Biggest controversy on Japanese internet (and now, finally, in Japanese media) involves the targeted assault of Yamaguchi Maho, a member of the Niigata-based idol group NGT48, a sister group of AKB48 (which I think Westerners are more familiar with). #山口真帆
Waiting for my baby to die was the most horrendous, arduous painful experience of my life. I never wanted anyone else to have to go through that. That's why I campaigned. And now we have this exact scenario being played out in the Coombe, AFTER legalizing an alternative. https://t.co/wYyiSmLwUX
Any interview with Katsuhiro Otomo is good, but this part talks about crosshatching the Neo-Tokyo explosion in AKIRA is a strong portrait of his dedication to the craft.
https://t.co/zgLLlftYZR
One of the biggest disappointments was finding out that Toastmasters wasn't about getting really good at making toast.
I made a little audio drama for both Halloween and World Audio Drama day which was on October 30th (It marks the anniversary of Orson Welles’s War of the Worlds broadcast). It also counts as a spin off of my Arcade and Retro Podcast with me playing myself as I try and find out information about a mysterious arcade cabinet. The Polybius game in question is actually quite a fun urban legend.
Helping me out on acting duties were Declan Cahill, Nina Knezevic and Frank O’Connor.
The podcast I produce about arcade and retro video games is finalist in the Irish Web Awards
And as it’s International Podcast Day I’ve just uploaded a brand new podcast about growing up gaming in Ireland in the 80s and 90s.
You can listen to it here:
The radio station I’m involved with, Near FM, is currently celebrating 20 years of broadcasting and I put together a little post over there highlighting some of the content that is available on it’s podcast page. I introduced podcasting to the radio station back in 2005 so it was the first radio station in Ireland to have a podcast section.
Amusingly I was one of the first voices on Near FM back in 1995 where I presented a computer show called ‘The Binary Zone’. Odd that here I am 20 years later still talking about the same old games that were brand new back then.
A new Arcade and Retro podast went up last week.
In this one myself, Sera and Stephen discuss the Mother series of games, known as Earthbound outside of Japan.
We also talk about Satoru Iwata, who died tragically recently, and how instrumental he was in the development of Mother 2 and the important roll he played in Nintendo and gaming in general.
I have two new radio drama projects which will be going into production this year. One is a 3 part drama about climate change called ‘Rising Heat’ and the other is something very special that will be broadcast as part of the 1916 centenary next year.
We rely heavily on local amateur drama groups to help out in the production of these radio dramas and we’re always looking for new people and new voices for our plays. So if you think you’d be interested in trying out acting in a radio drama then please get in contact with me at gavin@near.ie
We’ll be having a preliminary read through of the plays on Thursday the 2nd July 2015 in the Northside Civic Centre in Coolock.
The Craol Achievement Awards 2015 were presented, Friday 5th June, at the Royal Marine Hotel, Dun Laoghaire. The live radio drama “A Woman, A Dog and a Walnut Tree” that I produced last October won an award in the Special Programming (non-commissioned) category.
“A Woman, A Dog and a Walnut Tree” deals with the topic of domestic abuse and was presented along with a panel discussion about the realities of domestic abuse.
You can hear the entire play and panel discussion online here:
