Spider on the Web

The Starvation Box © 2013 by Spider Robinson Music: Colin MacDonald.

Another Free Lunch © 2013 by Spider Robinson Reading: Chapters 3 & 4, THE FREE LUNCH by Spider Robinson. Music: Tim Minchin, The Creber Family, Michelle Creber, Gina Sposto, Doug Cox, Marcus Eaton with James Raymond, Dori Rubbicco Legge.

The Voyage South © 2012 by Spider Robinson Reading: Prologue of Book I of the Astreya Trilogy, THE VOYAGE SOUTH, by Seymour Hamilton. Music: Kathleen Rubbicco, Strung, Carolina Chocolate Drops, Ella Fitzgerald with the Ray Brown Quintet, Tony Dominelli, and Lord Buckley.

A Free Lunch © 2012 by Spider Robinson Reading: "The Littlest Dragon" by Seymour Hamilton; Chapters 1 & 2, THE FREE LUNCH by Spider Robinson. Music: Mose Scarlett; Folk Uke; John Boutte; Gale Mead; Scarlett, Washington & Whiteley.

It's Time Now... © 2011 by Spider Robinson Reading: "Chronic Offender." Music: The Lovin' Spoonful, Spider singing Tim Minchin, Ann Earthling & The Planets, Nils Landgren & Michael Wollny, Joshua Penman and Akara, David Crosby, Graham Nash, Mose Scarlett.

Thrillin' at the MacMillan #1: Space Tourism © 2007 by Spider Robinson I’ve spent several decades rebutting silly complaints about “money wasted in space.” Dollars have been spent getting there—but every single buck stopped here, on the ground, in the pocket of some smart person. Furthermore, every dollar NASA spent earned thirteen dollars back. Look what it got them: a manned space program that barely exists and has little future.

Thrillin' at the MacMillan #2: Sustaining the Planet © 2007 by Spider Robinson Sustaining the planet means widely different things to all of us—so let’s try and define our aim. The phrase surely isn’t meant literally. Terra was sustaining herself just fine for millions of years before the first oxygen-producing lifeforms infested her and wrecked her nice methane ecosystem, dooming entire phyla to extinction. Mother Gaia’s not alarmed by “global warming”: she’s survived vastly greater environmental changes more than once, and will again.

Thrillin' at the MacMillan #3: Spirituality of Space © 2007 by Spider Robinson The spiritual impulse can be a dangerous thing when it goes public. Ask anyone who was in New York five years ago, or anyone still alive in Baghdad today...It’s hard to talk about spirituality without talking about religion, and most of the world’s religions are, whether they admit it or not, mutually exclusive. That’s the only way I can explain the odd fact that spirituality is one of the least-known attractions of space travel.

Thrillin' at the MacMillan #4: Militarization of Space © 2007 by Spider Robinson To my surprise, not even the wonderful Wizard Of Google can pin down exactly when the militarization of space became unstoppable. In the first place, China’s finally sussed out the secret to the Information Age: smother it with so much contradictory information nobody can say for sure just what you said, or when...much less why. And they’ve always known what to do about military information: lie.

Thrillin' at the MacMillan #5: Space Art © 2007 by Spider Robinson It’s probably apocryphal—the best ones usually are—but one of my favorite quotations is what Mahatma Ghandi is supposed to have responded when asked what he thought of Western Civilization. They say he replied gently, “That would be very nice.” A lot of people will give you some variant of that same response if you ask them about space art. “Great idea. Somebody should try that.” “What space art?” I draw blanks with the idea all the time at social gatherings. Nobody seems to realize there is any.

Thrillin' at the MacMillan #6: Space Law © 2007 by Spider Robinson Ask Elliot Ness. The power of a law—its meaning—depends on who’s committed to enforcing it, and how far they’re prepared to go. In David Milch’s HBO series Deadwood, nobody seems prepared to enforce much of anything, and perhaps you’ve seen the dire consequences of such anarchy: the rights of prostitutes were not respected, men were sometimes cheated, wealth and power and information lay in the hands of a few, undertaking was handled by voracious swine, and foul language was heard in public. Nothing like the shining civilization of laws we enjoy today.

