Binary System Podcast Archive

This episode originally broadcast on April 4, 2024. The original podcast post is here: https://pixelatedgeek.com/2024/04/binary-system-podcast-405-wtnv-245-fridge-worthy/

On this week's Night Vale recap, Carlos and Cecil hold an exclusive Art Show (ie: a family dinner so they can show off Estaban's drawing on the fridge) and we get some of our favorite horror tropes: unreliable narrators, creepy jumps in time, and pictures that change when you're not looking at them. Or do they? No, they totally do. (Keep your eye on the owls.)

After that Elizabeth goes over this year's WonderCon (short version: it rained the whole time, but you can't keep the cosplayers down) and Kathryn gives an enthusiastic thumbs up to Dune Part 2. (Make sure you get good seats, you'll want to see everything because man alive is it pretty.)

Before we wrap up we also mention how Lore Olympus is ending at episode 280 and if we don't get the resolution to at least seven different plotlines we're going to be cross. (Unless she's just moving from Webtoons to another format, in which case shut up and take our money.)

This week's outro is a clip from Unrighteous by Beat Mekanik.

You can find all the WonderCon 2024 content here!

Looking for a present for that hard-to-shop-for person? Want to buy them (or yourself) a square foot of a castle in Scotland? Look no further! You can support the restoration of Dunan's castle, legally call yourself Lady or Laird, AND if you use this link to get there, you can support this podcast too! ScottishLaird.co.uk.

For updates, fan art, and other randomness, come follow us on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and Instagram!

Originally broadcast on March 28, 2024. The original podcast post is here: https://pixelatedgeek.com/2024/03/binary-system-podcast-404-lore-olympus-episode-270-and-271/

The first half of Lore Olympus episode 270 is light on dialog. Baby Dionysus starts the most adorable Hero's Journey ever as he sets off to rescue Hades and Persephone. The cuteness balances out the second half of the episode, with images of Hades dealing with his worst nightmare: being a child at the mercy of his father Kronos. No physical abuse (in this episode anyway), but still, bleak.

Episode 271 jumps to Hera and Persephone in Tartarus, preparing to take on Kronos. Hera is obviously ready to sacrifice herself, but there's still some hope; Hera's skills at conversation can make even a titan stop and think for a bit, and Persephone has already demonstrated that she now has the power to make a god bleed.

Not much else going on in the nerd world right now, so we talk for a bit about the latest developments with the Royal Family (get well soon), and about the plans for the next Fyre Festival. And by "plans" we mean McFarland is releasing commercials and selling tickets less than a year before a festival that isn't even 1% ready to go. Again. Everybody stock up on popcorn, the "Fyre2" documentary is gonna be wild.

This week's outro is a clip from Thumper by Beat Mekanik.

Correction: At around minute 9:42 "Zeus" is accidentally referred to as "Hades". And neither of us noticed.

Looking for a present for that hard-to-shop-for person? Want to buy them (or yourself) a square foot of a castle in Scotland? Look no further! You can support the restoration of Dunan's castle, legally call yourself Lady or Laird, AND if you use this link to get there, you can support this podcast too! ScottishLaird.co.uk.

For updates, fan art, and other randomness, come follow us on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and Instagram!

This episode originally broadcast on March 21, 2024, the original podcast post is here: https://pixelatedgeek.com/2024/03/binary-system-podcast-403-wtnv-244-a-multiplicity-of-kevin/

On the latest episode of Welcome to Night Vale, Kevin the Younger is determined to kill Kevin the Older, so he’s used Carlos’ lab to open a portal to the Desert Otherworld. Cecil wants to tell the story, Tamika wants to stop the bloodshed, and Carlos wants everyone to PLEASE be careful of the beakers they’re fragile and can we oh COME ON what did I JUST SAY?

After the recap we talk about The Crown, both the Netflix show that just wrapped up and the ridiculous goings on with the Royal Family in the real world. (Not to make light, we hope everyone’s okay, but maybe for the sake of the empire we could have fewer crappy Photoshop images and people screwing around on their spouses, kaythnxbye.)

In addition to all that we have the usual tangents into Pie-in-the-Sky cosplay plans, reading summaries of horror movies you're too chicken to watch, catching up with Marvel TV, Legends and Lattes, Paul Atreides being more of a tragic figure than a villain in the book, and whether or not greek yogurt on hot dog buns would be nice.

