Getting in on the Fantasia action later than I would have liked this year, and for reason, I kicked it off with what could possibly be my oddest movie choice to date. All I knew of it was the short descriptive blurb in the program, and paired with the colourful photo it presented, I thought it would be cheesy, light-hearted fun.
The Osheaga Arts & Music Festival is absolutely one of the biggest events of the summer in a city that is defined by having a million big events in the summer. And this year, it’s going to be even bigger. The last two editions of Osheaga took place on a temporary site that made the best of re-purposed sections of the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve but 2019 will mark the return of the festival to the original site. By original site I of course mean a newly renovated site that boasts a capacity somewhere over 65,000 people.
So to celebrate Osheaga being even bigger than ever we are making our 9to5.cc podcast specials even bigger than ever. How much bigger? Twice as bigger. That’s right, instead of one episode a day, Sarah and I will be breaking down our picks for each day across two episodes. When are we starting? Right now.
Our final preview episode (we’ll have a “Comedown” episode on Monday August 5th) is a little about romance and a little bit about being a badass lady. Also! Check out Go Plug Yourself on Thursday for our full length episode with We Are Monroe!
Enjoy the show!
Episode 1 (Friday Part 1) is here.
Episode 2 (Friday Part 2) is here.
Episode 3 (Saturday Part 1) is here.
Episode 4 (Saturday Part 2) is here.
Episode 5 (Sunday Part 1) is here.
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Osheaga is August 2nd to 4th at Parc Jean Drapeau, music starts at 13h each day. Check out osheaga.com for more info and tickets.
All audio clips are copyright of their respective owners and used solely with the intention of promoting Osheaga.
Our intro song is Paradise Engineering (instrumental) by YACHT and is licensed under a Attribution-Noncommercial-
Keith does all sorts of things here on 9to5.cc, he works with the other founders on 9to5 (illustrated), co-hosts our two podcasts: The 9to5 Entertainment System and Go Plug Yourself and blogs here as The Perspicacious Geek.
My wife described “Girls Gotta Eat” like “My Favorite Murderer” but about dating.
That’s not bad company for Rayna Greenberg and Ashley Hesseltine to be keeping (MFM does nearly 20 million downloads a month). The girls are bringing their dating expertise (ie: plenty of first hand experience) to Montreal and Toronto in the next few days for a live version of their podcast.
The live experience promises up-to-the-minute updates regarding their current dating situations (so fans of the show will have early insights) and, as the girls put it: “the best letters” are saved for the live shows. There is also audience participation, so if you desperately want Ashley and Rayna to be your personal relationship gurus you should make sure you’re at the show.
I was lucky enough to grab a quick phone interview with the girls today and now you are lucky enough to listen to it. It’s fun how that works.
Listen now and check out Girls Gotta Eat July 23rd at the Danforth Music Hall in Toronto or July 24th at Place des Arts in Montreal. More info and tickets here.
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Keith does all sorts of things here on 9to5.cc, he works with the other founders on 9to5 (illustrated), co-hosts our two podcasts: The 9to5 Entertainment System and Go Plug Yourself and blogs here as The Perspicacious Geek.
Image of Girls Gotta Eat from their official website.
Not pictured: Blonde hair.
The moment Cameron Esposito took to the stage in Montreal her fans immediately knew that something was different.
Still present was her trademark look of stylish coif and motorcycle jacket, but that coif? It’s blonde now.
As Esposito puts it, this is her “divorce hair.”
As Esposito works through the new hour of material that she is calling Separately , she talks us through the struggles of being on the forefront of something “new” for the LGBTQ community: divorce. The United States only made the right to marriage universal across all 50 States in 2015 (although it had been legal in some States since as early as 2004). Therefore, with only 4 to 15 years of legally binding unions in the bank, Esposito is definitely a pioneer in the world of ending a same-sex marriage.
All that to say, there is very little in culture to prepare her for the realities of the last year.
There are no pop songs to play on repeat.
No movies that will safely comfort her.
Instead, Esposito has been left to figure things out on her own, with varying degree of success.
