A Bite of Stars, A Slug of Time, and Thou - Episode 11

Victoria de Rijke joins Mark Sinker and Elisha Sessions to talk about “Aye, and Gomorrah”, a tale of sexless astronaut prostitutes and the people who worship them. I’m not making that up! It was written by Samuel R. Delany in 1966 and Elisha reads it at the beginning in case you haven’t. Music is “I Blood Brother Be” by the Shock Headed Peters.

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A Bite of Stars, A Slug of Time, and Thou - Episode 10

“Track 12″ by J.G. Ballard gets Slugged this week, with Richard Thomas joining Mark Sinker and Elisha Sessions to discuss it. Elisha reads this odd story of revenge via home recording in case you haven’t; music comes courtesy of John Foxx, Stero Total and Iannis Xenakis, and there’s a miniature laboratory cyclone thrown in for good measure.

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A Bite of Stars, a Slug of Time, and Thou - Episode 9

We pick up with Pete Baran joining Mark Sinker and Elisha Sessions for “Zirn Left Unguarded, The Jenghik Palace in Flames, Jon Westerley Dead”, written in 1972 by Robert Sheckley, read here by Elisha. Music includes the Electro Hippies, Pere Ubu, DJ Rolando, and Marlene Deitrich. Originally broadcast Sept. 9, 2008, on Resonance FM 104.4.

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Slugs on parade

The slugs of time ooze back onto your radio dials tomorrow night at 10pm! The frequency you’ll need to tune into is the perpetually double-booked Resonance FM 104.4 in London, which also does a live web stream. If you miss it however - FEAR NOT. After each show airs, we’ll be tacking these new episodes onto the podcast, which you can subscribe using either of these links (iTunes users should choose the iTunes link). You can also listen to them right from your web browser whenever you like.

For those unfamiliar with A Bite of Stars, a Slug of Time, and Thou, it’s an exhumation and revivification of old avant-garde and speculative science fiction short stories, hosted by MARK SINKER and ELISHA SESSIONS and a studio guest. Elisha reads the story for you at the front of the programme and then it gets talked about. Our M.O. is respectful frivolity and enthusiasm — we’re not sci-fi experts and we don’t need you to be either.

Our story this week is the frankly nutso “Zirn Left Unguarded, The Jenghik Palace in Flames, Jon Westerley Dead”, by Robert Sheckley, written in 1972. Our guest is PETER BARAN (we warned you).

http://freakytrigger.co.uk/slugoftime

olympic fashion watch - prequel

during the 2006 winter olympics in turin i developed an overweening and somewhat embarrassing crush on tempestuous skateuse IRINA SLUTSKAYA—she of the apple cheeks, mousy hair and how shall i put this—pleasing thickness that one does not normally associate with ice skaters.

something else one doesn’t normally associate with ice skaters is clothes you might actually want to wear yourself. but in 2006 russia had it goin on. their motif was a kind of cross between a paisley shape and a garland (or a zapf dingbat), and when applied to a straight-up indie gas-station attendant vibe i found the russian outfits almost as irresistable as a certain ice skater who wore them. (they also had their own twee mascot, the venerable cheburashka, who may have contributed to a new Olympic trend.)

it’s unnecessary to detail the hours i spent trying to track down the hoodie in the above photo. oh i was desperate, had taken leave of my senses. 1/2-inch enamel souvenir pins on ebay with the above garland/paisley design were enough to start me salivating. in the end i forgot about it. but here come the olympics again, taunting me with their inaccessible vestments, reminding me of the ones that got away. it appears that the company which made those russian outfits still have a web site and it’s being revamped. a dormant spark of hope flares up. are you out there, boscosport? do you do trackbacks? i’m an easy mark.

Foiled again! etc etc

Unlike, say, sailing, fencing is a naturally telegenic sport. Violent and shrouded in darkness with dramatically spot-lit little runways for the fencers to jab at each other, each point of a bout will take up at most a few seconds of one’s precious, attention-deficit-addled time. In fact, bouts at this highest of levels are like that old nature film of the grizzly bear swiping salmon from a stream - the crucial action simply takes place faster than a human can see it. Like chess players, fencers are always several moves ahead of what’s actually happening. But with the camera and playback technology available today, every bind, circle-parry and change of engagement can be slowed down, isolated, remarked upon and put into the context of the bout. And like the other combat sports, fencing requires ingenuity, creativity and grace yet thankfully doesn’t depend on a judge somewhere. You either hit somebody or you don’t. … read on …

Who Aggregates the Aggregator Aggregators?

And perhaps more importantly - who cares? If the impending closure of the obnoxiously “Web 2.0″ BBC Sound Index this Friday is any guide, the answer is pretty clear.

Oh sure, the site boasts more than 22 million “comments, posts, plays and views”, but those comments and posts are all from OTHER sites like YouTube, last.fm, iTunes, myspace, and the like. Sound Index sent automated “robot” scripts to these sites looking for the names of bands, fed what it found into some kind of magic algorithm, and produced a constantly updated list of the 1000 buzziest bands on the planet. Or well, the English-speaking planet. Probably. Slap some shiny, gumdrop-like buttons on the results, organise things with a direct rip-off of the iTunes “Coverflow” feature and hey presto.. well, what exactly? … read on …

A Bite of Stars, a Slug of Time, and Thou - Episode 8

Kat Stevens joins Mark Sinker and Elisha Sessions to talk about Choose Your Own Adventure books, speaking with animals, and “Build Up Logically”, an unclassifiable short story written in 1950 by Howard Schoenfeld. It’s about two men who can summon the entire universe from thin air but spend most of their time at parties. Elisha reads the story in case you haven’t.
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wedding season again

it’s the time for tying up loose ends, setting projects on the shelf, letting bygones be bygones and preparing to go meet the world. school’s out, but not forever — who’d want that? the promise of this escape relies on being secretly ready for the reassuring itchiness of our return.

in the meanwhile we may just allow a blitheness to unsettle our hearts and carry us away to someplace Else. for a space. but before THAT there’s the concluding episode of the slug of time radioshow, airing this tuesday on resonance FM at 10pm but quite possibly available as a sneak peek here first, as a thank you to our listener(s).

bon voyage, bon vivants!

A Bite of Stars, a Slug of Time, and Thou - Episode 7

Ken Hollings joins Mark Sinker and Elisha Sessions to talk about “The Tactful Saboteur”, a tale of civil servants and their multi-phase sexual life cycles. Written by Frank Herbert in 1964, it’s read by Elisha at the front of the programme. Music this week is “Funiculaire” by Readymade.

Next - “Build Up Logically” by Howard Schoenfeld

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