My favourite podcasts - International Podcasting Day

30^th September is International Podcasting day! I've always who gets to declare a day an international day of something . Surely the UN should be involved at a minimum?

Well no. Turns out anyone can if they can get enough traction going. Although it does help if you have a link to the field in question.  In this case Steve Lee (founder of the Modern Life Network) decided in 2013 that Podcasts needed celebrating more and thus International Podcasting day was born.

In celebration I thought I'd give a quick run down of some of my current favourite podcasts. If you're looking for something new why not check out an episode or two of these.

Spoiler Podcast 

A pop culture panel review show. Each episode covers a specific  film, book or TV show/episode  with a big old Spoiler warning in the very title of the show. They WILL discuss the plot twists so this is one to dip into episodes when they cover things you have already seen. But there is a fantastic selection from episodes reviewing stuff that was released decades ago to more recent releases of the last few years.  As well as the funny and insightful round-table discussion on the subject in hand  every episode also has a more built feature element covering a subject linked to the main topic. Like the Dumbo episode's feature on Walt Disney films most scary moments. One of my favourite episodes is the one covering the 80s classic "The Breakfast Club". Although that may have something to do with the fact that listening to it helped me to win a quiz night a few weeks later.

The Alusionist

Queen of British Podcasting, Helen Zaltzman, hosts this delightful delving into quirky aspects of language. A topic that in other hands could be dry is here thoroughly engrossing due to the choice of fascinating subjects (such as - why Americans and British can often think each other is rude due to the way they use "please"), Zaltzman's almost perfect presenting skills and the bite size nature of the podcast (most episodes are sub 20 mins)

Plumbing the death star 

A comedy one for the geeks, a free-form discussion between the two hosts about a question  posed about a geeky property. Some of the topics they delve into "Is the Empire Racist?" "How would you survive Groundhog day" and "Which Super Mario Bro would make the best Step-Dad"

It's quirky, Its fun but FYI it can get rude and sweary. But hey, choosing a Mario Bro for a step dad is passionate stuff, things are bound to get a little tense.

Welcome to Nightvale 

The First audio drama on my list and it is surreal genius. It takes the form of a community radio broadcast from the fictional town of Nightvale. A town where some very strange things go on.

Think 'Twin Peaks', or  'Eerie, Indianna'  and you'll get a feel for the weirdness level.  For the most part the only voice you hear is Cecil, the presenter of this fictional small town radio show. But other people do come in occasionally, being "interviewed" on the station or as a station intern (the equivalent of Star Treks Red-shirts). One guest recurring guest star has been Will Wheaton (Wesley from Star Trek TNG, or more recently playing himself on Big Bang Theory)

At first the episode seem quite self-contained but there are continuing plot points and arcs (such as the town mayoral election race) so it's well worth  starting from the beginning and working your way through.

British History podcast 

If you love history and want an in-depth guide through British history this is the podcast for you.  And I do mean in-depth. It starts at "pre-history" (before written records) and takes a very long route through every aspect of history you can think of. There are whole episodes dedicated to the food of a particular era, ones exploring aspects of the culture of average people, and when it deals with kings even that is subdivided into many episodes  to cover every possible angle the producer can think of.

To give you an idea of how in-depth this podcast goes, it has been going for over 5 years now and it's not even up to 1066 in the time-line.

But it's a fascinating and very well researched podcast that you will certainly learn things from.

Wooden Overcoats

The second radio drama on my list this one is a sit-com. Episodes follows the obstinate Rudyard Funn who runs a funeral home on island of Piffling. In the first episode a rival funeral home is opened by island newcomer Eric Chapman – a man who is more competent, more attractive and better liked than Rudyard. The rest of the series follows Rudyard's multiple attempts to sabotage Eric's business.

It is both brilliantly performed with great comic  timing and slickly produced, sounding  as smooth as anything  from the much more resourced BBC's radio production studios.

The Why Factor

A BBC podcast from the World Service and another one for people that like surprising fact they weren't necessarily expecting. Think of any question starting "why…." And it could be the topic for one of their episodes. Some recent episodes include "Why do crazes take off" and "Why do we find some voices so irritating".

