The time: mid-20th century. The place: The United States of America. The popular medium of entertainment: Radio Drama. Those days are long gone, but the plays remain and mostly for free. Some of the stuff can still be chilling, or hilarious, plus the nostalgia factor of hearing a story by a sci fi writer like Heinlein or an actor like James Stewart who’d go on to be famous.
Antioch 1710AM streams radio plays 24/7 over itunes. Or you can go get individual episodes. A friend’s blog has held a reservoir of CBS Radio Mystery Theater for years. These when done mostly in the 70’s and I remember listening as a kid. For older stuff, check Old Time Radio Downloads, Radio Lovers, Old Time Radio Fans, or Internet Archive. Often a show was endorsed by one specific company or product, which you’ll hear during the break. Occasionally, those recording accidentally catch other commercials a PSA’s of the era.

A strange as it seems, some series didn’t last long and not much is known about them today, such as The Weird Circle. I tend to enjoy the horror, sci fi, cop and suspense stuff the most. Lots of Poe adaptations, if only he got a chance to know how much they loved to adapt him in the mid-20th… BTW, Poe celebrated what would have been the 200th BDay back in mid-Jan.

This looks like a rather amazing line up – can’t imagine how it’s free… I guess some car companies still have huge advertising budgets. But how many headbanger metalheads can they get driving Scions, no matter how customized?
It’ll probably be a packed madhouse by the time Mastadon and Neurosis take the stage, but hopefully I can have a reasonably pleasant experience if I try to catch Boris and Harvey Milk.

I don’t know if you’ve been following the hype with the release of this film, mostly concerning Rourke’s “comeback”, but part of the excitement for me was picturing Aronofsky’s trademark directorial style in the mix – stopmotion sped up, quick montage of micro clips in sequence to convey an abstracted mood. Sadly there is none of that. But it’s a good film anyway. Marisa Tomei looks amazing at 44, Rourke does indeed deliver. It’s really a “small” film, and would be a downer for most. All the locations are decidedly authentic Jersey and non-Hollywood. It was a stark contrast to all the trailers beforehand (and to be fair, they are gearing up for spring blockbuster season) which all centered around mutants, apocalyptic scenarios, and science fiction. This was very much a film about, and set in reality, despite dealing with the human truth behind the fantasy industries of wrestling and stripping. No glamor here.

No spoilers, but at first, the ending didn’t sit well with me. It seemed somehow cliche “Hollywood”, but then thinking about it a bit, I realized there were at least two other directions they could have gone which would have been more “Hollywood”, both tragic and romantic. So in the end, I would recommend you see this film, but there’s no need to rush to the big screen. After scoring a hit with this stripped down work, an almost too deliberate move after The Fountain, I’ll be curious to see what Aronofsky does next. And Rourke for that matter.

“Rock ‘n’ Roll specialists”

I love this show, and am happy to find from the one episode I’ve seen from season 2 so far, the quality is being maintained. Sometimes the song bits can be a bit much, but sometimes they are spot on. It’s hard not to draw comparisons to the comedy of The Mighty Boosh, or Tenatious D, but if you think about it, I’d argue they have their own original style going. Good support from characters like Mel and Murray help as well. Here’s a recent interview. Clips.