Spider on the Web - SoundSage

The Starvation Box

Music: Colin MacDonald.

Another Free Lunch

Reading: Chapters 3 & 4, THE FREE LUNCH by Spider Robinson. Music: Tim Minchin, The Creber Family, Michelle Creber, Gina Sposto, Doug Cox, Marcus Eaton with James Raymond, Dori Rubbicco Legge.

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The Voyage South

Reading: Prologue of Book I of the Astreya Trilogy, THE VOYAGE SOUTH, by Seymour Hamilton. Music: Kathleen Rubbicco, Strung, Carolina Chocolate Drops, Ella Fitzgerald with the Ray Brown Quintet, Tony Dominelli, and Lord Buckley.

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A Free Lunch

Reading: "The Littlest Dragon" by Seymour Hamilton; Chapters 1 & 2, THE FREE LUNCH by Spider Robinson. Music: Mose Scarlett; Folk Uke; John Boutte; Gale Mead; Scarlett, Washington & Whiteley.

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It's Time Now...

Reading: "Chronic Offender." Music: The Lovin' Spoonful, Spider singing Tim Minchin, Ann Earthling & The Planets, Nils Landgren & Michael Wollny, Joshua Penman and Akara, David Crosby, Graham Nash, Mose Scarlett.

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Thrillin' at the MacMillan #1: Space Tourism

I’ve spent several decades rebutting silly complaints about “money wasted in space.” Dollars have been spent getting there—but every single buck stopped here, on the ground, in the pocket of some smart person. Furthermore, every dollar NASA spent earned thirteen dollars back. Look what it got them: a manned space program that barely exists and has little future.

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Thrillin' at the MacMillan #2: Sustaining the Planet

Sustaining the planet means widely different things to all of us—so let’s try and define our aim. The phrase surely isn’t meant literally. Terra was sustaining herself just fine for millions of years before the first oxygen-producing lifeforms infested her and wrecked her nice methane ecosystem, dooming entire phyla to extinction. Mother Gaia’s not alarmed by “global warming”: she’s survived vastly greater environmental changes more than once, and will again.

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Thrillin' at the MacMillan #3: Spirituality of Space

The spiritual impulse can be a dangerous thing when it goes public. Ask anyone who was in New York five years ago, or anyone still alive in Baghdad today...It’s hard to talk about spirituality without talking about religion, and most of the world’s religions are, whether they admit it or not, mutually exclusive. That’s the only way I can explain the odd fact that spirituality is one of the least-known attractions of space travel.

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Thrillin' at the MacMillan #4: Militarization of Space

To my surprise, not even the wonderful Wizard Of Google can pin down exactly when the militarization of space became unstoppable. In the first place, China’s finally sussed out the secret to the Information Age: smother it with so much contradictory information nobody can say for sure just what you said, or when...much less why. And they’ve always known what to do about military information: lie.

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Thrillin' at the MacMillan #5: Space Art

It’s probably apocryphal—the best ones usually are—but one of my favorite quotations is what Mahatma Ghandi is supposed to have responded when asked what he thought of Western Civilization. They say he replied gently, “That would be very nice.”

A lot of people will give you some variant of that same response if you ask them about space art. “Great idea. Somebody should try that.” “What space art?” I draw blanks with the idea all the time at social gatherings. Nobody seems to realize there is any.

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Thrillin' at the MacMillan #6: Space Law

Ask Elliot Ness. The power of a law—its meaning—depends on who’s committed to enforcing it, and how far they’re prepared to go. In David Milch’s HBO series Deadwood, nobody seems prepared to enforce much of anything, and perhaps you’ve seen the dire consequences of such anarchy: the rights of prostitutes were not respected, men were sometimes cheated, wealth and power and information lay in the hands of a few, undertaking was handled by voracious swine, and foul language was heard in public. Nothing like the shining civilization of laws we enjoy today.

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Thrillin' at the MacMillan #7: Space Society

“Space Society” is an ambiguous topic, just as “Space Art” was. There’s more than one way to interpret it.

