Saturday, March 26, 2011
...And So It Persists...
I don't think we got as many answers to questions this episode as we did last episode. We didn't here anything from Mr. Skint, Dirk Beggs, or Monty. But we did get at least a little information about Monty and Beggs in Agent Tanner's soliloquy about his involvement with the counterfeiters. As far as I can tell, the Secret Service was suspicious of Dirk Beggs, so they sent Monty in on a mission to get information. For a while, it seemed like it might be a waste of time, but then Dirk started giving Monty information. But then they both disappeared until they were discovered after the plane crash, and now the Secret Service assumes the worst and considers Monty a rogue agent. I definitely agree with Whit that Monty wasn't the type of kid who would get tempted by money. So I'm considering him innocent until proven guilty.
Connie at art classes at CCCC...weird. But I'm sure it has something significant to do with the ultimate plot. We'll just have to see how it plays out. The character of Penny is weird, but I'm sure she's supposed to be that way. I never knew Connie was interested in drawing, let alone that she has the ability to copy the Mona Lisa! But what is this obsession with fangs? And I don't know about you, but I'm suspicious about the "Christianity" of Penny and Dr. Trask. Something tells me it's going to turn out to be some kind of weird cult, as in Bad Company. Something about Dr. Benjamin Trask makes me suspicious of him. Maybe it's the fact that he sounds like he's played by the same actor as Detective Polehaus. Are they related? Then again, Penny sounds like she could be played by Katie Leigh, so there's probably nothing there.
I definitely agree with Marvin (I think it was Marvin) who says that this relationship between Buck and Emily is Richard Maxwell/Lucy Cunningham-Schultz-like. It's an oldish boy whom we know is working for the bad guys playing with the heart of a girl who's obviously much younger than him. And, as he told Mr. Skint on the phone, Buck's going to use her to accomplish his diabolical plan to find Matthew and the AppleBerry. I don't know why Emily is being so naive all of a sudden. You'd think that since she's a detective that she'd be on guard for villains. Especially when there's a counterfeit money scheme involved. But I guess girls will be girls. : )
I was expecting to hear from Jay, Matthew, and Nelson, or at least Jay since I was told by Marvin that we'd be hearing from him in every episode. But they were in the "Previously on Adventures in Odyssey" clip at the beginning, so maybe that's what Marvin meant. Hopefully he'll be in the next one.
Well there are still a lot of questions that need to be answered: What is the significance of Penny and Dr. Trask? Will their "Christianity" prove to be genuine? What will Buck do with Emily? Will she help him find Matthew? What is on the phone, since Mr. Skint wants it so badly? Will Emily maybe turn Buck around and get him on our side? Or will Buck end up nearly killing her like Richard did to Lucy? What's up with the Stiletto? Is he only a myth? And is Monty a rogue agent? Why was he in Whit's house? And is he going to be okay, since we couldn't hear him responding to Whit? What is Detective Polehaus going to do with the counterfeit money? Is he a bad guy? Will he link it to Buck because of the "Oliver" Twist book in the front pocket? Will there be a cliff-hanger involving Monty in every episode?
I can't wait to hear the fourth episode next week! Thanks for reading my review! Please comment!
Friday, March 25, 2011
Books
As posted today at the same place, this is the cover for the upcoming October release of The Fight for Kidsboro, a large compilation of the first four Kidsboro books. Here is the summary the Wiki gave:
I have the Kidsboro books, and I really like them. Marshal Younger is nearly as good a writer as Paul McCusker is for the Passages books. They all have great storylines, and I hope some day they get transferred over into the audio series. You can check this book out here.
There's also been a release of the description for the fifth Imagination Station book, Showdown with the Shepherd, which is also coming out in October of this year:
The Imagination Station Adventures continue! Patrick and Beth’s next adventure leads them to Plymouth Plantation in 1621. There they meet William Bradford, Miles Standish, and Chief Massasoit, who are trying to establish peace between the Pilgrims and the Indians. Things are anything but peaceful, however, when a musket is stolen and the Pilgrims conclude the Indians are planning war. Only Patrick and Beth know who the real thief is—the traitor Hugh—and it’s up to the cousins to find him and stop him from causing trouble. When the cousins hear a gunshot during the first Thanksgiving feast, their worst fears are realized. They rush to the Mayflower and try to set right history, even as Hugh desperately tries to change it.
This book is also due to come out in October of this year.
Finally, while I was at the Wiki, I decided to take a look at the Album 54 page, and when I got there, I saw this mockup cover of the album, and I thought I'd share it with you:
In my opinion, it looks much better with the border around it, and I can definitely see this looking good on the front of an album now.
