Binary System Podcast Archive

This episode originally broadcast on April 25, 2024. The original podcast post is here: https://pixelatedgeek.com/2024/04/binary-system-podcast-408-lore-olympus-episode-274-and-275/

The Lore Olympus comic tackles a lot of issues about abuse: spousal, parental, generational. The latest two episodes are no exception, but they also don't really need trigger warnings because the focus here is the response to that abuse. Rachel Smythe gives a balanced look at how abuse victims can overcome the feeling of guilt at something that was never their fault, and how refusing to take the high road and forgive the abuser is exactly as valid a response as forgiving in order to move on.

It's also a brutal smackdown, with the titan Kronos starting to get everything that's coming to him, and it's glorious.

Listen in as we squeeee once again in the countdown to the final episodes of Lore Olympus. We also go on a few tangents about YouYube metrics, the nightmare process of getting a comic book adapted to a cartoon, and also movie and TV producers deciding to cancel things for no reason, which is an odd thing for us to get angry about since neither of us seem to have the energy to start even one more series, so why are we all fired up to have even more to catch up on?

This week's outro is a clip from Regret by Beat Mekanik.

Looking for a present for that hard-to-shop-for person? Want to buy them (or yourself) a square foot of a castle in Scotland? Look no further! You can support the restoration of Dunan's castle, legally call yourself Lady or Laird, AND if you use this link to get there, you can support this podcast too! ScottishLaird.co.uk.

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This episode originally broadcast on April 18, 2024. The original podcast post is here: https://pixelatedgeek.com/2024/04/binary-system-podcast-407-wtnv-246-a-story-about-him-and-dune-part-two/https://pixelatedgeek.com/2024/04/binary-system-podcast-407-wtnv-246-a-story-about-him-and-dune-part-two/

On this week's Night Vale recap we discuss Abby's DEEP SEATED RESENTMENT towards Cecil. Some of it is unfair (it's not Cecil's fault that Abby had to be the de facto parent because their actual parents sucked) but some of it is valid (let's face it, Cecil was horrible to Abby's husband Steve, on the radio, for years, and still hasn't apologized) and all of this comes bubbling out while she's telling Cecil the story of their absent father. AGAIN.

All this is to say, Abby went from generic, faceless, "Janice's Mom" to a fully fleshed out character in the space of one episode, and everyone involved should take a bow.

After that, Elizabeth finally saw Dune Part Two, so we spend the last half of the episode fawning over Zendaya, Rebecca Ferguson, the effects, the music, and those weird-ass fireworks on Giedi Prime because they were so cool.

Heads up: between Elizabeth's phone blowing up mid-recording, the usual traffic sounds, and Kathryn's computer fan cosplaying as a jet engine, it's a bit of a noisy episode this week.

This week's outro is a clip from schneesturm by voide.

Correction: Kathryn said Steve was bullying him on his radio show. She meant Cecil.

EDIT: friend of the podcast David Leninhawk confirmed the Dune Part Three Teaser Trailer is indeed a fake, but that Dune Messiah has been greenlit.

Looking for a present for that hard-to-shop-for person? Want to buy them (or yourself) a square foot of a castle in Scotland? Look no further! You can support the restoration of Dunan's castle, legally call yourself Lady or Laird, AND if you use this link to get there, you can support this podcast too! ScottishLaird.co.uk.

This episode originally broadcast on April 11, 2024. The original podcast post is here: https://pixelatedgeek.com/2024/04/binary-system-podcast-406-lore-olympus-episode-272-and-273/

You know how we've mentioned for a while that Rachel can be very, let's say, judicious, with her plot reveals? Some of the commenters have been complaining that it can take quite a long time for anything to happen in the Lore Olympus comic. Hopefully everyone's happier now, because a lot happened in the most recent two episodes. I mean a lot, holy cow.

Spoiler warnings all over the shop, especially for this week's Fast Pass episode, because these episodes are extra long, and we've gotten a ton of new information. We finally know what happened to Persephone's powers, Hades has finally met the little ghost child who's been hanging around his dreams for more than ten years, and Hera...you know what? Not even getting into that in this description. Suffice to say, we have seven more episodes left after this one, and we've now got yet another thing for the list of Storylines That Really Need To Be Resolved, and it's amazing.

This week's outro is a clip from tech by voide.

Looking for a present for that hard-to-shop-for person? Want to buy them (or yourself) a square foot of a castle in Scotland? Look no further! You can support the restoration of Dunan's castle, legally call yourself Lady or Laird, AND if you use this link to get there, you can support this podcast too! ScottishLaird.co.uk.

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This episode originally broadcast on April 4, 2024. The original podcast post is here: https://pixelatedgeek.com/2024/04/binary-system-podcast-405-wtnv-245-fridge-worthy/

On this week's Night Vale recap, Carlos and Cecil hold an exclusive Art Show (ie: a family dinner so they can show off Estaban's drawing on the fridge) and we get some of our favorite horror tropes: unreliable narrators, creepy jumps in time, and pictures that change when you're not looking at them. Or do they? No, they totally do. (Keep your eye on the owls.)

After that Elizabeth goes over this year's WonderCon (short version: it rained the whole time, but you can't keep the cosplayers down) and Kathryn gives an enthusiastic thumbs up to Dune Part 2. (Make sure you get good seats, you'll want to see everything because man alive is it pretty.)

Before we wrap up we also mention how Lore Olympus is ending at episode 280 and if we don't get the resolution to at least seven different plotlines we're going to be cross. (Unless she's just moving from Webtoons to another format, in which case shut up and take our money.)

This week's outro is a clip from Unrighteous by Beat Mekanik.

You can find all the WonderCon 2024 content here!

Looking for a present for that hard-to-shop-for person? Want to buy them (or yourself) a square foot of a castle in Scotland? Look no further! You can support the restoration of Dunan's castle, legally call yourself Lady or Laird, AND if you use this link to get there, you can support this podcast too! ScottishLaird.co.uk.

For updates, fan art, and other randomness, come follow us on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and Instagram!

Originally broadcast on March 28, 2024. The original podcast post is here: https://pixelatedgeek.com/2024/03/binary-system-podcast-404-lore-olympus-episode-270-and-271/

The first half of Lore Olympus episode 270 is light on dialog. Baby Dionysus starts the most adorable Hero's Journey ever as he sets off to rescue Hades and Persephone. The cuteness balances out the second half of the episode, with images of Hades dealing with his worst nightmare: being a child at the mercy of his father Kronos. No physical abuse (in this episode anyway), but still, bleak.

Episode 271 jumps to Hera and Persephone in Tartarus, preparing to take on Kronos. Hera is obviously ready to sacrifice herself, but there's still some hope; Hera's skills at conversation can make even a titan stop and think for a bit, and Persephone has already demonstrated that she now has the power to make a god bleed.

Not much else going on in the nerd world right now, so we talk for a bit about the latest developments with the Royal Family (get well soon), and about the plans for the next Fyre Festival. And by "plans" we mean McFarland is releasing commercials and selling tickets less than a year before a festival that isn't even 1% ready to go. Again. Everybody stock up on popcorn, the "Fyre2" documentary is gonna be wild.

This week's outro is a clip from Thumper by Beat Mekanik.

Correction: At around minute 9:42 "Zeus" is accidentally referred to as "Hades". And neither of us noticed.

Looking for a present for that hard-to-shop-for person? Want to buy them (or yourself) a square foot of a castle in Scotland? Look no further! You can support the restoration of Dunan's castle, legally call yourself Lady or Laird, AND if you use this link to get there, you can support this podcast too! ScottishLaird.co.uk.

For updates, fan art, and other randomness, come follow us on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and Instagram!

This episode originally broadcast on March 21, 2024, the original podcast post is here: https://pixelatedgeek.com/2024/03/binary-system-podcast-403-wtnv-244-a-multiplicity-of-kevin/

On the latest episode of Welcome to Night Vale, Kevin the Younger is determined to kill Kevin the Older, so he’s used Carlos’ lab to open a portal to the Desert Otherworld. Cecil wants to tell the story, Tamika wants to stop the bloodshed, and Carlos wants everyone to PLEASE be careful of the beakers they’re fragile and can we oh COME ON what did I JUST SAY?

After the recap we talk about The Crown, both the Netflix show that just wrapped up and the ridiculous goings on with the Royal Family in the real world. (Not to make light, we hope everyone’s okay, but maybe for the sake of the empire we could have fewer crappy Photoshop images and people screwing around on their spouses, kaythnxbye.)

