Today
is the last day to enter to win a free copy of Eugene Sings!Get
your entry in before 11:59 PM Eastern Time tonight! Enter the
drawingnow! We will announce our winners on
November 2.
What do Marus, the Unseen One, some immature
teenagers, and Ethan Daniels have in common? The Ceiling Fan podcast, of course! They've just
released their 19th edition of the show, and this time
you'll get to hear a hilarious spin on the Passages
series. I haven't laughed this hard since the last time I
laughed this hard! Also Ethan Daniels is writing a script
for an Odyssey movie... but will it make it to the theater?
All this and more in the latest podcast. You'll also hear a special surprise,
but you'll have to listen to find out.
Check back this Monday to find out if you've
won our latest drawing to win
Eugene Sings!
FRIDAY,
OCTOBER 30, 2009
Time is
running out!
In just a couple days I'll be
drawing names from a hat and announcing the two winners of
our Eugene Sings! giveaway! Time is running out to get
your name in the barrel! It's a very enjoyable musical album
featuring Eugene Meltsner himself. The signup for this
contest ends at 11:59 PM Eastern Time on October 31st
(that's tomorrow!). Enter the
drawingnow.
WEDNESDAY,
OCTOBER 28, 2009
Spring 2010
News
Apparently,
while I wasn't updating this blog for the past few days, a
new episode title has been announced. Next season (Spring
2010), an episode called For the Birds will air. It
is, in fact, the episode featured on the front cover of Take It from the Top.
Now, if Eugene is losing the hair to give nature some
nesting materials, it's beyond me. Yet something tells me
that the hair isn't coming off for the birds. I'm sure he's
got another reason.
We're getting closer to the
new season every day, and it all begins March 2010!
With all this talk of Passages, I'm excited to see if this release will sell
enough copies to push the series forward. The second book is
one of my personal favorites, and I'd love to hear it in
audio drama form someday in the future. Future Passages
releases depend on the number of copies sold as Adventures in Odyssey
isa series that runs
itself. In other words, the sales collected from the audio
releases go right back into producing more shows. If you
like what you're hearing on the radio, you can order a copy at the Focus on the Family Resource
Center so you can listen all at once. Happy listening!
FRIDAY,
OCTOBER 23, 2009
AIO Bloggers
It's refreshing to see AIO
fans out there promoting Adventures in Odyssey. One
such fan, Austin Peachey, has his own blog. Titled The
Adventures in Odyssey Blog, it features AIO product
alerts, fun facts, and more. For me, it's nice to have an
AIO site to go to that I don't run. That's why it's so
refreshing. I get to kick my feet back and relax. If you're
new to the Odyssey Scoop, you may want to look around first,
then I'd recommend you take a look at all the other AIO
flavors on our Links page. You
may want to simply bookmark that page as it has a thorough
listing of sites.
WEDNESDAY,
OCTOBER 21, 2009
Let's Talk
Deals.
Let's
face it. Most of us AIO fans like collecting the latest Adventures in Odyssey releases, but money is hard to
come by. That being said, I'd like to draw your attention to
some special deals I've discovered at the Focus on the
Family Resource Center this week.
First, the latest collection,
The Best Small Town,
is on sale for just $9.99. If you're trying to get your
collection caught up, now's the time to do it.
Also, Adventures in Odyssey
DVD Collections 2 and
3
are on sale for $2.99 each. These DVDs are loaded with four
video adventures as well as bonus features. I'm still trying
to figure out why the first
collection is still $13.59 during this sale, however. They
must have forgotten to update their database to include all
three collections in the sale. Individual DVDs from the
Original Series are on sale as well, with some priced as low
as $3.99.
Thirdly, The Official
Guide is on sale for a great price of $7.99 -- a
great bargain for all the exciting behind-the-scenes tidbits
you get to read about the show.
Speaking of deals on Adventures in Odyssey items, I'm trying to get rid of my
last cassette edition of AIO, and I'm selling Battle
Lines over at eBay. Also up for grabs are all seven
Radio
Theatre adaptations of The Chronicles of Narnia. These are, by far,
some of the best radio dramas on the face of the planet...
and I'm not exaggerating either. Except the stories take
place in another world. Funny how that works.
Be sure to check back in
future days to find the scoop on future AIO deals and sales.
The Official Podcast has released their 80th podcast!
Having already listened to it, I highly recommend you tune
in for this edition:
Actor Paul Herlinger and executive producer Dave Arnold talk
about acting in New York, escape from Europe, the mysterious
process of vocal foley, and surprise listeners on a train.
