Oh, What a Wookie!

Chewbacca is on the scene in Star Wars The Card Game. Fantasy flight has announced the first deluxe expansion of the game "Edge of Darkness" adds 22 new objective sets, which is a total of 132 cards, adding two new affiliations: DS Scum and Villainy and the LS Smugglers and Spies. It's within this deluxe expansion that Fantasy Flight revealed today (4/10/13) that the objective set "Wookiee Life Debt" will in fact feature Chewbacca himself. And at a quick glance he will be ready to tear into the Empire and deal some serious damage, even if he takes damage during an encounter! It's not wise to upset this wookiee.

We're still waiting on the multiplayer expansion for this game, to really see the full potential of the title, but from looking at the new wookie objective set, LS players have been given some much-needed fire power to stand up to the Empire.

You can find the full review of the new objective set here.

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to tell your friends about us, and do those social Facebook and Twitter things too!

An Interview With Walk The Plank Designers Shane Steely and Jared Tinney

This is a special interview for me (Firestone). Jared and Shane are the designers of the new game Walk The Plank, which you can find on Kickstarter here. But more than that, they’re members of my own game group, and friends. I’m thrilled they agreed to let us interview them.

So tell us a little about yourselves.

J—I spend a good chunk of my time playing games or studying and dissecting games to better understand their inner workings.  When I’m not playing or designing games, I find myself interested in other creative pursuits such as programming or cooking.

S—What would you like to know?  Born and raised Colorado native.  Spend most of my time working, sleeping, or gaming.  On occasion I’ll go outside, but the sun is not my friend.

How did you guys get started playing these type of games?

J—I’ve been a gamer all my life.  This was mostly limited to video games until a college buddy introduced me to the local boardgame store and I’ve been hooked ever since.  I still love digital games, but board games offer something different, and it’s awesome to have such a wide variety of games available to explore.

S—I started playing board games with my family when I was a little kid.  The usual classics, and as I got older I spent a lot of time by myself playing board games and video games.  When you switched schools every year as I did from 2nd through 6th grade, it’s hard to keep friends. So I really got into gaming and it just grew from there.

How did Walk The Plank come about?

S—I had a dream. It was about pirates all trying to shove each other off the plank. It seemed like it would be a cool game, so I came up with a quick, and pretty much all random, dice game. I showed it to Jared, and with his help it turned into a much better and way-more-fun design.

J—Shane came up with the core idea near Talk Like a Pirate Day 2007.  Shane’s initial game was mechanically weak, but I loved the concept.  So, drawing on our experience from other games, we worked together to find better mechanics to truly make the concept shine.

What was the process for getting it published?

S—To be honest, most of that was on Jared. He pushed for getting it published, and so I'll let him tell the tale.

J—We’d had some prior interest from Indie Boards & Cards, but they decided to pass. We also got a narrow 2nd place in a design contest run by Rio Grande. It was clear people really liked the game from this interest and our playtests, but we didn’t have the time and resources to pursue it further.

I was fortunate enough to have a chance to go to Origins 2012—my first gaming convention.  Making sure not to squander this opportunity, I printed up several spec sheets for the game, planning on presenting the game to as many publishers as possible. I was nervous and not really sure where to start; I’d already been chatting with the people at the Mayday booth a bit, so I decided to start there.

I met Seth, the owner of Mayday Games, shortly thereafter and showed him Walk the Plank. He was interested right from the start; the game fit perfectly into Mayday’s product line, and he found the theme and mechanics a lot of fun. A little later I had a chance to play a full game with Seth and his son—and he loved it.  Two days later I had a contract in my inbox.

Are there any other games you guys are working on?

S—I haven’t worked on any others with Jared, but there are always game ideas in the works. None that have turned out to be worth showing off yet. The closest I got to one I thought was playable, but haven’t finished, was my attempt at a dice game. I didn’t look to see if anyone else has done it yet, but after talking with another guy from our group, Devin, we decided there needs to be an Oregon Trail Dice game. If anyone wants to give it a go, let me know.

J—As Shane said we aren’t currently working on anything else together, but I have a handful of designs in progress. Several have interesting mechanics or concepts, but I don’t currently have anything I’m happy enough with to start playtesting heavily. I’d like to have a 2nd finished design within the next 1-2 years, so we’ll see what comes to pass.

What are your five favorite games right now? And what do you like about them?

