Sunday, September 24, 2017

Flopcast 281: DragonCon 2017 - Get the Duck

Here we go, kids: The Mayor of Chickentown joins Kevin and Kornflake to review our long weird weekend in Atlanta for DragonCon! Featuring: Panels on Spider-Man, Wonder Woman, Westworld, Legion, Riverdale, Fantasy Island (!), Detective Chimp (?), and more; The Star Wars Holiday Special (original and puppet show versions); Doctor Who's Matt Smith; the casts of Mystery Science Theater 3000, Arrow, Legends of Tomorrow, and Birds of Prey; Howard the Duck's big day in court; Fake Adam Savage; RetroBlasting; Wicked Geeky; Yoda; pie; Captains Kangaroo and Crunch; Mighty Magiswords; and the debut of the new book Earth Station One: Tales of the Station Volume 2! (Warning: This book contains a goofy story by Kevin which may or may not feature a space chicken.) We also started DragonCon with some very rainy birdwatching, and ended DragonCon with an amazing Greater Atlanta Chicken Tour. We like to keep things strangely bird-themed. Also: We learn Kornflake's September podcast pick, and we celebrate 1981 with soft rock and Brady Brides. Now we'd better start preparing for DragonCon 2018. See you there, eighty thousand crazy people!

Sunday, September 17, 2017

Flopcast 280: Wonder Woman, at Last!

We're still in DragonCon recovery mode around here, but this week we have something special from DragonCon to share with you! "Wonder Woman, at Last!" was Kevin's first panel of the weekend, for the American Science Fiction and Fantasy Media Track. Kevin was joined by panelists Jeni Green, Cammien Ray, Jenna Johnson, and Tyra Burton to discuss the Wonder Woman movie, which we all thought was just, you know, wonderful. (Let's throw a quick SPOILER WARNING right about here. If you haven't seen Wonder Woman yet, you may not want to hear this panel yet. Go see the movie first. You deserve it.) Discussion topics include the movie's cast, the World War 1 setting, the costumes (Functional attire for women in a superhero movie? This is madness!), the brilliance of director Patty Jenkins, the reactions on social media (good and bad), our favorite movie moments, and how in the world to pronounce "Gal Gadot." With a great lineup of panelists and an enthusiastic audience (standing room only!), this was a fine kickoff to DragonCon 2017, and we're thrilled to bring it to you. (If you don't believe us, hit us with your lasso of truth.) Meanwhile back in Chickentown: Since this is episode 280, we're starting a series of ten episodes celebrating each year of the 1980s! (Yes, we've done this before. We're quite predictable.) For the year 1980, Kevin has selected a Saturday morning cartoon about monsters. (See? Predictable.) Kornflake's pick, however, is from the world of sports! (Hey! Unpredictable! First time for everything...)

Sunday, September 10, 2017

Flopcast 279: Like a Turkey

Kornflake is looking forward to Locate An Old Friend Day; Kevin is not. But we certainly agree on the awesomeness of the concert we attended recently, at which Kornflake was touched (literally) by Air Supply. This changes everything. We're also thrilled to announce the release of the ESO Network's new book, Earth Station One: Tales of the Station Volume 2! Kevin may have contributed a story to this book, and that story just might involve a chicken. You know you need this. We also look ahead at the upcoming Granite State Comicon, where we hope to locate a few old friends and not lose any more teeth. Next week: Our DragonCon review begins...

Sunday, September 3, 2017

Flopcast 278: Wonderful Weirdos and Robots

It's a little later than usual (sorry, we've been very busy with very stupid things), but here is our sixth annual Flopcast Summer Robot Top 4 ½ List! Hey, summertime is robot time around here. (We don't remember why... it just is.) And the subject for this year's list is... robot animals! We're listing our favorite robot dogs, robot cats, robot lobsters, and more. (But alas, no robot capybaras. Would some evil robot genius please get to work on that?) And these robots come from TV, music, cartoons, toys, coloring books, and secret government projects. (We may have said too much already.) So while we're still creeping around DragonCon (just in time for Wonderful Weirdos Day), enjoy this goofy little robot show! And feel free to dance, because our robot penguin is set on AUTO-PARTY.

