New authors!

Great news on the blogging front, everyone: I am no longer the only author for this Behind-the-Scenes blog!

That's right, I'm not the only MADer to have a blogspot account. Marshall and Deborah will be joining me here on the blog. I've just added them as authors, so all three of us can now post.

Vampire... elephants!

Now that Episode Three has been released, you all know the identity of our Listener Challenge WINNER from last week! That's right, listener Dave of Maryland has won the first ever MAD Podcast Listener Challenge. The following was his entry:

i think that the vampires should turn into snakes, becaue theyre way cooler than bats but still have fangs. (though in reality i actualy really like the glow-in-the-dark thing that you were talking about on teh show. thats original and funny and a subtly glowing vampire would actually be kind of cool looking. cooler than Sir Skin-Like-Diamonds, anyway)

Im banking on the fact that youve only done a couple episodes so you probably dont have many listeners. with any luck i win by default. ha! i beat the system!

However, I personally prefer something he mentioned earlier in his email, discussing the sparkling vampire debate:

like, he could have turned into an elephant in a blaze of fireworks

Congratulations Dave for winning the Listener Challenge. Remember that this week's Listener Challenge is to figure out what Deborah was talking about concerning the beginning of Reign of Love and how it apparently reminds her of a movie.

Good luck on the Listener Challenge, and thanks for listening!

Numero freakin' TRES, baby!

That's right! Break out your party hats and your confetti, people, because Episode Three of the MAD Podcast was released onto iTunes earlier today.

Episode Three: Viva la Violin features awesome discussion on Coldplay's latest album, Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends, a song spotlight on Viva la Vida, and a spectacular BRAND NEW SEGMENT - a fantabulous commentary of the music video for Viva la Vida!

This episode was extremely fun to record. We got it done in record time - if you consider that Episode One took about seven hours to record, Episode Two took about three hours to record, and this episode took about one and a half hours, it looks like we're on a roll! Splitting our recording time in half with each new episode, we're becoming much better at churning out the audio without churning out the technical drama.

Speaking of technical stuff, I've just finished listening to the final, edited version of Episode Three, and I'm happy to say that our spectacular editor, Sarita, has really laid the smack-down on those audio problems. Expect this episode to sound much more crisp and professional, with each of the podcasters' audio at the same loudness. Yay! Sarita = awesome.

We certainly didn't reign in the fun on this episode, either. There's lots of joking around (but hopefully not excessively so. Remember, we rely on feedback from you listeners to help us gauge how much is too much and how much is just good fun! Tell us your thoughts at themadpodcast@gmail.com). There's also lots of... well, violins. Listen and you'll see what I mean. Deborah = awesome, too.

Thanks for listening!

Tantalizing hints!

I've decided to give you a little hint concerning the upcoming Episode Three of the MAD Podcast. Since I can't talk too much here about the actual show, I'll be releasing the outline that Deborah created for the show, instead. Here it is:

Viva la Vida Planning

1. Introduction to the Episode by Someone: Because "--------------", this is episode three for The MAD Podcast, DATE, discussing Coldplay's newest album, Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends.

2. Theme music

3. Name intro (Staci>Sarita>Marshall>Deborah)

4. Main Discussion

-how we liked it/ what we thought

-run through the songs (beats/melodies/etc)

-compare to other works by Coldplay

-top of the charts

-coldplay's first album to reach #1 in UK and US

-contrasts

5. [Super secret new segment that will undoubtedly blow everyone's mind]

6. Spotlight segment: Viva la Vida

7. Next two discussions: Dark Knight>Breaking Dawn

8. Contact information

-themadpodcast@gmail.com

-new official website

-blogspot transitions to bonus-features blog

9. Outro

10. Bloopers (if any)

Obviously I've edited out the name and description of our special new segment. (Actually, the new segment wasn't planned - it was a spontaneous, spur-of-the-moment type thing.)

I'd also like to point out how hillarious it is that Deborah added the words "if any" after "bloopers."

Haha.

Trust me, there are bloopers in this episode.

We've been working VERY hard

I was rummaging through my inbox and a bunch of old Skype chats recently. The idea was that I would find a bunch of examples of us trying to plan the podcast, and make a post showing some of those so that you would really appreciate us. Unfortunately I was sidetracked by a lot of OTHER Skype chats, mostly between Deborah and myself, which are extremely strange and hillarious. We'd be talking about the podcast, and then suddenly... Well, the stress gets to us all. Here's a sampler of some of our more random comments (all taken from Skype chats between Deborah and I), out of context and for your reading pleasure.


Staci: i meean, do you even FOLD a washcloth?
Deborah: small dishes are usually folded in half once
Staci: really? or are you making this up?
Staci: i just fold at random
Staci: im gonna try and make like, a paper crane out of this next one

Deborah: my sister was dating Remus Lupin
Deborah: teenage lupin
Deborah: but my mom's car also had this funky sheild thing
Staci: werewolf protectors
Staci: is that an optional feature on cars or does it come with?

