We do another interview show, this time when we have a conversation with longtime Baker Street Irregular Peter Blau ("Black Peter"). Peter is one of the center points of the Sherlockian hub and has plenty of great stories to tell. Add to that an audio comment from a listener, and we've got a show that should not be missed.Topics covered in this week's show:01:50 Listener comment03:55 Begin interview with Peter Blau04:50 Peter defines the "average Sherlockian"06:25 My First Meeting with Sherlock Holmes09:20 Memories of visiting Ben Abramson's Argus Bookshop in New York11:22 Ben introduces Peter to The Baker Street Journal13:05 Memories of Edgar Smith, BSI dinners in the 1950s, and what "keeking" is18:10 Scuttlebutt from the Spermaceti Press27:00 The Red Circle of Washington, DC29:28 Peter discusses his role in the Baker Street Irregulars and the BSI Trust33:15 Peter's editorship at The Baker Street Journal34:04 A brief history of the BSJ editors35:10 Julian Wolff's one-man BSJ editorship & management37:10 Peter as a pitchman39:07 The subject of this year's BSJ Christmas Annual is announced!39:30 One of Peter's greatest regrets41:05 Sherlock Holmes inspired "Cats"??Links:The Baker Street JournalScuttlebutt from the Spermaceti PressThe Baker Street Irregulars TrustThe Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Sesquicentennial - May 7-9, 2009Macavity, the Mystery Cat

The discussion continues from last week's episode's topic of the basics of the Sherlockian world. You'll hear us discuss the societies, scholarship, international groups, regular gatherings and a healthy how-to of getting involved.Topics covered in this week's show

• The Baker Street Irregulars and the origins of Sherlock Holmes societies
• The Baker Street Journal Christmas Annuals
• Some society proceedings
• Overview of the past & present heads of the Baker Street Irregulars
• Why the "Baker Street Irregulars"?
• Some international groups, including the U.K., Canada, Japan, Australia, Denmark, Germany, Italy and France
• How to join a Sherlockian society / what goes on at meetings
• How to find out when the meetings are
• Answering the age-old question: "How can I become a member of the BSI?"
• The BSI Weekend activities
• Other online resources for your edification
• And some offline resources
• The Editor's Gas Lamp, from Vol. 9, No. 4, 1959

Links

• The Baker Street Journal Christmas Annuals
• A list of Sherlockian societies worldwide
• The Sherlock Holmes Society of London
• The Baker Street Journal
• The entire BSJ on CD-ROM
• The Bootmakers of Toronto and the Canadian Holmes
• The Arthur Conan Doyle Society
• The Sherlockian Calendar of Events
• The District Messenger
• Scuttlebutt from the Spermaceti Press
• The Baker Street Blog
• The Baker Street Dozen by p.j. Doyle
• What goes on at the BSI Weekend
• Sherlockian.net
• The Sherlockian Who's Who
• SherlockPeoria
• The Serpentine Muse

We've received a lot of correspondence from listeners asking us about some of the basics of the Sherlockian world – thank you for taking the time to contact us and let us know what's on your mind. In order to ensure that we're all working from the same level of knowledge, we'll cover some of the fundamentals of "the Game." Since this is such a broad topic, this will be a two-part show – and rather than make you wait two weeks for the second part, we'll release it next week.Show topics:

• Listener mail - how do I get into a Sherlockian society?
• What do we mean by Canonical?
• Which are the best Sherlock Holmes stories to read? Where should I begin?
• Holmes and Watson as real people - the beginnings of Sherlockian scholarship
• Some details about Baker Street - particularly 221B
• How we use short-hand to refer to the stories
• Close connection with and nostalgia for the Victorian/Ewardian era when the Baker Street Irregulars was founded in 1934
• You say Sherlockian / I say Holmesian

Links for this episode:

