NPR: King JOYLAND Interview

Stephen King has given a great interview to NPR about his book Joyland, titled, "Stephen King On Growing Up, Believing In God And Getting Scared."

Dimension X

King is asked what got him scared as a kid -- a subject that's getting old for some of us, except that he notes the importance of old radio.  Dimension X in particular.  YES!  You can listen to Dimension X at archive.org.  Some of the best writers of the day, including Ray Bradbury, had their stories translated to radio for this program.

THE SHOW!

Hey, this is kinda preachy.  No apologies!  It's my thoughts about what King said. 

King describes some modern preachers and mega churches as a sort of carnival where the preacher is reduced to being a "carny pitchman."  I find that very interesting because I agree, that is what has happened to much of modern Christianity.  Instead of being people of the Book, for many it has become people of the show.

I am reminded of the times people demanded Jesus do a miracle, and he refused to be a showman. In fact, even his home town was excited when he came through.  The local boy makes good -- now put on a show!  But he would not.  

The book of Mark implies that if Jesus would have done miracles for King Herod, he could have escaped death.  (Luke 23:8-10)  But he would not even speak to Herod, giving him no answer to the King's many questions.

When the Faith is reduced to guys slapping people on the head, or jumping up and down, or sowing your seed to get a blessing -- the Gospel itself is lost in the show.  There is a difference between passion and thinking how to clearly communicate  the message and simply turning God's Word  into a good luck charm to stir masses.  I cringe when I see certain preachers on TV, holding up their Bibles and then giving nothing more than a motivational talk.  Still, Philippians 1:18.

By the way, I do think preachers should be interesting!  They should have something to say (from the Scripture) and say it well.  I weary of preaching that goes like this, "I'm just going to talk from my heart --" which is fine, except you kinda start to wonder if that is code for I didn't study this week so I'm winging it!

What King, and actually the Bible, drives at about preaching is AUTHENTICITY.  Preachers are not to be carnival salesmen, showmen who are fun to watch but actually hollow at the core.  The preacher is to be the real deal, living out what he teaches and explaining with passion what authentic faith is and how it is lived out in a way that honors God.  He's not there to steal from the congregation, but to truly Shepherd and love them. 

Creation: I find King's comments on God delightful.  He admits to being totally inconsistent. I understand that, and respect him for admitting it.  

Before pointing out that the God who created this world must have an interesting personality, King says of those who choose not  to believe, "then you're missing the stars in the sky and you're missing the sunrises and sunsets and you're missing the fact that bees pollinate all these crops and keep us alive and the way that everything seems to work together. Everything is sort of built in a way that to me suggests intelligent design."

Or, as King David said,

When I consider your heavens,

the work of your fingers,

the moon and the stars,

which you have set in place, 

what is man that you are mindful of him,

the son of man that you care for him? 

You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings 

and crowned him with glory and honor. 

(Psalm 8:3-5)

The Spirit!  King notes that the original term for the Holy Spirit was the Holy Ghost.  Rightly implying that God is Spirit.  As Spirit, he is not limited to a body.  (Unless it's in the miracle of the Incarnation.)  Actually, his comments on God watching us is very good.

KUBRICK

King talks about a discussion he had with Stanley Kubrick.  King says that belief in spiritual things is freeing.  He says that Kubrick was a "thinking cat.  He really thought about what he was doing.  He didn't just go out there and shoot film."  He retells the story of Kubrick asking him about belief in the supernatural.  Kubrick suggested that belief in ghosts is really optimistic, since it implies an afterlife.  "Sure," Kings said, "But what about hell?" Long pause, then he said in very stiff voice, "I don't believe in hell."  

King reflects, "To me it was the voice of someone who was denying their own deeply held belief in something they were unable  to root out."

King said he told Kubrick, "It's not that you don't believe in hell.  It's that you CHOOSE not to believe in hell."

You can listen to the NPR interview with Stephen King at http://www.npr.org

The Stand Journal 3: War Of The Worlds

Chapter 26 of The Stand has a great section made up completely of transcripts.  It reminds me of the radio version of War of the Worlds.  When the martians start attacking, everything is described by the news broadcaster for an audience who can't see the events.  King does a similar thing with an attack by the army on college students -- not describing the event himself  as narrator, but by giving transcripts of police radios.

By the way, both scenes have a character named Philips.  (That means nothing -- but is interesting.)

So compare these scenes, noting how the dialogue is used to describe the action.  

THE STAND:

“Base to unit 13! What’s going on out there? What’s happening?” 

“This is Chumm, Dick. I’ll tell you what’s happening out here. It’s a slaughter. I wish I was blind. Oh, the . . . ! They ... ah, they’re mowing those kids down. With machine-guns, it looks like. As far as I can tell, there wasn’t even any warning. The kids that are still on their feet ... ah, they are breaking up ... running to all points of the compass. . . . I just saw a girl cut in half by gunfire! Blood ... there must be seventy, eighty kids lying out there on the grass. They—” 

“Chumm! Come in! Come in, unit 12!” 

“Base, this is unit 17. Do you copy? Over.”

War of the Worlds:

PHILLIPS: Ladies and gentlemen (Am I on?). Ladies and gentlemen, here I am, back of a stone wall that adjoins Mr. Wilmuth's garden. From here I get a sweep of the whole scene. I'll give you every detail as long as I can talk. As long as I can see. More state police have arrived They're drawing up a cordon in front of the pit, about thirty of them. No need to push the crowd back now. They're willing to keep their distance. The captain is conferring with someone. We can't quite see who. Oh yes, I believe it's Professor Pierson. Yes, it is. Now they've parted. The Professor moves around one side, studying the object, while the captain and two policemen advance with something in their hands. I can see it now. It's a white handkerchief tied to a pole . . . a flag of truce. If those creatures know what that means . . . what anything means!. . . Wait! Something's happening! 

(HISSING SOUND FOLLOWED BY A HUMMING THAT INCREASES IN INTENSITY) 

PHILLIPS: A humped shape is rising out of the pit. I can make out a small beam of light against a mirror. What's that? There's a jet of flame springing from the mirror, and it leaps right at the advancing men. It strikes them head on! Good Lord, they're turning into flame! 

(SCREAMS AND UNEARTHLY SHRIEKS) 

PHILLIPS: Now the whole field's caught fire. (EXPLOSION) The woods . . . the barns . . . the gas tanks of automobiles . . . it's spreading everywhere. It's coming this way. About twenty yards to my right . . . 

