...And So It All Keeps Coming Together...

I just got done listening to the episode, and I don't know about you, but I'm quite shocked! We just met the Stiletto, and already we know who he is. Of course, I already knew who he was, but I wasn't expecting him to be revealed so soon! And I especially don't understand how he can be involved with it while being a good guy. I know that the writers wouldn't have made him turn bad, so I assume that he's working with the Secret Service against the counterfeiting ring from the inside. The big question is how he is so well-known by Wally, Polehaus, and Tanner. How could he have become such a big-name gangster who is supposed to be dead in just the few years it's been since he left Odyssey? Now I really can't wait for next week's episode. This was the worst cliff-hanger of all!

Well, we finally found out why Penny's "Christianity" sounded so suspicious. Dr. Trask started out by saying that he would call their group "a group of like-minded people of faith who are seeking God together." Stop right there. "Seeking God?" If you are a true Christian, you have unlimited access to God and His blessings, so they shouldn't need to seek God. Romans 3:11--"there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God." He says, however, that they seek God as one would seek a painter or composer by learning as much as they can about that person's work. "We're dedicated to finding the beauty of God in nature, art--within ourselves. And in doing that, we get to know him better. And through Him, we find His beauty inside of us. We can see our true potential--who He wants us to be." Now there isn't too too much wrong with that. We can see the glory and attributes of God in a small sense by looking at creation. But creation is fallen. The beauty of the image of God is marred by the curse. We do not have any natural goodness inside of ourselves. Romans 3:12b/Psalm 14:3b--"there is no one who does good, not even one." Furthermore, Dr. Trask describes the Bible as having "the poetry, the prose, the stories, the insights into our humanity. It is pure revelation." Now all that is right, but did he say that it is God's Word? It does give us insight into our humanity, but probably not in the way he's thinking. He also says, "I believe that God has created within us something unique and beautiful. But over time, that uniqueness and beauty gets covered up with the soot and constraints of life. Our vibrancy and color fades. Our little group wants to restore who we really are. There's a beauty inside of you Connie--a potential you haven't begun to explore." Yeesh! And Connie doesn't see through any of this! Jeremiah 17:9a--"The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure." Psalm 51:5--"I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me." I don't see anything there about "uniqueness and beauty" or "vibrancy and color." I sure hope Connie talks to Whit about this. She nearly fell into this trap twenty years ago. I hope she's learned by now.

I was so glad that Emily and Buck and Penny and Wooton weren't together in this episode. There was a small amount of talk about the subject between Penny and Connie, and now we know that Penny feels the same about Wooton as he feels about her. Big surprise. But we did hear from Buck. And I'm still not sure whether or not he knows exactly what he's caught up in. I think he knows that Mr. Skint is involved in something illegal, but I haven't seen any evidence that he knows it's a counterfeiting ring. When Jay confronted him about it at Whit's End though, he almost sounded like he was trying to make himself sound like he knew nothing about what Jay was talking about, but maybe he actually did know. I'm not sure. I guess Robby Bruce does do a pretty good job with his acting--even if he gives Buck what sounds to me like a fake accent. In any event, I certainly hope Eugene and Matthew can keep him from stealing back the AppleBerry.

Detective Polehaus is finally learning a lesson about trust, but now that he is getting more trusting, I don't think the actor is doing as good a job of playing him. He isn't sounding convincing as a tough detective who just got proven wrong. He's too okay with the fact that his whole "worldview" as he calls it was crushed. But aside from that, there was another thing that I noticed. When Whit told him about seeing Agent Tanner at the place to which he had tracked Monty's location, Polehaus told him, "Don't do anything until I get there!" and Whit answered, "No promises." I don't know what other episode that reminds me of, but I remember another situation very similar to this happening in the past where a detective or policeman or somebody told Whit to stay put, but Whit didn't, and the detective ended up being in on the plot against Whit. If any of you can tell me what episode I'm thinking of, please tell me in the comments! Anyway, according to that episode's reasoning, I'm really starting to think that Detective Polehaus might not be who we've thought he was. And maybe Agent Tanner is telling the truth for the most part.