Thanks for reading! Please comment!
Thursday, March 24, 2011
One Year Anniversary!
I can't believe it's already been a whole year! Now, granted, I have had a couple of hiatuses (hiati?), so I guess I haven't been here that entire time, but it's close. I'm so blessed to have the opportunity to do this in our amazing age of technology, and I'm very thankful to all of you readers and commenters who have stuck with me this whole time.
Thank you to Marvin, Audrey, OJ, FJ, and Brock for being long-running faithful readers and commenters.
And thank you to Brittini, Lydia, Hannah, Tim B., Burn 4 Him, abbyjoy1797, Jay, THE OLD GEEZER, Luke, Brickster, Agent 3XQ, KMAP, Macy, Mandy, Jessa, Garrett, J.J., Jenn, Camilla, and chesster for being newer faithful readers and commenters.
Thank you all for your support! I hope, by God's grace, to continue this blog for many months to come. And I will keep trying my best to bring the best and newest news about Odyssey, because we all know, if the fans are silent, the CDs cry out. We cannot let that happen! :D
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Some More Random News
the girl is Priscilla Peterson, the boy with the black hair is Jay Smouse, and the boy with reddish hair is Barrett Jones. Those would probably have been my guesses if I had to guess, and they make sense: Jay is being annoying, Barrett is playing trombone, and Priscilla is with Barrett. :P But I'm not sure how much I like the illustration. I imagined Priscilla with dark hair, Barrett with really short blond hair, and Jay with black hair, but at the same length as Barrett's is in the picture. But I can't complain, because very rarely do the illustrations look just like I pictured them to look. Sometimes the actors end up looking like they sound, but almost never the illustrations.
Plus, FJ told me that he thinks this is just a draft, that it looks to un-polished to be the final cut. I think I agree. The colors and tints don't seem to be as solid as Gary Locke's usual work is. And obviously it doesn't have the border around it yet, so maybe it'll end up looking better with the AIO logo and album title.
In other news, information for The Blackgaard Chronicles is finally out! We were told about this upcoming saga repackage several years ago, and now it's finally coming! This is the description that was posted on AIO Wiki two days ago:
Evil has a name and it's Dr. Regis Blackgaard! The small town of Odyssey will never be the same! When a man named Dr. Regis Blackgaard arrives to build an "amusement house for kids," chaos and danger follow him. A top-secret government computer program is unleashed at Whit's End. Tom Riley's barn burns to the ground. And that's just the beginning of the schemes that Dr. Blackgaard has planned for Odyssey and John Avery Whittaker.
Follow the ever-twisting story in The Blackgaard Chronicles, a collection of thirty episodes following Whit's greatest nemesis. Along the way, the folks in Odyssey learn lessons about God's protection, sacrifice, forgiveness, salvation, and more. Once you start the story with "A Bite of Applesauce," you won't want to stop listening until you hear the dramatic conclusion. The Blackgaard Chronicles contains 30 episodes on 10 CDs. Over 13 hours of entertainment.
I'm wondering what episodes are going to be included in the package. I like all the Blackgaard episodes, and I own all but three of them (the last CD of my Darkness Before Dawn album is missing). Hopefully it will, in addition to the episodes in Darkness Before Dawn and Daring Deeds, Sinister Schemes, include episodes such as Waylaid in the Windy City and A Name, Not a Number. Those are some of my favorite Odyssey episodes. Blackgaard was always one of the best villains, and I'm glad they kept him around for so long, even bringing him back from the dead in Blackgaard's Revenge. :)
I hope I am able to get this set, because, as the Novacom Saga did, I'm sure it's going to have some great bonus features, let alone the fact that you get thirty episodes in one package!
Well, I think that's it for now. Oh! I just remembered. Original Joe just today gave me a link to Gary Locke's blog where he posts all of the artwork he does for all kinds of things, including Focus on the Family's Clubhouse Magazine. You should go check it out! (Alert: If you are not a Republican and/or if you are totally content with and supportive of our current president, you could possibly be offended by some of the artwork. :D)
Also, if you're interested, Brock's been posting lately about his experience with the Duggars when they came to FOTF just this week. It's very interesting, especially if you already know a lot about the Duggars (they're the family with 19 kids that you may have seen on TLC!). You can go to Brock's blog here. (FYI: There's a weird-looking blue boy with no shirt on at the top of the page. Hopefully you're not offended by it. If you are, you can take it up with Brock. ;P)
Thanks for reading! Make sure to come back on Saturday for my review on The Green Ring Conspiracy Part III!
