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[quote][i]Originally posted by frnck blck[/i]
[br]

Please pardon the tooting of my own horn, but this one was special.

http://www.laalternativepress.com
 A Locally-Owned and Independent Voice in the City
 Volume 4 Number 2 � April 29 - May 12, 2005

I is for Interview

Indie-rock hero Frank Black goes one-on-one with his literary hero, the indomitable Ray Bradbury.

BY FRANK BLACK

I got an email from the editor at the L.A. Alternative Press asking me to call up the one and only Ray Bradbury to ask him some questions for a casual Q&A. I avoided responding. When my high school English teacher said I could write short stories instead of doing homework, Ray Bradbury was my main source of inspiration. Years later I would absorb what Ray had to say at personal appearances he made at libraries and gymnasiums. I named a record after him [1996�s �The Cult of Ray�] and squeezed as much of him as I could into my own work. Once I got an autograph and mumbled garbled, humbled praise. I was totally intimidated to speak with the beyond-famous and beloved writer, and yet I thought myself a fool to pass on the experience.

I called Katherine at the Press back right before the deadline and was given Ray�s home telephone number. She told me he would pick up the telephone when I called. The first two times I called I was very satisfied to hear the ancient sound of the busy signal. I was not surprised that Mr. Bradbury had no use for call waiting. Then, on my third attempt, he answered after one ring...

RAY BRADBURY: Good morning.

FRANK BLACK: Good morning Mr. Bradbury, this is Frank Black representing the LA Alternative Press publication. I was hoping I could speak to you today, perhaps...or whenever it�s convenient.

RB: Um, let�s see what time it is here...Could you do it right now?

FB: Absolutely.

RB: Put on your tape recorder...

FB: It�s going! [Laughs.]

RB: Let�s do it right now.

FB: Wonderful! [Clears throat.] Thank you for your time, by the way...

RB: Sure.

FB: ...and I won�t take too much of it. Over the years I have imagined, in my own mind, filling the Los Angeles storm drain and aqueducts with water to accommodate boats to ferry people around town. If you could be mayor, or king, of Los Angeles for a day, what great works could you imagine?

RB: I would turn the river bottom into a freeway. You don�t need water, just clear out the rocks and you could have a freeway all the way out to the Valley away from the other freeways. There�s a lot of rocks there. There�s a drain in the middle that channels what little water�s there.

FB: The Los Angeles river?

RB: It goes all the way to the Valley. You�d have a freeway, which would give you extra ways of traveling from the Valley into downtown.

FB: Some of us in the world are excited about colonizing Mars. Why do you suppose that some people have such a negative, or sometimes even hostile attitude about this?

RB: It�s always been true that the average person has very little imagination. We can�t expect them to anticipate the things that we anticipate. It�s inevitable that we go back to the moon, its inevitable that we go to Mars, and its inevitable we go on out into the universe. We�re just not gonna stay here. The people that don�t think about these things, they think only of the practical things of getting up in the morning, and going to bed at night. But if that sort of thinking had occurred five hundred years ago, there�d be no America. Three Italian voyagers discovered America. Columbus never touched ground until the third expedition. Then Giovanni Caboto was sent by Henry VII, and finally Jacques Cartier was sent by Francois I of France. Each of them didn�t realize that what they were doing was creating a country with 300 million people. Now, if the thinking had gone on in those days the way it is today, they would have never have left Italy and France and England, and there would be no United States. So think of that. Come on! We�ve gotta do these things, in spite of the people who don�t care.

FB: Amen. On that note, it seems inevitable that one day many locales on Mars will be named after you, Mr. Bradbury. 
 Does that give you a little thrill?

RB: Right now it�s enough that I have a crater on the moon named after one of my books. The Dandelion Crater. That�s good enough for me.

FB: OK. You attended the first world science fiction convention, Worldcon, in 1939.

RB: When I was 19 years old.

FB: You�ve attended comic book conventions throughout your life.

RB: I�ve been going the last three years to the one in San Diego. It�s great fun, its just jolly.

FB: Are you a believer in human gathering? As humans, are we meant to gather?

RB: It seems that we need it, doesn�t it? If we�re all crazy together...You can go to the comic conventions in July and you can see how crazy we are. Because we all get together and say, �Well, we�re pretty nuts, aren�t we?� But we love each other. So that�s why we do it.

FB: Some Angelenos are secessionists and think the city would run better if it shrank some. Do you think Los Angeles� problems might be helped by making it smaller, or do you think it should stay big?

RB: We don�t need to make it smaller. What we need is the monorail. We were offered the chance by Helwig Monorail 40 years ago at the meeting of the Board of Supervisors. Helwig Monorail offered to build eight or 12 systems for free and give them to us, if we allowed them to run them. That seemed fair enough to me. So that would solve the traffic problem, because it�s above traffic, it�s off the street, and can be built away from the street then brought in and put up without any trouble or hurting anyone. We�re not going to make LA smaller, it�s too late. But we have to have a decent monorail system to help us move around.

FB: I couldn�t agree with you more. I�ve read that before my time � I�m 40 years old � that movie theatres were everywhere, and that Los Angeles even used to have several Japanese-language movie theatres.

RB: Oh, I used to go to them all the time, I took all my children to the one near Wilshire and La Brea. I took them to see all of [Akira] Kurosawa�s films there.

FB: I guess it was a really wonderful time in America when movie theatres were so much more plentiful then they are now.

