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Terror InPodNito Brings the Horror for Your Morning Commute

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October has ended, but every day is Halloween in my heart. It’s nice when everyone happens to be in the spirit at the same time, but what am I to do when that month ends? Luckily, there’s a horror podcast that spends the entire year talking about horror films and the surrounding pop culture, which I can listen to anytime, whether it be October 31st or February 2nd. 

Hallelujah. 

Terror InPodNito is a weekly podcast that discusses all things horror: from movie reviews to news and theories, they cover every nook- and blood- and gut-soaked cranny they can get their hands on. Started by three friends (Palmer Sturman, Alex Lootens, and Sam Berson), Terror covers everything that is badass about the horror genre. 

I went to visit the podcast on one of their recording nights, and fitting enough, it was when the Richmond area was under a tornado watch. Of course, it rained and flooded on my way there, and the power went out toward the end of our interview. 

Naturally, but also very appropriate. 

The podcast records in Sturman’s home, which was covered in Halloween decorations and ready for the season — with bins of more decor ready to go up when he and his wife got a chance. I was also greeted by Luna, the world’s biggest, fluffiest, and friendliest dog. Not exactly what I would have expected out of an interview about horror, but it was a much-welcomed surprise. 

PHOTO: Terror InPodNito

They had been friends for a long time, and shared a love of discussing horror films. After a good drinking session, they wondered the question we all would in that situation — Why not do a podcast? 

“It started with off with us giving a synopsis of films,” Sturman said. “We kind of got bored with that really quickly, so we started adding new segments and seeing where things went.” Lootens added that it got more analytical as it went on, even though they laughed that none of them have any kind of film education. 

One of Lootens’ favorite parts of the process is how they choose not only the theme for each month, but which films fit the chosen theme. 

“We [choose them] as a group, and I feel like sometimes it has to do with the holiday,” Lootens said. “This month would of course be Halloween-themed movies, and Christmas would be Christmas-themed movies. But for the months that don’t have a specific holiday, we try to bounce around with different topics.” 

Sturman added that they try to come up with a variety of different topics in order to keep things interesting. They keep a Google Document together so that any time someone has a new idea, they can add it and check it out. 

“Generally someone comes up with a theme, and then they’re like, ‘Oh, this movie would fall under that!’,” Sturman said. “For instance, one of the ones that I have included on the document recently is Wild West films that are also horror films. And I’ve found more and more that fit that niche.” 

I wondered if they ever came up with a great idea only to not find films to fit the theme — but they assured me that the opposite has happened. If anything, once they come up with a theme, they generally have issues narrowing the films down. After all, Wikipedia currently lists over forty different Christmas Horror Films in that category, so I guess anything really is possible. 

The horror genre has been more ripe for remakes than any other genre, it feels like; so naturally, there are going to be feelings about the handful of remakes announced this year alone. Their take on remakes? Make it original. 

“For instance, the remake of Psycho, which was a blow-by-blow remake of that movie? Don’t do that,” Sturman said. “This is going to be really controversial, but I really liked the Rob Zombie remake of Halloween. Part of the reason that I really like it is because he went in an entirely different direction from the original films, and gave Michael a purpose. A lot of people think that was a shot and a miss, but I enjoyed the fact that if you are going to take a franchise and try to reboot it, you go in a different direction.” 

One thing that we for-sure all agreed on, though? The remake of Dario Argento’s Suspiria is going to be all kinds of glorious. 

“When I first heard about [Suspiria], I was adamantly against it, but I have seen so many trailers for it that now it’s one of my most-anticipated movies,” Sturman said. “We finally saw it on the big screen. The trailer looks even better when it’s a hundred feet,” Berson added. 

We would be remiss if we didn’t acknowledge that focusing on one thing changes your views on things. Despite not having studied film, the cast can make a solid argument for being on-par to film students at this point. One of the main things that has come from doing this podcast has been not only how they analyze films, but also the fact that they just can’t watch a film in the theater anymore. 

“It takes me much longer to watch a film now,” Lootens said. “I’ll watch it, and then I’ll take a day and watch it again, even movies that I have seen before. I feel like it takes me a lot longer to watch a movie.” 

“I don’t like watching movies in theaters anymore because I can’t pause it,” Berson said. “I can’t rewind and double check if I saw something. There are still some movies you have to see in theaters.” 

“It’s harder for me to watch movies I’ve seen now,” Sturman said. “Now I’m not watching them for pure enjoyment, I’m watching them to pick them apart, whether it’s for good reasons or bad reasons.” 