In addition to all that we have the usual tangents into Pie-in-the-Sky cosplay plans, reading summaries of horror movies you're too chicken to watch, catching up with Marvel TV, Legends and Lattes, Paul Atreides being more of a tragic figure than a villain in the book, and whether or not greek yogurt on hot dog buns would be nice.

This week's outro is a clip from Blade Rider by Beat Mekanik.

The ghost-story author we were trying to think of is Kathryn Tucker Windham.

This is the Vox article that compares The Royal Family to pandas.

Looking for a present for that hard-to-shop-for person? Want to buy them (or yourself) a square foot of a castle in Scotland? Look no further! You can support the restoration of Dunan's castle, legally call yourself Lady or Laird, AND if you use this link to get there, you can support this podcast too! ScottishLaird.co.uk.

For updates, fan art, and other randomness, come follow us on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and Instagram!

This episode originally broadcast on March 14, 2024, the original podcast post is here: https://pixelatedgeek.com/2024/03/binary-system-podcast-402-lore-olympus-episode-268-and-269-spider-verse-and-the-2024-oscars/

There's a great big ceremony that happens every year, you may have heard of it? The Oscars? Anyway, the Binary System Podcast didn't watch it, but they do have lots of opinions about the winners. (And some of the ones that didn't win. You guys, have you seen Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse?)

And of course we also recap two episodes of Lore Olympus. Apollo's plot to force Persephone to marry him is basically The Patriarchy in its purest form. Fortunately Persephone has someone on her side: EVERYONE. (Bonus: Hera throws a "yo mama" at Apollo and it's perfect.)

This week's outro is a clip from Subroutine Confirm by TeknoAXE.

Looking for a present for that hard-to-shop-for person? Want to buy them (or yourself) a square foot of a castle in Scotland? Look no further! You can support the restoration of Dunan's castle, legally call yourself Lady or Laird, AND if you use this link to get there, you can support this podcast too! ScottishLaird.co.uk.

For updates, fan art, and other randomness, come follow us on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and Instagram!

Originally broadcast on March 7, 2024. The original podcast post is here: https://pixelatedgeek.com/2024/03/binary-system-podcast-401-wtnv-243-lost-and-found-and-more-of-the-oscar-nominations/

On this week's Night Vale episode, we highly approve of Cecil devoting an entire broadcast to Lost and Found submissions, because writer Brie Williams is very good with lists of random weirdness, unexpected sweetness, and things with TEETH.

From there we jump into three more Oscar nominated films we finally watched, namely Oppenheimer (brilliant but a bit too long, with "the most unnecessary nude scene ever"), Elemental, and Nimona. While we think Pixar usually has the better shot at winning the Animated Feature award, we're really pulling for Nimona.

Along the way we wander off into tangents like the Hot Ones show, Florence Pugh, Redbox, nerd underwear, and the REALLY STUPID ADS in Amazon Prime.

This week's outro is a clip from Keepsake by Beat Mekanik.

Clarification: Redbox is 2.25, but that's just for one night, once you double it it's about the same as most of the 2-night rentals from Prime.

Correction: Elemental did have a theatrical release, but according to the New York Times it had "the worst opening in Pixar history." It's since become a lot more successful.

Correction #2 - Annapurna Pictures is the production company that took over from Blue Sky Studios when Disney axed Nimona.

Kathryn got her Soot Sprite undies from All Teh Smol Things.

Looking for a present for that hard-to-shop-for person? Want to buy them (or yourself) a square foot of a castle in Scotland? Look no further! You can support the restoration of Dunan's castle, legally call yourself Lady or Laird, AND if you use this link to get there, you can support this podcast too! ScottishLaird.co.uk.

This episode originally broadcast on February 29, 2024. The original podcast post is here: https://pixelatedgeek.com/2024/02/binary-system-podcast-400-start-from-the-beginning/

Happy 400th episode! Time flies, right? About ten years ago we started recording our Night Vale discussions because we're giant nerds and nerds gotta podcast. But here's the thing: we started with the Night Vale episode that'd just been released, "Renovations," number 48 in the series. We've discussed every episode since then, but not once have we gone back to the beginning.

The same goes for Saga, Transformers, and (our current favorite thing) Lore Olympus, we started talking about them way after they'd started. That just won't do. TO THE TIME MACHINE!

In addition to a deep dive into issue/episode #1 of several of our favorites, we also discussed the first episode of THIS VERY PODCAST. As well as #266 and #267 of Lore Olympus, since we can't wait even a week to discuss the latest two episodes because we're obsessed. Stick around until the end of the episode to hear more than a minute of name flubs and cats deciding to cat.

This week's outro is a clip from Voyageur by Monkey Warhol.

You can find Kathryn's review of the first few months of IDW's Transformers: More Than Meets The Eye here.

Looking for a present for that hard-to-shop-for person? Want to buy them (or yourself) a square foot of a castle in Scotland? Look no further! You can support the restoration of Dunan's castle, legally call yourself Lady or Laird, AND if you use this link to get there, you can support this podcast too! ScottishLaird.co.uk.

This episode originally broadcast on February 22, 2024. The original podcast post is here: https://pixelatedgeek.com/2024/02/binary-system-podcast-399-wtnv-242-the-new-branch-and-the-oscar-nominated-animated-shorts/

On the latest episode of Night Vale the Librarians broke out of their cages but some heroes saved the day andnoweverythingisfineTheEnd SO! HOW ABOUT THOSE OSCAR ANIMATED SHORTS?

(Kidding, it was a fun episode of Night Vale, we're just really excited to talk about cartoons.)

Anyway, massive spoiler warnings as we discuss our favorite Oscar-nominated animated shorts, which were as surprising as they were upsetting, just how we like them. (This episode of VagueCast is brought to you by the 2024 Oscar Animated Shorts Collection: yiiiiikes.)

And before we wrap up, we also have to go over the latest Hugo-Award-Clusterf*ck news, which was outdated even before we finished recording because it KEEPS GETTING WORSE.

This week's outro is a clip from Illusion by Darkfluxx.

Correction: we said passenger pigeon several times, when we meant carrier pigeon. Homing pigeon would’ve been even better.

Correction 2: War Is Over isn’t a Beatles song, John Lennon released it outside of the band. Elizabeth apologizes to all the John Lennon fans out there. For that and for saying the cartoon would've been better if the song wasn't in it.

In case you're curious, here's the list of all the Oscar Winning Animated Shorts. Turns out yes, some years the winner wasn't particularly family-friendly (2021's "The Windshield Wiper" has a lot of sexy content) but 2015's "Bear Story" beat "World of Tomorrow", and 2016's "Piper" beat "Pear Cider and Cigarettes" and that's when Elizabeth decided family-friendly beats edgy-and-cool most years.

As of today the Oscar-nominated animated feature Nimona is still up for free on YouTube!

Here's a good write-up of the Hugo Awards debacle. (Short version: the board self-censored anything they thought MIGHT upset the Chinese government, and were as stupid about it as you can possibly imagine.) (And the post doesn't mention the fact that the board did business with a Chinese company that's been sanctioned by the US Government, but we're still waiting to hear how all that turns out.)

Looking for a present for that hard-to-shop-for person? Want to buy them (or yourself) a square foot of a castle in Scotland? Look no further! You can support the restoration of Dunan's castle, legally call yourself Lady or Laird, AND if you use this link to get there, you can support this podcast too! ScottishLaird.co.uk.

For updates, fan art, and other randomness, come follow us on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and Instagram!

This episode originally broadcast on February 15 2024. The original podcast post is here: https://pixelatedgeek.com/2024/02/binary-system-podcast-398-lore-olympus-episode-264-and-265/

In the latest Lore Olympus episodes we’ve read, Demeter revealed a little more about Persephone’s history as a Fertility Goddess (namely, that she definitely is one, and that someone else in Demeter’s generation used to be, not sure who). That was episode 264, and the theme of 265 can be summed up even more briefly: asking for consent is SEXY.

In our ongoing attempt to at least see some of the Oscar nominees, Elizabeth watched Poor Things this week and she was highly impressed. It’s gorgeous, surreal, rather dark and very, very sexy. (If you go, prepare for much nudity.) Kathryn also finished reading R.F. Kuang’s Babel this week (you can find the review here), but couldn’t see why it was singled out by the Chinese government to be disqualified from getting a Hugo Award nomination. If that is, in fact, what happened. Still not much information about the whole Hugo debacle, but we’ll of course spill all the tea if we hear anything.