Sunday, August 27, 2017

Flopcast 277: DragonCon Preview - Always Bring Yoda

It's that time again! Time to panic! Join us as we frantically prepare for the craziest convention on the geek calendar... DragonCon. It promises to be another long, weird, wonderful Labor Day weekend in Atlanta, so let's get ready! The DragonCon guest list includes favorites from TV (Doctor Who's Matt Smith! MST3K's Trace, Frank, and Bill! Almost everybody from Star Trek: The Next Generation! Shatner! A Birds of Prey cast reunion! And more!), movies (Karl Urban! Michael Rooker! Chewbacca! JOHN CUSACK! And more!), music (Paul and Storm! Mikey Mason! Shelley Segal! Tom Smith! And yes, more!), and comics (Stan Lee! Plus a bunch more, but come on, STAN LEE!). Plus scientists, skeptics, writers, wrestlers, puppeteers, podcasters, and 6,000 Harley Quinns! We also run through Kevin's (tentative!) DragonCon schedule, which includes the DragonCon Walking Tour, the ESO Network Meet and Greet, Classic Sci-Fi Court, the Challenge of the Super-Nerds, and panels on Wonder Woman, Riverdale, Fantasy Island (really!), and much more. We're already exhausted. Also this week: We celebrate the Chicken Boy statue of Los Angeles, and Kornflake prepares for They Might Be Giants to invade Massachusetts! And in other podcasting news: Earth Station DCU looks at Batman: Year Three, The Pod of Destiny returns, and Luke and Carrie's Bad Rapport invents the Chicken Game. Okay, find us at DragonCon! Get a Flopcast badge ribbon! And then get out of our way!

Sunday, August 20, 2017

Flopcast 276: Earth Fruit Follies

While preparing for this week's solar eclipse (with special glasses and coffee milk), Kevin and Kornflake catch up on their latest goofy summer activities, including: The Aquabats and CJ Ramone together in Boston; Niki Luparelli and the Gold Diggers under the stars at a science museum; Micky Dolenz and Billy West at the Boston SouthCoast Comic Con; Elvis Costello and the Imposters in Providence, Rhode Island; a visit to Alice's Restaurant in Stockbridge, Massachusetts; Petty Morals and Elettrodomestico (with Jane Wiedlin of The Go-Go's!) in Plymouth; and the Retro Futura tour, featuring a heap of classic 80s performers (Katrina, Paul Young, Modern English, English Beat, Men Without Hats, and Howard Jones). Then it's the shocking conclusion of our ten-part High Feather series review! In this week's "Food Follies" episode, our summer campers are singing, dancing, and hiding behind giant vegetables... and perhaps it's for the best that this is the end. Also: The return of Robolar! It's been decades since we last saw our favorite Boston-accented, Earth fruit-chomping Martian from that classic PSA, but now thanks to some friends of the Flopcast, Robolar is back. This is crazy. We're also celebrating the 87th birthday of Sean Connery (you remember him from such films as DragonHeart and Zardoz), and we wrap up this extra-long show with some Chickens in the News, as a giant angry chicken balloon arrives in Washington to join the resistance. Next week, at last: Our DragonCon preview. Get ready.

Sunday, August 13, 2017

Flopcast 275: Pudding Crimes

As we creep ever closer to DragonCon, we're celebrating National Badge Ribbon Day. (And yes, we'll have our ridiculous Flopcast badge ribbons at DragonCon, available for the very reasonable price of one human soul.) We also take another trip into the Pudding Pages, and learn of a shocking pudding-themed incident in Kornflake's past. And then, of course, we look at High Feather episode 9, featuring chocolate-covered tennis players, jelly sandwiches, and a little dog named Scruffy. Just one more High Feather episode to go, kids! Then we can all get on with our lives.

Sunday, August 6, 2017

Flopcast 274: Morris the Lettuce

Another goofy little summer show this week: We're celebrating Duran Duran Appreciation Day (despite being kicked out of the Union of the Snake years ago); Kornflake recommends My So Called Podcast (it's 90s-themed!); we play a long overdue round of The Pudding Pages (also 90s-themed, possibly Newsies-themed); we look at High Feather episode 8, in which the kids go to the county fair with a Micky Dolenz look-alike ne'er-do-well; and we learn that Kornflake once spent a week at Yogi Bear camp, where presumably the main activity is picnic basket theft, and the dress code is hats, ties, and collars only.