LAMBcast #27

FYI: I started a dedicated Facebook page for the LAMBcast. I'll still post something here when a new episode is released, but if you're looking for a central place for commentary, suggestions, complaints, etc., go here (and LIKE it!).

They say imitation is the most sincere form of flattery. Well, we'll see about that.

The LAMBcast pays tribute to the LAMMY-nominated podcasts by not just paying lip service, but actually becoming them. Yes, that's right - we did a segment of the show using each of the five nominated podcasts - The Matineecast, The Film Cynics, The Simon & Jo Film Show, A Life in Equinox Podcastmonium, and The Demented Encyclopedia - as our templates. Some we did better than others...you'll see.

On hand for all this tomfoolery was Nick Jobe, Jason Soto, Travis McCollum, and myself. Oh, and this episode is chock full of the cursing. Not for wee one's ears.

As usual, the music, as provided royalty-free by Kevin MacLeod's Incompetech website, is the bomb. Big thanks to Kevin for providing this service.

Additional music used for this episode:

* Franz Ferdinand - "The Dark of the Matinee"

* Rage Against the Machine - "Know Your Enemy"

* The Film Cynics - Theme Song, artist unknown

* The Go Team! - "Bottle Rocket"

* Iggy Pop - "Lust for Life"

Also, we're still on iTunes, and would still love a review, even if it's a bad one. Thanks for listening!

And then...

LAMBcast #22

It's the moment you've all been waiting for! The glitz and glamour of the LAMMYs have made their way to the LAMBcast. That's right - the main post and voting instructions will arrive shortly, but this is the spot if you want to be amongst the first to hear the nominations for the 2010 LAMMY Awards.

I was joined by a rogue's gallery of awards commentators (specifically, Rachel Thuro, Nick Jobe and Travis McCollum) as we spelled out the 15 categories, the nominees, and where applicable, gave a shout out to the winners of years past. Along the way, a few extended discussions (e.g. What does it mean to be a Horror/Sci-Fi Blog, and is a specific award relevant for them?) and at the end, our usual games of Last LAMB Standing and some Trailer Talk.

As usual, the music, as provided royalty-free by Kevin MacLeod's Incompetech website, is the bomb. Big thanks to Kevin for providing this service.

You can find us on iTunes; just go to the Podcasts section and search for "LAMBcast." And hey - while you're on iTunes, why don't you go ahead and either rate the LAMBcast or write a review of it. Better yet, do both! It'll help us get noticed by the overlords at Apple and earn worldwide fame...or something like that.

And then...

May Guest Podspot #2

(This time re-posted from Random Ramblings of a Demented Doorknob, where if you didn't already know, Nick co-hosts The Demented Encyclopedia along with The Movie Encyclopedia's Travis. See what they did there? Anyway, details below. If you've ever wanted to hear me do awful impersonations of actors spouting racist lines, this is your chance.)

For our tenth episode, we bring on guest host Dylan Fields of Blog Cabins and The Large Association of Movie Blogs. To compensate for such a long episode last week, we have a bit shorter of an episode this week.

After some quick plugs, in which Dylan plugs the LAMMY Awards, and I plug a scene from my movie-in-progress, we move on to the main topic. The topic this week is "That Guys." These are the actors and actresses who appear in numerous films and television shows, but usually as a secondary character and the common public can't really remember their names (hence "that guy"). We go over some of our favorites (actors and performances).

After that, we move on to Reality Round-Up and start off with our most detailed Survivor discussion yet, mostly because our guest host this week is actually a Survivor fan. From there we move on to a quick American Idol discussion where Travis and I actually have yet another debate and must agree to disagree.

Then, after a quick "Recommend A...", we get into our Mono-Dia-logues of the Week, where none of us are practiced/rehearsed--and you can tell, except for Dylan, who shows us up with a scene from True Romance.

And that's it for this week. Stay tuned after the closing theme for a bit extra!



Thanks goes out to Kevin MacLeod's Imcompetech Website for the music. As always, you can use the player above to listen to the podcast, or you can search iTunes, where we are also available for download. The earlier episodes are being removed from the player for space, but you can still always download them on iTunes. Also, please become a Fan on Facebook... then you can give us your input for the podcast and will probably end up on the show during the D-Bag segment. But as for now... enjoy!

And then...

LAMBcast #20

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And then...