Deborah: but then she said "if you really want to make me feel better, you can draw me a picture of a rabbit and a wolf"

Staci: were there zombies?

Staci: you laugh, then you make a discovery
Staci: ha-ah!
Staci: its like, ha, that's funny - but ah! i forgot to turn the stove off!
Deborah: it's a double sided laugh
Staci: it's a laugh in a parallel universe

Deborah: no, i was dressed up sort of like a princess

Deborah: and I say "well, I was offered a modeling job, but I turned it down because it was the same day as my cousin's birthday party"

Deborah: "hello Staci, you would make a great Walmart sales person!"

Staci: I think i may have claimed him as my ninja

Deborah: Oh yeah?
Deborah: well my guy will...
Deborah: ...get drunk

Staci: so I'll be able to work in rocket powered unicycles

Deborah: UNICORNS
Staci: YES

Deborah: okay, so moving off the topic of sprinklers momentarily...

Staci: I find it amazing that you can get addicted to VIRTUAL margaritas
Deborah: don't make me put you into virtual AAA
Deborah: *AA, I mean
Staci: ha, i looked at that and i immediately thought, batteries!
Staci: which is clearly a sign of my impending insanity


I wonder if this kind of thing is the reason why it's taken us so long to get the show out.

Oh yeah! Update to end all updates!

This picture was taken on August 18th, 2008:

Well, actually I scanned my dry-erase board, and it's kind of crooked but I really don't want to have to scan it again.

There are two things that you will notice about this dry erase board. The first is the giant, demonic red number seven. That was the number of days until school started as of yesterday (I'm running a Countdown to Doom. I have four dry erase boards in my room, one on each wall, and they are all currently bearing horned number sixes, which is actually a bit disturbing.)

The other thing you will notice is the little reminder I wrote to myself, in my horrendous handwriting.

WE RECORDED YESTERDAY!!!!

If you went and checked out our new official website at http://themadpodcast.libsyn.com/ (I've just put a link to it in the sidebar as well), you already know that because of last minute problems we changed the subject of this show's discussion from "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time" by Mark Haddon to Coldplay's new album, Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends. (Don't worry, the TCIOTDITNT episode will appear some time in the future) The episode should be released later this week (weekend, possibly Friday). I'm sending my audio files to Sarita as I write this post.

The episode will be shorter than our usual ones, and certainly shorter than our Special Edition Twilight podcast. However, we did manage to get in some pretty good discussion. Aside from the main discussion, you'll also be listening to a Spotlight segment, plus you'll be introduced to a brand new segment! It's so awesome I don't want to spoil it here, but after the episode is released I might talk more about it. There's also a new Listener Challenge.

Now that you've got all the good news, here's the downside: this week we're missing one of our fabulous co-hosts. Sarah has been abducted by marching band and won't be appearing on this episode. However, she WILL be coming back soon, so don't worry!

And as if all of that wasn't enough of a huge update, we've also decided officially on the topic of our next two shows. Episode Four will discuss "The Dark Knight" (the new Batman movie) and Episode Five will discuss "Breaking Dawn" by Stephenie Meyer, as a followup to our Twilight Special Edition (beware: spoilers will abound!) There was a whole lot of confusion about what we were going to discuss after Episodes One and Two, hence all the last minute changes, but this time we've got things more securely under control and you should be able to count on Episodes Four and Five being on those topics.

The winner of last episode's Listener Challenge has been decided. We forgot to mention it on the show, but each episode we'll anounce the winner (we did remember to do that part, at least!), and then we will post their entry on both this site and the official libsyn site (link in the sidebar). However, since Episode Three hasn't come out yet I'll hold up on posting the entry... When the episode is released, we'll reveal the name of the winner on both sites and post the entry for all to see.

Phew! How was that for an update? I'll get back to you with some recording stories and behind-the-scenes bonus features; right now I'm trying to decide how much to reveal here before the episode is released. I'll probably come back with some tantalizing hints, for now. Until then,

-Staci

New Official Website

The new, Official MAD Podcast website is up and running! Check it out now at http://themadpodcast.libsyn.com.

This spiffy new website allows us to host our podcast so we can get it out to all our listeners. Unfortunately, it means some bad news for the good old blogspot website.

Essentially, this is how it's going to work: the official site will be used for hosting the show and posting important show updates. That is, release dates of future episodes, recording schedules so you know what media we'll be discussing, and any important information that you, as our listeners, need to know. (Remember that we'll run through all this information on the show itself, as well.) Where does that leave this website, however?

As of today, this site will be morphing into a sort of Behind-the-Scenes, Bonus Features blog. I'll be posting all kinds of bonus material right here on the blog - so this site won't be going anywhere any time soon. The listener poll will also stick around, so don't forget to vote in that.

Thanks for staying with us through all the crazy last-minute changes! And remember, if you don't want to sift through all the bonus features for your information, you can go check out our new, official website at http://themadpodcast.libsyn.com for all your important news updates!