This week the new intros to the District of Wonders podcasts StarShipSofa and Tales To Terrify have gone live and guess whose music is being used for Tales to Terrify? That's right Yours Truly! "I Wanna Die Easy" sung live by the Choir of the Church of Christ the King, Frankfurt (director Kathy Bird) with solo vocals by me is the new background music for the podcast. I'm a pleased puppy, that Tony wanted to use this music.
You may be asking yourself, "But why this song?" Well, there's a little story that might explain it a little bit, but for the real reason, you may have to ask Tony Smith (host and owner of the District of Wonders podcast family). Way back in 2007, when I first started listening to StarShipSofa and joined their member forum, Tony was vetting each new member and he found his way to my MySpace space, where I had this song in my playlist. He wrote to me and told me he was blown away by it, and would like to play it on the next show. Now, this was when it was StarShipSofa (no other podcasts) with him and Ciaran O'Connor shootin' the sh*t, as it were, about Science Fiction authors, reading listener email and such. I have to admit I didn't understand why he would want to play that song on a show about Science Fiction, but hey, I wasn't going to complain about the exposure! He played it on show #?? about SF author ??
Years later, Tony asked me if he could use it for the theme and promo music of the podcast Blood & Chrome, which was to be about Battlestar Galactica, if I remember correctly. Unfortunately, that show never got off the ground, but long-time, loyal listeners might remember it and the song.
Now, it has a new lot in life as the Intro and Outro music for the very popular Horror Fiction podcast Tales to Terrify. Go have a listen, you don't have to listen to the whole show if Horror is not your thing. If it is, I highly recommend it, you won't hear my dear, late friend and colleague, Larry Santoro's dulcet tones hosting the show, but the "new" host and the show are still excellent.
Showing posts with label Tony C. Smith. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tony C. Smith. Show all posts
Friday, January 06, 2017
Wednesday, August 27, 2014
WorldCon72 - LonCon3
So, a week after the fact, I'm still basking in the glow that was the World Science Fiction Convention in London. Thanks to my long-suffering husband, whose idea it was I go by myself without my family in tow. While I would have loved to spend the time with them, I think Magnus would've been bored and the boy too. There were some things for kids to do, but not quite as young as he is (almost 5), and the bulk of activities were clearly for adults.
I had ambitions and the desire to attend a million panels on various subjects and with my favorite people in the the field of Science Fiction. I had checked a minimum of 2 events that interested me for each hour of the con! Some hours as many as 8 events (panels, concerts, plays, kaffeeklatsches, etc.) were of interest. In a way, this is great. It meant that the organizers were in fact organized. There were many, many interesting topics (YA literature, Gender politics/issues, Sherlock Holmes, etc.) and many people involved who I respect and admire and wanted to hear speak and discuss live (rather than just reading their books, blogs, status updates and tweets). On the other hand, it was impossible to choose. And when it came down to it, I chose to hang with my fellow Sofanauts and to participate in small group discussions via Kaffeeklatsches and Literary Beers.
I didn't arrive until late afternoon Thursday, so I went straight to registration, which thankfully didn't take long. I then rushed to get a private rehearsal for the Retro Hugo Ceremony, which would be that evening. Then I rushed off to find Amy H. Sturgis' hotel room (very nearby). Amy is the creator of "Looking Back at Genre History", which runs monthly on StarShipSofa. I love her talks and her bubbly personality, not to mention that the topic is just fascinating (Go listen!)!! Anyhoo, so she's much more petite than I imagined her! But just as warm and delightful as in cyber space. She let me change into my (ok, I'm going to say it) my CosPlay outfit. Ha! I put on a sort of old-fashioned floor length chiffon dress, and did my hair and make-up 40's style. But it was more effort than a lot of others put in. teehee! We went over to ExCel and met Tony C. Smith (do I need to tell you? He's the host of StarShipSofa) and Steve Bickle (a long-time Listener-Sofanaut) and went in to the reception for the nominees. It was lovely. I introduced myself to Mary Robinette Kowal (who was one of the hosts of the ceremony) and gawked at Connie Willis. And had this picture taken:
When we went into the auditorium for the Awards none other than Connie Willis sat next to me! And she was delightful! She has been around and involved in SF fandom for a long time and she let loose with little pithy remarks through-out. I sat next to probably the two most knowledgeable people when it concerns this award year. It was so much fun!
Alas, Raymond Palmer didn't win the award and so I didn't get to rattle off the speech Steve Davidson wrote for me (complete with words like "fen") or hold an actual Hugo Award (better than the Oscar if you ask me!). I did get all nervous when they were announcing the nominees though, so it was a bit of a disappointment. Vicarious diva-ness is also fun!
