Midwest Media Expo, BotCon, and Summer TV Plans

You're tuned in to Steve Megatron on Altered

Geek Unlimited Hello and welcome to Altered Geek

Unlimited episode 135 I'm your host Steve Megatron

Phillips and joining me this week are you doing

right? That makes one of us I mean Hey, man,

I'm excited for this weekend a lot of good stuff

coming up. I'm just I'm hyped for a change. It's

nice So I figured before we get into anything

else Some of you know and I actually forgot to

include this clip in last week's episode until

after I edited the podcast I had this extra file

sitting on my phone that I'd recorded while I

was at work and I was trying to figure out why

this file was there of 10 minutes long and It

turns out it was my conversation about Midwest

Media Expo before I went to Midwest Media Expo

So because I was going to explain some of the

things about it primarily of like how I got there

which Consisted of I did some art back in January

early February Because they wanted covers for

their book and then some of their passes. Well,

why they still gave me the free pass, I don't

know, considering they used two or three other

people's stuff too, including mine. Mine was

literally the first page in the book, but it

wasn't the cover of the book like I designed.

And then the passes were based off of one of

the other people's arts. I think the only reason

it got in was because it was super simplistic,

what I designed, and it was kind of much like

the rest of the stuff that Midwest did. And while

I was excited to go, the day itself was nothing

but a cluster. What happened? Shall I proceed?

First of all, how long I asked you this often

you had called me that day That you were at Midwest

and I had asked you how long have they been doing

this and you said what? They've been doing it

for three years. They've been doing this this

thing for three They've been doing this convention.

They do an anime one in November every year for

the last ten years And it boggled my mind how

clustered this was now mind you When I first

sent in for the contest and this is before the

day like yeah, I Sent in the submissions, but

a week later I get a reply saying that's not

you know, did you read the rules? That's not

according to what we asked for because I designed

this stuff, but they didn't exactly like spell

it out completely So I was like, well, I apologize,

but this is what I have So, you know if it doesn't

qualify then you know, thanks for looking at

it and About a month later. I get an email saying

Yeah, we might be using your art. So could you

add just this one thing to it? And then that

was the last I heard about it until like the

end of March and then I get this email saying

that mine and these two other people's arts were

chosen for the thing and we were getting free

passes, you know three -day pass and You know

just give your information so that we could you

know Get you all set up and have you have a page

in the book Advertising you and I was like, oh,

okay, so I sent that back but there was no reply

to it or anything after that so Fast forward

to the day of the convention So I drive, you

know, it's about an hour and 20 minutes from

where I live So I drove there Pretty nice set

up on the outside a lot of different cosplayers

like a crap ton of cosplayers and I was telling

TFG one while I was there that I and I'll get

into the multitudes of how many variations of

characters I saw but So I get in there and I'm

early, you know, it's like quarter for ten So

I go to get my badge well The person that's in

charge of that didn't show up until or wasn't

showing up till 11 So they told me to come back

and mind you there's 20 of these people sitting

in this room And none of them thought to check

any of the stuff. They were just too busy sitting

on ours the entire time So I go back in there

and it's like almost 11 and I'm trying to hit

this 1130 panel Because none of the panels really

opened until 11 and so I was kind of like, okay

I can't get into any of the rooms unless I get

this badge So I go in there and I'm like so did

she find my badge and they're all just kind of

thumb -up rears looking around and I'm like explaining

it and one guy stopped eating long enough to

grab the folder directly in front of him which

had my name in it and hand me my badge to which

I you know signed it out and then I you know

it took he was scanning through names to of free

passes on an iPad and passed my name three times

and I'm like no just let me do it and I like

showed him where my name was so I could get my

damn badge and then so I get that and I go to

this this first panel that is no mind you I didn't

have the book so I had no idea where any of these

rooms are so I'm winging it this whole time trying

to find stuff Could you not use a program like

say guidebook to download their thing or did

they not have one set up? They didn't have anything

set up to like even their booklet part of the

times of their schedule were cut off because

of the way it was printed. Like there was a whole

hour gap missing on every day of every time the

page turned because of the way that they they

printed this stupid thing and So anyways, I found

this panel and it was about how to you know,

do YouTube videos and so on and and I'm kind

of just going just out of curiosity and I'm killing

time Because I wanted to see how I never turned

down free information so I was comparing it with

my media courses plus my My knowledge of what

I had of YouTube up to that point so So I did

that and then I checked it out learned a few

things some stuff I already knew mostly was on

the analytic side that I kind of got to learn

about and then so I go from there to I think

they had they had the autograph session shortly

thereafter and it was for Greg Wiseman Jason

Marsden and I screwed this up because I recorded

a response video after I did this convention

then I promptly deleted it because it was too

long and I was getting half -cocked but I couldn't

remember this guy's name and he plays Ratchet.

Jeffrey Combs. Yeah, Jeffrey Combs. Thank you.

Oh, that's cool. The fucking reanimator. That's

so - Well, it gets funny. Picture Ratchet from

Transformers Prime. That's exactly his personality.

Just that dry cut? Yeah, that dry cut and kind

of like almost emotionless, kind of like just

irritated, kind of looking dude. Too bad you

didn't have him say, Steve, I needed that. The

convention, and that's another thing I'll get

into about the convention. They said about the

autograph sessions that you could have up to

four items signed, you know, among them being

things that you could purchase from the photos

from the voice actors or whatever. So. Plus a

personal item so I had him sign the book and

then I didn't have any cash on me, of course

but the the Midwest media expo person that was

Telling everybody what to do before they got

up to the actors was saying no photos to keep

the lines moving But the lines weren't particularly

long for these three. So I don't see what it

mattered Jason Marsden didn't really care. He

was doing it anyway. He was recording custom

voicemails. He was hugging people. He was just,

he didn't care. Jason Marsden, is that the guy

that played Cyclops? No. No. You're thinking

of James Marsden. Okay. Jason Marsden is, he

played Young Goofy and he was... He's Max Goof.

Oh, that's cool. And so anyways, he was pretty

down to earth and... Greg Wiseman almost seemed

kind of like bored as well, kind of out of his

element. And he was selling scripts and some

other stuff too. And so I had them sign stuff

and then Jason Meyers and I get up to him and

I'm talking to him and I'm like, yeah, we, you

know, one of the guys on my podcast network actually

interviewed you a couple of years ago and he's

like, oh really, which one? And then I told him,

he says, yeah. And he says, I vaguely remember

that. He says, I haven't been on a podcast in

a long time. We've talked to him twice the first

time. Well funny you should say that though is

I actually got some dough so I could get autographs

from him and he says ah back again he says Steve

is it with a V and then he goes to sign one of

his posters and he's like he screwed it up like

spelling his name he's like you think I'd know

my own name after writing this so many times

and so he throws it on the floor and he gets

another one. And then, so I BSed with him for

a few minutes and then went from there to a,

they had a collaborative like tune panel where

they had Greg Wiseman, Jeffrey Combs, Jason Marsden,

Billy West, and Richard Horowitz, which I didn't

realize was the voice of Alpha -5 from Power

Rangers. Weird. And he was the voice of InvaderZim

and one of the Angry Beavers, so I knew those,

but I didn't know he was Alpha -5. And so I was

like, really. I've been crying for his InvaderZim

stuff. Yeah, and I've never watched InvaderZim.

Oh, tragic crime, Steve. Tragic crime. Yeah,

well, it's what I've been exposed to and what

I haven't been. So anyways, I went to that panel.

