Episode 228 – Firesign Theatre Goes Mad, While We Wait for the Electrician

June 3, 2011 By 1 Comment

Firesign Theatre Audio ComedyAudio comedy was never quite the same thanks to the antics of The Firesign Theatre, the legendary multi-trackin’, sound embellishing, sterephonic surrealistic psychedelic merry band of Phil Austin, Peter Bergmen, David Ossman and Philip Proctor.

While best known for their studio albums (such as Waiting for the Electrician Or Someone Like Him, which we hear today), the troupe had hundreds of hours of live radio experience, and had a particularly special era of a program called “Dear Friends.”

A new boxed set (which we wrote about back in February) contains ALL of this material – a whopping 80+ hours – along with beautiful art and hilarious anecdotes. Listen to the show for samples, or check out the DUKE OF MADNESS MOTORS boxed set and buy it today!

Treasures, and a huge thank to Phil Proctor for giving us license to broadcast this terrific stuff. We also take time to shout out for the National Audio Theatre Festivals, who are preparing for their annual pilgrimage to West Plains Missouri later this month.

Also, Captain Radio is here to cover Headhunters, one of the latest titles from the L Ron Hubbard Tales from the Golden Age collection.

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Radio Drama Revival – Episode 228

Filed Under: American, comedy, Podcast

Captain Radio Reviews: The Swamp

June 1, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Captain Radio Audio Reviews

Graphic - FunGraphix.com | Theme music - Shane Lamb

Title: The Swamp
Producer: Tanja Milojevic and LightningBolt Theater of the Mind
Type: Drama
Genre: Horror Mystery

Rating: AD-PG*
Availability: Free – LightningBolt Theater of the Mind

 

Greetings, Audionauts – Captain Radio here with a review of Tanja Milojevic’s The Swamp from LightningBolt Theater of the Mind.

Lightningbolt Theater of the Mind LogoIf you ever experienced ghastly fear trying to escape a nightmare presence but unable to awaken, then you know Rachel’s terror.

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This hungry, menacing demon dream swamp metaphorically overflows into her conscious existence. First, Rachel (voiced by Milojevic) abruptly loses her best friend, Alice (voiced by Amanda Fur) when their college expels Alice for surreptitiously cheating off Rachel’s exam. Then, after Rachel pleads vainly with her mother (voiced by Deborah Adams) to forego a simple driving errand in an icy blizzard, Rachel receives the worst of all calls:

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Finally, adding to Rachel’s growing horror, the relentless swamp dream demon returns, this time with unholy help as Rachel’s mother, apparently casting blame for the accident, joins him in terrorizing her.

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The only seeming positive in Rachel’s waking life is the sudden appearance of dark, handsome, and very mysterious fellow student, Blake, who quickly, and quite literally, entrances her:

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Eventually, we gain the eerie sense of having missed a key scene along the way. By the time both we, and Rachel, learn what’s missing, it’s hideously late in the game … maybe too late.

Milojevic’s unhurried but increasingly suspenseful pace of revelation here renders The Swamp’s sudden finale all the more shocking, while the denouement “chaser” is served up suitably well chilled.

Milojevic emigrated with her family from Serbia to America at age 6. Since 2008, by day, she pursues an undergraduate degree in English Writing with a minor in Communications from Boston’s Simmons College. After-hours, she pursues her calling as an independent audio drama producer at which she steadily has improved.

For example, The Swamp, actually enlarged and scripted from a high school English Lit writing exercise, comes smartly decorated with background and bridging music so discriminately selected that I wished to hear the scoring again apart from the play.

Appearing instinctively to leverage her visual-impairment, Milojevic also aptly employs her keenly attuned hearing to evoke college environs and voices as binaural backdrop to her drama. You’ll need headphones or good stereo speaker separation to catch this particular nuance, but listen closely to this clip from The Swamp in which a professor’s voice seems at first to wander about randomly until we realize that he’s passing out student exam sheets:

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Having already completed over ten independent audio productions, Milojevic has also begun to create Spirit Blade Underground Alliance series episodes of Out of the Night in collaboration with Spirit Blade producer, Paeter Frandsen.

Ms. Milojevic, who aspires to graduate work at UMass and, thereafter, to teach Braille, seems also to be well underway with a moonlight career as a talented independent audio producer and voice actor.

Hear Tanja Milojevic’s The Swamp on the Audio Drama Showcase at CaptainRadio.com, and listen to all her productions at LightningBoltTheaterOfTheMind.Mypodcast.com.

 

Until next time, Audionauts, this is Captain Radio™, signing off!

