Join us for the inaugural episode of our new live podcast Eff This Week tomorrow, Thursday August 25th. We kick off the show at 9:00 p.m. central time, streaming it live via UStream. We’ll interact with the audience as well, both via the UStream text chat and via Twitter. If you’re on a Flash-capable device or computer, you can listen to the stream and participate in the chat directly via our live page, and mobile users can listen to the stream via the UStream app, available for both iOS and Android. Even if you can’t make the ‘cast, you can still communicate directly with the hosts by tweeting with the hashtag #gwclive. We’ll be watching the stream.
Eff This Week will be a (mostly) weekly podcast about, well, nothing at all. We’re going to crack open the mics live and let you see a little bit of what goes on when we’re not recording. We might discuss some of the news from GWC, or we might just tear off on who knows what. Hell, suggest something via Twitter or chat during the ‘cast and we might just pick it up and run with it. Either way, we’re looking forward to it.
If you miss the live version (doh!) we’ll release the recorded ‘cast via the standard methods (our site and iTunes) a few days later.
Hope to see you there!
Podcast 205 will be delayed one week due to Sean’s new status as a Father (no, not Reverend, but a Daddy).
Please join us in congratulating him here
Aw yeah.
In September, two-thousand and six, the Galactica Watercooler blog and podcast made its first foray into the wide wide world of the interwebs. Charles “Chuck” Cage, Audra Heaslip, and Sean O’Hara made the decision to spend some time each week writing and ‘casting about their favorite TV show, the then-Sci Fi’s (insert Y’s at your leisure) Battlestar Galactica.
It was a simpler time, long before Colonel Saul Tigh (or Chief, or Sam, or…) had any inkling that they were Cylon(z). Gaius Baltar had yet to become a hands-on (IYKWIM) religious bigwig, although he was still the President of the colonies. The Pegasus (minus Helena Cain) was still around and in all one piece, and Galactica herself didn’t yet creak like a rusty hinge whenever somebody hit the throttle. Good times, discounting the whole genocide-and-running-away thing.
If any of you visiting this site have only enjoyed the podcast to date, please hear this: the podcast we do every week is far eclipsed by the beyond-awesome GWC community. Really. I’m not kidding here. So to encourage you to check out the forum and its wonderful, ne’er-a-better-group-of-people-exist crew, I’ve rounded up five reasons they continually blow me away with their all-round cool:
We started doing frak parties back with Zack Exley founded his now-defunct FrakParty.com leading up to the season three BSG premiere. But we didn’t stop there. We frakked our way clean through a full re-watch of BSG through the long pre-season four hiatus, and we’ve been frakking on into Star Wars and a ton of other sci-fi (and just plain fun) flicks since.
But that’s not the half of it: the GWC community also organizes their own frak parties for anything and everything, and these parties are well attended. This means that pretty much any night of the week you can hop on the forum and watch something fun with some friendly and (possibly) like-minded (but always entertaining) GWCers. How cool is that?
4. The (Un)Official Introduction Thread
Wonder what kind of people GWCers are? Check out this thread. Founded just after the forum a year and change ago, this community-maintained thread serves as most people’s first stop in GWCdom. Here you’ll find dozens of introductions and hundreds of welcome responses. If you’re in doubt that this is a welcoming commmunity, a quick visit her will assure you.
Next to Twitter, long-time GWCer EmilyFromOhio’s Questions-Only Game is easily one of the most fun ways to express one’s self in few words. Think of it as Haiku for geeks. It’s fun, and that’s why it’s one of the most popular threads on the forum. Topics range from the absurd to the sincere, but one thing’s certain: you’ll always find new posts here — every day.
2. The B_tch & Moan Thread / Cool Craaaaaap Thread
These threads founded at similar times, and according to the (un)official rules GWCers try to make a habit of posting equally in each thread. But you’ll note that even the B&M thread doesn’t take much of a negative tone. Crazy, that.
1. Themed Avatars
Ever since we began filling the pre-4.5 break with other sci-fi, GWCers have taken to customizing their avatars for each arc. Almost everyone has a good time with this, but Pike’s are some of my faves. In order of BSG, Matrix, Terminator, and Back to the Future:
0. It’s The Friendliest Place In Geekdom(tm)
In honor of our recent I, Robot re-watch, I’ll add this: I’d love to link you to a couple of posts to prove to you how incredibly cool, relaxed, insightful, and generally awesome GWCers are, but I have no idea where to start because there are so many. We’re varied in background, belief, opinion, and geography, but we share one thing in common: we’re decent people who enjoy each other’s company. If that sounds like you, why not click the “forum” tab above and join the fun?
What do Men in Black, Independence Day, and I, Robot have in common?
…if you said 7 Degrees of Scifi goodness, step right up and get your geek card validated.
Men in Black -> Tony Shalhoub -> Galaxy Quest
Independence Day -> Mary McDonnell -> Battlestar Galactica
I, Robot -> Alan Tudyk -> Firefly/Serenity
The three movies also feature an up-and-coming actor, Will Smith. Make a note, this guy is going to go far.
