[High House Dark]

Someone please tell me you listen to "Welcome to Night Vale."

If you're reading this, and you can't say the above honestly, you need to change your life. It's on iTunes and it's also here. Pilot is at the very bottom.

Also... is this the acceptable forum for ridiculous fictional podcasts? Wasn't sure, but didn't see anything more appropriate.

Anyways, "Welcome to Night Vale" is very hard to describe, for those of you who have not listened to it, so here's a list of words instead: silly, funny, creepy, Lovecraft, absurd.

That's all you need to know.

This post has been edited by High House Dark: 04 July 2013 - 06:56 AM

[worry]

So it's kinda like a SF&F Prairie Home Companion, and only slightly less creepy?

[High House Dark]

 worry, on 04 July 2013 - 05:25 AM, said:

So it's kinda like a SF&F Prairie Home Companion, and only slightly less creepy?

... yes-ish? Somewhat dystopian-ish? The pilot is only 20 min or so, and it pretty much sticks with that level of absurdity for the rest of them, so if you give that a listen, it's really the only clear way of explaining it.

i.e., it's so hard to explain, haha XD

[worry]

Listened to the pilot, get what you're saying. The NRA bumper sticker ad was my favorite.

[worry]

[Whisperzzzzzzz]

I still don't understand what it is, but I'm scared to listen. Will it insert tiny tendrils of fear and Lovecraftian horror into my tiny, pea-sized brain?

[Abyss]

I just marathon'd the first 20 episodes and now i hide in the dark, hunting for my identical duplicate to kill him for the secret police and/or a sinister yet mysterious government five headed dragon mayor SERIOUSLY WTF?!?!?!!?

This was a lot of fun to listen to. It's weird and silly and irreverent and crosses all kinds of genre lines in wild zig-zagging ways. They also have some fairly clever ongoing storylines that weave through different episodes which adds a good element of continuity to the shows... mysterious hooded figures who no one acknowledges but who require a dog park and a stadium, Old Woman Josie and her angelic houseguests who may or may not be angels, the hostile civilization under the bowling alley... arguably these are the best part of the series altho some of the one-and-done bits are great.

At times it's not nearly as clever as it wants to be, and some of the bits run far far too long (as much as i like the 'revelation' of the episode's sponsor, the bit leading into it is usually boring drivel pretending to be poetic), but the narrator manages to move those parts along and get to something better most of the time. Like any comedy show, some episodes just aren't as funny as others.

Over all, totally worth a listen, and free, so hey, free. Linky: http://commonplacebooks.com/ . FAQ page has a link you can dl individual episodes from.

[High House Dark]

MORE from the wonderful twitter account, because that's worth a look on its own as well:

[Abyss]

 High House Dark, on 17 March 2014 - 01:22 AM, said:

MORE from the wonderful twitter account, ...

Heh... that's actually the sort of sinister element i wish the podcast stuck to more.
Cecil's romantic leanings are cute and all, but it gets slow quickly.

[Aptorian]

Just listened to the first two episodes. They're phenomenal.

I am going to binge on Nightvale while playing Titanfall. That's not going to get weird.

[Abyss]

 Apt Hoc, on 18 March 2014 - 01:49 PM, said:

Just listened to the first two episodes. They're phenomenal.

I am going to binge on Nightvale while playing Titanfall. That's not going to get weird.

Suggestion: don't binge more than 3-4 at a time. Some of the common elements to each ep can drag when heard repeatedly in a row.


Second suggestion: Book psychotherapy now. Possibly physiotherapy too.

[Aptorian]

I've listened to the first 9 episodes now. I agree with Abyss, this show is best enjoyed in chunks. Many of the themes or subjects are recurring.

I have to say I love the writing in this show, some of the sentences are amazing, like for example one of the final segments in the show about Nightvales History week:

Quote

The Sun gave a great shout of light and then, after several hours of contemplation, retracted its statement.

There's tons of these descriptions and they lend the show a great deal of weight in terms of the impact the announcer has on the listener.

If I had to describe this show it is like somebody mixed Twin Peaks with the Adams Family and H.P. Lovecraft. The show waxes and vains between the morbidly funny and the disconcertingly strange.

Imagine if somebody made this into a TV show?

[Abyss]

 Apt Hoc, on 19 March 2014 - 04:11 PM, said:

...Imagine if somebody made this into a TV show?