Reply All

One in the American documentary/storytelling genre of podcasts made famous by This American Life, Reply All is a podcast about the internet.

Each episode they find a different real-life story or stories  that have some link to the internet and tell us that tale through narration and interviews. Sometimes its stories of internet dating at 60, Sometimes of those online messages you wish you could take back. The theme of the internet is only a starting point that sometimes leads to some gripping and personal stories.

Also check out

In the also-ran category for this this, worth checking out if you have the time

Answer me this  - Another Helen Zaltzman podcast (this time along with co-host Olly Mann). They answer listener's random questions

Home front – The BBCs World War one serial Drama, each episode originally released exactly 100 years after it is set.

This American Life – The grand-daddy of the US storytelling/documentary podcasts

Serial – The sensation that brought podcasting to the attention of the mainstream. 2 seasons available and a third apparently on the way.

Let me know any great podcasts I've missed out in the comments below.

For more information on International Podcasting day visit https://internationalpodcastday.com/ 

My week at drama school.

This time last year I was preparing to take part in a week long acting summer-school at the Guildford school of acting. 

Acting has been a hobby most of my life. Inspired by my mum and step-dads involvement I've been acting in amateur theatre almost constantly since was 8 years old. I even briefly considered applying to drama school before the cost put me off (£10k a Year was just too much and while may be norm for uni now, back then it was only £1.5k per year for a regular BA - so I went and did Media Production instead) 

But my dreams of attending a drama school were able to be (at least slightly) fulfilled when, many years later, I found out they did short summer courses. In the years leading up to a big birthday I floated the idea that paying for the course might be a good present idea for said big birthday to my significant other and a few family members and come my 30th... err, I mean undisclosed big birthday... I had the course booked for early August. 

Prep work included choosing and learning a monologue. so I scoured the various monologue books I could find to come up with something suitable. 

This is not easy. Nothing in these books seemed right. The ones I liked were for characters wildly differing in age from myself and one thing I did know was that it should be believable that you would be playing that role. Eventually I did find a comedy piece I quite liked but I had the nagging worry that it didn't have enough serious emotion in it to stand muster. But I was running out of time and I had to get learning, so I stuck with it. 

The next month's worth of commutes to work were made up of learning this monologue. That's pretty much when I learn lines for any acting I do. If I didn't have 2 hours of commuting on a train a day I honestly don't know when I would learn lines. 

Finally the week arrived and I made my way to Guildford for the first day. The strikingly obvious thing I noticed while waiting for registration was that the average age of attendees on these summer course were more than a decade younger than me. not that I was the oldest student there mind you. There were a couple of guys who looked in their 40s who were there for the singing course and one person I got chatting to in a coffee queue who was a year older than me and there for dance. And once I was registered in my acting class I found out that a couple of the people were only a few years younger than me. It's no doubt that these courses are primarily taken up by a-level students looking to a) try out different drama schools before applying for a full 3 year course (many were going on 2 or three courses at different schools over the summer) and b) to develop skills and learn techniques that would help them in the auditions to those drama school.

But whatever your age don't let that put you off if you're a non-teenage acting enthusiast. It's a worthwhile experience for anyone interested in acting regardless of if you aspire to make it a career or just a hobby, and you will learn a lot. 

Be prepared to be put through your paces though. Every day started with a vigorous effort half an hour warm up. Basically a full on arobics session complete with catchy rhythmic music. At the start of the week it almost killed me, but by the end I was coping much better and I could see that doing this everyday I could actually get quite fit. 

We had a lesson schedule for the week. Days were divided into different sessions covering different acting techniques. We had lessons on Laben movement technique (analysing ways the body moves that can be used in everything from interpretive dance to how your character in a play flicks a piece of lint of his jacket), lessons on Shakespeare performance (damn that iambic pentameter is tricky) , lessons on voice,  (How to use it, how to carry it).

All of these were useful in some way or another but I think the class I gained most from was the 'Actioning' sessions. 

