Podcast: "Shoot, shoot, shoot!" - the films of Chris Welsby & Margaret Tait

Last week's show is now available to download... (mp3 format, 28.1mb)

For more info, please visit the home of this episode at www.archive.com

Tonight's show: "Shoot, shoot, shoot!" - the films of Chris Welsby & Margaret Tait

Richard Thomas presents a show on the work of experimental film-makers Chris Welsby & Margaret Tait who explore(d) nuances of the landscape when captured on film...

10.30pm BST Resonance 104.4FM (London) / streamed at www.resonancefm.com

Links: Chris Welsby's website
Lux Online biography on Margaret Tait
Article on the London Film-makers' co-op
Lux Online article on landscape film-makers
Fundació Antoni Tàpies website regarding the exhibition that gave tonight's show its name

Podcast: The Curzon cinemas podcast #01, April '07

April finds a sibling show to I'm ready for my close-up hitting the information superhighway...
Alex Fitch presents The Curzon cinemas podcast #01 featuring reviews of films released this month at the five cinemas in the Curzon network plus exclusive interviews with the directors of The Lives of Others and Half Nelson...

The show went live on April 1st 2007 and more information can be found here...
(mp3 format, 24mins / 10.8mb)

Podcast: "How gay is the screen" part 1

Last night's show is now available to download... (mp3 format, 28.5mb)

For more info, please visit the home of this episode at www.archive.com
Read reviews of films showing at the LLGFF at backprojection.com

Tonight's show: "How gay is the screen?" part 1

To coincide with this year's London Lesbian & Gay Film Festival, Alex Fitch interviews BFI librarian Emma Smart about whether there have been any significant developments in gay film-making and TV programme making since last year's LLGFF. Also included in the show is an interview Alex recorded last year with sci-fi writer and critic Kim Newman about the gay following that genre shows like Doctor Who and The Avengers generate...

10.30pm BST Resonance 104.4FM (London) / streamed at www.resonancefm.com

Links: The London Lesbian & Gay Film Festival
Last year's I'm ready for my close-up on the LLGFF
Listen to the complete one hour interview Alex recorded with Kim
The official BBC Doctor Who website

Tonight's show: Depictions of madness (repeat)

Tonight's show is a repeat of April 27th 2006's, sorry...

Podcast: Black Musicians on Film

Tonight's show is now available to download... (mp3 format, 28.3mb)

For more info, please visit the home of this episode at www.archive.com

Tonight's show: Black Musicians on Film

As a belated follow up to his article on the subject, Alex Fitch talks to Times journalist John Clarke about the history of Black musicians on film from 1929's Hallelujah to this year's Dreamgirls. The show also features clips from Stormy Weather (1943), Shaft (1971) and The Blues Brothers (1980)...

10.30pm GMT Resonance 104.4FM (London) / streamed at www.resonancefm.com

Links: BBC article on the Dreamgirls controversy
TimesOnline articles by John on The Gospel according to Al Green and the rebirth of soul label Stax
Indiana University's Black Film Archive
UCLA article on Soundies
Optronica at the BFI

Podcast: Disseminating movies - "Your local video shop"

Last night's show is now available to download... (mp3 format, 28.3mb)

For more info, please visit the home of this episode at www.archive.com

Tonight's show: Disseminating movies - "Your local video shop"

On the 11th February, a large group of people gathered outside a video shop in South East London to protest about its closure and replacement by a proposed betting shop.

Alex Fitch was there to interview locals and their representatives about why the demise aroused such passion.

In contrast, this is followed by an interview with both the owner and the manager of a relatively new rental place in East London that looks potentially successful in this digital age and is intended to be more than just a video shop…

10.30pm GMT Resonance 104.4FM (London) / streamed at www.resonancefm.com


Links: Sue Luxton's blog about the closure of Homeview
Brockley entries at 'Transpontine' blog
List of archived versions of 'homeviewvideo.co.uk'
Close-up Film Library, Brick Lane
The economic theory of The Long Tail

Podcast: 2000AD - ...and now

Last night's show is now available to download... (mp3 format, 27.2mb)

For more info, please visit the home of this episode at www.archive.com

In comics related news: Sparks are sure to fly when two divas of the US underground scene finally meet: Aline Kominsky Crumb will be talking about her dazzling, massive graphic memoir Need More Love with Melinda Gebbie, co-creator of Lost Girls, at the ICA on Sunday March 11th from 4pm, followed by a screening of the classic 1987 BBC Arena documentary The Confessions of Robert Crumb. An unmissable countercultural encounter! Book here...
The same day, previous I'm ready... guest, Paul Gravett's profile/interview with Aline will appear in the Sunday Review Magazine of the Independent... Find more info at www.paulgravett.com

Tonight's show: 2000AD: ...and now

To celebrate the 30th anniversary of the venerable British periodical 2000AD, Duncan Nott and Alex Fitch present the second of two programmes about the popular comic book anthology. Tonight's guest is Matt Smith, the current editor who talks about the present and future of the comic...

