Greetings R.B. Fans,
I had a crazy thought today at work. Since in alot of ways technology and society has caught up with Ray's stories both positive and negative, I think its high time we incorporate some of his more unique and artistic ideas. My first thought on the matter was the Martian Singing Books. I think it can really be done, maybe with Ray narrating with some soft music playing in the background and as the pages are touched, vibrant colored pictures move. Or what about the nursery in The Veldt. Any others?

Wall, Ah'd shore lahk tuh git me one'a them thar bee guns!

There is a musical instrument (not a book) that is played lightly with the tips of the fingers. The inventor would look forward to going upstairs whenever he came home and playing it.

Hmm. I guess I crashed and burned on that one. It just makes me wonder because in alot of ways we are advanced, but in other ways we don't seem to be on the right path. For instance, when I was a kid in grade school, they showed a film of what they thought it would be like in the future. May have been put out by Disney. It showed cars flying, automated houses, robots, space travel, all kinds of stuff.Here we are still using the same electric outlets from the thirties let alone the same power sources. Same screw-in light bulbs and same gas guzzling polluting cars. Now we even have old technology with new terms such as powergrids, blackouts,brownouts,(??)and spiking. I'm not trying to complain too much, just want a solar operated beetle and an atomic fully automated house. Oh and maybe a world that isn't trying to slowly asphyxiate itself into Venus. Sorry if I seem glum, I'm really not, I'm a brightside-glass half full guy. I just read of such wondrous worlds in R.B. stories, I can't help thinking we're in that dimension that has a one way ticket to palookaville.

p.s. don't push the red button, whatever you do.

Awesome, Chapter, Thats what I'm talking about! Thats pure art! I can totally invision that. I think the arts should be primary in any society!

No, it really exists. Check it out:
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.oddmu...6safe%3Doff%26sa%3DN

I knew that what you were saying was real, I just meant that I could invision the inventor coming home happily anticipating working or playing his invention. I liked that link too, thanks. It looked like the guy is standing by a martian canal. I think art and creating and living in harmony with nature should be vitally important to any culture.

How about the Theremin?
It's usually associated with eerie music accompanying films like "The Day The Earth Stood Still", Spellbound" and the theme from "Dark Shadows". Jerry Lewis has some fun with it in "The Delicate Delinquent".
But the late great Clara Rockmore (q.v. below)
played beautiful classical pieces on the theremin, sounding like a pure coloratura soprano.
Unique to this instrument is the LACK OF TACTILE REFERENCE, i.e. there is no physical contact with strings, keys, mouthpieces or anything!
The player moves his or her hands closer or farther away from two antennae; one controlling volume and the other, pitch.

http://www.peterpringle.com/clara.html

There's a clip here you may be able to listen to:

http://www.npr.org/programs/asc/archives/asc03/index.html#clara

Well, I just had to bring that up.
But, as for futuristic inventions, I, as a kid in the '50s, thought surely by the year 2000 we'd have flying cars, or maybe even the Jetsons' "foodarackacycle" (spelling uncertain)...

That track was marvelous B-Two and you were right, it is eerie. I can see why it was used in sci-fi movies. I see you like NPR, I'm a listener myself. I love music thats off the beaten path. In my garage shop, I made a log drum with about six different keys. It turned out great with a rich congo sound. 'Preciate the links bro.

One of my many non-marketable talents is playing jazz bass (bass viol, not bass guitar).
I also sing in 2 choirs, so I pretty much live with music.
I actually don't listen to NPR all that much(they're a bit socialist for me), but some of their in-depth reporting and music coverage is top-notch.
Speaking of unusual music, are you familiar with this guy?

http://www.timelessproductions.com/didjeridoo/traditional/

I actually took a workshop with him.

How great! Braling, do you have one of those? I liked the blue tinted ones and I listened to some of the sound bites too, thats really neat, thanks. Thats awesome that you play an instrument and sing too, although I have a deep love of music, I have never really learned to play anything other than just fooling around.

Well, I ALMOST bought a didgereedoo, but being a musician...I may start with some 3" PVC.
He did tell me I have good technique, but the hardest thing is mastering the circular breathing...

Q: How do you make a million dollars playing jazz?
A: Start with two million!

chuckle, why didn't the skeleton cross the road? he didn't have any guts. I like jazz by the way. B-Two, someone told me of a cool site that I have just begun to scratch the surface of. Its the Internet Archive, you may have heard of it, large resevoir of digitalized random information. Scope the music out. Its-www.archive.org