BBC7 features: Vonnegut, and Secret Weapons of WWII

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BBC 7's The 7th DimensionRemembrance Day PoppyAs November 11th is Remembrance Day here in Canada I thought it ok to include a war history (almost alternate history) radio drama from BBC7. The play is set in Alberta on Lake Patricia (near Lake Louise). In the middle of the lake under the clear water lies the metal frame of Habakkuk, a ship for which a secret is about to be revealed. Everyone should listen for the fascinating true story of professor Geoffrey Pyke in…

Habakkuk of Ice
By Steve Walker; Performed by a full cast
1 Broadcast – [RADIO DRAMA]*
Broadcaster: BBC7
Broadcast: Thursday November 15th @ 11am and 5am
“There is a cold clear lake in Northern Alberta called Patricia. Take one of the two rowboats that lie beside the lake. Row out into the middle of the lake. Lean over the side. Open your eyes in the clear water and before your eyeballs freeze you will see the twisted metal skeletal remains that supported the body of Habbakuk, a battleship made of ice.”
*Incidentally you can read the script for the play HERE.

Next up is a “fast moving science fiction drama” by the team behind Cold Blood

The Voice of God
By Simon Bovey; Performed by a full cast
5 Broadcasts – [RADIO DRAMA]
Broadcaster: BBC7 / The 7th Dimension
Broadcast: Monday to Friday at 6pm and midnight
When a series of earthquakes rock Australia, seismologist, Sam Rideout and her outback guide Joshua Patamerri track the epicentre to a top secret facility researching the use of infrasound as a weapon. Following the mysterious death of the team’s seismologist, Sam and Joshua are asked to help.

Less interesting to myself (I’m not a super fan) is a collection of Kurt Vonnegut fiction including…

Report On The Barnhouse Effect
By Kurt Vonnegut; Read by Stuart Milligan
1 Broadcast – 30 Minutes [ABRIDGED]
Broadcaster: BBC7 / The 7th Dimension
Broadcast: Sunday at 6:30pm and 12:30am
Professor Barnhouse discovers a way of channelling his mind to control the forces of nature. He sees his skill as a marvellous opportunity to secure world peace. However, the American government has other ideas.

Slaughterhouse 5
By Kurt Vonnegut; Read by Robert Jezek
4 Broadcasts – [ABRIDGED]
Broadcaster: BBC7 / The 7th Dimension
Broadcast: Monday to Thursday at 6:30pm and 12:30am
Billy Pilgrim, is a boy soldier, an innocent abroad armed only with a pencil stub. He’s so traumatised by the experience of witnessing the decimation of Dresden by Allied bombing in February 1945 that he becomes unstuck in time, even to the extent that he experiences alien abduction.

Thanasphere
By Kurt Vonnegut; Read by Kerry Shale
1 Broadcast – 30 Minutes [ABRIDGED]
Broadcaster: BBC7 / The 7th Dimension
Broadcast: Friday at 6:30pm and 12:30am
A military space mission is taken over by the voices of the dead, calling back to earth. How will the generals and scientist in charge cope with this sudden confrontation with mortality?

Posted by Jesse Willis

1970 Kurt Vonnegut speech on KPFA.org website

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KPFA cover to cover OPEN BOOKRadio station KPFA‘s “cover to cover OPEN BOOK” program has posted a 1/2 hour speech given by Kurt Vonnegut in 1970. Have a listen |MP3| to what one listener described this way: “After a rather fumbling introduction by the KPFA announcer, a somewhat rambling but interesting lecture by KV. He describes The Big Space Fuck among other matters…from 1970, with the scary words pre-empted by the sound of a plate smashing.”

Starship Sofa podcast talks about Science Fiction’s authors and author/editors

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Starship Sofa PodcastTony and Ciaran’s Starship Sofa podcast is chugging along, talking about Science Fiction in literate hour (or so) long chats. Below we’ve linked to the latest author and author/editor shows but you’ll also find email shows, shows on TV programmes and movies, a couple Christmas specials and even a theme show on religion in Science Fiction in their podcast feed. And if you surf over tho their website you’ll find the links to their older episodes too!