This week’s outro is a clip from Synthwave C by TeknoAXE.

In our discussion about possible Chinese government censorship, Elizabeth referenced a BlueSky comment that was talking about this article: The Anaconda in the Chandelier.

Looking for a present for that hard-to-shop-for person? Want to buy them (or yourself) a square foot of a castle in Scotland? Look no further! You can support the restoration of Dunan’s castle, legally call yourself Lady or Laird, AND if you use this link to get there, you can support this podcast too! ScottishLaird.co.uk.

For updates, fan art, and other randomness, come follow us on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and Instagram!

This episode originally broadcast on February 8, 2024. The original podcast post is here: https://pixelatedgeek.com/2024/02/binary-system-podcast-397-wtnv-241-he-is-still-holding-a-knife/

When we last heard from Night Vale in December, Cecil was being held hostage by a strange boy with a large knife, and this week's episode picks up right where we left off. It's another Brie Williams story so you know there's going to be delightful lists of really weird things. Knives! Trapper Keepers! Field Trip Carnage! Blood Drive cleanup! Door Dash delivery delayed on account of tar and feathers! AND MORE KNIVES DON'T FORGET ABOUT THE KNIVES.

After the recap Kathryn gives the thumbs up to Oppenheimer, which doesn't need an IMAX viewing because it's a great movie that's going to win a bunch of awards, but aside from the bit with the bomb (...spoilers?..) it is mostly Very Dramatic Scenes of People Talking, so regular screens are fine.

This week's outro is a clip from Wayside by Hotham.

Be sure to check out the Black Com!x Day photo gallery.

The podcast Elizabeth mentioned is the 90-Minute Film Fest, celebrating movies under an hour and a half long.

Regarding the little outtake clip at the end, Elizabeth was referring to a couple of Supernatural-related podcast episodes she found: we were never huge fans of Supernatural, so we thought the finale was more silly than anything else. But Elizabeth stumbled on an episode of The Fangirl Business: A Supernatural Podcast, and it really sheds light on how traumatized some of the long-time fans were by the finale. (And for some lighter listening, one of their more recent episodes is about how much they enjoyed the season 1 finale of The Winchesters, which seems to have taken some of the sting out of the Supernatural finale.)

Looking for a present for that hard-to-shop-for person? Want to buy them (or yourself) a square foot of a castle in Scotland? Look no further! You can support the restoration of Dunan's castle, legally call yourself Lady or Laird, AND if you use this link to get there, you can support this podcast too! ScottishLaird.co.uk.

This episode originally broacast on February 2, 2024. The original podcast post is here: https://pixelatedgeek.com/2024/02/binary-system-podcast-396-lore-olympus-episode-262-and-263-guardians-of-the-galaxy-vol-3-and-the-oscar-nominations/

Episodes 262 and 263 feature a Persephone who’s dealing with the uncomfortable reality that the Mortal Realm is dying and it may possibly be all her fault. But for the Binary System Podcast team, that calamity pales in comparison to the fact that Apollo is being a gigantic jerk and it’s stressing us out. The artwork is gorgeous as usual, and there are several ‘lol’ moments (Persephone talkin’ dirty to Hades, you go girl!) But still, Apollo, man.

Elizabeth also watched the final installment of Guardians of the Galaxy, which she really liked! However, it took her a while to get through it, so that led to a discussion of Marvel Fatigue, the latest on the Hugo Awards debacle, and all the Oscar nominated movies we should be watching, but c’mon Hollywood. Meet us halfway: give us some convenient showtimes, a nearby theater that’s not too far to drive, and maybe throw in an intermission in the middle of these three-hour-plus films, if it’s not too much trouble? Kthxbye.

This week’s outro is a clip from Encounter of Every Possible Kind by Midnight Commando.

It turns out it wasn’t Oppenheimer that had some unauthorized intermissions added into the three-hour runtime before the movie producers slapped the theaters down. It was Killers of the Flower Moon, which is even longer.

The John Scalzi comments we were discussing were about Dave McCarty, who has handled the fallout from last year’s Hugo Awards, well, pretty damn badly. He has since apologized. And resigned his position as a director of W.I.P. (the non-profit that runs the Hugo Awards). Still no word on what’s going on with perfectly good works of fiction getting ruled ineligible for no reason, but it’s a start.

Looking for a present for that hard-to-shop-for person? Want to buy them (or yourself) a square foot of a castle in Scotland? Look no further! You can support the restoration of Dunan’s castle, legally call yourself Lady or Laird, AND if you use this link to get there, you can support this podcast too! ScottishLaird.co.uk.

For updates, fan art, and other randomness, come follow us on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and Instagram!

This episode originally broadcast on January 25, 2024. The original podcast post is here: https://pixelatedgeek.com/2024/01/binary-system-podcast-395-doctor-who-taken-nice-house-on-the-lake-and-the-hugos/

You’re not going to believe this, but we said we were going to watch the third David Tennant Doctor Who episode this week AND WE DID. Next thing you know we’ll be watching movies the weekend they come out. (Hahahah, kidding, obviously.)

Anyway, our hearts are still intact after the episode, which was for the most part goofy with a few terrifying images thrown in. It also gave new meaning to the words “self care,” which is just delightful.

After that Elizabeth talks about how she’s randomly watching 2008’s Taken (which is still a fun watch even if it does lean into the patriarchy) and Kathryn discusses The Nice House on the Lake and how we DARN WELL BETTER get a third volume soon.

Finally, we go over what we know about the Hugo Awards debacle, which is to say: not much. Several people were disqualified for reasons that can be summed up as “because I said so,” and while there’s a lot of speculation that it was anything from Chinese government censorship to a massive screw up with the math, there’s still no good explanation. If something changes we’ll add a note to this description. I mean, Neil Gaiman’s pissed off so you know it’s not good.

This week's outro is a clip from 6026 Zenophanes by Midnight Commando.

Looking for a present for that hard-to-shop-for person? Want to buy them (or yourself) a square foot of a castle in Scotland? Look no further! You can support the restoration of Dunan's castle, legally call yourself Lady or Laird, AND if you use this link to get there, you can support this podcast too! ScottishLaird.co.uk.

For updates, fan art, and other randomness, come follow us on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and Instagram!

This episode originally broadcast on January 18, 2024. The original podcast post is here: https://pixelatedgeek.com/2024/01/binary-system-podcast-394-lore-olympus-episode-259-and-260-and-the-menu/

It's an extra-long episode this week, although not because of Lore Olympus. The recap for episodes 259 and 260 went pretty quickly, with a little more of Demeter's backstory revealed and one hell of a lot of personal growth. Seriously, we figured Rachel included the bit with Demeter snapping at Hera because otherwise we wouldn't even recognize her anymore.

The biggest chunk of this week's episode is taken up by our recap of the 2022 movie, The Menu, the tasty (see what I did there) horror/satire that skewers (har) everything that's wrong with restaurant culture and serves up (okay I'll stop) a fantastic performance by Anya Taylor-Joy and Ralph Fiennes. GIGANTIC spoiler warnings on this, since we jump right to how much we loved the ending first.

This week's outro is a clip from Cruising the Skyline by TeknoAXE.

Looking for a present for that hard-to-shop-for person? Want to buy them (or yourself) a square foot of a castle in Scotland? Look no further! You can support the restoration of Dunan's castle, legally call yourself Lady or Laird, AND if you use this link to get there, you can support this podcast too! ScottishLaird.co.uk.

For updates, fan art, and other randomness, come follow us on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and Instagram!

This episode originally broadcast on January 11, 2024. The original podcast post is here: https://pixelatedgeek.com/2024/01/binary-system-podcast-393-wtnv-240-he-is-holding-a-knife-and-doctor-who/

"Fenslaw.
Coliss.
Brate.
Gilvane.
Stond."

The latest episode of Night Vale before they went on hiatus (they're always on hiatus in January and we will never remember that) was delightfully creepy in a way we didn't see coming at all, what a fantastic surprise. We can't say more, because spoilers. (This episode of VagueCast is brought to you by Tossed Risotto, Oboe Drinking Straws, and Postage Stamp "Snackables.")

In other news, it took a while but both of us have finally watched the Doctor Who episode "Wild Blue Yonder" and seriously you guys, it's so good. Joyful, clever, wonderfully unsettling, and it punches you in the feels the way only Russell T. Davies can do.

This week's outro is a clip from Dance 8 by Magenta 6.

