Binary System Podcast Archive

Original broadcast date June 8, 2023. The original podcast post is here: https://pixelatedgeek.com/2023/06/binary-system-podcast-365-lore-olympus-245-and-246-and-umbrella-academy/

“I really hope this is not just his dad pretending to be a nice person….oh. You’re…not saying anything, I can see it in your face.”
“My face is blank I’m not saying anything with my face.”

Massive even-bigger-than-usual spoiler warnings this week because the latest two episodes of Lore Olympus gave us some forward momentum in the plot and we’re going to talk about ALL OF IT.

Are Persephone and Demeter finally going to talk all this out? Are Artemis and Apollo going to have the screaming fight we’ve been waiting for? Are Hades and his queen going to have some post-badass-vengeful-goddess sexy good times OH WAIT THAT ALREADY HAPPENED EEEEEE.

After that we’ve got to do a deep dive into episodes 7 and 8 of Umbrella Academy season 3 because everything goes splodey, Allison is being an unrepentant bitch, that wedding was freaking gorgeous, and just about everyone manages to say the most perfect things ever. (Except Sir Reginald Hargreeves, who says the most perfectly wrong things because of course he does.)

This week’s outro is a clip from Fortune by Shalbora.

Pretty much everything we know about Greek Mythology comes from D’Aulaire’s Book of Greek Myths (in print for over 50 years), Edith Hamilton’s Mythology (In print for over 80 years), and Overly Sarcastic Productions on YouTube (which we mistakenly called “Overdramatic Productions,” but we don’t think they’d mind.)

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 http://www.scottishlaird.co.uk/#_a_2gk to get there, you can support this podcast too! 

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

Original broadcast date June 1, 2023. The original podcast post is here: https://pixelatedgeek.com/2023/06/binary-system-podcast-364-ant-man-and-the-wasp-quantumania/

To the surprise of absolutely no one, we've mixed up the dates again and we have a week with no new Welcome to Night Vale or Lore Olympus. While we wait for the next episodes to drop, we decided to actually tackle our backlog of movies and watch Ant Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. (Can you believe it? Only three months after the release! Okay, maybe three and a half.)

This one's gonna be a bit of a mixed bag. It's hard to deny that Marvel exhaustion is setting in, and some things in this movie didn't quite work. We'll talk about the not so great things: jokes that didn't land, dramatic moments that fell a little flat, redemption arcs that weren't earned (sorry Darren), obvious last-second script rewrites, and annoying plot conveniences (Hey Janet? Maybe telling your family about the most dangerous person in creation would have been a good idea??). But we've still got a lot of love for the MCU, so we'll also talk about the things we liked: the visuals are stunning (really love the design of Kang's ship), the acting is solid (with a couple of surprises in the cast that delighted us), there are many, many cool moments, Paul Rudd's delivery of the throwaway joke "Modofk" was howlingly funny, and the second end-credit scene was just *chef's kiss*.

Oh, and we also talked about episodes 4 and 5 of The Umbrella Academy Season 3. Pogo's back, yaaaayyyy!

This week's outro is a clip from Sunshine Enigma by Modern Monster.

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 http://www.scottishlaird.co.uk/#_a_2gk to get there, you can support this podcast too!

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

Original broadcast date April 20, 2023. The original podcast post is here: https://pixelatedgeek.com/2023/05/binary-system-podcast-361-lore-olympus-243-and-244-and-umbrella-academy/https://pixelatedgeek.com/2023/05/binary-system-podcast-361-lore-olympus-243-and-244-and-umbrella-academy/

In the latest couple episodes of Lore Olympus we get to see everybody set lots of healthy boundaries. And by "everybody" we mean Hades and Persephone, because Aries can and will crash all the parties and Zeus is still a giant jerk. (He's definitely lying about Semele, right? Cause he's certainly been lying about EVERYTHING ELSE.)

After that, Kathryn watched episodes 3 and 4 of Umbrella Academy season 3, so we've got to discuss Luther making mixtapes, Diego being a terrible Dad, Five and Lyla making a discovery, Klaus being Klaus, and Viktor being responsible for ANOTHER APOCALYPSE. AGAIN.

Finally we take a darker turn with a heads up about the latest episode of Swindled; we love that podcast but if intensely graphic depictions of Death By Killer Whale are not your speed, maybe skip that one. (And if you'd rather not even hear us making some vague mentions of death and dismemberment, you can skip from 21:40 to 23:05). But we finish up with a lighter look at some more MidJourney fan art.

This week's outro is a clip from deepgaze (Game Size) by Akira Sora.

In related news Elizabeth got kinda close with the name of the actress who plays Molly Hooper, it's Louise Brealey.

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 http://www.scottishlaird.co.uk/#_a_2gk to get there, you can support this podcast too!

