Mindwebs
Various
FOR NON-COMMERCIAL USE ONLY.
This recording is part of the Old Time Radio collection.
Chapters
Reviews
Great show!
newdickmorris@yahoo.com
Very happy to see these episodes being shared in such high quality. Even happier to hear that Mr. Hanson's new performances are just as entertaining as his old ones. Does anyone have a comprehensive list of episodes? Just a simple list of titles. I want to make sure I don't miss any of them. A few comments on the episodes I've listened to so far: Light Of Other Days: I had never heard of this story before. It's beautiful. Kaleidoscope: Very good episode. I love the dramatized Suspense version as well. The Country Of The Kind: I'm not even a fan of this story but the reading was so well done that I still liked this episode. My Object All Sublime: Never read this one before. Nice twist. I picked up a collection of the author's short stories after listening to this episode. The Star: A classic story. Looking forward to hearing a HQ version. Earthmen Bearing Gifts: Again it's the performance that makes this slight story so memorable. The Last Question: Very good. One of my favorite Asimov stories. Feeding Time: Brilliant choice for the closing song! Made me laugh out loud. Nackles: The argument that Santa is a god is surprisingly convincing, I must admit. I had a chuckle at the description of Nackles' version of reindeer. Wasted On The Young is good. I knew the main character would come to a bad end, but I didn't anticipate just how bad. The Fog Horn. Excellent reading. I'm not too crazy about the music selections here though. I think some background sea sounds would have added some atmosphere. My dad really enjoyed this one. Dry Spell & The Third Level: I liked both stories. I thought the background music in Dry Spell was a little bit intrusive, but that may have been intentional given the nature of the story. Third Level reminded me of the Twilight Zone's nostalgic episodes like A Stop at Willoughby. Warning Signs: Very good reading. Good musical accompaniment too. Rust: The saddest story you will ever read featuring giant killer robots. It's like Wall-E mixed with the Terminator. Great reading. The Gun Without A Bang: Not every story needs to be a morality tale or feature pointed satire. This is is just a fun adventure story. It would have made a good episode of Escape. I also liked Sheckley's Petrified Forest. But As a Soldier for His Country: I caught this on Youtube a while back. Great stuff. The author expanded this story into a full length novel, but I think the shorter version is stronger. I don't understand either of the J.G. Ballard stories. Recommendations for fans of Mindwebs: Escape Pod: A science fiction short story podcast with a sizeable library. I would LOVE to see Mr. Hanson lend his talents to this podcast for an episode as a way to promote his own program. The Black Mass: Not science fiction but a quality OTR broadcast that features some very nice readings of classic horror stories. Thanks again for making and sharing this fantastic program!
OTR scifi for adults by real writers
LibrivoxOrgFan
There really isnt much adult oriented scifi in otr. While most shows seem to have relied on terrible house writers, this showcases real authors and real stories from the 50s to 70s- and what a great narrator. interesting music no annoying sound effects no commercials excellent sound quality.
Keep the files up
Reed Mee
So now darkmanwi wants you to take these down after he pirated your and <a href="https://archive.org/details/Mindwebs_965" rel="nofollow">solarkite's</a> files to build his first collection and never asked or thanked either one of you? And now calls them " terrible work". That's rich. Insane, but rich. What a crass individual.