J—My all-time favorites would probably be Time’s Up, Crokinole, Mao, Galaxy Trucker, and Liar’s Dice. The 5 I’m currently most interested in would be Hanabi, Article 27, The Resistance, Time’s Up, and Tzolk’in. Hanabi is an amazing cooperative game of deduction with a lot of room for clever plays. Article 27 I’ve only had the chance to play once, but it’s such a pure and elegant negotiation game that I’m very enthusiastic about trying it more.

The Resistance continues to be a fantastic team game of deduction, though I wish it wasn’t so heavily biased in the spies’ favor. Time’s Up is always a blast and it’s just a great feeling to be in that zone where you and your teammate are in synch, nailing card after card. Tzolk’in deserves the hype and the gears aren’t just a gimmick—a fresh and interesting take on worker placement with a strong back-end to support it.

S—Favorite anything for me changes on a daily basis, but if I had to list them off the top of my head I’d do so in this order: Galaxy Trucker, Twilight Imperium 3rd Ed., Space Alert, Merchants & Marauders, and Ghost Stories.  I love games with theme. I don’t care how long it takes to play as long as I can immerse myself in the story.

Jared, I know you’re a big Time’s Up! fan—having played many, many games with you. What’s your favorite Time’s Up memory?

So many to choose from! Probably the most recent great memory was the ferocious dinosaur-beast known as Winnie the Pooh... Other classics include the inability for anyone to remember Mr. E. Lee’s first name, Buzz Lightyear the Nazi, and of course Maya Angelou the fighter plane.

Shane, you’re a big Vlaada Chvatil fan. What is it you like about his games so much?

He is my favorite designer. Why? Theme and mechanics. I find most of his games just grab my imagination. And most of his designs are very different, so you can play several and know that each is its own game. I haven’t found one yet that I didn’t enjoy.

What upcoming games are you most looking forward to?

S—There’s a lot coming out lately that I want. I can’t wait for Zombicide Season 2, looking forward to trying Sails of Glory, and Star Trek: Attack Wing, to name a few.

J—I’m cautiously optimistic toward Bora Bora—I haven’t especially liked a lot of Feld’s recent games but I like what I’ve heard of the mechanics so far. Compounded looks interesting simply because I like alchemical themes. Beyond that, I’m sure there are plenty of other interesting titles coming out within the next year—I just don’t know about them yet!

5 Questions with 1-Word (or Phrase) Answers

Best thing about Babylon 5?

S—The Shadows.

J—The... space... pirates?

Worst thing about Babylon 5?

S—G’Kar

J—It’s 110 hour-long episodes, so I probably won’t get around to actually watching it. Ed note: This explains your answer to Question #1...

Llamas? Yea or nay?

J—Llama School or bust!

S—Llama llama duck

The Cheat or the Poopsmith?

J—Does the Poopsmith perform lightswitch raves?  I didn’t think so.

S—Coach Z

What is “the” word?

S—Is this where I’m supposed to say bird?  I’ll play your game and say bird.

J—Hobo.

Thanks to Jared and Shane for answering our questions! And go check out the Kickstarter campaign! There's less than a week to go; trust me: This is a really fun game.

I'm The Boss: The Card Game—A Double-Take Review

Usually, we here at TOG agree on games. There are some games, after all, that are just good, solid games and there is nothing to disagree about—and things are nice and civil here on the blog and it's all "Hey, you're right, I love that about this game!" and "Oh yeah, I totally agree with you about that!" Well...not today, folks. We received copies of I'm the Boss: The Card Game from Gryphon Games to review. And let's just say, there's a bit of a difference of opinion.

Before we go any further here's the run down of the game:

Components

• 96 deal cards in three colors
• 3 "X" cards
• 6 multi-colored "wild" Piece Of The Action (POTA) cards
• 1 Boss and 2 Cousin tokens
• 12 double-sided "I'm In/Pass" disks
• 1 "2X" disk
• 90 money cards
• Rulebook

Gameplay

The game length is a set amount of rounds, depending on the number of players. Each player takes turns being the boss; they will either be the boss once, or twice—again, depending on the number of players.

The Deal—Once players have been dealt their cards (8-10 depending on the number of players), and been given two "I'm In/Pass" tokens, the boss starts the deal by playing a card. The color (1 of 3) of that card played is now the color of the deal, and all cards played during this deal must be of that same color. Once the deal is started play continues around the table.

Player turn—On their turn a player may choose two different actions: 1) play a card, or 2) pass. If they choose to pass they do so by turning over one of their "I'm In" tokens to the "Pass" side; once they have turned over both of their tokens to the Pass side, they are out of the deal, and can no longer play cards, or have cards played on them. Here are their options should they choose to play a card.

