It has come to my attention that we have a handful of new readers here at podcast-blog-central. Either they're just telling me this to be nice - or to placate me - or to stop me from talking about the podcast already -- or they actually are reading.
So... in honor of our new readers, and because I'm in the mood for it, I'd like to announce that Wednesday, July 15, will be the next installment of Reader Question Wednesday.
Ask us anything... about the scripts, the storylines, the characters, the blog, what Jason wants for his upcoming birthday, my favorite color, how to conjugate a particular Russian verb... whatever. We'll answer it. Please send us your questions in a comment or via email. We'll answer them in one fell swoop next Wednesday, much like we did in this post.
Or I will, since Jason didn't really agree to this. But hey, that's how I roll, baby.
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Monday, July 6, 2009
Cream or sugar?
I was scrolling back through the characters that we've introduced you to thus far, and I think we've hit just about all the major ones... or at least the ones that will have the most impact on the plot. However, I think we have committed a gross miscarriage of justice by not introducing the most important character in the entire series. Before Viper, before Olga, before even our hero Alex... there exists a towering personality. This character is archetypal in sweep - pulls the entire plot together, and delivers the story to its exciting and inevitable conclusion...
I speak, of course, of the Waitress.
Waitresses, actually.
Okay, I might be exaggerating a teeny bit. The Waitress, while often pivotal in that she provides an opportunity for Alex to give or receive information, is not the most important character in the show. But she and her many incarnations sure show up a lot.
What can I say? Alex likes to eat. We have already established that he likes Reubens. And he is on the road an awful lot throughout the entire series. He's going to end up at diners, bars, and coffee shops across the country. I am often on the road for work -- and while I should be better about packing food in advance for a roadtrip, I rarely do. And I end up at diners, bars, and coffee shops across the country. Alex has to leave town in a bit of a hurry, and even though Viper is a good friend... I doubt that he packed him a cooler full of lunch meats and Doritos.
Jason and I often joke that if Alex is at a diner, bar, or coffee shop at one point in the episode, it's probably one that I wrote. This is not always true of my scripts, to be fair. But there is some truth to it.
Could it be that at the time of this post, I am doing the voices for all of the Waitresses that Alex meets as he travels across the country... many of which allow me to speak in my own accent? Maaaaybe. This is not to say that if the right person walks through the door when we begin our audition process that is perfect for the Waitress in Minneapolis, we wouldn't give it to her.... or him for that matter.
But for now, I get to ask how you like your coffee.
How do you like your coffee, anyhow?
I speak, of course, of the Waitress.
Waitresses, actually.
Okay, I might be exaggerating a teeny bit. The Waitress, while often pivotal in that she provides an opportunity for Alex to give or receive information, is not the most important character in the show. But she and her many incarnations sure show up a lot.
What can I say? Alex likes to eat. We have already established that he likes Reubens. And he is on the road an awful lot throughout the entire series. He's going to end up at diners, bars, and coffee shops across the country. I am often on the road for work -- and while I should be better about packing food in advance for a roadtrip, I rarely do. And I end up at diners, bars, and coffee shops across the country. Alex has to leave town in a bit of a hurry, and even though Viper is a good friend... I doubt that he packed him a cooler full of lunch meats and Doritos.
Jason and I often joke that if Alex is at a diner, bar, or coffee shop at one point in the episode, it's probably one that I wrote. This is not always true of my scripts, to be fair. But there is some truth to it.
Could it be that at the time of this post, I am doing the voices for all of the Waitresses that Alex meets as he travels across the country... many of which allow me to speak in my own accent? Maaaaybe. This is not to say that if the right person walks through the door when we begin our audition process that is perfect for the Waitress in Minneapolis, we wouldn't give it to her.... or him for that matter.
But for now, I get to ask how you like your coffee.
How do you like your coffee, anyhow?
Saturday, July 4, 2009
Call me Viper. It's my hacker name.
Everyone should have That One Friend.
That One Friend is the guy you call when you’re lost in the middle of Amarillo and need someone to look up directions to your hotel. She’s the friend who calls you on your shit when you can’t see past your own nose to the obvious solution that’s right in front of you.
Maybe, just maybe, he’s the friend you turn to when the world is ending.
In our story, That One Friend is named Paul. You can call him Viper. Viper Apex.
