Archive for April, 2008

SYNOPSIS: Everything comes to a head in this episode as Black Shadow is faced with the ultimate fight to keep Hell’s Armies from breaking through the Portal.

The Second To Last Episode!!!

Stay tuned to May 11th 2008 for a special announcement!

Time: 26:31
Episode Recap: WebGenii – http://webgenii.ca
Promo: Mark Jeffrey – The Two Travellers – http://maxquickseries.com
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email: mail@stevesaylor.net
website: http://stevesaylor.net

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For those who remember, back in June of last year, Mike and I interviewed our first major special guest, for This Week in Geek. That guest was composer of Battlestar Galactica, Bear McCreary. Check out the interview here.

This interview was just after Season 3 of BSG (that's short form for Battlestar Galactica for the uninitiated), and we obviously talked about the very hyped “All Along The Watchtower” Caprica cover. So if you were interested to hear from the composer's point of view of how he put that together, check out the interview.

Okay, now on to what I really wanted to talk about in this post. First off, Season 4 of BSG is in full swing, and the music I feel for BSG has kicked up a major notch than the first three seasons. I just love Bear's music in this show, and I've always wanted to know more about how he put the music together, even if I don't know anything about making music.

But instead of having to pore through each episode and wonder how did he do that, have no fear, Bear is doing that for me on his own blog!.

He is going into immense detail for each of the new episodes of Season 4, pretty much as soon as the episode is live. He shows screenshots of what piece is in what part of the show, as well as snippets of his musical composition, for those who are really into sheet music, or just wondered what notes are actually playing.

I highly recommend checking them out. Although I have to warn you, Spoilers are abundant in the posts, so watch the episodes, head to Bear's Blog, and enjoy some awesome behind the scenes action of our favourite Sci-Fi series ever!

So say we all.

As always I remain, obediently yours.

Steve “Snowball” Saylor

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Unfortunately due to studying for exams, and the GRAFITI awards this weekend, Black Shadow Episode #13 will have to be delayed until next week. In the meantime, here is the epic Radio Audio Drama I was involved with, with Mike “The Birdman” Dodd for Niagara College. It’s called Wrong Guy, Wrong Time.

Pile-Driving The Shark Productions presents:
Wrong Guy, Wrong Time – An Audio Drama

SYNOPSIS: Dave, a hapless Bank Employee, is caught in the middle of a French terrorist attack at his bank by a mysterious group called, THE BLACK SHADOWS. With the help of some action heroes of our past, Dave is definitely the wrong guy in a wrong time. Talk about tough luck. With a fortune like this, winning a hefty pot in online gambling sites like pokerstars is probably close to impossible for him. This hilarious Audio Drama is produced by Pile-driving The Shark Productions in association with CRNC 90.1 FM The Heat, Niagara’s New Rock.

Hope you enjoy it.

(Click the “Read More” link to view the credits)

Subscribe using iTunes
or
Use any other podcatching client by using http://feeds.feedburner.com/blackshadow
or
Download Wrongguywrongtime.mp3

Pile-Driving The Shark Productions presents:
Wrong Guy, Wrong Time – An Audio Drama

SYNOPSIS: Dave, a hapless Bank Employee, is caught in the middle of a French terrorist attack at his bank by a mysterious group called, THE BLACK SHADOWS. With the help of some action heroes of our past, Dave is definitely the wrong guy in a wrong time. Talk about tough luck. With a fortune like this, winning a hefty pot in online gambling sites like pokerstars is probably close to impossible for him. This hilarious Audio Drama is produced by Pile-driving The Shark Productions in association with CRNC 90.1 FM The Heat, Niagara’s New Rock.

CREDITS:
Producer, Writer
Mike Dodd

Audio Director, sound design and mixing by
Pierce Derks

Audio Assistant, Production Assistant
Mike Gallo

Voice talent
David Denis
Mike Dodd
Pierce Derks
Kevin MacDonald
AJ Bernard
Ashley Pawliw
Stefan Pelltier
Mike Gallo
Shawn Sheppard
and narrated by Steve Saylor

and a very special thanks to Sean Schemmel and Stan Bush

I am blogging this from my iPod Touch, however I thought I would at least try to live blog the award ceremony at Niagara College. Today will determine whether This Week in Geek is a two year running award winner.

