Welcome to Show #157!

Indianapolis 500, MLS Soccer, NCAA Lacrosse, or baseball… however you choose to celebrate, we hope you had a wonderful Memorial Day Weekend!

Summer wants to find out when “Dreams with Sharp Teeth” will make it to DVD, since she didn’t have Sundance Channel to catch it when they aired it. Happy Birthday, Unca Harlan (May 27th)!

Jeffrey wants to know if there are any MIT students or professors listening to the podcast… no, we’re not sure why the Vorlon wants to know…

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Voicemail: That’s right folks, it’s time for another Feedbackapalooza!

And really, if you hear any messages when you play any of the podcasts backwards, be sure to tell us… it means we didn’t hide them well enough.

Second Life Info: FarPoint Media’s Second Life space is now part of the village that encompasses Third Life Books. You can find the village at http://slurl.com/secondlife/beraudes/203/151/49.

Babylon 5 Information Gathering: If you know of a dead or abandoned B5 related website that may be in need of a new home, let Summer know! Maybe we can mirror it here or house it on a sister site.

Visit Deep Geeking, and if you want to contribute a geeking essay, send an email to Summer.

If you can, please Donate.

Promo: Can’t Stop the Serenity 2009
Promo: XCast at E3 2009

J. Michael Straczynski with Henry Jenkins at the Julius Schwartz Lecture
Friday, May 22 7:00p
at MIT Building 10, Room 250, Cambridge, MA

The second annual Julius Schwartz Lecture brings J. Michael Straczynski, the creator of the cult science fiction hit Babylon 5.

The Julius Schwartz Lecture is an annual event held to honor an individual who has made significant contributions to the culture, creativity and community of comics and popular entertainment..

The lecture is hosted by the Comparative Media Studies program at MIT and was founded to honor the memory of longtime DC Comics editor Julius “Julie” Schwartz, whose contributions to our culture include co-founding the first science fiction fanzine in 1932, the first science fiction literary agency in 1934, and the first World Science Fiction Convention in 1939. Schwartz went on to launch a career in comics that would last for well over 42 years, during which time he helped launch the Silver Age of Comics, introduced the idea of parallel universes, and had a hand in the reinvention of such characters as Batman, Superman, the Flash, Green Lantern, Hawkman and the Atom.

The event is typically structured as a short lecture presented by the honored speaker, followed by a question-and-answer discussion between the speaker and the head of the Comparative Media Studies program, media scholar Henry Jenkins III. This will be followed by an open question-and-answer session between the lecturer and the audience. The inaugural speaker for the series was New York Times bestselling author Neil Gaiman.

Link: The Julius Schwartz Lecture
Link: Julius Schwartz Lecture Guest Speakers

Welcome to Show #156!

It’s all about the birthdays… May 12th is the birthday of both Tim Callender and Bruce Boxleitner! It’s also Migratory Bird Day, which amuses Jeffrey to no end. And what did you do for Mesmerism Day?

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Interview: We have found the First Vorlon! Russ Johnson, who wore the glide suit during Season 1, before Jeffrey took over the electraglide harness, joins us to reminisce about the early days on set at Babylon 5, and trying to one up each other for… something smelly?

Russ tells us all about the fun he had as part of Optic Nerve, escapades in both the encounter suit and as the drug-dealing cricket in Down Below, having to repeatedly tell TV fans that he was not the actor who played the Professor on Gilligan’s Island, and more.

Discussion: Gary wishes Tim a Happy Birthday; Neil calls from Goddard Space Flight Center about the Shuttle Launch; Gary posits that we may have eventually seen some leadership juggling had Crusade gone on longer.

Tim reads emails from Bob, who tells us that he’s doing a full B5 episodic immersion, by watching the episode, reading the scriptbook and Babylon File and Lurkers Guide entry… he also wants to hear more varied opinions on the show, so he’s in for some fun when he gets to S5; Jim wonders about the portrayal of the military, and how they seem more like businessmen rather than officers in the military.

Second Life Info: FarPoint Media’s Second Life space is now part of the village that encompasses Third Life Books. You can find the village at http://slurl.com/secondlife/beraudes/203/151/49.

Babylon 5 Information Gathering: If you know of a dead or abandoned B5 related website that may be in need of a new home, let Summer know! Maybe we can mirror it here or house it on a sister site.

Visit Deep Geeking, and if you want to contribute a geeking essay, send an email to Summer.

If you can, please Donate.

Promo: Can’t Stop the Serenity 2009
Promo: The Geekcast

The first volume of the “Asked and Answered” series is now available from Babylon5Scripts.com

OVERVIEW OF THE ASKED & ANSWERED SERIES
It’s true. The creator of Babylon 5 answers 5,296 fan questions covering every aspect of the show in over 100 categories in new Babylon 5 book series.

J. Michael Straczynski answered these questions as they surfaced over a period of 18 years as part of an online experiment he started in 1991 and continues to this day.

This makes Asked & Answered something that has never been done before with a television show: an oral history IN REAL TIME. No revisionism. Nothing forgotten. No detail spared. Because this dialouge with fans starts in 1991, it pre-dates the production of the Babylon 5 pilot, so you’ll discover JMS’ complete vision for the series, many aspects of which never made it to the screen.

Even better, these questions and answers include interactions on AOL Bulletin Boards, GEnie Forums, the moderated usenet group, CIS Discussion threads and Chat Transcripts, some of which are not available in archives anywhere.