The easy way out would be to discuss some of the largest of the many organizations that exist to support the study of astronomy, cosmology, planetology and other space-related disciplines, or to encourage manned and/or unmanned spaceflight, or to promote orbital science, industry and/or tourism, or to call for demilitarization of space, or…

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Thrillin' at the MacMillan #8: Space Generation

The first thing “space generation” makes me think of is the quantum ramjet, a hypothetical star drive I chose as the motive force for the starship Charles Sheffield in VARIABLE STAR, my new collaboration with Robert A. Heinlein. It would make use of quantum fluctuations in the energy of the cosmic vacuum to propel a ship up to relativistic speeds quickly, without burning any fuel. No such engine has been built yet—but the engineer who proposed it, David Froning, mentioned parenthetically that if a quantum ramjet were ever built, it might very well create new universes, every second it was in operation, as a side effect. It’s kind of hard to top that for space generation.

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Life Goes On

Music: Naming the Twins, Corbin Keep, Slide to Freedom, Crosby-Nash, Across the Borderline.

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Live at Tottering-On-The-Brink

Music: Dori Legge, Claude Debussy, CPE Bach, Steve Reich, Tom Johnson, Colin MacDonald, Jacob ter Veldhuis.

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Bianca's Hands

Reading: "Bianca's Hands" and "Godbody" by Theodore Sturgeon. Music: McCarthy, Richards & Legge; Colin MacDonald; Crosby & Nash.

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VPL Podshop #3 (of 3)

Podshops created as Vancouver Public Library's Writer In Residence.

00:01 "Magic," by Greg Stephens

4:22 "Clearly," by Steve Robson

15: 30 "Legacy of Ariast," by Jeffrey Stephens

20:00 "The Pinch," by Melissa Tepperman

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VPL Podshop #2 (of 3)

Podshops created as Vancouver Public Library's Writer In Residence.

"Domestic Disturbance": :48

"The Raising": 8:52

"The Navigators": 22:40

"The Samhain Murders": 37:20

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VPL Podshop #1 (of 3)

Podshops created as Vancouver Public Library's Writer In Residence.

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Merry Crozmas & Son!

Music: Local Anxiety, Bambi Kino, David Crosby and James Raymond (including multiple world premieres).

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Back on the Air

Music: Shari Ulrich, Pauline Le Bel, Christie Grace, Tony Dominelli, Brian "Breeze" Cayolle, Colin MacDonald w/ Vancouver Saxophone Ensemble, Doug Cox w/ John Boutté & Salil Bhatt, Matt & Wendy Maxwell, Spider Robinson.

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Meditations on Mortality

Music: Jeff Healey and accopmlices; Jeanne Robinson & Dori Legge; CPR.

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Satan's Children II

Reading: Conclusion of "Satan's Children" by Spider Robinson. Music: Doug Cox w/ Salil Bhatt, Ramkumesh Kumar & John Boutte; James Taylor; Big Joe Williams w/ Lambert Hendricks & Ross and Count Basie And His Orchestra; Doug Cox w/ Amos Garret & Ron Casat.

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Satan's Children

Reading: Part 1 of "Satan's Children" by Spider Robinson. Music: Roy Schultz, Janis Ian, Graham Nash, Gale Mead.

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Music with a Wooden Leg

Music: David Crosby, Steve Morse, Jonathan Edwards & Orphan, Cyril Pahinui, Oscar Peterson Trio, Lhasa de Sela, Kenny Barron with Trio Da Paz & Anne Drummond.

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Pruzy's Pot

Reading: "Pruzy's Pot," read by Theodore Sturgeon. Music: Tracey Cayolle, CPR, Doug Cox.

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Mess o' Music

Music: George Harrison, Leslie Alexander, Jane Siberry, Amos Garrett, Geoff Muldaur, Jim Kweskin, Danielle Miraglia, Cliff Eberhardt, Lou Killen, Stacey Earle, Mark Stuart, Joyce Moreno.

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Inhumanly Readable

Reading: Part 2 of "Human Readable" by Cory Doctorow. Music: Les Finnigan, Ellis Paul, WJ Plecha, Rhonda Rosalee, Jeff Pevar, Maria Joao.

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Human Readable

Reading: Part 1 of "Human Readable" by Cory Doctorow. Music: Watermelon Slim and the Workers, Viktoria Tolstoy, Esbjorn Svensson Trio.

