Late 2021 updates on Twitch and podcasts

When I started to add another update to my January 19 podcasts and Twitch updates, I was told I couldn't switch from HTML mode to Compose mode or else I might lose part of my post so I'm starting another roundup post. Wow, I haven't updated since July 29! 

I've attended a couple of Skiffy and Fanty livewatch events of Torture Cinema movies -- for "The Ghosts of Mars" and for "Lady Battle Cop" -- but I had conflict dates with the podcast recordings for both, so I haven't been on any of their episodes lately. 

 I've been fairly busy with an impending move, but I've been on four SFFAudio podcasts released in the last few months, recorded months in advance:

Aug. 9: "The SFFaudio Podcast #642 – AUDIOBOOK/READALONG: 'The Sowers Of The Thunder' by Robert E. Howard" with Jesse Willis, Will Emmons, and Alex and Connor Kaye. https://www.sffaudio.com/the-sffaudio-podcast-642-audiobook-readalong-the-sowers-of-the-thunder-by-robert-e-howard/ 

Aug. 16: "The SFFaudio Podcast #643 – AUDIOBOOK/READALONG: 'The Hound' by H.P. Lovecraft" with Jesse Willis, Evan Lampe, Will Emmons and Connor Kaye.

https://www.sffaudio.com/the-sffaudio-podcast-643-audiobook-readalong-the-hound-by-h-p-lovecraft/

Sept. 13:  "The SFFaudio Podcast #647 – AUDIOBOOK/READALONG: 'The Picture In The House' by H.P. Lovecraft" with Jesse Willis and Connor Kaye.

https://www.sffaudio.com/the-sffaudio-podcast-647-audiobook-readalong-the-picture-in-the-house-by-h-p-lovecraft/

Oct. 18: "The SFFaudio Podcast #652 – READALONG: 'Farmer In The Sky' by Robert A. Heinlein" with Jesse Willis, Paul Weimer, Maissa Bessada and Evan Lampe.

https://www.sffaudio.com/the-sffaudio-podcast-652-readalong-farmer-in-the-sky-by-robert-a-heinlein/

Yes, these are all old stories, but I and several others in each discussion try to bring a critical 21st-century eye to them, while recognizing some merits in each (except The Hound, which I remember with no fondness at all). However, this month we discussed a major story by James Tiptree Jr. (Alice Bradley Sheldon), which will come out in another six months or so.

Twitch:

Several of the channels I follow have been on hiatus for the last few months, due to hate raids, marriages and other reasons. ArvanEleron has continued to be an active streamer, and I've played Grace of the Refreshing Breeze, a tabaxi bard, live onstream for Community D&D: The Dragon of Icespire Peak, several more times. Episodes are here:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLTBKdAD6ibG9ynqpIjaPXgAHYzQH6yY-i

Finally, I wrote a poem for a 30-minute creative writing challenge (extended to 36 minutes) during an Infernal Salon fundraising stream for the 2022 Strange Horizons kickstarter on Oct. 24, hosted by C.S.E. Cooney and Carlos Hernandez on Arvan Eleron's Twitch stream. More than 20 people connected in some way with Strange Horizons came and did a panel, giving brief self-intros and then writing to prompts from the lovely and disconcerting Negocios Infernales card game.

Three non-panelist people who were watching the fundraiser also submitted poems or stories they wrote during the stream, and I was one of them. 

These are the three writing prompts; I used them all for inspiration: 

https://twitter.com/csecooney/status/1452442455752728585

"If it unlocks, it's a lockpick"

"How perfect the poem before it is written"

"Live long enough for better stars"

Arvan Eleron kindly read my poem onstream, starting at about 3:39:33:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6aQMLh1yr-Q

Here's the poem. I submitted the three stanzas that night and added the title the next day.

Keys to Better Stars

To find the key, first find your awareness:

What are you trying to open? What do you seek to unfold?

There is no understanding without a fair test.

Not all keys look like keys; the keyhole can be the whole.

The keyhole and key are partners in a dance.

Imagine what you want, feed it with your zeal.

Plan it out first or ride/write the winds of chance

Let it live in your mind and then make it real.

Let your desires build, for better or for worse.

Feed your seeds in secret, let them grow, then go through

into the wide and wondrous universe.

May the best of your dreams outlive you.

Barding for BardandBarbarian

 I started watching https://www.twitch.tv/bardandbarbarian one night when, among the Twitch recommendations, I saw that an Episode 1 of Dread Rising, a zombie apocalypse game, had started. I figured that it would be easy to dive in, and I could drop it if it wasn't interesting.