This edition of the podcast is
a good treat for older listeners who were there when Paul
Herlinger stepped into the scene of Adventures in Odyssey
as the voice of Whit.
In other news, the Official
Site's Passages art contest is drawing to a close! Participate
before it's too late!
Having already heard the
entire collection, I would recommend you listen to these
exciting episodes. If you've been missing out, you can still
catch up by listening to all the episodes online. I'm planning on writing a review of the
episodes at some point in time, so be watching for that.
And, as always, you can order a copy to listen all at once at the Focus on
the Family Resource Center. While you're there, why not give
a small donation to Focus before you check out?
THURSAY,
OCTOBER 15, 2009
Everyday Life
So things have slowed down quite a bit in the land of
Odyssey. We don't seem to have any big news to report, so I
figure I'd keep you up-to-date on what I've been up to.
Aside from working a retail job (which becomes very mundane
and repetitive), I've been doing some freelance work with an
advertising agency. They are currently working with a client
who is putting together freewordplay.com, a site to learn Spanish by
associating images with various words. I've taken on the
loathsome task of matching images with words. There's
thousands more to go, but nothing I can't handle with the
help of Photoshop and the joys of resizing images. Go check
it out if you care enough to learn Spanish.
As you plug through the audio
release of
Passages: Darien's
Rise(which is airing on the radio right now!), you
won't want to miss out on our Eugene Sings! giveaway,
either. I'm also still holding onto some AIO-related audio,
which I plan on getting to one of these days. It'll be worth
the wait.
TUESDAY,
OCTOBER 13, 2009
The Unofficial
Podcast Discusses Darien's Rise
Not
far from view, the Unofficial Podcastjust released their latest
podcast. You'll get to hear hosts Chris and Sarah review the
first three episodes of Darien's Rise, as well as
listen to them talk about other radio dramas. They'll be
sharing their thoughts on the two lead kid roles in the
drama (which I happen to agree with!). If you're like me,
you like keeping up on the latest Odyssey news, and the Unofficial Podcast gives you a chance to do just that...
from the perspective of the fans!
In case you aren't aware of it
yet, we've highlighted some special interviews that the
Unofficial Podcast has conducted over the months
with the Odyssey team. You can stream them from the Odyssey
Scoop at our Audio Interviews page, located within the
Interviews section. You'll also
have an opportunity to hear more interviews conducted by AIO
fans and other podcasts. It's certainly a nice sort of
portal to great audio interviews. It's got hours of
behind-the-scenes interviews with actors, writers, and more.
Don't miss it!
Also don't forget you have an
opportunity to enter our
drawing! We're giving away some special CDs!
SATURDAY,
OCTOBER 10, 2009
Win a free
copy of Eugene Sings!
As
promised, today we've got a special surprise for you!
Starting today, you have the opportunity to enter a
brand-new drawing here at the Odyssey Scoop! We're giving
away two free copies of Eugene Sings! Why are we doing this? Well, simply
because I enjoyed Eugene Sings! so much when it first
came out that I knew others would enjoy it too. If you've
never heard it, you have a perfect opportunity to win a free
copy! It doesn't matter where you live. Anyone can enter,
but make sure you get your entry in by October 31. We will
hold a drawing and announce our winners right here on the
blog on November 2, 2009. Enter the
drawing now!
For those of you who have
always been a fan of Will Ryan's (Eugene Meltsner) singing,
I stumbled upon the website for
Snappytoons, which
includes audio previews of other audio albums he's produced.
You'll certainly want to check it out. Some of the songs
from Eugene Sings! were originally part of the Elmo the Aardvark series. Unfortunately,
Eugene
Sings! didn't have the amount of popularity that I had
expected to see happen for these CD's (and our friends at
AIO probably weren't excited their lack of popularity
either), so no others were released after Eugene Sings!
Christmas. But for those of us who love it, we'll always
have our copies of Eugene's famous croonings to cherish.
FRIDAY,
OCTOBER 9,
2009
Tomorrow.
You, a tuba, and the
moonlight.
WEDNESDAY,
OCTOBER 7,
2009
The Official
Podcast #79
Today
the Official Podcast has a special treat for us!
Pete Reneday, voice of dozens of
Adventures in Odyssey characters, talks about recording
Passages, his favorite characters, and his voice in
DisneyWorld.
Be sure to check out this
insightful podcast. Listen at WhitsEndBlog.org.
