Joe Murphy Memorial Fund

Tell everyone you know.

Joe Murphy Memorial Fund

Thank you to Leann’s mini-geek army for helping her put this together:
P.G. Holyfield
Chris Miller
Donna Mugavero

Show #29: Pre-show Discussion

Show #29, due out mid-April, will be on the 1970 SF film Colossus: The Forbin Project.

For those of you who are curious what our upcoming topics are, and what we’re considering for Ninja topics, don’t forget to check out our Future Topics section! Also, feel free to comment about the upcoming topic here in a private thread, or over on the Ninjas thread at the new FarPoint Forums

KAMN Show #28: A Fire Upon the Deep

Welcome to Show #28!

Summer, David and Tim gather together to discuss Vernor Vinge’s Hugo Award-winning “A Fire Upon the Deep”, but first give an update on Joe Murphy.

Voicemail: CQ from OK on the pop culture impact of “Highlander” in regards to sword-fighting and collecting, and throws out “War of the Worlds” as a future topic; Bill in The Bronx with a Clancy Brown update; Yvonne shares the depths of her love for “Buckaroo Banzai”, and sends hugs to Joe. Dave and Summer then run off onto a “Dresden Files” tangent that leads into an “I-Man” tangent…

Summer, Dave and Tim give an overview of the story, and discuss some of the more interesting aspects of the book: varying zones of thought dividing up the galaxy, a sentient evil entity and its sentient countermeasure, and a quasi-lupine civilization whose packs are formed from hive minds.

Much about the story to talk about, and figuring out how to pronounce most of the character names is near the top of the list.

Listener Feedback: Give us some! You can leave comments here for the show, or at the Kick-Ass Mystic Ninjas Forum. If you want to leave a voicemail comment on anything we’ve discussed, you can call us at 206-666-5266.

Books mentioned:

Promo: ADPOV: Support TD-0013 in the Arizona MS Walk, April 14, 2007
Promo: The Dragon Page Cover to Cover
Wikipedia: A Fire Upon the Deep
Link: Strange Horizons: An Interstellar Geography of Mind: A Fire Upon the Deep and A Deepness in the Sky by Vernor Vinge

 

 KAMN Show #28: A Fire Upon the Deep [1:12:08m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (8361)

Latest Joe Update

Joe has been moved into hospice care and he will not be with us for much longer. That’s about as straightfoward as I can make a very painful and fucked up situation.–

During the last Sunday visit, Mike got a call from Leann Mabry regarding getting Penn and Teller to make a visit. She was able to get Teller Joe’s cell phone number and Mike got word that Teller gave Joe a call. They talked for several minutes. Joe had a spark of excitement for the first time in a long while, and we all need to give Leann huge props for pulling this off.

Leann called Mike and told him to check the WI voicemail. There was a message for Joe from Penn. He had called in and left a long, in very Penn fashion, personal message to Joe.

Things are by no means good, but this little bit of excitement today sure made the world a bit better. Thank you Leann.

————————–

Monday Mike took up the message that Penn left on our voicemail line for Joe to listen to.

Joe was in much improved spirits and Mike attributes it all to the conversation that he had with Teller. He was jabbering up a storm and Mike was told several times by his dad and his aunt that Joe talked about it for quite some time.

This is a big change from the last few days where he would only talk to everyone for a couple minutes before asking us to leave so he could rest.

The message that Penn left also brought a smile and some comments of how amazing it was to have them do that for him. Mike and everyone had a long conversation about the well wishes and comments he had been recieving during his time in the hospital, and he was able to relay many of the good thoughts and prayers.

Joe knows that you all care and that you have sent in your love. Just know that your messages have not gone unheard.

As Mike would say “Again, Leann, you dun good!”

Podcasts with an Old School Feel

Yes, I’ve been known to go trawling on the podcast waves, looking for other scifi and fantasy related podcasts, and podcasts about old shows. Since I’m doing one for Babylon 5, I like to see what other older shows people out there are geeking about.

Here are some of the better ones that I’ve found:
Xena Cast (iTunes URL)
Adventures in the Sin Trade, about Xena: Warrior Princess (iTunes URL)
Undead America: Adventures in the Buffy Verse (iTunes URL)

I kinda wish I could find one about older British SF and Fantasy. Even if you don’t count Doctor Who (since there are already a dozen podcasts out there on the subject), there’s still much to choose from: The Prisoner, Sapphire and Steel, The Tomorrow People, Robin of Sherwood, and I’m sure there are many I’m missing.

Do you guys consider “The Avengers” with Patrick Macnee and Diana Rigg to be SF/F or not?

Scott Sigler’s “Ancestor”: The Print Version

Scott Sigler’s Evil Plan ™ continues to unfold.

He’s passing out the full-length PDF of Ancestor, and wants everyone who wants to get the print version of the book to go to Amazon and order it on April 1st.

Read. Go. Now.

Win a Trip to the Nebula Awards in New York

ABE Books and The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America have just launched a contest where they will be giving a pair of SciFi & Fantasy fans a great fun weekend at the Nebula Awards in New York on May 11-12, 2007. A pair of banquet tickets and two nights in the event hotel will go to the winner. The contest is free and open to everyone.

Battlestar Galactica’s executive producer Ronald D. Moore will be this year’s toastmaster. The Nebulas acclaim the best science fiction/fantasy fiction published in the United States during the two previous years. Previous winners include Philip K. Dick, Isaac Asimov, Greg Bear, Orson Scott Card, Arthur C. Clarke and many more.

For full details of the contest rules and regulations visit the AbeBooks.com contest page.

KAMN Show #27: Highlander

Welcome to Show #27!

Dave is joined this time by stunt ninja Brian Brown, who’s quickly becoming a regular all over FarPoint Media. For this, you can lay thanks or blame at Summer’s feet… this week, Brian is thankful because Highlander is one of his all-time favorite movies.

Dave and Brian go over the highlights of the movie, and some lively discussion about what does and doesn’t work for the story and the myth. It’s much easier to ignore the continent-hopping accents and origins than it is to ignore some of the plot problems. The humor and the wonderful acting by Clancy Brown truly shoot this movie to higher levels of appreciation, as well as some of the more unique camera work.

The boys also talk about the mystical quality of the swords in both the movie and the TV series… where did they hide those blades all the time? Theory 1: the coats and jackets had tesseract pockets. Theory 2: it was in the script.

As for those other movies, Dave lets us know his feelings on those abominations to the original myth, and some other storyline rewriting that happened in the series. Really, as far as the movies go, there really is only one.

Voicemail: A comment on John Keats being the inspiration for “Hyperion”; John in Seattle suggests “Big Trouble in Little China” as a pulp companion to “Buckaroo Banzai”; Curt in St George equates “A Question of Conscience” to “Far-Seer” in terms of book covers that inspire odd casual reactions, and wants to know if any of the Ninjas have read “A Bridge of Birds”.

Don’t forget to donate and help Joe out (second Paypal button on the right sidebar), and you can call the special voicemail line, 206-202-5179, and leave a message for him.

Listener Feedback: Give us some! You can leave comments here for the show, or at the Kick-Ass Mystic Ninjas Forum. If you want to leave a voicemail comment on anything we’ve discussed, you can call us at 206-666-5266.

Movies and Shows mentioned:

Promo: Firefly Talk
Promo: ADPOV: Support TD-0013 in the Arizona MS Walk, April 14, 2007
Wikipedia: Highlander
Link: Official Highlander Message Boards
Link: Highlander Official Store

 

 KAMN Show #27: Highlander [46:53m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (6939)