Elizabeth
Heh, it’s so tempting to start this the way all the episodes start
Kathryn
Yep, with you saying “Recording” and me saying “Recording!”
Elizabeth
Three, two, one..
Kathryn
three, two, one…
Hi everyone, this is Kathryn Adams!
Elizabeth
And Elizabeth Wallace! And you’re listening to no hang on it doesn’t work…
Kathryn
Hee
Elizabeth
Welcome to the special text-only edition of Binary System!
Kathryn
You are NOT listening specifically because Kathryn has her first cold in TWO YEARS and her voice is SHOT.
Elizabeth
I’d suggest recording anyway because HILARIOUS but that’s a good way to give yourself another sore throat
Kathryn
Ever tried to explain yourself to a client on the phone when you can only speak in breathless whistles and honks? IT AIN’T FUN.
Elizabeth
We’d probably get two minutes into the episode and I’d get the giggles
Kathryn
I kinda remember giving you grief one time when you had to talk around some kind of dental appliance and “Union Tribune” came out so funny I hurt myself laughing.
“Yeyunnion Thrubume”
Elizabeth
Oh yes, THAT nonsense. I worked part time at a bookstore and a customer thought I was learning impaired and told me I was doing a VERY GOOD JOB
Kathryn
Hee hee hee.
Any validation is good validation.
Elizabeth
haha
ANYWAY. So we’re still on schedule, just in Instant Messenger Land, and we’re recapping the latest episode of Night Vale
Kathryn
ANYWAY. We’re here to talk Night Vale.
Elizabeth
Jinx!
Kathryn
Jinx!
And in today’s episode a scientist comes to Night Vale and Cecil isn’t worried AT ALL.
Elizabeth
Episode 212 – The Campus
Kathryn
And I do love Cecil’s intro “It turns out the economy was just the friends we made along the way.”
Elizabeth
NO IT WASN’T, CECIL
Kathryn
Nobody wants to be friends with the economy. The economy gets picked last for the football team EVERY TIME.
Elizabeth
The economy gets stuffed into garbage cans and deserves it
Kathryn
But in all seriousness, something’s going on at the car lot by the house that used to be Old Woman Josie’s. And did we KNOW that her house was next to a car lot?
Elizabeth
I’m pretty sure we did, it sounded familiar anyway?
Lots of bustle and hullabaloo, and trucks with a strange logo on it. Leroy wants us to quiz him on logos but that doesn’t go well.
Kathryn
Couldn’t decide if Taco Bell isn’t a familiar logo to Night Valians, or just to Leroy. Regardless, he stomped off with his feelings hurt.
Elizabeth
We go from there to an announcement about a Public Debate at the Museum of Forbidden Technologies.
Kathryn
Which contains the word “redacted” about a dozen times, with Cecil’s voice getting more distorted every time until it’s just noise.
A reference to current events, perhaps?
Elizabeth
I wouldn’t be surprised
(At least one of those times I jumped, they got progressively more creepy)
Kathryn
Needless to say, tickets to the (redacted) event are NOT for sale.
Elizabeth
But the proceeds benefit the animal shelter!
Kathryn
One of the side effects of (redacted) is “hair loss in cats” so they can just stay the hell away from the animal shelter, so there.
Elizabeth
Agreed!
Speaking of fundraising, the Fire Department is having a Pancake Breakfast.
Kathryn
They need to sell a nightmarish amount of pancakes ’cause they’re raising money for a solid gold firetruck.
Elizabeth
As you do
Side note I’ve only ever been to one Pancake Breakfast fundraiser and it was years ago, I don’t remember what it was for but I remember the pancakes were terrible.
So now I’d rather give money
Kathryn
The ones we’ve had at church were good, but we’re eating them right off of the griddle so it’s hard to mess that up.
Elizabeth
Mmm. Now I want pancakes.
The GOOD kind.
Cecil got a statement from one of the people at all the hullabaloo!
