Show #119: The Alchemy Center

The hundy-teenninth episode of our podcast, Paul and Storm Talk About Some Stuff for Five to Ten Minutes (On Average), is now online.

This week’s episode: technical difficulties; getting excited about astronaut ice cream; Paul’s extra-cheese calibrations; the joy of Radio Shack, vacuum tubes, and that ozone smell; direct brain image injections; slack-key slidewhistle and other pop music delights; the death of horn sections; the death of dance crazes; freedom to waggle your genitals; and recommending Marian Call, Ernie Cline, and more Breaking Bad.

Show #119: The Alchemy Center

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Show #118: He-e-y! The Fonz

The hundy-teen8th episode of our podcast, Paul and Storm Talk About Some Stuff for Five to Ten Minutes (On Average), is now online.

This week’s episode: Storm is now a homebody; The Militant Assholes; much talk of candy—old-people vs. young-people candy, adult appreciation of said candy, and parental withholding of if; our long-lost fake Bennigans-style restaurant; the Special Dark Brotherhood, and the awfulness of white chocolate; our impending Acquisitions Inc. recordings; Storm harps on space exploration; “Breaking Bad” and “Downton Abbey”; Paul’s technical issues (for once); homemade vs. store-bought Halloween costumes, and Storm’s epic Fonzie costume; and dueling Grouchos.

Post-show song: “Critical Hit”, Paul and Storm

Show #118: He-e-y! The Fonz

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Happy “Talk Like a Pirate Day”, Mateys!

It may not be an official national holiday yet; but it’s one of our favorites, for obvious reasons.

In honor of the one day each year when geeks of every stripe lift their voices together and assault their families, co-workers, barristas, and other landlubbers with a hail of “arrrrr”s, we’re once again offering our pirate anthem “The Captain’s Wife’s Lament” as a FREE DOWNLOAD.

Or, if you’d prefer, we can tell ye that YE MUST PAY FOR ALL OUR MUSIC, OR ELSE, and then go ahead and do what ye must.

The Captain’s Wife’s Lament (Right-click and choose “Save file as…” blah blah blah)

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You can also enjoy the excellent WoW-animated video for the song, courtesy of Spiff

More Songs on Rock Band!

As we have mentioned on the Twitterz, we have not one but TWO more songs on the Rock Band Network now, and they’re both about men.

Now you can sing and play along on “Nugget Man” and “Fuzzy Man (Fuzzy Nation)” on Rock Band for the Xbox 360. Neato!

As soon as you are fully prepared to rock, click on the links below for information and to purchase…

Nugget Man

Fuzzy Man (Fuzzy Nation)

Show #117: That’s One…

The hundy-teen7th episode of our podcast, Paul and Storm Talk About Some Stuff for Five to Ten Minutes (On Average), is now online.

This week’s episode: a special episode, recorded LIVE at Dragon*Con 2011, with special guest Jonathan Coulton. We discuss Jonathan’s new album and songwriting process at length; the absence of monkeys; puzzles vs. mysteries; pervasive sadness; writing for and with bands; a new manner of public shaming audience miscreants; musical influences; background music; terrible sights we’ve seen and the retelling of the Madison Kitten Rescue; flavored chips; whither w00tstock; and the Planet Money story.

Big thanks to Swoopy for running the room, and to Ken Plume and Widgett Walls for putting together our whole Dragon*Con experience!

Show #117: That’s One…

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Thanks, PAX! And Now, Here Comes Dragon*Con…

So Many Leias...Thanks once again to everyone at PAX for a pants-soilingly good time*. Special thanks to our friends both old and new who joined us for a truly epic live version of “I Will Sing a Lullabye“.

And now, we realign our sights for another weekend of fun nerd-conventioning: Dragon*Con. Here is our planned schedule:

Friday, Sept. 2
1 pm – Geek-a-Week Panel – Hyatt, Regency VI-VII
Hosted by Len Peralta

2:30 pm – Paul and Storm Talk About Some Stuff for Five to Ten Minutes (On Average), LIVE! – Hilton, Room 204
A live recording of our podcast, with special guest Jonathan Coulton (and possibly other folks, depending on what incriminating photos we can gather between now and then)

8:30 pm – Variety Playhouse
Concert at our favorite Atlanta venue, with Jonathan Coulton and his band (it’s also a release party for his new CD, Artificial Heart). NOTE: This show is not associated with Dragon*Con, you must buy tickets for it like a non-badge holding mortal.

