116 - Mr. Currier, Mr. Ives, and All That Snow

This month we bring you Mr. Currier, Mr. Ives, and All That Snow by Thomas E. Fuller, performed live at the Academy Theatre, December 2008.

• Size: 5.6M Duration: 12:19
• Link to ARTC Podcast archive
• Direct MP3 Download

115 - The Game is Afoot: Game the Third, The Adventure of the Tick Tock Dick

This month we bring you The Game is Afoot: Game the Third, The Adventure of the Tick Tock Dick by Sketch MacQuinor, performed live at Dragon*Con, September 2, 2011.

• Size: 11.7M Duration: 25:41
• Link to ARTC Podcast archive
• Direct MP3 Download

114 - Dr. Will Ward, Science Wizard: You've Got Mail Demons

This month we bring you Dr. Will Ward, Science Wizard: You've Got Mail Demons by Dave Schroeder, performed live at Dragon*Con, September 4, 2011.

• Size: 8.73M Duration: 19.04
• Link to ARTC Podcast archive
• Direct MP3 Download

113 - Rory Rammer: Murder at the Purge

This month we bring you Rory Rammer, Space Marshal: Murder at the Purge by Ron N. Butler, performed live at Dragon*Con, September 2, 2011.

• Size: 11.1M Duration: 24:17
• Link to ARTC Podcast archive
• Direct MP3 Download

112 - He Walked Around the Horses

This month we bring you He Walked Around the Horses by H. Beam Piper, adapted for audio by Ron N. Butler, performed live at LibertyCon, July 16, 2011.

• Size: 11M Duration: 24:03
• Link to ARTC Podcast archive
• Direct MP3 Download

Reviewed at Gravedigger's Local 16

The blog at Gravedigger's Local 16 has given a favorable review to Special Order / A Case of Abuse (buy it from ARTC or Audible), and of course we're extremely grateful.

Correction of a factual error:
The physical disc release of Special Order / A Case of Abuse is not a CD-R. It's a "real" glass-mastered factory-pressed CD, as is most of our catalog. We do market some of our releases on CD-R, but they are labeled, since we're aware some older disc players don't like to play them. We frankly hope most of our listeners will purchase a download from Audible (or iTunes or Amazon), just because storing the physical media and fulfilling mail orders are almost more troublesome and time consuming than actually producing the program.

The reviewer is certainly correct that “ultimate evil implies ultimate good” doesn't exactly fit H. P. Lovecraft's literary point of view, which is that the universe is greater than humans can understand and attaches no particular importance to human life. The intended point was that one view is really no easier to believe or disbelieve than the other, and blending the two had not, to our knowledge, been tried. We were amused at the thought that some of our listeners might be more upset by the suggestion that the religious concepts might be valid than by the implications of the nightmarish Lovecraftian world. That that battle might be going on over our metaphysical heads and (generally) taking no notice of us might be the most horrifying idea of all.

111 - Cautionary Tales for Grownups: The Museum Patrons Who Disrupted the Cinema and Lost Their Souls

This month we bring you Cautionary Tales for Grownups: The Museum Patrons who Disrupted the Cinema and Lost Their Souls by Tracy V. Wilson. It was performed live at Stone Mountain Park's Tomato Festival on July 31, 2004.

This particular performance came to mind due to the major theatrical release this week.  Be good to each other, everybody!

• Size: 10M Duration: 22:05
• Link to ARTC Podcast archive
• Direct MP3 Download

110 - Rafe Rathbone, Constable of the Ether: The Adventure of Sir Isaac's Monocle

This month we bring you Rafe Rathbone, Constable of the Ether: The Adventure of Sir Isaac's Monocle by Ron N. Butler. It was performed live at the Academy Theatre's STEAM Fest, April 9, 2011.