I had managed to procure a hotel room nearby, so I didn't have to make the hour and a half trip to Richmond to stay with my friends Roy and Anna. I did stay with them for the remainder of the con though and it was wonderful to see them.
The next day I got to squee in fan-girlish delight right at the very beginning. I checked the registration desk to see if one of Sofanauts who said he'd be there was (he was not), and who do I see sitting on a table fiddling with his smart phone? None other than Kim Stanley Robinson! I was very uncertain whether I should approach him and bother him but while I was dithering, he looked up and caught me staring. I introduced myself and said it was a pleasure to meet him. Why yes, a pleasure, says he. Of course, I really didn't expect him to know why he should know me, but I'd failed to say it right away, so the blank, gracious smile I received was warranted. When I told him that I had narrated his story "The Timpanist of the Berlin Philharmonic, 1942" he jumped off the table he'd been sitting on and gave me a big hug! I hadn't expected that! So, I'll spare you the word-by-word conversation we had, but I discovered he was waiting for some friends to arrive. One arrived very soon, an author I didn't know, Michael Blumlein, MD, and when I heard who else they were waiting for (Alastair Reynolds), I decided to outstay my welcome and wait for him. His story, "The Sledge-maker's Daughter", is one of the first narrations I did for StarShipSofa. We all had a great chat. I was honored to stand there with these 3 great authors. The rest of the day is a bit of a blur.
Over the course of the weekend, I spent time with the Sofanauts (Jeremy Carter, Katherine Inskip, Luke Smith, Laurence and his dad, Gary Main and finally Nick Eden), never managed to get together with any other Amazing Stories Bloggers, but I did meet Mari Ness and Fábio Fernandez for lunch and ran into Ian Watson in the hallway. I went to a panel discussion on InfoDumps and a Kaffeeklatsch with my man Stan Robinson (heehee) on Friday (he must have thought I was stalking him!) and tried to go hear Amy's Sherlock Holmes talk but the room was full when we arrived (before it had even started)! Such disappointment. I went to Kaffeeklatsches with Amal El-Mohtar (who I've interviewed and whose poetry I've podcasted and blogged about many times) and Elizabeth Bear (story narrations - "Tideline" and "Love Among the Talus"), which were great fun talking about cartoons and comics for kids with Amal and more about writing with Bear. I saw a great independent film screening of "Search for Simon". I met Mary Turzillo (poet, Rhysling and Elgin winner, whose work I've podcasted and reviewed) and her husband, Geoffrey A. Landis (whose work I've also podcasted) and introduced myself to Ken MacLeod (I narrated his story "Lighting Out" and more recently a poem for a review on Amazing) and his PR assistant from Orbit books was excited to meet me and take my email address for linky-linkage. I attended a great interview with Robin Hobb and her editor and later got the book I bought in the Exhibition Hall signed (killing my knees standing for an hour and a half in line!).
I managed to resist buying hundreds of books - only bought a few, but looking at them was fun:
I went early on Monday morning to the ExCel Center because I had time to kill before my train back to Paris at 1pm. Robin Hobb was reading and I wanted to get a seat so I went in well before 10am when it was scheduled. I was a little confused, because there were 5 young women sitting at the table in the front where the panels sit, but there's nothing scheduled before 10am, so who are these people and why are they talking in front of a full audience? They turned out to be the impromtu panel on Gate-crashing panels and they were hilarious! I think you can see part of the "discussion" on YouTube if it interests. They were just 5 people who thought it would be fun to pretend. It was. I think a lot of people were confused, including Robin Hobb, because she was about 10 minutes late starting...
The trip home was uneventful. I have to say that my first con experience was an overwhelmingly positive one. I met lots of lovely people and that's when I really had the most fun. I wish I could've gone to more panels for interesting discussions and I'm sorry I missed the orchestra concert - but I had dinner with Roy and Anna instead. You can't do everything at these things. Maybe if I ever plan to go to another one with more lead time, I could even help with a poetry track or something. I know there's been some bad luck and ill-planning in the past, but I think it's a shame to have almost nothing on poetry at a WorldCon. The one really good panel, "Better World-building through Poetry" was at the same time as the Retro Hugo Ceremony. Oh well.
