Friday, February 3, 2023

Reviewers Wanted for my Book

 


Calling all Reviewers and Podcasters

My name is Pokematic and I wrote a book/play called "The Forge" (available here) and I'm looking for people to make online reviews of it. If you make reviews or other works about media for youtube, instagram, facebook, your blog, podcast, or anything else and would be interested in reviewing my book, please email me at catholiccontriversy@hotmail.com with the subject "Reviewing The Forge" with where I can find your content and what you would like to do and we can see if you would be a good fit for a review copy.
Do note that I only have review copies available for people with American Amazon accounts at this time. I welcome reviews from all countries and regions, but you'll have to purchase your own copy. You can find the marketplace for your region here

Book Description

Welcome to Salem, home of the famous witch trials. Maybe you've heard one of the many different interpretations and renditions of this famous trial, but you've probably never heard it like this. In this rendition the witches are real and the hijinks are plentiful. After a night of wild partying Annie has to make up an excuse for why her best friend Becky is still asleep, and her Uncle France jumps to the conclusion that it must be the witches that live outside of town. Now the falsely accused witches must argue for their life in a corrupt witch hunt. Hey, do you think that’s where the term “witch hunt” comes from?

Wednesday, January 11, 2023

The Forge $2.99, Read for Free with Kindle Unlimited

 


Where to buy

Welcome to Salem, home of the famous witch trials. Maybe you've heard one of the many different interpretations and renditions of this famous trial, but you've probably never heard it like this. In this rendition the witches are real and the hijinks are plentiful. After a night of wild partying Annie has to make up an excuse for why her best friend Becky is still asleep, and her Uncle France jumps to the conclusion that it must be the witches that live outside of town. Now the falsely accused witches must argue for their life in a corrupt witch hunt. Hey, do you think that’s where the term “witch hunt” comes from?

Friday, June 24, 2022

Fav_3 Geek Love Music Video (Largely Forgotten 2004 Music)


fan_3 - Geek Love Music Video

Some back story, or lack there-of, this song aparently made a very small ripple in the music world back when it came out in 2004 (the first and only time I heard it was on upick live on nickelodeon, until I decided to google random memory fragments 18 years later), but it seems to have been largely forgotten. The thing I find crazier though, it seems to have been scrubbed from the internet. The video above, this is the only music video copy I could find; there are links to youtube uploads, but they're all dead links. Fan3 seems to have deleted all her social medias and wants to be left alone. If I was a "remember this weird thing, here's information you probably didn't know about it" video creators, this would be something I would look into, but I'm not someone like that. Hopefully someone that does "early 2000s culture archeology" will find this.

Tuesday, June 6, 2017

Toy Story Zero (Unproduced Prequel to Toy Story, around 1999), Deleted Article from Lost Media Wiki

This is an article I originally wrote for the LostMediaWiki, but it was deleted. I am archiving it here, because what's more ironic than a lost article about lost media.




"Toy Story Zero" is the background story to Toy Story that explains various plot holes in Toy Story and Toy Story 2, mainly "where is Andy's dad" and "how is the most popular character from a TV show was the rarest toy?" The plot of Toy Story Zero follows Andy's dad (Andy Senior), from when he was Andy's age (Andy Junior in Toy Story 1, 2, and 3), to Andy Sr. as a teen, and months before the events of Toy Story 1. According to first hand accounts from Mike Mozart (friend of Joe Ranft, head writer on Toy Story and Toy Story 2), this was conceived to explain the "how" and the "why" of everything in Toy Story 1 and 2.
Toy Story Zero
Status Lost

