#radio drama revival

[hinaypod]

Radio Drama Revival: Hi Nay

Big thank you for the feature, Ely! This was a treat, and an enormously fun interview. I loved getting to be on @radiodramarevival Radio Drama Revival, and I hope this isn't the last time we get to chat like this 😊

(please note the warnings at the beginning! There's mention of parental physical violence / corporal punishment)

I chat about Hi Nay, my career in animation, why animators/visual artists LOVE podcasts, funny fun facts about horror sound effects, and Filipino Realities and all the gorey details.

And of course

🔊Come listen to the interview!🔊

🌺And come support Hi Nay by joining our fundraiser!🌺

[radiodramarevival]

Hope is not the lonely candle in the dark. Hope is the light of the candle in the dark, and you have to light the candle yourself. Hope needs sustenance, hope needs energy put into it in order for it to survive.

We’re talking to Evan Tess Murray and Trace Callahan about hope in This Planet Needs a Name, right here on Radio Drama Revival.

You can find more information about this episode, including the full episode transcript, on our website at RadioDramaRevival.com.

[spacecravat]

Hey I love your takes on the new season and I wanted to ask what the differences are in Aziraphale and Crowley personalities or relationship overall in the book, radio, and TV show? Which one do you prefer the best? Do you like way the characters where adapted into the TV show?

I think the main difference is that the book versions feel a lot more settled than the TV show versions. Like don't get me wrong, they still have their issues, but TV show Aziraphale and Crowley are at any point in the midst of messy relationship drama that the book versions just do not have.

Book Aziraphale is more of a bitch and seems to believe a lot less in Heaven's goodness and all that. Book Crowley is an optimist and a nerd who spends a lot less time trying to escape because fundamentally he loves Earth and humans and cares what happens to them. Meanwhile the TV show gave them both anxiety.

They also both have a lot more hangups about their own personal goodness and evilness in the show. In the book they seem to have arrived at more of a contented middle ground before the story starts. In the book they're just some guys doing their jobs for distant governments that are both kind of shit, with "good" and "bad" labels being less relevant than protecting the world they love.

I think one exchange that's particularly representative of the difference is this one at the ex-convent after Crowley changes the paint guns to real guns (that still won't hurt anyone). The book:

“Oh, all right,” said Crowley wretchedly. “No one’s actually going to get killed. They’re all going to have miraculous escapes. It wouldn’t be any fun otherwise.” Aziraphale relaxed. “You know, Crowley,” he said, beaming, “I’ve always said that, deep down inside, you’re really quite a—” “All right, all right,” Crowley snapped. “Tell the whole blessed world, why don’t you?”

vs TV:

I'd say book and radio versions are fairly similar, as the radio drama was trying to be a much more faithful adaptation, and any differences are more down to what got cut for time.

I think a lot of the changes can be put down to what's more interesting to watch on screen vs read on a page: Crowley and Aziraphale coming to personal conclusions while going on for paragraphs of internal monologue is a bit less exciting to show in live action than dramatic arguments.

And personally I like all the versions! There are some things I like better in one version or the other (like the TV show eliminating a lot of the book's racism, or Crowley reviving the dove in the book, and I love the historical scenes the show added). And other things might be different but I like both.

I view them as similar but not identical stories, which can be enjoyed in parallel, all with building blocks that I like, just put together in slightly different shapes. They don't have to be the exact same characters for me to have a good time. In fact might be better for the differences. If I want the book, I can always reread the book, so it's fun to have things that are new and different in each adaptation.

[x0401x]

Hello, this ask is just for fun......

Top 5 (or top 3) Favorite female characters :

Top 5 (or top 3) Favorite male characters :

Top 5 Favorite animanga :

Animanga you are currently enjoying :

Animanga that exceeded all your expectations :

Top 3 Unpopular animanga you really love :

Favorite romance :

Favorite action animanga :

Favorite fantasy :

Favorite sci -fi :

Favorite drama :

Favorite comedy :

Top 3 Favorite anime movies :

Next in your watch list :

Next in your read list :

Top 3 Favorite antagonists:

Top 5 (or top 3) favorite ships (can be canon or non canon) :

Thanks if you want to answer....

This sure took me a while because, damn, I had to think a lot about each answer.

So, top 3 favorite females:

Sheryl Nome

Oikawa Tsurara

Kuchiki Rukia

Top 3 favorite males:

Gilbert Bougainvillea

Takigawa Masaki

Alphonse Elric

Top 5 Favorite animanga:

I can't really put them in the same category, so I'm gonna write down one of each.

Favorite anime movie: Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi

Favorite anime show: Heike Monogatari

Favorite manga: Tongari Boushi no Atelier

Favorite light novel: Violet Evergarden

Favorite regular novel: Mouryou no Hako

Animanga I'm currently enjoying (so far):

Yatagarasu

Hibike! Euphonium S3

Kaijuu 8-gou

Kuroshitsuji S4

Dungeon Meshi

Urusei Yatsura S2

Ookami to Koushinryou

Boku no Hero Academia S7

Tonari no Youkai-san

Bartender

Tadaima, Okaeri

Touken Ranbu Kai

Boukyaku Battery

Jii-san Baa-san Wakagaeru

The Fable

Seiyuu Radio no Uraomote

Now, I'm still waiting for some stuff to air, so this isn't a complete list. Also, the last title isn't exactly one that I'm super enjoying because it's butchering the original, but I'm sticking with it because I like the franchise. I recommend the manga instead of the anime.

Animanga that exceeded all my expectations

The only one I can think of is Suzumiya Haruhi. It didn't exceed all my expectations because they were high from the start, but goddamn. I despise the fact that I came into the show knowing only the memes and opening clip, thinking it was gonna be absolute weeb garbage (because back in the old days it was much easier to not run into spoilers and I'm not even sure if the novel was already being fantranslated at the time), only to find out that it actually fucking slaps. Can you imagine how pissed I was. That I couldn't hate this bullshit of a show. Also endless eight. That shit was traumatizing even though I caught on quick and skipped most of it.

Top 3 Unpopular animanga I really love

I won't say unpopular but these are definitely underrated.

