I'm stymied. Maybe it's because my family doesn't do big things for birthdays, but the fact that there is so much discussion about something that happened twice -- just twice -- before not happening again. If you want a tour through the classics, maybe it would be a good idea to suggest to Mur that we do a month-long run of them, or maybe we could make the first week of every month for classics, or maybe we could start dropping episodes of OTR SwagCast or similar into the feed -- the possibilities are endless.
I'm trying to be positive here because I know I take these comments to heart too often and should probably not even read this board, but the people that work on this show are a pretty accessible bunch. If you have ideas, share them. If you're disappointed in something, maybe think to yourself "Well, I'm a bit disappointed in that, I wonder what I could do or suggest that might make it better for next time?" before coming here to show off your crank pants. Then mention it to Bill or I and we will absolutely make sure it gets discussed.
Fair enough.
For me:
I like the tradition of having a classic story from time to time (not every week, certainly, but scattered here and there). I realize that getting the rights for these can be a complicated affair, especially when the original author has died, so the landmark of big round numbers seems like a good excuse to go for those. One can plan far ahead to try to acquire the rights. Although, yes, big round numbers are arbitrary, they make as much sense as anything as an excuse for a celebration and to do something unusual. And hey, I like big round numbers. I'm one of those people that gets excited to watch the odometer roll over 4 zeroes at once (though this is much less fun now that all cars seem to have the digital readouts instead of mechanical wheels).
I like Tim Pratt's writing. If I had to pick my favorite short story author of all time, he would be my choice, no contest, because I like a much larger percentage of his stories than any other author I've ever read. Except for one story, all of his stories have fallen in the range of reactions between "Holy crap that was great!" and "That was a fun time well spent." Much of the reason that he is my favorite is that I've gotten such a superb sampling of his work from the Escape Artists podcasts. So I am not at all disapproving of having a Pratt story on the podcast.
But, since Pratt IS so often on Escape Artist podcasts (which, again, I am not complaining about), it's hard to see a Tim Pratt story as being a milestone event. As opposed to, say, a Heinlein or an Asimov or a Philip K. Dick story, fellows who are not on one of the EA podcasts on a regular basis. And those names, who have been around forever and have had movie adaptations that the general public will have seen, also have the advantage of helping to draw in new listeners who will then hopefully stick around to listen to the rest of the stories. Let's say if PK Dick's "The Golden Man" were podcasted, then when someone comments (in real life or forum) on that terrible movie "Next" starring Nicolas Cage , then one could say "Well, yeah, that movie did have no redeeming qualities whatsoever. If you want to hear the original, check out episode 400 of Escape Pod. It won't even cost you any money to listen, unlike the $10 you paid for that money that you're never getting back." (I've not read "The Golden Man", but ye gods that was a terrible movie. I have to believe the PKD version is better)
