Pickle Tales Round 2, Vote for your favorite story! Options

[Christiana]

Hello everybody!

Round 2 is now online!

Subscribe right here: (RSS) (iTunes 1click) (Pickle Page)

Or you can download it direct: Pickle Tales Round 2

This thread is where you can vote for your favorite, and then stay awhile to discuss the stories with all the other great people of the Podcast Pickle Community! Enjoy, everybody!

[tvindy]

"The Butterfly Lady" gets my vote. Michael is a very interesting character, and I think the way he is characterized in the story is the whole point. He enjoys life and is a very in-the-moment kind of guy who sees beauty in everything. Because of his almost Buddhist outlook, he experiences death in a very unique way, seeing his last moments of life reflected in the (presumably) beautiful wings of the Butterfly Woman. That's what I take from the story, but I think there's a lot more I'm not getting, and I hope other listeners chime in here with their interpretations.

One additional thought: is the exotic Butterfly Lady intended to contrast with Michael's more mundane wife?

[philrossimusic]

"The Butterfly Lady" gets my vote. Michael is a very interesting character, and I think the way he is characterized in the story is the whole point. He enjoys life and is a very in-the-moment kind of guy who sees beauty in everything. Because of his almost Buddhist outlook, he experiences death in a very unique way, seeing his last moments of life reflected in the (presumably) beautiful wings of the Butterfly Woman. That's what I take from the story, but I think there's a lot more I'm not getting, and I hope other listeners chime in here with their interpretations.

One additional thought: is the exotic Butterfly Lady intended to contrast with Michael's more mundane wife?

Thanks! I was feeling a teeny bit down-trodden, I must admit.

I hadn't intended the Butterfly Lady as a contrast to Michael's wife. But, I do like that thought. The text was originally longer. A lot was left on the cutting-room floor - in a hasty fashion, no less. Mayhap, I'll post a longer cut of the story down the line.

[Smart Bomb Radio]

Here's my rundown.

"Bag Man"- This is my first real experience with "Dark" Laurence Simon. Yikes! I went googling to find what that tag means. Couldn't find it. SPILL IT.

I gotta ask a question about Keeme's piece. Shelly refers to parts of it as "Glitchy Editing" but I thought this was a storytelling device. Doesn't the guy have a brain tumor? I thought it was a cool effect.

"Because I've never been DYING before! Humor me." Great line.

Activated Storytellers, I SOOOOOO Envy your cast. Dammnit it would be nice to have three good voiceactors right about nows! I guess I can see the critism that it's all set up to the joke, but when people seem to be enjoying themselves this much it's hard not to get sucked in.

Dirk Manley had some really funny parts, but I'm a sucker for the whole TV Edited stuff. Watched Scarface once on a regular channel and couldn't stop laughing at the "Mother"FRIKING" Cockaroaches!" Also, caught the "Corner of Sigler and Hutchins" I'm a huge fan of dropping little easter eggs in stories (hell, my whole title is an easter egg to one of the inspirations.)

The Butterfly Lady- Don't let the judges getcha down bro, this is a solid story for people who like mysterious quasi religious kind of ghost stories. And I'd love to read the uncut version of this. The 5 minute time limit is a biotch!

[comedy4cast]

Way cool. I hope everyone chips in with their thoughts on the stories. As the "judges," everyone gets to hear our opinions, but that's just meant to get the conversation started. Please, let people know what you liked about your favorite Pickle Tales.

[tvindy]

"Bag Man"- This is my first real experience with "Dark" Laurence Simon. Yikes! I went googling to find what that tag means. Couldn't find it. SPILL IT.

Coincidentally, it happens to be the title of the story in the first episode of Pseudopod which also doesn't define it.

[Laurence Simon]

I put my rundown of the other 5 on my own site. As for Will's questions:

"Bag Man"- This is my first real experience with "Dark" Laurence Simon. Yikes! I went googling to find what that tag means. Couldn't find it. SPILL IT.

