Great interview, especially the part about Ray's losing his fear of flying. Thanks.

Yes, it was an interesting article, and now I just picked up "The Cult of Ray" CD that was mentioned in this interview. I got it for a song at Amazon. Hope it's good!

Imskipper and all,

Let us know how the CD is after you listen to it. I, too, liked what Ray said about flying and would have loved to have had the opportunity to fly on the Concord. I also liked the question about did RB miss the sound of the old typewriters. Like I said before, many unique and thoughtful questions in this interview. I learned to type on the traditional, noisy typewriters. The clicking and clacking did something to my brain...maybe woke it up! Also, you had to really punch the keys. Really invigorating and physical.

It has been nearly 3 years since Mr. Bradbury offered us a bit of himself via: http://www.raybradbury.com/inhiswords.html

Do you think with all of the great things going on for him and Sam Weller, last year's availability of RBTheater to DVD, the coming summer release of Thunder, and his other works in the wings, a 2005 "pre-birthday" message might be considered by one of our most favorite people?

We are well aware that this site is snail slow when it comes to addressing the pulse of RB fans and followers. It would be such a pleasure (as were the couple of posts he actually made a few month back) to receive a current essay on how all is going "In his (own) words!"

Maybe, Sam (when things slow down), Dandelion, Nard, or Patrick might offer our best to Mr. B and (so kindly) get his feelings about the likelihood of such an update. Just a long-time fan's thought.

I just got done listening to "The Cult of Ray" CD that was mentioned in this article. Both the CD and one song on it share that name. The CD is fairly good--I'd give it a 7.0 out of 10. It's basically what I would call punk rock, but not really hard punk, if you know what I mean. Some songs sound a bit like Billy Idol, as a matter of fact. The best songs on there are called "Jesus Was Right" and "I Don't Want to Hurt You (Every Single Time)." The "Cult of Ray" song is good too. Here are some of the lyrics: "What is there to say? Still I can't be silent. Hear the cult of Ray. And you'll be enlightened. People they're no fun. I saw Raymond speak one time, he said hello. And as he opened up my mind, so fried and battered, I heard his words so very fine so high above this constant dripping chatter. Young sharks feeding on the scrapple. And upstarts on your Adam's apple. And you can't hear yourself in all this babble..." (by Frank Black, 1995) There's a lot more to it, and it's better with the music of course. That's my review. I give it a thumbs up. Have a great weekend, everyone!!

__

fjp451:

Hopefully, sometime in August, I'll be in Los Angeles for several weeks. Chance I'll be able to garner some minutes from Bradbury and learn his views on some of the current happenings...and be able 'to post' an 'audio'. But I am sure, an update of his views can be posted long before. Dandelion can spearhead that...and Sam still has amazing access to Ray thruout the entire summer.
_

In the meanwhile, I have to quote something out of Sam Weller's book. Has to do with Ray being introduced to hallucinatory drugs. I find this absolutely perfect. (For those who have recently acquired the book, passage is found on pages 175-176):

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'Ray'...declined their offer (of drugs)..puzzling them. "I told them, 'No, I can't do that.'" They said, "Why not? We'll have a doctor in attendance." And I said, "Yes, but what if the top of my head comes off and the doctor can't put it back on?" And of course, they had no answer, because a lot of people went insane in those days taking drugs. I told them, "I don't want to have a lot of perceptions. I want to have one at a time. When I write a short story, I open the trapdoor on the top of my head, take out one lizard, shut the trapdoor, skin the lizard, and pin it up on the wall." Ray was afraid that if he took mescaline, he would be unable to, as he put it..."shut the trapdoor and all my lizards would escape."

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Sorry. I'll try again. I'm not sure where to go on this new board to edit my posts. Something is very strange about the link that I posted today, and I DIDN'T put the weird face in there. Maybe someone can tell me how to delete it.

Thanks,
The Lake

PS-Nevermind, I found the edit icon and deleted my original post.

Wow!! Great article!! Thanks, Ray!!

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/features/booksmags/sfl-bkbr...=sfla-features-books

I thoroughly enjoyed this article. Thanks for putting it up, Lake. He sure is a busy man, isn't he? I am positively a sloth compared to him!!

The Lake,

How did you do that? I just talked with Bill on Friday and he told me that the article was going to be in today's Sunday paper. And I was going to try to figure how to get it on the board. So thanks! I am very happy that I had a small part in this in that Bill asked me to call Ray and see if he could visit with him regarding writing this article. He and his wife got to spend an hour and a half with Ray. I haven't read the article yet.

Thanks again.

Biplane1,

So we have YOU to thank for getting these two together! It's a wonderful article, and the opening is very poetic, too. Thanks, Biplane.

biplane1,

Yesss! Great article, great work in helping get it to fruition. Thoroughly enjoyed it.

Best,

Pete

quote:

Originally posted by The Lake:
Wow!! Great article!! Thanks, Ray!!

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/features/booksmags/sfl-bkbr...=sfla-features-books

Thank you~~~~

The Lake,

Thanks in return, but how, mechanically, or technically, did you get the article on the board?

Biplane,

Do you know about "cut and paste"? First you highlight the URL or the web address. Then I go to "Edit" and click on "Copy". Then I bring up raybradbury.com, sign in, and then begin to post a response. Then I go back to "Edit" and click on "Paste." Like magic, the link appears.

Hope this helps.

Lake