Who's Next Who?

No earlier does David Tennant announce that he's leaving Doctor Who after 3 and a bit seasons (they call them 'series') than the speculation begins on who'll be the 11th incarnation. Several of their choices are interesting,but there are two possibilities the oddsmakers haven't yet mentioned.

One is Adrian Lester. When I first saw him in the lead of Primary Colors I didn't realize he was English. (I say he's the lead, despite the sixth billing he's given. Watch and decide for yourself.) When I watched him in the first three seasons series of Hu$tle, I recognized his versatility and capabilities as a leading man.  Having seen his filmed Shakespeare and read reviews of his stage work, I have come to accept he's a very gifted actor.  Most recently he did a so-so series called Bonekickers that  I hardly bothered to continue watching, but we keep our eyes out for him.  Awhile back I thought he'd make a splendid James Bond, but obviously a great choice was made with Daniel Craig.  But I'm not giving up on hoping something will propel Lester to the stardom he deserves, and the TARDIS may just be the vehicle he needs.

Another thought: How's about a woman?  (Joanna Lumley's turn in 3-time Hugo winner Stephen Moffat's Doctor Who and the Curse of Fatal Death doesn't count. If it did, we'd have to put Tennant as about the 14th Doctor or so.)  I'm not sure who the best Who as a woman would be, but I'd love to hear ideas.

Of the more widely speculated-upon contenders, I think James Nesbitt might be the most likely and the best choice.  His characters are comic and dark, and he has a long-standing relationship with Moffat (who's taking over the show after this mini-series) in such gems as Jekyll.  He would be, as they say across the waters, Brilliant!

Fantasy For A Spell

October is usually Fantasy time on the radio show, and this year is no exception.  Joining me for the month is Veronica Schanoes.  (That's Professor Schanoes, thank you very much.)

Our first program, October 11th, was mostly chat and Veronica Professor Schanoes read one of her stories.  To hear it, click here.

Coming up next is a wonderful reading/lecture Terri Windling and Howard Gayton did recently at KGB Fantastic Fiction. I'll be at Capclave, so Veronica will host on her own.  (Send assurances -- she'll be great!)

The next week, 11/25 will be a quick fix:  we'll decide the agenda after this weekend.  And of course, the week after is All Hallow's Eve.   Be afwaid.  Be vewwy vewwy afwaid...

    "Let's have a party it's a full moon in the sky,
    It's the hour of the wolf and I don't want to die."
                                                  -- Danny Elfman

The Friday after the Meltdown

Friday, September 19, I was to interview Michael A. Burstein for a November broadcast regarding his new book, "I Remember the Future." The station is located at 120 Wall Street, and I took the express bus from Brooklyn with the idea of walk across town on Wall. I hadn't rtealized that it was yet another day of announcements of closures, bailouts, and political posturing about The Street I was upon. The scene was a maelstrom, and these pictures show the tip of the iceberg. I love the guy in the bowler, but I gotta believe he was an actror or model posing for a camera I didn't see.

BTW, the interview with Michael was really good, and should air 11/29.

Has the Large Hadron Collider destroyed the world yet?

Has the Large Hadron Collider destroyed the world yet?

On Wings of Disch

This past June 3rd we held the final event of the season at the New York Review of Science Fiction Readings. The readers were Karen Russell and Thomas M. Disch.

I cannot claim to have known Tom well, but I ran into him at memorable points throughout my life. When I began volunteering at WBAI at age 13 I was an intern for the Drama and Literature director, Baird Searles. Bai (that's both WBAI and Baird) was a magnet for sf writers in those days -- I met Joanna Russ, Chip Delany, and Theodore Sturgeon as well as Disch in the few years before Searles left the station in 1970.

When Margot Adler began Hour of the Wolf in 1972, Tom was one of her early guests. in those days I was her co-host on Thursdays and Fridays, which she dubbed the Science Fiction Spectaculars. At one point, Margot, Disch and David Hartwell (as I recall) served jury duty together, and I'd go downtown to lunch with them in a Thai restaurant in Chinatown. Some time later, after I'd taken over Hour of the Wolf (and Margot began Unstuck in Time) I had Tom on the show myself. He was always irascible and entertaining, and it was always a pleasure and honor to have him on the air. He read well enough, but gave great interviews and even better phone calls.