Kathryn
Dr. Janet Lubelle is here to solve…everything. Every question about Night Vale.
Elizabeth
She’s from the University of What It Is, which sounds vaguely familiar to Cecil…
(Episode 55 of Night Vale, in case you’re wondering.)
Kathryn
Now did they actually mention that’s where Carlos is from in the first episode, or just vaguely mentioned that he’s from a university?
Elizabeth
I’m almost positive they mentioned that he was from there, like the episode ended with someone leaving a message asking for him maybe?
We recapped it, but it was before we started calling ourselves Binary System, to give you an idea of how long ago it was
Kathryn
Man.
Elizabeth
Time is weird!
Kathryn
Dr. Lubelle sounds perky as hell. Creepily so. Although I did like the saying that she wrapped up her statement with. “Sunlight is the second-best disinfectant, but you can’t get a tan with bleach!”
Words to live by.
Elizabeth
T-Shirt Moment!
We go from there to a “Classic Cecil Rant” (Literally the title of the segment)
Kathryn
I am ENTIRELY on Cecil’s side with his rant.
All of those people who talk about how they saved enough for a house by not drinking Starbucks and packing their own lunches are full of it!
Elizabeth
Oh very, all these stupid perky kids saying here’s how I bought my first home under 30 because I didn’t buy Starbucks and they never MENTION bargains with old gods and blood sacrifices.
Kathryn
Right? People who made pacts with an unknowable being from beyond the stars absolutely cannot relate with the average middle-income worker trying to get by.
Elizabeth
Seriously!
There’s a very cool description of a ritual with a mossy stone and carved inscriptions, but that’s better heard aloud
And one should ADMIT to that ritual rather than saying you made coffee at home
Kathryn
And then we go from old gods to a VERY Lovecraftian description of a pharmaceutical ad.
Elizabeth
I really liked that, another one you should hear, super creepy
Kathryn
Just imagine the stereotypical ad showing two happy, healthy people enjoying their day, while the voiceover give you a list of horrible things that can happen, ending with “turned inside out”.
Elizabeth
Gaaaaaahh
Kathryn
And they never say what the drug is.
Elizabeth
Excellently disturbing
After that we get to hear from Carlos!
Kathryn
Carlos is also disturbed at the presence of Dr. Lubelle, but mostly because they were grad students together and he remembers her as exceptionally single-minded.
Is it weird that I’m picturing Dr. Octavia from “Into The Spidey-Verse” as Dr. Lubelle?
Elizabeth
Oo, that works
Kathryn
She’s described as “medium” and “average” all over the place here.
Elizabeth
Carlos tells Cecil all he remembers and then tells him the most important thing is for him to please please please please pick up ground turkey on the way home thanks love you bye
Kathryn
Hee.
Ground turkey patties fried up with mushrooms and onions is da bomb.
Elizabeth
Mmm, damnit now I want ground turkey
Next up, Horoscopes!
Kathryn
Capricorn gets the shaft AGAIN.
Elizabeth
Sagittarius: you will make pasta tonight (sorry, the predictions aren’t always important)
Capricorn: you will be hit by a meteorite tonight (sometimes the predictions are VERY important)
Why can’t I make pasta???
Kathryn
Virgo needs to remember that nobody is screaming as much as they are on Instagram.
Elizabeth
That is the gods honest truth there
(I hadn’t taken notes on the rest, I was too incensed about Capricorn)
Kathryn
I just remember that Pisces is told that not all ideas are bad. Except that one, jeez, Pisces, what were you thinking?
Elizabeth
Hee
Do you ever read @sorrowscopes on twitter?
Kathryn
No, is it very Night Vale-ish?
Elizabeth
Oh yes, except they’re ALL terrible
Suuuuper dark. But sometimes really funny
It’s like all the mean things Night Vale does to Capricorns, except they do it to EVERYBODY
Kathryn
At least that’s FAIR.
