Radio Active #4: Dreamcatcher, Finding Serenity, KODT #100 and a Geek Dad on the Xbox

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Radio Active PodcastRadio Active #4 reviews Stephen King’s alien invasion novel Dreamcatcher and the movie adaptation, discusses the new essay collection Finding Serenity, about Joss Whedon’s Firefly series, talks about Knights of the Dinner Table Magazine #100.  finally offers some thoughts on gaming when you’re a geek dad.

Getting the Podcast

You can get the podcast in two ways:

I post new episodes of Radio Active every week or so. Comments–particularly audio comments–about the podcast are always welcome, and can be sent to nuketown@gmail.com (which should have more than enough space to handle any audio notes).

 

Show Notes

  • Quote: Just remember what ol’ Jack Burton does when the earth quakes, the poison arrows fall from the sky, and the pillars of Heaven shake. Yeah, Jack Burton just looks that big old storm right in the eye and says, “Give me your best shot. I can take it”– Jack Burton, Big Trouble in Little China (movie)
  • Problems with RSS Feed. Thanks for Evo of The Dragon Page for pinpointing the error.
  • Beautiful day in Easton PA, and has me itching to switch out my wrangler’s softtop for the hard top, but having lived in the North East my whole life, I know there’s still the possibility of an early spring blizzard, so I’m going to hold off until around the 15th.
  • Quote: “What are they running from?” — Dreamcatcher (movie)
  • Dreamcatcher by Stephen King
    • The book
    • The movie
    • The story in which an utterly alien species invades backcountry Maine, interrupting the vacation of four boyhood friends, and the brutal military response by the U.S. government, under the command of a psychotic general. Re-introduces us to Derry, visiting some of the old locales from It. Reminds me of some of the great old King stories involving the nefarious SHOP and its attempts to track down mutant humans.
    • H.P. Lovecraft meets the X-Files. Great as a Delta Green Op.
    • Even better as a mental battle of wills. Loved the parts when Johnsy is trapped in his own brain.
    • The ending … well, I still don’t quite get the ending. Skip ahead if you don’t want to hear this; basically I guess it come down to Johnsy getting attacked by a mental meme, and not being able to let go of it.
    • Movie was great to start (saw it the day before my wife went into labor with our daughter actually; I needed to relax, and Sue gave me her blessing to go geek out).
  • Quote: “You Can’t Take the Sky From Me” — Firefly Theme Song
  • Finding Serenity: Anti-Heroes, Lost Shepherds and Space Hooks
    • Book: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1932100431/nuketown/
    • Sucker for all things Firefly related. It’s a collection of essays about the themes encountered in Firefly.
    • Benbella Books
    • 240 pages
    • Coming out April 1
    • Got a review copy of it over the weekend, and did a little happy dance, drawing a few odd stares from my family, but I’m really looking forward to reading this.
  • Knights of the Dinner Table #100
    • Knights of the Dinner Table Home Page
    • Huge double-sized issue, and I’m really proud of it. Great production values. I’ve done the “Summon Web Scryer” column for the last few years (don’t ask me how many — I’ve lost count).
    • This issue doesn’t tie directly into the ongoing storylines, but manages to touch on most of the comic book’s major themes (friendship, backstabbing, tpks)
  • Xbox and the Geek Dad
    • Article linked to on Joystiq lamenting the decline of PC gaming in favor of console gaming, and complaining that console games were basically, well, stupid.
    • To which I’ll say: is not wanting to screw around with device drivers, game patches, and misc. devices “Stupid?”
    • A while back, around when StarGirl was born, I decided I’d had enough of the PC gaming merry-go-round, and bought an Xbox.
    • Still play Warcraft on my PowerMac from time to time and I’ll fire up Civ3 on my PC laptop, but mostly, I’m on Xbox.
    • No problems with drivers. Rarely if ever crashes. Biggest problem I’ve had comes form the occasional hiccup with wireless networking
    • Perfect for the geek dad, be because I can easily jump on when StarGirl takes a name, can play for a few minutes when I get home and Sue’s making dinner, etc.
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