FIGURSKI AT FINDHORN ON ACID

"Electronic literature too big for a single genre"

Written and produced by

John Barber
Adapted from the original hypertext novel
Figurski at Findhorn on Acid
by
Richard Holeton
650.714.6684

Copyright (c)

Updated 4 November 2021

Kudos . . .

I think you’ve done a fabulous job creating this wild new synthesis of multiple strands, introducing the characters, providing lots of interaction and drama with clever use of the Shana and Zed “device,” creating all these opportunities for cool sound effects, etc. Great job with the email exchange too. At first I was worried about moving the COMAS conference to Findhorn, but I think you pull that off well too, and in such a way that this episode completely stands on its own, in case there are no “sequels.” Way to go — what a delight to read this adaptation!
--- Richard Holeton

FIGURSKI AT FINDHORN ON ACID

"Electronic literature too big for a single genre"

Character Notes provided by the author, Richard Holeton

Frank Figurski
Figurski = Fih-GER-skee (short i, hard g, accent on second syllable)

Age from 1993 to 2000
48 to 55

Place of birth
USA, Midwest

Personal background
Bludgeoned to death his dissertation advisor; spent six years in prison for second-degree murder; maintained the murder was justified by his mistreatment as a grad student; refused psychiatric care and claimed to enjoy prison; wrote unpublished memoir; made guest appearances on TV talk shows.

Education
ABD (21 years in Harvard PhD program in math without completing dissertation). Worked on (for example) tridimensional harmonic equations.

Accent
No.

How you “hear” him speaking; speaking patterns and/or textures, tones
Can be gruff, curt, and condescending. I hear his voice as deep, kind of gravelly, sometimes halting, but utterly confident in his own perceptions and agenda. He raises his voice for emphasis. He might pause in the middle of a thought, as if considering his next brilliant outburst, so he's difficult to interrupt. In internal monologues, or emails, etc. (versus when he's in conversation with other people), I hear his voice as a little more flowing, stream of consciousness, less awkward but still a bit crazy.

Other information
Highly intelligent but a bit misogynistic and racist. Also hates Canadians. He's intense, self-focused, socially awkward, irritable, generally annoyed by other people. Goes on rants, unheeding of others. Can be crude, doesn't censor his perceptions or opinions. Has an empirical (as opposed to humanistic) world view.

Figurski is modeled on the real-life Theodore Streleski, and both are large, kind of hulking but un-athletic men. Another model is Theodore Kaczynski (a.k.a. the Unabomber and author of "Technological Slavery"). All three of them are committed, self-righteous, and socially maladjusted.

See
https://figurskiatfindhornonacid.com/figurski-1x.html
https://figurskiatfindhornonacid.com/figurski-2x.html
https://figurskiatfindhornonacid.com/figurski-3x.html
https://figurskiatfindhornonacid.com/1-2-3.html
https://figurskiatfindhornonacid.com/2-2-15.html

The No-Hands Cup Flipper (Nguyen Van Tho)Nguyen Van Tho
Nguyen = “Ng” is nasal sound with nearly silent g, y is a “w” sound; said almost as one syllable, “na-wen”/“nwen”

Van = rhymes with “tan”

Tho = nearly silent h, soft t like td or dh, halfway between “toe” and “doe”

Age from 1993 to 2000
26 to 33

Place of birth
Saigon, Vietnam

Personal background
Lost both hands as a toddler during the Vietnam War when he picked up booby-trapped cans of Spam made by the Viet Cong that had been intended for American soldiers. Escaped with family on one of the boats and immigrated to U.S. Settled in San Jose, CA. Worked odd jobs. Became a talented footbagger (Hackey Sack) then an acrobatic flipper of coffee cups at a California roadside attraction near Gilroy, then on his own as a performance artist. Stopped performing about age 30 to do more personal exploration, including travel, virtual reality, psychedelics, and pilgrimages to Findhorn. Eventually got a sophisticated prosthetic hand and hook and returned to the roadside attraction as a manager.

Education
High school, some community college.

Accent
Light Vietnamese accent. (Nam accent = southern Vietnam.)

How you “hear” him speaking; speaking patterns and/or textures, tones
I hear him as a bit nasally, "tonal" or musical as in Asian languages. He talks generally fast, like Figurski, but more Asian-tenor to Figurski's Midwest-bass. He can be smart-assy, sarcastic, and he's not intimidated by Figurski (who is physically much larger), while being more deferential or respectful of Vieuchanger.

Other information
He's a survivor, resilient. He's small in stature but very coordinated and quick, like a martial artist, and he's quick on the up-take too.

See
https://figurskiatfindhornonacid.com/cup-flipper-1x.html
https://figurskiatfindhornonacid.com/cup-flipper-2x.html
https://figurskiatfindhornonacid.com/cup-flipper-3x.html

Fatima Michelle Vieuchanger
Fatima = FAT-ah-mah (accent on first syllable, rhymes with “that”)

Vieuchanger = French pronounciation = 3 syllables with equal emphasis = vyuh (said as one syllable) + shonje (long o sound, soft g) + eh (long a, rhymes with “hay”)

Age from 1993 to 2000
35 - 42

Place of birth
Fez, Morocco

Personal background
French father, Moroccan mother. Nontraditional or westernized/European upbringing, became a writer and a feminist in rebellion against gender stereotypes in Morocco. Has a son (out of wedlock) named Mohammed, a preteen at the beginning of the novel. Well-educated and widely traveled, she is intelligent, savvy, adventurous, and enterprising. Her many disguises, in pursuit of interesting stories and the mechanical pig, include as a man disguising himself as a woman with U.S. commandos in Iraq, as the girlfriend of a Yakusa kingpin, as a male Jewish tourist in Florida, as a Lebanese shopkeeper immigrant, as a CIA agent code-named "Tanya," etc. She publishes her apparently entertaining autobiographical accounts regularly and after sharing in movie rights to some of here work, she resettles in Morocco and regains joint custody of her now-teenage son.

Education
Private schools in Morocco. College degree in journalism (university in France).

Accent
Speaks English with a French-Moroccan accent.

How you “hear” her speaking; speaking patterns and/or textures, tones
English is her third language (after Maghrebi-Arabic and French) but she is fluent and highly literate in all three. She's confident and articulate, usually chooses her words carefully. She can successfully impersonate men so her voice is mid-range at the highest, contralto or mezzo-soprano. Her French accent in English is tinged by her Moroccan heritage and Darija language. Here's a short YouTube video on the French-speaking Moroccan accent in English, by a female, that is a fine approximation of how I hear Vieuchanger: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXFmenYxBhY

Other information
Vieuchanger, as a fellow writer, sometimes speaks as, and/or is portrayed as, a kind of alter-ego to the author. She makes meta-commentary on the novel, and, also like the author, she may speak directly to the reader. Unlike Figurski, Vieuchanger is politically a leftist and artistically or intellectually a postmodernist.

