Entropic State Report 24th January 2024

How is January 2024 almost up already???

That’s a rhetorical question really as I’ve long since come to the realisation that as we gradually return to our natural state of sludge and atoms time just speeds up at a frankly ridiculous rate. It’s a shame too as (as ever) all I want to do is produce more episodes and talk to more people about the things I’m into. Only this morning in fact, I clocked the book cover above (another marvellous 70s thriller photo cover) on social media and immediately regretted not having the time to dip into the copious shelves/piles of similarly adorned paperbacks and run a side podcast diving into the world of Panther Crime novels, the wild array of Pan and Mayflower wonders, and further into NEL pulp exploitation books (which we have of course touched on with Andrew Nette). I’m sure Andrew would agree that there is probably an entire podcast just covering photo covers featuring women with guns (photo c/o his twitter feed).

But… no time…

So I’ll be sticking with the main roster of content for BITR, the next of which will be Moorcock/Butterworth/Hawkwind cross-over/mash-up The Time of the Hawklords in the company of Hawkwind: Days of the Underground author Joe Banks, returning to Derry & Toms for the third time. That will be out in a few days.

Over the coming weeks, we have some other things in the pipeline in the form of:

a bit of Sheckley from Pops’s shelves that’s been on my mind for over 30 years w/Derek AKA Imrryr
the return of Andrew Nette to talk about Quatermass (for reasons that will become apparent)
Part two of The Pheonix in Obsidian w/ Phil
a long overdue second look at Conan in some shape or form with Dave AKA SÖNUS
MM’s obscure political chapbook w/ a variety of guests (possibly in multiple parts)
Luther Arkwright w/ Tom Murphy
Oswald Bastable (finally) with Robert MacMillan
The Land That Time Forgot (in its various forms) with Allister Thompson AKA The Gateless Gate (and we’ll probably talk about The War of the Worlds again at some point)

…and some other stuff I’ve talked about with various interlocuters that we just haven’t managed to get in the diary yet including Loz, Hussein, Tash and Miles. The latter is something Miles and I have been mulling over for a while related to the perils of writing spin-offs for established IPs. MM has form for this of course… more on that when we decide how to tackle it.

Meanwhile, Andy Darby pinged me a link to a decent article on Esquire titled The Death of the Multiverse, ostensibly an observation on why ‘multiverse stories’ are getting tiring and a little bit passé for mainstream audiences thanks to Marvel and co but it delves deep into the philosophical dimensions of that type of storytelling and MM gets some coverage too. Well worth a read, particularly the bit about the actual origins of the term ‘multiverse’.

Now, I must take my leave to eat crisps, listen to the howling gales and hope our wheely bins are still local.

For now I’ll sign off with another Pulpcurry special, so wherever you are pards… take care, stay safe and be SUPER.

Entropic State Report 6th February 2023

Dear friends,

Phil and I have embarked upon our winter retreat, on this occasion to the incredibly picturesque harbour town of Barmouth.

Yes, Barmouth. The scene of Guy N Smith’s terror double-bill of Night of the Crabs and its subsequent sidequel, Crabs Moon. Now I’m not saying we decided to commit a whole week of our annual leave allocations to visiting the site of a brace of 70s horror novels, but we may well have committed a whole week of our annual leave allocations to visiting the site of a brace of 70s horror novels.

It was a good choice though.

I’m not going to knock Smith’s literary credentials for a second, but he didn’t really sell Barmouth’s qualities. It’s a really beautiful bit of coast and the key landmarks do not disappoint, with Arthog Bridge being a particularly impressive piece of Victorian engineering. That was obviously wasted on that down-in-the-mouth train driver but not on us.

Amusingly, our digs are in Llanaber – the very site of Professor Cliff Davenport’s boarding house (and scene of his alarmingly immediate bond with Pat). We’re going all in for the authentic experience. Shell Beach awaits.

Amongst our holiday reading we have the final instalment in the Cliff Davenport triptych, CRABS ON THE RAMPAGE. Sadly it isn’t set in Barmouth, but, weirdly, it does feature some of our older holiday stomping grounds up in the highlands of Scotland that we are very familiar with.

