Yesterday, my coworker brought in a bag of Nacho Cheese Bugles.  I had quite the late ’80’s/early ’90’s flashback, accompanied by the thought “Can these really be as good as I remember?”  Well, ladies and gentlemen, I assure you - Bugles really are as good as you remember.  While my childhood delight with them mostly focused on putting them on my fingers and pretending I was a witch, this time around they disappeared too quickly for any such play.  The Nacho Cheese flavor is delicious and not as in your face as Doritos.  And who knew that Bugles have actually been around for 5 decades, according to the General Mills site?  They also have a Chinese “Fun Club” although that site appears to be down - I say appears because I do not read Chinese.

The bottom line, folks, is that you really should try Bugles again.  Sure, their time of popularity was about two decades ago, but that doesn’t mean they’re not still delicious.  I highly recommend them.

Ahoy! Shots in the Dark IS the official podcast of Shotgun Reviews, so we thought we’d hit you up with an all review episode (after the Gatling Geek news segment, of course). We went a little outside the box, though. First, Janelle reviews The Sims 2: Freetime, the likely final expansion pack to The Sims 2, and even gives you a sneak peak of The Sims 3, due out next year.  Then we take a deep look at the first 7 “episodes” of Warren Ellis and Paul Duffield’s FreakAngels; the completely free webcomic. Head over, take a listen, subscribe through any and all podcasting services, and be a better human being. Or Warren Ellis will send the arse eels. It’s your choice.

 Listen Right Here!!

We held off on an individual spotlight for a bit so we could bring you a HUGE spotlight: it’s the Shots in the Dark team! In the shot above, pictured clockwise from left, are Vince, Janelle, Imoticon, Lucas and Michael Madsen. Yes, the REAL Michael Madsen. The Shots in the Dark crew doesn’t mess around. Read on to meet Lucas, Janelle, Vince, The Viceroy, Imoticon, and John after the jump, or watch the latest episode right now!

Name: Lucas Siegel

Shots in the Dark team position: Co-Producer, Booking

Specialty: Comics, tech, anime, random knowledge

Things I do: Newsarama.com, ShotgunReviews.com, Truman College Newspaper Arts and Entertainment Editor, Generally kick-ass, Get linked to by Rolling Stone

Interests: Comics, video games, writing (creative and journalism), all the geeky stuff we talk about on the show, Da Bears, making fun of Vince, trolling/giving negative karma to JB on our forums (found at shotgunreviews.com/shots/forum)

Name: Janelle Siegel

Shots in the Dark team position: co-host/token girl

Specialty: smart assery, comics, saying “your mom” at inconvenient moments, video games (The Sims 2 in particular), manga, and using my boobs to get my way.

Things I do: copy-edit Newsarama (can I say that? I think you know the link but might want to clear with Matt), Shotgun Vlog (http://www.youtube.com/user/SitDShow), write for Shotgun, and co-host SitD. To pay the bills: office administrator for fashion designer Andria Lieu - website still in development.

Interests: Your mom. Ha. Seriously: comics (love Fables, X-Men, Birds of Prey, and Suburban Glamour), manga (Fruits Basket, Ouran High School Host Club, Nana, Vampire Knight), video games (The Sims 2, Final Fantasy 2/4-8, SSX, Burnout, Smash Bros.), books (favorite authors include Stephen King, L.M. Montgomery, and John Irving), my husband, animals (especially our cats Monkey and Chicken!), TV (favorite show ever = Veronica Mars, favorite show currently on TV = Lost), movies (Empire Records, Gone With The Wind, and Lost in Translation), music (I <3 U2), and editing (I hates the bad grammars).

Name: Vince Scalabrino

Shots in the Dark position: Co-Producer, Marketing

Specialty: Retro video games, Non super-hero comics and pop culture obscura: Dr. Who, 80’s animation, vintage computer tech and games, robots, etc.

Things I do: Digital marketing (www.icrossing.com), voiceover acting (www.voiceofvince.com - Coming soon!), audio and video production (www.shotgunreviews.com/shots), writing (Right here on www.shotgunreviews.com).

Interests: See specialties. Vince is also a casual harmonica player, snowboarder and unabashed Karaoke lover. He blogs on very rare occasions @ vscalabri.livejournal.com. There are rumors he is also in the early stages of development of his very first novel.

Little Known Fact: Vince once got up in front of 500-some Motorola employees and their former CEO, Ed Zander, and sang 12 bars of Cole Porter’s “Night and Day”, in the style of Ol’ Blue Eyes. In case you were wondering, he no longer works at Motorola.

