interview – Page 19

CBC Radio One’s Words At Large talks to Michael Chabon

SFFaudio Online Audio

The Words At Large podcast has an interview with Michael Chabon that aired last year on CBC Radio One’s Writers & Company. The interviewer, Eleanor Wachtel, talks to Chabon about his latest novel The Yiddish Policemen’s Union. Here’s the description:

Part science fiction, part hardboiled whodunit, the novel takes place a world where Israel doesn’t exist. Instead, Europe’s Jewish refugees who fled the Holocaust ended up in the “temporary” safe haven of the Federal District of Sitka, in Alaska. Now, six decades later, the district is slated to return to Alaskan control, and the vibrant Yiddish community is threatened. But homicide detective Meyer Landsman’s most immediate concern is figuring out who murdered a former chess prodigy virtually right under his nose.

Chabon is the acclaimed author of seven novels, including The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, which won the Pulitzer Prize, as well as two books of short fiction and a collection of essays. The Yiddish Policemen’s Union garnered a fistful of prizes, including the Nebula Award, the Hugo Award and the Sidewise Award for Alternate History. A film adaptation of the book, to be written and directed by the Oscar-winning Coen Brothers, is currently in pre-production and is scheduled for release in 2010.

Michael Chabon spoke to Eleanor Wachtel from a studio in Oakland, California. They discuss where his love of the fantastic comes from and why he takes such pleasure in mixing up literary genres.

Have a listen |MP3| direct, or subscribe to the Writers & Company podcast feed:

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

Posted by Jesse Willis

P.S. CBC Radio One still has Apocalypse Al under lock and key. For shame!

Adventures in SciFi Publishing Interviews Gary Philips, Doselle Young, Lilith Saintcrow, and Eldon Thompson

SFFaudio Online Audio

Adventures in Scifi Publishing interviews Gary Philips, Doselle Young, Lilith Saintcrow, and Eldon Thompson |MP3|.

Or subscribe to AiSFP podcast via the feed:

http://www.adventuresinscifipublishing.com/feed/

Posted by Charles Tan

Mary Robinette Kowal: Campbell Award Winning “Best New Author”

SFFaudio Online Audio

Tor.com’s blog has posted a short |MP3| interview with Mary Robinette Kowal the newest John W. Campbell Award winning “Best New Author”! She’s not just the “Best New Author” (and thus the holder of the “Campbell Tiara“), she’s also a puppeteer (not the Niven kind), an audiobook narrator, and an audiobook reviewer (for SFFaudio). Über-congrats to MRK!

Posted by Jesse Willis

Radio Drama Revival – F. Paul Wilson’s Slasher

SFFaudio Online Audio

Radio Drama Revival The Radio Drama Revival, and its host Fred Greenhalgh, have a podcast interview with they guys behind The Grist Mill, a series of horror audio dramas. Their latest production is an adaptation of an F. Paul Wilson short story called Slasher. Have a listen |MP3| to the interview, that has samples from the production within it. You can subscribe to the podcast feed via this link:

http://feeds.feedburner.com/RadioDramaRevival

Posted by Jesse Willis

CBC Words @ Large: how The Hobbit and The Lord Of The Rings got published

SFFaudio Online Audio

The CBC Radio One podcast Words At Large has a vintage 1987 interview with Rayner Unwin, who convinced his father to publish J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit and The Lord Of The Rings.

“When he sent it to George Allen & Unwin, the company’s publisher asked his 10-year-old son to vet the manuscript. Rayner Unwin recommended that the book be published, saying that it would appeal to ‘children ages five to nine.’ He was paid one shilling for his work.”

Listen direct |MP3|, or subscribe to the podcast feed:

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

Posted by Jesse Willis

P.S. Hope y’all haven’t forgotten that Apocalypse Al still must be freed!

WALL-E, a Bill C-61 copyright criminal.

SFFaudio Online Audio

WALL-E, copyright criminal.

I just saw Pixar/Disney’s WALL·E.

What a sweet and wonderful film!

The theatre was full of kids, many of whom were absolutely terrified when it looked like WALL-E might die.

Have a listen to the director, Andrew Stanton, talk to reporters about his movie |MP3|. Stanton makes no bones about this being an homage to many of his favorite flicks. And it’s true, there are so many SF references in it. At one point Stanton even says ‘I wanted this to be “R2D2 the movie.”‘ I think he really nailed that.

But the really sad part, the part none of those young kids in the theatre knew, the truly despicable part, is that poor Wall-E would be deemed a dirty copyright criminal under Canada’s new copyright law. Bill C-61 would criminalize much of Wally’s behavior in the film. Now that’s something to really cry about!

Here’s the evidence against WALL-E documented in the movie (**SPOILER WARNING**):

1. WALL-E records audio from his favorite movie, Hello Dolly, putting in onto his own digital recorder (bypassing the macrovision DRM on the tape). A COPYRIGHT CRIME UNDER C-61

2. WALL-E archives the audio, he doesn’t merely time-shift it. He listens repeatedly! A COPYRIGHT CRIME UNDER C-61

3. WALL-E shares his DRM-broken music with his friend, another robot named EVE. A COPYRIGHT CRIME UNDER C-61

4. WALL-E watches Hello Dolly on multiple evenings, on the screen of an iPod. Hello Dolly is not available through the iTunes store, therefore he broke the videocassette DRM when he platform shifted it. A COPYRIGHT CRIME UNDER C-61

If for no other reason than to save the poor tear-drop eyed robot from being destroyed we should stop Bill C-61!

Posted by Jesse Willis

UPDATE: Here’s a terrific interview with with MP Charlie Angus (the NDP parliamentary critic on digital issues) – it mentions this post and lots of other great points about the utter terribleness of C-61.|MP3|

UPDATE: This post, or at least the graphic made for it, will be used by Marcia Wilbur, in a talk called “A Decade Under the DMCA,” which will be presented at The Last Hope which is a long-running hacker conference in New York on Sunday July 20th!

UPDATE: Here’s the Power Point Presentation by Marcia Wilbur, as was used in her presentation at the Last Hope hacker conference in New York on Sunday July 20th 2008. It covers the fallout of 10 years of the USA’s Digital Millennium Copyright Act (which is the US equivilent of Bill C-61) |POWERPOINT PRESENTATION|