Offspring - Americana 03:13 03:13 Smashing Pumpkins - Doomsday Clock 03:42 06:55 First break 02:00 08:55 Rage Against the Machine - Killing in the Name Of (Live) 05:03 13:58 Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - Red Eyes and Tears 04:00 17:58 Eagles of Death Metal - I'm Your Torpedo 05:12 23:10 Hole - Violet 03:25 26:35 Second Break 02:00 28:35 Joy Formidable - Greatest Light/Greatest Shade 05:19 33:54 Local H - Hands on the Bible 03:57 37:51 Veruca Salt - Shimmer Like A Girl 04:03 41:54 Third break 02:00 43:54 Mindless Self Indulgence - Never Wanted to Dance 03:08 47:02 Prodigy - Omen 03:36 50:38 You're listening to... Smashing Pumpkins - Soma 06:39 57:17 Queens of the Stone Age - Song for the Deaf 06:42 63:59 Billy Talent - Cut The Curtains 03:49 67:48 Fourth break and start of wrap-up 02:00 69:48 Pack AD - Haunt You 03:36 73:24 Audioslave - Show Me How To Live 04:37 78:01 Led Zeppelin - Babe, I'm Gunna Leave You 06:42 84:43 The Black Keys - Next Girl Wrap-up Beastie Boys - Here's a Little Somethin' For Ya Nirvana - Territorial Pissings Nine Inch Nails - All the Love in the World (Cut off)
Month: May 2017
Across the Zodiac : The Story of a Wrecked Record
Willy Ley encountered this Mars story in a German translation, and, failing to find the English original (possibly hampered by looking for it under the title Beyond the Zodiac, but Percy Greg was apparently a well-known English author), considered that it might be actually German. The confusion was not helped by the fact that author Greg presents himself as translating a found manuscript. Sam Moskowitz considers it the genesis of the Mars romance so characteristic of the early period of modern science fiction.
Continue reading “Across the Zodiac : The Story of a Wrecked Record”
Tales From SYL Ranch – 2017-05-28
Tales From SYL Ranch
Sunday, May 28, 20:00-22:00 UTC
The Old Fan’s Commentary On
Forbidden Planet
Forbidden Planet is a somewhat different film in terms of a commentary. It’s arguably the best science fiction film of the 1950s.
The 1950s was in some ways similar to the 1980s. Following Star Wars, science fiction exploded in films. However, Sturgeon’s Law held, and 90% of it was crap. Most were consigned to the ashbins of VHS. Some have been re-released on DVD and Bluray for a niche market that likes terrible movies.
The 1950s were similar. The Atomic Age brought with it the idea there would soon be a massive breakthrough in power. They assumed that some day soon, your home or even your car would be nuclear-powered. This triggered an avalanche of science fiction films.
Sturgeon’s Law was as true then as today. 90% of it was crap. A lot of them haven’t survived at all. The ones that did seem incredibly primitive by today’s standards.
Forbidden Planet was one of only two or three stand-out films of the 1950s. This was in no small measure because it was produced by MGM.
At the time, MGM was among the premiere film companies in the world. It didn’t lend its name to half-baked projects. If MGM made a musical, it was a brilliant musical. If MGM made a western, it was a brilliant western.
MGM would never produce Plan 9 From Outer Space, nor giant insects, nor 50-foot-tall women. If MGM was going to lend its name to science fiction, it was going to be brilliant science fiction.
The result is Forbidden Planet. It was glorious. Cultural conceits and technical limitations aside, its ideas and plot still hold up today.
The special effects, while somewhat dated today, were landmark at the time. Even today, some hold up.
The science behind the technology of the film was extremely well thought-out. It looks somewhat dated today but even now it’s very well thought-out. Where it needed technobabble and Hand-Wavium, it was reasoned technobabble and Hand-Wavium.
As always, to set the stage:
This time you have to back farther than me. I first saw Forbidden Planet at the Rigel IV convention in Lincoln, Nebraska. The convention marked my entrance into Star Trek fandom. Until that time, I’d been an individual fan with a bare understanding that fandom existed somewhere. After Rigel V, I was in it for life.
