Episode 68: What's Interesting: Year in Review

Episode 68: What's Interesting: Year in Review
Produced by Relevant to Our Interests
Hosts: John R. Belliston and Frank Shaw
Scripting by: Frank Shaw and John Belliston
Edited by: Frank Shaw
Graphic Design by: Nathan Newell and Frank Shaw
Intro Music: Morning Activities by F.G. Shaw
Outro Music: Morning Activities by F.G. Shaw

It's our Year in Review! A show we like to do once a year to go over the podcast from the previous year. Go over our goals for the upcoming year, and note what we succeeded on and what we did not succeed in from the previous year. We always have lofty goals, and often fall considerably short. This year is no exception, from where we hoped to be, and where we hope to go. 

First up: we switched to a mostly weekly schedule, and we've kept it up for the most part, only taking off a few weeks here and there due to illness or unforeseen events. It's also something we plan to continue with an exception of a few weeks off in early to mid July (coming up here soon), and some time off during the holidays. 

Second: We did a couple of interviews, and as John said the one we did with gough from www.beernutsproductions.com was one of his favorites. And one of mine (in fact he's going to be on episode 72). We are hoping to be able to do more interviews and have more guests going forward. There are some technical issues that we are still trying to work out, but the next episode gives me hope going forward. 

Third: More animation! We are gradually narrowing the focus of the show to cover animation and comic book films and television, and horror movies. We will be covering Avatar the Last Airbender the end of the summer, and I'm excited. 

Fourth: Moving platforms. We will be moving platforms when we get started up again. I know where we will be moving, but when it actually happens I'll be announcing it here, twitter, facebook, google + and all the usual places. 

Finally: Something we didn't talk about. The YouTube channel. Yes we do have a YouTube, and yes there is some content. When we get started again at the end of July we will begin uploading again, though the animated vids will continue to be on hiatus until our video editor can sort out all the hardware issues they are currently having. 

I'm excited. We're still having fun, and quite honestly the last year has given me the energy I need going forward. John's projects will begin to appear, hopefully before the end of this year, and I'll be helping to produce those. I also have some projects that I'll be starting as well. The next year looks bright. 

We can't wait! 

Episode 67: Avengers Infinity War

Episode 67: Avengers Infinity War
Produced by Relevant to Our Interests
Hosts: John R. Belliston and Frank Shaw
Scripting by: Frank Shaw and John Belliston
Edited by: Frank Shaw
Graphic Design by: Nathan Newell and Frank Shaw
Intro Music: Morning Activities by F.G. Shaw
Outro Music: Morning Activities by F.G. Shaw

Everybody and their dog has given thoughts to this film. Overall most fans, and casual movie goers liked the movie. John and I were no different. I would have liked to have seen this movie split into two films. I think it would have helped the pacing issues, and helped developed the Black Order a bit more. And like most people, John and I had an issue with some of the folks "dusted" at the end of the film.

But you can hear that, and more on our thoughts on Thanos in the episode. 

The fun stuff is the fan theories and this Bustle article pretty much sums up all of them quite nicely. (Much better than I could). I personally like Nebula killing off Thanos. I'm not a fan of the Soul Stone theory (I know, it's contrary to the comics). I'm not sure exactly where John lies, but I suspect he likes both theories quite a bit.

Regardless, I'm excited to see Avengers 4, and until then bring on Ant-man and the Wasp, and Captain Marvel! 

Episode 66: A Series of Unfortunate Events Season 2

Episode 66: A Series of Unfortunate Events Season 2
Produced by Relevant to Our Interests
Hosts: John R. Belliston and Frank Shaw
Scripting by: Frank Shaw and John Belliston
Edited by: Frank Shaw
Graphic Design by: Nathan Newell and Frank Shaw
Intro Music: Morning Activities by F.G. Shaw
Outro Music: Morning Activities by F.G. Shaw

Playing catch up over the next few days with the show-notes/commentary. Not a lot for this one honestly. We both really like this series, and we both have not read any of the books. At this point I'm not inclined to read them until the series has ended so I am not spoiled by the ending. We have some theories how it's going to end, and thus, no real "Insane Fan Theories" on this episode. I love how as the series progress it dives deeper and deeper into Absurdism. The fact that the secret society are Volunteer Fire Department brings me no end of joy. The significant meaning given to mundane things is a nice subversion of theme to these sorts of stories. Also love the bit of meta that Neil Patrick Harris brings to the character of Count Olaf. I may be in the minority, but I also love the musical numbers. 

