Jan. 9th, 2014

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BBC

Because the BBC knows what it's doing when it comes to cross-platform synchronicity, Radio 4 Extra is rerunning The Return of Sherlock Holmes with all-time favourite canon Holmes, Clive Merrison.
The Empty House - Holmes is back in London and – surprise! – not dead. Expires Monday so listen quick!
The Norwood Builder - An important fable for some animation studios of my acquaintance. And yes, that is Wallace.
The Dancing Men - Fun with cryptography!
The Solitary Cyclist - Ladies, getting a job and riding a bicycle is dangerous business.
The Priory School - The son of a dignitary disappears from his posh boarding school ... no Grimm references though.

The Long, Long Trail is a programme from the '60s collecting the songs of the Tommies of the Great War, which was adapted to the stage as Oh What A Lovely War. It's interesting on its own but doubly so to compare it to now: on one hand I can't possibly imagine modern girls pressuring their lads to sign up, but on the other it's a little refreshing to hear modern levels of snark in these jolly tunes, given how the era is commonly popularised.

John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme is rerunning from the start. John Finnemore. Sketch show. That is all you need to know to make an informed decision. This one has Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Intervention and the story of a man with a dream which quite remarkably resonates with my generation of animation school graduates.

Sredni Vashtar - a sickly boy and his polecat ferret ... If I ever make an NFB film this will be it.

The Unbelievable Truth, episode 1 of the new series, is possibly one of the funniest episodes of a very funny panel game. Of particular note is how early on Mr Mitchell starts getting down Mr Wehn's throat about The War. This one expires Monday, so hop to it. And Episode 2 has John Finnemore in it.

CBC

A word about CBC programmes before any links: they stay up a lot longer than the BBC ones so I tend not to link to them as urgently, but there's a lot of goodness up there if you're looking for a mine of brain food. Ideas, The Sunday Edition, Q, and Day 6 are consistently high deliverers if you want somewhere to start, and This is That is surprisingly funny and a good insight into the Canadian character.

Unfortunately the 'listen' links on the programme websites don't always launch correctly, and I'm not sure any Flash player is good enough for the CBC's Radio Player. Luckily they put out a lot of their shows as podcasts, and you can stream them on iTunes as well, I just can't link to those streams directly. If you like the sound of a show I've linked but can't get it to work on the website I've linked to, try looking it up on iTunes.

Also, I can't say enough good things about the CBC radio app, which is a million times more reliable than the browser player with all the same content. It's available for Apple and Android, so if you like having the CBC on demand, check it out.

I took advantage of the holidays to catch up on a lot of Ideas. One of my favourites was The Fool's Dilemma: most of us believe we are much more clever and worthy than we actually are, we are attracted to certainty and confidence over correctness, and those who have a more accurate self-image or appraisal of the world are depressive and pessimistic. It suffers a bit from creeping Radiolab influence but is a fascinating programme nonetheless.

On a jauntier note is an excellent feature from This is That on the first L.A. food truck to do business on the freeway. A+ you guys, you nailed it.

Uncalled-for Rant

Going by the opinions of people I know, I am probably the only person in the world who is irritated by the overproduced auditory busyness of Radiolab. As long as it stays on Radiolab it's fine – the people who like it can listen to it and I don't have to – but the producers of other radio documentaries are falling under its sparkly spell, so factual content and clarity are suffocated under flashy filters, quirky music, ersatz conversations, sound effects, and editing techniques. Even this might not bother me so much if it didn't bring up uncomfortable memories of what happened to the Discovery Channel, then the Learning Channel, then the History Channel, and then PBS as it started to tailor its programming for resale to this network; or how all of NPR came more and more to resemble This American Life and I gave up trying to get useful information from it.

So no, if you were going to ask, I don't listen to Radiolab. And I don't listen to Welcome to Night Vale either, because while I deeply appreciate the premise, it hits too many of my 'argh NPR' buttons to be able to appreciate it for what it is. I am happy to see it being so popular because it's turning people on to radio drama who would never have considered it otherwise, and more popular support for this beautiful and versatile art form is no bad thing. But ... I need some time.

December 2023

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