He did manage to annoy me once in the late 70s. He was scheduled to be on the show and just never showed up. Given that the program begins at 5 AM, I am usually not appalled to find that someone may turn up missing, but his phone was off the hook. (Remember hooks?) When I got in touch with him the next day Tom said off-handedly that he simply decided a day or two before that 3 AM was too early for him to wake up. I'm willing to concede the point, and I can handle a show quite well, thank you, without a guest or even a plan, but if he changed his mind the least he might have done was phone or leave a message.

That was the last time I offered to have Tom on the show. It wasn't, however, the last time I broadcast him. I co-produced a radio drama of "Fun With Your New Head" (verbatim to the printed word, but presented as if it was an advertisement) with the wonderful voice and sounds of audio maestro Frank Heller.

In fact, I recorded Tom several times in the intervening years, particularly at the NYRSF Readings. Disch and Delany were, as this faulty memory serves, among the very first readers at NYRSFr@Dixon Place when Gordon Van Gelder started the series. He last read about 10 years ago, featuring "The Troll of Sure Would Forest."

Last year Henry Wessell guest-curated a tribute to Avram Davidson and put Disch on the program. At that event I was promoting/boasting of the following month's festivities: a performance of excerpts from Delany's "The Star Pit", which Baird Searles had produced for WBAI in 1967. Something clicked for Tom, and he remembered me from when I was 13. This brought us back into dialogue for the first time in over a decade, and eventually led to my booking him (through Tachyon, publisher of The Word of God) for the reading on June 3rd. His only condition was transportation to and from the reading.

When June 3rd came around, we discovered that we had somehow been double-booked in the Melville Gallery with the Packet Singers -- a wonderful sea-shanty singing group. Thanks to the quick-witted abilities of the Seaport Museum's facilities manager, we moved to an alternate (allegedly haunted) space in their main facility.

Tom showed up looking a bit piqued, but pleased at the turnout. He was in good spirits; happy, gregarious, and quite enamored of his new role as God. (Read the book.)

I won't go into the blow-by-blow of the event -- Mark Blackman posted this detailed review of the evening at SF Scope, and you'll be able to hear it for yourself soon. (Details below.) While Tom required a small, sturdy table to sit upon for his reading, I hadn't realized just how bad his legs were until we adjourned to Ryan Maguire's, our after-events pub. It took help from Norman Spinrad and myself and about 15 minutes to get Tom the 2-1/2 blocks to the pub. After arrival, he was in decent shape.

When the dining and drinking was concluded, Barbara and I went to fetch the car out of hock at the nearby lot. Norman brought Tom to the corner to await us. Tom had assured us he'd be fine standing there, but when we arrived 5-10 minutes later, he was sitting on the sidewalk looking quite forlorn, with Norman at a loss what to do. We managed to trundle him into the car, and set off.

En route, I arranged to talk with Tom early in July to set up a recorded interview to complement the reading for a full two-hour broadcast. (I had the other reader Karen Russell on live this past Saturday.) I would have called Tom yesterday, July 7, had it not been that I heard of his suicide the day before through a post by Ellen Datlow.

This is the second time Tom Disch has managed to make himself unavailable for a scheduled interview. And once again, I'm really upset at him.

---

• All of Barbara Krasnoff's pictures of the event are at http://picasaweb.google.com/BarbaraKras/NYRSFReading06032008
  
• Thomas M. Disch's reading from The Word of God will be broadcast on Hour of the Wolf Saturday, July 26, 2008 from 5 to 7 AM over WBAI 99.5 FM in New York and at stream.wbai.org. An archive of the broadcast will be available afterward for about 6 months at hourwolf.com/toc.html

The Carlin-Ellison Case

The recent death of George Carlin has sparked a lot of nostalgia for many folk; much of which involves First Amendment issues -- a fight which seems to have fallen by the wayside at alternative institutions while we have bigger (read more political) fish to fry. The NY Times wrote an excellent article on the Carlin Decision as viewed by my colleagues today.

Working at WBAI during the entire Carlin debacle gave me a strange perspective on the case. On the one hand, we lost, and the F-CC turned their Sauron-like eye from "obscenity" to "indecency." On the other hand the watershed time of 10 PM to 6 AM, or safe harbor, was created in which non-gratuitous profanity is defensible.

