Nyeagh. Delays?

As you will know if you listened to Episode Three, "Viva la Violin," the next piece of media we will be discussing on the show will be the movie, "The Dark Knight". On the show, we also mentioned that this podcast will be bi-weekly -- which means that that episode is due out this weekend, right?

Well, school just started back up for all of the MADers and, up to the neck in essays and tests as we are, we've been having a bit of trouble fitting the podcast in. Don't worry - I'm not here to tell you that we'll be making it a monthly podcast. The bi-weekly shedule should still be in place, but you'll have to give us a few weeks to get back into the rhythm of school work and work out how to fit the podcast around that.

The five of us all went to see the movie together on Monday. That was the earliest we could schedule it, since we've all been so busy lately - and that means that the earliest we can RECORD will be this weekend. But of course, it takes hours to send audio files to Sarita, and then she has to edit. So... Don't be surprised if things are a little delayed this week.

The good news is that I can guarantee that this time we WILL be discussing what we said we'd discuss! Also, remember to start reading "Breaking Dawn" by Stephenie Meyer while you're waiting, as that will be the topic of Episode Five.

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

Hurrah, movement!

You will be happy to hear that, finally, things are getting done!

Sarita and Sarah are both back from vacation, which means that recording is made possible. Last minute planning is underway, and literally minutes ago Deborah and I were constructing an outline for our first main discussion.

Marshall needs to get her mic fixed and Deborah and Sarita are going to watch "Prince Caspian" again as a refresher, but recording is scheduled for Friday. We're going to do a recording marathon and record the first two episodes.

We have officially made a decision concerning how we will be discussing the "Twilight" series. As August 2nd is just around the corner, we are going to release a Special Edition, super-long episode discussing "Twilight", "New Moon" and "Eclipse", with speculation for the upcoming "Breaking Dawn". With any luck, we will be able to edit and release this episode around the same time as our premiere "Prince Caspian" episode is released.

This, obviously, causes significant changes to the previously released recording schedule. We are still unsure what the next couple of episodes will discuss; however, "Viva la Vida" by Coldplay is still on our list of discussion topics, as well as "The Curious Incident..."

Once a more definitive recording schedule is created I will be sure to post it here.

Thanks again for your cooperation!

The (tentative) plan

Although I currently don't have any more news about release dates for any of the first episodes, I do have a bit of news.

The following is a (subject to change) list of the first few episodes and what media they will discuss:

1 - Film - "The Chronicles of Narnia - Prince Caspian"
2 - Book - "Twilight" (Stephenie Meyer)
3 - Book - "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time" (Mark Haddon)
4 - Book - "New Moon" (Stephenie Meyer)
5 - Music (album) - "Viva la Vida" (Coldplay)
6 - Book - "Eclipse" (Stephenie Meyer)

This list is so tentative I loathe even releasing it. However, excluding the album from Coldplay (which is only on there because we realized we had four books in a row and wanted to mix it up a bit), I can pretty much assure you that all of the things on the list WILL be discussed in the first few episodes of the MAD Podcast, so it's advisable that you watch/read/listen to those now.

Concerning the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer: normally we would try to space these books out more, but we would like to be able to release episodes on all three of the books before "Breaking Dawn" comes out in August. However, that hardly seems likely considering the time crunch. The MADers are considering alternative options, and you will be notified on both the show and the blog when we decide how we intend to discuss the series.

We ask you to bear with us as we work out our recording schedule. The second a release date becomes available I will notify you on the blog.