Confirmation: Steven Moffat did indeed write "The Girl in the Fireplace."

The website Elizabeth found with free sci-fi and fantasy short stories (not pirated, they all link back to the sites that published them) is links.freesfonline.net.

You can find Kathryn's review of Lazarus: Volume One here.

This is the Oboe vs. Clarinet short that Kathryn found.

Looking for a present for that hard-to-shop-for person? Want to buy them (or yourself) a square foot of a castle in Scotland? Look no further! You can support the restoration of Dunan's castle, legally call yourself Lady or Laird, AND if you use this link to get there, you can support this podcast too! ScottishLaird.co.uk.

For updates, fan art, and other randomness, come follow us on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and Instagram!

This episode originally broadcast on January 4, 2024. The original podcast post is here: https://pixelatedgeek.com/2024/01/binary-system-podcast-392-lore-olympus-episode-258-and-259/

Happy New Year everyone! We hope all our listeners' holidays were fantastic, and that the return to work wasn't too much of a shock to the system. To ease you back into the work week, have a quick recap of the latest two episodes of Lore Olympus, which can be briefly summed up as "sexy good-times and proclamations of love in a pool", and also "Hera finally tells Kronos to piss off."

We also apparently decided to start off the new year with complaints about first-world problems, so strap in as we talk about how we'd like to kick Amazon Prime to the curb, but we just can't do without all that tasty free shipping. (And also, how screwed are all of us directionally-challenged folks going to be if Google Maps decides to start charging us?)

This week's outro is a clip from Axiom Tomorrow by TeknoAXE.

Looking for a present for that hard-to-shop-for person? Want to buy them (or yourself) a square foot of a castle in Scotland? Look no further! You can support the restoration of Dunan's castle, legally call yourself Lady or Laird, AND if you use this link to get there, you can support this podcast too! ScottishLaird.co.uk.

For updates, fan art, and other randomness, come follow us on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and Instagram!

This originally broadcast on December 28, 2023, the original podcast post is here: https://pixelatedgeek.com/2023/12/binary-system-podcast-391-christmas-recap-and-yes-were-watching-skibidi-toilet/

Happy last-podcast-of-2023! Recorded on location in the wilds of Western Florida (aka our parents' house) we start out this episode with a quick breakdown of Christmas, including successful hospital trips (spoilers: we were NOT stealing babies) and geeky presents, but it all goes by really fast because we've gotta talk about "Skibidi Toilet." Seriously you guys, this series is messed up. It's the weirdest thing we've seen all year, intentionally disturbing nightmare fuel, super upsetting and definitely not the kind of thing we'd like. Which is why we've watched all 69 episodes. They didn't really kill that guy did they? What's up with the lens? Is the Alliance okay? Where are the Titans? Where's the TV Headed Woman? So many questions arrgh when's the next episode??!!

This week's outro is a clip from Bollywood Dream by Lisa Hammer. (It's not possible to get something quite as weird as the Skibidi Toilet song so we just went with this one.)

Here's a link to Skibidi Toilet but fair warning, it's some serious nightmare fuel right from the beginning, so if you don't want that living in your brain you can just listen to our recap of it.

Looking for a present for that hard-to-shop-for person? Want to buy them (or yourself) a square foot of a castle in Scotland? Look no further! You can support the restoration of Dunan's castle, legally call yourself Lady or Laird, AND if you use this link to get there, you can support this podcast too! ScottishLaird.co.uk.

For updates, fan art, and other randomness, come follow us on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and Instagram!

This episode broadcast on Wednesday December 20, the original podcast post is here: https://pixelatedgeek.com/2023/12/binary-system-podcast-390-lore-olympus-episode-256-and-257-designercon-and-doctor-who/

Happy last-podcast-before-Christmas! On this week’s Lore Olympus recap we were absolutely gobsmacked that a certain someone gave Apollo a verbal smack upside the head because it was the LAST person we expected. Merry Christmas to us!

We finished up with a spoiler-free squee about Doctor Who (Elizabeth’s not caught up yet but Kathryn said the second Tennant episode was brilliant), a quick debriefing of DesignerCon (including how fun Amtrak is if you can find the Fancy Car), and confirmation from Hannah that the fourth episode of The Crown season 6 is just as weird and off-putting as we thought.

This week’s outro is a clip from Christmas on Mars by spinningmerkaba. (Someday we might find a Christmas outro song we love more than this one, but don’t hold your breath.)

You can find our 2023 DesignerCon photo gallery here.

Looking for a present for that hard-to-shop-for person? Want to buy them (or yourself) a square foot of a castle in Scotland? Look no further! You can support the restoration of Dunan’s castle, legally call yourself Lady or Laird, AND if you use this link to get there, you can support this podcast too! ScottishLaird.co.uk.

For updates, fan art, and other randomness, come follow us on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and Instagram!

This episode originally broadcast on December 14, 2023. The original podcast post is here: https://pixelatedgeek.com/2023/12/binary-system-podcast-389-wtnv-239-sister-cities-vermillion-falls/

This week's Night Vale episode is a perfect example of distilled weirdness, full of deadly nature walks, supermarket bonfires, and would you PLEASE stop PETTING THE WOLFMEN. GEORGE.

After the recap we discuss the latest Doctor Who episodes: not that we've watched them but we've heard they're doing well. (Other than one news article that somehow thought 100 people complaining about the trans storyline was more important than the 7 million people who watched it and didn't complain and no we're not linking to the article because that's stupid.)

Instead we watched some Carnival Row season 2, Mandalorian season 3, and Interstellar, because why wouldn't we watch things that are months and years old when there's perfectly good Doctor Who to watch yes we KNOW we're terribly bad at TV.

This week's outro is a clip from Autonymous by Beat MeKanik.

TD Mischke did a great job as the voice of Vermillion Falls, you should definitely go listen to his podcast.

Looking for a present for that hard-to-shop-for person? Want to buy them (or yourself) a square foot of a castle in Scotland? Look no further! You can support the restoration of Dunan's castle, legally call yourself Lady or Laird, AND if you use this link to get there, you can support this podcast too! ScottishLaird.co.uk.

For updates, fan art, and other randomness, come follow us on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and Instagram!

This episode originally broadcast on December 7, 2023. The original podcast post is here: https://pixelatedgeek.com/2023/12/binary-system-podcast-388-lore-olympus-episode-254-and-255-and-the-doctor-who-60th-anniversary/

Okay, not gonna lie, the latest two episodes of Lore Olympus that the Binary System Podcast team recaps are causing quite a lot of anxiety. Apollo’s plot to take over as ruler of Olympus is proving once again that Apollo will hurt anyone in order to get what he wants, and it’s stressful to imagine how he’s going to try to force Persephone to become his queen. It’s probably going to make it that much more satisfying when he gets his comeuppance, but still…

Fortunately we follow that up with a recap of the fun, adorable, all-around goodhearted 60th Anniversary Doctor Who Special “The Star Beast”, featuring David Tenant stepping back into the role of the Doctor like he never left, and Catherine Tate with a resolution to an element of the Donna Noble storyline that always bothered us. We get into a big discussion about what we loved, what parts maybe didn’t work as well as we would like, trans representation, and how it’s possible to make mistakes when being an ally but still learn every day how to be better. (We also miffed The Meep’s quote, which we loved. Here’s a link to how it actually went, including the Doctor’s response, which, if anything, was even better.)

This week’s outro is a clip from Doctor Talos Answers the Door, by Doctor Turtle. (Found this by doing a keyword search on FreeMusicArchive under “Doctor”, if that wasn’t obvious.)

You can find the Best Pick Podcast where they discuss the Doctor Who episode “The Star Beast” here.

Looking for a present for that hard-to-shop-for person? Want to buy them (or yourself) a square foot of a castle in Scotland? Look no further! You can support the restoration of Dunan’s castle, legally call yourself Lady or Laird, AND if you use this link to get there, you can support this podcast too! ScottishLaird.co.uk.

For updates, fan art, and other randomness, come follow us on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and Instagram!

This episode originally broadcast on November 30, 2023, the original podcast post is here: https://pixelatedgeek.com/2023/11/binary-system-podcast-387-wtnv-238-the-big-dig/

On this week's Night Vale recap, the Museum of Natural History has made an amazing discovery, the Tomb of the Ancestors! Mummified remains in traditional Soft Meat Crowns (tm) in a perfectly harmless limestone cube that just appeared in the Sand Wastes. Nevermind the floating apparitions that can melt your face off, it's the scientific discovery of the century! In other words AAAAAAAAAAA.