(CRASH OF MICROPHONE ... THEN DEAD SILENCE) 

ANNOUNCER: Ladies and gentlemen, due to circumstances beyond our control, we are unable to continue the broadcast from Grovers Mill. Evidently there's some difficulty with our field transmission. However, we will return to that point at the earliest opportunity. In the meantime, we have a late bulletin from San Diego, California. Professor Indellkoffer, speaking at a dinner of the California Astronomical Society, expressed the opinion that the explosions on Mars are undoubtedly nothing more than severe volcanic disturbances on the surface of the planet. We now continue with our piano interlude. 

The wasted landscape in The Stand is also reminiscent of Orson Well's version of War of the Worlds.  When the cities begin to burn  and people start traveling across a broken America, it reminds me of the America presented in The War Of The Worlds.  (The radio version -- the book took place in England.) The original movie version did not capture the bigness of the events.  The later version, with Tom Cruise, was just. . .

Of course, germs play an important role in both stories.  In War of the World's, germs clears the landscape of Martians.  In The Stand germs clear the landscape of people.

Discussing the President's planned address to the nation, a newspaper notes:

Advance copies of the President’s speech indicate that he will “spank” the American people for overreacting, and compare the current panic to that which followed Orson Welles’s “War of the Worlds” radio broadcast in the early 30s

Finally, as Trashcanman sets fire to the landscape,

The entire eastern arc of the horizon danced with fire. It reminded him of a Classic funnybook he had owned as a child, an adaptation of H. G. Wells’s The War of the Worlds. Now, years later, the boy who had owned that funnybook was gone, but the Trashcan Man was here, and Trash owned the wonderful, terrible secret of the Martians’ deathray. (The Stand, p.590-591.)

End Of The World

This is the way the world ends

This is the way the world ends

This is the way the world ends

Not with a bang but a whimper.

                             -- The Hollow Men, T.S. Eliot

The world has not ended yet. That means in 2011 Mr. Camping was wrong -- what a surprise that was, huh?  And now it looks like after waiting all this time, 2012 will just buzz on by.

Here are my favorite fiction books about the end of the world:

1. The Stand.  I love this book!  Both in its original form and in the larger format.  The story is a lot of fun.  King does not use bombs to end the world, but a plague.  Further, he ties this super plague to Biblical prophecy, giving the novel a unique edge.

2. Darkness on the edge of town.  I like this book a lot!  Brian Keene is a great author.  Told in the first person, it does not give all the final answers the reader wants.  There are things that drive me a little nuts in this book. They sure can see a lot in the dark!  (mustard stains on a shirt and so on).  

3. The mist.  The novella did not answer as many questions as the movie does.   The reader is left suspecting the strange  mist with its monsters has taken over the world.

4. Swan Song.  Easily compared to The Stand -- to McCammon's consternation! -- the book brings a quick end to the world via nuclear war.  After that, the girls Swan and her protector, Josh, must fight evil that comes from the rubble.  It's good stuff, really.  

5. Lucifer's Hammer.  How about a big rock -- that would end  life on earth, right?  Well, almost!  This novel has a lot of strong elements.  The writing is good.  There is a lot of action.  Even some war.  And the science is pretty strong. 

6. On The Beach.  Chalk it up to those nukes again -- on the beach takes place after world war 3.

7.  The Martian Chronicles.  Nukes... again.  The book moves a small band of humans to Mars just in time to blow up our planet.  Of course, we kill the Martians with our germs (War of the World's reversed.)  After that, it's our planet!  Will we take better care of Mars than we did earth?  No!  

Of interest to me (but  not yet read)

1. The Last Man, Mary Shelly

2. The Drowned World, J.G. Ballard

3. The Age of Miracles, Karen Walker

4. The Road, Cormac McCarthy

Doomsday Preppers:

Author Stephen Tremp observes:

It seems many are expecting and even hoping for a Doomsday scenario. War, economic and political meltdown, disease, global warming, severe worldwide drought, and other cataclysmic events are what many believe will drive our personal worldwide doomsday. People are networking. They are preparing by stockpiling food, water, medical supplies, and guns. Web sites are plentiful. Just check out some of these YouTube Clips for the Doomsday Preppers.  (breakthroughblogs.blogspot.com)

Movies:

Oh my!  There are a lot of these!  My least favorite is Armageddon.  Who put guns on the spaceship?

A few end of the world movies:

• The Day After
• Deep Impact
• 2012
• The War of the Worlds
• The Day After Tomorrow
• Collision Earth
• Life after People
• The Day the Earth Caught Fire
• Meteor
• The Day The Sky Exploded
• By Dawns Early Light
• Earthstorm

Check out even more at www.allmovie.com

Going Biblical. . .

For a more serious discussion on the end times, look at Olivet discourse in Matthew 24.  Jesus uses a "duel" prophecy in order to ensure the truthfulness of his statements.  That is, he first foretells an event that would take place in the future -- but in the lifetime of eye witnesses; the destruction of the Jewish temple.  The synoptic Gospels were written before this event took place, yet recorded Jesus' prediction that the temple and Jerusalem would be crushed well before it happened.  Woven through the prophecy of  the destruction of Jerusalem is a larger prophecy of the Parousia (Second Coming) and final judgment.  So the short term prophecy is offered to give credibility to the far future prophecy.

And then there's. . . Left Behind.  I don't want to rant too much about this, because I respect  the intentions of the makers.  However, the rapture theory -- that Christians get sucked out of this world before things get really bad -- is simply not to be found in the pages of Scripture.  Beyond that, the movie's just not very good.  (Gasp) Same to be said for Omega Code -- only it's worse! 

Does the Bible point to a final end to planet earth?  Yes.  Not in the "Left Behind" Science Fiction way, though.  It speaks of final events, judgment of mankind, a fiery end to earth and a new beginning. 

Radio:

Radio destroyed the world many many times!  I think it was done most often by Arch Oboler.  Oboler gave us, "The Conqueror worms" and "The Word," and of course,  "Chicken Heart."  Yes, CHICKEN heart!  described  in Old Time Radio Catalog

Chicken Heart was another memorable Lights Out episode where a chicken heart is kept alive in a petri dish eventually starts growing and takes over the whole world. This episode influenced Stephen King and Bill Cosby described listening to this particular episode during one of his stand up comedy routines.

