Yeah, I looked up Dickie Moore on Amazon.com as I was interested in obtaining a movie of his and stumbled into a raging debate about "The Little Rascals" being racist. (Strange to say, I remembered one black cast member saying Dickie Moore was his friend as he never called him the n-word. As if that alone formed an outstanding character trait. Anyhow you can get off on some strange tangents there.)

Ooops, my bad. LOGAN'S RUN was not written by Matheson, but another of Bradbury's old pals William Nolan. I seem to think every science fiction/horror screenplay was done by Matheson.

Nolan wrote quite a revealing introduction in the anthology CALIFORNIA SORCERY detailing the formation of what was known as "The Group". They met regularly at Bradbury's house and often stayed up all night exchanging ideas. At various times there would be Nolan, Bradbury, Matheson, Harlan Ellison, Theodore Sturgeon, Charles Beaumont, Chad Oliver, Charles Grant, and a seedy looking chain-smoker with a penchant for dirty jokes named Serling, as well as many others. A few times a young Canadien actor named Shatner showed up. Nolan talks about the birth of THE TWILIGHT ZONE, RB's apparent disenchantment with the project, and several of the writers subsequent involvement with STAR TREK. The stories in this anthology really aren't that good, but the introduction is priceless.

I wonder if a young Nard Kordell ever happened to be lucky enough to attend one of those gatherings?

dandelion,

I've seen stuff similar to that, but what you described takes the cake. Unbelievable. I saw a strange message left by multi-award winning SF author Joe Haldeman once. I think it was over a typo, or some kind of other error made by amazon. He was mad.

grasstains: Naw! that was actually BEFORE my time. The last time I saw William Nolan was in a parking lot years go, where he was out looking for his car. He jumped in mine, and we took a stroll thru this immense parking lot where he finally found his car. Bill has since moved out of the Los Angeles area and now lives out of state.

(Sorry, deleted the duplicate without the typo, so fixed the typo.)

[This message has been edited by dandelion (edited 04-08-2006).]

Hopefully they have smaller parking lots there.

Grasstains, I'm almost finished with The Postman, and I must say I liked it alot. The world he portrays is so beleivable to me, and the plot is great too. Is David Brin the author you were talking about where you said the characters came so alive in it, you could visualize the faces and expressions perfectly? I will probably rent the movie if they carry it. Next on my list books aren't here yet so I may start I Robot. Always wanted to read those, but never have. Still reading, slowly, I Sing The Body Electric.

Hah, it's great to hear you're enjoying the book. You're bringing back memories. It's like experiencing the book all over again.

The descriptive body language and great dialogue/interaction of characters was in NO BLADE OF GRASS by John Christopher. In that one a virus kills all grasses on the planet. There's one scene early on in a pub when a "Deepthroat" type government administrator is warning his best friend of just how dire the situation is... and the scene ends with both men staring at their beer mugs, swirling the beer around--NO MORE BEER!!!

To combine Time-travel AND Post Apocolypse try TIMESCAPE by Gregory Benford. Similar situation to the book by Christopher. This one has a giant algae type growth choking the ocean brought on by the use of pesticides and other agricultural chemical runoff. The characters are not very likeable in TIMESCAPE.

===================Daily Rant=================

I mentioned in another thread how serialization is killing SF by making it harder to attract new readers. I mean, where to start? For a simple introduction into the genre you can't really read one book by this author and one book by another, you gotta read several by each. It's terribly short sighted.

Us old timers are similarily left out in the cold because of characterization. The old knock was always that SF lacked good characters, the characters were merely cardboard cutouts, mouth pieces for the authors, and vehicles to move the plot along. So, they worked on that. And as a result we often have unlikeable, amoral characters with more baggage than Anna Nicole Smith. Phew... give me cardboard cutouts anyday. This is one case where print SF could actually learn a lesson from Hollywood. Take THE MATRIX for example. If this had been a novel Neo's character would have been a drug addicted, foul mouthed, filthy, sex fiend. But Hollywood knows that doesn't work in the theater, so they gave us a cardboard cutout, Keanu Reeves. In your typical Cyberpunk novel Neo would have been more like Cipher.

