The Best Stuff In The World The Best Stuff In The World

G.I. Joe is the code name for America's daring, highly-trained special mission force. Its purpose: to defend human freedom against Cobra, a ruthless terrorist organization determined to rule the world! It's also a toy line, a cartoon, a series of comic books, and a nostalgic touch point for dudes of a certain age. Kevin is joined by two such dudes: Richard Chicago Borges (of Borges fame) and Gary Mitchel, co-host of the horror podcast A Podcask of Amontillado and co-director of Dragon Con's American Sci-Fi Classics Track, to discuss it all. Well, everything except those terrible movies from the 2000s, which we did talk about but then got edited out for time. Spoiler alert: they aren't very good. Now you know. And knowing is... well, you get the idea.
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Kevin is joined by author Jane Duffus to talk all things regarding the Sarah Records label. Jane's new book, These Things Happen: The Sarah Records Story, tells the story of the record label, the bands who released music on it, and the people and culture who were affected by it. Sarah was started in 1987 by Clare Wadd and Matt Haynes in Bristol (United Kingdom) - they put out 100 releases, mostly records but occasionally a release would be a fanzine or (for their 50th release) a board game. The label deliberately ceased operations with a big party, a manifesto, and a final compilation album called There And Back Again Lane. Sarah releases were often maligned in the British music press for being twee or wimpy but their steadfast refusal to bow to the prevailing trends always made them seem all the more punk to me. Jane has a wealth of knowledge and insight about the label from both putting together her book and her own experience as a teenage fan of the label.
You can order Jane's book through her website or in the U.S. through Rough Trade.

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One of the first and best punk bands, The Ramones recorded their first album in 1976 and they existed as a band for about 20 years after that. Their 70s material is the most beloved, although they continued to tour and put out records until they broke up. It's not an overstatement to say that despite achieving very little commercial success during their time as an active band their influence has resonated through pop culture in a way that musical artsts' have. I'm an enormous fan and I was excited to talk with musicians Ted Rao (The Double Nuthins, The Moneyshots) and Dan Schafer (who occasionally goes by the stage name Dan Vapid, and whose work in bands Screeching Weasel, Sludgeworth, The Riverdales, Noise by Numbers, The Methadones, Dan Vapid and the Cheats and more ranks among the best Ramones-influenced pop-punk ever made) about this absolutely classic American band. Hey ho, let's go!
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Infocom was a software company founded in 1979 who released a series of graphics-free text adventure games, which came to be known as Interactive Fiction. Notable Infocom releases were the Zork series, Planetfall, Infidel, Deadline, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (which we discussed a little bit in our previous installment), Trinity and A Mind Forever Voyaging. You'd interact with the game by typing in commands such as "Walk up stairs", "Go West", or "Pick up the Thing Your Aunt Gave You Which You Don't Know What It Is" and try to solve the various puzzles and mazes presented to you.
At their best the games genuinely felt like you were interacting with a book, expanding the Choose Your Own Adventure Model to what felt like infinite possibilities. Joining the show to discuss Infocom are Felicity Kusinitz ("The Mayor of Chickentown" from The Flopcast) and Ryan Evans from the Reading Graphic Novels comic book discussion series.
Other sites mentioned:
The Digital Antiquarian
Gold Machine
Infocom: The Documentary
Infocom's Unreleased Sequel to Hitchhiker's Guide
The Infocom Cabinet on The Internet Archive

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Kevin is joined by writer and musician Andre Salles and Amber Lee from the Queer in Cyber podcast to discuss The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - the radio shows, the books, the stage adaptation, the tv series, the film, the computer game and the towels. Every facet of Douglas Adams' infinitely improbable comedy science fiction franchise is tackled by our intrepid panelists. Don't panic!
Andre's albums can be found here: https://andresalles.bandcamp.com/music
You can also find Andre's music blog here: https://tm3am.com/
Be sure and check out Amber's podcast! Queer in Cyber is a cyber business podcast that features LGBTQI+ cybersecurity professionals.


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This time out we're discussing Watchmen, the 12 issue comic book maxi-series by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons. Watchmen is widely regarded as one of the great achievements of the comic book medium and, like a lot of people, it totally blew my mind the first time I read it. I'm joined by Kevin Eldridge of The Flopcast to discuss the comic, its influence, its themes, its characters, various adaptations, and why it's one of the greatest superhero stories ever told.
Be sure to check out Kevin Eldridge's podcast, The Flopcast!

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