This post contains spoilers for the “The Walking Dead” Episode 4.12.  If you do not want to be spoiled, DO NOT read on!

Episode 4.12: Still

Written by Angela Kang

Directed by Julius Ramsay

We get another character specific episode this week; this time we’re focusing on Daryl and Beth.  They spend a terrifying night locked in a trunk as waves of walkers approach the car.  Not surprisingly, they stay away all night and are finally able to get out in the morning when the crowd of walkers has dissipated.  They go into survivor mode immediately, stripping the car and the surrounding area for valuable supplies.  Once in the woods, they set up their camp.  Daryl tries unsuccessfully to kill a squirrel, but has better luck with a snake – resulting in a pretty disgusting snake gutting and eating scene.  Daryl is chowing down on that snake, right?

Beth decides she needs to try alcohol, since she’s never tried it before.  I’m pretty sure she expected Daryl to be 100% behind her on this, but I can’t see a scenario where going on a run for a non-essential item like alcohol is a good idea.  Daryl basically tags along because there’s no way Beth is going to make it on her own, and he feels responsible for her.  They try their luck at a country club, only to find that a group had holed up there before apparently turning on each other.  There’s some gross hanging zombies reminiscent of the second season and a large pile of bodies in a back room underneath a handwritten sign that says, “Welcome to the Dogtrot”.  Clearly, there were some class issues as well, as a particularly disturbing image appears in the pro shop.  A women’s head and torso have been attached to the lower half of a mannequin and a sign was hung around her neck reading “Ritch Bitch”.

After discovering the bar, Beth sees that the only liquor left is a half-empty bottle of Peach Schnapps.  Daryl is determined that her first drink will be something stronger, and leads her to a house he had previously discovered on a run with Michonne.  It is a still, a house almost expressly used for making moonshine.  Beth encourages Daryl to drink with her by involving him in a drinking game, Never Have I Ever.  The game starts innocently enough – Daryl has never been out of Georgia or on vacation.  But, when Beth says that she’s never been in jail, Daryl becomes defensive and confrontational.  Beth doesn’t back down, and we learn that Daryl is grieving the loss of their group and feels guilty about not trying to find the Governor.  He weeps and is embraced from behind by Beth.  They end the night talking about their siblings and Daryl reveals what he was doing before the epidemic – nothing.  He followed Merle around and let his older brother dictate what they would be doing.

This episode was devoted to fleshing out two characters that are still a mystery to most of the audience.  We’ve been able to watch Daryl’s significant character development over the past three seasons, but we know little about his background.  The writers have included hints that his childhood was rough, but the revelations in this episode have shown conclusively that life is actually better for Daryl now, than it was prior to the epidemic.  His insecurities are laid bare and he expresses to Beth that he was “nothing” before, indicating that he found his purpose in the group.  Now that the group is gone, he is foundering.  Beth appears to be the one thing that keeps him going.

Beth was a fairly thin character before this season.  She was mostly known for singing and taking care of Judith, but she has been the strong, motivated one in this duo and her strength is a surprising development.  She is convinced that there are other survivors and wants to keep looking for them, despite Daryl’s pessimistic attitude.  I believe that she was less invested in actually getting alcohol than prompting Daryl to help her with a task to keep him going.  Hopefully, they will continue to make Beth a well-rounded character so that she does not experience the same fate of Lori and Andrea.

This storyline is prompting many fans to speculate that the writers are developing a romance between Daryl and Beth.  Certainly, the two have had much more alone time on screen than the other fan-favorite ship, Carol and Daryl.  I think, at this point, it could go either way.  The two have chemistry and now have a bond, but if a romance does develop, I hope that it takes more time to manifest.  I also hope that the group reunites soon.  It appears that the next episode will focus on the other scattered survivors, so I’m crossing my fingers for a reunion in the following episode.  I think it would be a mistake to drag out the separation until the season finale.

Norman Reedus and Emily Kinney did a great job in this episode, which is no small feat, considering that the entire episode focused on their characters.  Reedus in particular did a wonderful job conveying the range of emotions Daryl goes through, and I hope that he gets to display this range more often in the future.

The Best Bits:

All of Norman Reedus’s scenes.  He did an amazing job!

The Best Kill(s):

Daryl wailing on the walkers in the country club was awesome!

Is a romance on the horizon for Daryl and Beth?  When will the group reunite?

