Today's show: Neil Gaiman & Stardust

An extra airing of Panel Borders this week (to be repeated on Friday at 5pm):

Alex Fitch interviews writer, producer and graphic novelist Neil Gaiman about the big screen version of his illustrated novel Stardust as well as other adaptations of his work such as Anansi Boys and Neverwhere.
A BBC radio adaptation of Ananzi Boys is to be broadcast on the World Service on the 17th November* and Stardust is released in cinemas throughout the UK on Friday.
*Ignore my proclamation at the end of the episode where I suggest it's to be broadcast on wednesday - I got the month wrong... (d'oh)

Links: Neil's website
WIkipedia entries on Neil, Stardust and Anansi Boys
Official movie website
Dreamhaven's online book shop

Podcast: The p0rnification of visual culture

Last night's show is now ready to download...
(mp3 format, 57.2mb)

For more info and a selection of different file formats you can download or stream, please visit the home of this episode at www.archive.com

Podcast: The work of Leah Moore and John Reppion part 1

The first part of Alex & Duncan's interview with Leah Moore and John Reppion in which they talk about writing variously for the Fortean Times and Albion and the thorny issue of obtaining back issues of their work. Unfortunately this interview was recorded using Skype on a noisy computer and is not the best quality, so we recommend you listen to it using speakers rather than headphones...

Originally broadcast on Resonance FM on Thursday 27th September as part of Strip!. Panel Borders is Alex and Duncan's contribution to Strip! and will vary from week to week as a multiple of 15 mins within the hour...

For more info and a selection of different file formats you can download or stream, please visit the home of this episode at www.archive.com (mp3 format, 15.4mb)

Links: Leah and John's website and blog
Publishers Weekly article on Albion
John's article on The Childe of Hale

Tonight's show: The p0rnification of visual culture

Tonight on "I'm ready for my close-up":

Alex Fitch talks to former presenter of Midnight S£x Talk - Tania Glyde - about the increasing p0rnification of visual media, from advertising to art, film to fromage. As both the ICA & Barbican in London have s£x based festivals on this month, it seems p0rn is being increasingly celebrated in our culture, so Alex and Tania look at some of the reasons why.
(Sorry to have to write the description in 'Leet' but I don't want dirty spam on my blog!)

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

Links: Info about Cleaning up, Tania's new book
Article on s£x by Tania in The Independant
Buy books by Ms. Glyde from amazon.com

Please note: some of the following links contain images and words that might upset the prudish!... (ask guidance from your parents / therapist etc. before visiting)

Visit midnights£xtalk.com
Download episodes of Midnight s£x talk at podcasts.resonancefm.com including shows about:
S£x in the movies, the fascination with Psychos and Censorship, which feature Alex (!)
Info about The Barbican's s£x exhibtion, - Seduced - and last week's Swedish £rotica season at the ICA

Podcast: Cult entertainment for Autumn

Thursday night's show is now ready to download...
(mp3 format, 28.7mb)

For more info and a selection of different file formats you can download or stream, please visit the home of this episode at www.archive.com

Podcast: The art of Andrzej Klimowski part 2 (Putting silent movies on the page)

Alex Fitch concludes his interview with artist, novelist and lecturer at The Royal College of Art, Andrzej Klimowski about his graphic novels 'The Depository', 'The Secret' and 'Horace Dorlan' plus his work on the 'Introducing...' / '...for beginners' books. Alex and Andrzej talk about the latter's artistic influences focussing in particular on his interest in silent movies.

Originally broadcast on Resonance FM on Thursday 4th October as part of Strip! (mp3 format, 15.1mb). Panel Borders is Alex's contribution to Strip! and will vary from week to week as a multiple of 15 mins within the hour...

To listen to the first half of the interview, please click here.

For more info and a selection of different file formats you can download or stream, please visit the home of this episode at www.archive.com

Links: Andrzej's biography as reported on his website
Review of Andrzej's exhibition catalogue and examples of his poster art
Interview conducted by Paul Gravett
Buy Andrzej's books at amazon.co.uk

Today's show: Running stumbled with Jonathan Maringouin

Today's I'm ready for my podcast 'repeat' on Resonance FM at 5pm...

Virginie Sélavy interviews John Maringouin, director of the documentary Running Stumbled, whose film is a semi-improvised recreation and document of the self destructive relationship between the director's father and his partner.

Originally podcast on August 9th, click here for more info...

Tonight's show: Cult entertainment for Autumn

Tonight on "I'm ready for my close-up" at 10.30pm on Resonance 104.4 FM, Alex Fitch is talking to two programmers of very different kinds of cult entertainment.
Robert Rider is a programmer at the Barbican cinema in London which has gained reknown for a variety of different events and festivals throughout the year. Today sees the start of their Brazillian film festival and November the yearly Children's film festival not to mention regular screenings of Silent movies with live accompaniment and their regular Anime slot.
Alex Geairns is a director of the Cult TV festival taking place in Oxfordshire from the 19th to the 22nd of October which is a gathering of fans, creators and stars of Cult TV from the 1960s to the present day and features such guests as Sylvia Anderson (co-creator of Thunderbirds), Matthew Graham (creator of Life on Mars) and Antonio Fargas (Huggy Bear in Starsky & Hutch)...