Name: The Viceroy

Shots in the Dark team position: Co-Founder, on-air talent, and random odds & ends support

Specialty: Video Games, Tabletop & Board Games, Collectible Card Games, random facts of nostalgia (Like Vince only more extensive & random!), as well as general geek-ese and geek-isms. Oh, and making everyone wonder who is the man behind the mask…

Things I do: Senior System Designer at an unnamed “super secret” video game company, part-time entertainer at Chicago Bulls basketball games, and Voice Overs if he ever has the time (demo tape is just about done!), typically speaks of himself in the third person

Interests: See Specialties & Professional sections above. In addition to those, The Viceroy also has an analyst streak in him and follows most of the Chicago pro teams (Bears, Bulls, Cubs). The Viceroy also dabbles with building with LEGO and has a fond appreciation Cartoons & Animation. The Viceroy would like to write again at some point as well…

Little Known Fact: The Viceroy could have been one of the ‘contestants’ on the TV Show “The Pickup Artists”, but decided against it.

Name: Imoticon AKA Steve Scalabrino

Shots in the Dark team position: On-Air Talent

Specialties: Movies, TV, Games (FPS,Action,Fantasy)

Things I do: Acting (stage, print and TV), retail gigs to cover the gaps (Starbucks and the like).

Interests: Airsoft, Movies/TV, All things of 80’s, good sushi restaurants, know any?

Name: Halcylon AKA John Stvan

Shots in the Dark Team position: Graphic Designer / Cinematography Lead, On-Air Talent

Specialties: Halo, Halo 2, Halo 3, Call of Duty Series (Any First Person Shooter, really), Star Wars (Movie and Book form), Graphic Art, Digital Art

Things I do: Graphic design (www.gravityforcegraphics.com), Video producing/ editing (www.shotgunreviews.com/shots), Bungie.net user/abuser (Halcylon’s Profile).

Interests: See Specialties. Anything involving the color blue (It’s the only color I can truly see well). I have read almost every book available regarding String Theory, partake in skiing in Colorado and have acted in plays and movies since high school (almost a decade of work in all). I have a fuzzy kitty named Sierra who is a dog in disguise (she barks and plays fetch). In case you didn’t already guess, I enjoy long drawn out conversations regarding anything to do with myself. =)

In the second vlog this week, Janelle covers a mismatch of sorts. First, the last issue of a mature comic, American Virgin #23. Then, the first issue of a comic geared towards kids with Tiny Titans #1.

So lately I have been addicted to a wide range of female singer/songwriters. It seems as if they are taking over the music industry, but maybe that’s just me. Regardless, my “Chicks, man” playlist is pretty much all I’m listening to these days. So I thought I would offer up our favorites, along with some YouTube action:Kate Nash - she’s ironic, bitter, and plain-spoken. Plus she has a real-girl body. Did I mention she’s extremely funny? Plus her videos are amazing, and very bright and colorful.

Kate Nash - Mouthwash video

Kate Nash - Foundations video

Kate Nash - Pumpkin Soup video (personal fave)

Lily Allen - more well known than Kate Nash but very similar. Lots of irony and humor in her songs, and her videos are also bright and colorful. Probably the most accessible of all of these singers as she is definitely the most attractive and her sound is a more… not generic, but uses more popular genres (like hip-hop). Plus she’s worked with Common :)

Lily Allen - Alfie video

Lily Allen - Littlest Things video

Lily Allen - Smile video (her most famous song) (more…)

The Latest and Greatest Shots in the Dark Episode!

From the desk of our podcast:

Alas, our favorite comic has come to a close. Of course, we’re talking about Brian K. Vaughn’s masterpiece, Y: The Last Man. Over the past 6 years, we’ve laughed, cried and perhaps even screamed aloud in public. We’ve followed closely the journey of Yorick Brown, the last man on Earth, as he searched for love and the meaning of life. We’ve dedicated this very special episode of Shots in the Dark to discussion of Y, beginning with a Y: The Last Man-themed Gatling Geek and a review of the series’ finale, Issue 60.

If you haven’t yet had the pleasure to enjoy this amazing work of art, fear not! We were very careful to keep the show almost completely spoiler-free. So take a listen and when you’re done, be sure to click on over to our forums to tell us what YOU think.

Also, check out Dialectic, our featured band of the week, with lead singer Ying-sun. Get it? Y name? Perfect!

