It’s October again, and as ever, is it HORROR-ible! OH yes, folks, we’ve got a 5 week stretch of terrifying audio goodies for you, starting this week with a fresh work by radio drama living legend Tom Lopez.

ZBS says of “Recipe for Murder”

The stories were recorded on location in Montreal, in the bistros, the sidewalk cafés, the cobblestones streets, in bars and back alleys, in cars, on buses, even on the subway. These mysteries are superbly sound rich.

Recipe for Murder is a co-production of the CBC and ZBS. In fact, Meatball Fulton did a lot of the recording and Tim Clark composed all of the music.

The Detective
Jean-Claude is a sous-chef and an amateur detective. He loves food (there’s mouth-watering descriptions one could die for), but he’s also very curious, and often finds himself in awkward if not life-threatening situations.

The Stories
In the first story, A Sweet Death, Jean-Claude learns the secrets of delectable, and deadly, hand-dipped chocolates. The second story, Buzz Buzz, centers on various delicious edible insects; Fugu deals with Japanese cuisine, and in The Ghost of Miz B, it’s the theatre and what may be the ghost of Sarah Bernhardt.

And It’s Free
Starting the first week of October, and every week thereafter, you’ll be able to hear another mystery from Recipe for Murder. It’s free.

Magnifique!

We also whet your appetite for the undead with a preview of 19 Nocturne Boulevard‘s upcoming Dunwich Horror. Happy 3rd anniversary 19!

Download audio file (rdr-podcast246.mp3)
Radio Drama Revival – Episode 246

Alas, all good things come to an end. After a splendid time trippin’ dimensionality tweaking trip in Return to Inverness, Jack Flanders and Mojo finally get to the bottom of the energy disturbance in the mansion of Inverness. A few old friends appear again and in them depths there be dragons! But the real question is – what do you do about an energy that creates massive magic mushrooms, and what does Saint Seymour really have to do with anything?

Before we get into the Invernessing, we hear from Captain Radio, who is thrilled this week to be introducing his own original show! Mosey on over to Sonic Society’s Summerstock for a dose of Challenge of the Yukon.

Download audio file (rdr-podcast241.mp3)
Radio Drama Revival – Episode 241

P.S. If you like this journey, check out the newest Inverness series, Steam Dreamers of Inverness! (now with several episodes), the original Fourth Tower of Inverness, or many other Jack Flanders adventures over at ZBS. This is as good as audio drama gets!

In week four of our feature of Return to Inverness Jack Flanders meets an old friend, goes places he probably shouldn’t go, and gets out by the hair of his chinny chin chin. But where, oh where is this strange energy coming from? And whose that splendid saucy sister with the razor sharp teeth? Only one more week after this one to go…

Before we get into the Invernessing, we hear from Captain Radio, who reviews a triumvirate of audio horror satire stories.
Download audio file (rdr-podcast240.mp3)
Radio Drama Revival – Episode 240

P.S. If you like this journey, check out the newest Inverness series, Steam Dreamers of Inverness! (now with several episodes), the original Fourth Tower of Inverness, or many other Jack Flanders adventures over at ZBS. This is as good as audio drama gets!

For our third installment of the Return to Inverness things are starting to get odd for Jack Flanders. A touch by a mystic unicorn sends his world aloft while things continue to disappear. Plus there’s that dragon to be worried about…

Before we get into the Invernessing, we hear from Captain Radio, who reviews the program The Radio Museum which takes listeners on an auditory exploration of the golden age of Radio.

Download audio file (rdr-podcast239.mp3)
Radio Drama Revival – Episode 239

P.S. If you like this journey, check out the newest Inverness series, Steam Dreamers of Inverness! (now with several episodes), the original Fourth Tower of Inverness, or many other Jack Flanders adventures over at ZBS. This is as good as audio drama gets!

This week is our second installment featuring Return to Inverness, set some years after Jack Flanders started his mystical journeymaking and spiritual globetrotting.

Upon the death of Lady Jowls, Jack finds himself back at Inverness, having inherited a generation of kooky inhabitants and dazzled by the mysterious that still remain. As if the tricky tenants weren’t bad enough, stuff starts disappearing, and mystical beings start being sited on premises…

Also, Captain Radio reviews Minister of Chance, a lush, soundscape heavy tightly acted science fiction epic. We are very, very excited about his new project and thrilled to be sharing it with you.

Download audio file (rdr-podcast238.mp3)
Radio Drama Revival – Episode 238

P.S. If you like this journey, check out the newest Inverness series, Steam Dreamers of Inverness! (now with several episodes), the original Fourth Tower of Inverness, or many other Jack Flanders adventures over at ZBS. This is as good as audio drama gets!

For the month of August (and into November) we take an interlude to a mansion high atop a hill, with thousands of mirrors looking inward… the towers of Inverness!

The original Fourth Tower of Inverness is the classic mystical trans-dimensional journey which brought ZBS to the ears of a generation of listeners. We have the distinct pleasure of featuring the second installment of the series, Return to Inverness, set some years after Jack Flanders started his mystical journeymaking and spiritual globetrotting. Upon the death of Lady Jowls, Jack finds himself back at Inverness, having inherited a generation of kooky inhabitants and dazzled by the mysterious that still remain.

