South bank show & Hyperland on Guba.com

Two great items for Douglas Adams fans are now easily avalaible for free to download on guba.com. If you type Doulgas Adams, you will currently find two rare vids : Hyperland and the South bank show.
- Hyperland is "one-hour documentary produced by the BBC in 1990, Douglas falls asleep in front of a television and dreams about future time when he may be allowed to play a more active role in the information he chooses to digest. A software agent, Tom (played by Tom Baker), guides Douglas around a multimedia information landscape, examining (then) cuttting-edge research by the SF Multimedia Lab and NASA Ames research center, and encountering hypermedia visionaries such as Vannevar Bush and Ted Nelson. Looking back now, it's interesting to see how much he got right and how much he didn't: these days, no one's heard of the SF Multimedia Lab, and his super-high-tech portrayal of VR in 2005 could be outdone by a modern PC with a 3D card. However, these are just minor niggles when you consider how much more popular the technologies in question have become than anyone could have predicted - for while Douglas was creating Hyperland, a student at CERN in Switzerland was working on a little hypertext project he called the World Wide Web..." (source : douglasadams.com).
- The South bank show was aired in 1992 on ITV when "Mostly Harmless" was released. It features interviews with Douglas, Stephen Fry, Richard Dawkins, John Lloyd, Geoffrey Perkins... There are also some intercut dramatic scenes whith characters from Douglas Adams' books (Simon Jones & David Dixon are here of course but there is also Michael Bywater who plays Dirk Gently)

New audiobook versions of H2G2 read by Martin Freeman

In April 2005, Pan Macmillian published a new movie tie-in edition of The Hitchhiker’s guide to the galaxy audiobook read by Stephen Fry (who is also well known for being the UK voice for the Harry Potter books and who was of course the narrator in the H2G2 movie). Surprisingly, Pan Macmillan has decided to publish the other four books of the H2G2 trilogy in five parts… read this time by actor Martin Freeman (Arthur Dent in the movie).

“The restaurant at the end of the universe” is already available since the beginning of June. “Life, the universe and everything” will be there soon the 1st September. Other books will follow till the end of the year : “So long and thanks for all the fish” will be there the 6st October and “Mostly harmless” the 1st December.
These versions will be the third version of the Hitchhiker’s guide to the galaxy series audiobooks in English after the abridged reading of the four first books by Stephen Moore (Marvin in the radio series. These audiobooks were Published by Emi Listen For Pleasure on tapes at the begining of the eighties) and the unabridged version by Douglas Adams (this last version is still available in the BBC word for word collection in UK and New Millenium Audio in US).

A DIRK stage play in Southern California

DIRK GENTLY'S HOLISTIC DETECTIVE AGENCY by Douglas Adams was adapted into a stage play by James Goss and Arvind Ethan David and is in production to open September 29th 2006 in Los Angeles, CA. It is the first profesionnal theatre production of Dirk Gently in the US.

I'll try to get soon an interview with the guys. Here is anyway their press release :
"Following on the success of smash hits such as NAPOLI MILIONARIA, THE WOMAN IN BLACK, OUROBOROS, and BUNBURY, the Ovation Award-winning Road Theatre Company will produce the professional US Premiere of DIRK, a quirky, witty and highly entertaining offering from the mind of Douglas Adams, directed by Jeff Griffith. A perfect way to begin the Road’s 16th season!
...
Director Jeff Griffith has been with the Road Theatre Company the past 3 years, where he has stage-managed the critically acclaimed and award winning productions of NAPOLI MILIONARIA and THE WOMAN IN BLACK. Jeff has also assistant directed with Deborah LaVine for SEVENTH MONARCH and Michael Michetti for OUROBOROS. DIRK marks Jeff’s Road Theatre debut as director.
The production is supported by producers Helen Harwell, Amy Buffington, Scot Burklin, and Julie Quinn with multimedia elements produced by Tye Beeby; digital scenography Anaitte Vaccaro; sound designer David B. Marling; publicist Marci Hill; and production stage manager and multimedia director Matt Kaiser. DIRK will play September 29 to December 3, 2006, playing Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. The production will be dark on November 24 for Thanksgiving."
MORE INFOS ON THE OFFICIAL WEBSITE HERE

Another chance to see Blog : relaunch and fundraising for Save the Rhino

I got an email from Gareth Suddes who is webmaster of one of the best Douglas related websites. His blog keeps you updated with news from endangered species, one of Douglas favourite subjects. At the end of july, he heavilly improved his website.

"I relaunched my Another Chance To See website this morning - http://anotherchancetosee.blogspot.com
A couple of layout glitches that I hadn't anticipated but I think I just about got it now. I was able to improve the categories feature too.
I've started a fundraiser for Save The Rhino because Douglas Adams was a patron of this charity of course, and I hope to raise a good bit of money for it over the next year."