• Dollar value cards—Playing these cards will affect the value of the deal; there are both positive and negative values on these cards. If you're not in the deal, you may want to throw negative cards in to the mix to stop folks from making a ton of money while you're left with nothing.

• Piece of the Action cards—This card gives you just that: a piece of the action. This is how you get in the deal if you are not the Boss or a Cousin (we'll explain Cousins in a minute). One thing to clarify though: It does not divide the deal further; it is actually a multiplier. For each Piece Of the Action card in front of a player they either receive or pay the final value of the deal multiplied by the number of Piece Of the Action cards AND add another for being the Boss or a Cousin. These cards do not have to be played in front of you; you can play them on any player at the table (as long as they haven't passed twice this deal). It's the perfect way to help out an ally, or destroy an enemy when the deal is in the negative!

• Reverse cards—These cards reverse the value of the deal for the player who has it played front of them. Say it's a huge deal; well maybe you'll toss a reverse value on the person next to you—or if the deal is way in the red, you can salvage it for yourself and leave the rest of the players holding the bag. You can also save yourself from a reverse card with another reverse. Having an odd number of these cards in front of a player means the value is opposite of the deal as it stands; having an even number means you're in at face value.

• Move cards—These cards have a value printed on them from 1-3. They allow you to move cards either a) from the deal to the discard pile, b) from in front of you to another player or the discard pile, or c) from another player to in front of you or to the discard pile. They're a great way to steal someone's Piece Of the Action, or get rid of a negative card in the deal, etc.

The Boss has one more power each round: He or she gets to select who their cousins are by handing them a Cousin token. (The selection of cousins is negotiable; you can bribe, coax, and lie your way into getting that cousin token!) Players who are either the Boss or a Cousin will be getting a piece of the action. The Boss doesn't have to give it to anyone, but won't get anything extra for not handing it out. And the same person can't get both Cousin tokens.

Once all the players have passed twice (these passes don't have to be both in a row, you can pass on one turn and jump back in and play a card on the next), the deal ends and players get cash according to their Boss/Cousin status and how many pieces of the action they're getting.

One important thing to note is that as the game progresses, the payout will scale from 2x to 5x. After all the rounds have been played players count up their cash and the richest one wins!

Jeremiah—I've probably played this games at least a half a dozen times over the past month. The game is sometimes luck (depending on your hand, and the color of the current deal), but at all times it is about outsmarting, and outbluffing the other players at the table.

Firestone—I've only played this with gamers. At first I thought it might be a light negotiation game I could bring out with nongamers/casual gamers, but it's just too clunky for that, I think.

Jeremiah—It is true that there may be deals you can't impact very well, or much at all due to lack of cards. I always look at those times as opportunities to bluff my way into a cousin token, pass twice to get out, and make a new enemy. That's what I enjoy about this game: Sometimes it has everything to do with how you play the cards in your hand. Others it has everything to do with how you play the cards that aren't in your hand.

Firestone—The luck of the draw is what ultimately killed this for me. We played with 5, so there were only five rounds. The way the payouts scale (from a start of 2x up to 5x), you'd better hope you're in a good later round, because if it's a positive payout x5, and you're not involved, welcome to to not-first-place. Unfortunately, with three suits there will likely be rounds you're completely out of because you don't have any of that suit. (This happened multiple times to multiple people.) Sure, you can try to bluff your way into a Cousin token. But with nothing to contribute, that's tough. Plus, what if it's a negative payout? You have no way to change your circumstance. Just sitting there with nothing to do for one (or more) of the only five rounds was lame.

Jeremiah—The components are well made, definitely no complaints there. Of course I always would prefer room in the box to sleeve the cards though.

Firestone—I agree on this point! The components are high quality—the tokens and disks are chunky and the cards have a nice linen finish on them.

Jeremiah—There's just a warm spot in my heart for games like this, that cause good friends to have overly suspicious staring matches, and make idle threats. I've literally caught myself, in full out good fellas mode saying things like "If you make me your cousin, I won't be your enemy," to a very good friend of mine—and I meant it!

Firestone—That threat only works if I can back it up. Depending on the cards, I might not be able to...

Firestone Final Thoughts—This game was just too swingy for me. Also, the Move 3 card just shouldn't exist: that thing is way, WAY too powerful. I wanted to like this; I've liked all of the other games in Gryphon's Bookshelf series that I've played. This one just fell completely flat for me. But I'm glad Jeremiah likes it so much!