Tsurune (I mean the novel; the anime doesn't deserve much recognition beyond the good animation and sound design, imo)

Nurarihyon no Mago (I know it's been over for more than a decade and the fandom is long dead, but it was temporarily revived by the recent new chapters, and it was criminally underrated in the west back when it was still being published)

Gangsta (used to be really popular when it was on-going, but the fandom lost its hype completely both in the west and in Japan after it entered hiatus because of the author's health)

Favorite romance: Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso

Favorite action animanga: can't possibly choose

Favorite fantasy: Tongari Boushi no Atelier

Favorite sci-fi: can't possibly choose

Favorite drama: Nana

Favorite comedy: Gintama (I know that comedy isn't the only genre this thing belongs to but comedy is the main one. And yes, I know the story is actually deep but it still takes a backseat to the comedy, narratologically speaking, and this shouldn't be looked down on. Fight me.)

Top 3 Favorite anime movies

I don't really have favorites in any particular order other than Sen to Chihiro, so here are a random few of my faves:

Kimi no Na wa

Senkou no Hathaway

Mononoke-hime

Next in your watch list: All the stuff from this season that hasn't yet come out.

Next in your read list: Nothing, actually. Just keeping up with the stuff I was already reading. Accepting recs!

Top 3 Favorite antagonists:

Johan Liebert

Griffith

Meruem

Top 5 (or top 3) favorite ships (can be canon or non canon):

Let's go with top 10 because I'm a professional shipper. By the way, number 1 is the one that set the bar for all the other ships and anything else is actually just sharing second place. These are really just a few from the top of my head, since I have at least one favorite ship for every fandom I'm in.

RikuTsura (Nura Rikuo/Tsurara)

HakuSen (Haku/Ogino Chihiro)

SakuShao (Kinomoto Sakura/Li Shaoran)

IchiRuki (Kurosaki Ichigo/Kuchiki Rukia)

HaruRin (Nanase Haruka/Matsuoka Rin)

GilVi (Gilbert Bougainvillea/Violet Evergarden)

SoMa (Soul Evans/Maka Albarn)

AruSheri (Saotome Alto/Sheryl Nome)

YuuVic (Katsuki Yuuri/Victor Nikiforov)

SeiRicha (Nakata Seigi/Richard Ranashingha de Vulpian)

[seriouslycromulent]

The Surprising Reason John Larroquette Took His Career-Defining Role on 'Night Court'

The comedy ninja reveals all this week's 'Parade' cover story.

MARA REINSTEIN

UPDATED:JAN 19, 2023

Get in a car and drive about 30 miles north of Portland, Oregon, into southwest Washington. That’s where you’ll find actor John Larroquette.

He and his wife, Elizabeth, have lived on a piece of rural property for about five years. He collects books and likes to narrate plays in his home recording studio. Sometimes the couple head into the city to try new restaurants and go to the theater and concerts. “It’s really beautiful,��� he says. “And at my age, it’s time to slow down and be out somewhere.”

In fact, Larroquette is so fond of his far-from-Hollywood lifestyle that not too long ago, he considered himself retired from the business with a fulfilling career and a room full of trophies to show for it. Never did he think he’d return to grueling TV work, let alone reprise the very role that made him a household name.

Guess what happened next?

Yup, Larroquette, 75, is suiting back up as wise-cracking, endearingly smarmy lawyer Dan Fielding in a new version of the irreverent sitcom Night Court (premiering Jan. 17 on NBC). Set decades after the 1984-92 original, it still chronicles the colorful cast of characters passing through the New York City after-hours courtroom. But now, the Honorable Abby Stone (Melissa Rauch), the daughter of Judge Harry T. Stone (Harry Anderson), bangs the gavel.

Fielding starts the series as a process server, though not for long. “As an actor, I thought it would be an interesting idea to revisit a character 35 years later in his life and see what happened to him,” Larroquette says. “I can’t do the physical comedy and jump over chairs anymore, so my conversations with the producers were about how to find the funny.”

Call it the latest unexpected turn for a seasoned star who began his professional journey as a DJ for “underground” radio in the 1960s, moved from his native New Orleans to Los Angeles to jumpstart his career, once took a gig in exchange for marijuana, played a Klingon in the third Star Trek movie and completed rehab to kick his heavy drinking—all before his very first audition for Night Court in 1983. After the sitcom’s last episode, he won his fifth Emmy (for the drama The Practice) and a 2011 Tony for the Broadway revival of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. He and Elizabeth, wed for 47 years, have three grown children.

“I honestly wish I had a tape recorder going at all times because he’s led such an interesting life and has such wonderful stories,” marvels Rauch, his co-star and a Night Court executive producer. “He’s super-quick, funny and definitely tells it like it is.”

Exhibit A? His interview with Parade, in which he discusses life and death, and everything in between.

Did you sign on to the series right away or was it a tough sell?

When Melissa [Rauch] presented the idea to me, I immediately said, “No thank you.” I didn’t like the idea of being compared to my 35-year-old, younger self. These conversations went on for a year. Then, one day, she told me that she wanted to be on-camera as well, so I decided to try and do it. We ended up pitching the show together, and it got picked up. You know, in New Orleans, there’s a French word called “lagniappe,” which means “a little bonus.” That’s what I consider myself. She’s the heart of the show.

Sadly, a few of your co-stars—including Harry Anderson and Markie Post—have died in recent years. What was it like being on the set without them?

Very emotional. Harry passed away in 2018, but it’s still a tender spot in my heart because he and I were together for a long time even outside of work. Markie and I were very close, and we had exchanged a few emails about the show before she died [in 2021]. She was a big cheerleader for it. And Charlie [Robinson, who played the clerk “Mac”] died when we were shooting the pilot last year. I saw him a lot because we both love the theater. Being on the set—I don’t say this glibly—but it was like seeing dead people. I’d always remember how I had this bizarre and completely sincere family for nine years.

Going back to the 1980s, why did you originally take the Dan Fielding role?

It was a paycheck. This was 1983, and I was still a journeyman actor going from job to job. I was a regular on a series in the ‘70s [Baa Baa Black Sheep], but then I took a few years off to do some extremely heavy drinking. After I got sober and realized I wasn’t going to die, I thought, “What am I going to do?” I had been in a pretty big [1981] movie called Stripes with Bill Murray. I read for Ted Danson’s role in Cheers.

Wait, how far did you get in the Sam Malone casting process?

Oh, I just walked in and did a cold reading along with every other 32-year-old actor at the time. But then I auditioned for the judge in Night Court. The producers asked me to read for this other role of Dan Fielding and I said, “Sure.” Even if I hated the role, I would have taken it because I needed to make money to help pay the rent and support my family and be a responsible member of society. It was luck that I really liked it. Then I got lucky again when NBC picked up the show as a mid-season replacement.

During the height of the show’s popularity, you earned four consecutive Emmys for your performance. That must have felt beyond validating.

