Binary System Podcast Archive

Original broadcast date April 6, 2017. The original podcast post is here: https://pixelatedgeek.com/2017/04/binary-system-podcast-77-wtnv-episode-105-what-happened-at-the-smithwick-house/

This week's Welcome To Night Vale episode offers up a short story. It's a tale about a family, and a house, and a hole in the nursery wall. Cecil refuses to learn anything from the story, and we're not entirely sure if there's anything to learn from it. But it's deliciously creepy, and the music by Disparition adds just the right touch.

But it's not just a WTNV recap this week, oh no. WonderCon was last weekend, and Elizabeth's got the scoop and the pretty pretty pictures of all the talented cosplayers. She also went to see a live show, nothing too big, she just got to see and get re-tweeted by Neil frikking Gaiman, and he's exactly as awesome to hear as he is to watch.

This week's Welcome To Night Vale episode offers up a short story. It's a tale about a family, and a house, and a hole in the nursery wall. Cecil refuses to learn anything from the story, and we're not entirely sure if there's anything to learn from it. But it's deliciously creepy, and the music by Disparition adds just the right touch.

But it's not just a WTNV recap this week, oh no. WonderCon was last weekend, and Elizabeth's got the scoop and the pretty pretty pictures of all the talented cosplayers. She also went to see a live show, nothing too big, she just got to see and get re-tweeted by Neil frikking Gaiman, and he's exactly as awesome to hear as he is to watch.

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[podcast]https://pixelatedgeek.com/_podcast/binarysystem/BSP_77.mp3[/podcast]

The photo gallery that has Jada's Belle and Gaston photo, Stephanie's Twisty the Clown selfie, Leland's Storm photo, and Elizabeth's Star Wars photo and the Moana photo....all that can be found right here. https://pixelatedgeek.com/2017/04/wondercon-2017-photo-gallery-1-the-instagramming/

If you'd like to hear Neil Gaiman read his poem "The Day the Saucers Came" you can find that here. https://youtu.be/dBJVGwmswZI

Original broadcast date March 30, 2017. The original podcast post is here: https://pixelatedgeek.com/2017/03/binary-system-podcast-76-a-small-plan/

This week we talked about Kong: Skull Island (since both of us have seen it now,) Guillermo Del Toro's Trollhunters, and Tom Hiddleston, because of course Tom Hiddleston.

Correction: The name of the actor we can never remember in Kong was John C. Reilly. Sorry John.

Correction the second: Benedict Cumberbatch was indeed in a Hamlet production in 2015, but that one was only three hours. It's Andrew Scott (otherwise known as Moriarty) who was in a 2017 version that clocks in at four hours. Sorry Benedict. Sorry Andrew.

Correction the third: it's Guillermo del Toro's Trollhunters, plural, with an s. Trollhunter without the s is a completely different thing. Sorry Guillermo.

Original broadcast date March 23, 2017. The original podcast post is here: https://pixelatedgeek.com/2017/03/binary-system-podcast-75-wtnv-episode-104-the-hierarchy-of-angels/

This week the twins recap the latest episode of Night Vale and talk about how angels can't have building permits and dragons can't practice law. (Apparently you can't just tell somebody that the City said it was okay for you to build a roller coaster. Even if you spell all the words right.)

After that Kathryn gave us a breakdown of NC Comicon: Oak City, and Elizabeth gave us her picks for Amazon's "Pilot Season."

Kathryn and Nathan's photo gallery from NC Comicon: Oak City is right here https://pixelatedgeek.com/2017/03/north-carolina-comicon-oak-city-photo-gallery/, let us know if you spot yourself or someone you know!

You really should google "Night Vale Angels Fan Art" and see all the amazing images people have come up with, but there's a great selection on tumblr here. http://angelsighting.tumblr.com/

Original broadcast date March 16, 2017. The original podcast post is here: https://pixelatedgeek.com/2017/03/binary-system-podcast-74-the-randomness-continues/

Without a Night Vale episode to recap this week, the twins set up a careful, organized plan for the recording. Riiiight. That's about as likely as Megatron writing limericks about how awesome Starscream is. (...actually, fanfic writers, could you please get on that one? Thanks.)

No, they jumped from one random topic to another, covering the hideous early reviews for Iron Fist, Tom Hiddleston's T-shirt in Kong: Skull Island, David Duchovny's high heels in Twin Peaks, and the emotional manipulation that was the series finale of The Vampire Diaries, and how we wouldn't have it any other way.

Original broadcast date March 9, 2017. The original podcast post is here: https://pixelatedgeek.com/2017/03/binary-system-podcast-73-wtnv-103-ash-beach/

Anyone looking to take an early spring vacation? Why not take a trip to Night Vale's newest attraction: Ash Beach. The town's landlocked, so there's no water, and the sand's been replaced with ash from thousands of municipally burned books, so you'll need a respirator. Other than that, it's blisteringly hot, and hazy figures are infecting beachgoers with memories of things that never happened. It's not a typical vacation, but you could do worse (although not much.)

