A podcast about science fiction and SF fandom from John Coxon, Alison Scott, and Liz Batty.
Episodes
Thursday Oct 29, 2020
Thursday Oct 29, 2020
John has finished his TAFF report, Alison wants you to upgrade to Zoom 5.3, and Liz ate a cake.
Please email your letters of comment to octothorpecast@gmail.com and use #OctothorpeCast when you post about the show on social media.
- You can now join Punctuation.
- Letters of comment:
- “Crazy” Dave Mansfield
- I have a longer form of this in draft, but just wanted to say that I’ve listened to 11 to 14 this morning. And it was really amusing hearing the shift from reviewing online conventions, to worrying that the wrong format was getting to be a tradition, to it being clear (with hindsight) that you were going to run one. Then episode 15 running with that as an accidental gag of failing to announce it was perfect. Hopefully I’ll finish the actual LOC today.
- If Zoom is methadone for con social spaces, and Discord paracetamol, is Octothorpe one of those double blind trials, where it turns out placebo is better than the current version?
- Claire Brialey of Croydon
- ”…the Discord chat has already made me feel quite fannish - i.e. interested and engaged and amused and occasionally irritated.”
- “…please continue with your attempts to baffle Neil Gaiman by sending him a corner of a completed jigsaw puzzle.”
- “If that all becomes too difficult, you could probably achieve the same immediate effect by sending him some Weetabix.”
- “Crazy” Dave Mansfield
- FIYAH Literary Magazine
- Essence of Wonder’s weekendly panels
- Ineffable Con 2
- Using Game Design to Make Virtual Events More Social
- Punctuation has a venue to tell us what you miss about conventions and socialising in the pandemic.
- Staying sane in the apocalypse
- Using Buddymove to stretch throughout the day
- Alison has bought a concertina from Alex Holden
- Liz had a cake spray-painted with rum
- John has had (whisper it) friends over for tea
- John has an outdoor heater
- John has finished his TAFF trip report
- John spent 14 hours playing Arkham Horror: The Card Game yesterday
- Our theme music is Fanfare for Space by Kevin MacLeod, used under a CC BY 3.0 license.
Thursday Oct 15, 2020
Thursday Oct 15, 2020
John is an internet historian, Alison is an investigative journalist, and Liz is a time-traveller.
Please email your letters of comment to octothorpecast@gmail.com and use #OctothorpeCast when you post about the show on social media.
- Letters of comment:
- Steven Cain writes “TwillTone sounds like a record label”.
- Karen Schaffer
- Claire Brialey
- We didn’t mention this in the podcast, but she writes “I’m not sure that I’m strong enough for the crossover podcast ‘Alison and Lilian shout at movies’, though,” which is a shame given that the Alison/Lilian project now has Christina editing and appears to be A REAL PODCAST.
- Futuricon and Octocon happened!
- Alison presented a talk at Futuricon on her GUFF trip with mmhmm (which John recommended to her, and which requires macOS Catalina or later)
- Alison is going to/has been to Zoomtopia
- Eastercon will happen!
- FIYAH are running a convention.
- Finland (The Åland Islands) is bidding for the ’25 Eurocon.
- You can now join Punctuation.
- Our theme music is Fanfare for Space by Kevin MacLeod, used under a CC BY 3.0 license.
Thursday Oct 01, 2020
Thursday Oct 01, 2020
John, Alison and Liz are running a convention.
Please email your letters of comment to octothorpecast@gmail.com and use #OctothorpeCast when you post about the show on social media.
- Letters of comment:
- Claire Brialey #1
- Mark Plummer #1
- Claire Brialey #2
- Lilian Edwards & Alison Scott
- Mark Plummer #2
- Bridget Bradshaw
- Eastercon
- Punctuation.
- Our theme music is Fanfare for Space by Kevin MacLeod, used under a CC BY 3.0 license.
Poetry corner!
Claire Brialey’s poem:
This isn’t prose; perhaps it makes it better.
At least it’s all in email, not a letter.
Discussing podcasts makes you rather meta,
And less is more, so let’s not get courgetter.
Mark Plummer’s clerihew:
Alison Scott’s erudition
Does not enslave her to tradition
But John’s misuse of the word “plethora”
Will be the death of her
Thursday Sep 17, 2020
Thursday Sep 17, 2020
John is making a podcast, Alison is gone again, and Liz is chairing GlobeCon™.
Please email your letters of comment to octothorpecast@gmail.com and use #OctothorpeCast when you post about the show on social media!
- Letters of comment:
- Mark Plummer
- Researching the Golden Age starts at ~49 minutes on the Scioto Sunday recording
- The Technological Dreams of AfroFuturism starts at ~1h50m on the Olentangy Sunday recording
- John didn’t put these links in the show notes last week
- Lilian Edwards
- Karen Schaffer
- España Sheriff
- Mark Plummer
- International conventions
- Will Eastercon happen?
- ConFusion has released Progress Report 1
- We’ve heard rumours of a convention on Novacon weekend (shhh)
- Aftershow
- Our theme music is Fanfare for Space by Kevin MacLeod, used under a CC BY 3.0 license.
Thursday Sep 03, 2020
Thursday Sep 03, 2020
John is in the wrong Zoom, Alison is tactful, and Liz went to her first online convention.
Please email your letters of comment to octothorpecast@gmail.com and use #OctothorpeCast when you post about the show on social media!
