Five Free Favorites of Jesse Willis (SFF audio)

SFF Audio, the blog about podcasts and other audio that is available about SciFi and Fantasy, invited me to write a couple of guest posts on their blog. This weekend, there will be the first. It will be part of their guest blogger series in which the bloggers tell about their Five Favorite podcasts.

I will write about my favorite history podcasts, which, by the way, is a shifting phenomenon. I'll give a you a different list any other day, but that is not what I wanted to get into. What I wanted to point out is that SFF audio covers intensively a field that I have just touched recently: fictional podcasts.

The main writer on SFF audio, is Jesse Willis. He was kind enough to reveal some of his favorites (five as it happens) in a guest blog over here. Thank you, Jesse!



Hi! I'm Jesse Willis, guest blogging on Anne is a Man. Today I'm going to tell you about some of the cool stuff I listen to. Sure, like Anne I listen to a lot of non-fiction podcasts. And like Anne I'm a big fan of some of the best listens out there. I'm a Dan Carlin's Hard Core History convert. I've been listening to Professor Bob of History According To Bob for years. But I figure you've heard the praises of these terrific shows from Anne before. So let me tell you about some similar shows, shows that will strike you as cool, but which Anne hasn't yet covered:

1. Entitled Opinions is a podcast radio program hosted by Professor Robert Harrison. Harrison teaches in the department of French and Italian at Stanford University. He interviews guests, often other Stanford profs, about literature, history, politics, philosophy and even sports. His shows are deep, cultured and highly literate. Having been born in Turkey as the son of American diplomats, Harrison has an immense knowledge about that country, his interview with historian Aron Rodrigue is enlightening. Similar-wise, Harrision's talks with René Girard on the subject of mimetic desire are perhaps the most fascinating ever podcast. From Virgil to the Virgin Mary, from the historical Jesus to Athenian Democracy; Entitled Opinions, with its braggadocious title, earns it.

2. Two programmes by Shannon Clute and Richard Edwards have obsessed me since they first launched. (blog)

Behind The Black Mask: Mystery Writers Revealed sits down with Crime/Mystery/Noir authors and dissects their work. Clute and Edwards approach each author's work as if it was their doctoral thesis.There has never been an interview series like this. The inteviewees often come away with a new sense of their own work. And The listener comes away with a strong desire to read the books they talk about. I'm hoping that soon they'll be able to interview Donald E. Westlake and Lawrence Block (my two favorite living crime authors). Check out their talks with Christa Faust, Seth Harwood and Charles Ardai.

Out Of The Past: Investigating Film Noir, on the other hand is an examination of films influenced by the Film Noir movement. Most DVD commentaries suck, if Clute and Edwards did film commentaries I'd buy the DVDs just to hear their shot by shot examinations. These are two highly literate Crime/Noir/Mystery fans. Check out their talks about: Body Heat, Kiss Me Deadly and the immortal Pickup on South Street.

3. Professor Courtney Brown's course at Emory University (it's archived) is a Political Science course entitled Science Fiction and Politics (Political Science 190). Brown's lectures are from two semesters of teaching this course and feature incisive political insights found in more than a dozen Science Fiction novels. Science Fiction is the most important of all modern literature because it engages the present with philosophical ideas. Let Courtney Brown illustrate just a few of the political ideas found in SF and you'll stick around for the whole course.

4. Welcome To Mars (1947-1959), is an odd series broadcast on Resonance FM. Creator Ken Hollings collects non-fiction oddments about the fantastic futuristic world of the fifties. This was a live-broadcast twelve-part series - kind of a one man show, with the subtitle The fantasy of science in the early years of the American Century. Hollings: "Between 1947 and 1959, the future was written about, discussed and analyzed with such confidence that it became a tangible presence. This is a story of weird science, strange events and even stranger beliefs, set in an age when the possibilities for human development seemed almost limitless." The show is hypnotic. I'm not sure I learned as much as I unlearned, if that makes any sense.

5 Finally, here's one you'd probably never otherwise see on Anne Is A Man:

Three years into it and I'm still in love with The Red Panda Adventures! (feed) This is an old-style radio drama (along the lines of The Green Hornet) but with modern storytelling and action. Full of kung-fu and snappy dialog you'll love it most for the wonderful characters and their dialogue. If you don't like Red Panda there's something broken in your heart!

