Star Wars In My Ears - A Look At The Sith List Podcast.

There is no doubt that popular culture and popular entertainment has exploded in recent times. The seemingly unending cornucopia of super hero franchises as well as high end television franchises now serve a fan base that was unthinkable in terms of numbers when I was growing up in the 80's. And it wasn't until the popularity of the Internet really kicked off in the early 2000's that fans and fan communities from all over the world could interact with each other. 

I've observed this pattern for pretty much my entire life, having been born into world at a time when Star Wars erupted onto the screen and into the public consciousness in a way that was unprecedented. And, I've derived immense joy - particularly recently - in having found a global community of pop culture fans who appreciate pop culture as much as I do.

The nexus of this interaction has been audio podcasts which have allowed friendships to spring up, discussions to take place and generally good times to be had.

So, this week, I'm continuing my exploration of the podcasts that have filled my ears and have given me a whole lot of satisfaction and joy. I want to share with you a show called The Sith List.

(image credit: Iraj Dowlatshahi.)

The Sith List is a weekly pop culture podcast that covers not only Star Wars - which, of course, is catnip for me - but it explores a broader spectrum of popular culture and engages wide ranging discussions on the likes of Marvel, DC, Lost, Game of Thrones and The Walking Dead - just to name a few. 

Hosted by Iraj Dowlatshahi and Carlos Arguello, The Sith List's appeal lies in the team's keen knowledge of a wide variety of pop culture franchises and their passion for the storytelling, characterizations and lore contained therein. They also step out of the in-universe content to explore and discuss behind the scenes aspects of the various franchises, drawing on up-to-the-minute news items from reputable entertainment sources. Their commitment to factual reporting is really admirable in a sea of similarly constructed audio productions who don't strive for that level of accuracy.

The Sith List hosts Carlos Arguello & Iraj Dowlatshahi. (image credit: Iraj Dowlatshahi.)

What I also really like about the podcast is that, for the casual fan - who may not be familiar with a particular franchise - Iraj and Carlos present their show in such a way that you don't necessarily have to be a fan. They make their content accessible and actually invite the listener into a given franchise by giving enough background information that one is encouraged to go out and look further. 

Their discussions, their debates are lively, sometimes passionate but always entertaining. With a roster of guests drawn from within pop culture fandom, you can be guaranteed to be informed as well as entertained by the differing opinions put on show. 

There is also a healthy dose of nostalgia available in The Sith List - one that especially appeals to us 80's kids for whom much of our Saturday mornings are but a distant memory. 

The Sith List brings it all back with affectionate immediacy.

Subscribe to The Sith List on iTunes here. 

Subscribe to The Sith List's generic feed here.

Connect with The Sith List here. 

Tweet The Sith List here. 

DFA.

The Dark Heart Of The Prairie - A Look At Dark Prairies by R.S. Guthrie

Dark Prairies by R.S. Guthrie
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

In the taming of the West, the prairies, they bled. There was war between the white man and the Native American, the outlaw against the honorable, the harsh elements against anything that crawled or thirsted—yet as scurrilous and unforgiving as bloodletting always is, much still represented a kind of progress toward the future. Not always fair; not always judicious; not always kind.

But it is 2012, and though we call ourselves more civilized, little has changed. The greedy still steal the land, the rich still get richer, murder still happens. Dark Prairies is set in the prime of the twenty-first century Wyoming gas boom, when some landowners become rich and others get nothing but ruined roads; fortunes are made or lost on what some would call a toss of the legal dice.

When a terrible murder rocks a small town—when Sheriff James Pruett himself loses his beloved---the prairies, they WILL bleed again. How many will die this time, in honor and in vain?

In this, his third novel, R.S. Guthrie has delivered his magnum opus. Dark Prairies carves into the raw, twenty-first century West at both its worst and its finest hours and does so in the depths of an ocean of both loyalty and greed.

Disclosure - I was supplied an advanced copy by the author in exchange for an honest review.

My grandfather on my father's side had a deep and abiding love for the classic Western and indeed, my father grew up immersed in the graphic novel digests of the 50's and 60's - some of which I myself still own.

In terms of their individual quality, well some of them were debatable but I have always held an affection for them, their stories were always told with a sense of gusto.

Approaching Dark Prairies as I did last week, I knew that I was going to be in for a literary experience that sat on a whole other level entirely to those Western's of yesteryear. And, in the hands of a seasoned story teller - R.S. Guthrie - I was not disappointed.