1:10pm – Waiting for us to be able to go into the auditorium. Right now I'm not feeling really nervous, however the pressure is definitely there. Personally I hope we win, but I won't be too disappointed if we don't. We are up against our best friend and TWiG producer Pierce, but also Erich who if he wins we would be surprised, however all power to him.

1:15pm – Just saw Andy Walker. Mike asked him to be a presenter for the awards. That's really cool.

1:19pm – Still waiting to go in. Not a lot of people here yet.

1:35pm – Still waiting. More people starting to come.

2:14pm – Finally inside. Note to self, don't wear a suit in a room full of television lights.

2:37pm – Still waiting for awards to start. Saw Andy again. He's presenting for 1st year radio award.

3:00pm – Awards going okay. Andy's was the first award. The winners envelope had the wrong winner. Very funny. So Andy got to accept the award.

3:21pm – 18 more awards to go until our award category

3:35pm – 12 more awards to go

3:50pm – 6 more to go

4:09pm – Congratulations to Erich for best Specialty Show. Best quote he beat the geeks

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Here is a video of a behind the scenes look at today's last show on 90.1 FM of This Week in Geek.

(Oh and there is a post-roll ad, just to let you know)

For those who tuned in this morning, thank you!

Hope you enjoy!

As always, I remain, obediently yours.

Steve “Snowball” Saylor

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Well, it was bound to happen eventually. Today April 18th at 9:30am EST, my co-host Mike Dodd and I are going to be broadcasting our last radio broadcast on 90.1 FM The Heat.

However, this will not be our last podcast episode, we are still going to be podcasting for a few more months, and more great content will be released at http://thisweekingeek.net, however this post is talk about our journey on 90.1 FM.

The station is of course run by Niagara College Broadcasting Students. As being a broadcasting student, I was excited to hear about the ability to create a Specialty Show to feature on the station for extra credit in our Radio Production Class. At first, I wanted to do a Tech oriented show. Similar to Leo's The Tech Guy Radio Show. I also wanted to do it with a co-host.

I've learned from my podcasting experience, that a person to bounce ideas off of each other and having a conversation about the topics at hand is beneficial to making a great show. However, the friend I had in mind as a co-host did not work out. Mainly due to schedules. I had to make a decision on Air Time in a very short notice of 3 days.

So, the pressure was on, not only to come up with a good format for the show, but for a co-host. Well, I decided to focus in the world of geekdom, and the first person I could think of outside of my normal friend circle was Mike Dodd. He had heard that I wanted to do a show about geekdom and he offered his services as a guest expert on Comic Books. To be honest, he was the only one who offered to help out with the show. So, being that I knew Mike was interested, I asked him if he wanted to be a co-host. He said yes right away.

Mind you, you have to remember, this was all decided 3 days before our first On-Air Show!

Mike and I barely knew each other, and we were going to be co-hosts? Doesn't make sense right? It doesn't, but in a way it does.

On Jan 31, 2007, Mike and I went on air for the first time. We had talked before hand about the show, only briefly, but as soon as the mics turned on, and the On Air Sign turned the colour of red as Mike's Hair, and My Superman T-Shirt, we instantly became not co-hosts, but friends.

Even after our first show, we received an email from a friend that told us that it seemed as if Mike and I were best friends for years! We just had that great of a chemistry.

With that said, the chemistry continued on, and showed in our episodes as we continued to broadcast out of what we call the “fishbowl”. This Week in geek later on that April earned us our first Niagara College GRAFITI award for “Best Specialty Show on 90.1 FM” going up against experienced 2nd and 3rd year Broadcasting Students.

When we came back on the air in September, we were pumped and ready to bring our success to the next level. We did not stop, and 33 Radio Broadcasts under our belt, we are not only ending our run on 90.1 FM, we are again nominated for our second GRAFITI award for “Best Specialty Show on 90.1 FM” this Saturday April 19th. Of course Mike and I hope we win, but still the fact that we were nominated again, means that our little show was not just a fluke. We worked hard, and I thank God everyday that this experience changed my life forever. Not only gaining friends, but a career focus, and a once in a life time experience, that I will never forget.

So 90.1 FM, we hardly knew ye, but we always know that you gave us our start.

Tune in live tomorrow if you can by clicking here

As always, I remain, obediently yours.

