Let’s go back to: In honor of Oscar Isaac's birthday yesterday, let's go back to the most adorable meeting ever: when he met Room star Jacob Tremblay at the Golden Globe Awards this year. 

Why it means something to you or to our podcast: It's no secret that my co-host and I have an unconditional love for Oscar Isaac and his Star Wars character Poe Dameron, but we've also recently discovered our love of the adorable little personality of nine-year-old Jacob Tremblay.  For someone who is so new to the spotlight, you can tell that he is easily getting used to charming the pants off of all who meet him.  If you want to see what we mean, check out his Instagram account.  You'll quickly fall in love with him too.

Where can you find it now? While the pair meeting was only captured with a picture, the young star went on Jimmy Kimmel Live and recounted his experience meeting Poe Dameron himself.

The trailer is here and we get to see EVERYONE (stick around til the end!).  Is everyone as excited as I am?

ANNOUNCEMENT: It appears there are some technical difficulties at the moment with the Sterek vs Stormpilot poll (unrelated to any bots or suspicious activity, do not fear).  We have not lost your votes and we don't want you to lose out on prime voting time!  So the poll will (hopefully) reopen at 8 PM PST and close at 10 PM PST, after which the final championship poll will open.

Vote for your ship into the ALNM Ship Bracket Championship!  Polls close at 12 PM PST on March 11th!

It's time for the Final Four!  We now have our conference champions in a showdown to determine who will go to the championship!

Alas, my beloved Stucky has bowed out.  But we have some great ships left!  Also I would like to give a shout out to the Bechloe shippers who, despite their loss, were the second highest vote getters this round.  You did great and we'd love to continue to hear from you!

The Final Four showdowns are:

1. Sterek vs Stormpilot
2. Steroline vs SasuSaku

iTunes

Episode 035 - “Fandom Madness”
​
Episode Length: 46:10

Episode Summary:
In our thirty-fifth episode, we’re bringing you an extra special episode all about the Academy Awards (both real and Fandom edition)!  We ignore Fandom News (check out Fandom Friday for all your updates) and jump right into how we felt the 88th Academy Awards went.  Did Chris Rock make a great host?  Did we agree with the winners?  Listen to find out!  We then go over all the winners for our annual Fandom Academy Awards.  Wrapping things up we go over all the rules and muse over our predictions for the Ship Bracket before sharing with you some very exciting news concerning our plans this July.  As always, we remind all of you amazing followers about the various platforms where you can follow us, tweet us, download our episodes, or contact us.  Tune in next time for our Ship Bracket Champions and updates on all things fandom!

​This week’s featured music:

"Flashlight" by Jessie J

“Get Down Saturday Night" by Oliver Cheatham

The Artist: Andy Grammer

The Song: "Good to Be Alive (Hallelujah)"

Where you heard it first: I can't remember when the first time I heard this song, but I want to say it's when he performed this song on Dancing with the Stars last season.  I heard this song again during the Red Carpet Special on ABC before the Academy Awards last week and have had it on repeat on my iPod since then. 

Why it’s been stuck in your head: This song is super-catchy and the upbeat songs that Andy Grammer releases are always fun to listen to.  I promise you won't regret downloading this song and listening to it on repeat.  It makes you want to tap your feet, sing along, and just enjoy and that kind of music deserves recognition during Music Monday.

Why you recommend it to our listeners: I've been crazy busy at work lately and for some reason, when I'm working really fast, this song puts me in an even speedier mood and it makes me happy.  I think you all should give this song a chance and have a good time while listening to it.

-- Kelly Lee

Who will be our conference champions?  In case you need a reminder, click here for the rules and scheduling.  This round closes March 9th at 12 PM PST.

And we love to get some interaction going on these poll posts!  Tell us why you ship who you ship, share your favorite (safe for work) fanfic and fanart, or just tell us what ship you're excited about.  We love excited emojis.  We may end up asking you to help contribute to our future Ship Profile series!

Things are getting exciting!  Did your ship make it to the Elite Eight?  If they didn't, it's not all bad news.  Remember, all the ships from the Sweet Sixteen this year will make up the "Returning Favorites" bracket next year!  So be sure to come back and vote next March!

The leading vote-getter this round was SasuSaku, who needed every vote to edge out Spideypool, our number two vote-getter.  Most of our races were tight ones, with only two ships receiving over 60% in their respective polls.  What will happen this round?  Vote now to determine our conference champions!

Elite Eight showdowns:

1. Stucky vs Sterek
2. Stormpilot vs Bechloe
3. Korrasami vs Steroline
4. Hollstein vs SasuSaku

Winners of this round move on  to the Elite Eight!  Remember, polls close March 7th at 12 PM PST.  And polls are set to allow you to vote once an hour regardless of what you're doing, so you don't need to do this cookie/incognito business I see people talking about :)