Slashdot Mirror
New Trailer For Upcoming Hitchhiker's Episodes
Cally writes "I just heard a new programme trailer on BBC Radio 4 for the the
first time. Some familiar voices... it's Arthur! It's Ford! It's the
new radio
series of Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy!
The first broadcast
goes out on Tuesday 21st September at 6:30pm (UK summertime, which is
an hour off UTC.) Douglas Adams wrote the books in parallel with the two original radio series, which are still regarded as the definitive manifestation of HH-erdom. Hearing Mark Wing-Davey and Simon Jones' voices speaking new
words - albeit new words from 'Life, The Universe and Everything' -
is a spooky feeling. I just hope the sad death of Peter Jones does not
detract from the final result.
Let's hope the Beeb's live streaming media setup can cope with the mother of all Slashdottings!"
Anybody with 42 reference below this post is going to get in some serious trouble. I AM NOT KIDDING.
You think I am kidding? You think I am kidding? Alright. Try it.
I can't wait to see it.
---
I didn't want to leave this space blank.
I heard that there were some previous recordings of Douglas Adams that will be used. He actually has a role in this one. Anyone know more?
BTM
That was the turning point of my life--I went from negative zero to positive zero.
excellent, I cannot wait to hear that sad, somber, and slightly funny moment where poor sweet Marvin goes to the cliff, and fragment by fragment discovers that he and god think the same way. And then, shortly after seeing that great last message that god left to his creation. passing on in what dignity he could muster, considering that every piece of machinery in him had been replaced several times over... (with the exception of that damn set of diodes on his left side :) )
I love the music for the old original series. Unfortunately, I have them on the good old-fashioned LP vinyl so I can't convert them.
Anyone have a link to any bits and pieces (MP3 or OGG) of the original that I can listen to?
I can't wait. The more I listen to his stuff, the more I wish Mr. Adams had not prematurely left this world.
By the way, was it just me or did the voice of Agrajag sound suspiciously like Douglas Adams himself?
I've listend to a number of his books on tape that he read himself, and it sounds very much like Mr. Adams.
Is that American for GMT?
I really liked him as Ford in the '81 miniseries, but looks like he won't be in this one. :(
A blog like any other.
We poor deprived souls Stateside want to hear everything.
Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power multiplied.
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HG2G Movie? Someone must have used the improbability engine for this to happen!
Frink: Nice try floyd, but you were designed for scrubbing, and scrubbing is what you shall do.
Does anyone know where the original series can be obtained?
--Chris
42nd post! Alright!
Is something planned for those of us who really dont have the time to sit and listen in real time?
Either free or pay...
---- Booth was a patriot ----
will they play any vogon poetry ?
Let's hope the Beeb's live streaming media setup can cope with the mother of all Slashdottings!"
... might... have some heavy traffic that day...
Has anyone thought to warn them? I'd like to get a chance to hear it without our taking out the beebs servers... it might be nice send them a noth warning them they
just a thought.
I'm about as excited about new work in his name as I am about everything that has been done in Jim Henson's name since he died.
When a genius dies, his work lives on, but you will never resurrect him.
Does anybody know where i can get a hold of the original radio recordings?
Having a nationwide radio station that you can turn on at any time of the day or night with a 99% certainty of finding something intellectually stimulating and enjoyable can't be beat. (The other 1% is "The Archers")
For those furriners who don't entirely grok what Radio 4 actually is, it's:
For example, driving several hundred miles each week for a job, I found myself listening to a regular program on vegetables - specifically, the ones you eat. Now I am a geek of the burger+coke variety, and frankly I don't care about this subject one jot. However the program was compulsive listening - it went into depth about, for instance, how the brussels sprout came to be cultivated with lots of (genuinely) interesting historical context.
Listening to radio 4 is rather like visiting a huge combined university, experimental theatre, and comedy club, and wandering blindfolded through the halls, randomly stopping to listen in various rooms.
And I miss it. Thank goodness for web streaming.