This week's outro is a clip from Blade Rider by Beat Mekanik.

The ghost-story author we were trying to think of is Kathryn Tucker Windham.

This is the Vox article that compares The Royal Family to pandas.

Looking for a present for that hard-to-shop-for person? Want to buy them (or yourself) a square foot of a castle in Scotland? Look no further! You can support the restoration of Dunan's castle, legally call yourself Lady or Laird, AND if you use this link to get there, you can support this podcast too! ScottishLaird.co.uk.

For updates, fan art, and other randomness, come follow us on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and Instagram!

This episode originally broadcast on March 14, 2024, the original podcast post is here: https://pixelatedgeek.com/2024/03/binary-system-podcast-402-lore-olympus-episode-268-and-269-spider-verse-and-the-2024-oscars/

There's a great big ceremony that happens every year, you may have heard of it? The Oscars? Anyway, the Binary System Podcast didn't watch it, but they do have lots of opinions about the winners. (And some of the ones that didn't win. You guys, have you seen Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse?)

And of course we also recap two episodes of Lore Olympus. Apollo's plot to force Persephone to marry him is basically The Patriarchy in its purest form. Fortunately Persephone has someone on her side: EVERYONE. (Bonus: Hera throws a "yo mama" at Apollo and it's perfect.)

This week's outro is a clip from Subroutine Confirm by TeknoAXE.

Looking for a present for that hard-to-shop-for person? Want to buy them (or yourself) a square foot of a castle in Scotland? Look no further! You can support the restoration of Dunan's castle, legally call yourself Lady or Laird, AND if you use this link to get there, you can support this podcast too! ScottishLaird.co.uk.

For updates, fan art, and other randomness, come follow us on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and Instagram!

Originally broadcast on March 7, 2024. The original podcast post is here: https://pixelatedgeek.com/2024/03/binary-system-podcast-401-wtnv-243-lost-and-found-and-more-of-the-oscar-nominations/

On this week's Night Vale episode, we highly approve of Cecil devoting an entire broadcast to Lost and Found submissions, because writer Brie Williams is very good with lists of random weirdness, unexpected sweetness, and things with TEETH.

From there we jump into three more Oscar nominated films we finally watched, namely Oppenheimer (brilliant but a bit too long, with "the most unnecessary nude scene ever"), Elemental, and Nimona. While we think Pixar usually has the better shot at winning the Animated Feature award, we're really pulling for Nimona.

Along the way we wander off into tangents like the Hot Ones show, Florence Pugh, Redbox, nerd underwear, and the REALLY STUPID ADS in Amazon Prime.

This week's outro is a clip from Keepsake by Beat Mekanik.

Clarification: Redbox is 2.25, but that's just for one night, once you double it it's about the same as most of the 2-night rentals from Prime.

Correction: Elemental did have a theatrical release, but according to the New York Times it had "the worst opening in Pixar history." It's since become a lot more successful.

Correction #2 - Annapurna Pictures is the production company that took over from Blue Sky Studios when Disney axed Nimona.

Kathryn got her Soot Sprite undies from All Teh Smol Things.

Looking for a present for that hard-to-shop-for person? Want to buy them (or yourself) a square foot of a castle in Scotland? Look no further! You can support the restoration of Dunan's castle, legally call yourself Lady or Laird, AND if you use this link to get there, you can support this podcast too! ScottishLaird.co.uk.

This episode originally broadcast on February 29, 2024. The original podcast post is here: https://pixelatedgeek.com/2024/02/binary-system-podcast-400-start-from-the-beginning/

Happy 400th episode! Time flies, right? About ten years ago we started recording our Night Vale discussions because we're giant nerds and nerds gotta podcast. But here's the thing: we started with the Night Vale episode that'd just been released, "Renovations," number 48 in the series. We've discussed every episode since then, but not once have we gone back to the beginning.

The same goes for Saga, Transformers, and (our current favorite thing) Lore Olympus, we started talking about them way after they'd started. That just won't do. TO THE TIME MACHINE!

In addition to a deep dive into issue/episode #1 of several of our favorites, we also discussed the first episode of THIS VERY PODCAST. As well as #266 and #267 of Lore Olympus, since we can't wait even a week to discuss the latest two episodes because we're obsessed. Stick around until the end of the episode to hear more than a minute of name flubs and cats deciding to cat.