I slip in a dark 100 word story now and then. One of the bits of advice I have for participants when they get stuck is for them to create a simple character, then beat the crap out of them in unusual ways. ("Don't Put Another Drachma In the Jukebox" / "Iron Baby" / "9/11" / "The Bullet In The Bible")

Z was based on the concept of "Protestant B" that was on dog tags in the first Gulf War (For some odd reason, most Saudis don't like Jews all that much, so Jewish servicemen were re-tagged from J to Protestant B.) but as I cut things down I was tempted to remove it entirely and just rely on the MIA designations. But I left it in anyway as a red herring just to see if it would fly.

When the narrator says "Now I'll never know what Z means" I'm hoping the audience thinks something similar.

Regarding recording levels - what are y'all listening to this on?

As for the density of writing. Yeah, my first rounder was pretty dense and took multiple times to catch all the nuances and gags. But then, are these things just "listen once" and then POOF off into the digital ether?

Do you read a book just once and then burn it? Do you watch a DVD just once and throw it away? Do you eat a particular meal just once and never make it again to savor? Do you just nail a chick once and then dump her, never to explore her other pleasures?

If I lose points for making things a bit complex for those seeking simple entertainment, trying to make things interesting for multiple listens where the person wants to hear the subtleties, so be it. I want people to go back and explore the worlds I create in the tales I spin.

I had an absolutely blast assembling it. Even foleyed up some effects... the dirt at the end was a box of dirt I shuffled around the porch... the coffins were suitcases thrown around the room... the bags of drugs stuffed into the bodybags was shoving kleenex back in the box slowed down... it was fun going through the sounds I've amassed over the past year, and then playing around for more. If there was something that could be expressed or fleshed out in sound, I added it. Didn't want the three sounds to stick out like a sore thumb.

It was a royal bear to cut down, but I didn't want it to end up like Manata's piece last round where he sprinted through a very cool story but it totally lost listeners in the delivery. Had to have some breathing room... time to digest.

[comedy4cast]

Regarding recording levels - what are y'all listening to this on?

Laurence, I obviously can't speak for everyone, but...

I listen to each story a minimum of 3 times: once on my Treo with headphones, once over the car stereo and once on my laptop computer. Often I will listen again on one or more of these devices, sometimes up to a total of 6 or 7 times.

If I lose points for making things a bit complex for those seeking simple entertainment, trying to make things interesting for multiple listens where the person wants to hear the subtleties, so be it. I want people to go back and explore the worlds I create in the tales I spin.

Personally, I have no issues with a story being "dense." As you can see, I am listening multiple times. The fine line I draw is, upon first listen, am I getting enough of the story to engage me and make me want to go back and listen again. So, "dense" itself is not necessarily an issue, it can be a plus. If the story is confusing upon first listen and requires that the listener hear it again and again just to have it make any sense at all, that can be a different issue.

[P. Dilly]

I listen to each show twice on my laptop.



Let me make this clear. Everyone did a better job than I could of done.

[comedy4cast]

So say I.

[Smart Bomb Radio]

So, since this thread is getting dense and interesting, here is the run down on my story.

Shelly, ya caught me looping I did a couple of shortenings of the sound effects and some reverses to change it up, and varied the bursts, but I only had three creature effects, and I suck at "Organic" sound effects.

The concept for this story was to try to mix Scott Sigler with Robert Heinlein (starship troopers) with HP Lovecraft. I figured if there are "Elder Gods" out there, whispering madness into the mind of man, they don't all have to be on earth, do they?

Zipher was orgininally Zephyr. Then I realized that I'd be killing an activated storyteller (oops!) but in the end I like the name Zipher, it sounds just futurey enough.

By the way, with the exception of the first two folks that Zipher blew into next thursday, who says I killed everyone who went down into that pit. The creatures "Took" them all. Just because they took off their suits doesn't mean they are dead. Elder gods have dark plans for mankind... The beast of Hastur is no different

[Tony - FanboySma...]

