ScienSonic Laboratories‘ Scott Robinson shares his music background with The Book Cave’s Ric Croxton and Dr. Art Sippo.
Visit The Book Cave at http://thebookcave.libsyn.com to listen to the conversation.
After two previous attempts, Matthew Perry has broken the alleged “FRIENDS Curse” and struck comedy gold again with NBC’s GO ON. Matthew shares the secret of mixing comedy and drama and making it all work. Plus Andrew Lincoln and Chandler Riggs tells us how the cast of WALKING DEAD reacts when one of their fellow stars meets their fate.
The Point Radio – 24 hours a day of pop culture fun for FREE. GO HERE and LISTEN FREE on any computer or on any mobile device with the Tune In Radio app – and follow us on Twitter @ThePointRadio.
Bones has carefully straddled the line between light-hearted crime drama, ala Hart to Hart and taut melodrama. Over the seven seasons, showrunner Hart Hanson has carefully brought the main characters, Special Agent Seely Booth (David Boreanaz) and Dr. Temperance Brennan (Emily Deschanel), together, nicely balancing the “will they or won’t they?” romantic tension until finally, in the last season, they finally became a couple. Probably quicker than anticipated, thanks to a real life pregnancy, Brennan was with child.
The seventh season of Bones, now out on Blu-ray from 20th Century Home Entertainment, is a shorter than normal thirteen episodes because of the circumstances, but Hanson did not slow down the pacing, setting things up for a dramatic cliffhanger that left fans really hanging for the spring and summer.
Along the way, the supporting cast at the Jeffersonian Institute Forensic Sciences Department was also given their moments in the spotlight, proving they are one of the richest, most interesting ensembles on prime time. With all the personal issues surrounding the cast, it’s pretty impressive they still manage to fit in unique corpse of the week stories. Things kicked off with a body at a paintball event and continued forward. The forensic testing results remain ridiculously fast in arriving and Angela (Michaela Conlin) never meets a challenge whose butt she can’t kick so there are definite stretches of credulity, moreso this season than in the past. Sweets (John Frances Daley) lost some of his boyish charm as he grew deadly accurate with his service revolver.
The series nicely rotated the usual interns, freshening the group dynamic with regularity and the addition of southern gentleman Finn Abernathy (Luke Kleintank) was a nice addition. His flirtation and dating of Cam’s (Tamara Taylor) daughter was an interesting development that ultimately went nowhere.
The most unusual episode of the season has to be “The Suit on the Set” where Booth and Brennan travel to watch a film based on one of her books is being made. They skewer Hollywood’s inability to faithfully adapt a novel, going for busts and pyrotechnics over plot and characterization. A little silly but a refreshing change of pace.
The finale sees the return of criminal Christopher Pellant who goes out of his way to frame Brennan, turning her into a wanted felon. The problem here is that the circumstantial evidence mounts so high so fast, at least one of the characters should have at least questioned the absurdity of all this damning information pouring out at once. But nope, never happened. Instead, Brennan and her dad (Ryan O’Neal) take the baby and go on the run, leaving Booth behind.
Given the shortened season, one would have expected either additional special features to compensate or fewer given the dearth of material to work with. We get more of the latter than the former with two deleted scenes, commentary on one episode, a four minute Gag Reel, and two small pieces on the Hollywood episode. First, there’s Creating The Suit on the Set (10:59) on how the episode was made then a fun, fake Bone of Contention: On the Red Carpet (3:18)
I was late to the series and was able to plow through the first five seasons to jump on board but you cannot start cold with this season. It’s too involved in its continuity and character relationships to be totally accessible to a newcomer. But for those of us who are fans of this show, adapted from the novels by Kathy Reichs, it was a slid if flawed season and worth a second look.
People with cancer describe a phenomenon they call “chemo brain,” a side effect of the tumor-killing drugs that also destroys their short-term memory. I would like to coin another term.
Con brain!
Con brain is what happens to an otherwise mature adult after several days spent in the company of a hundred thousand comic and pop culture fans enclosed in a relatively small space for a comic book convention.
My experience started out simply enough. My friend, Vivek Tiwary, was on a panel at Jim Hanley’s Universe on “A Celebration of Pop Music Comics”, and he wanted me there, since I helped him to get the deal for his graphic novel with Dark Horse. The panel included friendly faces like David Gallaher and Jamal Igle. To my surprise, it also included Punk Magazine editor John Holmstrom, whom I’ve known for decades and who, in my opinion, is the most ripped-off person in comics and graphic design (a bold statement, I know, and too long an explanation for this column. Ask me later). Both Vivek and John gave me shout-outs, proving that I am the most important person in the rock’n’roll/comics intersection.
The next day, I went to the Javits Center early for a meeting. As it turned out, the hall was closed to anyone but exhibitors until later in the afternoon, but I know how to stride in with a group like I belong, so that wasn’t an issue. Everything went swimmingly. Alas, I made the mistake of leaving the hall, and had to use my hard-won knowledge of the building’s labyrinthine tunnels and hallways to get back in.
