Ray Bradbury: Mainstream with a Message.

While Ray Bradbury was never quite regarded in SF circles with the reverence as the ‘Big Three’ of Heinlein, Asimov or Clarke, it’s inevitably Bradbury who we should think of as the writer who really brought science fiction to the mainstream. A master story-teller who was driven to write everyday for the sake of his own immortality (so he said), no other SF writer of the twentieth century has had quite so much influence in those dominating media of film and television.

While early film adaptations of his work were simply crowd-pleasers that included the pioneering stompy monster of The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (1953) and the creepy yet misunderstood aliens of It Came from Outer Space (1953), later material wandered into philosophical musings on man’s relationships with technology in The Illustrated Man (1969) and the ambitious TV miniseries of The Martian chronicles in 1979. But perhaps most celebrated of all was Francois Truffaut’s Fahrenheit 451 (1966) based on Bradbury’s book-burning novel of 1953. While his writing always treated the past with nostalgia, his visions of the future were inevitably bleak and none more so than in this tale of a future where books were regarded as something without value. Bradbury famously said of the source novel that he wasn't trying to predict the future; he was trying to prevent it. But in a sense all he was really doing was summing up the job of any writer with a penchant for dystopian futures. After all, the world would be a very strange place indeed if we just went round confidently pointing out that the world is going to hell in a handbag just for the sheer satisfaction of being right. Along with Orwell’s 1984, Fahrenheit 451 is perhaps popular culture’s most famous warning.

Bradbury’s work has continued to be used as source material to this day including Disney’s underrated Something Wicked This Way Comes (1983) and numerous low-budget outings in the noughties. Bradbury even got his own series with The Ray Bradbury Theater in the eighties and nineties, often adapting his own previously published material into its half-hour format.

Bradbury passed away on June 5^th aged 91. We can be sure that, as dumbed down television, inane talent shows and lowest-common-denominator movies continue their inexorable quest for our entire attention, Bradbury noted how the warning of Fahrenheit 451 has been largely ignored in a world dominated by the media he did so much to keep as challenging as he could.

B-Movies, Budgets and Bug Hunts: The Road to Prometheus.

A revised version of this article was published in Scream Magazine issue 15 (Jan/Feb '13).

 

Available here: http://www.screamhorrormag.com/

REVIEW: The 25th Reich

This review has been removed but is available at the website of those lovely people at Starburst Magazine. Just follow the link:

http://www.starburstmagazine.com/reviews/dvd-and-blu-ray-home-entertainment-reviews/2773-movie-review-the-25th-reich

How Bert Weedon Changed the World.

The the most culturally important book in western civilisation?

More years ago than I care to remember, I decided that I wanted to be a Rock Star. All journeys start with a first step and mine was to ask my mum to get me a guitar and a book on how to play it for Christmas. So I got a cheap nylon strung guitar and a book the bloke in the shop assured my mum was all I’d need. I spent that Christmas with Bert Weedon’s Play in a Day and my life has never been quite the same since. Bert wasn’t exactly how I imagined myself. My dad looked cooler than Bert my dad really wasn’t that cool. Bert also didn’t seem to have the faintest idea what I wanted to play; which was hardly surprising, given that he wrote the book in 1957. There were no classic rawk-riffs or tips on sustaining a power chord; instead I seem to remember struggling away on When the Saints Go Marching In and the not-so-awesome Polly Wolly Doodle. And struggle I did. One of the first lessons learned was that Bert was lying; I did not learn to play in a day. I’ve never met anyone who did. Yet I’ve certainly met many who, with Bert’s help, tried. That’s just it; this really was the book that most people used. Some people went and had lessons but that’s no way to learn how to Rock and I sneer in their general direction. Bert’s book is, to this day, the only lesson I’ve ever had. OK, I never did quite become a Rock Star but I tread the boards of the pubs of the South West most weekends nowadays. I certainly don’t do it for the money; I do it because with my axe in my hands I feel the magical control of that big noise coming out of my amp. People applaud and cheer and I feel special. In my own little micro-world, I am a Rock Star. I learned far more from tabs and just mucking about in my bedroom than Bert ever taught me; but it was Burt who got me started. And if you think about how many people have a share in live music and the guitar’s iconic status, it’s not unreasonable to suggest that Play in a Day is one of the most culturally important books in western civilisation. Bert passed away on 20^th April aged 91. Play in a Day will remain in print for the foreseeable future.

Not me, yesterday.

Clevedon Pier’s Ghost Caught on Camera. Could Clevedon be the "Ghost Coast"?

A student photographer believes he has inadvertently caught Clevedon’s famous ‘grumbling ghost’ on camera.

Matthew Hales caught the ghostly figure with his Nikon D3000 while taking time-lapse photographs of Clevedon’s number one Victorian tourist attraction that offer no other possible explanation for the mysterious image other than proof of the supernatural and a comforting  certainty of an after-life.

Beyond terror: The "Grumbling Ghost"

Matthew had been taking the photographs for a school cookery project that had gone alarmingly over budget. “When I went through the pictures I was surprised to see the figure of a man with his head under his arm standing on the pier – although his decapitated state made it difficult to be absolutely certain, it was almost like he was looking straight at me”.

“The technique I was using captures everything which happens for 30 seconds, so he must have been stood there for at least that long to appear in the picture. There is absolutely no way that a normal corporeal being could walk into camera shot and out again in 30 seconds. It simply is not possible.”

Any kind of use for the picture continued to elude Matthew until he saw a story in the Evening Post about ghosts being spotted on the pier by early morning anglers.

“I then checked the pier opening times and saw that it wasn’t due to open until 10am (admission prices £1.50 for adults/£0.75 for children) so there would have been no one on the pier at that time in the morning. Except those early morning anglers, of course.”

Pier Worker Linda Strong, who is clearly no mug, confirmed there had been a spate of recent ghost sightings. “This could well be the ghost everyone is talking about” said Mrs Strong. Ignoring any requests to clarify who exactly ‘everyone’ is in this particular case, she went on to come up with a real doozy: “Perhaps we should call it the ‘Ghost Coast’?” While her colleagues were still congratulating her, she showed her professionalism to the end: “Has anyone mentioned the admission prices yet?” she schmoozed without breaking her stride.

Angler Jack Hulbert was talking about the ghost sightings only last week while wearing a jacket almost identical to the mysterious figure in Matthew’s photograph. Jack often walks about at the end of the pier wearing his nice warm jacket at 6.30am. “As an angler, I come and go as I please. Any idea what the general admission charges for the public are?”

“£1.50for adults and £0.75 for children. Concessions £1.00 and children of three andunder are admitted free. Children under 15 years MUST be accompanied by an adult” added Mrs Strong, aged 56. “I think that ‘Ghost Coast’ idea might secure my promotion.”

20,000 Fathoms salutes them all.

Jack Hulbert in that jacket