Anyway, enough of my holiday snaps.

It’s suddenly February and 2023 is already feeling productive. We’re keeping up a decent pace with the show, I have two more in the can undergoing editing, and Phil and I will hopefully record our thoughts on The Phoenix in Obsidian AKA The Silver Warriors very soon. This month I’m scheduled to revisit the NEL story with Andrew Nette and Dave will be back to pick up the Hawkmoon saga with The Sword of the Dawn.

To add to that, if you missed it, I popped up on the Appendix N Book Club and that was a fine time all round.

In a addition to that, we passed a couple of Podbean milestones in January too…

…and I have to say Podbean, you could put a bit more effort in with your badges.

Still, it’s always good to note progress. Long may it continue. And thanks to all of you for supporting us and making it happen.

That’s all for now though, I have to go down Barmouth beach in search of crevices (I remain unconvinced).

So go steady out there and we’ll catch up again soon… On t’moonbeam roads.

Entropic State Report 20th January 2023

Dear pards,

It’s a steely cold and foggy day up in the hills of Bradford, which I’m fine with. It beats cold, wet and muddy and I do find the crispness and crunchiness underfoot weirdly energising. I’ll just listen out for the creak of massive wheels and remain vigilant regarding strange, distorted shapes in the fog and we should be fine.

I had a lovely delivery from Christos AKA Fortress of the Pearl – psychedelic black metal dungeon synth from Greece – timely as I’m in the middle of editing the second part of our deep dive into Moorcock’s The Fortress of the Pearl! Loz and I indulged in some appropriately funky beers along the way, but two ended up being a stretch too far for the evening. Well, technically only one for me but Loz rolled snake eyes on the resistance table so his final brace are going out to a lucky patron – Paul Hillary, they’ll be winging their way to you shortly. Exactly how lucky you are will be for you to judge.

A couple of nights ago I hopped on a call with our friend and collaborator N Λ Ṇ D to talk about a variety of things, not least of which was the second album based upon volume II of the adventures of Gerard Arthur Connelly, my old roleplaying alter-ego from the olden days. As with his first, this is an album suffused with the smells and colours of our own meandering Moonbeam dreams. We’ve nailed down the running order and album art and that should see the light of day very soon. As ever, N Λ Ṇ D’s compositions are inspiring to me and have already provided high-calorie fodder for my imagination as I continue drafting and fleshing out volume III.

The latest edition of Jim Kirkland’s newsletter Pursuit of the Pale Prince is in inboxes right about now. This issue has news about a pending blu ray release of The Final Programme, a Silver Warriors skate deck c/o Frazetta Girls, the latest Centipede Press release and more. Get on that subscription list.

In a week or so the Appendix N Podcast will release their 133rd episode featuring an all new guest. Me! It’s very exciting to be asked to drop in to other talking shops and this was the third time, having previously appeared on Rob Aka Menion’s Confessions of a Wee Tim’rous Bushi and Ralph Lovegrove’s Fictoplasm. I had a great time despite being far too ignorant of the intricacies of D&D. I’ll boost that when it drops.

And finally…

Tash has settled in to her new country pile in Gloucestershire. She messaged me last night to suggest a date for our next, long past due appointment at Derry & Toms when we will finally take a look at Zelazny’s Nine Princes in Amber. More on that soon.

Take care friends, the Moonbeam Roads are slippery right now, and see you again soon.

Entropic State Report 6th December 2022 – RELEASE DATE

It’s finally release day* for the new Elric novel, The Citadel of Forgotten Myths. If you’re in the UK I hope your delivery isn’t delayed too badly by the mail strikes. Solidarity with Royal Mail staff btw – I can wait – also Neil Burton and I were very fortunate to receive advanced reader copies from Joe at SAGA. I’ve been bashing my way through it and look forward to eventually covering it here on BitR.

If you haven’t seen it already you can enjoy MM discussing it on Forbidden Planet TV.

In other news, last night I was delighted to record with Hoi and Jeff as a guest on the Appendix N Book Club talking about Operation Chaos by Poul Anderson. That was a rare treat for me as I love their show and that episode will emerge in late January. If you haven’t listened to their interview with MM already, hop over and do so at your earliest opportunity. It’s terrific.

Meanwhile, in Derry & Toms, Simon Perrins and I had the great pleasure of being able to grill Guy Lawley over his late 80s/ turn of the 90s comic Saga of the Man Elf, his approval from MM and his time working on fanzines and independent comics with a host of business luminaries.

Look out for that in the New Year.

Now Operation Chaos and Man Elf are ticked off though, I can dive through the rusty driver’s hatch** of a mysterious abandoned Sherman and tackle The Devils of D-Day, our Patron’s Choice for the Xmas/Birthday show. We’ll be issuing that one from our boozy HQ in Morecambe on Phil’s and MM’s birthday.

On top of all of that we have a very busy schedule in January where we’ll be talking about bikersploitation, Martian war machines, uncosy catastrophes and lots of other stuff no doubt.

In the meantime take care…

Stay warm and safe…

Load up on cheese footballs/twiglets/[insert festive niche snack here]…

And we’ll see you soon…

On the Moonbeam Roads.

*Technically it’s release week – chalk it up to excitement on my part

**I would never fit through the driver’s hatch of a Sherman

Entropic State Report 4th September 2022

Well, that’s summer just about over. A record-breaking heatwave, some muggy, humid weeks and now into September – rain. And more rain. Feels much more traditional now.

Accompanying the change, a good dose of lurgy has landed in this house and every couple of hours I’ve been alternating between teeth-chatteringly cold and slowly cooking in my own seepage. Not covid though so the D-Squads haven’t got to me yet. Hussein suggested that I must be possessed and there’s a battle going on between good and evil jinn for control of my weak human flesh.

Plausible.

I just wish one of them would hurry up and win or at least come to some form of compromise, the shirty fuckers.

Anyway, I used these past few days to do a lot of reading. Most of it bad. I was curious about the novelisation of Alien Isolation (although a video game, it is for my money the best tie-in/spin-off from the Alien franchise). As I’m a mug for a bargain I picked it up in a pack of 7 Alien tie-in novels and, long story short, they’re mostly incredibly mediocre. The exception is Alien: Cold Forge by Alex White, largely by dint of the fact that the central conceit is – what if a financial auditor visits a remote research station to cut costs and streamline operations. On top of that, what if the auditor is essentially Patrick Bateman in space.

Very entertaining.

It just so happens that, as I was ploughing my way through them, Ted AKA @tedankhamen sent me a link to his blog sharing his thoughts re gaming within established IPs (in this case Star Wars). His take really resonated, particularly given our previous shows on gaming, but I think those points apply across all expanded fiction based upon established IPs. Those Alien tie-in novels are a great example and they reinforce the beliefs Clarky, Dave and I expounded in the last show – make new shit. Take the themes and tropes and flavour, but freshen it up. Those Alien novels all revolve around the same tired, rote elements. Weyland-Yutani… colonial marines… ‘bug hunts’…

MAKE NEW SHIT!

I am of course guilty of this myself. The first section of The Journal of Gerard Arthur Connelly is set in Tragic Millennium Europe. In my own defence though, that was a write-up of a couple of Hawkmoon RPG gaming sessions so it is faithful to that at least. But I’ve tried beyond that point to diverge a bit. Wait… am I comparing my nonsense to licensed, published fiction? No. I’m just trying to not be hypocritical I suppose. And I’m not a writer. I’m a hobbyist. So I’m giving myself a pass.

That said, I entirely understand that being commissioned to operate within a juggernaut IP means that one must tick boxes. I do wonder if that’s why the Alien Isolation novelisation, based upon a game that does a nice job of expanding some universe details and features no mention whatsoever of colonial marines or any trappings thereof, introduces colonial marines elements by the fourth chapter.

All of this also leads me to a long sigh of sadness and some regret.

Ridley Scott’s Alien deservedly led to an initially modest but eventually pretty enormous expansion of the canon and a multi-billion dollar IP. Sequels, comics, video games, novels, cross-overs (Judge Dredd vs Aliens!) and an upcoming TV show.