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Music from the Heart

Music: Mose Allison, Tony Dominelli, Pauline LeBel, Shari Ulrich, Barney Bentall & Tom Taylor, Matt Maxwell, Wendy Maxwell, Rob Bailey & Stan Gadziola, Gale Mead, Dori Legge with Donn Legge, Spider Robinson with Kathleen Rubbicco, Lisa Thiel, Colin MacDonald, David Crosby & Graham Nash.

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16-year old Fogey

Music: Amos Garrett, Half Hearted Hero, Dori & Donn Legge, Carole King, Esperanza Spalding, Genya Ravan, Madeleine Peyroux, Carla Bley, The Dixie Dregs.

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Suicide Prevention Kit

Readings: A SAUCER OF LONELINESS and SUICIDE by Theodore Sturgeon. Music: Livingston Taylor, Maria Muldaur with Amos Garrett, Les Paul Trio, Lambert, Hendricks & Ross, Leon Russell.

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Hot Music Tonight

Music: Tom Rush, Swamp Valley Ladybugs, Women's Chain Gang (1939), Tres Femmes, James Taylor & Joni Mitchell, James Taylor, Bobby Gentry & Donovan, Jim Croce, Django Reinhardt playing electric guitar w/ Duke Ellington Orchestra, Nobutake Ito and the Swing Niglots of Tokyo, Celso Machado, Todd Butler, Todd Butler w/ Spider Robinson, Spider Robinson folkaoke tracks, Todd Butler & Doug Cox, Dori Legge & Kathy Rubbico.

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Slow Sculpture

Reading: SLOW SCULPTURE by Theodore Sturgeon. Music: Justin Adams & Juldeh Camara, Richard Galliano & Gonzalo Rubalcaba, James Taylor & Bobby Gentry, Chet Atkins & Paul Yandell.

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Supersized Music

Music: Cass Elliot, Celco Machado, Seu Jorge, The Rutles, Doug Cox & Salil Bhatt, George Harrison, Chet Atkins, Colin MacDonald, Esbjorn Svensson, Lord Buckley, Dori Legge.

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Starmind

Reading: STARMIND by Spider Robinson. Music: Paul Pena, Doug Cox, Breeze Cayolle.

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Jazz Birds

Music: Molly Johnson, Elizabeth Shepherd, Roberta Gambarini, Luciana Souza, Esperanza Spalding, Ana Carolina, Seu Jorge, Maria Bethania, Sunny Crownover, David Crosby.

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Road to Recovery

Reading: STARMIND by Spider Robinson. Music: Blues Train Band, Sunny and Her Joy Boys, Blossom Dearie with Marian McPartland, Dori Legge, Edison Ripsborn.

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I Want Your Sax

Music: Mr. X, Victor Assis Brasil, Coleman Hawkins, Ernie Watts, Benny Carter, George Coleman, Sax Brothers (Joe Lovano/Johannes Enders/Gary Smulyan/Greg Osby), Sax Special (Peter Brotzmann/Evan Parker/ Willem Brueker/John Tchicai/Steve Lacy), World Saxophone Quartet (James Carter/Hamiet Bluiett/Greg Osby/Oliver Lake), Johnny Hodges.

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Thirteen O'Clock

EXTREME EXPLICIT WARNING. Readings: "The Truth About David Gerrold," by Spider Robinson, and "Thirteen O'Clock," by David Gerrold. Music: Spike Jones & His City Snickers; Vladimir Vysotsky; Watermelon Slim; Corbin Keep.

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Music by Family and Friends

Music by D. Warwick, Kathleen Rubbicco, Peter Armstrong, Tracey Cayolle, Brian "Breeze" Cayolle, Paul Pena, Chirgilchin, Oidupaa Vladimir Oiun, Seth Augustus.

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In Fading Suns and Dying Moons

Music by Schaun Tozer, James Raymond, and Dave Van Ronk. Readings of "In Fading Suns And Dying Moons" by John Varley, and of Chapter 1 of BAD NEWS by Donald E. Westlake.

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Christmas Card from an author in Vancouver

Music by The Beatles, Jake Thackray, Redips Nosnibor, Colin MacDonald, Blossom Dearie, Hoagy Carmichael and Georgie Fame, Amos Garrett, Barrence Whitfield, Ray Charles, and Tom Waits.

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The Magnificent Conspiracy

EXPLICIT WARNING. Reading: "The Magnificent Conspiracy." Music by 3-Dog Night, Jeff Healey, Paul McCartney & Elvis Costello.

