Hello all Geeks, Geekettes and Cousin Its!  It’s your pal Snowball here with something special for ya!  I know it’s been a while since I’ve showed up here on TWiG, but me showing up may be a hint of things to come.  So you never know. *wink* *wink*

I’m a big fan of Holiday tradition.  Growing up there were several things I loved about the Holidays and even though things have changed throughout the years, there are some traditions that stay the same.  One of them being, is on Christmas Eve my family and I would watch the movie “A Christmas Story.”  It’s hilarious, poignant, and because I honestly looked like Ralphie Parker growing up (almost).  There are so many great moments in this film:  The tongue to the flagpole, Frag-ee-lay, the Leg Lamp, Santa Claus, The Furnace, and of course the quest for the Red Ryder BB Gun.  However, one of my favourites was the Narrator, Jean Shepherd.  That voice carried such a tone that I gravitated to that kind of storytelling.

Well, here’s an interesting fact about that movie.  Our beloved narrator was the author of the short stories that the movie is based on!  Not only is the screenplay  written by him, but some of the lines themselves are taken directly from Jean’s written work.  The short stories were in a collection called “In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash” or as it’s now being reprinted everywhere as “A Christmas Story”.  I was given the book by my mom for Christmas one year and I loved reading it every Christmas.

So this year inspiration struck me and I decided to take one of the stories from this book and narrate it myself to give to you as an audio Christmas present!  I took the longest story of the book called “Duel in the Snow, or Red Ryder nails The Cleveland Street Kid” which focuses on Ralphie’s quest to get the Red Ryder BB Gun and record it for you to enjoy.  I will warn you though, it doesn’t have the Skut Farcus episode, the Bumpus dogs, or the Flagpole debacle, but it’s a great story for those who love the movie.

I release this under a:

A Christmas Story by Jean Shepherd – Read by Steve Saylor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at stevesaylor.net.

If you want to download the short story, click here.

Share it, like it, tweet it, and enjoy it!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

As always I remain, obediently yours.

Steve

Either way, here are some of my positive/negative thoughts on the Network Upfronts of 2009.

Positive:

Chuck (NBC) – One of my all-time favourite shows gets a third season.  This show had been consistent throughout the second season with it’s quirky, geeky, humour that I enjoy a lot.  This show was literally on the bubble right up until NBC announced Chuck got a third season.  With the season finale that Chuck had, you could tell the writers had a thought that the show wouldn’t be picked up so it cleaned up most of the loose ends that were introduced in seasons 1 and 2 quite nicely, and yet added new ones in the hope of a third season.  This was a hawesome game changer.  It keeps Chuck fresh and not bogged down by loose ends.  And with that hawesome ender with the Intersect 2.0 now knowing Kung-Fu and what I predict many other hidden features we have yet to see is going to make for a great third season!

Dollhouse (FOX) – The surprise move by FOX was picking up Dollhouse for a second season.  This is fantastic for us Whedon fans and honestly the first season had a great storyline.  I enjoyed most of it pretty much from episode 5 on.  Admittedly it had a slow start, but it really ramped up on episode 5 and for me it kept up that consistency for the rest of the season.  Why FOX picked up Dollhouse?  Well from what I have read, they believe in the story and the capabilities of Joss.  This is a different FOX than we’ve seen before when Firefly was on the air.  Granted, Dollhouse did poorly in the ratings, I think though the show has promise and just has a different audience than everyone expected.  It has an on-demand audience than just a live audience.

Glee(FOX) – This was a show I wasn’t expecting, but knew was inevitable.  With the huge success of Disney’s High School Musical franchise and American Idol.  The concept of Glee as a comedy set in a High School Glee Club on the surface seems like just a cop-out of an idea.  However, after seeing the pilot (which had a special viewing after the American Idol finale) I enjoyed it.  The show has potential.  It’s again quirky, fun, and entertaining.  It’s not a musical, it’s not a contest, it’s a teen dramedy that has some really rocking tunes in it!  I have listened to the Glee Club versions of “Rehab” and “Don’t Stop Believing” quite a few times now, and it hits that button of being entertaining and dare I say it, makes me GLEEfully happy.  It’s coming out in the Fall and I can’t wait to see if the show can keep it’s charm.