Pretty horrible encoding, broken MP3 files
Richard Wicks
Some of the files are broken. There's a more complete version without errors here: https://archive.org/details/MindWebs_201410
History Lesson
DarkmanWI
The encodes posted here first made their way online (for sale) through Bobby’s OTR site where you can still find them: http://bobbysotr.com/DETAIL_MINDWEBS.html Who created all the encodes, let alone who is responsible for the actual recordings will likely never be known and could involve several people. It is great that these encodes were posted here in the Archive as they never should be for sale and it is indeed these fan bootlegs of the show that not only helped keep the memory of MINDWEBS alive for years, but also introduced new people to it. No one is arguing that these encodes didn’t have their time and place and no one is slighting the contributors who posted them. But be honest here, these encodes and the recordings sound horrible. They are terrible and have always been terrible. It is actually more of a testament to the quality of the show and Michael’s talent that so many people were willing to deal with the audio issues to hear it. If they sounded good, you would not find all the other MINDWEBS pages here in the Archive that are “remixes” of these encodes. In fact, it was hearing these poor quality encodes that began my personal mission to find better sounding recordings starting with the 30 episodes I personally recorded off the air. To say I “pirated” any collection here is laughable especially coming from someone who sunk to the level of attempting to create FAKE MINDWEBS episodes (using a fake account!) to lie about the source of their collection. https://archive.org/details/mindweb_201511 Another lie is that I was the one asking that this, and all other MINDWEBS pages in the Archive, take down their audio. That request came from the series creator Michael Hanson. The very same Michael Hanson who left his only tapes to me to publicly release his show on what WAS my MINDWEBS page and that condition was part of the deal we had in that transfer. He wanted people to experience his creation, not as some horrible sounding low bit rate MP3, but in it’s full stereo, high fidelity sound and the ability to get it directly from HIM. Should I have refused his request to pull my encodes down like everyone else so the show never would have been released? Explain how this is bad or un-fair of Michael because I thought it was a good deal? Michael was looking to have help from others in promoting his efforts and thought he would get support from those who posted these pages. I only carried out his wishes and he rewarded my respect of him. I am crass? No, just telling the truth, and the historical record backs me up. The new encodes created are approved by Michael Hanson for use and broadcast by anyone else (as long as that use is not for profit). That is the whole point of it. How Michael wanted his creation represented and how he chose to give it away. These were Michael’s wishes and I am carrying them out to the best of my abilities as it is his personal right as creator of the show to make those decisions. Anyone reading this can help Michael now too by promoting his show and his web page. This is about Michael Hanson and his creation, not me. The ONLY officially authorized collection of MINDWEBS by Michael Hanson is, and always will be here: https://archive.org/details/MindWebs_201410 Michael was my real friend and if you respect him, his creation and what he did, you will help promote his web page in the Archive and not only enjoy, but share a bit of the love he gave as he wanted. Does anyone really think it is worth disrespecting Michael Hanson’s wishes and memory by keeping this copy of “Absalom” up? Does anyone seriously find this version better than Michael’s copy?
Thank you.
MindWebs
I listened to your files for years and am grateful you put them up. So once again the DarkmanWi Troll is going around the Archives posting negative, derogatory, homophobic comments on any page that shares any MindWebs episodes. Somehow, he's gotten it into his obsessed mind that he controls the show and 'officially' has rights and control over the show. It sounds good, but the thing is these shows are still 'officially' protected under copyright laws. They are just not being enforced. He uses words like 'non-profit' in attempts to make it appear that he has no vested interest in them. But in fact, he is employed (gets his paycheck) from the very station that is broadcasting them. He has also posted them on the very 'pure profit' Youtube site. He claims to respect the show. But his profane rants have polluted many pages that have been up on the Archives for years. Long before he had ever posted anything. His first upload included almost all of the files that were already up. They were carbon copies which the audio png images proved. Then, after posting other peoples files, he profanely demanded that they take theirs down! He has disgraced his page and many others on the Archive. He has posted miles of updates in an attempt to bury his profanity filled rants where nobody will see them. But if you want to see them, scroll down through the comments on his page to see his words others have re-posted.
Still sad about the recent news...
newdickmorris
...but I'm happy to hear that Mindwebs will continue. Some random thoughts: - I really enjoyed hearing Fredric Brown's "The Answer" in the recent three part episode. It reminds me of that famous story by Isaac Asimov, but it turns out that this one actually preceded it by a couple of years. - Damaged or not, I'm looking forward to hearing "The Star." It's a classic for a reason. - In a previous comment I expressed the opinion that the music was a bit too intrusive in the episode "Dry Spell." Well, after listening to it again with a better set of speakers I have to take that back; the sound is fine. My worn out old ears, on the other hand... - After hearing "The Gun Without a Bang" and "The Petrified World" I have recently gone on a huge Robert Sheckley bender. Turns out he wrote a ton of entertaining short stories. Thank you Mr. Hanson for introducing Mr. Sheckley to me. - I'm also happy to hear that "But As a Soldier to His Country" is coming up. It's kind of obscure but it's awesome. And finally - thanks for sharing the tribute episode. I'll try to give it a listen tomight.
RIP Michael Hanson
the_schu
I'd never heard of this show until I got an email from WMSE announcing the broadcast of this older speculative fiction radio series. It sounds like it was only available out of a Madison, WI station in the 70s-80s. Streaming that first episode to my bedroom (Pacific time) I was thoroughly captivated by the story selection and Michael's classic delivery. I couldn't wait to hear these every week and started recording them on my computer to be able to listen to them at future dates. Getting completely new episodes was just the icing on the cake as these were also fantastic. Thanks to WMSE for continuing to broadcast this excellent series over the airwaves and the net. Thank you Darkman for exposing a new generation (I'm not that young) to these excellent creations and for keeping Michael's legacy alive and kicking. You should be commended for your effort! And thank you to Michael for your amazing work, creativity, talent, and taste (I also love the background jazz selections). May your work live on into the distant future . . . Rest in Peace