Voting for the 2008-2009 Uni Awards is now closed! Thanks to everyone for participating!
The Uni Gala will be July 7th!
Page 178 of 180
It’s HERE! It’s HERE! It’s FINALLY HERE!
BROWNCOATS STEP UP AND GET YOUR FULL LENGTH CD OF FIREFLY OLD WOUNDS MUSIC!
Straight from the Composer/Songwriter- Sharon Bee!
FOURTEEN TRACKS OF ORIGINAL MUSIC INSPIRED BY THE AMAZING FIREFLY SERIES BY JOSS WHEDON!
Check out the music
Buy the CD!!!
Bring back the great memories of the first Firefly Audio Drama with Sharon Bee’s inspiring ode to Browncoats everywhere!
Here it is folks Uni Awards.
PLEASE vote if you’re a regular listener to the Sonic Society.
You’ll need a code word to properly fill out the form. Listen to the Sonic Society shows and
GOOD LUCK TO OUR FINALISTS!
Come vote for the Unis! The 2nd Annual Sonic Society Awards you vote for, for our year of Audio Drama. Voting begins today with the ending of our final regular season.
Anyone who is a regular listener of the Sonic Society (podcast, radio broadcast, direct download or internet streaming) is encouraged to put your thoughts to the page. Please do not ask people who do not listen to the show to vote. We’d really want to keep this as honest and fair as possible!
THANKS SO MUCH. Your Nomination form is HERE.
Good luck to ALL who contributed! Our thanks to you!
A milestone in audio production often goes unheralded, but here’s one that we can all cheer about. Recently, in a conversation Jerry Robbins mentioned to me that with their latest releases of Moonfleet and Perry Mason, Colonial Radio Theatre has put out 300 shows for purchase in its fourteen years of existence. That’s an amazing production rate by any standard.
So cheers to you Jerry Robbins, Mark Vanderberg, and all the great folks in Colonial Radio. May the next 300 be as fantastic as the first!
Another great coup for Sonic Gold! Perry Mason and the Case of the Velvet Claws will be playing at the end of May for Sonic Gold Special #2!
While old time radio ran the Perry Mason series for almost a decade, only Colonial Radio Theatre has been creating audio drama based on the great thrillers by Mason’s author Erle Stanley Gardner.
With Jerry Robbins himself solidly playing everyone’s favourite Attorney, and backed up by the fabulous Diane Capen and J.T. Turner, Sonic Gold is fortunate enough to be playing Perry and “The Case of the Velvet Claws” one of these great original stories.
Hold tight for the end of May for pure gold!
To say that I love “Barrymore” produced by Colonial Radio Theatre, written by William Luce and starring Jerry Robbins, is like saying kids appreciate Halloween. There’s just not enough adjectives in the English language to describe this theatrical experience. One gets the feeling that you’re not listening to an audio drama, but you’re experiencing a night out to a Broadway Stage.
The production is crisp, and captures enough sound to support Robbin’s portrayal of John Barrymore. A portrayal which expertly sifts through the many moods and madnesses of the late master.
If, like me, you’re building your audio library this is a must buy. And even if, you’re not considering making a large collection, this is the show you’ll want to hear time and time again- and remember when Hollywood and the American Stage held court with Kings.
Damn you Stevie Farnaby and Bill Hollweg!
I’m making my lunch and tonight’s dinner for my boys and I and I’ve got my laptop set out on the kitchen counter- everyone should listen to Audio Drama while working in the kitchen- and I’m listening to Broken Sea’s latest adaptation Escape from New York.
The 1981 Kurt Russell vehicle was loads of B-flick action fun when I was a kid, and I’m feeling this surge of excitement and nostalgia as the original motion picture soundtrack comes up.
The rough retort of cocked weapons, the steady thrum of helicopters stroking through the air, you can almost taste the industrial paste of grease, gunpowder, and blood. Escape from New York has all the things I loved about 80’s sci-fi films like Bladerunner and Mad Max, great distopic backdrops, hardboiled heroes, and a lot of wanton destruction.
