Thank you for your thousands upon thousands of votes this month in our first annual ALNMpodcast Ship Bracket!  We had a ton of fun and hope you did too.  The polling is now closed.  Our champion will be announced on Episode 29 of the podcast, which will be posted early next week.  So keep an eye out!

-Christina

Take a look at out our interview below with artist renisanz, then check out her Tumblr to see more of her phenomenal work!

What programs/tools do you use?
I’m a traditional artist at heart, so everything starts with mechanical pencil and/or (sigma micron) pens on paper. I scan my lines into with an Epson scanner. I always bring my art into Photoshop to edit it, whether I’m coloring it or not.

When I was in college, I used Photoshop CS2, and I couldn’t afford to upgrade. When I got a Wacom Intuos, Photoshop Elements 9 (which is just as good as the full version of Photoshop if you’re just going to be using it for digital painting) came with it, and I’ve been using that for a few years. A few months ago, I subscribed to Photoshop CC, and I’ve been using it ever since. It’s a lot easier to make gifs with it. I love that I can edit video in it as well, but I haven’t done it much in that particular program.

When I’m making gifs, I use Wondershare Video Convert Pro, which allows me to convert basically any video/audio format into any other video/audio format that I want. Then I import that file into Photoshop as well begin editing.

Where do you get your inspiration?
I get my inspiration from various places. Many of my drawing are directly inspired by fic. Since I’m on tumblr quite often, I’ll get inspired by posts, meta, head canons, tags, fan mixes, gifsets…everything.

What are your primary fandoms?
They tend to vary with the television season. I say I can only handle a certain number of fandoms at a time, because it just takes so much mental (and physical, really) energy. I just watched Daredevil, and it was ah-mazing. I’m also currently into watching Arrow, The Flash, Scorpion, The 100, The Musketeers, Agents of SHIELD, and the MCU in general.

What project have you always wanted to do?
I’ve always wanted to write and draw my own story/comic. So, that’s still in the works. I have a few ideas. :)

What is your favorite work?
Of my own…? If I have to choose one, I will go pick “Perhaps” (ALNM Note: see image above). Along with being very (surprisingly) popular in the LBD fandom, it was also a turning point for me as an artist, a revelation of where I wanted my art to progress stylistically.

If you mean in general, as far as type, I love a good AU fic. People are doing such brilliant things with them. For example the I Dream of Felicity AU by andyouweremine on tumblr is a must read, if you’re into that sort of thing. :)

What is the one thing fandom doesn’t know about you?
I’m really into researching my geneaology. I binged-watched Finding Your Roots w/ Henry Louis Gates, Jr. a few months ago, and that only fueled the fire. It’s this huge puzzle I’ve been trying to piece together. Just when I thought I’d hit a dead end, I find another bread crumb about a some distant relative, tucked away in my late grandmother’s photo album.

The Artist: Wiz Khalifa ft. Charlie Puth

The Song: See You Again

The YouTube Link:

Where you heard it first: I first heard it on the radio during my morning commute (which is apparently where I discover all my music).  Charlie Puth was initially approached by his publishing company to come up with a melody to pay tribute to the late Paul Walker.  The song is featured at the end of Furious 7 as the audience says goodbye to Walker's character.

Why it’s been stuck in your head: We featured this song on the podcast because it's the song's poignancy that makes it stick with you.  It hits you right in the gut and doesn't let go.

Why you recommend it to our listeners: Because this song is beautiful and you all need to hear it.

It's time for the Final Four!  Congrats to all our Conference Champions!  You're so close to the ALNM Ultimate Ship title you can almost taste it! 

Here they are, the final two showdowns:
Romione (Harry Potter) vs Swan Queen (Once Upon A Time)
Faberry (Glee) vs Ichabbie (Sleepy Hollow)

The polls can be found below, so be sure to keep supporting your favorite.  While you're at it, why don't you download our episode dedicated to all things shipping?  All four of our finalists get a shoutout during the ep.

Polls close Monday Apr 27 2015 at 3:00PM PDT.