This week's outro is a clip from Voyageur by Monkey Warhol.

You can find Kathryn's review of the first few months of IDW's Transformers: More Than Meets The Eye here.

Looking for a present for that hard-to-shop-for person? Want to buy them (or yourself) a square foot of a castle in Scotland? Look no further! You can support the restoration of Dunan's castle, legally call yourself Lady or Laird, AND if you use this link to get there, you can support this podcast too! ScottishLaird.co.uk.

This episode originally broadcast on February 22, 2024. The original podcast post is here: https://pixelatedgeek.com/2024/02/binary-system-podcast-399-wtnv-242-the-new-branch-and-the-oscar-nominated-animated-shorts/

On the latest episode of Night Vale the Librarians broke out of their cages but some heroes saved the day andnoweverythingisfineTheEnd SO! HOW ABOUT THOSE OSCAR ANIMATED SHORTS?

(Kidding, it was a fun episode of Night Vale, we're just really excited to talk about cartoons.)

Anyway, massive spoiler warnings as we discuss our favorite Oscar-nominated animated shorts, which were as surprising as they were upsetting, just how we like them. (This episode of VagueCast is brought to you by the 2024 Oscar Animated Shorts Collection: yiiiiikes.)

And before we wrap up, we also have to go over the latest Hugo-Award-Clusterf*ck news, which was outdated even before we finished recording because it KEEPS GETTING WORSE.

This week's outro is a clip from Illusion by Darkfluxx.

Correction: we said passenger pigeon several times, when we meant carrier pigeon. Homing pigeon would’ve been even better.

Correction 2: War Is Over isn’t a Beatles song, John Lennon released it outside of the band. Elizabeth apologizes to all the John Lennon fans out there. For that and for saying the cartoon would've been better if the song wasn't in it.

In case you're curious, here's the list of all the Oscar Winning Animated Shorts. Turns out yes, some years the winner wasn't particularly family-friendly (2021's "The Windshield Wiper" has a lot of sexy content) but 2015's "Bear Story" beat "World of Tomorrow", and 2016's "Piper" beat "Pear Cider and Cigarettes" and that's when Elizabeth decided family-friendly beats edgy-and-cool most years.

As of today the Oscar-nominated animated feature Nimona is still up for free on YouTube!

Here's a good write-up of the Hugo Awards debacle. (Short version: the board self-censored anything they thought MIGHT upset the Chinese government, and were as stupid about it as you can possibly imagine.) (And the post doesn't mention the fact that the board did business with a Chinese company that's been sanctioned by the US Government, but we're still waiting to hear how all that turns out.)

Looking for a present for that hard-to-shop-for person? Want to buy them (or yourself) a square foot of a castle in Scotland? Look no further! You can support the restoration of Dunan's castle, legally call yourself Lady or Laird, AND if you use this link to get there, you can support this podcast too! ScottishLaird.co.uk.

For updates, fan art, and other randomness, come follow us on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and Instagram!

This episode originally broadcast on February 15 2024. The original podcast post is here: https://pixelatedgeek.com/2024/02/binary-system-podcast-398-lore-olympus-episode-264-and-265/

In the latest Lore Olympus episodes we’ve read, Demeter revealed a little more about Persephone’s history as a Fertility Goddess (namely, that she definitely is one, and that someone else in Demeter’s generation used to be, not sure who). That was episode 264, and the theme of 265 can be summed up even more briefly: asking for consent is SEXY.

In our ongoing attempt to at least see some of the Oscar nominees, Elizabeth watched Poor Things this week and she was highly impressed. It’s gorgeous, surreal, rather dark and very, very sexy. (If you go, prepare for much nudity.) Kathryn also finished reading R.F. Kuang’s Babel this week (you can find the review here), but couldn’t see why it was singled out by the Chinese government to be disqualified from getting a Hugo Award nomination. If that is, in fact, what happened. Still not much information about the whole Hugo debacle, but we’ll of course spill all the tea if we hear anything.

This week’s outro is a clip from Synthwave C by TeknoAXE.

In our discussion about possible Chinese government censorship, Elizabeth referenced a BlueSky comment that was talking about this article: The Anaconda in the Chandelier.