Saturday, March 19, 2011
...And So It Continues...
I thought that the opening scene to this second episode was even better than last week's opening scene with Matthew and Emily. This time we got some answers to questions right off the bat, and I hope the same thing happens next week. I really like the characters of Mr. Skint and Buck, but already a bunch more questions have been brought up. I'm wondering if the fact that they both have southern accents will come into play later on. I would think Detective Polehaus should have been more suspicious of Buck upon hearing his strange accent. (I personally think it sounds fake--kind of like the Australian boy, Simon, in A Little Credit, Please.) Somehow they have a connection with Uncle Archie of the carnival, and I think that's going to matter later on.
Detective Polehaus keeps making a big deal about how bad of a family background Wally Haggler has, and I don't know if anyone else caught it, but Uncle Archie is his brother. (So does that mean he's Jay's dad?! Or just another uncle?) I think the detective must know something about Archie's involvement in something, or at least he's suspicious, or he wouldn't be harping upon Wally's background so much. I thought it was intriguing that the detective also knew immediately who the Stiletto is, and that he thought Wally was lying as soon as he was brought up. I looked up the word stiletto in the dictionary to see if that'd give me any clues, but it only means "a small dagger" or "a thin high heel on a woman's shoe". I still think it could be Mr. Charles or the Chairman. I don't think it's Mitch, Richard, or Jason, because each of them is a Christian, and wouldn't do something like that. Well I guess Richard isn't necessarily a Christian, but he's always been a good guy, and he understands forgiveness and repentance. I really have no clue who he could be though.
Monty works in the Secret Service? I never would have guessed that he'd go that direction from his earlier shows. I wonder if Jana knows anything about it. Maybe his dad got him into it. But I think it makes sense that he'd be investigating the counterfeit case. My theory is that he is a spy for the government, and Dirk Beggs, Mr. Skint whoever the other guy is think he's in on the plan. The only sign that he was an agent was the disc under his skin, so I don't see how any of them would know, or why he'd tell them. I can't see him being a double agent against the government, so I don't think he's actually working with them. But now he's right back out of the hospital, and he left us with another cliff-hanger!
Eugene seems to have his action/adventure cap on in these episodes. His attitude and tone remind me of the days when he was trying to find his father with Whit. The chemistry between him and Emily, in my opinion, is really, really good, and I think he'd make a more fitting partner for Emily in a detective agency than Matthew does. ;) And also, the music again really added to the show. John Campbell does a great job composing for mysteries. It hearkens back to the Novacom days. But I'm still waiting to hear from Katrina! I hope she comes in soon. And I hope Audrey Wasalewski starts doing a better job with her voice. In past episodes with her and Eugene, I agree with those who say that she isn't as good of a Katrina as Pamela Hayden was. But she hasn't been in mystery mode for a while, so maybe she can redeem herself.
The kids were really good in the episode again. I thought Matthew especially did a good job. He was right to say that he shouldn't go to meet a stranger, and then I thought it was great that he said he wanted to meet at the police station. I'm really itching to know what's on the AppleBerry phone, to find out why Mr. Skint is so concerned that it will fall into the wrong hands. Georgina Cordova continues to do a great job playing Nelson, and I'm continually amazed at how much she can make him sound like a boy. His argument with Jay about the plane crash made me laugh. Jay also did a good job in the episode. It seems that he's going to be a very important character in the episodes to come, since he links the bad guys to the good guys. I look forward to hearing more from him, since Marvin says that he's in every episode this season.
There are still so many questions, despite how many were answered in this episode: What is Dirk Beggs' secret? What's on the AppleBerry he dropped? What's Uncle Wally's part in all this? And what is the significance of his relation to Uncle Archie at the carnival? Who is Monty working for? Why and how did he escape from the hospital? What's going to happen with the counterfeit money? Is that the "knapsack or something" that dropped from the plane during the fight in the air? Why is Detective Polehaus so suspicious and hostile toward Uncle Wally? Does the detective have any secrets himself? Who is the Stiletto? And why do all the suspicious people know who he is? What part is Connie going to play as the episodes continue? Is her place at the college going to play a role? What's going to happen at Uncle Archie's carnival? And when will we ever learn if a duck's quack really echoes?!
I can't wait to hear the answers to all these questions as the season continues to unfold. I'm glad that this episode had a good moral presented by Chris at the end. Hopefully the rest of the episodes will end up following suit. Thank you for taking the time to read my review! Please comment!