Anyway, after the recap Elizabeth briefly touches on the first half of the final season of The Crown (very interesting, bit of weirdness in the fourth episode but not bad at all) and Kathryn discusses the A24 film X (it's like a 1970s slasher film if it was done really, really well) and then we wrap up with Disney+'s' acquisition of Doctor Who, bubblewrap-themed photos, Transformers fatigue and "robof*ckers."

This week's outro is a clip from Insomnia by Beat Mekanik.

For a month of dragon drawings, check out the Dragonfall Drawing Challenge, or visit Kathryn or Elizabeth's instagram pages.

We mentioned that "Todd in Shadows" is a great youtube channel, definitely check out his Top 10 Worst Hit Songs playlist for some good snarky fun.

Elizabeth was right: the guy everybody's shipping Mirage with in Rise of the Beasts is Anthony Ramos, who you'll know from Hamilton and In the Heights.

And no, ALL of Doctor Who won't be available on Disney+, just the very newest stuff.

Looking for a present for that hard-to-shop-for person? Want to buy them (or yourself) a square foot of a castle in Scotland? Look no further! You can support the restoration of Dunan's castle, legally call yourself Lady or Laird, AND if you use this link to get there, you can support this podcast too! ScottishLaird.co.uk.

For updates, fan art, and other randomness, come follow us on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and Instagram!

This episode originally broadcast on November 23, 2023, you can find the original podcast post here: https://pixelatedgeek.com/2023/11/binary-system-podcast-386-lore-olympus-back-from-hiatus-episode-253/

This week the Binary System Podcast team celebrates the triumphant return of Lore Olympus by recapping a brand new episode! To us. Episodes 251, 252, and 253 have been available for FastPass since July, but we wanted to wait until episode 252 (which we already discussed before the hiatus) was available for free on WebToon before we FastPassed episode 253, so spoilers, but only if you haven't already seen episode 253, which we're assuming just about everybody read months ago since it's technically the mid-season hiatus...

You know what? Time is weird. Enjoy the recap as we squeee about the latest developments (Zeus, poisoned! Apollo, in league with a Titan! Persephone, no longer the goddess of Spring!), and then talk a little about The Book of Boba Fett and the Ms. Marvel TV series.

This week's outro is a clip from Voyageur by Monkey Warhol.

Looking for a present for that hard-to-shop-for person? Want to buy them (or yourself) a square foot of a castle in Scotland? Look no further! You can support the restoration of Dunan's castle, legally call yourself Lady or Laird, AND if you use this link to get there, you can support this podcast too! ScottishLaird.co.uk.

For updates, fan art, and other randomness, come follow us on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and Instagram!

This week’s outro is a clip from Softly by Beat Mekanik.

This week’s outtake is brought to you by the fact that Elizabeth’s Zoom was acting up so Kathryn used her free account, which bumped us out after 40 minutes and was a real pill about starting back up.

Looking for a present for that hard-to-shop-for person? Want to buy them (or yourself) a square foot of a castle in Scotland? Look no further! You can support the restoration of Dunan’s castle, legally call yourself Lady or Laird, AND if you use this link to get there, you can support this podcast too! ScottishLaird.co.uk.

For updates, fan art, and other randomness, come follow us on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and Instagram!

This week's outro is a clip from Curious Satellite by Frau Holle.

Looking for a present for that hard-to-shop-for person? Want to buy them (or yourself) a square foot of a castle in Scotland? Look no further! You can support the restoration of Dunan's castle, legally call yourself Lady or Laird, AND if you use this link to get there, you can support this podcast too! ScottishLaird.co.uk.

For updates, fan art, and other randomness, come follow us on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and Instagram!

Original broadcast date November 2, 2023. The original podcast post is here: https://pixelatedgeek.com/2023/11/binary-system-podcast-383-loki-season-2-episode-4/

Fall is well and truly here, and all we want to do is curl up with a scary movie or TV show, which is why we were delighted to get an episode like Loki season two, episode four. Never mind our quibbles about the bonkers pacing, clunky dialogue, and stupid hot chocolate; we got a scene (yes that scene) that's so disturbing you just have to laugh because it's FREAKING HORRIBLE, in the best possible way.

After we finish discussing spaghettification and very small boxes (...lordy that still makes us cringe...) we also talk about the Pear Cider and Cigarettes commentary that's available for free on YouTube. If you haven't seen the short animation you may want to skip the last part of the episode, because we do spoil everything, but if you haven't seen the short animation you really, really should because it's available for free as well.

This week's outro is a clip from Bustling Sunrise by Brylie Christopher Oxley.

Looking for a present for that hard-to-shop-for person? Want to buy them (or yourself) a square foot of a castle in Scotland? Look no further! You can support the restoration of Dunan's castle, legally call yourself Lady or Laird, AND if you use this link to get there, you can support this podcast too! ScottishLaird.co.uk.

This week's outro is a clip from Winds of Tek by TeknoAXE.

Looking for a present for that hard-to-shop-for person? Want to buy them (or yourself) a square foot of a castle in Scotland? Look no further! You can support the restoration of Dunan's castle, legally call yourself Lady or Laird, AND if you use this link to get there, you can support this podcast too! ScottishLaird.co.uk.

For updates, fan art, and other randomness, come follow us on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and Instagram!

This week's outro is a clip from Runway by Beat Mekanik.

Correction: the reason why we've been so out of touch about what happened at this year's New York Comic Con is because it hasn't happened yet. It's October 12-15. We're really out of touch.

Looking for a present for that hard-to-shop-for person? Want to buy them (or yourself) a square foot of a castle in Scotland? Look no further! You can support the restoration of Dunan's castle, legally call yourself Lady or Laird, AND if you use http://www.scottishlaird.co.uk/#_a_2gk to get there, you can support this podcast too!

For updates, fan art, and other randomness, come follow us on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and Instagram!

Original broadcast date September 28, 2023. The original podcast post is here: https://pixelatedgeek.com/2023/09/binary-system-podcast-380-good-omens-and-mandalorian-finales-plus-2020s-host/

That's right, brace yourselves, this week we're going to recap the Good Omens season 2 finale! Spoiler warning, because we remember all the cool scenes and all of them IN THE COMPLETELY WRONG ORDER. Seriously, we cannot get one thing right in the timeline, but we do know that David Tennant is one lanky dude, Michael Sheen's got the most expressive face in the biz, and Neil Gaiman needs to be flogged for breaking our frigging hearts. Okay fine not flogged but talked to very sternly. (Can someone tell us a season 3 is confirmed so we'll feel better PLEASE?)

After that Kathryn gives a spoiler-free commentary on the Mandalorian season 3 finale (in short: it's absolutely everything she wants in a Star Wars show) and touches briefly on 2020's Host, which gets compared to 2014's Unfriended a lot, maybe unfairly? They're doing very different things and they both do them very well.

(Except Host is definitely scarier.)

This week's outro is a clip from Swing Party by Beat Mekanik.

Elizabeth's review of Saga #66 is here.

You can find the ScreenRant article about the significance of Crow Road in Good Omens here.

Looking for a present for that hard-to-shop-for person? Want to buy them (or yourself) a square foot of a castle in Scotland? Look no further! You can support the restoration of Dunan's castle, legally call yourself Lady or Laird, AND if you use http://www.scottishlaird.co.uk/#_a_2gk to get there, you can support this podcast too!

For updates, fan art, and other randomness, come follow us on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and Instagram!

Original broadcast date September 21, 2023. The original podcast post is here: https://pixelatedgeek.com/2023/09/binary-system-podcast-379-wtnv-234-the-boy/

SURRENDER THE ANGLE!

This week's Night Vale episode is a straightforward story about a boy appearing in town who doesn't seem to remember his name, or the concept of food, or anything earlier than his appearance in Grove Park earlier that day.

The episode had some interesting and fun bits (the advertisement for SPOONS, or the fact that there really does need to be a DNA test for astrological signs) but what we really wanted to talk about was episode five of Good Omens season 2. Yes, it's finally time for the Whickber Street Shopkeepers and Street Traders Association Monthly Meeting. With Aziraphale hosting the meeting for the very first time, it's been turned into a Jane Austin-themed ball, complete with unrehearsed dancing and fancy costumes. It's silly, it's improbable, and it's absolutely delightful.

We also talk briefly about the latest season of The Mandalorian, Saga, and (yet another) rewatch of Arcane, but really, it's all about the Ball and how we're still giggling over the "Seamstress!" scene.

