Previous Shows - 2017
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Index to our previous shows
December 25, 2017 Christmas Readings
October 31, 2017 Halloween Readings
The Shows
Christmas Readings - 2017
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On Monday - December 25th, 2017 - Hour 25 joined you for the Christmas holidays - a time for celebrating, enjoying good food and drink, going to parties, giving gifts, enjoying time with your family and friends, showing kindness to strangers... Your know... all that stuff you can't seem to do during the rest of the year.
But along with all the other traditions of the season I'll note that many authors have written stories with a touch of the fantastic for the Christmas season. From Charles Dicken's "A Christmas Carol" to ghost stories by Jerome K. Jerome, Mark Twain, John Kendrick Bangs and many others - the holiday season is filled with stories that are right at home on Hour 25. Tonight we're going to join your holiday celebrations by bringing you readings of some of those fantastical Christmas stories.
So pour yourself some eggnog, light the Christmas tree, set out some holiday cookies and candies - and relax as we take you straight on through Christmas with Mike Hodel's Hour 25 - The Hour That Stretches.
Our Ghost Party - Introductory by Jerome K. Jerome
Listen to this story We start our Christmas readings with Jerome K. Jerome's essay on why Christmas is the natural time for ghost stories. In doing this he speculates on the motives behind ghostly hauntings and describes all the traditional tropes for ghost stories. However this is no dry academic study but a humorous look at the stories we love to read during this holiday season. Enjoy.
"He has no idea it is a ghost he is so unsuspicious".
Johnson and Emily or The Faithful Ghost by Jerome K. Jerome
Listen to this storyOur second story for the night starts at Christmas when a young boy encounters a ghost who is looking to find the resting place of the love of his life. This spectral visitor doesn't harm anyone but is so depressed over the loss of Emily - his dead fiancee - that he, in turn, depresses everyone he meets. Eventually the people who live in the house where he does his haunting have enough of this and decide that they need to get rid of him. But how can they do this? Their solution to this problem comes with the expected measure of wry humor that Jerome K. Jerome is famous for.
The Great Staircase at Landover Hall by Frank R. Stockton
Listen to this storyOur final story for the night is a love story that crosses generations as well as the divide between the quick and the dead. And, as is appropriate for a love story told during Christmas, there is a happy ending that proves that love can overcome any problem.
Christmas Greetings from the Moon
Listen to a Christmas greeting from Apollo 8
I'll never forget Christmas Eve 1968 - when I went outside on a cold winter's night and looked up at the Moon, shining over snow and Christmas lights, and realized that at that very moment three men from Earth were circling that world. This proved that the Moon was not just a place for science fiction dreams but a real place just waiting to be explored. For a young man who had been dreaming of spaceflight for his whole life the inescapable reality of that moment was a dream come true.
So let us remember that as the crew of Apollo 8 orbited above our lifeless Moon that night, they looked back to see the Earth - a blue and green oasis floating against star filled blackness - and sent the world a Christmas greeting... The first ever from another world.
A Science Fictional Christmas
Back in the 1950's Galaxy Magazine had something of a tradition of publishing Christmas themed covers for their holiday season issues. While looking at them I was struck by the similarities between what Santa does and what engineers do when designing and flying missions to other planets.
First you must establish your mission requirements...
Next you must plan your mission...
Then you must travel through space whilst being careful to account for any mid-course encounters with other objects or spacecraft...
Upon reaching your destination you must carefully deploy your payloads...
And when your mission is completed you can sit down with friends and give a toast to a job well done.
From all of us here at Hour 25, we wish you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. May your holiday season be filled with friends and happiness and we hope that the next year brings you the best of everything you desire.
And remember, when happiness comes to your party be sure to give it a comfortable seat.
The Hour 25 Broadcast
Click here to listen to the entire show. {1:10:33}
OrClick here for the show's intro music. {0:41}
Click here for the show's opening. {2:04}
Click here for Warren's reading of Our Ghost Party - Introductory by Jerome K. Jerome. {13:23}
Click here for Warren's reading of Johnson and Emily or The Faithful Ghost by Jerome K. Jerome. {8:25}
Click here for Suzanne's reading of The Great Staircase at Landover Hall by Frank R. Stockton. {40:08}
Click here for a Christmas greeting from the Apollo 8 astronauts. {2:56}
Click here for the show's closing. {2:56}
For more Christmas readings you can listen to our shows from 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004, 2003, 2002 and 2001.
