u/SiefensRobotEmporium

I won't be in every episode, but I am in this first one!

https://rss.com/podcasts/genuine-podcast-personalities/3065044/

It's roughly an hour long, covers some early Douglas Adams influences, tackles a few origins rumors and examines influences or inspirations for some of the major characters.

The RSS feed is the first stop on the publishing trail so if you want the latest updates feel free to subscribe there or listen for episodes. It will be roughly every 2 weeks. A website is also under construction at gppshow.com I am planning to switch out the preview page soon (my laptop is currently hopelessly depressed and reboots randomly roughly 6 to 27 times a day in the middle of me doing work). The website will include a transcript for the episode as well as a works cited for stuff we mentioned on the show.

This was really fun and I'm looking forward to future episodes with the group! If you are interested in suggesting episode ideas, have comments or want to join the show feel free to message me. I'm not the show runner, but heavily involved.

It's bad for multiple reasons but a large one for me is readability. Characters like T look like a C with an overbite. The Eyeball? on the letter I works I guess but then why also in the letter O?

Anyone else with more experience in Typography, am I being overly critical or this is just not a good font? This is something being officially used by the current people making Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy merchandise, live shows, etc.

I won't retype my entire facebook post here, but it began with a question to the ZZ9 facebook group and Kevin Jon Davies had the knowledge. So real quick version...

The question was "Did Mike Oldfield ever record a version of the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy theme?" First if you don't know who this is... I didn't and shame on me. Why did I even ask about Oldfield? Well Paddy Kingsland mentions him and that he was working on a version of the theme during his interview portion for the Making Of for the TV Show that Kevin Jon Davies edited, did animation for, etc... So straight from the horses mouth to you:

>During the making of the TV series the producer/Director Alan JW Bell wrote to Mike Oldfield (via an address in Denham, Uxbridge) on 27 May 1980 to invite him to record the theme tune, enclosing a tape of the radio show, and said it would have to be a version of JotS, and need to fit their title sequence which was already being produced, so would need to fit the same tempo. He also said he'd talk to Richard Branson at Virgin Records about a tie-in single of the music. Oldfield's "Tubular Bells" was the very first record on the Virgin label, a massive hit launching both the company and the composer.

>Nothing ever came of this, to my knowledge. I bet the restrictions imposed were too much for someone who's reputation was for that enormous worldwide hit, "Tubular Bells" was used as the theme to the massive hit horror movie "The Exorcist". Maybe if Alan had asked Mike Oldfield to create something fresh and new, there would have been more interest... but who knows? Tim Souster (note spelling) had been involved with Hitchhiker since working on the LP from June the year before, so his involvement was a shoe-in. In the end they used his LP theme for the TV version and a single was released of that, by Original Records, who produced the LPs. Interestingly, when Mark Ayres was re-mixing the TV series for DVD, he pulled the tracks apart to re-create the mix and discovered a very very low level hint of the next bit on the LP record just coming in during the cross-fade to Paddy Kingsland's following incidental music cue! He reckons they must have simply used the LP for the TV show mix!

This is probably common knowledge, I found this out from an appendix of Don't Panic. So Aleric B? wherever you ended up in the cosmos... Good riddance. Arthur Dent is much better and we like him an awful lot.

I hope you personally get insulted by an immortal alien in alphabetical order when he gets to you. This will be harder as you have no known last name, but rest assured the hunt is on!

It has been reported that to me, it is possibly an allusion to Aleric (or Alaric) the Barbarian (aka Goth) that led the sack of Rome in 410.

https://www.tdv.com/lastchance/

This outtake file and other DA goodies still live at the TDV website. I converted the RA into an mp3 version if anyone wants it, but I also had this screenshot to go with it so for posting other places I have made it a video instead.

Last Chance to See was Douglas's favorite book (at least that's what he claimed) partly because it was the runt of the litter, the one that did the least well, got attention. I think it was also because it was about something that eventually through his experiences with Mark he realized how important and frankly sad it was that these animals were going to be gone. The Beiji for example has perished completely. When Stephen Fry went back to do it again with Mark Cawardine years later they couldn't go look for the Beiji so they went after something else instead.

I hereby categorically deny that the part of Arthur Dent is going to be played by Oprah Winfrey.

-Douglas Adams Sep 3rd 1998

I don't want to say where I found this one. I just think the fact that he wrote this is hilarious. The hint I'll give is he was talking about the movie.

The image is AI generated since obviously she never was in the role... So yeah sorry about that but idk what else to do honestly.

"I did smoke again for most of the year I was doing Last Chance. I had a lot of bother with mosquitos, and someone told me it was an excellent way of keeping them off.

Also, if you're travelling in Africa in particular, sharing cigarettes round is a highly recommended way of breaking the ice.

The year I spent smoking again wa quite a revelation to me - the world had changed a great deal in the years I'd been off the drug. I was quite

shocked at the sheer aggro you had to put up with as a smoker. I don't smoke now and would recommend anybody else not to. But I really do not like the fact that everybody has become so aggressively intolerant about it."

(unsigned but written by Douglas Adams)

Mar 25, 1994

This one is more of a game. I don't want to share quite yet where this and one more to come actually comes from. I tried this with the FB groups and no one seemed to submit any guesses.

Popular in the US each episode is a blast to the past. This specific episode focused on computer games which while a big topic, was not a major focus of the show. Many episodes were about new hardware, software, and tools. I cut the whole episode down to just the relevant parts for D.A.