• Size: 10M Duration: 22:05
• Link to ARTC Podcast archive
• Direct MP3 Download

109 - The Game is Afoot! Episode One: The Phantom Chippendale

This month we bring you episode one of Sketch MacQuinor's versatile series The Game is Afoot!: The Phantom Chippendale. It was performed live at the Academy Theatre's STEAM Fest, April 9, 2011. Versatile because it started as a puppet show, changed cast, then morphed into an audio drama, and may transform back at a moment's notice. Or less! You can also get a visual on this performance at our YouTube site so you can see what everybody is laughing about 10 or 11 minutes into the piece. (That is to say, about two minutes into part two below.)

• Size: 11M Duration: 24:03
• Link to ARTC Podcast archive
• Direct MP3 Download

108 - An interview with CORE Performance Company and an episode of Bumpers Crossroads: The Stray Dog

This month we bring you an episode of Bumpers Crossroads entitled The Stray Dog by Linda Young, series created by Daniel Taylor. It was performed live in October 2010 at the Academy Theatre. Before we get to the main event, however, we are proud to bring you our first ever interview to the ARTC Podcast, this time with Claire Horne of CORE Performance Company.

CORE Performance Company is our Partner in Imagination for our upcoming performance of The Dancer in the Dark. Partners in Imagination is ARTC's initiative to spread awareness of what is possible in a collaborative community. By channeling the energies of non-profits into common goals, ARTC hopes to raise awareness of various causes through the magic of radio.

• Size: 11M Duration: 24:03
• Link to ARTC Podcast archive
• Direct MP3 Download

107 - Whatever happened to be lying around...

This month we bring you a collection of random material. A hodgepodge of bridging, commercials, random comments, and other bits of flair that give each of our shows its personality but don't make much sense out of context. Some of them are fake, some of them are ad libbed, but the ones about us needing help are totally true.

ARTC is growing. we're still an all-volunteer organization, but our message of quality audio drama is spreading and we want you to be a part of it. we welcome virtually everybody, but we're particularly looking for the following:

• Musicians interested in learning how to score for audio drama!
• Grantwriters!
• Marketing assistance!
• Producers and Directors!
• Painters and Illustrators (for posters and product covers)!
• Audio engineers for live performance, studio mixing, and archiving!
• and, of course, we love writers and actors! The more the merrier!

So if you're looking for a unique outlet for your creative energies in a fun, relaxed atmosphere, drop us a line at volunteer AT artc DOT org. Many of these roles don't require you to be in the Atlanta area thanks to the magic of the internet, so no matter where you live you can help create Adventures in Sound!

• Size: 10M Duration: 22:05
• Link to ARTC Podcast archive
• Direct MP3 Download

Oh, okay. Here's what's really included here:

• "Three Bad Writers" by Kelley S. Ceccato
• "Brotherhood of Damn Sassy Mutants" promo by Sketch MacQuinor
• "900-BAN" by Topo deMorning
• "Fernbank Presents" by Ollie Oxenfree
• "The Original Virtual Reality" by Rip deBandage
• "Portable Time Machine" by Hans O'Plenty
• "Bubble Burpee" by Armand "Arms" Akimbo

106 - Adventures of the Crimson Hawk: Kraken

This month we bring you The Adventures of the Crimson Hawk: Kraken by Thomas E. Fuller, performed live at Stone Mountain Park, October 2004.

• Size: 12M Duration: 26:23
• Link to ARTC Podcast archive
• Direct MP3 Download

105 - The Hollow Grave

Coming to you live from the Little Five Points Coffeehouse, June 1993!  The Hollow Grave by Gerald W. Page, adapted for audio by Wendy Webb and Steve Nesheim.

• Size: 9.34M, Duration: 20:24
• Link to ARTC Podcast archive
• Direct MP3 Download

104 - Blue Hanukchristmas Carol

This month we bring you a piece we thought we had brought you a while back, but after going through the archives we discovered we'd overlooked it!  This piece is so good that we couldn't just let that slide, so here it is: Blue Hanukchristmas Carol by Sketch MacQuinor.

• Size: 6.93M, Duration: 15:08
• Link to ARTC Podcast archive
• Direct MP3 Download

103 - The Competitor, part 2

This month we bring you part two of The Competitor by Brad Linaweaver, adapted for audio by William Alan Ritch.  Performed live at LibertyCon 2010, this marked the very first live performance of this script.  We hope you enjoy it!