Well, I've been watching every week; the finale is [June 16, two days from this writing]. I love this ill-assorted trashfire of a party, playing their roles with conviction no matter how much conflict that creates with the other characters. Some are genre-savvy while others are decidedly not. Some are trying to save loved ones (including a Honda), while others are ready to just destroy anything that gets in their way. It's been very amusing.

Two weeks ago, I wrote bredliks for each character, during the stream:

Quin Strong: My name is Quinn, I have a gun; Shut up soldier, and let me run!

Maxwell Gray:  Barbara my love, we need to move; and I to you, my love will prove.

Clyde Myst: Jetta my queen, our love is true! Don't walk away! Oh, boo hoo hoo.

Daniel Smith: My genre lore will save the day; survival by zombie cosplay!

Last Tuesday, I wrote a limerick as the show started:

Finally leaving the hospital; key to surviving the zombiefall. 
This party of four Could live one day more,
Though they work as a group not at all.

Having become a fan of that, I have added another show on that channel, "Call of Cthulhu: Iron Dust & Blood." It's cosmic horror set in the Wild West. For this one, I jumped into the middle of the campaign. 

Last Thursday, at the beginning of the CoCIDB episode, naive young Maybelle Monroe slipped an anonymous sonnet under the hotel door of Dallas Rex Mason. He read just enough to realize what it was, and stopped reading. 

I decided to take the challenge and write the sonnet that Maybelle might have written. Given that it was supposed to be by a teenager, I did not polish away the word repetitions, etc.; this is pretty much how it came into my head. I take some pride in the rhymes in the first and third lines in the middle quatrain, and I am particularly fond of the dreadful fourth line in that stanza.

Love in the Dead of Winter: An anonymous letter 

"Spending all winter in this tiny town
Has made me think much on how I feel.
But it's hard to pin those feelings down;
How much is imagined, and how much real?

"You surely are a fine gentleman;
Courteous, capable, kind.
But maybe I'm too sentimental when
my heart could all be in my mind.

"Is it just that I'm scared and need a broad shoulder,
Or can I trust the warmth in my heart?
You, sir, would help if you'd be a bit bolder;
if you'd only step up and play your part!
This poem right here is all I can dare;
please let me know whether you, too, care!"

I finished it before the stream ended and posted it in the chat after they finished the action and were wrapping up. Diana, who plays Maybelle, was kind enough to read it on stream, in character!

https://clips.twitch.tv/ElatedEnchantingWoodpeckerPrimeMe-Sya8AYfwSypkNqCC

Podcasts and Twitch Updates

 Happy New Year!

Since my last social media update on 12/1/20, I've been up to a few more things.

Podcasting

Stargate SG-Fun

Two more Stargate SG-1 reviews have been released. I'm the host, with David Schaub and Andrew Pontious:

Where Do Little Goa’ulds Come From (Stargate SG-1 “Bloodlines” to “Singularity”)

https://www.theincomparable.com/teevee/682/

and A Little More Oomph (Stargate SG-1 “Cor-ai” to “Solitudes”)

https://www.theincomparable.com/teevee/685/

All the Stargate podcasts can be found here:

https://www.theincomparable.com/teevee/stargate/

We announce new episodes on Twitter, and welcome comments:

https://twitter.com/stargate_sg_fun

Members of The Incomparable's Slack can also discuss things with us there.

Two more SG-Fun podcasts are in the can that haven't been edited and released yet.

SFF Audio

Two more SFFAudio podcasts that I'm on have been released, and I've been on a few more that aren't released yet:

The SFFaudio Podcast #610 – AUDIOBOOK/READALONG: Star Hunter by Andre Norton, Dec. 28, 2020. I was astonished at how disappointed I was in this book's bait-and-switch meandering plot, since I read and enjoyed a lot of Andre Norton in my teens. We all disliked it, but the discussion was good. I recommend fast-forwarding to 3:37:53. With Jesse Willis, Paul Weimer, Will Emmons, and J. Manfred Weichsel.

https://www.sffaudio.com/the-sffaudio-podcast-610-audiobook-readalong-star-hunter-by-andre-norton/

The SFFaudio Podcast #611 – AUDIOBOOK/READALONG: Jewels of Gwahlur by Robert E. Howard (Jan. 4, 2021). Not the best Conan story, but fine, and as always, the discussion ranges far afield. With  Jesse Willis, Paul Weimer, Will Emmons, and Alex (pulpcovers.com).

https://www.sffaudio.com/the-sffaudio-podcast-611-audiobook-readalong-jewels-of-gwahlur-by-robert-e-howard/

Twitch

The ShadowCrew's campaign, where I play a Tabaxi Bard, Grace of the Refreshing Breeze, continued on Dec. 3. 

