The Aies in the Airwaves.

I feel like I'm going to need to apologise for this post in advance. I was up until six am last night, and awoke around ten which means I'm living on four hours sleep here, so please, be kind. Why would I do this to myself, you may be asking? Or more importantly, why is this relevant to anything? Well, last night was the recording of the début episode of the third iteration of the Now Playing NOW podcast. For those curious, this is a movie and TV reviews podcast that is the baby of a good friend of mine, Theron Reynolds, who hosted it a number of years ago with his team of 'Silver Screen Specialists'. Three years down the line and he's back! Only now he has an all new, all different, all wonderful team of specialists behind him...

... And I happen to be one of them.

That's right folks, I've slipped from the written page into the airwaves of the internet, after Theron was kind enough to invite myself and a couple of our good friends from Seattle to join his show. I'm going to admit right now that when I signed up? I had no idea it was going to be a reboot of a former podcast, and I did have a number of doubts before going in. The main one, as always, rested with myself. This isn't my first podcast, but it is my first one that isn't just dicking about with friends. Naturally there's some dicking about with friends involved, it wouldn't be fun otherwise, but this is the kind of dicking about with friends that carried the extra pressure of making a quality product at the end of said dicking about. I wasn't sure I was cut out to be an entertaining personality on a podcast, and knowing that we were essentially slipping into somebody else's skin? That fans of the old show's format and hosts might not take to us nearly as well? They were things that played heavily on my mind in the weeks prior to the recording and it remains to be seen if those fears are going to be justified. Although I hope everyone will be kind enough to give us a chance!

We'd originally set up to record early on Sunday morning, at eight am my time. I had a rather restless night beforehand, full of very anxious dreams, only to find that due to technical issues it would be impossible to record that day. We agreed, later in the day, to move the recording to one o'clock on Tuesday morning. An unreasonable time for some, but I'm practically a professional insomniac so I knew I could handle it. More problems arose, and time crept on. One came and went, then half one, two, I was afraid that I was going to be forced to bail on them and we'd have to push it back again. Come three o'clock though, the stars finally aligned and the magic happened... And do you know what? I thought it was wonderful.

I'd been dead on my feet all day, barely staying awake, but when the podcast started and we sank our teeth into the discussion topics we'd selected? It was very easy to get swept up in the excitement of it all. Theron, Ashley and Travis were as animated and amusing as always, and I want to give a special shout out to the new guy of our little band of Podcasteers, Phil. The amount of work he did behind the scenes was both staggering and a little scary, and his technical expertise made the whole thing so much smoother than it would have been otherwise. Overall it was a very positive experience, and the hours sailed by (we were even over by a little, oops!). It was a joy to both take part in, and to listen in to the other hosts chat back and forth, sharing their views. I think we've got a really good team together here, with perhaps the niggling feeling of doubt that I'm the weakest link of the bunch - But that's just how I'm wired. I'll happily throw myself into something, I may even tell you that I think my contribution to it is good, but always, at the back of my mind... Here, why don't you judge for yourself. Ladies and Gentlemen, boys and girls, may I present to you the star of this blog post - Episode one of Now Playing NOW! Go ahead, listen, I'll wait.

Now Playing NOW! Episode 102 - Animated Kid Movies Adults Will Love

Enjoy? I hope so! If you'd like to keep abreast of the epic journey I'm sure this podcast is going to take, as well as be notified when later episodes go up, be sure to like our Facebook page over here. I'd also like to reiterate the shout out that I gave to Tony in the episode, as he's been a great inspiration for me in both starting and forging forward with this blog. It was also his post on An American Tail that led me to suggest we review it as part of the theme for the podcast. Be sure to check out his own take on the movie as well as his blog in general. He writes some interesting, introspective posts on life, London and Batman. Always Batman.

I also seem to recall that I might have claimed that the Pirate Tinkerbell movie was not only a movie that looked good, but also the only trailer I saw before LEGO that looked worthwhile. All I can say is that I'm a complete idiot who forgot that I'd seen the trailer for the second Muppet movie as well (it looks great, by the way! I'm hoping we can cover it on the show!) and that I was operating under severe sleep deprivation.  Or, perhaps, I just have some deep seated psychophysical issues that can only be resolved by watching fairy themed films for girls. It's an outside chance, but you never know...

 Naturally, I appreciate your feedback so be sure to let me know what you think! I also hope you'll tune in for future episodes, and follow me on this journey into a vast, unknown portion of the internet. At least, vast and unknown for me. Don't worry, though, there'll still be plenty of book impressions and nonsense going on over here, as always, too! And perhaps some exciting news beyond that, which Theron gave a little hint to in the podcast above. I don't want to say too much right now, as I'm not quite sure how everything is going to work yet, but the times they are definitely a changing, and I hope you'll still be along for the ride!