R.S. Guthrie's 3rd novel is a master stroke of gritty story telling, fully realized characters and a sort of genre cross over where the stage is the American West and the act is a compelling tale of murder and mystery that is breath taking in it's execution.

So compelling was Dark Prairies, that I completed it in a couple of sittings over the course of a weekend, which - for me - is unprecedented. Guthrie immerses the reader into a thinking persons Western, a tragic murder that involves the protagonist intimately.

Guthrie's Sheriff Pruett is a quintessential every-man, a quiet and methodical investigator who has to take on perhaps the most heart wrenching investigation of his life - and we feel it, viscerally. The cast of characters around Pruett are equally vivid in their presence and their motivations and machinations are a delight to unfold as the story progresses.
The story flows slowly - not too slowly - but in such a way that it allows us to reflect on the situations Guthrie presents to us, before he ramps up the tension and action that thrills, horrifies and excites all at once.

The setting of rural Wyoming was another stand out that I will take away from my first reading and return to enthusiastically in subsequent readings. Guthrie has probably portrayed a place in the most tactile and visual fashion of any author I have read in recent memory. I could feel and smell Wyoming in all it's unadorned beauty and, as I described similarly, earlier it was a masterful example of penmanship.

Dark Prairies is important addition to the classic Western and Murder/Mystery genres and fans of both should consider this novel as a priority for their reading device.

R.S. Guthrie grew up in Iowa and Wyoming and now lives in Colorado. He has been writing fiction, essays, short stories, and lyrics since college.

"Black Beast: A Clan of MacAulay Novel" marked Guthrie's first major release and it heralded the first in a series of Detective Bobby Macaulay (Bobby Mac) books. The second in the series (Lost) hit the Kindle shelves December of 2011.

Guthrie's "Dark Prairies" represents a project that is close to his heart: it is set in a fictional town in the same county where he spent much of his childhood and still visits.
Guthrie lives in Colorado with his wife, Amy, two young Australian Shepherds, and a Chihuahua who thinks she is a 40-pound Aussie! 

Readers can catch up with Guthrie's discussions related to writing at his Official Site.

DFA.

View all my GR reviews

The Rasor's Edge Revisited - Now In Print!!

My good friend and fellow ireadiwrite Publishing alum, John Rasor has announced that his very-tongue-in-cheek retrospective of the TV series phenomenon Lost - How Lost Got Lost - has finally made it's long awaited leap to the printed page. 

I covered John's book back in July in the lead-up to it's digital release and I am so pleased that "How Lost Got Lost" is now available in print.

I wrote then that John first came to notice with his debut novel  "Roadkill", a deliciously sinister tome of a serial killer with a severe case of road rage who patrols the streets of L.A. and the highways of Southern California running down drivers who are using their cell phones while driving. His rage extends from the tragic death of his wife and unborn child in a similar but unrelated incident. "Roadkill" had me thinking of Denzel Washington's "Man On Fire" and more recently, the Liam Neeson actioner "Taken" in which an insatiable desire for revenge feeds the protagonist. I have to confess that I have a predilection for these types of stories.

In the aftermath of what many regard as the greatest "What the Fuck??" ending of a major television series ever, John has sat down, driven by the need to understand, and has penned what could be the definitive tonic to aid all those Lost fans who are still picking themselves up off of the floor. "How Lost Got Lost" is one Lost fan's labor of love, a soliloquy of pent up frustration laid bare. John Rasor examines the Lost phenomenon in a blisteringly funny narrative that is choc full of valuable insights and measured consideration that seeks to answer that one burning question - W.T.F?

John writes with an unbridled enthusiasm and a genuine love for the series. Though I haven't been a huge devotee of the series Lost, John's ability to speak to the lay person is such that you probably didn't need to be a fan. Since I have come to know John, I have been particularly impressed with his almost encyclopedic knowledge of episodic television and his zest for pop culture which transcends almost all barriers.

Check out John's site where you will find all the necessary links to purchase, what I regard as a landmark publication. John's site is fast becoming a totally engrossing repository of everything great about pop culture vultures. I also encourage you to check out John's interview with Jason of the Brink of Sanity Show where he discusses the book in depth as well as other adventures in TV culture.

John is a great orator and someone who I like a lot.

DFA.