Actioning is a rehearsal technique that aids in interpreting the text and deciding on a performance of it. I'm sure I won't do the technique justice here but, in an effort to sum it up, it's essentially the giving of each of your lines... Well actually each of your characters thoughts (which basically translates to each of your characters sentences) an 'action verb'. Something that could fill the blank in "I ........ you" 

So, "I scold you" or "I caress you" could be examples. These should be the desired effect your characters wants  to have on the person they are speaking to and they should be chosen to achieve your characters 'objective in that scene' 

You can see quite quickly that playing a line in a play with the action 'Scold' would produce a very different reading to 'caress'.

and remember these aren't (necessarily) physical actions. They are the intent behind the word. You can play a line with 'caress' as the action without actually physically caressing the other person. 

That's a very quick summery that doesn't do justice to the full scale of the technique so I'd recommend anyone to read up more on it. It's a very time consuming and often difficult process but you may well find your performances transformed by it. 

Or go take a short course. You may find there are still some slots on this year's summer courses but if not there is alway next year... And that will at least give you some time to hunt out that perfect monologue. 

when is a 'Living Wage' not a living wage

So the Government are introducing a 'living wage'. My first thought on hearing this news was a mixture of happiness and surprise. It wasn't something I was expecting to hear from a current government budget. Had they actually listened to reason? I started thinking of writing a "well-done" Facebook post aimed at them and then remembered that reacting to anything you see on the internet based just on a headline is unadvised and thought I'd better just read up a bit more on it first. 

Now let me preface this by saying that any raise to the minimum wage is a good thing, and it can be argued that this pledge raises it more than other parties had promised in their manifestos. (Although this is less clear when weighed against cuts to things like working-tax credits also announced) 

I was looking for facts more than opinions and the most useful was The Living Wage foundations site (http://www.livingwage.org.uk/calculation) 

Well, if you look at that link you'll see that the living wage for the UK in general is considered to be £7.85. Quite a difference from the £7.20 that the government have announced and labeled "Living Wage". And that's just outside London. Within London the living wage is considered to be £9.15. A massive £1.95 difference to the just announced amount. 

So this is already looking a bit shaky. Add on top of that the fact that they have already stated what it will raise to within 5 years, not as a minimum but as an exact amount, without knowing what inflation will be over those 5 years and it become very likely that the best we can hope for is that the disparity between the new minimum and the Actual living wage stays the same, however if the economy improves (as the government obviously hopes it will) that gap could actually become bigger. 

Taking this into consideration it's clear that what this announcement is isn't a "Living Wage" at all, it's merely a current (and possibly temporary) lessening of the gap between the minimum wage and the actual living wage. By trying to inaccurately co-opt the "living wage" term they are deceiving the electorate and trying and make their policies appear better than they are. Which is a shame because if they had been honest and called this what it is, just a 70p raise to the minimum wage, they would have deserved a bit of credit. 

I say a bit because I haven't even gone into the fact that this only applies to over-25s. 

Hopefully the living wage foundation and others who support a true living wage will make sure people know the difference. 

The Interview ..... Don't let the Terrorists win

“The Interview” was not a film I was planning on seeing at the cinema, I probably wouldn't have paid to download it or rent it from a digital rental service. I MAY have watched it if it came to a service that I already have like Netflix. That’s not to say I thought it would be bad but I only go to the cinema a handful of times a year and I have to be picky, for me comedies don’t usually win in that battle.

However following the news that Sony has decided to completely cancel the release of this completed film in the light of the cyber attack hack against them last week and the further threat of physical terrorist attacks if the release goes ahead, I am now determined to pay to see this film at the earliest opportunity and I think everyone else should do the same.

We should not live in a world where terrorists can suppress free artistic expression and by giving in to their demands Sony are setting a dangerous precedent. If terrorist groups like this see that they can be successful in influencing behavior with their threats it will only make them more emboldened to make even more outrageous demands.

Currently Sony has said it doesn't plan any kind of release for the film, not even a digital only one. I hope they change their mind, and when they do I’ll be ready with my money to support the filmmakers. The people who put years of their life into making something only to have it pulled from under them.

I hope you will do the same, Even if you wouldn't have seen this film normally, even if you've never enjoyed a Seth Rogen film and generally dislike comedies, because this is about making an important stand to say we refuse to be threatened. 

What could Marvel Phase 4 hold in store?

