Strikes Our Fancy

What's that hill you are willing to die on, even if you know it's trivial. This week, Caleb, Rob, and Craig have special guest Jody on to chat about the things that get them riled. We know it doesn't matter, they know it doesn't matter, but they will fight you on it anyway! Driving, washing machines, teeth, and Oscars. This episode has it all. And just to prove Rob wrong: https://itisscience.wordpress.com/2011/01/23/toaster-v-toaster-oven/

This week, Caleb, Rob, and Craig are joined by the once and future guest, Mike. Listen in as they discuss all things time travel. What are some of the best tropes in time travel sci-fi? When would you travel to if you could? Which Back to the Future is best? We promise it's worth your time, or your time back!

This week, Caleb, Rob, and Craig are joined once again by special guest, Robert to talk about extra terrestrials. Listen in, as they wildly speculate about the latest incidents in US airspace, ponder over some of their favorite UFO incidents in history, and share their thoughts on what might really be out there among the stars. 

This week Caleb, Rob, and Craig are joined by special guest James to talk philosophy. Specifically, what are the ethical ramifications of 'The Prime Directive' from Star Trek. Is it right and proper policy? How stringent are Star Fleet when enforcing this rule? Why even bother? Feel free to join in the conversation, this week on Strikes Our Fancy!

This week, Caleb and Rob have a chat about the hardest boss in D&D, the scheduling. Why is it so difficult to get people around the table consistently? What is making them show up in the first place? How do you balance passion for the game with life responsibilities? Listen in, and give us your thoughts; This week on Strikes Our Fancy! Production note: Craig was unexpectedly ill and the usual recording space was unavailable. This is the cause of any audio quality differences.

This week, Caleb, Rob, and Craig review a very particular episode of 'Buffy' with special guest Dani! Season 6 Episode 7 'Once More With Feeling' a rather catchy episode, it features original music written by show runner Joss Whedon, performed by the main cast. Listen in as we chat immediately after viewing the episode and share out thoughts and critiques of what we experienced. Music contained in this episode is not owned by "Strikes Our Fancy" All rights and credits go directly to the rightful owners. Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976,  allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism or comment.

Apologies everyone, this episode should have gone out before Christmas, but you all know how the holidays are. This week, Caleb, Rob, and Craig chat with special guest, Robert about the Ghost of Christmas Past! What were the holidays like for each of them growing up? What traditions live on or have been made anew now that they're adults? What makes a true stinker of a gift? Listen in, for all this and more and Happy Holidays from Strikes Our Fancy!

This week, Rob was unfortunately unavailable and so the discussion turned to movies Caleb made Craig watch. Come listen in as the two of them discuss 2015's "Spotlight" and 1998's "Smoke Signals". What made these movies great? What did our hosts take away from them? Are there any parallels to make between the 2 movies or is it literally just the movies that were watched most recently? A mild warning - this episode is a bit more somber than the usual 'Strikes Our Fancy' episode. Based on the subject matter of the movies in question, there is talk of abuse throughout the episode. Listener discretion advised.

This week, Caleb, Rob, and Craig chat with special guest, Eric. Listen in as they share their thoughts on how music creation has changed over the past 30 years. How has tech changed the process? When you can listen to pretty much anything, made by anyone, what's worth your time? 

This week, Caleb, Rob, and Craig chat with special guest Mike about thoughts on the state of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Given where we have been and where we are going, should anyone give a damn? How do we feel about super heros almost 15 years later? Can Caleb find a kindred spirit? Listen in as they chat about the MCU past, present, and future.

This week, Caleb, Rob, and Craig have a chat with a very special guest, Ashley! Come listen in as they give a peak behind their Dungeon Master screens and chat about all things DM'ing. How do they handle their players? What have been some of their favorite moments? How do they balance narrative and player agency? 

This week, Caleb, Rob, and Craig have a little chat about mysterious monsters. Come listen in as the gents share their knowledge on Cryptids. Each of them bring a different creature of lore to the table to delve into and theory-craft on. 

This week, Caleb, Rob, and Craig are joined by Carrie to start off season 2 and chat about Halloweens gone by. What was Halloween like when they grew up, what traditions have carried on, and what's different now that they are all grown up? Side note: Craig is not pleased with the audio quality for the kick-off of season 2 and promises to do better in the future.

This week, Caleb, Rob, and Craig celebrate their anniversary! It has been a year since the launch of 'Strikes Our Fancy' and the gents take a little time to chat about how the journey has gone so far. At the end of Season 1: What have they learned? Would they do anything differently? Drop in and listen as they highlight some of their favorite moments, and talk about the future. 

This week, Caleb, Rob, and Craig each make the other two watch a particular movie for review. The picks are Caleb: 'Thunderheart', Rob: 'The Man From Earth', Craig: 'Gattaca'. Come listen in as they chat about if these movies are any good? What the movies meant to them? And what are the greater implications of these stories?

An unfortunate reschedule of our 5th One Movie Review. We'll chat with you next week when things are back to normal!

This week Caleb, Rob, and Craig chat about things that make them say, "Hmmmm..." Listen in as they share the stories of some of the world's unsolved mysteries and speculate on what actually happened. Topics include the D.B. Cooper Heist, the Flannan Isles Disappearance, and the Overtoun Bridge Dogs. Pictures referenced in this episode can be found on our 'fancy' site!

This week, Caleb, Rob, and Craig sit down and chat about all things cartoons: Why do we watch them? What are some of our favorites? Are tropes good or bad for the industry? What are some of the differences between western cartoons and Anime? 

This week, Caleb, Rob, and Craig chat about video games. Why do we play them? What do we hope to accomplish when we play them? And what are some of our favorite games?

