Here’s a 23 minute adaptation of The Lost Elevator, a 1931 one act play about an assortment of characters stuck between floors in a skyscraper’s express elevator.
Here’s the trailer:
And here’s the full show:
[Thanks Daniel!]
Posted by Jesse Willis
Tag: humor
Listen To Genius: The Story-Teller by Saki (H.H. Munro)
A horribly good story, narrated by a proper old school narrator, the great Alan Sklar.
“‘It’s the stupidest story I’ve ever heard,’ said the bigger of the small girls, with immense conviction.”
The Story-Teller
By Saki; Read by Alan Sklar
1 |MP3| – Approx. 14 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Redwood Audiobooks (Listen To Genius)
Published: 2008?
Source: ListenToGenius.com
And here’s a |PDF| made from the publication in Beasts And Super-Beasts (1914).
Posted by Jesse Willis
Review of Island of the Sequined Love Nun by Christopher Moore
Island of the Sequined Love Nun
By Christopher Moore; Read by Oliver Wyman
Publisher: HarperAudio (available on Audible)
[UNABRIDGED] – 11 hours, 39 minutes; 10 CD’s
Published: 2004
Themes: / exotic island / humor / commercial jet / cannibal / cargo cult /
Publisher summary:
Take a wonderfully crazed excursion into the demented heart of a tropical paradise – a world of cargo cults, cannibals, mad scientists, ninjas, and talking fruit bats. Our bumbling hero is Tucker Case, a hopeless geek trapped in a cool guy’s body, who makes a living as a pilot for the Mary Jean Cosmetics Corporation. But when he demolishes his boss’s pink plane during a drunken airborne liaison, Tuck must run for his life from Mary Jean’s goons. Now there’s only one employment opportunity left for him: piloting shady secret missions for an unscrupulous medical missionary and a sexy blond high priestess on the remotest of Micronesian hells. Here is a brazen, ingenious, irreverent, and wickedly funny novel from a modern master of the outrageous.
Christopher Moore is a popular writer and satirist in the vein of Terry Pratchett and Kurt Vonnegut with titles like Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal; You Suck: A Love Story; and many Moore (how could I resist?).
Island of the Sequined Love Nun was actually my first foray into his work, but what got me more than anything else, even more than Moore’s popularity and humor, was the title itself. It says it all. And after having read it, it’s an extremely fitting title.
Tucker Case skates by in life, nearly everything has been handed to him, not the least of which is his job flying a pink jet for the Mary Jean Cosmetics Corporation, which he almost immediately crashes…while drunkenly fooling around with a girl he “didn’t know was a prostitute.”
With an intro like that, how can you resist?
Tucker is essentially imprisoned as Mary Jean attempts to salvage the situation for her company. Having lost his license to fly, his options are limited and thus begins the meat of our story as Tuck is contacted by a less-than-reputable employer claiming to be doing “missionary service.”
One of the first things I noticed was that Moore is not afraid to be outrageous and he does so often. There are jokes about cannibals, religions, transsexuals, you name it. He pushes the boundaries and even does so a bit too far for this self-admitted prude. Then again, I didn’t not laugh either.
Tucker Case comedically bumbles around the place, just accepting life as it’s handed to him, but the problem is you either love him or hate him, and I found myself leaning toward the latter. He bugged me from the start and he does eventually develop redeeming qualities, but it was almost too late for me. That’s why I couldn’t say I absolutely loved this book, it was just decent.
A big part of how I measure how much I am liking an audiobook is how much I look forward to my morning drive or how much I skive off, to use a British term, whatever I’m doing to listen and while it wasn’t painful, it also wasn’t my favorite.
In the end, Island of the Sequined Love Nun was a good introduction to Christopher Moore. While I didn’t absolutely love it, I will definitely come back for more (I held back!). I’m looking forward to reading some of his more popular works in the near future.
3 out of 5 Stars (Recommended with Reservations)
Review by Bryce L.
Recent Arrivals: The Scarifyers: The Thirteen Hallows
Our preview copy of The Scarifyers: The Thirteen Hallows has just arrived. This is the eighth Scarifyers adventure. The first was released in 2006. I’ve caught previous releases on BBC Radio – and found it to be smirkingly good stuff – a period ghost hunter send up, full of jokes, and top shelf performers.
Indeed, The Scarifyers is rather like a sweet marmalade that you really don’t mind if it gets in your mustache as you’ll be able to enjoy it all day long.
It’ll be available for purchase on December 3, 2012 HERE.
Here’s the official description:
When a haunted chess set causes consternation at the British Chess Championships, and a horse magically materialises in Kettering Agricultural Museum, MI:13 are called to investigate.
Harry Crow (David Warner) and Professor Dunning (Terry Molloy) follow the trail of inexplicable happenings to an unremarkable terraced house in South Wales, home to the mysterious Mr Merriman (David Benson). He’s very old, and very mad; but is there more to Merriman than first appears?
Meanwhile, in the South West of England, famed archaeologist Ralegh Radford (Ewan Bailey) is on the verge of the greatest discovery of the age. Britain’s Tutankhamen, the press are calling it. But what he certainly isn’t expecting to unearth is boisterous 1400-year-old knight Glewlwyd Gafaelfawr (Gareth David-Lloyd).
As Crow and Dunning unravel an unlikely plot to resurrect Britain’s greatest-ever hero, the race is on to stop sinister forces at home and abroad from finding… THE THIRTEEN HALLOWS.
Posted by Jesse Willis
BBCR4X: A Canticle For Leibowitz: Fiat Homo by Walter M. Miller Jr.
A new five part abridged reading, with added sound effects, of the first part of A Canticle For Leibowitz, “Fiat Homo”, begins here:
A Canticle For Leibowitz
By Walter M. Miller, Jr.; Read by Nigel Lindsay
STREAMING AUDIO – [ABRIDGED]
Broadcaster: BBC Radio 4 Extra
Broadcast: November 26, 2012
Set in a Catholic monastery in the desert of the southwestern United States after a devastating nuclear war, the story spans thousands of years as civilization rebuilds itself. The monks of the fictional Albertian Order of Leibowitz take up the mission of preserving the surviving remnants of man’s scientific knowledge until the day the outside world is again ready for it.
First published in 1959.
[thanks Roy!]
Posted by Jesse Willis
The Ideal Girl by Robert E. Howard
One of Robert E. Howard’s first publications here is The Ideal Girl.
Here’s the text:
“In the first place, she should be at least six feet tall and weigh about two hundred pounds, so she could take in washing or coal heaving at wharfs, while I took a vacation. As beauty is apt to make a woman vain, she should have a face that resembled a female crocodile with hippopotamus ancestors. As to hair, eyes and so on, I have no especial preference, but if she squinted with one ye and goggled with the other, it would be all right. Also, she should have a strong Swedish accent.”
And here’s a reading by John Feaster |MP3|
First published in The Tattler (the newspaper of Brownwood High School), January 6, 1925.
Posted by Jesse Willis