Drabblecast 142, 143 - The Golden Age of Fire Escapes

[alhilton]

Maybe your survival will convince them it's safe to enter. Especially the females.

Every time we have this no-girls-on-the-forums-woe! meme, about half the icons pop up and say, "Um, I'm a girl." There seem to be fewer female podcast listeners, period, and I think you're doing better than average at attracting the available pool. I'm not sure what's happened to Talia and zZacha lately. I think Christmas happened. They'll be back.

[Praxis]

I think this episode highlights what I like about Drabblecast.
This isn't *just* a podcast where a story is read out (possibly even with the narrator doing different voices), we also have appropriate music, foley etc. effects and added gems like the Old Time Radio adverts. Brilliant.
Actually, I could have listened to a 'cast purely of spoof OTR adverts.

Like others have said, the story on its own probably wouldn't wow me as much as this episode did overall, though it is enjoyable so far. I'll be interested to see how (much) the second half wraps everything up.

<quibble> Norm, can you have a word with whoever wrote the Mongolian Death Worm song? I liked it, for sure, but I felt like I'd heard it somewhere before *cough* Episode 126 *cough*. I'd hate to think some nefarious someone was passing off your work as theirs.</quibble> : P



(please don't delete me, I love Drabblecast and the songs really)

[tbaker2500]

Oh pah.

Let the audience judge:
Song 1
http://www.gardenstreet.org/drabblecast ... smouth.mp3

Song 2
http://www.gardenstreet.org/drabblecast ... 0Night.mp3

I guess you could say that all Weird Al stuff sounds alike.

[ROU Killing Time]

Oh pah.

Let the audience judge:
Song 1
http://www.gardenstreet.org/drabblecast ... smouth.mp3

Song 2
http://www.gardenstreet.org/drabblecast ... 0Night.mp3

I guess you could say that all Weird Al stuff sounds alike.

Speaking of Weird Al, has anyone taken the time to link these gems over to Dr.Demento yet?

[normsherman]

Haha, yah, I was aware they had some of the same elements. Same piano and overall mixing style, similar opening chord changes, guitar solo at the end. But the last one didn't have Connor Choadsworth singing or a "dooo" bridge lifted from Mariah Carey!

[Kevin Anderson]

The Golden Age of Fire Escapes Part II
by John Aegard

The crowd was lined up six deep along the parade route. They ignored the Deputy Mayor who sat, lightly sedated, between his doctor and nurse in the Santa sleigh. Instead, they chanted endlessly for the Marshall, who would not leave the stifling warmth of his coach, or even roll down a window to wave. Their applause echoed off the surrounding skyscrapers. "Take off your mask!" they cried...

Art by Skeet Scienski and Bo Kaier
Music by Bela Fleck and the Fleck Tones, Cab Calloway, Glen Miller, Andre Hossein

[tbaker2500]

I loved it. Great pair of episodes to close out the year.

The story was good, but the episode was fantastic! You put so much into these productions, I do not see how you get one done every week. I was laughing at so many places, it's hard to pull out a favorite. But the sun dress, that was classic.

"If you don't feel like re-inventing yourself into a Hero in 2010, the least you can do is try to be less of a dick to other people."
That rates right up there in truisms with "Everybody's got Nipples". Words to live by.

[eric_marsh]

I'll second that. All of it.

[ROU Killing Time]

The ONLY thing that worries me is that authors might start to worry that their stories will be horribly upstaged by the awesome Norm content. I was wiping tears from my eyes all through the MDW segment. Then, I had to go to dinner, so I'll comment on the main story after I get a chance to give it the listen it deserves.

[TheJebi]

That was my favorite installment of Mongolian Death Worms, probably due to the Lorax bit, it really struck a cord with me as a listener. I was very afraid for just a moment that there really were no Death Worms, but just for a moment, whew...

I thought the main story wrapped up well. My favorite part was how the fire escapes were decorated, or were used to store all sorts of hazardous material such as fertilizer, classic.

My only complaint is that I couldn't really concentrate after the opening commercial because I had a strange craving for a Salem cigarette... eww. Then I had strange craving for Cresta Blanca after the story ended, but I had no idea of just what the hell it was, so I had to google it, and it appears to be a wine, which will probably go great with the Salems.

Keep up the great work, I might miss the old timey feel, but having a drabble and a twabble will make up for it.