This week's outro is a clip from Vibe the Grind by TeknoAXE.

Looking for a present for that hard-to-shop-for person? Want to buy them (or yourself) a square foot of a castle in Scotland? Look no further! You can support the restoration of Dunan's castle, legally call yourself Lady or Laird, AND if you use http://www.scottishlaird.co.uk/#_a_2gk to get there, you can support this podcast too!

For updates, fan art, and other randomness, come follow us on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and Instagram!

Original broadcast date September 14, 2023. The original podcast post is here: https://pixelatedgeek.com/2023/09/binary-system-podcast-378-good-omens-mandalorian-and-thoughts-on-burning-man/

Once again there's no Lore Olympus this week (heavy SIGH) but wonder of all wonders we took the time to catch up on some things! Current things! Less than a year old and everthing!

First up we're recapping the fourth episode of Good Omens season 2, a story filled with magic, zombie nazis, terrible puns, and a lot of padding. (Good lord that scene in the magic shop went on forever.)

Then Elizabeth briefly touches on the Black Mirror episode "Demon 79, which may actually be her favorite of the whole season (it's either that or "Mazey Day," and Demon 79 is better at punching you in the heart) and then Kathryn discusses episode 6 of the Mandalorian season three, which is also a bit of a placeholder but it has lots of droids and that's always fun.

Finally we finish up by going over everything we know about this year's Burning Man, because we love us a convention/festival disaster story. We're glad everyone got to go home, we're sorry someone died (mostly likely not from Ebola) and we look forward to the eventual documentary. For that and for the "upcoming" Fyre Festival 2, because dear lord people why are you still giving that guy money?

This week's outro is a clip from A Step Closer by Darkfluxx.

Looking for a present for that hard-to-shop-for person? Want to buy them (or yourself) a square foot of a castle in Scotland? Look no further! You can support the restoration of Dunan's castle, legally call yourself Lady or Laird, AND if you use http://www.scottishlaird.co.uk/#_a_2gk to get there, you can support this podcast too!

For updates, fan art, and other randomness, come follow us on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and Instagram!

This week's outro is a clip from Anthem of the Lost by TeknoAXE. (Which, for reasons, is being played at 1.5 speed.)

The Good Omens recap from Vulture that Elizabeth was talking about can be found here.

Looking for a present for that hard-to-shop-for person? Want to buy them (or yourself) a square foot of a castle in Scotland? Look no further! You can support the restoration of Dunan's castle, legally call yourself Lady or Laird, AND if you use http://www.scottishlaird.co.uk/#_a_2gk to get there, you can support this podcast too!

For updates, fan art, and other randomness, come follow us on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and Instagram!

With no Night Vale or Lore Olympus this week (T-minus 73 days till the next free episode of Lore Olympus YES WE'RE OBSESSED WE'RE NOT SORRY) we actually took the time to catch up on our backlog of nerd content instead of rewatching Arcane and the Try Channel.

(...okay we caught up on nerd content in addition to rewatching Arcane and the Try Channel, what can we say we're obsessed.)

Spoiler warnings ahoy for the second episode of Good Omens Season 2, because we've got to break down all the ways why Jon Hamm is having the best time, why even priests hate the Book of Job, and why Crowley and Aziraphale's dynamic is freaking adorable.

After that Kathryn goes over Mandalorian season three episodes three (masterful world building on Coruscant) and four (aerial jetpack rescue missions eeeeee!) and Elizabeth recaps the Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special (.......okay it's very silly but sometimes that works.)

This week's outro is a clip from Mirror by CXR ATK.

Correction: The space dog in the Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special is Cosmo the Spacedog, a long-standing Marvel character, usually male but for this version she's voiced brilliantly by Maria Bakalova. In the MCU she's previously shown up in end-credit and background scenes before the Holiday Special.

You can find Hugh's review of the Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special here.

Looking for a present for that hard-to-shop-for person? Want to buy them (or yourself) a square foot of a castle in Scotland? Look no further! You can support the restoration of Dunan's castle, legally call yourself Lady or Laird, AND if you use http://www.scottishlaird.co.uk/#_a_2gk to get there, you can support this podcast too! S

For updates, fan art, and other randomness, come follow us on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and Instagram!

Original broadcast date August 24, 2023. The original podcast post is here: https://pixelatedgeek.com/2023/08/binary-system-podcast-375-wtnv-232-a-car-crash-on-buellton-avenue/

There was a car crash on Buellton Avenue...

Okay, you know what? We're not exactly sure who this week's recap is for. If you want a twisty, creepy, very-close-to-horror story with a sting in its tail then you really need to go listen to the latest Night Vale episode so we don't give away the ending. If you think you're going to be way too unnerved by a story that has hints of an automobile accident that's so worse than what you're picturing, then you might not want to hear the story at all.

So what we're saying is, if you don't want either spoilers or triggers then you may want to skip to 12:12 this week. That's the point where we start talking about episode 2 of The Mandalorian season three (still enjoying it), the third episode of Black Mirror season six (can't really recommend it), and then Elizabeth has the details about the tropical storm that went through San Diego. (It was fine. And also people really shouldn't play in floodwater. Although maybe the fact that people are playing in floodwater means our waterpark idea of Flooded City Streets has some legs. Adventure Island, call us!)

This week's outro is a clip from Aerial Recital by TeknoAXE.

Correction: Kathryn kept referring to the Mandalorian's home planet as Mandor, when it's actually Mandalore. Bad fan, no cookie.

Looking for a present for that hard-to-shop-for person? Want to buy them (or yourself) a square foot of a castle in Scotland? Look no further! You can support the restoration of Dunan's castle, legally call yourself Lady or Laird, AND if you use Looking for a present for that hard-to-shop-for person? Want to buy them (or yourself) a square foot of a castle in Scotland? Look no further! You can support the restoration of Dunan's castle, legally call yourself Lady or Laird, AND if you use this link to get there, you can support this podcast too! ScottishLaird.co.uk.For updates, fan art, and other randomness, come follow us on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and Instagram! to get there, you can support this podcast too!

For updates, fan art, and other randomness, come follow us on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and Instagram!

This week's outro is a clip from 90s Club by Joey Hendrixx.

Looking for a present for that hard-to-shop-for person? Want to buy them (or yourself) a square foot of a castle in Scotland? Look no further! You can support the restoration of Dunan's castle, legally call yourself Lady or Laird, AND if you use http://www.scottishlaird.co.uk/#_a_2gk to get there, you can support this podcast too!

For updates, fan art, and other randomness, come follow us on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and Instagram!

This week's outro is a clip from Cruising the Skyline by TeknoAXE.

Correction: The horned character in Saga who's trying to avenge her lover is Petrichor. Sorry, Petrichor, we're bad at names.

Looking for a present for that hard-to-shop-for person? Want to buy them (or yourself) a square foot of a castle in Scotland? Look no further! You can support the restoration of Dunan's castle, legally call yourself Lady or Laird, AND if you use http://www.scottishlaird.co.uk/#_a_2gk to get there, you can support this podcast too!

For updates, fan art, and other randomness, come follow us on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and Instagram!

Original broadcast date August 3, 2023. The original podcast post is here: https://pixelatedgeek.com/2023/08/binary-system-podcast-372-everythings-on-hiatus/

Lately it feels like everything we love is on hiatus: Night Vale, Lore Olympus, Saga, it's all on break. So that means we've got time to go watch some of the amazing movies that've come out lately, right? AHAHAHA no of course not, we're terrible at movies.

Instead we're wading through Book of Boba Fett (can't quite recommend it) and Andor (definitely recommend but wow is it dark) and losing our minds about the Loki season two trailer. (Cue the fangirl SQUEEEEEE it's going to be so good!)

And because we are the way we are, we also wander into tangents like the stupid Twitter is now X nonsense, Red Letter Media's Spitballs pilot, Zero Punctuation, Midnight Mass, the writer's strike, the existential threat of AI, and people wanting to make TV less compelling so it won't interfere with our doomscrolling.

First though we had to talk a little bit about the passing of Paul Reubens, and tell the story of how he became friends with our parents. RIP, Paul, thank you for the lamp.

This week's outro is a clip from Island In The Sky by Psychadelik Pedestrian.

Looking for a present for that hard-to-shop-for person? Want to buy them (or yourself) a square foot of a castle in Scotland? Look no further! You can support the restoration of Dunan's castle, legally call yourself Lady or Laird, AND if you use this link to get there, you can support this podcast too!

