Ima Lookin' At J00!: Geeknights Thursdays

The General Idea: "Throwaway Thursdays" as Rym and Scott like to call em'. Whatever doesn't fall under Science, Tech, Video Games, Board Games, Anime, Manga, or Comics ends up on this feed. They pick a topic and . . . well, talk about it. You know, share experiences, give insight, etc.

Style: Well-organized. Geeknights Thursdays isn't a comedy podcast, but you'll get the occasional laugh from their well-placed in-jokes. Rym and Scott do news, but unlike most podcasters who do news, they actually have something interesting to say when they do it. Simply put, they tell you something you don't know or say something worthwhile about something you do know about. The podcast is structured into a few consistent segments. After the short opening and preliminary comments, they go into news followed by things of the day, which are awesome things they find on the internet. After that, they go in-depth on their topic for the day and end with show-related info.

Substance: Here's where the goodies lie. The news on this show isn't something you just nod off to or fast forward by. It actually makes you think. Quite an accomplishment, i'd say. Things of the day tend to be hit or miss, but are usually reliable sources of entertainment. Regardless of their main topic, there's always something new to learn (or another perspective to consider) when listening to this podcast. Sometimes, the idea is to inform newbies and sometimes, it's to go deep on a subject. Works either way.

Hosts: Rym and Scott can form cohesive sentences unlike a good deal of the podcasters out there. They can speak clearly and express their ideas with the same clarity. Though they do go off on tangents and Scott tends to raise rather odd arguments from time to time, these factors rarely detract from the show. They won't tell you shit you already know, which is a huge plus in my book.

Sound Quality: Earlier episodes have passable (though certainly not bad) sound quality. Everything else (barring interviews and non-studio recorded material)is of superb quality. No complaints here.

Episodes This Review Is Based On: All Geeknights Thursdays episodes prior to 7/19/07.

Recommended Episodes: This is a toughie. It really depends on your tastes since the episodes are very topical. Just find ones you like and listen to those first.

Release Rate: Usually every Thursday.

Overall: 5/5 Top-Tier

Ima Lookin' At J00!: The Rookie

The General Idea: The Rookie is a podcast novel written and read by Scott Sigler. Essentially football in space . . . except awesome.

The Plot: In the distant future, several species of sentiens live in a somewhat uneasy peace. To divert their violent tendencies from each other, the various races turn to football as both a source of unity . . . and awesome violence. Quentin Barnes is the star quarterback of a team in the Purest Nation Football League, an all-human league consisting of all tier three teams (out of 3 with Tier 1 being the highest). Despite being superior to most players in his league, Quentin is far from satisfied as he desires the highest prize: to play in tier 1. He gets a chance when he is picked up by a tier 2 team, the Ionath Krakens. If his new team is among the top two in tier two at the end of the season, they move up to the top tier. The catch? He has aliens for teammates, and coming from a culture where the only thing you learn about other species is how to kill them in the most effective way possible, he has his work cut out for him.

Style: No fancy tricks here, Scott Sigler gives it to you straight. The Rookie pulls no punches, gets to the point, and saves the graphic detail for the stuff that counts: the brutal, unforgiving, and sudden violence. Just the way I like it. XD

Substance: N/A (This is for informative podcasts)

Host(s): Scott Sigler is vibrant, energetic, and expressive. You won't hear him stumble over his words or mumble. He's one of the few hosts I've heard who adress fanmail and voicemails as if they were from his buddies. From what I've seen, the close relationship between him and his junkies (named so due to their addiction to his work) is quite a rare sight in podcasts with fanbases as large as his. Also, for a one-man voice cast, he does a pretty damn good job.

Sound Quality: No flaws of note. Excellent overall.

Episodes this review is based on: All of Them.

Recommended Episodes: All the main episodes.

Releases: Completed

Misc Comments: At first, I was a bit skeptical about the football theme. I'm not a footbal fan and expected The Rookie to chew me up. I was pleasantly surprised when I wasn't completely lost. For a sports story, characters have a fair deal of depth and everything from intergalactic politics to the workings of the underworld are presented. The football parts are done in such a way that you can enjoy all the blood and glory of futuristic football without having to deal with the boring bits. The violence is a bit slow to appear and if you're coming from Infection or Ancestor, won't be as able to sate your bloodlust. Well, Sigler, if you're reading this, kudos to you. You've turned me into a Junkie and now I can't wait for Nocturnal.

Overall: 5/5

My Favorite Podcasts - May 2007 Edition

Here are my favorite podcasts in order from best to worst (though still fucking awesome).

1. Dave and Joel's Fast Karate for the Gentlemen
2. 7th Son
3. Geeknights Thursdays
4. Ask a Ninja
5. Anime World Order
6. Comic Strip Live: Stand Up Comedy
7. The Ninja Consultant Podcast
8. Keith and the Girl
9. Happy House of Hentai
10. Geeknights Tuesdays

Ima Lookin' At J00!: Comedy4Cast

Review Based on episodes 1-10, and 49-103.

"Comedy4Cast: Comedy in four minutes or less"
That's their slogan right there.
Comedy4Cast is a short, 4-7 minute podcast in which the host (I think his name was Clinton or something) does a seemingly random skit before going into chat mode.

