Episode 79 — Favoritism (Our 2011 Besties)
http://media.blubrry.com/skiffyandfanty/dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/www.archive.org/download/TheSkiffyAndFantyShow6.6–Favoritismour2011Besties/Sandf–Episode6.6–Favoritismour2011Besties.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Android | iHeartRadio | Podchaser | Podcast Index | Email | TuneIn | Deezer | RSSOur last non-interview, non-torture episode of the year is all about our favorite books, movies, TV shows, interviews, etc. for the 2011 year. You can see our lists below, but you’ll want to listen to hear our reasons. Plus: we spend a little time saying thank you to everyone who listened and appeared on the show. Why? Because we love you. Obviously. Show us a little love back by leaving a response to the following questions: What books, movies, and TV shows were your favorites for 2011 (whether published this year or not)? Which interviews, roundtables, and Torture Media episodes did you most enjoy? We hope you enjoy the episode! Note: If you have iTunes and like this show, please give us a review on our iTunes page, or feel free to email us with your thoughts about the show! Here’s the episode (show notes are below): Episode 79 — Download (MP3) Intro and Our Favorites (0:00 – 36:43) Jen’s List: Favorite Book: Of Blood and Honey by Stina Leicht (Episode 4.5) Favorite Non-Fiction Book: The Death and Life of the Great American School System by Diane Ravitch Favorite TV Show: Eureka (Soft) and Fringe (Hard) Favorite Movie (2011 Releases): Super 8 Favorite Movie (Viewed in 2011): Ip Man Favorite SandF Guest: Jason Sanford (See Episodes 14, 4.0a, 4.0b, 5.6, and 6.2) Favorite Interview: Celine Kiernan (Episodes 28a and 28b) (Yes, Jen is a moron for selecting something from last year…) Favorite Roundtable Discussion: Eaton Editions (Part One and Part Two) Favorite Torture Media Episode: Modelland (Episode 6.3) Shaun’s List: Favorite Book: Osama by Lavie Tidhar (Episode 5.7) Favorite Non-Fiction Book: Walking with the Comrades by Arundhati Roy Favorite TV Show: Game of Thrones (see my reviews starting here) Favorite Movie (2011 Releases): Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Part Two) Favorite Movie (Viewed in 2011): Never Let Me Go Favorite SandF Guest: Jason Sanford (See Episodes 14, 4.0a, 4.0b, 5.6, and 6.2) Favorite Interview: Lauren Beukes (Episode 2.3) Favorite Roundtable Discussion: The Eaton Editions (Part One and Part Two) Favorite Torture Media Episode: Modelland (Episode 6.3) Our new intro music is “Time Flux” by Revolution Void (CC BY 3.0). That’s all, folks! Thanks for listening. See you next week.
Question of the Week: What was your best conference/convention experience?
There’s a good reason for this question: if you haven’t already noticed, we’ve been hanging out at the Eaton Conference in Riverside, California; if you have noticed, then I’m not contributing anything interesting and will move on. The entire conference was absolutely amazing and we thought it would be a great idea to see what other kinds of experiences folks have had at conferences or conventions. Thanks to John Ottinger and Patrick Hester for their responses! Now for the answers: Shaun There are so many to list. Really. I’ve walked through an anime convention with cat ears and a tail, my brother alongside me in the same garb. I’ve run RPG campaigns at conventions which turned out to be slightly insane and a whole lot of violence and fun (you should ask my brother about the time he played Rifts with us and kept getting knocked out every two seconds). Heck, I’ve even met the guy who created Evangelion and watched Star Wars fan films in scary back rooms! But I have to say that, thus far, my experiences at the Eaton Conference have been the best. Not only did I get to meet a great deal of people I greatly respect, whether as scholars (John Rieder, Carl Freedman, Istvan Csicsery-Ronay, Jr., De Witt Douglas Kilgore, and others) or authors (China Mieville, Greg Benford, Karen Tei Yamashita, etc.), and hang out with one of my bestest best friends of best-ness, but I also got to meet the person I was actually presenting on: Nalo Hopkinson. My first encounter with her involved me essentially embarrassing myself: I quite literally went up to her, stopped for several seconds, and blurted out “Hi, you talk to me on Twitter.” I got the impression that she deals with such things quite often, as she took it in stride as Jen rescued me from my bumbling self. More normal encounters followed (to be honest, by the time the conference was over, I had mostly normalized, which is kind of a little late to get over your fanboy nonsense) and I had a lovely conversation with her after my presentation about her work, general nice things, and other writers. It was awesome! Similar things happened with other authors, such as China Mieville, who also had to deal with my fanboy nonsense until early Sunday, in which I was apparently coherent enough to hold a conversation. The only exception was Karen Yamashita, who actually teaches at my alma mater (UC Santa Cruz); for some reason we had quite a lot to talk about already, since we had both experienced the amusing antics of one of my previous professors. Overall, though, I think the experience was a good one, because I haven’t been in a single space with so many people who I have read, loved, and so on. Needless to say, the experience was pretty much all kinds of awesome. Unfortunately, the second person I was talking about in my paper wasn’t there (where were you, Tobias S. Buckell?), but since I basically stalk him on Twitter anyway, I can at least pretend he was there in spirit. That said, one day I will have my bumbling fanboy