This post contains spoilers for the “The Walking Dead” Episode 4.10.  If you do not want to be spoiled, DO NOT read on!

Episode 4.10: Inmates

Written by Matt Negrete and Channing Powell

Directed by Tricia Brock

This week we get to see what happened to the other scattered survivors.  I wasn’t sure how I felt about Beth’s voice over diary entry juxtaposed with Beth and Daryl’s current reality.  It felt like something that would make sense and sound awesome on paper, but it was one of the show’s more heavy handed moments.  I hate to see Daryl so pessimistic when he was finally opening up a bit, but he has to be devastated by losing everyone, especially after finding out about Carol.  I think he’s struggling – he wants everyone to be alive, but he also wants to prepare himself for the worst.  Hopefully, they’ll join up with the others soon and we’ll see the (new) old Daryl again.

Tyreese has his hands full with those three girls.  I can’t imagine traveling in those conditions with a baby, but I am super glad that Judith made it.  I was fairly sure that the baby hadn’t died, since we didn’t see a body – and we know the “Walking Dead” rule.  Lizzie continues to be creepy and evidence mounts that she is a budding psychopath.  Did you see her stabbing those bunnies?  That is a huge red flag for future serial killers.  She also makes a comment about Sasha being gone that seemed to be made exclusively to hurt Tyreese.  And then we have the excruciating moment where she appears to be smothering Judith.  The scariest part of that scene was that Lizzie seemed to be enjoying cutting off Judith’s air.  I think it’s pretty clear that she is the person who fed rats to the walkers and dissected the rabbit at the prison.  Knowing what happens in the comics, I’m starting to get scared for Mika

I wasn’t sure why Tyreese left the girls to go investigate the screaming, but he may have been afraid that it was Sasha.  I loved Chad Coleman’s performance in this episode.  He has an amazing emotional range and I’m hoping that they really continue to develop his character, as the comic book counterpart is such a huge part of the story.  I’m glad to see Carol back, but I think the longer she waits to tell Tyreese about her part in Karen and David’s deaths, the bigger the blow up is going to be.  There’s a large group of people who still think that Carol was covering for Lizzie, but I really hope they don’t go down that path, because it jives more closely with Carol’s recent character development to have her be the killer.  I do think she’s going to be devastated when she finds out what a pyscho Lizzie is, though.

I’m pretty sure Sasha is in the same mindset as Daryl – she wants to find Tyreese, but she’s prepared for the worst.  Bob seems to be excited to be alive and that he’s with others, considering his past history of ending up the lone survivor of two groups.  Maggie is clearly grieving the loss of her father and letting that grief influence her decision to find Glenn at any cost.  She does try to leave Bob and Sasha behind to keep their exposure to danger minimal, but I definitely think she wouldn’t have made it through that bus without them.

I’m happy to see the awesomeness of Glenn reemerge.  We haven’t really got to see badass Glenn since early last season, so I loved seeing him put on that riot gear and push through the crowd of walkers.  Glenn has always been the most logical and forward thinking of the group, so it makes sense that he would accept Tara and enlist her help in getting out of the prison and finding Maggie.  I still think Tara is kind of a limp dishrag of a character, but hopefully they’ll develop her and give her something good to work with.

And now we come to the ending!  We get the iconic shot of Abraham Ford, Eugene, and Rosita that looks like it was pulled straight from the comic book.  The show has clearly made sure the look is exactly right, so hopefully they put as much work into making the characters awesome.  I’m thinking that Terminus is going to be a combination of the Hilltop Colony and the Alexandria Safe Zone (which means we may see Negan sometime soon), and there’s also a possibility that we’ll see the Hunters as a big bad for the rest of this season.

I hope that the groups start to converge pretty soon.  The worst thing they can do is drag the separation out for the rest of the season.  Scott Gimple and the writers seem pretty invested in moving the story along, so I have faith in them.

The Best Bits:

GLENN!  I heart you badass Glenn!

The Best Kill:

Newcomer Tara gets an awesome head bashing kill right at the end of the episode that gives me hope for her character!

This post contains spoilers for the “The Walking Dead” Episode 4.9.  If you do not want to be spoiled, DO NOT read on!