Want to join in the discussion? Find Frak parties here:
Men in Black Frak Party
Independence Day Frak Party
I, Robot Frak Party
According to Engadget’s live coverage of Apple’s “Let’s Rock” event today, NBC and iTunes have ended their feud and are now making with the TV again. In HD to boot. A quick check shows that as of right now there’s still no BSG in the iTunes store, so I’m guessing that we’ll see NBC’s content reappear with the release of iTunes 8 later this week.
This means that those of you without cable will once again have a legal option for watching BSG.
To commemorate our 100th GWC podcast, we’re going live — bringing GWC Podcast #100 to you in real time via TalkShoe.com at noon central time tomorrow, Saturday May 17th, 2008. Why? Because we feel like the GWC community is largely responsible for the podcast growing from a couple of people talking in a room to a weekly respite for thousands of people — including us, of course. And we’d like you to participate in the joyous occasion. Here’s how:
- You can listen to the podcast in real-time via streaming by visiting this page at TalkShoe.com.
- You can also listen remotely if you’re away from your computer — like, say, at work — by dial into the call at (724) 444-7444. Enter call ID 17428 when requested.
- Better yet, you can even interact in real-time with the GWC crew just like calling a radio show! if you sign up for a TalkShoe.com account (free) you’ll receive a PIN. By entering the PIN when requested after you dial the number above, you’ll show up in our call panel by name (or handle, or whatever you select in the signup) — and we’ll be able to take your call later in the show.
- GWCers outside the US can participate, too! If you have a USB microphone, you can configure TalkShoe.com’s ShoePhone and connect via VoIP. And, of course, you can listen to the live stream. Visit TalkShoe.com for details.
And a few details about how TalkShoe and the live podcast works:
- All callers will initially enter the call muted.
- If you’d like to talk to the GWC crew, select “Request to Talk” option, which will let us know that you have something to say.
- When we take your “call,” your phone will say “you’ve been un-muted” and you’ll hear us introduce you. At that point, feel free to talk.
- When you complete your “call,” the crew will re-mute you.
After we finish recording the episode, we’ll un-mute everyone for a fun free-for-all frak party. The last one was quite fun, so I’m guess this one will be, too.
If for some reason you can’t make the live podcast, it’ll release later via the same distribution method as a standard podcast — though you won’t be able to talk to the crew in real-time. So if you can make it, be sure to call in. We’ll see you tomorrow!
It looks like WonderCon BSG coverage is starting to dribble out of San Franciso, including this bit from Great White Snark, who attended Richard Hatch’s talk today. Besides confirming that Hatch is still is normal “pervy” self — talking to his pants and again suggesting that his character should get laid — he also mentioned that the kind folks at Sci-Fi Network “should be able to complete all twenty-two episodes” of season four.
So chalk up one more positive rumor to the mill: maybe we will get a full season four this year — if the actors don’t strike.
Richard Hatch Gives Fanboys Good News And Lewd News [Great White Snark]
The kind folks over at TV Squad are reporting this morning that the studios and writers appear to have some to an agreement on contract terms. While the negotiators must still present the proposal to the union leaders, this might mean a short end to the current strike. More importantly, it might mean an end to the strike prior to the much-heard-but-somewhat-unofficial February 15th deadline, after which studios felt it would be impossible to salvage the upcoming TV season — and possible next year’s pilots as well.
Our big question: does this mean that we’ll see the remaining twelve episodes of BSG’s fourth and final season? Will Ron Moore, cast, and crew get a chance to finish the story as planned? Hopefully we’ll know soon.
(Thanks to sushiesque for the great CC-licensed photo.)
Studios And Writers Agree To Contract Terms [TV Squad]
Just a quick note to let you know what we did indeed record a podcast for this week. It’s currently held up by an technical glitch from our hosting service Libsyn. Libsyn’s been wonderful to work with and has always been incredibly helpful in resolving any problems, so we imagine they’ll have things crankin’ again soon.
Update: As you’ve probably already noticed, Libsyn has resolved the issue with the file for Podcast #81, and we’ve published it. Thanks for all your patience!
Because Razor brought in so many listener calls — which we didn’t get to at all last week — we’ve bumped the re-watch schedule back one week to allow us to take calls in this week’s ‘cast. So if you’re wondering what’s on the schedule for this week (or any other week), check out the official GWC calendar on the forum.
And don’t worry about the re-watch not finishing in time for the season four premiere. Right now we’re finishing in the last week of March, just in time for the April release. But if by some miracle Sci-Fi finds it in their heart to release in March, we’ll just put some of the two-parters back together into a single watch to make up the difference.
The Official GWC Calendar [GWC Forum]
GWC listener TighGetsPunchedALot swiped this image from Galactica.TV’s awesome interview with Gary Hutzel, visual effects supervisor on the re-imagined BSG series. The interview contains all sorts of interesting information about the process designers followed to create the new/old CGI’d cylons, but as you can see, GWC listeners had a bit more fun coming up with crazy captions for the shot.
The one above is my favorite (so far), but check out the thread for lots, lots more — and don’t forget to add your own.
BSG Caption Contest [GWC Forum]
Interview w/Gary Hutzel [Galactica.TV]
GWCers on Flickr
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