The second episode of Couch Surfing finds John & Scott in the aftermath of the holiday break. They discuss the pros and cons of dollars as presents, ebay and "rare" collectibles and what the future holds for the Academy Awards. Also of note: For those of you who might give a pretentious crap, you can finally hear what Bill Murray whispered to Scarlett Johansson at the end of Lost In Translation, by going here. We're still working out the kinks of this experimental show, but we hope you will listen and enjoy. The following artists can be heard in this episode:

The O'Jays, The Flying Lizards, Andy Partridge, Stars, Dream Academy, Greyboy, David Newman, Rob Dougan, The Cure, Death Cab For Cutie, Bloc Party, Craig Armstrong, Moby, Pale 3 Featuring Beth Hirsch, My Bloody Valentine, Cocteau Twins, Michael Jackson and Moby (again).

Welcome to the first episode of Couch Surfing. This is a new section of Sofa Dogs, devoted to weekly discussions about the latest news in entertainment. Joining me on this experimental, maiden voyage is Scott Carelli, from Two Geeks, A Mic & A Podcast. Taking a page from the book of Kevin Smith (more like downright ripping out that page), we adopt the Smodcast structure, by playing music behind our random conversations. This is my first attempt at a podcast like this, so please send me feedback and let me know what you think. The following artists can be heard in this episode:

Lionrock, Peter Gabriel, Portishead, Remy Zero, Shampoo, Lemon Demon, Sugarloaf, Sarah Michelle Gellar, New Order, They Might Be Giants, Prince, Gnarls Barkley, The Pixies, Camille Saint-Saens, U2 Darlene Love, Yoko Kanno, Danny Elfman, Telefon Tel Aviv, Cinderella
Angels & Airwaves, The Dandy Warhols, DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince, Elmer Bernstein, Christophe Beck, Brad Fiedel, Justin Timberlake
Supertramp, Dave Pimer, Flyleaf, Fugazi, Charlie Clouser, Lazlo Bane Coldplay and John McEntire.

While we were sorting out the general confusion, bewilderment and thumb-twiddling that led to first the sofadogs.com domain expiring and then the libsyn account going inactive, John still managed to distill his thoughts into mp3 form over at Geekshows.us. And when I say distill...well I guess I don't actually mean distill because his guest host spot on Two Geeks, a Mic and a Podcast lasted over two hours.

And as an incredibly minor, insignificant side note, it turns out that my failure to renew the .com domain resulted in it being snapped up by some webparking 'service' or other. Oh well. If I knew how to put a positive spin on things I'd say 'Look out for Sofadogs.NET in 2008!!!', but I don't. *sigh*

After more than a year of procrastination, empty promises and flat out laziness, I finally get my hands on a copy of Jonathan London's award-winning short film, Gay By Dawn. Filmed in Austin, Texas, the flick concerns a small group of rednecks sitting around a campfire, telling scary stories. Little do they know, the real terror is out there in those woods. Suspiscion mounts and the accusations fly as the threat of homosexuality may exist among them.

It's a light, innocent and hilarious romp. If you happen to have a copy on DVD, please join me as I take a look at this amusing gem. As always, listen for my preemptive countdown before starting the movie.

P.S. Special thanks goes to Scott Carelli, for being kind enough to send me his copy. Remember kids, you might wake up to find yourself Gay By Dawn, but at least Mexicans and giraffes aren't real. 

It's more than six weeks since season 2 of Heroes premiered, so what better time to bring you our thoughts on the first new episode? Six weeks ago, you say? Pfft.

Today's podcast is actually culled from a recording session intended to cover the first five episodes of season 2, but since we rambled on for 40 minutes about Four Months Later it seemed reasonable to split the thing up. Whether or not the rest of that conversation makes it to the feed is unclear - chances are we'll just cheat like we did with Lost and skip ahead to the latest episode. Yeah, we can do that.

Heroes Official Site

House is a classic, haunted residence story from 1986. William Katt stars as a struggling writer who revisits his Aunt's home, after she mysteriously commits suicide. While staying there, he's tortured by memories of his missing son and his personal experiences during the Vietnam War.

It's not long before the house begins to feed off his guilt and sadness. Strange and frightful things are happening, and it all seems to be related to the disappearance of a young boy. This is a fun, dark-humored ride of a ghost story that deals with one man's need to face and conquer his personal demons.

The film is produced by Sean Cunningham, directed by Steve Miner and written by Ethan Wiley, from a story by Fred Dekker. As is usually the case, please listen for my preemptive countdown before beginning the movie on your DVD.

Happy Halloween everyone!

With John currently unable to post new episodes, Stu retires to the archives to dig up and finish editing a long forgotten episode. Well, long forgotten in the sense that it was recorded in September this year. Okay, so maybe just forgotten then.

For this episode we port the Last 3 Movies blueprint over to the TV world. Here are the picks:

Stu	Gary
The IT Crowd	The IT Crowd
Traveler	Dexter
Raines	Family Guy

Note: The episode is obviously a little behind the times, so when we talk about upcoming stuff it's clearly not so upcoming any more. Also, turns out that the IT Crowd season 2 was only 6 episodes long, as opposed to the 8 episodes Gary mentions here.

Promos:
OzPod
The 9th

Jim Caviezel stars in Highwaymen, the unofficial companion piece to Robert Harmon's cult classic, The Hitcher. Rennie Cray (Caviezel) is a broken man following the murderous exploits of another broken man, Fargo (Colm Feore). Caught in the middle of this personal vendetta is Fargo's latest pretty, but scarred target, Molly (Rhona Mitra). Meanwhile, a State Traffic Investigator named Macklin (Frankie Faison), is trying to piece together the nature of this particular cat and mouse game between Cray and Fargo.

It's a loud, furious thriller where cars get mangled and destroyed because two men are way past the point of being able to "hug it out". In this commentary, I talk about the importance of rhythm and pacing in a thriller, balancing the ratio between action set pieces and character back story, all the while getting the most out of your sound mixing and editing. As is usually the case, please listen for my preemptive countdown before starting your DVD.

NOTE: This is a Region 2 disc, so there might be a slight synchronization issue for those of you with Stateside DVDs. However, this looks to be a simple port of the American release, so perhaps playback will run at the same speeds. Please let me know if this is not the case.

Ever wonder how those seedy, desolate roadside motels across America manage to stay in business? Well, Luke Wilson and Kate Beckinsale find out the hard way in Vacancy. This eerie little gem concerns an estranged married couple, forced to spend the night in a rundown motel after their car breaks down.

They soon realize something twisted may be in store for them, when they discover hidden cameras are watching them and the windows are nailed shut. With solid suspense and a lean, well paced running time, Vacancy delivers mature, classical horror in the tradition of Hitchcock, with a modern sensibility in visual storytelling.

Please join me as I discuss claustrophobia, home video technology and Frank Whaley's sinister mustache. As always, please listen for my preemptive countdown before starting the movie on your DVD.

Technically, the shows discussed in this segment don't hit the airwaves until the start of 2008, but whatever. At least we're early this time. Concluding our Fall Preview podcast of the new TV season, Stu and I take a look at the genre offerings from the trigger-happy Fox Network: New Amsterdam and Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.

Time travel, immortality, killer robots, forbidden love and Summer Glau kicking really high (hopefully). It's all here, or at least it will be, a few months from now.

New Amsterdam official site
Sarah Connor Chronicles preview site

SciFi Smackdown