Episode 32: Gravity Falls

Episode 32: Gravity Falls
Hosts: Frank Shaw and John Belliston
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

We finally come back from our long hiatus to talk about one of our favorite TV shows (and cartoons) Gravity Falls. We both love this show, it has layers that are mind boggling when you take in repeated viewings and if you are a lover of cartoons, or really well plotted television this show has it in spades. It doesn't seem particularly sophisticated at first blush, which is one of the reasons it's so easily dismissed, but as you can tell by our long and enthusiastic conversation it has a lot going on. There's a lot to talk about themes and philosophy behind the show as well, Frank took the time to read through Gravity Falls TV Tropes, where it touches on some of these ideas (and reveals a lot of stuff you may have missed). 

On what's interesting Frank talks about the recent discovery of 7 planets found around the dwarf star Trappist-1. I find anything like this exciting news. Here's hoping this trend of discovery continues in the the next few years. 

Frank also talks JRPG, for the uninitiated that's Japanese Role Playing Game it's one of two popular genre's of RPG that are found on consoles/computers. In this case he discusses the Atelier franchise, a series of games in which you play an alchemist striving to be the best damn alchemist ever. That's really it, though there are different plots that premise is woven into through each game. There have been 18 main series games created for the franchise, most are not related (though a few are). The games are light and charming, and if you're a fan of JRPG's they are worth checking out. 

John discusses the Humble Bundle, which is a pay what you want program will let you get games, digital books and comics, and software on the cheap. They have deals monthly, weekly and bi-weekly and also offer a subscription service. If you're inclined to like any of those three things jumping in and grabbing a Humble Bundle (or subscribing to it's service) is a great way to get lots of digital stuff. 

John discusses his occult books some more. He recently purchased a book of old Icelandic spells and the trend continues. There will be more in future episodes. 

John then discusses Psychonauts 2. Which is happening, and he can be more excited for. Here a page where they keep things updated on the project. 

Finally, John talks about The Illuminatus Trilogy, a book series a mutal friend of ours has been after him to read for quite some time. I can talk about it much as I haven't read it, but John says its.... weird.

Finally, John's Bad Advice! A new feature in every podcast. If you have a question for John's Bad Advice email us at relevant2rinterests@gmail.com or shoot us a message at our page on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/Relevant2RInterests/  or shoot Frank a message on twitter @lojakz. 
We'll feature your question on the show and give you a little shout out!

Episode 31: Christmas

Episode 31: Christmas
Hosts: Frank Shaw and John Belliston
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

Here it is! The notes for the Christmas episode. John and I [Frank] mostly wax nostalgic about Christmases past. Neither one of us are particularly festive any more, but at one time we were kids and there were some Christmas movies that we really liked. There were Christmas traditions we really liked as well. So this episode we talk about that... and John Talks about Terraria again. He also chats a bit about an Icelandic book of spells he acquired. 

First up John's book of Icelandic Spells. Or, the Sorcerers Screed as it's actually called. Yep, that link will take you to a page where it's for sale. The book itself is interesting (I've looked at it) in that it was compiled by Christians (monks?) so while there's references to Thor and Odin through the text (as well as other Heathen gods) some of the commentary also references church bells, angels and Christ. Not something most people would want on their shelf, but for those that are curious, historically inclined, or practitioners of spiritual Magic it may be worth a look. 



Here's a Christmas Story! I loved this movie as a kid. It's one of the films my father really enjoyed so it brings back some good memories when I watched it with him. 

And Christmas Vacation: Another movie I watched with my father. This one we would watch nearly every year after it was released. Which sadly wasn't as many times as you'd think. The movie still makes me laugh to this day. 

John had three movies, 2 from his childhood and one that he just watched this past holiday season. 

First up The Muppet Christmas Carol. I can't talk much about this one. I love (admittedly) the story of the Christmas Carol and have since I was a kid, it's been a very long time since I've seen this film. 

Next The Santa Clause. Now I didn't see this initially until about 6 years after it first released, once it began to get play on cable. I wasn't impressed with my initial viewing but over the years the movie has grown on me. 

Finally, John watched Hogfather for the first time this year. I have yet to see it, you can hear him talk about it in the episode, but he really liked it. 

Notes: Episode 30: Dr Strange.

Episode 30: Dr. Strange
Hosts: Frank Shaw and John Belliston
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

Better late then never!

John and I got sidetracked heavily with the holidays and the post holidays and the long hard winter here in Utah. Ok, no excuses. But now that we're getting into gear again we will get back into the schedule of having these out about a week after each episode.

