[Long Box Carpentry] The Thing (From Another World), Part 2

JD and I continue our look at the second half of Mac's continuing adventures against Aunt Nyarlathotep's ever-flailing, multi-eyed Thing, including a side-quest on a boat before the cosmic monster comes to discover the joys of love and negligees, then veers to the past for a prequel which doesn't set up one damned thing. Check it out here.

[Masters of Carpentry] In the Mouth of Madness

In which Angie Tusa once again joins us for a look at John Carpenter's 90s swirl of HP Lovecraft and Stephen King, which became a defining work of his for an entire generation of fans despite being yet another hard flop for him at the box office. Our views might be controversial! Check it out here.

[Long Box Carpentry] The Thing (From Another World), Part 1

In which J.D. DeMotte joins me as co-host of a new spinoff project looking at all the various comic book tie-ins to John Carpenter's films, beginning with the first two mini-series for The Thing which were put out by Dark Horse Comics. As Mac and Childs continue their adventures against the monstrously infectious cosmic shape-shifter, trudging through more snows of the frozen antarctic, to an inexplicably unaffected Central American rain forest. Also, Navy SEALs! Check it out here.

[Masters of Carpentry] Body Bags

In which Lewis "Linkara" Lovhaug joins us for a look at the nifty and oddball anthology film which sprung out of John Carpenter's failed attempt to sell Showtime a tv series to compete with HBO's Tales from the Crypt. Featuring: Robert Carradine with a sledge hammer! Stacy Keach with a killer head of hair! And Mark Hamill with exposed testicles! Check it out here.

[Masters of Carpentry] Memoirs of an Invisible Man

In which my old fellow Remakes alum joins us as we look at the failure of Chevy Chase breaking into dramatic roles, but the success of John Carpenter returning to mainstream directorial work after a 6-year gap, and ILM breaking new ground with effects they'd spend the rest of the decade perfecting and evolving. Check it out here.

[Cinetropolis & Masters of Carpentry] Return of the Thing

Last summer, I recorded a Masters of Carpentry episode with my friend Benjamin J. Colon where we discussed Return of the Thing an unproduced Sci Fi Channel mini-series from the mid-2000s, which was going to be produced (and possibly directed?) by Frank Darabont as a sequel to John Carpenter's 1982 classic The Thing. I sat on the episode for a while because I still needed to write and record the opening chunk of production notes and a synopsis. When I finally got on that, it ended up expanding into something way too large to record for the episode, so Tim Pelan at Cinetropolis was kind enough to let me host the adjoining piece on his site as an article tying into the podcast. What resulted was the single longest article I've written to date, so I don't begrudge anyone who's not able to make it all the way through, but I had fun writing it as well as researching the entire run of Syfy's channel history. Seriously, I've got detailed timelines and everything. From now on, all my pieces on the unproduced works of John Carpenter will be articles for Cinetropolis, though there's a few I'm definitely planning to accompanying a podcast with.

The Article:

• Part One
• Part Two
• Part Three

The Podcast

Monthly Miscellanea - March 2016

All the random stuff I read and watched in the last month.

[Masters of Carpentry] The Thing prequel

We've got an open month on the show (Blood River, why so obscure!), so I'm filling it with a few bonus episodes I've been sitting on for a while. First up, comic creator extraordinaire Julie Sydor is back as we look at the 2011 prequel movie to John Carpenter's The Thing, as well as some semi-related bonus thoughts on Harbinger Down and the first season of Helix. Check it out here.

[Made of Fail] The Shannara Chronicles, Season 1

As many of you know, after several years of creating content affiliated with Made of Fail, I ended up parting ways with them for various reasons to venture off on my own. But Made of Fail has ably carried on, retooling the central podcast, and over the last season, adding some wonderful new blogging projects to the site. Dayna herself began some wonderful coverage of The Shannara Chronicles, a television adaptation of a book series to which we both have deep ties from our younger days. I eagerly followed along with her writeups, and when she suddenly needed to step aside, I offered to fill in during her absence. It was weird popping into the old site again, but fun, as we not only saw the season through, but I had a blast collaborating with Dayna on the final post-mortem post. It was a really nice opportunity, one I'm glad I didn't pass up.

Dayna's initial posts:
Episodes 1-2 "Chosen"
Episode 3 "Fury"
Episode 4 "Changeling"
Episode 5 "Reaper"

Then I took over:
Episode 6 "Pykon"
Episode 7 "Breakline"
Episode 8 "Utopia"
Episode 9 "Safehold"
Episode 10 "Ellcrys"

Then our shared post-mortem.

[Deconstruction is Magic] My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, episodes 58-62

It only took us (yeesh!) four months, but we made it through another batch of season 3. Tall tales were told, alpha leaders were determined, families were chaosed, dragon codes were crayoned upon cards, and uber big bads were befriended. Enjoy!

58 "Sleepless in Ponyville"
59 "Wonderbolts Academy"
60 "Apple Family Reunion"
61 "Spike At Your Service"
62 "Keep Calm and Flutter On"