Hilarious. They actually went over by a half

hour and was irritating the Midwest people, but

they just kept talking. and then they kept having

people get in line for Q &A and Jason Marsden

goes over to the Midwest guy and he's like this

dude like a blitz or something you know so they

were like one question pick a voice actor and

then they just went around and then got through

them all and every time I went through a break

of something I'd go out to my car and eat and

kind of rest for a little bit but then they had

the I went down to the the gaming room and I

played Smash Brothers tournaments on the Wii

U Which is pretty fun. I get to find out how

bad I am compared to kids younger than me And

I well I've never played the Wii U version and

So I wasn't experienced with the fact that they

had cloud in there and they had like Bayonetta

in there and various characters like that So

I was used to like Smash Brothers brawl And going

in there they nerfed a bunch of the characters

from brawl Like Sonic doesn't have some of the

same moves and and so on like I just a lot of

the characters I was used to using weren't very

good in that game so I had to kind of switch

it up but I figured out if I played as Samus

or a zero suit Samus I could pretty much Get

almost I would get second to last of being alive

and I think I played like 10 or 11 rounds and

I went up to get They had the autograph session

for Billy West Steve Downs, Richard Horowitz,

and they had two other people there I'd never

heard of before. Who's Richard Horowitz? Like,

what's his stuff? He's the one that did Invader

Zim, and he did one of the Angry Beavers in Alpha

5. Okay, okay. And so, of course I went to Steve

Downs, got his autograph. Super cool dude. Lot

the funny thing was is because the line was so

long for Billy West they were letting anybody

in halo car Go see Steve Downs first Makes sense

makes sense. So because that's mostly what they

were there for So they got that and then I went

saw Horowitz and He was pretty cool. Somebody

had him sign his guitar and he just starts like

playing the guy's guitar and starts singing and

Then Billy West like stops doing his autographs

and starts singing with him And it was just it

was great listening to that and then I had him

sign an alpha 5 thing He goes, yeah, yeah, yeah,

yeah, and he's like sitting there writing what

he's saying on the picture, which is great And

then I get up to now mind you we're all recording

stuff Like while we're in line like recording

the actors taking pictures of them while we're

in line because we can't physically get a picture

with them Because they were like, oh it's against

con policy because the convention people just

didn't want to And it depended on the person

that was with the actor, too, whether they were

a dick about it or not. Because there's a whole

different side to that, and I'll explain that

to you guys later, because that's more complicated

than you might think, actually. Well, it was

funny, because certain people from the con didn't

care and would just let you do whatever with

the actor. And then other ones were like, oh,

no, you can't do this. Speaking of which, getting

to Billy West, I was in line for him. and he

was doing something and I was recording something

and I took a picture of him or whatever and you

know just kind of showing that I was in line

because I was next up and the chick next to him

gets up and is like you can't be recording anything

it's against con policy it's you can't you can't

get his picture and you can't and I was like

okay but she didn't maybe delete any of it either

so so I got up there got his you know got his

signature and everything and got out of there

and then I pretty much at that point was pretty

pissed off with the convention anyway um and

tired so i left but they had another like panel

for the uh the actors which if i would have stuck

around for that it would have had all the voice

actors again plus uh um john say john who was

running around in cosplay uh who i didn't get

to meet either uh or kyle waybearer because they

were at different panels when i was doing different

uh different panels so yeah I wasn't particularly

thrilled with the con, but I was glad for the

guests I got to meet and some of the other cosplayers

that I met in the process. Yeah, one of the problems

with new cons is not all cons are created equal.

And that just may be the level of the volunteers.

The volunteers may not necessarily be as strong.

Well trained as those that are in the inner circle.

So it doesn't surprise me that you had a little

bit of static between dealing with Different

people as you said some people cared some people

didn't you may have been getting cross interference

with the actors PR people because sometimes like

for example I went to a convention about four

years ago and one of the actresses from my little

pony was there I'm not gonna name names, but

her PR rep was a fucking dick and she was beautiful

nice cordial whatever but they couldn't she couldn't

do anything because the rep had to okay everything

kind of like a certain company we know with certain

people that we have to talk to yeah like it's

just it's just the way that the convention goes

and you know they have certain expectations and

i don't know and sometimes with actors when it

comes down to pictures getting stuff done the

con may may promise if you do pictures you are

guaranteed x amount of dollars which may be why

they weren't allowing exactly so maybe they promised

okay you could if you said if you don't sell

600 dollars worth of pictures we'll comp the

rest sort of thing So, I wouldn't be so hard

on them. Well, I was more so hard on them because

the communication for the entire convention and

the stuff printed in their books were so all

over the place that there was no, like, if it

was a consistency across the board, I would have

been fine because the expectations would have

already been set. It sounds to me like, it sounds

to me like... But I've had a headache with them

since the initial... sending that first image

to get the pass in the first place. I've had

a problem with them ever since. And everybody

I talked to at the con was saying that communication

with that convention sucks. And then last year,

I guess, at their other convention that they

ran, people paid for the premium pass so they

could get right in the front to get the voice

actors or the actors' autographs and photos and

whatnot. Granted, you don't have to pay for autographs,

just for general, whatever item you bring. You

don't have to pay for that, but if you want a

picture with them kind of thing, you gotta pay

for that. I guess some people were telling me

that they weren't letting people take pictures

with them anyway, and then they still kept the

money. Yeah, that's not exactly very ethical,

mind you. We don't have any concrete proof of

that, so... But yeah, I can understand that.

That's kind of shitty. Hopefully things will

improve for these guys in the future, so when

they host this again next year, things will be

significantly better for them. Now, I don't totally

condemn them, like I said. I don't hate them

or anything, or wouldn't condemn them, but I

myself... Dependent on the guests next year.

I probably won't be back to that convention.

I'll probably go to a different one That's why

you should come to con Bravo Yeah, yes, I could

afford to get my butt to Canada and your dollars

worth way more than ours If they made me an if

they made me a guest and then we were on a panel

together I'd go but we'll talk But um But yeah,

that was that was kind of how my weekend went

so Any any interesting anecdotes that you guys

like to get into before we jump into some of

the let me see well Had unfortunately a huge

scare last night as you guys know My kitten dr.

Wiley is epileptic had his first seizure in like

almost six seven months last night Scared the

shit right out of me because he normally sleeps

on top of me under the covers or beside my head

on My pillow last night, so he starts thrashing

around Obviously, I'm freaking the fuck out So

after like two, three minutes his seizure stops,

you take him to the vet today. So he's okay.

He's got to get some blood work done tomorrow.

Probably get his pills adjusted, but you don't

know tear until you see basically your baby having

a seizure. It's one of the most unpleasant experiences

I can ever think of. I kind of get how parents

must feel when they're children. get hurt or

whatever, and I realize I'm comparing pets to

kids, but that's, I see Wiley as my kid, so.

Well, I, my previous dog that I had actually

had seizures. It's scary stuff. So we had to

keep her on medication, and it freaked me out

one time because she fell down the stairs, but.

Yeah, Wiley sometimes, because he doesn't know

where he is, it sounds funny, but it isn't, obviously.

He tries to run up the wall. And I guess because

he's hallucinating or something. But yeah, like

last night he starts thrashing around and when

he comes out of his seizure he's like kind of

dopey for like 10 minutes and This we we me and

Blair did find funny. He just kept walking in

a circle. It was kind of funny So we took him

to the vet today. Like I said, he's hopefully

pretty good They're gonna do some blood work

see if there's any Underlying issues, but the

vet seems to think he said I'd be very surprised

if there was anything else wrong if there is

will Obviously deal with it. So that's about

excuse me is the most unpleasant thing I dealt

with This past week Other than that, I've had

my head buried in D &D books for about the past

week We're doing something pretty Pretty big

over on terrible warriors Recording on Sunday,

so I'm in charge of that. So That's been fun

reading about the old D &D setting of Ravenloft,

which is tremendously cool. Actually, no. Here

is the anecdote, and a few of your audience members

will probably get this. One of the big characters

in Ravenloft is this guy named Count von Zerewitz.

