Monthly Archives: December 2013

VoK 51: FeastDance (Part 6) – Dornish Drawls and Northern Conspiracies

Posted on December 29, 2013 by Valkyrist | Leave a comment

The Vassals ring in the New Year with the thrilling conclusion to their FeastDance reread series. Join Duncan (Valkyrist), Bina, Nadia, and Zach (Alias) as they delve into Pate’s prologue in Oldtown, Ser Kevan’s epilogue in King’s Landing, and all of the chapters that take place in Dorne.

And make sure to stick around for the Aftershow where they wrap-up FeastDance with an in-depth discussion of the Grand Northern Conspiracy. Unfortunately, the most important question of the night remains glaringly unanswered: who would win in a fight, Darkstar or Ser Pounce? Have your say below! 😉

1:46 – Pate
20:14 – Kevan Lannister
46:07 – Areo Hotah, Arys Oakheart and Arianne Martell
1:28:48 – The Grand Northern Conspiracy
2:12:02 – ????

Warning: Contains spoilers for all published books in George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire

Credits:
Edited by Valkyrist
Various tracks owned by Sony Music Entertainment, the Warner Music Group and Karliene Reynolds

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[Mirror] Download from mega.co.nz
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Links:
The Grand Northern Conspiracy
FeastDance ReRead (Part 1)
FeastDance (Part 2): Cripples, Bastards and Broken Things
FeastDance (Part 3): All Roads Lead to Essos
FeastDance (Part 4): Another Brick in the Wall
FeastDance (Part 5): We Remember the North

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Posted in A Song of Ice and Fire, Books & Novellas, Podcast

Tagged Alias, Bina007, Nadia, Valkyrist

VoK 50: LOTR ReRead (Part 1) – The Return of the Shadow

Posted on December 25, 2013 by bina007 | 1 comment

Join our doughty Fellowship of Podcasters as they level up and discuss Tolkien’s high fantasy novel at almost as slow a pace as Frodo’s quest to destroy the Ring.

In this first episode, EastTexasDirewolf, Teddard, Nadia, Shellfish, Eiffel and Bina007 discuss the events of Book One of The Fellowship of The Ring: The First Journey/The Ring Sets Out.

Beware of Spoilers: This podcast discusses Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit and the Silmarillion in detail.

00:00 Introductions – how we got into the books

08:00 How we rate Fellowship compared to the other two volumes and whether we faff about too much with Tom Bombadil

12:00 EastTexasDirewolf leads a discussion of the The Prologue and Chapters 1-6 (Frodo finally leaves the shire and runs into elves, black riders and Tom Bombadil). We debate:

whether Tolkien’s directions are a bit Quaithe-y;
whether pipeweed is in fact weed;
the endearing xenophobia of hobbits;
Gandalf as the Doran of Middle Earth;
whether Gollum eats babies;
the alleged creepiness of Sam and Frodo’s friendship;
whether Fatty Bolger is bonkers or a badass;
and the nature of the evil in the forest.

41:00 Eiffel leads a discussion of Chapters 7-12 in which we discuss:

the nature of wights;
Tom Bombadil’s mad pick-up lines;
how Gandalf is susceptible to the Ring;
how the Black Riders are weaksauce;
the misremembered tactical idiocy of going to Weathertop;
how far Frodo has free will;
the insane badassery of Glorfindel;
how Elves are kind of Cylon-y – hobbits not so much;
what’s the use of gods anyway?

1:20:00 Final thoughts on Book One.

Credits:
Edited by Bina007

[MP3] Download or play this episode directly.
[Archive.org] View this episode’s page on Archive.org.
[iTunes] Subscribe to us on iTunes
[RSS] Podcast only feed.
[Forum] Podcast Forums.

