The Ray Bradbury Theater

Ray Bradbury was a super talented writer. His books touched upon suspense, science fiction, and horror like no other writer in the 20th century. He also contributed to film and television. Speaking of television he was responsible in the 1980s for The Ray Bradbury Theater.
This show had many great things going for it. Amazingly Ray wrote all 65 episodes of the show over it's seven year run. Originally on HBO after two seasons it moved to The USA Network which is where I caught it. Great writing complimented by guest stars such as William Shatner, Jeff Goldblum, Drew Barrymore, Donald Pleasance and many other.
The only negative of the show is that the production values were pretty low. Many of his short stories and books made the jump to the small screen and most adapted very well. However a larger budget per episode would have benefited the show greatly. "A Sound of Thunder", "Marionettes Inc", "Here There Be Tygers" and so many more stories were produced. Many were a joint Canada/France production which made for an interesting take on the tales.
There is good news and bad if you want to take in this great show today (and what better time of the year). On Amazon you can buy the entire run of the show on a 5 DVD set for the low price of $9.99. Imagine my surprise that this entire show could be mine for ten bucks! The realization came when the pack arrived. In an oversized DVD case with a poorly printed insert all 5 discs were on one spindle with no dividers or anything. That said only one had a minor scratch and played fine. In addition no love was paid when this transfer was done. Simple menus, no extras, and the transfer is really poor (I am talking VHS quality at best). The quality wavers from episode to episode as does the sound quality. But for the price I am not complaining. I just want these companies to know that we are willing to pay a little more for a quality product.

http://www.amazon.com/Ray-Bradbury-Theater-Complete/dp/B0007CEXUY/ref=sr_1_1?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1382160255&sr=1-1&keywords=ray+bradbury

Saiyuki Journey West - best Playstation SRPG you never heard of

Well in all honesty I hope you heard of it but if not here it is. Saiyuki Journey West is a very good Koei strategy RPG released here in 2001 near the end of the PSX's life. It follows the same Chinese myths that are the basis of so many Japanese things, from Dragonball to the game China Gate I talked about the other day.
You play as Sanzo, a young monk on a religious quest that takes you through very dangerous country aided by your animal morphing friends. During game play your characters can morph into animal avatars which are more powerful but you only have a limited time until they return to their human forms. This creates a level of strategy to save your morph until needed dependent on the map you are playing.
I played through this after it was released and have not played since then. Recently I converted it to a PSP friendly format (which is great Google it for details although you need a custom firmware on your device). Really cool game and can be obtained in digital format in the darker regions of the interwebs or just get the physical copy on Ebay for twenty bones.

Thrift Store Find Of The Day

From time to time I will find fun stuff at a thrift store, yard sale, etc and share it here. Today i picked up a board game I had not heard of called Sequence from Jax games. The game got it start in 1981 but the one I pickup up was a reprint from 1999 (but unused....score).

The game uses two 52 card decks and 2-3 people (or groups) can play. The goal is to play cards and then cover the corresponding card on the deck with your color chip. The person to attain two sets of five chips (a sequence) wins. Jacks are wild (one eyed jacks used to remove an opponents chip). That's the game in a nutshell and although it seems very simple the game is very cut throat and strategy driven which I love. You should keep an eye out for this one either out in the wild or online as it's a keeper.

The Night Strangler

Way back in 1972 ABC aired a made for TV movie named The Night Stalker. It starred Darren McGavin as an aloof, witty, and resourceful reporter named Karl Kolchak. On his beat in Las Vegas he discovers a modern day vampire and is taxed with bringing him down when the authorities fail to see the proof he has gathered. It was a ratings bonanza for ABC who quickly put together a sequel called The Night Strangler which premiered in 1973 to similar success.
In this movie Karl has moved to Seattle Washington when a chance run in with his former editor Tony Vincenzo puts him back on the beat. It seems that woman across Seattle are are being strangled to death under mysterious circumstances. Their necks are crushed and small amounts of blood are missing from the base of their spine. Can this be just a run of the mill psycho or somehow connected to a fiend who seems to strike every 21 years starting in the early 1800's?
I remember seeing this movie as well as The Night Stalker on TV when I was a kid and was seriously effected by the suspense, great writing, and superb acting of Darren McGavin on both movies. The movies were spun off into a good but uneven series that lasted just one season in the 1974-75 season. Many people were influenced by the movies and show with Chris Carter stating that his show The X Files was very much inspired by it.
Nowadays it is available on video and the show is available on Netflix. Another very good way to experience The Night Strangler is via YouTube which has an original ABC movie opening which creates great ambiance.  


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUfYRiLvc78