Currently Listening to the hilariousness that is CHICKEMAN and recalling my love for the age of Radio

I was born after the age of Radio Drama had long since passed away.  But I grew up with a natural love for the medium of radio, even though I was born in the age of television. My Dad before going to work, would listen to the radio, talk radio. Talk radio back then, wasn’t like talk radio today. It wasn’t code for people spouting hate and intolerance.

It was mostly talented radio jockeys, trying to entertain their viewers, who were hardworking early risers, who were making their way into the work day. Like my Dad, who got up before the sun, in those pre-covid, pre-Resident Trump, pre-the fall of reason — days. The program that stuck with me, that was a skit, that would come on between the talk part, of talk radio, was a show called CHICKEN MAN. An irreverent comedy skit, in bite size segments, I absolutely was enthralled with this skit as a kid.

And it was one of the things that sparked my love for old time radio dramas (such as THE SHADOW, SUSPENSE, INNER SANCTUM)  and audio books, and podcasts. But it starts with this wacky irreverent show called… CHICKENMAN.

Listen to the first episode here:

And listen to all episodes here:

CHICKENMAN

 

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Currently Listening and Addicted to : YOURS TRULY JOHNNY DOLLAR

I have these episodes of Johnny Dollar on CD, that I purchased off of Ebay many moons ago, and I’ve lately taken to listening to them in the morning when driving to work. They are such an enjoyable alternative to what usually is available on radio these days. And most of the CDs I never listened to (they would always take a backseat to other great, but more garish shows… such as THE SHADOW, SUSPENSE or ESCAPE). Reevaluating it now, in my more seasoned years, the show has a compelling modernity and universalness that transcends its 6+ Decades of age.

And I have to say, this show in particular, because of its still innovative format of using an Insurance Investigator’s expense account as the hook into these narratives, is surprisingly addictive. All adults to some extent are part and parcell of the Insurance world, either as an occupation or a customer, so the films slant is familiar and well worn.

A few talented actors played Johnny Dollar, but the episodes with Bob Bailey… read as the show at its best. Starting in 1955 around episode #185, those are the shows to start with.

And because the shows are public domain you can burn to CD or copy to your media player and listen to as you travel or work.

Listen to some here:

https://archive.org/details/OTRR_YoursTrulyJohnnyDollar_Singles

Highly Recommended!

FALL OF THE CITY / American Election Results! Hillary wins at the Polls but loses due to the bs Electorial College?! That’s Nonsense!

You expect me to rant, I’m not goint to rant.

Except to say I did my part, I voted for the candidate who actually had some experience both on the national and international stage, ie the candidate who wasn’t Trump.

First it is sad that in a nation of 322 million people, these are the two individuals that rise to the largest seat in the nation and the world. Sadder still that anyone would vote for Trump, much less in any numbers (That being relative since only about 125 million people voted in total. Not great numbers in a nation of over 300 Million). And yet more direness, that again the popular vote which is obstensibly what we are fed is this Nation’s great Democracy in action, loses to the backdoor shenanigans of the Electoral College (Clinton beat Trump by over 200,000 votes). A stop gap measure created for just such a reason, to muddy the waters, and make the will of the many, subbordinate to the desires of the few.

I guess I am going to rant.

This is a talk show president of an apathetic and ignorant population that chooses based on sound bytes and media bias rather than on the record/resume of the individual. Whatever else you say for or against Hillary Clinton, she is an experienced and tested politician on the national and international level.

Even the 2nd Bush, at least was a Governor first. Trump has never even been a mayor, he lacks any diplomacy. He’s a walking talkshow host. Who now… due to a, from my vantage, very suspect election day voting process, and the fuzzy math of the Electoral College has been granted the most powerful seat in the world.

And he is going to use it to make himself and his friends richer, by making the poor, poorer. That is absolutely his agenda. If you make under $300000 and voted for Trump, you are worse than an ignorant, fool… you are a slave.

You are a nation of masterless men… seeking a master. In Archibald MacLeish’s great FALL OF THE CITY, he forewarned against days like this , a whole population  ‘seeking to be free of the burden of their freedoms’.