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

Original broadcast date May 18, 2023. The original podcast post is here: https://pixelatedgeek.com/2023/05/binary-system-podcast-362-wtnv-228-diplomacy/

Things are changing fast in Night Vale. Dr. Lubelle and the University of What It Is took out The Weather last week (shock!), and this week they've wiped out Invisible Corn (sacrilege!) The doctor's now set her sights on the local shape-shifter (Josh, run!) and unfortunately Tamika Flynn's proposed solution might be just as damaging as the problem has been (calling it now, if Carlos has to leave Night Vale, we riot).

If all of that's a little too heavy for you, we lighten things up with a full recap of Season 3 Episode 2 of The Umbrella Academy, and a quick summary of the delightful The Detectorists. Aaaand then we bring on the heavy topics again by talking about MidJourney, its possible effects, a few cautionary suggestions, and how it might tie into the entire concept of human consciousness. And also Elizabeth's using it to make pretty pictures. Enjoy!

This week's outro is a clip from Infinite Sky 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 http://www.scottishlaird.co.uk/#_a_2gk to get there, you can support this podcast too!

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

Original broadcast date May 11, 2023. The original podcast post is here: https://pixelatedgeek.com/2023/05/binary-system-podcast-361-lore-olympus-241-and-242-and-dungeons-dragons/

Okay, here's the Lore Olympus recap: Hades spends two episodes moping because Persephone is avoiding him. Done! That'll wrap us up for the week, make sure to check out pixelatedgeek.com...

KIDDING. There's more to it than that. (But seriously, two whole episodes of moping.)

In addition to all the sulking we meet Hades' new assistant (not Leuce, thank goodness), and we get a giant surprise from Persephone that explains why she's been hiding. More importantly, we get some really cute glimpses of wedding night sexy times, because priorities.

After that we spend the rest of the episode squeeing about every cool thing in Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves. The Hither-Thither Staff! The Paladin! Holga's Ex! That one scene with Chris Pine and the lute you know what we're talking about!

This week's outro is a clip from Odyssey (radio edit) by Delta 78.

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 http://www.scottishlaird.co.uk/#_a_2gk to get there, you can support this podcast too!

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

Original broadcast date May 4, 2023. The original podcast post is here: https://pixelatedgeek.com/2023/05/binary-system-podcast-360-wtnv-227-a-word-with-dr-jones/

Let's see, in previous episodes Dr. Lubelle from the University of What It Is has managed to "explain" (ie: murder) Sarah Sultan (Fist-Sized River-Rock), The Glow Cloud (all hail), and Station Management (has anyone checked on City Council to see if they're okay?) In this week's episode she's added to the body count by taking out The Weather, Horoscopes, Traffic, and possibly the entire Welcome To Night Vale podcast.

The next episode is gonna be weird. Well, weirder than normal.

In other startling news, Kathryn finally watched the first episode of Season Three of The Umbrella Academy so we're finally able to talk about that. Our takeaways are that this show does random dance numbers like nobody else, and also Five's relationship with Dolores The Mannequin is totally adorable.

This week's outro is a clip from Pinnacle by Bio Unit.

You can find Leland's MerMay art and more on instagram at lelandpierceart.

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 http://www.scottishlaird.co.uk/#_a_2gk to get there, you can support this podcast too!

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

Original broadcast date April 27, 2023. The original podcast post is here: https://pixelatedgeek.com/2023/04/binary-system-podcast-359-lore-olympus-239-and-240/

On this week’s Lore Olympus recap, we had two episodes of Persephone in the dream realm that gave us more questions than answers: WHAT will Erebus take from Persephone? WHY isn’t she telling Hades what she saw? And WHEN will we see more of the whole Apollo situation come ooooooonn we just want to see Persephone go full Vengeful Underworld Queen on him for FIVE MINUTES that’s all we’re asking.

(Oh, and the bit in episode #240 with Thetis was a perfect little gift for everybody who knows the original myth, no notes.)

After the recap Elizabeth talks about how she’s caught up with Severance because she was living in an alternate reality where there were four seasons already? Instead of just one? No, we don’t know either, but there’re no more episodes till 2024 so THAT’S A THING.

Then Kathryn recaps the first episode of Ms. Marvel (only eleven months late, a new record!) and says the animated doodles on the landscape are worth your time all by themselves.

Finally we talk about what everybody else is saying about The Book of Boba Fett, the Mandalorian season three, and Picard season three, because of course we haven’t watched those yet.

This week’s outro is a clip from Good Vibes by Alex-Productions.
Energetic Summer EDM | Good Vibes
https://youtu.be/iI-6_nApRKQ
Music promoted by http://onsound.eu/

Correction: well, confirmation really – Jeremy Bulloch, the actor who played the original Boba Fett, passed away in 2020.

Gates McFadden definitely likes to joke about that one episode.

