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- Bobby's Snacks Vol. 12: A Friendly Castaway
Bobby's Snacks Vol. 12: A Friendly Castaway
Bob Raymonda
April 07, 2024
Happy #AudioDramaSunday Losers!
My circadian rhythms are pretty off these days and it’s throwing me all sorts of of out whack. Having a 95% remote position is truly a dream come true, but never having to go anywhere in the morning means I’ve been staying up later than I would normally. Now, don’t let me kid you: I’m still the first one to fall asleep, at the metaphorical sleepover and in my apartment, but I’m seeing the other side of midnight far more often that I have in years. I genuinely don’t understand how night people do this… not because I prefer to do my best work at the ass crack of dawn, but because no matter how late I go to bed I’m still stirring awake around 6:30 / 7 o’clock. Rest be damned.
All of that said, I’ve had another week of hyper-productivity, and it’s got me riding high. I’ve only got one episode left of Windfall season two audio to dialogue edit before we go into the task of reviewing everything we have so far, checking for alternate line deliveries, and cataloging whatever we want pick ups from, so we can begin to schedule out our final recording session. I’m still not confident enough to give you a return date… other than to continue to promise that fans of Her Majesty, Queen Wanda will be with her again before the year is through. And good god damn, I hate to be over-confident, but event without the magic that Adam does with our sound design and original score, our cast did some next level work on these episodes.
Aside from my week-long sprint alongside the Proximans, I also had a bit of a marathon writing session on Tuesday night before our Wednesday Greater Boston meeting, and I finally have a first draft of my submission for the short story collection from our season 4 Indiegogo campaign. It’s been so long since I’ve written straight prose, and I forgot how much I love it. Especially when I’m in the first grooves of getting words on the page. It’s such a playful space to be able to create in, so long as I can get past the initial imposter jitters of the blank document. Tomorrow, Jack and I will have our first official meeting of the year to plan Forgive Me! season four, and I sincerely hope I can keep up the steam I’ve been running on lately.
But that’s enough about me, let’s talk about you:
The week started off on a fantastic note with the newest trip to Night Vale. In it, Cecil and Carlos’ son, Esteban, draws a fridge-worthy picture that seemingly captures the essence of Cecil’s own father. What I really loved about this one was the insights that the show decided to give us into our erstwhile host’s relationship with his family. For years, we’ve seen the love he has for his partner, his child, his niece Janice, and the dramatic improvement of his relationship with his sister’s husband, Steve Carlsberg… but we never heard a whole lot about how things were between he and his sister, Abby. I was surprised to learn that they didn’t like one another very much, with how close Cecil has always been with Janice, and how disapproving he was of Steve for so long… but I suppose it’s pretty easy to love someone you grew up with, even if you don’t like them all that much.
On a separate note entirely: I’m seeing The Attic tonight in Jersey City! I’m so excited because the Brooklyn dates back in September happened to fall right in the middle of my trip to LA, so we couldn’t make it. It’s been so long since I’ve seen this crew do a live show, but they’re always so fun every time and I can’t wait to see what secrets are unveiled this time… more on that next week, though!
Because I’m signed up for Fable & Folly+, I’m lucky enough to get early access to new releases by this team. I don’t want to spoil it for anyone, but I can happily say that this is a worthwhile new adventure to dip your toes into. I think it’s alright for me to say that we’re gonna spend some time outside of the Diner with a group of new friends who may or may not have crossed paths with a certain red-haired impossibly powerful woman. It was a great taste of what’s to come and I can’t wait for the rest of you to be able to hear it!
And after all that… still no luck in Whiskey’s hoped-for reunion with Harry. And the question remains… is she okay? Has something bad happened to her? Did Junior encounter her first and enact revenge for what happened to his father? Or is she just purposefully avoiding our hero? After this much time, learning about their strained relationship, you think I’d be less surprised at this impasse… but no. I was ready to hope outside of hope alongside Whiskey that maybe we were getting somewhere. Oh well, maybe next week’s adventures will bring us closer to the answers we’re looking for. Maybe not. Either way, I’m along for the ride no matter what.
