Geek Syndicate

The GS crew were out in serious force at the SFX Weekender event this year. Did you spot us all? Well one week later Barry and his syndicated geeks Amy, Ant, Clover, Dion, Matt (The Grampus) and Phil got back around the mic to talk through our experiences in North Wales, good and bad. You'll find out what it's really like to attend one of the best geek Events in Britain, how to survive it and how to get the best bang for your buck.The episode is a biggie so clear your schedules or, if you'd prefer, nibble us piecemeal as we wade through the major events, guest stars and surprise hits of the show. Along the way we don hotpants, duck time-travelling ninjas, achieve total-toilet-ambush and discover the voice of a sex-god... among many other treats.We mention YouTube videos that have since become available, so you can see some of the delights on offer. Click here to see a bunch of them.The Weekender is truly an event to be experienced. Join us here to help relive the great times you had, or see what you missed out on. Either way, hopefully we will see you all there in 2013.

Tim and Max Solve All The Problems With Popular Culture is STILL the newest podcast in the stable of winged horses that is the Geek Syndicate Network.

The podcast aims to do exactly what it says on the tin – young bucks Tim Swann (@tetrarchangel on twitter) of Psycomedia (psycomedia.wordpress.com - can this be hyperlinked?) and Max Barnard (@maxy_barnard on twitter) of You Must Hear This (imustreadthis.com - can this be hyperlinked?) identify a key area where popular geek culture falls down and then try and come up with some ways that both the creators and the audience can fix it.

In our third episode, we discuss mediocrity, hopefully without being mediocre. There's unavoidable Lucas and Spielberg chat, trying to force stuff into franchises, the problems with properties that sell no matter what, and inevitable preludes to the next episode, which will concern money. We might have been bothered to throw in some solutions, since that's what the franchise demands.

The Information Superhighway to Your Audience! Digital distribution for self-published comics How can you use the web to get your comic to its readers? Stacey Whittle chairs a panel with Daniel Clifford, Leonie O’Moore, Gordon Robertson and Terry Wiley that will discuss the potential benefits and hurdles to using digital comic distribution. In a constantly evolving field, what new models, tactics and opportunities are out there for a comic creator who wants their work to be read?

Welcome to the first issue of Geek to Geek a podcast magazine dedicated to bring the sass back to geekdom.

If you have an iPod, iPhone etc you should be able to pick up the enhanced version of the podcast which will have chapter breaks included allowing you to move through the different sections of the podcast as you see fit. If you’ve you can’t get the enhanced version of the podcast, no worries the time stamps for each chapter are below.

00:00:00 Geek to Geek with Monts and Nuge – David Montieth and Barry Nugent bring you their monthly slice of pop culture madness. No script, no preparation and but hopefully some hope that you will enjoy the experience

01:02:35 Fave genre reads of 2011 - The Scrolls gang pick some of the beloved reads of the past year

01:19:36 Notes from Nuge – Joins Barry and Chrisophe as they look as they chat about film soundtrack with a special focus on the pulps this month.

01:33:38 Stacey Whittle of Small Press Big Mouth brings you her independent book review.

01:40:30 A special interview with Dave Bradley, the head honcho at the SFX magazine about the upcoming SFX Weekender

02:03:27 After Hours with Dave and Barry – the guys close out the show in the Geek to Geek Studio bar.

If you’ve downloaded this through the Geek Syndicate app then you will also have access to the first issue of the Geek Syndicate quarterly Magazine a preview of which you can see here.

Tim and Max Solve All The Problems With Popular Culture is STILL the newest podcast in the stable of winged horses that is the Geek Syndicate Network.

The podcast aims to do exactly what it says on the tin – young bucks Tim Swann (@tetrarchangel on twitter) of Psycomedia and Max Barnard (@maxy_barnard on twitter) of You Must Hear This identify a key area where popular geek culture falls down and then try and come up with some ways that both the creators and the audience can fix it.

In our second episode, we discuss hypersexualisation, and how the great and the good can fall down (at least in Tim's fragile mind and innocent eyes) by sex getting in the way of their art, and the bad can make everything worse with their impact on sexuality in and out of the arts. But don't worry, there are solutions too! Harry Potter fan-fic features more than you might like.

In which the team try to pin down the essence of genre: what differentiates it from a style; who makes them and how it affects our reading experience. We go on to discuss the benefits and problems with blurring those boundaries. Actually, for the first fifteen minutes we try to stop Mattie playing SW:TOR and attempt to discuss a series of books that none of us has actually read - but then we get on topic. Honestly.The conversation was to have gone on for a good twenty minutes longer but technical difficulties plagued us in the latter part of the episode. On the plus side, all being well you will be hearing a little more from Scrolls 'somewhere' on the Geek Syndicate Network this month.Genre Blends that we recommend, but didn't have opportunity to discuss properly (or at all in some cases) include Artemis Fowl, the 'Jon Shannow' books, The 'Pax Britannia' series, Coraline, The 'Merrily Watson' series, 'The Tales Of The Otori' series, The Fifth Child, The 'Shadows Of The Apt' series, and Cloud Atlas. You should google them if they are unfamiliar to you, track down copies and read them. I would also heartilly recommend reading a short story by William Hope Hodgeson called The Derelict. It's about a 'ghost' sailing ship, yet has an old-world sci-fi vibe more in line with The Thing than The Fog. You can read it for free online but I particularly enjoyed the full audio dramatisation from Audio Comics in their Horrorscopes series. You should definitely give some of those a listen.As a hobby, both Phil and Dion have been entering a Flash Fiction competition on the writer Lily Childs' blog. These are stories of no more than 100 words, so easy to flick through, tricky to write. As a tenuous link to encourage people to go take a look (and potentially join in) I offer you my own little genre blender 'Bete Noir.' We post our stories in the comments section, so you'll need to scrolls down the page to find it.Finally, regarding Jeffrey Kacirk's Forgotten English calendar mentioned near the beginning of the podcast. The words I was supposed to fit in to conversation was 'Good Man's Croft.' You won't hear me getting it into conversation for technical reasons that I won't bore you with. The episode as a whole, though, may be considered to be a practical modern-day demonstration of the phrase.Hopefully we'll meet some of you lovely people at the SFX Weekender in February. Until then, keep reading.

Join Amaechi, Barry and Ant in the first episode of 2012 where we look at the games announced for 2012 - from the big names like Mass Effect 3 and GTA 5 to the possible "under the radar" titles Never Dead and Spec Ops: The Line.

The guys also discuss the news - from Full title downloads to OnLive on the iPad.

Enjoy the show - and a Happy New Year from the Guys.