Taking a Short Break

Okay, as most of you probably noticed, I have gotten behind in reviewing this season's episodes.  I wrote a draft last week for "Great Expectations," but I got up too late to finish it before we left to help a family from our church move. And, of course, I had no time to get around to it during the regular week.  Well, today, I got up late again, even though I purposely went to bed early, so that I could wake up to either one of my very early alarms and try to finish both reviews before the day officially started.  Somehow, I missed both alarms and didn't get up until after 7:30. I know, for some of you, that's way too early on a Saturday morning. For me, that's terrible; that's about the latest I ever let myself get up. ;)

Anyway, I've changed my plans. The Bible Bee is becoming time-consuming enough for me that I cannot keep trying to focus on getting these reviews out for you guys. Therefore, since I have several more months than usual to review the episodes (the 57th season has been put off until Fall 2013, if you haven't heard), I'm going to stop reviewing until after the Bible Bee. Consequently, the first day I'll be available to review an episode will likely be November 23rd....a little less than a month.  Sorry I had to do this. Hopefully you guys are fine with waiting a few weeks to get my thoughts on more of this season's episodes.

Thanks for understanding, y'all!  Don't forget to comment. :)   And be sure to come back on the 23rd for my next review!

-- Christian

So Very Sorry

For those of you who have been wondering, I didn't fall off the face of the earth, and I didn't totally forget about this blog. I realize it's been over a month since I last posted. I actually come on here nearly every day to check for comments. :P  But I've been too lazy to post anything. However, I'm hoping to change that next week. I've been formulating a review in my head for "Something Old, Something New" ever since it aired, so it's not like I don't have material for a post. And I actually don't have a problem with time either. I'm just a professional procrastinator, so I haven't made myself get around to it yet.

I'm going to post within the next week though! And because I said so, unless something big comes up, I should definitely be able to follow through. Hopefully I will. :}

Thanks for sticking with me even when my posts are months apart!

--Christian

NO WAY!

I'm not going to review any episodes today, because I woke up late and now, after soccer, I don't have enough time before I go to work, but I still wanted to post something about how awe-stricken I was after hearing the episode today.

Almost three hours after hearing the end of today's episode on the radio, I'm still in shock about the surprise at the end. This was the best surprise ever! Or, at least since the relaunch. I'm so glad I didn't catch wind of this before hearing the episode, because it was so great to experience the surprise with my siblings and parents.

I can't believe Mitch is back! I didn't see it coming at all! When I heard his voice on the phone, I said to my brother, "Wow, that almost sounded like Mitch." And then it was! I am sooo excited. I liked just about everything about this episode. But I won't review it now. I can't wait for next week! Could Album 55 get any better?

So Here We Are a Week Later...

...and I still haven't written a review for To Mend or Repair; and it's another Saturday and a new episode has already been released. The good news is, I have listened to Mistaken for Good. I thought it was a really good episode. But I'll elaborate upon that at a seperate, undisclosed time. ;)

So I'm really sorry I again haven't been consistent in delivering reviews. Hopefully none of you are dying in your extreme anticipation. I really don't want this to turn into what happened with Album 54, but it doesn't look good right now. I start soccer next week, which will take up every Saturday morning for two months. So I'll either have to get the review done before 9:00 in the morning, or I'll not write a review, basically.

I don't really know what to do. If anyone has any suggestions about how I could manage my time better and put out reviews more consistently, I'd love to hear them. Thank you all my consistent readers for bearing with me!

No Review Until Monday

As you probably noticed, I didn't get a review out on "To Mend or Repair." In reality, I haven't even listened to the episode yet as I'm writing this. Actually, this was probably the first time since the relaunch that all of my siblings heard an episode on the radio before I did. I had to work early this morning, and I woke up way too late to even consider listening to the episode before I left. And I didn't get off of work until five, and I still have to do my weekly housecleaning chores, so I don't think I'll be able to put out a review anytime soon.