X minus 1 also destroyed the world -- but not as often as we would think!

The most famous destruction of earth came in 1938, when Mr. Orson Well's played The War of the World's.  People actually thought the world was ending! Author Andy Rausch and I talked about this  particular radio play when I interviewed him in October.

TSK: Since you participated in the Welles book, I'll ask you this... I've always been fascinated by the 1938 War of the Worlds fiasco. Do you think anything like that could ever happen again? 

Andy Rausch: No. Today we have so much information—maybe too much information—at our disposal at any given moment. I think you could maybe fool a few people here and there, but convincing that number of people that aliens are attacking seems unlikely.

Interview With Andy Rausch

TELL ME:
So,what are some of your favorite end of the world books, movies and radio plays? 

Batman #400: BATMAN or SUPERMAN

REPOST: IN HONOR OF BATMAN, DARK KNIGHT RISING COMING OUT TODAY

Batman #400 was issued October, 1986.  It features a special introduction by Stephen King.  King's topic of choice. . . Batman or Superman.

This special introduction its on inside front and inside back covers.  

QUESTIONS THAT MATTER:

King writes: "When I was a kid there were certain questions which came up and had to be answered. . . or at least aired, if finding a conclusive answer proved impossible.

He then offers us a quick list of questions that had to be answered:

• Whether or not Don Larsen's World series no-hitter was skill, fate, or just dumb luck.
• What was at the center of golf balls.  
• Why all the Disney characters wore gloves.
• Was there such a thing as a complete set of green Davy Crockett trading cards.  King writes, "The red ones were easy, but the green ones were weirdly scarce."
• Here's one I've given some time to: Would you come out in China upside down i it was really possible to dig all the way through the earth to the other side.  (And, may I add. . . at what point are you upside down?)

"These were questions asked and answered after you were too tired to swim out to the raft anymore and had to crash out on the beach, or when you were walking home from the baseball field in summer's sweet dusk with your feet burning inside your sneakers, or before you fell asleep on camp-outs."

Of course, this is exactly what we are treated to in the movie Stand By Me.  Questions kids ponder.  And. . . if Mickey is a mouse, Pluto is a dog. . . what's Goofy? 

And then there was this question: Who do you like better, Superman or Batman?

Before I tell you King's preference -- I took an unofficial poll.  I discovered a little generation gap.  Teens and adults pretty quickly choose Batman.  Children were divided, but Superman was still pretty popular with the kiddos.  We, it turns out, are a house divided!  The nine year old was offended anyone would think Batman was better than Superman.  She had not considered that anyone might hold a varying opinion.

King's vote: Batman.  (Come on, no surprise there, right?  He's writing the intro in the Batman comic.  I guess he would have had to do some more soul searching if D.C. had asked him to write an introduction!)

He assures us that he still "digs" Superman, because he's the "good" guy.  However, King explains that Superman is a little removed from the rest of us.  He can't be beat!  There's Kryptonite, even red and yellow Kryptonite, but "Batman was just a guy.  A rich guy, yes.  A strong guy, granted.  a smart guy, you bet.  But. . . he couldn't fly.  I think that formed my preference more than anything else."

FLIGHT: 

King discusses the first Superman movie, and the tagline, "You'll Believe A Man can Fly."  He didn't!  He didn't believe it in the movie or the comic books.  "Ironically, the closest I ever came to believing it was in the TV series."  Interesting!  I love that old TV series.  And so do my kids.  We've watched them all, over and over.  "DON'T CALL ME CHIEF!"

King says the Batman TV show was "unpleasantly campy."  I must agree!  I saw it recently, and it pained me.  But, the actors were awesome.  They were trying to make it feel like a comic book; but in that vein, the Dick Tracy movie leads the pack, I think. 

"But when Batman swung down into the Joker's hideout on a rope or stopped The Penguin from dropping Robin into a bucket of boiling hog-fat with a well-thrown Batarang, I believed.  These were not likely things, I freely grand you that, but they were possible things.  I could believe in a Caped Crusader who swung on ropes, threw boomerangs with deadly accuracy, and drove like Richard Petty getting a pregnant woman to the hospital." 

(He also says he had trouble believing in Super-breath.)

SHERLOCK HOLMES

Batman, King explains, really was a detective.  

"He had to be a detective.  He couldn't rely on super-breath to return Gotham city to its proper place after the crime had happened; he had to catch The Riddler or whomever the villain might be before he could jump start those nuclear jets.  Like Sherlock Holmes, Batman looked at the tracks the crooks left; he took finger prints; he picked up hairs from the scene of the crime and took testimony.  He kept files -- also a la Homes -- on the modus operandi of various criminals. He searched for patterns, knowing -- as all the great detectives have -- that if a pattern can be found, you can be there waiting for the criminal at his next stop."

THE DARK SIDE

So what's really up, Mr. King?  What's the bottom line?  

"Maybe the real reason that Batman appealed to me more than the other guy: There was something sinister about him.  That's right.  you heard me.  Sinister."

And this is where the article gets real sweet, my friends.  Because, remember, I love old radio, right?  And King now compares Batman to The Shadow.  I loved the shadow! 

Batman, King says, is like a vampire -- because he is a creature of the night.  All the more a comparison, as we now know that Superman gets his power from our sun.  Thus, making Superman all the more a day creature, and Batman a night creature!

"Oh, yeah, you saw him fighting crime in the day once in a while, but mostly he was a shape in the shadows or a grim-faced man-thing crashing through a window at some small hour of the morning, his cape floating around him like a great shadow.  In those Batman-busts-in-panels, you almost always saw a horrid species of fear on the faces of the hoods he was about to flush down the toilet, and I always flet a strong sense of identity with those expressions.  yeah, I thought (and still do think), sitting under a tree in our backyard, or maybe in the tub, or on the john (or, as a kid, under the covers with a flashlight).  Yeah, that's right, they should look scared, I'd sure be scared if something like that busted in one me.  I'd be scared even if I wasn't doing something wrong."

As if to give great credibility to this line of argument, the last page of the comic -- the page facing this exposition of Batman, is a series of night scenes,w tih Batman's cape wavering around him.  The Bat signal flashes in the sky. . .

