Yes! I Finally Posted...

...but it's still not a review. :(

However, my news does (sorta) pertain to reviewing. Although I still don't feel like I have much extra time to be spending writing reviews, I have received something that will aid me in that regard: Album 54! Now, rather than digging back into the archives (or going to FAIO [heh-heh]) to listen to previously-aired episodes, I can just pop a CD into the laptop and review as I listen.

My family celebrated Christmas today on the 24th rather than on the 25th tomorrow in order to maintain the importance of the Lord's Day. We didn't want the celebration of Christmas to conflict with our celebration with Jesus' resurrection tomorrow, so we opened presents today. As you can see in the picture below, I have much reason to be happy with the presents I received. ;)

I'd love to hear about any presents you've received--especially if they have anything to do with Odyssey. And I promise I will try my best to get a review of Forgiving More...Or Less out as soon as I can. Thank you for your patience! Have yourself a merry little Christmas celebrating Christ's birth! But don't forget to go to church on Sunday and celebrate His resurrection.

More Misinformation

So, it turns out, I was wrong...again...in the information I thought I was relaying from the Odyssey Scoop. Those five album covers I posted the other day are not final; they were created by a fan. I personally think they look wonderful, and AIO should consider using them as the final products. But they aren't official.

Anyway, here's some breaking news: The Blackgaard Chronicles is out today! And there's a special Official Video Podcast to celebrate. It features a "pop-upisode"--A Name, Not a Number, Part I. If you don't remember from the Album 50 videos, a Pop-upisode is an Odyssey episode put to a video with a whole bunch of behind-the-scenes information running throughout it. It should be very interesting.

The word from Jacob Isom (and I'm pretty sure I can trust this information, since he has his own copy) is that The Blackgaard Chronicles features the thirty AIO episodes pertaining to Dr. Blackgaard over 13 hours of audio entertainment on 10 CDs. And just like the Novacom Saga, there's a bonus disc, but in this case, it's a DVD featuring a 30-minute interview with Paul McCusker and Phil Lollar about the creation of Regis Blackgaard. But Jacob argues that the best feature of the new collection may be the brand-new illustrations of Jack Allen, Jason Whittaker, Dr. Blackgaard, Richard Maxwell, and Phillip Glossman!! This alone makes me very badly want to get the set for myself. I so hope this new artwork is released somewhere sometime soon.

One other thing: Just before the pop-upisode starts in the newest video podcast, we see Brock opening the Blackgaard Chronicles package, and behind him there's a dry-erase board that has written on it: "55 Episodes Sgt York The Labyrinth" Could these be the titles of the two three-parters we've heard talk of?! Only time will tell. :D

Thanks for reading! Be sure to tell me what you're thinking about all this new stuff in the comments!

P.S. Here's the back cover for The Blackgaard Chronicles, if you were wondering what episodes are included:

EDIT: There's more breaking news, now that I've watched the Pop-Upisode!!! If you watch the whole thing, almost exactly halfway through, you'll notice that the title of Album 55 has been released! It will be called The Deep End. I was totally not expecting to learn this so soon! Some other special things included within the video were original drafts of The Blackgaard Chronicles' artwork, and original drawings of Dr. Blackgaard. And for those of you who like the Imagination Station series, at the end of the video, you get a peek at the newest book's cover. Also, we get to see new illustrations of Jack Allen and Jason, in addition to the ones already released on Album 23's new cover! This all made the time it took to watch the Pop-Upisode very worth it!

...And So It Drags On (in a good kinda way)...

Okay, before I get to the review, Ahhhh! Look what the AIO Wiki posted today!!!



This is so cool! I wasn't expecting this at all! If you look closely at the checker/chess board, you can see that the pieces are Connie, Eugene, the Imagination Station, Whit's End, and Tom on Whit's side. And on Blackgaard's side we have a computer, a building that's probably Blackgaard's Castle, a man who could be Glossman, but he's fatter than I imagined him, and then a woman of whom we can see the top of her head. This is an overall amazing picture, and I couldn't have dreamed of anything better to have as the cover of this amazing set!

Alright, now to the review: Well, we're finally halfway through the season. And we heard the words "the Green Ring Conspiracy" for the first time, and we actually learn how it is that the carnival is most likely the cover for the counterfeiting scheme. Monty's explanation makes a lot of sense, but something tells me it was just given to make us suspect Uncle Archie and his carnival goons. But maybe something else is going on. Maybe Monty's in on it! And Mr. Skint is a good guy!! No, I'm just kidding, but I'm really not sure what to think about what Monty said.

I really like Uncle Archie's voice. But because of his tone, it's really hard to tell whether or not he's a good or bad guy. He seems to like Detective Polehaus, but it's not the same for Polehaus. I can't tell if Archie has a bad past with the detective, so that's why he doesn't like Wally, or if Wally has a bad past with him, and that's why he doesn't like Archie. Or maybe it's both, and they just have an all-around bad family. But we now know that Jay isn't the son of Archie, but he's the child of "Nick and Sylvia," not "Betty and Reggie." (It's a big family.)