Episode 4.9: After (Mid-Season Premiere)

Written by Robert Kirkman

Directed by Greg Nicotero

The Governor’s attack has brought the return of badass Michonne.  The only hint that she’s not completely back to the stone-faced, silent Season 3 version of herself is the small wince we see when she stabs through Hershel’s reanimated head.  (And, was that really necessary, writers?  Isn’t it bad enough that’s he’s dead?  *sob*)  Luckily, we also get to see the Governor’s body and confirmation that he’s really and truly dead with a giant hole in his forehead.

Being in the middle of the apocalypse doesn’t change the fact that Carl is teenager.  He’s been defiant before, and even challenged his dad before, but we get to see the full force of his teen angst.  Unlike most teen angst, it’s backed by some heavy duty trauma, so he’s got plenty to be angry about.  It’s interesting that it still manifests in the usual way – passive aggressiveness, acting out, and talking back.  His fights with his dad are petty, despite the fact that their lives are in serious danger.  Carl isn’t above dealing a few low blows, including bringing up Shane.

We see a glimpse of Michonne in her old life, arguing about an art exhibit in a beautiful city apartment with her boyfriend and his friend.  It seems like memory at first – a relatively unimportant moment, but one that represents the normality of the past.  But, we start noticing signs that things aren’t what they seem, even though Michonne doesn’t.  I loved the nearly seamless transition from Michonne holding a kitchen knife to a katana, and her obliviousness while the men went from talking about art to survival.  We also see that Michonne did have a child at one point, which makes sense considering her reaction to Judith.

Carl takes the opportunity to confront his dad while Rick is passed out on the sofa holding the door shut.  He’s obviously angry and he says things he doesn’t mean, but he also has some valid reasons to be upset and disappointed.  Rick kept them at the prison knowing that the Governor was out there, but he didn’t do much to get them prepared.  The farming he did was a way to not deal with reality, and he wanted Carl to do the same, which could have got them killed.

Carl is tough for a kid his age, but as we see when he goes off on his own, he’s still got a kid’s common sense.  He nearly dies twice.  He’s excited about the big screen TV and stacks of video games before it dawns on him that he can’t use any of it.  He tries to break down the door the way his dad does, but his small frame just bounces off. But, he does get  a rare moment to be a kid on that roof with the giant can of pudding.

Even though I knew Rick wasn’t dead, I did hold my breath for just a minute when he was reaching out for Carl and rasping.  Carl has a reversal and clearly can’t do what he did for his mother because he doesn’t want to be alone.  He finally admits that he’s scared, even with all his posturing.

Michonne joins a group of walkers for protection, but she realizes she wants to be around living people again after being confronted by a walker that somewhat resembles her, and slaughters them all in an epic scene.  She returns to the tracks she found earlier and follows Rick and Carl’s trail.  We get to see her talk to her boyfriend as she described in “Clear”, and she effectively says goodbye to him – she misses him, but she’s angry that he gave up.  From what she said, it’s very possible that he may have killed himself and their young son.

Rick and Carl have a heart-to-heart that culminates with Rick finally acknowledging what Carl’s wanted all along – that he’s an adult.  But Carl knows better now, and he shrugs off his dad’s apology.  They will both have a better appreciation for each other now.  We get a rare good ending for a “Walking Dead” episode, when Michonne finds Rick and Carl and weeps with joy.  I loved Rick laughing with relief and saying, “It’s for you.”  It was an awesome way to ease out of a really tense, dark episode.

This episode belonged to Danai Gurira and Chandler Riggs.  They were both amazing.  I was hesitant to see a Carl-centric episode, but I think the writers did a great job of balancing his good and not-so-good qualities to show him as a well-rounded character.  I really feel like if they continue developing Michonne this way, she is going to be a stellar character, maybe even better than the comics version, because of Gurira’s acting ability. (I loved getting to hear her talk about Michonne on “Talking Dead” – she obviously loves this character and loves playing her.)

The Best Bits:

Michonne’s dream was both beautiful and horrifying, and I loved the way they avoided a lot of the dream clichés and the detail they put into the background elements as it progressed.  I also really enjoyed Carl eating the crap out of that pudding.

The Best Kill:

It can only be Michonne killing the entire herd of walkers.  She rules!

♥ Instructables has instructions for a miniature zombie survival kit that fits in an Altoid tin!

♥ Check out these awesome gifsets that compare episodes 1.1 and 4.8 to their comic book counterparts on the Tumblr blog Keep Calm and Carol On!

