The Mask of Inanna

Others include:

• i maed you a tunnel but i eated u
• Im in ur tunnel humpin ur Explorer
• I wan be luvd bai u – Boo boo bee do
• ur gonna need a bigger bukkit

Thanks to Julia for some of these.

In which the island’s guardians are revealed, and Leonard Allen makes a most peculiar deal for his life.

This episode’s After Dark tale: “The Heart-Shaped Box”

Size: ~64MB \ Running Time: 1:09:36

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Alternative download link: here

ALLEN: It’s a PRESTO!
SCOTTIE: It’s a fryalator?
If you ever wanted to know more about the humble PRESTO recorder and its usage in recording old-time radio shows, this site is a great resource.

I always thought of this particular lighthouse as more like the Nobska Point lighthouse in Woods Hole, MA than the one on Wings Neck. Allen’s lighthouse isn’t that big though. The first floor has a entryway that leads to the kitchen, the radio room and a closet, and the second floor leads to the bedroom and bathroom. It is such a bachelor’s pad. I don’t know how the old keepers lived without WiFi – they probably had a lot of porn.

Sea Robin island was given its name because sea robins are some of the creepiest fish I ever caught. Their pelvic fins look and act like claws and they have some serious teeth. I used to catch them when we went out for scup or flounder.

In this interview, Will Smith is very polite to Terry Gross about some rap album he did over a decade before he had played Ali.

The Mouse’s prophecies are changed from the original script. Before we made Episode 1, we weren’t sure we were going to make it past five episodes. So, yes, her prophecies used to include Season 2 spoilers.

The uroboros concept for the After Dark episode was one of the first ideas I had for Episode 1. While we won’t do it again, I intended it to be a call to arms, that we were going to do different things in this show and the listeners should expect such.

The actors pretty much improvised the Winsley Wheat harmony on the spot. Neil wrote the tune after I wrote the lyrics.

Many of the characters names are taken directly from my relatives. They know who they are, and they have already reminded me of this. Thanks, guys.

Since it’s basically me doing all the non-speaking, non-musical parts of the show, most of the sound effects you hear are from Neil’s collection or purchased on-line. Sorry to ruin the romanticism of the humble radio drama, but I can only do so much without an SFX crew. Sounds that I did make include the banging on the gate and the driving SFX. I actually do more in Episode 2, including throwing myself into the tub which took several takes and did a job on my bathroom floor. Also, my cat doesn’t meow unless she’s annoyed so it’s all prerecorded kitty SFX for you folks.

The ocean is nice to look at but I have a severe phobia of swimming in it. I get very scared in situations in which I could potentially fall long distances, and the ocean increases this since the “ground” might as well not be there. I like pools though. I should have given Allen a pool. And a hot tub. I should have given me a hot tub. Forget Allen. If only I didn’t live in an apartment.

–Alicia E. Goranson, Show Author

In high school, I used to believe that after death, you’re trapped in a world built from your own memories. Anywhere you haven’t been is a haze. (Farscape would not be produced for years after this.) I would comb the school over to see every bit of it – the attic, the teacher’s lounge, and the hall which ended in a service elevator.
But recently, I woke up and realized I have no idea how to get to my high school. I spent three years at its current location and drove there regularly. I have a vague idea of how to get there, but I’m missing one particular turn in my memory. I can remember how to drive to other people’s high schools, even those I’ve only visited once. Either my high school experience has not been relevant to my last couple decades of life, or I’ve blocked it out.
I grew up on Cape Cod, which is a weird mix of rich and poor, affluent and working class, conversation and progressive. My own family reflected this – we were technically upper-class but lived in a New England saltbox (without the slanted roof) that my dad designed as a challenge to himself, which eschewed concepts such as retaining sunlight, heat and proper air circulation. We had woods for a front yard and wood shavings for a backyard. He and my sister worked on their own cars while my mom ran off to perform in the Cape Cod Symphony Orchestra, and later, to teach biology at JFK UMass. In our neighborhood, we stuck out as teetering-on-trash-with-Volkswagens. It’s the sort of world in which parents of trust fund babies wish they had raised their kids. In fact, some did:

