The SomethingSomethingCast

Hatton here with this week’s blog that was supposed to be last week’s, but I have lost all cohesion and concept of the passage of time. Thanks Rob for picking up my dumb dumb slack.

Anyway – I am a Trek person. If you love all sci-fi equally, go you, but if I had to choose between watching a lightsaber or a phaser, I’m going to choose a phaser every time. That said, not all Trek has been created equally, and in recent years there has been a surprising number of new shows that wear the Trek name. Thankfully these shows have disregarded the Abrams version of Trek entirely and have rested solely on the ‘prime timeline’ for lack of a term.

So what are my thoughts on these new Treks? I thought I’d give my pros and my cons this week.

Star Trek: Discovery – Starting in a world before the original series, with nods to original Captain Pike, Tribbles, and Spock, we follow Michael Burnham who was the canonically inserted adoptive sister of Spock.

The good here is that this show has the heart of Trek right. The characters grow and learn lessons, they are humans who are fighting for the Prime Directive. Also, given this show is being produced now, the morality of Trek is updated along with it featuring women, people of color, non-binary, lgbtq all in the chain of command with absolutely no fanfare. There are moments of real tearjerking beauty in Discovery, and I look forward to every season.

The bad though… the bad is its main character, Michael Burnham. Not the actress, as Sonequa Martin-Green is excellent, but the character. Her primary flaw is that she isn’t perfect enough to compete with her near god-like Spock, so she is always fighting for relevancy when compared to him. That concept makes her too good at near everything else, and as the show goes on she seems to somehow get smarter than people at the height of their profession. Answering medical questions for doctors and history questions for anthropologists… she’s just too much at times.

Star Trek: Picard – The final adventures of my favorite captain, Picard is an interesting mix of nostalgia and telling stories outside of the standard ‘captain and his crew’ world that most shows lean into. I have only taken in the first season, but within we learn what’s happened to Data, Riker, Troi, Seven of Nine, and I have no doubt that there is more to come in the next Season. It clearly loves the source material and pays homage in every inch of it.

The bad is mostly plot oriented. It’s story, where fun and intended to take us to various corners of the universe and explore the aftereffects of what Picard went through in Next Generation, the big season plot would have largely never been a concern if not for the heroes getting involved. There is a season finale issue as well that others may have a problem with, but I’ll leave that for the forum-arguers.

Lastly – we have the cartoons. Lower Decks and Prodigy. Decks is a Family Guy style comedy and Prodigy is a CGI animated kid-friendly adventure. Both have their merits and their love of Trek on their sleeve. (Prodigy, notably features show friend Bonnie Gordon as the ship computer). Lower Decks makes fun of the things we love, but holds onto a lot of Trek’s heart, and Prodigy is a big adventure that, due to its CGI, sometimes feels less Star Trek and more Reboot… both though are enjoyable as hell.

So, what’s your favorite current Trek? Are you looking forward to Strange New Worlds? Sound off in the usual places. Hatton out.

Time again to bring the circle of fun back to the Somethings – it’s time for The Wheel!

This week, hate to spoil it, but we land on Creator Spotlight and the wheel has brought along the creative entrepreneur, writer, creator, roleplayer, fanfictioning, and all around fantastic human on the Prime Material and any other plane as well – Crystal Storm!

So maybe, before you dive in, go take a look at the place for all things Crystal: Crystal’s Imagination! and be certain to sign-up with her Twitch to keep on with her game playing!

But for now, come talk all the nerd shit with Crystal Storm!

Ok here we go!

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Hey all, PCR here!

I know we missed Friday’s blog post, we were a little busy doing a 12 hour stream over on Twitch helping to raise awareness for Livestream For The Cure 6!

Thanks to your early donations, we are OVER $1100 towards our goal of $20,000!  That’s HUGE being just under 2 weeks away!

If you were looking to donate early, you can do so here!

If you see any of Livestream’s posts on social media, please give them a share!  The more eyes we get on the event, the more money we can raise!

Thank you to all the early donators, and we look forward to seeing you May 19-21st for the stream!