♥ Uproxx has a pretty badass infographic detailing the kills for this season as well as each character’s most and least useful moments.  (You may also want to check out their “Ten Open Questions After the Mid-Season Finale” to brush up on where we left off in December.)

♥ Artist Duke Dasterdly has some amazing alternate posters for previous seasons of “The Walking Dead”.  Buy Season 1, Season 2, and Season 3.

♥ The ultimate “Walking Dead” infographic comes from the National Post.  Created by Richard Johnson and Andrew Barr, it details the onscreen kills, a chronological list of the onscreen zombie deaths (complete with dispatcher and weapon used), the weapons used, and the leading zombie killer stats – all organized by season.

Best Worst Movie (2009)

Directed by Michael Paul Stephenson

Starring:
George Hardy
Jason Steadman
Connie Young
Curtis Gwinn

Available on Netfix and Hulu Plus

In 1989, Italian director Claudio Fragasso and his wife, Rossella Drudi created a horror film, originally titled Goblins, that was supposed to satirize the growing trend of Drudi’s friends becoming vegetarians.  Instead, it became a low-budget straight-to-cable release that received a 0% “Fresh” rating on the movie review site Rotten Tomatoes and was widely regarded as the “worst movie ever made”.  The actors were horrified by their performances, even young Michael Paul Stephenson, who played the main character, Joshua.  Stephenson received the VHS of Troll 2 for Christmas in 1990 and his dreams of child stardom seemed to die a little more with every scene.

Because of repeated airings on HBO, Troll 2 gathered a fervent cult following among children and teenagers growing up in early 90s.  This was also the time of “Mystery Science Theater 3000″, which celebrated terrible movies and introduced the “so bad it’s good” genre to a mainstream audience outside of college dorms and dark basements.  Like many of my geeky peers, “MST3K” was a staple of my childhood and fueled my love of campy horror and sci-fi films.  TNT also had a show called “Monstervision”, which also featured camp horror classics and was hosted by Joe Bob Briggs in the style popularized by other horror hosts like Svengoolie and Vampira.  It was on this show that I saw Troll 2.  I was confused, disgusted, and completely entertained.

Troll 2‘s likeability despite its inherent badness paved the way for lifelong devotion among horror fans, private annual viewing parties, and showings at independent theaters that rival Rocky Horror Picture Show.  This is the world captured by Stephenson in Best Worst Movie as he documents the aftermath of Troll 2 and how the worst movie ever made has finally found its audience 20 years after its release.

Most of the documentary centers on Dr. George Hardy, a Utah dentist who starred as the Waits family patriarch.  He is introduced to the Troll 2 fandom through several events hosted by independent movie theaters around the country and is delighted to receive the recognition he was hoping for the first time around.  Along with Stephenson, he seeks out his fellow castmates, who relive the trauma of shooting the film and the horror of seeing it the first time.

Hardy and Stephenson are the most at ease with their B-movie past.  They recognize the failings of the film and their own subpar acting skills, and are willing to approach the subject in a light-hearted way.  After the highs of the wild reception they receive from the diehard fandom, they also face the sobering reality of what has become of a few of their fellow castmates.  A few have become recluses, retreating from acting and the world around them.  Fragasso, the director, still believes whole-heartedly in the quality of the movie, and unlike the cast, is disappointed by the fans’ reception of the film as a great bad movie.  He is deadly serious about the film being a legitimate message piece, and his delusion is both hilarious and sort of tragic.

Because it comes from someone involved in a camp classic, Best Worst Movie provides an inside perspective into the making of a great bad movie and reminds us that, once upon a time, it started out as just a movie.  The people who worked on it wanted it to be popular with a mainstream audience and appear in theaters.  They fully expected that movie to launch their career.  Sometimes it works out, like it did for Jennifer Aniston, Demi Moore, Tom Hanks, and every other star who’s first role was a campy horror flick.  But, sometimes it doesn’t and those people have to go on living their lives.  But, if they’re lucky, they’ll get a little taste of fame from the weirdos (like me) who love watching bad movies.

This movie is a must-watch for every “MST3K” fan who actively looked for terrible horror films in their local video store.  It will make you want to watch Troll 2 again (or for the first time if you haven’t seen it).  It will make you want to dig out your old “MST3k” tapes and VHS player and have a bad movie marathon.  You may even go searching for bootleg “Monstervision” or “Elvira” videos on YouTube.