No don't. Don't! DON'T FOR THE LOVE OF ANY GOD DO N

[Aptorian]

Just listened to the two part episode about the Sandstorm.

So confused:

Spoiler

The particles of the sandstorm creates duplicates of people but what is beyond the sandstorm?

Two seperate things seem to be happening during the two episodes. We get to see or hear from both Nightvale and Desert Bluffs and when the radio hosts walk out into the storm they are transported to the other cities radio station but their experiences are different. Furthermore, the same events seem to be happening (the intern getting a doppleganger, one getting murdered in Nightvale, but only having an accident in Desert Bluffs) but the results are different. Which leads one to suspect that Nightvale and Desert Bluffs are not in the same dimension or that they may in fact be each others mirror but that makes the experiences of especially Nightvales announcer really weird.

The way I think we are meant to understand it, Nightvale is a dark place of Nightmares and Desert Bluffs is some kind of bright happy Stepford Wives Municipality. So what the hell happened when Cecil went to Desert Bluffs and found their studio literally swimming in blood and gore? If the dark version of Desert Bluffs is Nightvale on steroids, then what did Desert Bluffs radio host experience? It sounded like the alternative version of Nightvale was just an older radio station, making one suspect that Nightvale despite some modern stuff is actually stuck somewhere in the past.

EDIT: Which now that I think about it links together with Carlos the scientists research that suggests that Time doesn't work properly in Nightvale.

Man, that episode was great.

Also, Steve Carlsberg is such a jerk.

This post has been edited by Apt Hoc: 21 March 2014 - 04:43 PM

[Gust Hubb]

 Apt Hoc, on 21 March 2014 - 04:40 PM, said:

Just listened to the two part episode about the Sandstorm.

So confused:

Spoiler

The particles of the sandstorm creates duplicates of people but what is beyond the sandstorm?

Two seperate things seem to be happening during the two episodes. We get to see or hear from both Nightvale and Desert Bluffs and when the radio hosts walk out into the storm they are transported to the other cities radio station but their experiences are different. Furthermore, the same events seem to be happening (the intern getting a doppleganger, one getting murdered in Nightvale, but only having an accident in Desert Bluffs) but the results are different. Which leads one to suspect that Nightvale and Desert Bluffs are not in the same dimension or that they may in fact be each others mirror but that makes the experiences of especially Nightvales announcer really weird.

The way I think we are meant to understand it, Nightvale is a dark place of Nightmares and Desert Bluffs is some kind of bright happy Stepford Wives Municipality. So what the hell happened when Cecil went to Desert Bluffs and found their studio literally swimming in blood and gore? If the dark version of Desert Bluffs is Nightvale on steroids, then what did Desert Bluffs radio host experience? It sounded like the alternative version of Nightvale was just an older radio station, making one suspect that Nightvale despite some modern stuff is actually stuck somewhere in the past.

EDIT: Which now that I think about it links together with Carlos the scientists research that suggests that Time doesn't work properly in Nightvale.

Man, that episode was great.

Also, Steve Carlsberg is such a jerk.

they exist in the same dimension. they have regular sporting competitions.

[Aptorian]

Are you sure? What if this is just a ploy masterminded by the government to distract the good citizens of Nightvale? What if Desert Blossoms is a mere distraction created by the Council to hide the fact that there is no world outside Nightvale?

This post has been edited by Apt Hoc: 21 March 2014 - 06:50 PM

[High House Dark]

Eeeeeeeeeeee I'm so happy this thread is getting more activity. I need to re-listen to it to remember everything, since I'm all caught up now (plus I need to make my bf continue - we got to ep 7 together, and then he got too busy).

[Abyss]

I assumed Night Vale and Desert Bluffs were in linked parallel mirror alternate dimensions linked by cyclical overlapping sequences of non reality that intersect on a consistent basis except when exotic events like the sandstorm break the continuity loop.
But I could be wrong.
It could just be the Angels fucking around.
That is, if there were such a thing as Angels.

[Gust Hubb]

They always talk about the two towns competing in sport events and even a sub-story line about a mutant player who gets surgeries to downplay his advantage.

[Aptorian]

"We have always been at war with East-asia".

Believe nothing, trust no-one, except the Sheri's secret police.