Photo exhibition online - "I Saw It At Ray's House"

"I Saw It At Ray's House" is a photo exhibition by photographer Elizabeth Nahum-Albright. It consists of photos taken in and around Ray Bradbury's Los Angeles home. Some of the photos date from the photographer's childhood visits to Ray's house, but most of them later years, with a large number showing the house and Ray's effects after he had passed away.

The exhibition debuted as a physical exhibition at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis a couple of years ago, but is now being made available online for the first time by Soho Photo Gallery. The photos are fascinating, but not without a tinge of sadness. You can view the exhibition here.

Elizabeth Nahum-Albright will be a guest on a forthcoming episode of my podcast, Bradbury 100.

Bradbury 100 - episode 2

The second episode of my podcast Bradbury 100 drops today. You can play it below, or search for it on your podcast app.

My guest is Jason Aukerman, Managing Director of the Center for Ray Bradbury Studies. The "Bradbury Center", as it's known for short, is the place where Ray's working papers are held in archive, along with the contents of Ray's personal library, and many of his professional and personal artefacts such as awards, videotapes and film prints.

I hope you enjoy the discussion. You can join in the discussion by posting a comment below - I'll reply to comments and questions in later episodes of the series.

Jason Aukerman receiving a Retro Hugo Award on behalf of Ray Bradbury at the World Science Fiction convention.

Bradbury 100 · Bradbury 100 - Episode 02

Show Notes

Take the virtual tour of the Center for Ray Bradbury Studies. You can actually wander around the bookshelves, see all the different editions of Ray's books, and walk around the reconstruction of Ray's basement office. The rendering is so good that you can even see the titles of the books in Ray's library. Direct link here: https://my.matterport.com/show/?m=2ds5iarQnk3&utm_source=4

Center for Ray Bradbury Studies official website: https://bradbury.iupui.edu/

Center for Ray Bradbury Studies Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/bradburycenter/

The Bradbury Center publishes a journal called The New Ray Bradbury Review. You can read about previous issues here: https://www.kentstateuniversitypress.com/?s=New+Ray+Bradbury+Review

Another Award for Ray Bradbury

Ray Bradbury has won yet another Retro Hugo Award - for his 1944 short story "I, Rocket".

Like the normal Hugo Awards, winners are decided by a popular vote among the membership of the World Science Fiction Convention, which this year is held in New Zealand. (Well, it's become an online event this year due to Covid, but it's still being run from New Zealand.) The idea behind the Retro Hugos is simple: there were some years in the past where normal Hugos weren't awarded - mostly because of pesky little things like World War 2 getting in the way. The Retro Hugos are designed to plug the gap in the historical record by awarding for those years retroactively.

Of course, the award winners will be distorted by the peculiar selective memories we all have. The only authors who are ever going to win Retro Hugos are famous ones. Any author whose name is lost to the mists of time is just never going to be in with the chance of winning a popular vote.

However, in some cases with the Retro Hugos you will find more than one famous name competing for an award. For the 1944 Retro Hugo voted for this year, famous author Ray Bradbury was up against famous author Isaac Asimov, and three authors whose popularity has probably diminshed over the decades: Clifford D. Simak, Fredric Brown and A.E. Van Vogt.

Surprisingly, Bradbury's "I, Rocket" isn't contained in any of his main short story collections. But you can find a scan of the magazine it originally appeared in way back in May 1944. Click here to read Amazing Stories magazine.

BRADBURY 100 starts today!

At last, the debut of my podcast Bradbury 100!

Every week on the podcast I talk about some aspect of Ray Bradbury's work, and interview someone with a connection to Ray. It's a celebration of Bradbury for his centenary year, and an opportunity for fans, friends and scholars to share their understanding of Bradbury and his works.

I have a long list of guests, many of whom knew Ray personally, or worked with him. In the coming weeks, I will introduce you to authors, actors, musicians and scholars - and, I hope, reveal dimensions to Bradbury that you weren't aware of.

The best way to enjoy the show is to use a podcast app on your phone or tablet. That way you can subscribe and be sure of getting each episode. Most podcast apps will find it no problem, as I'm distributing it via Soundcloud, Spotify, Stitcher, Apple Podcasts, TuneIn, and a load of other places.

You can also pick episodes up right here on Bradburymedia, and on Facebook and YouTube.

Without further ado, here is episode one of Bradbury 100. See below for show notes. If you have any comments, I'd love to hear them!

Bradbury 100 · Bradbury 100 - Episode 01

Show Notes - Bradbury 100 episode 1

My guest on episode 1 is author Steven Paul Leiva.
Steven's blog:  http://emotionalrationalist.blogspot.com/
Steven's books: Amazon US - Amazon UK
Ray Bradbury Week 2010: https://www.facebook.com/raybradburyweek/

I first met Steve at Ray Bradbury's 90th birthday party in 2010, which was held in Glendale's Mystery & Imagination Bookshop. For many years Ray would gather friends and fans here for book signings and talks. Up the stairs of the bookshop was a wall signed by various authors and celebrities who had visited. Steve and I searched for his previous signing, and we also found the spot where Ray Bradbury had signed several years earlier.