The people invent their oppressors: they wish to believe in them.
They wish to be free of their freedom: released from their liberty —
The long labor of liberty ended! — Archibald MacLeish, “The Fall of the City”

If I was a foreign nation looking at this election, I would see… opportunity. An America that eschews moving forward for the familiarity of moving back. That seeks division over unity, and hate over hope. An America that is ready to fall.

http://www.wnyc.org/story/86853-the-fall-of-the-city/

 

I can not control the ignorance of the led, or the machinations of their leaders, all I can do is prepare, enlighten, and support those better voices of our nature and our America. All I can do is define America not as those resources and liberties the venal waste, but those individuals who against the odds seek, preserve, and uplift what is best and noble.

But I think in this Trump coup, is the impetus for the formerly apathetic to get involved, to turn around this ship of corruption that is America, beginning with eradicating this Electoral college idiocy.

The end?

No, this is the beginning.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

7 Best Podcasts of Jan 2016!

7 Best Podcasts of Jan 2016!

KNIFEPOINT HORROR ‘These tales of supernatural suspense by Soren Narnia adhere to the most primal element of storytelling: a single human voice describing events exactly as it experienced them. The stories, stripped of even proper titles, spill forward as taut, uninterrupted confessions. Knifepoint Horror leaves nothing but the story’s riveting spine to compel and chill you to the core. Music by Kevin MacLeod.’

BOOK RIOT‘Book Riot – The Podcast is a weekly news and talk show about what’s new, cool, and worth talking about in the world of books and reading, brought to you by the editors of Book Riot.’

WTF

11’OCLOCK COMICS ‘VinceB, David Price, and Jason Wood talk comics and stuff.’

B-MOVIE CAST ‘The B-Movie Cast is a website podcast and forum devoted all things B-movie and cult move related.’

THE BLACK TAPES PODCAST ‘The Black Tapes is a weekly podcast from Pacific Northwest Stories and Minnow Beats Whale, and is hosted by Alex Reagan. The Black Tapes is a serialized docudrama about one journalist’s search for truth, her enigmatic subject’s mysterious past, and the literal and figurative ghosts that haunt them both.’

COMIC GEEK SPEAK ‘Comic Geek Speak (CGS) was started in March, 2005 when Bryan and Peter decided to try their hand at the then-new world of podcasting. They quickly invited their friends to join them and then the show was complete.

CGS is far more than just a few friends in a room with microphones. CGS is now a worldwide community of comic fans that helps to foster and grow the love of comics that is vital to the industry’s success.’

2013: Day 10 – To Find What is Lost: Shadow Radio episodes from 1943 to 1945!

Seeking missing Shadow radio episodes from 1943-1945. It appears only 1 Shadow episode exists for 1943, THE TOUCH OF DEATH.

No episode exits from 1944.

And only two REAL episodes exists for 1945. GHOST WITHOUT A FACE and DESTROYER (the episode’s of OUT OF THIS WORLD and BRIEF FAME OF JOHN COPPER that are floating around out there are recreations [Australian or British] done much later and sporting a campy sounding narrator and a pathetic sounding Shadow.

So that means for the years 1943, 1944, and 1945, from episodes #204(3 Jan 1943/ The Glowing Death) to episode #292 (30 Dec 1945/ Back from the Grave) , over 80 shows are completely lost. 85 shows to be exact, 85 performances, and pieces of history, and fun entertainment…lost.

As a collector and a lover of this crazy genre called Old Time Radio, especially THE SHADOW, that strikes me as a monumental loss.

However, thankfully episodes of once lost movies, manuscripts and even radio shows have a way of turning up when people really start looking for them. So I’m hoping the same can be said for the 1943 to 1945 episodes of THE SHADOW.

So I’m putting the call out there, this is a bounty on the head of all Shadow episodes from 1943 to 1945. And your reward while not money will be something perhaps more lasting… being part of adding to a medium and a nation’s cultural history.

Oooohhhh…. Deep. :). But seriously, let’s spread the word and do our part in making heard the silent, and found the lost. [If you uncover a SHADOW episode from 1943-1945 drop me a comment (comments come right to me and are not posted) and I’ll work with you to get the episode to the right OTTR/Old Time Radio Preservation Group.]

Thanks!!

Album of the Day: TASSILI by the band TINARIWEN.