Arv streams Day 18 of Community D&D: Dragon of Icespire Peak--The Sword & the Stalker! 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMZn1OwJY8c&list=PLTBKdAD6ibG9ynqpIjaPXgAHYzQH6yY-i&index=18

Next episode, hopefully, is tomorrow, Jan. 20, at 9 Eastern on  https://www.twitch.tv/arvaneleron !

I also played a druid, Willow Kingsfoil, in what was supposed to be a D&D With Viewers one-shot but stretched into two nights in December, called Winter's Splendor. The first night was a little agonizing, as we fumbled around trying to solve a mystery, but I was very pleased to collaborate with Brandon O'Brien in crafting a poem in-game!

 Arv streams a special holiday edition of D&D with Viewers--Winter's Splendor!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-D7guGXU6U

Arv streams a special holiday edition of D&D with Viewers--Winter's Splendor, Part Two!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgsoVwucubg

Update 1/24/21: We did play CD&D on Jan. 20. Here is the link for "Day 19 of Community D&D: Dragon of Icespire Peak--Favors at Falcon's!":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4-bz8u8SAM

Update 1/25/21: Another SG-Fun podcast was released!

Goo Not Go (Stargate SG-1 “Tin Man” to “Within the Serpent’s Grasp”)

https://www.theincomparable.com/teevee/686/

Update 2/28/21: 

I've been on another SFF Audio podcast, discussing The Untamed, a 1919 Weird Western sort of novel by Max Brand, with Paul Weimer, Jesse Willis, Evan Lampe, Maissa Bessada, Will Emmons, and Jonathan Juett. The linked podcast includes the 7+ hour audiobox from Librivox, and then we have a wide-ranging and very interesting (to me, at least) conversation about it. I don't think you need to listen to the audiobook to enjoy our talk, but I do think you'll get more out of it. The tale is a bit old-fashioned, in language and pace as well as some attitudes, but I liked it.

https://www.sffaudio.com/the-sffaudio-podcast-617-audiobook-readalong-the-untamed-by-max-brand/

Another Stargate SG-Fun review has been released. I'm the host, with David Schaub and Andrew Pontious:

Goo Not Go (Stargate SG-1 “Tin Man” to “Within the Serpent’s Grasp”)

https://www.theincomparable.com/teevee/686/

And I continue to play D&D on Arvan Eleron's Twitch stream, with the ShadowCrew:

Day 20 of Community D&D: Dragon of Icespire Peak--Metamorphoses at the Manse, Part One!

youtube.com/watch?v=_GWyN1t3a2U

Update 3/24/21

David Schaub and I returned to the Supergirl Supercast to review the pilot of the new CW show, Superman&Lois:

https://www.theincomparable.com/teevee/694/

I continue to play in the Community D&D campaign on Arvan Eleron's Twitch stream:

Arv streams Day 21 of Community D&D: Dragon of Icespire Peak--Of Manse and Magic!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVpXEm6xq7I&list=PLTBKdAD6ibG9ynqpIjaPXgAHYzQH6yY-i&index=23

Update 4/5/21

The SFFaudio Podcast #624 – AUDIOBOOK/READALONG: William Wilson by Edgar Allan Poe

I'm in this with host Jesse Willis and fellow guests Paul Weimer, Evan Lampe, and Will Emmons. The story is about 53 minutes, then we have about 90 minutes of fairly on-topic discussion, we return to the topic occasionally for the next half hour, we talk another 20 minutes and wrap. Then Jesse tacks on our 40 minutes of pre-show chatting!

Yesterday, I recorded another SG-Fun (we have quite a backlog built up), and today, I recorded a discussion of the Supergirl S6 premiere!

Finally, I continue to play in the Community D&D campaign on Arvan Eleron's Twitch stream.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDQcjB5dCa0&list=PLTBKdAD6ibG9ynqpIjaPXgAHYzQH6yY-i&index=23

Arv streams Day 22 of Community D&D: Dragon of Icespire Peak--Hog Hooves of Thunder!

