tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-318917632012-01-04T06:14:30.621ZBradburymedia: Reviewing the film, television, radio and theatre work of the leading American writerPhilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04216810702125906530noreply@blogger.comBlogger3081100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31891763.post-41197143153984383772011-12-28T08:00:00.000Z2011-12-28T08:00:08.364Z

It's common knowledge (or received wisdom) that for every film that gets made, the are 5000 screenplays that get left on a shelf; some because they are awful, but a goodly proportion for no particular reason other than being the wrong script at the wrong time. Even a writer with an established reputation - Ray Bradbury, to pick an example at random! - can suffer this same fate. Although

Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04216810702125906530noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31891763.post-11812190894168641732011-12-26T08:00:00.000Z2011-12-26T08:00:04.777Z

Back in 1963, we had barely left the confines of Earth. The Mercury program was underway, and a few Moon probes had been flung toward our natural satellite. With the developing space age, the media were beginning to pick out certain figures from the science fiction field who appeared to have some expertise in envisaging the future. Somewhat oddly, given his lack of interest in technical and

Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04216810702125906530noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31891763.post-82135407368773601132011-12-24T08:00:00.000Z2011-12-24T08:00:01.360Z

There's a lot of Bradbury audio material freely available out there, especially radio drama adaptations from the 1950s. Many of these are of a dubious copyright status: series such as Dimension X are generally regarded as being in the public domain in the US simply because of their age and lack of copyright renewal at the appropriate time; but in most cases the underlying Bradbury short story

Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04216810702125906530noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31891763.post-1275607877970384512011-12-21T08:00:00.000Z2011-12-21T08:00:17.027Z

Ray Bradbury's work is used in all sorts of classrooms, particularly in the US. Fahrenheit 451  is frequently adopted for Big Read programmes, and adaptations of his works (especially the short film All Summer in a Day and the graphic novel of F451) have extended his popularity. Boston University recently published an account - in their One Day, One Class series - of how one lecturer uses the

Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04216810702125906530noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31891763.post-75613207988094503082011-12-18T08:00:00.000Z2011-12-18T08:00:14.864Z

Although I systematically scour the web for Bradbury related material, some items slip under the radar. For instance, I just discovered a podcast from 2010 reporting on Bradbury's 90th birthday party and Ray Bradbury Week. It comes from the Cinefantastique Post-Mortem series, and features Lawrence French talking about Bradbury, the celebrations, Rachel Bloom, Fahrenheit 451 and William F. Nolan

Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04216810702125906530noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31891763.post-55895443605856158242011-12-15T08:00:00.000Z2011-12-15T08:00:18.895Z

There's an excellent blog out there called Thrilling Wonder Stories. In September it carried a review of Bradbury's "Kaleidoscope", as adapted for the 1950s radio series Dimension X by George Lefferts. It also includes the episode for you to listen to. In many ways, "Kaleidoscope" is an ideal piece for radio drama, as its impact can be carried largely through the use of voice and the odd sound

Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04216810702125906530noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31891763.post-63226651559158213692011-12-12T08:00:00.001Z2011-12-12T08:00:06.645Z

You may have seen the recent flap about Ray Bradbury finally authorising e-book editions of his work - apparently starting with the delightfully ironic Kindle edition of Fahrenheit 451. Here's The Guardian's report. Many of the reports focus on the theme of F451 as being the dangers of destroying books... but overlook the key lesson of F451, which is that it's the TEXT that matters, not the

Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04216810702125906530noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31891763.post-25408012723116667272011-12-09T08:00:00.000Z2011-12-09T08:00:07.567Z

If you happen to be in Bradbury's home town of Waukegan, Illinois, now would be a good time to get down to your local museum. The Waukegan History Museum has an Open House on Saturday, offering a chance to view an exhibit called “Ray Bradbury: Waukegan’s Influence On A Visionary”. The exhbit runs until 22 December. More details can be found here.  And if you want to travel a bit further from

Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04216810702125906530noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31891763.post-75140530512510549922011-12-06T20:48:00.001Z2011-12-06T21:10:44.002Z

I've been away from the blog for a while due to pressure of work, but I felt compelled to do an update on the reviews for Jon Eller's excellent book Becoming Ray Bradbury. The book came out in the summer, and has been gathering positive reviews both in literary circles and in the popular press. One of the most interesting reviews is actually quite an insightful article about Bradbury, using

Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04216810702125906530noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31891763.post-37580984368571515262011-11-12T21:30:00.000Z2011-12-08T15:39:02.571Z

Bradbury's home town of Waukegan, Illinois, has a brand new mural representing the town's history. The mural is on Le Opera on Genesee Street. Among the historic figures and events depicted are Ray Bradbury, Jack Benny, the Genesee Theatre, the Carnegie Library, the old and current lighthouses, and Waukegan children in silhouette - looking to the future, according to the Lake County News-Sun.

Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04216810702125906530noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31891763.post-56891091945541339062011-11-10T11:07:00.001Z2011-11-10T11:07:47.311Z

A while back I believe I mentioned Arthur Slade's novel Dust, which has been compared to Bradbury's Something Wicked This Way Comes and Stephen King's Needful Things. I haven't read Dust yet, but I have browsed the opening chapters and find it quite appealing. In fact, I was fortunate to spot that, for a while, it was available as a free download in Kindle format, which is how I came by it. (

Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04216810702125906530noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31891763.post-27304835581855689532011-11-06T08:00:00.000Z2011-11-06T08:00:06.379Z

I don't know how I managed to miss this until now, but here's a 1974 interview with Ray Bradbury. It's from a series called Day at Night, hosted by James Day, and comes from CUNY TV. CUNY uploaded this and other archive material to YouTube.

Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04216810702125906530noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31891763.post-16555027591890998762011-11-03T08:00:00.000Z2011-11-03T08:00:10.274Z

Of all months, October is the one most associated with Ray Bradbury. He wrote The October Country and The Halloween Tree, and set Something Wicked This Way Comes in the month of October. As a consequence, there are more references to Bradbury on the web at this time of year than at any other time. Now it's over(!), here's a few notable pieces which appeared recently: Claire Thompson uses The

Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04216810702125906530noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31891763.post-29480890093810034982011-10-31T08:00:00.003Z2011-10-31T08:00:05.387Z

Halloween comes but once a year, and fortunately the traditions don't change much... so I have no reason not to pass on this five-year-old link which explains some of the significance of things we associate with Halloween. The article begins with a quote from Bradbury's The Halloween Tree, which is itself, of course, full of information about those traditions, albeit in a fictional context. Have

Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04216810702125906530noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31891763.post-13080038631498354222011-10-27T08:16:00.000+01:002011-10-27T08:17:43.069+01:00

The BBC has a surprise Halloween treat this Saturday: a new radio dramatisation of Bradbury's Something Wicked This Way Comes. All I know about the production is what is on the BBC web page. SWTWC has been dramatised a few times. There was a film scripted by Bradbury (and an uncredited John Mortimer) in 1982, a play by Bradbury in 1988, and a radio production by Colonial Radio Theater a

Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04216810702125906530noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31891763.post-56594034414113730842011-10-19T11:11:00.002+01:002011-10-19T11:11:50.796+01:00

I just heard that Norman Corwin, radio dramatist and producer-director, has passed away at the grand age of 101. Norman's career is remarkable enough in itself (I recommend the obituary in the Los Angeles Times for an overview of his life and achievements. But he also had a significant impact on the life and career of a certain Ray Bradbury. I wish I had time to go into greater detail, but at

Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04216810702125906530noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31891763.post-12026355494983568302011-10-14T22:49:00.002+01:002011-10-14T22:50:27.220+01:00

One of the best source books for the study of science fiction - for both the scholar and the casual fan - is The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction. Two print editions of the book appeared in the 1980s and 1990s, followed by a CD-ROM version. Now the SF Encyclopedia has gone online, and is freely accessible to everyone: http://www.sf-encyclopedia.com The text is a beta version: this means that the

Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04216810702125906530noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31891763.post-21598107434615043532011-10-07T20:27:00.000+01:002011-10-07T20:27:00.179+01:00

Production has just begun on another short film based on a Bradbury story. Jack in the Box is directed by Alex Gray as his thesis film at the Colorado Film School. The production is being promoted at IndieGoGo, where you are invited to contribute to the film's production fund - in return for a DVD (or something better still if you offer more money). The short story of "Jack in the Box" first

Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04216810702125906530noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31891763.post-7078449119844536972011-10-05T08:00:00.000+01:002011-10-05T08:00:06.011+01:00

I recently saw this brief piece on the web which compared the novel and film versions of Something Wicked This Way Comes. The article mentions in passing that "Disney" made some changes to the story in adapting the novel to film, specifically the invention of some new minor characters. This first made me smile, because I wondered if the author of the article was aware that the screenplay for

Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04216810702125906530noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31891763.post-65799102988665434032011-10-02T08:00:00.001+01:002011-10-02T08:00:05.193+01:00

Steven Paul Leiva, the writer and producer who co-ordinated events for Ray Bradbury Week in Los Angeles in 2010, has written a review of Jon Eller's new book Becoming Ray Bradbury. The review, for Neworld Review, is here. My own review of Becoming Ray Bradbury is here, and the publisher's page for the book is here. Meanwhile, over on The Guardian's website, the reading group for

Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04216810702125906530noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31891763.post-38762279075359392202011-09-29T20:21:00.002+01:002011-09-30T21:09:16.488+01:00

Writing for DC Streets Blog, Anne Lutz Fernandez discusses early- and mid-twentieth century literary uses of the car. Her reference points include Bradbury's prescient view of fast-car culture in Fahrenheit 451, as well as Huxley's satirical view of Henry Ford in Brave New World. F.Scott Fitzgerald (pictured left!) also gets a mention. The blog post is here, and I see that Fernandez also has a

Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04216810702125906530noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31891763.post-90904108049318735022011-09-19T08:00:00.000+01:002011-09-19T08:00:07.176+01:00

Chris Charles' short film The Small Assassin, based on the Bradbury story of the same name, has won an award at a film festival in Illinois. It picked up a $1000 first prize at the Elgin Film Festival. The full story is here. You can read my 2008 review of the film here, although it's possible that the version in the festival is a different edit of the film. Although the film has been in

Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04216810702125906530noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31891763.post-74388229589791359532011-09-16T08:00:00.000+01:002011-09-16T08:00:06.236+01:00

A.E. Van Vogt invented the term "fix-up" to describe a novel made up out of previously published short stories. It was a practice he indulged in himself, quite understandably: for writers who made a meagre living by penning short stories for pulp magazines, it was an efficient and rewarding way of keeping their work out there in hardcover or paperback. The term is often applied to a number of

Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04216810702125906530noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31891763.post-59048561600803150392011-09-13T08:00:00.000+01:002011-09-13T08:00:02.015+01:00

A new stage production of Fahrenheit 451 is on in Bethesda, Maryland until 9 October. Not somewhere I've ever been... Information about the production is here. And here's the trailer!

Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04216810702125906530noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31891763.post-47835932562061081992011-09-10T10:10:00.004+01:002011-09-10T10:10:44.038+01:00

I've been away from the blog for a while due to pressure of work, but here's a few Bradbury-related items that have been floating around the web. Waukegan, Illinois, is about to host this years Ray Bradbury Storytelling Festival. This is an annual event held in the Genesee Theatre in Bradbury's hometown. Tickets go on sale on 16 September. Perhaps due to the recent publication of his book

Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04216810702125906530noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31891763.post-53634069858357430722011-08-29T08:00:00.000+01:002011-08-29T08:00:05.842+01:00

John C. Tibbetts is an academic and critic. Among his many writings have been interviews with and profiles of Ray Bradbury and a comprehensive review of Bradbury's filmed and unfilmed screenplays. But Tibbetts is also an artist, who has sketched many of the famous people he has profiled, and often got THEM to sign the work. Here are a couple of his Bradbury sketches, taken from his own website:

Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04216810702125906530noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31891763.post-83453332512651394602011-08-25T20:33:00.004+01:002011-08-25T20:50:38.890+01:00

On Bradbury's 91st birthday (Monday of this week), it was officially announced that a deal has been completed for the production of a feature film adaptation of Bradbury's 1957 novel Dandelion Wine. The producers of the new venture are Mike Medavoy, whose credits include Shutter Island and Black Swan, and Doug McKay. Many times on this blog I have cautioned about getting too excited over

Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04216810702125906530noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31891763.post-57087201539672774962011-08-22T21:09:00.003+01:002011-08-22T21:21:20.872+01:00

Today is the ninety-first birthday of Ray Bradbury. The man just keeps going, with new works coming out all the time. For a much better written tribute, read what novelist Alice Hoffman has to say in this tribute from the LA Times.

Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04216810702125906530noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31891763.post-23098636110227728552011-08-21T08:00:00.000+01:002011-08-21T08:00:03.016+01:00

The UK first edition of Fahrenheit 451 differed from the US first edition: it contained only the title story, and omitted the other stories "The Playground" and "And The Rock Cried Out". The latter stories would later turn up in Bradbury short story collections.Such minor differences between UK and US editions are quite common in Bradbury's books, and were there from the outset - even Bradbury's

Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04216810702125906530noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31891763.post-86652006039966315702011-08-17T08:00:00.004+01:002011-08-17T08:00:00.277+01:00

When Fahrenheit 451 was first published in the UK, it didn't exactly make a big splash with the critics. The Guardian newspaper carried a single paragraph review, part of a "books of the day" column, although it was written by a significant literary critic.Hugh I'Anson Fausset is little known today, but was evidently an important reviewer, as suggested by the list of his critical works in his

Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04216810702125906530noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31891763.post-34891005619203453262011-08-13T08:00:00.001+01:002011-08-13T08:00:06.156+01:00

Do you sometimes read a TV or film review and wonder whether the critic has been watching the same thing as you?I had this (familiar) thought when I recently read a contemporary review of the 1964 Alfred Hitchcock Hour production of Bradbury's "The Jar". The review was written by critic Derek Malcolm in The Guardian (13 March 1964).Malcolm is generally dismissive of the series as a whole, saying

Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04216810702125906530noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31891763.post-8566129032716772082011-08-09T08:00:00.005+01:002011-08-09T08:00:13.302+01:00

Back in 1953, you could get a hardcover novel for $2.50... or a paperback for 35 cents. Specifically, you could get Fahrenheit 451 for those prices, in the first edition from Ballantine Books.Strictly speaking, I suppose Fahrenheit 451 was a collection rather than a novel, since that first edition also contained two other stories: "The Pedestrian" and "And The Rock Cried Out".Among the first

Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04216810702125906530noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31891763.post-14424065539648515042011-08-05T08:00:00.001+01:002011-08-05T08:00:00.643+01:00

Ray Bradbury writes across many genres. I've never counted up how many stories are SF, how many fantasy, how many horror, how many "mainstream" - but I would estimate that only a small percentage are out-and-out science fiction. Bradbury himself claims that only one of his novels is science fiction: Fahrenheit 451. The Martian Chronicles, on the other hand, he considers to be fantasy. Yes, it

Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04216810702125906530noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31891763.post-84982252289362070952011-08-01T08:00:00.001+01:002011-08-01T08:00:03.577+01:00

I've been listening to another Colonial Radio production: Logan's Run - Last Day.It's a full-cast dramatisation of various story elements from the Logan books, although I gather it is more directly adapted from the comic book series from Bluewater Productions.I haven't read the comics, so I can't comment on this aspect of the adaptation, except to say that the radio dramatisation has a breathless

Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04216810702125906530noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31891763.post-80518219274687607532011-07-28T08:00:00.001+01:002011-07-28T08:00:02.935+01:00

Chicago literature website New City Lit has a new article on a visit to Bradbury's hometown of Waukegan. A decent enough piece, with some welcome photos, it seems to conclude that Waukegan could do more to show its respect for its famous literary son.While it's true that Waukegan has no statue of Bradbury, it does have a park named after him, and one of five stars on the 'walk of fame' is for

Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04216810702125906530noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31891763.post-60390595062995751712011-07-24T08:00:00.002+01:002011-07-25T16:04:48.212+01:00

If you have a shelf full of Ray Bradbury's books, you may think you know his work well. You'd be wrong.Professor Jonathan Eller of Indiana University has made it the work of a decade or so to pull off Bradbury's mask and find what's beneath. Some of this work has been done in studies of single works by Bradbury. Eller has edited, co-edited or contributed to volumes such as It Came From Outer

Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04216810702125906530noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31891763.post-51951235809948368612011-07-21T08:00:00.001+01:002011-07-21T08:00:00.188+01:00

It's nearly four years since we read the announcements that Zack Snyder was going to direct The Illustrated Man. It's getting on for ten years since we read that, first, Mel Gibson, and latterly Frank Darabont were going to film Fahrenheit 451.Unfortunately, that's the way it goes in the movie business. It's not that it actually takes four years (or ten years) to make a movie, just that the

Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04216810702125906530noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31891763.post-11845048202016160822011-07-18T08:59:00.008+01:002011-07-18T09:32:44.714+01:00

Opinions are divided on what is best in an adaptation. Ask the proverbial man on the street, and I'm sure he will tell you that when he watches a film based on a book he's read, he wants it to tell the same story. Fidelity, faithfulness to the original work, is all important.Except: it's impossible to achieve, because what works optimally in one medium can be impossible, dull or clunky in a

Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04216810702125906530noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31891763.post-82531822704989034622011-07-13T22:49:00.002+01:002011-07-13T22:54:54.016+01:00

Some sad news: the actor Roberts Blossom has died at the age of 87. He was in lots of great films, usually in small, quirky roles. But for me, he is a definitive Bradbury character: the Burning Man, in J.D.Feigelson's Twilight Zone episode.Read the New York Times obituary here - and my review of "The Burning Man" here.

Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04216810702125906530noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31891763.post-35449788080761341332011-07-12T08:00:00.003+01:002011-07-12T08:00:11.978+01:00

Ray Bradbury is the focus of my academic research into the relationships between literary text and screenwriting. I've also done a bit of study of the literature and screen works of Harlan Ellison. There are a few other writers whose literary and screen careers I have tracked, although I haven't gone so far as to write or publish anything about them. In this latter category is the late Theodore

Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04216810702125906530noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31891763.post-43460635054286637362011-07-09T08:00:00.000+01:002011-07-09T08:00:10.055+01:00

The always entertaining site Trailers from Hell hosts commentaries on movies by movie makers and critics, and is always a good place to head when you have a spare five minutes or so.Among the delights are director and cinematographer Ernest Dickerson reviewing the 1956 Bradbury-Melville-Huston collaboration Moby Dick... and director and screenwriter Darren Bousman discussing the

Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04216810702125906530noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31891763.post-58691092874986032042011-07-06T08:00:00.000+01:002011-07-06T08:00:03.799+01:00

Orange County Screenwriter's Association has a tribute to Bradbury, which tells us how the writer of the article has been inspired by Ray. Unfortunately, the writer is virtually anonymous, posting as "marse". He's probably someone incredibly famous or influential, but there's no way of me knowing that...This, by the way, is another article that gets Ray's age wrong. We're told he's already 91,

Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04216810702125906530noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31891763.post-8430040319427675612011-07-03T12:07:00.003+01:002011-07-03T12:07:00.842+01:00

The band British Sea Power release a new single on 25 July. Taken from their current album Valhalla Dancehall, it's a song called "Georgie Ray". Georgie is a reference to George Orwell, and Ray is a reference to Ray Bradbury.The song is a plea for us to act and speak out in order to prevent the destruction of the world. The opening lines are, "Before this day is cemented/In memory of Ray/Can we

Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04216810702125906530noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31891763.post-33680954263232673162011-06-30T08:00:00.005+01:002011-06-30T08:00:07.369+01:00

Thanks to Jeff Krulik, here are two video features from the National Trust for Historic Preservation featuring interviews with Ray Bradbury. In the first, he proclaims himself to be a "verbal architect". And in the second, he tells the story of the legendary "Brown Room" at Clifton's Cafeteria in downtown Los Angeles. Trust Modern recognizes this space as an unheralded landmark, important to

Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04216810702125906530noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31891763.post-47281026841343802982011-06-27T08:00:00.004+01:002011-06-27T08:00:09.406+01:00

There should be a little thumbnail image just here, but Blogger's image uploading facility wasn't working when I tried to post this. Anyhoo...Here's an amusing little item from the website Timothy Sweeney's Internet Tendency: a list of things overheard on Ray Bradbury Theatre. I can't swear that these are all genuine, but they have the ring of truth - and that's good enough for me. Here's a brief

Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04216810702125906530noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31891763.post-58042470517926131852011-06-24T08:00:00.004+01:002011-06-24T08:00:03.165+01:00

I like a bit of experimental sound, and I like a bit of Bradbury. So what's not to like about Raydio Broadcasts, a "series of audio vignettes based on recombining and rearranging bits and pieces from Ray Bradbury's huge output of inspiring literature"?According to their creators, Charles Rice Goff III and Justynn Tyme, the collection called Mrs Morris Goes to Mars came about like this:We sampled

Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04216810702125906530noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31891763.post-30547279674964840202011-06-21T08:00:00.005+01:002011-06-21T08:00:06.956+01:00

Someone over on IMDB has posted a list of their top ten episodes of Ray Bradbury Theatre. It's an interesting list, and inevitably got me thinking about my favourite episodes.In some cases, "best episode" would coincide with "best story" - but in other cases, this simple equation doesn't hold. There are great stories that made good episodes, such as "The Long Years" and "A Sound of Thunder"...

Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04216810702125906530noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31891763.post-13675600550532436672011-06-18T08:00:00.000+01:002011-06-18T08:00:02.404+01:00

I've followed the movie business for long enough to know not to get excited when a book is optioned by a major producer or studio. Hollywood especially is prone to put movies through countless stages of development - development hell, they call it - before finally abandoning all plans. Somewhere, just outside Burbank I suspect, is an elephant's graveyard of script page discards where lie the

Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04216810702125906530noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31891763.post-34341264817796132982011-06-15T08:00:00.000+01:002011-06-15T08:00:11.031+01:00

Looking for some Ray Bradbury fiction to read for free? Look no further than Google Books, where you will find two issues of Boy's Life magazine that contain Bradbury stories!From December 1961 is this Christmas number containing a reprint of the 1949 short story "The Man":Then, from 1987, comes this reprint of 1955's "The Time Machine" - which may be familiar, because this story is also a

Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04216810702125906530noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31891763.post-41971902431017782752011-06-12T22:58:00.000+01:002011-06-12T22:58:00.088+01:00

It is with sadness that I report the death of Alan Neal Hubbs, who for many years was the director of Ray Bradbury's stage plays for the Pandemonium Theatre Company.Alan Neal Hubbs with Ray Bradbury. Photo courtesy Robert Kerr.I met Alan briefly last year at Ray's 90th birthday party. I recognised him from photos I'd seen on the web, so I approached him and said, "Are you Alan Neal Hubbs?" He

Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04216810702125906530noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31891763.post-21384580819204643132011-06-11T14:26:00.004+01:002011-06-11T14:35:38.373+01:00

British listeners get a rare chance to hear broadcasts of the classic 1980s radio series Bradbury 13 starting this weekend. The series - about which I have raved extensively - is being broadcast on Saturdays and Sundays at 6pm (and repeated at 12.30am), on the digital station Radio 4 Extra (formerly BBC 7).Episode details for the broadcasts are here. 4Extra's content is streamed live, and most

Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04216810702125906530noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31891763.post-46427938717692048622011-06-09T08:00:00.001+01:002011-06-09T08:00:08.631+01:00

New Scientist magazine has a mini-feature about SF, inspired by the British Library exhibition on the subject. H.G.Wells gets a couple of mentions, and so does Bradbury's classic short story "A Sound of Thunder". Read the feature and enjoy the wonderful imagery here.

Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04216810702125906530noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31891763.post-5879422968149947602011-06-06T08:00:00.000+01:002011-06-06T08:00:11.016+01:00

The library of Ray Bradbury's home town Waukegan is organising a creative competition - for writers, artists, composers and others. Modest prizes are on offer (50 USD for Waukegan residents; certificates for non-residents), with the opportunity for winning entries to be displayed in the library and read at the annual Bradbury Storytelling Festival.This year, all entries are to be based on

Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04216810702125906530noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31891763.post-59266858087376833412011-06-03T08:00:00.002+01:002011-06-03T08:00:08.930+01:00

The blog Modern Mechanix has reproduced a rare Bradbury appearance: his poem "Where Robot Mice And Robot Men Run Round In Robot Towns", as it appeared in the magazine Interface Age in 1978. The poem's first appearance was in Bradbury's book of the same title (Knopf hardcover, 1977).Some things you see on these interwebs are just too bizarre for words. Maybe this is why links were invented. See

Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04216810702125906530noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31891763.post-59329721816706799682011-05-31T09:00:00.000+01:002011-05-31T09:00:06.649+01:00

As I have mentioned before, the British Library is hosting an exhibition on science fiction, and this event has attracted a bit of media coverage. One of the better pieces is on the BBC website: a discussion of the predictive elements of some SF, which moves on to other functions and values of the genre.Bradbury is cited because of the once fanciful elements of Fahrenheit 451 which have now come

Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04216810702125906530noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31891763.post-56809341370385038742011-05-27T23:02:00.000+01:002011-05-27T23:02:00.689+01:00

On June 7th, Colonial Radio Theatre releases its latest Ray Bradbury production: a full cast dramatisation of The Martian Chronicles. Colonial has a great track record of adapting Bradbury, with their award-winning productions of Dandelion Wine, Something Wicked This Way Comes and The Halloween Tree. This one, though, is probably the most complex of them all: Bradbury's book is neither novel nor

Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04216810702125906530noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31891763.post-79284865120916118642011-05-26T16:08:00.003+01:002011-05-26T16:15:46.947+01:00

Fancy a vacation in sunny Palm Springs? Want to live like the literati?What could be better than a stay at the former second home of internationally renowned writer of speculative fiction, Ray Bradbury?This may sound like a piece of fiction, but strangely enough Bradbury's old Palm Springs home is now being offered as a holiday let. Full details - including the daily and weekly rates -can be

Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04216810702125906530noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31891763.post-25929559194816850582011-05-22T08:24:00.002+01:002011-05-22T08:29:54.632+01:00

The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America have announced the winners of the Nebula Awards. Among the worthy winners are the following:Ray Bradbury Award (for film/tv): InceptionBest short story: a tie between "Ponies" by Kij Johnson and "How Interesting: a Tiny Man" by Harlan Ellison.Full details are here.

Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04216810702125906530noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31891763.post-44791063494349998542011-05-18T09:00:00.003+01:002011-05-18T09:00:01.763+01:00

The Guardian recently published a feature in which leading figures in modern science fiction nominate favourite works from the genre. It's more than just a list: each contributor has written a short essay on their chosen work. Among the leading figures are Ursula LeGuin, Brian Aldiss, William Gibson, Margaret Atwood, Michael Moorcock and John Clute.Atwood's choice seems highly appropriate for the

Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04216810702125906530noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31891763.post-72732278889421074172011-05-15T09:00:00.000+01:002011-05-15T09:00:02.313+01:00

Publication information has started to appear for Becoming Ray Bradbury, the new book from Jon Eller which I first discussed back in 2009. It's a literary biography, focusing on the factors that influenced Bradbury's development as a writer.The publisher's web page for the book is here, and it can be pre-ordered from Amazon here.A bit closer to the release date, I will publish a detailed review

Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04216810702125906530noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31891763.post-3402942596754770062011-05-12T09:00:00.003+01:002011-05-17T20:53:44.383+01:00

As a follow-up to the successful graphic novel adaptation of Fahrenheit 451, Bradbury has authorised new graphic versions of two other books. The Martian Chronicles and Something Wicked This Way Comes are both due out in the middle of 2011 (as I reported back in December).Publishers' Weekly has published previews of several pages from each volume. Click here to view them.I'm not entirely sure I

Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04216810702125906530noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31891763.post-17693636783917287462011-05-09T14:42:00.003+01:002011-05-09T14:55:05.541+01:00

One of Bradbury's favourite declarations is "Live forever!" - supposedly what Mr Electrico said to him at a carnival in his childhood, and ever since part of his philosophy of life. Ray features in a new documentary, How to Live Forever, alongside other famous nonagenarians. Here's a review.Judging by the trailer, Ray is a young slip of a lad compared to some of the other folks featured in the

Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04216810702125906530noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31891763.post-44169135534417075842011-05-05T09:00:00.000+01:002011-05-05T09:00:07.611+01:00