From this episode not a lot.

I (Frank) talk about the unfortunate young man who fell into a hot springs in Yellowstone. Here's an article from the Washington Post on it. Here's one from CNN. They both have essentially the same information. There isn't a lot to update on this. It's terrible for his family and loved ones.

John talks about why online dating sucks. I'm not going to link to online dating sites, you can find them if you're looking for them quite easily. I think John had some fantastic points about it.

He also discussed Transformers Prime, which we will be featuring on the podcast at some point in the near future.

He also talks about his love of Terraria. Check it out here on Steam or here on GOG.

And finally, before we dicuss the meat of the episode, John gives out the life hack about dry erase markers ability to remove sharpie from white boards.


We discuss Dr. Strange. It's available now on Bluray and to stream. There's not a lot more to say about it other than it's definitely worth a watch. Especially if you like Marvel films. It's almost required viewing. Here's the IMDB page.

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

Next episode!

We're getting ready to record the next episode on Sunday.

Can you guess what the subject is?

Episode 28: Horror Movies pt. 2

Episode 28: Horror Movies pt. 2
Hosts: Frank Shaw and John Belliston
Special Guest: Chris Thames
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

Just in time for Halloween, Notes! Not a lot of notes this week just movie lists!
Give these movies a watch, then listen to the podcast to hear our thoughts. 

Franks films:
They Look Like People
Creep
He Never Died
Would You Rather

All of Franks films are currently available to watch on Netflix.

John's Movies:
Troll Hunter
The Voices
Zombeavers
Deathgasm
Don't Blink

All of John's movies are available to stream on Netflix

Chris' List:
Sinister
Curse of Chucky
Trick r' Treat
Event Horizon
The Thing
John Dies at the End
The Witch

Curse of Chucky, Event Horizon, John Dies at the End are available to watch on Netflix.

Happy Halloween!

Episode 27: Youtube Absurdist Shorts

Episode 27: Absurdist Youtube Videos pt. 1
Hosts: Frank Shaw and John Belliston
Produced by Hobos in the Back Row
Scripting by Frank Shaw and John Belliston
Edited by: Frank Shaw
Graphic Design by: Frank Shaw
Intro Music: Piano Sonata mvnt 1 by F.G. Shaw
Outro Music: Piano Sonata mvnt 3 by F.G. Shaw

This post is going to have a lot of links to a lot of videos. I had considered embedding the videos, but I think it would be a bit unwieldy to browse, as I wanted to include all of the videos relevant to this episode.

First up Rob Cantor:
Shia Labeouf. If you watch any of his vids (and you should watch all of them honestly he's a great musician) watch this one! Then watch this short on the philosophy of Shia Labeouf. I have to admit he's become a bit fascinating in my mind, and could possibly be the topic of a future episode.
Celebrity Impressions. It's a bit of a stretch to put this here, but it's still a pretty awesome vid, a fantastic song, and a bit too good to be true.  
Finally, here's the video to All I Need is You. Watch it for the song first, then turn the volume down and watch it for the visuals.  

Rachel Bloom:
Her stuff is fantastic, first of all, but very much NSFW. This shouldn't be too surprising given the nature of our podcast. So make sure you have the headphones in. 
Fuck Me Ray Bradbury
Historically Accurate  Disney Princess Song
I Was a Mermaid Now I'm a Pop-star. 
Here's the link to her page: If you think any of the above links are funny, or relevant, or even interesting, please go check it out.  Her work, while not "weird" exams the absurdism of relationships, sex, and social interactions and expectations. 

Too Many Cooks
This video is linked in the heading of this section... it's weird, but there's some hope for understanding:
In this episode Renegade Cut he does a fairly good analysis of it, and it's one that I mention in the podcast that I like.  
Here's another interpretation that takes a slightly different take, keep in mind neither of us had watched this video before recording the podcast. There are parallels to the Renegade Cut episode, though it takes the stance of the Studio against the Creator, rather than the Audience vs. the Studio. I feel both are great interpretations. So watch Too Many Cooks, and then watch the interpretation vids. 

Finally, Don't Hug Me I'm Scared:
Episode One
Episode Two
Episode Three
Episode Four
Episode Five
Episode Six
Those are the main episodes of the series. There's a few shorter vids that are related, but are not completely necessary to watch to get the full effect of the series. (but are fun and disturbing). 
Now watch the Film Theories two part episode on the series, Part 1 and Part 2.  

We'll be revisiting absurdist Youtube videos again. There's so much we haven't touched on. But don't be shy, explore these yourself.