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All-Music Birthday Special

Music by Spider, Chris Coon, Matt Maxwell, Mike & Monique Creber, Sligo Rags, Rubbicco Family, Gary Bartz & Kenny Barron, Gonzalo Rubalcaba Trio, Jennifer Scott & Rene Worst, Treasa Levasseur, Colin MacDonald.

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The Persistence of Vision

EXPLICIT WARNING. Reading: Hugo and Locus Award-winning novella "The Persistence of Vision" by John Varley. Music by John Boutte, Doug Cox, Jake Thackray, David Crosby.

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More Music You've Never Heard

Music by Schaun Tozer, Egberto Gismonti, Alexandre Gistmonti, Darrell Scott, Gale Mead with Amos Garrett, Phoebe Snow, Gerald Wilson, Thelonious Monk, Prasanna, and Matt Maxwell.

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Starseed

EXPLICIT WARNING. Readings: part 1 reading from STARSEED, part 2 from SOCIETY'S CHILD.

Music by James Raymond, Johnny Winter, Gale Mead, Janis Ian, and Stanley Unwin.

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Stardance

EXPLICIT WARNING. Readings: excerpt from “Stardance,” by S & J; “Options” by John Varley

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Classic Frederick Pohl

EXPLICIT WARNING. Readings: two classic Frederik Pohl stories, “Day Million” and “We Purchased People.” The latter requires at least 6 X’s in its warning, and maybe a Not For The Squeamish too.

Music: opening and closing tracks “EGF Receptor 20 (671-998)” and “Human Phospholipase A2-11A,” by God, interpreted by Dr. William Campbell and Matthew Campbell; “Estate,” by Bruno Martino & Bruno Brighetti, English lyrics (“In Summer”) by Jon Hendricks, guitar and vocal by Spider Robinson; “Ground Speed,” by Bela Fleck, performed by Bela, Earl Scruggs, Jerry Douglas et. al.

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Musicfest 08 Discoveries

EXPLICIT WARNING. Music: Musicfest 08 Discoveries Eneida Marta, Shane Koyczan, and Matt Andersen, plus Doug Cox & Sam Hurrie, and Spider live off the floor; talk: entering its second year SOTW reluctantly faces reality.

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How I Got My Dream Back

EXPLICIT WARNING. Reading: "How I Got My Dream Back"; music: Doug Cox, Todd Butler, Salil Bhatt, John Boutte, Spider Robinson.

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The Guy With the Eyes

EXPLICIT WARNING. Reading: "The Guy With the Eyes"; music: Duke Ellington Orchestra, CSNY.

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Orphans of Eden

EXPLICIT WARNING. Readings: "Orphans of Eden," "Local Champ"; music: Koerner, Ray & Glover.

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Soul Search

EXPLICIT WARNING. Reading: "Soul Search" (complete); music: Esbjorn Svensson Trio, Charlie Haden Quartet West.

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Very Hard Choices 6

XXX WARNING. Readings from Very Hard Choices, including a missing bit from SOTW-044; music by C&N, and CPR.

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Very Hard Choices 5

XXX WARNING. Readings from Very Hard Choices; music by CSN, CPR, and Sinatra.

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Very Hard Choices 4

XXX WARNING. Readings from Very Hard Choices; music by Steve Wiest Big Band, Carla Bley & The Lost Chords

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Very Hard Choices 3

XXX WARNING. Readings from Very Hard Choices; music by Georgie Fame, F Zappa, Dave Van Ronk.

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Little Brother 2

XXX WARNING. Fiction readings of Cory Doctorow's LITTLE BROTHER and my VERY HARD CHOICES. Music by James. Raymond.

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No Talking, Just Great Music

All music this week: an eclectic selection from all directions. Sounds and sweet airs by Amiri Baraka with Air, Stan Getz & Kenny Barron, Graham Nash, Todd Butler, Michael Friedman, Breeze Cayolle, Doug Cox & Salil Bhatt with John Boutte, and Colin MacDonald.

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Little Brother

Explicit Language Warning; more music from Bowen Island; a reading from LITTLE BROTHER by Cory Doctorow.