If you are looking for Troll 2, may I recommend the 20th Anniversary Nilbog Edition for the extremely reasonable price of $11.31?

♥ Women Rock Science

An awesome tumblr blog all about women in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math).  It promotes interest in STEM for young women and educates about the history of women in STEM, dating back to the 11th century.

♥ Sci-Universe

Mari-Liis blogs beautiful, fascinating posts about science and astronomy.  She is passionate in her love of science and the universe and shares that passion with her followers.  You can also follow her on Twitter @sci_universe

♥ Mental Floss

Quarterly magazine Mental Floss spreads its awesomeness to tumblr with the kind of fun and informative posts that echo the feel of the mag itself.

♥ We Are Star Stuff

Another gorgeous science and astronomy tumblr that will light up your dash.

♥ It’s Okay to Be Smart

Joe Hanson, the host of the PBS web series “It’s Okay to be Smart”, has an awesome tumblr.  He posts the latest IOTBS videos, as well as other cool science-related posts!

Dreams of a Life (2011)

Directed by Carol Morely

Starring:
Zawe Ashton

Available on Netflix and Hulu Plus

In January 2006, agents from a London housing association charged with repossessing a small one room flat, commonly known as a “bedsit”, discovered the skeletonized remains of a 38 year old woman, Joyce Carol Vincent.  Joyce’s dead body had lain in the apartment undisturbed for over three years, her television still on and tuned to BBC-1.  The discovery elicited a small article in the Sun, which filmmaker Carol Morely read by chance when she picked up discarded copy of the newspaper while riding the subway.

Morely was fascinated by the story of the woman who died alone and seemingly went unnoticed for so long.  She began culling information about Joyce through public records and interviews with friends and acquaintances and pieced together a sketch of Joyce’s life as it appeared to those around her.

This became the bare bones for her film about Joyce, Dreams of a Life.  It is only really a documentary in that it is about someone who actually lived and died, told from the perspective of the actual people who were a part of her life.  The interviews with Joyce’s friends are intercut with reenactments as Morely imagines what Joyce’s inner life was like, with actress Zawe Ashton portraying Joyce.  Some of the details, such as the small pile of wrapped Christmas presents found beside her body are a part of the official record, but much of the rest is an educated guess based on the little Morely found out about Joyce in her search for information.

Far from detracting from the story, the reenactments humanize Joyce more than the few photographs available can.  Ashton does a wonderful job of conveying the apparent duality of her life – showing both the bubbly, effervescent side that her friends remember and the solitary, tragic figure she became at the end.  Morely often transitions between the interviews and the reenactments using the television, an eerie reminder that the television had stayed on throughout Joyce’s entombment in her apartment. At times, it seems like Joyce is watching her old friends describe her, which adds a layer of haunting surreality to the depiction of her solitude.

It’s impossible to really know Joyce Carol Vincent from what we’re given in the in the film, but we are allowed to glimpse the shadowed figure under the glossy veneer that the rest of the world saw.  Joyce’s often mentioned sisters declined to be interviewed, so their side of the story is missing – as is the fact that they hired a private detective to find her.  There are significant gaps in the story and I got the impression that many of the people interviewed were guarded about the information they shared, but Morely does her best to connect the audience to her elusive subject and she bookends the story with a haunting song by Alice Temple that, in the moment, seems to be the voice of Joyce herself, calling from the grave.  It is a film that will leave you breathless and haunted, particularly the final moments, which feature the only known video of Joyce Carol Vincent.

♥ Welcome to Night Vale

Frequently described as “The Prairie Home Companion” in the Twilight Zone, Welcome to Night Vale features Ceil Baldwin as the voice of local news radio announcer Cecil Palmer, the velvet voice of reason calmly detailing the incredible supernatural ongoings of the small desert town.  Two-headed quarterbacks, hooded figures, a mayoral battle between a five-headed dragon and a faceless old woman, and a child warrior fighting against an army of evil librarians are business as usual for Night Vale.  Welcome to Night Vale has become an underground phenomenon with a huge online fan community.  Presented as a regular local news radio program, the “Weather” features up and coming musical acts.  It’s one of the most creative, surprising, addictive programs I’ve encountered so far.  (It also has a kick-ass merch shop!)