I’m still not caught back up with this show, but I have no officially heard the season 2 premiere, which was a delight. It reminded me a bit of one of my favorite books of all time, House of Leaves, as the xenobiologists and archaeologists excavated what seemed to be an impossible room on Proxima where the other team of missing scientists was last seen before they disappeared. A massive space with no clear way in or out that was ornately decorated all the same, giving us a locked room mystery with far more questions than answers. PLUS! We had the return of Jordan Cobb’s Kathy, which is always a treat!
We’re nearing the final chapter of season three and I am not ready for the end of this adventure. As Fleet and Clara split up to follow two simultaneous leads that may finally inform us more about who built the Beast, and dare I say, why, we explore the Even Greater London Exhibition where the Gyratory train was headed. It was another fantastic installment in this always-wonderful series and I’ve gotta be honest… when it’s finished, I’m going to be mighty tempted to go back to the beginning and start listening to it all over again.
I’ve known that this show was out for a while, but I hadn’t dipped my toes into the bloody waters until just this week. Bloody Disgusting and The George A. Romero Foundation partnered on this new podcast celebrating the lauded zombie director with seven new four-part miniseries (4 of 7 are available now) all written by a different up and coming audio fiction creator. I’ve only listened to the first episode of the bunch so far, but I can promise you it won’t take me long before I’m caught up and waiting for the next series to premiere alongside the rest of them! A huge shout out to Pacific Obadiah and all the other folks over at Bloody FM, this is a wildly cool opportunity that I love seeing other writers get a chance to jump at!
And with that, we’ve reached the end of another one of Gideon Media’s brilliant miniseries. While last week’s penultimate episode revealed a few bombshell reveals, that didn’t mean this team had shown their entire hand just yet. There’s a revelation toward the end of the finale that truly had my head exploding, and the emotional way in which is was unveiled to Lem punched me even harder in the gut. I’ll miss him and Mikey, even if their relationship turned out to be a bit more adversarial than we first expected, and I can’t help but hope that maybe one day we’ll be able to find out what happens to them next.
Speaking of Gideon Media, this team never rests—with Ask Your Father officially over… it’s time for the return of Give Me Away season two! The 90-second trailer we just dropped on the feed gives you a taste of what’s to come this year, as well as introducing a few new characters who will be joining Graham and Joshua at Red Camp… including one by the inimitable Lauren Shippen! I can’t wait for the premiere to drop this Thursday, and I hope without hope that you’ll all be joining me for this journey. I promise you… what Mac Rogers, Jordana Williams, and Sean Williams have cooking is worth following along with week to week!
This week we’re back following the always charming and ever faithful Jonas Spahr. He checks in with former prime-Consector Olivia Costigan and has a frank conversation about the state of things around the trust. And while Spahr is holding onto the valorous nature of his previous Ad-Sekla, Costigan has some harsh truths she’d like for him to accept. I love how relaxed and calming the sound design was in her garden for the conversation, awash in birdsong and wind chimes. Beautiful stuff.
BONUS SNACK
Another thing I had going for me this week was finding time to read non-stop. I was only about a quarter of the way through this book by Monday, and utterly devoured the rest over a few idle moments in the early mornings. Chris and Jen Sugden are brilliant, hilarious writers. We’ve all known that from the brilliance that is Victoriocity, but getting to spend 300+ pages with Clara Entwhistle and Archibald Fleet was even more perfect than I ever could have imagined. Jokes, intrigue, technological advancements, and adventure flew at me a mile a minute as I raced to the end to discover the identity of the bank thiefs… and what an ending it was! I really hope that this is only the first of this duo’s misadventures on the page, because I can happily tell you right now, I’d come back over and over again.