In an age of bits and bytes I still like having the CD (still bits & bytes, but more of them :)). The physical item, the liner notes, the process, Plus MP3 is not the music, it is an approximation of the music. A compression of the music. A whole generation raised on the lie of music, rather than its truth.

Something the NO APOLOGIES podcast said about kids raised on their mp3 downloads and American Idol, realizing when they go to a real concert, that till then… they had never actually heard music before.

Today’s recommended CD is TASSILI by the band TINARIWEN.

Tassili:Price the CD Here

“Just as it took a bitter, misguided war to kick-start the Summer of Love, Tinariwen was born out of refugee camps in North Africa in the early 1980s during a prolonged period of unrest.

This band of genuine nomads turned rebel fighters might never have made it out of the desert and onto the world stage if French band Lo’Jo hadn’t caught Tinariwen performing at a festival in Mali in 1998 (eight years after it had returned to its homeland from exile) and invited the musicians on tour. Since then, championed by the likes of Robert Plant and Carlos Santana, the band has received numerous awards and accolades, and stands at the forefront of desert blues.

Not bad for a band that didn’t acquire its first acoustic guitar until 1979, and for years after would perform for free for anyone who had a blank cassette and was willing to record the performance to share with others — basically YouTube without the Internet.

Tinariwen — which means “empty spaces” or “deserts” in its Tuareg tongue — has grown into an ever-evolving collective with a handful of core members, which helps its sound stay fresh. On its fifth studio release, “Tassili,” the band expands its horizons further with guest artists Tunde Adebimpe and Kyp Malone (TV on the Radio), Nels Cline (Wilco) and the Dirty Dozen Brass Band. All are musicians at the top of their creative game.”
—-By K. D. Kelly Amazon Reviewer

FOLLOWING THE FOLLOWERS Episode #2

Well the first episode of FOLLOWING THE FOLLOWERS was well received, so I thought it was worthwhile to kick out episode #… TWO!!!!

This new segment basically will select four or five followers of this blog (thanks to all of you who are now following this blog) and/or blogs I follow and just promote particularly interesting things I find on their pages:

Okay onto the promoting :):

Derrick Ferguson who is a fantastic pulp writer, a podcasting guru (I gave praise to his podcast BETTER IN THE DARK last time, you can subscribe to it here), as well as a great supporter of this blog, runs his own fun blog that covers flicks old and new. And even when I don’t share his enjoyment for certain movies (Ang Lee’s HULK,CLASH OF THE TITANS remake :)) his reviews are informed and fun reads. Great reviews on current flicks such as JOHN CARTER and classic flicks such as BUCK AND THE PREACHER. Take a gander here.

Jill of All Trades who writes the blog EXPERT OF NONE, has a really great blog post, that I think is applicable to a growing number of people in this economy. Namely, adults returning to school to advance their career or change their career path.

In my Dad’s day you got hired onto a job, and you stayed in it, till you retired with a pension and the thanks of a grateful company, or you dropped dead… whichever came first. But times have changed, corporate America has for the most part done away with the concept of pensions and indeed long term employees.

It’s a far more mercenary market today, where employers feel adversarial to employees and often to their customer base. So in this market, an employee has to expect to spend more time in job transition scenarios.

So Jill of All Trades really sums it up in one incredibly informative post. Her post was just what I needed to come across. Excellent job Jill of All Trades! And to those of you out there, like me, thinking of getting in some more education, whether for credit or just for life experience… swing by and check out her post here.

MesAyah- – Norwegian rapper does a writing a day, and also lists some of his favorite music. Swing by the blog and take a look here. Good stuff.

Brad runs the popular blog JIVIN ME TURKEY and on his site he picks out a movie and a quote from it, to highlight. Always fun stuff, the Mark Twain quote being a personal favorite. Swing by here and give a gander.

Jackie runs the site GET READING NOW. She has a fun review of several books. take a look here.

And last but certainly not least for this installment, Lesley and her husband run the hugely popular travel and adventure website BUCKET LIST PUBLICATIONS. One look at her site will either make you want to run out and jump out of perfectly good planes or seek medical attention. I’m leaning toward the latter. 🙂 But in all seriousness it’s a great site for the travel and adventure minded!!

