I've modified my website to incorporate a blog (makes it much easier for me to update). I'd be very pleased if you were to all drop by - and maybe leave a comment or two. See you at www.bradburymedia.co.uk

Phil, I attempted to leave a comment, but it asked for a word verification but the box had a little box with an "x" in it and the words "Visual verification." It asked for the letters in the box to be typed into another box, but there were no letters.

Anyway I called Ray and asked him about the novel And The BNand Played On and he said that it is "love story fantasy set in Arizona" where he spent some of his formative years growing up.

He also said that it will be out in the Spring of 2007. I asked him if it seemed strange to say "2007" and he said, that indeed it did.

He also said that he has several plays in production throughout the LA area. He sounded great and said that he was keeping busy.

Thanks for trying, biplane1. I don't know what was wrong with the visual verification - it seems to work for me. Could you try again, and if it doesn't show anything try clicking on your browser's RELOAD or REFRESH button.

Now that you mention it, I had read about Somewhere a Band is Playing being set in Arizona. It must have been on this board somewhere.

Phil, I just tried again and it said that the comment had been saved and will be posted after you review it. A good idea I think.

Thanks, biplane1. I've been tinkering with the "word verification" and "moderation" business, and I think it's working better now.

The blog is helping me keep note of Bradbury news that appears here and elsewhere, so I am posting links to anything interesting that I come across - like rifraf's scan of an RB interview, Nard's excellent photos and videos, etc. I hope nobody objects to this scavenging; my intentions are honorable!

This message has been edited. Last edited by: philnic,

New addition to my site/blog: a page on "The Burning Man", one of my favourite adaptations of Bradbury. Here: www.bradburymedia.co.uk

"The Burning Man" was a standout entry from "TZ" 85. I still remember it strongly from seeing it on television twenty years ago. A wonderful short story done right.

Another update to my site:

The F451 monorail, and RB talking about his alleged total recall. Click the link below!

philnic (PHIL):
Thanks for this one.

The question is what triggers recall. Everything IS recorded in the brain. I recall circumcision when I was less than 2 weeks old. It was the pain and a hand holding me down and the profile of the doctor. It took me a number of years to figure out exactly what it was that was being remembered. I remember being bitten by a bee, and an hour before and the event afterwards, when I was about 2. But I recall things when I was less than 1 yr. old that had nothing to do with pain. Recall looking at the designs of a church my parents took me to that were in the ceiling of the church. Total recall, of course, would mean remembering eeevvverything 24/7!!

With the proper stimulation (hypnosis), anyone could remember anything (even from previous lives) because, as Mr Kordell says, everything is recorded in the brain.

It's a fascinating subject.

Gee, maybe that is what the "White Light" is all about that people report upon near death experiences; its the data dumb from your brain to the hereafter for a future accounting and summary report. That out to keep the religiously inclined shaking in their boots, eh?

Doug, Your conclusion (?) "...even from previous lives, because...everything is recorded in the brain." is, I'm afraid, a non sequitur, unless you've also concluded that one's brain somehow doesn't change from life to life.
But I too recall a very few things from my boyhood.
What's interesting about all this, especially in the light of what has been discussed here regarding Mr. Bradbury's "Mr. Electrico" experience and related, but controversial chronology; is that our memories are not always accurate, even when they seem crystal clear and detailed.
I'm about halfway through "This Is Your Brain On Music" in which are cited some very interesting case studies involving, let's say "embellished" memory.

Doug Spaulding:
What is this nonsense...previous lives...stuff?

Braling II:
I went back to the old church about 9 years ago where my parents took me when I was 1 and 2 yrs old and looked up at the ceiling at those same designs. It reminded me of those little patterns and colors I may have overlooked in my memory. But everything was there. The church was being demolished. It was an interesting time to see those ancient landmarks of memory being obliterated from the planet. Now the Catholic church proudly owns a vacant lot in a troubled neighborhood.

It's clear to me that Bradbury's anecdotes in interviews have changed and developed over the years - just take a look at the book CONVERSATIONS WITH RAY BRADBURY for evidence of this. Any suggestion that his recollections are direct recountings of events is absurd. The man is a master storyteller, a raconteur; each telling is better than the last precisely because of this.

I suspect that the brain does store an awful lot more than we are normally conscious of, but it certainly desn't store everything in an unmediated way.

(((Here's another example of Ray's embellishment of tales over time: For years he has been telling a story of what happened to him on the night of the first moon landing (he was booked to appear on a terrible David Frost TV show in London, and walked out in disgust). He maintains that he walked across London in the very early morning and saw a newspaper headline that said something like "Armstrong walks at 2am, Bradbury walks at midnight".

Last year, prompted by a request from Jon Eller, I spent a day in the British Library's Newspaper Archive, and checked every page of every newspaper published in London in July 1969, and there was no sign of such a headline. There was one report about him walking out of the TV show, but the headline didn't mention him at all.

My conclusion: he really did walk out of the TV show; he really did buy a newspaper in the early morning; the newspaper really did report what happened. BUT the headline he invented - as an embellishment, a beautifully crafted punchline.

Unfortunately, Ray has now convinced himself that the story about the headline is true, in much the same way that he has convinced himself that he remembers the moment of his birth.)))

quote:

Originally posted by Braling II:
Doug, Your conclusion (?) "...even from previous lives, because...everything is recorded in the brain." is, I'm afraid, a non sequitur, unless you've also concluded that one's brain somehow doesn't change from life to life.

I believe the soul is the mind, and is therefore located in the brain, specifically the pineal gland.

The organ may be different upon rebirth, but the soul is always the same. It's often called "The Third Eye".