So what’s my problem? Why am I cursing Farnaby and Hollweg?
Because just a few years ago, non-commercial audio drama often came across as clearly amateur and something hard core hobbyists would just engage in.
Vocal levels and acting are usually uneven, and production moved consistently on a sliding scale.
But it seems almost single-handedly Hollweg and in the case of Escape- Farnaby are raising the bar for audio production.
Joyously Stevie (and he is joyous trust me) relates the copious number of tracks he’s used to produce the power-packed sound that Escape from New York produces.
Now don’t get me wrong, other producers are bringing out equally stellar results in their productions, and if I begin naming them I will undoubtably forget a few, but I’ve noticed both Farnaby and Hollweg take special masochtic glee in the universe of sound they provide.
And the results? WOW, WOW, and triple WOW.
Escape from New York is something I’m going to listen again with headphones, and again, and again. I’m already salivating at the prospect of Episode 2.
The acting, and the scripts (also penned by Hollweg) are all up to Broken Sea’s usual quality with veteran’s like Mark Kalita, Bruce Busby, Robin Carlisle, Natasha Lathrop with Jester Timm Gillick channeling Kurt Russell’s “Snake Plisken”, but its the lovingly rendered production that makes the lazy audio editor in me curse Farnaby for raising the bar!
So approximately 24 years ago, I had a vision. I haven’t had too many of them, but this one seemed pretty clear. Computers were in their infancy but I could see as they struggled to create digital images that one truth would come to pass.
Some day, in the none too distant future they would make brand new movies, taking the images of old favourite actors and by scanning them, make them move and behave visually in new ways. So we’d see Steve McQueen in a “new” movie, Marilyn Monroe sing and laugh up a storm in a new musical comedy reuniting her with Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon. They’d all be young, vital, and their facial and body movements would be unerringly “real”. The computers would have scanned their movements in the dozens of films they were in, and sophisticated software would have the “Monroe Character” and the “Lemmon Character” ready to take their marks in a cybernetic stage.
I could see that for the first releases of these movies, “sound alike” voice actors would lip-sync with the pictures but eventually even a program would be designed that would analyse their speech patterns and allow someone to put in any lines you want.
This new kind of film making would eventually be cheaper than making films the old fashioned way, and people would always want to see their favourite stars in the prime of their youth whether they were Clark Gable or Johnny Depp. This would put struggling actors out of work permanently for everything but “art” films or “independents”, and I envisioned a kind of return to vaudeville for those who still were bitten by the acting bug.
Hey… I never said it was a good vision. It’s at best a mixed bag.
Twenty plus years later, and the visuals are still getting closer. We’ve been able to make Fred Astaire dance with a vacuum pretty easily, and place modern actors with tribbles, but we’re not quite there yet.
Audio has been even trickier. Check out Talking Gadget Theater: Blade Runner with Kindle 2 and i-Pod Shuffle. Folks are amazed at how much better computer voices have become at reading lines.
I, for one, am very glad we have a thriving, and talented audio drama community to keep the machines at bay… for now at least.
Sonic Gold
I wish I could say this is a metaphor but honest to goodness the Rogers and Hammerstein melody,
“You’ll Never Walk Alone” is running through my head ceaselessly.
And while I’ve been running around like the proverbial chicken for the last week, the truth is, I’ve not walked alone.
This wonderful dream, of completing the circle and not just being able to offer free audio drama to the world, but now, to find a way to offer professional audio drama paid content to those who are interested for a reasonable price as well has just come true.
And while I’m still goofy with three hours sleep, I’d like to thank all of you who made it happen.
From the beginning… Mark Vanderberg from Colonial Radio Theatre who called me up one day this New Year in 2009 and literally said, “Jack, what’s holding up this Sonic Gold idea of yours?”