RB: Well, now we have multiple theatres. Most of them are too small. I don�t like to go to the multiple theatres. But there�s still a few big ones and thank God for that.

FB: Would you be in favor of making sections of Los Angeles pedestrian zones, free of cars, or do you think that car culture is too important to the city?

RB: I helped Santa Monica rebuild their pedestrian section which starts at Wilshire and goes all the way down for about six or eight blocks, and throughout Fifth Street in Santa Monica. I�m responsible for nagging them to rebuild that, �cause it works. At Century City you have a car-free zone, and I helped rebuild that. I told them that they needed 30 restaurants, because people go out to eat, they don�t go out to shop. They go out to eat, and when they feel good, they buy things they don�t want. So I am in favor of more of these, I think Westwood could do with closing a few streets and turning them into pedestrian malls, and it will be done. It will be done.

FB: In modern cinema, do you think that its become too violent or graphic, leaving less to the imagination, or is this an old fashioned kind of attitude?

RB: Mostly crap, isn�t it? Every five minutes they explode ten thousand gallons of gasoline. So that is moronic. And indeed they�re too violent. So many of them are tests between macho males trying to prove they have biceps and balls. I like the old fashioned movies and there are still a lot of movies around that are excellent. During the last year or so there was a wonderful western that is a bit violent with Robert Duvall, called �Open Range.� There�s a film with Michael Caine and Robert Duvall, �Secondhand Lions,� a beautiful film about Africa. And then during the Academy Award time, there was Annette Benning in.�Being Julia� was the name of it. Very nice film. So there are some good films around. But we have to pay attention to them.

FB: The one filmmaker who has been able to make me cry is Jaques Tati.

RB: Well, I knew him very well, he was a good friend. �Mr. Hulot�s Holiday� is one of the funniest films, and one of the saddest films ever made. It�s very funny, but it has a touch of melancholy. Beautiful.

FB: Is there a filmmaker that can make you cry?

RB: Well, I did a film at Disney, �Something Wicked This Way Comes,� it has its moments that make you cry because it�s very human, the relationship of the boy with his father. And Jack Clayton directed that. Very nice.

FB: Speaking of directors, I feel emotionally scarred to this day by a guy who almost punched me out in a barroom where my girlfriend worked. This was someone I did not know. You were almost punched out by John Huston, who you admired. Can you laugh about that now, or do you still feel hurt by that?

RB: No, no, �cause it�s a long time ago, and he gave me a job to write [the screenplay for] �Moby Dick� and I�m very grateful. He�s the only one that paid attention to me 55 years ago. So I�m very grateful.

FB: I�m a rock musician; I�ve done a lot of flying in the world, and I�ve gone through phases in my life where I�ve been afraid of flying. But once, I was upgraded to a flight on the Concorde. I know you�ve flown the Concorde�were you sad to see it go, finally?

RB: That was a terrible mistake that was based on a piece of metal that was on the runway. And the tire of the Concorde hit the piece of metal and it went up through the plane and destroyed it, but it had nothing to do with the Concorde. But they were cowards to give up because this had nothing to do with the plane. It was a piece of metal on the tarmac. It should never have caused the destruction of the Concorde.

FB: I only got to fly the Concorde once, but I loved that moment when the aircraft reached the speed of sound and the sound of the engines disappeared behind you. Do you have any favorite recollections of that supersonic flight?

RB: It�s wonderful, but more important is this: I discovered when I flew for the first time that I wasn�t afraid of flying, I was afraid of me. Once I discovered that I was afraid of me, the fear went away, because I�m a good guy. So I�ve been flying ever since. A lot of people think they�re afraid of flying, and they�re just afraid of themselves, that�s all.

FB: Maybe I should pass that along to my grandmother, who�s exactly your age; she still won�t fly. I think she�s traveled around the world on boats but she still won�t get on a plane.

RB: She�s afraid of herself. Tell her to just relax and take a drink of gin and get on the plane.

FB: I�ll tell her you said so. One time I got to travel on the Queen Elizabeth II. I imagine you probably traveled that boat once or twice in your lifetime.

RB: I�ve taken all my daughters on it.

FB: Were you sad to see that ship go?

RB: Well, they�ve got other new ships. In fact, its still around, it�s making trips. It hasn�t been retired completely.

FB: They say that the first ship to Mars will be a bit of a slow boat. Some say six to nine months. With that kind of travel time involved, do you think some colonists will be saying goodbye to Earth forever?

RB: Oh, I can�t answer that, it�s too far in the future. I couldn�t answer that at all.

FB: OK. Well, as colonists in the future, that distant future, do you think we should alter the atmosphere of Mars to make it more hospitable, or should we take a more �green� approach and learn to live within its limitations?

RB: At the start, we�ll have to live within its limitations. But as we begin to plant Mars, then the oxygen will come out of the plants, won�t it? That will take a lot of planting and a lot of doing.

FB: As a writer, I�m sure you�ve had many meetings over the years with people in restaurants. What is your favorite restaurant in Paris, if it�s even still there?

RB: Oh God Almighty, there are so many. First of all, there are 20,000 restaurants in Paris. And I�ve been in most of them. Fouquet�s is on the Champs d�Elysees, it�s a very nice restaurant, and it�s pretty social, and you have the fun of eating good food and watching the Parisian public walk by.

FB: In Los Angeles, my personal favorite is the Pacific Dining Car downtown.