If you’re a Marvel Cinimatic Universe fan they you, like me, will have gotten very excited a couple of days ago by the announcement of the next 5 years worth of films. Cap vs Iron man in “Captain America: Civil War”, Black Panther and Captain Marvel movies, Avengers: The Infinity War Pts 1 AND 2. I could barely sleep for the excitement.

  

All this got me thinking and speculating.  This is the whole of their Phase 3 revealed, but what could phase 4 look like?

I took the basic release principles Marvel has established of alternating established and new franchises, and the fact that in phase 3 they are moving from 2 to 3 films a year, also tried to factor in when Actor contracts might be up and a good boat load of pure guessing but this is what I came up with.....

2020       – Planet Hulk (Spring)

-          Blade (reboot) (Summer)

-          Ant Man 2 (Autum)

2021       - Black Widow (Spring)

                - Guardians of the Galaxy 3 (Summer)

                - Doctor Strange 2 (Autum)

2022       - Captain America 4 (with Bucky Barnes taking over the Mantle of Cap) (Spring)

-          War Machine (Summer)

-          A Sony/Marvel  co production Spider-man (Autum)

2023       - Black Panther 2 (Spring)

                - Punisher (Summer)

                - Captain Marvel 2 (Autum)

2024       - Avengers  4 (Spring)

I’m sure my views on possible line ups will change as I watch the phase 3 films but for now I think that’s a good potential line up. And here’s my thinking….

The first Sequels  

Assuming they do well at the box office is fair to assume that Ant Man, Doctor Strange, Black Panther and Captain Marvel will be getting sequels. There is one notable exception on my list and that is The Inhumans. Which to be honest I think has just as much chance at a sequel. I didn’t include it because it would have meant bumping Avengers 4 from it’s traditional May slot. Not outside the realms of possibilities of course but something had to give. I also suspect that in order to keep their slate manageable Marvel may have to start sitting out some franchises for a Phase. And of course if any of these new Phase 3 franchises don’t do as well as hoped they may decide that they shouldn’t get included in the next phase. (as happened with Hulk after Phase 1)

Hulk Smash.  

Yes, I’ve put it down as Planet Hulk. That’s pure hopeful thinking, I would love to see this story  from the comics up on the screen. It would require a bit of set up in phase 3 though. Particually Hulk doing something so bad (probably in Infinity War) that the other heros feel they need to shoot him off into space. If that doesn’t happen I still think we’ll get some kind of solo Hulk movie in Phase 4, it’s long over-due and Marc Rufalo is certainly worthy leading it.

Blade – Marvel have the rights to Blade back. This was the character that really kicked off the modern age of superhero movies back in the 90s. It’s a big potential draw and I can’t see Marvel sitting on it forever. I reckon phrase 4 is when we’ll see him back on our screens in a reboot that takes place in the MCU. It’ll also allow Marvel to start to explore a slightly darker area of their universe. Something that also comes with teh Punisher movie I’ve also put on the list. Despite his publicly stated interest in returning though, I wouldn’t expect to see Wesley Snipes back in the role. He was fantastic and perfect at the time but a fresh start and younger blade is needed now.

Black Widow

There was some disappointment that she didn’t get a solo movie in Phase 3. Perhaps one in Phase 4 could be set a bit back in time and allow us to find out just what did happen in Budapest.

Cap 4

I think it’s important that all the franchises that kicked off the MCU in phase one don’t disappear. We’ve already lost Iron Man from phase 3 (which I think is the right call), I’m calling Thor to be the phrase 3 original avenger that doesn’t have a solo in Phase 4. Out of the big 3 heroes his are the least performing of the movies. But just because there is a Cap 4 doesn’t mean Steve Rogers is still wearing the suit. I think, if it hasn’t happened already by that point, we may see Bucky Barns take on the Cap mantel after Steve is killed in action in the Infinity War.

War Machine

Ok, so we don’t have an Iron Man film any more. This could be the natural successor.  James "Rhodey" Rhodes has been firmly established over 3 Iron man films now and he’s due to pop up in next spring’s Avengers: Age of Ulton. It’s at least possible he gets his own film.

