ZERO-G EPISODE #781

16th Aug 10

2010 TRIPLE R RADIOTHON SPECIAL. MAKE CONTACT!!!

TITLE: MY GOD, IT'S FULL OF TRIPLE R

PODCAST: NOTE- TO ACCOMODATE RADIOTHON CONTENT THERE WILL BE NO PODCAST THIS WEEK.

ZERO-G SAYS "WELL DONE LOYAL MINIONS!!" AND "TA VERY MUCH" TO ALL SUBSCRIBERS, VOLUNTEERS AND STAFF WHO FLOATED IN ZERO-G DURING THE 2010 RADIOTHON.

MAGNIFICENT EFFORT SPACE CADETS !!

FOR TRIPLE R, FOR ZERO-G, FOR MISBEHAVIN' INDEPENDENT RADIO, FOR GALLIFREY AND TOMMORROW'S WORLD, TODAY!!

PLAYLIST:

-ALSO SPAKE ZARATHUSTRA BY RICHARD STRAUSS PERFORMED BY THE PORTSMOUTH SINFONIA

-TOM CORBETT, SPACE CADET TELEVISION SHOW THEME BY TOM CORBETT FROM SCI-FI'S GREATEST HITS VOLUME 4 DEFENDER'S OF JUSTICE

-STEWIE GRIFFITH SINGS ROCKETMAN

-THE BIG BANG THEORY TELEVISION SHOW THEME BY THE BARENAKED LADIES FROM THE BIG BANG THEORY SINGLE

-LUCY IN THE SKY WITH DIAMONDS PERFORMED BY WILLIAM SHATNER FROM THE TRANSFORMED MAN

-STARBLAZERS (YAMATO 3) TELEVISION THEME WITH JAPANESE LYRICS

-THE BALLAD OF WILL ROBINSON BY BILL MUMY FROM DYING TO BE HEARD

-BILL MUMY AS WILL ROBINSON FROM LOST IN SPACE

PICTURE: BILL MUMY AS LENNIER FROM BABYLON FIVE

TA ALSO TO THE PAST RADIOTHON VOLUNTEER (YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE!) WHO HELPED ME MAKE MY "TYPICAL ZERO-G SUBSCRIBER" SOUND COLLAGE.

OTHER INFORMATION:

3RRR FM 2010 RADIOTHON: MY GOD, IT'S FULL OF TRIPLE R - ON AIR (OR AT LEAST, OXYGEN)

Picture: Rob Jan , Captain of the Starship Zero-G. 2010 3RRR FM Radiothon,

Photo by Suzie Morris-Ashton. (Cheers Suzie!)

"I HAVE THE FULLEST CONFIDENCE IN THE MISSION.."

As is my personal tradition I like to dress for my show during the annual Triple R Radiothon. (Costuming for radio, righto, makes perfect sense if you're me!)

With the 2010 theme being "Make Contact!" there was really only one logical option....

Trouble is, I didn't actually HAVE a 2001/2010 Astronaut Dave Bowman cossie handy.

No worries, she''ll be right.

See, as an experiment, a while back, I knocked up a quick 2001 helmet, more of a three dimensional doodle than a finished prop. Just playing around with various techniques really...laminated plastic sheeting bulked up with timber filler.

It's been sitting on a shelf in the workshop bothering me.

Another time I played around with a basic spacesuit jumpsuit, that ended up being re-purposed as a diving suit. A quick coat of fabric paint and a bit of jury rigged mucking around with a vinyl yoke and collar assembly, along with some gold vinyl cuffs pulled it back to a vacuum suit. (Sir Arthur C. Clarke might have approved...from the ocean to the stars!)

I threw in a pair of painted gloves, a control box bashed together from bits in the spares box (including a prototype 'In Periscope' module; see that photoset!), and a hand carried PLSS...Portable Life Support System; just an Army Surplus ammo box and a length of old vacuum cleaner hose.

Not visible in this shot are a pair of rapidly perishing 1970s grey moonboots, which I also had in the dress-up box.

Amusingly enough, I was able to view an original 2001 EVA suit up close and at great length recently so I now have very detailed notes which I've been slowly assimilating with the intention of doing a full-on replica suit in due course.

No hurry, and in the meantime this barnstormed quick sketch was a lot of fun and has actually given me the answer to a couple of practical issues that it's best to solve on a wearable mock-up rather than on a more permanent rig.

Besides, sometimes you just have to muscle up and seize the artistic moment, y'know?

Anyway, it was a satisfying touch to what was a mind-bogglingly energised Radiothon that really did have me floating in Zero-G for one fast paced hour.

Ta to everyone who offered me vital life support assistance on the day! U-beaut, mateys!

And of course, many thanks to the Radiothon volunteers , Station staff and obviously, all the subscribers who Made Contact during my show, and indeed during the ongoing Radiothon. A-Okay!!

3RRR FM 2010 RADIOTHON: MY GOD, IT'S FULL OF TRIPLE R - 2010 REASONS TO SUBSCRIBE

PICTURE: ROB JAN UNDERGOING THE ULTIMATE TRIP AS HE'S PELTED BY A METEOR STORM OF SUBSCRIPTIONS DURING THE 2010 3RRR FM MAKE CONTACT RADIOTHON. PHOTO BY NIK TRIPP.(TA VERY MUCK NIK. THESE CAME OUT BEAUT!!)

"Hereeeee...am I sitting in my tin can...."

On air, floating in Zero-G: Science Fiction, Fantasy & Historical Radio during the 2010 3RRR FM (Melbourne, 102.7 mhz) Annual Radiothon.

I added in a bicycle lamp inside the helmet to illuminate my face for photographs, which is the main reason why you'd want a light inside a space suit helmet. It's not like you can hold up anything up inside to read...like being in a car interior! And, given colour coded suits, or ones with nametags, you don't really need to see peoples' faces for identification purposes. Still, I suppose it might be nice to have for face to face communication, and, hey, astronauts like to have their pictures taken too!

I had several reasons ("Reason"; lovely sounding idea, I really must employ it more often!) for not wearing a backpack life support system. I'd painted it too recently for it to be safe to wear in the studio, and of course I had to sit down to operate the console and the chairs (curiously enough) are not built to accomodate a bulky PLSS!!

I like the 'startled bunny caught in the headlights' look here...which describes the headlong rush of a Radiothon session quite nicely!

Really booted through it this year, my more elaborate plans for content went out the airlock as I was kept busy between music and sound collage tracks reading out subscriber names. (Am I complaining, I think not!) U-beaut!

Ta again to the volunteers staffing the Captain's Ready Room, and to Nik Tripp for wrangling the crew and indeed taking this piccy for me.

PHOTO BY NIK TRIPP