It’ll take some time to add in the appropriate thumbnails for older posts and shows, but eventually we’ll get there.

I couldn’t decide if it would be better to repost them with the original dates (thus dating them before KAMN existed), or just post them new, with a tagline saying when they were originally done. Brian liked the posting them new idea, so that won out.

I’ll be reposting those reviews here over the next few months, probably one a week or so. Comment as you see fit.

A lot of requests.

I haven’t put it on the schedule yet, simply because of how much work I’ve been doing lately, but for some reason I kept getting hints and reminders about Foundation over the past 2 months.

Last night, I experienced another hint. I went to a new store that deals in secondhand stuff; knick knacks, toys, videos, and of course, books. Of course, I went to the SF section to see what was there, and I found a few gems right away.

First, if anyone needs the Night Shade Books collections of Karl Edward Wagner’s Kane stories, let me know. I found hardcover copies of both “Gods in Darkness” and “Midnight Sun” rather cheap. I already own the limited editions of these, but I knew these needed rescuing, since the boys at Night Shade had told me two years ago that they’d sold completely out. These books aren’t even listed on their website anymore.

What I found next followed in the pattern of hints from the universe about Foundation. On my first pass through the SF section, I hadn’t actually noticed the books. Then I went around the corner to look at the next shelf, which turned out to be Classics, and the title that jumped out at me from the very top shelf was Asimov’s Guide to Shakespeare.

Yeah. That’s what I said, too.

It’s a large book, comprised of all of The Bard’s plays, plus annotations by Asimov. Huge book, the inner page says “Two Volumes in One”.

I own a copy of the The Complete Works of Shakespeare, edited by David Bevington (huge red book, anyone who took a college English class on Shakespeare in the 80s knows what I’m talking about). This Asimov guide is larger… and I’m still trying to figure out how that happened… the Asimov guide is physically shorter than the Bevington, contains half as many pages (840 to 1730), but it’s about half an inch thicker.

Anyway, it was only $4, so I thought about buying it, just for grins. Then I went back around the corner for a second pass through the SF section, and that’s when I noticed them. One paperback printing of Foundation, from the 60s or early 70s, and 2 harcover collections of the Foundation Trilogy, one with dust jacket, one without. I decided to get the trilogy copy with dust jacket… again for $4. I figured since I’m buying Asimov, I might as well get the Shakespeare tome. I’m curious about this book, but I don’t know when I’ll get to reading it.

But now, if Brian and Dave already have Foundation, we may be able to cover that sooner rather than later. If not, I know where a mmpb copy of it is, and another copy of the trilogy in hardcover.

Oh, and if anyone wants a box full of those ancient videodiscs, lemme know. There were some good movies in there, including The Empire Strikes Back. But who has a videodisc player that still works anymore?

What’s so important about a brand new book about writing fantasy that it gets mentioned here, you ask? You mean, besides the fact that it contains an essay by the inestimable Tee Morris, and one by yours truly? Or that Dragon Moon Press is also the publisher of the print version of Scott Sigler’s “Ancestor”?

“The Author’s Grimoire” contains an essay by Joe Murphy, and the book is dedicated to him. I don’t know if this is the last essay he sold or not, but it’s finally coming to print.

So check it out when it hits the shelves.

Also, we’ve got a slight change in the lineup for upcoming shows:

Show #30: Galactic Patrol by E. E. “Doc” Smith
Show #31: Poltergeist (1982)
Show #32: War for the Oaks by Emma Bull
Show #33: Quantum Leap (1989-93)

As always, you can check out the list of upcoming shows, and potential upcoming show topics on our Future Topics page.

Raise a root beer in memory of Randy Innuendo.

Song: “Mason Rocket” by Beatnik Turtle

Originally, we were going to talk about “Far-Seer” by Robert J. Sawyer, and since that book was a Joe selection, I really didn’t want to do this topic without his involvement. But he’s taking a Ninjas sabbatical until Kuato is taken care of, so “Far-Seer” is being put back on the shelf.

Instead, Show #25 will go out at the end of January, and the topic will be the one formerly known as Show #26, the 1984 cult classic Buckaroo Banzai. David and I will be back then with hearty discussion on this favorite (or favorite to hate, depending on who you talk to), and we may even have stunt Ninjas in on the show.

Joe said he’d post something here, himself, so I’ll let him give you the health situation update.

Into the Dark, a podcast brought to us by H. R. Tucker and the Computer King, features Summer in the latest episode.

A discussion of Santa’s “inherent evil”, and a Computer King Arena smackdown with Summer Ninja vs The Reigning Shogun of Taiwan. Also, there were FarPoint Media casualties in his previous episode, Mur vs Michael.