From making questionable food choices, to binging hundreds of hours of sappy network dramas. From having to travel alone, to trying to figure out what her hobbies might be. Separately seems most interested in finding out just who Cameron Esposito is in 2019.
As much as she might joke about not being relatable (and honestly, who can relate to someone who pronounces “gif” that way?), Esposito’s experiences are extremely accessible. You don’t need to be queer, married, female or even a talented stand up comedian to find something in Separately that might strike a chord. Esposito’s latest hour is an honest look at what happens to a person’s life when they suddenly find themselves alone when they didn’t expect to be. And if you’ve ever experienced that, you’ll find yourself sympathetic to Esposito’s new material.
In fact, there was a woman behind me who was audibly agreeing and going “mmm hmm” throughout the set that perhaps had a parallel life to Cameron Esposito. Who knew there where so many people who had to endure the social awkwardness of mingling with older women in a country club following their lesbian divorces?
Someone should create a Facebook Group for that.
If reading this has given you the impression that Separately is a downer well, I wish I could say it wasn’t, but it kind of is.
But that’s not to say it’s not funny.
Hearing Esposito navigate through all these different situations is almost continuously hilarious (although there are a handful of genuine emotional gut shots in the set). The reason you might feel a little down is wholly attributable to Esposito’s sincerity. She is so genuinely earnest and open on stage that as an audience member, you just want the best for her.
You don’t want Cameron Esposito to be alone witnessing bizarre hotel celebrity signings, you want her to be able to share that experience with someone else who makes her happy.
If you’re ready to laugh along with the trials and tribulations of being on your own when you didn’t expect to be, check out Separately July 22 to 24 at Katacombes. Tickets and info here.
Keith does all sorts of things here on 9to5.cc, he works with the other founders on 9to5 (illustrated), co-hosts our two podcasts: The 9to5 Entertainment System and Go Plug Yourself and blogs here as The Perspicacious Geek.
The Osheaga Arts & Music Festival is absolutely one of the biggest events of the summer in a city that is defined by having a million big events in the summer. And this year, it’s going to be even bigger. The last two editions of Osheaga took place on a temporary site that made the best of re-purposed sections of the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve but 2019 will mark the return of the festival to the original site. By original site I of course mean a newly renovated site that boasts a capacity somewhere over 65,000 people.
So to celebrate Osheaga being even bigger than ever we are making our 9to5.cc podcast specials even bigger than ever. How much bigger? Twice as bigger. That’s right, instead of one episode a day, Sarah and I will be breaking down our picks for each day across two episodes. When are we starting? Right now.
Our fifth episode is all about guys named Sebastian. Or at least partially about guys named Sebastian. There are also a lot of pro tips. Expect our last episode some time next week because we are just two weeks away from Osheaga!
Enjoy the show!
Episode 1 (Friday Part 1) is here.
Episode 2 (Friday Part 2) is here.
Episode 3 (Saturday Part 1) is here.
Episode 4 (Saturday Part 2) is here.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: RSS
Osheaga is August 2nd to 4th at Parc Jean Drapeau, music starts at 13h each day. Check out osheaga.com for more info and tickets.
All audio clips are copyright of their respective owners and used solely with the intention of promoting Osheaga.
Our intro song is Paradise Engineering (instrumental) by YACHT and is licensed under a Attribution-Noncommercial-
Keith does all sorts of things here on 9to5.cc, he works with the other founders on 9to5 (illustrated), co-hosts our two podcasts: The 9to5 Entertainment System and Go Plug Yourself and blogs here as The Perspicacious Geek.
Where our heroes are still in the goth infused majesty of to 1991 when vampires were the absolute coolest. They are on a ghost ship, not any ghost ship: The Ship of Horrors.
An adventure starring Jaxxo the Lizardfolk Monk, Jim Clocks the Half-Aquatic Elf Rogue, Brubax the Goliath Barbarian, Tidus the Triton Cleric and L’Eau D’ur the Genasi Warlock.
I’m in black and Jon (the DM) is in blue.
