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Friday Feb 28, 2014
Friday Feb 28, 2014
This past Sunday I got online with Mr. Beau Brown
(SciFiJanitors.com),
Ryan Schweck (Evil), Jay Hornsby (The Belligerent Monkey),
Josh Wilson (The Oncoming Storm),
and Reverend Dan Wilson (Poddy Humor) to discuss the recent New York International Toy Fair. Check it out:
Sunday Feb 09, 2014
Sunday Feb 09, 2014
I am absolutely delighted to be bringing you an interview with the most brilliant professional wrestling mind I have ever had the pleasure of meeting, Stephen Platinum. But he’s more than just a booker, he’s also a pop culture aficionado, which plays into his booking style in more ways than you could imagine.
We talk about Steve’s life, career in wrestling, and Dexter. His tour of Full Moon Studios comes up – something I’ve always wanted to ask him about – and of course we spend some time on the genesis of PCW (if you want that whole story you need to watch the excellent documentary, The Booker).
The Booker -Trailer- from Mike Perkins on Vimeo.
I
had great fun talking to this man and I think you guys are really
going to dig this one. It was hard to wrap up at the end; I think we
probably could have talked TV and movies and horror all night. Enjoy!
“Procrastibate” by LeSexoflex.com
“The Wizard” by Black Sabbath
-Phantom
Wednesday Jan 29, 2014
Wednesday Jan 29, 2014
I couldn’t be more excited and quite frankly impressed with myself as far as how this year is shaping up so far. I am pretty awesome.
Just let me have this moment.
I
have three podcast episodes in the can already and two more on the
schedule. Three of these episodes are interviews that to me are Big
Deals – dany only, today’s with Adam WarRock, and another one
that you’re just going to have to wait a week or so to find out
about. I’m almost wishing I had more monthly space on Podbean,
but that’s not going to happen because that takes even more money. On a related note, if you like what you hear, ypu can donate by clicking that PayPal button to your right!
I give my whole Adam WarRock story in the show, so I’m not going to repeat it here. The deal is that his Doctor Who Mixtape dropped on January 7th and once I listened to it I was dying to talk to this guy. I didn’t know what format it would be – ideally we’d do an hour long Needless Things and record a ten minute drop-in about The Doctor Mixtape for Earth Station Who. But I’d take whatever I could get. I never know how folks are going to respond to things, so I was ready for anything from no response to a full hour and the drop-in.
Because Adam WarRock is a righteous dude we got the full hour and the drop-in.
Me and Mr. Beau Brown had a great conversation with the guy. We discussed his process, his nerd influences, and comic books.
Listen
now! Adam WarRock gives you his comic book recommendations! How can
you go wrong?
“Procrastibate” by LeSexoflex.com
“High School Reunion” from The Middle of Nowhere by Adam WarRock
“Thrawn” from AdamWarRock.com by Adam WarRock
-Phantom
Friday Jan 10, 2014
Friday Jan 10, 2014
Hey Phantomaniacs – it’s an all-new year and I’m proud to be kicking it off with an interview I’ve been waiting over a year for. My goal is to bring you no less than twenty-four new episodes over the next twelve months, and I have a lot of cool stuff planned.
If you don’t know, dany only (yes, that’s correct – no caps) is a professional wrestler that’s been working the Southeast for over a decade now. He’s a three time APW Tag Team Champion, a former GCW Tag Team Champion, and held the NWA Anarchy Tag Team titles with his partner, Stryknyn, for 77 days. All he ever wanted to do was wrestle, and he does it as much as he can. Over the years he’s developed a strong philosophy about the business and the people in it, and he’s not afraid to voice that philosophy loudly and often. Sometimes to the chagrin of others.
More recently The Human Hand Grenade has taken up the flag of the patriot, pointing out fallacies in American culture and society; particularly the media. His recent time in Afghanistan opened only’s eyes to the true meanings of both liberty and injustice, and he has brought those revelations back home. Needless to say, this has also caused no small amount of consternation.
I know dany from his time in Platinum Championship Wrestling and Dragon Con Wrestling. The massive tattoo on his chest – “Hated Yet I Persevere” – is what first drew my attention, but his ring work and mic work are what made me a fan. From his time as a heel with the Prophets of Doom to his role as Enforcer of the Empire to his run as the hottest babyface in PCW, only has always been one of the main draws of any card I’ve seen.
We talk about all of this, as well as only’s life outside of wrestling. It’s a fascinating conversation with an intense dude and I’m glad it finally happened. I hope you guys enjoy listening to it as much as I enjoyed recording it.
CAUTION: The Needless Things Podcast is most certainly not aimed at a mature audience, but does contain strong language and maybe even words of a sexual nature, such as “Wankle Rotary Engine”. Please listen responsibly.