 

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Captain Radio Reviews Tanja Milojevic’s The Swamp from Lightningbolt Theater of the Mind

 

* Rating based on the Audio Drama Directory Ratings System.


 

Filed Under: American, Captain Radio Reviews, Drama, Horror, Lightningbolt Theater of the Mind, Mystery, Paeter Frandsen, Radio Drama, Spirit Blade, Tanja Milojevic

Captain Radio Review: Too Much of a Good Thing

May 19, 2011 By 2 Comments

Captain Radio Audio Reviews

Graphic - FunGraphix.com | Theme music - Shane Lamb

Title: Too Much of a Good Thing
Producer: Elsa Lankford and Black Crow Productions
Type: Comedy/Drama
Genre: Social Satire

Rating: AD-G* (mild swearing)
Availability: Free to Listen on PRX (Free Listener Registration Required)

Greetings, Audionauts – Captain Radio here with a review of Elsa Lankford’s Too Much of a Good Thing from Black Crow Productions.

Some global cultures have well-known, presumably independent news gathering outfits working alongside reasonably respectable commercial enterprises.

American news-gathering falls largely upon the shoulders of both commercial and intensely-sponsored “public” organizations.

Both, of late, have received their fair share of cynical criticism for dubious content, methods, objectivity, and, importantly, independence.

The separation between news and sponsorship can become precariously blurred, as our Too Much of a Good Thing protagonists learn while watching “news” that seems more broken than “breaking”:

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Laura, a wannabe mystery writer (voiced by Danielle Lenhard), and her Helen Reddy-obsessed intimate roommate, Trina (voiced by Lankford) step outside to try to fathom the news frenzy engulfing the house next door.

When Trina defends neighborhood trash collector Joey (voiced by Patrick Zemeral) from media pillorying, “ace” live reporter Dank Stevens (voiced by James Armstrong) soundly repudiates her:

[SOUND BYTE]

The reporter then presses on to fast-breaking coverage of … unicorn abuse.

Soon, a furtive figure recruits the amenable ladies to investigate the mysterious comings-and-goings in the neighborhood, just as the old News Director at “Channel 7.5” (voiced by Grace Enriquez), explains the (sad) facts of news evolution to Dank:

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When neighborhood uber-gossip Mrs. Lewis (Enriquez again) abruptly is hired and upgraded to become the new Channel 7.5 News Director, Lankford unleashes through her a droll and thinly veiled volley at network newsgathering credibility:

[SOUND BYTE]

Satire eventually shifts more toward a genuine mystery, and imperiled Laura and Trina uncover a plot so large and so sinister that even Monty Python writer/director Terry Gilliam’s dark fancy would be tickled.

While the play hints at autobiographical asides and harbors some fun, if not essential, dialog, its virtually unrelenting satire seems all too suited to modern network news-mongering.

Listen to Elsa Lankford’s Too Much of a Good Thing from Black Crow Productions at PRX.org.

During your visit, you may also wish to hear Lankford’s half-hour documentary about a neighborhood bypassed by road construction entitled, Rooted and Unrooted: West Baltimore’s Highway to Nowhere.

Until next time, Audionauts, this is Captain Radio, signing off!

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Captain Radio Reviews Elsa Lankford’s Too Much of a Good Thing from Black Crow Productions

 

* Rating based on the Audio Drama Directory Ratings System.


 

Filed Under: American, Captain Radio Reviews, comedy, Drama, Mystery Tagged With: , , , ,

Captain Radio Review: Saki’s Quail Seed

May 11, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Captain Radio Audio Reviews

Graphic - FunGraphix.com | Theme music - Shane Lamb

Title: Quail Seed (19 Nocturne Boulevard Anthology)
Producer: Julie Hoverson and Wheeality Productions
Type: Drama
Genre: Social Satire

Rating: AD-G*
Availability: Free – 19NocturneBoulevard.com

Greetings, Audionauts – Captain Radio here with a review of Saki’s Quail Seed, adapted and produced by Julie Hoverson and Wheeality Productions.