In addition to Babylon 5, Asked & Answered includes JMS’ responses to personal questions about his life, politics, love, religion, writing and more. These responses are grouped with a related B5 topic showing fans – for the first time – the provenance of the Babylon 5 philosophy and culture. All that plus JMS’ real life stories behind the stories.

To make this the ultimate reference, this series took 2½ years and a crew of four B5 experts – in addition to J. Michael Straczynski – to compile, categorize and edit.

Welcome to Show #155!

Jeffrey wants to bolt and celebrate Kosho de Mayo, because his homemade margarita mix (using a “low carb” version) just isn’t kickin’ it…

We chat a little bit about the Forbidden Planet and the leaking of the planned script, and the seeming addiction some people have that causes them to steal and leak unfinished products. Is it a cry for attention, an inner reaction to having no outlet for their own creative process, or just plain potential greed?

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Deep Geeking: This week, the Deep Geeking covers “The Paragon of Animals”. Examination of B5’s new telepath colony, and the start of Lyta’s journey of independence, begins here. We also see the development of the Declaration of Principles, and how much it means to have the Alliance start off on the higher path that Sheridan and Delenn hopes they can all take.

Discussion: Jeffrey wonders how the hell Tim and Summer can wrangle 250 podcast episodes out of a series that ran for less than half that total, and he’s very afraid. We may not be Cylons, but we have a plan.

Gary wants, gosh, he wants a digital version or cross-referenced index or, gosh, just something more 21st century when it comes to the upcoming “Asked and Answered” series; Todd calls in not from his Blackberry Storm, and wants to know if the Voices of Babylon crew might want to do a Crusade storyline after Three-Edged Sword is complete; Gary loved Garibaldi’s “Rest Easy, Old Friends” line from the 500 year segment of “Deconstruction”; Gary has suggestions for lines for the podcast’s Season 5 opener next year; Gary tells Mark from Miami/Daytona to go check out the forums and chat him up over there (yes, we’ve finally gone meta); Arkle busts Jeffrey’s chops over football teams, and Summer returns serve over the hockey teams…

And then the end of the episode runs off the rails because Skype threw Jeffrey a curveball, and he decided to listen to an episode of The Squint Squad podcast with us still on the line… yay technology!

It is to laugh!

Second Life Info: FarPoint Media’s Second Life space is now part of the village that encompasses Third Life Books. You can find the village at http://slurl.com/secondlife/beraudes/203/151/49. Come see the castle roof pool, and more!

Babylon 5 Information Gathering: If you know of a dead or abandoned B5 related website that may be in need of a new home, let Summer know! Maybe we can mirror it here or house it on a sister site.

Visit Deep Geeking, and if you want to contribute a geeking essay, send an email to Summer.

If you can, please Donate.

Promo: Parsec Awards 2009
Promo: PodCulture: 150th episode and counting!

It’s an auspicious day, May 12.

It’s Tim Callender’s birthday, and also Bruce Boxleitner’s birthday.

Gary sent along a link to a picture that Melissa Gilbert posted to Twitter Pics

Link: http://twitpic.com/51f4p

Just an update for our faithful listeners: there will not be a recording or live feed tonight.

However, we have some good news… Russ Johnson will be our guest next week. The man who was Kosh in “The Gathering” the first part of Season 1 will join us to chat about being the real First One, and this is your chance to get in any questions for him that you might have.

Send your questions for Russ to babylonpodcast at gmail dot com, or leave them in the comments section here, and we’ll do our best to get everyone’s questions in — it all depends on how long Tim’s questions are!

Welcome to Show #154!

Tim has joined the modern Internet age, and has a real Internet connection! His FiOS line makes him sound a lot closer than the transfer point off Io, doesn’t it?

Jeffrey waxes poetic about “Erth Day” and having two shuttles on the launch pad at the same time… and after that who knows where we went. Can something really run off the rails if you’re not sure the rails were ever there to begin with?

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Deep Geeking: This week, the Deep Geeking covers “The Very Long Night of Londo Mollari”. The introspective journey that Londo takes, and the one that Lennier is about to take, all start here.

Discussion: Welcome to the Dead Tech segment of The Babylon Podcast!

Paul in Vegas comments on the Crusade soundtrack (he didn’t like it), and waxes nostalgic over the B5 laserdiscs, which leads to Summer’s rant about WB’s handling of the laserdisc releases and into George’s email about laserdisc players; Jeffrey still has a (working?) Betamax deck and wonders if B5 episodes were released on Beta… how many dead formats exist that B5 was released on? Mike thinks he can find old RCA 2″ tape cart promos for B5, and Summer seriously considers asking Mike to download them, but we’ll settle for picture proof of existence.

Jahi in Ithaca liked Gary Cole’s portrayal of Gideon in Crusade, and had no problems with “actor baggage” from other roles… there are a lot of people out there who want more Crusade, a bit of story closure no matter what the medium. What could be the chances of having a new trilogy of novels based in the Crusade universe?

Jeffrey is frightened at the prospect of 3 more years of doing the podcast, but it’s only because he didn’t realize just how much material is still left to cover, and potential interview subjects to track down and talk to!

Second Life Info: FarPoint Media’s Second Life space is now part of the village that encompasses Third Life Books. You can find the village at http://slurl.com/secondlife/beraudes/203/151/49. Come see the castle roof pool, and more!

Babylon 5 Information Gathering: If you know of a dead or abandoned B5 related website that may be in need of a new home, let Summer know! Maybe we can mirror it here or house it on a sister site.

Visit Deep Geeking, and if you want to contribute a geeking essay, send an email to Summer.

If you can, please Donate.

Promo: Geek Survival Guide
Promo: All Games Considered