If Alex is the hero of our story (and ultimately, he is), then Viper is his sidekick. He’d describe himself as Obi Wan Kenobi, but let’s be honest – he’s probably more like Jar Jar Binks.
(Just kidding. Nobody in this story is like Jar Jar.)
Viper, it must be noted, can be a complete idiot. He’s a computer geek, a science fiction geek, a roleplaying geek. He’s usually the smartest person in the room, if only because he’s often the only person in the room. He claims that he’s not allowed to leave the state due to some “outstanding legal issues that led to his unfortunate incarceration some time ago.” In truth, he’s still on probation for hacking the university mainframe in an effort to change a girl’s GPA. He not only got caught, the girl never even knew his name.
So, yeah. He’s that guy. But he’s a solid friend, and he always has been. When Alex needs help, he knows that Viper is the one person he can turn to without hesitation. They’ve been friends for almost 20 years, and honestly I don’t know how they originally met. River and I were talking about this relationship a while ago, and it occurred to me that if they’ve been friends since they were 10…well, you don’t really need a reason for being friends at that age. That’s one of the best parts about being that age.
He fills an interesting role in our universe. It's been said that everyone is the hero in his (or her) own story, but I'm not so sure that this is true for Viper. He's one of those rare people who is content to be a supporting character. He's like the character actor who always plays That One Guy - you might not remember the actor's name, but you'll remember that you liked him in that one movie that you can't reliably remember the name of.
The thing is, Viper may be bad with women. He may be a complete dork. He may speak in codes that only he understands. But in his way, he's incredibly competent. That "Call and ask for directions in the middle of Amarillo" thing? That's the tip of the iceberg. If you want to know where something is, you call Viper. If you want a 2 minute summary of the best way to lose someone tailing you, you call Viper. If you need to borrow his truck on no notice because it's time to hit the road and find someone to sucker into taking over the job that you were born to do, Viper will give you his keys without a second thought. His ideas might be brilliant or they might get you into more trouble than you were in to begin with, but he'll always be able to tell you which episode of McGuyver he stole the idea from.
From a storytelling standpoint, Viper is a great character for one simple reason. We like Viper, a lot. River and I are both a bit more like him than we should probably admit, and that makes him pretty easy to write, and our readthroughs with him are great fun. We're also very protective of him - as we would be in real life, come to think of it - and I suspect that choosing someone to voice Viper will be a challenge. I suspect this will be the only character for whom we would not accept bribes in exchange for serious consideration for the role. It's good to know that we have some standards, anyway.
That One Friend is the guy you call when you’re lost in the middle of Amarillo and need someone to look up directions to your hotel. She’s the friend who calls you on your shit when you can’t see past your own nose to the obvious solution that’s right in front of you.
Maybe, just maybe, he’s the friend you turn to when the world is ending.
In our story, That One Friend is named Paul. You can call him Viper. Viper Apex.
If Alex is the hero of our story (and ultimately, he is), then Viper is his sidekick. He’d describe himself as Obi Wan Kenobi, but let’s be honest – he’s probably more like Jar Jar Binks.
(Just kidding. Nobody in this story is like Jar Jar.)
Viper, it must be noted, can be a complete idiot. He’s a computer geek, a science fiction geek, a roleplaying geek. He’s usually the smartest person in the room, if only because he’s often the only person in the room. He claims that he’s not allowed to leave the state due to some “outstanding legal issues that led to his unfortunate incarceration some time ago.” In truth, he’s still on probation for hacking the university mainframe in an effort to change a girl’s GPA. He not only got caught, the girl never even knew his name.
So, yeah. He’s that guy. But he’s a solid friend, and he always has been. When Alex needs help, he knows that Viper is the one person he can turn to without hesitation. They’ve been friends for almost 20 years, and honestly I don’t know how they originally met. River and I were talking about this relationship a while ago, and it occurred to me that if they’ve been friends since they were 10…well, you don’t really need a reason for being friends at that age. That’s one of the best parts about being that age.
He fills an interesting role in our universe. It's been said that everyone is the hero in his (or her) own story, but I'm not so sure that this is true for Viper. He's one of those rare people who is content to be a supporting character. He's like the character actor who always plays That One Guy - you might not remember the actor's name, but you'll remember that you liked him in that one movie that you can't reliably remember the name of.