This post should be tagged with "now how did I miss that?" Back in October of last year, Forces of Geek published a two-part article on Something Wicked This Way Comes. It's a well constructed piece of work, with a fine level of detail on the production history of Something Wicked as both novel and film.The book started out as a short story - "The Black Ferris" - and later became (in this order)

Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04216810702125906530noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31891763.post-39712938288204045062011-05-02T09:00:00.001+01:002011-05-02T09:00:03.271+01:00

Further to my post back in January, it has now been confirmed that the book Live Forever will be co-edited by Sam Weller, Ray Bradbury's biographer. The tribute volume will have an introduction by Bradbury and, as I reported here, will include a new story and afterword by Harlan Ellison. The book will also include all-new tales by Neil Gaiman, Joe Hill, Audrey Niffenegger, Alice Hoffmann, Dan

Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04216810702125906530noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31891763.post-54265415588564169512011-04-29T09:00:00.003+01:002011-04-29T09:00:10.574+01:00

I have briefly blogged before on how Bradbury invented the modern shopping mall - not in a science-fictional way in one of his stories, but in a for-real way through a series of essays.Bradbury's book Yestermorrow includes these essays, written when Bradbury was associated with the architectural company Jon Jerde Associates. Among Bradbury's innovations, none of which sound terribly startling

Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04216810702125906530noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31891763.post-81347361774240341162011-04-25T20:41:00.003+01:002011-04-25T20:47:45.391+01:00

Steven Paul Leiva, who last year co-ordinated Ray Bradbury Week in Los Angeles, has put up a new blog post in which he writes about Ray Bradbury's old family home in Venice, California, and the famous powerhouse next door - which seved as the inspiration for the story called, naturally, "The Powerhouse". He also includes some of Jon Eller's photos of the last days of the powerhouse.(The post

Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04216810702125906530noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31891763.post-8455571569909154892011-04-23T09:00:00.000+01:002011-04-23T09:00:07.122+01:00

One of the fun(?) things about tracking Ray Bradbury's publication history is trying to find out more about some of the more obscure periodicals that carried his work.The short story "Time Intervening" was originally published in 1947 as "Interim". Confusingly, Bradbury used this same original title for a completely unrelated story in his first book Dark Carnival."Time Intervening"/"Interim"

Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04216810702125906530noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31891763.post-69110072870662017022011-04-20T09:00:00.002+01:002011-04-20T09:00:01.430+01:00

Of all Ray Bradbury's stage plays, by far the most difficult to stage must be The Martian Chronicles. Bradbury wrote the play himself, from his own "novel" - but of course the "novel" is really a collection of short stories, woven together into a loose chronology.The play, somehow, has to take the fragmentary narrative of the book and turn it into something with a unity of time, place and event.

Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04216810702125906530noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31891763.post-41233436316951566622011-04-17T09:00:00.002+01:002011-04-17T09:00:05.332+01:00

The Stories of Ray Bradbury: a Critical Edition is a new series of books which I have mentioned before, the latest publishing project from the Center for Ray Bradbury Studies. I'm still working through the newly published Volume 1 and hope to put up a page for it fairly soon. For now, I'll just say that this remarkable book presents a new way of looking at the familiar stories, and a first

Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04216810702125906530noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31891763.post-91927789973143936082011-04-14T09:00:00.003+01:002011-04-14T09:00:16.079+01:00

The blog Den of Geek, by way of introducing a DVD release of the movie Monsters, joins a long line of commentators who credit Ray Bradbury with inventing the "primeval creature causes destruction in the modern world" subgenre. The justification for this claim is Bradbury's short story "The Fog Horn", once and famously filmed as The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms.The claim is perhaps slightly

Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04216810702125906530noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31891763.post-76648919189410518072011-04-11T09:00:00.003+01:002011-04-11T09:00:13.185+01:00

Another Fahrenheit 451 stage production is receiving positive reviews. This one is in Pittsfield, Massachussets. According to J.Peter Bergman of The Advocate, this production "satisfies on just about all levels".Who could ask for more?Read all about it here. And read more in The Berkshire Eagle.

Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04216810702125906530noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31891763.post-12800790695252212732011-04-08T09:00:00.000+01:002011-04-08T09:00:08.709+01:00

Ray Bradbury's affection for Ireland and the Irish is well known, and well documented in his fictional account of his time in Dublin, Green Shadows, White Whale. The feeling isn't always mutual, unfortunately. On 2nd March 1963, the Irish Times published a brief review of Bradbury's then new book Something Wicked This Way Comes:Finally to a novel which, because, it seems, I have read only the

Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04216810702125906530noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31891763.post-86064259491839632712011-04-05T09:00:00.003+01:002011-04-05T09:00:09.513+01:00

"The Kilimanjaro Device" is one of Bradbury's Hemingway-inspired short stories, and was first published in Life magazine in January 1965 under the title "The Kilimanjaro Machine". Life didn't publish much fiction, so this story's appearance there was exceptional.The Life archive is fully accessible through Google Books, and so we can enjoy the story - and illustrations - as it originally appeared

Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04216810702125906530noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31891763.post-64029157346766941742011-04-02T09:00:00.001+01:002011-04-02T09:00:01.228+01:00

Things are busying up here at Bradburymedia, as I have been given the privilege of a sneak preview of some new Bradbury-related items. I can't post about these in any detail yet, but reviews will be forthcoming at some point:Becoming Ray Bradbury is the latest work from Bradbury scholar Jon Eller of Indiana University. Jon is currently checking the page proofs and readying this volume for

Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04216810702125906530noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31891763.post-60803740823106374072011-03-30T09:00:00.001+01:002011-03-30T09:00:05.790+01:00

Thanks to a post I saw on another blog, I have discovered that Time magazine has some of its historical content online. The particular item that drew my attention was this report from 1939 of the first-ever World Science Fiction Convention. This event, held in New York City, was attended by a young Ray Bradbury and some of his Californian friends such as Forry Ackerman.Time also has a number of

Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04216810702125906530noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31891763.post-637625762980769702011-03-27T09:00:00.001+01:002011-03-27T09:00:04.492+01:00

In 1960, Ray Bradbury wrote an article for Life magazine on the then new science of SETI, the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence. Life's archive is available on Google Books, so you can read the entire article for free here.Seven years later, another Bradbury article for Life won him an award from the Aviation Space Writers Association. The article "An Impatient Gulliver Above Our Roofs"

Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04216810702125906530noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31891763.post-29125680264032856742011-03-24T08:00:00.004Z2011-03-24T08:00:06.962Z

It's been a while since I found time to write any reviews of Ray Bradbury Theatre (you can see my overview of the series, and my reviews of episodes here). One of the episodes I haven't written about is "Tyrannosaurus Rex", based on a story which has also appeared in print as "The Prehistoric Producer".It is undoubtedly one of the low points of the series.If you want to know why, there is a neat

Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04216810702125906530noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31891763.post-75771685787325606002011-03-20T17:30:00.000Z2011-03-20T17:30:00.221Z

Back in August of last year, I attended Ray Bradbury's 90th birthday party in the Mystery & Imagination Bookshop in Glendale, California. While crowds packed the front of the shop trying to get a glimpse of Ray, in a quiet corner stood a fellow with a pencil and paper, sketching Bradbury from memory. Said fellow, it turns out, was Bill Goodwin.Bill doesn't know exactly what became of that sketch,

Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04216810702125906530noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31891763.post-79799576113168018252011-03-18T08:00:00.000Z2011-03-18T08:00:02.888Z

A recent college production of Bradbury's stage version of Fahrenheit 451 in Georgia has received a positive review. The technical aspects of this production sound interesting.Just in time for St Patrick's Day was Pillar of Fire's production of Bradbury's Irish play Falling Upward in Alabama. Here is the delightful poster from the production. How many of the faces around the edge do you recognise?

Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04216810702125906530noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31891763.post-50295673497986741722011-03-15T08:00:00.000Z2011-03-15T08:00:10.097Z

Bradbury's work has appeared in almost all media. One of the oddest items, though, is a short story which appeared in a magazine with an advertisement attached. "The Hour of Ghosts" was first published in Saturday Review on October 25 1969, and has not yet been collected in any of Bradbury's books, although it was anthologised in Peter Haining's Ghost Tour in 1991.In December 1969, the story was

Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04216810702125906530noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31891763.post-38061875291751199262011-03-12T08:00:00.000Z2011-03-12T08:00:02.142Z

For at some time or other during the evening, everyone visited here; the neighbors down the way, the people across the street; Miss Fern and Miss Roberta humming by in their electric runabout, giving Tom or Douglas a ride around the block and then coming up to sit down and fan away the fever in their cheeks.That's the first appearance of the electric car that features in Bradbury's

Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04216810702125906530noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31891763.post-4135359559585107862011-03-09T08:00:00.000Z2011-03-09T08:00:08.824Z

Sixty-two years and one month ago the British Guardian newspaper carried its first review of a writer's first book. The book was Dark Carnival by Ray Bradbury, in its British edition from Hamish Hamilton publishers - which was slightly different from the US Arkham House edition.Here, in its entirety, is what reviewer Charles Marriott had to say of young Bradbury's first short story collection:

Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04216810702125906530noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31891763.post-70323216851107029572011-03-06T08:00:00.001Z2011-03-06T08:00:07.169Z

Bradbury has written hundreds of short stories and dozens of books, so it is not surprising that some of his ideas turn up elsewhere. Sometimes it will be plagiarism, as in the case of Playhouse 90's "A Sound of Different Drummers", which stole from Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451. Other times it will be playful homage, such as The Simpsons' passing reference to "A Sound of Thunder" in Time and

Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04216810702125906530noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31891763.post-41398656429823623102011-03-03T08:00:00.004Z2011-03-03T08:00:03.088Z

The always fascinating blog Letters of Note recently posted a 1990s letter from Ray Bradbury. Bradbury was asked about an obstacle in his life that he had overcome. Read the letter - which has been put up for auction - here.And...yet another stage production of Fahrenheit 451, this one by a school in Savannah, Georgia.

Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04216810702125906530noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31891763.post-73224134930313703062011-02-28T08:00:00.005Z2011-02-28T08:00:12.499Z

Terry Pace does a good job in keeping Ray Bradbury's theatre, film and TV work in the public eye. His Pillar of Fire theatre group has a Facebook page, and is also profiled in this report (and YouTube video) on the Left In Alabama website.Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal reports on another stage production of Fahrenheit 451... with a contemporary political viewpoint.Nominations have been

Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04216810702125906530noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31891763.post-17329168265564809032011-02-25T08:00:00.004Z2011-02-25T08:00:09.144Z

The blog of Indiana University's Lilly Library has a recent post on Anthony Boucher, the famed (and pseudonymous) editor and writer. In SF circles, Boucher is probably best known as founding editor of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. However, he had a long career as an author in several genres, and also dabbled in writing for radio and television.The Lilly Library's connection to

Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04216810702125906530noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31891763.post-22464160048536241452011-02-22T08:00:00.003Z2011-02-22T08:00:06.815Z

The book Visions of Mars is approaching publication. Its a collection of essays and articles which are mostly derived from the 2008 Eaton Conference, which was subtitled "Chronicling Mars". The book looks at the way Mars has been depicted in literature, film and popular culture.The table of contents is now online. I see my chapter "Re-Presenting Mars: Bradbury’s Martian Stories in Media

Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04216810702125906530noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31891763.post-51733004116191759432011-02-19T08:00:00.005Z2011-02-19T08:00:00.797Z