10.30pm GMT Resonance 104.4FM (London) / streamed at www.resonancefm.com

Links: 2000AD Online
Wikipedia pages on 2000AD and Matt Smith
Stream audio adventures of Strontium Dog and Judge Dredd from bbc.co.uk
Buy Strontium Dog: Down to Earth from Big Finish Productions

Podcast: 2000AD - Then...

Tonight's show is now available to download... (mp3 format, 26.9mb)

N.B./ Downloads are now housed at www.archive.com

Podcast: The current state of Silent Movies

Last week's show is now available for download... (mp3 format, 27.2mb)

N.B./ downloads are now housed at www.archive.org

Tonight's show: 2000AD - Then...

To celebrate the 30th anniversary of the venerable British comic book 2000AD, Alex Fitch and Duncan Nott present the first of two programmes about the popular anthology. This week's guest is Pat Mills, the founder and original editor of the comic who has written such great strips as Judge Dredd, Sláine, Nemesis the Warlock and A.B.C. Warriors.

10.30pm GMT Resonance 104.4FM (London) / streamed at www.resonancefm.com

Links: 2000AD Online
Wikipedia pages on 2000AD and Pat Mills

Podcast: Scoring Silent Movies

The show broadcast a couple of weeks ago is now available to download... (mp3 format, 27mb)

Links: Info about tonight's performance at the Arnolfini Gallery in Bristol
Watch excerpts of The Seashell... with music performed by Minima
Watch the 30 min silent version of The Seashell... on youtube

Tonight's show: The current state of silent movies

Continuing our spurious anniversary month, tonight’s show coincidently coincides with the 8oth anniversary of the release of Hitchcock’s film 'The Lodger', so, to celebrate: having teased you with excerpts of our interview with Matthew Sweet – the writer and presenter of Silent Britain and Shepperton Babylon – for the past two weeks, tonight "I'm ready for my close-up" is proud to have Alex Fitch's full interview with him on the subject of silent movies.
If you're wondering whether the title of tonight's show is a contradiction in terms... Well, you'll just have to tune in to find out!

Regarding the podcast of last week's (and probably this week's) show... I'm having server problems at the moment, so there may be a bit of a delay. Sorry!

10.30pm GMT Resonance 104.4FM / www.resonancefm.com

Links: BFI page on 'Silent Britain'
Matthew's episode of Back Row on Radio 4
Article by Matthew on the late Ernest Dudley
Transcript of BBC Four interview with Matthew
Wikipedia page on Hitchcock's 'The Lodger'

Tonight's show: Scoring Silent Movies

It's the one year anniversary of "I'm ready for my close-up" (I'll track down a copy of Richard's first show on William Greaves soon for podcasting) - so to celebrate the occasion we have a couple of shows about the birth of cinema and how it is still relevant and appreciated today.
Tonight, Alex Fitch is talking to Alex Hogg from the band Minima who are touring the country with a print of the 1928 film 'The Seashell and the Clergyman' written by Antonin Artaud. The film was infamously banned on first release in this country with the BBFC quoted as saying: "This film is so obscure as to have no apparent meaning. If there is a meaning, it is doubtless objectionable".
Minima provide a terrific new soundtrack to the film and there will be extracts in tonight's show which concludes with the start of an interview with Matthew Sweet, author of Silent Britain and Shepperton Babylon, and this will be continued next week.

Links: Minima's myspace page which has info on forthcoming performances
IMDb page on 'The Seashell & the Clergyman'
Wikipedia page on Artaud
Download clips from the film from 'Expanded Cinema'
Director Germaine Dulac's battle for authorship

10.30pm GMT Resonance 104.4FM / www.resonancefm.com

Podcast: Imbolc Day

Last night's show is now available for download...
(mp3 format, 27mb)

Links: Out of the shadows - 50 cinematic masterpieces @ the NFT
Geoff Andrew's favourite films of last year
Watch Tom Purcell's The Long Weekend on youtube
Info about events in the IWM cinema this month
Buy Doctor Who: Year of The Pig from Big Finish
Matthew's episode of Back Row on Radio 4
More info on Imbolc and Groundhog Day at Wikipedia

Tonight's show: Imbolc Day

It's Imbolc day (Groundhog Eve if you're American) which means we're half way to Spring... To celebrate this minor event, Alex Fitch is sticking his head out of his metaphorical burrow and looking forward to various events in the cinema and home entertainment. Tonight's show includes interviews with Matthew Sweet (Silent Britain) about his Doctor Who audio plays, Tom Purcell (animator) about winning "Best Imaginative Response to the Subject of War" at the IWM student film festival and Geoff Andrew (BFI) about forthcoming screenings at the NFT.

10.30pm GMT Resonance 104.4FM / www.resonancefm.com