Spider-man

There are a lot of Rumours flying around at the moment that Marvel and Sony are close to a deal to allow Spidy to appear in MCU films. The most obvious place for him initially is the Captain America: Civil War movie. Spider-man was a big part of the Marvel comics Civil War event and it would be fantastic to have him involved. And if they pull it off perhaps a co-produced Spider-man solo movie, set in the MCU and with Cameos from some of our other favourite characters would be on the cards. Who knows. It makes sense for Sony to agree. Each Spider-man film since the very first Toby Maguire one has made less money than the previous one, a co-production deal would be a way for Marvel to make the film a more must see while Sony still gets a slice of the profits. 

Avengers 4

By Avengers 4 expect a very different team to the one we know.

Steve may be dead and Bucky may be Cap. Hulk may be off in space on another planet – (or he may return angry at being sent away and be the antagonist of this film). Downey Jr will be WAY too expensive by this point so Iron man won’t be in it. A whole load of new avengers who joined at the end of Phase 3 will part of the team and, fingers crossed, Spider-man.

No doubt it will be nothing like I’ve dreamed up here. It’s just one possibility. But it’s fun to speculate. Got a different idea of how it might pan out? Let me know in the comments. 

Welcome to Nightvale

The surreal American Radio Drama/fake community show podcast Welcome to Nightvale launched a couple of years ago now and in that time has built up quite a cult following.

If you’ve never heard of Nightvale it’s kind of a cross between a David Lynch film, the twilight zone, the TV series Eureka … and a community radio show.

I’ve been a casual listener to the podcast’s for over a year now, although I’m about 6 months behind their release schedule, and I’ve generally really enjoyed listening to them. I like slightly surreal stuff like this and, of course, I love radio drama, especially ones that do something new with the genre.

So when I heard they were doing live shows, and bringing the tour to the UK I thought it would defiantly be worth checking out.

I had sampled some Radio-drama-as-stage-show at the Edinburgh Fringe back in August courtesy of the Wireless Theatre Company. (which you can read more about here) and found it a really enjoyable and amusing experience.  But, you think, isn’t it just people at microphones standing on a stage? That’s a bit dull right? Well in the examples I’ve seen, not at all! These guys are professional actors, professional actors used to making radio dramas, they know how to entertain an audience with just their voice.  And little touches like amusing facial expressions,  Seeing Spot FX created live, and in creative lighting all add to it.

Nightvale live started off well, introduced in a very stand-up comic way by the lady who’s voice is often heard at the beginning or end of the pod casts (sorry, I forget her name). Right from the off I found myself chuckling out loud to her witty one liners in her introduction. It was a good start. We were then treated to a fantastic music set from Mary Epworth. The regular Nightvale Podcast always has a music section in it, the weather (they announce that it’s time for the weather as any radio station would… and then music starts instead, just one of Nightvale’s many quirks) , but that’s just one song and, to get a good live artist along for one song for the live show would have possibly been a struggle and to fill a whole 2 hour live show you need to expand your format a bit from your usual 30 min podcast, so this 20 minute set was a nice addition to kick things off with (and of course, she came back for the weather later).

Then it’s in to the usual Nightvale weirdness, told to us, as always, by Cecil, the host of this fictional radio show from this fictional US city, our guide into it’s weird world and underworld.

If you don’t pay much attention to the podcasts while you’re listening you may miss that they do actually have plots running through them. There is usually some kind of event that is tracked through news updates and phone interviews with people on site. It escalates throughout the episode and is usually quite strange (Randomly appearing glow clouds, disappearing children, a mayoral race between a man who is “Literally a five-headed dragon” and “The faceless old woman that secretly lives in your house” … you get the drift). Not only this some plot points crop up In multiple episodes. Yes this strange little wonderful show even has story Arcs.

I won’t spoil the live episode too much (they will be releasing the audio I gather), but the main plot revolves around Liberians, and in Nightvale Liberians are not things you want to meet down a dark ally.

There were a lot of in-jokes, referencing back to previous episodes. Some I got, some I didn’t. but the ones I didn’t get didn’t spoil my enjoyment over all. I’m quite a casual night-vale listener. I’m about 6 months behind on the episodes and it’s just something I enjoy listening to. But there are some seriously dedicated fans of this show. A large number People at this event were dressed up in their own interpretations of the various characters (some costumes were really impressive as well… particularly glow clouds). Good on them, it’s great to be passionate about something but I don’t think you have to have that level of passion to have a good time at this show.