And to add some music to your holiday season you might want to listen to our show featuring holiday carols with a Lovecraftian twist.
Click here for links to all of the previous Shows that you can listen to on the Hour 25 Website.
If you enjoyed this show and would like to know when other interviews are uploaded to the Hour 25 Website, then send an email to me at wwjames@earthlink.net and I will add your name to the free Hour 25 Newsletter mailing list. That way you'll get a brief notice in your email every time a new show gets uploaded to the web.
Halloween Readings - 2017
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Listen to this show
On Tuesday - October 31st, 2017 - Hour 25 joined you for one of our favorite holidays - Halloween - a time for celebrating the weird and mysterious, a time for having some fun with the ghosts, goblins and other creatures of the night that scare the bejeebies out of us on any other night.
And so Hour 25 continues its long running tradition of reading you some spooky stories for Halloween. We've got tales of ghosts and cursed artifacts and who knows what else.
So put some decorations on your Halloween tree, grab some treats and turn down the lights 'cause you're on a journey to the worlds of your imagination with The Hour That Stretches.
The Bead Necklace by Alice Perrin
Listen to this storyOur first story for tonight is The Bead Necklace by Alice Perrin. It is a tale of supernatural revenge and the triumph of love over social-climbing ambition. In this story a woman wants to wait for the love of her life to return to her but her father is trying to force her to marry a rich but unkind man. This being Halloween the answer to her problem comes with a supernatural dose of revenge.
Alice Perrin is an author who is largely unknown today but back in the day she was a popular author who wrote many stories about English colonial life in India. She was born in India in 1867 but returned to England for her education though she returned to India after she married and lived there for 16 years. Her first novel Into Temptation appeared in 1894 and was followed by her first short story collection East of Suez in 1901. She continued publishing a book every two or three years until her last book Other Sheep came out in 1932. She died two years later in Switzerland. Although most of her stories were not of a supernatural bent her story tonight shows that she certainly knew how to tell a good ghost story.
"We saw a ship - just a small trading vessel but it might mean our rescue".
Ghosts That Have Haunted Me - A Few Spirit Reminiscences
by John Kendrick Bangs
Listen to this story
Our second story for the night is Ghosts That Have Haunted Me - A Few Spirit Reminiscences by John Kendrick Bangs. In this story our narrator recounts some of his encounters with ghostly visitors - some unwelcome and some cheerfully welcome. We'll find out why ghosts have such an affection for the protagonist of Bangs' tales and discover a most imaginative way to stay cool during a record-breaking summer heat wave.
Long before 'urban fantasy' was a sub-genre of fantastic fiction John Kendrick Bangs was dropping ghosts and ghoulies into contemporary situations and having them - and the humans they haunt - face everyday problems. {You'll remember a previous story of his involving troubles that arise when a union of spooks goes on strike. We read that story during Christmas 2015 and you can find it in our audio archives.} And though his stories were written in the late 19th and early 20th century, his wry humor and insight into human nature makes them feel as if they were written today.
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From all of us here at Hour 25, we wish you a very Happy Halloween. May your night be filled with treats and the company of friends.
The Hour 25 Broadcast
Click here to listen to the entire show. {1:05:24}
OrClick here for the show's intro music. {0:41}
Click here for the show's opening. {1:47}
Click here for Suzanne's reading of The Bead Necklace by Alice Perrin. {28:22}
Click here for Warren's reading of Ghosts That Have Haunted Me - A Few Spirit Reminiscences by John Kendrick Bangs. {32:35}
Click here for the show's closing. {1:59}
For more Halloween readings and interviews you can listen to our shows from 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004, 2003, 2001 and 2000.
And to add some music to your holiday season you might want to listen to our show featuring holiday carols with a Lovecraftian twist.
Click here for links to all of the previous Shows that you can listen to on the Hour 25 Website.
If you enjoyed this show and would like to know when other interviews are uploaded to the Hour 25 Website, then send an email to me at wwjames@earthlink.net and I will add your name to the free Hour 25 Newsletter mailing list. That way you'll get a brief notice in your email every time a new show gets uploaded to the web.
