Thursday, December 29, 2005

The Rev Up Review Seasonal Not

The Rev Up Review, Number Fifteen:

  • Title: RUR-2005-12-29 #15 The Rev Up Review Seasonal Not
  • Size: 14.6 MB
  • Duration: 31'50"
Use this FeedBurner link to download the mp3 file directly, or to add the feed to your aggregator.

Contents:

Background music:

Sunday, December 25, 2005

Seasonal Greetings


Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays...

...and the next RUR will be posted in a few days.

Thursday, December 08, 2005

The Rev Up Review Waits For Your Call

The Rev Up Review, Number Fourteen:

  • Title: RUR-2005-12-08 #14 The Rev Up Review Waits For Your Call
  • Size: 16.3 MB
  • Duration: 35'23"
Use this FeedBurner link to download the mp3 file directly, or to add the feed to your aggregator.

Contents:

Background music:

Friday, December 02, 2005

Thingy Summary: Here's what to do...

The Rev Up Review Plot Thingy is an experiment in collaborative fiction -- thanks to Steve for distilling that, and freezing the name....

Win prizes! See your name in lights! (or at least pixels)

Goal: A science-fiction short story based on plot elements by several contributors, to be written by the Rev-Master and podcast by him as a special edition of The Rev Up Review in early 2006.

Request: Send in, by email (rur@revupreview.co.uk), or by commenting below, about 200 words describing the plot of the beginning (or once the Plot Thingy is underway, the next part -- see the update below) of a short story. I'm not looking for finished prose, just a brief outline of an idea, on the lines of:

  • There's this guy who's looking for a Christmas present for his girlfriend, and he goes into a shop and buys a jewelry box. When he gets it home and examines it before wrapping it up, he finds there are some blinking lights inside, that weren't there when he looked at it in the shop, along with some buttons marked in a foreign language. He presses one; there's a loud bang and a blinding flash, and when his eyesight returns he realizes he's not where he was, but in some place he's never been before. It looks like he's standing on a flat plain that recedes from him in all directions, to infinity. The ground is smooth and hard, and the sky is an even blue, cloudless. At his feet is the box. He picks it up and opens it, but the lights are dark, and pressing the buttons has no effect. As the memory of the loud bang drains from his head, he can tell that the place isn't quite silent. There's a faint hissing, swishing sound, and a coolness on his face tells him there's a light breeze. The wind is moving steadily in one direction. He decides to start walking, but which way?

That's just an example. Send me something like that, or something completely different. (If you're reading this after the first plot contribution has been announced on The Rev Up Review, you'll need to start yours at the point where the previous one left off.)

At each stage I'll read out my favourite of the contributions received, and that contributor will win a prize (winners will be invited to choose from a growing list of new SF paperbacks). The end of that plot segment is the jumping-off point for the next. In the above example the next plot contributions could say what the guy does next -- how he decides whether to walk into or away from the wind (or do something else entirely), or if a completely new plot element is introduced at that point, or...whatever. I'll choose my favourite from those received at each stage, and that will form the basis for the next.

I'm aiming for six plot segments, each of which I will pick from plot contributions received. When the plot is complete, I will write the story myself (though naturally that doesn't exclude anyone else from doing the same) and read it on a special edition of The Rev Up Review in early 2006.

That, I think, is all. If it isn't, I dare say I'll find out soon enough....

Julio's winning entry from RUR #15 (update added 2006-01-14):

The news that Earth would start importing grains and vegetables from Mars, came followed by protests, plants closing down, and financial instability. After being laid off and finding no way to support her 2 year old daughter a young woman decides to follow the "Martian dream", that is, move to Mars, find a job, get a place to live, and raise her daughter on a new planet.

Not having Martian Visas would be a problem. She arranged for her daughter to be transported by relatives who were legal Martian residents, passing her off as their own daughter. After 48 hours of their departure the young woman had not received news of their arrival on Mars, she got extremely worried and hurried to find a "transporter" that was willing to take her there the next day, the price was not reasonable, practically all her savings, but she needed to get to Mars as soon as possible and find out what had happened to her daughter.