I'm sort of considering making an exception to my unspoken "No posting on Sunday" rule, but I'm also sort of not. Sundays are supposed to be days of rest, and trying to make time tomorrow to listen to the new episode and write a review would be almost anything but restful for me.

So unfortunately I'll likely have to postpone my review until Monday. The only problem with that is that I never have time to sit and write during the school week. I don't want this to turn into what happened with Album 54 where one missed review day keeps me from writing any more reviews for the rest of the season.

Anyways, I'll do my best to get a review out as soon as I can, but I really can't make any promises. I'd appreciate prayer for good time management, if any of you would do that for me. Thanks for being faithful readers!

Christian

My Apologies, But...

the episode titles for Album 54 are out, as of today!!

The "My Apologies" part is about the fact that I still don't have my review of Part 12 of the Green Ring Conspiracy out yet. I've had a very busy Memorial Day weekend, as I suspect some of you have had, so please forgive me. I'll try to get the review out either tomorrow morning or Thursday morning.

But there's huge news! On a brand-new video podcast out today at the Official Podcast website, Brock secretly reveals the episode titles for the entirety of Album 54: Clanging Cymbals and the Meaning of God's Love! He only showed them for a split-second before Bob and Jesse cut him off, but I paused it, and here they are:

1. Wooton Knows Best
2. A Penny Saved
3. The Amazing Loser
4. Anger Mismanagement
5. Forgiving, More or Less
6. You're Two Kind
7. A Penny Earned
8. Never for Nothing
9. Emily the Genius
10. How to Sink a Sub
11. Unbecoming Jay
12. Childish Things

Honestly, to me, some of those seem a little fake, and it's hard to trust Brock sometimes, but I guess they look real enough that those are most likely the genuine titles. I have to admit, I'm not that excited about this album, because so far, since the relaunch, I don't think the issue of "love" has been dealt with all that well. Barrett and Priscilla in When You're Right, You're Right, Michael Butler and Wendy Jennings in The Mystery of the Clock Tower, and Buck and Emily and Wooton and Penny throughout Album 53. So I'm hoping that the AIO team redeems themselves with a more proper view of the sacred subject of love between a male and a female. Maybe they'll use the album to give a better portrayal of true love, whether it's agape love (unconditional love for others as neighbors), storge love (general affection for someone, usually as a family member), philia love (general love between friends--enjoying company), or eros love (romantic love between a male and a female--most specifically the emotional connection of the relationship). I hope they will handle the subject delicately, as it should be handled, and not flippantly, as I fear.

But episodes like #s 2, and 7, which are known to be episodes in the Wooton/Penny saga are giving me concerns. And I'm hoping Unbecoming Jay isn't something even remotely along the lines of the fake (or at least I think it was fake) description it was given for a short amount of time at AIO Wiki. It described Jay as wanting to improve himself for his girlfriend, so Emily and Matthew had to help him out--similar to Changing Rodney, except that episode didn't have a girlfriend in it. I wish AIO would stop putting those kinds of relationships in their shows. I actually liked the Trent and Mandy saga, because their love for each other was portrayed as something special and almost sacred, especially in A Class Reenactment. But in this new season, those kinds of relationships are tossed around with no honor or respect whatsoever, so I'm concerned and not sure what to expect from Album 54.

Please comment and tell me what you think. I'd love to hear your thoughts about this subject!

The Green Ring Conspiracy Is...NOT Out Today

I had thought for sure that the new season was starting today. I mentioned last week that I'd be reviewing Part I of The Green Ring Conspiracy this week, but I went to Whitsend.org this morning, and that wasn't today's episode! I then went to the Odyssey Scoop and looked at the schedule for March, and saw that even though every single other year a new album has been aired in March, it started on the first Saturday, this year's season doesn't start until next week. :(

So it looks like maybe I'll have to do that review on Mitch that I told Brittini I'd do. Mind you, I haven't prepared for this in my brain at all, so if it isn't very good, don't blame me, blame the Odyssey people who changed the schedule!