He's this vampire, he's this omnipresent, basically

vampire god, right? If it happened in his domain,

he knows about it. So I'm working through the

adventure with Blair because she's nerd light

I'm like, okay, what is scary to you? so we're

we're like talking back and forth we're getting

ideas and I explained who this like Strahd guy

is and she's like, so he's like the great kazoo

I'm like wait what the guy from the Flintstones

like No, he's not a teleporting green fucking

alien. No, but And yeah, so she turned one of

the most badass D &D villains Into the great

kazoo from the fucking Flintstones and now I

can never disassociate the two scary vampire

God to dumb dumb This is married life people

third icons destroyed And what's new with you

TFG? Oh not much in the process of recording

and editing a 104 episode daily podcast will

be putting out later this year. So that's that's

pretty much all I've been working on Wait, you're

recording Daily stuff, but you're not putting

it out till later He's doing 104 days of 104

days of summer. It's based off of Phineas and

Ferb there were Throughout the whole show they

say in the show that it's 104 days of summer

So the podcast is gonna be 104 episodes, but

we're pre recording all the stuff So when would

the 104 days start? That's the funny thing. This

year, according to the summer solstice, summer

solstice this year actually made Phineas and

Ferb lie to us. This year, there are only 93

days of summer. But we'll start airing at June

20. It'll end somewhere around September, October,

somewhere around there. Make sense. OK, just

curious. Because obviously, you always hear that

with radio stations. They're like, here's the

blank amount of days of summer. I'm like, that

doesn't make any mathematical sense. But hey,

what do I know? Well, it's usually, I think it's

sometime in September that the autumnal equinox

happens, that you fall back and all that stuff.

So technically, For this year. It's summer is

June to September so yeah, I know I'm having

a blast doing that and see the usually when I

do the review podcasts When we've done them in

the past or like Optimus Solo and I are still

doing the powers of grayscale series stuff, so

We usually go in depth and we can usually nitpick

and analyze stuff. With Phineas and Ferb, most

of the time it's two 11 -minute short cartoons

or it's one 30 -minute two -part special or something.

So there really isn't a whole lot to nitpick

because the animation is consistently good. The

writing is consistently good. So this is going

with us having it be a daily podcast and only

doing, you know, Talking about two 11 -minute

cartoons the general The general thing for me

is it's probably gonna be the shortest review

podcast series and in episode length That I've

ever done because we want to keep it. I would

like to keep it right at or under 30 minutes

per episode Because going you know 40 minutes

for one 11 -minute cartoon just seems kind of

ridiculous I say yeah, that seemed a little bit

excessive and obsessive Yeah. Good work, though.

Trying to do that daily. I commend you for that,

sir. Well, see, the cool thing about it is, because

we're pre -recording all this, we're doing all

the pre -production for it, we're recording three

episodes every week at this point. Because we're

keeping the episodes so short, like normally

with a TFG1 episode or with a Powers of Grayskull

episode or a Showtime Synergy episode, if we're

reviewing three cartoons and one podcast, depending

on who the co -hosts are, we could be here for

an hour, two hours, three hours. With myself

and Michael, you know, Michael Wilson, where

we're recording basically one full Phineas and

Ferb episode per podcast. So what was it? There's

an episode, season one, there's an episode called

Raging Bully, and is it Candice Loses Her Head?

okay so those are two separate 11 minute cartoons

so that's one podcast right there and then the

next one would be two more episodes and whatever

else so but it's essentially just one one cartoon

episode per podcast which is kind of cool so

yeah just splitting it up and all that stuff

and let's see what else have i been doing uh

not much just pretty much focusing on that right

now i did just uh Record it I'm late in editing

it. I was trying to get a new promo from the

author, but I haven't gotten it yet I just did

record with Nicole hailstorm. We did IDW's new

five -issue miniseries. We did the first issue

of hot damn What this is is this is a guy named

Teddy Graham who went to hell for his sins And

it's basically the whole comic takes place in

hell It's a pretty interesting yet very gross

kind of thing. You'd really like it Mike honestly

you would Say if it's weird, I'm there. Yeah,

that's that's what I've been up to So with that

we'll be back after a quick break Welcome to

the wicked radio network To interact with the

show you can contact us in the following ways.

blogtalkradio and altergeek .com. And now, back

to the show. You're listening to the Altergeek

News Network. And we're back. So, jumping into

the AGNN, we have the Hasbro Cinematic Universe.

Oh no. I like the idea behind it, but Unless

now have you read the article? I've read a couple

of this I've read a couple of different ones

on this now then they want to do Transformers

GI Joe and mask in the same well It's it's actually

this one's gonna be separate from transformers.

It's gonna be GI Joe micronauts visionaries mask

in ROM That's such a weird combination of properties.

But Micronauts, that's interesting. That's got

my attention. I've never heard of Rom. I've just

heard of the rest of them. Rom is, he was a character

in the 70s for Marvel. He was known as Rom the

Space Knight. And it's funny you mentioned, I

can't remember who I talked to, but it was somebody

at Marvel. Yeah, it was somebody at Marvel. They

were working on the role -playing game. It used

to be licensed to a company called Margaret Weiss

Productions. And this guy was writing the Cosmic

Book, right? Which is like, Annihilus, Kang,

you know, all that cosmic shit. And I'm like,

dude, please tell me you have Rom the Space Knight.

They're like, no, we don't have the rights to

Rom anymore. So now I know where those rights

ended up. Well, and it's funny because Hasbro's

studio is called All Spark Pictures. The other

thing about ROM is IDW has the rights and they're

doing a comic series on them, too. I'm really

hoping that this gets pulled off better than

the other attempt at a cinematic universe with

DC. But then again, if Hasbro takes it... serious

in terms of connecting it, but fun. I can see

this actually working. Although I'm curious to

see how they're going to pull off visionaries

though, because that cartoon was really weird.

This is kind of their group of people. They said

that their writer's room has a Pulitzer Prize

winner and Eisner winning comic book author,

Marvel Studios Scribes. They've got Michael Chavan

who worked at Chavan who worked on spider -man

2 Brian Kayvon worked on why You got Guardians

of the Galaxy and Captain Marvel co -writer Nicole

Perlman Granted none of these names mean anything

to me but uh They've got a yeah quite a few names.

I got Akiva Goldsmith On board they got yeah,

there's there's a ton of names like that have

been in a lot of other properties, but I Don't

know it kind of it's one of those things that

we'll have to kind of wait and see what happens

when they They start doing it because the only

thing I can think is that first of all they need

to reboot GI Joe and do it right This granted

the second film was better than the first one.

Yeah, but but that's not saying much Yeah, I

like parts of the first one I Like parts of the

first one too, but second was way better. It

was way more. It was a lot more fun I actually

had fun seeing that one the second one. Yeah,

especially when they had Zartan as the president

he's like look I'm gonna kill all of you and

you're not gonna do a thing about it that speech

in like I guess it was the UN is one of my favorite

moments in cinema like the last like ten years

and Because it's so over -the -top and I love

Jonathan Pryus. The funny thing about the first

G .I. Joe film is that probably about a week

after the Paris attacks, I made a reference to

the first G .I. Joe film. I was like, at least

it wasn't Nanites. Oh, Jesus Christ, Mike. They

did too. Too soon, too soon. Is it really? So

and as we know also Hasbro did away with Botcom

this year, and they've trademarked the application

for Hascon. That's so stupid. Because they're

gonna have a massive convention with all of their

properties as opposed to... Does that include

Star Wars? No, because I don't have the rights

to that. I thought Hasbro did have Star Wars.

No, that's Disney. Oh! No, I'm saying like as

far as like what they actually own, like Transformers,

My Little Pony, G .I. Joe. Yeah, because those

fandoms are gonna work so great together Okay,

here's the thing and I think I said this at some

some other podcast I recorded recently If they're

going to do an all Hasbro convention and include

at least these three fandoms, Transformers, G

.I. Joe, and My Little Pony, they're going to

need a space that at least has 100 ,000 square

feet because those three fandoms individually

are huge. Getting all three of them together

in one place, you're not going to be able to

fit everybody. If you did something like the

Boston Convention Center for PAX, you could pull

it off. or wherever they hold Pax Prime out in

Seattle. Or wherever they do, um, Kamikaze in

LA, and I don't know where they do New York Comic

-Con, but that space might be able to accommodate

it. I don't know. It seems kind of risky to put

all three of those properties together. Or like,

all those things under one thing. I mean, honestly,

they would serve their communities better by

having them separate. Yup. Since Steve brought

it up, yes, Fun Pub no longer had the license

for BotCon, so BotCon is ending. BotCon was here

in my own town. I didn't actually go to the convention,

but I just released an episode of All Things

Transformers where I talked to three different

people who actually did go to the convention.