Jeremiah Final Thoughts—I've played this game with my veteran gamer friends, and the casual gamers alike, and we've all had a great time, many laughs, and more than a few icy stares thrown in one direction or another. While card management can be tedious from time to time, the over-arching mechanic is to be devious and outsmart the other players, not the game. And that I appreciate. I've won the game a few times, and I've lost a few (mostly because I was wrapped up in trying to tank other players and forgot to take care of myself) but every time I've had fun.

Well there you have it, folks. PROOF that we don't have identical taste in games. Which one of us do you agree with? Let us know in the comments. Thanks for reading!

A Look into the Future—An Interview with Jason Tagmire

Today we sit down once again with Jason Tagmire, designer of the much-anticipated Pixel Lincoln deckbuilding game. Last time we caught up with Jason was on election day last year, and since then he's been very busy with all sorts of new projects.

Jason, thanks so much for taking time out of what seems to be a VERY full schedule to chat about all of the big things you’ve been up to!

First of all, can you give us a quick update on the Pixel Lincoln Deckbuilding game? How soon can we expect to see that hit the shelves?

After a loooooong winter, the deckbuilding game is hitting the final stages of production. I should have the final game in my hands for approval within the next few days, and once approved they’ll proceed to assembly. This is extremely exciting and I’m happy to say that our backers have been so unbelievably supportive throughout this process.

Game Salute estimated early June and it seems like we’re still on track for that date. I would love to see a big Origins launch since I’ll be there this year.

We hear the pixelated President is going to show up in other games besides Pixel Lincoln... What’s up with that?

You know how rappers all appear on each others songs? That’s how PL rolls.

We’ve had a few opportunities to pop up in friends' games and have friends pop up in ours. It’s really cool to mix universes. We’ve had Sentinels of the Multiverse in our game, and Pixel Lincoln will be a Boss Monster adventurer, a gold-mining Lost Dutchman and an alternate Emperor in the mysterious Emperor’s New Clothes. All of these are very inspiring projects and I’m honored to have the opportunity to explore those worlds via Pixel Lincoln.

And finally, he’s showing up in a deck of Bicycle playing cards. This is similar to the deckbuilding game since it uses the same art, but it’s a very different type of project. It’s a standard playing card deck. The kind you can play Go Fish with your grandma. Except you might play Go Laser Shark instead.

The idea of challenging would-be game designers to develop a game around a deck of cards is great; how is that going? Are you getting TONS of submissions?

We’ve gotten a handful of submissions, plus a bunch of people who said they are interested. There is still some time left, so I assume we’ll see some toward the end. If anyone works like I do, they’ll be coming in right before the deadline.

Can you tell us about the craziest submission you’ve received (no names, please)?

We haven’t officially received it as a submission yet, but I know someone was talking about making a dexterity game. I cannot wait to see it. I also saw a photo of someone playtesting theirs on a train. We’re still taking submissions until 4/15, so there’s plenty of room for more crazy!

Speaking of submissions and game design, word on the street is that you’ve put a little something together that doesn’t have anything to do with former presidents or food-based weaponry. Fill us in on this!

MAXIMUM THROWDOWN! Yes! It’s a card-throwing battle game coming from AEG and featuring some of the awesome characters from other AEG games (Smash Up, Nightfall, Thunderstone, etc). Players will throw cards to enable abilities and then try to cover up opponents cards to disable their abilities. My wife nicknamed it AEG Smash Bros., which was a massive compliment and realization. Being thrown into those universes has been super exciting and I can’t wait for everyone to get a chance to play.

"Throwdown" reminds me: Do you think WWE Wrestling is legit? Or is it an oily, be-singleted soap opera?

It’s totally a big oily soap opera, but isn’t that what makes it so desirable? While I’ve seen some hilarious clips online, I haven’t seriously watched wrestling in decades. My era is a little less oily, but way more gimmicky. Brutus the Barber Beefcake, Hacksaw Jim Duggan, and Jake The Snake. If the wrestler had a prop, I was sold.

Anyway, is Maximum Throwdown (and yourself for that matter) going to make it to the conventions this summer?

I will be at Origins, Gen Con, WBC and a few others. The Maximum Throwdown prototype will be on hand, as always. As for the complete game, it will be available to purchase at Gen Con. Hope to see you there!