I thank you so much Grass! We're watching The Postman tonight after Walk The Line(Mom & daughter's choice), me and my boy's will probably be the only ones awake by then. I heard Walk The Line is good though, we shall see. I have ordered just about every book you recommended, I will be off to amazon in a minute for these too. I'm now into I Robot about 75 pages, I like it but so far, its a tad dry after Postman. Will get into the flow of it I think. I appreciate you taking the time to help me, I think you have single handedly gotten me back into the(s.f.)fold. Whats a few more books? I'm off to amazon. Clear Skies! (that's what we amateur astronomers say)

Grass, do me a favor. E-mail me, I want to ask you a question off board. Thanks.

The biscuit is in the basket, Rubber Ducky.

10/4, we finally finished watching Postman, they didn't just change it a little, they re-wrote it. Still pretty good though, liked Cosner. It dragged a little towards the end, got a little old with the military chase etc. No Powhatan at all and none of those enhanced humans, I can't remember what they called them. I'd give it a B+.

That's too bad about Powhatan. That battle royale between the two super soldiers is the lasting image I carry of that book. I still see them somersaulting up and down the hillside in a cloud of debris, uprooting trees and shrubbery. You're making a good case for anyone who's only seen the movie to read the book, and (in my case) the other way around.

Like I said, I like Cosner as an actor. Maybe if he wasn't in it, it wouldn't be half as engaging to watch. I loved Dances With Wolves, Field Of Dreams, Open Range. Its so weird how sometimes Hollywood slaughters books to make the transition to film, yet every once in a while, they nail it. For instance, loved these, Godfather, To Kill A Mockingbird, The Outsiders. I guess its directors demands and producers and where they draw their lines in the sand.

=====This doesn't have anything to do with previously discussed things other then a "heads-up" to the upcoming events...specifically Ray's play, 'Machineries of Joy', and the LA BookFair next weekend=====

This is a more closely-knit group here, I recon, and thought I'd just post a quick note at THIS Bradbury website:

------------------------------------------------
Been traveling for the last couple weeks, including visiting my wife in Mazatlan, Mexico where she is with her family for the next two weeks. I had to drive my sister from Phoenix and drop her off at the house in Laguna Woods, California before leaving to Mexicvo...and then do the same thing again when I got back from Mexico. All toll, 1,700 miles by car, and about 2,100 by plane. My dog Peter doesn't want to look at the car for awhile, and I can't blame him...

Last night (Saturday, April 22md) I drove in from Phoenix late, during a downpour of all things, and Bradbury's play "The Machineries of Joy" was at 3PM this afternoon in Pasadena, California and no way was I draggin myself some 5o plus miles over there. Too beat! I wouldn't enjoy it and probably would walk (not hop) around like a toad...

...so I'm planning to get there sometime later this week...take some snaps, maybe some one the players and post it online on the ...!other!...Bradbury website. And then next Sunday is the LA book fair. Again, some photos. I'm also taking digital video...which I will put online as QuickTime video once my new website is completed. I have an interesting 1 1/2minute video of the line that waited for an autograph of Ray's couple weeks ago. And that wasn't even the entire line. But for those who can never get to see the master storyteller, especially those far away...I think these 'current' videos will be a blast.

So, I'll on-line some photos this weekend of the play, and then, probably next Monday or Tuesday put some of the bookfair photos online.

In the meanwhile, I hear Ray is in good spirits and feeling as best as possible. I am sure he's having some just terrible hours during the week, and it must be just crushing. But the man is driven by the sheer enthusiasm of so many people who love what he has done. Loving the man personally and intimately ...is surely best left to his family and very ...very close friends...

Thank you Nard! Has something happened to Ray specifically? Why do you say his week must be crushing?