Meanwhile, Britain’s (the world’s?) greatest living fantasist can’t catch a break in any medium outside of comics and tabletop games, and in the case of the latter only currently in France. The Runestaff TV show is apparently still in development but the Elric project appears to be dead in the water. Unsurprising given that The Witcher and GOT/House of the Dragon have effectively taken screen ownership of so many of Moorcock’s trappings (sadly, whilst entirely jettisoning the themes). If a Warhammer 40,000 show or movie ever emerges then the gig is truly up.

That’s something to explore on a future show for sure.

Anyway, I’ve obviously had too much time on my hands (and brain).

Fucking germs. As a result I had to postpone a couple of visits to Derry and Toms this past week, so apologies to Derek and Steve. We can hook up in the future ASAP.

On a positive note, two shows are already in the can. The first is the second part of our summer gaming diptych, recorded with the aforementioned Ted, where we look at his extensive take on Moorcockian gaming. That will be out in the next day or two.

The second is Book Two of The Mad God’s Amulet with Dave. That will follow in a couple of weeks.

Meanwhile, our patron poll for the looming Halloween episode has been live for a couple of weeks and James Herbert’s The Fog maintains its healthy lead. Still plenty of time for patrons to vote though and Shaun Hutson’s Slugs finally got a couple of sympathy votes.

Right. My Lemsip is wearing off.

Stay safe, avoid lurgy, see you again soon…

…on t’Moonbeam Roads.

Entropic State Report 8th June 2022

It’s been a joyous few weeks since I sent out the Patron Demon and contributor copies of Vol II of the Journal and I’ve heard back from most folks that they arrived safe and sound across the globe. So, despite frequent reports to the contrary, Brexit has not quite fucked up our postal system.

HUZZAH!

Sunlit Uplands and all that.

Since bunging FotP Part One out in May we continue to get some nice feedback from various angles around the social media landscape. It’s very satisfying. We’ll be hitting you up with part two very soon but, in the meantime, Hussein is coming back to Derry & Toms to pick up our last bits of chat around The Final programme. Back when we did Phase Three we didn’t spoil the climax, which is quite unlike us as we generally spoil everything. However, part of the reason for our return to JC is my successful effort to convince H to dive into the film adaptation and having done that there are things to talk about. If you’ve seen the film you’ll be fully aware that one can’t really talk about it WITHOUT looking at the different approaches to that climax. So that’s coming up very soon and I would dearly love to coerce him into watching a few other films that, in my opinion, align with The Final Programme rather nicely (Jubilee, The Bed Sitting Room, Performance, any of Lindsay Anderson’s Mick Travis trilogy but probably Britannia Hospital in particular… there are many others). As it took me months to get him to do this though, that may be a long shot.

Meanwhile, in music news, I came across experimental, electronic music duo Network 23 and their epic release Elric of Melniboné. I dropped them a line via Bandcamp and they groovily allowed me to give them some airplay (netplay?) on BITR Radio too. Very cool. The album is excellent, driving electronica with some rock overtones and also has a really nice cover c/o Isra Llona. Their discography is extensive and there’s plenty to go at including some atmospheric Lovecraft-inspired ambient pieces if that’s your bag. Check their gear out and give them some support if you can.

I have something of a mixed relationship with HPL. Oddly, I never got any of his stuff from Pops and only became aware of him due to the one-liner from him on the cover of the Sphere edition of The House on the Borderland by William Hope Hodgson, describing it as “a classic of the first water”. Later, I came across the Call of Cthulhu RPG in an early issue of White Dwarf and decided to give him a look. I picked up the Grafton editions with the excellent but entirely misleading Tim White covers. I was a bit underwhelmed by most of it but did come to appreciate bits and pieces in later years, although it’s a good twenty or more since I gave them any real attention. As HPL is much maligned (including by MM himself as briefly touched upon in the Wizardry and Wild Romance episode) and more recently has received much criticism for his politics and attitudes to race, I have been thinking about dusting off his Dreamlands cycle for another look. Not to pull him apart for any of the aforementioned reasons particularly, but rather because I do remember enjoying them more than his ‘Mythos’ heavy tales. Also, I was listening to The Silver Key again by Ah Pook the Destroyer on a long drive recently, an excellent album. Don’t be put off by the odd name. They recently followed that up (after a ten year hiatus) with The King in Yellow, also well worth a listen. They are quite theatrical but thoughtful, layered and proggy as fuck.