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 http://www.scottishlaird.co.uk/#_a_2gk to get there, you can support this podcast too! 

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

Original broadcast date April 20, 2023. The original podcast post is here: https://pixelatedgeek.com/2023/04/binary-system-podcast-358-wtnv-226-creditors/

It's no fun being the new Station Management for Night Vale Radio, as Cecil's finding out in this week's episode. Apparently Station Management was relying on being an eldritch horror to avoid paying bills, and now the chickens have come home to roost. And by "chickens" we mean "creditors", and by "roost" we mean "repossess and eat everything in the building including two of the advertising personnel."

Things get even more chaotic when you add in a bunch of Shawn's whining about their breakroom, and eighteen pallets of lukewarm scallops. (We'll give you this for free: nobody in the episode gets violently ill from eating un-refrigerated seafood. You're welcome.)

Once things settle back down, Elizabeth talks about Ted Lasso Season 3 (verdict: it's good, but it's not surprisingly good yet). Kathryn hasn't managed to watch anything new, but she's been thinking about seeing Beau Is Afraid and the new Dungeons & Dragons, so that kinda counts?

The episode wraps up with a detailed rundown of MidJourney, the Adobe Firefly beta, and how we're cautiously optimistic and kinda terrified about the upcoming arms race that is AI art generators.

This week's outro is a clip from Parasitic Satellite, by CRUXORIUM.

Correction: Bill Lawrence, the creator of Scrubs, Ted Lasso, and Shrinking, isn't doing any of the writing in Ted Lasso season 3, which may explain the difference in tone.

Ursula Vernon's twitter thread about Adobe's Firefly AI starts here.

The last outtake at the end of the episode may be a little hard to hear, but that's Kathryn's very sensitive mic picking up the sound of Nathan sneezing. From downstairs. On the other side of the house. With a closed door in between us. Elizabeth's comment, "Nathan's sneezes can break glass." She's not wrong.

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 http://www.scottishlaird.co.uk/#_a_2gk to get there, you can support this podcast too!

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

Original broadcast date April 13, 2023. The original podcast post is here: https://pixelatedgeek.com/2023/04/binary-system-podcast-357-lore-olympus-237-and-238/

On our last Lore Olympus recap Elizabeth said she didn't care if the Apollo story got put on the back burner, so long as we get to see Demeter hit rock bottom. So of course in the latest episode we didn't see Demeter at all but we FINALLY saw someone call out Apollo on his crap. And it was glorious!

(And if this really is reverse psychology at work: we DON'T want to see Artemis go toe to toe with her brother, we DON'T want to see Demeter get a clue, and we DEFINITELY don't want to see Persephone turn Leuce into a plant.)

After the recap Elizabeth mentions that Severance is the first show in a while that made it tough to go to bed ("....maybe just one more episode....") and Kathryn watched another episode of Shrinking and really liked it, even if she still thinks Liz's husband is a twit.

This week's outro is a clip from Endless Winter by REDCVT.

The four-part docuseries Kathryn mentioned is LuLaRich, a deep, fascinating dive into LuLaRoe and their tissue-paper leggings. The podcast Elizabeth mentioned is an episode of Tig and Cheryl: True Story, where they discussed that exact documentary! It's just as fascinating, but less of a deep dive because Tig and Cheryl can't stay on topic to save their lives, which is why it's hilarious.

The animator Elizabeth mentioned (who won an Emmy for the intro to Severance) is Oliver Latta, you can find him on instagram at extraweg: his work is very, very weird. (And for fans of Severance, this is the animation I knew I remembered when I saw the intro.)

Here's all the photo galleries so far from WonderCon 2023!

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 http://www.scottishlaird.co.uk/#_a_2gk to get there, you can support this podcast too!

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

Aaaa! Did you hear the news? No, not that Cecil is scheduled to renegotiate his contract with the Night Vale Radio. He's hoping the process this year will involve more raises and less spectral kidnappings, but that's not important. You guys, Station Management and City Council are still dating. And here I'd thought they'd broken up years ago. It's so romantic, apparently they've moved in together, and they've adopted some pets, and it sounds like they're really happy and, and...

Oh God, this isn't going to end well, is it?

After we recap how The University of What It Is obliterated an icon of Night Vale once again, we also go into a little more detail about the first episode of Shrinking, which Kathryn finally watched. Then Elizabeth wanted to talk a little about one of our favorite YouTube shows, How To Drink. We may be reading into things too much, but it sounds like Greg could one day pivot from his current format. Whatever that may be, we're pretty much down for anything he wants to try, whether it's news, movies, gaming, or an in-depth history of the Hays Code (seriously, you should try that episode, it's fascinating and infuriating.)

This week's outro is a clip from Transistor Stomp 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 http://www.scottishlaird.co.uk/#_a_2gk to get there, you can support this podcast too!

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