Recent shows author and author/editor shows:

Show #32: Classic Author: Jack Vance |MP3|
Show #33: Classic Author: Clark Ashton Smith |MP3|
Show #34: Classic Author: H.G. Wells |MP3|
Show #35: Classic Author: Charles Beaumont |MP3|
Show #37: Classic Author/Editor: John W. Campbell |MP3|
Show #38: Classic Author: Harry Harrison |MP3|
Show #39: Classic Author: Kurt Vonnegut Jr. |MP3|
Show #40: Classic Author/Editor: Frederick Pohl |MP3|
Show #41: Classic Author: Damon Knight |MP3|

To subscribe to the Starship Sofa podcast plug this feed into your podcatcher:

http://starshipsofa.libsyn.com/rss

2 MP3s: Kurt Vonnegut reads from Breakfast Of Champions and Philip K. Dick hates it!

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The 92nd Street YThe 92nd Street Y in New York City has a podcast! To honor the passing of Kurt Vonnegut they’ve released special podcast of Vonnegut’s first public reading from Breakfast Of Champions. This funny passage was recorded three years before it was published, on May 4, 1970 at the 92nd Street Y.

Download |MP3| 11 Minutes 42 Seconds

To subscribe to the 92nd Street Y podcast, plug this feed into your podcatcher:

http://feeds.feedburner.com/92YPodcasts

But that’s not the end of this post, oh no, we’ve got more timely Kurt Vonnegut talk…

Rare audio in which Philip K. Dick sends Vonnegut to the proctologist over his novel Breakfast Of Champions.

“Disgusting and an abomination, I think the book is an incredible drying up of the liquid sap of life in the veins of a person … like a dead tree. That’s what I think, I really do. I also love Vonnegut.”

Download |MP3| 5 Minutes 30 Seconds

The Time Traveler Show podcasts a FREE Kurt Vonnegut Tale: 2BR02B

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Podcast - The Time Traveler ShowThe Time Traveler will be materializing on April 21st 2007 at PenguiCon in Troy, MI where he will be recording an interview with SF author Tobias Buckell. Buckell will also be reading a story for the show! Can’t wait? Hop in the time machine! Or, pass the time by listening to the latest TTS, which contains an early Kurt Vonnegut story: 2BR02B.

To read the complete show notes for podcast #16 click HERE or download the show in the MP3 format directly by clicking HERE.

2BR02b by Kurt Vonnegut2BR02B
By Kurt Vonnegut; Read by William Coelius
1 MP3 – [UNABRIDGED]
Podcaster: The Time Traveler Show
Podcast: April 14th 2007
In the not so distant future an over-populated planet requires that every birth be balanced by a death. When Edward K. Whelig, Jr.’s wife births triplets he needs to find three people willing to enter a local suicide booth and give him the receipt…

To keep the shows automatically downloading, subscribe to The Time Traveler Show podcast feed:

http://www.timetravelershow.com/shows/feed.xml

BBC Radio 7 and The 7th Dimension

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BBC 7's The 7th DimensionMore BBC Radio 7 audio of interest starts this weekend…

Thanasphere
By Kurt Vonnegut; Read by Kerry Shale
Approx 30 Minutes
Broadcaster: BBC7 / The 7th Dimension
Broadcast: Monday April 10th at 6pm and 12am UK TIME.
An astronaut encounters dead souls in space.

Also ahead on BBC 7, starting Monday the four dramatizations of The Chronicles of Narnia broadcast at Christmas will be rebroadcast over Easter holidays. Actors include David Suchet and Paul Scofield.

The Magician’s Nephew
By C.S. Lewis; Performed by a FULL CAST
3 Part Dramatization – Approx 2 Hours [RADIO DRAMA]
Broadcaster: BBC7
Broadcast: Monday April 10th to Wednesday April 12th at 10am, 9pm and 2am UK TIME.
Young Digory and his friend Polly are persuaded to help a sinister magician with an experiment, that goes awry when they are sent to a mystical world inhabited by an evil Queen.

The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe
By C.S. Lewis; Performed by a FULL CAST
3 Part Dramatization – Approx 2 Hours [RADIO DRAMA]
Broadcaster: BBC7
Broadcast: Thursday 13th, Friday 14th and Monday the 17th at 10am, 9pm and 2am UK TIME.
Four children are transported to Narnia where they meet talking animals and an evil white witch.

Presumably the subsequent two adaptations in the series will start airing on Tuesday the 18th.

NOTE: Those outside the UK can use the BBC7 Listen Again service to catch it for 6 days following the broadcasts.

posted by Jesse Willis