Ad Astral Episode 8 Shownotes

Ad Astral Podcast, Episode 8:

Aftershock - Shownotes

Submitted by DJ Burnham on Sunday 1st August 2010

(Aftershock was written in September 2009 on the Greek island of Astypalia. This podcast is the first time it has been published)

The inspiration for this story came from experiencing “Fire, Smoke And Mirrors” in May 2009, an outdoor spectacular from UK company Walk The Plank that transformed Queens Park in Brighton into an elemental landscape of illusion. We came across an extraordinary performance, Sputnik: A project of possibilities. Sputnik in its first constellation was a large scale kinetic created by master sculptor Eduard Bersudsky and the Sharmanka team in collaboration with Fittings Multimedia Artistic Director Garry Robson. The structure playfully riffed on the themes of time, ships, travel, the union of flesh and steel and the constancy of human hopes and dreams. When the machine had been built, dancer/aerialist Claire Cunningham, working alongside choreographer Mish Weaver and with music by Leigh Stirling, created a movement piece exploring these themes in the context of the machine. I was so taken with the way in which Claire evolved her relationship with the gears, cogs, ropes, pulleys and wings of the machine I watched the show twice and wrote the basis of the story for Aftershock the next day. Having recorded the actors and during the mixing stage I wanted to give credit to people who made that evening in Queens Park come together. I knew Walk the Plank were the prime movers but I didn’t know who had produced the kinetic, so I e-mailed them and they kindly sent a link back to Fittings the next day. It was fascinating to read that the concept behind the visual piece clearly wasn’t lost on me as it has remarkable parallels with Persephone’s character and dreams. To find out more check out:
www.fittings.org.uk/sputnik.html
www.clairecunningham.co.uk
and
www.walktheplank.co.uk

The original artwork is a shot of the centre of the Sputnik kinetic sculpture I took in May 2009 overlaid with the image of an albatross

One of my stories – “Mortal Coil” – appeared in Thank You Death Robot published by Mark Brand of Silverthought Press. Well, we’ve just heard that Thank You Death Robot tied for a silver medal with Escape From Byzantium, by Mark Mellon, in the Fantasy and Science Fiction category of the 2010 Independent Publisher Book Awards. Congratulations Mark, it’s a great anthology and I’m proud to be a part of it.

See the full list of winners here: 2010 IPPYs

Our Guest Voice Actors:

Jon Wood plays acoustic and electric guitar with folk rock band ‘The Fold’, as well as releasing his own solo project album One to Five.

The Fold, solo singer-songwriter, & Jonassingersongwriter

You can hear three tracks from The Fold's new album 'A Change Has Got To Come' on Myspace

Anand is a multi-talented chap. An outstanding photographer, he has travelled widely through India, Nepal, Egypt, Jordan, Syria, capturing superb images along the way. He is also an experienced climber and trekker, having led several expeditions to Annapurna and the Himalaya.

See Anand's fabulous photography at Anandimages

Sue Burnham: Dave's wife and best friend.

Charlotte Dearing is currently studying at Rose Bruford College on an American Theatre Atrs course...in which she is featuring in a cabaret as a very angry German lady...when not doing such bizarre things as this, general merryment of alcohol and outside and sunshine are enjoyed as much as possible. The second year of her course is in the USA.

Chrissie Toye is an enthusiastic traveller, the stamps in her passport would give Michael Palin a run for his money.

Luke Abbott is Dave's nephew, a fine fellow who is a dab hand with a hockey stick and owns a healthy appetite.

Barry Fludgate: "It's a bummer living so long. No one told me I would live 500 years. You live the first 60 or so as normal person and then you are told there is another 500+ years to go! I tried to get all the killer diseases, but they kept on curing me. There was a time you could drink yourself to death, pure fiction. I tried drugs but they were awful. So on my 129th birthday I joined up. Joined up to what you may ask? To the death squad. For the past 300 years I have been trying to manoeuvre our ships into a position where we can all get obliterated. Every time I do it we get some smart arsed captain who does the right thing and saves us all. I keep telling him to watch the old Star Trek vids where Captain Kirk rounds up all the officers and jumps off ship into killing the aliens, that way he can leave us unmanned and we can be killed. All this experience going to waste. I give up!"

Nicola Gerrard is being a sand angel in this picture (Age 9). This is Nicola's first role in voice acting. She loves craft activity and writing her own short stories with a quirky style (she is – as yet – unpublished). She is inseparable from her toy dog "Midnight" and imaginary horse "Blackberry". She likes camping, spaghetti Bolognaise and riding her bike.

Chris Beaumont is an actor & producer and runs Hanover Productions, described as Brighton’s ‘bums on seats’ Theatre Company, as well as the best pub in Brighton THE GREYS.

Find out more about Chris and Hanover Productions Here.

Music used in this episode:

Mandragora gave their kind permission for us to use the track ‘Talking to God (Part IV)' and 'This is...' from their album ‘Temple Ball Live '94’ for the intro and outro for this production. Their music is copyright protected and cannot be used for any other purpose without their permission. Find out more at www.mandragora.biz

DJ Burnham did the artwork for Mandragora's album ‘Temple Ball Live '94’. Originally entitled 'Journey' here it is:

'Persephone's theme' in Scene 5: by The Natural Transport Company

Sound Effects

Credits and details from The Freesound Project

LaserRocket2.wav = Kraken’s response
Plasma Cannon impact = waterxplo.wav by inferno of the FreeSound Project
Plasma Cannon impact = CinematicBoomNorm.wav by Herbert Boland of the FreeSound Project
Plasma Cannon impact = tro¬¬_bassPan.wav by funhouse Boland of the FreeSound Project
Alarm sound on board the Kraken = alien_alarm.wav by Syna-Max of the FreeSound Project
Turbo transit door closing = 20070117.puff.wav by dobroide of the FreeSound Project
Sound of Piranha fighters being lifted onto acceleration platform = constructn site.wav by cognito perceptu of the FreeSound Project
Windshield shutting = in_sauna_1.wav by elonen of the FreeSound Project
Piranha fighter powering up = wvs103 upd107 power up.wav by ERH of the FreeSound Project
Flight visor engaging = slot_cars04.wav by Pooleside of the FreeSound Project
Music box background to Young Persee = Music Box.mp3 by Ben Shewmaker of the FreeSound Project
Sound of giant albatross wings = whoosh.wav by Benboncan of the FreeSound Project
Sound of albatross call = seagull-toy-mix.wav by freesound 61476 of the FreeSound Project
96th Sector AstroNaval Base on board ambience = ALIEN SHIP IDLE.wav by Hell’s Sound Guy 61476 of the FreeSound Project
Door to Commander Nielson’s cabin being opened = Metal push door open.wav by pagancow of the FreeSound Project