S&L Podcast – #73 – Fuzzy Nation Wrap-up

We’re excited about Dragon*Con and our interview with Robert J. Sawyer.  In fact we’re picking his book Flashforward as our next read, which we’ll kick off next week. This week we wrap-up our last alternate selection, Fuzzy Nation by John Scalzi.

QUICK BURNS

Joe Abercrombie and R. Scott Bakker fans needed

Scientifically accurate sf novels with help from NASA

CALENDAR

9/1/2011 Seed, Robert Ziegler (Night Shade Books)
9/6/2011 Legacy of Kings by C. S. Friedman
9/6/2011 Tears of the Sun: A novel of change by S. M. Stirling
9/13/2011 The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
9/15/2011 War in Heaven by Gavin Smith
9/20/2011 Reamde, Neal Stephenson (William Morrow)

BARE YOUR SWORD

United Moon Colonies by Tom Merritt

Tamahome and Jenny on Sffaudio

Who’s going to Dragon*Con this year?

TV and Movies

And three more roles for THRONES

BOOK Wrap-up

Fuzzy Nation by John Scalzi

Next Book Pick: Flash Forward by Robert J. Sawyer

EMAILS 

Hey y’all,

Over in Goodreads I don’t know if this has been discussed yet, so sorry if it has. I’ve seen people wonder about using the hide spoiler feature in threads that are clearly marked spoilery from the get go. I think it’s still important to hide spoilers so people can decide to what degree they want to get spoilery. Also, perhaps more importantly, thread comments you make will appear in your friends’ feeds and they won’t be happy campers if a big nasty spoiler appears on their Goodreads home page after you comment on a spoilery thread. Keep up the good work, you guys have a lot of fun doing the show and it’s contagious!

thanks,
Philip

——-

Hey Tom and Veronica,

Catching up on podcasts and I heard Veronica say she was interested in a listener’s bad theatre experience, so I thought I’d share one I had recently. Like the letter writer, I’ve also had people wait outside the theatre for me because I’ve politely asked them to be quiet, but this one take the cake. I copied it from my tumblr, (Zombie Otaku), so I hope you don’t mind.

So I decide to leave the house for once and go see one of those moving pictures that are all the rage with the kids today. There is an art house/indy film theatre not far from me that I’ve always intended on frequenting, so last night was the night.

So I arrive, and it’s all old people. Well, older than me. All gray hair, all wearing slacks and weekend plaid. I’m wearing a Ramones shirt and Chuck Taylors, so they of course check their wallets and ask their spouses if they locked the car.

I decide to commit to this place and get a membership. This way I’ll have to go, since I paid extra and I hate not getting my money’s worth. The woman looks pissed off at me, since this means she has to fill out out a card and laminate it. Somehow, she gets through this ordeal.

I go into the theatre, ready to see Midnight In Paris. A contingent of what I assume were lawn bowlers sit down across the aisle and start yelling at each other in Greek, even though they’re sitting beside one another. A man in thick rimmed black glasses glares at them, switches off his iPhone, and storms to a new seat.

I counted lots of thick, black rimmed glasses on guys checking their iPhones.

The movie finally starts. At this point the ancient seats start giving me back spasms. Still, I’m going to enjoy this movie. Twenty minutes in, something flies past the screen.

I look. It flies past the screen again. Then it swoops over my head. The audience all jump.

BATS.

Now I’m not watching the movie. I’m watching bats flying around the place. I count three of them. When they fly close to the projector, their silhouette fills the screen, and I wonder how many us will now be inspired to fight crime as Batman.

Then they start swooping. I can feel one just miss my head, impacting on the chair behind me. It screams, flops around, and takes to the air again. I’m out of my chair, deciding someone should tell management we’re under attack.

But a bat is flying in front of the door leading to the lobby. It’s bouncing back and forth between the walls, getting pissed. Then it flies at me, I duck, and run out into the lobby.

The manager jumps out of his chair in his office. “What’s wrong?”

“Bats are attacking the audience,” I say, because I wasn’t sure what else to say. Do we discuss the decline of art cinema first, then move onto the bat problem?

He looks into the theatre. The bats are flying fast and furious in front of the screen.

“Yeah, I see them,” he says. “They’re early this year.”

So this is normal.

“I’m just worried someone might get bit,” I said,

“Yeah, I hope not,” he replied.

Silence.

“Guess I’ll go back in,” I said.

“Okay,” and he went back to his office.

So in I went. I watched the bats a bit longer, especially when they hung on the screen and screeched. But then they disappeared, and I finally got to watch the film.

Sean Twist

NEW MEMBER HELLOS

Carl, Graeme, Boots, Eric, Jess, Alden, William, Karen, Adrienne, Kristin, Chris, Joel, David, Jez, Heather, Scott, Richard, Jason, Matt, Ben, Isla (Eye-LA), Jay.

I’ll be at Dragon*Con in Atlanta, Georgia this weekend!

Once again we’re headed to Dragon*Con, where I’ll be doing a few TWiT shows in front of a live audience as well as our third Sword and Laser from the conference. Here’s the schedule of all the panels/shows I’ll be on:

Geek a Week Podcast Reunion
Time: Fri 01:00 pm Location: Regency VI – VII – Hyatt (Length: 1)
Description: Join artist Len Peralta as he talks with geek superstars that were featured on the Geek A Week Podcast.

