First Time Poster here. Ray Bradbury has been my hero since I first read The Martian Chronicles when I was 15. I don't hold another writer nearly as close to my heart as RB.

I went to the Big Read event here in Buffalo on Friday night at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery. There were at least 150 people there to here Bradbury biographer Sam Weller speak. Earlier in the day they showed a double feature of The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms and It Came From Outer Space. Weller was also on a local television talk show called PM Buffalo. It's easy to see why Bradbury selected him to write the bio. Weller has very much the same energy as Bradbury and he speaks with incredible passion. He obviously loves Bradbury very much and answered every single question that was thrown at him. People asked if there are any books that Bradbury might burn because the are too offensive, people asked about Bradbury's religion, people asked about the Michael Moore flap. Weller talked about the origins of his own book, the origins of Fahrenheit 451, and gave a lot of insight into the personal side of Ray Bradbury. He also spoke beuatifully about Ray Bradbury's wife. It was an incredible, incredible event. The best part was near the end when Weller made a conference call to RB in Los Angeles. When Bradbury's voice boomed over the house speakers, people were visibly in tears. Bradbury spoke for about 10 minutes and at the end recalled the only time he ever visited Buffalo. It was in 1939 on his way home from the New York World's Fair. He said he was going home on the Greyhound and they stopped off at Niagra Falls. Bradbury said that he got out and looked out at the waterfalls and stared out wondering if he would ever have a future as a writer.

AMAZING!

After the event, Weller signed copies of his book and they sold out of them in a half hour.

If Weller reads this board, Thank you for coming to Buffalo and for bringing Ray Bradbury with you.

Sincerely,

Rick G.

Thanks for the great report. I felt like I was there!! It's always so magical to meet or even hear from Ray, and Sam has some of that same magic, as you said. Welcome to the board, Little Ricky!

Thanks for sharing that. That is so weird that he brought up his trip to the 1939 World's Fair, as I just called and asked him about that, but my call was not till Saturday so can't have inspired his bringing that up. The substance will appear on the "Just Spoke with Ray" thread.

Little Ricky, it is with great anticipation that I await this coming Thursday when Sam Weller will be at the Miami Dade Collge (Wolfson Campus) to moderate a conference call from Ray and do, I would imagine, pretty much what he did there.

I will be there with a camera and both books (hard and soft cover) of Sam's for him to sign.

Do they allow these events to be taped, and is there any means of learning when and where they are planned?

It would vary from community to community but I made contacts with Annie Smith of the Ft. Lauderdale Public Library, Eileen McNally, Director of the Florida Center for the Book, who works out of the Ft. Lauderdale Public Library and Dr. Roselyne Pirson, Program Coordinator of the Florida Center for the Literary Arts at Miami Dade College.

It has been Dr. Roselyne who was in direct contact with Ed Bradley, and more recently, Sam Weller.

As far as taping anything I will have to see. There were no restrictions at the dramatic reading of F451. And I have a feeling that there won't be here either. This video conference is in the same room that I saw Garrison Keillor a couple of years ago at the Miami Book Fair. Ray, himself, appeared some years ago at the Miami Book Fair.