Category: Audio Drama

Commentary: A Challenge – Make an AUDIO DRAMA of The Crystal Crypt by Philip K. Dick

SFFaudio Commentary

The Crystal Crypt - illustration from Planet Stories

Thou knowest what this world needeth. Aye, ye know tis of course more AUDIO DRAMA of the SCIENCE FICTION kind!

I have, here in my possession, a PUBLIC DOMAIN tale that would make for a fine dramatization.

I speake of yon tale, The Crystal Crypt, as penned by one Philip Kindred Dick

Planet Stories January 1954 Header
The Crystal Crypt - description from Planet Stories

Here be’st the original words and art as from the first publication |PDF| in a long forgotten tome (Planet Stories, January 1954).

Who’ll take up this noble quest?

Perhaps you Sir Texaweg of the Fractured Ocean? Are your noble squires across the pond in foggy Kiwi and the ancient land of Eng up to this great challenge?

What of you Suqire Jack of Halifax? ‘Tis been far too long since you took up thy rusty microphone. We sadden at thy silence.

Lord Greenhalgh of the Solar Goat, hast thou returned from Southernmost Kush? Dost though need a Maine challenge?

Surely Lady Hoverjules of the Emerald Keyboard can rise to this? I trust nary a lawsuit will be had when though hast such armor so proofed against missiles as by our blessed Gutenberg hast.

Surely one of the aforementioned gentlepersons, or perhaps another, in a high mountain vale, or in a low county coast, is up to this task

Be thee yet unknighted in the form AD, or well heel’d in it but from some shadowy land whereselse round this scepter’d orb – I ask you prithee, answer my call, for I needth me some dramatic aural Dick.

Suitable honorifics shall, of course, be bestowed to all nobels who take up this quest.

Posted by Jesse Willis

Commentary: Where do you listen to audiobooks and podcasts?

SFFaudio Commentary

Where do you listen to audiobooks and podcasts?

I listen to a lot of novel length audiobooks while walking.

Pitt River Dyke, British Columbia

I listen to audiobooks when walking to work, from work, or walking a dog.

Short stories are for folding laundry, cooking or loading and unloading a dishwasher.

BBC Radio 4 - In Our Time with Melvyn BraggCBC Radio One - IdeasEntitled Opinions (about life and literature)

Depending on the length of the trip I either listen to audiobooks or podcasts while driving. Short podcasts are no good for long drives. So for longer drives I listen to BBC Radio 4’s In Our Time, CBC Radio One’s Ideas, or WKZU’s Entitled Opinions.

TVO Search Engine with Jesse Brown - Audio PodcastCBC Radio - SparkFreakonomics

There are a few podcasts I consistently like to hear only on weekday mornings, like TVO’s Search Engine, CBC’s Spark, and WNYC’s Freakonomics. They somehow just seem to set the right tone – and that tone just doesn’t work for me in the evenings.

The Memory Palace with Nate DiMeoToday In Canadian HistoryEli Glasner On Film

Some podcasts, like The Memory Palace, Today In Canadian History, and Eli Glasner On Film are so short I reserve them almost exclusively for walking to or from a car.

TriangulationGweekFresh Ink

At the gym, while pumping iron, I tend to listen to interview podcasts like TWiT’s Triangulation, or Boing Boing’s Gweek. On the stationary bike I watch G4’s Fresh Ink because that’s a video podcast.

BrokenSea Audio Presents: OTR Swag CastRadio Drama RevivalDecoder Ring TheatreI listen to audio drama almost exclusively in the evening. OTR Swag Cast, Radio Drama Revival, and Decoder Ring Theatre, are turned on in the minutes before I go to sleep.

Forgotten ClassicsUvula AudioNew Books In Public PolicyI listen to a couple of shows, Forgotten Classics and Science News Update, almost exclusively while getting dressed or clipping fingernails and toenails. I also listen to podcasts while in the bathroom – and that’s where my big pet peeve with podcasts comes most to a head – too many are just too quiet.

While brushing my teeth and when showering you need a decent volume to overcome the white noise of running water. I can’t listen to New Books In Public Policy in the bathroom, it’s volume is just way too low.

Where do you listen? And what do you listen to there?

Posted by Jesse Willis

CBC: Nazi Eyes On Canada

SFFaudio Online Audio

Relic RadioThere’s one segment of Nazi Eyes On Canada, episode 5 “Alameda” (Saskatchewan), available via Relic Radio’s Orson Welles: On The Air podcast.

|MP3|

This is one of the strangest and oldest alternate history radio programs I’ve ever heard |READ OUR REVIEW|.

Posted by Jesse Willis

CBC: The Mystery Project: Flynn – RADIO DRAMA

Aural Noir: News

Fynn was a thirteen episode radio drama series of The Mystery Project (CBC Radio’s long running series featuring original radio drama produced in Canada and the UK). Flynn aired weekly in the Fall of 1994. Its eponymous hero was a private detective who lived on a sailboat in Vancouver harbour. The show was recorded in Vancouver too.

