audio drama – Page 13

CBC Radio One’s Q talks RIP a copyright manifesto and WATCHMEN

SFFaudio Online Audio

This morning I got a phone call.

My mom: “Jesse turn on the radio.”

Jesse: “I’ll get the podcast.”

And here it is Q: The Podcast for Tuesday, March 3rd, 2009.

Do newspapers need public funding?* ‘RIP: A Remix Manifesto‘, Canadian doc about mash-up culture* Jesse Wente on comic-inspired movies* Watchmen illustrator Dave Gibbons.

Download |MP3| or subscribe:

http://www.cbc.ca/podcasting/includes/qpodcast.xml

Here’s the trailer for RIP…

On Watchmen: Everybody’s talking to artist Dave Gibbons (Q included) because author Alan Moore isn’t involved with the WATCHMEN movie. Moore has sworn off a lot of big corporations in fact. In the case of one deposition he’d had to give with regards to his dealings with the big corps he said – he would have been better treated had he “molested and murdered a busload of retarded children after giving them heroin.”

Which leads me to point out that the latest WATCHMEN merchandise, a DVD that turns the DC Moore/Gibbons graphic novel into a quasi-audiobook/animated movie. The credits for it do not include Alan Moore.

Posted by Jesse Willis

P.S. CBC, please FREE Apocalypse Al!

The SFFaudio Podcast #027

Podcast

The SFFaudio Podcast #027 – Jesse and Scott are joined by Rick Jackson (The Time Traveler). Today we talk about new audiobooks, the ongoing CONAN situation, and libraries. Should libraries be renting Zunes to patrons?

Talked about on today’s show:
Ted Chiang, Eclipse 2, Blackstone Audio, The Green Hills Of Earth by Robert A. Heinlein, Apollo 8, Brotherhood Of The Wolf by David Farland, Bellewether by Connie Willis, Corsair by Clive Cussler, James Bond is fantasy?, Quantum Of Solace, Sahara, coming from Wonder Audio… The Fabulous Clipjoint by Frederic Brown, Tantor Media doing Robert E. Howard audiobooks, Conan Properties International versus Broken Sea Audio, New Zealand’s new copyright legislation, reductio ad absurdum, copyrights and trademarks, Clark Ashton Smith, downloading audiobooks through libraries, WMA format, Overdrive vs. NetLibrary, PC Gamer Podcast – ‘X-Box 360, Wii and Playstation 3 are giant DRM keys’, libraries rent DVDs?, ‘government shouldn’t be doing what business can do’.

Posted by Jesse Willis

CONAN attacks fans

SFFaudio News

Meego Conan An intellectual property company has been harassing fans that were making audio versions of public domain Robert E. Howard CONAN stories.

They’d keep going, but the new fucked-up New Zealand copyright law will shut down their whole operation if the company complains.

Broken Sea Audio Productions, headquartered in New Zealand, has shut down all their Robert E. Howard projects after receiving another threatening letter from the lawyers for Conan Properties International LLC (aka Paradox Entertainment).

CPI is the limited liability company that claims all licensing powers over works by Robert E. Howard worldwide.

The whole situation is absolutely rotten. CPI is muscling a non-profit audio drama fan group that makes audio dramas and audiobooks, for fun, out of public domain stories, all so it can defend its trademark on “CONAN: The Barbarian” (the stories for which are in the PUBLIC DOMAIN).

Things might look different were it not for the horrendous new legislation set to be implemented on ~~February 28th, 2009~~ March 27th, 2009 in New Zealand. The new NZ law makes websites that are accused of infringement subject to arbitrary-ISP pulldowns.

Here is the most recent letter from CPI/Paradox Entertainment |PDF| in its entirety.

What make this all the worse is that its an echo of a fight BSAP, in NZ, had thought it had already won. See, back in August 2008 BSAP received a similar cease and desist letter from the same firm. In that letter CPI threatened a lawsuit over the use of “CONAN” (for which they claim a trademark)…

In response to it BSAP removed their unique, but still offending, “CONAN” logo and the CPI lawyers sent a follow-up letter. Saying…

CPI Lawyer Letter #2

After that, with the Conan audiobooks and audio dramas no longer displaying any “CONAN” label, all seemed well for the non-profit audio drama group. Paul Mannering, and staff, continued to cast Conan fans as voice actors and work on the script for a new audio dramatization based on another Robert E. Howard public domain work, Hour Of The Dragon.

Later, in November 2008, something rather cool happened. Paul Mannering got an email from the CPI/Paradox’s branding department offering BSAP a free “CONAN” license. It was to be a “royalty free” license too, that would forever keep a threat of lawsuit from CPI/Paradox at bay and allow BSAP to brand its Conan audio as “CONAN” audio.

But then, just yesterday, an unexpected email from the CPI lawyers arrived…

…dashing the possibility of a license AND renewing the threat of a lawsuit…

…

It seems to me that given that the Robert E. Howard stories are PUBLIC DOMAIN, that Howard is 73 years dead, had no spouse, nor children, that Broken Sea is giving away their productions to Robert E. Howard’s Conan fans – only one judgment is reasonable:

CPI LLC/Paradox Entertainment is being an asshole.

And that’s the situation as it now stands. All future BSAP audiobooks and audio dramatizations based on the PUBLIC DOMAIN writings of Robert E. Howard are canceled – or at least it’s all put on hold until someone can offer some legal advice to Paul Mannering and the Broken Sea creative team.

Posted by Jesse Willis

Mary Robinette Kowal – Novel = sold!!!!

SFFaudio News

MARY ROBINETTE KOWAL (1969 – ) A past contributor to SFFaudio, is an American John W. Campbell Award winning author who is currently serving as SFWA secretary. Kowal is also a puppeteer (non-Pierson’s) and has just sold her first novel to Tor books…

Dear Everyone I Know,

I have sold my novel!