See
https://figurskiatfindhornonacid.com/vieuchanger-1x.html
https://figurskiatfindhornonacid.com/vieuchanger-2x.html https://figurskiatfindhornonacid.com/vieuchanger-3x.html
https://figurskiatfindhornonacid.com/1-2-20.html

Findhorn = short i, 1st syllable rhymes with “sinned”

FIGURSKI AT FINDHORN ON ACID

COLD OPEN
***SELECT CONTENT FROM EPISODE***
MUSIC: RIR QUICK OPENING
ANNOUNCER
Welcome to Re-Imagined Radio, a program about radio storytelling. I’m Jack Armstrong. With each episode we combine dialogue, sound effects, and music to engage your listening imagination. This episode is no different, and here to tell you about it is John Barber, producer and host.
MUSIC: RIR THEME?
HOST
Thank you Jack, and hello everyone. I'm John Barber.
This episode of Re-Imagined Radio is adapted from Figurski at Findhorn on Acid, a hypertext novel published by Richard Holeton in 2001 using Storyspace software. With upgrades in computer hardware and operating systems, the Storyspace platform as orphaned. Figurski was unavailable until 2021 when it was reconstituted by Dr. Dene Grigar and her team of researchers at the Electronic Literature Lab at Washington State University Vancouver. By making Figurski available for contemporary computers, the ELL team provided the source for our radio adaptation.
Figurski is called by some "electronic literature too big for a single genre." We agree, and are excited to share our radio adaptation, made with Mr. Holeton's help, as part of the 20th Anniversary celebration for this pioneering work and an interesting storytelling experiment for Re-Imagined Radio.
SFX: HOLETON AUDIO BUMPER? SOME OTHER SFX TO INDICATE DISRUPTION, CHANGE, SOMETHING NEW
HOLETON
"Electronic Literature?" "Hypertext Novel?" What's he talking about? Hi, I'm Richard Holeton, author of Figurski at Findhorn on Acid with some brief notes before we get started.
Electronic literature is often characterized by hyperlinks, words that when tapped or clicked them lead to connecting or new information.
Figurski at Findhorn on Acid has 2001 hyperlinks that provide many different paths through the story.
The path of this radio adaptation follows the three characters of the novel, Frank Figurski, The No Hands Cup Flipper, and Fatima Michelle Vieuchanger, as they converge at Findhorn, Scotland, seeking one—or maybe two!—mechanical pigs of incalculable value while stewing in Spam, acid, yes THAT acid, and wit-slathered repartee.
HOST
Now that you know the story behind the story, I hope you enjoy listening to our adaptation of Figurski at Findhorn on Acid, performed by our ensemble of very talented voice actors, The Voices.
SFX: RIR OPENING . . . LINGERS BEFORE THE FOLLOWING . . 
ACT 1 > FIGURSKI, FINDHORN, FRIDAY NIGHT SHARING
SFX: EXTERIOR, OCEAN WAVES BREAK ON A BEACH IN THE MIDDLE DISTANCE, SEAGULLS, ALL SWIRLING LIKE FOG GATHERING FOR A WEREWOLF CONVENTION, ESTABLISH AND DUCK UNDER THE FOLLOWING . . .
HOLETON
(Source: Lexia Findhorn 1.x) This path through the story is set at Findhorn, a small fishing village in Northern Scotland, and its nearby intentional community founded in 1962 by Peter and Eileen Caddy and Dorothy Maclean. They agreed to use Maclean's purported contacts with Nature Spirits—she called them "devas"—to help with growing food.
SFX: SPIRIT SOUNDS?
HOLETON
Anecdotal accounts of Findhorn, including those from the 1981 movie My Dinner with Andre, told of remarkable gardens producing exceptionally large vegetables.
(Source: Lexia 1.2.02) When the North Sea winds blow cold, Findhornians gather inside The Universal Hall, hand-crafted of local stone and wood and stained glass, symbolically pentagonal, spiritually and astronomically aligned to be an attractive landing site for extraterrestrials
SFX: INTERIOR, UNIVERSAL HALL. THE WALLS AND FLOORS ARE WOOD, STONE, AND GLASS. FADE IN RESIDENTS OF FINDHORN CHATTING. WE HEAR LAYERS OF VOICES REVERBERATING IN THIS LARGE SPACE. SOME GLASSES CLINK. OCCASIONAL LAUGHTER. ESTABLISH SCENE, THEN DUCK UNDER. . .
SFX: FADE OUT CROWD NOISES AS SHANA TAPS THE PA MICROPHONE AND BEGINS TO SPEAK . . .
SFX: FILTER SHANA AND ZED'S VOICES SO THEY SOUND AS IF COMING THROUGH PA SYSTEM SPEAKERS. CONTINUE THIS UNTIL THE NARRATOR SPEAKS . . .
SHANA
Good evening everyone and welcome! I am Shana from Sweden . . .
ZED
And I am Zed from Amsterdam.
SHANA
Welcome to Friday Night Sharing. We are the Findhorn Ambassadors on duty.
ZED
Tonight's Friday Night Sharing will be an international talent show. Shana will sing "A Little Help from My Friends."
SFX: BRIEF CROWD APPLAUSE
We'll enjoy a big hug from Gudrun of Germany who does a modern dance interpreting three Gregorian chants . .
SFX: CROWD CHANTS "GUDRUN, GUDRUN, GUDRUN"
SHANA
(jumping in)  . . . and Zed will do stand-up comedy about Winter Solstice Zazen.
SFX: CROWD APPLAUSE AND LAUGHTER
ZED
Friday Night Sharing is meant to  promote Universal Consciousness . . .
SHANA
(finishing Zed's sentence) . . . and we have provided Apple Almond Nectar herbal tea, Spam on shortbread, and tabs of windowpane acid at the refreshments table. Please help yourself.
ZED
The acid tonight is especially good, so don't take more than two. I always say, "You are either manufacturing darkness through your own inner states of anxiety and fear and separation, or you are creating light and revelation through your abandonment of those past states and your attunement to new ones."
MUSIC: PSYCHEDELIC STINGER TO PUNCTUATE THE WEIGHTINESS OF THIS STATEMENT, ESTABLISH, THEN FADE UNDER . . .
SFX: CROWD WALLAH
SHANA
We begin tonight with a guest who has recently arrived from America. Perhaps you have seen him around our community and know that he is shy and quiet . . .
ZED
(INTERRUPTING) Shana and I tweezed him a tiny square of windowpane about an hour ago so he should be very talkative, or not.
SHANA
(TAKING BACK HER INTRODUCTION) Please welcome Frank Figurski . . .
SFX: CROWD APPLAUSE AND WALLAH
SFX: HOLETON SOUND BUMPER?
HOLETON
(Source: Lexia Figurski 1.x) Frank Figurski spent 21 years in graduate school without completing his Ph.D. In 1987 he was convicted of second-degree murder with diminished capacity for killing Harvard mathematics professor Quentin Kingsley. After spending six years in the Massachusetts Correctional Institution, at Walpole, he was paroled in 1993 at age 48.
SFX: FIGURSKI AUDIO BUMPER?
FIGURSKI
NERVOUS MONOLOGUE
(Source: Lexia 1.2.03) . . . kept to myself in prison at Walpole they called me egghead . . . "Cu cu ce Chew"