"The night was his time; the shadows were his place; like the bat from which he took his name, he saw with his hands and feet and ears.  as Bruce Wayne, he was cheerful poshy, full of savoir faire and bonhomie, a fellow easily imagined in front of the fire in his book-line library with a balloon glass of brandy and a bowl of Cheez Doodles near at hand.  But when the Bat-Signal floated against one of Gotham's skyscrapers (or perhaps the underside of a handy passing cloud) a grim and unsmiling creature emerged from the Bat-Cave.  You could shoot him and he would bleed. . . you could crank him a good one on the head and he would fold up (at least for a while ). . . but you could never, never stop him."

STEPHEN KING CONGRATULATES BATMAN

King closes by noting that Batman was on the rise (1986) and he writes:

"I'd like to congratulate the Caped Crusader on his long and valiant history, thank him for the hours of pleasure he has given me, and wish him many more years of heroic crime-busting. 

Go get'em, Big Guy.  May your Bat-Signal never fall, your Batmobile never run out of the nuclear pellets it runs on your utility belt never come up fatally under-stocked at the wrong moment. 

And please, never come busting through my skylight int he middle of the night.  You'd probably scare me into a brain hemorrhage. . . and besides, Big Guy, i'm on your side.
I always was.
--Stephen King"

That's nice, it's really really nice.  Even sweet.  

I'll weigh in on my opinion -- Batman or Superman -- in the comments section, and invite you to do the same.

Question is: WHO DO YOU PREFER, BATMAN OR SUPERMAN?

The Man Who Scared Stephen King

I have really enjoyed Gerald Nachman’s book, “Raised On Radio.”  The book leaps neatly from genre to genre, show to show, giving readers the best of each subject and personality.  While some books on old radio are so massive they are nothing more than encylopedia’s – this book does not feel the need to give every detail.

I think radio is really much more scary, and powerful, than television or movies.  In fact, I think two of King’s work have translated nicely to radio – Pet Sematary and Salem’s Lot were both radio plays.  The 3D Mist was also a radio like experience that was nicely done.  I also think The Shining, Dolores Claighborn, and IT would all make great radio plays.

Know who I think would do a good job translating King to radio?  A guy named Arch Oboler.  He was reponsible for a program called “Lights Out Everybody.”  If you haven't’ heart it, quickly rush over to Internet Archive and turn out your lights. Unfortunately, he died in 1986.  Bummer!  (1987 -- that means he could have enjoyed Return of the Jedi without the experience being marred by the prequels!)

Nachman calls Oboler the "Edgar Allan Poe of the genre."

King's love for radio, and in particular Arch Oboler, is discussed on pages 314-315 of the hardcover, in a section titled, "Radio Noir -- Cops  and Grave Robbers."

I do not know where Nachman is getting his quotes from King, because I have long wondered  what King thought of Oboler's work.  I was glad to read these few paragraphs.  Check out the entire book, it's wonderful!

About King (and Oboler), Nachman writes the following:

One o the little boys Oboler scared half to death was the postmodern prince of horror, Stephen King, who has called Oboler “the genre’s prime auteur.”  King heard Lights Out reruns in the 1960s on Dimension X, recalling especially Ray Bradbury’s “Mars Is Heaven!”  “I didn’t sleep in my bed that night,” he remembered.  “That night I slept in the doorway, where the real and rational light of the bathroom bulb could shine in my face.  That was the power of radio at its height.”  Oboler, like Hitchcock, loved merging horror and humor into a gross-out giggle.  “Part of Oboler’s real genius was when ‘Chicken Heart’ ended, you felt like laughing and throwing up at the same time.

Oboler, said King, played on two of radio’s prime strengths: “The mind’s innate obedience, its willingness to try to see whatever someone suggests it see, no matter how absurd; the second is the fact that fear and horror and blinding emotions that knock our adult pins from beneath us and leave us groping in the dark like children who cannot find the light switch.  Radio is, of course, the ‘blind’ medium, and only Oboler used it so well or so completely.”  In radio, King obsverved, we never saw the zipper running down the monster’s back.

On TV, King said, The Shadow and Inner Sanctum over described scenes, whereas Oboler relied on speech, sound, and silence to achieve his effects.  He can’t forget the gruesome, “A Day at the Dentist,” in which a dentist extracts revenge from a patient who, years earlier ruined the dentists’s wife when she was a young girl.  With the patient strapped in his chair, the dentist drills a hole in him (“to let out some of lover-boy”), but the audience is left to guess where – his brain?  Heart?  Genitals?  The lone sound of a burrowing drill left listeners very much in the dark indeed.  Iing singles out radio’s ability to unlock the door of evil without “letting the monster out,” as movies or TV or theater would be forced to, because our eyes demand to know what’s behind the door; our ears leave the solution tantalizingly, and horrifyingly, up in the air.  Yet in the hands of a master radio storyteller like Oboler, we don’t feel heated.  We feel challenged. . . and chilled.

The author of The Shining, Carrie, and Misery remembers how, when Inner Sanctum left radio for TV, it finally made the creeding door visible, “And visible, it certainly was horrible enough – slightly askew, festooned with cobwebs – but it was something of a relief, just the same.  Nothing could have looked as horrible as that door sounded. . .”

There were weaknesses in Oboler's writing.  He was particularly fond of the monologue.  I guess in radio, it's one of the few ways to convey what's going on -- but sometimes Oboler's went on-and-on-and-on.

My favorite Arch Oboler "Lights Out" play was titled "Revolt Of The Worms."  (Brian Keene has a book that reminds me of this short radio play.)  The story "Murder Castle" reminds me very much of the documentary about H.H. Holmes, America's First Serial Killer.

Like King, Oboler was incredibly prolific.  He was a fast writer, known to leave a dinner party at 11pm and return at 1am with a finished script.  Where did he get his ideas?  Nachman fills in this interesting detail, "He often got  ideas  from listening to sound effects records, and took special delight in devising grotesque effects.  His scare tactics included the sound of a man frying int he electric chair (sizzling bacon), bones being snapped (spareribs or Life Savers crushed between teeth), heads  being severed (chopped cabbages), a knife slicing through a man's  body (a slab  of pork cut in two) and, most grisly of all, somebody eating human flesh (wet noodles squished with a bathroom plunger.)"

Does this sound familiar: Nachman quotes Oboler, "I didn't write about little green men. .  . monsters with dripping talons and grotesque faces from the special effects department. . . I wrote about the terrors and monsters within each of us."  (Well, he did write about worms!)  But the quote is very close to King saying he is more interested in the characters than the monsters.

