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Sofabook, Machinama Music

Starship Sofa Aural Delights has hit its 100th episode, and to celebrate they have released Starship Sofa Stories, Volume 1. Some of the authors include Elizabeth Bear, Michael Bishop, Ken MacLeod, Alastair Reynolds, and Spider Robinson, and all of these tales were featured as a radio play or reading in an Aural Delights episode. You can download it here, or you can use a widget for online access.

When I go hang out in a virtual environment, I often listen to music and go dancing. One of my favorite bands to party with is Australia’s Space Junky, 3 world-class musicians who play a wide range of music. Drop by Space Junky Island the next time you are in Second Life, and meanwhile here are a few tunes to listen to until then.

Free Audio SF/F

SF Signal does it again with a listing of 120 more awesome and free SF/F/H stories, culled from the collection linked at Free Speculative Fiction Online. The stories authors include Kevin J. Anderson, Kage Baker, Peter S. Beagle, Michael Bishop, Terry Bisson, Ben Bova, David Brin, Emma Bull… and that’s just some of the authors listed from the first 2 letters of the alphabet. The more is because they previously posted 76 Free SF/F Audio Stories, a direct link to Starship Sofa’s famous Complete Nebula Best Short Story Nominees 2008, and an absolute ton of individual links in their various Free Fiction posts. Be sure to check out Starship Sofa in detail while you are there, since they have a new quality story pretty much every week. Other sites for good stories include Podcastle and the related Psudopod and Escape Pod, and of course Librivox is a must-visit site for audio stories.

Parsec Awards 2009

Congrats to 365 Days of Astronomy for taking home a Parsec Award, handed out for excellence in science fiction podcasts (see their award here). If it seems a bit strange that an astronomy podcast won this award, don’t panic (and keep your towel handy), because it was for the category Best “Infotainment” Cast, things that entertain as they educate. As part of the 2009 International Year of Astronomy project, 365 Days certainly does that. If you or your kids have an interest in astronomy, be sure to look into the Galileoscope, a low-cost replica of Galileo’s original telescope that you can build and use for your own. There were a lot of other winners, including PseudoPod for Best Speculative Fiction Magazine or Anthology Podcast, the ScapeCast for Best Speculative Fiction Fan Podcast, Stranger Things for Best Speculative Fiction Video Podcast, Cool Shite on the Tube for Best Speculative Fiction News Podcast, and The FuMP for Best Speculative Fiction Music Podcast. There are a lot of other categories, you can catch the latest roundup of them at Wander Radio, or download the full report here. And then there are the Masquerade Winners for 2009, another group you should be familiar with. And my favorite author post from DragonCon came here by way of Suvudu, with the correct attitude!

Imaginarium Trailer, Martin Interview, Hugo Live coverage

SciFi Cool has posted the first trailer for The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassu, along with a brief synopsis of the story. This is the first new film in a while from Terry Gillium, and it looks really good. There is also an international trailer available, which looks fairly similar. In Worldcon-related news, Suvudu has posted that George R. R. Martin was interviewed and the results podcast. If you missed last weeks Eisner Awards Winners, you will find the list at that link. Tomorrow are the Hugo Awards at Worldcon, which will (technology willing) be covered Live by Cheryl Morgan, in conjunction with SF Awards Watch and the folks that seem to have the best Con coverage I have found so far, Con Reporter. They also are running a Live Celebrity Tweets compilation continuously, with input from people like Lou Anders, Cory Doctorow, Neil Gaimon, John Scalzi, and many others (yes, that was in alphabetical order; good of you to notice).

Listening Live: DNA, Comic-Con money

No, it’s not the name of a band; you can actually listen to the human genome, streamed as live audio, over at DNA Radio. They are currently broadcasting Chromosome 1, and at their present rate of data rendering they figure they will have played it all in 23 years or so. Comic-Con, started as a fan-organized event, has turned into a major marketing event with serious money at stake. While I think everyone already realizes this, nothing brings it home like an article in Bloomberg, the financial news organization. They do touch on a few of the movies to be premiered at the event as well.