However, I was born in 1965. Forbidden Planet was released in 1956, nine years before.
It was a different world, and one I can only imagine. My only exposure to American culture of the time were my parents’ occasional stories, fictional movies and TV shows, and my own observations on the changes in culture since my birth.
As near as I can determine, this was the world in 1956:
There was nothing that we think of as entertainment. There was television, radio, phonograph records, and personal pastimes (reading, involvement in local sports or organizations, etc).
The commercialization of television was just getting into full swing. Imagine the Internet in the late 1990s. No one but the fabulously wealthy could afford more than one TV. The picture was grainy, low-definition, analog broadcast. The vacuum cleaner could obliterate the picture, not to mention storms.
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To receive TV signals, you needed an antenna (think of it as a low-tech satellite dish). By the time I was born, these antennas dotted the roof of every home and apartment complex. In 1956, one often used a much smaller, less effective interior portable antenna.
The picture still sucked.
There were only three networks (four if you were charitable and counted PBS — which no one did). They didn’t run 24-hour programming. It was typically only 6am – midnight.
TV was black-and-white. Commercialization of color wouldn’t come for another ten years.
There was one phone, a land-line to the house. Sound quality anywhere but in your local town or city was terrible. International calls were spotty at best — not to mention fantastically expensive.
Nothing we take for granted existed. Not even air conditioning had reached the average home. Indeed, air conditioning was a major selling points of movie theaters of the day.
(Ask my kids about the time we went to Blonde Ambition just to get away from the oppressive heat of July in the Upper Great Plains.)
Fashions were radically different for both men and women. Men wore suits and hats. Women wore dresses and rather complicated undergarments. Jeans were becoming acceptable on pre-adult males, but no one over the age of 18 would be found at a job without his suit and tie.
It was certainly a more prudish culture than we think of in 2017. Sex outside of marriage was actively discouraged even by other women. A skirt with a hemline above the knees marked a woman as a slut.
Men were expected to be bread-winners. If one relied on one’s wife for any source of income, a man was shamed by other men. Taking hand-outs from the government, or charity of any kind, was seen as a character flaw. Such a man was a bum, pure and simple.
Religion played a much larger role in American life. Where some 30% of Americans now identify as atheists, the number in 1956 was so low as to be statistically insignificant.
That’s the most I can tell you about the era. I wasn’t there. All I can rely on is history. To my knowledge, that’s what things were like in 1956.
If you’d like to follow along with the commentary, a DVD-quality stream will be available during the live show. After that, you’re on your own.
The URL for the stream is:
DJ hardmous releases his new EP!
aNONradio’s very own Goa/Psy Trance DJ hardmous released his new EP about 2 weeks ago! Please check out his website http://hardmous.beevomit.org/korendians.html and download the album (while it is available!!). Congratulations hardmous and great job!
Tales From SYL Ranch – 2017-05-21
Episode III:
The Old Fan’s Commentary On
The Star Wars Holiday Special
My brain hurts. Just watching this was a chore. I’ve now seen it five times in my life, which was five too many. I can’t even introduce it properly because it’s terrible in ways that are beyond description.
I wouldn’t watch it in advance, despite the fact that I’ll be streaming it from a YouTube version that’s been available for years. In this case, I strongly advise that you pay attention to my commentary rather than the Holiday Special.
It’s really bad. It’s not so bad it’s good, it’s just bad.
Vogon poetry may be the third worst in the universe, but The Star Wars Holiday Special is the worst thing in all of time and space.
It was bad when I first saw it in 1978. It only aired once and never again. It has never been released on any form of home video or official streaming. It survives because by 1978, people were starting to buy VCRs.
The Holiday Special is so bad that George Lucas has disowned it, saying:
“If I had the time and a sledgehammer, I would track down every copy of that show and smash it.”
Fortunately (or not) for posterity, the Internet means that it will never die.
This commentary is about my feelings when seeing this bizarre monstrosity for the first time. It’s the only kind of commentary I can make.
I’ll not be playing The Hitchhiker’s Guide To the Galaxy this week. The Holiday Special is about 1:40. I was faced with the choice of either leaving in H2G2 and stretching this madness into two weeks; or save your sanity by bumping H2G2.