Obviously, being acknowledged by your contemporaries was an incredible honor. I don’t say that blithely. It was a remarkable, remarkable feeling. And I was up against some formidable talent—mainly all those guys from Cheers.

Why do you think the character was and is so appealing?

I think because he allowed the audience to know that he wasn’t a bad guy. He was more like a feckless buffoon. He also really wanted to be loved. As a matter of fact, in our pitch, we screened an old scene of Fielding in a hospital bed telling Harry, “I don’t have a life; I have a lifestyle. Nobody has ever said, ‘I love you.’” So when we find Fielding again, he’s loved and lost. And Harry’s daughter forces him out of his cave. It’s a real full-circle moment.

Let’s go back to your own start. Did you have any music skills coming out of New Orleans?

Well, I started playing clarinet in third grade, then I moved to the saxophone in the 1960s. But I euphemistically say that I could talk better than I could blow. So, I took that sax out of my mouth and became a DJ and started using my voice as much as I could. I’ve always loved the analog aspect of audio. I still have some reel-to-reel tape recordings and old microphones.

Is that how you ended up narrating the opening prologue for [the 1974 horror classic] The Texas Chainsaw Massacre?

No, no, that wasn’t through any kind of past work. In the summer of ‘69, I was working as a bartender at a small Colorado resort in a little town called Grand Lake because I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with my life. [Director] Tobe Hooper happened to be in town and we became friendly. Flash forward four years, and I found myself in L.A. collecting unemployment checks and trying to decide if I wanted to be an actor. Tobe heard I was in town and asked for an hour of my time to narrate something for this movie he just did. I said, “Fine!” It was a favor.

Per the Internet, he gave you a joint in lieu of payment. True?

Totally true. He gave me some marijuana or a matchbox or whatever you called it in those days. I walked out of the studio and patted him on his back side and said, “Good luck to you!” Now, I have also narrated the consequential films and did get paid. You do something for free in the 1970s and get a little money in the ‘90s. I’m not a big horror movie fan, so I’ve never seen it. But it’s certainly the one credit that’s stuck strongly to my resume.

But you’ve appeared on the big screen plenty of times. Did you have movie-star aspirations following all your TV success?

The movies I’ve done are mostly forgettable. Blind Date [from 1987] is an exception, but that’s because of Bruce Willis and Kim Basinger. And Blake Edwards directed it. It was funny. But my face is not made for a really big screen. It’s a broad, clown-like face. It’s good for a TV two-shot. And you ride the horse in the direction that it’s going and television was always right there and offering me stuff, so I kept doing that.

You also performed in a musical for the first time in How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying in 2010. How was that change of pace?

I was hesitant to do it because I had never sung and danced on stage. I was convinced I was going to be fired in the first two or three weeks. I’d keep going in my head, “five, six, seven, eight!” just trying to get the steps down. But I loved the lifestyle of being a stage actor in New York. I loved working with Daniel Radcliffe, and we became fast friends. It got to a point where I couldn’t wait to get to the theater and try it again that night. If you’re given the opportunity to do something that may be a stretch, I think it’s important to try and see if you can pull it off.

Can you talk a bit about your personal life? You seem a little reclusive.

Reclusive isn’t accurate, but I’m definitely an introvert. Elizabeth and I met doing the play Enter Laughing and got married in 1975. She puts up with me, and you can’t ask for much more than that. Our kids are grown. My daughter Lisa is a graphic designer and my son Jonathan has had a podcast for the past 17 years called Uhh Yeah Dude. And my youngest son, Ben, is a musician who graduated from the Berklee School of Music. He actually composed the new theme music for Night Court. They’re all lovely, and I love them dearly.

That’s quite a professional and personal success story, no?

You know, considering where I’m from and the kind of culture I grew up in, yes. I’ve been very successful in my chosen field. And I’m grateful for having done that because there were times when I thought I would not live, much less have a career. It’s nothing to be taken for granted. But I’m very old now. Three quarters of a century. I’m sort of playing with house money from now on, regardless of what happens.

Sorry, but 75 isn’t very old!

Yes, it’s old. It’s old. Please. It’s old. There are certainly people who live longer, but I can go down the list of wonderful friends and coworkers who are now deceased. One being Kirstie Alley, my costar in [the 1990 comedy] Madhouse, who was younger than I am. She was a lovely person, and so funny. There are only a few more exits on the freeway and you’ve got to choose one. But I’m not afraid of the hereafter and I don’t bemoan it. It’s been an interesting ride, and all rides eventually end.

Do you have any sort of words to live by?

As corny as it sounds, take things one day at a time. You know, I learned when I stopped drinking at age 32 that all you have is right now. Use the present in your life as much as you can.

Source: https://parade.com/celebrities/john-larroquette-night-court-cover-story

-----

My thoughts (please feel free to ignore):

I'm sure someone in the fandom has already posted this interview John did last year with Parade magazine when the new Night Court premiered. But I can say that it's new to me, so I'm sharing it in case it's new to someone else too.

I apologize for the highlighted purple sections above. That's just me marking the parts of the interview that resonated with me the most.

I don't know about anyone else, but some parts of his answers to the questions made me feel kind of sad. Partially because he's clearly experiencing grief at the loss of his friends. And partially because John himself may not be with us for much longer (although I hope I'm wrong and he beats Betty White to 100).

But I was talking to my mother about some of his answers, and she said that as someone who has reached an age milestone herself, she understands his perspective. And I guess I do too.

It's important to remember that in any other profession, John would likely be retired by now. So we should really be grateful for any roles he takes or public appearances he makes, and hope that his days ahead are filled with the calm, joy and laughter that he so rightly deserves.

[soundslivemagazine]

In Defence Of Oasis

Exploring the hype behind one of Britain’s most loved and raucous rock n roll bands.

Unless you’ve been living under the most soundproof of rocks this week, you will have heard the news. After a decade and a half of the alluring ‘will-they-won’t-they’ drama, the Gallagher brothers Noel and Liam have rekindled just as suddenly as they’d ended it all backstage at a gig in Paris in 2009.

The rumours abound on social media suddenly began to feel a lot less like fantasies when Oasis, Noel and Liam’s accounts all teased an announcement last Saturday. Oasis had made announcements since their split, usually about anniversaries, merchandise and documentaries, this wasn’t out of the ordinary. In fact, the band would soon be marking 30 years since their era-defining debut album Definitely Maybe came out in August 1994. Singer Liam Gallagher had also threatened to reunite the band on plenty of occasions in the ensuing decade, but never made good on his word. Why should this time have felt different?