Links:
The Tolkien Professor

Tom Bombadil: A Joyous Freedom (sagaandspirit.wordpress.com)
Polish ‘Gandalf’ stops Warsaw tram in Fellowship of The Ring prank (thestar.com)
VoK 43: The Hobbit, an Expected Podcast (vokpodcast.wordpress.com)

1 Comment

Posted in Books & Novellas, Podcast, The Lord of the Rings

Tagged Bina007, easttexasdirewolf, Eiffel, Nadia, Shellfish, Teddard

VoK 49: Perceptions of Historical Events

Posted on December 21, 2013 by vokadmin | Leave a comment

The following podcast is about historical perceptions and how they are changed based on the culture you live in. It is by Stefan from Boiled Leather podcast and Steven from Race to the Iron Throne Blog and podcast. It was first published on Dec 2013 on Stefan’s nerd stream era blog. We thought u might enjoy it , so Stefan and Steven let us borrow it.

[MP3] Download or play this episode directly.
[Archive.org] View this episode’s page on Archive.org.
[Mirror] Download from mega.co.nz
[iTunes] Subscribe to us on iTunes
[RSS] Podcast only feed.
[Forum] Podcast Forums.

Links:
Stefan’s Nerd Stream Era Blog
Stefan’s History Blog in German
Steven’s Race to the Iron Throne Blog
Boiled Leather Audio Hour

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Posted in History, Podcast

Tagged Stefan, Steven

VoK 48: Counterfactual History

Posted on December 21, 2013 by vokadmin | Leave a comment

The following podcast is about Counter-factual history or What-if history. It is by Stefan of Boiled Leather podcast and Steven from Race to the Iron Throne Blog and podcast. It was first published on July 2013 on Stefan’s nerd stream era blog. We thought u might enjoy it , so Stefan and Steven let us borrow it.

Links:
Stefan’s Nerd Stream Era Blog
Stefan’s History Blog in German
Steven’s Race to the Iron Throne Blog
Boiled Leather Audio Hour

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Posted in History, Podcast

Tagged Stefan, Steven

VoK 47: Mass Effect series (BioWare)

Posted on December 18, 2013 by vokadmin | Leave a comment

To Discuss Bioware’s Mass Effect Series , Katie (Lady Griffin) is joined by Zach (Alias), Eddie (Teddard), Matt (Eiffel), and Peter (Shellfish).

2:00 Introductions and Icebreakers
11:00 Trilogy Highlights
34:00 Mass Effect 3 Ending
58:00 Multiplayer, Paragon and Renegade, and The Future of Mass Effect
1:08:00 Aftershow – Snakes and Scorpions, Badasses and Dumbasses

Warning: Contains plot spoilers for all Mass Effect games and downloadable content. Minor spoilers for the novel Mass Effect: Revelation by Drew Karpyshyn.

Credits:
Edited by Katie
Intro: ‘The Old Machines’ by Rig
32:40: ‘I’m Proud of You’ by Sam Hulick
58:36: ‘Staggered Injection’ (Purgatory Bar Music) by Ekstrak
Outro: 1:09: DJ Harbinger – Surrender Shepard!
All Mass Effect clips belong to Bioware and Electronic Arts, Inc. All fanworks belong to their respective owners.

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Posted in Podcast, Science Fiction, Video Games

Tagged Alias, Eiffel, Lady Griffin, Shellfish, Teddard

(Poll) Ideal Podcast Duration

Posted on December 16, 2013 by vokadmin | 6 comments

Hey Gang,

I’m curious on what you all think is an ideal podcast duration. If you can answer this quick poll it would be valuable.

http://strawpoll.me/876117

Thanks.

Fortytwo aka Vikram

6 Comments

Posted in Announcements

VoK 46: The Princess and the Queen (by George R. R. Martin)

Posted on December 15, 2013 by vokadmin | 4 comments

Vikram (fortytwo) is joined by Bina (Bina007), Nadia, Michal (inkasrain), Thomas (FTWard), Leigh (LordManderBlee), and Duncan (Valkyrist) to review and discuss George R. R. Martin’s latest novella “The Princess and the Queen”.

Beware of Spoilers: This podcast discusses the novella in detail.