This week, Caleb, Rob, and Craig chat about comic books. More specifically, is the future of the comic book industry to be found in the indie world or big publishing houses? Does working with established characters stifle creativity?  A correction: Rob kept talking about "Keen Zone", but really he meant "Keenspot".

This week, Caleb, Rob, and Craig get spooky in June. Drop in and listen as they chat about their beliefs and experiences with the paranormal. And even maybe make some misguided boasts against some certain entities.

This week, Caleb, Rob, and Craig chat about Spelljammer! A simultaneously old and new piece of content for the classic tabletop RPG Dungeons & Dragons. Come join the chat as they discuss the history of Spelljammer, and their ideas for adventures on the high seas of Wildspace. 

This week, something a little different. Caleb and Rob provide some conversation for 'The Fifth One'. Our new bonus episode format for when a month has 5 Tuesdays. In this episode, they review Star Trek: The Next Generation 'The Inner Light', a quintessential Star Trek experience. 

This week, Caleb, Rob, and Craig have a chat about Artificial Intelligence. From the evil HAL, the snarky GLaDOS, and the benevolent GAIA, what makes AI so creepy? And this week, we share a little bit of actual knowledge as we dive into how AI behaves in real life. Please forgive some of the bumps in this episode, there were some difficulties.... And partway through the episode, Rob references the following short video https://youtu.be/-JlxuQ7tPgQ

This week Caleb, Rob, and Craig really take the show's namesake to heart while chatting about the inevitable: endings. What are some of the best/worst endings in media? Do you like your endings medium rare or well done? And introducing a new segment! 

This week, Caleb, Craig, and the very special guest, Carrie have a chat about Harry Potter. With "Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore" arriving in theaters, we thought we would have a chat about our experiences with 'The Boy Who Lived'. Discussing things like how we grew up with the stories, our thoughts on the franchise, and the series of movies. 

This week Caleb, Rob, and Craig chat about crowdfunding. While specifically a good amount around Brandon Sanderson and his record-breaking Kickstarter project. They dive a bit into crowdfunding as a whole: some of the pitfalls, concerns, and benefits of sourcing money for large scale or small scale projects. In the end, what are we left with? Feel free to reach out and tell us what you think on what struck our fancy this week at strikesourfancy@gmail.com or on our website ourfancy.site  Mentioned in this episode is a local artist: Galacia Barton. You can find some of their awesome content here: https://www.behance.net/galaciabarton

This week, a bonus! Since March has 5 Tuesdays, we thought we'd put out something a little extra. Craig has a special guest, Robert (not Rob) on to talk about the Halo franchise. They discuss their histories with the series, what was impactful to them, and why they keep coming back. Also, they take some digs on the current state of Halo Infinite. Music credit: "Finish The Fight", "Luck", "This Is The Hour" - O'Donnell/Salvatori; Used following Microsoft's Content Usage Rules https://www.xbox.com/en-US/developers/rules

A snapshot of what to expect from Caleb, Rob, and Craig with Strikes Our Fancy. Join us every first and third Tuesday of the month, as we ask inane questions and chat about frivolous things. 

This week, Caleb, Rob, and Craig chat about Reboots. Can a franchise be reborn lovingly or is it always a soulless cash grab? What makes a good retelling of a known story? What's really going on in the Sarlacc? All this and more if you care to listen, so come on in and join the conversation on whatever strikes our fancy.

This week, Caleb, Rob, and Craig take some time to talk about what makes a good pilot episode. What defines a pilot? What are the goals of a pilot? And what have been some great and awful pilots, in our considered opinions. 

This week Craig talks about all things tabletop with a very special guest, Carrie! We take a different tact, as we discuss our favorites in the board game world, some of our dislikes, and how board games have influenced our lives. Apologies for some of the inconsistency lately. Between Caleb, Rob, and Craig, life hasn't allowed us to get together to chat and so things will be a bit different until things normalize.

This week Caleb, Rob, and Craig talk about the most horrible things, Horror. What is it about the bumps in the night that make us tremble? What are the stories that have stuck with us and still make us quaver? What is the best format to get us right and properly spooked? So come and sit around the campfire and listen to 3 gents talk about all things frightful.

This week, Caleb, Rob, and Craig chat about Dune Part I. They discussed a range of questions, including: How did the movie land for viewers of varying Dune knowledge? Was the movie faithful to the original book? Did the movie stand well as just a good cinema experience?

This week, Caleb, Rob, and Craig discuss what draws them to a story more, the universe or the characters within? They chat situations with dull characters in interesting set dressing, as well as fascinating characters in mundane situations. Which do you find more interesting? Production note: Please forgive any audio gremlins, this was the first session we recorded in person! As such, we are still working out the kinks in our recording setup.

This week, Caleb, Rob, and Craig sit down and chat about the nature of TV vs. Cinema. The pros and cons of each, what is expected from them and how that affects the viewing experience. 

This week Caleb, Rob, and Craig chat about the nature of spoilers. Do they enhance or harm the enjoyment of a story? Are spoilers a tool, to be used to entice the more reluctant to enjoy something you are desperate for them to experience? Come listen in and feel free to stop by at ourfancy.site to tell us how full of crap we are.

This week, Caleb, Rob, and Craig have a chat about whether or not Dr. Who really is a show for kids. They discuss some of the darker and more complex themes of the show and if those are appropriate for children. 

It's our launch! It's been a long time coming but this week - Caleb, Rob, and Craig discuss which has better stories, the main Star Wars saga or the tertiary media (books, games, comics). Come join us every 1st and 3rd Tuesday of the month to listen in to more exceedingly useless opinions.