In theory, it shouldn’t have. The village eventually loses interest in the boy crying wolf. And yet, when Liam Gallagher stepped onto the Main Stage at Reading festival to perform a headlining set on Sunday and opened with nostalgic on-screen visuals of Oasis, any doubt left in fans’ minds quickly evaporated.

The following Tuesday, the band confirmed what we already knew: Oasis, the biggest Britpop band of the 1990s, were back in action.

The avalanche of articles followed like they hadn’t in over 20 years: Oasis had undoubtedly reignited the fantasies of music magazines and publications that were otherwise scaling down in the face of rising operational costs. We’ve now seen over 20 NME articles, news on the BBC website, a revived radio documentary on BBC 6 Music, countless Rolling Stone thinkpieces, news in SPIN Magazine, the Manchester Evening News, gossip in the rags of the Sun, Mail, Metro. The mural in Manchester. The millions of people that tried to get tickets for the reunion dates that sold out in hours. It’s easy to be sick of it all, to think there wasn’t a band more overrated, overhyped or beloved than Oasis.

But let’s forget the hymns for a moment. Let us re-examine the appeal of the band before the myth: five boys from Manchester who believed in nothing more than the rock ‘n’ roll dream. And certainly, nothing less.

Cast your mind back to 1994, before the success and idolatry, before their songs would be turned into design-for-life anthems, before the band would be permanently woven into the fabric of British music history. Strip all that away and try to imagine hearing a then-relatively unknown Oasis for the first time. Imagine being told that half the band was not yet 22 years old, that they were a new band, releasing their third-ever single? Can you imagine, however simple it may have been lyrically, hearing Live Forever for the first time? In particular, just 4 months after Kurt Cobain’s suicide, after many fans were left feeling like they were staring at the definitive end of an era of honest independent music?

In 1994, Oasis were ’77’s punk all over again. Entering a landscape of artists (a term Liam Gallagher has derided) who internalised their music and recoiled at the notion of explicit success, Oasis were a brash rejection of shoegaze and indie’s philosophies, even going as far as to instruct the presenters of BBC Radio 1’s Evening Sessions to tell the world that Oasis were not an indie band. They were a rock ‘n’ roll band, and a band that dared to aim high, openly and with no apologies (all apologies for the pun). 

That was a philosophy they would live by until the bitter end, for better or worse. In a world of falling ambition and no hope, as Britain emerged ravaged by the Thatcher years to find there was nowhere left for its young to go, Oasis were determined to write their own destiny, largely for themselves, but invariably, for their entire generation. 

Keep reading

[haveyouheardthispodcast]

There are so many actual play podcasts! Is that just because this is tumblr? Like people here are more likely to suggest those (we're all nerds after all), or are there really just a huge percentage of actual play podcasts in general??

I'm guessing this is Tumblr's bias, but I don't actually know what a true representative sample of podcasts overall would look like.

Of the 474* podcasts posted so far:

59.9% (284) are Nonfiction

8.0% (38) are Actual Plays

30.8% (146) are Fiction (but not APs)

And 1.3% (6) I was unable to categorize.**

These box-and-whisper plots come from the 453* polls that have finished. In general, Tumblr has not heard of most podcasts. We have heard non-AP fiction podcasts slightly more than actual plays, and all types of fiction have better numbers than the nonfiction results.

Given that it's a running complaint that news media loves to talk about fiction podcasts like they're brand new at least once a year, despite the fact that Radio Drama Revival has been going on since 2007(!), I would hazard a guess that 40% of all podcasts in total are not fiction podcasts. However, it is possible that news media has their own bias towards podcasts like the ones they put out.

I don't know where one would get more representative data. I kinda don't remember how sampling is supposed to work from my statistics classes. (Sorry to my professors! One of you were excellent! This is my fault not yours!) iTunes is obviously the go-to, but they didn't have a "fiction" category for years so a lot of older podcasts are under different genres. "Arts" was pretty popular, but I know actual plays often tend towards "comedy" and additionally that podcasts about games are often under "leisure".

So overall, I don't know but I would guess that this is a sample specific to the Tumblr population.

*The duplicated podcast has been removed from these charts.

**If someone would like to help me categorize these, I've listed them below the cut.

Bonus: I was surprised that so far we've posted not one, but two actual play musicals! Mythic Thunderlute and bomBARDed!

Podcasts I would like help categorizing!

Pounded In The Butt By My Own Podcast

Creepypodsta

Fictional

Sleep and Sorcery

Get Sleepy

Siblings Peculiar

Wait hold on we have Morrison Mysteries (our first poll!) listed as nonfiction and true crime, but is this actually fiction and books/literature/mystery?

—Mod Nic

[drifting-pieces-blog-blog]

Are you gonna talk about how Marlene is named after Margo Lane and Steven is bascially Lamont Cranstron Margo's boyfriend from the Shadow and Moench said as much

Because the shadow was on when Marc was a kid in volume #1 going by him being in his 30s and Elias leaving Europe in 1939 so like is Steven a Lamont Cranstron introject in the comics?

My friend, you just hit on a long time love of mine. 

Marlene Alraune. I've long had mixed feelings about the original flame of the Moon Knight system. 

She's absolutely a badass who could always take care of herself in a time when the women in comics were often just there to be eye-candy and rescued. 

Heck, half the time Marlene did the rescuing. The number of times she saved Moon Knight is quite high. 

But she also fell in love with an idea of who she wanted 'Marc' to be. When he didn't fit that idea, she could often be quite cruel and abelistic. 

Sometimes she was good for them, trying to get them to face their problems and let go of the past.... But usually she was the one pushing them to 'snap out of' their mental health issues and be Steven while forgetting the other two. 

Now, I don't know if she's based on Margot Lane. But it is easy to see that she is meant to be Moon Knight's version of Margo Lane. 

(I would love to see your source of Moench saying such! I'm always curious to see what the OG has to say about his MK starts). 

For those out of the loop: 

Margo Lane is from "The Shadow" (one of my favorites!!!). A comic created in 1931 and turned into a very popular radio play in 1937 (officially it was tested in the waters as early as 1930 before he was hashed out into a literary sense in 31 and then revived again in 37 as his own familiar self). 

It was later made into least one (Okay) movie with Alec Baldwin in 1994. 

Margo was created originally for the radio drama as a companion when they realized they had far too many men in the line up and it would become difficult to distinguish the voices. But MAN was she a heavy hitter! 