* * *
 |
| Sofanauts!!! |
I didn't arrive until late afternoon Thursday, so I went straight to registration, which thankfully didn't take long. I then rushed to get a private rehearsal for the Retro Hugo Ceremony, which would be that evening. Then I rushed off to find Amy H. Sturgis' hotel room (very nearby). Amy is the creator of "Looking Back at Genre History", which runs monthly on StarShipSofa. I love her talks and her bubbly personality, not to mention that the topic is just fascinating (Go listen!)!! Anyhoo, so she's much more petite than I imagined her! But just as warm and delightful as in cyber space. She let me change into my (ok, I'm going to say it) my CosPlay outfit. Ha! I put on a sort of old-fashioned floor length chiffon dress, and did my hair and make-up 40's style. But it was more effort than a lot of others put in. teehee! We went over to ExCel and met Tony C. Smith (do I need to tell you? He's the host of StarShipSofa) and Steve Bickle (a long-time Listener-Sofanaut) and went in to the reception for the nominees. It was lovely. I introduced myself to Mary Robinette Kowal (who was one of the hosts of the ceremony) and gawked at Connie Willis. And had this picture taken:
Alas, Raymond Palmer didn't win the award and so I didn't get to rattle off the speech Steve Davidson wrote for me (complete with words like "fen") or hold an actual Hugo Award (better than the Oscar if you ask me!). I did get all nervous when they were announcing the nominees though, so it was a bit of a disappointment. Vicarious diva-ness is also fun!
I had managed to procure a hotel room nearby, so I didn't have to make the hour and a half trip to Richmond to stay with my friends Roy and Anna. I did stay with them for the remainder of the con though and it was wonderful to see them.
The next day I got to squee in fan-girlish delight right at the very beginning. I checked the registration desk to see if one of Sofanauts who said he'd be there was (he was not), and who do I see sitting on a table fiddling with his smart phone? None other than Kim Stanley Robinson! I was very uncertain whether I should approach him and bother him but while I was dithering, he looked up and caught me staring. I introduced myself and said it was a pleasure to meet him. Why yes, a pleasure, says he. Of course, I really didn't expect him to know why he should know me, but I'd failed to say it right away, so the blank, gracious smile I received was warranted. When I told him that I had narrated his story "The Timpanist of the Berlin Philharmonic, 1942" he jumped off the table he'd been sitting on and gave me a big hug! I hadn't expected that! So, I'll spare you the word-by-word conversation we had, but I discovered he was waiting for some friends to arrive. One arrived very soon, an author I didn't know, Michael Blumlein, MD, and when I heard who else they were waiting for (Alastair Reynolds), I decided to outstay my welcome and wait for him. His story, "The Sledge-maker's Daughter", is one of the first narrations I did for StarShipSofa. We all had a great chat. I was honored to stand there with these 3 great authors. The rest of the day is a bit of a blur.
 |
| Captain America needs to work out more! |
I managed to resist buying hundreds of books - only bought a few, but looking at them was fun:
 | |||
| First editions. That one with the hand? 3450.00 Pounds Sterling!!! |
Attending the Hugo Award Ceremony was interesting. I wasn't able to vote in all categories, because I didn't read, listen to or look at everything. But I was pleased with the results none the less. All the nominees were deserving of the awards, so I think I might have been pleased with the results regardless...
 |
| The Gate-crashing panels Panel - pre-Robin Hobb reading |
 |
| Robin Hobb |
The trip home was uneventful. I have to say that my first con experience was an overwhelmingly positive one. I met lots of lovely people and that's when I really had the most fun. I wish I could've gone to more panels for interesting discussions and I'm sorry I missed the orchestra concert - but I had dinner with Roy and Anna instead. You can't do everything at these things. Maybe if I ever plan to go to another one with more lead time, I could even help with a poetry track or something. I know there's been some bad luck and ill-planning in the past, but I think it's a shame to have almost nothing on poetry at a WorldCon. The one really good panel, "Better World-building through Poetry" was at the same time as the Retro Hugo Ceremony. Oh well.
* * *
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
Catching you up
I've been too busy, or rather, I've been held captive by a little boy a lot over the past 3 - 4 weeks and haven't been able to blog about events! So, here's it all in brief:
The group I've been singing with, Raggio di Sol, performed at the Hannover Choir Festival, which took place in the Gallery Hall at the Herrenhäuser Gardens here in Hannover. We did 3 Monteverdi madrigals, Verleih uns Frieden by H. Schütz, and Riu, riu, chiu. We were mentioned in the general review of the festival as one of the highlights. Yay!
I was able to attend Carol's (Baggott-Forte) Masterclasses in Hamburg because someone cancelled with short-ish notice. Of course, the day I left, I woke up with the same throat ick that Dante had had for a week or so. It was ok for the first 3 lessons but the 4th was pretty useless. It was great to see Carol and also the other participants, most of whom I know from previous Masterclasses around Europe. We are a dedicated bunch.