Sit, Drink, then Fight.

Galactic Patrol
Gray Lensman
Second Stage Lensmen
Children of the Lens
Triplanetary
First Lensman

or in the “chronological” story sequence order:

Triplanetary
First Lensman
Galactic Patrol
Gray Lensman
Second Stage Lensmen
Children of the Lens

What’s the consensus? Which book (or books?) should we actually talk about? Discuss here, or over at the forums.

With the newer and better comment spam filters out there, I’d been thinking about removing that plugin and opening up the comments for the older posts, since new listeners wouldn’t have a chance to comment on an older show they’d newly come across.

Note, I said “thinking about”. Oddly enough, a software upgrade has pretty much forced me to abandon that policy. The plugin doesn’t seem to be compatible with newer versions of WordPress. Interesting, that… it looks like it might be an SQL error from a database change, but it’s pretty much is a moot point now.

So, if there’s an older show you’ve always wanted to comment on, now’s your chance!

Happy New Year, folks!

Based on our combined increase in workload, we’re going to change things up a little bit. Instead of Ninjas every other week (or as close to it as I can get), I’m going to change the show to twice monthly, on the 15th and 30th of the month.

That said, are there any changes in topic selection that you, the fans and listeners, might be interested in, or are we still good with those?

Personally, I like the 10 years thing… that gives a movie time to fall out of memory, or in some rare cases, a book time to fall back IN to print. The best time to be rediscovered.

Sorry again about the audio… based on the quality of the voicemail segment, which was recorded later, I think I have the problem worked out finally. I’ll do some more testing before we actually record next time.

In response to some questions, no, we do not turn on the live feed when we record KAMN shows. That feature is only at the studio, and none of us are at the studio when we record this show.

If anyone’s in the Austin area and wants to say Hello, shoot me an email sometime during the weekend.

Oh, and some shameless Ninja pimping: “So Say We All: An Unauthorized Collection of Thoughts and Opinions on Battlestar Galactica”, from BenBella Books, is now available on shelves. It contains essays by Mur Lafferty, Tee Morris, and myself. Trust me, you’ll like it.

Yay Dave!

Go check it out, and go listen to the podcast as well.

If anyone is still having problems, here’s the iTunes link to use.

And yes, there really is an artist’s page out there where you can see much of what Farpoint Media has to offer on one big, bold page.

This past summer has been a little hectic, and the shows have suffered because of it.

That’s changing, and I’m wondering if we might not better off doing shows once a month during the summer months, given the heavy travel that’s expected of the denizens of FarPoint Media during the busy summer SF con season.

Dragon*Con is this weekend, and along with how busy the podcasting track will be keeping us, there’s also the Parsec Awards and the pomp and partying that will go along with that awards event.

Enjoy the new KAMN show… we should be back on a two-week schedule now, and we should have cleared out all computer-related problems that plagued my Mac back in May and June.

Andrea rocks.

“The Kick-Ass Mystic Ninjas” podcast has been nominated for a Parsec Award in the “Best Fan Podcast” category.

Sweet!

Now we just have to figure out which episode to submit for consideration…

update: Apparently, for the Fan Podcast category, we have to submit a clip that contains 5-minute segments from 3 different shows, so now I get to pick three shows and edit 5 minutes from each of them into a single file.

I’m open to taking suggestions on which 5 minute chunks to pull from the “Blue Thunder / Airwolf”, “Knight Rider” and “Dune” shows.

Link: Short List for Parsecs Announced!

Crash space was obtained, so thank you to all who responded to my call for help. Not only did I get roomspace, but Joe was also able to acquire roomspace because of all the responses.

Y’all rock. Just sayin’.

Audacity sucks for use on a Mac, is all I can conclude. It works just fine when I record at 22050, but since many newer devices want 44100 I went to 44100, and I have yet to be able to record successfully at that rate.

You’d think it wouldn’t make a difference with enough RAM and free disk space, but so far, I haven’t been able to save anything over 30 minutes long in Audacity at the higher rate.

So, half of this week’s conversation about More Than Human (specifically, my half) is lost forever. We will either re-record the show, or I’ll figure out a way to make it a coherent discussion between just David and Joe.

In the mean time, I’m going to immerse myself in Garage Band to try to figure it out, and gleefully rip the piece of trash named Audacity off of my hard drives.

And no, I’m not sharing a room with the guys, so don’t even ask Email me if you or someone you know is looking for a roomie for Dragon*Con.

If I can’t find something soon, I’ll just have to focus my efforts on attending something else this year, and on getting in for Dragon*Con in 2007.