• The Annotated Sherlock Holmes (William S. Baring-Gould)
• The leading problems of chronology
• A table of major events in the stories
• The Date Being -- ? (Andrew Jay Peck)
• Christopher Morley
• Ronald A. Knox's Studies in the Literature of Sherlock Holmes
• Letters to Sherlock Holmes
• Jay Finley Christ's list of four-letter abbreviations of the 60 stories
• Writings about the writings - the Harry Potter & Sherlock Holmes phenomena
• Discovering Sherlock Holmes (Stanford University)
• The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes (Leslie S. Klinger)
• The best Sherlock Holmes stories, from Randall Stock and originally in the Baker Street Journal

In this episode, we sit down for a chat with Mike Berdan, BSI to discuss his article "The Adventure of the Dead Detective" in the Spring 2007 Baker Street Journal. Mike tells us about:

• How he came to be interested in Holmes
• His origins with Sherlock Holmes societies
• Some of his previous 12 published articles in the Journal
• The life of a freelance writer
• His inspiration behind the current article
• Response to Mike's thesis in his article
• Advice for aspiring Sherlockian scholars looking to be published
• A surprising revelation

It's worth noting that this episode was actually our first recording session; the audio, while not ideal, is leveled better than the previous interview. We hope that you'll be able to listen to it without any difficulty.Links from this episode:Following is a list of some Sherlockian journals that consider contributions for publication:

• The Baker Street Journal
• The Serpentine Muse
• The Sherlock Holmes Society Journal
• QuinCahier (from the Societe Sherlock Holmes de France)
• The Shoso-In Bulletin (Japan)

Mike's article from the BSJ:

• The Adventure of the Dead Detective

From now until July 15, the nomination process is open at PodcastAwards.com. Please consider nominating us for an award in the Cultural / Arts category. We appreciate your support.

In this episode, Scott & Burt interview Steve Doyle and Mark Gagen, who run the very successful Wessex Press. You'll hear us speak with this very dedicated team about their publishing experience and how they go about planning and executing some very successful Sherlockian events. We also have our first audio comment from John Pforr (thanks, John!) and Burt reads a Gas Lamp from an old issue of the Baker Street Journal.Show Notes:01:05 Introduction02:21 Welcome to Mark & Steve07:17 All about Wessex Press/Gasogene Books13:12 The Sherlock Holmes Reference Library20:15 Planning conferences, lessons learned and successes25:32 From Gillette to Brett26:38 From Gillette to Brett II33:12 Listener voicemail34:37 Gas Lamp: from Volume 2, Number 1 of the Baker Street Journal, 1947Links mentioned in this show:Wessex PressThe New Annotated Sherlock HolmesThe Sherlock Holmes Reference LibraryThe Annotated Lost WorldVideos from the Granada series with Jeremy BrettA Study in Celluloid: Michael Cox's account of Jeremy Brett as Sherlock HolmesThe Baker Street JournalLet us know what you think of the show, ask us a question or make a recommendation. Please make comments below, email us or call (774) 221-READ (7323)

"I hear of Sherlock everywhere since you became his chronicler" [GREE]

We're very excited to debut the first episode of I Hear of Sherlock Everywhere. To set the stage for what you'll expect, Scott Monty and Burt Wolder introduce the concept of a Sherlockian podcast. Although Burt and I are both members of the Baker Street Irregulars and we will speak about the history and goings-on of the BSI, this is not the official podcast of the BSI. Should that august body ever decide to emerge from 1895 and start its own podcast, we'll be sure to let you know. In this episode, we explore the following topics:

• Why a podcast?
• Ways to listen to the show
• The breadth of interest in Sherlock Holmes
• Listener comments - welcome, encouraged, by phone, email or the comment feature below
• Show frequency and length
• My First Meeting with Sherlock Holmes - Burt and Scott each share their own first experience with the great detective
• The Editor's Gas Lamp - from the Baker Street Journal, Vol. 1, No. 2 (1946), "What Is It That We Love In Sherlock Holmes?"

Links mentioned in this show:

• Podcast (via Wikipedia)
• iTunes
• The Annotated Sherlock Holmes: 2 Vols. in One
• The Baker Street Journal
• The BSJ CD-ROM

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