Sang a wedding, near Hannover, filling in for my friend Andrea Doig, a dedicated wedding singer, who got sick. Kind of a new experience for me singing to Karaoke in a church wedding, but that's what they'd hired Andrea to do and so I did my best, singing Caro mio ben, Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah and Widmung by Schumann (instead of Somewhere Over the Rainbow, which is impossible to find in a higher key as karaoke). This was also my first venture driving a car from Stadtmobil, the local CarSharing company. A bit nerve-wracking, but all went well enough.
I recorded a Flash Fiction story for Tony Smith of StarShipSofa, very last-minute, rush-rush, hush-hush for a Sekrit Projekt he's working on. It's like to run in the feed of StarShipSofa as a bit of teasing. I hope I notice when it's up. For such a spontaneous thing, I'm quite proud of it. I recorded and edited it in less than an hour, the same day Tony asked! Yay me! I hope it's not awful! ;-)
Still working on the next Poetry Planet on the theme of Time Travel. I'm pretty sure I won't manage to finish before Christmas, so I apologize to all the poets whose poetry will be included. It will come out eventually!
Heading off to Italy for almost 3 weeks, where I'm going to become an Aunt again! Magnus' sister is due to have her first child on Dec. 19 and I'm looking forward to cuddling a tiny baby again.
So I wish all of you a beautiful holiday season, whichever holiday you celebrate. Enjoy your families, listen to good music and count your blessings - I'm blessed to have so many wonderful people in my life and to be able to pursue and do the things I love. Thank you for being a part of that!
See you in the New Year!
The group I've been singing with, Raggio di Sol, performed at the Hannover Choir Festival, which took place in the Gallery Hall at the Herrenhäuser Gardens here in Hannover. We did 3 Monteverdi madrigals, Verleih uns Frieden by H. Schütz, and Riu, riu, chiu. We were mentioned in the general review of the festival as one of the highlights. Yay!
I was able to attend Carol's (Baggott-Forte) Masterclasses in Hamburg because someone cancelled with short-ish notice. Of course, the day I left, I woke up with the same throat ick that Dante had had for a week or so. It was ok for the first 3 lessons but the 4th was pretty useless. It was great to see Carol and also the other participants, most of whom I know from previous Masterclasses around Europe. We are a dedicated bunch.
Sang a wedding, near Hannover, filling in for my friend Andrea Doig, a dedicated wedding singer, who got sick. Kind of a new experience for me singing to Karaoke in a church wedding, but that's what they'd hired Andrea to do and so I did my best, singing Caro mio ben, Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah and Widmung by Schumann (instead of Somewhere Over the Rainbow, which is impossible to find in a higher key as karaoke). This was also my first venture driving a car from Stadtmobil, the local CarSharing company. A bit nerve-wracking, but all went well enough.
I recorded a Flash Fiction story for Tony Smith of StarShipSofa, very last-minute, rush-rush, hush-hush for a Sekrit Projekt he's working on. It's like to run in the feed of StarShipSofa as a bit of teasing. I hope I notice when it's up. For such a spontaneous thing, I'm quite proud of it. I recorded and edited it in less than an hour, the same day Tony asked! Yay me! I hope it's not awful! ;-)
Still working on the next Poetry Planet on the theme of Time Travel. I'm pretty sure I won't manage to finish before Christmas, so I apologize to all the poets whose poetry will be included. It will come out eventually!
Heading off to Italy for almost 3 weeks, where I'm going to become an Aunt again! Magnus' sister is due to have her first child on Dec. 19 and I'm looking forward to cuddling a tiny baby again.
So I wish all of you a beautiful holiday season, whichever holiday you celebrate. Enjoy your families, listen to good music and count your blessings - I'm blessed to have so many wonderful people in my life and to be able to pursue and do the things I love. Thank you for being a part of that!
See you in the New Year!
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Blood and Chrome Podcast
Hello everyone!
I have so much to tell you, so assuming I get my act together you'll be finally hearing from me regularly again!
First, and the thing that has motivated me to blog again, is because it's time sensitive. Are you a fan (or rather were you) of Battlestar Galactica? There is a new series called Battlestar Galactica: Blood and Chrome coming out sometime soon (I can't find an official air date anywhere!). My buddy Tony C. Smith, the host of the Hugo Award winning podcast StarShipSofa has created a new podcast to accompany the TV show. The first 4 promos and the first episode are out already - you can subscribe to the show at iTunes : Blood and Chrome Podcast The promos are original scripts and wonderfully read and acted by Larry Santoro.