moment with you, Mr. Buckell. One day… Jen I realize we’re coming off of a very exciting weekend at a conference, but my best conference/convention memory is actually from my childhood. My father started attending a gaming convention called “Conquest” when I was fairly young. He went for the dungeons and dragons and when I got a bit older he started running gaming sessions for my friends and I. Those were some very formative experiences for me and I remember them very fondly. Anyway, eventually my parents started taking a whole crew of us up to the convention and let us run wild. I think we were the only kids in these early years, as my father was one of those early adopters of role-playing games and, likewise, an early attender of gaming conventions. Anyway, the most memorable moment for me is actually running through those halls (it was at a hotel up near San Francisco that looked vaguely castle-like) and generally creating havoc – creating our own live d&d adventures. The specific moment though was probably when we decided it would be fun to stop the elevator between floors and open the doors. I have no idea what I read on the wall, at that moment, but I do remember knowing, with absolute certainty, that it was written by a geek and that they had written it for US. Second most memorable experience was driving around with a dear friend of mine during a Dundracon and imagining that all the corporate buildings that surrounded the hotel were straight out of Stephenson’s Diamond Age. I miss you, Anicka. I’ve had a number of cool con moments since then, but they’ve all been very personal moments that didn’t necessarily require a con for them to have occurred. The things that make Cons special though are those moments that do require the convention to bring together a geographically disparate group that are all so strongly tied together by whatever that con happens to be about. That meeting of minds is truly Epic. Patrick Hester Hmmm… Well, there’s favorite and then there’s memorable. Memorable first. I grew up in Fresno, California. Fresno… There’s not a lot to do in Fresno when you’re growing up. I spent a lot of time in the comic book store or at the Fresno State Student Union (where all the kids hung out…) shooting pool or bowling ($3/hr all you can play…). Anyway, I saw a flier that Creation was coming to town to do a Star Trek convention. This was when The Next Generation was hot. I really wanted to go so I talked a friend of mine (who had a car, which I did not) to drive me (it was further out in the country than I could go on my mountain bike, which was
The Skiffy and Fanty Show 37 — The Eaton Edition (Part Two)
http://media.blubrry.com/skiffyandfanty/dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/www.archive.org/download/TheSkiffyAndFantyShow2.5b–TheEatonEditiondayTwot/Sandf–Episode2.5b–TheEatonEditionDayTwo.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Android | iHeartRadio | Podchaser | Podcast Index | Email | TuneIn | Deezer | RSSAnd we’re back with the final installment of our special Eaton Editions of the show. This episode has some discussion of topics we’re going to probably bring up at length in future episodes, along with further geeking out, pontifications, and other such amusements. We hope you enjoy the episode and we’ll see you next week with your regular programmed episodes! Here’s the episode (show notes are below): Episode 37 — Download (MP3) Our new intro music is “Time Flux” by Revolution Void (CC BY 3.0). That’s all, folks! Thanks for listening. See you next week.
The Skiffy and Fanty Show 36 — The Eaton Edition (Day One)
http://media.blubrry.com/skiffyandfanty/dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/www.archive.org/download/TheSkiffyAndFantyShow2.5a–TheEatonEditiondayOne/Sandf–Episode2.5a–TheEatonEditionDayOne.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Android | iHeartRadio | Podchaser | Podcast Index | Email | TuneIn | Deezer | RSSComing to you almost-live from the Eaton Conference in Riverside, California, we present to you the first edition of our discussion of the conference, our experiences, random geekery, and other fun things. The second part will go up tomorrow. Here’s the episode (show notes are below): Episode 36 — Download (MP3) Our new intro music is “Time Flux” by Revolution Void (CC BY 3.0). That’s all, folks! Thanks for listening. See you next week.
Special Eaton Conference Episodes Coming! (Theoretically)
Two big things: Jen and I will be together for the first time in almost two years. More importantly, we’ll be together for the first time as a podcast. We’ll both be attending the Eaton Conference in Riverside, California, which is an academic conference oriented towards SF/F and related subjects (technically it labels itself as a science fiction conference, but since the theme is “Global Science Fiction,” it seems silly to assume that everything that will be discussed will fit so wonderfully into SF). What you can expect from us: Special episodes of The Skiffy and Fanty Show made at the conference and released here. They’ll be discussion-based and largely unedited (for the sake of time). That might also mean that Jen’s potty mouth, which I’ve done a fine job keeping contained, will ruin your ears and innocence. I apologize in advance for that. Blog posts from me (Shaun) over at my blog. One such post has already appeared. Alien cries of terror. Why? Because sometimes we get bored of each other and like to re-enact colonialist invasions of alien species using bars of soap. Don’t judge us… And that’s that. Some interesting things will appear over the next few days. We hope you enjoy them. Otherwise, please send your hate mail to Patrick Hester.