HHGTTG was hugely inspirational back in the day here in the UK. Back at the end of the 70's the punk music fashion in music was violent and negative, allbeit exhuberant and youthfull. We were a decade away from the moon landings and were just entering the decade of the Yuppy, power dressing, padded shoulders and the triumph of the Golgafrinchams. But I digress, it was a time when science and the arts were at war and you had to be on one side or the other and HHGTTG was firmly on the side of the female astrophysicist who prefered a boyfriend who could take her on a tour of a black hole to Arthurs feeble small talk ( Notwithstanding the extra arm that said boyfriend "grew specially for you Trillian" )
So to set the scene, HHGTTG was, and possibly still is, the most scientifically friendly work of humour to hit the big time in the last six thousand years. At the time most computers were adressed with punched cards and Adams intuitively understood that a decent computer would look like a WiFi tablet pc hooked to the internet. Something which he described as a book of all known knowledge of the universe with "dont panic" scribed in large friendly letters on the cover - QED.
Even better Adams was of the radical (at that time) opinion that no one was going to tell him "the answer to life the universe and everything", it was patently clear that this was either too vague a question or that you had to figure out the answer step by step for yourself. His attitude was new because it anticeded a movement begun in the sixties to seek answers from gurus or to define oneself entirely in terms of opposition to the "establishment" - Adams rejected that and used humour to point out that it is your job (possibly your entire reason for existing) to figure out things for yourself.
Twenty years after its first incarnation its not going to set the world on fire and probably wont punch the buttons of the future like it did first time around. After all, today we are, the brands we purchase, and watchers of three simultaneous tv channels, and what we are, is clearly defined by what we are not. (If I got that wrong then feel free to explain what is going on these days...). However I have high hopes for this new series of HHGTTG because it was written by a man who liked technology and respectfully took the proverbial micky out of fashion and accepted wisdom.
Remarkably for those cynics amongst us who say that radical youth becomes conservative conservatives without changing a single idea over the passage of time, Adams mockeries still ring true to me in middle age. It is also sobering to realise that his entire lifes work is more or less defined by something like six months work in 1978, and whatever it was, 9 radio programs. This is probably the most important reason to get hold of the radio stream - as an experience the radio play is an order of magnitude more powerfull than the books.
Let me be the first to welcome our new overlord radio transmissions....
Facts are history now plebs have politics for religion on social media.
... and I say unto thee...
BILLY GOAT!
Get thee back under thy bridge, troll.
Douglas Adams was a linguistic genius. He came up with fresh new ways to bang the English language together than were (and are) shockingly funny. His plots were vague, contradictory, and entirely irrelevent.
Tom Clancy on the other hand, may be able to think up a great yarn, but he does not have even mediocre ability with the language. No English teacher will ever recommend a Clancy book to his class as an example of good popular writing - but they do recommend Adams.
You know, maybe we will fuck up HHGTTG, but dont knock mos def as an actor. He's really rather good, i was surprised when i saw Something the Lord Made on HBO with him in a major role. I'm not sure about him as Ford Prefect, but hey, who knows.
The things that have come out in Henson's name, since his death, were works he didn't write. HHGTTG is not in the same situation.
Not only is there a mp3 stream as mentioned, there is also a a 83 MB Quicktime video, which I'm just downloaded at 360 KB/s.
Come on slashdot, the server's still up, what are you waiting for ?
Man I for one really hope that this new rendition of the series lives up to everyone's expectations. The original radio series was so wonderful I still listen to it a couple times a year. Hopefully I'll have two different versions to rotate between in the future.
I've just listened to it now and it sounds exactly the same to me. It's essentially a collection of miscellaneous clips spliced together.
Paul.
You are lost in a twisty maze of little standards, all different.
The BBC's website says, "As the original two series were dubbed the Primary and Secondary Phases by Douglas Adams, these new series form the Tertiary, Quadrenary and Quintessential Phases." No doubt had the cosmos not intervened, he would've re-released the originals with digital enhancements (imagine Zaphod not having stolen the Heart of Gold; it was, um, inherited or something), then gone on to uninspired apocryphal prequels.