So that brings us to Agent Tanner. I still don't know what to think about her. At first, when Whit approached her as she was entering the Stiletto's hideout, and she gave that explanation about why she was there and what she had to do with Monty, I was ready to believe her. But then when Jason seemed to give sketchy details about her, I wasn't sure anymore. He said that she had been a double-crosser, but to whom? He didn't trust her with his true identity, but that makes sense. Obviously Polehaus and Tanner are on different teams, but which one is on our side?! My guess is that we'll find out for sure next week since Polehaus is on his way to the Stiletto's hideout, and he's bound to run into Agent Tanner.

Well I think that's about all I have this week. I'm not going to throw out a bunch of questions, because I don't have time, and I don't think there are any more than I've already asked. Other than of course: What is Jason doing as the ringleader of a counterfeiting ring?!?!

Please comment!

P.S. Check out the news at AIO Wiki! It has the final cover for the new Kidsboro release, along with a really special video from Brock that shows us the covers for five new album repacks! Very exciting! Although I'm not sure whether I should trust some of those pictures that Brock showed. They don't look up to the normal quality of Gary Locke's work.

Books

Remember that picture I posted a couple months ago from the AIO Wiki?



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:

Kidsboro is a small town in the woods behind Whit’s End in Odyssey. It’s a nice little place. It has a church, a store, a police station, a bakery, a weekly newspaper . . . and a total of zero citizens over the age of 14. It’s a town run by kids. Ryan Cummings, the mayor, helps enforce the laws, create new job opportunities, and in general, keep the peace in a town where he seems to have lots of friends and only a few enemies. The Kidsboro series teaches not only moral and biblical principles, but also concepts of government, politics, economic principles, the judicial system, United States history, and Bible stories. The Fight for Kidsboro is a compilation of the 4 books from this popular series.

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 key to adventure lies within your imagination! Cousins Patrick and Beth go to the Holy Land in the tenth century BC. Their goal is to get back the ring Hugh stole and return him to 1450s England where he belongs. But troubles await them as soon as they step out of the Imagination Station. First they meet an angry bear and later an angry giant. Set against the backdrop of the David and Goliath story, the cousins learn that having a giant faith is more important than having a giant on your side.

I've never read the Imagination Station books, because they seem to be directed more toward younger children, but if you're interested, you can go here for more information.

There's also one more book that was announced with a description today--the sixth Imagination Station book, Problems in Plymouth:

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!

Album 54 Tidbits

Here's some information I found on AIO Wiki that I thought I'd share with you since some of it is new information that I haven't seen anywhere else. Some of this we already know, but a little bit is information that I hadn't heard before.

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!

Mystery Image

This picture was posted on the AIO Facebook page a few days ago as a teaser picture. I'm not on Facebook, so I didn't know about it until AIO Wiki posted it the other day. The only clues we are given about what it might be a picture of are the initials RC and VS. Also, as someone else pointed out, you can see the word "Fingerpainting" in the grey rectangle at the top left.

People over at AIO Wiki speculated that since this looks very similar to the Kidsboro Book #3: The Creek War cover, RC and VS might stand for "Ryan Cummings" and "Valerie Swanson". Commenters were saying that there may be a repackaging in store for the book series with Gary Locke illustrations, since this picture definitely appears to be by Gary Locke. Here's the cover for The Creek War:

I've read the book, and I know that in that picture, Alice is driving the sled, Ryan is in the second spot, and Jill is in the third. The characters have the same hair color and positions in the new picture, so I think it is highly probable that this scene is what we're looking at. And the "Fingerpainting" part may just mean that this was a finger painting that Gary Locke had done. From the video we've seen before where he drew Eugene, we know that he uses a touchscreen to do all his painting.

I don't know for sure, but this is definitely going somewhere, and I'll be looking for more news to share should any more come up. Thanks for reading! Please comment!