Elizabeth
So, Cecil’s done messing around, he knows the importance of investigative journalism
Kathryn
So he decides to do some old-fashioned journalism…by sending an intern to go investigate Dr. Lubelle while Cecil has a salad for lunch.
Elizabeth
Of course
Kathryn
“Let’s have a listen to the salad. I’m sorry, how embarrassing. Let’s salad to the weather.”
Elizabeth
Hee
Kathryn
Weather sounded a little bit like a boy band today.
Elizabeth
Huh, I was thinking it was sort of classic rock, beebop maybe with a little country?
It was “Simple Things” by hotplug
Kathryn
Catchy tune.
Elizabeth
Yep!
We get back and Cecil tells us first and foremost that his salad was delicious
Kathryn
Sounds like it! I’ve never put roasted sweet potatoes in a salad, but I may have to try that.
And I’ll give any kind of tahini dressing a try after the recipe you sent us.
Elizabeth
I was JUST going to say that, and that recipe has lemon in it so it counts as citrus tahini just like Cecil’s!
Except without the block of lead. I’m on a lead-free diet these days
Kathryn
Gotta be careful to not go to hard on that or you’ll end up with a heavy-metal deficiency
Elizabeth
I’ll take my chances!
Kathryn
Intern Rudee returned (alive!) from investigating the new campus that the university of What it Is is building. Lots of not-very-well defined activity going on there.
Elizabeth
Lots of construction workers shouting “hup hup!” and throwing bricks at each other
And scientists running around going “aha” and “hmm” and “extraordinary”
Kathryn
That reminds me of the old Movie Issues episode for “West World”, something I HIGHLY recommend.
Elizabeth
I haven’t listened to that one in years. “BRING ME THE SPOON.”
Kathryn
“Armpits, GONE!”
Elizabeth
Hahahah
But Rudee manages to track down Dr. Janet “a medium woman who broke into a medium smile made an average joke and a modest laugh.”
You’re not fooling us, Janet.
Kathryn
She also can’t EXPLAIN the MOON, so what the heck kind of scientist is she?
Elizabeth
She said some nonsense about matter being jettisoned from the Earth millions of years ago and achieving a stable orbit JUST WHO ARE YOU TRYING TO KID
Kathryn
So anyway, Cecil pretty much sums up Dr. Lubelle as a two-bit academic.
Elizabeth
But she says she’s after knowledge at all costs. And like Carlos said earlier she’s got this single-minded thing that, without the right ethical code, is not a great trait.
Cecil points out to us that the World’s Greatest Scientist (Carlos) has lived here for years, and most of Night Vale’s secrets are still intact, so he’s not worried.
Nooo siree. Not worried at all
Kathryn
Nope, everything’s fiiiine.
Elizabeth
Stay tuned for the sound of a butterfly flapping its wings which causes a cascading series of not really much at all because butterflies are small.
Kathryn
Proverb today: He who laughs last, laughs latest. Really need to be quicker about those laughs, buddy.
Elizabeth
Truth
So that’s all for Night Vale! Did you maaaaybe want to discuss a certain issue of Saga?
Kathryn
Oh boy, issue 60, and I didn’t realize until I read your review that this is the last one before ANOTHER HIATUS.
Elizabeth
I know! I want them to take all the time they need but after a three year break we got FOUR ISSUES and now a six month hiatus.
Kathryn
Lordy, was it only four issues?
Elizabeth
Whoops, no sorry
Six issues
Kathryn
This was QUITE a way to leave it before a hiatus. I was wondering if we were going to go back and see Hazel’s reaction to (spoilers) her dad’s death. I guess we’re actually just getting to it now.
Elizabeth
Exactly, and not a flashback either, she never really processed it before. She processing it now though, wow.
Kathryn
I’m sad for their Tree-Rocket now.
Elizabeth
I knew something awful was going to happen, because for their little family it was a very sweet, happy episode.
Which always means something awful’s going to happen
Kathryn
Yep yep yep.