Release Frequency: Bi-monthly, on the 1st and 15th

Perfect for: Supernatural/Sci-fi fans who appreciate the surreality of old-school anthology programs like “The Twilight Zone” and “The Outer Limits”

♥ The Smartest Man in the World

Comedian Greg Proops talks about baseball, history, films, literature, and politics on his weekly podcast recorded at gigs around the world.  Proops is hilarious and highly knowledgeable, relating funny stories full of little known trivia on all of these subjects.  He spends equal time on globally important subjects (designated as “the boring, preachy part”) as well, particularly feminism, racism, and the oppression of the poor.  He frequently reads poetry, pays tribute to great icons who’ve recently passed away, and encourages his audience to be informed.

Release Frequency: Weekly, Mondays

Perfect for: Listeners who are seeking a good balance of entertainment and education.

♥ The Two-Headed Nerd Comicast

A homegrown podcast from my adopted hometown of Omaha, Nebraska, the Two-Headed Nerd is a comics-centered podcast hosted by Joe and Matt.  It’s briskly paced and tightly edited, so listeners get thoughtful reviews of a wide variety of recently released comics.  These guys know their stuff, but they definitely make their reviews approachable for comic newbs.  They’re super interactive with their audience and actively look for audience feedback on a number of social platforms.

Release Frequency: Weekly, Sundays

Perfect for: Seasoned and new comic readers looking to expand their collections with help from experts

♥ The /Filmcast

/Film’s official film review podcast features critics Dave Chen and Devindra Hardawar reviewing recently released films with a guest reviewer.  The normal format for a /Filmcast episode is broken down into three parts – what they’ve been watching, film news, and the main review.  For more significant films, they will also do bonus episodes focusing solely on those films.  Chen and Hardawar are definitely film buffs, but do not restrict their praise to critical darlings.  They’re honest about their likes and dislikes and they aren’t afraid to disagree with each other or their guests.  Film nerds will appreciate the careful analysis and the clearly defined spoiler section.

Release Frequency: Weekly (for the most part, although they do take periodic breaks), Mondays

Perfect for: Film nerds who see a large number of movies in the theater

♥ How Did This Get Made?

Paul Scheer, June Diane Raphael, and Jason Mantzoukas collaborate with a guest to tear apart bad movies until there’s nothing left.  The main group has a great dynamic that makes for hilarious listening, even if you haven’t seen the movie.  They frequently do live episodes and their past guests include Weird Al Yankovic, Damon Lindelof, Adam Scott, and fellow star of “The League” Nick Kroll.

Release Frequency: Bi-weekly (Mini episodes are released on off weeks), Tuesdays

Perfect for: “MST3K” fans and those who love watching “so bad, it’s good” flicks

♥ Go Bayside!

“Saved by the Bell” super fan April Richardson is working her way through the show’s entire series run (but no “Good Morning, Miss Bliss” or “College Years”), including the two made-for-TV movies!  Each week, she sits down with a friend to analyze an episode and celebrate a treasured piece of her adolescence.  Richardson’s enthusiasm for the show is perfectly balanced for her willingness to affectionately poke fun at its more ridiculous qualities and she brings in guests with a wide variety of connection to the show – fellow fans, newcomers, and even people who appeared as extras on the show!  The whole show is available on Netflix and she announces the next featured episode to allow listeners to watch along.

Release Frequency: Weekly, Tuesdays

Perfect for: 90s kids who grew up watching the show first run on Saturday mornings or who caught the onslaught of weekly reruns on multiple channels

♥ StarTalk Radio

Astrophysicst Neil deGrasse Tyson presents astronomy and science in an attainable way for the most casual of science enthusiasts.  He frequently cohosts with comedians Chuck Nice and Leighann Lord and covers everything from the cosmos to robotics to virology to the science of sex, complete with expert interviews.  Dr. Tyson never talks down to his audience, but he also makes the science easy to understand.

Release Frequency: Weekly, Sundays

Perfect for: Astronomy (and science) enthusiasts of all levels

♥ The Naked Scientists

Scientists and researchers from Cambridge University bring science to the general public through BBC radio.  Each episode includes expert interviews, science news, and live lectures.  In addition to the regular Naked Scientist podcasts, the line up includes Naked Neuroscience, Naked Genetics, and Naked Astronomy.  The separate podcasts allow listeners to focus on the science genre of their choice, but they are all wonderfully informative.