RB: Oh, you just named mine. I go to both, I go to the one on Wilshire out in Santa Monica. It�s just as good.

FB: Yeah, I like the one in Santa Monica as well. I really like the fact that there isn�t any music being piped in and it�s so quiet and sound-absorbent...

RB: You can talk to one another...

FB: Is that the mark of the restaurant of yesteryear, or is that just a fantasy of mine that back in the day a lot of restaurants were like that?

RB: Nowadays people don�t want to talk to each other, so they go to a restaurant where there�s a lot of talk, a lot of sound, and a lot of music, and they don�t have to say anything. It�s a real bore.

FB: When I was 16 years old I took the GED high school equivalency test because I was anxious to begin my career in music, and my mother made me finish high school. Would you have different advice for a teenager who�s in a rush?

RB: Well, it depends what you�re going to do. Now if you want be a writer, you don�t need education. You can do it yourself. So when I graduated from high school, I went to the library and I stayed there, I went to the library two or three days a week for 20 years. I graduated from the library when I was about 28 years old. Through writing, you educate yourself. You write every day and you read every day. And at the end of 10 years or so you�ve become a writer. That�s the way you rush it, by doing it.

FB: The sound and the vibrations of the typewriter are virtually gone now, and I realize that since your stroke you may be writing a different way now, but up until that time, was the feel and the sound of the typewriter machine an important part of the writing experience for you?

RB: I think it is, but I suppose if you�re used to the computer, it doesn�t make any difference. After all, the pencil and paper, or a pen and paper, are quiet too, so you can write just as well. It doesn�t matter how you write, just as long as you write. So you don�t need the sound, but it�s very nice.

FB: Last year, 63-year-old Mike Melvill flew the first privately built craft into space. Do you think that it�s individuals, or groups of individuals, rather than governments, who will finally colonize space?

RB: First of all, it�s too expensive. It�s hard to guess if there will be enough crazy people in the future to do it. I think you require the government to do it, because the government needs to do it. Crazy people are not that frequently to be met. So I think it will be a government thing as far as I can see.

Ray Bradbury appears at Vroman�s Bookstore in Pasadena at 6 p.m. on April 29.

The Pixies tour begins May 26 and comes to L.A�s Wiltern on June 2.