LAMBcast #19

With no major releases out the week of recording, the LAMBcast took a left turn, topically speaking, and this time consisted of a trip down short-term memory lane. The four LAMBcasters on board (host Dylan Fields, along with Rachel Thuro, Travis McCollum, and Nick Jobe) each recounted their myriad recent viewings (Peacock, anyone?), theatrically and otherwise, for what turned out to be a lively discussion, so much so that we had to skip out on Trailer Talk, though we still managed time for a couple games of Last LAMB Standing. (Note: DVDs shown in image are not a reflection of the films discussed.)

As usual, the music, as provided royalty-free by Kevin MacLeod's Incompetech website, is the bomb. Big thanks to Kevin for providing this service.

You can find us on iTunes; just go to the Podcasts section and search for "LAMBcast." And hey - while you're on iTunes, why don't you go ahead and either rate the LAMBcast or write a review of it. Better yet, do both! It'll help us get noticed by the overlords at Apple and earn worldwide fame...or something like that.

And then...

LAMBcast #18

After a few weeks off, the LAMBcast has returned, with an enthusiastic discussion of the lone film that's been worthy of being enthusiastic about to hit theaters in recent weeks, Kick-Ass. Ob board was host Nick Jobe, along with Mike Mendez and Mr. Last LAMB Standing himself, Travis McCollum. Listen up as the gents dissect the Matthew Vaughn flick, briefly discuss some trailers, including the revolting Human Centipede (which Travis has had the misfortune of already seeing), as well as not one or two but three games of Last LAMB Standing.

As usual, the music, as provided royalty-free by Kevin MacLeod's Incompetech website, is the bomb. Big thanks to Kevin for providing this service.

You can find us on iTunes; just go to the Podcasts section and search for "LAMBcast." And hey - while you're on iTunes, why don't you go ahead and either rate the LAMBcast or write a review of it. Better yet, do both! It'll help us get noticed by the overlords at Apple and earn worldwide fame...or something like that.

And then...

Tuesday's Things to Click On (3/30/10)

No snappy intro this week - lots to get to, though. Send your March to Box Office Madness entries and vote on the Ladies/Dudes of the 80s polls. That is all.

Movies watched for the first time (non-theatrically) since last week:
Close Encounters of the Third Kind - Yes, another in the Sheila Broflovski Memorial "What WHAT WHAT?!? You haven't seen that??" line of movies that it took me forever to watch. Truth is, it was another one of those that I felt like I'd already seen, what with having seen so many clips here and there over the past three decades. Throw that in with the fact that I actually have seen the last 15 minutes intact and I got the jist. Still, I'd been wanting to sit down and watch it from start to finish once and for all and got the opportunity, so I took it...and was neither pleasantly surprised nor disappointed. That's not a bad thing - it was the same reaction I had when I finally watched Jaws some months back (for that, I had a legitimate excuse for avoiding it - the whole fear of sharks thing). Each film simply reaffirmed what I already knew: Steven Spielberg is far and away the best director of the last 35 years, and has an ability (to make an intelligent blockbuster...consistently) like no one else I can think of. It's easy to get caught up in the referential brilliance that is Tarantino or the technical genius of Darren Aronofsky, but no one's been more influential over the course of my life than Spielberg (even if Indy 4 was awful).

Rocket Science - Speaking of influences, it was difficult to watch this and not be constantly thinking "Rushmore Rushmore Rushmore," but it's a kind of nice film in its own right, even if it never gains all that much traction and ends on a kind of "Oh...hmm...ok." note. I was mesmerized by Reece Thompson's terrific, breakout performance, as well as by Anna Kendrick's fluctuating weight, and Vincent Piazza's (he plays the older brother) eerie resemblance to Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban.

Speaking of Kendrick, I've not seen any of the Twilight pics, but for those that saw Up In the Air and couldn't stop themselves from saying something like "Wow, so someone from Twilight can act!," I'll instruct you to watch this film, which came out a year before the vampire saga and earned her an Independent Spirit award nom for Supporting Actress.

Two other final thoughts: always nice to see Fargo's own Mike Yanagita (Steve Park), here showing up as a step-father of sorts. Also, for anyone that was ever involved with high school debate - is the point really to be a friggin' speed reader? What was portrayed as being great debating seemed awful to Mrs. Fletch and I.

Music I'm currently obsessed with:
* Nothing new, though like anyone else in the world on Twitter that's over the age of 17, I'm sick to death of the name J_st_n B_eb_r, for whatever that's worth. Thankfully, the only singing I've ever heard him do was his 5-second bit in the updated "We are the World" that ran during the Olympics.

