Spare Us, Gus
February 27th, 2012

Posted by Matt

The videos are here! And there’s a few new additions to the roster! Since last Monday the following series have updated (or premiered!):

LoadingReadyRun: Spare Us, Gus
Unskippable: Spider-Man: Edge of Time
Checkpoint: Is It Worth It?
Feed Dump: Test Tube Beef
Friday Nights: Untap
Loading Time: Pros at Cons
GPLP: Dante’s Inferno: (E. 16, 17, & 18)

Yeesh. We do a lot of stuff!

So, this week’s episode is… weird. Good weird! But… weird. I’m not sure quite what to make of it. It’s funny though. That much I know to be true. The script comes to us from none other than our forum’s very own Alex Roederer (AlexanderDitto), who’s been a fan and member of our community for basically as long as I can remember us having fans or a community. He assures us that his sense of humour is pretty unorthodox, and I’d say that this particular sketch would lend credence to that claim. I’m not sure quite what we filmed exactly, or how it was inspired, but we filmed it, and we laughed. So Thanks, Alex!

Among our many updates this week was the very first episode of our four-part HUSTLE-spinoff series “Friday Nights” which we are producing in association with Wizards of the coast. This series has been a long time coming, and were really thrilled that it’s finally here. The reception has been overwhelmingly positive, and e couldn’t be happier to hear that you’re all enjoying it so much. We’ll be updating a new episode each Thursday for the next three weeks, so make sure to check back in and follow the crew’s Magic the Gathering adventures!

Cheers!

Cruising
February 21st, 2012

Posted by Matt

Hey, you looking for some “fun”? If so, I have it on good authority that the videos posted below qualify.

LoadingReadyRun: Cruising
Unskippable: Dead Island
Checkpoint: Legacy of Shame

So, I happen to know that the script for this one has been kicking around in some form or another for quite a while. I know this because the concept of it was a topic of discussion in my car as we were driving around Vancouver to pick up merch on our way down to PAX. We’re always a little nervous when we do videos with gay characters, as we have a sizeable LGBT fanbase (who we adore, and invite you to join, if you’re LGBTQ or an ally), and it can be difficult as a fairly homogeneously heterosexual crew to be certain that we’re not crossing lines when we do a video like this. It’s pretty important to us that we maintain an open and accepting message, so a lot of care went into making this video funny because of the situation, and not because of orientation or stereotype. I do hope we succeeded at walking that line gracefully. We joke because we love.

Unfortunately there won’t be a Loading Time for this episode, as Ray was unfortunately not able to make it out for this shoot. It’s alright though, because this shoot was extremely uninteresting, given that it only took about an hour and a half, had one location, and was only interrupted by forgetting the Zoom in the car, forgetting the keys to open the car to get the Zoom from it, and some of the worst possible timing in the universe on the part of an automatic flush device that shall remain unnamed. There will still be A Loading Time this week, though, so you’ll have to check back and see what it’s about!

Cheers!

A Long Con…
January 30th, 2012

Posted by Matt

Hey everyone! It’s 2012, and you know what that means! No, not the end of the world – it means a new year of convention appearances! The LRR crew visits an ever-growing number of conventions each year, and we’re getting off to an early start, so it’s time to tell you about a few of the places we’re going to be. This is by no means an exhaustive list, and there may be more appearances added as the year goes on, but these are the ones we know about right now.

 

Gottacon 2012: Victoria, BC – February 3-5


First on the block is Gottacon! Run out of Victoria’s own Pearkes Arena, Gottacon is Victoria’s première gaming convention, covering gaming of all sorts, including tabletop games, role-playing games, card games, board games, video games and more!  On top of all this gaming goodness, Gottacon also offers panels, workshops, screening blocks, and QA sessions with a wide array of talented comic artists, game designers, and web video groups!  The con staff have been kind enough to offer us a three-hour long QA and screening block on Friday night, so we do hope that if you’re in the area you’ll come by and listen to us go on at length about ourselves, because that is almost certainly what we will do.

 

Where/When: Pearkes Arena, 3100 Tillicum Rd, Victoria, BC –  Friday, February 3, 2012 – 7:00PM-10:00PM.

 

Tsukino-Con 2012: Victoria, BC – February 17-19

 

A mere two weeks after Gottacon, LRR will be making an appearance at Tsukino-Con, the largest anime and Japanese cultural convention on Vancouver Island!  Tsukino-Con happens annually in the University of Victoria’s Engineering and Computer Science building. Always packed tight with things to do, this year’s convention is no different. They’ll have anime screenings, panel discussions, AMV contests, cosplay, dances, they may even have a kitchen sink!

If you get to Tsukino-Con this year, you’ll find the LRR crew running a 2-hour panel and screening block on the evening of February 18th (that’s the Saturday) .

