CBC Radio Drama in Vancouver during WWII – photo

SFFaudio News

imagine-p72 - During a drama rehearsal in CBR's studio A, actor-writer Fletcher Markle (left), confers with CBC producer Andrew Allan. In the background are cast members Al Pearce, Claire Murray, Peggy Hazard and Kathy Graham.  The play in production is probably from the series "Baker's Dozen" written by Markle and broadcast in 1941 & 1942.

“During a drama rehearsal in CBR’s studio A, actor-writer Fletcher Markle (left), confers with CBC producer Andrew Allan. In the background are cast members Al Pearce, Claire Murray, Peggy Hazard and Kathy Graham. The play in production is probably from the series “Baker’s Dozen” written by Markle and broadcast in 1941 & 1942.”

[via the Vancouver Radio Museum]

Posted by Jesse Willis

The ONION: A.V. Club: Podmass – a weekly blog about podcasts

SFFaudio News

The ONION - A.V. CLUB - PodmassI don’t know about you, but I almost never go into the iTunes store anymore. The podcast section deeply buried, and the category I usually look at, “Arts: Literature”, is full podfaded shows. And when the podcasts listed are up-to-date they are often podcasts about TV shows, or if they are book based they are dominated by a long parade of sparkly vampire, boy wizard, or starving-teenager-in-dystopia book series based podcasts.

So like I said I’ve nearly given up on iTunes as a source of podcast discovery.

But, late last year I started following a blog that does weekly podcast reviews, The Onion’s AV Club Podmass.

The way the site works, it’s basically a weekly roundup of review of about a dozen podcasts with sassy descriptions of new episodes.

I think we need a lot more blogs like this.

Here’s how The Onion AV Club’s Podmass describes itself:

Since the iPod debuted in 2001, it has gone from portable music player to a medium in itself: Podcasts, like blogs, have indelibly shaped the media landscape in less than a decade. The A.V. Club listens to a lot of them, so this week we introduce Podmass, our weekly round-up of the podcasts we follow.

Here’s how it will work: Each week, we’ll recommend the best of those we listened to, as well as quick write-ups of everything else. Because of the deadlines required to post on Friday, our coverage week goes Thursday through Wednesday. Every few weeks we’ll visit a fringe podcast, get a recommendation from a podcaster we like, as well as listen to something completely new to us. (If you have podcast suggestions, e-mail us at [email protected].)

The only thing missing from the reviews are links to the MP3s themselves. I would HuffDuff a lot more of the shows I’ve spotted there if they were deep linking.

I haven’t posted about Podmass previously because their focus is almost entirely on comedic podcasts. Most weeks see a review of about ten standup comic personality podcasts. There’s also a a sprinkling of history, or non-fiction subjected shows thrown in as well – but they’re not ones I usually love.

The good news is that their |LATEST POST| includes a familiar program. Check it out:

OUTLIERS

19 Nocturne Boulevard
Julie Hoverson is a writer and producer who lets her dark side show in this anthology audio-drama series. Many episodes of 19 Nocturne Boulevard are horror stories, including some quality adaptations of H.P. Lovecraft, but the show can include comedy, sci-fi, romance or whatever genre Hoverson feels like producing that month. The writing and the sound effects shine brightest in these productions, but the voice acting is made up of a mix of professionals and brand-new talent, which can produce a mixed result. The episode “Little Boxes” is a creepy tale of some store clerks who agree to sell a new product that could save their business, with disastrous results. The story is elegant in its simplicity and a good example of how music and sound effects can set a gloomy and foreboding mood. This is the perfect show for anyone who needs a good scare to motivate their morning jog. [AJ]

And if you go digging you’ll see Julie Davis’ Forgotten Classics was reviewed back in September!

Posted by Jesse Willis

A World Of Talent by Philip K. Dick is PUBLIC DOMAIN

SFFaudio News

A World Of Talent, a novelet by Philip K. Dick, is PUBLIC DOMAIN.

A World Of Talent by Philip K. Dick - illustrated by Kossin
A World Of Talent by Philip K. Dick - illustrated by Kossin
A World Of Talent by Philip K. Dick - illustrated by Kossin

The public domain status was not generally known because there was a fraudulent attempt to renew the copyright the year after the story was legally eligible to be renewed. This gave the deceptive appearance that the story was not in the public domain.

Here is the evidence.

HERE is the copyright renewal form. Notice that it states that the story, A World Of Talent, was published in Galaxy Science Fiction, August 1955, volume 10, number 5.

It was not in that issue.

Have a look at the table of contents:
Galaxy, August 1955 - table of contents (note that it DOES NOT include A World Of Talent by Philip K. Dick)

A World Of Talent was actually published in the October 1954 issue of Galaxy Science Fiction. Here is that table of contents:

Galaxy Science Fiction, October 1954 - Table of contents (includes A World Of Talent by Philip K. Dick))

Because it was not properly renewed A World Of Talent is in the PUBLIC DOMAIN.

Here is a |PDF| made from scans of Galaxy Science Fiction, October 1954.

Posted by Jesse Willis

CBC: Ideas: The Swerve: How the World Became Modern by Stephen Greenblatt

SFFaudio Online Audio

CBC Radio One - IdeasThe Swerve: How the World Became Modern, and its author Stephen Greenblatt, are the subject of the latest CBC Ideas podcast. The Swerve is the story of the recovery of a lost epic Roman poem, by Titus Lucretius Carus, titled On The Nature Of Things – Greenblat makes the case for it being a work that changed the world, made it modern, by bringing ancient philosophy into an age ready for enlightenment. It’s an absolutely fascinating discussion. Host Paul Kennedy, as usual, shows that Canadian tax dollars can be used incredibly well when put in the right hands.

The poem in question is available as a LibriVox audiobook HERE.

And The Swerve: How the World Became Modern is available from Recorded Books (narrated by Edoardo Ballerini).

Here’s the book’s description:

Renowned historian Stephen Greenblatt’s works shoot to the top of the New York Times best-seller list. With The Swerve, Greenblatt transports listeners to the dawn of the Renaissance and chronicles the life of an intrepid book lover who rescued the Roman philosophical text On the Nature Of Things from certain oblivion.

Nearly six hundred years ago, a short, genial, cannily alert man in his late 30s took a very old manuscript off a library shelf, saw with excitement what he had discovered, and ordered that it be copied. That book was the last surviving manuscript of an ancient Roman philosophical epic by Lucretius – a beautiful poem containing the most dangerous ideas: that the universe functioned without the aid of gods, that religious fear was damaging to human life, and that matter was made up of very small particles in eternal motion, colliding and swerving in new directions.

The copying and translation of this ancient book – the greatest discovery of the greatest book-hunter of his age – fueled the Renaissance, inspiring artists such as Botticelli and thinkers such as Giordano Bruno; shaped the thought of Galileo and Freud, Darwin and Einstein; and had a revolutionary influence on writers such as Montaigne and Shakespeare, and even Thomas Jefferson.

Here’s the |MP3|

Podcast feed: http://www.cbc.ca/podcasting/includes/ideas.xml

Posted by Jesse Willis