Human Echoes Podcast

This week, the guys chat with awesome author Ellie Anne about writing, trans-media, and her new steam-punk fantasy novel, The Silver Sickle. Later in the show we dig into the strengths and weaknesses of World War Z (warning: spoilers). Download Podcast RSS Links: The Silver Sickle by Ellie Anne Film Crit Hulk The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss Breaking Steele Aaron Patterson J. C Hutchins Transmedia Sundown: White Birch [also on Google Play] Steampunk Holmes

A Ghost In Time  by B.T. Joy He closes his eyes. The light flashes.  Somewhere west. Wyoming. Montana. Little Hallmark across the street. Hanging lilacs. Next door along. A picture house showing the matinees. His eyes, getting old, can’t see the listings.  May as well cross. Look what’s on. Halfway over. An Asian guy in an immaculate suit passes. He feels the familiar repulsive burn of electric between them. The Asian guy thinks they’ve brushed bodies and makes something of it.  “Hey fella! Watch where you’re going, huh!?” He doesn’t respond.  You’re wondering how he can be so calm? It wasn’t always that way. Not always that way at all.  His shuddering feet reach the other curb like tiny boats coming into shore and he shuffles to the doors of the picture house. He doesn’t have time to watch the movies. He’ll never have time to watch a full movie again. But sometimes he likes to read the advertisements.  Schindler’s List. Jurassic Park. Sleepless in Seattle. Must be the early 90s now. Christ the worl

In this episode Tony and Al take a ride with Rubber, a movie about a cold-hearted serial killer named Robert who goes around exploding people's heads with his psychokinetic powers; also he is a tire. Later the joys of bad movies are extolled, and the tragic wonder of technological progress is examined.   Links Atantic Rim Phil Hornshaw  So You Created a Wormhole Upstream Color Joyland by Stephen King Linotype: the Film John Titor David Icke Bohemian Grove Coral Castle Bishop Castle   "Linotype: The Film" Official Trailer from Linotype: The Film on Vimeo.

This week the guys wander the ash-grey labyrinthine hallways of House of Leaves. They discuss men of steel and iron. Tony is sleep deprived; Albert is just stupid.   Download   Links:   Immortals Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang House of Leaves Annotated (Albert thinks he remembers this being a thing, but can no longer locate it. Here is some other fan obsession in its place.) The Tall Man Sunshine Kick Ass 2 That story about Nick Cage Jim Carrey pulling his support for Kick Ass 2. Pomodoro Technique Habit RPG Provigil   A fun fact: the word pomodoro mean's "tomato" in Italian, because the original kitchen timer used for the technique was shaped like a tomato.

This week Al and Tony are Mama's boys as they talk about the new horror film produced by Guillermo del Toro and directed by some guy you've never heard of (That's bound to be a good sign, right?). They sink their teeth into the effectiveness of various horror tropes and take a shortcut through the land of memes. Also, Javier Botet is freakin' scary looking.   Download   Links: Achievement Hunter Let's Plays Red vs. Blue Hold Your Breath The Devil's Backbone Andy Serkis Javier Botet Marble Hornets Entry #72 Confession Bear Meme Slender Man meme   Next week we'll be veering into the literary world to talk about the work of heartbreaking genius that is House of Leaves.    

In this special edition of the podcast, Al and Tony spoil the everloving crap out of Game of Thrones. You've been warned. Catch up with the show first. There may be some other subtle spoilers from further in the series, but no major details.

This week the guys check out the viral web series Marble Hornets, and enter a terrifying world where the Slenderman photo-bombs every home movie ever. Later they discuss the competing values of privacy and security and Al complains about not nearly enough nukes going off.   Download it now.   Links to Things: Smodcast Dan Carlin Vice nuke documentary Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson The Silver Sickle by Ellie Anne Pontypool (movie) Pontypool Changes Everything by Tony Burgess House Hunting Sympathy for the Slenderman

This week the guys dig into retro found-footage short film anthology V/H/S. Also discussed: MMA fighters with exploded toes; MMA fighters with no limbs at all; GMOs are complicated; charity is good.   Download   Links: Kyle Maynard: aka the no arms no legs wrestling guy. Marble Hornets "Take This Lolipop" Under the Empyrean Sky Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Common Sense Podcast     A clarification: we talk about Bill Gates being involved with developing GMOs for the third world. We talked about Monsanto's questionable business practices. What we did not discuss (because we were not aware of it at the time) was the fact that Bill Gates's foundation is working with Monsanto to develop these improved crops. To quote the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy completely out of context, "This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move." On the whole me maintain that trying to help keep people from starving to death is a good idea, and will leave off criticizing too harshl

This week Al and Tony go up against The Seven Psycopaths. Tony reveals his love of coin collecting. Albert is still excited about giant robots. Game of Thrones hijacks the podcast.   Download it here.   Links: War nickles Django (1966) Unforgiven Atlantic Rim Transformers Prime Battlestar Galactica  

Common Use by Jay Wilburn “I don’t understand why we are here.” The older gentleman in the driver’s seat adjusted his fedora and scanned through the pages of his ledger. “If you understood, you wouldn’t be riding along to learn, would you now, compatriot.” The younger man in the passenger’s seat peered through the windshield of the parked car at the battered, silver trailer. He saw the eclectic, folk art around the grassless lawn and a windmill that appeared nonfunctional in the desert wind. “We are eliminating obsolete words for the next edition. Is the fellow that lives in this domicile an expert on lexicon?” The driver closed his ledger and placed it on the broiling dashboard. “He’s a hold out, a hold over.” “I don’t understand, sir.” “You are quite the ingénue, ain’t ya?” The young man wiped at the sweat gathering in his collar. “We learn through inquiry, sir. I’ll wait in silence if that serves you better.” “Touché, son, touché,” the elder leaned back and blinked the sweat out of his eyes. “Ever