NERVOUS, RAPID MONOLOGUE
here on the outside it's like waking up from an orderly dream into a nightmarish chaos there is no up or down no right or left you just keep returning to the starting place time and time again the one dimension going out in all directions containing all the others welcome to another day at the edge of the 21st century
SFX: CROWD WALLAH, "RIGHT ON MAN!", "FIGURSKI IS GOD!" "YEAH, THAT'S THE ACID TALKING!". DUCK UNDER
FIGURSKI
NERVOUS MONOLOGUE CONTINUES
I'm trying to act normal trying to follow the action be part of the scene
I think you know I found something in the dunes you probably want it maybe it was intended for you but it just dropped out of the sky is what I think
Wooden crate partially buried in the sand pried off a board with pocket knife found inside something marvelous
Easy enough to hide you're used to seeing me carry my duffel around now taking up the extra seat beside me
Couldn't share but didn't want to arouse suspicions by staying alone in the trailer
SFX: FADE UP CROWD WALLAH, DUCK BACK UNDER
So here I am up on the stage feels like I'm drawn here natural and unnatural at same time that I wonder if I'm dreaming. Could this be the acid?
SFX: MUFFLED HEAVY METAL OBJECT PLACED ON WOODEN STAGE TABLE. CANVAS CLOTH RUSTLES AS FIGURSKI OPENS BAG.
Here is what I've been carrying around  a mechanical  pig it's mine finders keepers losers weepers . . .
SFX: EXCITED, AMAZED CROWD WALLAH
FIGURSKI
SPEAKING TO CROWD
It's a mechanical pig. One of two said to exist in the world. Have you seen the second one?
SFX: MORE CROWD WALLAH, EXCITED, AMAZED
TRANSITION TO . . .
SFX: HOLETON SOUND BUMPER?
HOLETON
(Source: Lexia Pig 1.x) About one meter long, half again high, the mechanical pig was a sophisticated automaton. Figurski alludes to there being two mechanical pigs! The original, designed and built in 1737 by veterinarian/engineer Guillermo Rosellini of Venice, was operated by a complex and largely invisible system of hand cranks, gears, pulleys, and clock mechanisms said to comprise 147 moving parts. The result was that the mechanical pig convincingly and accurately walked, blinked, swam, snorted, rooted, digested some of what it was fed, and defecated the remains.
SHANA
RECITING EVENTS WITH DISBELIEF
He opened a can of Spam from the refreshment table and spooned some into the pig's mouth. He turned controls on the pig's side and it began to chew slowly with some of the Spam kind of squishing out and dribbling down the chin. Then he worked other controls and the pig defecated all the mushy Spam right there on the stage. It was quite the grand finale. Good thing he thought to put newspaper down on the polished wood first . . .
SFX: CROWD WALLAH . . . OH, THAT'S DISGUSTING! . . . DID YOU SEE THAT? . . . THE PIG MADE A REAL MESS! AT LEAST HE PUT DOWN NEWSPAPER . . .
FIGURSKI
INTERNAL MONOLOGUE
(Source: Lexia 1.2.03) They all just look at me like "is that it then?" so as an encore I have the pig do a little dance and they applaud courteously as we both walk off the stage and back to my room where I hide the mechanical pig.
MUSIC: INDIAN DRONE FADE UP, THEN CROSSFADE TO . . .
MUSIC: RIR BREAK LOOP
ESTABLISH, THEN FADE UNDER AND OUT
HOST
BREAK 1, FUSEBOX
You are listening to Re-Imagined Radio and our adaptation of Figurski at Findhorn on Acid, a hypertext novel by Richard Holeton. I'm John Barber. 
So far, this episode has considered, as the novel asks you to do at one point, the connections between the forces of attraction and repulsion at work between mass and/or matter (like Figurski) and curved spacetime (like Findhorn).
This same focus can be applied to our partner radio program, The Fusebox Show. This is a radio program for everyone, but not everyone will like it. We leave it up to you to make your own decisions about the interesting characters and their observations, responses, and reactions to local events that both stir our imagination and boil our blood.
Here's a sample . . .
(FUSEBOX TRAILER)
As you heard, The Fusebox Show is "ear food" . . . rich in production value, satirical humor, and sometimes outrageous absurdity. The Fusebox Show is an prophylactic for these strange and dangerous times. The humor is biting, but uplifting. The characters are scary, but just who you want to talk with while sitting in a coffee shop or brew pub waiting for whatever comes next. And, because it's not for everyone, The Fusebox Show is exactly the program for discerning listeners like yourself. Learn more at The Fusebox Show website, www dot thefuseboxshow dot com. Everything is there, full episodes, full disclosures, full grandeur. Listen for episodes on this and other radio stations, or subscribe to The Fusebox Show podcast feed at all the usual media spigots.
MUSIC: RIR BREAK LOOP
HOST
This is Re-Imagined Radio. The Voices are performing our adaptation of Figurski at Findhorn on Acid, a hypertext novel by Richard Holeton. So far we've met Frank Figurski and his mechanical pig during Friday Night Sharing in The Universal Hall at Findhorn Park. Let's continue with our story . . .
ACT 2 > ***
SFX: HOLETON SOUND BUMPER?
HOLETON
After his release from prison, Figurski invested in the bull market. He sold a batch of Microsoft shares in 1997, and devoted his time and effort to finding Rosellini's 1737 mechanical pig.
SFX: SOUNDS OF A LARGE BUILDING ON FIRE. FADE UNDER THE FOLLOWING AND THEN OUT.
Unfortunately, Rosellini's mechanical pig, along with his drawings and notebooks, and indeed Rosellini himself, were apparently destroyed in a 1752 Rome hotel fire.
An uncannily similar automaton shown at the 1889 Paris Exhibition, was later alleged to be a forgery crafted by Dutch puppeteer Gilbert van Gelderschott.
But, Figurski isn't the only one obsessed with a fully-functional porcine automaton. In fact, two determined competitors are at Findhorn on the pig's tail, I mean trail.
MUSIC: FLOURISH (THEREMIN?) OR CROWD WALLAH: "OH, YEAH-H-H-H-H!"
SFX: HOLETON SOUND BUMPER?
HOLETON
(Source: Cup-Flipper 1.x) The first is Nguyen Van Tho, also known as The No-Hands Cup Flipper, who lost both hands as a toddler during the Vietnam War. After immigrating to the United States, he became a talented Hackey-Sack player, or footbagger. Hired as a busboy at Casa de Fruta outside Gilroy, California, Nguyen spent his free time learning from his boss, The World Famous Cup Flipper, to flip coffee cups. Becoming adept with both arm stubs as well as his Hackey-Sack-trained feet, he took his show on the road for several years. Then, hearing about the alleged regenerative powers of Nature Spirits to restore lost limbs, The No-Hands Cup Flipper traveled to Findhorn, Scotland.