By the time the show actually opened, things quickly got so crowded and noisy that I couldn’t hear any of the people with whom I was walking, nor could I see where I was going. I went home, put a cat on my lap, and chilled.
On Friday, I had the most surrealistic experience of the show. I attend a bereavement support group that meets near 34th Street. When it was over, I walked to the center, going past Herald Square and Macy’s, Penn Station, Madison Square Garden, and large swaths of Manhattan with office buildings. And, interspersed with tourists, people with jobs on their lunch hour, and the normal New York horde, were people in costumes heading west. If anybody but me thought it was odd to see anime characters and guys with capes and masks walking down the street, they kept it to themselves.
From then on, all is a fog. I saw more people I like (including Walter Simonson, whom I might have hugged a little bit too long). I got hit in the face with more backpacks. I ruined more pictures by walking between the photographer and the subjects, because, I’m sorry, but just because you are in costume doesn’t mean you get to take up an entire aisle.
Still, I noticed a few things. It seemed to me that almost half the attendees were female, a huge change since I started going to these things. I don’t know if shows like The Big Bang Theory have reassured girls that they can handle geek culture, or if there are simply more of us out of the closet, but it’s a much better feeling from my first shows, when women would confide in me that they were followed into the bathroom by guys who couldn’t believe they were really girls at such an event.
Perhaps as a result, there were fewer artists in Artists Alley promoting characters with gigantic breasts and other impossible tricks of anatomy. I only remember one, whose super heroine had breasts started just under her clavicle and ended at her armpit. I mean, I like a little uplift, but, you know, ouch.
By the end of the show I sounded like every character in every action movie ever made, muttering “I’m getting too old for this shit.” I’m starting to feel that, as a short older person, I need to be lifted up on a chair and taken around the rooms carried by four shirtless body-builders, like a sultan from a Bob Hope sketch.
Still, I was moved by this story on the Bleeding Cool website, comparing four days at a comics convention to a religious experience. I envy those of you who get to experience this for the first time.
It’s a treasure. Don’t bury it.
SATURDAY: Marc Alan Fishman
The Pro Se Open is a list of Anthologies that Pro Se Productions, a leading publisher of Heroic Fiction and New Pulp plans to do in the future. This is an open call on all the books listed in the Open, that is anyone can submit a story for any of the books in the list. For some of the anthologies, there is no deadline essentially, that is until all the slots open in any given book are filled. However, some will have deadlines attached and these will be noted by each individual title.
TALL PULP– Although every country has its mythologies, none quite have the same flavor as that of that infant of a nation, The Good Ol’ US of A. Instead of Gods and such, a whole crop of larger than life type heroes and characters have popped up throughout American history, collectively known as ‘Tall Tales’… TALL PULP (tentative title) will focus on characters who populate American Folklore, such as Paul Bunyan, Mike Fink, Pecos Bill, and more! These stories, each 10,000 words in length, will be Pulp minded tales that focus on one Tall Tale figure (either completely fictional or the tall tale version of a real person, such as Davy Crockett). These stories may either be retellings of the original legends with a Pulp flavor, set in the original time period of the characters themselves, or can be completely new updatings of these characters into other settings (John Henry in 1930s Chicago for instance) Three stories, 10,000 word stories
COVERT OPS: GEMINI– Not all spies are actors, models, or…spies in their off mission time. Under a particular program in the United States, active since the 1950s, hundreds, maybe even thousands of America’s top secret operatives live the majority of their lives as housewives, plumbers, teachers, garbagemen, and other ordinary, even mundane existences. But when they receive a message with their own personal codename followed by a single word- Gemini- then they leave suburbia or the rat race and become America’s only hope for survival. Outside of their ‘real’ lives, these spies show skills and talents not ever apparent in their daily existence. Guided by a voice known only as ‘Officer James’, C.O.G. Team Leaders stand ready to pull the best and most devious spies available to the US out of the humdrum and plunge them straight into danger. Three stories, 10,000 words each (If interested, request bible).
BADGE CITY– This collection is all Police Procedural, but with a slight twist. Set in an unnamed metropolis, referred to by the local cops and even crooks as Badge City due to the tenacity of the police force, the three stories in this collection will be set in three different time periods and each story will focus on a member of the Connors Family, each one serving on the Police force in some capacity. Starting in the 1930s-50s, then moving onto the 1960s-80s, and ending in the 1990s-now, three writers get the opportunity to write true police procedurals as written in the eras covered while building the history of a family and a city! Think Dragnet meets 87th Precinct meets Blue Bloods. Three stories, 10,000 words each (If interested, request bible.)