The first thing ever said about Mitch, chronologically, is in the special letter included in the Novacom Saga from the Chairman of Andromeda to Mr. Charles. The chairman mentions that Arthur Dent has suggested "a young man he knew from Boston [who] might be perfect for the job and, in fact, has asked to be relocated to Odyssey." The job the Chairman refers to is the task of monitoring Mr. Whittaker at all times in order to gain his trust, so that it will be easier to steal the Imagination Station from him.

But the Chairman didn't take into consideration the fact that Mitch might develop relationships with people at Whit's End. Not only does he take a real liking to Mr. Whittaker, and therefore doesn't want to go along with Andromeda's evil plot, but he also falls in love with Connie. When we first meet him in Green Eyes and Yellow Tulips, we can tell that he and Connie are attracted to each other. Connie stumbles over her words whenever he asks her a question, and Mitch tells her that the sweater she's wearing looks good on her. But then, further into the same scene, she finds out he works for Novacom, and she isn't sure about him anymore. Later in the episode, she turns down Mitch's request to help him with a Sunday School class, thinking he's going to ask her out on a date. But the misunderstanding is quickly cleared up, and soon Mitch is sending her flowers.

Throughout the first half of the Novacom Saga, their relationship grows, and they start going out frequently to places like the bowling alley and Trickle Lake. We learn that Mitch can't cook to save his life, he enjoys horseback riding, he used to live in Maine and had a girlfriend named Justine, he doesn't like honey-roasted peanuts or water landings, and he loves macaroni and cheese. But then things start to get complicated. Connie starts to notice how many secrets Mitch has, and when she tries to ask him about them, he pretty much clams up. Then she finds a picture of a very attractive woman in his briefcase. But later in the same episode, as Connie peppers him with hard questions on Candid Conversations with Connie, Mitch blurts out that he thinks he's falling in love with her. That silences her, and she ends the show.

But then, a couple of episodes later, Mitch is suddenly taken by the Federal Witness Protection Program, and Connie is told that he's dead. And worse, she finds out that he was AREM--the computer hacker that seemed to be causing so many problems. She has a very hard time dealing with her grief, and after the funeral, she goes to Massachusetts to visit his sister, Rachel. While there, she mentions that she finally feels like she's finally getting used to Mitch being gone. But then she catches Rachel on the computer, and she hears "the AREM sound." She is dumbfounded when Rachel tells her that she needs to keep this a secret because it is very dangerous, but Mitch is alive.

So now Connie has to get used to him being alive. Mitch is now on the case with the FBI, trying to figure out what Novacom and Andromeda are up to. He ultimately helps to determine the "Launch Date" when the mind control will go global, and he also devises a plan with Nick to catch Mr. Charles. Ultimately, Novacom and Andromeda are put out of business, and all the villains except the Chairman are put in prison.

Since Novacom is shut down, Mitch looks for work for some time, but because he was involved with the company, he has a bad reputation, and he isn't hired anywhere. He eventually starts his own business fixing computer problems, but that isn't enough for him. He tries co-hosting a radio show with Connie as "Dr. Wise," but that doesn't satisfy him either. Next he gets caught up in a big mystery involving identity theft from Whit, and eventually the escape of Mr. Charles from prison. He starts out being a suspect in the theft, so the FBI doesn't allow him to help with the case, but he starts his own investigation with Whit. He ends up getting kidnapped by Mr. Charles, but he gets out of it. All this helps him to realize that he has a love for mysteries and crime-fighting. This seals his decision to go to Washington and train to join the FBI.