“Procrastibate” by LeSexoflex.com
“Press Gang” by Murder City Devils
Tuesday Dec 31, 2013
Tuesday Dec 31, 2013
Time to put together all of the stuff that I didn’t know what to do with and stick it in a podcast! I had two episodes that didn’t work out right at the end of the year, so I need to use up that storage space I’m paying for (feel free to chip in through the PayPal widget on the right side of your screen!).
I have two recordings from Walker Stalker Con that never made it onto Needless Things. The first is an interview with Zack Galligan that was too short (not entirely his fault) and the second is a roundtable interview with Andrew Lincoln that I didn’t put up because there were nine other people involved and I figured they’d all put it up in bigger media outlets than I had access to. But now I feel kind of bad about not posting it (or about reviewing the Con, which was actually pretty great) so here it is.
Finally, Beau and I did an audio review of the Masters of the Universe Jet Sled. It went on too long and I didn’t think it would make a very good episode by itself, but after going back and giving it a listen I do think it’s fun. Not something we’ll likely do again, but fun.
Give
it a listen and throw in a few bucks if you want to help pay the
bills!
“Procrastibate” and “Necrosex” by LeSexoflex.com
“Theme From Gremlins” by Jerry Goldsmith
-Phantom
Thursday Nov 21, 2013
Thursday Nov 21, 2013
Join me, Phantom Troublemaker, and my co-host Mr. Beau Brown as we talk Doctor Who with our guests Beth Van Dusen and Dana Swanson.
We discuss our first experiences with Doctor Who, how we've followed throughout the years, our reactions to the relaunch in 2005, and our hopes for the post-50th Anniversary era. It was a great talk with a cool bunch of people.
If you've got a few bucks to throw at the podcast, please click on that link to your right. This stuff ain't cheap, and it isn't getting any cheaper.
“Procrastibate” by LeSexoflex.com
“Doctorin' the TARDIS” by The Timelords
-Phantom
Tuesday Oct 01, 2013
Tuesday Oct 01, 2013
Breaking News: CM Landrus – today’s guest - sent me an e-mail late last night letting me know that the Mission Indiegogo campaign had been put on hold. I don’t know the whole story, but I get the feeling that a few more resources need to be gathered before the film is ready to be as big a deal as it should be. I wish CM and the rest of the crew the best of luck in getting what they need together.
I never imagined that I might be able to interview the person responsible for bringing a future Mil Mascaras movie into being, but that’s exactly what happened. Thanks to the incomparable Joe Crowe of the Dragon Con American Sci-Fi Classics Track I was able to talk to CM Landrus, the Producer and Director of Mission, the new Mil movie. It’s written by Jeffrey Uhlmann – the man who scripted the last two Mil films. He has a fantastic understanding of Luchador movies and the tone and content that people expect out of them.
I was honestly a little nervous because this is the first interview I’ve done where I haven’t’ really had any contact with the person beforehand, but it went very well. There’s a whole lot of information about not only Mission, but Academy of Doom and Aztec Mummy. We also get into how Hollywood works, the massive learning process that is getting a movie into production, and how crowdfunding is different from more traditional ways of financing movies.
You can follow CM Landrus and Mission at these links:
www.facebook.com/Missionmovie
www.twitter.com/missionmovie
www.filmbreak.com/projects/mission
www.missionmovie.wordpress.com
Now it’s time for the interview. There’s a lot of good stuff here. If you like what you hear, go throw a few bucks at Mission. We need fresh, new Lucha Cinema around this joint:
“Procrastibate” by LeSexoflex.com
“Los Campiones del Justicio” by The Ghastly Ones
-Phantom
Wednesday Sep 18, 2013
Wednesday Sep 18, 2013
This is the big one, Phantomaniacs.
You’ve heard the action figure panel. That one is really my pride and joy because it is the first Dragon Con panel that I was responsible for. Obviously I love action figures and toys and it was a blast to blather on about them with Gary and Geena for an hour. I’m pretty sure we’ll do it again next year in some form.
You’ve heard the He-Man panel. That one was special because me and Beau got to do our Needless Thing in front of an audience and… sometimes my phrasing is really bad. Gary was with us on that one, too, because Gary is awesome. But the awesomest awesomeness was the fact that we got to talk with William Stout. That made that panel extra special. And I’m so glad I got to record it. I learned my lesson about recording panels after being on a fantastic Elementary panel at TimeGate with (dude) and it having a single shred of evidence from it.
But now it’s time for my passion. It’s time for the panel about the toy line and cartoon and comic book that ruled my childhood above all others. Yes, even above Star Wars.