Book I'm currently reading:
Still reading "The Year of Living Biblically," a yearlong journal of a secular guy (born Jewish) attempting to live according to the rules of the Bible (all of them, no matter how minute) for 365 days. Still pretty interesting and mildly amusing.

Finally, the Things to Click On:
* Whitney's husband Scott, posted an array of his "type" of ladies. Well, turnabout is fair play, and her choices are what you might call...abnormal.

* The Reel Whore has put out an official Tinsel Alert for an actress that's gone missing. May she return to screens big and small soon. I, for one, miss her smarm and charm.

* It's pretty much done raining in Phoenix for the next 4-6 months (save for perhaps one last hurrah later this week), but in case you're in need of some rainy day pop culture activities, Brian of The Film Cynics has the prescription for your ills.

* Travis hits his 300th post after barely more than six months, and does so by contributing to Andy's Desert Island DVD blog-a-thon (that I'll be a part of as well). I don't know where this kid gets the time or money (he did state that he had a connection at a theater, which helps explain the money side), but I'm impressed (or scared - one of the two). Meta-linkage FTW!

* This is a bit late, but I just want to give a nod to the way Hokahey's thinking. Not content with the results of the Oscars, he's taking matters into his own hands!

And then...

LAMBcast #16

We take a detour from our normal single topic episode to discuss three tidbits of movie news/controversies, going from the Twilight saga to Tim Burton to Repo Men. On hand was me as host, as well as Nick Jobe, Mike Mendez and Travis McCollum. That's followed up by a couple games of Last LAMB Standing and some Trailer Talk.

As usual, the music, as provided royalty-free by Kevin MacLeod's Incompetech website, is the bomb. Big thanks to Kevin for providing this service.

You can find us on iTunes; just go to the Podcasts section and search for "LAMBcast." And hey - while you're on iTunes, who don't you go ahead and either rate the LAMBcast or write a review of it. Better yet, do both! It'll help us get noticed by the overlords at Apple and earn worldwide fame...or something like that.

And then...

LAMBcast #14

Did you see The Crazies? If not, have no fear, as 2/5 of the participants in this episode hadn't seen it, either. The focus quickly turned away from Nick's strange theatrical experience seeing the George Romero remake and onto a discussion of remakes, reboots, reimaginings, prequels, sequels, and what the hell the difference is between all those things. Of course, very few conclusions were drawn. This was all topped off by two, dare I say, competitive games of Last LAMB Standing, and a remake of previous Trailer Talk discussions (frequent listeners will know what I mean).

On hand in all this craziness was Nick Jobe of Random Ramblings of a Demented Doorknob, Travis McCollum of The Movie Encyclopedia, Tom Clift of Plus Trailers, Jason Soto of Invasion of the B Movies, and myself.

As usual, the music, as provided royalty-free by Kevin MacLeod's Incompetech website, is the bomb. Big thanks to Kevin for providing this service.

You can find us on iTunes; just go to the Podcasts section and search for "LAMBcast." And hey - while you're on iTunes, who don't you go ahead and either rate the LAMBcast or write a review of it. Better yet, do both! It'll help us get noticed by the overlords at Apple and earn worldwide fame...or something like that.

If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions, we'd love to hear them - you might even get a mention on a future show.

And then...

LAMBcast #13 (for real this time)

A skeleton crew (compared to recent episodes) was on hand for the latest LAMBcast, with just three geeks sitting around talking movies instead of the usual four or five for episode #13, hosted by Nick Jobe of Random Ramblings of a Demented Doorknob and supported by Travis McCollum of The Movie Encyclopedia and myself. The feature discussion was Shutter Island, and of course we topped that off with a couple games of Last LAMB Standing (could Nick win a game - or even make it past the first two rounds...on his birthday...with the subject being his favorite actor?) and some Trailer Talk.

As usual, the music, as provided royalty-free by Kevin MacLeod's Incompetech website, is the bomb. Big thanks to Kevin for providing this service.

You can find us on iTunes; just go to the Podcasts section and search for "LAMBcast." And hey - while you're on iTunes, who don't you go ahead and either rate the LAMBcast or write a review of it. Better yet, do both! It'll help us get noticed by the overlords at Apple and earn worldwide fame...or something like that.

If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions, we'd love to hear them - you might even get a mention on a future show.

And then...