Like most of Cape Cod, Wings Neck is a pile of iceberg leavings, down the street from my neighborhood. It is also where members of the Town Council and Other Assorted Rich Bastards live. The road to Wing’s Neck was as cracked and pot-holy as they come, until you hit the stretch to Wing’s Neck itself, which was mysteriously well paved.
This is the inspiration for Sea Robin island. Neil had the idea for the tunnel. I had the idea that it would be well-paved. David Lewis and company are not Rich Bastards, but they are doing well enough thanks to… well, spoilers. There are other people on Sea Robin island who are Rich Bastards but I won’t get to them until later in the series.
I drove out to Wing’s Neck again before we started recording the series. There is a lighthouse at the end, (closer view) which you can rent out. I went there to record some sound effects but there was too much wind for them to be usable. Of all the sound effects I recorded that day, the only one that made it to the show was of my car driving from Old Silver Beach to the North Falmouth rotary. (That’s the scene in which David Lewis is driving with Leonard Allen.) I used to walk to this lighthouse all the time. There’s a sign that says “Private Property” and a chain link which cordons the road off. A chain link fence.
There’s another pair of groups on Cape Cod – the year ’rounders and the summer folk. We year ’rounders laugh our butts off at chain link fences. If the straightest line to the beach crosses three back yards and a dining room, we will happily make that bee-line without hesitation or guilt if nobody’s looking. I have been over that chain link fence before. I come from very passionate people with a working class ethic.
And so does The Mask of Inanna.

–Alicia E. Goranson, Show Author

P.S. Incidentally, you can get the full flavor of this world from my novel, Provincetown, Ho!, available on the interwebs.

Next time on The Mask of Inanna, Season 1, Episode 2, we learn why Scottie doesn’t have a boyfriend anymore, and we meet the unmysterious Jessie McAlister, Park Ranger to the lighthouse.

Size: ~2MB \ Running Time: 2:03

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The first seed of the concept that was to become The Mask of Inanna took root in my mind sometime in 2004. At the time, I was doing extensive research for a website about the Canadian radio horror anthology series Nightfall, which aired in the early 1980s. The host of the show was a character named Luther Kranst. At one time, series creator and executive producer Bill Howell wrote an article for NPR about how he had first met Kranst at a truck stop near Piapot, Saskatchewan in 1970. In the article, Howell developed Kranst’s background and personality. A background and personality for a character who appears for just sixty seconds every episode? How many radio horror hosts had such development? And how many had people tuning in to hear them as much as the tales they had to present? Such hosts were rare.

And so, one day, a thought entered my mind: what happened to these rare hosts when their programs ended? On the surface that seems like a ridiculous question. Of course, they picked up their last paychecks and started looking for new gigs. But what if a show had been more than just its cast and crew? What if the show—and its host—had had a special purpose that was unknown to many of those involved? And…what if that show had been canceled before its time, sabotaged from within?

From that question came a synopsis for a series entitled p.m.:

The main character, once a popular radio horror host during the Golden Age of Radio, was brushed aside by both the popularity of television and a duplicitous partner, and faded into obscurity. Fifty years later, a dying old man, he is offered the job of caretaker for an old lighthouse on the New England coast by a mysterious “property management” firm. Once there, a series of strange coincidences occur to put him back on the air, hosting a new anthology series, using a low-power radio station that once operated out of the lighthouse. But he doesn’t believe in coincidences and plans to learn more about his mysterious benefactors and how the people of the local village are connected to them.*

Development on p.m. stopped at this point and the project languished on a back-burner while I tried to put a group together that could produce the show. The Post-Meridian Radio Players was formed the next year, but was focused on live performances during its first few years. It wasn’t until I got to know Alicia Goranson that p.m. was brought back from obscurity.

But that’s a tale for another entry.

Thanks for listening!

Neil Marsh
Creator and Executive Producer

*The idea of a mysterious organization bringing a man out of retirement to finish a show that was canceled years ago was inspired by the 1985 Tales from the Darkside episode, “Distant Signals“, which I only saw once—back when it originally aired—but the story has stuck with me ever since.

In which down-and-out 1950’s radio host Leonard Allen is given a second chance in 2008, and the mystery of his horror show begins anew.

This episode’s After Dark tale: “By the Brake Lights’ Red Glare”

Size: ~60MB \ Running Time: 1:04:35

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Alternative download link: here

What is The Mask of Inanna about? It’s all here in this trailer.

Size: ~2MB \ Running Time: 2:50

This be a test o’er the shark infested waters of Pirate Radio.  This be only a test.

GROOOOOOOOOOOOOG.