The GI Joe panel wasn’t technically mine to run like the others, but I felt just as proprietary about it. Much like Beau and the Masters panel, I knew I had a valuable resource to tap for the Joe panel – Gnoll. That guy knows 80s pop culture like you wouldn’t believe. And Hasbro properties are a specialty of his.
Joining us were Award-Winning Bobby Nash and the walking Trivial Pursuit: Nerd Edition known as Gary Mitchel.
Guys – this panel was electric and it wasn’t just us (thought we were probably important). We had an unbelievable audience for this one. Despite the fact that it was 7 PM on the final full night of Dragon Con, the room was packed – literally standing room only – with enthusiastic Joe fans. In all honesty the whole thing was pretty emotionally charged for me. To be sharing that space with the talent at the table and so many fans was a powerful thing. And we had a great discussion about GI Joe. Check it out.
“Procrastibate” by LeSexoflex.com
“GI Joe: The Movie Theme” by Robert J. Walsh & Jon Douglas
-Phantom
Sunday Sep 15, 2013
Sunday Sep 15, 2013
By the Power of the American Sci-Fi Classics Track… I HAVE THE POWER!
Fabulous powers were revealed to me when I held aloft my mic and started running my mouth about dork shit.
Seriously – that’s how I got the panel gig. I’ve told the story before here on Needless Things, but after working with the fantastic American Sci-Fi Classics crew (and publicly referring to them as “fantastic” many, many times) last year at Dragon Con I was invited to more panels this year. And my casual aside mentioning how much I’d like to run a toy panel at Dragon Con was taken seriously. I basically got an e-mail a few months ago that said, “Here’s your toy panel and a list of others you might want to participate in. Oh, and you should probably just run this Masters of the Universe panel, too.”
Mrs. Troublemaker has said I’m pretty much insufferable since then.
The first thing I did was ask if I could bring my Needless Things Podcast co-host Mr. Beau Brown. I know Masters well enough to on for an hour (or more), but it’s Beau’s franchise. Masters of the Universe is his thing. I knew he would not only have all of the facts, but would probably be thrilled to have an opportunity to talk about He-Man at Dragon Con.
Then I got the other essage asking if we should have William Stout on the panel.
Oh, fuck. I know people – myself included – use this term all the time; but shit just got real.
Just meeting the man behind the one thing about the 1987 Masters of the Universe movie that is unassailable – the production design – would have been hugely exciting. But Beau and I were going to get to be on a panel with him. To just chit chat about Masters. The mind boggles.
Boggle no more, because here for your listening pleasure is Masters of the Universe: 30 Years of the Power LIVE from Dragon Con in its entirety.
“Procrastibate” by LeSexoflex.com
“He-Man and the Masters of the Universe Theme” by Shuki Levy (I think)
Remember - you can download the Needless Things Podcast from iTunes and listen in on Stitcher!
-Phantom
Tuesday Sep 10, 2013
Tuesday Sep 10, 2013
I am so frazzled I'm not even sure what to write at the moment.
I'm getting over Con Crud, which I think delayed my, “Holy shit that was a busy and productive Dragon Con and how did I get so much done and FUUUUUUUU...” reaction. I was diagnosed with Acute Pharyngitis (which translates to “sore throat and tons o snot”, which is a palindrome) and basically spent all of last week laying around watching Sons of Anarchy and not thinking very much.
Now I am thinking again. I am planning panels for next year. I am planning panels for other conventions. I am thinking about how flat-ass broke I am and being thankful that there was this crazy glut of toys right before Con (this always happens for the back-to-school season) so I have enough toys to review to keep me going through November. I am also thinking about 31 Days of Halloween, which starts very soon and which I have no posts banked for. Argh. But I have already made arrangements for some Guest Posts and of course we'll have a new, spookily appropriate Best Cartoon Ever (of the month) from Kalan.
For now, I'm just going to focus on Kung-Fu Grip: Action Figures of the 70s – 90s and Beyond! panel that I put on at Dragon Con (it's kind of hard to not hashtag that).
I
was joined by Gary Mitchel and Geena Phillips to discuss the modern
history of action figures. In and hour. As Zach Oat told me, “it
seems daunting.” Yes, it was. But I went in armed with visual aids
from Diamond Select Toys and a ton of vintage stuff from Billy's
Toys & Comics and that helped a lot. The room was packed and the
audience was fun; ready for a panel about toys. I think ready for a
lot
of panels about toys. We gave them as much as we could in the time
that we had. I hope you enjoy hearing it now!
“Procrastibate” by LeSexoflex.com
“Batman: Brave and the Bold Theme” by Andy Sturmer
-Phantom