Links: Guide to the Cult TV weekend
Film homepage at The Barbican

Today's show: The art of Andrzej Klimowski and the work of Hine and Irving

Tonight's Strip! at 5pm on Resonance 104.4FM is comprised of two interviews previously partially podcast...
First we have the complete interview Alex Fitch conducted with Andrzej Klimowski about his half dozen Graphic Novels which range from silent movie surrealist Traumnovelles to "Beginner's guides to..." art and philosphy. Later we have Duncan Nott & Alex's interview with comics creators David Hine & Frazer Irving who have made super heroes comics with a twist, horror stories and graphic fantasies.

There are podcasts already available of the first half of the interview with Andrzej and a shorter version of the interview with David and Frazer...

Incidently, if you're waiting for a podcast of the interview with Leah Moore and John Reppion, I'm cleaning up the sound before it gets archived for posterity and cutting it into podcast sized pieces!

Today's show: Looking back at "Sweetback"

On Friday afternoons on Resonance FM at 5pm, there's a new slot for repeats of I'm ready for my close-up. Rather than just repeat the show from the night before, we thought it might be nice to take the opportunity to broadcast some of the episodes that were podcast while Resonance was off-schedule during the summer for the benefit of luddites who don't go in for all this podcasting nonsense.

Today, we're airing a podcast from 3 weeks ago - Joel Karamath talking about the career of Melvin van Peebles and his seminal film Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song. This was recorded at the first Resonance FM / Electric Sheep film club at The Roxy bar and screen, so this seems a good time to air the repeat as the next film club is on Tuesday from 7.30pm where Alex Fitch will be talking to former Disney animator Vincent Woodcock about character design in animation alongside a screening of Sylvain Chomet's Belleville Rendezvous and his rarely seen short film The Old lady and the pigeons.

If you just can't wait 'til 5 o'clock, you can find the podcast here.

Tonight's show: Gypsy Caravan and the Raindance Festival

Also, tonight at 10.30pm, I'm ready for my close-up is back on air, starting with a compliation of two interviews recorded for podcast. Alex Fitch talks to Gypsy Caravan director Jasmine Dellal and I for India director Sandhya Suri plus Virginie Sélavy interviews Suzanne Ballantyne, lead programmer of the Raindance Festival.

If you'd like to hear those interviews in their original context you can do so now and you can find links on each of the two pages:
Suzanne Ballantyne (Art-house cinema podcast) /
Jasmine Dellal and Sandhya Suri (IRFMCU 13/09/07)

Today's show: The work of Leah Moore and John Reppion

From this evening, Panel Borders moves to thursdays as part of an hour long magazine show about comics called "Strip!" at 5pm and to kick off, the whole of tonight's show is an interview conducted by Alex Fitch and Duncan Nott with writers Leah Moore and John Reppion.
Leah & John talk about writing comics such as Wild Girl, Albion, Raise the dead and Savage Tales for Wildstorm and Dynamite Entertainment... Leah also talks about her dad introducing her to the wonders of comics and writing last year's Christmas Stamps short story, while John talks about writing for The Fortean Times and gathering his zombie army!

Links: Leah and John's website and blog
comicon.con interview with Leah & John about Raise the dead
Publishers Weekly article on Albion

Podcast: Art House cinema podcast, September '07 - Raindance special

It's Resonance FM's latest Art House cinema podcast featuring reviews of films released this month at 'Art House' cinemas in London and also showing at the Raindance Film Festival... This show is presented by Alex Fitch with contributions from Virginie Sélavy (editor of Electric Sheep Magazine) and Michael Hall (video shop manager and lead singer of the band Nebraska... In this episode there's also an exclusive interview with Suzanne Ballantyne, lead programmer of the Raindance Festival.
You can stream the show by clicking here and pressing the play button or right click here to save the mp3 file direct to your computer...

Films reviewed include Disturbia, Syndromes and a century, Drawing Restraint 9, The Amazing Lives of the fast-food grifters, Exhibit A and The Boss of it all.

Links: You can read print versions of Virginie's reviews in Electric Sheep Magazine
Londonnet's guide to all the times and locations of all films currently showing in the Capital's cinemas
Alex's interview with Allan Moyle, director of festival opener Weirdsville

(mp3 format, 28mins / 26.9mb)

Podcast: The art of W. Heath Robinson and the work of The Cartoon Museum

Today's show is now available to download... (mp3 format, 13.9mb)

For more info and a selection of different file formats you can download or stream, please visit the home of this episode at www.archive.com

Today's show: W. Heath Robinson and the work of The Cartoon Museum

Today's Panel Borders is at the earlier time of 4.30pm, but hey! we're back on Resonance FM, so listen to it on your radio for the full sensorial experience...

