Weird Kitties: Best Fancast Open Thread
Ah, Best Fancast. Or, as literally anyone that isn’t the Hugo Awards would call it, Best Podcast. I’m sufficiently bad at listening to podcasts that I miss the majority of the stuff Eruditorum Press puts out, personally, although I’m dead certain to be nominating Verity! this year, and might well go for Welcome to Night Vale, although I’d generally figure they’re a better fit for Dramatic Presentation. (They were among the runners up in Fancast this year, though.)
So what’s good?
Also, I’ve got outright nothing to run tomorrow review-wise, so once again I beat that drum. snowspinner at gmail. If someone sends me something, I’ll write up a review of The Dark Forest so that we at least have two things. Otherwise, it’ll be the return of Sunday Pancaking.
Next week… I dunno, Dramatic Presentation Long Form? Aka the category where the thing everyone knows will win isn’t out until December? Sure. Let’s go with that.
But for now, tell me what podcasts I should add to my list of things I won’t get around to listening to.
October 3, 2015 @ 5:41 am
I would agree with Verity!, and would throw in Rachel and Miles X-Plain the X-Men for much the same reason. They both have fans having intelligent discussions about their subject matter, looking at what works and what doesn’t and why, able to articulate their opinions when they disagree, but not being afraid to be silly and develop off-the-wall versions of head-canon.
October 3, 2015 @ 8:24 pm
Oooh, yes, Rachel and Miles will definitely be going on my ballot.
October 3, 2015 @ 7:37 am
Well, I’m a big fan of Flight Through Entirety, mostly because I’m in it. We’re four gay Doctor Who fans from Australia who have been watching and podcasting our way through Doctor Who for a couple of years now, and we’re just up to Season 14. And we’re contractually obliged to mention TARDIS Eruditorum once per episode, of course.
October 3, 2015 @ 7:48 am
I look forward to listening to the bOrgCast every couple of weeks. The hosts are watching through Star Trek: The Next Generation and Deep Space 9. They’ve got a regular set of contributors that I enjoy hearing from, and the show is pretty blunt about what works and what doesn’t work in each episode.
October 3, 2015 @ 8:48 am
House to Astonish is pretty good. Two Scottish comics fans discuss the week’s comics news, review some comics and present the Official Handbook to the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe, where they discuss deservedly Z-list Marvel characters, and how they could make a comeback.
And it’s hilarious, especially when Al goes off an a tangent. One of my favourites was a few years back when every week was bringing news of more firings. And Al went into a skit about Gareb Shamus in an empty office, arguing with a potted plant. If you find that funny (and why wouldn’t you?) you should check it out.
October 3, 2015 @ 8:50 am
“…new firings at Wizard Entertainment.” That’s what happens when you stop halfway through a sentence to google someone’s name.
October 4, 2015 @ 3:49 am
While I agree that House To Astonish is brilliant and recommended listening for its commentary on comic book culture, I’m not sure it automatically lines up with the fantastic fiction remit of the Hugos. Frequently lines up with it, sure, but not automatically. Consider: it might take a bit of cherry picking on the part of Paul and Al, but hypothetically it wouldn’t be too hard to present an episode that consisted of industry news, reviews of various comedy, romance, war or western comics, and then an Official Handbook entry on some obscure crime genre character.
October 3, 2015 @ 9:05 am
I can’t speak for anybody else, let alone everybody else, but I for one don’t know that it’ll win. It looks like the film to beat, and it’s got the weight of fannish nostalgia, but those aren’t absolute guarantees.
October 3, 2015 @ 7:35 pm
What’s the thing everyone knows is going to win?
October 3, 2015 @ 8:23 pm
Star Wars.
October 4, 2015 @ 2:19 am
I think The Martian may actually be the film to beat rather than Star Wars. Andy Weir’s book was popular with the Puppies who thought that the eligibility rules had cheated it out of a nomination. Andy Weir was popular with the non-Puppies who thought that he had been cheated out of a Campbell nomination because of the Puppy slates.
Ridley Scott’s film just has to basically not suck really badly for it to be a very strong contender – and I think it is has many of the qualities that would appeal to Hugo voters.
But then again STAR WARS…so maybe not.
October 3, 2015 @ 9:56 am
So I shouldn’t just vote for Pex Lives then? (I’ll probably vote for Pex Lives.)
October 3, 2015 @ 10:25 am
The thrilling adventure hour is apparently a lot of fun, pex lives and shabcast obviously, and then there’s night vale and… Shit, I don’t listen to that many podcasts.
October 3, 2015 @ 3:48 pm
The new ones I’ve been enjoying recently are The Cornell Collective, which is a great round-table style discussion:
http://cornellcollective.geekplanetonline.com/
And The Fangirl Happy Hour which are fun feminist discussions of popular culture:
http://www.fangirlhappyhour.com/
On the same note I’d probably also nominate last year’s winner Galactic Suburbia:
http://galactisuburbia.podbean.com/
Whilst it’s also an obvious one I’d likely add perennial nominee Coode Street Podcast. Some of the best in depth discussion of the state science fiction:
http://jonathanstrahan.podbean.com/
Not sure what I’d choose for the fifth. Verity! is a brilliant piece of Doctor Who discussion, whilst Tea and Jeopardy is such a fun way to interview people. Yet, I have a soft spot for the literary discussion of KCTV Review.
https://veritypodcast.wordpress.com/
http://teaandjeopardy.geekplanetonline.com/
https://kctvreview.wordpress.com/
October 4, 2015 @ 2:58 am
Hey Phil, I really love The Doctor Who Bookcub podcast and also Doctor Who The Writers Room podcast and Classic Horrorcast, all done by the same guys who are quite fun to listen too.2000AD also has a new podcast which recently got an award.
October 4, 2015 @ 5:31 am
It’s not very likely but I’d love to see RPG actual play podcasts getting some recognition. My current favorite is Rollplay: Swan Song, a really great (if silly sometimes) space opera – https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-oTJHKXHicQ0jv37mr8D9kRFXox7-PXD
Also, let’s cram even more stuff on the line between Best Fancast and Dramatic Presentation!
October 8, 2015 @ 6:09 pm
Aside from podcasts made by friends of mine, I’ve really been enjoying the OiSpaceman! podcast and the Web of Queer.
October 23, 2015 @ 8:12 pm
FYI, just noticed I’d missed this one because it wasn’t tagged “weird kitties.”