Saturday,  Sept. 3rd
During the day-ish – we’ll be selling and signing at our merch table at some point on Saturday; details and location TBA (check our Twitter feed at @paulandstorm for updates)

4:30 pm (-ish) – Parsec Awards Ceremony – Hyatt, Regency V
We’re presenting an award at the Parsec Awards Ceremony (which honor speculative fiction podcasting). Come see who we’ll be wearing!

8:30 pm – Gonzoroo (concert) – Marriott, Atrium Ballroom
An official Dragon*Con concert this time, again with us and Jonathan Coulton and many special, surprise guests. Hosted by the inimitable Ken Plume and Widgett Walls. There will be merch sales immediately following this show as well, somewhere right near the Atrium Ballroom. (Location TBA)

Sunday, Sept. 4th
During the day-ish – more merch sales. Twitter for updates, blah blah blah. UPDATE: Our table is on the Marquis floor of the Marriott; we will be there at roughly 11-12 Sunday morning, and then again around 2 pm Sunday afternoon.

1 pm – FRED Presents Yet Another Panel About Doctor Who – Hyatt, International North
Ken Plume and Glen Oliver host, you guessed it, a panel about Doctor Who. We’re “helping out.” Watch out for low-flying irreverence.

8:30 pm – Gonzo Quiz Show III: BEYOND THUNDERQUIZ – Hyatt, Regency VI-VIII
A celebrity quiz show panel show thingy, hosted by Ken Plume and Widgett Walls. We did this one a few years ago, and it was pretty crazy-nuts.

UPDATE: Mon., Sept. 5th
10 am – Wil Wheaton’s Panel – SHeraton, Grand Ballroom
We’ll be joining Wil Wheaton at his panel (that he refuses to acknowledge is called “Wesley Crusher: Boy Genius”, as he wasn’t consulted), proving musical accompaniment and generally doing the “Dance, Monkeys!” thing.

Will we see you all there? THE CORRECT ANSWER IS “YES.”

*We did not actually soil our pants**.

**As far as you know.

Elvis Presley Died So That You Could Have This Song for Free

Elvis Presley died 34 years ago today; and as we all know, 34 is the “free song” anniversary. As such, please download, enjoy and share our song commemorating the event, Elvis Died Today, completely for FREE. Hunka hunka.

Long live The King.

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Elvis Died Today

(click to download, right-click then “Save As…” or however you do it on your particular machine; you should know how to do this by now!)

Show #116: Monkey Soup and the Perfect Photobomb

Perfect PhotobombThe hundy-teensixy episode of our podcast, Paul and Storm Talk About Some Stuff for Five to Ten Minutes (On Average), is now online.

This week’s episode: we recap our Comic-Con/w00tstock 3.0 experience, including being (temporarily) killed, and being closer than ever to Joss Whedon; sleepaway camp, and the distasteful craft of macrame; we recommend several things—The Pixar Touch, The Star Wars Craft Book, They Might Be Giants’ “Join Us“, and webcomic Bearmageddon; a discussion of the elements that go into the Perfect Photobomb; and things we “missed out on,” which leads to the revelation that neither of us have read any Salinger.

AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION ALERT: Please respond to the poll below as to whether or not we should read The Catcher in the Rye.

Show #116: Monkey Soup and the Perfect Photobomb

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Click here to take the poll

Show #115: Dangerously Close to Actual Content

The hundy-teenfived episode of our podcast, Paul and Storm Talk About Some Stuff for Five to Ten Minutes (On Average), is now online.

This week’s episode: coming up with good podcast topics (or not); CONvergence debriefing and Storm’s failure to take 1,000 pictures with cosplayers; the introversion of musicians; VY Canis Majoris and fever dreams; Phineas and Ferb is not for stoners; TARDIS vs. DeLorean; and dancing with dragons.

Show #115: Dangerously Close to Actual Content

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Time To CONverge!

People have been asking us to come to Minneapolis* for CONvergence for years, and this weekend it’s finally happening. And next to being presented with our own TARDIS, we couldn’t be more giddy with antici….pation!

More precisely, here’s where we’re scheduled to be:

We’ll also post/tweet/FB any other activities we get mixed up with, assuming we’re not too loopy on Pan-Galactic Gargle Blasters to operate a keyboard.

ARE YOU A COSPLAYER? If so, know that Storm has bravely/foolishly set a goal of having his picture taken with 1,000 cosplayers over the course of the weekend, to be posted in this handy Flickr Group. And even if you’re not dressed up as Slave Leia, Iron Man, Iron Leia, or any other character, please do say “hi”!

*yes, technically it’s in Bloomington, MN