She and a young man that would also be transported that day, were placed inside hidden compartments on a medium size space utility vehicle. After the 4 hour ride to the red planet, Martian Customs agents discovered the young man under fake floor panels, arrested the transporter, and confiscated the vessel. The young woman was not found by the agents, she was now trapped, unable to move in her hiding place, inside a space vehicle that would be parked for months in space, with limited oxygen.

The Time Traveler's winning entry from RUR #19 (update added 2006-03-26):

The woman is trapped under the floor, and the crew has vacated the ship. The ship is placed in a minimal maintenance environment. The oxygen is turned off, the heat is turned down and only the core systems are left on. The residual oxygen left on the ship is all she has to sustain her. The floor panel locks from the outside and the crew is not expected to return within a few days. Although some low-level ship personnel knows she is still hidden they are unable to help her without jeopardizing their jobs and freedom. She has a personal communication device (PCD, like a cell phone), which only reaches her daughter's PCD on Mars.

Point of view switches to the daughter who receives the phone call from her mother. After the mother explains the situation, the daughter promises to help. The daughter, who is 14 years old, has her own problems. On arriving on Mars her relatives, who were posing as her parents, are arrested for political dissent. She is placed in a detention area for an indeterminate length of time while the Mars authorities search for her records. The authorities are suspicious of the lack of records. The daughter says nothing of this to her mother when they talk via the PCDs. The daughter has befriended a strange fellow detainee who says there's no way out of the detention facility, but there is a way to jack into robotic devices that have complete mobility on Mars.

Duncan's winning entry from RUR #21 (update added 2006-04-17):

The detention facility has communal entertainment facilities, which include poorly maintained virtual 3D devices for gaming. It also has a sophisticated monitoring and control network, but the poor rates of pay for detention facility staff mean that this isn't well looked after. The
stranger has worked out a way to link these two systems together, and get out onto the network at a high level of trust. Delighted to have a girl to show off to, he gets the pair of them into a shared 3D environment and they surf out into the Martian Customs network, to find the transporter which the mother is on. The transporter has been slaved into the Customs systems, so they are soon able to get into the bridge control systems on the transporter itself.

The girl calls her mother, and asks her where she is on the ship. The mother says she is in the hold, and that the air is getting very stale - but they are all worried that turning the oxygen systems back on in the ship will be noticed. Instead, the hacker starts up a small maintenance
bot, which is able to move about the ship under its own power and it heads off to the hold. The bot unlocks the floor panel that the woman is under, but then the daughter and the hacker are cut off.

What happens next?


Email (or comment below) with your 200-word plot outline for the next segment of the Plot Thingy.

Saturday, November 19, 2005

The Rev Up Review Plot Thingy

The Rev Up Review, Number Thirteen:

  • Title: RUR-2005-11-19 #13 The Rev Up Review Plot Thingy
  • Size: 15.6 MB
  • Duration: 33'57"
Use this FeedBurner link to download the mp3 file directly, or to add the feed to your aggregator.

Contents:

Background music:

Wednesday, November 09, 2005

Number 13 is late...

Apologies, but The Rev Up Review #13 is late, and will probably not be posted until next week, due to my various other commitments. But #13 will definitely include reviews of issues 196 and 197 of Interzone, as well as details of a new experiment in communally plotted fiction -- this will be the subject of a competition in the next six or so RURs (with prizes!), and if all goes to plan will result in a complete 5,000-word (approx.) short story, written by yours truly, to be read in full in a single special RUR in about February next year.

And of course RUR #13 will have the final episode of"Travel With Confidence."

Saturday, October 22, 2005

The Rev Up Review Beercast

The Rev Up Review, Number Twelve:

  • Title: RUR-2005-10-22 #12 The Rev Up Review Beercast
  • Size: 16.5 MB
  • Duration: 35'59"
Use this FeedBurner link to download the mp3 file directly, or to add the feed to your aggregator.

Contents:

Background music:

Saturday, October 08, 2005

The Rev Up Review Returns!