Thrillin' at the MacMillan #7: Space Society © 2007 by Spider Robinson “Space Society” is an ambiguous topic, just as “Space Art” was. There’s more than one way to interpret it. The easy way out would be to discuss some of the largest of the many organizations that exist to support the study of astronomy, cosmology, planetology and other space-related disciplines, or to encourage manned and/or unmanned spaceflight, or to promote orbital science, industry and/or tourism, or to call for demilitarization of space, or…

Thrillin' at the MacMillan #8: Space Generation © 2007 by Spider Robinson The first thing “space generation” makes me think of is the quantum ramjet, a hypothetical star drive I chose as the motive force for the starship Charles Sheffield in VARIABLE STAR, my new collaboration with Robert A. Heinlein. It would make use of quantum fluctuations in the energy of the cosmic vacuum to propel a ship up to relativistic speeds quickly, without burning any fuel. No such engine has been built yet—but the engineer who proposed it, David Froning, mentioned parenthetically that if a quantum ramjet were ever built, it might very well create new universes, every second it was in operation, as a side effect. It’s kind of hard to top that for space generation.

Life Goes On © 2011 by Spider Robinson Music: Naming the Twins, Corbin Keep, Slide to Freedom, Crosby-Nash, Across the Borderline.

Live at Tottering-On-The-Brink © 2011 by Spider Robinson Music: Dori Legge, Claude Debussy, CPE Bach, Steve Reich, Tom Johnson, Colin MacDonald, Jacob ter Veldhuis.

Bianca's Hands © 2011 by Spider Robinson Reading: "Bianca's Hands" and "Godbody" by Theodore Sturgeon. Music: McCarthy, Richards & Legge; Colin MacDonald; Crosby & Nash.

VPL Podshop #3 (of 3) © 2011 by Spider Robinson Podshops created as Vancouver Public Library's Writer In Residence. 00:01 "Magic," by Greg Stephens 4:22 "Clearly," by Steve Robson 15: 30 "Legacy of Ariast," by Jeffrey Stephens 20:00 "The Pinch," by Melissa Tepperman

VPL Podshop #2 (of 3) © 2010 by Spider Robinson Podshops created as Vancouver Public Library's Writer In Residence. "Domestic Disturbance": :48 "The Raising": 8:52 "The Navigators": 22:40 "The Samhain Murders": 37:20

VPL Podshop #1 (of 3) © 2010 by Spider Robinson Podshops created as Vancouver Public Library's Writer In Residence. Kristi Charish's 'Transfections' begins @ 4:00. Stephanie Cruz's 'Perihelion': 18:12. Pat Dobie's 'The Liquid World': 33:21. Michael Donoghue's 'Good Intentions':50:42. Comments begin at 1:04:19, and follow above order.

Merry Crozmas & Son! © 2010 by Spider Robinson Music: Local Anxiety, Bambi Kino, David Crosby and James Raymond (including multiple world premieres).

Back on the Air © 2010 by Spider Robinson Music: Shari Ulrich, Pauline Le Bel, Christie Grace, Tony Dominelli, Brian "Breeze" Cayolle, Colin MacDonald w/ Vancouver Saxophone Ensemble, Doug Cox w/ John Boutté & Salil Bhatt, Matt & Wendy Maxwell, Spider Robinson.

Meditations on Mortality © 2010 by Spider Robinson Music: Jeff Healey and accopmlices; Jeanne Robinson & Dori Legge; CPR.

Satan's Children II © 2010 by Spider Robinson Reading: Conclusion of "Satan's Children" by Spider Robinson. Music: Doug Cox w/ Salil Bhatt, Ramkumesh Kumar & John Boutte; James Taylor; Big Joe Williams w/ Lambert Hendricks & Ross and Count Basie And His Orchestra; Doug Cox w/ Amos Garret & Ron Casat.

Satan's Children © 2010 by Spider Robinson Reading: Part 1 of "Satan's Children" by Spider Robinson. Music: Roy Schultz, Janis Ian, Graham Nash, Gale Mead.

Music with a Wooden Leg © 2010 by Spider Robinson Music: David Crosby, Steve Morse, Jonathan Edwards & Orphan, Cyril Pahinui, Oscar Peterson Trio, Lhasa de Sela, Kenny Barron with Trio Da Paz & Anne Drummond.