The thing is, Viper may be bad with women. He may be a complete dork. He may speak in codes that only he understands. But in his way, he's incredibly competent. That "Call and ask for directions in the middle of Amarillo" thing? That's the tip of the iceberg. If you want to know where something is, you call Viper. If you want a 2 minute summary of the best way to lose someone tailing you, you call Viper. If you need to borrow his truck on no notice because it's time to hit the road and find someone to sucker into taking over the job that you were born to do, Viper will give you his keys without a second thought. His ideas might be brilliant or they might get you into more trouble than you were in to begin with, but he'll always be able to tell you which episode of McGuyver he stole the idea from.
From a storytelling standpoint, Viper is a great character for one simple reason. We like Viper, a lot. River and I are both a bit more like him than we should probably admit, and that makes him pretty easy to write, and our readthroughs with him are great fun. We're also very protective of him - as we would be in real life, come to think of it - and I suspect that choosing someone to voice Viper will be a challenge. I suspect this will be the only character for whom we would not accept bribes in exchange for serious consideration for the role. It's good to know that we have some standards, anyway.
Monday, June 29, 2009
On bats and rhubarb
Hey, y'all. It's my birthday. I have officially arrived at the midway point of my 30s. Jason will arrive here six weeks from now - which, as I often remind him, makes me six weeks wiser than he is.
My friend M. gave me a fantastic book called The Bathhouse at Midnight: Magic in Russia, by W.F. Ryan, as a birthday present. It's part of the "Magic in History" series by Penn State Press, which makes it rather respectable. The language is definitely academic and research-based, but that doesn't make it any less of an interesting read - at least in my admittedly biased opinion.
I couldn't believe our luck! This was the perfect gift as far as the podcast is concerned. Recently, Jason and I decided to devote more of the story mythos to Slavic mythology. Alex and his family are Russian after all, and there really aren't all that many stories out there that work with this particular pantheon or world view. Plus, Russians are just plain awesome when it comes to sympathetic magic. What other group of people would have you wear a hawk's head next to your belly in order to win the affections of the one you love? This is only slightly less complicated than Plan B: "...you can take a bat, put it into a new pot, cover it with a new cloth, put the pot into an anthill, go home without looking back and with your ears stopped so as not to hear the squeaks of the bat, and return after three weeks for the bones, with which you will be able to draw the object of your desire to you."
Yeah, but who has that kind of time?
(Let it be said that my ancestors, the Czechs, used a frog instead of a bat, and that a similar process is used to make yourself invisible.)
The herbal magic section has all sorts of great suggestions. Rhubarb, for instance, has been known to roar and groan at sunset. (Now I have to go over to my friend J's house sometime in the early evening to listen to her garden, since I don't recall this happening in my grandmother's rhubarb patch. But maybe I wasn't listening hard enough.) You can do a lot with rhubarb... if you take some in your mouth, you can easily swim against the current. If you meet someone blighted by the Evil Eye, give them some rhubarb, and they have to reveal who blighted them. In the same regard - feed it to your wife and she'll tell you the names of her lovers. It's also a powerful laxative... but that doesn't seem quite as exciting or relevant.
Expect to see some of this stuff like this pop up throughout the podcast - especially where Olga is concerned. My mind is already swimming with possibilities of where to add bits and pieces of this treasure trove of information. (Thanks, M.!)
Meanwhile, if you're looking to get me a birthday gift, please avoid the following: bones of any kind (particularly bat), your sweaty clothes (apparently perspiration magic was big... big enough to be banned by the church), or a bouquet of rhubarb.
My friend M. gave me a fantastic book called The Bathhouse at Midnight: Magic in Russia, by W.F. Ryan, as a birthday present. It's part of the "Magic in History" series by Penn State Press, which makes it rather respectable. The language is definitely academic and research-based, but that doesn't make it any less of an interesting read - at least in my admittedly biased opinion.
I couldn't believe our luck! This was the perfect gift as far as the podcast is concerned. Recently, Jason and I decided to devote more of the story mythos to Slavic mythology. Alex and his family are Russian after all, and there really aren't all that many stories out there that work with this particular pantheon or world view. Plus, Russians are just plain awesome when it comes to sympathetic magic. What other group of people would have you wear a hawk's head next to your belly in order to win the affections of the one you love? This is only slightly less complicated than Plan B: "...you can take a bat, put it into a new pot, cover it with a new cloth, put the pot into an anthill, go home without looking back and with your ears stopped so as not to hear the squeaks of the bat, and return after three weeks for the bones, with which you will be able to draw the object of your desire to you."
