“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 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
CBC Radio One doesn’t normally have advertizing. But since 2005 one of it’s most popular programs has had advertizing as its core subject. Variously called O’Reilly on Advertizing and The Age Of Persuasion it is now called Under The Influence.
The show is a half hour documentary series about the history of advertizing. The host, Terry O’Reilly, is a marketing man and has a business that specializes in radio advertizing. This, along with the often interesting sub-subjects it tackles, makes the show incredibly slick, and fun to listen to.
In fact I’d argue that it is perhaps most accessibly listenable program ever aired on CBC Radio or ever podcast on the internet.
Check out their recent episode titled Movie Marketing, which looks at, among other things, the effect that spoilers in movie trailers have on box office receipts. |MP3|
But you better hurry because if you don’t download it now, before you have to buy it on iTunes later!
Podcast feed:
http://www.cbc.ca/podcasting/includes/undertheinfluence.xml
iTunes 1-Click |SUBSCRIBE|
Posted by Jesse Willis
CBCer and SF fan Joe Mahoney put up this |MP3| on his blog, Assorted Nonsense. It’s a hilarious Science Fiction story recorded for the event called Grownups Read Things They Wrote As Kids, which was organized by Dan Misener of CBC’s Spark.
Joe wrote the story when he was 12, back in 1977. At that time it was meant to be a serious story. But as it was written when he was a kid it seems a whole lot funnier now.
He describes the whole experience HERE.
Posted by Jesse Willis
It seems that back in October that “MTV Comics announced a new comic by J. Michael Straczynski, The Adventures of Apocalypse Al, which will be published online and on tablets and mobile devices in Spring 2012.”
Apparently there are plans to then release it in paper form. And there are also plans for a “live-action webisode series on MTV Geek in the Fall of 2012.”
The Adventures of Apocalypse Al marks the Eisner, Hugo, Eagle and Inkpot award-winner’s first graphic novel to follow the New York Times best-selling Superman: Earth One. Originally developed as a radio serial for the CBC, Al was never released and has had fans wondering if it would ever see the light of day. “Joe and I have been discussing the property since sometime in 2007, and it’s amazing to finally bring this series to fans.” said MTV Comics’ Tom Akel. JMS has described it as “Monty Python meets the Maltese Falcon en route to the end of the world.”
This comes as a bit of a surprise given that The Adventures Of Apocalypse Al was originally conceived, written, and produced as a radio drama, consisting of twenty 5-minute episodes, for CBC.
I’ve been covering the glacial drama that is The Adventures Of Apocalypse Al since 2004. CBC Radio One has the show completed, in the can, and ready to run ago, but it never aired.
At this point I suspect the original incarnation of The Adventures Of Apocalypse Al will never be on the radio.
It is a great pity.
Posted by Jesse Willis
Bill C-30, which would put any Canadian’s internet or cell phone account into government hands without a warrant, is the current legislation put forth by Vic Toews (the Minister for Public Safety). He recently said, in defending it
“.. either stand with us or with the child pornographers”
[via Anonymous Rick Mercer and The Rick Mercer Report]
Posted by Jesse Willis