Thanks to overwhelming support from fans and the horror community, Terror InPodnito has received the opportunity to experience some pretty stellar things. From a friendship with Red Vein Haunted House, to interviewing a major horror icon, to even just meeting fans who loves their podcast, things have been pretty great so far for the trio. 

“In Williamsburg, there is a horror convention called Scares That Care, and it’s a charity event and a horror-con,” said Lootens. “We had the opportunity to interview Doug Bradley, who is the original Pinhead, and Adrian King. For 45-50 minutes each, they took the time out of their day to sit down with us. Interviewing Adrian King was amazing and just… I got to talk about David Bowie, my favorite singer, with Doug Bradley, my favorite horror icon, and it changed my life.” 

“The biggest draw for me, and the reason I continue to do this, is the people,” said Sturman. “We’ve connected with so many people that we just never would have an opportunity to otherwise. Not just horror icons, but fans. At Scares That Care, we met a fan that listens to the podcast and it blew my mind.” 

So what do the next five years bring? As they all took a moment and sighed, unsure how to answer, they all agreed that mostly, they want to keep doing this for as long as both people enjoy it — and as long as it remains fun for all three of them. 

“If it gets to the point where we can start making this a source of income, that’s great, but ultimately if it just becomes something where we read a couple small advertisements to keep the podcast alive I’m happy,” said Sturman.” 

“I think really we just want to do it until it’s not fun anymore,” said Lootens. “When you break it down to the bare bones, it really is just three best friends talking about stuff that they love and also getting to meet and interview awesome people along the way.” 

As we round out the spookiest (and best, let’s all be honest here) time of the year, it’s easy to get sad while we begrudgingly check off the days on our calendar like Linus awaiting next year’s Great Pumpkin. But don’t you worry, horror fans: Terror InPodnito has horror picks and news for you every month of the year — even around Christmas when Aunt Betty wants to ask you, once again, how life is going. 

Terror InPodnito can be streamed and downloaded on iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, and Buzzsprout. 

Yedoye Travis Is Tackling Racism, One Podcast at a Time

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Imagine Shark Tank, but instead of a better toothbrush, white contestants pitch solutions for racism to a panel of black judges. In the first few episodes, they’ve proposed everything everything from reparations to white slavery and the Rachel Dolezal-linked concept of “transracialism.”

The show is Dark Tank, and it’s just been released by Yedoye Travis on the Brain Machine Network. Travis is a comedian and actor who came to attention for many via a viral tweet about wanting to host “Blue’s Clues” as the next Steve. He was named a “New Face” in comedy at the Montreal Just For Laughs Festival, where he opened for W. Kamau Bell, and has appeared on Comedy Central, on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” and even in a cameo on the dark comedy hit, “Search Party.”

Dark Tank album art, Travis headshot

Travis arrived in New York from Atlanta two years ago, and seems destined for a fast ascent to comedy fame. He’s having to adjust a little; when I caught up with him on the phone, he’s just dropped off his mom at the train, and he was running around between TV shoots. With a touch of self-deprecating humor, he said, “Normally I’m just sitting around at home, writing a little bit, and playing a lot of Donkey Kong.”

It’s part of his skillset. Even on the phone, he turns mundane answers into wry jokes, often at his own expense. He was similarly quick-witted when he came up with the Dark Tank concept, which developed after his friend and neighbor, comedian Leif Enoksen, asked him about collaborations. “Enoksen said, ‘you’re someone I want to work with, if you ever have an idea, hit me up’,” Travis recalled. He immediately thought of Shark Tank–a host, a panel of judges, a contestant–and Dark Tank was born.

Although the show is wickedly funny, it’s not light. The conversations cover serious ground. Travis is looking forward to navigating the potential awkwardness. “I’m excited to see some people really have to stretch when they know that black people are staring them right in the face,” he said.

In the first episodes released, Travis is kind to the contestants, although completely honest about the flaws and weaknesses of their solutions. As on his debut album, “Ok,” Travis addresses racism and racial issues on the show with a nuance and slightly-barbed wit that produces both laughter and discomfort in equal measures.

Yedoye Travis’ debut stand-up comedy album

In one early episode, a contestant suggests white couples be required to adopt black babies, or that science finds a way to make white babies black; although the panel starts with laughter, things turn serious as they discuss Rachel Dolezal, the woman who claimed to be black while working for the NAACP. The humor doesn’t stop, but it’s a deeply revealing moment of radio that lays bare the pain and trauma many people of color feel around Dolezal’s appropriation of their identity.