She was incredibly intelligent, fearless, and didn't put up with his shit. 

Orson Welles was the voice of the Shadow and his alter ego Lamont Cranston. Let me tell you... Once you've heard Orson deliver the line: "Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows!" You ain’t ever going back. 

You can still find the radio plays on most podcast services. 

Margot Lane fresh out of the 1930s! 

Now, I can 100% see the comparison between Marlene and Margot. At the start.

Complicated love interest of a character with alter egos and a complex social standing and questionable mental health at times. (I could go on and on about Lamont but I won't). 

Marlene was originally a damsel in distress that evolved into a badass independent woman. Margot was originally a fast talking quick witted woman who on occasion needed rescuing. 

As for their personalities? I’d say they are quite different. Perhaps Marlene started out as an idea to give Moon Knight an interesting companion. In fairness, imagining early MK without Marlene is actually a bit dull. You NEED to have that inner circle that knows his past and has an interest in helping him. As for Margot, she isn’t fleshed out well in the early radio show and she wasn’t in the original comic/story until after the radioshow. She was just a voice with witty remarks and smart observation that paired very well with Orson Wells. 

Now, you mentioned Steven as basically a fictive of Lamont Cranston. 

The timeline can line up for the original run. We already know little Marc liked to play with super hero toys and enjoyed an escape in fictional stories (Mostly from Lemire's run as we never see little Marc in the OG run outside of Zelenetz' 2 part exploration of the past in like, one page). It is possible he listened to The Shadow on the radio.

In the MCU, Steven is canonically a fictive. In the comics, we don't know the story of how and when Jake and Steven first came about. 

Let's look at Lamont Cranston's character. 

Lamont is a wealthy man-about-town. A carefree playboy that travels the world to 'learn the old mysteries that modern science has not yet rediscovered'. Once he is finished traveling and learning his special abilities, he returns to New York. (The radio show and the print stories are vastly different at this point). 

Now, Lamont is not really given a lot of 'radio time' in the old broadcasts. He's just a rich fellow with a nice girl on his arm. He's given more of a personality much much later in different installments of the Shadow. 

And while Steven Grant is originally SUPPOSED to be the main alter from issue #1, he quickly falls out of favor and the comic shifts to Jake Lockley as being the main face with Steven being the one to hold down the home life and the cash flow. 

As for Moench saying it was an inspiration? I don't know. I'd have to see the interview. But back in the late 70s and early 80s, the usual alter ego of superheroes tended to be rich, casual, playboys. 

Which brings me to the big kicker. Bob Kane and Bill Finger, creators of Batman, have explicitly said they based Batman off of pulp mystery characters like The Shadow. In fact, his first comic was a direct takeoff of a Shadow story! 

You can see the homage to this in The Batman Animated Adventures with "The Gray Ghost" that was voiced by Adam West (two homages in one people! I love it). 

And we all know that Moon Knight is constantly being compared to Batman (it's the cape. It has to be the cape). 

Batman was started in 1939. 

SO. One might just as easily argue that little Marc Spector loved to read comics and maybe picked up a Batman comic or two. So as much as Lamont could be where Steven got started, so too could Bruce Wayne. 

Let that one sit with you for a minute. 

I mean, if we're going down the rabbit hole of modern comics ripping on old radio broadcasts... Who's to say Kato from the Green Hornet isn't the inspiration for Robin? Or that he isn't the inspiration for Frenchie? A side kick that knows how to fight and works on cars and drives them around? Sounds like Frenchie to me. Heck, the Green Hornet and Kato even have a cameo in the Adam West Batman show with the building climbing bit they used to do.

All comics come from somewhere and over time, all comics will eventually resemble another as inspiration is sort of the name of the game.

I don't think that Steven Grant in the comics was a fictive. Especially if you go off Lemire's run as the real cannon event and we see a young Steven Grant making friends with a young Marc. I think at that point, Steven presented as the perfect Jewish Son that a Rabbi was supposed to have that Marc couldn't be. It is possible he had traits as an introject (adoption of traits and personalities of others), but it is truly hard to say from where he got the information.

But it is interesting to think of them listening to the old radio shows and drawing ideas from them on becoming the hero that is Moon Knight. After all, the Shadow wasn't exactly known for being merciful and his villains did tend to.... not survive.

[scotianostra]

Happy birthday Annette Crosbie, born 12th February 1934.

Annette was born in Gorebridge, Midlothian, to strict Presbyterian parents who disapproved of her becoming an actress.

Nvertheless, she joined the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School while still in her teens. Her big break came in 1970 when she was cast as Catherine of Aragon in the BBC television series The Six Wives of Henry VIII, for which she won the 1971 BAFTA Television Award for Best Actress. In 1973, she starred alongside Vanessa Redgrave in the BBC serial, A Picture of Katherine Mansfield.

Crosbie was born in Gorebridge, Midlothian, to strict Presbyterian parents who disapproved of her becoming an actress. Nevertheless, she joined the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School while still in her teens. Her big break came in 1970 when she was cast as Catherine of Aragon in the BBC television series The Six Wives of Henry VIII, for which she won the 1971 BAFTA Television Award for Best Actress. In 1973, she starred alongside Vanessa Redgrave in the BBC serial, A Picture of Katherine Mansfield.

In 1975, Crosbie made a similar impact as Queen Victoria, in the ITV period drama Edward the Seventh, for which she won the 1976 BAFTA Television Award for Best Actress. She played Cinderella’s fairy godmother in The Slipper and the Rose, which was chosen as the Royal Film Première for 1976. In that film, Crosbie sang the Sherman Brothers’ song, “Suddenly It Happens”. In Ralph Bakshi’s animated movie, The Lord of the Rings, filmed in 1978, Crosbie voiced the character of Galadriel, Lady of the Elves. In 1980, she played the abbess in Hawk the Slayer. In 1986, she appeared as the vicar’s wife in Paradise Postponed.

After appearing in the BBC1 drama Take Me Home, Crosbie’s next major role was as Margaret Meldrew, the long-suffering wife of Victor Meldrewplayed by fellow Scot, Richard Wilson) in the BBC sitcom One Foot in the Grave for which she is best known. She also played Janet, the housekeeper to Dr. Finlay, in the 1993 revival of A.J. Cronin’s popular stories.