New World Orders - fictional podcast review

More and more people use the report a podcast feature on this blog. Thus, I also found New World Orders, a fictional podcast telling a tale of world wide conspiracy. It is an entertaining ride, but I kept wondering whether this is intended to be a thriller or not. The story is so full of cliches, it could be a satire, but then again, that is not so clear either. The funny thing is, it is exactly this ambiguity that kept me listening.

For one, I was caught enough by the thriller, to want to know what was going to happen next. I wanted to know how the conspiracy works and I wanted to see the lonely hero succeed in his quest against it. Although, he seems so puny in comparison to the invisible enemy and he couldn't brush his teeth without them knowing. And they do not refrain from bribes, threat and murder to get their way.

But secondly, there was the thrill of observing the story and figuring out what the writers and performers are thinking. Are they deliberately going over the top a bit, in order to satirize the genre? And what about this hitman of Austrian descent - he sounds exactly like Arnold Schwarzenegger. Are they thinking of specific movies and actors for their characters? And what of this impersonation of George Bush, the father - that surely is more comical than tensely thriller-like.

So, eventually, this is a great podcast where everybody can have his own preferences served. If you want straightforward entertainment - there is the thriller with the evil schemer and his hidden agendas, with the silenced witnesses, the bribed ones and the lonely few who catch a whiff of something suspicious in the air and who investigate and then find themselves facing the invincible Moloch. If you like conspiracies, there is the question: who would want to cover up global warming? If it is not the big industry that wants to go on polluting, then somebody with long term vision. But what could he gain with a planet going sick? And who is behind the JFK assassination and the blowing up of the Space Shuttle? If you like Hollywood thriller movies, you can play the game of who is who in the story. The coldblooded killer is Schwarzenegger, but who are the rest? If you are struck by the cliches, you can observe the satire, the subtle poking at the over-construed genre.

More narration and fiction podcasts:
Namaste Stories,
Forgotten Classics,
Celtic Myth Podshow,
Librivox,
Sonic Society.

Namaste Stories - fiction podcast review

Podcast fits for passing any audio, not just interviews, panel discussions or lectures. Thanks to my readers' listening tips, I ventured a little bit more into narration and fictional podcasts. It goes to show, among others, how useful the report a podcast feature on my blog is. And so, I got a listening tip from Julie from Forgotten Classics to check out the podcast Namaste Stories and over the mail I was contacted by the makers of New World Orders. Both will be reviewed on this blog, beginning with Namaste, here and now; New World Orders will follow later this week.

Fictional podcasts magnify the elements of literary use of language and of drama, which includes dramatic use of voice as well as acting - if you can separate that after all. It makes for more intense listening. It adds to the cerebral, intellectual and possibly spiritual aspects, that I know so well from the regulars on this blog. It adds the aesthetic, in sound, language, composition and performance. Consequently, the listening is more intense and demands more concentration. I am used to listen while engaging in driving, shopping, cleaning or other menial tasks. Combining fictional podcast listening with driving or shopping doesn't work out to well. The menial task needs to be more monotonous and routine - like cleaning for instance.

For Namaste I didn't even do that. I just sat down and closed my eyes. DaveP, the maker, provides a total immersion podcast. He makes the music, writes the (very literary) text and reads it, with a restrained passion that is mesmerizing. I have let myself float with the sound experience, tremendously enjoyed the integrated whole and yet, still I haven't figured out whether the stories are independent or part of a larger scheme. They seem to be related however with returning persona's such as Georgette, Dad and I - the narrator. For the joy of the podcast, that is not needed. What we see is podcast as a work of art.

More:
Forgotten Classics

Kraaykamp en Berk - Simek podcast recensie

De live uitzending van Simek 's Nachts met Johnny Kraaykamp jr. en Marjan Berk werd een vrolijke aangelegenheid. Vrolijk met een gevoelige touch. De meest sympathieke vorm van entertainment.