After about an album, Connie travels with Joanne Allen to visit him. While she's there, Mitch is accepted into a branch of the FBI that is going to take him to Budapest. He wants Connie to go with him, so he proposes to her, and she accepts! Connie's mom, Whit, and even George Barclay come into town for the wedding. After the rehearsal, Connie witnesses Mitch being "kidnapped," and she is terrified. She follows the kidnappers, but only to find out that it was just a few of Mitch's FBI friends giving him a unique bachelors' party. She realizes that she really isn't cut out for this kind of life, in constant fear for the life of her husband, and so she tells Mitch that she can't marry him. He "un-proposes" to her ("Connie, will you not marry me?" "I won't"), and they part ways.

That's the last we hear from Mitch, and it's always made me very sad. I always thought that he and Connie were really good for each other, and I'm always hoping that he'll get to come back someday. But as Odyssey writer Kathy Buchanan, the one who created Mitch's character, said in a 2007 Official Podcast, in order for Mitch to come back, "Ronald McDonald must become a vegetarian, cats need to become extinct, and Nathan Hoobler has to paint his toenails." According to Marshal Younger, the latter of those three has occured, but other than that, unfortunately, it's not going to happen. :(

But Mitch was a very well-loved character, and Steve Burns always did an amazing job voicing him, as well as Rodney Rathbone. He is definitely missed, and I never want anyone else, even Jason, to marry Connie. :)

Thank you for reading! Be sure to come back next week, when I, Lordwilling, will review Part I of The Green Ring Conspiracy. Please comment!

Things Are Slow

I'm sorry I didn't get around to writing the third part of my review on the Barclays on Saturday. I had a late night on Friday, and was busy doing other things on Saturday, so maybe I'll do two reviews this week. No, I'm just kidding. I don't think I could ever do two reviews in one day.

Yeah, there isn't really anything new to talk about. This is the longest it's been in a while that we haven't had any new news. No blog posts have come out since early on Friday. The only thing that is really new that you may not have seen is that AIO Wiki has a mini-contest with some sort of prize on their website. You can go here to check it out. (This website should help you out.)

Well, that's about it for now. I hope that news picks up around the OBC, so I can have something to write about. Thanks for reading!

Back to School

I don't know about any of you guys, but today's my first day back at school, so I probably won't be able to write as often or as long as I have been more recently. The character reviews take a lot of thought, and most of my brain is now dedicated toward school, so I don't think they'll be coming as often.

I think I'm going to start doing a character review once a week, most likely on Saturdays, and when there's news about Album 53 or something, I'll include that. So if I do a post on Saturday there's a good chance that there won't be another one for at least a few days, so you don't have to check back every day if you don't want to.

But I should be able to have enough time to check for comments once in a while, so you can still leave those.

One other thing I wanted to mention is that Luke at the Odyssey Times recently discovered a new blog called Around the Corner in Odyssey. This blogger has only been around for a few months, but he has some very interesting posts, and a spin on blogging that we haven't seen since The Odyssey Muchacha. Also, I don't know if I've mentioned this one before or not, but Mandy Straussberg's Life is also a very interesting blog. "Mandy" does her posts in a very similar way to the other two blogs I just mentioned, and they're always an interesting read.

Well, that's all for now. Check back on Saturday, because by then I should have my post up for "Mr. Meltsner (Jr.)"

Mr. Whittaker

As I lay in my bed last night, listening to The Mortal Coil for the first time in what feels like years (and probably is), I was inspired to do a post today about Whit. Plus I figured you guys might appreciate a non-review post. I haven't really talked too much about my thoughts about how Mr. J. A. Whit has changed over the years, so I've decided to do it now.

My first Odyssey album ever was a now out-of-print collection called AIO 10-CD Collector's Edition. Apparently it's so rare that even Jacob hasn't heard about it, because it's not at the Odyssey Scoop in the Quarantine Merchandise section. I don't think I had ever listened to Odyssey before my mom got that for me and my siblings when I was six or seven. Mr. Whittaker was my favorite character from the beginning, and still to this day remains at least in the top three.