Sadly, due to train engineering works, I had to duck out early to avoid having to sit for hours on a replacement bus service so I still don’t know how the plot was wrapped up.

But then, not getting what the hell is going on is part of the fun of Nightvale anyway, so maybe I got the truest Nightvale experience by leaving anyway, 

Find out more about Welcome to Nightvale and where you can download the Podcast: Here

Fringe adventure: day 3

So my summery of my third and final day at the Edinburgh fringe is a bit late really. I mean, the other two days were written and posted sereral days after the events they talk about but this one? Two weeks after. Whoops.

And it'll probably be the easiest to write too. We only saw two shows that day. 

After very quickly dismissing the idea to do another breakfast play and instead have a bit of a lie-in, we checked out of our accomedation and made our way to our first venue. Just about sneaking in time to grab a quick bacon role to eat in the Queue. The reason we only saw two shows on this day (in addition to the fact that we had an early evening flight home) was primarily due to the fact that the first show was 2 and a half hours long (inc interval). It was a full blown musical. Our only musical of the fringe. But we couldn't resist because it was "The Addams Family" and it looked good. I'd heard rave reviews about this musical from around the country where it has been released to amateur groups before any full profeshional productions and it defiantly deserves a profeshional west end or touring production because it is a very good, very funny musical. The writing is witty and the songs are toe-tapping and fun. The famous Addams family theme is heard briefly in the orchestration at the beginning but my one disappointment with this show is that they didn't sing the lyrics as part of the curtain call, instead revisiting a song from the show.

It was performed brilliant by students of the Scottish Royal consevertoire. A particulalr highlight was the gentleman playing Gomez who absolutly nailed the comic timing and charactisation. 

If you see someone near you performing this show I'd definatly recommend it. 

We grabbed some lunch and found a seat at a bench table, sharing with a lovely couple and their son with learning difficulties for who it was also their first year at the fringe. But not their first visit. They had come up at the beginning of the fringe and enjoyed it so much that as soon as they got back they immediately booked another trip for the end of the month. Now that says something about how exillerating coming here can be.

The final production of the fringe for us was one I was very keen to see and which is very much linked to my day-job. Wireless Theatre company were doing live records of audio drama each day, in front of an audience. You may say that's a bit of a bus man's holiday but I'm lucky enough to work in an field I love, radio drama, so it doesn't at all feel a waste to take in a show that involves this. I wasn't sure what to expect, it was billed as stories about couples who had had a big impact on history. And the recording we were watching was Henry Ford (the car man) and Adolf Hilter (the sycopathic mass genoicidal murderer). I didn't know of any connection exsisting between the two and as it turns out I shouldn't have either... as these audio dramas were pure made-up satire. And what brilliant made up satire they were. Laughter out loud was had throughout. The actors were surpurb. Especially the guy who played hitler. 

It was fun to spot all the little radio drama tricks that I'm very familiar with. When the actor fluffed a line and paused a second before going back to the beginning of a previous sentence I knew why (so they can easily edit out the fluff - if you were wondering). I delighted at some of the spot FX they were doing and the way they would change their voice to make themselves sound in a different position to the mic without moving. 

All the audio dramas recorded at the fringe are going to be available to download from their website (which has an "all you can eat" subscription price to listen to as many of their dramas as you like. I'd definatly recommend checking them out. I certinaly plan on listening to all the others they recorded at the fringe. 

And then.... That was it. Back to the airport (again via tram) back on the plan and back home. 

When I planned this trip I had thought it was something that I really wanted to do, yes, but something that I could "get out of the way" before circumstances meant coming was impractical and too expencive. Now I want to come every year. I've caught the fringe bug. 

As it happens after we'd booked our accomedation for this year, my sister happened to mention that NEXT year she plans on coming up here with a show. in a tech or backstage capacity but either way it'll mean I obviously just HAVE to come back up. Small little human in pushchair will just have to come with. 

I can't wait.