• Size: 9.4M, Duration: 20:30
• Link to ARTC Podcast archive
• Direct MP3 Download

102 - The Competitor, part 1

This month we bring you part one of The Competitor by Brad Linaweaver, adapted for audio by William Alan Ritch.  Performed live at LibertyCon 2010, this marked the very first live performance of this script.  We hope you enjoy it.

Also included in this podcast, a special selection by our musical guest for our October show, The Old Way by Julie Gribble.

• Size: 13M, Duration: 27:50
• Link to ARTC Podcast archive
• Direct MP3 Download

Beam Piper ahead of his time again

A key scene in Ron Butler's adaptation of Piper's "Time and Time Again" features the line: "I do not believe there is anything in the Pennsylvania Code defining an offense along the lines of 'lending an object that looks like a pistol.'"

Perhaps it's a good thing Mr Hartley does not live in Australia...

Toy guns will have to be licensed in Queensland under new firearms laws | News.com.au

ANY ITEM that looks like a gun will have to be licensed under several changes to the Weapons Act being considered by the Queensland State Government.

..."If it looks like a gun and feels like a gun, it will have to be licensed," said a government source.

The British Empire, it will be noted, does not have an equivalent to the United States' Second Constitutional Amendment.

101 - A Tribute to Brad Weage

In this episode of the podcast, we pay tribute to the memory of Brad Weage, longtime composer and friend to ARTC and its members, who passed away on August 22, 2010 from complications of double pneumonia.

Brad composed many of the themes for our serials including Rory Rammer, Space Marshal, The Brotherhood of Damn Sassy Mutants, Mildly Exciting Tales of Astonishment, and The Jane Handley-Page Show. He also lent his talents to our feature-length studio works including The Passion of Frankenstein, The Menace From Earth, The Doom of the Mummy, and Solution Unsatisfactory to name but a few.

He performed live with us often. If you ever heard ARTC live, there's an excellent chance you heard Brad. If you heard us live more than once, it's a virtual certainty.

100th Podcast Episode!

We made it! 100 episodes of ARTC's Podcast. Y'know, we really need a catchier name for this thing. If you have an idea for a great new name, send it on to podcast@artc.org.

But we digress.

For the 100th episode, we knew we had to bring out all the stops, come up with something so spectacular that it would blow everyone away and leave everyone talking about how we could possibly top it. Unfortunately, we didn't get permission to use it, so we went for the next best thing (and set ourselves up for an awesome episode 200) and went with our Dragon*Con 2000 performance of Rory Rammer, Space Marshal: Queen of the Spaceways.

Not only is Rory Rammer one of our most popular and requested series, but in this episode the role of Rory Rammer is played by none other than Ted Raimi! Joining him in this star-studded cast are Alexandra Tydings and Claire Stansfield!

If you're enjoying the podcast, be sure to tell your friends. And tell us, too. We're your friends, right? So tell us you like it so we'll want to keep doing it!

"Could this be the beginning of the end for radio drama?"

Don't touch that dial: the threat to radio drama | Television & radio | The Guardian

The reason, of course, is cost. At £23,000 per hour, the BBC spends on radio drama about one 40th of what it might pay for an hour of television. Hampton's White Chameleon is a marquee production for Radio 4, and yet there are no White Chameleon baseball caps, no Dionysian trailers, no egos being massaged (no time). Gather its entire cast and crew together, and you would not have enough people for a football match. This, BBC bosses argue, is why Radio 4's main evening slot, the Friday Play, will cease to exist from next year; it was either save there, where the audience is smallest, or cut everything else beyond the bone.

Welcome to the media ghetto, British Audio Drama. You'll find it well populated.

Jeez. £23,000 per hour. (That's a touch over $35,000 in "real" money. *ahem*) The Atlanta Radio Theatre Company, in over 25 years of producing award-winning radio drama, hasn't spent that much money altogether. We'd shoot a puppy -- well, maybe in the leg, only to wound -- for $35,000.