CBC: Ray Bradbury interview (1992 with Eleanor Wachtel)

SFFaudio Online Audio

CBC - Writers & CompanyHere’s a Ray Bradbury interview from May 3, 1992. Recorded with Eleanor Wachtel from CBC’s Writers & Company. It’s a pretty terrific interview, in large part because of how different it is from the Vicki Gabereau interview that I posted yesterday.

Wachtel seems to rub Ray Bradbury the wrong way. When she challenges him about his bold claims about the place of SF in literature and the world Bradbury goes on the offensive (as offensive as Bradbury can get) – making some awesome arguments. Bradbury sees the then present, of 1992, as a place that’s absolutely wonderful – arguing that for just a few dollars you can form your own film society by renting all the world’s best films (something I myself did – except I bought them used from those video stores). But when Wachtel mentions the environmental problems (specifically a hole in the ozone layer) Bradbury takes her to task on the existence or non-existence of same – arguing that he’ll not be dragged into the role of doomsayer. It’s terrific! Have a listen:

Posted by Jesse Willis

CBC: Day 6 – Ray Bradbury interview from 1985

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CBC - Day 6CBC’s Day 6 blog has a lengthy, November 1985, interview Ray Bradbury (conducted by Vicky Gabereau for her self titled Gabereau show). This is a terrific long-form and ramblingly awesome interview – as Bradbury himself puts it, it’s a “discussion about ideas.”

In it Bradbury talks about:
Moving out to California as a kid, how he gets around Los Angeles, his appearance on Groucho Marx’s You Bet Your Life, movies, directing vs. writing, Fahrenheit 451, Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, Ross Macdonald, James M. Cain, Norman Mailer, a discussion about ideas, bad male drivers, Blackstone the magician, Paris, France, the American Revolutionary War, architecture, Federico Fellini, Amarcord (1973), horror movies, The Fog Horn, The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms, Godzilla, dinosaurs, Moby Dick, William Shakespeare, John Houston, The Carrot People, The Horror Of Dracula, Christopher Lee, The Omen, Diabolique, Jean Harlow, Burns and Allen, The Trojans and sporadically his then current novel Death Is A Lonely Business.

And here’s that appearance on You Bet Your Life (featuring Ray Bradbury in a crew cut):

Posted by Jesse Willis

CBC: As It Happens – Ray Bradbury

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CBC - As It HappensCBC’s long-running interview show, As It Happens, just finished airing a segment on Ray Bradbury, which consisted of a brief obituary, a vintage interview (from May 1992, with Eleanor Wachtel), and a broadcast of Dimension X’s Zero Hour – the streaming audio edition omits Zero Hour, (we’ll find out about the podcast edition tommorow) – in the meantime the segment as it exists begins at 9 minutes 30 seconds:

Podcast feed: http://www.cbc.ca/podcasting/includes/asithappens.xml

Posted by Jesse Willis

There Will Come Soft Rains by Ray Bradbury

SFFaudio Online Audio

Set in either 2026 or 1985, this story – the tale of a lonely house in California is the first that sprung to mind after I heard about Ray Bradbury’s death this morning.

Part of The Martian Chronicles, but first published in the May 6th, 1950 issue of Collier’s Weekly, the entire text of Ray Badbury’s classic There Will Come Soft Rains is viewable at UNZ.org:

Colliers, May 6th 1950 - There Will Come Soft Rains by Ray Bradbury

Here’s a printable |PDF|.

Audiobooks:

Lively Arts - Burgess Meredith Reads Ray BradburyThere Will Come Soft Rains
By Ray Bradbury; Read by Burgess Meredith
1 |MP3| – Approx. 18 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Lively Arts
Published: 1962
Product #: LA 30004


CAEDMON There Will Come Soft Rains and Usher II by Ray BradburyThere Will Come Soft Rains
By Ray Bradbury; Read by Leonard Nimoy
1 |MP3| – Approx. 15 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Caedmon
Published: 1975




Radio dramatizations:

Dimension XDimension X – There Will Come Soft Rains
Adapted by George Lefferts; Performed by a full cast
1 |MP3| – Approx. 29 Minutes [RADIO DRAMA]
Broadcaster: NBC
Broadcast: June 17, 1950


X-Minus OneX-Minus One – There Will Come Soft Rains (and Zero Hour)
Adapted by George Lefferts; Performed by a full cast
1 |MP3| – Approx. 30 Minutes [RADIO DRAMA]
Broadcaster: NBC
Broadcast: December 5, 1956

There’s only a snippet from the beginning of this one…

BBC Radio 4There Will Come Soft Rains
Adapted by Malcolm Clarke
1 |MP3| – Approx. 2 Minutes [RADIO DRAMA]
Broadcaster: BBC Radio 4
Broadcast: May 11, 1977

Wally Wood’s depiction of the house from the comic adaptation in Weird Fantasy #17:

Weird Fantasy #17 - There Will Come Soft Rains - adapted by Wally Wood
There Will Come Soft Rains...

Video adaptations:


There will fall soft rains by DublinBen

There Will Come Soft Rains from Peter Cotter on Vimeo.

Fallout 3 homage:

The original poem:
And finally, part of the inspiration for the story, here is the Sarah Teasdale poem as read by Ruth Golding for LibriVox: |MP3|

Posted by Jesse Willis