rexmere.com

One of my favorite things about the Internet is the vast quantity of interesting content available through it. And yes, I’m rather a big fan of water’s wetness too.That said, it’s still hard to find the good amongst the not so good, even harder to find the things that are personally appealing. By far the most reliable way I’ve found is read blog posts or comments like this one that detail some of the things the author likes and way. Sometimes what I find isn’t all that interesting and sometimes I get lucky. Here’s a contribution to the other end of that equation.I’ve always been a fan of Old Time Radio shows. I’m still a bit creeped out by an episode of the CBS Radio Mystery Theater interpretation of “The Cask of Amontillado” that aired when I was a kid. When my first daughter was born, she had a confused notion of what one did during the day (sleep) and at night (play). I spent a lot of time rocking her while listening to downladed episodes of “Yours Truly, Johny Dollar“. (Note to parents: downloaded episodes of “Jack Armstrong” or “The Adventures of Superman” make long car trips seem much quicker). Which brings me to Decoder Ring Theater. Lead by Gregg Taylor, this troupe puts together two full cast original dramas “The Red Panda” — a Canadian crime fighter in the mold of the Green Hornet and “Black Jack Justice” — a hard boiled PI show. Both shows are written and produced by Taylor and both are excellent. Taylor’s ear for snappy banter, especially between Jack Justice and his partner Trixie Dixon is terrific and I look forward to new episodes of each.I found about this next item not through some blog or other Internet artifact but through an article in our local “pennysaver” type newspaper. About two hours north of where I live in upstate New York, there’s a old car dealship that’s been converted to a television sound stage. The set? Af faithful reproduction of the bridge of the Startship Enterprise, serial number NCC-1701. No -D, no -A, just NCC-1701: the original. The set was built by the folks at Star Trek: New Voyages. They’re busily producing what they descirbe as the 4th and 5th seasons of the original 5 year mission. For the most part, the parts of the original crew are played by new actors. I say “for the most part” because George Takei and Walter Koenig have both reprised their original roles, as have a number of guest stars from the series’ original run. The episodes are great fun to watch, though if you have no interest in original Star Trek episodes, you won’t like these either.Finally, Mur Lafferty is podcasting a novel, Playing for Keeps, that she’s written. It’s set in a super-hero universe of her creation (with a source for super powers marginally more “realistic” than a “strange visitor from another planet”). Her focus is on a group of characters with rather limited powers as they try to make their way safely through a crisis between more conventionally powered super-heros and super-villans. One of the pleasures of the book is watching how the characters learn to use their limited powers more effectively. You wouldn’t think that super-waitress powers (can always balance a serving tray) could be much good in a fight, but then, you haven’t lstened to “Playing for Keeps” yet. Lafferty’s done some other interesting things with her book, including making the printed version available from LuLu and opening up her universe to other writers. It’s a pretty interesting experiment and one that I’m enjoying watching.That’ll do for now. Enjoy…