Alex Fitch interviews Anita O'Brien, curator at The Cartoon Museum in London about their current exhibition on W. Heath Robinson and the ongoing work of the gallery...

Please note: Heath Robinson’s Helpful Solutions ends on October 7th and the museum is closed on Mondays.

Tomorrow and next week there are talks in the museum as follows:

25 September 6.30 - 7.30 pm
The Englishness of Heath Robinson
Simon Heneage, co-curator of the exhibition and author of the catalogue Heath Robinson's Helpful Solutions, gives an illustrated talk on what makes William Heath Robinson one of the most English of all British cartoonists.

3 October 6.30 - 7.30 pm
Innovative space-making and architecture inspired by Heath Robinson's Inventive World.
CJ Lim, Professor of Architecture and Cultural Design at UCL's Bartles School of Architecture, and Heath Robinson enthusiast, talks about his love of the artist's work and how it inspires his own designs.

Links: Wikipedia pages on The Cartoon Museum and W. Heath Robinson
The Cartoon Museum website
The William Heath Robinson Trust website
The BBC's Comics Britannia website

Podcast: The weird(sville) films of Allan Moyle

Tonight's show is now ready to download...
(mp3 format, 27.7mb)

N.B./ Tonight's show's contains very strong language !

So, if you are offended by such phrases as c**k-s**k*r and mother-f****r (which crop up frequently in Allan's reenactment of dealings with one of the producers of his films!), you have been warned!

For more info and a selection of different file formats you can download or stream, please visit the home of this episode at www.archive.com

Tonight's show: The Weird(sville) films of Allan Moyle

Concluding I'm ready for my close-up's exclusive run of online podcasts*...

Alex Fitch interviews Allan Moyle, the cult film director of such classic movies as Pump up the Volume and Empire Records about his career and his new film Weirdsville which opens next week's Raindance Film Festival.

Check back here around 10.30pm BST to download the show or click on one of the following links to download / stream the show from the Internet Archive, Feedburner or iTunes...

*While Resonance FM moves studios across London... Normal service will be resumed on Monday.
The podcast only shows will then be broadcast on FM in the Autumn

Links: Official Weirdsville site
IMDb pages on Weirdsville and Allan's films
Wikipedia page on Allan Moyle
Allan's website
Raindance Film Festival website

Podcast: The art of Andrzej Klimowski part 1 (Putting the novel into graphics)

Alex Fitch interviews artist, novelist and lecturer at The Royal College of art, Andrzej Klimowski about his graphic novels 'The Depository', 'The Secret' and 'Horace Dorlan' plus his work on the 'Introducing...' / '...for beginners' books. Alex and Andrzej talk about the latter's literary and artistic influences as well as the evolution of his artistic style.

As Panel Borders is currently podcast only, you can download today's show now... (mp3 format, 14.3mb)

For more info and a selection of different file formats you can download or stream, please visit the home of this episode at www.archive.com

Links: Andrzej's biography as reported on his website
Review of Andrzej's exhibition catalogue and examples of his poster art
Interview conducted by Paul Gravett
Buy Andrzej's books at amazon.co.uk

Podcast: New Female Directors

Tonight's show is now available to download... (mp3 format, 26.4mb)

Continuing I'm ready for my close-up's exclusive run of online podcasts*...

In a show recorded live at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London, Alex Fitch talks to two new female directors who have made two very different debut feature films. In I for India Sandhya Suri has collated 40 years of home movie footage of her family in Britain and India that tells the poignant tale of loved ones separated by land and culture, while in Gypsy Caravan Jasmine Dellal has created an epic concert movie with the cinematographer of Monteray Pop that showcases Romany music that will hopefully prove to be this decade’s Buena vista social club...

*While Resonance FM moves studios across London... The podcast only shows will then be broadcast on FM later in the Autumn

For more info and a selection of different file formats you can download or stream, please visit the home of this episode at www.archive.com

Links: IMDb pages on Gypsy Caravan and I for India
I for India official website
Gypsy Caravan official website
Wikipedia's list of female directors
What's on at the ICA cinema?

Podcast: Putting the graphics into novels

Alex Fitch talks to David Brawn from Harper Collins about their range of graphic novels which include comic book adaptations of the works of J.R.R.Tolkein, Agatha Christie & C.S.Lewis as well as original fantasy and horror titles such as Abadazad and The Nightmare Factory.

As Panel Borders is currently podcast only, you can download today's show now... (mp3 format, 13.8mb)

For more info and a selection of different file formats you can download or stream, please visit the home of this episode at www.archive.com

Links: The fortunes of graphic novels in libraries in America
UK growth of Graphic novel sales
Wikipedia pages on Christie artist Solidor and Abadazad
Lambiek.net page on Solidor
Harper Collins' Graphic Novels and Agatha Christie titles