I chose to save your sanity. H2G2 will be back next week.
Also next week: the Old Fan’s Commentary On Forbidden Planet.
To set the stage:
It’s 1978. Everything we’ve come to take for granted didn’t exist. There was no streaming, no Blurays, no DVDs, no CDs, no personal computers of note, no Internet, and even the telephone was only a land-line to your house. VCRs were beginning to hit the market. Cassette tapes had become the medium of choice for personal music.
Star Wars had hit a year before and changed everything. There were no summer blockbusters before Star Wars. There were no gigantic merchandising enterprises before Star Wars. There was no science fiction of note except very, very infrequently before Star Wars.
Star Wars changed everything.
When the Special aired around US Thanksgiving, Lucas was at work on the sequel to Star Wars. I don’t recall if he’d named it at that time. I’d been actively in fandom for at least a year, having joined Star Base Andromeda by then.
While we thought it odd that there would be a holiday-themed special in Star Wars, it could work. The notion of a Wookiee Life Day — if fleshed-out — could be a parallel to Christmas.
What we got was incomprehensible. There were really only two good things about it:
- The entire main cast was in it. According to Harrison Ford, it was stipulated in their contracts and they had no legal way out.
- The cartoon introducing Boba Fett.
Beyond that, it’s a bizarre attempt to fit a variety show into Star Wars. To call this an epic fail would do a disservice to all other fails. It has, among other things:
- Carrie Fisher is obviously out of her mind on blow.
- Mark Hamill is recovering from a car accident that severely injured his face. They put a ton of makeup and a wig on him to (unsuccessfully) hide it. He looks like a cardboard cutout.
- Chewie’s wife is named Mala — but his son is named Lumpy and his father Itchie.
- More than half an hour of un-subtitled Wookiee noises.
- Harvey Korman in multiple roles. The worst is some guy in the Mos Eisley Cantina who pours booze into a hole at the top of his head.
- Art Carney as some kind of rebel sympathizer who’s around primarily to translate the Wookiees. That, and to give Itchy some VR porn.
- Bea Arthur as a singing bartender at the Mos Eisley Cantina.
- Jefferson Starship
- The Wazzan Troupe
Really. It’s all in there — and more. It’s rather indescribable, hence the commentary.
We’ll be streaming the video via YouTube, so feel free to follow along. Again, I advise not watching in advance, nor listening to anything other than my commentary. It’s quite possible to go mad attempting to figure this out.
If you want to follow along, the video is right here; or you can see it at:
Frozen Music Playlist, Episode 3, May 20th, 2017
The The - Soul Mining Siouxsie and the Banshees - Spellbound Rush - Working Man Not You - Mabel Jets Overhead - White Out rickwhitealbum - Back Home Eric's Trip - Viewmaster The Tragically Hip - Highway Girl The Odds - Someone Who is Cool Charlotte Day Wilson - Work Metric - Collect Call Veruca Salt - Get Back Pack AD - Math The Stars
2017-05-18
2017-05-17
Tales From SYL Ranch – 2017-05-14
Tales From SYL Ranch, Sunday May 14, 2017
Episode II:
The Old Fan’s Commentary On Star Wars
Just in time for the film’s 40th anniversary, Tales From SYL Ranch presents Episode II of the Old Fan’s Commentary On Star Wars.
Tales From SYL Ranch can be heard live Sundays on //aNONradio.net// 20:00-22:00 UTC. The station is listed on iTunes, TuneIn, and other streaming services.
Archives are available at //aNONradio.net// and the Internet Archive.
As usual, I’ll have The Hitchhiker’s Guide To the Galaxy and topical music by Maestro John Williams sprinkled throughout.
As with last week’s Episode I, I’m streaming the film if you wish to follow along. I wouldn’t ordinarily do that, but I’m commenting on The Despecialized Edition.
The Despecialized Edition is a fan restoration that lovingly returns the film to nearly the theatrical version. Every shot has been color-corrected, as LucasFilm has never gotten the color right. All scenes added after 1977 have been removed. The original Fox logo and fanfare, original LucasFilm logo, and the original title crawl have been restored.
