The Sunday Supdate: 09/10/11

It's been a while since we last caught up, and so a steady amount of talking points has arisen for tonight's agenda. So sit back, relax and enjoy the nonchalant show. It all began with the 3 P's...

Publicity!
Regular visitors should easily recall my recent posts regarding and praising the new web series, Husbands. And they aren't the only ones... Writer Jane Espenson and actor of the show, Cheeks, have both shown a huge amount of acknowledgement for me, with ReTweets and links (also via Twitter). I was even put on the Husbands Press page, with a quoted excerpt from my RE:Commend! And you know what? Recognition rules! +5 Fame!

Podcast?

It would seem I'm becoming quite the internet media addict, and as such have decided to possibly extend my medium. Hot on the heels of my "famously successful" (read: crashed and burned) Vlogging experiment, the Dude Meister Podcast could bring something new to the table. I think the problem with the Vlogs was that I wasn't entirely comfortable with myself on the screen - I didn't really feel I could be myself. Take out the image and you've got just my voice, which could inspire confidence and fluidity when I'm only to be judged by ear alone.

   I could talk about movies and TV, games and books - basically geek culture in general. Guest co-hosts would be downright awesome, although probably currently limited to immediate friends and family... Interviews would be nice, hard to secure, but nice. Hell, I could even throw in some transitions of my own composition. Weekly most likely, and a while yet. I don't want to hype it up any more than that though, in fear of eating my words, choking violently on them, and then hocking them up in a great sticky mess, staining the metaphorical carpet with splashes that are still lingering months after... So I'll leave it there. Stayed tuned.

Patrick.
These quotes at the top aren't for nothing you know, so please take the time tor read them. The past couple have been courtesy, as it states, of Fantasy author Patrick Rothfuss. Now this guy is relatively new to me - I hadn't even heard the name until a few weeks back. He is the writer of The Kingkiller Chronicle trilogy of books and the first, The Name of The Wind, has been preoccupying my life for the past fortnight. Now with only 20 pages left of the 662 page epic, I'd just like to savour it with this section. INCREDIBLE. I'd go as far to say that this was one of, if not the, best book of my life. I'll drop the RE:View sometime this week, but I'm a little anxious as to whether I am worthy enough...

RIP Brian Jacques
On the subject of books, I discovered some upsetting news recently. Acclaimed British author, Brian Jacques, passed away at the age of 71 on February 5th this year. Now Jacques was the man behind best-selling series, Redwall - the series that dominated my childhood experiences of reading. To date, I have 18 Redwall titles sitting on my shelves upstairs, the majority proudly cracked with creased spines and folded pages. The tales of the creatures of Redwall (woodland-type animals) and their epic battles with the evil vermin would keep me entertained for years, frequently taking a torch to bed for some late night stealth reads.
 
   To say this was what got me into the fantasy genre in the first place is a huge understatement. So the (belated) news that their creator was dead was quite emotional for me. Even though it's been a few years since I last picked one up, I've got the greatest amount of respect for this man and his series - so much so that after reading the news (and I am in no way ashamed of this), I threw on some emotional music via iPod (violins and everything!) and sat, at my bookshelf, gently grazing through the pages: smelling the finely peeled paper, feeling their weight and getting hit by a warm wave of hard nostalgia that ran right down to my heart. I won't lie; I welled. But that's me. A soppy, reminiscentful type of guy. Long live Redwall. Long live Brian Jacques' legacy.

Brian Jacques
1939-2011

And on that heartfelt note, I will make my exit. Thanks for reading and thanks for being.

ATR