Content:
- The first four minutes are the "comedy".
- Usually, he does a random skit as himself. This can be anything from using time travel to edit his podcast to fighting against the evil known as the online signup interface.
- Sometimes, he plays other characters. One of them is an imbecile who . . . well . . .is imbecilic! Another is an average guy who speaks like a noble so everyone thinks he's rich and powerful. And another is someone who starts all his sentences with "basically".
- These skits rely too much on randomness and often fall flat on their faces. I mean, when over 80% of the skit makes no sense, it just ain't funny. Randomness is something that's best used at key moments like "The pythagorean theorem is a squared times b squared equals BALLS!" as opposed to "BALLS BALLS BALLS BALLS BALLS i like tea BALLS BALLS!" I really don't know where I got the balls from . . .
-The mid to new episodes have a little chat session with Clinton at the end. These mostly pertain to comedy4cast and himself in general.

Sound Quality:
- Earlier episodes have tolerable sound quality. Most certainly not amateurish.
- More recent episodes have nearly flawless sound quality.

Recommended Episodes:
1, 49, 50, 59, and 79

Overall:
1/5 - Though there are a few good episodes here and there, they're much too rare to subscribe to the podcast.

Ima Lookin' At J00!: Comedy Central Motherload Webshows

This is another vidcast by Comedy Central. This time, the content consists of various shorts from their motherload thingie.

Content:
- 2-5 minute shorts.
- Content incledes everything from animated shorts to standard skit-based comedy.
- Sorely lacking in terms of amusement value.
- I wouldn't be surprised if they just took the shit that they wouldn't want to put on TV and threw it together into this shitty excuse of a vidcast.

Overall:
1/5 - Don't Bother

Ima Lookin' At J00!: Comedy Central: Stand-Up

This is a video podcast released by Comedy Central. It takes 1-4 minute clips from their countless standups. Obviously, it was intended more to get people interested in Comedy Central than provide entertainment.

Content:
-The releases are hit or miss. Some of the stuff will make you chuckle, but most of the time, it just ain't funny.
-If it is funny, the shows are too damn short to leave a lasting impression.
-If they just made the shows 5-10 minutes long, it would improve exponentially.
-Somehow, this vidcast made it into the itunes top 100 podcasts. This leaves me to believe that either a lot of people that are fans of Comedy Central blindly subscribed to the cast or there's some corruption goin' on in Apple.

Sound:
-TV grade

Overall:
2/5 - It has it's moments, but it's mediocre most of the time.

Ima Lookin' At J00!: X-Play Daily Video Podcast

The X-Play Daily Video Podcast takes the reviews from the show on G4 and makes them avalable in 3-4 minute episodes. The show reviews video games while occasionally throwing in a skit or two.

Content:
-The reviews themselves are well-informed despite the shallow appearance of the show.
-Though said reviews do tend to be exaggerated when they're about hyped-up monsters like God of War, they're very accurate and reliable for other games.
-Unfortunately, they shoehorn a shitload of "comedy" into these reviews. Most of the time, the jokes are juvenile and fall flat on their faces.
-There are a few exceptions to this. The most notable ones are the Splinter Cell Co-Op Theater episodes, which are hillarious.

Hosts:
-Both of the hosts are seasoned gamers and they know what they're talking about, but they're not comedians.
-While not annoying, they aren't TOO special. At least they didn't get some sweaty, middle-aged man who mumbles like crazy.
-If they'd drop those god damn lame political/pop culture jokes and focused on reviewing, they'd easily become much better.

Sound Quality:
-TV Grade. Need I say more?
-For those of you with shitty TVs, I'm saying it's as good as it gets.

Overall:
3/5 - It has its uses, but it won't be winning any awards.

Ima Lookin' At J00!: Ancestor

Ancestor is a novel written by Scott Sigler.

Up until recently, it was avalable on itunes as a podiobook. I dunno if it's still avalable elsewhere.

Ancestor is a story about a company's desire to bring back an ancient creature to use for organ transplants. As the project progresses, the sinister nature of these ancestors is revealed.

Content:
- The story is quite captivating, especially around the middle.
- Characters aren't ultra-deep, but there's a bit of depth to them.
- Plot twists were relatively original until the very end at which point the story lost some momentum along with a good bit of my interest.

Host:
- Scott Sigler does all the voices himself. The female and deep voices are so-so, but his other voices are quite interesting.
- He rarely adresses the audience, prefering to just tell the story. This keeps things short and to-the-point.

Sound Quality:
- Flawless as far as I can tell.
- The transition music is very low-key and lets the story flow while getting the change in perspective or location across.
- There is a problem regarding this in one chapter where the perspective constantly changes between two people in the same area. This gets kinda annoying really quickly.

Overall:
4/5 - Not a must-watch, but pretty damn good.

Ima Lookin' At J00!: The Onion Radio News

Before I start on this review, "Ima Lookin' At J00!" was originally a sub-show on my podcast, "Blood, Crack, and Anime." Recently, I decided it would be easier to just do it here. In ILAJ, I review the many podcasts I listen to.

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"The Onion Radio News" is a fake news podcast where the host makes up a 1-2 minute news flash with some outrageous premise.

Content:
- Completely Random
- Short, but not sweet
- This is a show that tries too hard to be funny, and it does this by throwing completely random jokes at you. While some randomness is good, just having a random phrase thrown at you does not make for lolz. In fact, most of the "comedy" flies over your head and comes off as juvenile at times.

Host:
- 1-2 minutes per show isn't enough to make the host too significant . . .
- He isn't annoying, i'll give him that.

Sound Quality:
- Well-done
- No blemishes as far as I can tell

Overall:
1/5 - Don't Bother