One of the news items, or not news items, one

of the little behind the scenes tidbits that

I found out about BotCon, if Fun Pub had had

the license for next year, They were going to

put it back out in Pasadena, and they were going

to get both Peter Cullen and Frank Welker to

go. That would have been cool. That would have

been really cool. But this year's BotCon, from

the people that I talked to, it just seemed like

there was no presence from anybody there. Like,

yeah, they had the guests. They had Judd Nelson.

They had David Kaye. They had Greg Berger. They

had the normal kind of guests and all that stuff.

Very few panels IDW was actually at Emerald City

Comic Con the weekend of BotCon So it's like

there really was and they didn't even announce

anything because it's the last bot They didn't

announce any any new toys or is all the new transformer

stuff that's supposed to be coming out eventually

We can only assume that they're gonna use San

Diego to to announce new toys. That's kind of

a shitty way to treat a convention that has done

you nothing but favors. Well, that being said,

they charge you and nickel dime you for everything.

Oh, God. I went to TFCon, which is Canadian run,

and I had the best experience at a convention

in my life. Because we had hospitality, right?

Well, it was not only the hospitality, but people

like I didn't even know. In person anyway that

knew me from Twitter or from all things transformers

or or whatever We're coming up and saying hey

Steve Megatron and We're all mighty Megatron.

I'm like hi And and it was it was just great

and And then getting to meet Scott McNeil and

not having to you know pay for an autograph It

was just all included and then I got pictures

with him and he BS with me for like 10 minutes,

but I mean, just stuff like that in general.

And then the whole day was just awesome. I mean,

granted, it wasn't huge, but there was still

plenty to do. And BotCon, granted, was huge.

And there was a lot of stuff to see and a lot

of stuff that you can look at or buy or whatever.

It just, everything cost. And price pointed me

out. That's really unfortunate, too. And I guess

that's just the way. That's just I guess the

way the corporate culture kind of works eventually

the almighty dollar speaks more so than the Friendly

handshake and the hug Well in in the other thing

too is like some of those exclusive figures that

they sell at the con you would think eventually

they would sell like At least another like release

of it somewhere And when I say that I mean like

this is the second bot con that I've gotten screwed

out of a new Megatron figure. Yeah They had Transmetal

3 Megatron, man. It was out of... It's basically

the Transformers Red figure. And they designed

this look years ago. Like right after the last

BotCon that had to do with Beast Wars, which

was 2006. There was a design coloring of it.

And I've wanted this figure. And then after watching

it floating around on Twitter after the convention...

That figure is already $800 on eBay. Yeah Probably

because they do such a limited run I guess the

reason why you don't see so many on the secondary

market is because the numbers extremely limited

because I'm guessing BotCon has to pay out of

pocket to produce those figures to get the molds

retooled and whatever Well, yeah, all it is is

a repaint with a new head sculpt. Yeah that's

really all they do is like if you look at the

ravage figure the ravage is a is a repaint of

like a Sunstreaker version, and then they just

sculpt a new head. So really the only thing new

on the figure is the head. And the head for real.

I saw Octobotamus' review of the Ravage and Tarantulas.

They're flat. Huh? They're flat. Yeah. The Ravage

head, it's like, it has Ravage's face from Beast

Wars and all that stuff, but the back of the

head is, it's as flat as a brick. It just makes

no sense. Like how is that a head sculpted? Oh

god Not all figures are created equal. Nope.

That sucks What's interesting about BotCon is

it it almost had a 20 -year lifespan it started

in 1997 Wow, yep, that's I'm really sad. I didn't

get a chance to go. Actually, one of my guys

from Twig, Michael Ryan, went to it last week.

Man, I really... You can check out his thing

over on ThisWeekInGeek .net for his perspective

on the con. I had no idea this was the last one,

though. Actually, it's been going on since 1994,

Mike. Oh, wow. Still, that's a hell of a time.

The Hartman Brothers sold it to Hasbro. That's

yeah. Yeah at some point later, but But no, I

mean I think for me the real the only draw for

me was something that hadn't It was a Botcom

thing, but you didn't have to be a Botcom registrant

to go to it because they put it in a place where

they have free concerts here all the time called

Four Street Live. Stan Bush and Vince DiCola

in concert. Six -year -old me was just screaming

out loud. That was awesome. Did you actually

get a chance to hang out with them? No. But still,

just because when I was standing because we were

the way Four Street Live is is The way 4th Street

is, most of it is cobblestone because it's an

entertainment district. They don't normally allow

cars to drive down this part. There used to be

this whole glass -enclosed mall in between two

buildings. A number of years ago, they destroyed

the bottom half of the mall. They left the top

part of the glass enclosure. and then they put

in all the restaurants and stores like there's

a t .j. friday's down there's a lucky strike

bowling alley there's hard rock cafe louisville

and right in that area is where they put the

stage and we were three rows from we were three

rows of people like from right being at this

at the front of the stage in the middle of the

is calling a transformers monster if you want

uh... so Looking at stan on the stage and then

looking at him up on the screen. It's like, oh

hey up on the screen It's like, you know vintage

80s stan looking thing and then looking at him

You know as he's actually performing is like,

oh that's what the guy is like in real life but

now we didn't get a chance to because what had

happened was it about Because he he went through

all of his his stuff he went through stuff from

in this life he went through stuff from dream

the dream was through stuff in the ultimate and

obviously played the classics like taller one

and they're in the touch we all thought the touch

is going to be the last song they went back and

played something else by the time he got to like

the third verse of that last song it started

raining uh... nice so i didn't get a chick we

in my friend amy who was here in town she she

was one that took me to the thing in uh... she

had to get back to her her vacation rental and

i'd be at home so as well it wasn't fricking

rain and so i know okay well that's it i would

love to be able to you know at least go up and

shake Stan's hand but just just seeing him and

Vince in a concert to Vince DiCola in a concert

together that's a thirty -year -old you know

that's a 233 year old dream, you know from the

80s. So it was very it was a very very cool concert

Awesome, you know So yeah, I think moving on

we'll get to The Jason Bourne trailer This actually

looks pretty friggin cool Because the last one

just had Hawkeye yelling at computer screens

for like two hours And like oh, I don't have

to take my pills anymore to be a super spot.

Yeah, like you see I never got that too I don't

know like it's been so long since that they've

seen the original three Because the board what

the hell was the one with with Hawkeye? What

was the legacy? Yeah, it's a cool stunts in it

though, but overall sucked It wasn't a terrible

film, it just wasn't particularly good either.

So boring! That's the only action spy movie I

fell asleep in. The problem with Legacy outside

of, you know... The problem with Legacy is how

the story is set up. It's set up... as it's supposed

to be taking place at the same time as the Bourne

Ultimatum, which was the third and final one

that Matt Damon had done. So it's supposed to

be taking place at the same time as that movie

has taken place. That was the biggest mistake

they could have ever done as far as writing that

script for Legacy. Like, you can reference Jason

Bourne, you know, you can reference that he's

there or whatever else. Don't have that story

of a film, you know, that you're... When did

that movie come out? When did Legacy come out?

I don't even friggin' remember. 2009. 2009, okay,

and the last... I don't know. It was later than

that because I had been moved up here. Maybe

it was 2011. Yeah, 2011. Okay, it was 2011. I

think the last Born Ultimatum was 2007 maybe?

Yeah, something like that. Okay, so let's say

a four -year gap between Ultimatum and Legacy.

You gotta be kidding me. Give me a break. Why

are you gonna give us a movie that... takes place

at the same time as the previous movie, yet without

really giving us an original storyline. Like,

if you, if they, what they should have done was

they should have taken Hawkeye's character and

they could reference Jason Bourne and the legacy

because the whole Treadstone thing and Blackbriar

and whatever else. They could have referenced

that and whatever else, but just create a whole

new story with that character. Don't have it

said at the same time as the previous damn movie.