Oh, and Captain Radio is here with a review of Camino Real Productions’ The Mesmerist.

Download audio file (rdr-podcast237.mp3)
Radio Drama Revival – Episode 237

P.S. If you like this journey, check out the newest Inverness series, Steam Dreamers of Inverness! (now with several episodes)

Audio fans delight, there is fresh Jack Flanders to be had.  And boy, is it steamy.

As we showcased a few weeks back with Lady Windemere’s Brass Fantabulous, ZBS has been on a steampunk kick, culminating in the release of the newest Jack Flanders adventure, Steam Dreamers of Inverness.

In this tale, we’re invited back to that magical place, with thousand of windows like so many eyes turned inward, and re-introduced to our friends Jack, Mojo and Claudine.  Jack’s trying to figure out what to do with the old mansion when he discovers a mysterious device… When activated with steam, the device sends the user into a steamy, Victorian world of dreams. 

Get a taste of it in this sample:

Download audio file (SDI.mp3)

For fans of Jack, you’ll find all of Tom Lopez’s witty rapport (“This clean coal isn’t clean at all!” / “Well, it’s a dirty business”) as well as mystic overtones (Mojo gives us some anecdotes exposing the Buddhist heart of Christianity), and signature dimension-traveling exploits.  There’s a welcome, comfortable feel in that musty old castle, and a feeling throughout the production that everyone involved is happy to be back home.

The MP3 download of the 2-hour production is available on ZBS’ website for a meager $17.

If you’ve never had the joys of listening to Jack Flanders, I suggest you start the journey now, it’s a wonderful one to take:

• The Fourth Tower of Inverness – The original classic audio, ZBS’ original piece which mixes 60s culture, eastern mysticism, fire-breathing dragons, alchemy and dimension traveling for a romp unlike any before seen in audio
• Moon Over Morocco – Jack Flanders’ second adventure takes him to exotic Morocco, where legends of the desert are relived and he meets Mojo the mystic piano man
• Return To Inverness – I have a soft-spot in my heart for musty old mansions and so the Return to Inverness charmed me as much as the original.  Went Lady Jowls passes on, traveling Jack returns to the mansion to figure out what to do with it… Just in time to start getting hoodwinked with disappearing rooms, furniture, secret passages, and the other denizens of the mansion.

Visit ZBS’ site for a full listing of Jack Flanders adventures.

Things are not quite over in the Troll of Stony Brook… the troll didn’t make out so well, last we heard, but Jamie is dedicated to honoring him and while on a mountain hilltop, encounters some magical things he never expected.

And, in another “sweet sorrow to part” moment, we heard the end of Tom Lopez’s Fallen Angels that Bounce. Begging the answer to the question – what will Little Leroy do with his cockroach army?

Download audio file (rdr-podcast184.mp3)
Download Radio Drama Revival – Episode 184 (MP3)

In the action-packed climax of FinalRune’s tall tale, the Troll of Stony Brook, the troll and Jamie are on the run, desperately searching for a way out of civilization before dawn breaks. But the police are fast, houses are everywhere, and someone dammed up the brook.

Meanwhile, we hear some more installments from Tom Lopez’s excellent Fallen Angels that Bounce. What will happen when Little Leroy is set on the trail of Flo? Will Eddie be enough to save her? And what the heck is going to happen in New York with Flo’s evil alter ego?

Download audio file (rdr-podcast183.mp3)
Download Radio Drama Revival – Episode 183 (MP3)

FinalRune’s third installment of the Troll of Stony Brook introduces us to the troll – a fearless, man-eating creature for sure, but, um, not without a soft stop.

Sadly, humans just won’t leave him alone and the rough exterior shows up again.

After this next dose of audio delight we move on to Fallen Angels that Bounce, a serialized audio noir tale by ZBS featuring lush soundscapes of Rio de Janeiro and New York City.

Flo has a recurring dream of Rio that never goes anywhere – so Joe and Moe take it upon themselves to cook up a tale of a devilish twin sister, crooked gangsters, and dreams of Rio.

Meet a crazy kooky cast in a program which is unabashedly aware of its art form, showing off the wondrously imaginative and dreamlike possibilities of audio!

Download audio file (rdr-podcast182.mp3)
Download Radio Drama Revival – Episode 182 (MP3)

Serialized audio adventures continue from last week… We have part 2 of FinalRune’s new release, “The Troll of Stony Brook,” and two more parts of ZBS’ Lady Windermere’s Brass Fantabulous.

This is the last we’ll be hearing of ZBS’ steampunk goodness so head over to ZBS to purchase the remaining episodes if you’re enjoying the tale.

Meanwhile, on a new road through what once was forest, two teenage boys hunt down a large creature they came across the night before…

Download audio file (rdr-podcast181.mp3)
Download Radio Drama Revival – Episode 181

Well, call it a festival of short-form audio fiction. This week we hear the first serialized episode of FinalRune’s new tale, The Troll of Stony Brook, an exciting completely original audio drama that makes it out to the world and to your ears first.

