Bradbury 100 LIVE

On Saturday 21st August - the eve of Ray Bradury's 101st birthday - I took to the "airwaves" of Facebook with another live edition of Bradbury 100.

I was joined over Zoom by writer and former Hollywood animation producer Steven Paul Leiva. Steve knew Ray Bradbury well, having worked with him on the abortive Little Nemo In Slumberland film project, and having organised "Ray Bradbury Week" in Los Angeles in 2010. Steve was also the very first interview guest on the Bradbury 100 audio podcast about a year ago, and it was great to talk to him again.

The live show was recorded, and below you will find a slightly remastered version of the show. Highlights of the show:

• never-before-seen photos from Ray's 90th birthday party
• never-before-seen video from the same party
• Steve's inside scoop on what went wrong (and occasionally right) with Little Nemo in Slumberland
• discussion of Ray and his good friend, the animation legend Chuck Jones

You can find out more about Steven Paul Leiva on his blog, which also has information on his books, which I heartily recommend.

Bradbury 101!

Today would have been Ray Bradbury's 101st birthday - so what better way to celebrate than with a new episode of my Youtube series, Bradbury 101. This time, I look at The October Country. Scroll down to play it.

Thanks to everyone who joined me for yesterday's Bradbury 100 LIVE on Facebook. The recording is still there if you missed it and want to take a look. Or you can wait a few days, and I'll put a better quality version on here. (The live show was done through Zoom, which degrades the picture and sound quality terribly. But I also recorded it "locally", so I can put out a kind of re-mastered version!)

 

 

Bradbury 100 - new episode - AND Live Show

Phil 'n' Ray, back in the day...

 

Tomorrow (22nd August 2021) would have been Ray Bradbury's 101st birthday. That means that the "Bradbury centenary year" is drawing to a close. And so, to round out the centenary I offer you a new episode of the Bradbury 100 podcast as well as Bradbury 100 - LIVE!

The LIVE show will be streamed on Facebook, and I'll also post a recording of it here after the event. (Give me a couple of days - these things don't happen instantly!)

But the "standard", audio podcast is available now. Scroll down and click play, or of course pick the episode up on your podcast app.

In this end-of-centenary podcast episode, I turn the tables (or the microphone) on myself. Instead of interviewing a guest, I talk about my own experiences with Ray - the handful of times I met him, what we talked about, and so on. I'm a bit more brutal when editing myself than when editing interviewees, so this episode is a bit shorter than usual!

Among the things I talk about in the podcast:

• my various academic (and non-academic) writings on Ray
• the one chapter of my PhD thesis which has so far been published, which happens to be about Fahrenheit 451
• Leviathan '99
• Ray's 90th birthday party
  
• This Land is Mine (Jean Renoir, 1943)
• The BBC documentary Ray Bradbury: The Illustrated Man (1980)

 

Of course, now that the Bradbury Centenary is closing, you may be wondering what becomes of Bradbury 100. Well, I already have my sequel/spin-off, the Youtube channel Bradbury 101, but I'm not done with the audio podcast yet. Watch this space to see what happens next...

 

Bradbury 100 · Bradbury 100 - episode 25 - with Phil Nichols...

Bradbury 100 in Top 10% of podcasts!

According to podcast aggregator Listen Notes, my podcast Bradbury 100 is in the top 10% of all podcasts. The figure is based on their estimate of number of downloads.

Thanks to everyone who has ever listened; I couldn't have done it without you!

Bradbury 100 - with Steve Gronert Ellerhoff

It's time for another new episode of the Bradbury 100 podcast. This week, I'm joined by writer and Bradbury scholar Steve Gronert Ellerhoff.

We talk about Ray Bradbury - and also Kurt Vonnegut! Did you know that Bradbury and Vonnegut knew each other? Or that they both had a TV series at the same time, from the same production company?

Following on from the success of Ray Bradbury Theatre (1985-1992), production company Atlantis signed up with Vonnegut to do a similar series, adapting Vonnegut's short stories in a similar way to Bradbury's stories. Kurt Vonnegut's Monkey House ran for two very short seasons - a total of seven episodes altogether. This pales in comparison to Ray's sixty-five episodes. 

Kurt Vonnegut and Ray Bradbury, in a publicity still for Atlantis by leading photographer Karsh.