I can't remember, but there's like a very famous

quote. And it comes from filmmaking, so maybe

Steve knows it. But it goes something along the

lines of, never mention a better movie than the

movie you're currently in, sort of thing. And

that's kind of what I'm getting the thing here.

Like, Jason Bourne's 10 times more interesting.

Why do I care about you, Hawkeye? I've been invested

in you for an hour and 45 minutes. I've been

invested in Matt Damon for three movies. Why

do I care? And that's about setting something

at the same time as something else. Unless your

story's really something gangbusters, it's such

a risk because it has the potential to be outclassed

by the side story it's trying to be a part of.

It's like telling a story during, say, Star Wars,

for example. It's like, let's hear what happened

to the Rebel Alliance soldiers after they got

Princess Leia's ship. Okay, that's cool. But

I care about the Death Star plans, you know what

I mean? I don't care about trooper 8 1 4 7 or

something. So Jason Bourne the new movie. It

looks amazing Yeah, there are some pretty cool

-looking stunts in that trailer and the fact

I love how they make him just look so hardcore

like when he's just pounding that guy at the

end. Yeah, it just knocks him out Come at me,

bro. That was It's almost like ting you just

like you know metals them in the face or something

like it and the it was just crazy how I? Can't

remember the last movie. I saw Matt Damon in

the Martian Martian and Elysium maybe are the

two ones I I can think I saw this pretty good

meme earlier going around that Somebody said

that it's a Jason Bourne movie where it says

Er, guys, we need a new poster for the new Damon

film. Any ideas? It's got him for Elysium, Martian,

and Jason Bourne. It's all like his mugshot looking

at the camera. Like, a close -up of his face.

Oh, sweet. And then they've just got text over

it. Like, the name of the movie's at the bottom,

and then there's just text, like, the Elysium

says, He can save us all. And then it says, Elysium.

And then it says, Bring him home. The Martian.

You know his name. Jason Bourne. Yeah, that's

really, really lazy poster design. See, that's

why I miss getting like the Harry Potter type

posters or the old Star Wars type anything that

was drawn by Drew Struzan is Amazing half the

movie posters days are lazy Photoshop or they're

just random photo mashups and that sucks Oh,

yeah, the coolest thing for me on the on the

born trailer was I wasn't expecting them to bring

Julia Stiles' character back, because I haven't

seen her in stuff in a long time. I don't know

what the last movie was that I saw her in. Yeah,

I guess... The Lastborn movie? Probably. I kind

of wonder now. No, I think she did like a romantic

comedy or two after that. I think she's done

maybe television, but even then I'm not sure.

Yeah. Yeah, I'm gonna look her up real quick

while you guys are talking about that, but yeah

the Jason Bourne Trailer looked actually really

really good it did The actions on part and then

plus you got Paul Greengrass. So like you know,

it's gonna be really good Because he did the

other Jason Bourne films Yeah, it should be up

to the quality that we've come to expect and

Matt Damon came back specifically because he

was gonna do it. Yep So it's not going to be,

oh, this sucks. Like, oh, you're the guy I know

and trust with this project. So awesome. Let's

let's make some magic people. She was in silver

lining's playbook. That's the most recent popular

one that she's done before the 2012. Maybe it

was 2012. She's done quite a few other projects.

She's been in the mini project. She's been in

like a bunch of other movies that are coming

out in 2016 and that came out in 2015, but nothing

that was like anything kind of big. Yeah. I mean,

like I said, she's done quite a bit of TV, but

the movies she's done are like things that nobody

probably would really know unless it's something

obscure. Yeah. But. Yeah. And then, of course,

the other part of movie news that we had this

week was the new Rita Repulsa. And before you

guys say your thoughts on this, my thoughts are

just looking at this is it reminds me of like

Power Rangers and space villains. Compared to

the original Brita Repulsa it kind of gives me

that vibe But if she's a space witch the other

like Muppet looking costume doesn't really look

all that great either She reminds me of a hotter

diva talks That's kind of what I thought and

I'm totally okay with that. I actually kind of

like it I think it looks cool. I want to see

what the Ranger helmets are gonna look like specifically

But I don't know, I don't think it's a terrible

design. I hope they show something at Comic -Con

this year or at least like a brief 15 second

teaser or something. Oh, if the movie's coming

out next year, I'm sure by Comic -Con or at least

by, if not San Diego, at least by New York in

October, they'll have some sort of trailer or,

you know. Not all movies can be the BS that is

BBS with a three -year marketing campaign, so

I'm sure they'll show us something. They actually

did show us the quote -unquote logo of the film,

and it's not exactly inspiring. It kind of reminds

me of the old RPM logo a little bit. See, I don't

get the point of showing logos to movies like

that. You know what they're showing you? A font.

Yeah. And I think that's so stupid. Show me a

poster. Don't show me a fawn. Don't show me what's

in essence in Microsoft Word. But yeah. I don't

know. My first reaction was it doesn't matter

what she looks like, because unless it's Barbara

Goodson doing the voice, like any of the act,

because I know there are at least two different

actresses in the original show that did. that

were actually in the Rita costume. But it was

always Barbara Goodson's voice that really sold

the character for me. So seeing Elizabeth Banks

as Rita, I'm like, OK, it's Rita. Loki and Poison

Ivy had a kid, and that's what it came out to

be. I'm very curious to see. Now, do we have

any idea on what this movie is going to be rated?

No. See, if they go for PG -13 and it's semi

-serious, Depending on how she portrays it. This

might actually be kind of cool because I really

like her in the Hunger Games movie She plays

I think it's Effie. I want to set. Yep, and that's

that's why she looks so freaking weird Yeah,

so I'm okay with that. I mean they At least it's

it's it's inspired casting because she can't

ham it up when wet when she needs it She can

nail weird. Yeah, so I don't know easily. I'm

excited. Who knows So yeah, moving on a little

bit more. Has anyone been watching any of the

Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans back and forth

stuff? All I've seen is the Iron Man one where

he's messing with the Eiffel Tower. That's the

only one. I watched that one the other day. What

other ones exist? The one with the donuts. I

haven't seen that one. Oh, and I randomly saw

one where it's like a car commercial, where they're

chasing down the Winter Soldier. Yeah. Which

I actually thought that was a clip from the movie.

I'm thinking, you know, that's actually kind

of clever, but no, it's just a car commercial.

Just a car commercial. The funny thing and the

ironic thing about Robert Downey Jr. is supposedly

he is now cast in Spider -Man Homecoming. No,

he is. Oh, yeah, officially confirmed. Yeah.

But Batman dropped out, which is unfortunate.

See, I'm fine with that. Like, somebody was jokingly

trying to get clickbait, but he posted an image

next on Marvel's list, and it has Val Kilmer,

George Clooney, and Christian Bale. That'd be

kind of funny. Actually, I'm trying to think.

Christian Bale, I don't know. I can't think of

anybody he would fit. But if you could get me

Val Kilmer 10 years ago. Maybe. Yeah. So anybody

see the story about the fact that they're going

to do a Cruel Intentions television series now

with Sarah Michelle Geller? And she's reprising

her role. Reprising her role as Catherine. The

only problem I have with this is that apparently

Reese Witherspoon is too busy to come back as

Annette and they recast the role to be somebody

else. I don't have a problem with the fact that

they recast it. But let's say Reese Witherspoon

is fairly significantly Fairly successful whereas

Sarah Michelle Geller is not really doing a whole

hell of a lot Well, the funny thing is is you

know, they the way that the article reads about

what the plot is of the series It's you know,

she's now married to some wealthy Business man

or whatever else and I'm like, oh hey, it's ringer

all over again. Don't get me wrong I love the

CW show ringer when it came on and it only lasted

one season, but it's Like why do we need a cruel

intentions TV series? now when this seems like

Fifteen years too late. Well, yeah, they're doing

it as it's a continuation years later, but this

isn't really any different They've been doing

like look at Minority Report. Look at scream

But scream look at except they reinvented it

with that so that's a little bit different Then

you have What is that one with? Bradley Cooper

where he gets Yeah, limitless. You got that you

got they tried to do the firm into a TV show

Yeah rush hour. I mean movies are coming to TV

Yeah, no, I know. And like I said, I'm not like

down on this. I'm just saying why is it now that

the Cruel Intentions television series is happening?