Stay tuned all this month for additional episodes of the new show, or head to FinalRune to purchase the whole show now (for the ridiculously low price of $2.99).

We follow up with two parts of ZBS’ steamy new show, Lady Windermere’s Brass Fantabulous, which you saw earlier in the YouTube form and with a really bad ass mug.

So, let’s enjoy this excellent work. Just don’t ask me about the mysterious latin music in the background.

Download audio file (rdr-podcast180.mp3)
Download Radio Drama Revival – Episode 180

Hot from Tom Lopez of ZBS comes this YouTube’ified steampunk audio drama… of Lady Windemere’s Brass Fantabulous:

A Steampunk State of Mind from ZBS Foundation on Vimeo.

Why not the French, right?

Curious what you all think of this audio story slideshow mashup.

Oh yeah, nothing makes me happier than sharing creepy tales for you my great fans of audio drama.  I was recently invited to post over on SFFAudio, and figured I should share these ghoulish delights with my loyal listeners as well!

I ALWAYS have trouble finding enough time to feature all of the delightfully terrible audio tales that are out there for Halloween in the regular ‘pod, here are a few which deserve your ears:

	1 – We’re Alive: A Story of Survival Zombies!!! Take Resident Evil and mix it with the marines from Aliens and you wind up with something like the outcome of this zombie podcast. A group of foul-mouthed marines ends up locked up in an apartment building with a scattered batch of survivors after a zombie holocaust breaks loose with little notice (or explanation). This one is well-produced, action-packed, and is as much about an odd group of people trying to survive together as it is about the roving droves of hungry undead. Not to be missed.
	2 – Wormwood Wormwood made it into my previous Five Free Favourites and it makes it again. Though not strictly “horror,” this brilliantly twisted thriller serial has ample spooks to make it a priority on any horror fan’s iPod. If you haven’t been following, you have two full seasons to catch up on, tons of bonus content, and a third season coming up which is sure to send you to an early grave.
	3 – The Grist Mill Okay, the Grist Mill isn’t free but two episodes of their work are available for free download on Radio Drama Revival, so that sort of counts. The one you should under no circumstances miss is God of the Razor. AM/FM Theater rightfully won the Ogle Award for this fine adaptation of Joe Lansdale’s classic horror short. There’s a reason you should stay out of basements in the South… Also, Jeff Adams’ The Estates is an extremely awesome innovation to the spooky story meme – Stepford Wives meets The Shining. Thank you, Jeff.
	4 – The Buoy (Part 1 and Part 2) The Cape Cod Radio Mystery Theater has been at it for a while, and “The Buoy” is perhaps the crowning gem of their productions. This is a good classic New England ghost story, which packs an even stronger punch because of its eerie parallels to the classic Poe tale, “The Pit and the Pendulum.” A man “from away” winds up tied to a buoy as the tide comes in, and recounts his terrifying tale. As the water gets higher, and no escape is in site, the real terror sets in…
	5 – Halloween in July The Dunesteef Audio Fiction Magazine aired this back in March, but it is much better fitting for Halloween. Breaking the trend from the rest on the list, this is not strictly audio drama, but hosts Rish Outfield and Big Anklevich did a splendid job bringing the text to live. Writer Kevin Anderson also has a script in the mix for my upcoming Halloween Live Radio Drama.

BONUS! ZBS Comes out With Sticks… For Fricken’ Free!

Remember Chris Dueker‘s review of Karl Edward Wagner’s Sticks? It’s a gore-ious take on a short story delivered to you with the eerie splendor of binaural sound. That means it is perfect for your iPod or other mp3 player of choice.


Download audio file (Sticks-Halloween.mp3)
Karl Edward Wagner’s Sticks by ZBS
Enjoy!!!

If you’re not on the ZBS newsletter list, well, sign up now, and then, check out some of the latest stuff they’ve put out.

As you recall, we talked to Tom Lopez a few weeks ago about his radio drama/web video hybrid 4 Minute Film Noir.  Several more fun videos have come out, including “The Little Man with the Big Roscoe,” “When Sully Became Sally,” and “Galloway’s.”

Let’s see if I can get one to embed here:

What other fun stuff? There are great pictures of 4 Minute Film Noir behind the scenes, and the fantabulous new show, Ruby 8.  I just picked up the MP3… you’ll find this covered in the “Fred’s Fuze” column soon!

This week we have the huge pleasure of talking to Tom Lopez of the ZBS Foundation on his new effort with the 4-Minute Film Noir, fun videos that take film noir caricatures and blend them with Lopez’s stellar wit, timing, and sense of humor.

We also pick his brain about the experiences at the National Audio Theater Festivals and the joy of recording the natural environment and using it in audio productions.

Download audio file (rdr-podcast127.mp3)
Radio Drama Revival – Episode 127

Also, BIG NEWS!!!

I’m proud to announce that one of my own audio drama works, Waiting for a Window, has won the Gold Ogle award. Hooray!

Knowing that this is the same stage that Roger Gregg has won on multiple occasions, I can’t say how honored and awesome it feels to have won the award. Awards aren’t everything, sure, but it’s nice to know that someone other than me actually thinks my stories are worth listening to.