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Thanks for looking and come back next time for more… FOLLOWING THE FOLLOWERS! 🙂 . Oh and here’s the link to episode #1.

FOLLOWING THE FOLLOWERS Episode #1

Holy Hanna my frigging back is killing me!

Is there a chiropractor in the house? A buxom masseuse? 🙂

This is what comes of my Shaolin Temple training methods. Damn David Caradine and his Kung Fu TV show!! 🙂 .

Well enough about that, onto some crazy (crazier?) blogging. I came up with this new segment that basically will select four or five followers of this blog (thanks to all of you who are now following this blog) and/or blogs I follow and just promote particularly interesting things I find on their pages:

Okay onto the promoting :):

THE SHADOW: The History and Mystery of the Radio Program, 1930 – 1954

Martin Grams Jr, the writer of the indispensable THE SHADOW:THE HISTORY AND MYSTERY OF THE RADIO PROGRAM:1930-1954 has an intriguing post on Studios cutting corners when it comes to presenting box sets of classic television programs, specifically why some episodes may be missing or music changed, from the show you remember, once it reaches DVD.

He Writes: “When Season Two of HAWAII FIVE-O came out, fans were shocked to learn that the episode, “Bored, She Hung Herself,” was not included. Taking a second look at the cover art, the box states “The Second Season” —- not “The Complete Second Season.” In this particular episode, a person was found hung to death and it appeared they performed a stunt of Yoga so complicated, they they strangled themselves to death. In real life, a man who did Yoga wondered if that position would indeed strangle the breath out of himself. He tried it, he died, and the family sued. During the settlement, producer Leonard Freeman agreed not to re-air the episode in re-runs. And it seems CBS preferred not to include it that episode in the Second Season box set.”

Well that’s pretty wild. I had never heard that story before. And while I definitely feel for the family, I seriously don’t see how you can hold the studio responsible, for what strikes me as, again with all possible respect, an act of incomprehensible stupidity.

It’s like me watching Looney Tunes, and deciding to drop a safe on my head to see if it will make me flat. :). I think my family would have sense enough to know I had gone insane, and the fault lies with me and not a TV show :), It’s ludicrous.

Anyhow, I’m not even a HAWAII FIVE-O fan, and now I have to see that stupid episode. Read the full very intriguing article here .

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Conductors of the Pit: Artaud, Holan, Cesaire, Vallejo, Csoori, Breton, Neruda, Radnoti, Rimbaud, Hierro, Bador, Juhasz, Szocs

Stella is one of my newer followers, and I do eventually make time to check out web links if you include them when you sign up. I followed Stella’s link and saw a poem she wrote called ‘You Might Kill Me” . The poem, her structure is very reminiscent of the poetry of Pablo Neruda as translated by Clayton Eshleman. Mixing elegantly our hopes with our despairs, our beauties with our horrors.

“I can tell by your eyes

you’ve seen the vacant buildings’

toothless mouths”

It’s quite a stunning poem. You should go read it. And I hope she does more poems.

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One of the earliest followers I have is Wayland Productions, the crew who runs the audio series http://www.zombiepodcast.com. No doubt my coverage of all things audio drama, be it podcasts or old time radio put me on their radar. That said I’m not a fan of ghoul/flesh eating horror, what the west has misnamed zombie horror. Just no interest in the fetishizing of cannibalism and barbarism. I’m just not interested. That said, a lot of people are.

I’m a grumpy old fogie, and my weak stomach aside you have to give the talented cast and crew huge respect for their consistency. They’ve been putting out episodes since 2009. add to that they have one of the best designed websites out there. So give the site a gander and if ‘ghoul type’ horror is your thing, then give a listen here. I always support creativity… particularly in audio productions, and you don’t get any more creative than these guys and gals!

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Author and Monarch of Mayhem crowned writer Derrick Ferguson’s BETTER IN THE DARK is a podcast I’ve praised before, so I’m going to do it again and urge you to take a listen to their latest episode here.

Fun times!

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Thanks for looking and come back next time for more,,, FOLLOWING THE FOLLOWERS! 🙂 .

THE THIRD MAN : One Never Knows!

“ONE NEVER knows when the blow may fall.