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High-profile classic literary oracles, like H.G. Wells and George Orwell, have astounded readers with profound and often disturbing scientific and social insights into the future. However, audio drama producer Julie Hoverson holds that lesser-known but certainly competent writers, such as Edwardian era author H.H. Munro, known better by his pen name, Saki, could cleverly employ biting humor to reveal equally rare foresights into mundane matters:

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Struggling small businesses today could garner an insight or two from Quail Seed which opens with Mr. Scarrick, a small-town shop owner who, having just topped off his inventory, abruptly faces dismal Christmas sales:

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However, some local gossips, trying to be discrete as they surreptitiously browse Scarrick’s lowly local establishment before traveling to the big city to make their purchases, witness two bizarre visitations, first, that of an unusual boy:

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Even as the ladies cackle feverishly over the departed boy, a stranger and more imposing customer stalks in:

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In no time the entire exurban community is abuzz, both about the strange visitors and Scarrick’s puzzling perfidy. On subsequent days, shoppers mill about the store, draining the shelves of goods, at last gasping when the strange boy, the imposing man and Scarrick’s deceit all score an encore. With that, the rumor dam crumbles:

[SOUND BYTE]

And no one can resist shopping at Scarrick’s thereafter for fear of foregoing the finale of all this unfathomable intrigue, perhaps … not even you.

Saki’s engaging satire, minimalistically, tastefully, and warmly adapted by Hoverson, might well be served as a delicious after-dinner dessert with a sherry apéritif or Turkish coffee. Though Hoverson jests about making relatively casual casting decisions for her many works thus far, no character of Quail Seed seems truly out of place or unapproachable here. Enjoy.

Listen to Julie Hoverson and Wheeality Production’s adaptation of H.H. Munro’s  Quail Seed currently podcast on the Captain Radio’s Audio Drama Showcase or by visiting 19NocturneBoulevard.com where you can hear three other standout Saki yarns as well as over 60 other short Hoverson pieces.

You can also hear a podcast of Hoverson’s Mark Time Award-winning scifi drama, The Outpost, right here on Radio Drama Revival.

Until next time, Audionauts, this is Captain Radio, signing off!

 

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Captain Radio Reviews Quail Seed from Julie Hoverson and Wheeality Productions

 

* Rating based on the Audio Drama Directory Ratings System.

 

Filed Under: 19 Nocturne Boulevard, Captain Radio Reviews, Classic Retellings, Drama, English, Podcast, Radio Drama Tagged With: , , , ,

Captain Radio Review: Harrison Quest

May 4, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Captain Radio Audio Reviews

Graphic - FunGraphix.com | Theme music - Shane Lamb

Title: Harrison Quest
Producer: Justin Piasecki
Type: Comedy
Genre: Fan Fiction Satire
Rating: AD-PG13*
Availability: Free – HarrisonQuest.com (available at iTunes as well)

Greetings, Audionauts – Captain Radio here with a review of Harrison Quest from Justin Piasecki.

Ironically, social media networking seems to be creating more and more iconoclastic but energetically bound and resolute subcultures within our increasingly disaffected society.

Our poster child for the day, then, is the Sons of Ford, a bickering, potty-mouthed, occasionally rowdy klatch of young males all ultimately cinched together in blind devotion to superstar Harrison Ford. However, at their weekly meeting to sort through Ford’s trash, the Sons discover their failsafe scheme to aggrandize Ford will soon be despoiled big time by the celeb himself:

[SOUND BYTE]

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The race is on, but the obstacles just keep a’ comin’. First, Simon (voiced by Piasecki) fails to register the Sons fan booth at the annual GalaxiCon that Ford attends, defaulting the slot to odious archrivals, the Harrison Ford Fan Club, led by sadistic Desoto (voiced by McCoy Jen). Then, unbeknownst to the Sons, Desoto plants Joel (voiced by Matthew Novak) as a spy in the Sons’ midst to capture the secret movie script. If that weren’t enough, unbelievers pop up like paint ball targets everywhere, even on a movie date:

[SOUND BYTE]

Stalwart listeners to Harrison Quest episodes gradually grow tolerant enough of the steady stream of expletives to sense how totally enraptured (perhaps self-deluded) Simon, Brent, Eddie, and Horris have become. Their daily lives, their art, even their metaphysics coincide with Ford infatuation. In this scene, brimming with hilarious irony, Horris (voiced by Brad Bogner, on occasion standup comic at NYC’s Eastville Comedy Club) piously exchanges “scripture” with Daniel (voiced by Kai Lahti), a Jehovah’s Witnesses who, erroneously assuming it to be a kindred gathering, shows up for a fan production of “Witness: The Musical”:

[SOUND BYTE]

With time running out, digital whiz Brent (voiced by Dane Williams) concocts a clever plan to foil the superstar’s date with icy Destiny. After sampling Ford’s dialog from various DVD’s, Brent dials up the cryolab to cancel the actor’s upcoming appointment by replaying the samples at opportune moments. All seems at first to go well, until Eddie (voiced by Brad Marriott) decides the lab staff are stone-walling:

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Subplots and random anecdotes abound, all persistently re-enforcing how deeply entrenched fan adoration is in these guys. The tone and mood of Harrison Quest most closely mirrors a zany blue MTV buddy sitcom.

