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- Bobby's Snacks Vol. 30: Handle It Gracefully
Bobby's Snacks Vol. 30: Handle It Gracefully
Bob Raymonda
October 13, 2024
Happy #AudioDramaSunday Pals!
I can’t believe we’re already just about halfway through October. Autumn in New York is my favorite season, while the leaves begin to change to yellow, and orange, the brown, then curling up into dried out husks that I can stomp under my feet. Granted, it’s also because my birthday is this month, but is there anything more satisfying than the crunch that comes from walking around in the fall? It does mean winter is coming, and when the temperatures drop that low, I wonder every single day why I haven’t given it all up for Los Angeles just yet, but there’s always next year. In the meantime, I’m sincerely enjoying the cool crisp in the air, and the fact that I can break back out my flannels and hoodies and leather jacket. I can drink warm apple cider and eat pie and hole up in my house to watch scary (or at least seasonally appropriate) movies with my wife instead of going out with friends because it’s too damn chilly. And I’m gonna absolutely bask in it.
Speaking of that, let’s not waste any time this week. I’ve got leaves to step on:
This show is another gift given to me by my time at the New Jersey Web Festival this year. Not only was I able to catch a screening of the first delightful episode on a big screen, but I also was lucky enough to sit next to creator Phillip Catherwood at the Audio Fiction Awards Gala. He was an incredibly kind person who’s made something incredibly special: a low-stakes sci-fi show about two people at the same address, separated by 30 years, getting connected via a wormhole-assisted-phone call. This has got everything I love about slice-of-life storytelling combined with a heady concept that’s straight out of a Black Mirror episode. It’s a micro-fiction series as well, so I devoured the entire thing in a day! Absolutely worth your time.
For the first of 2024’s Halloween month dispatches from Night Vale, we take a trip through an imaginary corn maze experience, guided by John Peters, you know, the farmer? And not only do we go there… but the entire episode is narrated by him as well! I’ve always loved these trips away from Cecil, not because I don’t adore the series erstwhile host, but because it’s always a treat to be introduced to another member of the community. Especially, in this instance, one who’s been around for so long. Can’t wait to see what happens next, when another episode drops on Tuesday… but in the meantime, have you considered supporting the team on their Backerkit? They’re currently crowdfunding for the first-ever Night Vale-themed TTRPG, and I am deliriously excited for it.
Halloween is one of my favorite times of the year in Red Line, despite the fact that in real life I rarely have the energy post-birthday celebrations to scrounge together a decent costume. As I mentioned in our last update, we’re changing things up this year by releasing a series of minisodes rather than one, long, Treehouse of Horror-inspired anthology, and I’m so delighted with every single one of them. From the disconcerting announcements in the opener, to the haunted library of last week’s update… to some fantastic things that are coming up soon. I’ve dialogue edited two of the three upcoming episodes this week (as well as having a recording session for one of them), AND the first episode of a crossover with our friends over at Give Me Away dropping next month. I’m so happy that this show is back!
I’ve been meaning to dip a toe into this one for awhile now, and lucky enough for me, doing so this late meant that I didn’t have to wait while I marathoned my way through most of the entire season. I’m still an episode+minisode behind, but good god is this exactly my vibe right now. Tense, pulpy sci-fi that harkens back to my days of inhaling crumbling mass market paperbacks from the 50’s and 60’s. And that cast? There’s a veritable casserole of GOATs in here, but I’d like to specifically shout out Trace Lysette for her portrayal of the seedy Mother Korrie, who has been my favorite character in the series yet. Jonathan Pezza has a gem on his hands with this one, and if you like gritty procedurals, or the show The Expanse, then you need to jump on board here!
One of my favorite shows on the Fable & Folly Network is officially back for its fourth and final season! And in the fantastic season premiere, we go all the way back to the beginning, as Joseph learns more about what Mel knew, and didn’t know, when this journey to uncover Aimo’s secrets first kicked off. I’m a sucker for a script like this, where we’re able to revisit an event we’ve already experienced and view it from a different angle, to understand the ways in which things have been unfolding since long before our intrepid narrator had any ideas about it at all. Looking forward to keeping up with the series, although I’m definitely not ready for it to end!