The Ogle is one of the most prestigious (okay, one of the only!) radio drama awards available and has been won by the likes of Crazy Dog Audio Theater, The Willamette Radio Workshop, AM/FM Theater (The Grist Mill), and the Colonial Radio Theater.

I’m actually be headed out to Minneapolis, Minnesota to collect the award on July 2, and that same day you’ll be hearing an encore presentation of “Waiting for a Window” on the show. Rumor has it I’ll also be helping Great Northern Audio Theater put on their annual Mark Time Award live radio show. Details to come.

9 out of 10

What possessed Tom Lopez to do this half-baked horror tale? Devil or angel, it was an inspired muse: Lopez doesn’t just adapt Wagner’s story, he rewrites it, and the result is far more chilling than the original.

?

Adapted by Meatball Fulton (Thomas Manuel Lopez) from the 1974 short story ?Sticks? by Karl Edward Wagner.

Directed by: Bill Raymond.

ZBS Foundation, 1998.

Language: English.

Availability: The ZBS production of “Sticks” was first published as an audio cassette, later as an Audio CD. Those versions are no longer in print, but “Sticks” can still be purchased as an mp3 download from the ZBS website here. Although “30 Second Telephone Terror Theatre” is sorely missed, this download version is easily the strongest package yet – for $12.00 you not only get “Sticks” but also Lopez’s own dystopian tale “O Boy O Boy O” and Craig Strete’s “The Bleeding Man”, another excellent ZBS horror adaptation. Previous releases of “Sticks” bundled it with either one or the other.

“Sticks” is 28:15 minutes long.

I’ve read Karl Edward Wagner’s “Sticks”, listened to the ZBS audio drama adaptation, and even seen parts of it cribbed for the most powerful scenes of The Blair Witch Project. And I can’t shake the feeling that I still don’t know the story at all. Legend has it that “Sticks” was inspired by the real life experience of Weird Tales artist Lee Brown Coye, who claimed he really did stumble across a strange abandoned farmhouse in North Pitcher, New York. Coye reported that the house was surrounded by bizarre ideographic assemblages of sticks when he first discovered it in 1938, and that these were later washed away completely by flooding. Although the originals were destroyed the weird sculptures made quite an impression on him, and he incorporated inexplicable stick-designs into his work thereafter. Or so the story goes.

I claim ignorance of “Sticks” because I’ve neither read Coye’s personal account of his farmhouse discovery nor seen any of the drawings that were inspired by it. But if, as internet scribes have it, Coye never disclosed a purpose to the stick signs he found, he had better horror instincts than Wagner. The ideographic sculptures of “Sticks” remain powerful and menacing only as long as they remain unknowable.

To his credit, Wagner didn’t literally decipher the strange signs. Instead, he defined them in broadly Lovecraftian terms: the stick designs are elder glyphics in service of the Great Old Ones, rendered by a megalithic cult that migrated from Europe to North America a long, long time ago. I’ve enjoyed Wagner’s other writings, particularly his iconoclastic Kane tales, but that’s a pretty disappointing explanation. Resorting to Lovecraft’s hoary old tropes is the imaginative equivalent of crying “uncle”. And call it professional bias, but as someone who researches Native American cultures, pseudo-scientific histories of ancient European settlements in the Americas rub me the wrong way.

Wagner’s story is strongest in the beginning when it all but retells Coye’s. Horror artist Colin Leverett makes his way through the backwoods of Upstate New York and stumbles across a farmhouse surrounded by bizarre ideograms made of sticks. Following this, Leverett starts incorporating the weird stick patterns into his art. Things look up briefly for Leverett when the stick designs go over well and he is commissioned to illustrate a volume of horror stories by H. Kenneth Allard. But the shadowy cult still exists, and Leverett’s use of their stick designs draws their attention. It all ends badly.

I mean that literally. The strange power of Coye’s stick effigies gets diluted in this story of artistic obsession and eternal life, and the conclusion is silly and trite, with a ghoul unveiling his sinister master plan like some old dimestore novel villain. What possessed Thomas Manuel Lopez to adapt this half-baked horror tale?

I don’t know what possessed him, but devil or angel, it was an inspired muse. Lopez considerably rewrote Wagner’s flawed tale, inventing love interest Carol out of whole cloth and completely excising central characters like the stereotypical scholar Dr. Alexander Stefroi and the story’s absurd central villain. Presumably he did this in the interest of better drama; among other things, having Carol accompany Colin allowed Lopez to use their dialogue to set the scene rather than giving Colin an improbable monologue or using an omniscient narrator. But Lopez’s artistic license also resulted in a far better story. That’s right, ZBS’s “Sticks” is one of those rare instances where the adaptation far outshines the original.

Lopez takes the best qualities of Wagner’s story and brings them forward while muting or eliminating the weakest moments. He plays up Colin’s Heart of Darkness descent into madness, even taking the artist’s obsession a step further than Wagner by having Colin cover the walls of his own room with the strange stick designs. He also wisely takes a step back from Wagner’s excesses, keeping Colin’s state of mind ambiguous: in the ZBS version Colin does not wake up clutching a half-eaten human heart. Probably the best decision Lopez made was to do away with Wagner’s talking villain. Without a human voice to articulate their plans, Lopez’s cult is far more frightening than Wagner’s ever was. The heavy, wet breathing Bill Raymond gives to the ancient ghouls is all they need to inspire fear.