Anyway, should anyone be interested in listening to us waffle on about Randolph Carter, the Plains of Unknown Kadath, Thog, Ghouls and the Cats of Ulthar, give us a shout.

That’s all for this update, TFP Phase Four (The Last Days of Man on Earth) coming in the next week or so.

Have fun out there.

Andy

Entropic State Report 23rd February 2022

My dear breakfasters,

We have returned from our sojourn to the windy Highlands where our digs were in a converted 18th century cell block originally used to house debtors in the historic Inverary Jail. It was a deeply refreshing break despite having to return home early to avoid having to drive the 6 hours home through Storm Eunice. It blew some cobwebs away and we managed to pick up a few nice second hand books on our way up there thanks to an overnight stay in Wigtown (known as Scotland’s Book Town), including a Karl Edward Wagner Kane novel that I didn’t own. Some nice synchronicity there too as only a couple of days earlier I’d been discussing Kane with Dave Wachsman and I’d pulled down the three I do still own from a dusty shelf.

I just need to actually read them now. We may cover a Kane novel at some point soon. Let us know if that’s something you’d like to hear.

In other developments, a couple of weeks ago I was surprised to see the artwork that I commissioned a couple of years ago for the podcast avatar appear on an Instagram post on a mug. I was a bit disappointed at this to be honest as, until that point, the representation of Moorcock was unique to this podcast and its social media presence. So to find that the artist was selling it on mugs from his website took the shine off a little bit. On an extremely positive note though, this prompted me to drop Simon Perrins a line to see if he was up for designing a replacement. Just one short week later he sent me the pic above and blew my mind. So, as of now, the imagery around this website is exclusively down to Simon and he is an integral part of our identity. This makes me very happy as all of his work is glorious AND I get to frame that painting for posterity.

In wider Moorcock flavoured music news, friend of the show Imrryr is closing in on releasing his opus based upon The Black Corridor and that book will be the subject of an upcoming show so watch out for that. I’ve had an advanced listen of that new album and it is immersive, doom-laden and cosmic. I’ll be sure to let you all know when it drops on the Imrryr bandcamp page.

This week the Appendix N Book Club released their latest episode looking at The Jewel in the Skull with our good pard Rob AKA Menion . They made some great observations (as always) on this occasion about Hawkmoon and the implementation of Moorcockian tropes in gaming and AD&D in particular. Rob is a deep thinker and he complemented Jeff and Hoi perfectly. It’s been a while since we’ve talked gaming here at Derry and Toms and Rob was involved in one of those shows himself of course. I am now itching to gas about that stuff again and I may just be making an appearance on Confessions of a Wee Tim’rous Bushi in the near future to do just that.

In book news (and sheer frustration at seeing our pards across the pond showing off their Saga Press editions of the Elric Saga vol 01 yet only having delivery dates over here in Blighty repeatedly pushed back), I’ve picked up three more Millenium editions in hardcover. As I go about this grand replacement project (ie drunken impulse purchases) I’ve been piling up the paperback editions they are replacing and they will go into a draw for patron giveaways in the next couple of months. I have a couple of other bits n bobs for that pile too.

Speaking of the Elric Saga, new Elric novel The Citadel of Forgotten Myths is available for pre-order. It just seems to be inevitable that whenever a new, definitive collection of Elric stories emerges it’s never too long before a new tome emerges from Mike’s pen to disrupt the state-of-the-art, but within a couple of months must set a new record. Fortunately design-wise and stylistically the hardcovers look to match nicely, even though this novel will interrupt the I – III sequence on your shelf. I’m anticipating these volumes with a little bit of trepidation though, as you’ll know from our reaction to the revisions to the 60th anniversary edition of The Dreaming City on the last show.

Right, I think that’s about it for this report. New show will drop in the next couple of weeks, but in the meantime take care and stay safe.