Geek a When art meets science and skepticism
Time: Fri 07:00 pm Location: 205-2097 Hilton

Title: Sword and Laser Live Podcast
Time: Sat 01:00 pm Location: A601 – A602 – Marriott (Length: 1)

Title: Tech News Today
Time: Sat 02:30 pm Location: A601 – A602 – Marriott (Length: 1)

Title: Frame Rate
Time: Sun 04:00 pm Hilton 205-207

Title: NSFWShow
Time: Sat 08:30 pm Hilton Crystal Ballroom

Tech News Today 315: Stretch The Nanotube

Hosts: Tom Merritt, Sarah Lane, Iyaz Akhtar and Jason Howell

Apple’s business model ripped off by Razer, Google kills popular apps, HP, GameStop and BN apologies to everyone.

Guest: Joshua Topolsky

Download or subscribe to this show at twit.tv/tnt.

Submit and vote on story coverage at technewstoday.reddit.com.

We invite you to read, add to, and amend our show notes at wiki.twit.tv.

Thanks to Cachefly for the bandwidth for this show.

Running time: 48:18

Tech News Today 314: The Game Stops Here

New CEO, and end of an era, neither one at Apple this time, GameStop lives up to it’s name, Samsung protests too much, and more.

Guest: Darren Kitchen and Christopher Null

Download or subscribe to this show at twit.tv/tnt.

Submit and vote on story coverage at technewstoday.reddit.com.

We invite you to read, add to, and amend our show notes at wiki.twit.tv.

Thanks to Cachefly for the bandwidth for this show.

Video URL: 
http://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp4/twit.cachefly.net/video/tnt/tnt0314/tnt0314_h264b_864x480_500.mp4

Video URL (low quality): 
http://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp4/twit.cachefly.net/video/tnt/tnt0314/tnt0314_h264b_640x368_256.mp4

Running time: 

37:15

Tech News Today 313: One More Thing

Apple wins in court, but Samsung didn’t lose, Time Warner thumbs nose at Viacom, Steve Jobs resignation announcement, and more.

Guest: Cali Lewis

Download or subscribe to this show at twit.tv/tnt.

Submit and vote on story coverage at technewstoday.reddit.com.

We invite you to read, add to, and amend our show notes at wiki.twit.tv.

Thanks to Cachefly for the bandwidth for this show.

Video URL: 
http://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp4/twit.cachefly.net/video/tnt/tnt0313/tnt0313_h264b_864x480_500.mp4

Video URL (low quality): 
http://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp4/twit.cachefly.net/video/tnt/tnt0313/tnt0313_h264b_640x368_256.mp4

Running time: 

43:31

Tech News Today 312: WebOS Is In A Better Place

Google TV finally getting apps, Why Samsung will buy HP’s PC business, Facebook gets more Google + like, and more.

Guest: Tim Stevens

Download or subscribe to this show at twit.tv/tnt.

Submit and vote on story coverage at technewstoday.reddit.com.

We invite you to read, add to, and amend our show notes at wiki.twit.tv.

Thanks to Cachefly for the bandwidth for this show.

Video URL: 
http://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp4/twit.cachefly.net/video/tnt/tnt0312/tnt0312_h264b_864x480_500.mp4

Video URL (low quality): 
http://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp4/twit.cachefly.net/video/tnt/tnt0312/tnt0312_h264b_640x368_256.mp4

Running time: 

38:17

S&L Podcast – #72 – Interview with Kristian Nairn (Hodor!)

No book pick this week, but we do have a special interview with the man who plays Hodor in the HBO series Game of Thrones.  We’ll find out what he had to do to get the role and how he thinks Hodor thinks. Plus a look at the Hugos and a new book recommendation engine.

QUICK BURNS

Joe Abercrombie’s next book gets a title

Can 32,000 Data Points Yield The Perfect Book Recommendation?

New China Mieville book gets a title 

Hugo winners, 2011

CALENDAR

8/23/2011 – The Measure of the Magic: Legends of Shannara By Terry Brooks
8/23/2011 – The Power of Six (I Am Number Four) By Pittacus Lore
9/6/2011 – Legacy of Kings by C. S. Friedman
9/6/2011 – Tears of the Sun: A novel of change by S. M. Stirling

TV and Movies

For Croatian ASoIaF and GoT fans

3 new actors for GAME OF THRONES, plus Hellboy wants a part

INTERVIEW

Kristian Nairn plays Hodor on the HBO series Game of Thrones. He’s also a DJ and WoW player!

Did he ever just wish his character was mute so he could stop saying “Hodor!”? Also, did he answer a casting call? If so what was the character description? — Nick

Since this is his first major role, I’d like to know a bit about the casting process. How did he land role? What was the audition like? (a lot of Hodoring one would expect) —  Tero

I’d like to know how much say he had in his dialogue. No, seriously. There was a distinct lack of Hodoring in the show and I’d really like to know if he was involved in any discussions on how much Hodor is too much Hodor. I’m wondering whether they were toning it down to not grate on people, or if they just didn’t have time to explain his backstory and didn’t want people wondering about it until they’d had a chance to. — Been

As a fellow big guy (6’7″” and about 280) did he have problems walking around the castles? I almost knocked myself out walking through a castle in Wales wearing a baseball cap. I walked strait into a stone door frame I could not see b/c the hat bill blocked it. Can only imagine how tough that would be with someone riding piggy back. — Alden

Do you think that Hodor has intense internal thought but is unable to communicate it effectively? He can clearly understand what other people expect of him and can look after himself in other ways. — Michael

ADDENDUMS

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