Wow haven't done a blog in a while. Oops.
Well I've been on an anime kick lately so I might blog about that sometime. But I've found a podcast that is written with my sense of humor and love of the supernatural in mind. And when I mean I love the thing, I mean I marathoned from the pilot episode to the currently most recent one. 31st? episode I believe. Warning: the podcast can be explicit so the younger readers of this blog should realize that the subject material and/ or the weather reports that are not actually weather reports can be explicit in descriptions in gore and more often than not the musical "Weather Report" can have some language. So I warned you.
I am talking about Welcome To Night Vale where such mundane things as hooded figures, portals that release dinosaurs, and glowing clouds are a common enough appearance that the radio personality talks about the events in such a way as to make you question your normal life. Oh and a dog park that is EXPRESSLY forbidden by the all powerful town council that it should never be entered at any cost ever. Alternate reality episode, time travel, etc.
And never ask about the station management. The weather reports and the sponsor messages are hilarious and creepy at the same time. At listen at night for the full effect. Awesome.
It's if H.P. Lovecraft's worldview of cosmic horror got hit with a dose of modern life. E.g. The world has gotten smaller and more connected and so the unknown has become boring. Or think of a parody newscast being attacked by constant cosmic horror entities so often that most of the characters are so used to it that the mundane becomes more noticeable. Kinda the whole forest for the trees bit . . . or something.
Night Vale is like a small town that got hit by the weird bug. Reminds me of those old time radio dramas that used to be so prevalent in the 50's.
The narrator and the only way we know of this strange burg in the middle of wherever is Cecil Baldwin, the radio host in this Lovecraftian NPR radio show: a usually mild mannered and supposedly well dressed, not tall, not short, not thin, not fat, handsome character who is also very much attracted to the new man in the town. And his whole coming to terms if the scientist falls for the radio host.
And yes it actually feels genuine and touching for a show that can go from making you laugh from how absurd it is or almost shiver in fear from the descriptions alone. (And Cecil's voice is haunting enough in its calm dulcet tones that lull you into believing that the strange occurrences that you are hearing could happen in another universe parallel to ours on another plane of reality.)
Or I am totally in love with his voice.
Other characters are also Carlos the "sane man" scientist, Old Lady Josie who's friends with angels (which the City Council refuses to acknowledge the existence of), the Sheriff and his Secret Police, the numerous red shirt station interns and others in the town that exists somewhere.
Writing style shifts from third person for most of the narration, to second person during most of the "Word From Our Sponsors Bit"- and a strange episode that entirely narrated like that, to Cecil's strange tangential stories that he goes off on every once in a while to hilarious effect.
Fan of a podcast? Yes. Enough to join a fandom? Well, yeah, of course it like I totally want to hear more of this well thought out world that is Night Vale.
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