I don’t know why I was so charmed by the fact that the pizza place they went to was in just the most typical-looking shopping center, right down to the hair salon next door.
Elizabeth
And inside it was like every ChuckyCheeze or Showbiz Pizza you’ve ever been inside (with slightly cooler games)
Kathryn
I wanna know the rules to that weird-ass game with muppet-looking snakes and table full of water.
Elizabeth
That looked like all kinds of fun
Hazel managed to sort out things with her “brother,” after he declared his love to her last issue
But my guess is that’s gonna come back to bite her later
Kathryn
And Marko’s mother was finally told about her son’s death. Since Hazel hinted YEARS ago that she and her grandmother would travel together sometime, I’m thinking gramma’s gonna be escaping soon.
Elizabeth
Oh man, the Special Agent who told her, I haaaaaaaaaate that guy
Kathryn
Guy wasn’t eager to go back to active duty in the previous issue. I guess he got back into the swing of it FAST.
Elizabeth
Certainly he’s got some motivation, his superiors aren’t kidding around
Kathryn
Hee, and speaking of previous issue, I think they had a cute joke with Aliana there.
She came back from her drug-running meet-up with that alien with a dog’s face, and she’d shaved her head. Said she contracted “a flea problem”.
Elizabeth
Heh
Possible hookup there?
Kathryn
“Lay down with dogs, get up with fleas.”
Elizabeth
hahaha
Kathryn
I love that this is NEVER made explicit.
Elizabeth
He was nice, I hope the bad guys don’t go after him.
(Who am I kidding of course something bad’s going to happen to him)
Kathryn
To EVERYBODY. I’m waiting for a lot more call-backs when the series starts up again and the agent works his way through all of their friends and acquaintances
Elizabeth
Oh man, the midwife wolf?
Kathryn
REALLY hope not, she was one of the few really genuinely nice people they’ve met.
Elizabeth
Seriously.
But yeah (spoilers) the last splash page of the issue was GLORIOUSLY heartbreaking
Kathryn
And now we have to wait six months to find out if this was arson, or just really really bad luck.
Elizabeth
Oh I’m almost positive it’s arson, it’s the cops she mouthed off to in the beginning of the issue
I don’t know that for SURE but..
Kathryn
Crap, hadn’t even considered them, I thought the agent might have somehow caught up with them already.
Elizabeth
Me too, but when I reread it I was like “oh, damn, cops do not like to get told off…”
ANYWAY, to end things on a more positive note, I watched another episode of Sandman, but we can save that for when we can have an actual recording
Kathryn
Sounds good to me, I’m waiting until this stupid cold is gone before I sit down to some more episodes.
Elizabeth
It’s fun, though there’s a plot development in the episode that made me go “Neil, Neil Neil. NO.”
I’m waiting for him to redeem himself
Kathryn
They recently released a bonus episode, and Neil’s REALLY hoping that drums up enough interest for them to get a season 2
Elizabeth
Yes I”m very excited about both the bonus episodes
SO, to take it back to the usual script, that’ll wrap us up for the week, so make sure to check out pixelatedgeek.com for all the book reviews, the movie reviews, the comic book reviews, THE PHOTO GALLERIES
We got Stephanie’s photos from SDCC AND from EVO in Las Vegas
And Lauren just sent us a pile of photos from Emerald City Comic Con, so we are SWIMMING in photo galleries
Kathryn
Eeee! They look great!
Elizabeth
Right?
Anyway all of that and more, pixelatedgeek.com, next week…still no Lore Olympus?
Kathryn
Maybe Lore Olympus?
Elizabeth
We could look it up, but why would we prepare?
Kathryn
I think the last one came out August 6, and it was only supposed to be two weeks off?
Eee, yep, just checked, next episode is free in 5 days
Elizabeth
Yay!
Kathryn
So 1 free and one fast-pass next week, as per usual.
Elizabeth
Awesome! So, one way or another (in one format or another) we’ll talk to everybody in one week.
Kathryn
Talk to y’all later!