Despite some low-no-budget audio disparities (dialog delivery comes from Piasecki’s former NYU film school cronies, other friends, and the odd stranger, with some lines home-recorded and emailed in from as far afield as Iowa), and despite the proliferation of expletives and adult innuendo, Harrison Quest delivers an intriguing if humorously embellished expose of celeb fandom. As the AD-PG13 rating indicates, this extended spoof is definitely not meant for the kiddies.

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Hear all nine current madcap Harrison Quest episodes, with a surprised-filled “season finale” tenth episode due out soon, at HarrisonQuest.com.

 

Until next time, Audionauts, this is Captain Radio, signing off!

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Captain Radio Reviews Harrison Quest from Justin Piasecki!

As a bonus this time, hear Mason Page’s fun, fired-up rap theme music for the series, We Are the Sons of Ford

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* Rating based on the Audio Drama Directory Ratings System.

Filed Under: American, Captain Radio Reviews, comedy, Podcast, Radio Drama Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Captain Radio Review: New Kids on the Block

April 27, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Captain Radio Audio Reviews

Graphic - FunGraphix.com | Theme music - Shane Lamb

Title: Wireless Theatre Kids
Producer: Wireless Theatre
Type: Drama
Genre: Children’s Educational and Entertainment Audio Plays
Availability: Free and Paid – WirelessTheatreKids.co.uk

Title: Sophie’s Adventures in the Dark
Producer: Matt Brown / Leo Media Ltd
Type: Drama
Genre: Children’s Fantasy
Availability: Paid – Explaudio.com
(Till 5/31/11 – hear it on Captain Radio’s Audio Drama Showcase!)


Greetings, Audionauts – Captain Radio here with reviews of ZooDudes from Wireless Theatre Kids and Sophie’s Adventures in the Dark from Leo Media Limited.

Trouble's Up in Alphabet Town Logo

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Though the sudden Recession still stifles public funding in Britain and elsewhere for audio drama projects, Wireless Theatre boldly pledged, through its new offshoot project, Wireless Theatre KIDS, to continue audio drama production for children. ZooDudes mane-framed Bob Marley-esque Ryan the Lion affirms that vow in his opening metaphorical monologue from the pilot episode of the new series:

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Our pleasantly languid narrator casually oversees the abandoned zoo-vivers who seem prone to traditional Celtic internecine wrangling. While these conflicts and their storylines ultimately emphasize the usual social values, the zany goings-on are entertainingly interstitched with UN-usually catchy tunes:

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In addition to such original audio content, Wireless Theatre Kids will feature more traditional fare, such as fairytales, like The Gingerbread Man, nursery rhymes, and poetry. They also offer more sophisticated works for older children, such as an abridged version of Romeo and Juliet performed by a cast of collegiates from West Thames College of London.

 

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Another funding dearth victim was an experimental interactive kids audio game prototype that BBC commissioned in 2009 to 360 digital media company, Gamelab UK. Despite project termination, GameLab UK chose nonetheless to demonstrate their new 3D audio technology by producing a half-hour static audio play based on the BBC game script:

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In the resultant Sophie’s Adventures in the Dark, the first such drama to have rich 3D audio animation applied in post-production, multi-talented sound engineer and producer, Matt Brown, depicts all characters other than the fretful but plucky protagonist, voiced by Georgia Collins.

Even with a lower-quality audio compression file, listeners with headphones or good home theater surround systems easily perceive the immersive spherical point-of-view.

Also, like early gray hairs, the script’s gaming roots often show through, sometimes viscerally absorbing listeners. Check out this clip in which Sophie races through the whacky-hacky hell of Decapitation Alley with her unique ally, skeletonal Lord Smythe, rattling in more ways than one while clinging to her back:

[SOUND BYTES]

For a limited time only until May 31st, audiophiles and kids can hear Sophie’s Adventures in the Dark on Captain Radio’s Audio Drama Showcase. You can also go online anytime to obtain this, the first 3D audio animation, from Matt Brown and Leo Media Limited, as well as other new 3D audio dramas from Explaudio.com. While online, you can also find more entertaining and educational childrens audio productions at WirelessTheatreKids.co.uk.

 

Until next time, Audionauts, this is Captain Radio, signing off!

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Captain Radio Reviews ZooDudes from Wireless Theatre for Kids and Sophie’s Adventures in the Dark from Leo Media Limited!

 

 

Filed Under: Captain Radio Reviews, Drama, Fantasy, Mariele Runacre Temple, Podcast, Radio Drama, UK and Ireland, Wireless Theatre Company Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,
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