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.

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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.

Today I present part one of the Malleus interview with Alan Stevens of Magic Bullet, audio dramatist, writer, and producer of the Kaldor City and The True History of Faction Paradox audio drama serials. In this installment, Stevens discusses what drew him to audio drama and how Magic Bullet came to be, why he recast the Faction Paradox audio dramas, and what makes sound designer Alistair Lock a genius. Alan has an engaging wit and an interesting approach, and the article is embedded with sound clips from both the Kaldor City and The True History of Faction Paradox serials that illustrate why Magic Bullet is a force to be reckoned with in the British audio drama scene. Don’t pass this one by. 

(You can go directly to Magic Bullet’s website by clicking on their logo above. Further sound clips from The True History of Faction Paradox can be found in my overview of the series here. Part 2 of the interview can be found here.)

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Audio track 1 from The Faction Paradox Protocols: The Eleven-Day Empire (the first episode of the first series) appears courtesy of Bill Baggs of BBV media, copyright 2001. Click the CD cover to go directly to the BBV website.

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Audio Track 1 from The True History of Faction Paradox: Coming to Dust (the first episode of the second series) appears courtesy of Alan Stevens of Magic Bullet, copyright 2005. Click the CD cover to go directly to the Magic Bullet website.

How to introduce Faction Paradox?

On the one hand it’s best to discover and unravel its mysteries yourself, on the other without some knowledge of its parent series, Dr. Who, you are at a disadvantage – one that a short field guide could easily remedy. Neither approach is entirely sufficient, so why not have both?

Today’s post is for the Romantics, detectives, and explorers. I’m reprinting Lawrence Miles’s “Faction Paradox – As Much as It’s Known”, an introduction which captures the cryptic poetry and subversive humor of the series. I’m also putting up the first tracks from each of the audio drama lines, BBV’s The Faction Paradox Protocols and Magic Bullet’s The True History of Faction Paradox. No context or backstory today – just let the opening lines engulf and enchant you the way only beginnings can, as in Italo Calvino’s If on a winter’s night a traveler.

Next week I’ll post a rough guide for the practically-minded. It will lay out some basic history of the series, highlight important themes, characters, and concepts, and comment on the strengths and weaknesses of the audio dramas. You can think of it as a thread leading you through Miles’s lexical labyrinth. Or if you’re not a fan of Theseus, you can think of it as a crude form of cheating.

(I will, however, try not to spoil major plot elements of the series.)

Later weeks will feature interviews with Nigel Fairs, director / composer / sound designer / actor for BBV’s The Faction Paradox Protocols, and Alan Stevens of Magic Bullet, producer of The True History of Faction Paradox.

Finally, a brief primer on Dr. Who audio drama spin-offs can be found in last week’s post.

Now read on for series author Lawrence Miles’s introductory essay:

Faction Paradox, as Much as It’s Known

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We continue this week with the dastardly Sherlock Holmes tale, “The Speckled Band” performed by our friends at the Quicksilver Radio Theater.? Holmes and Watson are on the hunt of the mysterious killer behind deaths at a remote estate in the English countryside… but will they be in time to stop the next death?

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Radio Drama Revival – Episode 87

Oh, Holmes, strongman of logic, consumer of sensitive substances and eyes that make a hawk look blind… and an audio theater regular, much, unfortunately, to the abuse of the fine British detective. Forget all the hack-job Holmeses you’ve heard today as our friend at the Quicksilver Radio Theatre delight us again with the diabolical tale on “The Speckled Band.”

Holmes and Watson are awoken in the middle of the night to a frightened young girl who talks of an abusive stepfather and a strange murder… but as clues lead up towards what invariably will be another slaying, can Holmes and Watson act in time to stop it?

Part 1 of 2. Enjoy.

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Radio Drama Revival – Episode 86

Ticks, coconuts and helicopters, oh my! In case you haven’t already gotten enough NATF coverage from this past week of entries, we start this week’s show with a quick recap, the sounds of the helicopter, and segueway oh-so-clumsily into a great show produced by Lucus Keppel, one of the great emerging audio producers I met at the Conference.

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Radio Drama Revival! Episode 25