Ray-dio.

Hello again, dear S&P-brains.

I hope you're all getting ready for your weekend. I hope whatever you want and need out of this weekend, you get it in the right time and to the right degree.

I also hope you have taken a moment to read a little something by the late Ray Bradbury. Or perhaps you've found one of the numerous TV shows or movies based on his works on DVD, or VHS, or online somewhere.

But whether you have or haven't, I'd like to offer the chance to tribute the dear departed genius and give you the opportunity to hear some of his magic.

Let's go back in time...

Ray in the Time Machine, 1960.

©2001 Ray Bradbury

As a tribute to Ray, our old Hallowe'enith console radio has somehow reprogrammed itself with Bradbury-inspired programs which have all played here at various times.

First up, you can listen to Dark They Were, And Golden-Eyed, a fine production from Mike McDonough's wonderful 1984 radio revival series Bradbury Thirteen. Harry Bittering and his family, having moved to Mars, are stranded there when war devastates the Earth. He fears Mars and its influence on his family and friends, even though he knows there are no Martians anymore... right?

And yes, Haunted Mansion/Disney/Rankin-Bass/Jay Ward fans, that's the master Paul Frees giving us the poetic prologue, as he did for each episode in the series.

Next comes a harrowing little bit of old time radio horror from the October 4, 1953 broadcast of the popular radio series Escape! Are the neighborhood kids just playing a new (if odd) pretending game? Or do moms and dads have something to fear come Zero Hour?

Then, another tale born from Bradbury's lifelong fascination with Mars. The long-running and popular science fiction/fantasy series X Minus One first gave us Mars Is Heaven on May 8, 1955, though Bradbury had first published the tale in 1948. For brave astronauts, landing on Mars leads to the discovery of a nostalgic, home-spun kind of paradise which may be exactly what it seems... Heaven.

And finally, a two-part beauty not originally from radio but from vinyl. 1975's Usher II, voiced by the amazing Leonard Nimoy, tells of a future time when fantasy is not only out-of-vogue but illegal, and the brilliant man who exacts a bit of revenge on those who would take his fantasy life away -- using the horrors of Edgar Allan Poe as his inspiration!

I hope you will all enjoy these tales winding in the dusty corners and hallways of this old place for a while.

I also hope you will enjoy your weekend.

And thanks again, Mr. Bradbury.


DDSeriousProse!