Looking for a present for that hard-to-shop-for person? Want to buy them (or yourself) a square foot of a castle in Scotland? Look no further! You can support the restoration of Dunan’s castle, legally call yourself Lady or Laird, AND if you use this link to get there, you can support this podcast too! ScottishLaird.co.uk.

For updates, fan art, and other randomness, come follow us on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and Instagram!

This episode originally broadcast on February 8, 2024. The original podcast post is here: https://pixelatedgeek.com/2024/02/binary-system-podcast-397-wtnv-241-he-is-still-holding-a-knife/

When we last heard from Night Vale in December, Cecil was being held hostage by a strange boy with a large knife, and this week's episode picks up right where we left off. It's another Brie Williams story so you know there's going to be delightful lists of really weird things. Knives! Trapper Keepers! Field Trip Carnage! Blood Drive cleanup! Door Dash delivery delayed on account of tar and feathers! AND MORE KNIVES DON'T FORGET ABOUT THE KNIVES.

After the recap Kathryn gives the thumbs up to Oppenheimer, which doesn't need an IMAX viewing because it's a great movie that's going to win a bunch of awards, but aside from the bit with the bomb (...spoilers?..) it is mostly Very Dramatic Scenes of People Talking, so regular screens are fine.

This week's outro is a clip from Wayside by Hotham.

Be sure to check out the Black Com!x Day photo gallery.

The podcast Elizabeth mentioned is the 90-Minute Film Fest, celebrating movies under an hour and a half long.

Regarding the little outtake clip at the end, Elizabeth was referring to a couple of Supernatural-related podcast episodes she found: we were never huge fans of Supernatural, so we thought the finale was more silly than anything else. But Elizabeth stumbled on an episode of The Fangirl Business: A Supernatural Podcast, and it really sheds light on how traumatized some of the long-time fans were by the finale. (And for some lighter listening, one of their more recent episodes is about how much they enjoyed the season 1 finale of The Winchesters, which seems to have taken some of the sting out of the Supernatural finale.)

Looking for a present for that hard-to-shop-for person? Want to buy them (or yourself) a square foot of a castle in Scotland? Look no further! You can support the restoration of Dunan's castle, legally call yourself Lady or Laird, AND if you use this link to get there, you can support this podcast too! ScottishLaird.co.uk.

This episode originally broacast on February 2, 2024. The original podcast post is here: https://pixelatedgeek.com/2024/02/binary-system-podcast-396-lore-olympus-episode-262-and-263-guardians-of-the-galaxy-vol-3-and-the-oscar-nominations/

Episodes 262 and 263 feature a Persephone who’s dealing with the uncomfortable reality that the Mortal Realm is dying and it may possibly be all her fault. But for the Binary System Podcast team, that calamity pales in comparison to the fact that Apollo is being a gigantic jerk and it’s stressing us out. The artwork is gorgeous as usual, and there are several ‘lol’ moments (Persephone talkin’ dirty to Hades, you go girl!) But still, Apollo, man.

Elizabeth also watched the final installment of Guardians of the Galaxy, which she really liked! However, it took her a while to get through it, so that led to a discussion of Marvel Fatigue, the latest on the Hugo Awards debacle, and all the Oscar nominated movies we should be watching, but c’mon Hollywood. Meet us halfway: give us some convenient showtimes, a nearby theater that’s not too far to drive, and maybe throw in an intermission in the middle of these three-hour-plus films, if it’s not too much trouble? Kthxbye.

This week’s outro is a clip from Encounter of Every Possible Kind by Midnight Commando.

It turns out it wasn’t Oppenheimer that had some unauthorized intermissions added into the three-hour runtime before the movie producers slapped the theaters down. It was Killers of the Flower Moon, which is even longer.

The John Scalzi comments we were discussing were about Dave McCarty, who has handled the fallout from last year’s Hugo Awards, well, pretty damn badly. He has since apologized. And resigned his position as a director of W.I.P. (the non-profit that runs the Hugo Awards). Still no word on what’s going on with perfectly good works of fiction getting ruled ineligible for no reason, but it’s a start.

Looking for a present for that hard-to-shop-for person? Want to buy them (or yourself) a square foot of a castle in Scotland? Look no further! You can support the restoration of Dunan’s castle, legally call yourself Lady or Laird, AND if you use this link to get there, you can support this podcast too! ScottishLaird.co.uk.

For updates, fan art, and other randomness, come follow us on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and Instagram!