�

�2005 by Los Angeles Alternative Press

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T O P I C R E V I E W
frnck blck	Posted - 04/29/2005 : 20:21:42 Please pardon the tooting of my own horn, but this one was special. http://www.laalternativepress.com A Locally-Owned and Independent Voice in the City Volume 4 Number 2 � April 29 - May 12, 2005 I is for Interview Indie-rock hero Frank Black goes one-on-one with his literary hero, the indomitable Ray Bradbury. BY FRANK BLACK I got an email from the editor at the L.A. Alternative Press asking me to call up the one and only Ray Bradbury to ask him some questions for a casual Q&A. I avoided responding. When my high school English teacher said I could write short stories instead of doing homework, Ray Bradbury was my main source of inspiration. Years later I would absorb what Ray had to say at personal appearances he made at libraries and gymnasiums. I named a record after him [1996�s �The Cult of Ray�] and squeezed as much of him as I could into my own work. Once I got an autograph and mumbled garbled, humbled praise. I was totally intimidated to speak with the beyond-famous and beloved writer, and yet I thought myself a fool to pass on the experience. I called Katherine at the Press back right before the deadline and was given Ray�s home telephone number. She told me he would pick up the telephone when I called. The first two times I called I was very satisfied to hear the ancient sound of the busy signal. I was not surprised that Mr. Bradbury had no use for call waiting. Then, on my third attempt, he answered after one ring... RAY BRADBURY: Good morning. FRANK BLACK: Good morning Mr. Bradbury, this is Frank Black representing the LA Alternative Press publication. I was hoping I could speak to you today, perhaps...or whenever it�s convenient. RB: Um, let�s see what time it is here...Could you do it right now? FB: Absolutely. RB: Put on your tape recorder... FB: It�s going! [Laughs.] RB: Let�s do it right now. FB: Wonderful! [Clears throat.] Thank you for your time, by the way... RB: Sure. FB: ...and I won�t take too much of it. Over the years I have imagined, in my own mind, filling the Los Angeles storm drain and aqueducts with water to accommodate boats to ferry people around town. If you could be mayor, or king, of Los Angeles for a day, what great works could you imagine? RB: I would turn the river bottom into a freeway. You don�t need water, just clear out the rocks and you could have a freeway all the way out to the Valley away from the other freeways. There�s a lot of rocks there. There�s a drain in the middle that channels what little water�s there. FB: The Los Angeles river? RB: It goes all the way to the Valley. You�d have a freeway, which would give you extra ways of traveling from the Valley into downtown. FB: Some of us in the world are excited about colonizing Mars. Why do you suppose that some people have such a negative, or sometimes even hostile attitude about this? RB: It�s always been true that the average person has very little imagination. We can�t expect them to anticipate the things that we anticipate. It�s inevitable that we go back to the moon, its inevitable that we go to Mars, and its inevitable we go on out into the universe. We�re just not gonna stay here. The people that don�t think about these things, they think only of the practical things of getting up in the morning, and going to bed at night. But if that sort of thinking had occurred five hundred years ago, there�d be no America. Three Italian voyagers discovered America. Columbus never touched ground until the third expedition. Then Giovanni Caboto was sent by Henry VII, and finally Jacques Cartier was sent by Francois I of France. Each of them didn�t realize that what they were doing was creating a country with 300 million people. Now, if the thinking had gone on in those days the way it is today, they would have never have left Italy and France and England, and there would be no United States. So think of that. Come on! We�ve gotta do these things, in spite of the people who don�t care. FB: Amen. On that note, it seems inevitable that one day many locales on Mars will be named after you, Mr. Bradbury. Does that give you a little thrill? RB: Right now it�s enough that I have a crater on the moon named after one of my books. The Dandelion Crater. That�s good enough for me. FB: OK. You attended the first world science fiction convention, Worldcon, in 1939. RB: When I was 19 years old. FB: You�ve attended comic book conventions throughout your life. RB: I�ve been going the last three years to the one in San Diego. It�s great fun, its just jolly. FB: Are you a believer in human gathering? As humans, are we meant to gather? RB: It seems that we need it, doesn�t it? If we�re all crazy together...You can go to the comic conventions in July and you can see how crazy we are. Because we all get together and say, �Well, we�re pretty nuts, aren�t we?� But we love each other. So that�s why we do it. FB: Some Angelenos are secessionists and think the city would run better if it shrank some. Do you think Los Angeles� problems might be helped by making it smaller, or do you think it should stay big? RB: We don�t need to make it smaller. What we need is the monorail. We were offered the chance by Helwig Monorail 40 years ago at the meeting of the Board of Supervisors. Helwig Monorail offered to build eight or 12 systems for free and give them to us, if we allowed them to run them. That seemed fair enough to me. So that would solve the traffic problem, because it�s above traffic, it�s off the street, and can be built away from the street then brought in and put up without any trouble or hurting anyone. We�re not going to make LA smaller, it�s too late. But we have to have a decent monorail system to help us move around. FB: I couldn�t agree with you more. I�ve read that before my time � I�m 40 years old � that movie theatres were everywhere, and that Los Angeles even used to have several Japanese-language movie theatres. RB: Oh, I used to go to them all the time, I took all my children to the one near Wilshire and La Brea. I took them to see all of [Akira] Kurosawa�s films there. FB: I guess it was a really wonderful time in America when movie theatres were so much more plentiful then they are now. RB: Well, now we have multiple theatres. Most of them are too small. I don�t like to go to the multiple theatres. But there�s still a few big ones and thank God for that. FB: Would you be in favor of making sections of Los Angeles pedestrian zones, free of cars, or do you think that car culture is too important to the city? RB: I helped Santa Monica rebuild their pedestrian section which starts at Wilshire and goes all the way down for about six or eight blocks, and throughout Fifth Street in Santa Monica. I�m