8 1/2 Podcasts, 372 Pages, and Few Regrets

A few weeks ago, one of the frequent "what the 'Best Brains' are up to" updates on Satellite News mentioned that Mike Nelson and one of his Rifftrax writers, Conor Lastowka, were recording a podcast. Looking back, I can recognize the odds against my looking further into that. I've admitted several times to my leeriness about Rifftrax, formed when some of their first synch-them-yourself audio commentaries seemed intent on putting down familiar targets, and imagining that mean-spirited mood continuing cast a shadow first on their takes on big-budget pictures I might have had less divergent reactions to and then on their more "MST3K-like" B-to-Z movies even with the convenience of pre-synched voiceovers. The only Rifftrax-related content I'd really taken a chance on was an introduction to one of the last Complete Peanuts volumes, which Conor had been a cowriter for. There was also the complication of how infrequently I listen to podcasts; I can imagine even from my own experience that it may be easier to talk to someone about something than to set down your thoughts in writing, but I have to admit that for me listening seems more time-consuming than reading, and may distract me from doing other things in the meantime. However, there really was something that could get through all of that, and that was seeing the podcast "372 Pages We'll Never Get Back" promised a comedically critical take on the novel Ready Player One...
( Assorted perspectives )