At any rate, this had a very direct effect upon me and Hour of the Wolf, in which one of my broadcasts became what I believe to be the very first test of the Carlin Decision and Safe Harbor.

I had recorded a writer, Harlan Ellison, at the School of Visual Arts. (He is the subject of the recent documentary, Dreams with Sharp Teeth, which recently finished a run at the Film Forum here in NY.) Two teachers there, Leo and Diane Dillon, presented Ellison with a painting that he was supposed to turn into a short story and read it to their class. He spent some time in a hotel and then proceeded (with the great showmanship which is his trademark) to read it in from of the class with a bunch of celebrities in attendance. (The story was "Shatterday," later the title story of an award-winning collection, and was dramatized in 1983 for "The New Twilight Zone" starring Bruce Willis.)

I brought the tape back to WBAI and found the Station Manager, Larry Josephson, in the "Broom Closet", which was the manager's office at the Church on 62nd Street. I told him about the tape and asked for permission to broadcast it before 6 AM with a disclaimer. He asked what was in it, and I said all sorts of things -- fuck, shit, etc. He gave me the OK.

The FCC complaint arrived within a week. Josephson was furious at me. "You didn't tell me the broadcast had "motherfucker" in it!" "I told you it had 'fuck' -- what's the difference?" "Have you never heard of the Incest Taboo?!?" I thought this was some legal term or law, like the Carlin Decision, and so told him no. He bellowed, "You don't know that it's worse to fuck your mother than it is to fuck your girlfriend???" I don't recall the immediate aftermath. I think we needed a mop for me in the Broom Closet. Larry the J could be... imposing.

I had very little to do with the defense. I was not suspended, as I'd broken no rules and had gotten clearance. Our lawyers were still working for us, as this was only a few months after the Carlin Decision, and we were paying them dribbling amounts of money. I was deposed by them, and they were absolutely delighted with the facts. Ellison was well-known, highly decorated with awards, had just finished a stint as the West Coast Director of The Writers' Guild of America,, and had three columns dedicated to him in Who's Who in America. They felt this was the best possible scenario for a test case they could have. Josephson was only somewhat placated, since while the odds were on our side, it still cost money. (At least we were further billed -- I doubt we were ever able to pay after the hit from the Supreme Court case.)

Ellison was ecstatic. "Man, I'm gonna get in front of those Robes and tell Burger that this is still our fucking country! We can get Vonnegut and everyone else to testify and win and tell those motherfuckers to stuff their law books where the sun don't shine."

A couple of months later I was told the Justice Department had opted not to prosecute. The briefs were well-written, a couple of newspapers were editorializing that we were being singled out and persecuted by the FCC, and so forth. I'm sure there were nuances and such I never understood. All I know is the Pacifica lawyers did a great job.

Ellison was crushed that he wouldn't have his day in court and occasionally reminds me of it -- with sharp teeth.

It's about time...

...I started a blog. And I'm doing so with a vengeance -- not one, but two. I don't know just how active this specific blog will be, and I have a conundrum. The problem is I have two somewhat different agendas for potential blogs.

The first and most pragmatic purpose is to write some articles about technology and the stuff wherein I try to earn my bread and trans-fat free butter. I'm trying to brand myself as a tech journalist (which I've done for years, but slacked off since the dot-com bubble burst) and as a business and personal tech consultant. So that will be a separate blog called Techie Time, named after a series of brilliant radio montages created by Peter Zanger and David Rapkin in the late '60s. It lives at techietime.blogger.com. I think you'll like it even if you're not into the latest toys or business solutions.

Hour of the Wolf is, of course, the name with which I've been associated on the radio ever since I took over that program from Margot Adler in the summer of 1974. And that will be the primary focus here -- things that relate to the radio program, guests, science/speculative fiction, fantasy, and related fields of endeavor. I also produce and curate the New York Review of Science Fiction Readings held at the South Street Seaport Museum's Melville Gallery, and posts about that will also turn up here.

If you're interested in the techier topics, check out my other blog. A few topics may cross over, and in some of those instances I may duplicate posts. We'll see. Let me know what you think, or just say Hi.

--Jim