Plot

According to Mike Mozart's memory, the movie would star Andy Sr. as a young boy, around the same age as Andy Jr. in Toy Story 1 and 2. In it, Andy Sr. would be a rather sickly boy that was bullied by Al Jr. (the younger version of Al from Toy Story 2), from a family that's struggling financially. His favorite TV show was Woody's Round-up, but his family wasn't able to afford any of the toys.
The actual plot that would have made up a majority of the movie is unknown, but it would have involved trying to get a special promotional Woody doll that required sending in 40 box tops from "Sheriff Woody Cereal." According to the lore, all of the characters from Woody's Round-up received release in stores, except for Woody, who would have only been available through this special promotion. Andy Sr.'s father tried to get the box tops for his son, but he was unable to get enough before the end of the promotion (only about 7). He sent in what he was able to collect, wrote a note explaining how he was unable to afford the other Woody's Round-up toys, but if he could still have a Woody, it would mean the world to him, and signed it "your Favorite Deputy," as well as the return address.
The promotion presumably would have ended around the conclusion to Woody's Finest Hour (the unaired Woody's Round-up episode). As the story of Woody's Round-up goes, when Sputnik was sent up into space and all the kids were interested in space toys. The Woody dolls wouldn't have gone into production, and the toy and cereal companies were frantically trying to figure out what to do with this promotion. They decided to send the kids a space toy instead. During this decision, the secretary to the toy CEO got Andy Sr.'s letter and was touched by the story. When she found a pre-production prototype Woody, she took it to the CEO and asked what to do with it. He said "no one will want this" and threw woody in a trash can. Later she picked him out and sent Woody to Andy Sr.
Not much is known about the events leading up to the following, but Andy Sr. was diagnosed with polio (pre-vaccine), and lost the use of his legs. As was common practice at the time, Andy Sr. was going to go to a special polio hospital and all of his belongings were going to be burned; his matters, his clothes, and all his toys. When he saw all his belongings out in the back yard covered in gasoline, ready to be burned, he crawled out to the backyard to rescued his Woody, Slinky Dog, and Mr. Potatohead. He put them in a pillow case, crawled up to the attic, and locked them in a chest after telling them "I'm going to go away for a long time, so I need you to take a long sleep." But I promise I'll be back.
Andy Sr. was set to be in the hospital for many years, and was probably in his early teens when he got out. He still remembered the toys he rescued, but felt he was probably too old for them, but he'll keep them if he has a son someday. Events happen where Andy Sr. meet's Andy Jr.'s mom, they get married, and Andy Sr. has a relapse in his Polio when his wife is pregnant with Andy Jr. Andy Sr. and his family are forced to move back with his mom due to losing all their money through medical bills. As Andy Sr. is dying at his home hospice bed, he calls Andy Jr. to his bed (who is now around the same age as Andy Sr. when he contracted polio) and tells him about a locked box in the attic with some special friends he wants him to have, as he pulls a key from his wallet (with a very visible imprint to show that he's had it there for a long time). Andy Jr. goes to the attic to get the box his dad told him about. When he returns, Andy Sr. has passed, with the key on his dresser.
When Andy Jr. opens the box, he pulls out Woody, Slinky, and Potatohead, and they awake to the sight of Andy Jr. (who looks almost exactly like Andy Sr. at that age), and believe that Andy Jr. is Andy Sr. According to Mike Mozart, this took place weeks before Toy Story 1. When Andy Jr., his mom, and a new born Molly return from Andy Sr.'s funeral, Andy Jr. is sad that this is going to be his first birthday without his dad, but then his mom held up Woody and said "as long as you have Sheriff Woody, he'll always be your best friend." That then brought Andy Jr. back to the happy spirits that he has in Toy Story 1.

Retelling

For close to 2 decades, this story was only known by 2 people, Joe Ranft and Mike Mozart. Joe told Mike this story one day at lunch when he was unable to give Mike a tour of Pixar studios. During this lunch, Joe said he has not told anyone else "Toy Story Zero." At Joe's death in 2005, Mike was left as the only one to know Toy Story Zero. The story was left untold until June 2nd 2017 in a live stream on Mike Mozart's youtube channel TheToyChannel.

Toy Story Zero in the Livestream (start around 52 minute mark)
In the live stream, Mike says he plans on releasing a video where he tells the story with artwork to aid in the story telling. No date as of yet.