My HD copy is as close as you can come to a pristine copy of the film reels on opening night.
I’ll not be streaming in HD, nor will the stream be available except during the live show. If you want it (and I highly recommend it) ,find it it the way I did. Bittorrent is your friend.
Tales From SYL Ranch can be heard live Sundays on //aNONradio.net// 20:00-22:00 UTC. The station is listed on iTunes, TuneIn, and other streaming services.
As always, to set the stage:
It’s 1977. Everything we’ve come to take for granted didn’t exist. There was no streaming, no MP3s, no Internet, no personal computers of note. Powerful computers were the size of a warehouse and were only owned by governments, universities, and very large businesses.
Even phones were radically different. There was only one kind: the land-line to your house.
I was 12 years old — the precise target demographic of Star Wars.
I first saw Star Wars a few days after it opened. One has to recall that this was before Star Wars was a phenomenon. Where today one might spend all day in line for an opening, no one knew anything about Star Wars.
I don’t remember much about that first screening because it was totally eclipsed by my second.
The first screening was in an average-sized theater in Omaha, Nebraska. Theaters at that time were generally converted from live theaters and seated several hundred people at least.
The theater was jam-packed. By then, word-of-mouth had spread and people were coming back for additional showings.
One must remember that at that time, there was no home video nor streaming. Films were released for a limited run, and then never again. If you wanted to see a movie, you saw it in a theater or not at all. This partly accounts for Star Wars‘ success. It was so much fun that people flocked back to the theaters rather than miss seeing it a second, third, fourth, or fifth time.
I don’t know how many times I’ve watched Star Wars in the last forty years. It may well number in the thousands. I’ve watched it multiple times every year.
Star Wars is my favorite film of all time. Despite being a Trekkie almost from birth, Star Wars is a film that I can watch my entire life and never get bored.
My first screening of the film completely astonished me. This was totally brand new. There had certainly been space-opera adventures before, but nothing like this. The special effects were simply groundbreaking. The story is probably the perfect Hero’s Journey and never gets old.
As I say, I remember little from the first screening other than being completely blown away. I watched it with my father and best friend and remember walking out of the theater saying to my friend:
“Wow. That was way better than Logan’s Run.”
Keep in mind that pre-Star Wars, there was very little science fiction, neither in films nor television. Star Wars changed everything. After that, there has been a non-stop torrent of science fiction. Logan’s Run was the most recent SF film of note, also with groundbreaking special effects.
They couldn’t hold a candle to Star Wars.
However, my first screening became irrelevant after my second. I watched it at the Indian Hills Theater in Omaha, Nebraska. Sadly, it was demolished in 2001. It’s now a hospital parking lot.
In 1977, it was still in its heyday — and it had a CinemaScope screen.
You’re probably unfamiliar with CinemaScope. It was a very short-lived widescreen format which had a huge curved screen. The effect was the create a more immersive experience by attempting to cover the viewer’s periphery.
Boy, did it ever.
The interior auditorium of the Indian Hills was circular in shape and seated 810 patrons, with 662 on the main floor and 148 on the balcony.
When I arrived for my second showing, the house was already packed. There was absolutely nowhere to sit except dead-center of the front row.
In modern theaters, one avoids such seats due to severe parallax distortion. The Indian Hills, however, had a significant distance between the front row and the screen.
I saw in the front row, dead center …
It was an experience I’ll never forget. The curved screen made it completely fill my field of view, including my periphery.
The experience was barely describable — which is part of why I’m making the commentary. I actually became nauseous during the Trench Run.
To follow along with the amazing adventure of a 12-year-old watching Star Wars in CinemaScope, go to:
Be aware that the link for Star Wars: The Despecialized Edition will only be available during the live show.
Listen in and follow along to hear what it was like for a 12-year-old fan to see Star Wars for the second time — in CinemaScope!
Flashback: Aug 1, 2015 – the aNONradio DJ lineup
This was the DJ line up just a few months after SDF Radio was revived in the summer of 2015 as aNONradio.net! I personally like the show name “Hoary Marmot”. I heard this name mentioned on ‘com’ but I had no idea it was an actual show! LOL