responsible for nagging them to rebuild that, �cause it works. At Century City you have a car-free zone, and I helped rebuild that. I told them that they needed 30 restaurants, because people go out to eat, they don�t go out to shop. They go out to eat, and when they feel good, they buy things they don�t want. So I am in favor of more of these, I think Westwood could do with closing a few streets and turning them into pedestrian malls, and it will be done. It will be done. FB: In modern cinema, do you think that its become too violent or graphic, leaving less to the imagination, or is this an old fashioned kind of attitude? RB: Mostly crap, isn�t it? Every five minutes they explode ten thousand gallons of gasoline. So that is moronic. And indeed they�re too violent. So many of them are tests between macho males trying to prove they have biceps and balls. I like the old fashioned movies and there are still a lot of movies around that are excellent. During the last year or so there was a wonderful western that is a bit violent with Robert Duvall, called �Open Range.� There�s a film with Michael Caine and Robert Duvall, �Secondhand Lions,� a beautiful film about Africa. And then during the Academy Award time, there was Annette Benning in.�Being Julia� was the name of it. Very nice film. So there are some good films around. But we have to pay attention to them. FB: The one filmmaker who has been able to make me cry is Jaques Tati. RB: Well, I knew him very well, he was a good friend. �Mr. Hulot�s Holiday� is one of the funniest films, and one of the saddest films ever made. It�s very funny, but it has a touch of melancholy. Beautiful. FB: Is there a filmmaker that can make you cry? RB: Well, I did a film at Disney, �Something Wicked This Way Comes,� it has its moments that make you cry because it�s very human, the relationship of the boy with his father. And Jack Clayton directed that. Very nice. FB: Speaking of directors, I feel emotionally scarred to this day by a guy who almost punched me out in a barroom where my girlfriend worked. This was someone I did not know. You were almost punched out by John Huston, who you admired. Can you laugh about that now, or do you still feel hurt by that? RB: No, no, �cause it�s a long time ago, and he gave me a job to write [the screenplay for] �Moby Dick� and I�m very grateful. He�s the only one that paid attention to me 55 years ago. So I�m very grateful. FB: I�m a rock musician; I�ve done a lot of flying in the world, and I�ve gone through phases in my life where I�ve been afraid of flying. But once, I was upgraded to a flight on the Concorde. I know you�ve flown the Concorde�were you sad to see it go, finally? RB: That was a terrible mistake that was based on a piece of metal that was on the runway. And the tire of the Concorde hit the piece of metal and it went up through the plane and destroyed it, but it had nothing to do with the Concorde. But they were cowards to give up because this had nothing to do with the plane. It was a piece of metal on the tarmac. It should never have caused the destruction of the Concorde. FB: I only got to fly the Concorde once, but I loved that moment when the aircraft reached the speed of sound and the sound of the engines disappeared behind you. Do you have any favorite recollections of that supersonic flight? RB: It�s wonderful, but more important is this: I discovered when I flew for the first time that I wasn�t afraid of flying, I was afraid of me. Once I discovered that I was afraid of me, the fear went away, because I�m a good guy. So I�ve been flying ever since. A lot of people think they�re afraid of flying, and they�re just afraid of themselves, that�s all. FB: Maybe I should pass that along to my grandmother, who�s exactly your age; she still won�t fly. I think she�s traveled around the world on boats but she still won�t get on a plane. RB: She�s afraid of herself. Tell her to just relax and take a drink of gin and get on the plane. FB: I�ll tell her you said so. One time I got to travel on the Queen Elizabeth II. I imagine you probably traveled that boat once or twice in your lifetime. RB: I�ve taken all my daughters on it. FB: Were you sad to see that ship go? RB: Well, they�ve got other new ships. In fact, its still around, it�s making trips. It hasn�t been retired completely. FB: They say that the first ship to Mars will be a bit of a slow boat. Some say six to nine months. With that kind of travel time involved, do you think some colonists will be saying goodbye to Earth forever? RB: Oh, I can�t answer that, it�s too far in the future. I couldn�t answer that at all. FB: OK. Well, as colonists in the future, that distant future, do you think we should alter the atmosphere of Mars to make it more hospitable, or should we take a more �green� approach and learn to live within its limitations? RB: At the start, we�ll have to live within its limitations. But as we begin to plant Mars, then the oxygen will come out of the plants, won�t it? That will take a lot of planting and a lot of doing. FB: As a writer, I�m sure you�ve had many meetings over the years with people in restaurants. What is your favorite restaurant in Paris, if it�s even still there? RB: Oh God Almighty, there are so many. First of all, there are 20,000 restaurants in Paris. And I�ve been in most of them. Fouquet�s is on the Champs d�Elysees, it�s a very nice restaurant, and it�s pretty social, and you have the fun of eating good food and watching the Parisian public walk by. FB: In Los Angeles, my personal favorite is the Pacific Dining Car downtown. RB: Oh, you just named mine. I go to both, I go to the one on Wilshire out in Santa Monica. It�s just as good. FB: Yeah, I like the one in Santa Monica as well. I really like the fact that there isn�t any music being piped in and it�s so quiet and sound-absorbent... RB: You can talk to one another... FB: Is that the mark of the restaurant of yesteryear, or is that just a fantasy of mine that back in the day a lot of restaurants were like that? RB: Nowadays people don�t want to talk to each other, so they go to a restaurant where there�s a lot of talk, a lot of sound, and a lot of music, and they don�t have to say anything. It�s a real bore. FB: When I was 16 years old I took the GED high school equivalency test because I was anxious to begin my career in music, and my mother made me finish high school. Would you have different advice for a teenager who�s in a rush? RB: Well, it depends what you�re going to do. Now if you want be a writer, you don�t need education. You can do it yourself. So when I graduated from high school, I went to the library and I stayed there, I went to the library two or three days a week for 20 years. I graduated from the library when I was about 28 years old. Through writing, you educate yourself. You write every day and