Crosbie’s other roles include playing the monkey-lover Ingrid Strange in an episode of Jonathan Creek, Edith Sparshott in An Unsuitable Job for a Woma, and Jessie in the film Calendar Girls. In 2004, Crosbie appeared alongside Sam Kelly in an episode of the third series of Black Books, as the mother of the character Manny Bianco. In the series six and seven of the BBC Radio 4 comedy series Old Harry’s Game, she played a recently deceased historian named Edith.

In 2008 she appeared in the BBC adaptation of Charles Dickens’s Little Dorrit, in 2009, she portrayed Sadie Cairncross in the BBC television series Hope Springs. In 2010 Crosbie appeared in the Doctor Who episode “The Eleventh Hour”. In 2014 Crosbie appeared in the movies What We Did on Our Holiday and Into the Woods. In 2015 she appeared in a BBC adaptation of the novel Cider with Rosie. In 2016 she appeared in the new film version of Dad’s Army .

In recent years, she appeared in season two of Ricky Gervais' black comedy-drama After Life on Netflix. She now resides in Wimbledon and is a campaigner against cruelty for animals.

[theholmwoodfoundation]

THE HOLMWOOD FOUNDATION PILOT EPISODE CAST/CREW - PART THREE

GEORGIA COOK - CO-WRITER AND CO-PRODUCER

Georgia Cook is an illustrator and scribe-award nominated writer from London. She has written for publications such as Baffling, Vastarien Lit, and Flame Tree press, as well as the Doctor Who range with Big Finish. Her Doctor Who Novel, Ruby Red, is currently available from Penguin books. She frequently writes and narrates for various horror anthology podcasts such as 'Creepy', 'The Other Stories', and 'The Night's End'. She can be found on twitter at @georgiacooked and on her website at https://www.georgiacookwriter.com/

FIO TRETHEWEY - CO-WRITER AND CO-PRODUCER

Fio Trethewey is a writer and artist known for their love of Doctor Who, Arthurian Legend and 80s cult classics. Alongside working for the Lancet as a Deputy Operations Manager he has written a variety of audio dramas and short stories for Big Finish Productions for their Doctor Who box sets, most recently writing for the Gallifrey War Room Series both ‘The Last Days of Phaidon” (2022), “Transference” (2023) and The Twelfth Doctor Chronicles finale "You Only Die Twice.' Fio has also contributed their prose work to various anthologies including Overdue: Mystery, Adventure, and the World’s Lost Books, Shadows Over Avalon Volume 2 and Sockhops and Seances for 18thWall Productions. Lastly, as a writer and artist to charity anthologies and raised money on a charity drawing stream for FareShare UK back in October 2020 raising $4,762.

KATHARINE ARMITAGE - SCRIPT EDITOR

Katharine is a writer, script editor and director in drama and comedy. Most recently she directed new Radio 4 sitcom 'Tom and Lauren Are Going OOT!' and wrote scripts including 'The Beautiful Game' and 'Nowhere, Never' for Big Finish's Doctor Who audio dramas.  She also wrote and directed an adaptation of 'Dracula', back in 2017, so was delighted to return to the Count's world in working on 'The Holmwood Foundation'.

BENJI CLIFFORD - SOUND DESIGNER/ ENGINEER

Benji is a sound designer, musician, and presenter from the UK who specialises in post-production audio design. Whether creating cinematic multi-cast productions or intimate storytelling through audiobooks, Benji ensures that you get the highest quality, professional-sounding production. Throughout his time as a sound designer, Benji has worked on many famous properties such as BBC's Doctor Who and Torchwood, ITV's iconic Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet and Stingray, as well as cult tv revivals such as Terry Nation's Survivors, Space 1999, Adam Adamant Lives and Blake's 7, to name a few. Using the latest industry-standard equipment, software, and a fully loaded sound effects library consisting of thousands of recordings, Benji delivers a clean and contemporary sound regardless of your budgetary requirements. In addition to working in his own studio, Benji has extensive experience engineering in some of London's busiest recording studios. He has also helped many companies and productions continue working during remote working restrictions, ensuring high quality can be achieved even in less-than-ideal environments. Since 2017, Benji has co-hosted the weekly Big Finish Podcast alongside Nicholas Briggs. This podcast has a worldwide reach with thousands of listeners, and he has also performed it live across the UK and in the USA.

PART ONE: HERE

PART TWO: HERE

[hinaypod]

A Hi Nay Podcast Year - 2023

At the beginning of 2023, I got a planner that said it'll be a "Great" Year. I had to cover it up - because the last time I had a planner claiming the year would be great... it was 2020. So I covered it with one of our stickers, making it read "It'll Be A Hi Nay Podcast Year". And it was!

Here were some Highlights for what was an absolutely jam-packed HI NAY YEAR!

The Hi Nay Fundraiser

Though we didn't get to our full goal, we did get to our initial goal to keep the show going! We also got absolutely unbelievable support that we still don't know if we deserve, but we're grateful for nonetheless. Because of this fundraiser, we were able to provide honoraria to our performers and editors, as well as get to work on Act 3 of Hi Nay, which has grown much bigger than anticipated. Special thanks to Jesse Goodsell and Malaya, our top donors!

We also wanna thank our amazing P atreon supporters, who ensure we keep this show going until its planned ending!

Interviews

We were able to chat with so many amazing people this year! Here's some of the shows that had Motzie on to chat about Hi Nay, horror, Filipino stories, and podcasting.

Radio Drama Revival

IndieAF Special: International Women’s Day

Ep. 387 - Motzie Dapul — Spooked!

The Skull Sessions - Hi Nay (Hello From The Hallowoods)

Conventions!

Because of the wonderful people over at the Canadian Podcast Awards, we were able to briefly table at TORONTO COMICON and FAN EXPO, and were able to have our very first live show at Fan Expo, all without paying a dime! Huge shoutout to the Canadian Podcast Awards for giving us indies the opportunity to do something so amazing!

The Podcast Awards!

We got nominated in two categories: Fiction and Best Asian Hosted, and it was amazing! Fiction was tough since there were so many amazing titles, but in Best Asian Hosted we were just happy to lose to one of our favourite people in the audio/video medium - Sapphire Sandalo.

How is this list not done yet OH RIGHT

The Rusty Quill Network!

It was truly life-changing to join RQ, given that the Magnus Archives is the reason Hi Nay exists, though we like to think our story has formed its own unique identity beyond our inspiration. Still, we're genuinely grateful and excited to do more with RQ and the other absolutely amazing shows in the network in 2024! Even before this, Motzie got to interview the Rusty Quill folks for Storytelling Podcast Week and befriended the wonderful Helen Gould. And most recently, the fantastic Alasdair Stuart agreed to voice one of our most beloved new characters - Detective Dooley - for our Pride Episode. Alasdair is a gem, and we're happy and grateful to have him on.