[themorg]

The ONLY thing that worries me is that authors might start to worry that their stories will be horribly upstaged by the awesome Norm content. I was wiping tears from my eyes all through the MDW segment. Then, I had to go to dinner, so I'll comment on the main story after I get a chance to give it the listen it deserves.

i second that so much that i only listened to the Mongolian Death Worm. i do plan on going back through the fire escape not only for the content but the amount of production effort norm went through. Having worked in radio for a number of years i do understand all the nuances of bead lines and re tweaking something to make sure it is sounds just right and language fumbles. I have tried for an hour to say Quasaks Duchbagga without a hearty snorting laugh to no avail. I want him to learn the Weirding way and his name becomes a killing word.

"My own Duchbaggary is a killing word. Will it be a healing word as well?


If i were to nit pick a great use of Mandarin Chinese audio track for the Mongolian.(sounded very Bejing or Peiking to me) but to argue against my own criticism twards it, and having been to inner Mongolia, i could not understand much of the Mandarin Chinese spoke while there... that and a bladder infection. Love more any day of the week and definitely hope for more Cryptozoology.

PS Weirding way link below
http://dune.wikia.com/wiki/Weirding_Way

[moonowl]

I have to admit as much as I wanted it to, Fire Escapes didn't do it for me. I just was expecting a lot more from the story, and it meandered around and never seemed to come to a point. The production carried it through.

MDW, I'll miss you.

[alhilton]

I thought this was a good story, although it made me feel melancholy in the way that realistic stories do. It emphasized the brevity of even great success and the string of bitter-sweet almost's and nearly-perfect's that characterize real life and real people. There is no super-villain to fight against, just an element - fire - and human stupidity. In a novelization of the Marshall's life, he would have had a torrid affair with Rita, but, in fact, they never quite get there. The golden age of his career is over almost before it begins. The obsessive behavior that brings him fleeting success also destroys him, and he never gets to say, "I told you so." The city goes on, unfazed, without him.

The Marshall understands thoroughly the power of mystery and mystique, and he keeps trying to make some for himself. When the mask fails, he disappears, and his legend becomes his mask. In the end, though, he's just an old man in a wheelchair, hoping that somehow everything will be alright.

*deep breath* All this melancholy and existential meaninglessness was mitigated by the Mongolian Death Worm Christmas Special. I laughed! I cried! I spilled coffee!

[normsherman]

Wow. Do you write reviews for the New Yorker in your spare time Ms. Hilton?

[ROU Killing Time]

MDW, I'll miss you.

Like Gilligan, Capt.Kirk, and Spock, MDW will live on forever in reruns.

[StalinSays]

Like Gilligan, Capt.Kirk, and Spock, MDW will live on forever in reruns.

And the eventual J.J. Abrams remake.

[ROU Killing Time]

Like Gilligan, Capt.Kirk, and Spock, MDW will live on forever in reruns.

And the eventual J.J. Abrams remake.

Yes, here is hoping that J.J. remakes MDW before he gives his treatment of Gilligan's Island to the world. (Not that I think a G.I. remake is unimportant, just not AS important as the MDW...)

[alhilton]

Wow. Do you write reviews for the New Yorker in your spare time Ms. Hilton?

Hee. Well, somebody had to do it. Points to you for publishing literary fiction occasionally...and then totally upstaging it! Let us hope that Connor Choadsworth finds a new quest to obsess about. Although it wasn't actually Connor's bit that made me nearly choke on my food. It was this line:

"Because, while chances are that it is Santa Clause, it could always be a serial rapist. Never forget that it could be a serial rapist."

Ah, the true spirit of Christmas - anxiety. Because you just never know.

[themorg]

I have to admit as much as I wanted it to, Fire Escapes didn't do it for me. I just was expecting a lot more from the story, and it meandered around and never seemed to come to a point. The production carried it through.

MDW, I'll miss you.

having now listened to it fully i agree that it meandered and the production made it a really fun listen.

[Unblinking]

The production for this episode was awesome. I especially liked the old-timey commercials and voice effects.

But the story just didn't do it for me. Much of that is probably because it was so loong--Before "Mongoose" I hadn't really liked any of the Drabblecast multi-part episodes. The idea of the fantastic network of fire escapes was kind of interesting at first, but by itself wasn't enough to make me want to keep listening after part I. I like many old-style storytelling, in days when slower telling was the norm, but this just seemed too far in the other direction.