Steven Paul Leiva re-finds his autograph. Click to enlarge.

Ray Bradbury signed the bookshop wall five years earlier, and added a dinosaur - which appears to be going after Ray Harryhausen's signature.

San Diego Comic-Con celebrates 100 years of Bradbury

San Diego Comic-Con isn't running as usual this year - due to the pandemic, the physical con has been cancelled, but a programme of free online events has been put in its place. Unfortunately, this means the special celebratory events for the Ray Bradbury Centennial and the Ray Harryhausen Centennial are somewhat diminished.

The good news is that SDCC's souvenir book, always an excellent publication, is being made available for free as a PDF.

And the best news of all is that it contains many pages on Bradbury. There are articles by me (on Bradbury's media, of course), biographer Jon Eller, and Bradbury's daughter Sue Nixon, among others.

You can get the free PDF by clicking here: https://tinyurl.com/y43v8wjf

And the full schedule of Comic-Con's at-home events can be accessed here: https://www.comic-con.org/cci/2020/athome

Bradbury 100 animation

For no other reason other than that I felt like it, I animated my Bradbury 100 logo. A bit pointless for an audio-only podcast, I admit. But that little rocketship just needed to take flight!

The music, by the way, is called "Red Mist", and is taken from the music site Purple Planet.

Bradbury 100 - time to subscribe!

The Bradbury 100 podcast currently has new episodes every two weeks.

You can listen to the episodes directly from this blog, but...

Why not subscribe using the podcast app on your phone? That way, you'll have easy access to episodes when they drop, and will be able to listen on the move. 

Here's a list of links for accessing the podcast. Take your pick:

 

Main platforms:

Apple Podcasts  - Google Podcasts - Soundcloud - Spotify

 

Other platforms:

Audible - Bullhorn - Castbox - Deezer - Listen Notes - Player FM - Podbean - Podcast Addict - Podcast Index - Podchaser - Podfriend - Podlink - Podtail - Stitcher - TuneIn

 

 

My new podcast, Bradbury 100, is getting closer! The first episode will be released on July 25th. I currently have five interviews in the can, with another three lined up to be recorded in the coming week.

Here's the new trailer to give you a taste of what's ahead...

Bradbury 100 · NEW Trailer for Bradbury 100 podcast!

Coming Soon... Bradbury 100 podcast

Bradbury 100 is my new podcast - a celebration of the centenary year of Ray Bradbury. This will be a limited-run series, with about ten episodes, where I aim to bring together fans, friends and scholars of Bradbury.

Among the interviews I already have in the can are those with the novelist and author of Searching for Ray Bradbury, Steven Paul Leiva; and the managing director of the Center for Ray Bradbury Studies, Jason Aukerman.

You'll be able to subscribe to the podcast through any good podcast app, or listen here on Bradburymedia. Watch out for updates, where I will give all the details.

UPDATE! You can now subscribe to Bradbury 100 via iTunes/Apple Podcasts, and other podcast directories will follow. At present, your podcast feed will only pick up the trailer, but episodes will begin to appear in August late July.

Bradbury Centenary: Dandelion Wine live reading

The Ray Bradbury centenary/centennial year continues with various events taking place online instead of in the real world. Of course, we've lost some big events such as Comic-Con San Diego, which was due to celebrate Bradbury 100, but some previously localised events will now be accessible globally, such as...

Ray Bradbury's Dandelion Wine Arts & Music Festival - this event usually takes place in Ray's home town of Waukegan, in the city's Bowen Park. This year, it is going online. One of its centrepiece events will be a non-stop reading of the novel Dandelion Wine, starting at 10am CDT and projected to run through to 8pm CDT.

We are promised "celebrity Bradbury fans reading from around the galaxy". I'm not sure who else is in the cast list, but one of the readers will be me, so the event certainly has an intercontinental reach... I'm due to read the section of Dandelion Wine which ws originally published as the short story "The Night" (1946).

The Dandelion Wine reading will be streamed live on Facebook. If you'd like to dip in, you'll find further information here: https://www.facebook.com/events/1124476531218342/ 

When I read through the story this morning to refresh my memory, I was reminded that this story refers to a number of streets and landmarks in "Green Town", the fictionalised version of Waukegan where Dandelion Wine is set. I blogged about the parallels between the fictional and real town some years ago, here: http://bradburymedia.blogspot.com/2006/10/green-town-illinois.html

And "The Night" also plays on the town's fear of murderous criminal "the Lonely One". Although fictionalised by Bradbury, there really was a "Lonely One" in Waukegan. I researched him a few years ago, and exclusively revealed his true story here: https://bradburymedia.blogspot.com/2009/09/revealed-lonely-one.html

I hope you will be able to join us for the reading.