Audio dramatists on a tight budget can take heart from “Sticks” – Lopez turns out an effective horror story with a cast of only three actors this time. (AM/FM theater have since done the same with their excellent adaptation of “God of the Razor”.) Curiously, leading man Steven Keats’s performance is arguably the weakest. His portrayal of Colin Leverett is perfectly serviceable, but doesn’t always convince and falls short of definitive. ZBS regulars Laura Esterman (billed by ZBS as Blanche Blackwell in other performances) and Bill Raymond round out the cast as Colin’s love interest Carol and horror publisher George (instead of Wagner’s “Prescott”) Brandon, respectively. It’s always a risk to rely too heavily on the same actors too often, since this can make your productions sound too much alike. What’s remarkable here is that precisely the opposite happens. Bill Raymond, known to Ruby and Jack Flanders fans as the irascible, cartoonishly energetic (and pretty much interchangeable) characters T.J. Teru and Short Top Detroit, is barely recognizable as the brusque George Brandon. As Brandon, Raymond is neither funny nor even all that likeable. Bill Raymond not likeable? Now that’s acting. And the tough-as-nails, no-nonsense Laura Esterman of Ruby fame is just as smart as ever in “Sticks”, but far more delicate and vulnerable than you would believe possible. Excellent work.

“Sticks” was recorded using a Kunstkopf (“artificial head” – the German term is very unfortunately misspelled on ZBS’s cover) binaural recording device. Nicknamed “Fritz”, this device is a dummy head with mics where human ears would be, and it picks up sound like human ears do. The result: the aural environments it records assume three-dimensional presence when listened to with headphones. This creates a strong “you are there” impression, almost as if you are standing on stage in the midst of the actors as they perform. It’s a technique that is well-suited to horror tales for obvious reasons. The best binaural sequences in “Sticks” take place in the abandoned farmhouse, as Colin and Carol go exploring in different directions, leaving you feeling stuck between them in a building that you’d really like to leave. The smartest use of binaural effects happens in the cellar, when Lopez uses it to cue you in to the uncomfortably close presence of the ghoul long before protagonist Colin even knows it is there.

I’d have to say, though, that the real star of “Sticks” isn’t the superb acting or even the binaural effects. It’s Tim Clark’s music. As with Raymond and Esterman, if you’re familiar with Clark’s work from other ZBS productions you will scarcely recognize his performance here. And that’s all to the good. There are no dream-like space music vistas unfolding here a la Jack Flanders, or the smartly syncopated background beats you might expect from the man who scored countless Rubys. The soundtrack to “Sticks” is subtly atmospheric, implacably glacial, and spare. It’s Clark as you’ve never heard him before.

In the end, Clark outdoes Wagner and even Lopez: his music is the most evocative translation of Coye’s weird stick ideograms to date, and the primary reason that this audio adaptation of a profoundly visual terror works at all.

Next week: Malleus continues to explore the world of binaural sound with some 3-D audio tourism. Put on some headphones, turn off the lights, and experience the Japanese Shinto festival of Gion Matsuri as recorded by yours truly in Kyoto, Japan in 2001. Free to all sentient beings, this soundscape album will go up next week on July 17th, just in time to honor Gion Matsuri 2008. If you can’t make it to Kyoto, be here!

‘Nuff said. I had the incredible honor and pleasure of talking to Tom Lopez of ZBS about his days of audio collecting and producing, his latest efforts with short-form audio and the future of the form. Plus a few nuggets of “2 Minute Film Noir” tossed in for flavor.

Enjoy.

Download audio file (rdr-podcast069.mp3)

Radio Drama Revival! Episode 69

The crooning, jazzy journey of Jack Flanders wraps up this week in the riveting conclusion to “Do That in Real Life?” What will come of Jack’s bewitched lover? What happens to Petite Lafitte and the streetcar of skeletons? And, gosh darnit, what about them zombies?

Committed to the Radio Drama Revival archives. Go to ZBS for the original production.

Jack’s adventures in New Orleans continue this week with a talk about zombies, and visits to a Voodoo Queen — a friend, not a foe… or at least so we think. Plus, Louis Lafitte goes on the ride of his life!

Committed to the Radio Drama Revival archives… Check out ZBS for the original production!

5 out of 10 stars

Ham-fisted sermons on non-attachment don’t translate into riveting audio drama.

Midnight at the Casa Luna: Part Two
A Jack Flanders adventure

By Meatball Fulton (Thomas Manuel Lopez)
1 CD, 63 minutes
2000
ZBS originally sold this story as two individual CDs, Part One and Part Two: now they package them together. This review concerns Part 2 only. You can still buy them separately from Amazon.

Last week I reviewed Midnight at the Casa Luna: Part One, a solid and entertaining Jack Flanders outing. Does Part Two hold up? Read on . . .