The Rev Up Review, Number Eleven:

  • Title: RUR-2005-10-08 #11 The Rev Up Review Returns!
  • Size: 18.3 MB
  • Duration: 39'57"
Use this FeedBurner link to download the mp3 file directly, or to add the feed to your aggregator.

Contents:

Background music:

Sunday, September 25, 2005

Busy busy busy

  1. I'm back from Prague.
  2. My dad's out of intensive care and (we hope) due home this week.
  3. New RUR will be posted this week (I hope).

Sunday, September 18, 2005

The Best Laid Plans...

I'd been expecting to be posting a few notes here about PodcastCon UK, or possibly even a special edition of The Rev Up Review with features from the Con itself.

But I didn't attend PodcastCon. On Friday morning I learned that my dad had been taken ill while on holiday in Tuscany, and is now in hospital in Pisa. He's stable, but still in intensive care after a serious operation.

The Prague trip is still on, however, as I'll be able to stay in contact, and I'll be back on Thursday.

Saturday, September 10, 2005

Derek of Skepticality in intensive care

Horrendous news, which I first saw in the Podcast Alley forums: Derek Colanduno, co-host of Skepticality, was suddenly and unexpectedly taken ill with some kind of brain disorder.

I was shocked to read Swoopy's post at the head of the forum topic, and moved to tears by her audio message in the Skepticality RSS feed (this message was subsequently aired in its entirety, and rightly so, on Adam Curry's Daily Source Code).

My thoughts go out to Derek and Swoopy, to Derek's wife Susan and the rest of the family and friends, with my fervent hopes for a swift and complete recovery.

Saturday, September 03, 2005

The Rev Up Review First Interview

The Rev Up Review, Number Ten:

  • Title: RUR-2005-09-03
  • Size: 16.6 MB
  • Duration: 36'05"
Use this FeedBurner link to download the mp3 file directly, or to add the feed to your aggregator.

Contents:

Background music:

Sorry to make it harder, folks...

A quick note of apology: I've had to delete a few spam comments recently, so I regret to announce that I've switched on this Blogger Word Verification thingy. Which means you'll need to squint at an obscure graphic and type in some indistinct text before you can post a comment here.

Sorry.

Friday, September 02, 2005

Unbelievable

Katrina is a nice name. Hard to believe anything named so innocuously could have wrought so much pain.

In New Orleans and the surrounding area we see the evidence that our lives, so dependent on this condition we call civilization, are based on the flimsiest foundation. We rely on an infrastructure we so easily take for granted, and when it is swept away we are lost.

Please give what you can to the disaster-relief organization of your choice.

Please do it now.

Click here to donate online

Saturday, August 20, 2005

The Rev Up Review at Hotel Mundane

The Rev Up Review, Number Nine:

  • Title: RUR-2005-08-20
  • Size: 15.7 MB
  • Duration: 34'13"
Use this FeedBurner link to download the mp3 file directly, or to add the feed to your aggregator.

Contents:

Background music:

Sunday, August 07, 2005

The Rev Up Review: Nemo & Time Travel

The Rev Up Review, Number Eight:

  • Title: RUR-2005-08-07
  • Size: 17.6 MB
  • Duration: 38'20"
Use this FeedBurner link to download the mp3 file directly, or to add the feed to your aggregator.

Contents:

Background music:

Saturday, July 30, 2005

Some other bits I missed....

I should do this stuff when I'm more awake. Here are the links for Critters, ABCtales and AuthorsDen.

Friday, July 29, 2005

Britcaster

Just in case you haven't noticed the link graphic on the right-hand side of the Rev Up Review home page...

The Rev Up Review is now listed at Britcaster.com UK podcasting at its best - britcaster.com -- home to such terribly British podcasts as A Minor Technicality and The Richard Vobes Radio Show. Thanks to Neil Dixon of Britcaster for accepting The Rev Up Review into this very British family.

If you subscribe to the Britcaster podcast feed you'll automatically receive a host of British podcasts, now including The Rev Up Review.

