the last ten years, but I will always be a West Virginian.

#51

Ya know, there are a lot of ways this sentence could go.

#52

I haven’t seen that mentioned, but I’ve yet to see Mad Men.

Didn’t they adapt that for the opening of the movie? It’s been a while since I’ve seen it.

Oh, and welcome aboard.

#53

Yeah, the wizard does some voiceover, and it’s cool but not quite the same. Here’s what he says according to imdb:

“Between the time when the oceans drank Atlantis, and the rise of the sons of Aryas, there was an age undreamed of. And unto this, Conan, destined to wear the jeweled crown of Aquilonia upon a troubled brow. It is I, his chronicler, who alone can tell thee of his saga. Let me tell you of the days of high adventure!”

#54

Hey. I’m originally from the (724), back before it was (724).

Question: As someone who’s familiar with the source material, how do you rate the movie?

#55

So I re-listening to the 'cast, and wanted to respond the the tangent about the poo barge, 'cause someone was wondering why the heck the BSG fleet even bothered with a poo barge, when you could just vent stuff into space.

The practical explanation is reclamation of resources. You’ve got a finite amount of water and a finite amount of organic material, and they’d be crazy to vent it into space instead of reclaiming the water and cycling the nutrients back into the ships that are attempting to grow things, like Cloud 9.

Firefly: I think Out of Gas grows on you the more times you watch it. The first time you see it, it’s a story of a disaster. But the more times you watch it, you notice what Fenatic pointed out:

the structure of the episode, the cutting back and forth between the beginning, the end, and the flashbacks. Don’t forget the final flashback, where Mal “meets” Serenity. (And the twist, that the man talking in the flashback wasn’t talking about Serenity).
This epi is a ballet, with beautiful handoffs from current scene to flashback and back to present, and Zoe pointing to the spot where Mal has/will/will have collapsed and Mal saying “something used to live there.” Also, the fact that Serenity is powerless and essentially not moving in space is wonderfully reflected in the static nature of storytelling via flashbacks; there’s almost no linear movement of the story in the “current” timeline (Mal collapses, Mal staggers through ship). The only thing I really dislike about this episode is the little hints that the writers dropped in about Inara and what the writers had in store for her–that was one storyline I’m glad they never got to finish.

PS Thanks for the shout-out on the last 'cast, guys, and sorry for the pronoun confusion, Chuck. I had to write an assignment in college covering an author who had just initials, so no verified gender, and I agree it’s a PITA to mess with the verbal tap dancing. For the record, I’m a girl.

#56

Totally agree. Remember, in “Water” they said that while Galactica is designed for near-total water reclamation, the other ships aren’t and have to dock with the Bucket to take on water. Similarly, I imagine the other ships would normally vent to space, but since they have to conserve now they had to have a ‘poo barge’ to tackle the waste management issue (presumable to hold until Galactica could process it.) I’m guessing the barge was a simple tanker or somesuch before the attack.

My assumption is that there is actually more than one at that point, because otherwise that’d be a hell of an asset to risk.

#57

that’d be a hell of an asset to risk

You know your situation sucks when that’s a true statement about sewage.

#58

It’s ALWAYS a true statement about sewage. We just tend to take it for granted.

#59

I love the first movie for what it is, but I always thought they made Conan seem dumber than they should have. Like Reydaman said, he was totally uneducated but pretty smart. In the books, he learns all the languages of the many kingdoms he travels through, and a lot the situations he gets into force him to think his way out.

But the movie has a lot of great moments, too. I love when his father makes the sword, the wheel of pain, the witch, the snake, and when they crucify him. I’m not big on the A-team preparations and that battle sequence. As for Conan the Destroyer, I haven’t seen that in many years. Maybe I should give it another chance.

#60

It’s ALWAYS a true statement about sewage. We just tend to take it for granted.
Point taken.