P.S. I think this should be okay since the Official Podcast has released it, so here's the album art for Album 54!:
I have to admit that I don't like this one as much as I've liked the ones in the past. I feel pretty much the same about it as I did about Album 51's art when it first came out. It just doesn't seem like it'd look good on the front of an album. But maybe it will look better when it gets a border around it and actually goes on the album.
By the way, I think, based on the title as presented on the Official Podcast blog, that the title of Album 54 has been changed slightly from Clanging Cymbals and the Meaning of Love to Clanging Cymbals and the Meaning of God's Love.
Friday, March 18, 2011
Nevermind!
P E O L I V I A
C V C R I N K C
W A E O I P A J
O J M U N A T O
O A I I G N R H
T S L L L E I N
O O Y V O L N E
N N G L E R A E
Again, all you have to do is find ten Odyssey characters, cross out the letters that make up their names in the puzzle, and then enter the remaining letters into this box at the Official Podcast website. I'll give you a clue: The final word has fifteen letters in it.
I'm Going Crazy!
P E O L I V I A
C V C R I N K C
W A E O I P A J
O J M U N A T O
O A I I G N R H
T S L L L E I N
O O Y V O L N E
N N G L E R A E
As soon as I can find just ten current Odyssey characters, and then enter the letters in the leftover spaces into the "Secret Word box", I get to see the cover of Album 54! And you do too if you can figure it out! But I can't find the last character. I've found Olivia, John, Camilla, Emily, Eugene, Connie, Wooton, Jason, and Katrina, but I can't find any others at all! The word that you enter into the password box is supposed to be a character we're going to meet in Album 54, but I can't finish the puzzle!
Please tell me if you've figured it out, so I can see the new album cover!
Saturday, March 12, 2011
And So It Begins...
I thought the episode felt a little short, but I guess that's going to be normal since it's a twelve-parter. All of the acting was great, and so was the music. A couple of times it seemed like I was watching an action/adventure movie in my mind. And there are so many secrets already!
Why did the plane crash? What was its business in Odyssey? Why were there only three people inside? Why was Monty one of the people inside? What is Dirk Begg's secret? Why didn't he want the police to get involved? What's on his AppleBerry (I love that name!)? What is Wally Haggart's secret past? Why was there a bag of money in the woods? Is it counterfeit? What's the big deal with the carnival? Who is the Stiletto? Why is he alive if Uncle Wally thinks he died years ago? Is it Dr. Blackgaard or Richard Maxwell or Jellyfish or Dalton Kearn or Mr. Charles or The Chairman or Mitch or Jason?! And when will we ever find out if a duck's quack makes an echo?! So many questions! I hope some of them are answered soon. I'm glad this episode didn't have too bad of a cliff-hanger though.
I thought Whit's doing a pretty good job so far this season, and I can't wait to see how Andre Stojka does with the action/adventure/mystery/thriller episodes that Paul Herlinger had mastered.
Eugene is also sounding very good. I hope he gets to play a big part in the mystery, especially when Katrina comes around. Hopefully we get to hear them together a little bit, since sometimes it seems like Eugene is single all over again. I think the chemistry between him and Emily was really good. We hadn't seen that before. And I loved it that when he saw the money he shouted, "Loudly exclaimed euphemisms escape me!"
All of the parts played by the kids were really good. The opening scene with Matthew and Emily was kind of weird. We never found out why Emily was acting so irritable. I thought the fact or urban legend game was kind of out of place, but it was still funny. But I guessed right away that "guys only, ladies forbidden" was an urban legend. Although you don't see ladies playing golf very often, and I've never heard where the name "golf" came from. Nelson and Matthew had great chemistry as always, though it struck me as weird, just as it did Matthew that he's afraid of bugs and strange sounds. I thought he was one of the people who started Kidsboro! He shouldn't be so scared of stuff like that. Jay's part was well played, and I look forward to hearing more from him in the weeks to come. He really is starting to take Rodney Rathbone's place in my heart.
Well, that's about all I have to say about this episode. I really think I'm going to like this season at least more than any others since the hiatus. I've heard some people say that it's up among their all-time favorite Odyssey albums. But maybe that's just because they get to say that they listened to it before it even aired on the radio. That'd probably make it one of my favorites too.
Anyway, make sure to come back next week when I review The Green Ring Conspiracy, Part II! Thank you for reading! I greatly appreciate it! Pleace comment!
P.S. Connie's taking college classes?! Finally! I wonder how that's going to come into play later on...
