You have the power to control (well, influence) what we do (or not do, we do what we want!) in August and September.  Use this power only for good!

(And feel free to share the poll.  The more votes, the merrier.)

If you listened to our last episode, and I just know you did, then you already know that for our next episode, we’ll be discussing Carl Sagan’s Contact and the  1997 film adaptation of the same name.

(BTW, thanks to Rem of The Sci-Fi Movie Podcast for suggesting it.)

In honor of this venerable title, why not make contact with us?  You can do it right here, by filling out our Contact Form, or you can email us at feedback at pavementpodcast.com.

The bottom line is that we’d love to hear from you.  I have to admit that I (Seth) am terrible about reaching out to shows I enjoy, but the way I do it most often is through Facebook.

So why not reach out to us that way?  Give our Facebook page a like.  Or follow us on Twitter (@pavementpodcast).

Or just leave a comment here.  Better yet, do all the things!

By any of those means (or all), let us know what you thought of the Sagan book or the movie.  What did you think of the adaptation?  Send us some feedback and we’ll incorporate it into the show.

As discussed in the latest episode, we’re considering what kind of Harlan Ellison-themed episode we should do.  The two options are:

1. A Boy and His Dog.  It’s a novella and a film, so it totally fits with our model.  It’s just that it’s a bit, well, rapey.  Seriously, there’s a bunch of rape in it, and while it’s still probably worth discussing (disgusting?), we’re not sure we want to do it.  Then again, it’s a cult classic, so if our idea was to cover classic sci-fi, this should be on the list.  Ugh.
2. The Terminator.  Stay with me a second.  Ellison got a post-credits acknowledgement after raising a stink about the movie being based on an episode of The Outer Limits he wrote.  So we could read I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream, which is also sort of related in theme, then watch the episodes “Soldier” and “Demon With a Glass Hand”, then watch The Terminator and give our opinions about what kind of case Ellison had.  Could be fun!

Ultimately, we’ll be able to decide on our own, but it’d sure make it easier if we got some listener responses.  So lob us a comment her or use our poll thingy:

For those of you who lacked the patience to wade through two hours of Triffid-cast, you missed a couple of things:

1. Arguments.  Entertaining ones.  Seriously, it’s good stuff.
2. Our plans for Season Two!

We’re going to dial back our cadence from every two weeks to about once a month.  If this is unacceptable, lob us a comment.  Otherwise we’re doing what we want!  The long cadence is just to make the whole thing a bit more relaxed and to give James a fair chance to get all the reading done.

Of course, even if you listened in, we had a rather chaotic discussion of what topics we’d be hitting, but a few emails and pavement poundings later, we’ve got our (still tentative) list.  We’re just going to rotate selecting the next item, starting with Colin.  So our first two rounds of selections are these:

• Colin: Enemy Mine, by Barry Longyear – Enemy Mine (1985 film)
• James: Who Goes There?, by John W. Campbell – The Thing from Another World (1951 film), The Thing (1985 and 2011  films)
• Seth: The Body Snatchers, by Jack Finney – Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956 and 1978 films), Body Snatchers (1993 film), The Invasion (2007 film)
• Colin: The War of the Worlds, by H.G. Wells – The War of the Worlds (1938 Radio Drama, 1953 film), War of the Worlds (2005 film)
• James: We Can Remember it For You Wholesale, by Philip K. Dick – Total Recall (1990 and 2012 films)
• Seth: The Manchurian Candidate, by Richard Condon – The Manchurian Candidate (1962 and 2004 films)

We’re planning about ten episodes for Season Two, so even if we hit everything on this list, there’s still four open slots for suggestions from the unwashed masses (that’s you).  Hop over to the Podcast Queue page and look at the other titles we’ve compiled (by no means a complete list) and leave a comment here or there with anything else you’d like to see us cover next season.  We’ve already started on our reading for the first three, so we could even slot in a suggestion at the fourth spot.

We’ll probably be recording our Enemy Mine podcast in the next week or so, which means you’ve got a few days to send us some feedback.  The Contact Us page has all the details on how to do that.  So do it!

Through a combination of over-achievement by the offspring of two of the Pavement Pounders (Colin’s son going to the National Spanish Spelling Bee, Seth’s son to the State Swimming Championships, on consecutive weekends), and James having one of those inconvenient wedding anniversaries, we’re letting the schedule slide a bit.  Like you noticed.

This is actually a good thing, since the next book on our list is The Day of the Triffids, which isn’t a terribly quick read but is awesome.  Plus, there’s a feature film and two BBC miniseries to watch.  So really we’re just letting you play along at home.

If you’ve read the book or seen any of the films, drop us a line letting us know what you think of them.

Plus, tell me that movie poster isn’t just all kinds of awesome!

Hey there everybody!  And I’m talking about the teeming mass of several people out there who actually read this.  

For our next episode, we’ll be discussing Jurassic Park, both the book and movie.  If you’d like to weigh in, leave a comment here or shoot us a message using the Contact Us page.  (Or just comment on the Facebook post.)

Have you read the book?  Seen the film?  Both?  Which do you prefer?  Could Dennis Nedry have been played by anyone but Newman?

For our next viewing session (and subsequent recording session), we’ll be checking out Ib Melchior’s The Racer, the basis for both Death Race 2000 and the Jason Statham remake from 2008.

This marks the first time, for me, that I hadn’t read the story or seen any of the films prior to embarking on the podcast.  Totally stoked!

As always, we’d be grateful to receive any thoughts on the story or films that you want to pass along.  Comment here or on the Facebook page, or use the Contact Us! page.  If your comments are awesome enough, they may get read out on the show.

And by the way, how awesome is that movie poster?

For Episode #6 (#5 is recorded and in editing, and by in editing I mean I haven’t looked at it since we recorded it), we’re going with a listener request and doing Michael Crichton’s Timeline and the sub-stellar film adaptation it spawned.  Maybe we’ll find something good to say about it.

The problem is that we asked for feedback on it in that not-yet-posted Episode #5 and we’ll be recording again probably before it goes up.

Which brings us to you.  Have you seen the film?  Read the book?

I’m particularly interested in comments from any non-readers out there, because neither James, nor Colin, nor I can look at the movie with unstained eyes, as we’ve all read the book.  So I’m curious if anyone honestly likes the film on its own merits.

Drop us a line here or on Facebook, or shoot us a note on our Contact Us page.   Or fill out the poll below:

You can listen to our next podcast or start eating this trash can!

You’ll totally get that joke if you read Eight O’Clock in the Morning and watch They Live!.  Well, okay, the story won’t get you anywhere, but it takes like five minutes to read and is entirely awesome, and the movie is one of the cheesy classics of the 80s, or so I’m told.  And it has the trash can reference, not to mention a killer line about bubblegum.

Read it.  Watch it.  Send us some feedback (maybe using that Contact Us! link?  No?  How about a nice email link?  Fine!  Hit us up on Facebook or  Twitter!  Or just leave us a comment here.  Seriously, we’re lonely.)