you read every day. And at the end of 10 years or so you�ve become a writer. That�s the way you rush it, by doing it. FB: The sound and the vibrations of the typewriter are virtually gone now, and I realize that since your stroke you may be writing a different way now, but up until that time, was the feel and the sound of the typewriter machine an important part of the writing experience for you? RB: I think it is, but I suppose if you�re used to the computer, it doesn�t make any difference. After all, the pencil and paper, or a pen and paper, are quiet too, so you can write just as well. It doesn�t matter how you write, just as long as you write. So you don�t need the sound, but it�s very nice. FB: Last year, 63-year-old Mike Melvill flew the first privately built craft into space. Do you think that it�s individuals, or groups of individuals, rather than governments, who will finally colonize space? RB: First of all, it�s too expensive. It�s hard to guess if there will be enough crazy people in the future to do it. I think you require the government to do it, because the government needs to do it. Crazy people are not that frequently to be met. So I think it will be a government thing as far as I can see. Ray Bradbury appears at Vroman�s Bookstore in Pasadena at 6 p.m. on April 29. The Pixies tour begins May 26 and comes to L.A�s Wiltern on June 2. � �2005 by Los Angeles Alternative Press
35 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First)
JUNO	Posted - 07/03/2005 : 06:18:09 dude, i'm soo behind. : p great interview though. nothing i can say that hasn't been said in these post already. ok ok, so i didn't read them all! i'll jump on the next FB post sooner though. JUNO
twist	Posted - 06/30/2005 : 09:56:41 quote: Originally posted by tobafett quote: Originally posted by floop i like it because it's an old school piece of LA history.. but i don't think the food is that great exactly...it came down to the pantry or one of the chicken/waffle places... the food was ok...diner'ish...didn't know about the ex-cons, though! they have the bars to keep 'em in? Also highly recomended - The Pines Caf�, 4343 Pearblossom Highway. When you're out at Vasquez Rocks or El Mirage dry lakebed. For some strange reason they don't allow ketchup on the premises, don't ask for it unless you're in the mood for ridicule. And don't ask for peanut butter at Roscoe's House of Chicken and Waffles.
tobafett	Posted - 06/28/2005 : 21:09:07 quote: Originally posted by floop i like it because it's an old school piece of LA history.. but i don't think the food is that great exactly...it came down to the pantry or one of the chicken/waffle places... the food was ok...diner'ish...didn't know about the ex-cons, though! they have the bars to keep 'em in? :)
floop	Posted - 06/28/2005 : 19:50:42 i like it because it's an old school piece of LA history.. and they employ all ex-convicts so it's fun to think about what crimes the people serving you were in for. but i don't think the food is that great
tobafett	Posted - 06/28/2005 : 15:40:51 quote: Originally posted by floop quote: Originally posted by twist Is The Pantry still downtown? Last time I was in L.A. it was getting harder to find my old Raymond Chandleresque haunts, sad. The Pantry is still there. That's my dad's favorite place.. we always meet for breakfast there I ate there sat. morning after the Pixies show at the wiltern...it came highly recommended...I will definitely be going back to dine...I really enjoyed it.
VoVat	Posted - 05/25/2005 : 16:11:50 Yeah, that's what Jesus said. I was all out of luck, like a duck that died. I was all out of juice, like a moose denied.
floop	Posted - 05/23/2005 : 12:03:49 he'll be back
VoVat	Posted - 05/23/2005 : 10:06:47 If LA is so great, then how come Frank left it? Huh? I was all out of luck, like a duck that died. I was all out of juice, like a moose denied.
floop	Posted - 05/22/2005 : 17:20:29 quote: Originally posted by twist People who universally denounce L.A. don't know what they're talking about. i couldn't agree more. i could expound on this extensively, but i'll just leave it at that.
twist	Posted - 05/22/2005 : 14:29:34 [/quote]The Pantry is still there. That's my dad's favorite place.. we always meet for breakfast there[/quote] Thank goodness, hope it's still there a thousand years from now when we've colonized Mars and maglevs soundlessly streak through the Valley of Tar. People who universally denounce L.A. don't know what they're talking about.
floop	Posted - 05/20/2005 : 08:48:36 quote: Originally posted by twist Is The Pantry still downtown? Last time I was in L.A. it was getting harder to find my old Raymond Chandleresque haunts, sad. The Pantry is still there. That's my dad's favorite place.. we always meet for breakfast there
twist	Posted - 05/20/2005 : 08:26:11 When I lived in L.A. I remember voting for a proposition to install monorails on piers in the middle of the freeways, it was a popular idea that somehow evaporated. Imagine being stuck in mindnumbing traffic and seeing a monorail whoosh overhead. In spite of Disneyland's perfect record with their monorail, L.A. now has the Wilshire corridor subway and worse. Which brings to mind Tati's "Traffic" (best when undubbed and unsubtitled). I've always liked R.B. and will be the first to admit his enormous literary stature but it's a real shame we'll never read a Frank Black/P.K.D. interview, a couple of the scenarios discussed in the interview are right out of "Martian Time Slip". Thanks for the post your otherworldliness sir guy man dude or however you prefer to be addressed. Is The Pantry still downtown? Last time I was in L.A. it was getting harder to find my old Raymond Chandleresque haunts, sad.
Leah	Posted - 05/11/2005 : 05:15:20 As usual I'm the last to chime in with the praise!!! I've printed the interview off and sent it to my favourite people... Thanx for posting that here! Every choice human being strives instinctively for a citadel and a secrecy where he is saved from the crowd - Nietzsche
blarg007	Posted - 05/08/2005 : 08:05:41 quote: Originally posted by Erebus quote: Originally posted by blarg007 If he did approach Michael Moore legally about Farenheit 911 than he loses my vote for a true renaissance thinker. Interesting post. Thank you. BUT, your average renaissance thinker would approach Moore with a machete. aw leave Michael Moore alone -sorry for the silly post, I have just come off an isolated work stint and the sci-fi author interviewed by FB got me goin'. Just shows how good a piece it was, from restaurants with no piped tunes to threatening directors; non-stop action. the link said: 'join the discussion' so I being into sci fi have always wondered if FB read PKD. WOW Billy Idol lyrics as spoken word by WGN weatherman... AND I'm typing on an old portable. nine inch nails at the Congress theatre causing traffic jams made me think: will there be a 'Honeycomb' show/tour featuring the Catholics? arg