– PCR

Imagine this – Johnny Law is on your tail, in the trunk you have a kilo of those really delicious strange flavored gummy bears from Japan that you didn’t pay the import tax on. You, in a suped up Kia Supreme, your partner in crime is in a Nitro-Boosted Toyota Corolla. Will you get across the county line before the Po takes your sweet sweet candies?

YOU might be in one of cinema’s greatest chase sequences.

Find out what high-octane, cat and mouse adventures the Somethings picked as their favorites on this week’s SomethingSomethingcast!

Ok here we VROOOOM!

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Hey all, PCR here (again!)

I’ve been in a weird music mood lately as I drive around for my job, and I’ve been falling back in to some Classic/Old School Rap tunes, so for those of you who love it so loud your rear view mirror vibrates, here’s what I’ve been bumping lately…

California Love – Dr. Dre/Tupac.  A quintessential West Coast anthem.  The lyrics from Dre feel laid back while Tupac’s verse has a sense of urgency feel to it.  Both sides of that coin flow amazingly with the beat and the musical hook.  “Bumpin’ and Grindin’ like a slow jam” indeed.

Gangsta’s Paradise – Coolio.  Quite possibly the most memorable thing about the movie “Dangerous Minds”.  The haunting violins and chorus merge with the window-rattling beat as Coolio weaves his verses about being a victim of his surroundings and street upbringing. a subwoofer thumper for sure.

Rockbox – Run DMC.  An even further back classic from their debut album, it was one of the first rap songs I can remember that merged with shredding guitar tracks to create something that had as-of-yet been unheard of.

Shake Ya Tailfeather – P Diddy, Nelly, Murphy Lee.  From the Bad Boys II soundtrack, this is like a mini-recreation of “P. Diddy and the Fam”.  Each verse is unique and fits each artist’s style while still maintaining the flow of the song.  Still hits.

ANYthing off “No One Can Do It Better” – The D.O.C.  I can’t even begin to think of how many hours and hours and hours this CD used to play in my car on road trips back in the day.  A car accident crushed his larynx and changed his voice, but 7 years later he regained enough of it for his second album, but the debut record for the man who co-wrote Eazy E’s solo debut remains a classic.

– PCR

Some shows come and go with a ton of fanfare, and yet somehow, for some reason, we don’t get a Season 2. Think of some of the shows that you loved that never saw a second year? I know of at least one western sci-fi that hits the mark, along with Wonderfalls, and Cop Rock.

Anyway, in this instance, the show could most certainly have had a second season if the people behind the curtain pushed a little harder, but with no story arc to tell, and a large budget to account for… it went away after giving us an amazing 10 episode arc.

So let’s head into the past and future, lift a stone and see the creepy crawlies that are hiding in every magical corner of Lovecraft Country.

Does it still hold up? Well,only one way to find out… on THE END.

Ok, here we go, and we got our travel atlas…

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Hey Somethings, Podcast Rob here!

2022 is a Year of Milestones for us… July will mark 9 years of The Something Something ‘Cast, we hit over 50,000 downloads earlier this year, and by end of this year we’ll be at 350 episodes.  Hell, we even got a quick shoutout on G4TV!

That’s.  Nuts.

We NEVER would have guessed way back in 2013 when we started back in Hatton Studio 1.0 that we’d have gotten this far.  It’s all thanks to you.

This show has given us the opportunity to meet and become friends with some amazing people that we never would have gotten the chance to otherwise, and we will always be grateful for giving us your time to bend your ear with our personal brand of humor and stupidity.

We’ve always kept our show fluid in the respect that this isn’t the same type of show as what we started with back in 2013.  We’re always willing to change based on what people want to hear and what we think people will find entertaining.  Sometimes we guess right, other times we don’t.. it’s all part of the process.

Today, I’m asking you, our listeners.. what do YOU like to hear from us?

Random babbling?
Reviews of Movies?  New?  Old?
Video Game talk?
TV Dissertations?
Mysteries?

We want to do more of what you want to hear, so please, don’t be shy and let us know at the following places!

Twitter
Facebook
Instagram
somethingcast.com

Thanks for everything, and we can’t wait to do more!