Whole episode: https://archive.org/details/games1

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bureaucracy\_(video\_game)

I may have shared this one a few years ago when I first started most of my research, but something I learned later from KJD via Facebook

"Later that same year (Aug '87) The Computer Chronicles were demonstrating HyperCard. Its creator Bill Atkinson was showing off the address book app, which suddenly and accidentally showed Douglas Adams' new address ("from mid-Aug") and his home/work phone numbers! Oops!"

Picture that Doxxed DA in 1987...

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1aCjxdFnky55PiKWMGXeNc22NkzpeQrV7/view?usp=drivesdk

Together they both speak (perform) to inspire a new generation of writers. There was also a Q&A the following day.

Does anyone have any more info about this. Feels like an important moment in history for no one to capture it or even take notes... Was anyone in this group there?

I have found this firsthand account of the event.

https://www.typosphere.com/journal/entries/20000330.html

Then the article:

The Butler Collegian 2000-03-30

https://digital.palni.edu/digital/collection/p15846coll11/id/28888/dbury

Also some discussion here

https://groups.google.com/g/alt.fan.harlan-ellison/c/APA1NA2PbEU

It has been widely acknowledged that too much suspense can cause undue stress. So in order to alleviate this problem I will reveal that Douglas and Katharine lose to Ken. However in order that some suspense shall remain, I will not tell you what they were wearing that evening. It is inconsequential.

What does matter is Douglas was nominated for "The Grammy Award for Best Audio Book, Narration, and Storytelling Recording" for his unabridged recording of the 'The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy (album)'. As a side note Douglas would later on recall losing to Katharine Hepburn instead of Ken Burns (it sounds better honestly, not gonna share where I got this from... Yet, more posts on the way will have that).

Ken Burns had just done the audio recordings of 'The Civil War'. Ken Burns at least in America sort of dominated in this role whether it was baseball, wars, or whatever... People just loved the guy and Douglas did not stand a chance at winning against those two... So the best we get is the nomination to hold onto.

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL706BA6BC60A82105&si=KUxnYthxKVLZT\_6t

https://www.grammy.com/artists/douglas-adams/214/

https://www.grammy.com/awards/categories/best-audio-book-narration-and-storytelling-recording/1992/

In the words of the person who archived this treasure!

"Computer Shopper magazine (UK) CD-Rom Coverdisc 1994

Selection of Mac and Windows software, includes free fonts and exclusive demos of the Big Green Disk from MDI, Introduction to Classical Music, How God Makes God (Mac), Return to Zork (PC & Mac), MechWarrior II, and Rise of the Robots.

Also includes a number of encrypted and locked copies of full retail software, for which decryption codes could be purchased over the phone.

Track 2 (audio) carries an audio message from the author Douglas Adams, explaining the whole shebang."

He hypes up the mac Hitchhikers Guide and Last Chance to See software on the recording. he also mentions a booklet which I cannot seem to find... So please... If you have this or the magazine this came from please let me know!

I went through the work of converting the archive file into a simpler wav. You can do this yourself, but I had to write my own script in the end. Most of the online tools I tried did not work well. I have attached the wav file here for your listening convenience!

Share and enjoy!

https://archive.org/details/CdRomMagazineComputerShopperInstantAccessRed

Muzines has 3 interviews Douglas did about Music

https://www.muzines.co.uk/articles/the-hitch-hikers-guide-to-the-macintosh/1925

https://www.muzines.co.uk/articles/so-long-and-thanks-for-all-the-synths/11425

https://www.muzines.co.uk/articles/the-holistic-author/2476

There is some really neat info about Douglas and specifics about his audio equipment at the time. Any audiophiles should understand it much better than I can.

This is just one of many examples I am finding of the other side of Douglas many of us tend to know less about. He was willing to share if people ever asked about it...

In order of my favorite parts of the collection.

Signed #34 Oh no Not Again trading card

Signed Hexagonal Phase Ep 5 script (bottom right)

The laser disc

The 2 VHS Tape boxed set

The live in concert casette tape

The original radio scripts book

The illustrated Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy (big silver thing on the left)

A complete boxed set with registration cards and all for Starship Titanic (I did open an unopened copy, get over it I needed to know)

42 Douglas Adams by Kevin Jon Davies

Dirk Gently and Hitchhikers Comics (not complete and I don't have an index yet see below)

God there's an awful lot in that picture.

In the yellow binder and in the card boxes behind the signed #34 card are my sorted collection of the cards and the overflow extras. If you are a collector and are missing something message me!

All of this is to say I'm a big fan and while I've posted bits and pieces before of this collection, this is more of less all of what I have now.

Edit: oh yeah and my wife one year ordered me a custom towel that is hanging on the bookshelf that has the text of the towel passage printed on it.

Additional edit: Two books that may not initially make sense. The Blind Watchmaker by Richard Dawkins was Douglas' favorite book. Wizards of Odd actually contains the 'Young Zaphod Plays it Safe' short story

Additional Additional Edit: at some point (idk when) all of this will be more thoroughly cataloged so you can browse through it in better detail, step 1 was getting it out of the storage box and on a shelf where it can be enjoyed again.

Additional additional... Well you get it Edit:

Things I'm looking for:

Infocom Game in the Box

The rest of the comics I'm missing

Starship Titanic the book

Hardcover copies of the individual Hitchikers books (again I have paperbacks and the ultimate edition) and that other thing...

Meaning of Liff and Deeper Meaning (I have digital copies but it's not the same and I can't set it on the shelf)

Am I missing anything else???