For updates, fan art, and other randomness, come follow us on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and Instagram!

Original broadcast date July 27, 2023. The original podcast post is here: https://pixelatedgeek.com/2023/07/binary-system-podcast-371-sdcc-round-up/

It's a short episode this week, since Elizabeth had a great time at this year's San Diego Comic-Con and she's really tired. And also Kathryn is still bad at TV and is only averaging one new episode of anything per week.

Listen in as Elizabeth gives the details on her time at SDCC: the best cosplays, the Good Omens event, and the new use of the word "Activations". We'll also talk for a bit about the phenomenon known as "Barbenheimer". (No we haven't seen either Barbie or Oppenheimer, but we've still got opinions.)

This week's outro is a clip from Not So Distant Past by TeknoAXE.

Looking for a present for that hard-to-shop-for person? Want to buy them (or yourself) a square foot of a castle in Scotland? Look no further! You can support the restoration of Dunan's castle, legally call yourself Lady or Laird, AND if you use http://www.scottishlaird.co.uk/#_a_2gk to get there, you can support this podcast too!

For updates, fan art, and other randomness, come follow us on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and Instagram!

Original broadcast date July 20, 2023. The original podcast post is here: https://pixelatedgeek.com/2023/07/binary-system-podcast-370-lore-olympus-251-and-252/

So here's the thing you guys: Lore Olympus is on hiatus. Right now. There will be no free episodes for four months.

There are a few fast-pass episodes though.

The forward-thinking, grown up, delayed gratification thing to do would be to wait till Thanksgiving to read them when they're free and AHAHAHAHAH. Lordy no. We fast-passed the heck out of those suckers.

So giant spoiler warnings ahoy as we recap two of the last three episodes we'll get for 16 weeks AAAAAAA.

After that we touch on a couple graphic novel recommendations, the Book of Boba Fett and its flaws, possible Good Omens cosplay, and why Wes Anderson's Asteroid City will set your brain on fire in the best way.

This week's outro is a clip from Calm the Fuck Down by Broke For Free. (Which we've used before but we like it enough to use it again.)

Looking for a present for that hard-to-shop-for person? Want to buy them (or yourself) a square foot of a castle in Scotland? Look no further! You can support the restoration of Dunan's castle, legally call yourself Lady or Laird, AND if you use this link to get there, you can support this podcast too! ScottishLaird.co.uk.

For updates, fan art, and other randomness, come follow us on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and Instagram!

Original broadcast date June 6, 2023. The original podcast post is here: https://pixelatedgeek.com/2023/07/binary-system-podcast-369-lore-olympus-249-and-250/

Fair warning, the second episode of Lore Olympus that we review this week ends in a cliffhanger. It's not one that made us rush to fast-pass more episodes though, since it only involves Kronos. We've got our priorities, and the mad former tyrant is gonna have to take a back seat to finding out if Persephone's mother is going to come to her senses, or if Apollo is finally going to get what's coming to him.

The first episode we recap does have new information about Hera's history with Kronos, and it's all kinds of fascinating. (tldr: Hera earned her place as Queen of the Gods, and Zeus is a great big jerk who doesn't deserve her.) There's even one element that made us both think of Elita-One from the IDW Transformers comic. 'Cause we're nerds.

Now that we're past the summer solstice and the nights are getting longer, we're starting to think about Fall, which makes us think about what horror movies to watch. Elizabeth listened to the Flixwatcher episode about the movie Unfriended - one of our favorites and NO we don't think it's annoying, shut up - which lead to recommendations about a couple of other movies along the same vein. Post a comment if you have any horror movies you think we'd like. Gore shouldn't be over the top, although it's not a deal-breaker. Jump scares are optional, but appreciated. Weirdness and a hard-to-describe sense of dread is mandatory.

This week's outro is a clip from Modern Monster by Flyover.

Looking for a present for that hard-to-shop-for person? Want to buy them (or yourself) a square foot of a castle in Scotland? Look no further! You can support the restoration of Dunan's castle, legally call yourself Lady or Laird, AND if you use http://www.scottishlaird.co.uk/#_a_2gk to get there, you can support this podcast too!

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Original broadcast date June 29, 2022. The original podcast post is here: https://pixelatedgeek.com/2023/06/binary-system-podcast-368-wtnv-230-carlos-explained/https://pixelatedgeek.com/2023/06/binary-system-podcast-368-wtnv-230-carlos-explained/

Welcome to the first Vacation Edition of 2023! Recording on location in a tropical resort (otherwise known as our sister’s old room in our parents’ place) with state of the art equipment (Elizabeth’s phone balanced on a pillow) and atmospheric sound effects (paper rustling, squeaky chairs, and the cat jumping on the bed), it’s nothing but the best for our loyal listeners. (All five of you.)

ANYWAY. This week we’re recapping the finale of the latest Night Vale arc, as Carlos the Scientist goes toe to toe with Dr. Lubelle of the University of What It Is. (Short version: someone really needs to drop a house on Dr. Lubelle. Or something similar. She’s the WORST.)

After that we briefly discuss the (freaking brilliant) recasting choice in Solar Opposites. (We’ve included a tiny clip of the Solar Opposites teaser trailer, but if you want to watch it before we discuss it you can find it here.)

This week’s outro is a clip from Hard Love by Beat Mekanik.

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Here’s the thread from Ursula Vernon about how coming up with the idea isn’t the hard part. (In response to people saying A.I. will come up with the ideas and humans can “just clean it up a bit.”)

Looking for a present for that hard-to-shop-for person? Want to buy them (or yourself) a square foot of a castle in Scotland? Look no further! You can support the restoration of Dunan’s castle, legally call yourself Lady or Laird, AND if you use this link to get there, you can support this podcast too! www.scottishlaird.co.uk

For updates, fan art, and other randomness, come follow us on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and Instagram!

Original broadcast date June 22, 2022. The original podcast post is here: https://pixelatedgeek.com/2023/06/binary-system-podcast-367-lore-olympus-247-and-248/

Hey you know what we don’t say often enough on this podcast? SPOILER WARNING. I mean, it’s implied that when you’re recapping something you’re going to spoil some things, but just in case, GIANT GREAT BIG SPOILER WARNINGS for episodes 247 and 248 of Lore Olympus because holy cow things are happening.

Basically we get two very big conversations, with two very different results. Some people are speaking their truth, some people take a long look at themselves, and some people remain the giant jerks they’ve always been. Also Chiron is awesome.

After that we briefly mention how our most forgiving movie reviewer just gave The Flash a D-, and Kathryn finally watched the first episode of The Book of Boba Fett. (TL:DR – “It’s fine.”)

This week’s outro is a clip from Lightspeed by Beat Mekanik.

The author of A Barve Like That (a slightly better story of how Boba Fett got away from the Sarlacc pit) is J.D. Montgomery.

Correction: Kathryn totally got the name of the serial-killer podcast wrong. It’s actually “All Killa No Filla“.

Looking for a present for that hard-to-shop-for person? Want to buy them (or yourself) a square foot of a castle in Scotland? Look no further! You can support the restoration of Dunan’s castle, legally call yourself Lady or Laird, AND if you use http://www.scottishlaird.co.uk/#_a_2gk to get there, you can support this podcast too!

For updates, fan art, and other randomness, come follow us on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and Instagram!

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Original broadcast date June 15, 2023. The original podcast post is here: https://pixelatedgeek.com/2023/06/binary-system-podcast-366-wtnv-229-the-accused/

The Welcome To Night Vale writers have occasionally been known to subtly reference current events. This week subtlety is completely out the window as the entire Night Vale community has allowed their fear and rage to be written into law. A new ordinance has all kinds of nasty, unintended consequences, some of which directly affect Cecil and his husband Carlos.

Yep. Night Vale has now banned science. Carlos is arrested for Doing Science In Public (I kinda want someone to write the Sales Tax Calculating Song he was caught singing), and nobody knows if making science illegal means they're not allowed to do things like Baking, or Driving a Car. It's pretty much everything we were afraid of.

And speaking of things we were afraid of...Kathryn finally finished watching Season 3 of The Umbrella Academy. The universe is over, except there's a possible do-over. Somebody ends up with the life of their dreams, others are left out in the cold, but we have zero idea if any of that will remain in the start of the next season. One thing we absolutely do know for sure is that Sir Reginald Hargreeves will never have anyone else's best interest at heart. Maybe.