Entropic State Report 19th October 2021

October has been a productive month. Hussein and I FINALLY managed to hook up and cover Phase Three of The Final Programme and it was great to get back in the saddle. Alongside him. On a weird two saddled beast. Or a motorbike and sidecar. Perhaps that was a poor choice of words. It was great to get back in the Duesenberg together!

As you’ll know if you listened, we eschewed the opportunity to talk about the finale (Phase Four) on that show as it was already well over two hours long. On discussion with some of you though, perhaps we missed a trick. There’s obviously a lot there to unpack. As it happens we also discussed getting back together to talk about the successes and failures of the Robert Fuest film and, in all honesty, I don’t know how we can do that WITHOUT referencing the end of the book. So, in the near future we will do just that.

Hussein and I have also had a quick conflab about our next project. I came across a really interesting article on Twitter thanks to David Currie (thanks DC). As Dune is about to hit UK cinemas there have been a host of articles and think pieces about the Frank Herbert book, particularly regarding cultural appropriation, lack of representation and white saviour narratives. This piece however is from a very specific perspective. So, I sent the link to The Muslimness of Dune: A Close Reading of “Appendix II: The Religion of Dune” over to H. It’s fascinating to get the POV of a muslim scifi-fan but, as H has brought an Islamic perspective to some of our discussions on Jerry Cornelius and Moorcock, I though it would be equally valid to get a view from a muslim NON-scif-fi fan! So, we have a project for the new year. At our pace it will probably take 18 years to get through it but what else are we going to do with our time.

It’s solidly in scope too, as I got my intro to Dune via Pops c/o the copy of Children of Dune pictured above. At the time I read a bit, had no idea what the bloody hell was going off so waited until, inevitably, copies of Dune and Dune Messiah dropped into my lap via my Uncle Phil some time later, obscured within two bin-liners of paperbacks. Yes, I have three copies of the Pennington covered Dune Messiah. No, I don’t know why or how.

In other news, the second volume of the Journal is just about written and, timely as ever, N Λ Ṇ D has released the first track from the Journal vol II – Gallery of the Lost. Grab that and the first part of the GAC-inspired music project, Journal vol I, at the N Λ Ṇ D bandcamp page.

In terms of new shows, the patron poll for the Halloween episode had a decisive winner and Guy N Smith’s Night of the Crabs is my bedtime read this week. Phil and I will be recording our thoughts on that this weekend and it will be out in time for Halloween.

I also recorded a great show last week with Andrew Nette. We talked about his upcoming book Dangerous Visions and New Worlds: Radical Science Fiction, 1950 to 1985 , as well as a host of other stuff. That will be out in the next couple of weeks and in the meantime check out Andrew’s website Pulp Curry. It’s a treasure trove of pulp and genre goodness and includes a recently unearthed and previously unpublished interview with BITR favourite James Herbert.

Reet… I’m dry for now.

Catch you again soon pards.

Andy

Entropic State Report 5th August 2021

Following a great episode shooting the breeze with author and musician Allister Thompson the first of the three patron giveaways has been spotted in the wilds of California (thanks to Malpertuis for the pic). The other two should be winging their way to the other winners as I type.

The schedule for upcoming shows continues to alter and mutate in response to various issues and, sadly, the first in-person recording with Loz for a year had to be bumped again due to the usual issues that I’m sick of mentioning in these reports… but we will overcome. As it happens, we had been planning to do a couple of short stories but a twitter conversation has nudged us onto a slightly different course and we’re mulling over… THE REVENGE OF THE ROSE.

My intention all along had been to go in some kind of chronological order with this podcast, but at our current rate it will be 2029 before we tackle some really great subjects so we might just have to say sod it and jump about a bit.

Hussein and I are still trying to pin down a slot to finish The Final Programme too. In this case it’s weddings that keep getting in the way! And Robbo will be back at some point to pick up where we left off with Wheels of Terror, but he always seems to be on bloody holiday the waster.

Meanwhile Tash is moving castles, but the good news there is that her new pile is about half an hour closer so that’s progress. Recording remotely with Tash just isn’t the same. Of course that goes for all of my co-hosts and guests but the rum-soaked hours spent with Tash just… well… more so. I also miss out on that banging Trini cuisine.