The show is recorded by Enoksen in his bedroom, which he described as “a recording studio with a bed in it.” Before turning his apartment into a studio, he used to lug 60 pounds of recording gear around in a backpack. His approach to Travis came even before he’d had the idea for the Brain Machine Network, which now hosts nearly a dozen podcasts. “He was someone I approached well before there was any talk of the podcast,” Enoksen said. “When I heard his idea, I said, that needs to happen immediately.”

Getting white people to share their views on racism in front of a microphone, especially in what many might see as a difficult political climate, was something Travis thought would be “labor intensive.” It was not. “They message me. Everyone’s seemed very eager to see if they can handle it,” he said. He did invite some people; they all accepted. Deadpan, he added, “Maybe white guys just have immense confidence that I don’t understand.”

White slavery was proposed way earlier than I thought it would be.

Other surprises came from the suggested solutions. “White slavery was proposed way earlier than I thought it would be,” he said. “I thought it’d be at least a few months in, but no, third episode.”

While he loves all of the podcasts he produces, Enoksen says Dark Tank is something special and different. “It’s just so good. When you’re recording a lot, you sometimes miss the jokes because you’re so busy. But with this, I was rolling in laughter the entire time. You can’t ignore it, it’s amazing.”

Nickelodeon said no to this

Travis said he’s planning to pitch Dark Tank to network TV, but reluctantly, admits that we probably won’t see him earn “that Nickelodeon money” hosting “Blue’s Clues” as Steve. “I’ve been so anxious about having to say this, but I don’t think I’m going to be Steve at this point. Most of my Twitter followers started following me after that saga, and I’ve been worried they’ll abandon me when I say I’m not going to be Steve,” he said.

While he won’t be the next Steve, he’s confident that his efforts might have helped steer Nickelodeon to pick an Eve. He said, “They almost exclusively interviewed black women from what I saw, so I think I at least pushed the needle in a good direction.”

And, even if his Twitter followers drop, he’s going to keep tweeting.

“It’s like the prewriting stages for me. I have a thought, I put it out there,” he said. Is it his writer’s room, I asked? “No. It’s like, I don’t want to say this to another comedian yet, but I’ll say it to the whole world first. It’s the dumbest writer’s room, I guess. Most of it is just dog shit.”

One man’s dog shit is another man’s comedy gold. I note that he’s followed by the New Yorker’s comedy section, Shouts and Murmurs. “They gave me a standing offer to write something for them. I guess, if they’re reading RVA Mag, they should know that I’m working on a good one.”

Dark Tank has just been released on the Brain Machine Network. Episodes are available on iTunes, Spotify, and coming soon to Stitcher. Travis says that bold people who have ideas for solving racism can reach him at [email protected]. Collage image inspired by Yedoye Travis’ Twitter profile.

From Flying Drones, Podcasts, and Animation, VCU Students Master New Crafts With ‘Wednesdays in the Workshop’

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Down in the basement of the VCU Cabell Library, students are immersing themselves into a whole new world of experiences–and it isn’t dusting off old books or leafing through archived letters for an academic assignment. From learning to fly drones to stepping into the inner workings of virtual reality, to swapping zines, and creating animated flipbooks frame by frame, VCU students are mastering new crafts while having fun at the Wednesdays in the Workshop series.

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The thriving program, which was developed by The Innovative Media Center in the Fall of 2016, curates free weekly workshops with professors and other faculty, and sometimes even students to give participants hands-on demonstrations and instruction with something a little bit different and more exciting than the everyday curriculum.

“This program is designed to expose the VCU community to different upcoming technologies and provide the necessary skills to learn and operate these new developments to be able to adopt this knowledge into a profession, hobby, or just everyday life,” said Eric Johnson, head of the Innovative Media Department.

These informal, instructional, and educational workshops are open to not only VCU students, but the local community as well, and so far this semester, students have delved into everything from video game design, sewing, bookbinding techniques for zines, and 3D printmaking. On the schedule for the rest of March and April are workshops on leatherworking, podcasting, and making and mastering sounds in Ableton, a professional audio software used for music creation.

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“We recognized a desire for quick instructional sessions, where anyone could stop by and learn something new in an hour,” said Kelsey Sheaffer, Multimedia Production Specialist and a curator for the workshop series.