Yeah, but who has that kind of time?
(Let it be said that my ancestors, the Czechs, used a frog instead of a bat, and that a similar process is used to make yourself invisible.)
The herbal magic section has all sorts of great suggestions. Rhubarb, for instance, has been known to roar and groan at sunset. (Now I have to go over to my friend J's house sometime in the early evening to listen to her garden, since I don't recall this happening in my grandmother's rhubarb patch. But maybe I wasn't listening hard enough.) You can do a lot with rhubarb... if you take some in your mouth, you can easily swim against the current. If you meet someone blighted by the Evil Eye, give them some rhubarb, and they have to reveal who blighted them. In the same regard - feed it to your wife and she'll tell you the names of her lovers. It's also a powerful laxative... but that doesn't seem quite as exciting or relevant.
Expect to see some of this stuff like this pop up throughout the podcast - especially where Olga is concerned. My mind is already swimming with possibilities of where to add bits and pieces of this treasure trove of information. (Thanks, M.!)
Meanwhile, if you're looking to get me a birthday gift, please avoid the following: bones of any kind (particularly bat), your sweaty clothes (apparently perspiration magic was big... big enough to be banned by the church), or a bouquet of rhubarb.
Friday, June 19, 2009
Ist gut, ja?
As Jason said when he introduced the world to his GPS, our characters are not based on real people. Or if they are, we don't know them.
Rather, we create characters when the plot demands it... or, more often than not, one of our friends has a silly personality quirk and we feel a need to immortalize it. (Or even more often ... one of the two of us has a personality quirk that we want to exploit. See the post about Aunt Olga to understand what I mean.)
Klaus, the owner of the rival magic shop, was created solely because my friend Doug can do an awesome German accent - and sustain it well for a long period of time. I know this because Doug and I have a long-standing Sunday morning tradition. We meet at a coffee shop in our neighborhood, have fantastic coffee, and do the New York Times crossword together. (My love of Reuben sandwiches is only surpassed by my love of puzzles.) Inevitably, we get a little silly while doing the puzzle together... and often end up doing the last half while speaking in a number of ridiculous accents.
No, really... we think it's fun.
Once, Doug tried out his noticeably fake French accent for a while. About 10 minutes later, we both realized that the three women at the end of the long table where we were sitting were all actually speaking French. I don't think they noticed, and we weren't deliberately trying to mock them. But what are the odds??
Anyhow, I digress.
Klaus was originally more of a side character, and while critical to the storyline, not all that involved with the larger story. Then, he started to become a bit more insistent, and demanded to play a more pivotal role. I'll admit that he started out a bit campy, but now he is becoming a really intriguing figure, and I have much more respect for the man. I'm kind of anxious to see where he ends up.
Klaus is also an opportunity for us to fold in a bit more of the esoteric and magical aspects of the story and the mythology behind it. I'm not sure why, but we'd been shying away from it a little - even though the entire plot has a rather magical premise. I don't think it was intentional - I just think we needed some time to figure out how this alternate world works. Klaus is helping us understand it. He's got a background in ceremonial magic - although his magic shop is of the card trick and rabbit-from-a-hat variety, just like the shop owned by Alex's family. But Klaus has a wealth of knowledge and experience that is quite different - and he's opened the door for that kind of mystery to come through.
I think I'd like to add that Klaus is extraordinarily good at crossword puzzles, but that might be pushing it. I can only get in so many quirks, after all.
By the by... in addition to being able to do silly accents, Doug is also an amazing collage artist based here in Chicago, whose work is getting quite a bit of well-deserved buzz these days. Check out his online gallery.
Rather, we create characters when the plot demands it... or, more often than not, one of our friends has a silly personality quirk and we feel a need to immortalize it. (Or even more often ... one of the two of us has a personality quirk that we want to exploit. See the post about Aunt Olga to understand what I mean.)
Klaus, the owner of the rival magic shop, was created solely because my friend Doug can do an awesome German accent - and sustain it well for a long period of time. I know this because Doug and I have a long-standing Sunday morning tradition. We meet at a coffee shop in our neighborhood, have fantastic coffee, and do the New York Times crossword together. (My love of Reuben sandwiches is only surpassed by my love of puzzles.) Inevitably, we get a little silly while doing the puzzle together... and often end up doing the last half while speaking in a number of ridiculous accents.