Steve “Snowball” Saylor

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Black Shadow funny -one- by ~Chi-Tenshi1 on deviantART

I'm currently sitting at Starbucks hoping the wi-fi holds out so I can post this. This is so good that I had to share this with you all. A fan/listener of Black Shadow, who shall be named the Hawesome Chi Tenshi sent me this great piece of art to which I immediately did the Snoopy Dance.

This picture is a depiction of a scene in Episode #11 of Black Shadow where Shadow is lying in the hospital bed in the angel's underground facility to which he meets Michael for the first time. This was soo cool, that I had to post it on the website. Check out more of Chi Tenshi's work over at her deviant art page at: http://chi-tenshi1.deviantart.com/

With the bottom of all of my heart, thank you Chi! This means a lot to me that you took the time to make this.

This totally made my week!

I have another piece from her that I will post shortly as soon as I get a good wi-fi signal again at home.

If you have any other fan related content for Black Shadow, please feel free to email them to me at mail at stevesaylor.net and you too can join the Hawesomeness ranks of Chi Tenshi.

As always, I remain, obediently yours.

Steve “Snowball” Saylor

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After releasing Episode 12 of Black Shadow, I am slowly beginning to realize that my first podiobook adventure is coming to a close. I also realized that as of this month i have been working on Black Shadow for exactly one year. this has probably been one of the longest personal projects that I have ever worked on.

I'm not sure how I feel about that.

Personally, I'm glad and I'm sad that it's over. I'm glad that a lot of hard work, is finally done. It feels like I accomplished something really fun, and could set me up for the rest of my life. I'm also saddened, because now I have to face the unknown again and see about looking into other projects to work on.

I'm not ready to say anything yet, however, I am going to say I am goiong to continue to write. I am going to continue to podcast what I write. As a matter of fact I have two possibly three other projects I could work on to bring to all of you.

I wish I could say more, but I can tell you that at least one of them will come to fruition around the end of May. So you won't have to wait that long to see what the next project will be.

I have made some awesome friends in this community, have expanded my own personal audience ten fold, and I have you all to thank for that. It means a lot when you send me an email telling me you like my work. I can't tell you how awesome that makes me feel. I'm not anywhere in the Superstar Podcast Author Status yet, but you all make me feel that way. So thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, a million times Thank you!

So stay tuned to this blog at http://stevesaylor.net and I will keep everyone updated as to what's on the new horizon.

Take care, and as always, I remain, obediently yours.

Steve “Snowball” Saylor

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SYNOPSIS: Black Shadow sits, waits, then follows the demons who re-wired the Olympiac Power Facility. Shadow follows the demons to a warehouse where in order to save Rachel from Spectre and the demon army, he needs to do something really drastic.

Time: 30:49
Episode Recap: Geordon VanTassle – http://denevell.com
Promo: Philippa Balantine – Chasing the Bard – http://chasingthebard.com
Want to send feedback?
email: mail@stevesaylor.net
website: http://stevesaylor.net

Subscribe using iTunes
or
Use any other podcatching client by using http://feeds.feedburner.com/blackshadow
or
Download BlackShadow-Episode#12.mp3

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Was surfing my RSS feeds today and I came across this awesome story from Wired.com's GeekDad Blog.

I've always found RPG Card Games fascinating. I don't play them that often, only because I don't have a lot of local friends who play them. The only card games that I have played are Munchkins and Super Munckin(which I actually own). However, with that being said, games like Magic The Gathering wildly available, I love it when I see new variants of a genre. Especially from a 14 Year Old.

According to Wired.com:

The game is based on a 121-card deck of chemical elements, compounds and catalysts. Every card has an explanation of the element or compound's uses and chemical properties. For example, the Oxygen card can rust neighboring metal cards and the Copper Conductor card can shock any metals. The oxidation state of an element is used as its attack power, and its physical state determines its movement on the board. The goal of the game is to reduce the opponents electrons to zero through strategic use of each card's chemical properties.

Now this is a genius idea. It only took a $500 grant to make this happen, and then wowed attendees at an entrepreneur's convention.

Not only does this make chemistry fun, it's educational. I always find educational games to be really boring, but this takes it to a whole new level.

Where can I get me a set of these?! I want to rule the world with C3H80!

As always I remain, obediently yours.

Steve “Snowball” Saylor

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