What can we say other than watch the show, then listen to the episode of the podcast. 

Episode 64 and 65 What's Interesting and Interview with Rufusman!

Episode 64: What's Interesting: Another Video Game Episode
Produced by Relevant to Our Interests
Hosts: John R. Belliston and Frank Shaw
Scripting by: Frank Shaw and John Belliston
Edited by: Frank Shaw
Graphic Design by: Nathan Newell and Frank Shaw
Intro Music: Morning Activities by F.G. Shaw
Outro Music: Morning Activities by F.G. Shaw

These two episodes were originally planned to be one, but we suffered from some ill timed technical difficulties. So we released what was the first part, and then recorded the next episode with Rufusman!

First up: Dragon Quest. I love JRPG's. I get that it's a genre that has never been extremely huge here in the west, and only occasionally does a game get a lot of buzz and recognition, most recently Persona 5, but Final Fantasy 15, 10, and 7 in the past. Kingdom Hearts as well (which is an action JRPG). The Dragon Quest games are great though, and if you have a 3DS then I highly recommend you pick up Dragon Quests IV - IX. It's probably about 500 to 600 hundred hours easily of entertainment between all six games.

John chat's a bit about the Santa Clarita Diet, a dark horror comedy that is available to stream on Netflix. John touches on something he's touched on in the past a bit, and that is comedy, and how it's changed for the worse in many ways. We will eventually be doing an entire episode about that with many examples, but until then check out this show. It's one that I personally haven't watched, but if I like it, we may end up chatting about it soon here on the podcast. 

And of course Far Cry 5. There's been some controversy with the game and the message it's trying to portray. Or not portray. The game does sound fun though. Regardless of the plot. I really want the dog, the cougar and the diabetic bear as my best friends. I bet you do too. 


Episode 65: What's Interesting:Interview with Rufusman
Produced by Relevant to Our Interests
Hosts: John R. Belliston and Frank Shaw
Special Guest: Rufusman!
Scripting by: Frank Shaw and John Belliston
Edited by: Frank Shaw
Graphic Design by: Nathan Newell and Frank Shaw
Intro Music: Morning Activities by F.G. Shaw
Outro Music: Morning Activities by F.G. Shaw

And here we are! An interview with Rufusman! Rufus' Kickstarter is still going on for a few more days. I apologize about the audio with this one. It was rough and we had a number of technical issues capturing it. Some of the audio was edited for clarity. Rufus is fun to talk to, and John and I may be working (together or even separately) with him in the future. If you can support his Kickstarter. There's a couple of great comics, including Yahvi that was inspired by Rufus' daughter and is written for kids. 

http://kck.st/2HCnQNz

Episode 62: Jessica Jones now on YouTube.

It's Episode 62: Jessica Jones on YouTube! If you haven't listened to it yet, then you totally should! Listen to Frank and John while seeing their magnificent beards.

Episode 63: The Punisher

Episode 63: The Punisher Season 1
Produced by Relevant to Our Interests
Hosts: John R. Belliston and Frank Shaw
Scripting by: Frank Shaw and John Belliston
Edited by: Frank Shaw
Graphic Design by: Nathan Newell and Frank Shaw
Intro Music: Morning Activities by F.G. Shaw
Outro Music: Morning Activities by F.G. Shaw

Man! The Punisher! If you haven't watched it yet, and you're a fan of the Marvel series, you need to do that right now! It's amazing! I've used a lot of exclamation points in this first paragraph so far to make my point, but I mean it. The series is well paced, well thought out, brutal as fuck, and it has some fairly thoughtful moments. It's the least comic-y of the Netflix Marvel series. Don't get me wrong, it still has that comic-book vibe in spots, but I could easily see it as a completely unrelated series and doing well, even if the Punisher didn't exist as a character.