When I saw Rollo Martins first, I made this note on him for my security police files: “In normal circumstances a cheerful fool. Drinks too much and may cause a little trouble. Whenever a woman passes raises his eyes and makes some comment, but I get the impression that really he’d rather not be bothered. Has never really grown up and perhaps that accounts for the way he worshiped Lime.”

I wrote there that phrase “in normal circumstances” because I met him first at Harry Lime’s funeral. It was February, and the grave-diggers had been forced to use electric drills to open the frozen ground in Vienna’s central cemetery. It was as if even nature were doing its best to reject Lime, but we got him in at last and laid the earth back on him like bricks.

He was vaulted in, and Rollo Martins walked quickly away as though his long gangly legs wanted to break into a run, and the tears of a boy ran down his thirty-five-year-old cheeks. Rollo Martins believed in friendship, and that was why what happened later was a worse shock to him than it would have been to you or me. If only he had come to tell me then, what a lot of trouble would have been saved.”

-Graham Greene, The Third Man

First published in 1949 in the wake of the popularity of Carol Reed and Orson Welles'(star and uncredited co-director) THE THIRD MAN, the eponymous novel/novella was never really intended to exist. The novella was the first draft of Greene’s screenplay for the film. The film is the preferred format, even by Graham Greene. However the film’s extreme popularity spurred interest in the publication of the novel, as well as birthing a very popular score/record,

and a wonderful radio show (starring Orson Welles called THE LIVES OF HARRY LIME, it is brilliant).

The Lives of Harry Lime, Volume 1

Listen to Lives of Harry Lime for free Here!

But the novel really doesn’t sing by itself. It’s only in the audio-book format, when it’s tightened up a bit, and read by the cultured yet world wearied voice of the great James Mason that it becomes something brilliant and essential, and as haunting as the film.

The Third Man – Criterion Collection (2-Disc Edition)

As someone who considers THE THIRD MAN one of the greatest movies ever made, perhaps my favorite movie of all time, The James Mason read audio book (avoid the Martin Jarvis audio book, it’s just nowhere as good) is without doubt my favorite audio book.

The Third Man

I listen to it in the car and in my home… often.

And there’s something between the words, and the inflection of Mason’s voice that never ceases.. to enthrall.

“Happiness isn’t about getting what we want, it’s about appreciating what we have.”
—SPOOKS

Old Time Radio Episode of the Day: SHADOW: DEATH HUNT from 26 Oct 1947

A pretty ludicrous episode of THE SHADOW radio series from 1947, as a man who loses a bunch of money gambling, is so afraid for his wife to know because of her weak heart, that his brilliant idea is to challenge a famous hunter to hunt him for 24hours, and if he survives he’ll win $50000 to pay off his gambling death. Of course if he loses he gets killed messily, and I can’t see that doing his wife’s heart any good.

Like I said, ludicrous.

The problem with latter day Shadow episodes, most of the ones post 1941, is they are scripts stolen from other shows with the Shadow just shoehorned in, and that’s the case with this one as well. The character of the Shadow is largely superfluous to the actual story.

A minor Shadow episode at best. Grade: C-.

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Now to listen to this show and any other episode of the Shadow, you have a few options. None of them great. It makes me angry, that a show that is definitely public domain, should be kept out of it by greedy fat suits. All 200+ episodes of the SHADOW were readily available on the internet as were the pulp novels back in the late 90s, and even through the aughts when I started my OTR collection. But in the last decade or so unscrupulous types have been subverting public domain, and actually yanking things out of public domain, so they can make their greedy dollar on a product they had no fucking part in creating, producing, etc. They are bloody leeches, buying and locking down something that for good reason should be in public domain and readily available to all.

So yeah you can buy the expensive 9 episode sets that the ‘company that will rename nameless aka radio garbage’ is gouging people with online and via Amazon, but seriously, eff those guys. Do a bit of a search and you can find these episodes online. You can also rent them via libraries, or just borrow it from someone who did buy their overpriced merchandise. And considering their crap is priced 9 times too high, I would (if I purchased it) loan my copy out 9 times, just so others get it.

God don’t like greedy.

It’s really immoral what these companies are doing to public domain.

Okay I’m calm now. Really.

But, If you really want my take on public domain, and greedy fat-cats, do a search for my post on public domain. Here endeth my rant for today.