And attendance has grown significantly since the program launched two years ago. “The first couple semesters our attendance was lower, maybe around 100 attendees total for the semester, but they’ve grown to almost 300 each semester,” Sheaffer said. “I think we’ve done a better job of advertising and also choosing workshops that the VCU community is interested in  

This semester, the program had more than 80 people showing up to participant in the first event. The Zine Show and Swap Workshop, held back in February, was a popular one, not surprisingly considering Richmond’s long and vast history with the DIY zine-making scene.

“This workshop is a little different than others, Sheaffer said. “Rather than having a lesson or guest speaker, this was more of an interactive class where students could drop in and out freely to view how different zines are made and take a look at the collections that students have made over the years as well as zines from Cabell Library’s very own special collections section.”

Sheaffer was responsible for putting together this semester’s workshop schedule and said she tried to mix it up based on new workshops and past interests. “I tried to compile a wide variety of interesting topics from last year’s best hits like the sewing machine, virtual and augmented reality, and podcasting as well as adding new ones like last week’s zine series, and our new leatherworking workshop,” she said. “I coordinate with everyone to work out workshop dates and also help run the workshops myself in terms of structuring the hour and effectively teaching the lesson if they are led by students at VCU.”

VCU students get access to free equipment from DSLR camera rentals to microphones, cables, lights and more. Students are able to use equipment for any sort of project they desire, it can be both academic or for creative endeavors of their own. Sheaffer said the DSLR camera rentals are by far their most popular item.

“We get rental requests from students about every 30 minutes. We love when people come and use our equipment for non-academic reasons, we strive to act as a catalyst toward the procurement of young entrepreneurial spirits and help them learn because the majority of learning happens outside of the classroom,” she said.

The Innovative Media Center also has access to many different “makerspaces” like 3-D printers, laser cutters, embroidery machines, audio and video studios, and gaming studios. I decided to try my hand at renting some equipment for a little documentary I am working on. I left with a tripod, an external microphone, and a GoPro hero 4 with all the extra attachments in just minutes.

The Innovative Media Center, which opened is 2015,  is used for non-academic reasons as much as for classes and projects. “We have a ton of people coming in from the Da Vinci Center working in our maker space. Tons of student projects are being created that are both hobby and scholarly. We get a wide array of students from the business, engineering, and art school,” said Johnson.

These two have a lot in store for the future of Wednesdays in the Workshop as well as the Innovative Media Center as a whole. They are looking to incorporate the greater Richmond area in their expansion and immerse the community in their journey to instructional technological education.

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“I would love to bring in more community members and make it a bigger and more independent thing,” Sheaffer said, mentioning the center is thinking of bringing representatives from businesses like The Martin Agency for an animation workshop or kinetic imaging.

Johnson added they would also like to add a speaker series and skill-based workshops.

“Mostly we just need more space to satisfy the growth of the program like a classroom as well as computers with the same software in order to reach a larger group of people at once,” he said.

But for now, Sheaffer and Johnson are eager for feedback from students and the community and to start delving into even more hands-on experiences for people who participate in these weekly workshops.

“We would love to hear from students and faculty about more workshops they’d like to see,” Sheaffer said. “We’ve been trying to offer more hands-on workshops, rather than purely lectures, like the leatherworking workshop that is coming up or the bookbinding workshop a couple weeks ago.”

Wednesdays in the Workshop takes place every week from 3 to 4 PM inside the Cabell Library for the rest of the spring semester. Check out the full rundown of workshops here.

Photos By: Innovative Media, VCU Libraries and VCU James Cabell Library

 

RVA RADIO: An Interview with Hip Hop Legend AZ, Discussing Rogue’s Sex Life, the Complicated Legacy of Ali & Local Music from Doll Baby, Imaginary Sons and more

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Local podcasts are quickly becoming the way our neighbors and friends are communicating. From music, to politics, to pop culture, the voices of our city have found a place to spread their loves, interests and concerns. We have been compiling our favorites and trying something new with the launch of RVA Radio, so here is your must listen list for this week.
[Read more…] about RVA RADIO: An Interview with Hip Hop Legend AZ, Discussing Rogue’s Sex Life, the Complicated Legacy of Ali & Local Music from Doll Baby, Imaginary Sons and more

Cut The Cord Radio kicks off 2015 season next week; check out highlights from 2014

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As locally-focused RVA podcasts go, Cut The Cord Radio is certainly unique. Founder and host Tyler Matthews, soundman James Seretis, and their rotating cast of guests always bring a humorous and entertaining viewpoint to the internet’s airwaves on Thursday nights at 7 PM when their “radio” show streams live across the internet from its online home at cutthecordradio.com.

[Read more…] about Cut The Cord Radio kicks off 2015 season next week; check out highlights from 2014