Like why didn't this happen like four or five

years ago or whatever? Because sex sells now

and it didn't sell then. Because Sarah Michelle

Geller has to pay back a massive student loan.

And she needs work. That's my guess. She did

voiceover for that Star Wars paid her good. Yeah.

Oh god. She was the Inquisitor. That's right

Have you seen the season finale? No, I'm working

my way through it. Thank you. All right, then

I'll shut my mouth. Oh But yeah, I don't know

what a weird choice for a series though Like

I remember years back there was talk of them

doing for example Like they wanted to do a Friday

the 13th series Based on the movies, and I think

that's still happening at some point I know they

were gonna do a series based on night of the

living dead, but now we have walking dead. So

who cares? Which fucked that season finale by

the way I Don't know it's just it's it's just

such a weird choice for a movie to pick up so

many years later Because nobody at least who's

in their target market has likely seen it. They're

looking at purely nostalgia. Man, fuck that,

man. Fuck it. Give me Buffy 10, 15 years later,

even if it was only a 10 -episode series. Yeah.

And the crazy thing is, I think, and I could

be wrong about this, but my personal opinion

is they're trying to erase the stigma that whatever

random studio did the stupid sequels. Yeah. There

were... Cruel Intentions 2 and Cruel Intentions

3. Now, don't get me wrong. Cruel Intentions,

it's an okay movie. It's an interesting movie

for its time. I enjoyed it, you know, but I don't

see why it needed a sequel. It's kind of like,

same thing with Wild Things. Wild Things, and

Wild Things is not a great movie at all, but

the sequels to that are just horrible. All I

know is Lesbian Kissing. I'm totally down for

that. I'm just gonna say what everybody's thinking

here, come on. But yeah, they were not great

movies by any stretch of the imagination. Entertaining

for whatever reason. Well, what was it? I'm sorry

for derailing this, Steve, but I think it was

the third Wild Things movie that essentially

just ripped off the first film's plot and just

recast the damn thing, and I'm like, are you

kidding me? You know what? Someone needed to

launder some money for that, I'm guessing. Because

half like it's very rare you get a really good

direct to DVD sequel it happens from time to

time but not often And why the hell did this

movie deserve a sequel? Who was in line saying,

you know, I really wonder what happens if Fuck

that guy You know, I'm interested. I'll check

out the show when it comes on. I'll see if I'll

enjoy it. But see, I think Cruel Intentions is

one of those movies that it's a one and done.

It told its story beginning, middle, and end.

And it has a really kind of crappy ending considering

Sebastian dies. But it's just one of those things

where it was a complete piece of cinema. There

was no loose ends. There was no, it wasn't even

tied up. too quickly or anything like that. It

just ended on, you know, a semi -alright finishing

point. You know what would be funny if they find

a way to bring him back? Oh, God. They'll force

ghost him. Or like, I faked my death. Mwah, twirly

mustache. I don't think you can fake your death

from being hit by a taxi cab. I don't know, man.

It's television. They can write anything. Tell

you that or it'll be like evil Twitter something

God that I want to write for this TV show just

to see how stupid I can make it speaking of TV

shows we were we were kind of discussing off

-air the the way of making a show with 13 episodes

as opposed to and we've kind of brought up this

this train a few times on this show, but I Forget

which show specifically we were talking about

Yeah, yeah, that's what you're gonna talk about

was Game of Thrones. Yeah, so it's been revealed.

So as you guys know Game of Thrones comes back

this Sunday on HBO for its 10 episode season

now the deal is currently in place at HBO to

do another two seasons, but the the showrunners

have basically come out and said we can't do

These this show anymore. It's getting too expensive.

It's tying up the actor schedules We're gonna

have to wrap it up in 13 episodes. So they're

talking about having a six episode season in

a seven episode season Over the next two years

which kind of sucks because but then again at

the same time George RR Martin Hasn't even finished

writing the book the new season is based on so

literally he did have to give an outline though

before he Well, yeah, like, he's got ideas, I

guess. Which, I don't know, it's so weird, though,

because he's had, like, years to finish this.

So, literally... He's a Brit. He's lazy. So,

HBO is not screening anything for critics, which

is a surprise. But then again, when there was

that big leak, I think it was last season, people

got kind of pissy, and I get that. So, everything

on TV now will be completely new. We'll have

maybe a few vague ideas stuff that didn't didn't

get adapted from like other seasons But I don't

know I mean I kind of wonder if maybe shorter

televisions the way to go and Here's why you

look at a show like The Walking Dead for example,

it has I want to say 16 episodes It does eight

during its first seat eight during its first

half and then eight in the kind of back half

Better Call Saul, I wanna say is like 10 episodes

as well. Doctor Who does 13 and a Christmas special.

And shorter television means you get typically

better product because you can put more money

into the sets, the actors, and whatever else

you can. The money's there on screen. Look at

Daredevil, look at Jessica Jones. Yeah, but those

aren't well they are sure there there are 13

episodes, but those are Daredevil and Jessica

Jones. That's Netflix and what they do doesn't

matter. It's still a 13 episode I know but It's

money basically what I'm saying you see it up

on the screen Right, but you know you get a case

of though walking dead in Game of Thrones and

that stuff That's on broadcast like daredevil

they film all that stuff you know get it all

done, and then give us a release date for the

whole series. Whereas Game of Thrones and Walking

Dead, you have to wait week to week to week.

And I'm sure at some point, not necessarily the

mid -season finale, but at some point, somewhere

along the lines, and I'll tie this into Flash,

Arrow, and Legends here in a minute, they have

a break at some point for like a week or two

or something. But that's the station itself that

has a break. Yeah. They have to follow those

guidelines, whereas Netflix doesn't have to follow

that. Nope. I don't know, like, I like shorter

seasons. I don't like the weight, but I'd rather

have higher quality TV than quantity of TV. I

agree, because, like, a lot of the shows, it

seems like... I think, like, for instance, everybody

gives Arrow crap. I think Arrow would be much

better if it had a shorter season. Absolutely,

because you get less filler. Well everybody gives

arrow crap nowadays because everybody is sick

of the Oliver Felicity thing that's the entire

it's not even that it's just it's the fact that

they got the the Flashbacks what there's gonna

do away with and unless they're like pertaining

to the story. Yeah directly and then then, you

know, the fact that they just got a bunch of

throwaway stuff in the middle that's just wasting

time. Yeah, I mean, one show that did this right,

and it's such an extreme example, but follow

me. Dragon Ball Z Kai. Dragon Ball Z Kai cuts

out all the filler episodes and re -edits everything

to be a more concise product. If you could do

that with a show like Arrow, have it be more

concise and be shorter, I would be a lot more

interested in watching that as opposed to...

Oh, yay, here's more filler. Plus, you're not

wasting your life watching 22 episodes, and you'll

watch 13 instead. Yeah, I mean, I like that.

And honestly, if we have shorter seasons, that

means more stuff might get greenlit, other than,

hey, we have to fill this for X amount of episodes.

And then it gets canceled. Yeah. Honestly, give

me shorter stuff. For example, Constantine, when

that show was on the air, It was starting to

get good around the 13 episode mark, but it wasted

its friggin time because it has to fill a broadcast

schedule and television broadcast schedules.

They're going the way of the dinosaur because

everybody wants their content on demand anyway,

despite the fact Netflix, I think, took a 10

% hit this week for its stock prices, which is

going to not matter because they're going to

be they're raising their prices. Yeah, which.

Even if you were grandfathered, your price is

now kind of going up, too. Well, they're still

going to make 10 times the amount that they're

going to lose from people canceling over those

$2. Oh, yeah. Which, you know, and to kind of

touch on something else for a second here, about

six months ago, Netflix had announced they were

going to crack down on VPN users. people that

like kind of jump borders to access content.