SFX: CUPP FLIPPER SOUND BUMPER?
SFX: INTERIOR OF UNIVERSAL HALL, AFTER FRIDAY NIGHT SHARING. SOME BACKGROUND SOUNDS OF INDIVIDUALS WHO REMAIN, PERHAPS ON ACID
CUP FLIPPER
DETACHED, OBJECTIVELY DESCRIBING HIS ACID TRIP
MUSIC: PSYCHEDELIC, DREAMY, UNDER?
(Source: Lexia 1.1.13) Shana and Zed tweezed me a shiny black square of acid before the start of Friday Night Sharing and an hour later all of Findhorn is glowing and growing, alive with Nature Spirits. Outrageous roses explode liquid reds and yellows into the snow, three-foot zucchinis and basketball-size broccolies erupt from volcanoes of sparkly sand. The human characters all seem connected by luminous threads to the Earth and the Sky. Voices ping and zip and mingle with the previously-undetectable low squeaking sounds of plants and, in the distance, the ocean like a giant woolen muffler. All of us together sing a chorus to the Great Circle of Being.
SFX: HOLETON SOUND BUMPER?
HOLETON
The effects of acid vary widely according to dosage level, personality, and social context, but generally may include increased impact of sensory stimuli such as colors and sounds and attention to normally unnoticed aspects of the environment.
HOLETON
 Another interesting effect of acid is . . .
SFX: APPLY FILTER TO THE FOLLOWING TO LITERALLY SLOW DOWN AND/OR DEFLATE THE SOUNDING OF HOLETON'S WORDS . . .
HOLETON
FILTERED
. . . the sense  . . . of time  . . . slowing down-n-n-n 
SFX: CUP FLIPPER AUDIO BUMPER?
CUP FLIPPER
CONTINUES DETACHED, OBJECTIVE, DESCRIPTION
(Source: Lexia 1.1.14) Those billowy clouds blanketing the Moray Firth with polka-dot shadows are shape-shifters, a Time Portal through which all of history seems to unfold. As the sunset bends the light across the dunes, the clouds gather and darken into scenes of giant rose blooms painted in the sky.
SFX: PAN HOLETON'S FOLLOWING LINE RAPIDLY BACK AND FORTH FROM RIGHT TO LEFT, PERHAPS INCLUDE SOME SLIGHT PHASING . . .
HOLETON
Emotional effects of acid may include increased susceptibility to suggestion; and heightened sensitivity.
CUP FLIPPER
CONTINUES ABSTRACT, OBJECTIVE, DESCRIBING HIS ACID TRIP
(Source: Lexia 1.1.15) This cloud movie reminds me of Figurski's story about the aging wooden crate down low in the dunes, half-hidden in scrub grass. But this is not my crate, it's another, perhaps nearly identical when new, but now beginning to decay. Suspicious. Could there be two mechanical pigs here at Findhorn?
MUSIC: STINGER OF PSYCHEDELIC MUSIC OR INDIAN DRONE 
HOLETON
(Source: Vieuchanger 1.x) Next . . . we present Fatima Michelle Vieuchanger, female French-Moroccan journalist, who on assignment with L'Express Marrakech disguised herself as a man disguising himself as a woman in order to embed herself with an elite U.S. commando squad allegedly trying to assassinate Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein during the 1991 Persian Gulf War. Subsequently, using other disguises, Vieuchanger had briefly possessed Rosillini's 1737 Mechanical Pig, but she had let it slip through her fingers, before tracking it to Findhorn.
MUSIC: INDIAN DRONE, DUCK UNDER
SFX: VIEUCHANGER SOUND BUMPER?
VIEUCHANGER
INTERNAL MONOLOGUE
Shana and Zed welcomed me to Findhorn with Apple Almond Nectar herbal tea reminding me of my travels among the tribes of the Middle East.
MUSIC: FADE UP INDIAN DRONE FOR A MOMENT, DUCK UNDER THE FOLLOWING?
(Source: Lexia 1.1.22) The acid was a new twist . . . and I better develop a Plan of Action. Right. Here it is: Listen to good music. Avoid mirrors, and modems. Avoid thoughts about fear of heights, losing control, death, pain, misery. If unpleasant thoughts intrude, try a mantra or move physically to new location. Don't forget to say goodbye to previous spot. Eat an orange. Study the orange's layers. Move my body at least once an hour but not more than twice an hour. Look around, don't be in a hurry. The most important thing is to recapture that mechanical pig!
SHANA
FEMALE, SWEDISH ACCENT, TALKING TO VIEUCHANGER
(Source: Lexia 1.1.24) . . . Yes, right after I sang "A Little Help from My Friends" . . . that's when the big crazy American guy he feeds it some of that . . .
ZED
MALE, DUTCH ACCENT
SPAM  . . . and the robot pig, how do you say, does its business right on our polished hardwood stage! SPAM. Chewed-up SPAM!
SFX: HOLETON SOUND BUMPER?
HOLETON
(Source: Spam 2.x) Fun facts about SPAM. In the 1990s, according to Hormel Foods, Americans consumed 3.8 cans of SPAM per second. Hormel recommended Riesling and Gewürztraminer as wine pairings for its processed meat delicacy.
VIEUCHANGER
INTERNAL MONOLOGUE CONTINUES
(Source: Lexia 1.2.22) Revised Plan of Action. Transform identity into undercover revolutionary Algerian freedom fighter "Tanya." As Tanya, recapture the mechanical pig and book passage from Aberdeen to Casablanca on a freighter where no questions will be asked about my baggage or final destination.
ZED
You should have seen everybody's faces!
SFX: VIEUCHANGER SOUND BUMPER?
VIEUCHANGER
SPEAKING TO SHANA AND ZED
All right, I'm only going to tell you this once. I'm not who I seem. According to the CIA I'm an Algerian terrorist code-named "Tanya." Personally I prefer "revolutionary freedom fighter" to "international terrorist." Anyway, Vieuchanger is only a cover. As Tanya, I've come to return the mechanical pig to its rightful owners.
SFX: CUP FLIPPER  SOUND BUMPER?
SFX: COMING FROM ASIDE TO JOIN THE GROUP
CUP FLIPPER
Excuse me, please. Did you say CIA? I was sitting just over there. Couldn't help but overhear you talking. Acid makes my ears like radar dishes . . . I hear everything. But I don't always understand. Love your accent. Where are you from?
VIEUCHANGER
(Source: Lexia 1.1.19 and 1.1.20) Morocco. I spent my childhood in Fez, the oldest city.
My father was French, mother Moroccan. Nontraditional, "westernized" family believing in money as destiny.
Private schools. Journalism. Writing was to be my destiny.
CUP FLIPPER
What about the CIA?
VIEUCHANGER
Yes, CIA. A dangerous bunch. Don't make me call them.
CUP FLIPPER
Why have you come here, to Findhorn?
VIEUCHANGER