In the podcast, we talk a bit about Vonnegut because Steve Ellerhoff wrote a book called Post-Jungian Psychology and the Short Stories of Ray Bradbury and Kurt Vonnegut: Golden Apples of the Monkey House!

We also tackle the difficult issue of how race is portrayed in some Bradbury stories from the 1950s. Bradbury took a strong stand against racism in a number of stories, including two of his Mars tales. Ironically, because they use dated language, they are today sometimes accused of being racist stories. I generally defend these stories as bold and brave anti-racist works, but I admit to being uncomfortable with the language used.

Find out more about Steve Ellerhoff's work on his website: http://www.sgellerhoff.com/

 

Bradbury 100 · Bradbury 100 - episode 24 - with writer Steve Gronert Ellerhoff

The Tip Jar - and new episodes on their way!

The eagle-eyed among you may have occasionally noticed the tip jar on this website. You know, this thing here:

 

I just wanted to reassure you that it's not a piece of malicious code that invaded the site. It's just a relatively non-intrusive way of inviting you to, maybe, contribute a little to the running costs of this little hub of Bradbury fandom. (Running costs, you say? Well, yes. Web hosting doesn't pay for itself, and nor does the software and hardware I used to make the Bradbury 100 podcast and the Bradbury 101 videos!)

All you do is click on the little floating Tip Me button down below, and you can buy me a metaphorical coffee! (I prefer Americano. No milk, no sugar.) Thanks.

Now that the commercial message is over, a quick update: there will be another new Bradbury 100 tomorrow (Saturday), where I'll be talking to writer and scholar Steve Gronert Ellerhoff; and another new one the following Saturday, where I'll be talking to... myself...

And don't forget on Saturday 21st August 2021 there will also be a LIVE episode of Bradbury 100, which will be streaming on Facebook. I will give you more details of this a few days before the live show!

Bradbury 100 - new episode - with David Loftus

Time for another new episodes of Bradbury 100 - and joining me this week is writer and actor David Loftus.

David has read the works of Ray Bradbury a lot. Aloud.

Yes, aloud!

In the podcast, he explains how he came to read Something Wicked This Way Comes out loud multiple times!

David also once wrote an appreciation of Something Wicked for the now-defunct Bookdrum website. Although Bookdrum is no longer with us, an archived version of the site survives on the Internet Archive, and so you can still find David's composition, preserved for the ages, at this link.

There is plenty more of David's writing on his Patreon page, here.

In the introduction to this podcast episode, I talk about Ray Bradbury's own audiobook readings of his works. Some of these are still commercially available (and many of them are available without permission on various website...). You can find a fairly detailed listing of these audiobooks on one of the oldest pages on my website, right here.

And now, enjoy the podcast!

Bradbury 100 · Bradbury 100 - episode 23 - with actor/writer David Loftus

 

 

 

 

Bradbury 100 - LIVE!

As we approach Ray Bradbury's one-hundred-and-first birthday, I thought we should celebrate! And so I'm staging another LIVE episode of Bradbury 100 on 21st August 2021 (from 4pm-5pm UK time).

You may recall that the first Bradbury 100 - LIVE was back in September last year. I ran a Zoom meeting and invited people to "call in", and then livestreamed the meeting to Facebook.

Well, nearly a year on, let's do the same again. One difference, though: this time I'll be joined via Zoom by Steven Paul Leiva. Steven was the very first guest on the Bradbury 100 podcast, and had some great stories to tell about his times of working with Ray Bradbury. Steve was also the driving force between the city of Los Angeles' official declaration of "Ray Bradbury Week" back in 2010, and a whole series of events that accompanied that declaration.

If you'd like to take part in the show - ask a question, tell us about your experience of Ray, or tell us which Bradbury item you'd take to the mythical desert island - you will be able to join in via Zoom. I'll post the link to the Zoom meeting nearer to the time.

But if you just want to sit back and watch, you'll be able to watch the livestream on Facebook, in the "Ray Bradbury Fan Club" group. (I'll also post a copy of the video here on Bradburymedia, after the event; and there will be an edited, audio-only version of the show in the normal Bradbury 100 podcast feed.

Here's the link to the Facebook event. More details will be added as 21st August approaches!

https://www.facebook.com/events/2884945031759983