If you had asked me a year ago if my favorite, wildest dreams would be fulfilled during my lifetime, I would have probably replied with some slightly snarky or at least ironic answer which, pressed together and shaken down, would have essentially come to a simple answer: No. But I would have been wrong.

I’m not saying that attending StarFest has granted all my wishes. I haven’t actually traveled in the TARDIS. I wasn’t able to watch the formation of a new star or, at least, space confederacy. I didn’t single-handedly defeat hordes of flesh-eating demons or find the cure to a fearsome zombie-creating virus. But if you could get as close as possible to any of those activities without ever actually endangering your life or travelling in space, I suppose that StarFest would be the place to do it.

StarFest is the Neapolitan ice cream of science fiction geekdom. Not into Star Wars? You can take a class on basic Klingon. Doctor Who just not your thing? You can rub elbows with Lord of the Rings enthusiasts. And if anything space or alien-related fails to tickle you pink, it is a few steps away to ComicFest or the Anime room, where furries abound in numbers reminiscent of a Tribble invasion.

When I was asked if I would be willing to act as a blogger for the StarFest website, starland.com, my knee-jerk reaction was an enthusiastic, “Will I get in on the company dime?” My StarFest experience started off on Thursday evening when I met up with my buddy Dave, famous as one of the voices here on www.screengeeks.com, and his out-of-town friends from www.geekradiodaily.com and www.thejesusgeeks.com. But that was just a brief prelude to the official stuff that started on Friday.

(more…)

Photo courtesy of Earl Bickel

I personally love getting to do interviews where I can geek out a bit.  My talk with Splice director Vincenzo Natali fit that description perfectly.  I get a chance to chat with him about how Cube has its roots in Hitchcock and the state of 3-D before we get to his newest film.  Our thanks to Mr. Natali and the good folks from Warner Bros. for letting us have time to talk.

 

 Standard Podcast: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Splice comes out in theaters on June 4, 2010

We really lucked out at Starfest this year.  It’s seriously almost impossible to pick out a favorite of the convention.  Barry’s talk with the true gentleman, Gary Lockwood, definitely ranks up there.  It’s not often that you get the chance to talk to a man with a varied a career as Mr. Lockwood.  I talked with people who were at his Q&A, spent considerable time with him at a special meet and greet and I got to listen in on every interview he did.  The man didn’t repeat a story in all that time.  I get the feeling we could have spent days with him and have died happy hearing all his stories.

If you EVER get a chance to see Gary Lockwood live, I can’t urge you enough to make the trip.  You won’t regret it.

 

 Standard Podcast: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

We’re back with another of our interviews and this one ended up being a bit of a shock to me.  I figured that Dahmer vs. Gacy would be a bloody good time, but I didn’t expect what I saw on the screen.  What easily could have been simply a b-movie schlockfest had some great social satire and commentary hidden in plain sight for anybody who wants to find it.  I’ve included the trailer below.  As you’ll see, this movie is definitely for the more adventurous filmgoer, but you’ll be rewarded with some great absurdism if you want to take the trip.

Editor’s Note:  This interview is intended to mature listeners due to the discussion of adult subject matter and language.

 Just click the play button below in the flash player to hear the interview.

 

 Standard Podcast: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Photo courtesy of Earl Bickel
It’s time to start posting some interviews from last weekend’s Starfest, and I figured I may as well start off with a big one.  I was VERY lucky to be one of two people who had a chance to sit down and talk with one of the sweetest people I’ve ever had the pleasure of sitting down with in Summer Glau.Instead of going into the uber-geeky stuff talking about the actual series’ of Firefly and Terminator:  The Sarah Connor Chronicles, I made the concious decision to talk with Summer about the acting challenges and opportunities both shows presented as well as what kinds of roles she wants to take on in her career.  If you ever get the chance to catch her at a convention, I’d highly recommend doing so.

You’ll be able to hear more about her new upcoming show, The Cape, in the interview she did with Jonja.net when they post it.  It sounds like a fun show.

Sorry for the poor audio quality.  I’ll be exclusively using our podcasting rig for interviews next year.

 

 Standard Podcast: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

It’s impossible to think of Starfest without immediately thinking of the convention’s MC, Kevin Atkins.  Known for awful jokes during lulls and keeping the ship on course, Kevin’s an awesome guy and we jumped at the chance to talk to him right before Starfest.  We’ll talk about how Starfest stacks up to other conventions, the state of the US space program and other interesting things.

 

 Standard Podcast: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Pictured left to right:  Kiowa Winans, the Ink costume and Jamin Winans

Over StarFest weekend, I had the chance to sit down with Jamin and Kiowa Winans, director and producer of Ink.  The film was screened as the Saturday night film, and was a real treat.  This conversation happened the next morning and was easily the longest and possibly the most fun interview I was involved with all weekend.  Right now, the film is playing in Denver at the Starz Filmcenter, but keep an eye out for a wider release and eventual DVD!  You can find out more at the film’s official website.  My review will be up in the next day or so.

Here’s the trailer, with the interview below:

Our sincere thanks to Jamin and Kiowa for sitting down with us.  It’s a real pleasure to talk about a special film like this.

 

 Standard Podcast: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Last year, Barry and I had the great privelage and opportunity to speak with (clockwise from the top center) Mike Nelson, Ben Trandem, Troy McCall and Lance Hendrickson from Random CreatureFace Films.  This interview is WAY delayed, but it’s still a great listen.  We did the interview in the HorrorFest room, so there’s a fair amount of background noise, and there are a couple spoilers near the end, just to give fair warning.  I’ll also be posting my review of the Summer School DVD shortly.

 

 Standard Podcast: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

At StarFest this past weekend, Billy Flynn from Geek Radio Daily, Chris from The Jesus Geeks and I sat down VERY early to do an introduction to podcasting panel.    The goal of this panel was to explain how to go about getting a podcast together from concept, to equipment, to marketing.  We appreciate everyone who showed up and we’re planning on doing an expanded one next year that won’t be at 8am on a Saturday morning.

Links mentioned on the panel:

Audacity
Podiobooks.com
Imagine That Studios
Podcast Pickle
Juice
Jazler Show
Levelator
1and1 Internet Hosting
Wordpress
Feedburner

Feel free to e-mail me with any questions

 

 Standard Podcast: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

I just wanted to say a quick word about the Intro To Podcasting panel that I did with Billy Flynn at Geek Radio Daily and Chris Martens from The Jesus Geeks.  I wanted to say thank you to each of you who came to the panel.  We all really enjoyed doing it and are planning on doing an expanded panel next year.  You guys had great questions and really appreciated all of you.  We should all have the audio from the panel up within the next day or so.