If this is your first time checking out our little D&D Adventure Blog, you might want to check out this post that explains the setup and format of the game. You can check out all “Big Fish” content on this nifty landing page. And if you’re enjoying our little GameTale Adventure Blog, please tell your friends on whatever platform you interact with them. If you think Jon and I are at all entertaining please consider checking out the geek-centric podcast we do every two weeks “9ES” right here.
One of the issues that creeps up in this game is the fact that this group has faced a lot of nonsense scenarios and come out of them relatively unscathed. The Expedition to Barrier Peaks alone would be enough for most parties to become unflappable heroes. Throw in being trapped in The Underdark, sailing through space in SpellJammer and occasionally squaring off against high level Demons and Beholders and you have a crew that has absolutely no problem with marching up to the Captain and telling him a thing or two.
It takes a lot to phase this group of adventurers.
I’m guessing the fact that Jon didn’t want to drag this module out for more than two sessions helped a little two with the pace of discovery.
Time for lightning round part 2, as before Jon, your comments are a treasure.
Anne K. Brown started with TSR officially in 1989 (she had freelanced there before) and in 1991 she was given the task of writing Ship of Horror for the relatively new Ravenloft setting.
To read more about Anne’s career check out Part 2 of our interview here.
So, if you’ve been keeping up with Big Fish D&D, you know that we recently did a playthrough of the 1991 “Official Ravenloft Game Adventure” that was Ship of Horror. At one particular moment of the session (namely when we began the encounter with Meredoth the Necromancer) one of loudly proclaimed: “Who designed this?”
Well, one of the good things about running a moderately successful geek-centric website is that after the session, we tracked down the designer and asked her “What was the deal with Meredoth?”… among many other questions.
This is actually just Part 1 of the interview and deals pretty much exclusively with Ship of Horror. Come back next week for Part 2 where we asked Anne about game design, writing fiction and non-fiction and what it was like to work at TSR in the late 80’s right up until TSR’s purchase by Wizards of the Coast.
Please enjoy this glimpse into the creation of what has become somewhat of a cult classic module from D&D’s past.
(Jon): Just to let you know I’ve run it twice (and played it once!) and had a great time with all three groups.
(Keith): What was the starting point for Ship of Horror? Did you have any specific direction (ie: write a ghost ship story) or was it more wide open (ie: write a Ravenloft story)?
Anne: I’m glad you enjoyed it! Writing can be a very insecure business. Most writers finish a project and then have that moment of panic, wondering if it was any good. ↓ Read the rest of this entry…
She The People promises to be hilarious. Sure it is written, directed and performed by women, but their first order of business is to be funny.
Carly Heffernan is the director and one of the writers of the show that celebrates inclusivity. Featuring performers from the LGBTQ community, performers over 40, and performers from a variety of ethnic backgrounds, She The People is definitely among the most diverse ensembles performing at this years’ Just for Laughs festival.
The show has been tearing it up on stages across North America and will be bringing a little “Montreal” flavour to their sketches for the JFL edition.
Carly and I talk about the challenges of finding comedy in difficult situations, who she would like to have on stage as part of She The People (both modern and historically) and what it means to be a part of Just for Laughs.
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She The People runs July 22nd to 27th at Centaur Theatre, more info here.
As always, a big thank you to the providers of our theme song: Leighland Beckman and Aural Turpitude!
Keith does all sorts of things here on 9to5.cc, he works with the other founders on 9to5 (illustrated), co-hosts our two podcasts: The 9to5 Entertainment System and Go Plug Yourself and blogs here as The Perspicacious Geek.
The Nasty Show has the (dubious?) distinction of being one of the longest running shows at the Montreal Just for Laughs Festival.
There has no doubt been quite the evolution in comedy about what constitutes “nasty” these days and most comedians are no longer quite as interested in being offensive for the sake of it. This isn’t the PC 1990s where a performer can get a rise out of an audience just by dropping the occasional slur.
The new breed of nasty comedians includes the likes of Jessimae Peluso and Big Jay Oakerson, both of whom I was lucky enough to speak with before they hit the town next week for their unique brands of off-colour comedy.
Both comedians are advocates for freedom of speech, as being able to speak your mind about what you want (and how you want) is kind of hot button topic in many comedy circles.