(Source: Lexia 1.1.21 and 1.2.19 and 1.2.21 and 1.3.07) I traveled extensively. First around the Arab world researching international Mafia operations in my native Morocco. Through that research I learned of a mechanical pig and tracked it to a Sicilian family compound near West Palm Beach, Florida. Using subterfuge I was able to obtain the pig.
The mechanical pig was taken from me by a Moroccan Mafia hit man with an assault rifle. I have not seen it since, until tonight when that American pulled it from his duffel bag.
SFX: STINGER, OR TRANSITION?
SFX: CUP FLIPPER SOUND BUMPER?
CUP FLIPPER
DETACHED, DREAMY
(Source: 1.1.17) In 1973, as a child in Viet Nam, I found a can of American GI Spam. Did not know it had been fashioned by Viet Cong into an explosive device. Lost my hands . . .
In America I became The No Hands Cup Flipper. While on tour, in Florida, I found a mechanical pig swimming in the Intercoastal Waterway next to my motel. 
Soon after I participated in a medical study of phantom limb syndrome, and heard stories about acid rewiring the brain-to-hands connection, if not actually regenerating lost limbs. What did I have to lose?
I came to Findhorn, early in 1994, with my mechanical pig. Hid it under the floor of my guest trailer. 
The acid did not regenerate my hands, but it did expand my mind. I left Findhorn, but could never get the mechanical pig, which I left here, or the acid, out of my head. Now I'm back.
MUSIC: OMINOUS PSYCHEDELIC OR DRONE MUSIC.
VIEUCHANGER
EXCITED, INCREDULOUS
What!? Do you mean there are two mechanical pigs here at Findhorn!? Both the Rosellini 1737 original AND the van Gelderschott 1884 near-exact duplicate are HERE!?
SFX: HOLETON SOUND BUMPER?
HOLETON
There had been no confirmed sightings in the 20th century of either the original Rosellini or the van Gelderschott mechanical pigs. So, you can imagine Mademoiselle Vieuchanger's surprise that TWO mechanical pigs might be within the same space and time she occupied. She was already thinking about the implications for her writing career. The rewards for a story about the legendary pig—not to mention a scoop about BOTH of the remarkable automatons—would be astronomical!
MUSIC: RIR BREAK
HOST
BREAK 2, RIR LOOKING AHEAD
You are listening to Re-Imagined Radio and our adaptation of Figurski at Findhorn on Acid, performed by The Voices. I'm John Barber.
Well, it seems FA-tima Michele Vieuchanger has found her story. And that's the thing about this world . . . it is filled with so many stories.
With each episode, Re-Imagined Radio sets out to share unique and interesting stories that we hope you will enjoy.
Just like the seekers at Findhorn, we're looking forward to the new year. We plan episodes to celebrate the unparalleled radio writing of Lucille Fletcher, the million dollar radio voice of William Conrad, the interconnections and interplay of three radio dramas produced and broadcast by the same Detroit radio station, a backstory for The War of the Worlds, a context for The Fall of the City, and a unique travelogue of a parallel dimension.
Next month, please join us for "Destination Freedom" a tribute to the historical, cultural, and artistic contributions of Black Americans. Our focus will be music and we will present dramatizations of W.C. Handy, The Father of the Blues, and Louis Armstrong, who changed the sound of New Orleans jazz music with his trumpet.
As demonstrated in this episode, we're upgrading Re-Imagined Radio all around. The Voices bring professional voice acting. New music and cinematic sound bring greater immersion in the stories we share. Premier radio broadcasts and live streaming around the globe bring multiple listening opportunities. There's also on demand listening at your convenience. Interactive social media. An NFT for each episode. Radio storytelling that is entertaining, engaging, and educational.
Visit our website, www dot reimaginedradio dot net for more information about our upcoming episodes including background and resources.
Well . . . we've been introduced to all three characters of Figurski at Findhorn on Acid. Let's continue listening and learn what might happen.
MUSIC: RIR BREAK LOOP
ACT 3 > FROG AND SCORPION
MUSIC: TRANSITION, FADE UNDER CONVERSATION ALREADY IN PROGRESS
SFX: INTERIOR.
CUP FLIPPER
(Source: Note 074) . . . Okay, how about this. I have kitchen duty tonight, so at the end of dinner you convince me to show off a little cup flipping. I'll work my way around the room, dramatically with several near-misses, until I'm right in front of Figurski. You take this opportunity . . .
VIEUCHANGER
To sneak out and get the pig from his room. Unless he has moved it.
CUP FLIPPER
He hasn't. I saw them there after lunch. Just follow the empty Spam cans.
VIEUCHANGER
Right. So I'll just pick up the pig, assuming I can lift it, and . . .
CUP FLIPPER
Put them in my room. It's close to his. Here's the key.
VIEUCHANGER
Right. (PAUSE) Wrong. I'll put the pig in my room. You've already got one under your floorboards.
CUP FLIPPER
Only one problem with that plan. How will you get into his room?
VIEUCHANGER
With my key. Or yours.
CUP FLIPPER
They're all the same?
VIEUCHANGER
Identical. It's in the fine print on the Findhorn sign-in. It's a community built on trust. "Keys offered as a convenience only" or something.
CUP FLIPPER
Oh, this will be great.
MUSIC: TRANSITION  TO SIGNIFY PASSAGE OF TIME. . . THEREMIN?, FADE DOWN AND UNDER THE FOLLOWING
CUP FLIPPER
TALKING PAST VIEUCHANGER
(Source: Note 076) I kept him in the dining room as long as I could, but he got suspicious I guess.
VIEUCHANGER
TALKING PAST CUP FLIPPER
Is Frank not a big fan of cup flipping?
CUP FLIPPER
TALKING PAST VIEUCHANGER
The community regulars kept asking me for more and more. But he left . . .
VIEUCHANGER
TALKING PAST CUP FLIPPER
(Source: Lexia 1.2.23) I found the pig in his closet, half-hidden under several floppy hats and paisley scarves. It was dusty but appeared intact and fully operational from my quick test of its controls.
I suspect that Figurski's pig may be the van Gelderschott forgery rather than the original Rosellini, but it doesn't matter because they both are incredibly valuable.
He returned to his room before I could get the pig out. I saw him coming across the clearing and knew my only chance was to go out the window.
CUP FLIPPER
TALKING PAST CUP VIEUCHANGER
Shana insisted I do a little demo, show her how to do it with a single cup and saucer.
VIEUCHANGER
TALKING PAST CUP FLIPPER
No time to pack out the pig. It's still there, in Figurski's closet.
CUP FLIPPER
TALKING TO HIMSELF