Ray Bradbury Dies

AP reported that Ray Bardbury died in Los Angeles Tuesday night at the age of 91.

Bradbury is best known for his novel “Fahrenheit 451", which a lot of us had to read in school.  He also wrote short stories and poetry.  His show, The Ray Bradbury Theater, was a blast!  I loved it.

According to the AP article, he was active into his 90s, writing everyday in the basement office of his home.  His wife Maggie died in 2003; they were married in 1947.  Together they had four daughters and eight grandchildren.  It takes a real man to raise girls!

His website described his office:

Ray's office is in his basement, a fascinating warren of rooms beneath his Los Angeles home. In the main room, you can see Ray's desk and typewriter where he works every day. The room is lined with floor-to-ceiling bookshelves, but as you can see, the shelves hold much more than books. There are toys, stuffed animals, masks from around the world, gifts from fans, and souvenirs picked up over the years having to do with books, theater, television, and film. 

He scripted the 1956 film version of Moby Dick and wrote “I sing the body electric” for the Twilight Zone.  Plans were in hand to use Bradbury more for Twilight zone, but never materialized.  He also wrote for Alfred Hitchcock Presents.

HERE is a listing of all his work in chronological order.

Bradbury designed Spaceship Earth for  Disney's Epcot.  A crater on the moon was named after one of his stories "Dandelion Crater" as part of the 1971 Apollo 15 moon landing.  (HERE)

According to Raybradbury.com, Bradbury was awarded the National Book Foundation's 2000 Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, an the National Medal of Arts in 2004.

Yahoo News cites  Texas A&M Commerce English Professor Robin Ann Reid, "The universe is a little emptier right now . . . There's less of that sense of joy and exulation that he was writing in his works all the way to the end."

The Yahoo article also notes:

Bradbury recently wrote a short essay responding to his favorite Snoopy comic strip about how much rejection he faced when he first began writing. "Starting when I was fifteen I began to send short stories to magazines like Esquire, and they, very promptly, sent them back two days before they got them! I have several walls in several rooms of my house covered with the snowstorm of rejections, but they didn't realize what a strong person I was; I persevered and wrote a thousand more dreadful short stories, which were rejected in turn," he wrote.

Bradbury said on his 80th birthday,

"The great fun in my life has been getting up every morning and rushing to the typewriter because some new idea has hit me. The feeling I have every day is very much the same as it was when I was twelve. In any event, here I am, eighty years old, feeling no different, full of a great sense of joy, and glad for the long life that has been allowed me. I have good plans for the next ten or twenty years, and I hope you'll come along." 

Stephen King and Ray Bradbury:

Stephen King was born in 1947, the same year Bradbury’s first book was published.

Both King and Bradbury  have had close connections to  Hollywood, often writing scripts for their own works.

Crumley at Bradbury’s message board noted this:

There is no doubt that King is an admirer of Ray - even if his work is not really in the same vein. DANSE MACABRE makes many praising references to Ray. "My first experience of real horror came at the hands of Ray Bradbury," King writes, and describes how as a boy he listened with delightful terror to a radio play of 'Mars is Heaven'. King also comments on how Bradbury is peerless: "But for me, Bradbury lives and works alone in his own country, and his remarkable, iconoclastic style has never been successfully imitated. Vulgarly put, when God made Ray Bradbury, He broke the mold."

Elements of Bradbury's work (especially of the earlier, darker stories) can be seen in King's work - sometimes in theme (eg. the dark flipside of human nature, the way that evil is sometimes the victor), and sometimes in style (eg. black humour, eerie & surreal landsapes). To anyone who reads both authors, the influence is clear.”

Check out the 2:50 mark of Bradbury's biographer, Sam  Weller, as he discuses Bradbury's influence on Stephen King. "He told me, that it was his first encounter at the hands of fear was because of Ray Bradbury."

TELL ME YOUR FAVORITE BRADBURY STORY

I have three favorites.  First, I loved the short novel The Martian Chronicles.  Originally, Bradbury said he had a bunch of short stories about Mars, but when he came to Los Angeles, no one wanted to publish short stories.  So he wove them into a single story.  It is delightful; both novel and poetry, the writing is awesome.  For just a taste of it, check out the section titled “Rocket Summer.”

I also loved the book of short stories, The Illustrated Man.  These short stories are bound together by a mans tattoos, which are alive and moving as they tell stories.  The Velt is pretty good in that set.

And, I enjoyed his 1962 collection, R is for Rocket.  (Along the same lines as S is for Space.)  Bradbury short stories are just fun.  That’s how all his work is – delightful and fun.

The joy spills off the page and touches the reader.  He never spends (spent) long explaining how things work, he just leapt through the story itself.  I loved it!  He was very much a “don’t bother me with the details” type author.  How can a spacship do that, Mr. Bradbury?  No worries. . . he just writes on.

King To Launch THE PULSE Radio Show

At a Press Conference today, Stephen King announced The Pulse Morning Show will now be airing on his WZON 103.1 FM throughout Maine.  The program will start September 12.

"We're going to try to be informative. We're going to be provocative. We're going to be amusing, and we're going to try to be a positive community force."

The show will be hosted by former Green party vice-presidential candidate Pat LaMarche and Don Cookson, a former reporter. 

Is Radio An Overlooked Medium?

I have previously detailed a few of Stephen King's work that has been adapted to radio.  I love that format!  Did you know that the Martian Chronicles was originally done as a series of radio plays, long before it became a mini series.

Know what would be cool. . . a Stephen King radio playhouse.  Consider:

1. Everything is scarier on the radio.  Just listen to "Lights out everybody."
2. Radio can take you more places on a cheaper budget.
3. Radio drama's often go on and on for many episodes.  They are not locked in to a single episode.
4. Stars on the radio don't demand a trillion dollars.

Just suggesting that with all the Dark Tower drama about budget -- maybe there is another (better) format that had been largely overlooked in the Stephen King universe.  Hard to do a modern story on the radio?  Did you know that Lucas put all three of the true Star Wars movies to radio?  Yep!  And the first one was something like six hours!  It is great.

Radio doesn't cut out any other medium.  But it does open the door to some greater creativity.  Frankly, I would love to travel with Larry Underwood through the Lincoln tunnel on radio.  Now that would be scary.  It just can't be done visually -- but I'll bet it can be done as a radio play. 