Tor books, the largest SF publisher in the world, has bought “Shades of Milk and Honey,” which is my fantasy novel set in Jane Austen’s England. I’m delighted not only by the sale, but because my editor will be Liz Gorinsky who is not only personally charming, but also the editor for some of my favorite authors, like Cherie Priest. Needless to say, I am thrilled and have to tell EVERYONE I know.

I found out on January 30 but have been sitting on the news until we finalized some details. So you can look for my first novel to come out in 2010. So excited!

http://www.maryrobinettekowal.com/journal/novel-sold-best-birthday-present-ever/

Yours,
Mary

I asked Mary what the word was on the audiobook version. Here’s what she said:

“the initial idea for this came from a radio serial that I was writing.”

There is also a good possibility of an audiobook.

Cool and congrats!

Posted by Jesse Willis

Submissions guide for the Mark Time / Ogle Awards 2008

SFFaudio News

Jerry Stearns writes in to remind us that the Mark Time Awards submission deadline is fast approaching.

“The deadline for entering the Mark Time Awards and Ogle Awards competition is approaching: March 1, 2009 is the date for a postmark.

The Mark Time Awards are given each year for the best Science Fiction audio theater production of the year, and the Ogle Awards are for the best Fantasy and Horror audio theater production of the year. This will be the 12th Annual awards, announced at Convergence 2009, July 2 in Bloomington, MN.

Named for the character created by the Firesign Theatre, the awards are a celebration of the most popular genres in audio theater these days. The Ogle awards are named after Charles Ogle, who played the creation of Baron von Frankenstein in Thomas Edison’s 1910 silent film of that name. The winners will receive a plaque, a t-shirt, a letter from David Ossman (Mark Time himself) and the right to shamelessly promote their work holding the award out in front.

Convergence, an annual convention sponsored by MISFITS, the Minnesota Society for Interest in Science Fiction and Fantasy, is pleased to host the awards ceremony, and MISFITS is honored to be a supporter. Winners are invited to attend the convention to accept the award in person as part of the Opening Ceremonies. The convention also hosts a venue for playback of winners for convention attendees.

Five judges will listen, rank the entries, and come to a concensus of the winners by Mid-May. Recent judges have included Philip Proctor (of the Firesign Theatre), Tom Lopez (of ZBS) and Dani Cutler (of SFFaudio and the Society of Audio Addicts). Judging is based on the quality of the writing, performance, sound production, and originality of the whole package. Remember, this is SF & F we’re dealing with, so originality counts. Recreations and adaptations are considered, and judged both on the above criteria and considering the original source material. Audiobooks are NOT what we are looking for, but full cast audio theater.

To enter, go to the Mark Time website, http://www.greatnorthernaudio.com/MarkTime/MarkTime.html, and print out the online form. Send the form, a $25 entry fee, and FIVE copies of your entry (usually an audio or MP3 CD these days) to the address listed there. Postmark must be on or before March 1, 2009. Past winners, and the Mark Time SF Audio Hall of Fame are there as well.

Don’t miss the deadline. Enter now.”

Posted by Jesse Willis

Review of Diane … The Twin Peaks Tapes Of Agent Cooper

SFFaudio Review

Diane … The Twin Peaks Tapes Of Agent Cooper
By Mark Frost and David Lynch (uncredited); Performed by Kyle MacLachlan
1 Cassette – 43 Minutes [AUDIO DRAMA]
Publisher: Simon & Shuster Audio
Published: 1990
ISBN: 067173573X
Themes: / Mystery / Fantasy / Horror / Murder / Crime /

Re-experience the mystery of Twin Peaks in an all new way. The Cooper Tapes. The private world of Special Agent Dale Cooper, previously reserved for one woman…Diane, including notes and stories never revealed on television. From the man in the black suit, Twin Peaks, in his own words.

Diane … The Twin Peaks Tapes Of Agent Cooper is a collection of 39 audio excerpts from the TV series of Agent Cooper recording notes into his voice activated micro mac recorder. All the selections are addressed to “Diane” (presumably his assistant). This is not an audiobook, instead it is more of a quasi-audio drama. If you’ve seen the television series, you’ve heard most of this already.

I distinctly remember purchasing this television tie-in production in the fall of 1990. Twin Peaks-mania was at its peak. I had caught the show’s dynamite first season during the summer re-runs. Series star Kyle MacLachlan had just hosted Saturday Night Live and the first Gulf War was gearing up – (which due to the endless war news update preemptions helped to ultimately doom the show). I suspect it will be very difficult for those who haven’t seen the Twin Peaks television series to follow the story in Diane … The Twin Peaks Tapes Of Agent Cooper – but even if they can, they’ll still be left unsatisfied. There is no ultimate resolution in this single cassette, even if there was to be some in the final episode of the second season. The tape’s story follows FBI special agent Dale Cooper from about 24 hours before the events of the pilot episode to the first episode of the second season. Included are many recordings done on screen and a few recorded specifically for this quasi-audio drama.

In performing the production Kyle MacLachlan is his charismatic self. Anything this guy touches from the Paul Atredies role in the film version of Dune, to the lead in the undersung The Trigger Effect, to his role on Desperate Housewives, I’m up for it. Production wise the new material is fairly well matched to the original soundtrack clips: Ambient noise, wind, road noise, crickets and varied distance from the microphone. Only rarely is another voice heard (notables include Michael Ontkean and Kimmy Robertson). The cassette opens and closes with Angelo Badalamenti’s haunting musical score for the series. This piece of ephemera is littler more than a curiosity, but I quite like it.

Posted by Jesse Willis