Wait, what? You haven’t been to the All-new All-Different Shots in the Dark Forums yet? That’s alright, I’ll wait. Check it out. You back yet? Great! As you can see, we relaunched with an all new #1, with 9 variant covers that link up to show a picture of a middle finger pointed at anyone you want. That’s all a lie, of course, but hey, I’m trying to be overtly satirical here! Shots in the Dark, Shotgun Reviews’ internet radio show, is already bringing you the best conversation about geek/pop culture out there. Now, we want you to get in on the conversation. We have a super-speedy forum set up, and we’ve invited some of our friends along for the ride. First, we have Jim Beard and Co’s Super-Articulate! They put out a great regular column on Newsarama about the ins and outs of the action figure industry, and now, between columns, you can get more insight from them on their forum hosted by Shots in the Dark!We’re also VERY pleased to announce that Raven Gregory, EIC of Zenescope and writer of such fine comics as Return to Wonderland, The Gift, and Se7en, is our first creator to have his very own forum at our site. So come by and show Raven that Shotgun readers are the best sycophants in the comic industry!So, whether you’re looking to chat with radio hosts, columnists, or creators (more on that to come, btw), or if you’re just looking for a douchebag-free zone of the internet where you can talk about your geek/pop culture, head on over to Shots in the Dark’s all new forum.P.S. Don’t forget to check out our latest episode, and all the back episodes. Our latest episodetackled everyone’s favorite comic topic, One More Day, and we’ll have a new episode this week explaining the ins and outs of Intellectual Property. All that, plus all the news you need from MacWorld Expo and from all around the geeky globe. 

For those of you who are unaware, Shots in the Dark is the official podcast of Shotgun Reviews. Its hosted by regular Shotgun contributors Lucas Siegel, Janelle Siegel and Vince Scalabrino. They’re joined by Imoticon, JB, and The Viceroy, expert gamers and a professional video game designer. These heavily opinionated folks dissect and occasionally eviscerate pop culture with the same tongue-in-cheek cynicism you’ve come to know and love here at Shotgun.

In their most recent episode, the Shots in the Dark crew reviews Talisman: The Board Game, coupled with a lively round table discussion of the most controversial Marvel arc of the 21st century, Spider Man’s One More Day. And if you’re into video games at all, you’d be interested to hear the exclusive cheat for Rock Band that the crew discovered. Curious? Head on over and give them a listen. Or just click on the big, blue, appropriately-named button above and get your fix.

I have been pondering something for weeks now, and I felt I must bring it to a public forum to further explore the idea.  When did it become correct to claim your movie was based on a graphic novel when in fact it was based on a miniseries of comic books?  As I watched the 30 Days of Night trailers on TV I was struck every time by the “Based on the Groundbreaking Graphic Novel.”  Really?  I guess I didn’t realize that any comic that was collected later in trade format could be considered a graphic novel.  But I’m already getting right to the ranting, let me step back a little…

(more…)

Howdy Shotgun Reviews readers! Been to the Shots in the Dark page in a while? No? I’ll wait…

OK, you back? Good. You’ll notice it jives more with the Shotgun site now. We decided the KISS method was the best way to go. Also, we’re gonna use that main blog there as the only, not just the primary, location that podcasts will be linked on. Again, one simple place to find the best geek culture podcast on the net makes our lives easier and yours, too!

But, what does that mean about the video game reviews and those awesome Developer Blogs Eric, our man on the inside writes?

They’ll be right here on the Shotgun Reviews proper site.

All this, and more! We’ll have the debut of an all new SitD feature, the Pocketcast, a bite-sized mini-podcast focusing on the latest news, games, tech, or just something we’re excited about, next week! Also, look forward to some more kick ass interviews, and a special Wizard World Chicago preview with the guys from Wizard themselves that you won’t get ANYWHERE else!!

So keep reading Shotgun Reviews, and the next time you’re sitting down to play Madden, don’t listen to him drone on about how the team with the most points usually wins the game, listen to Shots in the Dark!

Today, the CW announced that Veronica Mars will not be coming back next season. This is a very sad day in my life. Veronica Mars is/was one of the best written, funniest, engrossing, intelligent hours of television out there today. This season has been different from the Veronica we know and love, but still a good Veronica, and it’s really sad to see it go out like this. I only hope they had a chance to wrap things up in some kind of a way that will be satisfactory for me. Meaning, I want some LoVe action, but who knows if that will happen!

Next Tuesday is the two hour season finale. You can find me curled on my couch sobbing like a baby from the hours of 7pm until 11pm.

Also, how did Veronica Mars get only 3 seasons when Dawson’s Creek (which I loved as a teenager, to be fair), got 5? Honestly, there’s something wrong with the world today.

For those of you who live in the Chicago area, you should attend the Shots in the Dark Launch Party tomorrow, April 28th! For more details on the location and what’s happening when, click here!