Pruzy's Pot © 2010 by Spider Robinson Reading: "Pruzy's Pot," read by Theodore Sturgeon. Music: Tracey Cayolle, CPR, Doug Cox.

Mess o' Music © 2009 by Spider Robinson Music: George Harrison, Leslie Alexander, Jane Siberry, Amos Garrett, Geoff Muldaur, Jim Kweskin, Danielle Miraglia, Cliff Eberhardt, Lou Killen, Stacey Earle, Mark Stuart, Joyce Moreno.

Inhumanly Readable © 2009 by Spider Robinson Reading: Part 2 of "Human Readable" by Cory Doctorow. Music: Les Finnigan, Ellis Paul, WJ Plecha, Rhonda Rosalee, Jeff Pevar, Maria Joao.

Human Readable © 2009 by Spider Robinson Reading: Part 1 of "Human Readable" by Cory Doctorow. Music: Watermelon Slim and the Workers, Viktoria Tolstoy, Esbjorn Svensson Trio.

Music from the Heart © 2009 by Spider Robinson Music: Mose Allison, Tony Dominelli, Pauline LeBel, Shari Ulrich, Barney Bentall & Tom Taylor, Matt Maxwell, Wendy Maxwell, Rob Bailey & Stan Gadziola, Gale Mead, Dori Legge with Donn Legge, Spider Robinson with Kathleen Rubbicco, Lisa Thiel, Colin MacDonald, David Crosby & Graham Nash.

16-year old Fogey © 2009 by Spider Robinson Music: Amos Garrett, Half Hearted Hero, Dori & Donn Legge, Carole King, Esperanza Spalding, Genya Ravan, Madeleine Peyroux, Carla Bley, The Dixie Dregs.

Suicide Prevention Kit © 2009 by Spider Robinson Readings: A SAUCER OF LONELINESS and SUICIDE by Theodore Sturgeon. Music: Livingston Taylor, Maria Muldaur with Amos Garrett, Les Paul Trio, Lambert, Hendricks & Ross, Leon Russell.

Hot Music Tonight © 2009 by Spider Robinson Music: Tom Rush, Swamp Valley Ladybugs, Women's Chain Gang (1939), Tres Femmes, James Taylor & Joni Mitchell, James Taylor, Bobby Gentry & Donovan, Jim Croce, Django Reinhardt playing electric guitar w/ Duke Ellington Orchestra, Nobutake Ito and the Swing Niglots of Tokyo, Celso Machado, Todd Butler, Todd Butler w/ Spider Robinson, Spider Robinson folkaoke tracks, Todd Butler & Doug Cox, Dori Legge & Kathy Rubbico.

Slow Sculpture © 2009 by Spider Robinson Reading: SLOW SCULPTURE by Theodore Sturgeon. Music: Justin Adams & Juldeh Camara, Richard Galliano & Gonzalo Rubalcaba, James Taylor & Bobby Gentry, Chet Atkins & Paul Yandell.

Supersized Music © 2009 by Spider Robinson Music: Cass Elliot, Celco Machado, Seu Jorge, The Rutles, Doug Cox & Salil Bhatt, George Harrison, Chet Atkins, Colin MacDonald, Esbjorn Svensson, Lord Buckley, Dori Legge.

Starmind © 2009 by Spider Robinson Reading: STARMIND by Spider Robinson. Music: Paul Pena, Doug Cox, Breeze Cayolle.

Jazz Birds © 2009 by Spider Robinson Music: Molly Johnson, Elizabeth Shepherd, Roberta Gambarini, Luciana Souza, Esperanza Spalding, Ana Carolina, Seu Jorge, Maria Bethania, Sunny Crownover, David Crosby.

Road to Recovery © 2009 by Spider Robinson Reading: STARMIND by Spider Robinson. Music: Blues Train Band, Sunny and Her Joy Boys, Blossom Dearie with Marian McPartland, Dori Legge, Edison Ripsborn.

I Want Your Sax © 2009 by Spider Robinson Music: Mr. X, Victor Assis Brasil, Coleman Hawkins, Ernie Watts, Benny Carter, George Coleman, Sax Brothers (Joe Lovano/Johannes Enders/Gary Smulyan/Greg Osby), Sax Special (Peter Brotzmann/Evan Parker/ Willem Brueker/John Tchicai/Steve Lacy), World Saxophone Quartet (James Carter/Hamiet Bluiett/Greg Osby/Oliver Lake), Johnny Hodges.

