Author: Jesse Willis

CBC: Spark #178 (the proto-internet show)

Jesse Willis

SFFaudio Online Audio

CBC Radio - SparkBack in April CBC’s Spark #178 did a show all about the proto-internet.

There’s talk about lots of cool pre-web, pre-internet precursors, but the most interesting among them, for me, was the segment on Pump Up The Volume, a 1990 comedy drama starring Christian Slater. I hadn’t seen the film, but became intrigued by it’s description as being very “internety.” Now, having tracked down a copy and having seen it, I agree, many elements of it will remind you of both blogs and podcasts.

|MP3|

Podcast feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/cbcradiosparkblog

iTunes 1-Click |SUBSCRIBE|

Posted by Jesse Willis

Recent Arrivals: Bill Maher: The New New Rules

Jesse Willis

SFFaudio Recent Arrivals

I was surprised we received it, but I’m glad they sent it.

Penguin Audio sent us this 5 CD, 5 Hour, UNABRIDGED audiobook version of Bill Maher: The New New Rules – as I opened up the box I was thinking that the jokes might not work as well without the live audience reaction – but now, sitting here listening to the first disc, I’m laughing at the jokes – it works.

Penguin Audio - Bill Maher: The New New Rules

The subtitle: “A Funny Look At How Everybody but Me Has Their Head Up Their Ass”

Posted by Jesse Willis

HBO: Real Time with Bill Maher (podcast)

Jesse Willis

SFFaudio Online Audio

Real Time with Bill Maher PodcastOne of the podcasts I listen to isn’t really a podcast, it’s a TV show. I used to listen to it religiously religulously, but then there were problems with it’s feed and it disappeared out of iTunes completely. Despite it’s spotty record the content itself is worth it. Few television shows produced in the USA seemed little more than “dispatches from the bubble” – too few would acknowledge the massive blindspot that us foreigners can see as glaringly obvious, few others than Real Time with Bill Maher.

So when the feed went kaput in iTunes I turned to torrents – using the websites EZTV.it and ThePirateBay.se to pick up the portable versions of the show itself and the webshow Overtime.

But if you’re not techy enough for that there’s still good news, Real Time with Bill Maher is again available through iTunes as a podcast (at least in Canada and the USA). But, I suspect it isn’t available in other countries so if that’s the case, try this workaround:

To get the show go into the “iTunes Store” section of iTunes and click on the flag at the bottom right of the page. Switch it to Canada or the USA. Then do a search, for “Maher” and it should be your first hit under podcasts. The main show, by the way, is audio only, like CBS’s 60 Minutes podcast.

Posted by Jesse Willis

A Beautiful Young Nymph Going To Bed by Jonathan Swift

Jesse Willis

SFFaudio News

A Beautiful Young Nymph Going To Bed is a satiric poem by Jonathan Swift. It was first published in 1731. One Wikipedia editor describes it like this: It features Corinna, “a young woman preparing for bed by deconstructing.” It’s awful, deeply sad, hilarious, and absolutely wonderful. Listen to Tom O’Bedlam’s narration:

Posted by Jesse Willis

Foster, You’re Dead by Philip K. Dick is PUBLIC DOMAIN

Jesse Willis

SFFaudio News

Foster, You’re Dead by Philip K. Dick is PUBLIC DOMAIN.

The story’s copyright was not properly renewed. This was not generally know prior because a copyright office renewal form |HERE| seemed to show that the story had been renewed.

The form shows Foster, You’re Dead as being published in the May 1955 issue of IF: Worlds Of Science Fiction. But an examination of the table of contents page from that issue shows that no such story was published in IF’s May 1955 issue. Observe for yourself:

If Worlds Of Science Fiction, May 1955 - table of contents

Instead, Foster, You’re Dead was originally published in Star Science Fiction Stories No. 3 an anthology of NEW SF that was published in 1955.

Star Science Fiction Stories No. 3

Here are the copyright page copyright page and table of contents from it:

Star Science Fiction Stories No. 3

To make the case even more clearly here is the editorial introduction, written by Frederik Pohl, explicitly detailing the fact that Foster, You’re Dead, and all the other stories in the anthology, had never before been published:

Star Science Fiction Stories No. 3 - editorial introduction by Frederik Pohl

Foster, You’re Dead by Philip K. Dick is PUBLIC DOMAIN.

Here is the |PDF|.

Posted by Jesse Willis

Piper In The Woods by Philip K. Dick

Jesse Willis

SFFaudio Online Audio

Piper In The Woods by Philip K. Dick (from Imagination, February 1953)

This is a Philip K. Dick story that I’m totally baffled by. I don’t get it.

Can someone please explain to me what I’m missing?

Why don’t I understand what Philip K. Dick was getting at?

There has to be a key, somewhere, that fits the lock that will decode the meaning that Piper In The Woods hides within itself. Right?

Right?

Help!

LIBRIVOX - Piper In The Woods by Philip K. DickPiper In The Woods
By Philip K. Dick; Read by Gregg Margarite
1 |MP3| – Approx. 49 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: June 27, 2010
Earth maintained an important garrison on Asteroid Y-3. Now suddenly it was imperiled with a biological impossibility—men becoming plants! First published in Imagination, February 1953.

Here is a |PDF| made from its publication in Imagination.

Posted by Jesse Willis