Hear This: "Carlos Manson Lives"

The good thing about downloading a podcast is that you can listen to it anywhere. Gardening, walking, and on the treadmill at the gym are three of my own favourites. The gym, of course, has a range of TV channels to look at while we tread or cycle our way through our routines. At the hour I go, though, the screens tend to be dominated by home shopping adds, often for home gym appliances. It's a laugh.

The sound, on the other hand, is dominated by MTV music. Usually the same song day after day. We're supposed to tune our earphones to the channel and get a good sound but it doesn't seem worth it. I've taken to listening to podcasts.

Today's short story is "Carlos Manson Lives", by Lucius Shepard. It is preceded by a long interview with the author, just him and the host nattering on about his life and the films they don't agree on. Hearing this interview really helped me to understand the story, which involves a culture I just don't have. You should be warned that there is a lot of use of the the f word, so if you don't like that then don't even bother.

The story is about a superstar songstress who gets high and has a strange encounter with someone who wants her to write a song about him. After listening to Shepard talk about his life, this all made some kind of sense.

The podcast comes from Starship Sofa's, Aural Delights #148,  (August 11, 2010) - you have to get to the site and tab and scroll to the bit you want. Aural Delights #148 includes a short interview, a meme really, with Ursual K Le Guin,  an author I love for her Earthsea series but who is famous for lots of other things aswell.

I'm also looking forward to hearing the next installment of The Barrens, an H P Lovecraft tribute in fiction by F Paul Wilson, of whom I know nothing, but sometimes not knowing anything about the author is good for the story.

This has been my first dip into Starship Sofa, although I learned about it a few years ago from someone who likes to listen to it during his commute. I strongly recommend a good look at this site for all the little treasures you might personally come across.

By the way, Starship Sofa (don't you love that title?) is a Hugo nominee this year.

Cheers
Morva Shepley