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July and August 2000
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| August 25 - Our guest - on tape - was author Greg Bear. We talked with him about his new Star Wars book Rogue Planet and also his Hugo nominated book Darwin's Radio. We even had a few minutes to chat with him about his book Dinosaur Summer. |  {Book Cover © Del Rey Books.} |
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 Steven Barnes{Picture © Steven Barnes.} |
August 18 - We were joined in studio by Steven Barnes who was in town to do a signing at "Dangerous Visions". We got to chat with Steve about Saturn's Race, a book which he and Larry Niven have just had published. {For my money I think it's about the best book he and Larry have written.} To find out more about Steve's work and his "Life Writing" activities, check out his website. |
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August 11 - We were joined in studio by Kelly Freas and his wife Laura. | |||
 Kelly Freas at work.{Picture © Kelly Freas.} |
I don't know about you, but I had a great time talking with Kelly Freas. He's been a fixture in the field of science fiction ever since he sold his first SF cover to "Wierd Tales" in November 1950 and he's still going strong. It was fascinating hearing him reminisce about working with such famous people as John W. Campbell. It was equally fascinating hearing him explain about the difference between talent and training and the importance of discipline for a commercial artist. And even though we all can recognize a Kelly Freas painting any time we see one, not even Kelly knows what it is that makes a Kelly Freas painting a 'Kelly Freas painting". |
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| You can find out why the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction calls Kelly 'the most popular science fiction artist in the history of the field' by checking out his web site. |  Kelly Freas and Laura {Picture copyright © Burt Handelsman, 2000.} |
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August 4 - We were joined in studio by Rockne S. O'Bannon - creator of "Farscape" - and by Ricky Manning - the Executive Producer for "Farscape". | |||
 Rockne S. O'Bannon {Picture copyright © Burt Handelsman, 2000.} |
We had a great time hearing from Rock about how the show has evolved from his original concept. Ricky explained how the show's producers found that they could take the show in a darker direction than earlier planned and still maintain the interest of the audience. I think they were both surprised by this but found that it opened many new opportunities for creative story telling. |
 Ricky Manning {Picture copyright © Burt Handelsman, 2000.} |
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During the course of the show we called David Kemper - another of the show's Executive Producers - and spoke with him and some of the other folks from the show. Dave Elsey - from the Creature Shop - told us about the misadventures associated with getting actors to perform when they are completly covered by complex makeup effects. He explained that they often leave the actors eyes and mouths uncovered so they have something they can use for projecting emotions. And Rowan Woods - a director from the show - told us about the challenges he faces when doing the show. |
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 Neil Norman and fins... er, friends.{Picture © Neil Norman, 2000.} |
July 28 - Musician and record producer Neil Norman joined us in-studio to talk about his new projects. The Napster controversy was in full swing and Neil explained why free digital distribution hurts musicians. But we also found out how he is using the 'net to circumvent some of the problems that have hampered musicians in the past, such as the difficulty in getting air play for music that isn't supported by multi-million dollar advertising campaigns. Like always Neil brought along a bunch of music and we got to hear some old favorites as well as some music that had just been released. Its too bad that we didn't have more time 'cause we could have played music till dawn. Sigh. | ||
| We were also joined by Emily Barth who talked to us about a "V" convention she is organizing. This con will be happening September 16-17 at the Hyatt Regency hotel in Los Angeles. Check out our conventions page for more information or visit her web site. You can find out more about Neil's music, as well as listen to some samples and order CDs on-line at his web site. |
 Neil Norman and and Emily Barth{Picture © Burt Handelsman, 2000.} |
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July 21 - Gordon Cooper joined us in-studio and talked about his new book, "Leap of Faith: An Astronaut's Journey into the Unknown", as well as his experiences as one of the original seven astronauts. It was a rare treat to hear him talk about how he had to fly a manual re-entry after his Mercury spacecraft had a virtually complete electrical system failure. His successful flight was made ever the more sweet by the fact that he managed to land his spacecraft closer to its landing point than any previous Mercury spacecraft. Even though all of the other Mercury missions had come back under automatic control. {Gordon Cooper picture © Burt Handelsman, 2000.} | ||
| July 14 - Artist and Futurist Syd Mead joined us in-studio to discuss his approach to portraying the future using visual media. We also talked about how his previous industrial designs for future vehicles have influenced the actual cars that that are traveling on the highways of today. We even were able to squeeze in some conversation about his work in such movies as "Blade Runner", "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" and "2010". For more information about Syd's work check out his website. {Syd Mead picture © Burt Handelsman, 2000.} |  |
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 {Book Cover © Del Rey Books.} |
July 7 - Author Terry Brooks joined us to discuss the art and craft of writing, along with his 'Shannara' books, his novelization of The Phantom Menace and his contemporary fantasy novel Angel Fire East. | ||
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