The School of Everything Else Archive

Alex Shaw
  • 5.0 (4)
  • TV & Film

Our podcasts on TV, Video Games, Comics and Literature

  1. 16 Jan

    Audio Articles (Part 1)

    [School of Everything Else 2010] This is a compilation of the first six audio articles I created back in 2010, before Digital Gonzo was even a thing. Digital Cowboys, my first podcast (begun in 2007) was going strong, but I wanted to start doing more solo material with a tighter focus. These would be shorter game analysis, think-pieces, social commentary, amusing skits, whatever I had knocking around in my head in a given week. I started a second podcast feed of my own, which eventually evolved from "Gonzo Gaming" into "Digital Gonzo" and by a year or so into production on movie-deep-dive shows, beginning with Star Wars, that became the thing I wanted to carry on with after Digital Cowboys ended. BUT before then, over 2010 and early 2011 I wrote about fifteen short articles, and for the longest time they were logged as two compilation shows at the beginning of the School of Everything Else Archive, but the thing was... they didn't exist... yet. Now they do, and amid the material you'll get my 2023 commentary giving you some context. · Intro 2023 (0.00) · Mission Statement (0.04) 1. Heavy Rain (0.07) 2. Our Digital Rights (0.21) 3. Frustration (0.30) 4. Killing Spree (0.38) 5. Preparing for Real Life (0.46) 6. Shadow of the Colossus (0.57)

  2. 16/08/2023

    Gravity Falls (Show 2: Episodes 7-12)

    [School of Everything Else 2020] Part 2 of 6 The second of three shows on Season 1 of Gravity Falls. Season 2 will be covered in 2021. We return to one of the best animated series' to grace the TV screen. A rich, hilarious, fast-paced puzzle-box of twisty mysteries and subversive, genre-savvy capers. Tween twins Dipper and Mabel Pines are staying with their Grunkle Stan for the summer, at his combination gift-shop and rube-trap. But strange things are both out there in the woods, and inside the wooden walls of the Mystery Shack. Both seasons are available on Disney+ And if you have already finished it and want something similar but haven't yet sunk your beak into The Owl House, that's what's for dessert.  Episodes Covered: Double Dipper/Irrational Treasure/The Time-Traveller's Pig/Fight Fighters/Little Dipper/Summerween Guests: Victoria Luna B. Grieve:  @VixenVVitch  Theo Leigh of The New Century Multiverse From Sequentially Yours  Kaoru Negisa  @Moonpanther22 and Debbie Morse  @bastet8300

  3. 01/01/2018

    The Sony PlayStation (Revisited)

    [School of Everything Else 2018] I go back to the console everybody is talking about, but rather than making this all about the micro PlayStation Classic I endeavoured to find the alternative best way to play specific games I remember and love as well as a mix of some I missed before. It's nowhere near as easy as you might think, to just pick up and play. This is an account of what happened. Games discussed include Resident Evil 1-3, Final Fantasy VII-IX, Tekken 3, WipeOut, Gran Turismo, Soviet Strike, Bloody Roar 2, Tenchu: Stealth Assassins, Soul Blade, Driver, Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver, Siphon Filter, Vagrant Story, Spider-Man, Bust-A-Groove, Parappa the Rapper, Dino Crisis 1 & 2 and the promise of more Metal Gear Solid.

  4. 11/01/2017

    Bojack Horseman [Season 1]

    [School of Everything Else 2017] This is the first of several episodes on the fantastic Netflix animated show Bojack Horseman. Next week will be an episode on seasons 2 & 3 and at some point we will probably do season 4. It starts off as a black adult comedy about show business and Hollywood and you could be forgiven for lumping it in with Family Guy, however, it quickly establishes itself as a drama about various deeply flawed, human characters. Unlike Rick and Morty, though, the core of the existential dread isn't the bleakness of everything, but our desperation to be better, worthwhile people, even as we fail over and over. It is so worth your time. Joining us are our good friends Kaoru Negisa and Debbie Morse of Sequentially Yours, and genuine stunt actress Maya Santandrea, who brings her insight as to what the business of filming is frequently like.

  5. 10/01/2017

    To the Moon

    [School of Everything Else 2017] A five hour, retro RPG with a story that will stay with you. We recommend everyone play the game before listening.  It's kind of like a fun Inception. Laura Kate Dale joins us for a very textured, emotional and personal discussion about this extraordinary experience.  This show was commissioned by Emanuel Matius, Sean Lyons Burke and Nick Grugin. Patreon supporters at the five dollar level can enjoy a bonus re-release of the episode of Do try This At Home that Sharon recorded in 2013, on this same game.  Next week; Donnie Darko. Guest: Laura Kate Dale of Let's Play Video Games

  6. 09/01/2017

    Analogue: A Hate Story

    [School of Everything Else 2017] A commissioned show from Mark Lucksch. First thing I said when I saw the art was "No anime." Mark assured me that with its writer based in the west and Korean rather than Japanese artwork, as well as lack of animation that this text-adventure available on Steam was not, in fact, anime.  After many hours of playing through this tale of an intelligent, female consciousness inside a computer on a spaceship, with its themes of oppressive, patriarchal tradition, and a woman's prerogative, we both had a rather... strong reaction. Enjoy? Next week: Gargoyles

  7. 08/01/2017

    The Second Coming

    [School of Everything Else 2017] A commissioned show about a 2003 two-part TV miniseries wherein Christopher Eccleston plays a regular bloke from Manchester who suddenly realises that he is the son of God. The story is about how the world takes this news and how it affects his close friends. Also there are demons. This is new Doctor Who creator Russel T. Davies' hot take on religion. It made Sharon and I quite angry, and unexpectedly ended up as one of our more thought-provoking shows, most definitely nudging us out of our comfort zone and into the realm of discussing one of the subjects guaranteed to offend somebody.

  8. 07/01/2017

    Transmetropolitan

    [School of Everything Else 2017] This is a Vertigo comics series which ran for 60 issues from 1997 to 2002, written by Warren Ellis and drawn by Darick Robertson.  It is set in a non-specified future where cities stretch out across the planet, filled with bored tech-fetishists all looking for the next distraction. Spider Jerusalem is an infamous gonzo journalist who returns to the otherwise unnamed "The City" to write some books and newspaper columns after years of hiding in a log cabin up a mountain. This is a book that was hugely influential on me, and while the retro-future it predicted was off the mark in many cases, some of it is so sharp that it's going to hurt to listen. There's blasphemous and depraved content within so you have been warned. Alasdair Stuart of The Escape Artists joins us to talk about all things Spider in this commissioned show courtesy of Ciaran Dachtler.  Guest: Alasdair Stuart of Escape Pod

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