There's so much more to cover and we can't put it all in one post, but we'd like to reiterate:

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE SUPPORT! We truly want Hi Nay to grow as a podcast without losing what makes it special, and it's all thanks to you listeners that we're able to do that.

-

Before we go, we'd like to mention the following:

CareForGaza is a non-profit charity in aid of helping the needy families of Palestine. If you're able to help them and their cause, it would make a huge difference! Gaza eSims is a campaign to help people in Gaza to get connected to family as well as facilitate important communication for medical aid, etc. Since Tumblr hides posts with l inks, you can google them and find more information.

And as always - thank you, we love you, and Manigong Bagong Taon. Happy 2024 everyone.

[radiodramarevival]

guess who figured out how to get into the old RDR tumblr account

[multishipper-baby]

I find it so funny, what Eddo did with FHS. Made a series for two seasons, then instead of a third season made a weird sort of AU thing (FHSZ3R0), cancelled it, made another AU thing but this time ship focused (Lobbo), cancelled that, went radio silent, decided to revive the series, got into drama and decided to make it a comic instead, then cancelled that. I want to study her under a microscope.

[denimbex1986]

'David Tennant had it all. As the tenth Doctor he was a fan-favourite with a run of episodes that reached more than 13 million viewers in the UK – a record for the modern revival of Doctor Who, which almost rivalled its 1970s heyday. He left on his own terms in 2010 rather than being shoved aside for a younger, cooler star (in fact, the BBC wanted him to stay longer). His legacy set him up for lucrative convention appearances and fan worship for life, while his post-Who career is flourishing. So why risk it all by returning?

“I hadn’t thought about it like that,” Tennant laughs. “Thank God I made it to this point! It never really occurred to me to worry about that. Perhaps it should have done…but with Catherine [Tate] being part of it, and with Russell [T Davies] writing the scripts, I never actually worried about anything other than my own ability to run as fast as I used to.”

In fairness, while the return of old favourites to a stage they’ve vacated can sometimes tarnish a legacy, Tennant’s Doctor is a special case. Apart from Tom Baker, it’s hard to think of a Doctor Who star who so captured the public’s imagination. At the height of his career on the show, Tennant was plastered on magazine covers and lunchboxes; he was accosted in the street. In 2009, he was the BBC’s Christmas ident. By the time he left, aged 39, one suspects he could have been reading the phone book to a Dalek and viewers would still have tuned in.

Happily this comeback, announced to great fanfare last year, is a little more involved than that. “The first conversation we had about it was very casual,” Tennant recalls. “Russell and Catherine were talking about the notion of: ‘What if we got the band back together for one last special? But David would never do it.’ And I said, ‘What do you mean I’d never do it? I’d do it in a shot. And then suddenly, we were back for three in a row.

“I mean, why not?” he laughs. “It was such a joyous time, and these are people I love as humans, and certainly love as people to work with. And Doctor Who is something that will always be hugely important to me.”

In fact, there’s a case to be made that the 52-year-old Tennant – who’s speaking to us the day after his birthday, ever committed to the show – never really left Doctor Who behind in the first place. Yes, he’s had many successes since – Broadchurch, Good Omens, Des, Marvel’s Jessica Jones and Staged to name but a few – but he’s always kept a foot in the TARDIS door. After all, it was just three years after his dramatic regeneration that he teamed up with his successor Matt Smith for 2013’s 50th-anniversary special.

“I was sort of a member of the guest cast on that, because it was Matt’s show,” says Tennant now. “It’s different when you’re in charge of the TARDIS again. There’s a lot more work to do. I remember on the 50th, going, ‘Oh, this is easy. I used to have to learn far more lines than this!’”

Two years after that, Tennant was back headlining his own Doctor Who stories for a series of audio dramas co-starring – and this sounds familiar – ex-companion Catherine Tate. He’s kept playing the Doctor that way ever since, lending his voice to audio plays and (more recently) video games starring his character.

The Doctor even looms large in Tennant’s personal life. He married a guest actor on the series – Georgia Moffett, who appeared in a 2008 episode with him – which means his father-in-law is former fifth Doctor Peter Davison. He also has a police box cut-out in his garden. Given all this, it’s hard to imagine why Davies and Tate thought this on-screen return would be a hard sell.

“The truth is, it’s a rather lovely, benevolent, generous thing to be connected with. I love it. I always have, and I’m sure I always will,” says Tennant. “I grew up with posters on my wall signed by Tom Baker. It’s very peculiar that I should end up in the show that was, to a greater or lesser extent, the thing that inspired me to be in the profession I’m in.

“It runs through my life as if through a stick of rock, really. As you say, I met my wife on the set of Doctor Who, and I’m now a father. I’ve given up trying to resist the inevitability that Doctor Who will be following me around for the rest of time.”

Instead, he’s embraced it. So, this week he returns as the Doctor on BBC1 – but not the same one he played before. Originally, Tennant says the plan was for him and Tate to return for the anniversary in a flashback episode, set during their shared 2008 series and with a storyline completely different from the specials as they now exist.

“It would have been an unseen adventure from years before,” he says. “Russell immediately had an idea for a story, which I’m not going to mention because I don’t think it’s yet seen the light of day. It certainly wouldn’t have been part of an ongoing story. But I hope one day he does use it because it sounded great.”

But Davies’s return to the BBC fold as the new Who showrunner changed everything. “Then Russell decided he was coming back full-time and the whole thing blossomed,” says Tennant. Suddenly, the one-off had turned into a trio of specials for Doctor Who’s 60th anniversary.

Davies tells me later: “It was simply as many episodes as David and Catherine could do. If they had said, ‘We’ve got time to make 12,’ we would have made 12. If they had said, ‘We’ve got time to make one,’ then we’d have made one. But I think a one-off would have been a disappointment.”

And it was a flashback no longer. Instead, Tennant plays a new (and official) incarnation of the Doctor that follows on from his younger self and the Doctors that came after – Matt Smith, Peter Capaldi and Jodie Whittaker – in a way that’s woven into the story of the specials (titled The Star Beast, Wild Blue Yonder and The Giggle).

“That’s part of what the Doctor himself is struggling with: why is he here?” says Tennant. “Why has he got this face back, and what might that mean? Though you’re still in a recognisably Doctor Who world, and I think that’s right and proper,” he adds. “It gets you back into those stories that you know and love and recognise, with some elements in there that are unexpected.”