Thursday's Things to Click On (2/18/10)

It's been nearly two and a half years since the last time I did one of these posts, but it's high time I brought it back. Though I still do a fair bit of movie blog reading, I've found that being the so-called shepherd of the LAMB has taken some of the fun of discovering new sites and great posts away from me - it's much harder to discover things when they're always brought to you first, and I have less and less time to read (and write) posts these days. Those aren't complaints, but mere facts mixed with a smidge of nostalgia, I suppose.

This re-introductionary post (sure, 'cause that's a word) is somewhat ironic in that I'm not exactly going outside the box. All are from friends and LAMB members (though that's likely to be increasingly harder to avoid, not that I mind), and they're also even readers of this site, but a) it's a good place to start and b) I enjoyed all of these posts greatly:

* First, how often is it that you have the chance to have a truly great time at the theater (quality of the film you're seeing notwithstanding). Here, Plus Trailers' Tom Clift regales us with the "greatest cinema experience of his life."

* Rachel of Rachel's Reel Reviews says "I Love You" a lot on Valentine's Day.

* Travis over at The Movie Encyclopedia is also a Survivor fan. Here, he steps outside his movie-reviews-only realm to interview the first Survivor: H vs. V castoff.

* Finally, a total cheat, as this one is directly from the LAMB. I probably shouldn't specifically call anybody out, as I don't want to offend anyone else, but Jason's writeup on District 9 illustrated why he's one of the funnier movie writers I get a chance to read, even if most of the time he's writing about movies I don't care about. Maybe you could start up an "A Movies" website, Jason? C'mon, we know you've got the time.


And for those that care, have no fear: the Survivor live blog is still coming in a few hours.

And then...

LAMBcast #13 12

Yes, we actually can count. Due to some technical issues with the real episode that have yet to be worked out, we instead are proud to present you with episode #13, in which host Travis McCollum of The Movie Encyclopedia led off a discussion of (whaddaya know) the 82nd Academy Awards. This was topped off by not one but two games of Last LAMB Standing (nail-biters, I tell ya!), though all that left us with so much show that Trailer Talk was shelved.

Travis was joined by:

* Nick Jobe of Random Ramblings of a Demented Doorknob,
* Tom Clift of Plus Trailers,
* The Mad Hatter of The Dark of the Matinee,
* and me.

As usual, the music, as provided royalty-free by Kevin MacLeod's Incompetech website, is the bomb. Big thanks to Kevin for providing this service.

Also, you can find us on iTunes; just go to the Podcasts section and search for "LAMBcast." And hey - while you're on iTunes, who don't you go ahead and either rate the LAMBcast or write a review of it. Better yet, do both! It'll help us get noticed by the overlords at Apple and earn worldwide fame...or something like that.

If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions, we'd love to hear them - you might even get a mention on a future show (I know - you've been dreaming!).

And then...

LAMBcast #11

The LAMBcast has moved! Due to its previous host no longer accepting new uploads, we've moved to Podomatic. I've transferred over our latest episode, in which we discuss our most anticipated for 2010, along with episode #10, for those that might have missed that one.

Podomatic has some great features, but their embeddable player is not one of them, as it's too wide for the sidebars and can't be narrowed properly. Instead, it will be included in posts such as this, and you can also find the link in the left sidebar in the Podcast Roundup. However, if you'd like to add the player to your site, click the little arrow in the top left corner of the player and copy the code.

This episode featured me as host, along with:

* Nick Jobe of Random Ramblings of a Demented Doorknob,
* Travis McCollum of The Movie Encyclopedia,
* and Rachel Thuro of Rachel's Reel Reviews.

As usual, the music, as provided royalty-free by Kevin MacLeod's Incompetech website, is the bomb. Big thanks to Kevin for providing this service.

Also, you can find us on iTunes; just go to the Podcasts section and search for "LAMBcast." [Note: iTunes has yet to update the feeds per my request, so for this ep, please just go to our Podomatic page and subscribe from there.] And hey - while you're on iTunes, who don't you go ahead and either rate the LAMBcast or write a review of it. Better yet, do both! It'll help us get noticed by the overlords at Apple and earn worldwide fame...or something like that.

If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions, we'd love to hear them.

And then...

LAMBcast #10

As previously mentioned, the last time we recorded a LAMBcast, it was meant to cover Avatar followed by our best of 2009, plus all of the usual goodies. Well, we just couldn't contain ourselves, and despite the bladder-straining time it took to record the whole thing, we soldiered on for nearly three total hours (pre- and post-recording). So we did what needed to be done: split the ginormous episode in two.