Imagine Christine as a radio drama.  All that music in the background!  Car sounds.  You'll get to know the sound of Christine's engine quickly.

Even though radio drama's don't really play so much on. . . radio. . . that should not shut out the format.  In fact, with mp3, I listen to more radio now than ever.  It is a format that Dickens' works have been well represented. 

Works already in radio format: Misery, Pet Sematary, The Mist 3D sound.

For a fuller treatment of the subject, see my earlier article.  http://talkstephenking.blogspot.com/2010/02/stephen-king-radio-dramas.html

Herman Wouk Is Still Alive

stephenking.com reports: "Stephen King’s short story, “Herman Wouk is Still Alive,” will be published in the May issue of The Atlantic, on newsstands April 19 and available on the web and to subscribers a week earlier."
http://www.stephenking.com/index.html

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Herman who? Wouk worked for Fred Allen as a writer. Fred Allen was famous on old radio and early television. As a Jack Benny fan, I don't know about this Mr. Wouk! (Benny and Allen had an ongoing feud that was awesome!) In fact, just think of all the Jack Benny digs this Wouk has probably written. He later served in World War Two.

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On a more serious note, he is the author of many historical novels, most notably The Caine Mutiny and Winds of war. He won a Pulitzer Prize for Caine Mutiny. His most recent book is The Language God Talks. He is Jewish and has written a lot about Israel. Awesomely cool to me, he lives in California! (Not too far away)

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Website: http://www.hermanwouk.net/index.html

Biography: http://www.hermanwouk.net/biography.html

On What's My Line: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXiiuVtu5AA

On Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Herman-Wouk/e/B000APY7U4

Haven: Random thoughts on Ain't No Sunshine

• I really liked this episode! The theme is engaging, even haunting.
• Reminds me of that old radio show, "Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts men. . . the shadow knows!" This is like The Shadow goes bad. Very nice and spooky.
• Never thought about how Nathan's gift (he can't feel pain) could be a curse. . . he can't feel at all! Can't feel love. Poor dude. By the way, did you notice the background music as Jess kisses Nathan? Nice.
• Some of the early awkwardness is wearing off of Haven.
• There are times I wish this was a half hour program. (told you this was random)

The Kind Of Television Suited For King

Simple Point: I wish there was a "Twilight Zone" like series featuring Stephen King's work.

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In the previous post I linked to Stephanie Earp's article, "Can Stephen King Work on TV?"

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I think King can work on TV. Of course, I'm excited about Haven. When it comes to television, I liked Nightmares and Dreamscapes. I'll review the 8 episodes another time, but here's why I like it; Short stories with a punch are one of the things constant readers have come to expect from King. In fact, every few years King gives us a book full of wonderful stories -- Night Shift, Skeleton Crew, Nightmares and Dreamscapes, Everything Eventual, Just After Sunset.

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The format where you did short stories on television seems to be slipping away. I loved the Twilight Zone. It was written -- for the most part -- by three authors; Rod Serling, Richard Matheson and Charles Beaumont (the Twilight Zone's Richard Bachman!). While it was always Serling's show, the output was so enormous it took a creative writing team to make it happen.

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I wish we could have a Stephen King version of the Twilight Zone. Strange music, an introduction from Uncle Steve and a great story with a neck breaking twist at the end.

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They tried a remake of the Twilight Zone in the 80's. We all know how that went. And to be clear, I'm not saying King should do the Twilight Zone. However, the series had a format that would work for King's material.

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What made the Twilight Zone successful? A lot of things, but one important factor was Serling himself. Serling had immense control over the Twilight Zone! It was His show. You can read the behind the scenes story in Marc Zicree's The Twilight Zone Companion, but the bottom line is that it was Serling's gig. He sold it, he wrote for it, he often re-wrote the scripts, and he introduced each episode. He became the face of the Twilight Zone.

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There were Others!

Of course, there was the Outer Limits and Science Fiction Theater -- but they weren't built on a single person.

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The Master of Suspense -- director of Psycho and The Birds -- had Alfred Hitchcock Presents. Lots of fun! Can any of us forget those opening lines, "Good evening." We knew it would not be a good evening for someone on Mr. Hitchcock's show! This series was so good, they remade it.

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I also remember enjoying Ray Bradbury's Theater as a kid. I mention those because they are both based on a single person (in this case, respectively, a director and a writer). More recently we've had Tales from the Crypt, which King has written for, and each episode was introduced by the ghoulish Crypt keeper. I liked it! George Romero produced Tales from the Darkside.

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The forced time frame is also nice for short stories. Often King's work is actually hurt by cinema's need to flesh it out beyond the walls King created it in. You know, the best Twilight Zone's were the 30 minute ones. Season Four,w hen they went to an hour, stunk up bad! In fact, I can't think of a single episode from season four that was really wonderful.

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Still Waiting For Radio

Don't you miss old radio? I wasn't around for it! My wife said I was born an old man. Go figure. But I've said before that King's work would really work best on radio since it is the Theater Of The Mind! And it's been done. BBC gave us a faithful adaptation of Pet Semetary.

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Maybe some day they'll give us: Uncle Steve's Dark Kingdom.

Sleepwalkers

One of the movies I bought in my recent frenzy of purchases from the perishing Hollywood Video was Sleepwalkers.

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"Star Wars Christmas Special" Kinda Bad!

Now, I saw this with my dad when it came out in 1992; the year I graduated High School. I hated it. I thought maybe I had misjudged. Maybe time has softened my opinion of this film. Maybe it was really a great film, and I was just missing it. Nope. How do I say this... kindly... (can't be said kindly)... This movie rises to the great heights of films like Superman 4, Even numbered Star Trek movies, and the famous Star Wars Christmas Special (youtube it, gang. You'll be happy you did).

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Directed by Mick Garris, Sleepwalkers cameo's Stephen King as a cemetery keeper and Clive Barker as a forensic tech. Once again, everyone in this film (like in Maximum Overdrive and Children of the Corn) has an IQ high enough to work fo BP. King appears with a toothpick sticking from his mouth; remember the Beav from Dreamcatcher, Mr King?

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This isn't "so bad it's good" type of work. This is the kind of stuff CIA uses on would be terrorist to make them talk. "Please, don't show me that again! I'll talk!"