This was a tough round for me personally. I'll admit my lack of skill for editing and voice talent. Plus with the layering I did for my story, keeping the voices straight in my own head was tough. I think all of the critiques by the judges were spot on. I'm glad that through the flaws in production that the story still got through.

I was glad for Christiana's 'it's funny' at the end. That was what I was going for and I'm glad that it got mentioned there. Here's hoping that if I make it to Round 3 that I can avoid the sound effects

[The Keeme]

I gotta ask a question about Keeme's piece. Shelly refers to parts of it as "Glitchy Editing" but I thought this was a storytelling device. Doesn't the guy have a brain tumor? I thought it was a cool effect.

"Because I've never been DYING before! Humor me." Great line.

Thanks man. Couple things (told myself I would just put them out, no comments... wait and see... breaking my own code now).

Name of this story was originally "Grey's Sky"
He was "told" he has Astrocytoma and the reason for the crazy feel at the start of it all. I made the sound effects and some of the "inner" voices low to make the listener wonder "what the heck, is this what being told 'you're dying' feels like"?

As some of you may know, my stories are based on real life experiences. I may enhance them some but the stories I am telling here are at least half true.

[Laurence Simon]

You know, something struck me about the voting...

The first round, people had to select one favorite, but the top three were moving to the second round.

Would have been nice for people to select their THREE selections from that round to move on, since it was hard to pick just one.

But in this case, now we're heading into a series of five elimination rounds.

Wouldn't it be a lot more interesting for people to vote for which story/storyteller gets ELIMINATED in rounds 2 through 6?

Yes, it would be a whole lot crueler, but we're podcasters. We're used to getting crushed, squashed, and humiliated.

Thoughts?

[The Keeme]

It may even out the playing field. I both love and hate the idea.

Love because of it pointing out the least favorite story for each person

Hate because of it pointing out the least favorite story for each person

[Smart Bomb Radio]

The scarriest part of this contest is 4:00 PM Central standard time, when the east coast gets off work. The next 4 hours tend to be the heaviest voting of the contest. Here, feel my heart pound!

I said feel my HEART... Ahem...

[Christiana]

You know, something struck me about the voting...

The first round, people had to select one favorite, but the top three were moving to the second round.

Would have been nice for people to select their THREE selections from that round to move on, since it was hard to pick just one.

It's a good point, but I'm not sure how we'd be able to do that with the forum polling feature.

Wouldn't it be a lot more interesting for people to vote for which story/storyteller gets ELIMINATED in rounds 2 through 6?

Well, I’d be willing to see what everybody else thinks, but honestly, I would much rather root for my favorite to do well than to hope that my least favorite fails. It emphasizes the positive, and the truth is that I liked ALL the stories. For me anyway, choosing my least favorite is a lot less fun than trying to decide which one I like best.

[John & Allie]

It may even out the playing field. I both love and hate the idea.

Love because of it pointing out the least favorite story for each person

Hate because of it pointing out the least favorite story for each person

I agree.

Consider for a moment how the "losers" on Survivor get to go on Leno and Good Morning America after they are cast off the island.

Perhaps the previous Pickle Tales castaway could be a guest Judge on the upcoming show. I'm not suggesting that each castaway stays on as a guest, but they get to have a shot at judging too.

???

John

[tvindy]

I agree.

Consider for a moment how the "losers" on Survivor get to go on Leno and Good Morning America after they are cast off the island.

Perhaps the previous Pickle Tales castaway could be a guest Judge on the upcoming show. I'm not suggesting that each castaway stays on as a guest, but they get to have a shot at judging too.

???

John

I like the idea of a guest judge for each round.

[Anemone Flynn]

I really enjoyed all the stories this round, and it was even harder (if that could be possible!) to pick just one to vote for. I like the editing / effects in "Bag Man," "Asteroid," and "Minding the Cabin," and "Dirk Manly" especially. Way to make it interesting, guys.

Waiting impatiently to be entertained ...



Anemone