IT'S THROWBACK THURSDAY!

We're going back to our review of Luke Cage on Episode 29. We're joined by our friend D'Artagnon Wells where the conversations meanders from Pandemic Cthulhu, the Arrowverse, nihilistic children, and to video games before getting to the meat of the episode on Luke Cage. If you missed back then, listen now! It was a fun conversation and we want to have D'Artagnon back on the show again soon.


Episode 29: Luke Cage
Hosts: Frank Shaw and John Belliston
Special Guest: D'Artagnon Wells
Produced by Hobos in the Back Row
Scripting by Frank Shaw and John Belliston
Edited by: Frank Shaw
Graphic Design by: Nathan Newell
Intro Music: Piano Sonata mvnt 1 by F.G. Shaw
Outro Music: Piano Sonata mvnt 3 by F.G. Shaw

Episode 59: What's Interesting: Oscars, Games and Stuff

Episode 59: What's Interesting: Oscars, Games and Stuff

Produced by Relevant to Our Interests

Hosts: John R. Belliston and Frank Shaw

Scripting by: John Belliston

Edited by: Frank Shaw

Graphic Design by: Nathan Newell 

Intro Music: Morning Activities by F.G. Shaw

Outro Music: Morning Activities by F.G. Shaw

So the Oscars have come and gone, and John actually likes the movie that won this year. Neither of us are big on the Oscars, which is odd for us being a podcast primarily about movies and television, but for those that haven't figured it out: John's primarily interested in cartoons -both mature and children's, animated feature film, and genre TV shows. I am interested in all that too, but I'm also into movies. I like the serious films, but I love the quirky independent movies right along side the bizzare b-grade sci-fi. So when we talk about a movie, unless I'm doing a solo episode (as I've done in the past) then we're talking about stuff that appeals to both of us, or that John really hates or has some level criticism for. The Shape of Water is one of those rare Oscar-bait movies that appeals to John. I haven't seen it (yet), but the fact that it won best picture makes our idiosyncratic corner of the internet a little bit happier. 

Now for Breath of the Wild and Golf Story. If you're a Zelda fan and you haven't played this game yet, go find a copy of it and play it! It's amazing! Despite it's flaws it'll astound you. 

Golf Story was a quirky surprise. I went off on the developers about it on my @lojakz Twitter account because of how much I hated the disc golf segments. I really, really hated them. But the rest of the game is great, especially if you like retro arcade style golf games and RPG's. I don't know what it is about the mixing of both of those genres, but it really worked here. So if you have a Switch, and some spare change, pick this up on the E-shop. 

Michael B. Jordan is an awesome guy! That is all there is to say about that. 

The Grimlock MtG card I didn't know much about. It was released (along with the cards Nerf War and the Sword of Dungeons and Dragons) for HASCON (Hasbro Con) 2017. It's not a cheap card by any means as there's not a lot in print. John's brother is amazing, that's all that can be said about that. I look forward to playing against John on his next visit and seeing his new commander deck in action.

The thoughts on modern cartoons? Well this has been a theme throughout this podcast. We've discussed Star vs. the Forces of Evil, Duck Tales, Gravity Falls, and Stephen's Universe at length. There's a lot more discussion coming up. John feels strongly about animation, and I love it because it's a nice escape after the grinding news day (or the grinding day at work). We'll be dived into are thoughts on modern cartoons and we'll dig deeper as we talk about later seasons of those series, plus jump into shows like: Samurai Jack, Avatar the Last Airbender, Legend of Kora, Wakfu, Adventure Time and a whole lot more. 

So that brings us to synesthesia: John's brief explanation, and our discussion doesn't even come close to scratching the surface. Wikipedia is the place to start. I know little about the topic other than what I learned in music history classes years ago, and some conversations with musicians that have it. John's experience may be unique, and the conversation I think gives a little insight to you, the listener, on John and perhaps some of the quirks of the podcast as well. The conversation going forward is fascinating and I know John will be doing more research. If any listeners happen to have synesthesia please reach out to us, we'd love to talk to you about it and get your perspective. 

Finally: John's Bad Advice. 
Don't ever take his advice, even when I say that it sounds like sound advice. It's terrible, it really is. That being said, you should totally submit questions to John's Bad Advice. We will feature you on the show, and if you give us permission we'll use your whole name. 

Episode 29: Luke Cage

Episode 29: Luke Cage
Hosts: Frank Shaw and John Belliston
Special Guest: D'Artagnon Wells
Produced by Hobos in the Back Row
Scripting by Frank Shaw and John Belliston
Edited by: Frank Shaw
Graphic Design by: Nathan Newell
Intro Music: Piano Sonata mvnt 1 by F.G. Shaw
Outro Music: Piano Sonata mvnt 3 by F.G. Shaw

John and Frank are joined by D'Artagnon Wells to talk about Luke Cage: Did we like it? Did we enjoy the characters? Did we say say 'sweet christmas' several times during the episode? Give it a listen and you tell us!
 We also talk about Pandemic Cthulhu, the Arrow-verse, Black Mirror, the nihilism of John's nephew,  the Nintendo Switch (because Frank can't stop talking about it) and the computer game Sunless Sea. So dive in.

For the main meat of the episode we have links for you:

This is a Time article on the series. It gives a little bit of background on the series, and was initially published about a week or two before the series released.

Here's a story from WiReD discussing the political undertones of the series, as well as being an interview with the principle writer/creator of the series: C heo Hodari Coker. This article cam out in August. 

Finally an article discussing the music of the series, which is phenomenal by the way.

From the What's Interesting: 

Sunless Sea! John loves this game, and I suspect it'll come back up in conversation again, but if you're curious this takes you to the main page of Failbetter Games, the designer of this game and Fallen London. 

Here's a link to ZMan Games site for Pandemic: Reign of Cthulhu. We don't discuss boardgames a lot on the podcast though both John and Frank play a lot of table top games: John has regular RPG groups he plays with each week and Frank plays boardgames with his lady and with a local group on a fairly frequent basis. Someday we may take an episode and chat about our favorite games, but until then we'll leave it to D'Artagnon to bring boardgames into the conversation. 

If you have any thoughts, comments, questions or concerns just comment below or email us at relevant2rinterest@gmail.com