A Hugo Award-winning podcast about science fiction and SF fandom from John Coxon, Alison Scott, and Liz Batty.
Episodes
Thursday Dec 10, 2020
Thursday Dec 10, 2020
John went to bed before Alison, Alison is not at all sleepy or hungover, and Liz had a better offer.
Please email your letters of comment to octothorpecast@gmail.com and use #OctothorpeCast or tag @OctothorpeCast when you post about the show on social media.
- Buy our merchandise!
- Letters of comment:
- Claire Brialey wrote to us and used the word “onfridge”
- Duncan MacGregor told us that Boxing Helena was directed by Jennifer Lynch
- Ang Rosin tweeted to tell us that she doesn’t like “key learnings”
- Jerry Kaufman commented on John’s TAFF report
- Gather
- Virtual Reality
- DisCon III polled members on a potential date change to December 2021
- Hugo for video games? We like video games
- DisCon III can do a thing (and they are)
- If you prefer more informed takes, check out the Games Hugo website
- Poetry corner!
- You might have just run an online Punctuation
- But Octothorpe still had a clear obligation:
- What must you do in the con’s aftermath?
- Ducking a challenge would seem quite pathetic;
- So would a lie – but here’s proof, quite magnetic:
- Covered in Weetabix, John in the bath…
- Our theme music is Fanfare for Space by Kevin MacLeod, used under a CC BY 3.0 license.
Thursday Nov 26, 2020
Thursday Nov 26, 2020
John is bathing with Weetabix, Alison is eating a croissant, and Liz has good hearing.
- Letters of comment:
- Claire Brialey collects her point
- Helena McCallum
- Roman Orszanski
- Mark Plummer commented on John’s TAFF report
- Punctuation:
- Fanzines came out for the convention!
- Lulzine #5
- Available for the usual
- BW #8
- Full of Widowers poems
- Available at editorial whim
- Cloud Chamber #164
- Lulzine #5
- We won against This Never Happens, ya boo sucks to them (love them really)
- Fanzines came out for the convention!
- Our theme music is Fanfare for Space by Kevin MacLeod, used under a CC BY 3.0 license.
Thursday Nov 12, 2020
Thursday Nov 12, 2020
John, Alison, and Liz are QUITE BUSY
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:
- Jo’s Tweet about social spaces
- Ang Rosin’s flurry:
- Tweets about mushrooms and poached eggs
- Gordon Ramsay’s
- And a letter of comment with a poem!
- Oh bugger I forgot
- I was told to write a rhyme
- This is the best I’ve got
- In the available time.
- Tweets about mushrooms and poached eggs
- Max thinks vigorously about The Thrill of the Fight
- Claire Brialey of Croydon:
- Claire would like to discourage us from encouraging the people reading this to nominate her fanzine (Weekend Weetabix) for a Hugo Award
- Claire sent a poem! (You may want to read this first)
- Online strain can mean physical pain
- So you stretch but say ‘Ow’ – is that blood?
- You won’t hurt your necks if you just enter text
- In WIDOWER’S WONDERFUL MUD.
- People set lakes on fire
- Mark Plummer of Croydon is a very gifted fan writer and a very gifted LEGO engineer
- Alex Holden listened to most of Octothorpe while making Alison’s concertina
- Our theme music is Fanfare for Space by Kevin MacLeod, used under a CC BY 3.0 license.
- Thanks to Max for recommending we separate the audio credit from the music!
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.