This week's outro is a clip from First Journey by Shalbora.

Looking for a present for that hard-to-shop-for person? Want to buy them (or yourself) a square foot of a castle in Scotland? Look no further! You can support the restoration of Dunan's castle, legally call yourself Lady or Laird, AND if you use http://www.scottishlaird.co.uk/#_a_2gk to get there, you can support this podcast too!

For updates, fan art, and other randomness, come follow us on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and Instagram!

Original broadcast date June 8, 2023. The original podcast post is here: https://pixelatedgeek.com/2023/06/binary-system-podcast-365-lore-olympus-245-and-246-and-umbrella-academy/

“I really hope this is not just his dad pretending to be a nice person….oh. You’re…not saying anything, I can see it in your face.”
“My face is blank I’m not saying anything with my face.”

Massive even-bigger-than-usual spoiler warnings this week because the latest two episodes of Lore Olympus gave us some forward momentum in the plot and we’re going to talk about ALL OF IT.

Are Persephone and Demeter finally going to talk all this out? Are Artemis and Apollo going to have the screaming fight we’ve been waiting for? Are Hades and his queen going to have some post-badass-vengeful-goddess sexy good times OH WAIT THAT ALREADY HAPPENED EEEEEE.

After that we’ve got to do a deep dive into episodes 7 and 8 of Umbrella Academy season 3 because everything goes splodey, Allison is being an unrepentant bitch, that wedding was freaking gorgeous, and just about everyone manages to say the most perfect things ever. (Except Sir Reginald Hargreeves, who says the most perfectly wrong things because of course he does.)

This week’s outro is a clip from Fortune by Shalbora.

Pretty much everything we know about Greek Mythology comes from D’Aulaire’s Book of Greek Myths (in print for over 50 years), Edith Hamilton’s Mythology (In print for over 80 years), and Overly Sarcastic Productions on YouTube (which we mistakenly called “Overdramatic Productions,” but we don’t think they’d mind.)

Looking for a present for that hard-to-shop-for person? Want to buy them (or yourself) a square foot of a castle in Scotland? Look no further! You can support the restoration of Dunan’s castle, legally call yourself Lady or Laird, AND if you use http://www.scottishlaird.co.uk/#_a_2gk to get there, you can support this podcast too! 

For updates, fan art, and other randomness, come follow us on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and Instagram!

This week's outro is a clip from Sunshine Enigma by Modern Monster.

Looking for a present for that hard-to-shop-for person? Want to buy them (or yourself) a square foot of a castle in Scotland? Look no further! You can support the restoration of Dunan's castle, legally call yourself Lady or Laird, AND if you use http://www.scottishlaird.co.uk/#_a_2gk to get there, you can support this podcast too!

For updates, fan art, and other randomness, come follow us on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and Instagram!

Original broadcast date April 20, 2023. The original podcast post is here: https://pixelatedgeek.com/2023/05/binary-system-podcast-361-lore-olympus-243-and-244-and-umbrella-academy/https://pixelatedgeek.com/2023/05/binary-system-podcast-361-lore-olympus-243-and-244-and-umbrella-academy/

In the latest couple episodes of Lore Olympus we get to see everybody set lots of healthy boundaries. And by "everybody" we mean Hades and Persephone, because Aries can and will crash all the parties and Zeus is still a giant jerk. (He's definitely lying about Semele, right? Cause he's certainly been lying about EVERYTHING ELSE.)

After that, Kathryn watched episodes 3 and 4 of Umbrella Academy season 3, so we've got to discuss Luther making mixtapes, Diego being a terrible Dad, Five and Lyla making a discovery, Klaus being Klaus, and Viktor being responsible for ANOTHER APOCALYPSE. AGAIN.

Finally we take a darker turn with a heads up about the latest episode of Swindled; we love that podcast but if intensely graphic depictions of Death By Killer Whale are not your speed, maybe skip that one. (And if you'd rather not even hear us making some vague mentions of death and dismemberment, you can skip from 21:40 to 23:05). But we finish up with a lighter look at some more MidJourney fan art.

This week's outro is a clip from deepgaze (Game Size) by Akira Sora.

In related news Elizabeth got kinda close with the name of the actress who plays Molly Hooper, it's Louise Brealey.

Looking for a present for that hard-to-shop-for person? Want to buy them (or yourself) a square foot of a castle in Scotland? Look no further! You can support the restoration of Dunan's castle, legally call yourself Lady or Laird, AND if you use http://www.scottishlaird.co.uk/#_a_2gk to get there, you can support this podcast too!

For updates, fan art, and other randomness, come follow us on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and Instagram!

Original broadcast date May 18, 2023. The original podcast post is here: https://pixelatedgeek.com/2023/05/binary-system-podcast-362-wtnv-228-diplomacy/

Things are changing fast in Night Vale. Dr. Lubelle and the University of What It Is took out The Weather last week (shock!), and this week they've wiped out Invisible Corn (sacrilege!) The doctor's now set her sights on the local shape-shifter (Josh, run!) and unfortunately Tamika Flynn's proposed solution might be just as damaging as the problem has been (calling it now, if Carlos has to leave Night Vale, we riot).

If all of that's a little too heavy for you, we lighten things up with a full recap of Season 3 Episode 2 of The Umbrella Academy, and a quick summary of the delightful The Detectorists. Aaaand then we bring on the heavy topics again by talking about MidJourney, its possible effects, a few cautionary suggestions, and how it might tie into the entire concept of human consciousness. And also Elizabeth's using it to make pretty pictures. Enjoy!

This week's outro is a clip from Infinite Sky by TeknoAXE

Looking for a present for that hard-to-shop-for person? Want to buy them (or yourself) a square foot of a castle in Scotland? Look no further! You can support the restoration of Dunan's castle, legally call yourself Lady or Laird, AND if you use http://www.scottishlaird.co.uk/#_a_2gk to get there, you can support this podcast too!

For updates, fan art, and other randomness, come follow us on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and Instagram!

Original broadcast date May 11, 2023. The original podcast post is here: https://pixelatedgeek.com/2023/05/binary-system-podcast-361-lore-olympus-241-and-242-and-dungeons-dragons/

Okay, here's the Lore Olympus recap: Hades spends two episodes moping because Persephone is avoiding him. Done! That'll wrap us up for the week, make sure to check out pixelatedgeek.com...

KIDDING. There's more to it than that. (But seriously, two whole episodes of moping.)

In addition to all the sulking we meet Hades' new assistant (not Leuce, thank goodness), and we get a giant surprise from Persephone that explains why she's been hiding. More importantly, we get some really cute glimpses of wedding night sexy times, because priorities.

After that we spend the rest of the episode squeeing about every cool thing in Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves. The Hither-Thither Staff! The Paladin! Holga's Ex! That one scene with Chris Pine and the lute you know what we're talking about!

This week's outro is a clip from Odyssey (radio edit) by Delta 78.

Looking for a present for that hard-to-shop-for person? Want to buy them (or yourself) a square foot of a castle in Scotland? Look no further! You can support the restoration of Dunan's castle, legally call yourself Lady or Laird, AND if you use http://www.scottishlaird.co.uk/#_a_2gk to get there, you can support this podcast too!

For updates, fan art, and other randomness, come follow us on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and Instagram!

This week's outro is a clip from Pinnacle by Bio Unit.

You can find Leland's MerMay art and more on instagram at lelandpierceart.

Looking for a present for that hard-to-shop-for person? Want to buy them (or yourself) a square foot of a castle in Scotland? Look no further! You can support the restoration of Dunan's castle, legally call yourself Lady or Laird, AND if you use http://www.scottishlaird.co.uk/#_a_2gk to get there, you can support this podcast too!

For updates, fan art, and other randomness, come follow us on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and Instagram!

This week’s outro is a clip from Good Vibes by Alex-Productions.
Energetic Summer EDM | Good Vibes
https://youtu.be/iI-6_nApRKQ
Music promoted by http://onsound.eu/

Correction: well, confirmation really – Jeremy Bulloch, the actor who played the original Boba Fett, passed away in 2020.

Gates McFadden definitely likes to joke about that one episode.

Looking for a present for that hard-to-shop-for person? Want to buy them (or yourself) a square foot of a castle in Scotland? Look no further! You can support the restoration of Dunan’s castle, legally call yourself Lady or Laird, AND if you use http://www.scottishlaird.co.uk/#_a_2gk to get there, you can support this podcast too! 

For updates, fan art, and other randomness, come follow us on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and Instagram!