In the wake of Part One, Jack Flanders (Robert Lorrick) finds himself in possession of the mystic green ball he stole for his uncle, Sir Henry Jowls. But Jowls is nowhere to be found. Jack prowls the New York streets hoping to stumble across the trans-dimensional Casa Luna café, which never appears in the same place twice. From there, perhaps he can track down the elusive Sir Jowls and finally unload his magical burden . . .

This episode starts promisingly. Jack’s latest night walk takes on a surreal and lightly comedic air as strange weather and a shadowy accordian-man try to stop him from entering the Casa Luna. Eventually Jack succeeds and is reunited with the café’s proprietor, Nani (Phoebe Moon). Phoebe Moon’s English is perfect, and Tom Lopez has a checkered history writing Asian characters that approach stereotype. In Part One Lopez and Moon wrote and delivered Nani’s accented dialogue with credible understatement. This time around Moon’s fractured English becomes more exaggerated and is, how you say in your language, ‘not as convincing.’ The listener can also be forgiven for wondering why Nani suddenly develops a Russian accent and starts threatening Jack with ultimatums. Of course it’s just Moon playing a second role, but since both characters sound like the same woman sporting different accents, some confusion is understandable. Is this the Indonesian Nani’s evil Russian twin? With a cast this small (five, including the narrator) it’s hard to understand why ZBS couldn’t just hire another actor. Or perhaps just cut the Russian villain out altogether, as she never reappears, is never explained, and has no real impact on the story.

After chatting with Nani, Jack is once again offered a ride by an enchanted motorbike. Tim Clark’s music is as richly evocative as ever, making you hear the dawn break on Jack and the motorbike as they putter along. For all its flaws, there’s no question this release has its share of poetic moments rendered in classic ZBS style.

Things start to falter, though, when Jack reunites with Sir Henry Jowls and the mischievous infrit, Leela. Both roles from Part One were recast for Part Two, and unfortunately it makes for a jarring shift. Lopez tries to finesse the cast changes by telling us these versions of the characters are from other dimensions, hence their different voices and personality traits. This explanation doesn’t serve the plot, though, and seems more like a flip excuse for real-world casting problems. Art Fairbain’s Jowls is more chipper and less calculating than Bill Hufnagle’s, but essentially the character remains the same 19th century British adventurer that Murray Head originated in The Fourth Tower of Inverness. It’s Ana Veronica Munoz’s Leela that I really missed. Gloria Leyva’s Leela is more petulant and less natural, so that the infrit’s sultry vivaciousness now sounds forced. Worse, the chemistry that bubbled so easily between Lorrick and Munoz has vanished.

Eventually Jack, Jowls, and Leela plot a course to the fabled city of the Merkahbah, which Jack has visited in dreams. Having done it many times before, Lopez and Clark are now old hands at conjuring celestial cities in sound. Not surprisingly then, Jack’s visits to the Merkahbah are serenely realized with a few artfully placed sound effects and Clark’s ethereal music.

The Tibetan hungry ghosts Jack encounters en route to the city also feature great sound design, emitting ululating squeals and miserable bleats that set the mind on edge. Unfortunately, the ghosts quickly transition from being active antagonists to passive cautionary tales, as Jack and company retreat to a safe distance to observe and offer Dante-esque commentary on the specters’ hellish condition. Lopez writes best when he weaves his New Age revelations into the dramatic action, but he’s least effective when he resorts to preaching. He does the latter here, using Jack’s observations of the hungry ghosts to draw labored and obvious spiritual insights. Many of these lessons have been imparted with greater subtlety and artistry in previous ZBS productions, such as Inanna’s unforgettable encounter with the Clay People in Ruby 3. The key difference between that scene and it’s equivalent in Casa Luna Part 2 being that Inanna learns her lesson by interacting dramatically with the unfortunate Clay People, while Flanders stands back and just describes what he sees the Hungry Ghosts doing.

Although Midnight in the Casa Luna: Part 2 is a moralistic work, by journey’s end so much is left unresolved that it’s hard to say what the moral is. Why did the sinister forces opposing Jack’s quest (the accordian men, Russian-accent lady) just vanish halfway through the journey? Was there any narrative point to having other versions of Leela and Lord Jowls, or was ZBS simply unable to rehire the original actors? Did Jack succeed or fail in his quest? Does it even matter? Somewhere along the way Part Two’s plot gets lost amongst Orientalist set pieces and New Age lectures. Despite this sequel’s solid production values it fails to recapture the verve of Part One, and ends up feeling disjointed and anemic.

There’s a teaser ending that will bring a smile to old Jack Flanders fans. Rosie and the Originals’ ‘Angel Baby’ still carries such eerie, nostalgic pull that you can almost forget the shortcomings of Midnight at the Casa Luna: Part Two.

Almost.

Next week: A return to German-language material as Malleus explores the shadowy world of Wolfgang Hohlbein’s Middle Ages vampire serial in my review of the audiobook Chronik der Unsterblichen: Blutkrieg (Chronicle of the Undying: Blood War.)

In the second part of the ZBS Foundation’s “Do That in Real Life,” Jack Flanders is taken deeper into the spooky and energy-ridden world of New Orleans’ back streets and the Voodoo queens who roam the city today. Plus, Louis Lafitte the littlest pirate begins a crazy journey!