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Creepshows author Stephen Jones quotes King as saying, "By the early 1990's I'd written several films based on my own published works. Some, like creepshow, were pretty good; others, like Silver Bullet, were...well...not so good. I decided to take what I'd learned and write an original screenplay, and I had a bloody good time doing it." p.76

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I don't know about you, but I liked Silver Bullet a lot more than Sleepwalkers. Some information seems to be missing -- like what in the world is going on! Mother and son are shape-shifting vampires, and apparently very in love. Mama Vampire is hungry, and sonny needs to find her a virgin bloodshake. Maybe they're not related, they might be lovers simply disguising themselves as mother/son. Ick, I don't want to think about it.

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HITCHCOCK Never Made A Vampire Film!

Another Hitchcock influence: Jones also notes in Creepshows that Mark Hamill (that would be Luke Skywalker in the real world) appears in the opening sequence, which is set in California's Bodega Bay. This, Jones notes, is a nod to Alfred Hitchcocks 1963 The Birds. But why a vampire movie would need to make a nod to the birds is a little beyond me. Like, maybe it's a warning from the beginning of the movie, "Run, faithful movie goers -- this one is for the birds!"

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Cat Lovers Movie

Sleepwalkers and cats don't seem to get along. Of course, not getting along with a cat a part of a normal persons life.

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Staci Wilson gives this so very exciting trivia tidbit: According to Sleepwalkers director Mick Garris, the lead cat who played Clovis was so relaxed on the set, he can be heard purring on several of the final takes. As a dog person, I'm all a flutter! I haven't been so excited since I listened to that Lights Out Everybody episode by Arch Oboler called: "Cat People." http://www.staciwilson.com/animalmovies/sleepwalkers.html

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What Others Are Saying:

So, I thought maybe I was wrong still. Maybe my bad experience with this film is just mine alone. I headed out into the murky world of Internet to find out what others think:

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One for Garris: According to always reliable wikipedia, the movie won the 1992 Fantafestival Award for Best Actress (Krige), Best Direction (Garris), Best Film (Garris) and Best Screenplay (King). Humm, I think this Fantafestival might also be calling baseball pitches these days -- http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/37479309/ns/sports-baseball/

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Two for Garris: On the S.K. message board, Anna writes, "When will you publish Sleepwalkers? I love this movie..."

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Three for Garris: Blogger Crackle loved this film. She says, "it will be hard to put into words the sheer brilliance of this movie.." but then she tries. Too bad. Mostly she notes themes such as incest, virginity and cats. I hate cats. Of course, I must admit that I stopped reading when she said, "Now for our last two themes, cats and incest (both subjects named in my recent divorce)." Okay, too much information! http://blog.crackle.com/2009/08/07/sleepwalkers-stephen-king-teaches-us-about-vampire-cats/

Movie reviewers.

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Fine, I get it. So fans love this movie. So I'll move on to the movie reviewers. After all, movie reviewers get paid to hate movies.

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Stephen Holden at NY Times wrote a basically straightforward summery of the movie, not commenting on its value. But, Andrew Bain responded to the Times, writing "Sleepwalkers has comedy value, there's no doubt about it. A friend and I acutally had to pause the film during several scenes in the film, just because we couldn't hear over our own laughter. In one such scene a girl jumps into a police car when she is attacked by the vampire-cat-aliens (no, I am not making this up) and screams for help down the radio. A policewoman on the line screams back 'Andy,' (the name of the recently deceased policeman) 'Get with the program! Bye!'.I truely hope that some of you will watch this film just so you can appreciate how terrible it is." So there. That's ONE for me. And it's a big one, since it's a person responding to someone who is important. http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9E0CE0DC123CF932A25757C0A964958260

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Variety said, "Stephen King's Sleepwalkers is an idiotic horror potboiler." http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117794958.html?categoryid=31&cs=1

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NOMINATED: MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000

I just realized something; it doesn't matter what they think. You are welcome to like this film -- be wrong, it won't hurt me a bit. I choose not to like this movie. So there. And, to rub it in, I respectfully nominate this movie to Mystery Science Theater 3,000. No, I won't take it back. Don't even ask. It's already nominated!

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picture: http://www.fanpop.com/spots/stephen-king/images/72839/title/sleepwalkers

Firestarter Journal #1

I started reading Fire-starter the other day. As I did with Under The Dome, I am going to take down notes as I go. This is a lot easier than doing a longer review once I've finished reading.

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I've held back from reading this because I saw the movie. And, let's just say, it's a typical Stephen King movie -- it didn't work for me. With the release of several early King novels in audio book format, I decided to give Fire-starter a fresh chance. So far, I'm glad I did.

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Genre: As usual with King, this isn't so much about horror as it is characters.
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Notes:

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1. I really like the pacing King has in this novel. As he usually does, King starts in the middle of the story. Act 2, if you will. As the story opens, Andy and his daughter Charlie are on the run from a shadowy government agency called "The Shop."

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2. Dedicated to Shirley Jackson "who never needed to raise her voice." King includes her books, The Haunting of Hill House, The Lottery (a freaky short story), We Have Always Lived in the Castle and The Sundial. I liked Shirley Jackson's work, and like King she has suffered from Hollywood adaptations of her work that really don't represent her well! (though I did hear one awesome radio drama on the Lottery) Anyway, King's appreciation for Jackson is well stated -- it's like a nod from the master of horror, go read this ladies books!

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3. Opening quote: "It was a pleasure to burn." --Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451.

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4. Andy McGee has the power to "push" things into someones mind. In particular, the novel opens with him pushing a cabbie to think a $1 bill is a $100 bill. Interesting, later -- back at the shop -- the dollar bill has been confiscated and continues to effect those who look at it. When Andy uses his power, he is left with severe migraine headaches.
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5. Several extended flashbacks give details to Andy's meeting his wife, Vicky. The best flashbacks regard Charlie, who burns up teddy bears, leaves pillows smoldering and even injures her mother. The parents have fire extinguishers all over the house. The extent of Charlie's power is not revealed early on, obviously it will be the subject of the book.
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picture: Michael Whelan

