Level Orange

I was going through some old files on my computer the other day and happened upon these charming little nuggets from the past. In case you missed these back when we recorded them in 2008, here are the full episodes of the  PiQ Podcast (and thanks to Facebook, the summaries of what we discussed), as hosted by Messrs Howard, Starr, Gifford and yours truly. Sure, all we talk about is stuff that happened two years ago but hey, it reminds me of good times.

Download (right-click, Save As…) and enjoy.

Episode 0

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Just to prove we are not sitting around all day eating Fritos and wiping the grease on our tank tops, here is the highly experimental Episode 0 of The PiQ Podcast (thePiQ-cast? Perhaps I’m getting too far ahead of myself). Have a listen — just press that little “Play” button up above this text — and you’ll get to hear myself, Robert, Paul, and Scott discuss the sorts of things we’ve been up to while working on this magazine.

We got print copies of Issue 1 in the other day, and I hear that some subscribers have received it as well. Huzzah! Tremendous! We hope you will get it soon if you haven’t, or later this month when it hits newsstands. We honestly care what you think about this issue, so keep letting us know.

PiQ Episode 1 – The Sausage Fest

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Now that we’ve slogged through our deadline for Issue 2, we’re able to share our much-delayed discussion about Issue 1 with all you fine folks.

If you have Issue 1, feel free to follow along as we talk about some initial reactions to the magazine, and go into a bit of discussion on Appleseed Ex Machina, Avatar, The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Honey & Clover, recent legislation in Japan, Tweeny Witches, Battlestar Galactica, Independence Day (!), our Monitor think-piece “Is Anime Dead?” and more.

PiQ Episode 2 – No Games for Old Men

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Did we ever say this podcast would be a regular thing? Whoops. After a hectic month or so, we finally sat down and got to discuss some of what we’ve been up to, including Kevin’s trip to Japan, the infallible legacy of Upton Sinclair and our collective realization that some games are just entirely too damn hard for old fogeys like us (and we’re not even that old).

More importantly, there’s also our discussion of Issue 2 and all the goodness therein, like how much we dig Sam & Max, Lucky Star, Iron Man, Tim and Eric, action movies, old game shows and pig creatures? Also, we have another sweet prize for those of you interested, so be sure to listen for that too.

PiQ Episode 3 – Delicious

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Here we are again to discuss what we’ve been up to (despite being such losers). Kevin tells all about his conniving ferret, Scott and I celebrate the epic nature of GTA IV and Paul tells why you should check out The World Ends With You.

We also discuss a fair bit about Issue 3, which you should be able to find at your local newsstands. Find out what we really thought about our cover story, Speed Racer, and what other movies we’re looking forward to from this summer’s crop of big releases. There’s also some talk about roller derby and its appeal, Working Designs and our MONITOR piece on translation “Found in Translation”.

Earlier today, I happened across this post at dannychoo.org where Len-Vesper goes on about his “internet battle” with PiQ and how the magazine is closing its doors. Well, while I don’t remember hearing about or witnessing any “battle” and the magazine actually closed down two months ago, that’s hardly the focus of his tirade.

Like many others, Len-Vesper is actually more upset about the messy transition from Newtype USA to PiQ and how subscriptions were handled.

As I read on, I considered leaving a comment on his blog post here, but since I’ve never written at length about it and I got kinda wordy, I just thought I’d post it here on my own site.

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While at a local Barnes & Noble today, what did I see but a copy of the July issue of PiQ staring back at me. I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised because the issue won’t go off-sale until another week or so.

Sometime in the last week, the site for PiQ Magazine, piqmag.com, went missing. And not missing in the “we’ll be back soon” meaning, but missing in the way that so many sites go missing when there’s no one left to keep them alive—someone just decided to pull the plug.

I can’t say it saddens me a great deal because I had expected it to happen eventually. In fact, I’m more surprised that it happened so soon. Granted, it wasn’t a huge loss, but it was largely made up of content that didn’t make it’s way into the pages of the magazine itself, and since the magazine closed back in June, I’ve been watching the site in hopes that it would stick around and be a small, lasting tribute to what we tried to do with PiQ Magazine.

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One of the biggest challenges of starting any new enterprise revolves around the most basic and essential factor of business–the name of your company. It requires you to know your own ideas and goals, as well as your target audience and customer, far ahead of time.

It can be tricky in the beginning, because not only do you have to take into account everything that you want to accomplish with your company, but you also factor in how people might possibly react to your brand, and maybe more importantly, how you’ll be able to process said reactions. If you present your brand and aren’t solid on what it is or what it means, you’re going to have a hard time defending it or having to explain it on a regular basis, so it’s best to choose something that you believe in and can stand behind.

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I’ve had these for a little while now, but thought I’d take a minute to show them off now that we’ve put down our first issue. Seeing this thing take off from a nebulous idea into a reality has definitely been an adventure, and this is just the beginning.

It’s like a wise man once said, “Shit just got real.” I think it was Martin Lawrence.