Committed to the Radio Drama Revival archives. Go to ZBS for the original production.

7 out of 10 stars

If you know Jack and need a respite from faster entertainments, the soothing aroma of spiced coffee beckons you to the Casa Luna.

Midnight at the Casa Luna: Part One
A Jack Flanders adventure
By Meatball Fulton (Thomas Manuel Lopez)
ZBS Foundation
1 CD, 65 minutes (ZBS originally sold this tale on two individual CDs, Part One and Part Two: now they package them together. This review concerns Part One only. Next week I’ll tackle Part Two.)
1998

My favorite ZBS (Zero Bull Shit) production will always be 1972′s The Fourth Tower of Inverness, but it can’t be denied the company hit a creative peak in the late 1980′s. Tom Lopez (producer/writer/director Meatball Fulton) had solidified his creative partnership with ‘Space music’ composer Tim Clark, and styling themselves as a pair of old-time explorers (“Fulton and Clark”), the two went on groundbreaking sound safaris in locales like the Amazon. Casts were burgeoning with fresh talent playing delightful new characters, and Lopez’ mind was percolating with witty, relevant social commentary. In all of these areas, Dreams of Rio (1987) was a high water mark.

ZBS fell on hard times after the non-profit’s National Endowment for the Arts funding was axed by a Republican congress. Soundscape expeditions became more seldom and less elaborate, casting took fewer risks with a more repertory-style approach, NPR stopped broadcasting ZBS productions, and Lopez began to repeat himself creatively. But ZBS had built a fiercely loyal base of listeners over the years, and while the transition to private funding wasn’t easy, fan support cushioned the blow.

Although ZBS still occasionally records productions like 2000′s Return to Inverness, their days of releasing long-playing sagas seem to be pretty much over. I’ve come to think of their more recent work, typically 1-3 CD releases with more intimate casts (and budgets), as ‘chamber music’ compared to the older ‘symphonic’ releases. There’s certainly nothing wrong with ‘chamber music’-style audio drama. AM/FM Theater’s 2006 ‘God of the Razor’ adaptation, featuring a superlative cast of two, was the best audio drama gem I’ve heard in years. That said, ZBS’ shorter releases have been a mixed success, and the two-part Midnight at the Casa Luna is no exception.

Midnight at the Casa Luna is the second ZBS adventure starring spiritual adventurer Jack Flanders to be set in Bali. Once a reluctant hero, Jack has now accepted his role as a good-hearted investigator of mystic dilemmas. Sometimes people contact Jack for help when things get bizarre, sometimes he simply stumbles into problems himself. He typically solves problems with good humour, a questing intellect, and a gentle heart. Jack never draws a sword or a gun, although he’s been known to give wise-ass demons a good beating when they ask for it. But when talking fails and violence threatens, he usually runs away. Jack Flanders has always been more about exploring other levels of reality (and of self) than conquering them.

The story begins as Jack is whisked away from the anonymous streets of New York to subtler realms via a trans-dimensional coffee shop, the Casa Luna of the title. The Casa Luna café really does exist in Ubud, Bali, and it really does have excellent coffee, pastries, and an enchantingly calm atmosphere. As Jack says, it’s a favorite haunt of the local expatriate crowd. Those darn tourists like it too, and if you go as one, you’ll be happy to be there.

After crossing over into a mystic landscape Jack encounters more friends than foes, but every ally seems to have an agenda and a price for their aid, and none are very forthcoming about what those might be. Forced to rely on opaque benefactors, Jack ultimately finds himself maneuvered into stealing a precious artifact for reasons unknown.

I’d recommend Midnight at the Casa Luna most to veteran Flanders fans. Newcomers would be better served starting at the beginning with the rough diamond Fourth Tower or more polished later work like Dreams of Rio. I say this because only long time listeners will appreciate how Jack has aged. Voices don’t age as rapidly as faces, a fact that allows companies like Big Finish to hire actors to reprise roles for audio drama that they originated on T.V. in younger days. Since Jack Flanders first hit the airwaves in 1972 writer / director Thomas Lopez has gotten older, Robert Lorrick (who plays Jack) has gotten older, and so have their devoted fans. Having Jack the character age too, however, is not a necessity but a creative decision.

It’s not one without risk. There’s a reason most heroes are young: their adventures are usually rites of passage into adulthood driven by the energy and naivete of youth. Older folks tend to be more comfortable with who they are and where they’re going. There are classic exceptions of course (Odysseus springs to mind). But the Jack of Midnight, though he retains his bumbling charm, is not the young Jack of Inverness. He approaches problems with a more bemused and relaxed air. One has the feeling that everything can be resolved over a good cup of coffee – no “feets, do your stuff” running from fire-breathing demons here. Midnight at the Casa Luna’s laid-back pace isn’t going to rip anyone out of his or her seat, but you may find your mind unwinding in its lingering, quiet warmth.