Whoa! The acid goes in waves . . .
. . . one washes in and takes you away. You're just gone. Then you're back for a moment and you go, Wow, what was that.
(Source: Lexia 2.2.02) Goodbye. I'm riding up the wave.
MUSIC: HARI RAMA CHANT, ENERGETIC 
CROSSFADE TO . . .
SFX: HOLETON SOUND BUMPER?
HOLETON
In the middle of my writing this novel, the characters contacted me directly in a series of emails from Findhorn. Figurski contacted me first, on 26 August 1997. He wrote . . .
SFX: FIGURSKI SOUND BUMPER?
FIGURSKI
(Source: Lexia 2.1.14)
[Reading his email message]
"Hey . . .
"Don't cut me off now keep the acid flowing
"I think I'm building up a tolerance again after taking a few years off
"Could take low or even medium doses almost every day
"I caught the exotic chick from North Africa watching me she speaks English with a sexy French accent"
HOLETON
(Source: Lexia 2.1.15)
[Speaking]
I replied the next day. I wrote . . .
[Reading from his email response]
"Tolerance and making good first impressions were never among your strong suits In My Humble Opinion. Incidentally, you may have something that Ms. Vieuchanger wants."
(Source: Lexia 2.x)
[Speaking]
That same day I also received an email message from Fatima Michelle Vieuchanger, which was more personal. She wrote . . .
SFX: VIEUCHANGER SOUND BUMPER?
VIEUCHANGER
[Reading from her email message]
"I am considering writing about Rosellini's legendary 1737 mechanical pig. Such an article would be the first public attention this century, albeit for a very small audience, and very late in the century, before it would most likely quickly be forgotten. So, perhaps I need to consider exploring as well the fragility and tenuous nature of interpersonal relations, the extent and limits of human interdependence, the role of religion in postmodern society, and the shrinking space available on international flights for carry-on luggage."
HOLETON
[Speaking]
She went on to say . . .
VIEUCHANGER
(Source: Lexia 2.1.13)
[Reading from her email message]
"Richard, please don't be constructing me as some '70s spokesperson for the counterculture, speaker for the dead, mouthpiece for your own nostalgia. The first time I lay eyes on Frank, it won't be a simpatico rebellious spirit that I see, but a big scary jerk. My first reaction will likely be to get away from him, especially if either of us is taking acid, as you insist we do frequently in these exchanges."
HOLETON
[Speaking]
My reply sought to clarify my position as author of this hypertext novel and to address the more META observations she had shared with me.
[Reading from his email response]
"Fatima, regarding . . ."
VIEUCHANGER
[Reading Holeton's email response]
..."constructing me as some spokesperson for the counterculture..."
HOLETON
[Reading from his email response]
"OK but it does seem from reading your previous publications that you do have views about the 'movement' etc. that would be of interest to readers of the present work."
[Now speaking]
Next, regarding . . .
VIEUCHANGER
[Reading from Holeton's email response]
"... a big scary jerk."
HOLETON
[Reading his email response]
"I imagine that your initial confrontation with Figurski has already occurred, in real time, 'before' this message. Down the road, who can say?"
[Speaking] Now, regarding
VIEUCHANGER
[Reading from Holeton's email response]
"...taking acid, as you insist we do frequently..."
HOLETON
[Reading from his email response]
"Surely you are always free to take as much or as little of it as you choose?"
HOLETON
[Speaking]
She replied . . .
VIEUCHANGER
(Source: Lexia 2.2.14)
[Reading from her email response]
"Who are you, may I ask, to be speaking for the reader etc.? Perhaps you're some kind of control freak. A person might ask herself, What the hell am I doing dropping acid and chasing pigs with two bizarre men in Scotland!
"One place you've gotten it right, though -- there's something about that damned Rosellini. A one of a kind? A work of art, to be sure. I feel for some reason that I must have it. If I could get it, I might write the great postmodern shaggy dog story for the 1990s. Only this story would be true!"
HOLETON
[Speaking]
Meanwhile, back to my email exchange with Figurski. He replied with an interesting report.
FIGURSKI
(Source: Lexia 2.2.15)
[Reading from his email message]
"about the Algerian I mean Moroccan or whatever woman
"What's she doing there watching me out of the side of her vision
"Very shifty things, I can't tell she's spying on me
"I can get angry when I think people are trying to make a fool of me
"If she sticks around this place I will get a good look at her right in the eye."
HOLETON
[Speaking]
Fatima sent me an email message the next day about her run-in with Figurski . . .
VIEUCHANGER
(Source: Lexia 2.3.05)
[Reading from Vieuchanger's email message]
"Your guy Figurski is some, do you say, 'piece of work' all right.
"He kind of leers at me, we lock eyes, may I say his pupils are huge. He basically says . . ."
FIGURSKI
[Reading from his email message]
"Who are you?"
VIEUCHANGER
[Reading from her email message]
"Long story monsieur," I tell him.
"He starts in on this lunatic rap about openings, openings are the most important part of the body, openings are the transitions, openings are the interface between outside and inside, grand openings are when one opening becomes bigger than life, zut!
"'You mean orifices,' I say the obvious, 'so why not just say so,' and then I add 'Do you take medication for your bipolar disorder?' and that gets him going on another rant about endings and orifices and some mathematical pattern he's got stuck in his brain so I split, bail, boogey, how I love your American slang."
MUSIC: A SONG THAT FEATURES OR EXPLAINS AMERICAN SLANG? TRANSITION TO . . .
HOST
If you just joined us, this is Re-Imagined Radio with our adaptation of Figurski at Findhorn on Acid, a performance featuring The Voices. Behind all this character building, a growing influx of eccentric spiritual seekers gathered at Findhorn and fluttered like cosmic moths about The Universal Hall preparing for the coming of the 21st Century.
SFX: INTERIOR, CROWD WALLAH . . .
PREACHER
MALE, SPEAKING VOICE MODELED AFTER DYNAMIC RADIO PREACHER
SFX: FILTER, AS IF SPEAKING THROUGH A PA SYSTEM
(Source: Findhorn 3.x) Friends . . . these are exciting times! In the new 21st Century, aliens will appear out of a transgravity lightwarp in the stratosphere, hesitate a few milliseconds while scanning the entire accumulated knowledge of humankind, and then swoop down for a landing atop The Universal Hall where we are now gathered.