TALL PULP– Although every country has its mythologies, none quite have the same flavor as that of that infant of a nation, The Good Ol’ US of A. Instead of Gods and such, a whole crop of larger than life type heroes and characters have popped up throughout American history, collectively known as ‘Tall Tales’… TALL PULP (tentative title) will focus on characters who populate American Folklore, such as Paul Bunyan, Mike Fink, Pecos Bill, and more! These stories, each 10,000 words in length, will be Pulp minded tales that focus on one Tall Tale figure (either completely fictional or the tall tale version of a real person, such as Davy Crockett). These stories may either be retellings of the original legends with a Pulp flavor, set in the original time period of the characters themselves, or can be completely new updatings of these characters into other settings (John Henry in 1930s Chicago for instance) Three stories, 10,000 word stories
COVERT OPS: GEMINI– Not all spies are actors, models, or…spies in their off mission time. Under a particular program in the United States, active since the 1950s, hundreds, maybe even thousands of America’s top secret operatives live the majority of their lives as housewives, plumbers, teachers, garbagemen, and other ordinary, even mundane existences. But when they receive a message with their own personal codename followed by a single word- Gemini- then they leave suburbia or the rat race and become America’s only hope for survival. Outside of their ‘real’ lives, these spies show skills and talents not ever apparent in their daily existence. Guided by a voice known only as ‘Officer James’, C.O.G. Team Leaders stand ready to pull the best and most devious spies available to the US out of the humdrum and plunge them straight into danger. Three stories, 10,000 words each (If interested, request bible).
BADGE CITY– This collection is all Police Procedural, but with a slight twist. Set in an unnamed metropolis, referred to by the local cops and even crooks as Badge City due to the tenacity of the police force, the three stories in this collection will be set in three different time periods and each story will focus on a member of the Connors Family, each one serving on the Police force in some capacity. Starting in the 1930s-50s, then moving onto the 1960s-80s, and ending in the 1990s-now, three writers get the opportunity to write true police procedurals as written in the eras covered while building the history of a family and a city! Think Dragnet meets 87th Precinct meets Blue Bloods. Three stories, 10,000 words each (If interested, request bible.)
New Pulp Author, Nancy Holder visited the Earth Station One podcast this week to talk about her work on Buffy The Vampire Slayer.
The ESO Countdown to Halloween continues as Mike Faber, Mike Gordon, and Bobby Nash are joined by listener David Ingrund and New York Times best-selling author Nancy Holder to review the entire series of Buffy the Vampire Slayer once more (with feeling). We also review the third season premiere of The Walking Dead. Plus, Nancy’s writing partner Debbie Viguie reveals a special announcement! All this and the usual Rants, Raves, Khan Report, and Shout Outs!
Join us for yet another episode of The Earth Station One Podcast we like to call: Buffy The Vampire Slayer at www.esopodcast.com.
Direct link: http://erthstationone.wordpress.com/2012/10/18/earth-station-one-episode-133-buffy-the-vampire-slayer-revisited
 |
| Art: Scott “Doc” Vaughn (not Lance Star art) |
 |
| Art: Felipe Echevarria |
Airship 27 Productions has announced the artist for Volume 4 their wildly popular pulp anthology series, Lance Star: Sky Ranger. Artist Scott “Doc” Vaughn will join writers Bobby Nash, Sean Taylor, Andrew Salmon, and Jim Beard and cover artist Felipe Echevarria for the continuing adventures of AmericaâÂÂs Favorite Air Ace!
Look for Lance Star: Sky Ranger vol. 4 coming from Airship 27 Productions.
For more information on Airship 27 Productions, visit them on-line at www.airship27.com and www.gopulp.info
For more information on Lance Star: Sky Ranger, visit www.lance-star.com
Lance Star: Sky Ranger volumes 1, 2, & 3, and the Lance Star comic book “One Shot!” are still available.
New Pulp Author I.A. Watson has announced that his episodic novel, Blackthorn: The Spires of Mars is now complete with chapter 30.
From I.A. Watson:
The thirtieth and final part of my serial novel over on the BLACKTHORN website is now out. There’s now a complete 80,000 word novel waiting there for those who prefer their episodic adventures to be, um, not episodic.
THE SPIRES OF MARS
“A young man desperate to save his sister from the raiders who kidnapped her to slavery – an ancient undead released after half a millennium – four sorcerous First Men who will kill half a world to keep their darkest secret – and three champions who will stand for Mars against horror and tyranny – or die trying!
Award-winning author I.A Watson’s online novel set in the futuristic Martian world of Van Allen Plexico’s BLACKTHORN offers readers a serial adventure in the tradition of old-time pulps, showcasing the vibrant characters and lush settings of this popular and successful series.
Join Earth General John Blackthorn, Aria, Princess of Mars, Oglok the Mock-Man and an ever-expanding cast of rebels, monsters, magicians, and villains as the mystery of the ancient Harmony Spires is explored.”
Find it online via www.whiterocketbooks.com/blackthorn or direct at http://www.chillwater.org.uk/writing/blackthorn/spires.htm
Comments are welcome and we’ll put all the non-swearing ones on the letters page.
Blackthorn: Thunder on Mars and Blackthorn: Dynasty of Mars are also still available.
Columns / Glenn Hauman / News
Stephen Colbert, we have your writer for “The Chronicles of Amber”!
January 20, 2023
The Law Is A Ass #460: Those “For Life” Sentences Are Nonsense
February 24, 2022