Release Frequency: Weekly, Sundays

Perfect for: Science enthusiasts of all levels

♥ In Our Time

Hosted by Melvyn Bragg, this BBC-produced podcast covers a multitude of topics – history, philosophy, religion, art, and science.  Bragg discusses a weekly subject with three expert guests.  In Our Time is one of the most popular podcasts in the world, and for good reason.  It’s awesomely educational and interesting and it motivates listeners to find out more on their own.  I can’t recommend this podcast enough!

Release Frequency:  Weekly, Thursdays

Perfect for: Anyone who loves to learn

All of these podcasts are available for download on iTunes and many of them can be directly downloaded or streamed from their home websites.

Jupiter and the Quadrantids may sound like the newest hipster band, but it’s really the description of the awesome astronomical events happening in early January.

Quadrantids Meteor Shower:

Tonight is the peak of the Quadrantids Meteor Shower, and luckily for my fellow space nerds, it’s happening during a new moon!  The Quadrantids are comparable to the two biggies – the Perseids (August) and the Geminids (December) – but they are noted for their super intense and condensed peak times, sometimes lasting only a couple of hours.  This means, unlike the other showers, you’ll only get one shot at seeing a large number of meteors, so get out there late tonight or very early tomorrow morning for the best show.  The radiant point for the Quadrantids is inside the Boötes constellation, which can be found between the handle of the Big Dipper and the head of Draco.

Sky & Telescope Illustration (click through for source)

Quadrantids Viewing Tips:

• Avoid light pollution by choosing a viewing site in a remote area.  Because this year’s shower occurs during a new moon, dark skies should be optimal as long as the weather holds out!
• Being comfortable makes for enjoyable viewing, so bring a reclining chair or your preferred combination of blankets and pillows.  We’ve discovered through trial and error that pillows and a thick flannel blanket on top of a tarp work best for staying comfortable and dry.  However, because of the freezing temperatures, you may want to upgrade to a small camping mattress or insulated pad and a cold weather tested sleeping bag.
• Layer!  This is important for all meteor showers, but particularly the Quadrantids.  In addition to the regular hat-gloves-scarf combination, thermals are a very good idea for keeping warm.  You can also bring your hot beverage of choice in an insulated thermos (I recommend Hydro Flask, as these amazing bottles keep hot liquids warm for 12 hours.)
• Leave the tech at home.  Meteor showers are best observed with the naked eye, so don’t worry about lugging your telescope or even your binoculars.

2014 Jupiter Opposition

Just a few days after the peak of the Quadrantids, Jupiter will be at opposition on January 5th.  The gas giant will be at its closest approach to Earth and will be fully illuminated by the sun, giving astronomers the best chance to view and photograph it.  At optimal viewing, you should be able to see Jupiter’s four largest moons with binoculars and a mid-sized telescope will show some of the planet’s cloud bands.  Find out more here!

NASA/Damian Peach, Amateur Astonomer (Image courtesy of JPL)

2013 was a weird, tumultuous year.  My grandfather, whom I loved and respected very much, passed away in February.  It was something we all knew was going to happen eventually, but it was still a blow for everyone who knew him.  February also brought career-related changes.  Kris was laid off from a job that he really enjoyed because of budget cuts.  And in September, I left the world of retail, where I’d been plodding along for the last 10+ years, to start a new job in IT.

I thought for sure that going from labor-intensive long days on my feet to an office job would be a piece of cake.  The biggest thing I’ve learned from switching jobs is that any dramatic change is stressful, even if it’s going from a physically hard job to an easier one.

So, why am I telling you these things?  Well, in the shuffle of these life-changing events, I’ve neglected this space.  I found that even though I was still excited about things, I was significantly less excited about writing.  The blog started to seem like a chore and an obligation.  I felt guilty when I didn’t post, but I also felt like I didn’t have anything important or valuable to say.

I’m happy to report that I’m finally feeling acclimated to my new job and I’m excited about blogging again.  Maybe I just needed to give myself a break and spend a few months focusing on other things, or maybe the dissipation of stress has eased my writing block.  Regardless, I’m making a serious commitment to you, the readers, and my fellow Geektastics team members to make this space everything I want it to be – an informative, interesting celebration of geekitude!

My grandfather’s consistent advice was “Always do your best.  That’s all anyone can ask.”  For The Geektastics, 2014 will be The Year of Jack.  We’re going to do our best to make this blog awesome!

Happy New Year!