MUSIC: DRAMATIC, FADE UP . . . HOLD BRIEFLY THEN DUCK UNDER . . .
PREACHER
Yes, friends, aliens will send a subliminal message, whispered during sleep and broadcast on all communication media in every human language, to all the people on the planet. As result, universal human rights and true democratic reforms would sweep the planet. The use of police forces for domestic terrorism and torture will cease. McDonalds and Burger King will go vegetarian, purchase the entire Amazon Basin and donate it in perpetuity to the U.N. The U.S., its affluent allies, and transnational corporations will cooperate to distribute food, medicine, and shelter more equitably and efficiently. People everywhere will build sustainable communities using local resources. The profit motive will be understood more broadly as an increase in value for all stakeholders. Bill Gates, despite his involvement in an elite international sex trafficking organization, will open public appearances by leading the audience in singing Three Dog Night's "Shambala" while he spins off the remnants of the old Microsoft into thousands of Baby Bill nonprofit coops dedicated to empowering indigenous peoples and women.
MUSIC: FADE UP FOR FINALE . . . APPLY REVERB AT END . . . LET IT RING FOR A MOMENT.
SFX: HOLETON SOUND BUMPER?
HOLETON
Academics can't resist popular culture. They want to define, dissect, and detour the creativity of the street along the pathways of their own scholarship, creating a form of rhetorical origami, folding narratives back into themselves, wrapping them in layers and red herrings.
SFX: TRANSITION
HOLETON
And so, the academics arrive at Findhorn for the Confederation of Multidisciplinary Automaton Scholars 1997 Conference, drawn by Mademoiselle Vieuchanger's short-lived publication regarding alleged sightings of one, maybe two, mechanical pigs on location.
SFX: HOTEL LOBBY AND/OR CONFERENCE ROOM SOUNDS. FADE UP, ESTABLISH, THEN DUCK UNDER THE FOLLOWING
HOLETON
Figurski and the Cup Flipper, disguised as college professors, have infiltrated the conference and even offered a paper entitled, "Orange Sunshine and Fetid-Smelling Pellets, colon, subtitle Ingestion, Digestion, and Excretion as Collective Hallucination in Enlightenment Europe."
SFX: INTERIOR, HOTEL BREAKFAST DINING ROOM. CROWD WALLAH, SOUNDS OF PLATES, UTENSILS, GLASSES, UNDERTONE OF CONVERSATIONS, PERHAPS MUSAK FROM OVERHEAD SPEAKERS
FIGURSKI
What's for breakfast?
CUP FLIPPER
Looks like Spam with toast and butter if you want the Continental Breakfast. Spam with mushy peas, Spam au gratin, Spam wrapped with bacon, Spam quiche, Spam and pancakes, and Spam and scrambled eggs if you like a more traditional breakfast. Spam fruit bowls and Spam with steel cut oatmeal as heart-healthy alternatives. And Spam-filled burritos if you just want something quick.
HOLETON
(Source: Lexia 2.3.03) Standing at a small table, Figurski and The No Hands Cup Flipper survey the crowd between bites of bagels and kiwis as they make plans . . .
MUSIC: PSYCHEDELIC MUSIC, SITAR, SWIRLING, THEN FADES DOWN AND OUT UNDER THE FOLLOWING . . .
SFX: DINING ROOM SOUNDS, PLATES, UTENSILS, GLASSES, UNDERTONE OF CONVERSATIONS, PERHAPS MUSAK FROM OVERHEAD SPEAKERS
FIGURSKI
BRAGGING
We HAVE what these suckers are looking for!
CUP FLIPPER
What? The opportunity to increase the efficiency of our digestive processes by standing and eating?
FIGURSKI
No, the pigs! The mechanical pigs. Everyone here wants to see them. Touch them. Marvel at their actual existence.
CUP FLIPPER
What if they want to take away the pigs? We found them, right? They belong to us!
FIGURSKI
Let them try! Without our know how at the controls those pigs are nothing more than Metal Spam. We have to meet with Vieuchanger and decide how to best protect our investment in these mechanical pigs.
SFX: TO REPRESENT PASSAGE OF TIME
CROSS FADE TO . . .
SFX: INTERIOR, HOTEL BANQUET ROOM. BANQUET SOUNDS, PLATES, UTENSILS, GLASSES, CONVERSATIONAL UNDERTONES
MUSIC: PSYCHEDELIC CRESCENDO BEGINS UNDER THE FOLLOWING, BUILDING TOWARD THE END . . . DUCK UNDER
HOLETON
While the featured speaker at the Final Banquet droned on about the crucial role of the humanities in lending a critical perspective to rapid advances in technology and merger-mania globalization, Figurski, The No Hands Cup Flipper, and Vieuchanger passed a note between their isolated tables confirming their intention to meet on the beach, with the mechanical pigs, after enjoying the after dinner refreshments provided by Shana and Zed, the Findhorn Ambassadors on Duty.
MUSIC: PSYCHEDELIC CRESCENDO REACHES ITS LOUDEST POINT, THEN FALLS APART AND AWAY
(PAUSE)
MUSIC: FADE UP . . . ESTABLISH, THEN DUCK UNDER AND OUT
SFX: EXTERIOR, BEACH, OCEAN, WAVES AND WIND SOUNDS, THE SOUNDS OF A DRIFTWOOD FIRE . . . ESTABLISH, THEN DUCK UNDER THE FOLLOWING CONVERSATION ALREADY IN PROGRESS
VIEUCHANGER
(Source: 3.1.02)  . . . I will miss sharing Apple Almond Nectar herbal tea with Shana and Zed.
FIGURSKI
Is this the millennium party or is it like the endgame in chess? The fewer the pieces left on the board the more constrained the moves. So easy to take a misstep.
CUP FLIPPER
We are in danger of losing our coherence here. In the endgame there's no memory of previous positions, the history of how you got to this scenario is totally irrelevant in terms of playing the present position.
FIGURSKI
(Source: 3.1.03) So . . . we agree to fully disassemble Rosellini's 1737 mechanical pig and van Gelderschott's skillful 1884 forgery, divide the parts equally among ourselves, take them away, and then, after the heat dies down, to rendezvous in November 2000, the hindmost shank of the millennium, here at Findhorn, Scotland.
VIEUCHANGER
Right. From a total of 147 for each pig, that's 49 per pig, times 2 equals 98 parts. Divided by 3 that's 32 parts total each. Let's be careful not to mix them up.
CUP FLIPPER
If we are mixing them up on purpose to randomize the reconstruction what difference does it make?
FIGURSKI
Quick! Does everyone have your one third of the algorithm down pat? Speak now or forever literally hold your pieces. We can't risk jumbling the codes when we put Humpty Dumpty back together again.
VIEUCHANGER
Would anyone really say that? It sounds like you are explaining the plot to some imaginary audience sitting at home listening to their radios, their chapped ears straining for coherence.