When they're not recapping the episode or watching Elizabeth's cat lose her frikkin' mind, the twins talk about the upcoming Convention season that kicks off with Oak City Comic Con in Raleigh. And for all you Transformers fans, Kathryn accepts the challenge to explain the difference between "Forged" and "Constructed Cold" in five minutes or less.

Correction: Elizabeth said she'd been reading about Transformers' sparks in Till All Are One recently. She meant to say Lost Light.

Correction the second: Kathryn referred to a scientist who studies fish as a botanist. Obviously she meant to say biologist, although if you want to get really technical then the correct term is  ichthyologist.

Original broadcast date March 2, 2017. The original podcast post is here: https://pixelatedgeek.com/2017/03/binary-system-podcast-72-oscar-reactions/

This week the twins discuss the Oscars, and by "discuss" we mean "do a full body cringe at the awkwardness of watching them give Best Picture to the wrong movie."

But we get around to mentioning which movies won what and which ones we wished won (say THAT five times fast.) And later Kathryn explains why the show Lucifer is pretty ridiculous and why she's completely unable to stop watching it.

Correction: We'd mentioned the filmmaker behind The White Helmets didn't attend the Oscars as a protest against the Travel Ban. Actually that was Asghar Farhadi, the director of The Salesman, which won for Best Foreign Language film, who didn't attend as a protest and "out of respect for the people of my country." Khaled Khatib, the cinematographer for The White Helmets, COULDN'T attend the Oscars because, according to CNN and Fox (we aim to be impartial here) his visa was canceled by the Syrian regime. (We think. Early reports said the US blocked him from entering, but apparently they blocked him because he didn't have a visa, because it was canceled.) So that's what's going on there.

Correction the second: Turns out the dates mentioned for the Oak City Comic Con were also incorrect; it actually takes place on March 18-19, not 17-18. Because why would we verify things BEFORE we mention them on the podcast?

Original broadcast date February 23, 2017. The original podcast post is here: https://pixelatedgeek.com/2017/02/binary-system-podcast-71-wtnv-102-love-is-a-shambling-thing/

Pretty appropriate Welcome To Night Vale title for a Valentine's Day-themed recap, don't you think? It's actually the new Valentine's Day slogan that the Night Vale City Council came up with and...what? Hang on...okay, that's apparently not the correct slogan. The real one's longer. Much, much longer. This may take a while.

Join the twins as they recap a WTNV episode with classic themes like romantic dinners at the exclusive Tourniquet restaurant, Classified ads (Lost: Moths. All of them.), and heartfelt demands for justice made by a five-headed dragon who's still mourning the loss of 1/5th of her brother.  And if that's not enough, there are also two references to punching Nazis. Because when isn't it a good time to punch Nazis?

Original broadcast date February 16, 2017. The original podcast post is here: https://pixelatedgeek.com/2017/02/binary-system-podcast-70-the-oscar-nominated-animated-shorts/

This week Binary System is joined by Captain Slack (aka the official BSP photographer, aka Kathryn's husband Nathan) and Jada Scarbrough (Georgia Peach, math wiz, and card-carrying Cumberbabe...no really, she has a card) to recap the hell out of this year's Oscar-nominated animated shorts, because we love us some cartoons.

Nobody can quite agree on which one is the absolute best or worst (you'd think we could all agree on westerns and space golf) but we're pretty sure which one will win.

Original broadcast date February 9, 2017. The original podcast post is here: https://pixelatedgeek.com/2017/02/binary-system-podcast-69-wtnv-101-guidelines-for-disposal/

On the most recent Welcome to Night Vale episode we were told exactly what you can and cannot bring to the new Night Vale landfill. You cannot bring: physical objects. You can bring: anything else. And we do mean anything.

After that we talk about Saga since Kathryn's finally caught up, and our techniques for remembering names that don't really work, and finish up with the movie High Rise and how you really ought to have a drink while watching it. Maybe three.

Original broadcast date February 2, 2017. The original podcast post is here: https://pixelatedgeek.com/2017/02/binary-system-podcast-68-arrival/

As part of our continuing coverage of the 2017 Academy Awards, the twins had a thoughtful discussion about the nuances involved in the judges' choices for Best Picture, including the overlooked importance of the Production Design Award in tandem with the Sound Mixing and Film Editing Awards.

And by all of that I mean we recited the entire plot of Arrival with lots of "EEEEEE!" noises.

The Oscars coverage continues for the next few weeks, find links to all the articles posted (which will be updated with every new review) right here. https://pixelatedgeek.com/2017/01/oscar-nominations-announced/