Hal Smith did an excellent job as Whit from the very start. I obviously haven't been around since the beginning, but I remember loving Whit, and being very surprised when I first heard Paul Herlinger introduce The Great Wishy Woz on the tenth disc of my first collection. I wondered for awhile who that guy was since he wasn't Whit, but he was introducing a Kids Radio program. A couple years later, after I had listened to the CDs we owned over and over again, we stumbled upon The Children's Radio Funhouse on our local Moody Radio station, where Odyssey continues to be played every Saturday morning at nine. And later we found out that AIO was also played every weekday at 4:30. I don't remember how I learned it, but eventually I found out that somewhere along the road, the original actor for Mr. Whittaker had died, and he was replaced by someone with a slightly deeper, gruffer voice.

It was soon after this that I started getting albums for birthdays and Christmas. I'm pretty sure that my first album was Gold Audio Series #9: Just in Time. I continued to like what I called (and still call sometimes) "the old Mr. Whittaker" better than "the new Mr. Whittaker". As I continued to get more albums, I got more and more used to Paul Herlinger as Whit, and eventually made him my favorite. While Hal Smith has a more bubbly voice, and is better for the wise, advice-giving Whit, Paul Herlinger is better for the computer-savvy and adventurous Whit. Action/Adventure episodes tend to be my favorite, so that's probably why "the new Mr. Whittaker" eventually won my heart.

But Paul Herlinger is also very good as the Whit who sits behind the counter giving out ice cream and advice. I wish I had been an avid listener when the switch of the actors was made so that I could be used to it at least a little bit, because I really don't like the newest Whit very much. While both of the other Mr. Whittakers were great at giving Biblical advice and counsel (especially Hal Smith), Andre Stojka as Whit seems to have nearly totally lost that aspect to his character. I understand that it's mostly due to not-as-good writing, but I also from the beginning haven't really liked his voice.

Listening to The Mortal Coil last night and hearing Whit almost die, and listening to all of the spiritual lessons he learned from that experience, it's almost like now he's completely forgotten all of that, or that he's been replaced by a different, laid-back and relaxed fake. This new Whit doesn't seem to be nearly as passionate about the kids, helping them to learn valuable life lessons and teaching them the things of God, but rather a good teacher, dragging out of the kids what they learned after they stumble, rather than catching them before they get into trouble like he used to.

So I guess I'm not complaining so much about the voice that Andre Stojka gives Whit, but the writing that he's been giving more recently. I hope that episodes will continue to get better as the seasons come and go, and I am getting more used to the new voice, but they haven't sold me yet for sure.

I'd love to hear what you think about all that I've said. Please comment!

P.S. Be sure to listen to the newest Official Podcast which features an interview with Whit (ha!) Hertford, the voice of bully Jay Smouse, and a preview of this weekend's episode Grandma's Christmas Visit. I was surprised to learn that Jay is played by an adult, but I guess I shouldn't have been since Rodney, Vance, Nelson, Ryan, Pete, Jill, Valorie, Emily, and Olivia are also played by adults. ; )

I Just Stopped in to Say I Won't Be Stopping In

No, seriously. I decided to go along with what a couple of other bloggers are doing and wait to give my review for "The Jubilee Singers" until all three parts have aired. I debated with myself the past couple days over how to do it, but finally decided that this was the best choice.

This episode was definitely the best of the season so far, and I have nothing negative to say about it, so it'd be a pretty boring review. Hopefully by the time all three episodes have aired, I'll have a pretty balanced review thought out.

Feel free to comment about what you think of the idea and about what you thought of the episode. I'll still be delivering news every time there's something new, I just won't be reviewing episodes until May 22. Unless of course, like the second part is horrible, and then I'll have a very well-balanced review to put out.

Also, if you haven't yet, be sure to vote in Dale Jacobs' favorite Odyssey blog contest at the Odyssey Owl! (Vote for me!)