Well fuck. There’s nothing quite light a slow-burn sapphic romance, is there? We’ve all known that Dierdre and Verge have been wanting to kiss for ages now, even if they didn’t realize it themselves (or, you know, at least couldn’t admit it). But the way in which we got to witness the beginning of this new phase in their relationship was magnificent. Huge props must go out to both Tina Case and Cat Blackard for their work here. It punched me right in the gut and got those tears flowing, while simultaneously had me shouting from the rooftops for the culmination of their young love. Can’t wait to see where things go next. Nothing bad could possibly happen, even though Verge is under constant threat of annihilation just for existing, right?!
Today’s episode is a remarkably special one. If you had told me twelve years ago that not only would I have a career in fiction podcasting, but I would also be releasing a Halloween Special starring none-other-than the Jeffrey Cranor, one of the co-creators of Welcome to Night Vale? I would’ve said you were out and out lying. I also probably would’ve asked why you knew so much about me at all… because that’d be weird. But in all seriousness, this one came together pretty quickly, and I still can’t quite believe it. Earlier this year Sam and I attended a live Night Vale show and while I was struck by all of the performers, there was something about the way Jeffrey captivated the entire audience, telling horrifying stories of our collective attic, that made me knew I needed him on our show. And when I reached out and he said yes? I couldn’t stop from pinching myself. I quickly tasked my friend Jeff Van Dreason if he’d sub in for scripting duties, and when he turned in his first draft earlier this year? Jack Marone and I didn’t have a single note. It’s delirious, it’s dark, and it’s delightful. I hope you’ll enjoy it.
Bonus FM news: not only have we released our Halloween special this week, but we also have just wrapped up production on A Christmas Clara, our delayed special from last year, and Thanksgiving With the Colony, a brand new episode written by Jordan Stillman and starring Emma Sherr-Ziarko! It’s gonna be a great few months up in Texarkana, NY.
This week’s episode of Jeremy Ellett’s new horror anthology was written by Bernie Jean Schiebeling, a new-to-me creator who nevertheless had me utterly captivated with their horrifying tale of a mythical fair-minded landlord. Michelle Kelley delights as Landlord Asmodeus themself, performing the script with a deliciously unhinged glee. The prose was electric, the design (as always) was brilliant, and I was heartbroken as soon as it ended!
I should know better by now than to go into this show feeling like I have any handle on what it’s going to do to me… but when I saw the title to this one, and its proximity to October, I did not expect to come out ugly crying. Jamie gets particularly vulnerable here, as she discusses what it would mean for the veil between the world of the living and the dead to blur, allowing the ghost of her dead mother to come back into their lives, if only for a little while. Both for her, of course, but also her father, who try as he might, wouldn’t be fully prepared for what that specific flavor of reunion would do to him. It eviscerated me. I adored it. Hilary Williams delivers a tour de force performance that you must experience to believe.
Season 5, part 3 continues this week with a script written by none other than The Interviewer himself, Alan Burgon! I loved that we stuck with the religious themes first started in my episode, and used those to explore both Welsh independence and body positivity. I also loved that it’s taken Arthur three years to come up with a suitable fake death & replacement life that’d see this man running an inn rather than being a fisherman… you know, the trade he’s been patiently preparing for since their first meeting. It’s a far cry from the Arthur we know today, who often has 7-8 suitable ideas before a potential client has even gotten through their entire story! Brilliant stuff, as always, written and performed to perfection by a man we all know and love.
BONUS SNACK!
Sam and I both read this one in quick succession on a recommendation from her boss, and wow, was it exactly my jam. The story of a family who has not one, but two children disappear from the same compound 14 years apart. It’s got everything I like in a novel this large: a wide array of narrators, converging timelines, and the deep, dark woods of the Adirondacks in Upstate NY. Liz Moore had me hooked from the first sentence. I’m not kidding when I say that I read 400 pages of this book in less than 24 hours. If this at all sounds like your jam? I’d implore you to read it ASAP!