Update 4/6/21

https://skiffyandfanty.com/podcasts/419captivesoftheflame/

Shaun Duke and I discuss Samuel R. Delaney's Captives of the Flame!

Update 4/11/21

https://www.theincomparable.com/teevee/704/

David Schaub, Alan Yu, Brianna Taeuber and I return to the Supercast to discuss the Season 6 premiere and sort-of-Season-5-finale of Supergirl.

Update 4/21/21

https://www.sffaudio.com/the-sffaudio-podcast-626-readalong-the-jewel-of-seven-stars-by-bram-stoker/

The SFFaudio Podcast #626 – READALONG: The Jewel Of Seven Stars by Bram Stoker with Jesse Willis, Maissa Bessada, and Will Emmons

https://www.theincomparable.com/teevee/706/

David Schaub and I discuss Supergirl Season 6, Episode 2, "A Few Good Women"

Update 6/15/21

https://www.theincomparable.com/teevee/supergirl/

Supergirl S6E03 Review: “Phantom Menaces” (released April 28) with David Schaub

https://www.sffaudio.com/the-sffaudio-podcast-629-audiobook-readalong-rastignac-the-devil-by-philip-jose-farmer/

The SFFaudio Podcast #629 – AUDIOBOOK/READALONG: Rastignac The Devil by Philip José Farmer with Jesse Willis, Will Emmons, and me. This is an odd book with some odd ideas; maybe skip it and just listen to the discussion. (released May 10)

Finally, our Community D&D campaign continues on ArvanEleron's Twitch channel!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1NT5l46mKUI&list=PLTBKdAD6ibG9ynqpIjaPXgAHYzQH6yY-i&index=25

Arv streams Day 23 of Community D&D: Dragon of Icespire Peak--The Summoned Swine! (released May 20)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOEivZ3tjjA&list=PLTBKdAD6ibG9ynqpIjaPXgAHYzQH6yY-i&index=25

Arv streams Day 24 of Community D&D: Dragon of Icespire Peak--An Inquisitory Interlude! (released May 20)

Update 7/1/21

I made my first appearance on the Hugos There podcast on July 1. I discussed the 2020 Hugo Best Novel winner (and my own top vote), Arkady Martine's A Memory Called Empire, with the host, Seth Heasley. 

I was on another SFFAudio podcast, this time discussing Sin Hellcat by Lawrence Block and Donald Westlake, with Paul Weimer, Evan Lampe, and host Jesse Willis. I love both those authors, but I do not recommend this book, especially for modern readers. But the discussion was certainly interesting!

As explained in a separate 6/15 post, I wrote a love sonnet during the BardandBarbarian Twitch stream,  and the player was kind enough to read it at the end of the session. 

I continued to play a Tabaxi bard, Grace of the Refreshing Breeze, on The Dragon of Icespire Peak on Arvan Eleron's Twitch stream. Day 25&26:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSDuLTnUVCs&list=PLTBKdAD6ibG9ynqpIjaPXgAHYzQH6yY-i&index=26

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=noO4eIaDDC0&list=PLTBKdAD6ibG9ynqpIjaPXgAHYzQH6yY-i&index=27

and I cosplayed as Grace during the May 29 session. It was a significant game, as part of a significant weekend. Read on ...

Finally, and most importantly, I helped run ArvCon, the Memorial Weekend charity fundraiser, May 28-31, on twitch.tv/ArvanEleron -- I was one of the moderators, and I carried out most of the giveaways. We blew past our goal and raised $7,000 for the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation.

https://www.damonrunyon.org/

Update 7/29/2021:

I discussed Milo Hastings' In the Clutch of the War-God on SFFAudio with Jesse Willis, Paul Weimer, Evan Lampe, Bryan Alexander and Kate Follis: 

https://www.sffaudio.com/the-sffaudio-podcast-637-audiobook-readalong-in-the-clutch-of-the-war-god-by-milo-hastings/

I discussed Vonda N. McIntyre's Dreamsnake on SFFAudio with Jesse Willis, Paul Weimer, Scott Danielson, Maissa Bessada and Will Emmons:

https://www.sffaudio.com/the-sffaudio-podcast-638-readalong-dreamsnake-by-vonda-n-mcintyre/

I continue to play Grace of the Refreshing Breeze, a Tabaxi bard, on The Dragon of Icespire Peak, a D&D 5e campaign on Twitch.tv/ArvanEleron . You can see the episodes here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLTBKdAD6ibG9ynqpIjaPXgAHYzQH6yY-i