Simek vraagt Kraaykamp een mop te vertellen. En Kraaykamp begint met te zeggen dat hij eigenlijk niet zo'n moppentapper is, maar vertelt dan toch. Simek herkent de mop meteen en dan gaat het niet alleen over de mop, die echt een leuke mop is, maar ook over de betekenis, die ik hier niet weg wil geven. Dat is de perfecte wisselwerking tussen Simek en Kraaykamp en die brengt ons ook nog een gevoelvolle lofzang die Kaarykamp jr. op zijn oude vader zingt.

Marjan Berks inbreng is haast nog beter, nog scherper, oprechter en vaak ook onverwacht. Ze is grappig wanneer je het niet verwacht en serieus, wanneer je net in de lichte sfeer gesetteld bent. Dat maakt dat alles heel goed werkt wat ze vertelt. Over haar gescheiden ouders, over de minnaars (zonder jaloezie) van haar moeder en over haar carriere, van de toneelschool via Wim Kan naar haar succes met schrijven.

Meer Simek op dit blog:
Brigitte Kaandorp,
Heleen Mees, Maarten van Roozendaal,
Barbara van Beukering, Gert Dumbar,
Jaap van der Zwan,
Lucie Stepanova.

Syntax - TWN review

When the Word Nerds spoke of syntax in their last episode, they struck an apologetic tone. Sorry about using the word 'syntax', we mean word order, the way we build a sentence. They seem to be under the impression syntax is too technical a term for school kids and the wide public. Apparently it hasn't occurred to them, or they just do not know, for a whole segment in the public and among the school kids, syntax is a word they know from computer programming and scripting. You have to get your syntax right, otherwise the compiler won't accept the code.

A charming highlight in the program is when Dave reads from the classic A Visit from Saint Nicholas by Clement Clark Moore:
"As dry leaves that before the wild hurricane fly,
When they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky;
So up to the house-top the coursers they flew,
With the sleigh full of Toys, and St. Nicholas too."

How does the syntax allow for those last four words? Similarly the syntax of a line in Beowulf is discussed. Syntax used for a cliffhanger.

The Word Nerds are now sponsored by audible.com. This is a new trend I see among podcasts: sponsoring. More and more podcasts rake in sponsoring contracts that cover some of their expenses. This is yet another signal how podcasting is becoming more and more professional. TWN has always been very professional as far as the content is concerned, as are many others; this additional professionalism is all about dealing with the costs. As a listener, aside from the sponsor announcement, you are confronted with the sponsoring in the core of the show, because the sponsor and its offers including a prize to win are being discussed. Fill out the survey and you might get an iPod for free, nice, but I hope the Word Nerds will not let audible change their show any further.

Previous reviews of TWN on this blog:
Prosody,
Rhetoric,
Silence and Speechlessness,
Religious Words,
Nicknames.

Danton - OVT podcast recensie

Toen Danton naar de guillotine werd gestuurd door Robespierre, zou hij voorspeld hebben dat Robespierre binnen zes weken zelf onder het hakmes zou liggen. Het werden er zestien. OVT's serie over executies, buigt zich over Danton.

Er wordt een einde gemaakt aan een opvatting waar ik ook aan geloofde: dat de guilloutine zou zijn uitgevonden door de Franse arts Guilloutin. Niet waar, de Schotten, Engelsen en Nederlanders moeten al vallende hakbijlen voor executies gebruikt hebben, voordat de Fransen het rond 1793 op grote schaal gingen doen. Niettemin blijft de guilloutine het symbool van de manier waarop de Franse Revolutie uit de hand liep en zelfdestructie werd. Danton was een leider van de revolutie die niet zuiver genoeg in de leer was en terechtgesteld werd.

Het belangrijkste dat we over Danton te weten komen is niet zozeer zijn ideologie (ofwel pragmatisme) die hem tot Frans voorman in het laatste decennium van de achttiende eeuw maakte. Het gaat vooral om zijn joie-de-vivre. Gaste Annie Jourdan, Franse Historica die het Nederlands machtig is, benadrukt hoe dit vooral maakt dat de Fransen zich met hem kunnen identificeren. Dit is heel anders met Robespierre, die maar een steile volgeling van Rousseau was en bovendien een vegetarier - wat hem meteen op een vergelijking met Hitler komt te staan.

Meer martelaren in OVT:
Giordano Bruno,
Maria Stuart,
Jeanne d'Arc,
Paulus,
Socrates.