Negatives:

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (FOX) – Of course one of the saddest news from the upfronts was Terminator: SCC was canceled.  I think it came down to both Dollhouse and Terminator, and Dollhouse won of course.  Honestly, I like the show.  It had it’s ups and downs, but the second season really ramped up near the end and with the season/series finale we were introduced to something hawesome that we will never see resolved.  Granted though this show definitely had budget issues.  There is a lot of special effects when making those Terminators and it showed, and that costs a lot of money.  So fiscally Terminator had to go.  Storywise, Terminator should have stayed.  The one thing I would’ve loved to see was a better tie in between the show and Terminator Salvation.  This was the perfect marketing opportunity for both show and movie and they didn’t for whatever reason.  I’m sad to see it go, but I understand FOX’s reasoning behind not picking it up.

Chuck (NBC) – The reason why I’m giving a negative stance on Chuck is due to the budget cuts that the producers had to make to allow NBC to pickup another season.  Chuck is only getting a 13 episode season and no idea if NBC will give it a back nine.  This also sucks because we may not see some of the cool effects that we’ve seen on Chuck, and will have to be scaled back now.  I think this could be good in that it can really force the creative team to come up with a great storyline that relies on characters and not on effects.  I think it can be done, but I am worried that with these budget cuts we may see a character go so the actor’s salary can give the producers money to keep the quality of the show up.  I hope it doesn’t come down to that, but you never know.

Reaper (CW) – Another one of those shows that I am sad to see go without getting real resolution.  The season finale was great, but it didn’t feel like a series finale which I’m really sad to see.  That’s one thing I’m not happy about with networks in that they make their decisions on shows so last minute that writers never get the chance to properly end a story and give it’s audience closure.  There was hope that Reaper would be picked up by another network, possibly SyFy, but according to a SyFy exec on Twitter, they are not picking up the show.  So long Reaper, we hardly knew ye.

So that’s it.  I don’t want to really mention any of the new shows being picked up(other than Glee of course), because I haven’t seen any of them yet.  I would expect more thoughts from me when the new shows air, so stay tuned in the fall for that.  For now though, I would like to hear your comments on the upfronts now that we’ve had time to digest them.  So give your thoughts in the comments.

Thanks for reading this far, and as always I remain obediently yours.

Steve

Crack out the whip, and take out the Hat, this week’s Fan DVD Commentary is Raider’s of the Lost Ark. This movie stars Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones who is an adventurer archeologist who must search for the Ark of The Covenant…before the Nazi’s do! Duh Duh Duuuuuuuuuuuhhh.

Of course WE RECOMMEND watching the movie first then watch along with this track. If you would like to purchase the DVD click on our Amazon.com link.

Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark (Special Edition)

Technical Note – Snowball’s Mic was lower than the rest of the cast in this commentary which wasn’t caught until after recording, we apologize for the inconvenience.

So download and enjoy!

Commentators:
Steve “Snowball” Saylor
Andy Appelle
“Rob”

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Download TWiG-DVDC-RaidersOfTheLostArk.mp3

Out of all the previous tech/new media folks we have talked to in our over two year history, one of the most prominent person was missing from our archives, and that is Tech Journalist Leo Laporte. Leo is Host and Producer of the This Week in Tech Netcast Network at http://twit.tv as well as host of KFI/Clear Channel’s The Tech Guy Radio Show. Listen and enjoy as Steve talks to Leo about his 30 year broadcasting career and his thoughts on where Media is heading.

So download and enjoy!

Interviewers:
Steve “Snowball” Saylor

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Download TWiG-LeoLaporte.mp3

If you would also like to see the video of the show when it was recorded live on http://live.twit.tv go here: http://odtv.me/2009/02/12/this-week-in-geek-interview-2/

Today’s interview is with one of the stars of the direct to DVD Without a Paddle Sequel, Nature’s Calling, Kristopher Turner. Mike and Kris talk about Kris’ career and other awesome stuff!

So download and enjoy!

Interviewers:
Mike “The Birdman” Dodd

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Download TWiG-KristopherTurner.mp3