Tuesday, July 26, 2005

Oops... missing link:

Here's the link to my review of Will Self's Great Apes
referred to in the review of Cyberpunk Radio.

Sunday, July 24, 2005

The Rev Up Review Breadcast

The Rev Up Review, Number Seven:

  • Title: RUR-2005-07-24
  • Size: 21.4 MB
  • Duration: 46'33"
Use this FeedBurner link to download the mp3 file directly, or to add the feed to your aggregator.

Contents

Background music:

Friday, July 22, 2005

News catch-up

First, something I should have posted here last week but only just got around to -- you can hear the Rev-Master reading a story for Steve Eley's Escape Pod here...

http://escape.extraneous.org/2005/07/18/ep-flash-paradox/

(Thanks Steve, it was fun!)

Second (and more up-to-date): Gary Leland, aka P. Dilly (formerly known as the Pickleman), played the Rev Up Review promo on the Podcast Pickle Show - Episode VII. (Thanks Gary!)

Lastly, a new Rev Up Review should be up some time this coming weekend.

Saturday, July 09, 2005

Thanks for concerned emails

Thanks to those who emailed me about the London explosions. It's been frightening watching the carnage on TV, but fairly amazing to see how quickly the transport system was up and running again. Thankfully my nearest and dearest were nowhere near the capital on the day, but we'll all need to be extra vigilant from now on. Vigilant, yes -- cowed, no. Trying to fathom the mind of a terrorist is a pretty fruitless task, so we simply endeavour to continue with our lives.

Anyone who was affected, indirectly or directly -- my thoughts go out to you. There's little comfort we can offer to those maimed or bereaved, other than to make it known that our sympathies are with them, and that despite the threats we will not be terrorized.

Sunday, July 03, 2005

The Rev Up Review: New Serial Starts Today

The Rev Up Review, Number Six:

  • Title: RUR-2005-07-03
  • Size: 16.4 MB
  • Duration: 35'45"
Use this FeedBurner link to download the mp3 file directly, or to add the feed to your aggregator.

Contents

  • 00.00 Intro music: "Undertow" by Reaman (ElectroBel)
  • 00.08 "You're listening to The Rev Up Review"
  • 00.14 Welcome
  • 01.10 The Rev Up Review is a proud member of The SciFi Podcast Network
  • 01.28 The release of iTunes 4.9
  • 03.44 Ambient Audio (per Dave Winer)
  • 05.57 The Rev Up Review Competition
  • 06.30 Skepticality promo
  • 07.41 Skepticality review
  • 10.09 Update on Matamea Rising
  • 10.38 Matthew Krohn's explanation
  • 12.28 Snow Bank by Jeffrey Adams
  • 13.52 TSFPN.com audio tag
  • 14.02 Who listens to podcasts?
  • 19.33 Music: Make It Go Away by David Henderson (Pod Safe Audio)
  • 23.52 Episode 1 of Travel With Confidence (music by The Brothers Femme at Pod Safe Audio)
  • 35.00 Send feedback to rur@revupreview.co.uk, or in North America call the RANT line: 206-339-RANT (7268)
  • 35.45 End
Background music:
  • "Another Place In Time" by David Henderson, from the album For You For Me. More at Pod Safe Audio

Wednesday, June 29, 2005

Soon...

Apologies to any folks who've been expecting to hear from me, but I'm recovering from a bout of some kind of flueyviralthingy. I'd hoped to be posting RUR 6 this week, but my voice sounds as if I'm chewing razor blades (that's when I can actually speak without launching into a wheezing monster-chunk).

Should be okay by the weekend (I hope).

Sunday, June 19, 2005

Geek stuff (plus promised clue)

Correction time (again!) -- When I talked about making minidisc recordings from BBCi's 'Listen Again' I was wrong when I said my digital recordings were classed as digital originals. They're not, they're classed as digital copies, which means that I can't make further digital copies from them at all, and that's what I find inconvenient. If I want to copy the recordings to CD I have to use the analogue input on my CD recorder, which means standing over it to make the track marks (you can't make track marks afterwards when using a CD recorder -- unlike when recording to minidiscs).