– PCR

Gather round kids, because we are warming our hands on amazing Swedish Furniture in, THE WHEEL!

What topic will appear today? Well, the Somethings have been saddled with the idea of creating an all new DBD Killer and Powers… if you are unfamiliar, Dead By Daylight is a 4v1 game where one player is a crazy killer and the other 4 are trying to escape. If you ask the survivors, they’ll tell you that it’s about trying to annoy one person the best way possible. If you ask a killer player, they’ll tell you it is about destroying players with the most unfair way possible.  Either way, the game is fun for all.

So what new monster will the boys come up with?  Only one find out… on THE WHEEL: DBD Elevator Pitch

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Hatton time … but wait, you said, it’s not Hatton time. Hatton time was last week and we are unsure if we can handle this much greatness.

Well, suck it up, because tomorrow’s my birthday and I’m heisting the blog this week.  Why?  You see, your friendly neighborhood Hatton has a certain ailment that has affected him off and on since he was a child, and that is the curse of needing to write imaginary things down. Legally, I believe it is called ‘writing’. That said, when I’m in a writing rut, I have a secret that I’m going to share with you today.  That is, I have a Reddit account… I know, scandalous.

That account writes short horror stories out of nowhere – which is why, it’s called SurpriseHorrorStory

So for my birthday, here’s a gift of some creepiness from posts I’ve done in the past.

-=-=-

Mum and Papa were awoken before the sun lit their bedroom by Billy crashing into their bedroom, “THANK YOU! OH THANK YOU SO MUCH!”

Parents expected to wake up early on Christmas morning, but not so urgently. The pair exchanged glances with each other, and then to their closed closet doors. Billy’s new bike, his big gift this year, was tucked away in their closet. The rest of his gifts were wrapped, so what was he so excited about?

“He is adorable and I love him! He hasn’t told me his name yet, but he enjoyed the rest of Santa’s cookies.” The boy was vibrating with joy.

“Son? ..What are you talking about?” Papa asked, sliding out of bed and into his slippers. He then heard the crash of something downstairs. Glass shattering. The cat screaming angrily.

Billy, oblivious to the noise, said, ‘My Furby, Papa. He’s adorable!” The stairs creaked. “Oh! He’s coming up the stairs! I didn’t know they could do that!”
(Source)

-=-=-

“Look, I don’t know which one of you is doing it, but it’s starting to freak me out.”

My coworkers all shared confused glances as I sat down with my lunch. It wasn’t surprising, only one of them was likely guilty.

“The sign.. the googly eyes sign?” I asked, imploring one of them to reveal themselves, but nobody started giggling or raising their hand.

I sighed. In the ideal version of this conversation in my head, one of them admitted it was them and they could explain it to the group. With nobody owning up, I was the one that would have to tell the story and be the source of the laughter.

“Someone keeps screwing with the earthquake sign.. the stupid one with the googly eyes so that the eyes are always staring at my desk.” And the laughter came. It was contained as each of them realized I was taking this seriously, but it was most certainly going to come out more explosively when I wasn’t around.

With nobody owning up, I finished my lunch without much more discussion about it and went back to my desk, watching as the eyes followed me from the hallway to my seat.

Did they look angrier today?
(Source)

-=-=-

♫ Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens
Following new friends, while remaining hidden
Hiding my pistol inside of my sling
These are a few of my favorite things.

Starting off easy, then getting quite brutal,
using a knife so much that it gets too dull
Hearing the new words that my new friend sings
These are a few of my favorite things ♫
(Source)

Imagine you wake up, have your coffee, go to work, go home, and the cycle repeats.  Every day. No variation. Nothing other than the same drudgery you’ve come to know for as long as you can remember.

And now that you are crying, why not listen to the Somethings talk about the new Ryan Reynolds tale, Free Guy (not, as Hatton may have you believe, Fall Guy). Is the movie funny? Too nerdy and inside baseball? Too simplistic and generalized for a broad audience? And what about Michael Myers?

Find out the answers to these and a whole lot more as you settle in to another 8 hour slogfest at the paper pushing cubical you call a life, on Something In Review: Free Guy

Ok here we take an arrow to the knee…

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