- Letters of comment were sent from Mark Plummer, Claire Brialey and Ian Sorensen
- Chadwick Boseman has died of cancer
- NASFiC 2020 was held online
- Liz attended:
- Researching the Golden Age with Alec Nevala-Lee and Farah Mendlesohn
- The Technological Dreams of AfroFuturism with Dan Tres Omi, Eboni Dunbar, Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki, and Sheree Renée Thomas
- Panel recordings do not appear to be available, but the schedule is here
- Liz attended:
- Virtually Expo was the online UK Games Expo
- Our theme music is Fanfare for Space by Kevin MacLeod, used under a CC BY 3.0 license.
Thursday Aug 20, 2020
Thursday Aug 20, 2020
John is sort of John-shaped, Alison quite fancies a fantastic beach holiday, and Liz is compensating.
Please email your letters of comment to octothorpecast@gmail.com and use #OctothorpeCast when you post about the show on social media!
- Upcoming site selection
- Chicon 8 (Chicago, USA) was voted in as the 2022 Worldcon, beating Jeddah (Saudi Arabia)
- Chengdu (China) is bidding for 2023
- Jeddah is bidding in 2026
- George R.R. Martin hosted the Hugo Awards
- reCONvene 2020
- Upcoming conventions:
- Virtual NASFiC 2020
- Virtually Expo (the online edition of the UK Games Expo)
- Futuricon
- Please send us more poems!
- Our theme music is Fanfare for Space by Kevin MacLeod, used under a CC BY 3.0 license
Thursday Aug 06, 2020
Thursday Aug 06, 2020
John, Alison and Liz are live from Liz’s house!*
Please email your letters of comment to octothorpecast@gmail.com and use #OctothorpeCast when you post about the show on social media!
- Letters of comment:
- Our theme music is Fanfare for Space by Kevin MacLeod, used under a CC BY 3.0 license
*May be a lie.
Thursday Jul 23, 2020
Thursday Jul 23, 2020
John is channelling Ian Sorensen, Alison is on Sydney time, and Liz has written a poem.
Please email your letters of comment to octothorpecast@gmail.com and use #OctothorpeCast when you post about the show on social media!
- Letters of comment:
- Max Harden tells us she listens at 3x speed, and says “If only we could speed up pub chats too”.
- This gives John the idea for a panel show; have people listen to podcasts at various speeds, see how much they understood, and then have them drink alcohol and repeat!
- Dave Mansfield says he often doesn’t have time to read all the BSFA nominees and thanks us for reminding him you can abandon books you dislike
- Mark Plummer sent a clerihew to John which cannot be broadcast, and a triptych which can
- The triptych is printed below
- Liz wrote a limerick in response to Mark’s clerihew, also below
- Max Harden tells us she listens at 3x speed, and says “If only we could speed up pub chats too”.
- Alison’s GUFF trip has started!
- Virtual conventions
- Hugo Awards
- Alison wrote about the Best Fancast
- If you’re looking here for a picture of Alison looking confused, I misspoke: look at the album art instead
- Anki
- Aftershow
- Our theme music is Fanfare for Space by Kevin MacLeod, used under a CC BY 3.0 license
Liz’s limerick
- The poems of Croydon fan Plummer,
- Entertain Octothorpe for the summer.
- Though his rhymes are first class,
- They’re too rude to broadcast,
- Which is really a bit of a bummer.
Mark’s triptych
- Doctor John the boy Coxon
- Didn’t notice several LOCs on
- Octothorpe because he hadn’t checked
- And thus he failed to Mark protect
- Liz Batty (also Doctor)
- Didn’t know so many people had LOCced her
- Octothorpe’s a fannish gestalt
- But in this respect it’s all John’s fault
- GUFF winner Alison Scott
- Has several Novas and she has also got
- Two Hugos for the fanzine Plokta
- But unlike John and Liz she’s [Fremulon] not a doctor
Thursday Jul 09, 2020
Thursday Jul 09, 2020
John is an entryist from the Mark Neglection League, Alison is podcasting from a Secret Remote Location, and Liz would like to see the cats.
Please email your letters of comment to octothorpecast@gmail.com and use #OctothorpeCast when you post about the show on social media!
- Letters of comment:
- Claire “Correct” Brialey, Lilian “Time-Traveller” Edwards, “Crazy” Dave Mansfield, Helena “Not Andrew or Mark” McCallum, Mark “Neglection League” Plummer
- Alison is preparing for her virtual GUFF trip
- 11 July–2 August
- We are going to be doing a live recording from virtual Liz’s house, with real Liz and virtual Alison and John
- CoNZealand
- We discuss the new wave of #MeToo in the SF/comics/gaming communities
- Staying sane in the apocalypse:
- Liz is reading New Suns
- John has printed the following on Dox Direct:
- Our theme music is Fanfare for Space by Kevin MacLeod, used under a CC BY 3.0 license
Thursday Jun 25, 2020
Thursday Jun 25, 2020
John is bad at emails, Liz is bad at Twitter, and Alison is going to be quieter this week.
Please email your letters of comment to octothorpecast@gmail.com and use #OctothorpeCast when you post about the show on social media!
- We are really sorry to the following people who we inadvertently ignored for ages:
- Andrew January
- Andrew Hogg
- Mark Olson
- Mark Plummer
- Black Lives Matter follow-up:
- The WSFS Business Meeting “cannot” go online
- (Our perspective on this is perhaps quite British)
- Our theme music is Fanfare for Space by Kevin MacLeod, used under a CC BY 3.0 license