Not that many people wanted to know that.... But here's something that tons of people are anxiously waiting for: the CLUE!

Right, email me at rur@revupreview.co.uk if you want to win the new paperback copy of The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger. Just tell me where you think the two-minute ambient audio clip (played on RUR 4) was recorded. Within 100 km. It's a capital city. In continental Europe. I will respond to the first correct email with a request for a mailing address.

Saturday, June 11, 2005

The Rev Up Review Escapes!

The Rev Up Review, Number Five:

  • Title: RUR-2005-06-11
  • Size: 17.9 MB
  • Duration: 39'01"
Use this FeedBurner link to download the mp3 file directly, or to add the feed to your aggregator.

Contents

  • 00.00 Intro & Welcome
  • 02.18 Escape Pod promo
  • 04.45 Review of Escape Pod
  • 08.46 Comments on the state of short fiction
  • 10.43 'Zing' FX
  • 10.50 Spinfuture by Chris Future
  • 11.41 Sound Stages byJeffrey Adams
  • 12.07 Update on Ambient Audio Contest
  • 12.43 Rev Up Review now listed on iPodder.org
  • 13.06 "You're listening to The Rev Up Review"
  • 13.11 Overview of The Seventh Dimension (BBC7)
  • 15.36 A rant about DAB (Digital Audio Broadcasting)
  • 19.52 Examples of what's available on BBC7
  • 21.46 BBC7 mailing list
  • 21.57 MythArc becomes Peering Into Darkness
  • 22.18 Derek Gilbert's comment (this is on the main blog, not the LibSyn blog as wrongly stated on the show)
  • 22.33 'Glissando' FX
  • 22.39 Feedback to rur@revupreview.co.uk (text or mp3), or comment below, or call the Rev Up Review Rant Line: 206-339-RANT (7268)
  • 23.05 Comment from Tee Morris
  • 24.40 MOREVI: The Chronicles of Rafe and Askana
  • 25.35 Pronunciation of the word 'podiobook' (and others)
  • 27.01 Music: "Feel My Pain Miss Jane" by David Henderson at Pod Safe Audio
  • 29.53 Episode 5 (final) of The Journey of Jonathan Cave (first published in Alien Q webzine)
  • 39.01 End
Background music:
  • "Another Place In Time" by David Henderson, from the album For You For Me. More at Pod Safe Audio

Monday, June 06, 2005

iPodder.org

Thanks to Evo Terra of the Dragon Page, The Rev Up Review is now listed in the iPodder.org directory.

(Not sure quite how this happened. Evo posted a comment on the revup.libsyn.com blog after the feed for The Rev Up Review somehow appeared in his iPodderX. Well, you know, some things are just meant to be....)

Saturday, June 04, 2005

No correct answers yet!

Still no correct answers to the competition question, so now's your chance to win a new paperback copy of The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger.

Listen to the two-minute clip played in the last Rev Up Review, and if you recognize the location let me know (by email) where you think it was recorded.

The winner will be announced not in the next but in the sixth Rev Up Review, which is scheduled to be towards the end of June. (This will be the edition that starts the new serial, "Travel With Confidence.")

Tuesday, May 31, 2005

Escape Pod

Jesse at SFF Audio has reminded me about Escape Pod, which as far as I'm aware is the the only SF podcast that pays for accepted short-story submissions. There have been three shows so far, and I hope to cover them in the next Rev Up Review. If anyone knows of other paying podcast short-story markets (not necessarily SF) please let me know.

Saturday, May 28, 2005

The Rev Up Review Competition

The Rev Up Review, Number Four:

  • Title: RUR-2005-05-28
  • Size: 16.1 MB
  • Duration: 35'03"
Use this FeedBurner link to download the mp3 file directly, or to add the feed to your aggregator.