Here’s the description from the Thrilling Detective website:

“A middle-aged drop-out from UBC Law School , he now lives on the “Blarney Boy”, a weather-beaten sloop moored at the marina on Granville Island in the trendier-than-thou False Creek area, and works, when he feels like it, for his ex-boss lawyer Sam Greene, an eccentric old coot. All in all, though, he’d rather be sailing. It’s a simple life, and Flynn’s more than happy with things just the way they are. And then Sam’s niece, W.P. (Willie) Greene, arrives from Toronto to complicate life for everyone.”

Written by Lyal and Barbara Brown
Produced and Directed by Don Kowalchuck

Regular cast:
Boyd Norman as Flynn
Colleen Winton as Willie
Robert Clothier as Sam

Here are the broadcast details:
Episode 01 – Overdue Account – October 8, 1994/10/08
Episode 02 – Red Tiger – October 15, 1994
Episode 03 – Whirlpool October 22, 1994
Episode 04 – Ghosts – October 29, 1994
Episode 05 – Imaginary Enemies – November 5, 1994
Episode 06 – The Stalker – November 12, 1994 <-NEVER COMMERCIALLY RELEASED Episode 07 - The Box – November 19, 1994
Episode 08 – The 12 Penny Black – November 26, 1994
Episode 09 – Framed – December 3, 1994
Episode 10 – Hollywood North – December 10, 1994
Episode 11 – The Fall – December 17,1994
Episode 12 – A Christmas Carol – December 24, 1994
Episode 13 – Year End Clearance – December 31, 1994

Durkin Hayes, which bankrupt itself in the early oughts, produced at six audio cassettes (each with two episodes) of the CBC radio drama series in the mid to late 1990s. Here’s all the remaining stock I have left:

Durkin Hayes audiobooks - The Flynn Series

In order from left to right here are the audiobooks and remaining stock levels:

Flynn: Whirlpool (also includes The 12 Penny Black) Quantity 1
ISBN: 0886467705

Flynn: Red Tiger (also includes Overdue Account) Quantity 3
ISBN: 0886468620

Flynn: A Christmas Carol (also includes Year End Clearance) Quantity 2
ISBN: 0886469805

Flynn: Ghosts (also includes Framed) Quantity 2
ISBN: 0886469783

Flynn: Imaginary Enemies (also includes The Box) Quantity 7
ISBN: 0886467608

The only one not pictured above is Flynn: Hollywood North (also includes The Fall) ISBN: 1552046087, I have one opened copy of it:

Flynn: Hollywood North (also includes The Fall)

If you’re a fan of the show, remember it fondly, or are intrigued enough to give it a try. I’ll sell you cassettes for $5.00 each (that’s just 1¢ above the original retail price). Send me an email with the subject line THE MYSTERY PROJECT.

And with all six cassette releases above that makes twelve of the thirteenth episodes released. The unreleased episode, The Stalker, shall remain a mystery to me and the world until it gets some sort of release.

Posted by Jesse Willis

New CBC RADIO DRAMA begins today – “Trust, Inc.”

SFFaudio Online Audio

CBC’s sole radio drama series, Afghanada, finished off late last year. But there’s a brand new series beginning today at 11:30am!

Trust Inc

Unlike Afghanada this new series will be podcast, making it CBC Radio’s second ever podcast radio drama series (the first being Backbencher).

Here’s the official description of Trust, Inc.:

“A new satirical drama that takes listeners within the walls of a public relations firm. The show follows the schemers and spinners who develop the messages and plot the ideal news narrative for their clients, and their counterparts in the news media who ultimately determine whether they succeed or fail in the quest for just the right headline and soundbite.”

The official Trust, Inc. site: cbc.ca/trustinc/

Here’s the promo |MP3|

Fletcher Pratt Meeting Room

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

iTunes 1-Click |SUBSCRIBE|

Episode 1 – “Serena Jordan is thrilled. Just three weeks ago, she snagged an awesome new job at the major public relations firm, Leger & Pratt. Hired to be their social media expert, she’s been assigned to the Special Projects Unit, a boy’s club made up of team members Ben Lederman, Ricardo Sandoval and Marshall Whitman. Eager to impress, she’s at the table as the team meets the new ‘brief,’ city councillor, James Yearwood.The assignment: raise his profile as he prepares to make the jump to federal politics. No sweat. Yearwood’s articulate, passionate, good-looking and social media savvy. The boys think it’s s slam dunk. And so does Serena. Until he starts sexting her, that is. Now, Serena is stuck. Should she keep quiet? Tell her team? Confront her client? And possibly risk it all.”

The series is supported with a few fake websites, with real links (like legerpratt.com for the fake firm being portrayed ), the usual social media websites like Twitter and Facebook and such. There is also a promise of YouTube videos.

The “flacklife blog” – a blog about public relations – has a substantial interview with the series creator, Gregory J. Sinclair, HERE.

Posted by Jesse Willis