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Music of 3 Islands

XXX WARNING; an all-music podcast by 10 different artists; music: Tom Rush, Shael Wrinch, Shari Ulrich

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Very Hard Choices 2

XXX WARNING; reading from VERY HARD CHOICES; music: Dave Frishberg, Good Brothers, Todd Butler

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Very Hard Choices

XXX WARNING; reading from VERY HARD CHOICES; music: Leon Bibb, and Spider with Todd Butler.

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Very Bad Deaths 2

EXPLICIT LANGUAGE WARNING. Readings from VERY BAD DEATHS; NEW music by Amos Garrett, Duke Robillard & New Guitar Summit.

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Remarkable Women

Spider offers music by & prose about some remarkable women: Gale Mead, Carla Bley, Blossom Dearie, Dori Leggé, and the Bunny. XXX EXPLICIT WARNING! Adult language and outrageous sexual situations.

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No Science Fiction, Only Music

Spider has so much good music backed up inside him, he's about to explode. Here are performances by Jeff Healey, Moe Scarlett, Jordin Kare, Seth Augustus, Chirgilchin, Dorrie Leger, Matt Richard, Les Finnigan, and David Qualey.

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Rocket Ship Galileo

Spider reads the first chapter from Robert Heinlein's ROCKET SHIP GALILEO, excerpted from his Blackstone Audio recording.

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Callahan's Legacy

EXPLICIT WARNING. Spider reads from CALLAHAN'S LEGACY, and bids farewell to the late great bluesman Jeff Healey.

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Not Fade Away/Orphans Of Eden

Two complete short stories from USER FRIENDLY, plus caustic, mystic or acoustic music from Todd Butler, Janis Ian, Salil Bhatt & Doug Cox, and Rob Bowen & Stan Gadziola.

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Soul from Hamburg to Halifax and back

Overdue props, shout-outs and thanks to new friends and old; music by Stefan Gwildis, Bill Stevenson & Tom Easley, and David Qualey; plus 3 readings from The Crazy Years, debating the sentience of a strange race called the Yoominz of Sol III...

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Very Bad Deaths

This week I read excerpts from VERY BAD DEATHS (whose sequel VERY HARD CHOICES comes out in June), and also bring you a selection of serious music by the Colin MacDonald Pocket Orchestra, semiserious filk music by Nate Bucklin, and gloriously goofy unreleased word music by Lord Buckley and friends. WARNING! Explicit language!

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Blues Train Band

Stop the presses, press all the stops, hold the phone, phone the hold and bring the poop to the poopdeck, by heck! Wake the kids and start kiddin' at the wake Jake, 'cause there's breakin' news about to break, news so good it's hard to take. I got news about blues for all of youse about which we will all enthuse. For the first time in its history, lentils and jadiemen, Spider on the Web #29 is going to bring you a world premiere of the brand new CD out of Massachusetts by New Bedford's notorious Blues Train Band.

There is also a reading of Chapter 19 from VARIABLE STAR.

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Mindkiller

In Spider on the Web #20 I read you excerpts from all three of the novels represented in the LIFEHOUSE TRILOGY, the new hardcover omnibus just out from Baen Books. Because I was reading excerpts from all three books each one of them had to be very short and I ended up cutting at least one of them a lot shorter than I wanted to. I've decided to revisit it now: the short story "God is an Iron", which later became the second chapter of the novel MINDKILLER.Warning! Explicit language!

Musical selections will be performed by Spider Robinson.

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Time Pressure

This week I'll read you an excerpt from my novel TIME PRESSURE, part of the LIFEHOUSE TRILOGY set in Nova Scotia at the end of the 60's. In this excerpt our misanthropic hippie-hermit-hero Sam has just witnessed the explosive arrival of a beautiful, naked time traveller named Rachel in the snowy woods, and brought her home to warm up. Warning! Explicit language!

Musical selections will be performed by Andrew York, Jonathan Edwards, and David Crosby.

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More Great Music

My holiday pledge to you is: NO FRIGGIN' CHRISTMAS MUSIC. That's right friends, this will be a carol-free zone for the duration of the holidays.

Musical selections will be performed by Seth Augustus, Paul Pena, John Walker, Amos Garrett and Spider Robinson.

WARNING! Explicit language!

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Book Reviews

Welcome to SOTW #25 and the book reviews I promised of two SF novels by non-SF writers: Rafi Zabor's THE BEAR COMES HOME, and Cormac McCarthy's THE ROAD. Warning! X-rated language!