Like for example, you guys know I used to jump

to US Netflix via my VPN. They've cut that off

now. I can't access US Netflix anymore, but I

can still access Hulu and all the other services.

So thank God for that. You kind of wonder if

that's going to start to play a factor too, because

all these streaming services are starting to

offer original content. Like Netflix, like Hulu,

CBS is doing Star Trek. Maybe this is the way

television is going to start to go. We're going

to have a la carte services. You pay for what

you want. I don't know. I mean, I think the idea

of over the air or through cable, it's always

going to be there, but it's going to start to

radically change in about the next 10 years.

See, that's the one thing that I just don't get

with certain channels and stuff. OK, so I pay

$21 a month for Netflix and Hulu Plus. I'm more

than fine with that. It's better than paying

200 and something for 2 ,000 channels or whatever

it is with Time Warner Cable here in Kentucky.

You know, what bugs me is channels like A &E

or Disney Channel who basically you go to their

things and you want to see the latest broadcast

episodes like two days later or a week later

or whatever else. Oh no, you must have a cable

or satellite provider sign in. You must have

an actual cable package to watch that content.

And I'm like, are you kidding me? Give me a break

over here. Yeah, because a friend of mine in

the States gave me his cable login so I can access

FX Fox, Syfy channel, and some other stuff. I

was about to say, why not just allow me to pay

$5 a month to access your content? Because it's

not like your catalog's that big online to begin

with. Like, for example, I'm actually going to

turn on my Xbox right now, and let's see what's

on Syfy channel right now, because that's a service

you need a cable provider to sign into. And I

can't remember the last time I used it. I mean,

see, that's the thing, though. That's what I

understand is, why is it that these channels

are saying that when you go to And I know they're

I know they're technically cable channels when

you go to like the CW or you go to Fox or you

go to NBC or ABC or CBS I know I know ABC for

a fact I was gonna watch that Captain America

75 Whatever the hell that special was and they're

like, oh sorry for people that aren't subscribed

to ABC It'll be available in a week and I'm like,

okay fine, whatever But it's I don't know. I

just don't understand the whole... I just don't

understand or agree with the whole, you must

have a cable package in order to watch something

online from a certain channel's website. That's

just stupid. I think it's them. It's their attempt

to give you added value. But for those that have

already cut the cable, it's incentive for them

to reattach it, I guess. Not really. Yeah, but

yeah, because that's only going to drive people

towards piracy, torrents, and other sort of streaming

services. OK, I can't boot up Sci -Fi right now

for whatever reason. But its selection is anemic,

to say the least. Like, there should be no reason

why I should have to have a cable subscription

for maybe 20 shows. Sure, there may be seasons

of crap, but it sucks. Yeah. Or, OK, so. Most

of even CBS NBC and ABC do this you know most

of their content is only there Unless you're

paying for it most of the free content because

normally I go to CBS for obviously Supergirl

and that kind of stuff You know most of it's

only there for a week or so okay, so here's my

thing Why don't the cable companies Time Warner

Comcast whoever why don't they offer you like

you said Micah? $5, $10, $15 on demand package

that you can just go on their website and pay

that money, just like a Netflix subscription

or whatever else, to watch the stuff on the website

without having to have an actual cable box or

what. That's what I understand is why don't they

have an online package version? I think it comes

down to advertising mostly, and a lot of people

don't understand Lot of the on -demand stuff

now because it's a scary world for advertisers

who depend upon that money To keep to keep the

friggin lights on so I kind of think that's why

like up here in in my Canada for example You

can watch everything. We have a channel called

Global. We have a channel called City. Global

does a lot of CBS stuff, NBC and Fox stuff. So

you can watch everything on their web. I should

just get a login for one of these stations up

here. You can watch everything in one place.

But they offer it there because other streaming

services... have things locked down, and that's

why you're seeing content get taken away from

Hulu, content get taken away from Netflix. That's

why we're getting the launches of all these smaller

streaming services, because they're looking for

new revenue streams. And I don't think they know

precisely what the hell they're doing. I think

they're going to drive people away. See, that's

the thing with Hulu. Hulu does, and Hulu Plus...

the paid subscription part of Hulu does an interesting

thing. If you pay 12 bucks a month, 11 .99, you

get completely ad free, no ads whatsoever in

the shows. And you can add on stuff like Showtime.

Like Showtime, yeah. So you get completely ad

free and depending on the show, They'll add like

older shows like I'm currently going through

the TNT cop drama Rizzoli and Isles because it's

set in Boston and I'm from Boston and all that

stuff. Anyway, so I can watch all five seasons

of that on Hulu at any time I want. But with

the shows that run currently like Flash or Legends

or Arrow or Gotham or The Voice or whatever,

they put a cap on How long those new episodes

are up and then they take them down, which is

fine. I don't matter because I think the way

Hulu does it is they expect anyone that is a

a cord cutter like me to watch it the next day

after it originally airs and then not have to.

I think that's I could be wrong, but I think

that's how Hulu would might. Calculate their

numbers is how many people are watching? The

next day that may not have been able to see it

on television the night that it aired Yeah, that

really wouldn't surprise me actually Over there

Steve, yep, I'm still awake Broadcast is it's

changing so so quickly. Yeah, and I wonder what

it's gonna be like When, say, Steve's kid grows

up, what is their entertainment landscape going

to look like? Because we've been, all of us here,

we're all past, except Steve, you're not past

30. I will be in June. All right, so we're all

basically past 30. So we grew up in the era of

the color television, in the era of cable television,

satellites, and the dvr and now we're seeing

how online is changing that landscape now and

the people that were in charge in the 80s and

the 90s they're starting to retire so the people

our age are starting to come into positions of

power finally hopefully thank god and we're gonna

see how things are gonna balance out because

Netflix is still a fairly young service. I mean,

it's been around since the 90s, but it wasn't

until streaming services were offered around

the mid -2000s that things really started to

change. We see Hulu get constantly mentioned.

And the fact that we're seeing original content

from these streaming providers really says something.

Now, Sony's tried to get crackle off the ground

for God knows how long. It's garbage. It's garbage.

It stalls out when you're watching stuff. Yeah,

which it's really weird. fact that they do it

give me two minutes of commercials at the beginning

and two minutes at the end and i'm fine but yeah

like and hell the the fact that they pushed crackle

during the ghostbusters trailer that came out

last month god i found that really weird and

jarring um but it doesn't it that hasn't succeeded

yet netflix hulu um And the other services are

fairly successful. Hell, even Fox's service does

something fairly unique. If you go to their FXNow

service, they have a thing where it's nothing

but Simpsons. Pure Simpsons from 1989 to now.

They even have a button that says random Simpsons,

which is amazing. You can sit there and literally

watch the Simpsons every day for the next, like,

years. Well, and I think you're going to see

with the spectrum of digital media coming in

the future is with all of these stations, you're

going to start seeing them step away from the

cable providers for the most part. You're going

to see them come out with their own apps, their

own streaming services, much like HBO, much like

CBS. You're probably going to see less of them

partner with Hulu and Netflix, although Hulu

is our partly owned by three different stations.

It's like NBC, Fox, and ABC or something. You're

going to see stuff still go to that probably,

but you're probably going to see a lot less stuff

go to Netflix and services like that because

they're going to start coming up with their own

stuff. The benefit of them doing that is, granted

I'm not happy about it, but the benefit of them

doing it is they will know ... Like what type

of episodes people like to watch what type of

show people like to watch? Well, they'll have

hard data and they'll be able to actually see

much like people can see when they they do YouTube

videos They'll be able to find the analytics

of when people shut it off What offended them

what what kept them watching through to the end

of that episode? You know in whereas TV most

of us have an honest background filler and there's

no way to record what? is actually going on.

Yeah. Because if we're on on the digital media,

nine times out of 10, we're going to shut it

off when we're done watching it. Yeah, exactly.

I mean, there is a certain engagement window.