I'm just back (a couple of days ago) from the Eaton Conference in Riverside, California, where I presented a paper on a different writer for a change: Harlan Ellison. My paper was titled "Living in a Limited World: Omniscience and Point of View in the Works of Harlan Ellison", and in it I discussed some of the ways Ellison has used point of view to get across the emotional and/or intellectual

Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04216810702125906530noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31891763.post-83869669002386922122011-02-16T08:00:00.006Z2011-02-16T08:00:02.468Z

Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 is quoted in an article from Shelf Awareness on the smell of books! With the growth of e-books, it is only a matter of time before book smell is gone forever, like the sound of the typing pool. Read more about some of the less obvious aspects of book odour in the fascinating artcle, here.Horrorgy, a blog run by internet book dealers Horror Mall, has published a full list

Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04216810702125906530noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31891763.post-21526135759972830722011-02-13T08:00:00.000Z2011-02-13T08:00:09.081Z

Fantasy novelist J.M.McDermott, author of Last Dragon, has blogged at length about what he calls the "mosaic novel". This is a term for novels which are made up of fragments as opposed to straightforward linear narrative. He cites and analyses many examples, one of which is Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles. Chronicles' structure emerges partly from its publishing history: originally composes as

Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04216810702125906530noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31891763.post-65825674136997912442011-02-11T08:00:00.000Z2011-02-11T08:00:12.334Z

The Eaton Conference is about to begin in Riverside, California. I will be there to present a paper, although for once I will not be talking about Bradbury.On this occasion, I will be speaking about Harlan Ellison's work. It is one of two papers on Ellison, who is also due to receive the 2011 Eaton Award for lifetime achievement in fantastic literature. The other paper will be from Rob Latham of

Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04216810702125906530noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31891763.post-80113721678107557562011-02-09T08:00:00.001Z2011-02-09T08:00:11.169Z

Best-selling novelist Jamie Ford, author of Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, has outed himself as the purchaser of Harlan Ellison's typewriter. You may recall that Harlan decided to do a Cormac McCarthy and put one his early-career typewriters up for auction. (If the story is new to you, read my earlier blog post on the topic. I wait here for you while you read this link.)You can read

Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04216810702125906530noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31891763.post-43676018166536951732011-02-06T08:00:00.006Z2011-02-06T08:00:01.499Z

The blog Panel Patter has an interesting short review of the comic book collection series Ray Bradbury Chronicles. These are largely re-collected and re-assembled adaptations of Bradbury stories from the Topps comics, which in turn were a mixture of new material from comic artists such as Richard Corben, and old material taken from the 1950s EC Comics.The blog Book Aunt reviews the Leo & Diane

Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04216810702125906530noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31891763.post-91074688423659225342011-02-03T08:00:00.005Z2011-02-03T08:00:01.846Z

Lou Aronica was once an editor at Bantam Books, and was responsible among other things for Ray Bradbury's books. He has now turned author himself, with a novel called Blue.In this blog post, he talks about his first attempt to contrive a meeting with Bradbury. What's amusing is his account of his worrying over what Bradbury will think of him, and how he might be treated. He concludes, "Ray

Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04216810702125906530noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31891763.post-59198136956568397612011-01-31T08:00:00.009Z2011-01-31T08:00:06.059Z

There has been a lot of information bouncing around the web about Michael O'Kelly's recent stage production Live Forever: the Ray Bradbury Odyssey. Whereas a number of Bradbury's own books and plays have autobiographical elements, this seems to be the first attempt to present an outwardly biographical play about Bradbury himself, albeit with a fantastical treatment.The most interesting article I

Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04216810702125906530noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31891763.post-24092549845367127862011-01-28T09:00:00.009Z2011-01-29T10:32:00.856Z

On Monday, Harlan Ellison mentioned on his website that he has completed a story called "Weariness", and sold it to an upcoming Ray Bradbury tribute book called Live Forever! along with an 1100-word afterword. I don't think I have heard of this book before (if I have, I've forgotten all about it). Shortly thereafter Robert Morales, evidently the editor of said volume, wrote that "the afterword

Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04216810702125906530noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31891763.post-1213728377159214082011-01-25T22:06:00.005Z2011-01-25T22:06:00.513Z

News reaches me from Bernard Selling that he is closer to laying hands on a quality print of his "lost" short film The Flying Machine. You may recall that I have blogged about this film before, including Bernard's account of the making of the film. I am hoping that Bernard's quest will be fulfilled, and that the film will see a new release.Meanwhile, a short clip - which looks to be sourced from

Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04216810702125906530noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31891763.post-9245904709270964042011-01-22T09:04:00.005Z2011-01-22T09:04:00.131Z

I never met Jerry Weist, but he was one of the most important chroniclers of the work of Ray Bradbury. His classic book celebrating the visual art of Bradbury, Ray Bradbury: an Illustrated Life, helped establish a real sense of the evolution of Bradbury's work over the decades. Before Jerry's book, we just knew Bradbury as a novelist and short story writer, and knew he had dabbled with films,

Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04216810702125906530noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31891763.post-30908545763509495692011-01-19T20:11:00.000Z2011-01-19T20:11:00.533Z

Looking for a good, quick, no-nonsense review of Truffaut's 1966 film of Fahrenheit 451? Look no further than this post from Classic Sci-Fi Movies blog. I might even forgive the typo in the post's title!Looking for a brief overview of Sara Teasdale, author of "There Will Come Soft Rains", the poem that inspired a Bradbury short story? Try here.

Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04216810702125906530noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31891763.post-29141580990065048192011-01-16T08:00:00.003Z2011-01-16T08:00:04.695Z

A California gallery is currently exhibiting work by the late Charles Binger, the first time in 45 years that his works have been on display. Binger was a British-born painter, and did some of his best work as cover art for paperback books in the 1950s and 1960s, including covers for books by Bradbury and Aldous Huxley.On the left is his cover design for the first paperback edition of The

Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04216810702125906530noreply@blogger.com0