The series hints at social commentary with-out ever fully taking a side or becoming overtly political. Which honestly I think works. The main focus of the series is grief and PTSD neither of which should have any political side. The series never uses the "PTSD" through out it's 12 1/2 hour run. It doesn't need to. We see men haunted by things that they'd done, things that were done to them, and things that they still have an itch to do. 

It doesn't handle PTSD without fully delving into film cliches however: The radicalization of Lewis was a massive misfire in my opinion, and I agree with Michael Rougeau from Gamespot: this was a large "misfire". I think it could have been handled better, and perhaps been true of the actual real dilemma if Lewis had killed the older vet O'Connor and had to deal with the ramifications of just that. Frank Castle didn't need another analogue to his character. A "bad cop" to his "good cop." I think there was potential to deal with Lewis' tragic and all too real story (to a point) without denigrating it into the homegrown terrorist cliche we see in action films. It's not that these individuals don't exist, they do. Unfortunately. But that this is something that a series like 24 would try and do, and the Punisher is quite honestly a better thought out series than that.

The other elephant in the room is the gun-debate. Yes it does come up in the show, mostly around Lewis' character and his actions with a senator that is very pro gun control. The debate itself is... well I feel it's a non-starter. It's there to provide some fodder for Lewis' radicalization and that's all. The show stays fairly neutral in its stance* and the debate itself is a plot device. It was chosen I'm fairly sure, because it is such a topical issue right now. So while it is there, and it is front and center later on in the series, it's not something that be taken as a theme of the series, and it's not either for or against. And here's the thing: It shouldn't be a big focus of the series. The Punisher isn't here to decide the gun debate one way or the other, nor is it here to bring the debate to the table to serious discussion. The two episodes that feature the debate are quite honestly there to provide motivation and an end to Lewis' character while inching Frank Castle's plot forward. 

Now John and I did talk about a couple of charities during the episode, and we want to make sure they get a mention again: I talk a little about The Wounded Warrior Project, which is a fantastic charity helping vets and their families. If you're a veteran and you're not a member you can check out the website and see what they do. You can also donate, which I encourage you to do. The other charity is Pet's for Vets. I love he idea of this one as it gives animals a new friend and family member and it gives the vet a loyal companion as well. I love getting pet's into peoples lives so this is another one I highly endorse. 

All that said, The Punisher is fantastic. If you can handle the brutal violence that the series has to offer, and the emotional violence as well, then perhaps binge it in a weekend. If you're like John and I however, take your time with it. Watch a few episodes in a sitting and let things gel. But whatever you do, give it a watch, especially if you're a Marvel fan, it's worth watching.

*It's very much worth arguing that Frank Castle, the character would be very pro-gun, and because of that the show itself is pro-gun. The thing is, it's never really preachy, even when the gun debate comes to the front of the series. HOWEVER, I feel if the debate ever did come up in the serious it would be considerably nuanced, at least until it wasn't any more. The show, when dealing with gun-violence, is very much still a "Hollywood" affair. It may treat the subject more seriously than say, John Wick, but it's still very much grounded in that language of cinema. 

Episode 61: Black Panther now on Youtube!

We don't have a new episode this week, John and I were both down with different sickness. I had lost my voice, and John took a trip to one of his favorite places: The Hospital.

Ok. Maybe not.

But we do have a new Youtube video for you. It's Ep. 61: Black Panther. If you haven't listened to it, you should. It's definitely worth a listen I think. Moreover check it out to see what sort of shenanigans our video editor catalia did with it. She's been super busy, but she'll be getting back into the full swing of things again here in the next week or so, you'll see more content both old and new uploaded.