Stephen King Radio Drama's

The BBC did a dramatazation of Pet Sematary several eyars ago. I listened to it recently with delight -- before I started the never ending journey called Under The Dome. The BBC does a great job, but I would have preferred an American production.
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As I listened, I was drawn in. Radio was actually a great medium for this novel. Almost better than the big screen -- and I liked the movie. Radio is the theater of the mind.
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Now think about it -- the number one complaint almost all of us King fans have about the Stephen King movie adaptations is that the special effects are so low budget. (Just check out that warewolf in IT. My parents laughed outloud.) When we see them on the screen, scenes we've read about never match up.
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Movies SHOW us, while books play to the mind. However, radio rushes to the same spot: The Mind. So, the special effects budget is unlimited. After all, on radio: I've flown with Superman, been to the signing of the U.S. constitution (via a radio program called YOU ARE THERE!), and I've even been to the top of the Empire State building. And every time, it was the most believable thing in the world, because my own mind produced the images.
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Arch Oboler --

The Stephen King Of His Era
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A short detour, okay. . .
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I love old radio. My wife listens to Jack Benny, Burns and Allen and Fibber McGee and Molly. But not me! Give me a chance, and it's Arch Oboler's Lights Out Everybody. This is seriuous stuff. Actually, I can't believe they let these radio plays air! They are all out creepy, scary and wonderful.
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Oboler was very much like the Stpehen King of his era. He was spooky, gifted, a very good writer and able to generate a seemingly massive output. He also did much more than just horror (like NBC's Arch Obolers Plays). Like Stephen King, he used his art as a medium for polotical commentary -- anti Nazi at the time. He liked to introduce his own plays, kinda like our friend Mr. King likes to write chatty introductions to his books and stories.
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But anyone who remembers Arch only really remembers how incredibly scared this guy could get us. I mean, sweating shaking scared! And I didn't grow up in a radio generation. I grew up in the 80's! But still, this stuff is the best.
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Arch Oboler opened Lights Out like this, "This is Arch Oboler bringing you another of our series of stories of the unusual, and once again we caution you: These Lights Out stories are definitely not for the timid soul. So we tell you calmly and very sincerely, if you frighten easily, turn off your radio now." SWEET!
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King writes, "no discussion of the phenomenon of radio terror, no matter how brief, would be compelte without some mention of the genre's prime auteur -- not Orson Wells, but Arch Oboler, the first playright to have his own national radio series, the chilling Lights Out." (Danse Macabre, 124)
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I wish Arch was around to turn Stephen King's work into radio plays. King says, "Arch Oboler, a restlessly intelligent man who was also involved in the movies and the legitmate theater, utilized two of radio's great strengths: the first is the mind's innate obedience, its willingness to try to see whatever soemone suggests it see, no matter how absurd; the second is the fact that fear and horror are blinding amotions that knock out our adults pins from beneath us and leave us groping in the dark like children who cannot find the light switch." (danse Macabre, 125-126)
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A few of my favorite Lights Out Episodes:
The one where everyone disappears, and the couple is at the top of the Empire State Building. I forgot the title, though.
Murder Castle , State Executioner , Sub-basement (there were dinosaurs down there! Reminds me of Graveyard Shift) , Cat People. Forget it! I like them all.
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The Mist
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Another Stephen King story turned radio play is The Mist. This was done in 3D sound, and actually was my first introduction to the book. The play follows Kings story pretty closely.
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George Beahm writes that The Mist "has been optioned and dropped three times -- because the special effects for a movie would be extremely challenging. They are easily manufactured in your mind, which is one of the unique things about either reading, or in particular, listening to that particular story unroll. The special effects that your mind makes are perfect." (The Stephen King Companion, p.275)
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Beahm also comments specifically on the radio drama, "The Mist is one of King's most visual stories, rich in imagery, best visualized in the mind's eye: skull cinema. With headphones on, the story comes alive, slowly enveloping you ina world where the unbelievable becomes believable. Anyone who has seen the grade-B monster flicks of the fifties will find this dramatization a blast from the past." (Companion, p.131)
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Star Wars
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You know, all three of the Star Wars films were turned into radio plays. Interestingly, each one was much short than the previous. Star Wars for the radio? yep! And it worked great. Why? Because of the power of the mind.
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Now, if they can give us: Star Wars, Murder Castle (Oboler), The Mist and Superman on the radio -- I want to ask: Don't you think radio would be a great venue for Stephen King's work?
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War Of The Worlds
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October 30, 1938 Orson Wells scared the entire nation by airing War of the Worlds. How'd he do it? Well, he put his story together as if it were a news cast. Very innovative! And, he whooped every single movie that followed. People drove off the road when they heard on the radio that Martians had landed -- but no one ran out of the theater when they saw it happen on the Big Screen.
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Why it's such a good medium:
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King hismelf said in Danse Macabre, "My first experience with real horror came at the hands of Ray Bradbury -- it was an adaptation of his story Mars Is Heaven on Dimension X." (p.120)
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Radio really works for King's stories for several reasons:
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1. Radio is a lot more frightening than the movies. You see what they tell you to see.
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2. Radio plays, like soap operas, can go on episode after eipisode. So please, go ahead, give us a 30 hour edition of The Stand!
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3. Radio plays can take you right inside someone's head. That's what King is really good at, too. He has the gift of taking you right in a characters thought life. On radio, they do this through monolgues -- and a little bit of echoe. Oboler was the master of the monologue (well, Shakespear was the master of it -- but he didn't write radio plays.)
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A Few Suggestions:
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Here are a few of King's stories I think would be great for radio:
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1. The Stand. Always have to start there! But Larry Underwood in the tunnel would be awesome on radio!
2. Graveyard Shift. Movies can't really take you down into the dark. There always has to be light from somewhere! But radio can drop you down into a dark basement full of rats. Ulgh, I can almost feel them!
3. The Langoleirs. The entire move stunk bad and ruined a great book. But radio could pull this off.
4. Under The Dome. But the audio edition of this is so powerful, it comes close to a radio production. Just the way the reader does the different voices, very good.
5. The Ledge. This was done in Creepshow pretty well, but I think would be even scarier on radio.
6. Eyes of the Dragon.
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Now what wouldn't work on radio. . . Maximum Overdrive.
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May I say: Forget the dollar babies. Forget the big budget films. Forget the mini-series and the comics. Why doesn't someone give us a string of truly scary Stephen King radio plays? I'll get the lights. . .
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Links:

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• Check out King's chapter "Radio andt he set of reality" in danse Macabre. It's Chapter 5.
  
• BBC recording of Pet Sematary: http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=E057F44DEF9F2FD4&search_query=%22pet+sematary%22
• The Mist: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEDx6V9jPXg&feature=related
• Arch Oboler: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arch_Oboler
• War of the Worlds: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wf5TPVz56A