No, really... we think it's fun.
Once, Doug tried out his noticeably fake French accent for a while. About 10 minutes later, we both realized that the three women at the end of the long table where we were sitting were all actually speaking French. I don't think they noticed, and we weren't deliberately trying to mock them. But what are the odds??
Anyhow, I digress.
Klaus was originally more of a side character, and while critical to the storyline, not all that involved with the larger story. Then, he started to become a bit more insistent, and demanded to play a more pivotal role. I'll admit that he started out a bit campy, but now he is becoming a really intriguing figure, and I have much more respect for the man. I'm kind of anxious to see where he ends up.
Klaus is also an opportunity for us to fold in a bit more of the esoteric and magical aspects of the story and the mythology behind it. I'm not sure why, but we'd been shying away from it a little - even though the entire plot has a rather magical premise. I don't think it was intentional - I just think we needed some time to figure out how this alternate world works. Klaus is helping us understand it. He's got a background in ceremonial magic - although his magic shop is of the card trick and rabbit-from-a-hat variety, just like the shop owned by Alex's family. But Klaus has a wealth of knowledge and experience that is quite different - and he's opened the door for that kind of mystery to come through.
I think I'd like to add that Klaus is extraordinarily good at crossword puzzles, but that might be pushing it. I can only get in so many quirks, after all.
By the by... in addition to being able to do silly accents, Doug is also an amazing collage artist based here in Chicago, whose work is getting quite a bit of well-deserved buzz these days. Check out his online gallery.
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
A little help here?
As we get closer to actually having something to record, it's becoming more clear that we need to have something to record on and with. My computer went brain-dead last week (which sucks rocks, let me tell you) but it also provides me with a unique opportunity to find a new machine and software that will best suit our recording needs.
Not that the podcast is my #1 priority for buying a computer, mind you. But it does rank up pretty high up there - and recording music is on the top of my priority list, which dovetails pretty nicely into any sort of audio recording. Also on my priority list is graphic design capability, and a need to play stupid computer games while I'm procrastinating on recording or writing.
So... any tech gurus out there that might be able to help a not-as-tech-savvy-as-she-once-was girl out? If you could buy any recording equipment, software, hardware... what would you get? Why do you prefer that set-up over another?
Thanks in advance for any help you're willing to give.
Not that the podcast is my #1 priority for buying a computer, mind you. But it does rank up pretty high up there - and recording music is on the top of my priority list, which dovetails pretty nicely into any sort of audio recording. Also on my priority list is graphic design capability, and a need to play stupid computer games while I'm procrastinating on recording or writing.
So... any tech gurus out there that might be able to help a not-as-tech-savvy-as-she-once-was girl out? If you could buy any recording equipment, software, hardware... what would you get? Why do you prefer that set-up over another?
Thanks in advance for any help you're willing to give.
Sunday, May 31, 2009
We're still alive, if not kicking.
My, it's been a while since we've posted. Our abject apologies. Both Jason and I have been prepping for and attending a leadership intensive at a retreat center we occasionally frequent -- and life has been a bit hectic. Not much has happened in podcast-land, but that's about to change.
Jason and I had the opportunity during this week-long intensive to sit down and hash out the episode list for the series. We've mapped out all twelve (yes! twelve!) episodes of the podcast, and I have to say, I'm pretty excited about the trajectory. No comments necessary about the fact that we should have done this say... 6 or 7 months ago when we started writing scripts. We've got it now, we know who is responsible for which episode and which piece of character development, and the momentum is starting to pick up once again.
More from us soon. The next couple of days will be an act of reacclimating to life in Chicago. This crazy-podcast train will start up again very, very soon. Stay tuned!
Jason and I had the opportunity during this week-long intensive to sit down and hash out the episode list for the series. We've mapped out all twelve (yes! twelve!) episodes of the podcast, and I have to say, I'm pretty excited about the trajectory. No comments necessary about the fact that we should have done this say... 6 or 7 months ago when we started writing scripts. We've got it now, we know who is responsible for which episode and which piece of character development, and the momentum is starting to pick up once again.
More from us soon. The next couple of days will be an act of reacclimating to life in Chicago. This crazy-podcast train will start up again very, very soon. Stay tuned!
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