Background music:
  • "Take My Love" by Simpatico, from the album Resolve. More at Pod Safe Audio

Saturday, May 07, 2005

The Rev Up Review of The HitchHiker's Guide to the Galaxy

The Rev Up Review, Number Three:

  • Title: RUR-2005-05-07
  • Size: 14.7 MB
  • Duration: 31'53"
Use the FeedBurner link to download the mp3 file directly, or to add the feed to your aggregator.


Contents:
Background music:
  • "The Recruit" by reaman. Find more of reaman's music at ElectroBel

Saturday, April 23, 2005

The Rev Up Review of Speculative Fiction Podcasts

Details of the second (and first real) Rev Up Review podcast:

  • Title: RUR-2005-04-23
  • Size: 15.7 MB
  • Duration: 34'08"
Use the FeedBurner link to download the mp3 file directly, or to add the feed to your aggregator.

Contents:
  • 00.00 Start
  • 00.08 Jingle: RUR, Rev Up Review
  • 00.14 The second Rev Up Review has landed ('Tardis landing' sound-effect from Out Of This World BBC Radiophonic Workshop LP 1976)
  • 01.04 Intro to this podcast
  • 02.25 History of The Rev-Up Review Pages (original website also accessible through the link at the top right of this page)
  • 03.38 The Seanachai by Patrick McLean (www.goodwordsrightorder.com)
  • 04.35 The Seanachai promo
  • 05.57 Invasive Species from Audioblaze
  • 07.07 Earthcore by Scott Sigler
  • 08.38 Earthcore promo
  • 10.06 MythArc from Derek and Sharon Gilbert
  • 13.23 Tom Corven by Paul Story
  • 14.50 The Pocket and the Pendant by Mark Jeffrey (also available at the Dragon Page)
  • 15.12 Promo for The Pocket and the Pendant
  • 17.30 Cover to Cover, Wingin' It, Morevi and Slice of Sci Fi on The Dragon Page
  • 18.58 The future of podcasting?
  • 20.06 Cinemascope promo (Oneword Radio)
  • 21.32 "You're listening to The Rev Up Review"
  • 21.39 Episode 2 of The Journey of Jonathan Cave (first published in Alien Q webzine)
  • 33.16 Background music: "Longing for Home" by reaman. Find more of reaman's music at Electrobel
  • 33.45 Send feedback (emails, or mp3 audio) to rur@rev-up-review.co.uk, or post a comment below
  • 34.05 Jingle: Rev Up Review
  • 34.08 End
Next podcast:
  • I'm aiming to post a podcast once every two to three weeks, though there might be some additional Rev Up Extra podcasts if something crops up...who knows?

Saturday, April 02, 2005

The first Rev Up Review podcast

Details of the first (experimental) Rev Up Review podcast:
  • Title: RUR-2005-03-25
  • Size: 15.3 MB
  • Duration: 33'23"
Use the FeedBurner link to download the mp3 file directly, or to add the feed to your aggregator.

Contents:
  • 00.00 Start
  • 00.07 Jingle: "RUR, Rev Up Review"
  • 00.13 Intro
  • 00.53 The Rev Up Review Pages
  • 02.09 Audio Actuality: A visit to the supermarket
  • 05.00 Interzone Magazine
  • 08.30 Intro to Skype test
  • 10.16 Skype test
  • 15.57 Audio Actuality: Driving home
  • 20.53 The Journey of Jonathan Cave -- Episode 1
  • 31.14 "Cinemascope" on Oneword Radio
  • 33.14 Jingle: "Rev Up Review"
  • 33.23 End
Equipment:
  • This first experimental podcast was recorded on a Windows PC using the open source audio editor Audacity, available here.
  • Microphone/stereo headset was a Sennheiser m@b 30, which was also used for the original recording of "The Journey of Jonathan Cave" on a Sony MZ-R55 minidisc walkman.
  • The MZ-R55 was also used for the Audio Actuality recordings, with a Yoga EM-8 stereo tie-clip mic.
Music:
  • Background: Gershwin -- Concerto in F
  • Jonathan Cave intro & outro: Sibelius -- Finlandia
Next podcast:
  • Will there be one?