VoVat	Posted - 05/08/2005 : 07:33:40 When I hear (or, rather, read) the words "Renaissance thinker," I tend to think of people like Leonardo da Vinci. I'm not sure I could picture him with a machete, but maybe he had a mean streak the history books didn't discuss. I was all out of luck, like a duck that died. I was all out of juice, like a moose denied.
Erebus	Posted - 05/08/2005 : 01:00:55 quote: Originally posted by blarg007 If he did approach Michael Moore legally about Farenheit 911 than he loses my vote for a true renaissance thinker. Interesting post. Thank you. BUT, your average renaissance thinker would approach Moore with a machete.
blarg007	Posted - 05/07/2005 : 17:22:29 A+ interview! I must say the real magic is that FB intervieiws Bradbury, definitely makes for a more interesting read. I look at him and his crop like Arthur Clarke and it's usually a gas to hear clever old men like that talk it up although I was shocked RB had not much too say about people leaving Earth for good. It's funny that what we do and how well we do it gets other people to listen and pay attention to our ideas -hearing him talk it sounds like he gets involved in city planning etc. which is interesting. I must admit that I find Tatis' films extremely touching. Mon Uncle is the one I have absorbed more than once and Traffic I enjoyed but sadly had a bit too much beer when watching Mr. Hulot's holiday -but I remember a lot. There is a great documentary on the history of the Concorde out there -good question! Nice to hear he is a Kurasawa fan. I liked his talk about learning to write and about gatherings and craziness. If he did approach Michael Moore legally about Farenheit 911 than he loses my vote for a true renaissance thinker. Give me Robert Crumb or Philip Dick any day (PKD died 2 weeks before the film Blade Runner opened in 1982 sadly). It's funny that I am picturing 2 different SciFi authors in California and after reading PKD's works, memoirs etc. I see him as this keen observer looking thru matter to the ethereal and beyond the human consciousness to something unknown that drives us like bees in society and RB seems to be all about getting that pesky river outta the way so he can fly out to the valley or vice versa. Just kidding, anybody ever hear about how California and Arizona almost went to war over the water rights in the thirties when Parker Dam was being built? I think a good portion of L.A.s water comes from the Havasu viaduct up there in the Hot land near Lake Havasu City and Parker. another odd tidbit is that the creation of Lake Havasu via Parker dam did cover a Chemehuevi indian graveyard. Jeez I guess I like to make connections, like a six degrees of seperation type thing. Frank Black I really love your music and it fascinates me to no end the type of things that you get into. I suppose because I always look for parrallels and synchronous connections etc. I grew up in L.A. as a kid then moved to Az at 13 -which I hated at first but after going back at eighteen or so to re-discover L.A. I was kind of repulsed by the whole place -long story blah blah. If your out there Frank I would like to know your thoughts on Phil Dick: what you have read by him and about him. Lawrence Sutins biography of PKD for instance has a good deal of his life as a 'Californian' and a lot else that is interesting. He was fascinated by Linda Rondstat and wrote her into one of his later books. so if I could interview FB I would have three questions: 1. what are your favorite 3 books by PKD and why? 2. what do you know of PKD's life and what do you think is fascinating there? 3. Bladerunner came to mind via my fave scifi author but it brings to mind the life depicted in the film as crowded and gritty thus making people kind of wanting to go 'offworld' the way I see it is as RB sees it -some people would see the need to do it ... would you go to mars and hang out for say 10-15 years? travel time included lets say -but the whole roundtrip would be mandated at you being back at the soonest 10 years upon leaving. by the way I have the interview with Frank Black published in Science Fiction Eye that I will have to dig up now... Anyway I loved your interview of Bradbury and I really think you should go interview Robert Crumb in France and check out that restaurant RB recommended - if you take Crumb maybe he will sketch you while you two dine and talk... Reports from Frank Black are a good thing. Ciao, RLPbLARG
floop	Posted - 05/07/2005 : 15:39:46 i made the mistake of going to Pacific Dining Car on a first date once. not a mistake because it's a bad restaurant, but because it's not exactly inexpensive. i think it was after that (one and only) date with that person that i decided dinner on a first date is a mistake period. that one was the cream of the crop though.. it's true that it's amazingly quiet in there (i've only been to the one in Santa Monica).. which actually makes it more uncomfortable if you're on a first date with someone you're not yet comfortable with. :) excellent steak though..
nmusler	Posted - 05/07/2005 : 11:01:13 Great interview. Loved the talk about urban planning, but more than anything I enjoyed R.B.'s comments on flying and how people who are afraid of flying are really just afraid of themselves. I'd love to have heard more on that topic. PCD, is hands down my fave place to eat in LA. I make a stop there everytime I'm in LA. Classic. I prefer the downtown locale to the Santa Monica joint myself. Something special about that piece of class being on the edge of such a seedy neighborhood. Most things in life that are really special live on the borderlands. -Noah N- "My heart is in my cranium and it still knows how to pound"
adda flea	Posted - 05/06/2005 : 13:44:01 Ya gotta love the idea of scrapping the LA river in lieu of improving the freeway system. When i was a kid me and my friends rode our bikes down to the bulsa chica beach via the "LA river." Oh yeh, and anytime you have a mossy gutter thats called a river, you probably should consider some alternatives.
Cult_Of_Frank	Posted - 05/06/2005 : 01:24:15 There are probably some people that would fit that bill. I personally don't think that _I'd_ have to be the one colonizing (though I'd love to do it just to travel through space and set foot on another planet) it. I just think it's the right thing to do for a lot of reasons, even though I'll be long dead before anything in the space program could even laughably called colonization. I guess it's kind of like saying that anyone who enjoys movies or books or fiction is just unhappy. There are unhappy people who escape that way, whether it's from a bad day or chronic depression, but there are happy people who genuinely enjoy it. "Joined the Cult of Frank / And you'll be enlightened"