Let’s go back to: Full House.  It's one of the definitive San Francisco shows.  It features local reporter Danny Tanner (Bob Saget), his brother in law (John Stamos), and best friend (Dave Coulier) as they raise his three girls following the death of his wife.  The youngest daughter, Michelle, was played by soon to be iconic child actresses and future tycoons Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen.  The show would become the flagship program when ABC created TGIF.  It ran for eight years.  It also features one of television's most popular theme songs ("Everywhere You Look").

Why it means something to you or to our podcast: It was recently announced that Netflix would be creating a sequel series called Fuller House.  It will focus on two of the daughters, DJ (Candace Cameron-Bure) and Stephanie (Jodie Sweetin) along with DJ's quirky friend Kimmy Gibbler (Andrea Barber).  John Stamos is producing the show, but the involvement of the rest of the original cast is currently unknown.

Full House was definitely one of the defining shows of my generation, especially growing up in the Bay Area.  It was a wholesome family drama that still dealt with some of the more serious issues kids of the period were facing.  I am definitely very curious to see where the sequel will go.

Where can you find it now?: It's available on DVD and is also on reruns in Nick at Nite.

On our last episode we mentioned that we here at A Little Nerd Music are going on a brief hiatus from recording our podcast.  We will be back up and running next month, but in the meantime here are a few things you can do to keep your overwhelming disappointment at bay.

1. Catch up on everything ALNM
We may not be recording right now, but alnmpodcast.com is still up and running!  We’ll be concluding our ship bracket at the end of the month, and every week we will still have Music Monday, Throwback Thursday, and Fandom Friday.  There will also be some original articles making an appearance here and there.  And be sure to look out for our Age of Ultron review on May 1st!

2. Prepare for Avengers: Age of Ultron
Speaking of Age of Ultron, why don’t you prepare yourself for the impending release?  Make sure you’re all caught up on the latest episode of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and maybe rewatch Captain America: The Winter Soldier.  Of the movies in Phase II, it’s probably the one that had the biggest impact on MCU at large.  And there are always the hilarious cast interviews preceding the film’s American release.  But make sure you’re careful with your Google searches if you want to avoid spoilers.

3. Check out Daredevil on Netflix
It likely doesn’t have much of an impact on Age of Ultron, but the recently released Netflix original series is definitely worth checking out if you enjoy the superhero genre at all.  It’s darker than the MCU we’re used to and shows the long lasting negative impact those impressive fight sequences we’re all so fond of can have on the people left behind.  And this iteration of Matt Murdock will wipe that other Marvel movie out of your mind.

4. Clean up that DVR
I don’t know about you, but between work and day to day life I tend to fall behind on some of my favorite shows.  I’ve got a build up of Once Upon A Time and Gotham  that I need to start getting through.  What shows do you need to catch up on?

5. One show you should be catching up on: Lip Sync Battle
It just got renewed for a second season because it’s awesome.  You know that awesome running lip sync sketch Jimmy Fallon has on The Tonight Show?  Well, he made it into a series on Thursdays on Spike.  Trust me, you don’t know it, but you’ve been waiting your whole life to see The Rock lip sync to “Shake It Off” and Anne Hathaway to take on “Wrecking Ball.”

6. Read all the fic you’ve been meaning to get around to
During this hiatus, some of us are going to be laid up for a little while.  So how about doing something you’ve been putting off?  Like catching up on some fic on AO3 that you’ve never gotten around to?

7. Watch the NBA playoffs, cause there’s “Strength In Numbers”
Are sports more your thing?  Then how about taking some time to watch the NBA playoffs.  Watching Steph Curry and the Golden State Warriors is always a thrill.  Sorry New Orleans fans, but this podcast host is and always will be very biased when it comes to her Bay Area sports teams.

8. Get some rest!
You hear me Kelly?  Take a load off!  You’re the heart and soul of this podcast and I don’t know what I’d be doing if you hadn’t gotten this whole ALNM thing off the ground.  Love you!

-Christina

EDIT: It appears we are having some issues with polls magically becoming invisible?  If you see less than four polls below at any point let us know and we'll reinsert it.  None of your votes are being lost.

As we got warnings of suspicious voting behavior from our service provider on two separate polls, we are returning to our previous effective method of limited voting from the earlier rounds.  Judging by the participation so far, I'm sure we'll still get a great turnout from all the participating fandoms!  So go vote, have fun, and be good to one another!

Polls close Friday Apr 24 2015 at 3:00 PM PDT.