Pokemon TCG Phantom Forces Prerelease: Madison, WI

At a recent Pokemon TCG Phantom Forces Prerelease in Madison, WI, I got a chance to interview one of the players about a few of the cards in the set:

Cards discussed:

-Malamar EX

-Honchkrow

-Lysandre's Trump Card

Train Station at 8 Podcast + Pokemon Colosseum Part 3

I recently got a chance to be a guest on the "Train Station at 8" podcast, a show dedicated to video game music. Each episode discusses a specific song, and in this episode we bent the rules a little and talked about the original English opening to the Pokemon TV series. We talk about the song itself, as well as its cultural impact on the franchise.

Additionally, part 3 of the playthrough of Pokemon Colosseum is up:

Let's Play Pokemon Colosseum-Part 1: Just Deserts

Here's the first part of a new Let's Play of Pokemon Colosseum for the GameCube:

In this episode, we get introduced to the player character, and we fight our first battle!

PokePress-Now on SoundCloud!

Want to listen to PokePress interviews without digging through the YouTube channel or waiting on the station? Now there's a SoundCloud page! Listen to the interviews any time you want, and you can even download them!

A Fake Pokemon: The First Movie Blu-Ray Appeared!

Recently, a fake disc of Pokemon: The First Movie started appearing on eBay. Here's what you need to know:

Transcript:

Hi, everybody. Steven here. Just wanted to alert you to something I’ve seen on eBay a couple time in the last few weeks. Now, if you’ve been following my Twitter feed, I’ve pointed this out a couple times. There is a fake Blu-ray version of Pokémon: The First Movie that’s popped up on eBay a couple times. In no way should you buy this. But, I’m going to explain it.

It’s actually a pretty good fake, to be honest. Someone did put some effort into making it look kind of legitimate. But, I’m going to go ahead and poke some holes in it just so you know what’s wrong with it and kind of how to spot fakes like this.

So, if we take a look at the front cover, you’ll notice that the picture in the front is misaligned. For whatever reason, there’s some blank space on the left that kind of forms a diagonal line. I guess what must have happened is that they scanned either the DVD cover or the VHS cover or a movie poster of it or something, in order to create this. And, that’s how they got the picture that you see there. But, you can see on the left hand side there’s this little border area that-it’s just not consistent there.

The other thing you probably notice is that the place where it usually says Kids’ WB! Presents, there’s a little Pokéball over. Personally, I don’t think it quite fits in there. I suppose if they were downplaying the Kids WB! part of it, now that that doesn’t really exist anymore in a rerelease. But, just keep that in mind.

Now, the first auction listing only had the front cover there. So, you could only see this. I knew it was fake because there is no Blu-ray version of Pokémon: The First Movie in English. The second time this was listed, which was just a few days ago from when I was recording this. We actually got a picture of the front and the back. And, if you take a look at the back, on initial inspection it might look kind of legit. But, there’s a few things wrong there too.

It has the text from the original DVD/VHS release, although a few words here and there have been cut out. It still loosely makes sense. But, the first thing that’s off is there’s negative space in the top right. You almost never see that on the back of a disc these days. Usually they fill it up with either actual pictures or with text or with something in there. So, you wouldn’t see a big space like that on the top right. Not sure what’s going on there. If you look very closely, there’s a space where there’s a bunch of Pokémon and there’s sort of a starburst behind them. You’ll notice if you look next to Charizard, there’s this white space. If you compare it against the one from the original DVD, there should be some stuff there. But, when they Photoshopped or whatever this together, they cut it out wrong. There’s that blank white space there next to Charizard’s neck.

Another big thing that’s missing, and you’ll see this a lot of these types of bootlegs, is there’s no rights information. Nothing about Warner Bros, Viz, The Pokémon Company, none of that stuff is on there. And, there are a few smaller things on there too. It’s got the same zebra code as the DVD version. It should have a different code number, since it is a different product. And, I’m sure there’s a number of other things that are off. And, if I had a close up, I’m sure I could spot even more stuff. So, I guess that kind of begs the question, what’s actually on the disc?

Well, I’m not buying this and neither should you. But, what I’m guessing is on there is they took the Japanese Blu-ray of The First Movie, which if you recall, is only sold as a set of the first 12 or 13 movies. And, they went in and spliced in the English audio and maybe they took some stuff from that remastered version that debuted on Cartoon Network earlier this year and used it to create this bootleg disc. But, that’s my best guess. Like I said, don’t buy this. If you see it somewhere, if someone else is considering buying it, tell them not to buy it. Just a little fair warning there. Thanks.

Transcript by GetTranscribed.com

Geek.Kon 2014-Super Smash Bros. Brawl Tournament Winner

At Geek.Kon, I got a chance to interview the winner of a Super Smash. Bros Brawl tournament. We discuss his choice of character and the upcoming 3DS and Wii U games:

Pokémon Symphonic Evolutions-Concertmistress Interview

Karen Lowry-Tucker

I recently talked to Karen Lowry-Tucker, concertmistress (first chair first violin) of the Washington D.C. performances of “Pokémon Symphonic Evolutions” about her history as a musician and her experience playing the music of the Pokémon games.

Where are you from originally, and how did you get into playing music for a living?
I am from Louisville, KY and I started playing the piano at age 5. I was introduced to the violin in elementary school, so I pursued both instruments.

How familiar were you with the Pokémon franchise before you started practicing for this concert?
I remember when Pokémon first debuted, but had not followed it.

What did you think of the music for this concert overall?
The music was phenomenal. There were some passages that were difficult but fun, and there were some very beautiful lyrical passages. It was well written and well-arranged and felt at times to me like a Hollywood action movie score.

As concertmistress, did you have any specific responsibilities in regards to the music? 
I spent a lot of time marking the bowings for my section so they would be uniform. This is one  of the duties of the concertmaster, or concertmistress in my case. We had two days to learn the music and I spent the better part of both of those days learning the notes and marking my part. The concertmaster’s markings are usually copied into the other parts in advance by a music librarian. Since a librarian is not usually hired for this type of job, it was my responsibility to arrive early to the first rehearsal and lend my part to my fellow violinists so they could copy my markings.

How many times did you get to rehearse with the rest of the orchestra?
We had two rehearsals before the performance and this great freelance orchestra nailed it in my opinion.

What was it like actually performing the music in front of an audience? What did you think of the way the crowd reacted to the music?
Since I am a member (not the concertmistress, however) of the Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra, I love opportunities to be out of the pit or “above ground” as I call it, and actually see the audience. The crowd was “electric”. It was a force that reminded me of a rock concert. To these fans it must have been phenomenal to hear the digital tunes they all knew played by a live orchestra. I definitely felt the energy in the concert.

Is there a particular piece from the concert that was your favorite? 
My favorite piece was “Songs of the Tower”. I loved the writing and I loved putting my spin on the solos.

What else have you had the opportunity to play during your orchestral career? 
I am a classically trained musician and symphonic and opera music are a part of my soul. However I have enjoyed different genres as well. I have had the chance to perform excerpts from Hollywood movie scores such as “Wall-E”, “Star Wars”, etc.

I have played with R&B stars and rock stars, symphonic “Pops” concerts and musicals like “The Producers”, “Phantom of the Opera”, etc. My fondest memory was playing in a backup orchestra on “Saturday Night Live” for Vanessa Williams!

My latest passion is chamber music and I especially enjoy playing in a string trio. We like to take time to go in the schools and give children’s concerts. It’s personally my way of “giving back”. We have fun programs that introduce young audiences to classi¬¬cal music and hopefully inspire them to pursue the arts. That’s how I began. A woman came to my school and did a string demonstration and I was hooked!