Where/When: University of Victoria ECS building, Victoria, BC – Saturday February 18th – 10:00PM-12:00AM

 

PAX East 2012: Boston, MA – April 6-8, 2012

 

Next up is the east-coast edition of the Penny-Arcade Expo! This con probably needs no explanation, given that it’s the largest video-gaming and general geekery convention on the planet. The younger sister of the nearly decade-old Penny-Arcade expo, this convention has everything you could want and more. Certainly too much for me to describe in a single measly paragraph. What I can tell you for sure, is that Graham, Kathleen, James, and I (Matt) will be among the 70,000-odd people wandering around the show-floor of the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center. We’ll have a table in Bandland, which we’ll be at regularly, and we’ll also have a panel and screening block that you can attend. What I can’t tell you for sure, is where these things are going to be and when, because they haven’t published their schedule yet!

Where/When: The Boston Convention & Exhibition Center – 415 Summer Street, Boston, MA – April 6-8

 

Calgary Comic & Entertainment Expo: Calgary, AB – April 27-29, 2012

 

The final entry on this list is none other than the Calgary Comic & Entertainment Expo. The LRR crew attended this particular con for the first time in 2011, and we had such a great time, we just had to go back! We couldn’t be happier that we did, either, because it was just announced (like, tonight! -m) that the complete principal cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation, will be reuniting at this con for the 25th anniversary of the show. Forget LoadingReadyRun, get out to this con just for that!

Of course, if you don’t forget LoadingReadyRun, we’ll be there for you to come find. Plans are to have a panel as well as a booth, but the con is a little far off in the distance yet to know for sure. We’ll definitely be there, though, I mean, the entire main cast of ST:TNG. SERIOUSLY.

Where/When: BMO Centre, 20 Roundup Way, Calgary, AB – April 27-29

 

Details, Details…

 

One more thing. Throughought our con appearances this year, we’re going to play a little game. We want you to bring us magic cards. Not just any Magic cards though. We want you to go out and get a “Bump in the Night“, write your name and email, or twitter handle (or both) on the back (in Sharpie, please!), and bring it by our booth or panel at whatever con you come to. There is however two ways in which you can win our little game. You CAN bring a regular old run of the mill version of the card and expect good results. However, if you were to step it up a notch and bring a FOIL version of bump then maybe, just maybe, things will get a little bit better.

Every person who brings us such a card will get a little reward, and we have plans for the cards we collect. If you want to find out what the reward is, well, you’ll just have to play the game!

 

 

Also, you just lost The Game.

Cheers!

In Death as in Life
January 9th, 2012

Posted by Matt

Give your week a ‘spirited’ start; watch the new LoadingReadyRun video! (Then watch Unskippable and Checkpoint, for which I don’t have a terrible pun).

LRR: In Death as in Life
Unskippable: Shadows of the Damned
Checkpoint: Exhausted Fantasy

This week’s video was written by LoadingReadyAlumnus Tim Sevenhuysen. It’s been a while since Tim’s presence has been felt in a video, so I asked him to give us a few words about how this script came to be. His comments are included below:

“In Death as In Life” originally started out as a flash fiction story about two pages long that I included in my Flare Fiction: Volume 1 chapbook, which I sell through my blog. I was thinking about trying my hand at writing a video again and was going through some of the stories I had written when I rediscovered the story and realized it would work pretty well as a script, since it was so dialogue-heavy already. The main problem was that it was too short, so I sat down and fleshed it out, tweaked things to make it work better in video format, and added the stinger. The story actually works better in the longer script version than it does in the shorter flash fiction format, in my opinion, which is always nice when you adapt something like this.

I love the way Kathleen executed her role. I didn’t include any kind of a description for “the hair,” so I was really interested to see how LRR would interpret it, and I wasn’t disappointed!

Also, I’m kind of curious to know how many “Barvolutions” there are in the world. I came up with the name on my own, as an example of how lame I think a lot of bar names are, but a cursory internet search suggests that there’s at least one company that doesn’t attach the same sense of irony to the name that I do.

Graham and Paul returned last night from MAGFest, and I know they had a blast – so, on their behalf, let me extend a big thanks to everyone who came along to say hi, attended the panel and screening, and generally contributed to the great weekend. If you couldn’t make it out, hopefully we’ll have a chance to see you at PAXEast 2012!

Cheers!

Graham and Paul attending MAGFest Jan. 5-8, 2012!
January 4th, 2012

Posted by Matt

Do you love video games? Do you love music? Do you love some combination of the two? Do you Love LoadingReadyRun? Do you live (Ha! Got you!) in the National Harbour, MD area, or can you get there? If the answer to any (or all) of these questions is yes, then next weekend MAGFest is probably where you want to be. An annual festival by fans, for fans, MAGFest is a celebration of games and game music that will be rocking out all weekend long at the Gaylord National Hotel & Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland.

Being the life of the party that we are, LoadingReadyRun couldn’t let this go unattended! Graham and Paul will be on site all weekend, and they’re looking forward to seeing you. You can try to track them down on the floor for a high five if you like, but you may find it easier to spot them at the scheduled screening block or Q&A panel.

The screening block takes place at 9:30AM on Saturday in Panel Room 1.
Q&A will take place on Sunday at 11:00AM in Panel Room 3.

If you can make it to the show, rest assured that I am insanely jealous. It looks like it’s going to be a killer time.

Full details can be found on the MAGFest website: http://magfest.org/

Cheers!