In this episode (part two), we unleash our personal Top 10s on the world in a round robin fashion. Be sure to stick around after the show ends for an ultimatum for Nick that will have him second-guessing his decision for years to come (note: that might be an exaggeration). This episode was hosted by Mike Mendez of Big Mike's Movie Blog.

Mike was joined by fellow LAMBs:

* Tom Clift of Plus Trailers,

* Nick Jobe of Random Ramblings of a Demented Doorknob,

* Travis McCollum of The Movie Encyclopedia,

* and me.


As usual, the music, as provided royalty-free by Kevin MacLeod's Incompetech website, is the bomb. Big thanks to Kevin for providing this service.

You can listen by playing it in the widget in the left sidebar; if you'd like to add it to your site (you would), click the "Add to my page" link. Also, you can find us on iTunes; just go to the Podcasts section and search for "LAMBcast." And hey - while you're on iTunes, who don't you go ahead and either rate the LAMBcast or write a review of it. Better yet, do both! It'll help us get noticed by the overlords at Apple and earn worldwide fame...or something like that.

If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions, we'd love to hear them.

And then...

LAMBcast #9

For the latest edition of the LAMBcast, we had hoped to talk about a little film called Avatar, followed by our lists of the Best of '09, but it was just too much to handle for one podcast. So we did what needed to be done: split the ginormous episode in two.

In this episode (part one), we strap in and dissect James Cameron's blockbuster, along with a game of Last Man Standing and the longest edition of Trailer Talk ever to be unleashed. Stay tuned in the coming days for part two, where we rattle off each of our ten best for last year, along with an ultimatum for Nick that will have him second-guessing his decision for years to come (note: that might be an exaggeration). Both episodes are hosted by Mike Mendez of Big Mike's Movie Blog.

For these episodes, Mike was joined by fellow LAMBs:

* Tom Clift of Plus Trailers,

* Nick Jobe of Random Ramblings of a Demented Doorknob,

* Travis McCollum of The Movie Encyclopedia,

* and me.

Trailers discussed (there are too many to embed each one; instead, I give you links):

The Sorcerer's Apprentice
Death at a Funeral
The Karate Kid
Cop Out
Hot Tub Time Machine
Knight and Day
Date Night
Valentine's Day
Inception
The Bounty Hunter
Repo Men
Kick-Ass (red band)

As usual, the music, as provided royalty-free by Kevin MacLeod's Incompetech website, is the bomb. Big thanks to Kevin for providing this service.

You can listen by playing it in the widget in the left sidebar; if you'd like to add it to your site (you would), click the "Add to my page" link. Also, you can find us on iTunes; just go to the Podcasts section and search for "LAMBcast." And hey - while you're on iTunes, who don't you go ahead and either rate the LAMBcast or write a review of it. Better yet, do both! It'll help us get noticed by the overlords at Apple and earn worldwide fame...or something like that.

If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions, we'd love to hear them.

And then...

LAMBcast #8 (the "lost" episode)

Host Jason Soto and the rest of the gang on the latest LAMBcast were putting on a hell of a show. Unfortunately, it was so much show that Jason's computer just couldn't handle it. All was going smoothly until around the 25-minute mark, where some sort of glitch with his recording software crept up and sabotaged the 'cast from there on out, causing a delay between Jason's audio and that of the other participants. It starts off subtly but sadly gets worse as the show goes on.

The entire show has been published, both for posterity and in the interest of the podcasters, some of whom were taking part in their first podcast. Despite the incident, my thanks go out to Jason for supreme hosting duties. At the least, have a listen to the unaltered portion and get to know LAMBcast noobies Rachel and Travis a little bit.

The topic at hand was Christmas movies, of which the gang dissected to no end. Also on tap, though a bit harder to hear was a round of Trailer Talk and a game of Last Man Standing.

In it, Jason was joined by fellow LAMBs:

* Tom Clift of Plus Trailers,

* Rachel Thuro of Rachel's Reel Reviews,

* and Travis McCollum of The Movie Encyclopedia.

As usual, the music, as provided royalty-free by Kevin MacLeod's Incompetech website, is the bomb. Big thanks to Kevin for providing this service.

You can listen by playing it in the widget in the left sidebar; if you'd like to add it to your site (you would), click the "Add to my page" link. Also, you can find us on iTunes; just go to the Podcasts section and search for "LAMBcast." And hey - while you're on iTunes, who don't you go ahead and either rate the LAMBcast or write a review of it. Better yet, do both! It'll help us get noticed by the overlords at Apple and earn worldwide fame...or something like that.

If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions, we'd love to hear them.

And then...