Can you tell us anything about the game you’re developing for the Button Shy brand? It seems storytelling is making a bigger mark in the gaming industry these days.

I’m developing a deck of cards called Storyteller Cards. It’s made up of 54 cards with an illustration that features a Character, an Item, an Action and a Location (illustrated by the amazing Campbell Whyte - see 8-Bit Dreams if you want to immediately fall in love with his art). Instead of a game, it’s more of a toolkit for gamers, or writers, designers, artists, kids, etc. The cards are meant to inspire creativity. If you are writing a story and need a location, just flip a card and you’ve got one. And along with the illustrations there are icons (Rank/Suit, Letters, Colors, Moods, Seasons) that will provide additional inspiration.

So it’s not actually a game, but there are games that can be played with it. I’m including rules for my game Director’s Cut that’s played using 8 cards from the deck and your imagination. I’m also gathering a whole bunch of creators to make games, activities, and examples of uses for the cards. It’s a big undertaking and an ambitious first project for the Button Shy brand, but I have a lot of good friends in the industry who are willing to lend a hand and their experience in helping me kick this off.

So that’s it then? Anything else going on?

There are two other things on the horizon.

First, I’ve been itching to start my podcast Designing Out Loud. It’s a interview/game show style show where myself and Alex Strang put game designers through challenges forcing them to design on the spot. Unfortunately Alex has been hospitalized since the start of this year, so it’s on the backburner. Hoping the best for him and looking forward to this and other projects we have planned.

And second, I’ve been developing games with Island Officials as part of their tabletop division. One of the first is Pigpen by Kevin Kulp. It’s a family style pig-penning / pen-destroying game. The art is wonderful and the game has been in the pipeline for a few years now. Kevin’s a good friend and it’s been great to work with him, as well as on the other side of things.

Ok, so when do you sleep?

I’ve learned that it’s not the amount of sleep that matters, as much as the quality of your sleep. When I sleep, I sleep like a loud, snoring rock. I’ll get in good few hours and then I wake up around 5AM and get right to work. I’d rather work than sleep any day.

You know the drill: 5 questions answered with 5 words (or Phrases). And GO!

Nazgul or Deatheaters?

Nazgul!

Psyduck or Slow-Bro?

Haha, this is so hard but I love good old Psyduck.

Favorite guilty pleasure movie?

The Warriors

G.I. Joe or Transformers?

G.I. Joe all the way.

Super Mario or Legend of Zelda?

Super Mario (World to be precise)

We'd like to thank Jason Tagmire again for taking the time to share the latest in his world with us and our readers. You can find the Pixel Lincoln playing card Kickstarter here.

You can also keep up with Jason on Twitter, and find out more about Jason's latest work on ButtonShy.blogspot.com

Don't forget to like, share, and tweet out your favorite posts here at TOG, and we'd love it if you liked and followed us too!

Thanks for reading!

The Weirdness of the Origins Award Nominees

By Firestone

On Thursday we were excited to bring you the newly released list of nominees for the Origins Awards. But as I looked over the list, I couldn't help but wonder what in the world they were thinking...

Let's start with Best Board Game. We have understandable nominees, such as Kingdom Builder, Lords of Waterdeep, and Mage Knight. Then there's Hot Rod Creeps from Cryptozoic Entertainment. "That's weird," I thought. "I've never even heard of that game. Maybe it just flew under the radar." So I went to the Geek and saw that it had flown under everyone's radar. The game has only 57 ratings. It's ranked 3656. Why would that game make the short list of best of the year? And speaking of year: Kingdom Builder and Mage Knight are both from 2011. So are these the best games of...recent years?

And then we have Best Gaming Accessory, which includes things like Dungeon Tiles, miniatures, cool dice, and...The Wizard's Tower from Castle Panic? What?! It's not an accessory; it's an expansion. The Tower isn't even a...thing! It's a deck of cards. And it came out in 2011!

And there seem to be an inordinate number of Cryptozoic games. I'm not saying they're not good games, but where are games from some of the other publishers—like Rio Grande and Z-Man and Fantasy Flight? Does Origins only nominate games that were sent to them by the publishers? That seems like a crazy way to determine the best games of the year. Or of recent years...

Black Spy—A Teaser from Z-Man Games

Z-Man Games this morning has teased a new game on their Facebook page. Black Spy, from the little information they've given, sounds like a trick-taking game with some intrigue mixed in.

