quote:

Originally posted by Slowdive01:
lucky you... how Fr Electrico came about is pretty powerful. so you shot the footage for this youtube clip i assume?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CL3sCmKCB70

Yes, that was me. That clip is b-roll footage from a much longer interview, which will form the backbone of the film. I'll be in LA with Chris and the editor this weekend working on the film.

I was fortunate to get the two stained glass lamps one of which can be seen in videos of him in his office at his L.A. Home. I'm priviliged to have a lamp that shined on the work he loved so much.

quote:

Originally posted by Slowdive01:
maybe slatoff was the high bidder.

No. I was at the studio with him a couple weeks ago and we were talking about that piece and, while he did bid, he was not the winner.

I was causal pen-pals with Ray Bradbury from 1992-1995, when I was in high school. He allowed me to interview him for my literary magazine (a recording I still have to this day, on cassette which I was able to rip to mp3 recently). We shared the same birthday (57 years apart, of course), and he sent me birthday wishes one year, in addition to some excellent doodle artwork. Much later, I studied at the London School of Economics, which on Aldwych was was right around the corner from Sir John Soane's Museum, a favorite of his (I read somewhere once that he said if he could be buried anywhere in the world, he'd want to be buried in the basement of that museum). I often though of him when I cut through Lincoln's Inn Fields and passed that building.

Anyway, it was really upsetting when he passed, though I had long ago let dropped our correspondence. Probably one of the dumbest things I had ever done - I'll bet had I kept it up, I could have cultivated a friendship. He was very encouraging of some of my writing, which for a kid, was really an amazing vote of confidence. In fact, it was my relationship with him that indirectly allowed me to go to college, since writing about his works and friendship helped me win a couple national writing awards that, in turn, landed me a Creative Writing Scholarship to pay for college. So much of who I am and what I have today, I owe to Ray Bradbury.

I was actually overseas when I came across the Nate D Sanders auction site, and I knew I had to try to have something from the estate. Fortunately, the one item I most wanted and most focused on stuck around and seemed to have escaped much attention. Yes, I won it: his antique, 19th Century inkwell writing set. I was absolutely thrilled that I was able to walk away with even something small. The price wasn't outrageous either (fortunately). Then again, some dreams and some inspirations are priceless.

I received it in the mail a couple weeks back, with the COA from the estate signed by his daughter Alexandra.

I keep it on my own desk now, and I often think about how it had inspired Ray. I've been writing a bit more as of late, trying to re-discover my long-dormant passion. I hope it will continue to inspire me for the rest of my life.

brad1.jpg (202 Kb, 9 downloads) My Letter