As evidenced from the choppy audio quality on the show with Allister, some of my tech has decided to be a pain in the arse too and I’ve had to postpone a couple of other guest appearances over the last month or so but I’ll be getting back to them as soon as they’re resolved. Meanwhile though I have my trusty Tascam available so Phil and I can record our take on City of the Beast independently of that so that’s our plan for this weekend.

On the Journal front, I recently completed chapter 12 and have probably one more to go to close out the second act of Connelly’s journey through the miasma. It’s been a while since the audio chapters have featured on the podcast but we hope to correct that soonish, although it may be in a few more episodes’ time as the demands on Ｎ Λ ＮＤ are not insignificant (and I need to pull my finger out and record the vocals with my new improved set up, although that is also dependent upon my PC behaving). Once 13 is written however I’ll be able to start layout and the next chapbook with all new art c/o Ed and Simon will hopefully be available mid-autumn.

In the meantime, you can continue to stay in touch with the sounds of the million spheres via the Ｎ Λ ＮＤ and DECADNIDS albums Journal and The Black Corridor. We’ve also had a few more additions to the Breakfast in the Ruins Radio playlist and you can find the details on BITR.com

Entropic State Report 5th June 2021

June already. Ridiculous. The year seems to be running away.

Tolstoy said, “The strongest of all warriors are these two—time and patience.”

Now, apart from the fact that that is plainly bollocks (the right answer is undoubtedly Conan and Thrud), time has definitely kicked my arse this past month in more ways than one. On the other hand, as Phil will attest, I regularly fail my patience tests. As a result, the BITR schedule has gone slightly off beam.

We still have City of the Beast (AKA Warriors of Mars) lined up and Loz and I have fixed a date to record in person this month for the first time in yonks and we’ll be looking at a couple of short stories from the White Wolf collections (as randomly rolled at the end of The Knight of the Swords Part Three). Also, excitingly, as we tentatively emerge from the fug of lockdowns and begin to populate our filofaxes with actual social events, Hussein and I have time allotted this month to hit Phase Three of The Final Programme! I suspect we will set a new record for:

1. Time taken to cover a book in terms of calendar – Phase One was unleashed way back in the ‘before-times’ (January last year) so it’s looking like it will have taken eighteen months to cover it

2. Time taken to cover a relatively short book in terms of actual minutes – by the time we’re done we’ll probably have spent almost five hours on The Final Programme! I’m not sure we’re doing it right. Too many diversions into wrestling in Featherstone library perhaps… But as the kids would say:

WHATEVS!!!

To cap it all off I’ll be finally catching up with an esteemed guest to depart from our shabby opinions about Moorcock and look at Moorcock’s own musings on his inspirations and other giants of the field in some of the essays collected in Wizardy and Wild Romance.

So, we’re getting back to our re-read, but whilst the schedule in terms of direct Moorcock action has wobbled a bit over the past couple of months I have had some terrific opportunities to talk music once again with a couple of creative geniuses in the fields of MM inspired space rock and bleak experimental electronica. Watch out for that over the next few days.

As it happens, I had mulled over the possibility of them being short standalone episodes, but as we breeched the two hour mark with the last show and nobody pelted us with tomatoes I’m going for another bumper bonanza. It could be of course that you’re all just terrible shots but damn it, I’m committed now.

In other news, the Journal of Gerard Arthur Connelly continues to progress and I hope to have volume 2 completed in the Autumn. The audio versions are once again undergoing an overhaul as, in the splendid company of ＮΛＮＤ, we further refine and develop the sound and format.

In short then, we have enough lined up to make Summer a bumper bonanza of Moorcockian meditations.

On a final note, I had lunch with Tash the other day and we mused upon the existence of three pubs in Yorkshire called The Moorcock Inn, thus raising the possibility of an additional theme for the show… eating and supping in Moorcock Inns. Whilst we may not all agree on the veracity of that idea in terms of interesting content for anyone else, Tash and I (and our bellies) will nevertheless do our best to explore the notion to the fullest.

Watch out for us on the moonbeam roads.