This week the guys stand on the banks of Upstream Color and peer into it's murky depths. Albert gushes about Hemlock Grove. Tony solves the mystery of the Greys. (Seriously, it's like the best explanation for "alien" visitation you've ever heard.)   Download the intergalactic wonder now!   Links: Hemlock Grove Space Vampire (CYOA) Warhammer 40k: Necrons Blindsight by Peter Watts The largest object in the universe The Mythical Show A Poetry Show @sherlockmadam (Hannah Elizabeth)  

  This week the guys dissect the heady time travel movie Primer, and discuss the upside of adventure. Also, Albert is squicked out by transvestites and fleshlights.   Download!   Links to Stuff we talked about: Jack Churchill Pigin English The Primer Universe The Crowbar Bandit Birth of Nation Intolerance The Unending Mystery Miracle Jones Miracle Laurie xkcd Primer chart  

In this week's episode, Al and Tony walk the haunted halls of The Orphanage and meet some ghosts that aren't completely stupid. They also talk about Minecraft factory farming, new movies, and the strangeness of geophagy.   Download   Some Links: Oblivion Tropic Thunder Pacific Rim Upsteam Color geophagy Dante's Inferno Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal   Next week we talk about Primer (available on Netflix). Don't miss it!

Unmeaning By Rebecca L. Brown They crawled before his eyes, those centipedes of syllables. He’d gathered them up one sentence at a time and tried to tame them. Tried to teach them how to dance. To punctuate the bareness of a blank page with elaborate linguistic ballet. Too many parts. Too many nuances of meaning. In each syllable, a palimpsest. All the dirty little sounds - they shared them. Swapped them. Meaning and unmeaning like an ugly Summer morning. Like a mind so full of meanings that they blur. They shifted. Slipped out from the edges of the pages when he wasn't looking. Slipped into his dreams - a linguist’s dreams - and burned their meanings in the darkened corners of his mind ‘til morning. A word can cut you if you let it. Let them cut or cut them first. Engrave them with new meaning or allow them to define - and you the definition of a fool. No. He would not be made a fool of. He’d pinned them to their pages, then, all broken-backed - loose-lettered and unlovely. His pen a scalpel blade, he cu

This week the guys try to open the stuck drawers of Jan Svanmajer's Alice. Then they bash Tim Burton, muse on the greatest monsters of history, and announce the winner of the Hacking the Time Machine flash fiction contest.   Download   Links: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland   Through the Looking Glass and what Alice Found There The Walrus and the Carpenter Shisha HabitRPG Jaberwocky H. H. Holmes Elizabeth Báthory Rebecca L. Brown

This week the guys are set adrift with the gorgeous film of survival and spiritual discovery, Life of Pi and must appease it with bioluminescent wheels and bigfoot sightings. Also, vicious rabbits beat up on poor defenseless snakes.   Download it now!   Links:   Hillarious reviews of How to Avoid Huge Ships Matt Forbeck Carpathia Albert's review of/Jasper Fforde fanfiction story about Carpathia. Battledogs Harcore History Marine Lightwheels Rabbit vs. Snake   Next week we'll be talking about the surrealist masterpiece by Jan Svankmajer, Alice.  

The week Tony and Al yak a spell with Joseph Devon, the amazing author behind the amazing books, Probability Angels and Persistent Illusions. The guys talk about writing, stories, and weird animals. Tony is snowed in. Albert buys a mini van.   Download the wonder directly into your noise canceling earbuds.       Links:   Get Joseph Devon's book! Or the sequel! The Wire Archer Jon Benjamin Has a Van Miracle Jones Bill Oberst Jr. The Something Store Double Slit Experiment The Mantis Shrimp Start Your Novel  

This week, the guys take a look at The Frighteners, and try to figure out how Peter Jackson went from this to making Lord of the Rings; Albert espouses the greatness of Total Failure.   Download RSS   Links:   Evil Dead Timmy Failure: Mistakes Were Made Double Dead Jack the Giant Killer

This week we travel to a curious parallel universe lighting takes the place of logic, and obscure Babylonian deities try to make good on that warehouse full of Super 8 film they bought back in the sixties; it's our review of Sinister. Later we answer more of your weird questions and spoil the crap out of Game of Thrones (but it's at the end of the episode and we give you plenty of warning, so never fear if you'd like to avoid aforesaid spoilers.)   Download RSS   Links: Insidious The Amityville Horror: A True Story (it isn't really, though). "The Rains of Castamere" Joseph Devon

“Not everybody gets a private tour of Argonne National Laboratory.” “I know. Thanks for showing me around.” “Will you remember this when you go back to school?” “Of course.” Annette smiles up at her uncle. They turn a corner and enter command central. Rows of black-capped processors fill the expansive computer room. Theo waves his hand at the machines. “This used to be the Sequoia Blue Gene Q. I modified her to run at 20.1 petaflops, and renamed her ‘Mira,’ after your aunt. She’s now the most powerful supercomputer in the world. Mira has 49,152 compute nodes, and 70 petabytes of disk storage – the fastest to date. And this is confidential,” Theo says, stooping to whisper. “I secretly programmed her to calculate the correct M-theory of the universe.” “M-theory?” Theo scans the room for late-working lab assistants. Seeing none, he continues. “The 11-dimensional string theory, birdie. The quantum structure of the universe.” He chuckles and taps Annette’s head. “Soon we’ll have the theoretical physics equation