Credits:
Edited by Fortytwo

Links:
King Stephen and Matilda of Boulogne

4 Comments

Posted in A Song of Ice and Fire, Books & Novellas, Podcast

Tagged Bina007, fortytwo, FTWard, inkasrain, LordManderBlee, Nadia, Valkyrist

VoK 45: Alien [1979] (DVD Commentary)

Posted on December 13, 2013 by Valkyrist | Leave a comment

Have you been dreaming of a Red Christmas? Join vassals Duncan (aka Valkyrist) and Katie (aka Lady Griffin) as they delve into the blood-splattered, chest-bursting masterpiece that is Ridley Scott’s Alien (1979). This is the third entry in a potential “Sci-Fi Classics” audio commentary series.

The commentary itself runs from 6:36 to 2:01:26, and the opening production logos will be played at full volume in order for the listener to sync up their copy of the movie correctly. We used the Director’s Cut edition of the movie, released in 2003.

Warning: Contains plot spoilers for Alien, Aliens, and Alien 3.

Credits:
Edited by Valkyrist
Audio Clips owned by 20^th Century Fox

Links:
Alien (1979): All Deleted Scenes
Original 1976 Screenplay (by Dan O’Bannon)
Dan O’Bannon and The Origins of Alien (by David Konow)
Alien and the Monstrous-Feminine (by Barabara Creed)

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Posted in DVD Commentary, Movies, Podcast, Science Fiction

Tagged Lady Griffin, Valkyrist

Donate to Archive.org

Posted on December 9, 2013 by vokadmin | Leave a comment

Hey Guys,

It seems there was a fire at one of Archive.org’s scanning center. They are trying to rebuild and so are asking for Donations.

VOK, BOK and now even APOIAF rely heavily on archive.org to host and distribute our podcasts. I’m very grateful to them for this service.

The Internet Archive is a 501(c)(3) non-profit that was founded to build an Internet library. Its purposes include offering permanent access for researchers, historians, scholars, people with disabilities, and the general public to historical collections that exist in digital format

They have a noble mission. So this holiday season, if your feeling charitable , think about donating to archive.org.

– Vikram aka Fortytwo, VoK curator

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Posted in Announcements

VoK 44: Fight Club [1999] and Truth-Procedures (audio essay)

Posted on December 9, 2013 by Valkyrist | 3 comments

In this mini-episode, Valkyrist discusses the philosophy of ethics within David Fincher’s Fight Club. Specifically, how Alain Badiou’s theory of the “truth-procedure” is manifested by the characters.

Warning: This episode contains spoilers for Fight Club, and some explicit language.

Credits:
Edited by Valkyrist

Links:
Ethics: An Essay on the Understanding of Evil (by Alain Badiou)

3 Comments

Posted in Movies, Philosophy, Podcast

Tagged Valkyrist

The Evenarian by Julia P. Dickinson

Posted on December 3, 2013 by vokadmin | Leave a comment

Julia aka No True Lady a VoK Regular is running a Kickstarter to help get her original fantasy novel “Evenarian” published. Check it out:

Here’s the Kickstarter: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/theevenarian/the-evenarian-part-deux

The book’s website: http://evenarian.blogspot.com/

And an excerpt: http://evenarian.blogspot.com/p/evenarian-excerpt.html

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Posted in Announcements

VoK 43: The Hobbit – An Unexpected Journey [2012] (Review)

Posted on December 1, 2013 by vokadmin | 2 comments

Approached out of the blue by the wizard Eiffel the grey, fortytwo finds himself joining the company of forum dwellers LordManderblee, Shellfish, Easttexasdirewolf and Teddart to review Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit 1: An Unexpected Journey. Their journey will take them through treacherous spoiler filled territory of Hobbit the book, LoTR trilogy and other Tolkien Lore; lands swarming with Goblins and Orcs, deadly Wargs, Sorcerers and sexualized dwarves !!!

Beware of spoilers, the following podcast discusses the movie Hobbit 1, Hobbit the book and Lord of the Rings Trilogy.

Credits:
Edited by Fortytwo
The Misty Mountain by Howard Shore