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Here's a mirror, if the main site goes down .. maybe it wont, but .. you never know l;)
http://kcore.ath.cx/hitchhikers_trail.mp3
Not again!
Let's hope the Beeb's live streaming media setup can cope with the mother of all Slashdottings!
Word is, someone over at the Beeb was overheard saying, "Bring 'em on!"
Anyone seen my jagged little pill?
MP3 CD
>Do what you like to it visually, what the fuck,
>bring in a fucking rapper to play ford, but
>its still ours....
In honour of the fact that they're from Newport, five miles down the A40, I present to you the wise words of the mighty 'Goldie Looking Chains':
"None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free." -- Goethe
The Beeb always does it with class. Always; and I'm an American!
Anyone seen my jagged little pill?
I'd rather listen to Vogon poetry.
WRONG! Have you read "so long and thanks for all the fish"!/? Brilliant storytelling, a heartbreaking love story. Just because the thing that shines brightest is the jokes, doesn't mean he can't tell a moving story, where yes, the plot does matter.
> Let's hope the Beeb's live streaming media setup can cope with the mother of all Slashdottings!" See for yourself: http://support.bbc.co.uk/support/
Ok, it's probably just a small part of Britain you're speaking for there, but whatever...
Now, call me selfish, nationalistic, arrogant and a bit of a twat, but as the corporation is contantly telling me, it's my BBC. Not Slashdot's.
;-)
Therefore, on, erm, the behalf, of the BBC I'll be charging $5 per listen from their servers. After all, it's not much for what you're getting. Payment by cash in small brown envelopes, please.
Also, to the American readers, I've got the Tower Bridge for sale for a very reasonable price. Email for more info.
PocketGamer.org - For the gamer on the go!
uh. uh. uh.
Find someone in the UK who's got a DAB digital radio receiver, and get them to record it for you directly to mp3 (since that's what DAB is broadcast in).
First you'll need a exceptionally strong cup of very hot tea . . .
Now engage your improbability drive and go back in time.
Next, decide not to post your comment because you think better of it, or less of it that is, or whatever.
That was mean wasn't it? probably not a verynice thing to write. Well, you have it then!
The first commentator you hear on that trailer is the legendary Henry Blofeld who has been around on BBC Radio 4 for around 500 years. The second voice is Fred Truman, who has been commentating on cricket for the BBC for only 300 years.
Yet another proprietary mp3 file. Are the BBC going to include a Fraunhofer Institute MP3 licence for every listener? I somehow doubt it. With Ogg Vorbis and Ogg Theora why is the BBC still clinging to these legacy formats? The beeb also promote Macromedia Shockwave Flash over SVG animations.
Proprietary "Apple QuickTime" clandestine format. Whats wrong with supporting modern formats like Ogg Theora BBC?
The BBC used to run BBC ogg vorbis streams. Sadly they have canceled these now. You can contact the BBC through their BBC GNU/Linux help page, and also the BBC Radio 4 Feedback Programme which is broadcast at 13:00 each Friday, if you too would like the BBC Ogg Vorbis radio services to restart.
Is BBC4 a cable station or can you listen to it with an antenna? (in Belgium, for instance) I'll be somewhere else when they start airing it.
Oh grow up....
My favorite example of this is a specific paragraph that after reading you are thinking to yourself "What the fuck?"
In the next paragraph he specifically tells you to go back and reread the above paragraph and it will make perfect sense. And it does.
Oh, and Tom Clancy sucks.
Most likely because most device support them while not too many support Ogg.
Plus most system can play things right out of the box, without having to install codecs or players, VERY important when you are delivering to a wide audience.
Man, I know you've been away for a while, but you're not on form on this one.
http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/cgi-bin/h-browse?dir=/pub/. arch-download/hhgttg
You know, Microsoft's street address also says a lot about their mentality.
You don't need Real software to play rtsp:// streams.
(Why doesTry:
Q) How do I tell mplayer to save the stream to disk? mencoder complains that a video stream is compulsory.
I think I forgot.
So when will the MP3s be available? Unless there is some nice free way of ripping the RA stream that the Beeb favor for their radio broadcasts...