In particular, he says that the second and third specials go in unusual directions. “With two and three, Russell has written Doctor Who like I have never seen it before,” he reveals. “He’s come back to it with a whole new raft of ideas and enthusiasm. I’m just very chuffed to be able to be part of that.”

But of course, he’s not going to be part of it for long. Davies describes Tennant’s new incarnation as a “Magnesium Doctor” – in other words, he burns brightly but not for long – because at the end of the third special, airing on 9 December, he’ll regenerate into new Doctor Ncuti Gatwa. The 31-year-old Sex Education star takes over for the Christmas special, followed by a full series next year (and beyond – he’s already filming episodes that will be shown in 2025).

“I have seen a bit of Ncuti, and he’s magnificent,” Tennant says. “He’s just got such an energy. He’s so creative, and he’s inventive, and he’s funny, and he’s a proper actor. I think he’s going to be great.

“I’ve met Millie Gibson [new companion Ruby], and she seems lovely, too. I haven’t got a chance to see any of her stuff yet, but they seem great together. I’m jealous of the adventure they’ve got in front of them.”

When asked if he has any advice for his successor, Tennant seems vaguely horrified – “What would I say? I mean, literally, what would I say?” I suggest he might prepare Gatwa to return in about 18 years. “Well, he’s young,” Tennant laughs. “He’ll get into the 100th anniversary, probably. I don’t know if I’ll make it that far. Though if I can keep running fast enough –

I don’t know. I never imagined that I would be sitting there for the 60th anniversary, talking about three specials we’d made. This show continues to surprise everyone involved with it.”

Still, it must be hard to hand over the TARDIS so soon after getting hold of it again. Was there a moment, just for a second, where he thought about snatching back the sonic screwdriver, barricading the studio and staying on for a full series?

Even as a lifelong fan, he says not. “It was never on the table,” Tennant says firmly. “The story – well, as soon as I start to talk about this, we get into the area of spoilers, so I’m not going to say any more. All I know is that I’m excited and jealous of everything that Ncuti has in front of him. And I can’t wait to enjoy it as a viewer, because I think he’s magnificent.”

He laughs. “I think they thought, ‘Let the old man run around for a minute – and then we’ll get a nice, young bloke in.’ ”'

[in-flagrante]

Downton Abbey ‘makes shock return’ as secret revival series ‘begins filming’

Report claims that the hit period drama is returning for a seventh series, nine years after coming to a close

Louis Chilton

1 hour ago

Hit ITV period drama Downton Abbey is reportedly filming a new series, nearly a decade after coming to an end.

The series, which originally aired on ITV from 2010 to 2015, followed the lives of an aristocratic Yorkshire family in the years between 1912 and 1926.

A new report in the Daily Mail claims that a revival series began filming a few weeks ago, and is expected to arrive on screens “by the end of the year”.

The outlet quotes a source close to the production as saying: “Filming has been going on for a few weeks now, it is all very, very secret. There are people working on it who have never seen secrecy like it.

“Those working on the set have been made to sign non-disclosure agreements so that they don’t give the game away but there is a lot of excitement at the return of Downton.”

The Independent understands that the series has not been commissioned for ITV.

The original series featured an ensemble cast that included Hugh Bonneville, Michelle Dockery, Elizabeth McGovern, Joanne Froggatt, Dan Stevens and Maggie Smith.

It was reportedly Smith’s reluctance to continue that prompted Downton to come to an end after six series in 2015, though the thespian returned for two feature film sequels, 2019’s Downton Abbey and 2022’s Downton Abbey: A New Era.

Rumours of a series comeback started surfacing back in May 2023.

In December, series creator Julian Fellowes didn’t brush off the possibility of a comeback, telling Radio Times: “I have said goodbye to Downton so many times, and I have written the last scene about six or seven times. Now I’ve got out of the habit of making permanent statements about whether it’s gone.

“It just gives me a lot of pleasure that so many people enjoyed it, so to feel that you created a show that cheers people up and they had a good time with it, I love that.”

The Independent has contacted production company Carnival Films and Fellowes for comment.

During its peak, Downton was one of the most popular series on UK TV, with its third series pulling in an average weekly audience of 11.5 million people.

In a two-star review of the latest film adaptation, The Independent’s critic Clarisse Loughrey wrote: “Downton Abbey: A New Era is whatever the opposite of a French Exit might look like. Rather than a party guest slipping out quietly, it’s the bumptious visitor making their final, sluggish turn around the room. Their pottering seems to extend for another hour or two – or another cocktail.

“The first film, released in 2019, was designed to pay a final farewell to Downton’s 47 TV episodes and five Christmas specials – an opportunity to tie up a few loose ends and resolve things with a hearty slap on its own back. A New Era manages to uncover even more threads, and makes neat little bows in the most languid way possible. It’s as much of a film as an encore to the encore can be.”

https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/news/downton-abbey-new-series-return-itv-b2495921.html

[novemberthewriter]

fortune teller [300 wds]

genre: literary/drama (another flash piece done for a writing club prompt months back xx)

[tw: grief]

--

Zeke didn’t think divination was the Devil, like her mother did – she just thought it was dumb. When it came to Joseph Augustine, so-called Fortune Teller? Well, high school angst was a hardworking force and Joe Augustine worked even harder to feed into it. He never asked for money – not a single cent! Zeke checked – but somehow always had a shoebox full of cash by lunchtime. It was a total grift.

And yet. There she was, home alone after school, ear to the radio at Joe’s behest. She’d never actually spoken to him before. But today marked one month since Dodie’s passing, and Dodie used to visit with Joe every day. The decision was made for Zeke, really; at lunch her feet moved of their own accord and brought her right in front of Joe’s table. Her mouth moved of its own accord and said, You know Dodie James?

Her mouth said, I don’t want any of that playing card star chart shit but I just need to … know something about her.

Now Zeke worked the dial with two skinny fingers, trying to find answers in so many static-filled ballads and news bulletins. She’d been at it for an hour. You’ll know when you hear It, he’d told her. Her back ached from bending over. Her eyes were leaking without her permission. Zeke didn’t know what she was looking for, but she knew she had fifteen minutes before her mother got off work and demanded an explanation for doing Devil’s Work with the Crosley.

Then the next dial turn had Dodie’s favorite song blasting.

What could Zeke's body do but crumple?

What could Zeke do but sob?

And after eight minutes of her dead friend’s revival via rock opera – what could Zeke do but resolve to tip Joe tomorrow?