tisasawath	Posted - 05/06/2005 : 00:50:12 quote: Originally posted by frnck blck FB: Some of us in the world are excited about colonizing Mars. Why do you suppose that some people have such a negative, or sometimes even hostile attitude about this? I think that some of sf fans are so keen on venturing to other worlds and contacting new life forms partly because they're not particularly happy with where and how they are not that there's anything wrong with that, I mean looking at crap that goes on in the world every day and in someone's life and wanting to change it is ok I guess ----- AAAAWWWWWRRRIIGGHHTTTTT ! !
Jefery With One F	Posted - 05/05/2005 : 20:42:29 Great timing. I'm in the middle of writing my major research paper for my Masters degree and part of the paper will deal with Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451. I think there's some stuff in there that I can use for my paper. Frank Black in my list of Works Cited...I never would have expected it, but it's very cool. Is this also available in print format? If so, is there any way of getting a copy? I'd gladly trade a bootleg CD or two for a copy of the paper if someone's willing to send it to me.
ijdnwtdwm	Posted - 05/05/2005 : 14:28:54 hey, i'm 15 and i'm into the pixies 5 years ago, and into ray bradbury's books 3 years ago, so that i loved that interview.... thank you frank
Angry Elvis	Posted - 05/04/2005 : 14:06:10 hi frnk thanks for all the music my 7 yr old daughter told me she is going to meet you at the jones beach ny show i wouldn't be surprised, she's a real hoot looking forward to seeing you and the rest of the gang *i'm just a hunka hunka burnin love*
VoVat	Posted - 05/04/2005 : 07:34:40 Buffy the Vampire Slayer is science fiction? quote: I guess it is tough to sue the Moore Corporation! No, it's remarkably easy to sue anyone. How easy it is to WIN a lawsuit against someone is a different matter. I remember hearing about the lawsuit. I have no idea what the end result was, but I really don't see how Ray would have had a case. I was all out of luck, like a duck that died. I was all out of juice, like a moose denied.
Foucaults Dog	Posted - 05/04/2005 : 07:15:45 WOW, I get the feeling that Charles is to Ray as We are to Charles, or is that Ray is to Charles as Charles is to Us??? You get my drift. It's quite heartening to see those you admire hold such admiration for others. Even when they are omnipotent :)
BrendanT	Posted - 05/02/2005 : 13:09:50 Interesting, I didn't know that about Ray Bradbury and Michael Moore. Was he successful? I guess it is tough to sue the Moore Corporation! Strummer-man I had me a vision! All of a sudden my water broke! "There was a man Who made a boat To sail away And it sank.".
floop	Posted - 05/02/2005 : 10:59:42 i "saw Raymond speak one time" too, at a library in my hometown. it was open to the public, but a lot of high school English classes were there. so when it got to the question and answer session, it was entertaining at times. one girl asked him what he thought of "modern science fiction, like Buffy The Vampire Slayer" and he was just like, "i don't know what that is". that was funny. and another kid. after Ray's long, elaborate 1-hour speach telling his story about how he got into writing etc.. asked him, "how did you get into writing?". he seemed like an extremely peaceful man and a cool guy period. the coolest thing (i thought) was how he urged these kids not to watch broadcast news, and went off on how evil they (networks) are.
darwin	Posted - 05/02/2005 : 10:58:12 quote: Originally posted by BrendanT I can assume that Mr. Bradbury did not know of Frank as he mentioned that he is a rock star and has travelled the world. What I would like to know is; Was Mr. Bradbury aware that there was an album of music loosely titled after him? Did frank mention this fact to him? After Mr. Bradbury made noise about suing Michael Moore for using the title Fahrenheit 911, Frank Black might be better off if Mr. Bradbury didn't know about Cult of Ray. _____________________________ Join the Cult of Mr. Black
BrendanT	Posted - 05/02/2005 : 10:43:45 I can assume that Mr. Bradbury did not know of Frank as he mentioned that he is a rock star and has travelled the world. What I would like to know is; Was Mr. Bradbury aware that there was an album of music loosely titled after him? Did frank mention this fact to him? I watched Mr. Bradbury on the Late Late show with Tom Snyder. Tom was calm and cool with each and every guest he had on his show the only guest to make him stumble over his words was Mr. Ray Bradbury. He (Ray) was mentioning his experience/meeting with a circus performer by the name of Mr. Electrode (I think?) and the fascinating story behind this chance meeting. If anyone else watched this interview you know what I am talking about. Anyways, I just wanted to say that Frank's interview was superb. Just wondering if Frank caught a little of the Snyder fumbles while speaking with Mr. Bradbury or did everything go as cooly as the interview made it appear? Driving Blind!!!!! Strummer-man I had me a vision! All of a sudden my water broke! "There was a man Who made a boat To sail away And it sank.".
fumanbru	Posted - 05/02/2005 : 05:49:03 last night i was looking for something to read so i went to the bookshelf and found bradbury's "quicker than the eye". a collection of short stories. i opened the front cover and in hand written print it said "merry christmas. yippy-yih-yae. frank black." that made me chuckle. my bro usually signs santa. "I joined the Cult of Frank/ cause I'm a real go-getter!"
frank_black_francis	Posted - 05/02/2005 : 02:37:06 quote: Originally posted by VoVat No, I saw it, and I knew the Red Car thing was based on something real, anyway. My comment was called a "joke." Look it up sometime. :P so was mine...sarcasm doesnt really come thru as well in type huh?
VoVat	Posted - 05/01/2005 : 14:53:46 No, I saw it, and I knew the Red Car thing was based on something real, anyway. My comment was called a "joke." Look it up sometime. :P I was all out of luck, like a duck that died. I was all out of juice, like a moose denied.
frank_black_francis	Posted - 04/30/2005 : 19:26:10 quote: Originally posted by VoVat quote: It was an individual who, in Los Angeles 80 years ago, bought up the "BIG RED CAR" streetcars, extended them into vacant areas that had properties he owned, sparked a major portion of LA's initial sprawl and then abandoned the RED CARS, developed the land and made a big pile of money. Yeah, I've seen "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?", too. :P Well you would think it was a good thing i left the actual reference to that comment below my statement...that got past you did it?

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