But from Jessimae talk about washing her taint in a public fountain and being willing to approach every set with a “full throttle” approach and Big Jay willing to continue a conversation despite a bird having just shit on his head, it’s obvious that these comedians (and their cohorts at The Nasty Show) are not about censor themselves for any reason.
Listen to the episode now to hear Jessimae’s thoughts on edibles, dancing on Instagram and hear Big Jay talk about. 
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The Nasty Show, featuring Big Jay Oakerson, Andrew Schulz, Jessimae Peluso, Comedian CP and Bonnie McFarlene, hosted by Bobby Lee, runs July 17th to 27th at MTELUS. More info and tickets here.
Where our heroes travel back in time to 1991 when TSR was frantically trying to get all grimdark on our asses to compete with Vampire: The Masquerade.
As Jon has done several times before, our heroes find themselves stuck in an old school D&D module from the past. This time around they unwittingly join the crew of The Ship of Horror.
I think there was some kind of nostalgia here for you?
Very much so. The first major campaign I ran was a 2nd edition Ravenloft game, and its 4th chapter was the Ship of Horror. Took most of highschool, started with 2 players and grew to 4. There were 6 adventures, from level 1 to 13 or so. If for some inexplicable reason you could survive the end of Ship of Horror, that is.
An adventure starring Jaxxo the Lizardfolk Monk, Jim Clocks the Half-Aquatic Elf Rogue, Brubax the Goliath Barbarian, Tidus the Triton Cleric and L’Eau D’ur the Genasi Warlock.
I’m in black and Jon (the DM) is in blue.
If this is your first time checking out our little D&D Adventure Blog, you might want to check out this post that explains the setup and format of the game. You can check out all “Big Fish” content on this nifty landing page. And if you’re enjoying our little GameTale Adventure Blog, please tell your friends on whatever platform you interact with them. If you think Jon and I are at all entertaining please consider checking out the geek-centric podcast we do every two weeks “9ES” right here.
Point of order, in my brief little dive into the history of this module I found that it was written by Anne K. Brown. A few things here. One, big props to her for being a lady in what was certainly a male dominated industry in the late 80s and early 90s and going from Assistant Editor of Dragon Magazine to designing modules in like a couple of months. Two, she was apparently a big fan of Greyhawk but wrote for Ravenloft, Forgotten Realms and Dragonlance so that is cool. In fact, Ship of Horror was the first module supporting Ravenloft which I am assuming is kind of a big deal and shows that the company had a lot of faith in her. Three, she had a bit of a renaissance in the 2000s as an author of non-fiction aimed at middle-school aged kids. Wait, what? That’s right, you can read Anne K. Brown’s take on the lives of Katy Perry, Gwen Stefani, Roger Federer or her takes on “Staying Safe Online” and “Migraines”. Weird.
Now that the history lesson is out of the way, let’s get started. We actually took two sessions to get through this little adventure, but I seriously took like 20 little pages of notes. That said, we’re going to be skipping through some of the narrative and just focusing only on the best bits. You’ll thank me later.
The session started off with us onboard The Clepsydra, the fast little sloop owned by Jim Clocks. We were on our way to a treasure island, which in fact will be our next adventure. While stopped at a port city, the Ne’er Do Well Cads are pulled away from the important business of drinking by the sounds of a ruckus in the town square.
If you’ve been keeping tabs on our little foray into Spelljammer, you might remember that in the very first adventure we kind of happened upon a +3 Vorpal Sword that has since been wielded by our Cleric, Tidus. Small problem: the sword belonged to someone called The Lich Queen and every so often we are kind of ambushed by Red Dragons and Githyanki. I think this session marked the third such encounter.
But anyways it wasn’t an encounter, Tidus just gave the Githyanki back the +3 Vorpal Sword without a fight. Womp womp.
Almost certainly the first time in the history of DnD that someone gave back a silver sword. Color me a little disappointed. See, yeah, red dragon/githyanki wizard battle in populated area is no good, innocent bystanders and all. But I wanted that stolen silver sword to connect Tidus’ divine destiny into having to go to war with the Githyanki. Womp womp indeed. ↓ Read the rest of this entry…