As for future updates at the
Scoop, I recently acquired more audio which I'll be
releasing in future days. It takes time to put these things
together, unfortunately. Fortunately, the audio is a lot of
fun to hear, and you'll get the chance to hear it soon. But
before we release that, be sure to check back this Saturday
for a special surprise. I'm not going to tell you what the
surprise is, but I will say it's worth checking back for.
And I just ended a sentence with a preposition. Eugene would
scold me if he were reading this blog. Oh well.
SATURDAY,
OCTOBER 3,
2009
Audio
Commentaries and Much More!
For
the past few Saturdays, we've been releasing revamped site
sections, and today is no exception! I suppose you're
checking back today to see this week's big update. Well,
have we got an update for you! Today I'm excited to present
the new face of our Audio
section! For several years, audio formats were just out of
date, software versions were archaic, and I got tired of
looking at a site feature that could do so much more for an
AIO fan site. In an effort to do just that, we gutted the
section out and added some new things. What I'm most excited
about are our new Audio Commentaries with Nathan
Hoobler! A couple years ago, writer Nathan Hoobler produced
some audio commentaries for the online community when
episodes aired. While these were exciting behind-the-scenes
releases for the fans, they sort of fell by the wayside and
were forgotten. But today they're back for the older and
newer fans of AIO! If you're like me, you can't get enough
of all the exciting behind-the-scenes tidbits from the
creators of Adventures in Odyssey. This is your
chance to hear experienced writer and director Nathan
Hoobler share his insights about some of the episodes he was
involved in creating.
But this is a big update, so
we've got more new stuff for you. We've also made a new
feature called Original Odyssey Promos, which
includes some fun audio for you. Here you'll have the chance
to listen to radio commercials for Odyssey albums and videos
of the past. Not only that, we have exclusively posted a
special audio treat created by Nathan Hoobler, long before
he began his journey on the Odyssey team! You won't want to
miss it! There also may be some potential opportunities for
future audio commentaries during the 2010 season. Keep
checking back.
It wouldn't be the Audio
section without our Odyssey Scoop flare. The section
contains everything that was included before, from Odyssey
Scoop parody clips and radio spots, to radio dramas that
make us blush.
As always, I hope you enjoy
this brand-new, revamped section. If you haven't been in
tune with all our latest happenings, check out our previous
blog posts as we've got lots of information about our
recently revamped Where Odyssey Is Notand Interviews sections.
THURSDAY,
OCTOBER 1,
2009
Darien's Rise
Contest and More
So I'm trying to figure out
how October has hit us already. Last time I checked,
September was only beginning and August was over. But, alas,
October is upon us.
Fortunately,
Passages: Darien's
Rise is now available from Focus
on the Family, and you have yet another chance to win a free
copy of this exciting release. The Quest for Truth blog recently posted a contest
that anyone can enter. There are some cool prizes, and AIO
prizes are in the mix as well. This contest will prove to be
quite a challenge, but I have faith that one of you can be
one of the winners. For more details and contest guidelines,
visit the blog here.
In other news, I added a new
feature to our Where Odyssey Is Notsection called Episodes That Take
Place Away from Odyssey. I figured it would be a
nice touch, just in case people out there are dying to know.
It felt fitting to showcase episodes that, well, take place
away from Odyssey. Also I've noticed that people are as
intrigued about the location of Odyssey as I was when I put
this popular section together. Where Odyssey Is Notis lighting up like a Christmas tree this week, and I've
received tons of emails with more clues, insights, comments,
suggestions, etc. It seems to be one of the site sections
that I've received emails the most about, even in the past.
Keep checking back to the section for more clues
periodically. I update the section with revisions and
additions without notice. If anything big comes up, I will
notify you via our blog.
Oh, and remember to check back
here this Saturday for yet another big update at The
Odyssey Scoop! Yeah, we've been busy, but it was about time.
Apparently,
while I wasn't updating this blog for the past few days, a
new episode title has been announced. Next season (Spring
2010), an episode called For the Birds will air. It
is, in fact, the episode featured on the front cover of
Let's
face it. Most of us AIO fans like collecting the latest Adventures in Odyssey releases, but money is hard to
come by. That being said, I'd like to draw your attention to
some special deals I've discovered at the Focus on the
Family Resource Center this week.
The
epic story of
Not
far from view, the
As
promised, today we've got a special surprise for you!
Starting today, you have the opportunity to enter a
brand-new drawing here at the Odyssey Scoop! We're giving
away two free copies of
For
the past few Saturdays, we've been releasing revamped site
sections, and today is no exception! I suppose you're
checking back today to see this week's big update. Well,
have we got an update for you! Today I'm excited to present
the new face of our