For those who have been to Bali, and particularly to the cultural center of Ubud, (and if you haven’t been, by all means, go!) Midnight will evoke many fond associations. Lopez uses the same haunting gamelan tune that is routinely piped over the trading stalls of Ubud, and in the character of Casa Luna proprietor Nani he nails the cheerful yet understated character of Balinese hospitality. I don’t know what Phoebe Moon’s background is (Korean’), but she does a fine job injecting Balinese authenticity into her quiet purr and indulgent chuckle. Between Nani, the good coffee, and the gamelan music, you really feel like you’ve slipped out of your time and space into the Casa Luna.

While this adventure never references the Indian / Indonesian epic the Ramayana, thematically it recalls one of its key tropes: The heroic servant. In the Ramayana, the warrior-monkey Hanuman employs his magic and wits to help his master Rama recapture his lady-love Sita from the demon king, Ravana. Hanuman is a selfless agent on behalf of Rama, and while Rama engages in key battles, Hanuman performs several heroic deeds on his behalf. By the end of the story, Hanuman in his humble servitude is arguably the greater hero.

Bali has long had a service economy keyed towards cultural tourism, and while tourism is regularly associated with cultural decline, the Balinese have accommodated it with rare grace. In Ubud you can pay to see cultural performances, but you will also see regular religious rituals in the streets and temples that the Balinese would perform with or without you there. The extremely high quality of the performing arts in Ubud, with its balletic dance troupes and refined gamelan orchestras, also makes a good argument for the positive side of tourism. It’s fashionable to deride tourists, as Jack himself does in this adventure, but whether he likes it or not Jack himself is a consummate cultural tourist (and Midnight at the Casa Luna is most definitely an aural form of cultural tourism.) Seeking out an ‘authentic’ pre-tourism Bali is in any event a doomed endeavor: it vanished a long, long time ago. Luckily for us, post-tourism Bali has many wonders to offer.

In Midnight the ethos of noble hospitality comes through the characters of Nani and Leela, the vivacious Infrit who plays Hanuman to Jack’s Rama. Intoxicating, sensual, and playfully cryptic, Leela enables our hero’s journey with her magical gifts. Leela, like the ‘villain’ of the piece, the ‘Dragon Lady’, is Hispanic, an ethnicity that fits well with Lopez’s casting connections but seems out of place for these Asian / Middle Eastern archetypes. Lopez quickly disarms ethnic expectations with his customary humor, and actresses Ana Veronica Munoz (Leela) and Virginia Rambal (Madame Zee, the ‘Dragon Lady’) are captivating and fully convincing in their respective roles. By journey’s end you wouldn’t want anyone else.

For a ZBS production of this vintage, there are surprisingly few familiar faces in the cast, which perhaps accounts for its freshness. All the new players were well-chosen, and returning narrator Kirby Airs lends the proceedings just the right touch of classic familiarity for long-time fans. Only Bill Hufnagle’s Sir Henry Jowls seems oddly younger and less British than he has in past incarnations, but the dream-like atmosphere of the piece leads you to wonder if perhaps this was the intention. Like all Jack Flanders adventures, this one tests our faith in reality with a subtle Buddhist critique of self-fabricated illusion. The Dalang (puppet master) of this shadow play is never revealed, and none of the characters can be entirely trusted, even to be themselves. (Something part 2 takes even further.)

The sound design is vivid and evocative, whether it’s the impatient sputter of an animated Southeast Asian motorbike or the seductive peal of wind chimes lulling you into enchanted slumber. Composer Tim Clark is in fine form, injecting orientalist mysticism into the play’s musical ambiance.

With vivid characters, spot-on dialogue, exotic locales, and classic magical gambits Midnight at the Casa Luna is everything I hoped it would be, recapturing the magic of Jack’s youthful heyday as experienced through the filter of age. Listeners are transported into a relaxed adventure with an old friend, tinted with more convincing local color and a stronger plot than it’s predecessor, Dreams of Bali. If you know Jack and need a respite from faster entertainments, the soothing aroma of spiced coffee beckons you to the Casa Luna.

ZBS sells this adventure together with Midnight at the Casa Luna: Part Two at www.ZBS.org. You can still buy the two adventures separately (as ZBS originally marketed them) from Amazon.

Bonus: In the spirit of Bali fondly remembered, I’m making a separate Malleus post this week featuring a recording I made while on honeymoon in Ubud in 2001 of the Mekar Sari all-women’s gamelan orchestra. If you’ve never heard gamelan music before, I strongly encourage you to give it a listen. The sound is like nothing else on the planet: overwhelming, intoxicating, and truly magical. This recording is NOT featured in Midnight at the Casa Luna, nor am I associated with ZBS productions.

I’d like to thank Tom Lopez and Aaron Ximm (www.quietamerican.org) for inspiring me to make this recording by their examples.

Come on down, the gumbo’s good.

This week, Radio Drama Revival has the incredible honor of welcoming the ZBS Foundation to the show with a stellar adventure from the Traveling Jack series, Do That in Real Life?

Things get odd for cosmic tourist Jack Flanders as crazy zombie dreams haunt him and his friend Mojo Sam the Yoodoo Man invites him to the Big Easy, which, as we know, ain’t so big and sure ain’t easy… But beignets, piano players, Voodoo queens and zombies all give this land an energy like nowhere else.

Committed to the Radio Drama Revival archives. Go to ZBS for the original production.