And just a side note, the theme music for the podcast (and on all the promos) is a recording of me singing solo with my old church choir from Frankfurt. We're singing a spiritual - "I Wanna Die Easy" and Tony has always loved it. He used it (completely randomly) on an early StarShipSofa show with Ciaran. So, if you like it and want to hear the whole thing without Larry's (admittedly wonderful voice) over the top, then go to my MySpace space (I love writing that!).
If you are new here, having followed a link here from another website, then may I direct you to my buyable music? It's at CDbaby: "Silence" And while you're at it, you could consider writing a review or signing up to follow my blog or me at Twitter. Hmmm. Anything else? Well, yes, I promised more, but that will come in the form of subsequent blog posts! Lucky you! :-)
-------------
I have so much to tell you, so assuming I get my act together you'll be finally hearing from me regularly again!
First, and the thing that has motivated me to blog again, is because it's time sensitive. Are you a fan (or rather were you) of Battlestar Galactica? There is a new series called Battlestar Galactica: Blood and Chrome coming out sometime soon (I can't find an official air date anywhere!). My buddy Tony C. Smith, the host of the Hugo Award winning podcast StarShipSofa has created a new podcast to accompany the TV show. The first 4 promos and the first episode are out already - you can subscribe to the show at iTunes : Blood and Chrome Podcast The promos are original scripts and wonderfully read and acted by Larry Santoro.
And just a side note, the theme music for the podcast (and on all the promos) is a recording of me singing solo with my old church choir from Frankfurt. We're singing a spiritual - "I Wanna Die Easy" and Tony has always loved it. He used it (completely randomly) on an early StarShipSofa show with Ciaran. So, if you like it and want to hear the whole thing without Larry's (admittedly wonderful voice) over the top, then go to my MySpace space (I love writing that!).
If you are new here, having followed a link here from another website, then may I direct you to my buyable music? It's at CDbaby: "Silence" And while you're at it, you could consider writing a review or signing up to follow my blog or me at Twitter. Hmmm. Anything else? Well, yes, I promised more, but that will come in the form of subsequent blog posts! Lucky you! :-)
-------------
Sunday, September 13, 2009
StarShipSofa Stories Vol. 1
If you are reading this blog, you must know that I have a not-so-secret love of Speculative Fiction. I even narrate Science Fiction and Fantasy stories for podcasts, most notably StarShipSofa and Podcastle. If you don't care about Science Fiction or any of that you can skip this post. :-)
StarShipSofa is where I got my start narrating and is a podcast I listen to religiously. It's a place to hear fantastic short fiction from the genre as well as Science Fact, History of the Genre segments, poetry, Film, book and graphic novel reviews, and much more. Tony C. Smith has been producing the StarShipSofa Aural Delights show for nearly 100 episodes now. And to celebrate he's putting out a print collection of a selection of stories which have aired on the show. I had the honor of narrating 3 of the selected stories. Here's what Tony says about the project:
"StarShipSofa Stories Volume 1 is only a few days away from going on sale. Here’s a sneak preview of the cover art, designed by Skeet.
"Skeet’s brief was to create a picture that would pay homage to the 50s SF pulp magazines. I think he’s produced an amazing piece of work.
"Get ready for the 16th September when the book will be available to buy in print form. There will also be a new website and free eBook released on that day.
"I hope you think it captures the style and feel of the SF Golden Years?"
I'll post again when it's actually available and I hope you will consider purchasing a copy. All monies go toward supporting Tony's efforts in producing the StarShipSofa.
------------------------------
StarShipSofa is where I got my start narrating and is a podcast I listen to religiously. It's a place to hear fantastic short fiction from the genre as well as Science Fact, History of the Genre segments, poetry, Film, book and graphic novel reviews, and much more. Tony C. Smith has been producing the StarShipSofa Aural Delights show for nearly 100 episodes now. And to celebrate he's putting out a print collection of a selection of stories which have aired on the show. I had the honor of narrating 3 of the selected stories. Here's what Tony says about the project:
"StarShipSofa Stories Volume 1 is only a few days away from going on sale. Here’s a sneak preview of the cover art, designed by Skeet."Skeet’s brief was to create a picture that would pay homage to the 50s SF pulp magazines. I think he’s produced an amazing piece of work.
"Get ready for the 16th September when the book will be available to buy in print form. There will also be a new website and free eBook released on that day.
"I hope you think it captures the style and feel of the SF Golden Years?"
I'll post again when it's actually available and I hope you will consider purchasing a copy. All monies go toward supporting Tony's efforts in producing the StarShipSofa.
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