PrePopCulture

Nick Mandernach joins Jen to give you a behind the scenes look at this year's LA Indie Improv Festival. They take you through info about this year's fest, from details about planning and programming it, to additions like the opening panel and art retrospective. They also discuss the indie improv scene as a whole, and how LAIIF has evolved in response to the community's growth. Have a listen and come check out the fest on May 24!

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Show notes:

Theme song

Alps by Motorama is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives (aka Music Sharing) License.

Jesse Benjamin joins Jen to discuss why certain kinds of TV shows make people feel so bad for enjoying them so much. From the soapy and salacious like Sex and the City, to trashy reality like The Real Housewives of Orange County, to oddly addictive competitions like The Challenge, there's no shortage of guilty pleasures on TV. But what about these shows makes them guilty pleasures rather than shows we can just admit to enjoying without the caveat that we know they're in some way lowbrow?

If you're enjoying PrePopCulture, please rate/review it on iTunes, and like it on Facebook! You can also follow PrePopCulture on Twitter.

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Show notes:

Theme song

Alps by Motorama is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives (aka Music Sharing) License.

Writing, filmmaking, art, and music are just some of many fields in which people contend with the threat of their second piece of work not living up to their first. In this episode Jen talks with Danny Mastrangelo and James Mulholland in search of what a sophomore slump really is, and why it's so easily applicable to so many different endeavors in art, entertainment, and pop culture.

If you're enjoying PrePopCulture, please rate/review it on iTunes, and like it on Facebook! You can also follow PrePopCulture on Twitter.

Want to suggest a topic for an episode? Email [email protected]!

Show notes:

Theme song

Alps by Motorama is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives (aka Music Sharing) License.

ayVentura by Rolemusic is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License

Ladybug Castle by Rolemusic is licensed under an Attribution License

She Is My Best Treasure by Rolemusic is licensed under an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 International License

Right Back To You by Wizwars is licensed under an Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License

This spring marked Jen's seventh year living in Los Angeles, and she's a very different person now than when she moved there from Chicago. Examining her own struggle to acclimate, she talks to some friends about their experiences moving to LA, and how the city has or hasn't become home to them. Featuring Mark David Christenson, Stephen C. James, Jen McCreary, and Andrew Wollman.

If you're enjoying PrePopCulture, please rate/review it on iTunes, and like it on Facebook! You can also follow PrePopCulture on Twitter.

Want to suggest a topic for an episode? Email [email protected]!

Show notes:

Theme song

Alps by Motorama is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives (aka Music Sharing) License.

All other music in this episode by Chris Zabriskie, used under a Creative Commons Attribution License.

There are changes in store at PrePopCulture when it resumes on April 10, 2014!

If you're enjoying PrePopCulture, please rate/review it on iTunes, and like it on Facebook! You can also follow PrePopCulture on Twitter.

Want to suggest a topic for an episode? Email [email protected]!

Theme song

Alps by Motorama is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives (aka Music Sharing) License.

James Mulholland joins Jen to delve into what spurs the beginning of trends, and what happens when people chase them. From books to movies to TV shows (plus books becoming movies or TV shows), there's no shortage of fads that provided increasingly diminished returns as the companies and creators behind them had less to bring to the table with each iteration. Yet sometimes the work at the start of a trend kicks off an equally successful successor. So what does it take to capture lightning in a bottle? And once someone has, how many more bolts can be caught the same way?

If you're enjoying PrePopCulture, please rate/review it on iTunes, and like it on Facebook! You can also follow PrePopCulture on Twitter.

Want to suggest a topic for an episode? Email [email protected]!

Show notes:

Theme song

Alps by Motorama is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives (aka Music Sharing) License.

Clay Larsen joins Jen this week to discuss Android: Netrunner, a game they're both obsessed with. Set in a cyberpunk world, this living card game pits two players against each other in the roles of runner and corporation. A corporation tries to score points by advancing their corporate agendas, while the runner tries to hack into the corporation's servers and steal those agendas before the corporation can score them. With multiple factions to be played on each side of the table, new cards released every month to expand deckbuilding possibilities, and the fact that you play your opponent as much as you do the game itself, no two games will ever be the same.

If you're enjoying PrePopCulture, please rate/review it on iTunes, and like it on Facebook! You can also follow PrePopCulture on Twitter.

Want to suggest a topic for an episode? Email [email protected]!

Show notes:

Theme song

Alps by Motorama is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives (aka Music Sharing) License.

Danny Mastrangelo joins Jen to chat about the ins and outs of crowdfunding through Kickstarter. From what entices people to back things, to how often projects are successfully funded and fulfilled, to who Kickstarter is really "for," this one site has created a whole new avenue for making and buying everything from innovative tools to entertainment. There are many considerations for project launchers and backers alike though, and Danny gives insight to both sides of the process since he's funded projects and is about to launch a Kickstarter for his company Silhouette Games to complete a video game he's designing.

If you're enjoying PrePopCulture, please rate/review it on iTunes, and like it on Facebook! You can also follow PrePopCulture on Twitter.

Want to suggest a topic for an episode? Email [email protected]!

Show notes:

Theme song:

Alps by Motorama is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives (aka Music Sharing) License.

Sarah Claspell joins Jen to talk about the plethora of mobile apps making life easier these days than it was in the dark ages before smartphones were ubiquitous. From big things like improving your health or keeping your schedule straight, to small things like saving articles to read later or browsing Reddit, that whole "there's an app for that!" thing has never been truer. But how much do we really value them if we usually don't want to spend any money on them? And how many would it actually be hard to live without at this point? Also, how long will the gardener be on the porch toward the end of the episode? Well, the answer to that last question is "not long," so don't worry.

If you're enjoying PrePopCulture, please rate/review it on iTunes, and like it on Facebook! You can also follow PrePopCulture on Twitter.

Want to suggest a topic for an episode? Email [email protected]!

Show notes:

Theme song

Alps by Motorama is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives (aka Music Sharing) License.

Will Hines joins Jen to talk about text adventures, which are also known as interactive fiction. From formative classics like Zork, to the modern renaissance of the genre, there are countless amazing stories and fiendish puzzles to be experienced by anyone willing to invest the time to figure out the right commands to get past the first few screens. LISTEN PODCAST to hear about some great games, plus what it's like to create one!

If you're enjoying PrePopCulture, please rate/review it on iTunes, and like it on Facebook! You can also follow PrePopCulture on Twitter.

Want to suggest a topic for an episode? Email [email protected]!

Show notes:

Theme song

Alps by Motorama is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives (aka Music Sharing) License.