This episode felt kind of short, because, like episode four, we didn't really get much new information out of it. A lot of the episode time was spent with the various characters' experiences at the carnival. Wooton and Penny make an odd pair, but their both odd, so I guess it's kind of even. I don't think they really have a future together, but maybe that's just because I think Penny's annoying, and she doesn't really bring out the best in him. I think even Victoria would have been better for him, especially considering the fact that I continue to doubt her "Christianity."

It sounds like a fun carnival though. However I've never actually been to a real carnival before, so it could be missing a lot. But all the rides and attractions mentioned sound fun. But it's freaky that practically all of the men and some of the women look like Mr. Skint, according to Archie. I'm not sure how much fun I could have with a bunch of people that look like that. If you've ever read A Carnival of Secrets in the second Odyssey novel compilation, Danger Signals, you know why I don't trust carvinals with a bunch of thugs for employees. They can't be good news.

Buck and Emily... That's just weird to me. I don't know what it is she sees in him. He is secretive, older than her, and he has an annoying Southern accent that sounds fake. I wish Matthew would act on the crush we all know he has on Emily (or vice versa) and get rid of Buck! Hopefully Emily won't end up helping Buck find the AppleBerry and giving it to him.

I'm glad suspicion was drawn out of Katrina after meeting with Mr. Skint and Buck. I wouldn't know what to think of her if she took that encounter at face value. Mr. Skint seems to want curiosity to be thrown his way. But I guess he has to go to drastic measures if he's going to get that AppleBerry back. I loved it when Monty didn't fall for the old "Watch out behind you!" trick, but then that was the trick! So yet again, there's a cliff-hanger involving Monty.

What will Mr. Skint do with Monty? What will Katrina and Eugene do when they get to the address that Buck gave her? What is Uncle Archie's connection to this conspiracy? Is Monty right about the carnival and auction being a cover for the counterfeit ring? What relationship will develop between Wooton and Penny? Will he and Connie be able to find her in the Hall of Mirrors? Will Matthew take Jay's advice and change Emily's mind about Buck? Will Buck find the AppleBerry before Matthew and Eugene figure out the password? What is Wally Haggler's secret past? What will Jay find out from his stakeout? Where is Agent Tanner hiding? Is Dirk Beggs's part in this mystery over, or will we hear from him again? And when will they ever tell us the answer to the mystery about a duck's quack?!

I guess we'll just have to keep listening. Thanks for reading my review! Please tell me what you think in the comments!

P.S. This picture was also posted on the AIO Wiki today. I think the pink works much better with the picture than the previously-speculated lavender did. Plus, it fits with the "love" theme.

AHH! Big Updates!

I got an e-mail from Brock for the first time in a long time! He sent the descriptions for the episodes that we presently have the titles for. I couldn't believe it! This is so similar to what happened last year with Album 52! Here are the descriptions:

Unbecoming Jay: Jay Smouse is devastated with the news about his uncle's past involvement in illegal activities, and he's afraid that with the way his life is going, he might end up in prison too. So he asks the Square One Club to help him with his problems and try to make him a better person. But Whit tells Jay that there's only One Who can make him a better person. Only He can truly help Jay and stop the family line of bad behavior.

The Amazing Loser: Barrett Jones is frustrated. No matter how hard he tries, he is losing at everything--he can't get the notes right on his trombone, he's always the last one picked for football because of his lack of ability, and he keeps messing people's days up. Therefore, he's even losing Priscilla, who's turning her attention to the changed Jay. He goes to Mr. Whittaker for help, and ends up getting sent on a trip in the Transmuter.

Wooton Knows Best: In yet another episode containing the name of this fan favorite, Wooton is being pummeled with kids who want his advice. It all started when Whit wasn't available and Wooton was at the counter, but now the kids love his advice, and start coming to him all the time instead of Whit! However, the real adventure starts when Whit asks Wooton for advice about one of his new inventions....

Anger Mismanagement: Principal Vogler is noticing the overabundance of bad behavior at Odyssey Middle School. He recruits Matthew and Emily to try to find out the cause behind everyone's irritation and frustration. But what they find surprises all three of them, and soon they are affected. Only one person can come to the rescue...Eugene!

In other news, the release of the Blackgaard Chronicles has been moved up to July, and the cover is to be released very shortly. Also, there's rumor of a new two-part Blackgaard episode being added to the tenth CD because of a two-episode shortage. I'll be watching this one very closely.

Finally, you can head over to the Official Podcast to see a video of some of the recording of Album 54! AHHH! See the actors for kids like Barrett, Jay, and Priscilla as they act! AHHH! This is so cool! Make sure you check it out! Oh, but read my comments first!

Thanks for reading! Make sure you keep coming back for any new exciting news! Please comment!

Some More Random News

I don't know where FreddyJay got this confirmed, but he told me in the comments that in this picture,



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!