Thirteen O'Clock © 2009 by Spider Robinson EXTREME EXPLICIT WARNING. Readings: "The Truth About David Gerrold," by Spider Robinson, and "Thirteen O'Clock," by David Gerrold. Music: Spike Jones & His City Snickers; Vladimir Vysotsky; Watermelon Slim; Corbin Keep.

Music by Family and Friends © 2009 by Spider Robinson Music by D. Warwick, Kathleen Rubbicco, Peter Armstrong, Tracey Cayolle, Brian "Breeze" Cayolle, Paul Pena, Chirgilchin, Oidupaa Vladimir Oiun, Seth Augustus.

In Fading Suns and Dying Moons © 2009 by Spider Robinson Music by Schaun Tozer, James Raymond, and Dave Van Ronk. Readings of "In Fading Suns And Dying Moons" by John Varley, and of Chapter 1 of BAD NEWS by Donald E. Westlake.

Christmas Card from an author in Vancouver © 2008 by Spider Robinson Music by The Beatles, Jake Thackray, Redips Nosnibor, Colin MacDonald, Blossom Dearie, Hoagy Carmichael and Georgie Fame, Amos Garrett, Barrence Whitfield, Ray Charles, and Tom Waits.

The Magnificent Conspiracy © 2008 by Spider Robinson EXPLICIT WARNING. Reading: "The Magnificent Conspiracy." Music by 3-Dog Night, Jeff Healey, Paul McCartney & Elvis Costello.

All-Music Birthday Special © 2008 by Spider Robinson Music by Spider, Chris Coon, Matt Maxwell, Mike & Monique Creber, Sligo Rags, Rubbicco Family, Gary Bartz & Kenny Barron, Gonzalo Rubalcaba Trio, Jennifer Scott & Rene Worst, Treasa Levasseur, Colin MacDonald.

The Persistence of Vision © 2008 by Spider Robinson EXPLICIT WARNING. Reading: Hugo and Locus Award-winning novella "The Persistence of Vision" by John Varley. Music by John Boutte, Doug Cox, Jake Thackray, David Crosby.

More Music You've Never Heard © 2008 by Spider Robinson Music by Schaun Tozer, Egberto Gismonti, Alexandre Gistmonti, Darrell Scott, Gale Mead with Amos Garrett, Phoebe Snow, Gerald Wilson, Thelonious Monk, Prasanna, and Matt Maxwell.

Starseed © 2008 by Spider Robinson EXPLICIT WARNING. Readings: part 1 reading from STARSEED, part 2 from SOCIETY'S CHILD. Music by James Raymond, Johnny Winter, Gale Mead, Janis Ian, and Stanley Unwin.

Stardance © 2008 by Spider Robinson EXPLICIT WARNING. Readings: excerpt from “Stardance,” by S & J; “Options” by John Varley Music: “Cottontail,” by Ella Fitzgerald with Duke Ellington’s Orchestra; “Sweet Marajuana Brown,” by Joe Thomas with the Barney Bigard Sextet and Art Tatum; “Muggles” by Louis Armstrong; “Pak Alit” by Colin Macdonald.

Classic Frederick Pohl © 2008 by Spider Robinson EXPLICIT WARNING. Readings: two classic Frederik Pohl stories, “Day Million” and “We Purchased People.” The latter requires at least 6 X’s in its warning, and maybe a Not For The Squeamish too. Music: opening and closing tracks “EGF Receptor 20 (671-998)” and “Human Phospholipase A2-11A,” by God, interpreted by Dr. William Campbell and Matthew Campbell; “Estate,” by Bruno Martino & Bruno Brighetti, English lyrics (“In Summer”) by Jon Hendricks, guitar and vocal by Spider Robinson; “Ground Speed,” by Bela Fleck, performed by Bela, Earl Scruggs, Jerry Douglas et. al.

Musicfest 08 Discoveries © 2008 by Spider Robinson EXPLICIT WARNING. Music: Musicfest 08 Discoveries Eneida Marta, Shane Koyczan, and Matt Andersen, plus Doug Cox & Sam Hurrie, and Spider live off the floor; talk: entering its second year SOTW reluctantly faces reality.