Kulture Kast 26 -- Showing The Love

We're talking about Space Casey from Christiana Ellis, Grant Baciocco of Throwing Toasters, Susan Z's college Shakespeare paper on A Midsummer Night's Dream (aka issue #19 of The Sandman), paintings of big-eyed kids, Tin Man on Sci Fi, The Rise of the Video Game on Discovery Channel, Laurell K. Hamilton's obssession with boring sex, standard porn formulas, Clive Barker, the horror of fame, Paparazzi, and pie.


Promo: Space Casey

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Is It The Future Yet?

So I've been looking at dedicated ebook readers, and I've come up with a few things that seem like good features. Using eInk and/or ePaper? Good. Screen size that corresponds to the size of either a paperback or a hardcover book? Also good. Ability to read PDFs and .txt formats in addition to HTML? Again with the good. Screen that is also a touch screen, so that you can make notes or draw or fill in crossword puzzles in electronically-distributed newspapers? So good it hurts.

Unfortunately, the ebook reader that fits that last feature is BY FAR the most expensive dedicated reader. The iLiad by iRex is everything I want in an ebook reader. It's also $699. Ouch! And the Amazon Kindle fails to overwhelm, on a couple of levels. Bear in mind, too, that I haven't held either of these devices in my grubby little paws, and there is a lot to be said about the user experience. And honestly, until they make them waterproof so that I can take them in the bath, well, the price tag is pretty much a moot point.

Besides, in a couple of years, I can see ebook readers converging with tablets to the point where they become something not unlike the padds in the Star Trek Universe. And when you get down to it, that's what I really want. Especially since I don't see a goddamn flying car in my near future.

[cross-posted from my personal journal]

Kulture Kast 25 -- Holidays are Hell

First of all, we were both wrong about which episode this is -- it's episode 25. The podcast can rent a car! And possibly run for Congress (if only we can destroy all the photo evidence from Dragon*Con). We're talking about Thanksgiving insanity at Marketer Joseph's, Susan Z's experiments with radical honesty and super-sobriety, Nine Inch Noels, inappropriate gifts, the annoyance levels of MySpace and FaceBook, Susan Z's love of all things meta, Biscuit's inappropriate album gifts from his step-mother, and why Biscuit is so goddamn flinchy.

Happy Turkey Day, kids!

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Edited to add: The Steampunk-ish game that Biscuit mentioned was Hellgate London, which is a PC-based RPG along the lines of WoW. Looking at the site, it seems less Steampunk and more post-apocalyptic, but that's just my opinion. The tabletop RPG we talked about was Etherscope from Goodman Games, and it's a d20 adventure game with a hefty dose of Cyberpunk mixed in with the Steampunk.

The Plague Wars

No new kast this week, kids, as Susan Z is still down with the bronchitis. Apparently I sound like the disgusting lovechild of Death and Pestilence. Ick.

Next week, all new content, I promise.

Stranger Things

Do you like sci-fi anthologies like The Twilight Zone, The Outer Limits, or Night Gallery?

If you haven't been following Stranger Things, you really don't know what you're missing.





Check it out!

Kulture Kast 24 -- WGA On Strike

The WGA strike has a big impact on the quality of this week's show, as we talk about the early show shutdowns like The Office and 30 Rock, Battlestar Galactica being pushed back to april, Jon Stewart offering to personally pay his writing staff's salary for two weeks (or did he?), the three categories of crushes for girls, and fictional crushes in general. We're also catching up on podcast novels like 7th Son, Nocturnal, and Playing for Keeps. Plus, as an added bonus, Susan Z over-shares about her relationship with her mother, while forgetting AGAIN to address Choochus's question about The Bus Stop (aka The California Hustle). Hoorays!


Promos: the second of J.C. Hutchins and Mur Lafferty's 7th Heaven promos, and the Playing for Keeps theme from Beatnik Turtle.

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Kulture Kast 23 -- Command Line + Our Number 1 Fan = Good Times

Command Line and our number one fan Andrea are in the house. We're all over the map tonight, folks. New Media Douchebags, the Doppler Effect, the Jammie Thomas verdict, Zwack, the coolness of Matthew Wayne Selznick, the upcoming Zombie Apocalypse, and watch parts auctions on eBay.

Cross-promotional goodness from J.C. Hutchins and Mur Lafferty.

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