From Z-Man "Black Spy is a film noir take on Hearts. You must enlist the best spies to get what you want, but beware of the black spies; they will turn against you if given the chance. Keeping your hands clean won’t be easy. Can you outsmart your opponents?"

The juiciest bit of info from the announcement is that the game is designed by Ticket to Ride craftsman Alan Moon!

We'll keep our ears to the ground and bring you more info as it becomes available.

Thanks for reading, and stay tuned for a great week of news, reviews and interviews this week!

What You MIssed...

We had a fun and busy week here at TOG. First we had a little April Fool's joke where I said I was giving up board games. (I even convinced one of my friends for the briefest of moments....)

Then we gave you a bunch of Tolkien board game news. Is there any franchise that has more games set in its universe?

The Kickstarter Weekly was a Werewolfish game involving foxes and chickens...

Then we shared a Dr. Demento Kickstarter—for a documentary about the influential radio host.

Then we shared the unfortunate news about Zombies designer Todd Todd Breitenstein's passing, and a fund-raiser for his family.

Then we got news of the GAMA Origins Award nominees—and we shared them with you.

Thanks for joining us; have an awesome weekend.

2013 Origins Awards Nominations Announced!

The Nominees for the 39th Annual Origins awards have been announced via the GAMA Web site. Making a HUGE showing in the list of nominees is Wizkids Games, with 5 titles up for an award! Not bad for a company who just several years ago had shut down operations. Wizards of the Coast, also with 5 nominations, continues to make an impact on the gaming industry. While Catan moguls Mayfair Games make a showing with Catan Junior and Clash of Wills. And we can't forget AEG bringing 3 nominees to the table this year including Love Letter and the much beloved Smash Up!

Here are some quick highlights of the games nominated:

 Best Board Game -

Hot Rod Creeps – Cryptozoic Kingdom Builder – Queen Games (Read our Review) Lords of Waterdeep – Wizards of the Coast Mage Knight – WizKids (Read our Review) Mage Wars – Arcane Wonder

The nominees for Best Traditional Card Game are -

Doctor Who the Card Game – Cubicle 7 Entertainment/Treefrog Games Legendary – Upper Deck Locke & Key – Cryptozoic Penny Arcade: Rumble in R’lyeh – Cryptozoic Smash Up – AEG (Read our review)

Best Family, Party or Children's Game -

Catan Junior – Mayfair Games (Read our Review) Escape: The Curse of the Temple – Queen Games Love Letter – AEG Once Upon A Time 3^rd Edition – Atlas Games Quarriors! Dice Building Game – WizKids Games (Read our review)

For the complete list of categories and nominees you can visit the GAMA website by clicking right here.

Feel like a game got slighted? Are you pulling for a favorite to win? Let us know! Sound off here in the comments, or shout out on Facebook and Twitter!

A Fund-Raiser for the Late Zombies Designer

On March 24, Todd Breitenstein, designer of the board game Zombies!—and its countless sequels and expansions—lost his fight with cancer. The 47-year-old is survived by his wife and three children. US distributor ACD Distribution has announced in a press release that they "will donate all of the profits from sales of all Twilight Creations' games from March 24th through April 12th to the Todd Breitenstein Benefit Fund. In addition, ACD Distribution will match whatever amount is raised in this way as an additional contribution to the fund."

The Dr. Is In—A Special Kickstarter Weekly

Allow us a moment as we divert from our typical posts about gaming to share a special Kickstarter campaign with you... There is a generation, maybe even two generations, out there who are unaware of a national treasure who's obscurity is made even more obscure by the passing of the syndicated radio era. This national treasure is, of course, the one and only Dr. Demento.

Dr. Demento for decades brought the weird and wacky side of music to radios across the country, and it was on his show that Weird Al Yankovic first rode the air waves. I (Jeremiah) can remember countless Sunday nights tuning in late, and recording each show on cassette tapes, and then wearing them out during the week.

Enter Kickstarter. The indie film studio Meep Morp Studios is Kickstarting a project to produce a feature length documentary on the life and times of Dr. Demento. "Under the Smogberry Trees" is the first ever film to take on the task of telling the story of Dr. Demento, aka Barry Hanson, who not only brought to light comedic performances and parodies, but also wrote his thesis on opera and earned a masters degree in folk music studies.

The campaign has a lofty goal of $100,000, but they are offering some cool rewards for backing, everything from a t-shirt to dinner with the good doctor himself!

You can check out the campaign here. And you can check out the Dr. Demento show here.

Thanks for indulging this diversion, and thanks for reading!

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