And one of the things I forgot to mention now,

Amazon Prime, which is you get free two day service

if you pay like 70 bucks a year, whatever. Now

they've split the video service from that for

eight bucks a month. Have you ever looked at

the Amazon Prime selection of shit? No, it sucks

I don't see how they and they're trying to compete

with with with a Netflix for being a dollar cheaper

now admittedly they do have some Good TV shows

on there But not enough when you compare it to

Hulu and some of that and we've already seen

one streaming service collapse That was the Yahoo

one and that had the sixth season of community

exclusively on there. I've seen Yahoo They're

on their way out. Anyway They've been on their

way out for the last 15 years. And it sucks,

though, because you see a company like, because

Yahoo, all things considered, is still fairly

big. And the fact that they were able to grab

a property like that and it got flushed down

the toilet is unfortunate. And Amazon has tried

to launch its own pilots. I remember they had,

like, a zombie land pilot, like, a couple of

years ago. So... I don't know. It's going to

be interesting to see how things all kind of

balance out. Certain, certain, certain television

stations and providers will be more successful

than others. Like, for example, I know Warner

Brothers has one, and Sony has one where you

can access a lot of their back catalog of TV

and movies, but not a lot of people know about

them. Hell, even Sony just launched one recently

where you could stream 4K movies. But it's like

30, 40 bucks a month or something like that.

Or maybe I'm remembering it wrong, but it's ridiculous,

to say the least. I like the way this is going

and I don't like the way it's going. Yeah, it's

going to be a lot more stuff on my credit card

month to month. Fuck. Not me. But speaking of

which, I'm in my filmmaking class right now,

which has been or my screenwriting class, which

has been kind of interesting. We're in the final

nine days now at this point. But yeah, so we're

in the final nine days of the class. I have we

had to write a short film we had to write, which

was like 15 pages or less. And then we had to

write several different like little he'd give

us a theme like you had to write about a gift

or seduction scene or a dinner scene or or something

like that and I've had this overarching theme

like I mentioned before that I write with purpose

and if I write with purpose it means I'm going

to use it later and so I basically I wrote all

of those type of stories with the intention of

that they would tie into my TV pilot at the end

of the season semester and I've I've had the

characters created since last year when I took

the superhero certificate class I've had the

a lot of the premise for the stuff created back

then I've had the I created the Artificial town

I've created the the super suits. I've created

their appearances. I've created like a lot of

the stuff So I've been world -building over last

year anyway, so I was wanting to flesh this out

as a novel And the way I see it is if I flesh

it out as a screenplay first, I could work backwards

and fill in the gaps later because I'll have

a more of a step outline than I had when I started.

But we have to write this this one hour TV pilot.

And so I'm using these stories and I'm writing

it and it's, of course, a superhero in nature,

but it's. I'm trying to do something different

than the shows that are currently on the air

because I figure when I get done with this that

I'm gonna pay to copyright it and then try and

pitch it. With the concept that it would be a

13 episode season. That's what I've been kind

of trying to like figure out how I'm gonna work

this out and like a lot of the stuff that I Originally

plan to do is change since I wrote it and I we

had to write character bios for the teachers

like in In my doing so I managed to put Some

of the characters I fleshed out pretty well And

then a few of them there were things that I don't

quite know what I'm gonna do with them yet I

mean, I know enough but in how they port how

they're portrayed in this first episode, but

I don't know how they're gonna play later on

so I put like for a lot of the stuff like unknown

and I'm in for their information because it gives

categories we had to put like information and

then I put at the bottom of the document I'm

like yeah some of these I don't know I'm just

gonna let them write themselves when they go

into the story so but yeah so I've been working

on that so funny thing like I said I was I'm

able to use a couple of those scenes again that

I wrote earlier in the semester which will actually

fill my second act of my screenplay So then,

I'm almost done with the first act, I'll have

to fill in some gaps in act two and then act

three and four I'll have to write completely,

which will be interesting. But yeah, I gotta

write this 60 -page plot and it's coming out

pretty well, I think. Good job! Thanks. So when

I get it copywrote, I might publish part of it

on the site and let people read and gander or

pieces of it. So Anything you guys would like

to pimp out before we go, uh, well this past

week I finally got around the Post -it that boss

draw that I've been talking about as this week

was depression awareness week So if you want

to go check that out, I tell you the story of

Dean depression how RPG saved my life So I get

kind of serious for about half an hour on that.

Actually, it actually got started because there's

this community up in northern Ontario called

Attawapiskat, and I really recommend people check

that out. Basically, the entire town tried to

kill itself over the past couple of weeks. I

think over the last two weeks, they've had 30

kids try to kill themselves. Oh, wow. Yeah, so

that kind of got me thinking about that, and

I actually contacted an RPG company. I'm not

going to name them because it's not my story

to tell, but I told them about the situation

and how it saved my life. And they're like, you

know what? We're going to put together a package

and send some stuff up because there is this

meme going around Facebook right now where they

advise you if you want to send. Letters words

of encouragement or even small gifts to help

these young people kind of realize Life doesn't

suck You can do that. So like I said look up

at a wapisk at I'm sure you'll be able to find

it if you just Google that and yeah, so coming

up for me NER news will probably be up very late

Sunday because I have a bunch of work to do for

terrible warriors this week I'm still doing the

Sailor Moon Dragon Ball Z thing for the May show.

And then I'm working on D &D Ravenloft for another

project that we're currently working on. We're

actually working with one of the guys from the

podcast, Illusionoid, which I think has won several

podcasting awards and several comedy awards.

Very, very funny guys. So yeah, that's what I

got coming up in the next little bit. I don't

know what game I'm gonna be reviewing for Rad

next. I was gonna do Star Fox Zero, but I'd rather

dip my nuts in acid than review that game. Okay,

here's my short review. Go back, play Star Fox

64, be thankful for that. For me, let's see.

Like I said, we got the first issue review of

Hot Damn over inside the pull bag. I am just

working on, I've got to edit, let's see. seven

podcasts of unit uh... episode four eleven of

uh... the phoenix and for review shows so that's

that's that's what i'll be working on uh... coming

up waiting on a bunch of email replies but coming

up before our seven -year anniversary for gc

r and we're going to be i'm going to be doing

the uh... top nine top nine to the nineties for

the casserole is a ninety one ninety nine so

planning that. But yeah, that's pretty much it.

And as for myself, I'll be finishing my screenplay

and having that next week. And then among those

things, I'll probably be playing some games online

such as Battlefield 4. And we have, yeah, if

you're looking for me on there, you can look

for Steve Megatron. Ha ha ha. And also going

on right now, we have the top 50 video game franchises.

You can vote on the website, necastradio .com

at the top. Let your friends, family, and other

fellow gamers know about it and fill out. It's

an open entry form. We just asked you to fill

out the top 10, at least, of the franchises.

Obviously, the top 50 will be compiled later

and hopefully we get a pretty decent list going.

I've already kind of been separating a little

bit of it. We haven't had a lot of people fill

it out, but the amount of games that have shown

up, I've seen 150 different games franchises

show up already. And some of them have been listed

more than once. But yeah, it's been interesting

checking it out. Yeah, definitely submit for

that. And then hopefully let the the best franchise

win. So where is it on your website? If if it's

the it's if you go to the website, it's at the

very top of the site, the banner that says the

top 50 video game franchise vote here. OK, I

see it now. That is where you want to fill it

out. And then, of course, it will ask you for

you have to. It's a mandatory thing to fill out

the top 10 at least. That way, just. people at

least put 10 in there. I'm not requiring all

50 because it's just insane. Not everybody has

50 franchises they like of video games. Then

you just have to put your name and email and

then do the capture and hit submit and I will

get it. So do it or I'll punch you in the face.

Dodd will punch you in the face. And then teabag

you like a true video gamer would. That's the

way we roll. Yeah, I do that in Battlefield after

I win. And you can teach that. Yes, and then

at the end of the round I jump up and down so

that you can see me at the map. Ah, the bunny

hopping bastard. Yep, yep, it's fun. Or you do

the ground hump when you're doing it. So, with

that, until next time, get altered, get geeky

with the Altered Geeks.