Thursday, March 10, 2011
New Characters
- Phil Proctor (formerly played Leonard Meltsner)--Detective Don Polehaus: "Too bad we don't allow preemptive arrests. (Jay: "What does that mean?") Ask your uncle--or anyone else he knows at Campbell County Prison!"
- Robby Bruce--Buck Oliver: "Dirk Beggs is in intensive care. They won't let anyone in to see him."
- ?--Dirk Beggs (talking on the phone): "Listen to me, it's Dirk Beggs. Look, I know you said not to call on this number again, but it's all gone wrong!"
- Lori Tritel--Dr. Lilly Graham: "We received a confidential directive from Homeland Security that they'd begun embedding identification chips under the arms of their agents."
- David Selby--Jebediah Skint: "Here you go, Buck, my boy. Let's hope you get that job at Whit's End."
- Keith Ferguson--Ted Humphries, news caster: "He's a good cop, but not very tolerant of little things like...social skills. I've met junkyard dogs with better personalities."
This isn't much new information, but we now know that Buck is possibly involved in a scheme with Mr. Skint, having to do with getting a job at Whit's End, Buck is also involved somehow with Dirk Beggs, and whatever Beggs is up to with the person he's talking to on the phone has gone completely wrong. Also, Jay's uncle (Wally Haggler) returns, and is presumably in prison for something.
It sounds like this is going to be a very, very interesting season, and I can't wait to hear it!
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
A Few More Tidbits
- Album 54 is going to take a break from the themes and characters discussed in Album 53 because it was originally placed before Album 53, so the few loose ends and questions left at the end of The Green Ring Conspiracy will not be resolved and answered until Album 55.
- Album 55 will continue storylines with characters brought back and/or introduced in Album 53.
- Album 56 will potentially be focused on inventions. Each of Whit's inventions by themselves are so interesting and have so many possibilities that they deserve albums of their own, but they're going to try to cram a bunch of them into one album. The Inspiration Station will likely be included among the inventions, as well as Whit's "Talking Portraits."
- Album 54 will not have any episodes with the Inspiration Station in it.
- According to Mr. McCusker, the episode titles that Brock blurted out in the Avery Awards podcast may not be actual episode titles, because the titles are never sure until Chris is recorded saying them at the end of the episodes. Some episodes from this album have been recorded already however, so it is likely that the titles are real episode names.
Well, that's about it for now. Thank you for reading! Please comment!
Saturday, March 5, 2011
The Green Ring Conspiracy Is...NOT Out Today
Thursday, March 3, 2011
Album 54 Tidbits
The current description of the upcoming album is, "Whit, Connie, Eugene, and Wooton join the kids at Whit’s End to learn stories about the true meaning of love from 1 Corinthians 13. "
Then there's a listing of the episodes that are speculated to be in Album 54 because of comments made by Brock in one of the more recent podcasts: Unbecoming Jay, The Amazing Loser, Wooton Knows Best, and Anger Mismanagement. And we now know that the album will be called "Clanging Cymbals, and the Meaning of Love."
There is also a list of facts that we have learned about the album up to this point:
- It was revealed in an interview with Nathan Hoobler on the 59th edition of The Whit's End Podcast, that Album 54 will be a thematic album similar to those with a theme throughout the album, like On Earth as it is in Heaven.
- This album was originally supposed to be 53, but Focus decided to bump it back an album.
- A tentative name for this album was "A More Excellent Way".
- As of October 2010 the writers are working on the 12th episode of this album.
- As of January 2011 six episodes have been recorded.
- This album will be centered mainly around the Bible verses in 1 Corinthians 13.
The second piece of information was particularly interesting to me, because I hadn't heard it before, and I'm wondering if this means we might finally get to here the promised Kidsboro episode that we first heard about before the hiatus was over!
I don't know about you, but I'm very interested in this album and am looking forward to seeing more information about it as soon as it comes out.
Thanks for reading! Please comment!
P.S. For those of you who haven't seen it yet, Jacob Isom, webmaster of the Odyssey Scoop has officially started the second annual Scoop Yourself contest at his website. It was very interesting last year to see all the different entries that came in after they were posted. And if you want to enter your own picture, I don't think a deadline has been set up yet, so you should have adequate time. The picture at the top of the page with the Odyssey CDs spelling "Odyssey" is actually from last year's contest, so that gives you an idea of how fun these pictures can be.
Also, I've been made aware via a comment on my Links Outward page of a new Odyssey blog that was recently started up. It seems to be a very proffesional website, and it has a very simple name--Odyssey Blog. :) It has a lot of information on it, and the webmaster has already done a large number of posts in the month he's been running. So go check it out!