And then proceeded to offer everything in Colonial’s catalog for the first year to get us out of the gate and through some muscle behind us so I could approach a few other companies.
Jerry Robbins, who I’m proud to call a friend, and who has tirelessly and generously provided Colonials content to me, for this project and for others in the past few years.. and for both of them trusting that I would take care of their audio “children”.
Sable Jak who went to bat for this project for me to Jim French and all the people at Jim French productions, and who sent me the CD’s with so much cool audio drama that I’m kicking myself I haven’t had a chance to hear before.
Angelo Panetta from Radio Repertory Company of America who gave us this awesome taste for Anne Manx on the Sonic Society, and is providing us with a pile more of their product to try out this new way of distributing their own amazing shows.
Scott Hickey for jumping on board with “The Grist Mill” one of my favourite series of all time. Thanks Scott you just said, “What? How? and How Can I help?” Those are the best three questions in the world to answer.
The multi-talented Jon Baker from the famous Dick Dynamo show who emailed me out of the blue and asked, “How can I help? Can I offer you theme music?”, and then worked on MY crazy schedule to get it out. You’re the best Jon, thanks so much.
Speaking of the best, my friend Paul Campbell of Cossmass Productions. Not only has he set up AND hosted the new Sonic Society website that everyone has been raving about, but when I approached him about possible solutions to impliment a solid and secure podcast, he said, “Let me handle it Jack. I’ll build it.”
And he did.
This standing ovation is for you Paul. So much work and time went into this, and while I should have been helping him beta test it, he did it all himself. Patiently dealing with my screw ups with the system, answering my fool questions, and working out solutions to allow Sonic Gold to be accepted by itunes and promoting a range of options for Sonic Gold Members and memberships that I’m going to have to consider for the time to come.
I just can’t say “Thank-you” enough man.
The incredible Matt Leong from Clockwork Media and Draw Something Cool who always donates his awe-inspiring talents as an artist to us. First creating and donating the Sonic Society logo, then at least two posters, and now the Sonic Gold logo that we use. Go get Matt to make you something for your website, or for a friend. His prices are absolutely reasonable, and you couldn’t find a better artist not a more willing partner to make what you need. Matt can do it for you!
Marrcus “Crash” Beatty, who despite some people’s perceptions is the architect and sole creative force behind Audio Drama Talk. I get all kinds of inquiries as to “our site” at ADT, and the fact is while we may have suggested it on our show, Crash is the one who built the best forum I’ve ever seen. We’re just very very grateful to have the ability to play in it, and help out when we can. But talk about the best site for Audio Drama people to get together!
J.T. Shea who put up with “It’s not working. I deleted it again. I can’t find where to publish” while poor Paul was blissfully sleeping, and tested his account before anyone else. Thanks man!
Eric Bensen for coming out to record “The Dead Line” (hear him in the upcoming episode “Messages”!), Biff Straker (and as “Doctor Vester”!) and before everything as the “Waiter” in this first episode of “Sonic Gold Cafe”. Eric is an amazing director of theatre in Halifax, and is so much fun to work with, I can’t tell you.
And finally but not in the least, the least- folks- The Members. We brave and happy few, as Shakespeare put it “We band of brothers (and sisters)”. I am grateful for the Members trusting cash and time to believe in this, and for putting Sonic Gold as well as the Sonic Society as a priority in your lives.
It never escapes my notice that people went out of their way to say, “This is important”.
Business wisdom tells us that a company’s greatest resource is word of mouth from the clients… but I’d go further in this case and say, all the clients to me in Sonic Gold are family. They’ve been very supportive through out the years, above and beyond simply being listeners of the media. My hats off to all.
Wow. What a ride. And its only just beginning.
Episode 2 hits the feed on the 15th with the end of the month beginning our first double-sized feature!
Because great Audio Drama is pure gold!
Thanks Again Everyone,
Jack