Musical selections will be performed by the Charlie Haden Quartet, John Coltrane, Todd Butler, and Dory Previn.

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Lifehouse

This week I'm going to read you a portion of one of the three novels contained in the LIFEHOUSE TRILOGY, available now in a single hardcover volume from Baen Books. Chapter One of the novel LIFEHOUSE, the conclusion of the trilogy which was my attempt to come up with a reason to be a good man that did not require a god with thunderbolts up his sleeve to enforce it -- what seems to me to be a rational man's substitute for religion. Warning! X-rated language!

Musical selections will be performed by Colin MacDonald, David Crosby, James Raymond, and Graham Nash.

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Zero-G Party

I'd really like to open this week with a live interview with my wife, the successful zero-gravity choreographer who has just come back from a trip to heaven at the end of the year 07. Sadly, she has begged off -- she's still in the middle of doing interviews for news media, dance media, science fiction media, and she's really beginning to hear herself answer the same questions over and over again. So I'm goin to open right now with a little bit of time travel, back to the late 80's when Jeanne and I are having one of the very few disagreements that we ever had over the course of our collaboration on the STARDANCE TRILOGY.

Musical selections will be performed by Johnny Winter and the Rubbico sisters.

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Preflight Reading from STARDANCE

Because of one particular person's desire to rise up -- my wife Jeanne -- I'm packing to go to Las Vegas. For those who don't know, this weekend my best friend and wife is getting a golden opportunity to experience zero-gravity in a series of parabolic arcs abord a modified 727 thanks to the generosity of Dr. Peter Diamandis, creator of the historic Ansari X-Prize. This week I'm going to give a reading from the STARDANCE TRILOGY, the novels that Jeanne and I wrote about dance in zero-gravity.

Musical selections will be performed by Crosby & Nash, and Janis Ian.

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Scienific Orthodoxymoron

So far these podcasts have careened from science fact to science fiction to science opinion, to silence-improving music. This week I'm going to try something new, and as dangerous as sweating dynamite: science dogma. We're going to discuss one of the newest and strangest mental diseases our species has yet developed: pursuing scientific facts with religious fervor.

Musical selections will be performed by Jaymes Raymond, the New Orleans Jazz Ramblers, Crosby & Nash, Amos Garrett, and Todd Butler.

WARNING! Explicit language!

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Stories and Strings

This week we return to some of what I do best: science fiction. You'll hear excerpts from three novels that make up the omnibus edition of THE LIFEHOUSE TRILOGY, just released by Baen Books, reprinting MINDKILLER, TIME PRESSURE, and LIFEHOUSE.

Musical selections will be performed by Doug Cox, Vishwa Mohan Bhatt, Amos Garrett, and Andrew York.

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The Crazy Years

This week we break new ground with used, but timeless, material. It's time for what I call speculative non-fiction: a science fiction writer's take on world events, a futurist's thoughts on the recent past.

Crazy Years columns:

Musical selections will be performed by Colin MacDonald, Breeze Cayolle and Spider Robinson.

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Awesome Music You May Not Know -- Yet

I love reading you fiction, I love ranting about idiocy in the news, I love rhapsodizing about the frontier called the inner solar system, and we'll get to some of that, but I believe turning people on to great music is the most fun you can have with your pants on and one of the holiest chores there is. Here is music you may not know from Spider John Koerner, David Crosby and CPR, and a couple of my own originals including the song David Crosby and I wrote for my novel Variable Star.

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Melancholy Elephants

She sat zazen, concentrating on not concentrating, until it was time to prepare for the appointment. Sitting seemed to produce the usual serenity, put everything in perspective. Her hand did not tremble as she applied her make-up; tranquil features looked back at her from the mirror. She was mildly surprised, in fact, at just how calm she was, until she got out of the hotel elevator at the garage level and the mugger made his play. She killed him instead of disabling him. Which was obviously not a measured, balanced action--the official fuss and paperwork could make her late. Annoyed at herself, she stuffed the corpse under a shiny new Westinghouse roadable whose owner she knew to be in Luna, and continued on to her own car. This would have to be squared later, and it would cost. No help for it--she fought to regain at least the semblance of tranquillity as her car emerged from the garage and turned north. Nothing must interfere with this meeting, or with her role in it.

Spider on the Web: Recent Episodes

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