CUP FLIPPER
No bickering. Remember, we are becoming One. We can be certain only of our own part, if we can even be sure of that, not how it fits into the whole formula.
VIEUCHANGER
(Source: 3.2.01) Let me say that in reassembling these mechanical pigs we are merging into different components of the same character, taking on aspects of one another's personality. That is really annoying. I refuse to be an interchangeable part, especially with you two.
FIGURSKI
What the hell did she just say?
VIEUCHANGER
I am serious! Don't you think this place exudes an effect on you? You can say it's the people not the place, but why are the people drawn here time and again, a particular kind of people?
FIGURSKI
Are people drawn here or are they running away from another place? If they were doing well where they came from they'd still be there.
VIEUCHANGER
It might be to their credit that they leave the safety of their routine prisons to try something new, to build something from nothing.
FIGURSKI
Everyone is building something from nothing. It is all we do. Just becomes habit.
CUP FLIPPER
That's what we used to call an acid insight. How do we tell them apart?
VIEUCHANGER
(Source: 3.2.02) Markings we made, signs we left behind, our individual memories each of the others. Monsieur Parritt, my fifth grade teacher, said God is nature's mathematician. Is there beauty in knowing one-third of the algorithm?
CUP FLIPPER
Assuming we can put them back together with the parts all mixed up.
FIGURSKI
All the King's soldiers and all the King's men . . .
VIEUCHANGER
Remember at the conference someone said the Rosellini pig was perhaps constructed from a fictional historical record which explains why evidence is so skimpy. The conference people are paparazzi, totally guessing while we've got the real McCoys.
FIGURSKI
We've got every single section numbered for Christ sake. That must count for something.
CUP FLIPPER
No way to keep track otherwise. Too many possibilities.
FIGURSKI
In my book we've each got one-third of two sets of equivalent numbers.
CUP FLIPPER
Let's book 'em Dano. I'm all mixed up, randomized.
FIGURSKI
(Source: 3.2.03) The real test will be what I call the Spam Test.
CUP FLIPPER
Oh, no! Not again.
FIGURSKI
What they eat, how they eat it, and how it comes out in the end.
VIEUCHANGER
You just keep going and going. What are you. The Energizer Bunny?
FIGURSKI
That is not a question. It's a statement.
VIEUCHANGER
All the questions are statements. Haven't you noticed? I told you . . . don't get sand in the gears . . .
FIGURSKI
Don't worry. I'm just winding them up for a final test before we take them apart . . .
SFX: FADE UP OCEAN, WAVES, WIND, MAINTAIN MOMENTARILY, THEN DUCK UNDER . . .
SFX: CUP FLIPPER SOUND BUMPER?
CUP FLIPPER
These mechanical pigs are not ours. We are custodians. To make them ours we have to take them apart and put them back together our own way.
SFX: VIEUCHANGER SOUND BUMPER?
VIEUCHANGER
They will never be ours. If we reconstruct them they will look identical but will be different inside.
SFX: FIGURSKI SOUND BUMPER?
FIGURSKI
(Cynically echoing Vieuchanger) Different . . . [pause] . . . inside. Different inside. You said it all right.
HOLETON
And that's where we leave Figurski, on the beach at Findhorn, Scotland, with The No Hands Cup Flipper and Fatima Michelle Vieuchanger, each wrapped in the warm embrace of acid, gazing upward watching the sky above as remnants of ancient worlds or alien spacecrafts blaze brightly, briefly, and then disappear. Behind them, unseen, two mechanical pigs walk away from the campfire and into the sand dunes. Goodnight pigs . . . Enjoy your own adventure.
SFX: FADE UP OCEAN, WAVES, WIND, MAINTAIN MOMENTARILY, THEN CROSSFADE TO . . .
SFX: SPACE AGE DRONE, RELAXING, MAINTAIN BRIEFLY, CROSSFADE TO
SFX: HOLETON SOUND BUMPER?
HOLETON
Remember, with a hypertext novel like Figurski at Findhorn on Acid, there are multiple pathways through the story. We have explored one, which I hope you have enjoyed. If you would like to explore others, please visit the web edition of my novel at figurskiatfindhornonacid.com, produced by the Electronic Literature Lab at Washington State University Vancouver, directed by Dr. Dene Grigar. Thank you.
MUSIC: RIR BREAK THEME
BREAK 3: ELL SHOUT OUT
HOST
That was Richard Holeton, author of the ground-breaking, award-winning, and mind-bending hypertext novel Figurski at Findhorn on Acid. You have listened to a Re-Imagined Radio adaptation of that novel in this episode. I'm John Barber. I hope you enjoyed our experiment in radio storytelling performed for you by The Voices, our dynamic ensemble of voice actors.
You heard Richard Holeton who spoke as himself, the author.
You also heard  . . .
Ma-go Weston as Shana.
Devin James as Zed.
Sam A. Mowry as Frank Figurski.
Heath Houghton as Nuyen Van Tho (DOH), The No-Hands Cup Flipper
Patricia Belm as FA-tima Michelle Vieuchanger
Jeff Pollard as The Preacher
and Jack Armstrong as our announcer.
The script was written by John Barber.
Music composition, sound design, and post production by Marc Rose of Fuse Audio Design
Our presence on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram is provided by Regina Carol Social Media Management
Graphic design by Holly Slocum Design
A special thanks to the team of researchers at the Electronic Literature Lab at Washington State University Vancouver. Directed by Dr. Dene Grigar, this fine group of digital media artists reconstituted Figurski at Findhorn on Acid making it available for contemporary computers after it had lain dormant, lost, for nearly twenty years. The Electronic Literature Lab specializes in interactive media and has preserved, archived, and curated more than 3,000 Flash and other literary media works in the last decade.
This is John Barber, producer and host. Thank you for listening.
ANNOUNCER
This is a production of Re-Imagined Radio. Our radio broadcasts are heard on local, regional, and international community radio stations.
For on demand streaming, point your browsers to our website, reimaginedradio (all one word, no punctuation) DOT net. While there, subscribe to our snappy email Program Guide.
Thank you so much for listening, and please, join us again for another episode of Re-Imagined Radio where we will continue our exploration of radio storytelling.
Oh, and keep your eyes out for the pigs . . . they're out there.
MUSIC: RIR CLOSE ENDS, FADE OUT