Bradbury 13

September 8, 2014 8:40 PM

In 1984, Michael McDonough of Brigham Young University produced "Bradbury 13" [YTPL], a series of 13 audio adaptations of famous Ray Bradbury stories, in conjunction with National Public Radio. The full-cast dramatizations featured adaptations of "The Ravine," "Night Call, Collect," "The Veldt", "There Was an Old Woman," "Kaleidoscope," "Dark They Were, and Golden-Eyed", "The Screaming Woman," "A Sound of Thunder," "The Man," "The Wind," "The Fox and the Forest," "Here There Be Tygers" and "The Happiness Machine". Voiceover actor Paul Frees [previously] provided narration, while Bradbury himself was responsible for the opening voiceover...
posted by jim in austin (12 comments total)

Great find. You deserve the 126 favorites this post will get.
posted by gwint at 9:08 PM on September 8, 2014 [1 favorite]

I hope they do my favorite Bradbury story, where the boy gets locked in a box while all the other kids go out and play on the only rainy day on mars.
posted by shmegegge at 10:04 PM on September 8, 2014 [3 favorites]

I've read that one it's called A Sound Of Thunder!
posted by Harvey Kilobit at 10:19 PM on September 8, 2014

Thanks Jim!
posted by Meatafoecure at 10:40 PM on September 8, 2014

I've read that one it's called A Sound Of Thunder!

Isn't it All Summer In A Day?

[Or is this some inside joke about the most commonly asked "ID me" question on Ask?]
posted by klausman at 11:07 PM on September 8, 2014 [4 favorites]

Nice one! Thanks!
posted by Paris Elk at 11:24 PM on September 8, 2014

I hope they do my favorite Bradbury story, where the boy gets locked in a box while all the other kids go out and play on the only rainy day on mars.

If that's how you remember it, you're going to like it even more after you re-read it.
posted by Mike Mongo at 12:19 AM on September 9, 2014 [1 favorite]

Hey! youtube-dl knows what to do with a playlist!
posted by Zed at 12:47 AM on September 9, 2014 [1 favorite]

I've been looking for ages for The" Kaleidoscope" reading by Ray Bradbury himself, these adaptations are a great find. Thanks !
posted by nicolin at 2:39 AM on September 9, 2014

To convert to MP3 using ffmpeg..

1. Download in .acc (MP4) format using this URL for example:

https://www.ssyoutube.com/watch?v=_1ncENdgQU8

(put "ss" in front of youtube.com)

Choose an "Audio MP4" format

2. Convert to MP3 using ffmpeg

ffmpeg -i "01 - The Ravine.aac" -acodec mp3 -ac 2 -ab 64 "01 - The Ravine2.mp3"
posted by stbalbach at 7:33 AM on September 9, 2014 [2 favorites]

This script will convert them all

#!/usr/bin/tcsh
foreach aacfile (*.aac)
set mp3file = `awk -v aac="$aacfile" 'BEGIN{split(aac,s,"."); print s[1]".mp3"}'`
ffmpeg -i "$aacfile" -acodec mp3 -ac 2 -ab 64 "$mp3file"
end

posted by stbalbach at 8:38 AM on September 9, 2014 [1 favorite]

Awesome! Perfect for my next long car trip - thanks for sharing!

CSB: For the longest time, I had a message from Ray Bradbury on my answering machine. When I was in grad school, I had written to him seeking permission to write an opera of Fahrenheit 451. I didn't expect a response at all, but he called personally and left a charming message that said no in the nicest possible way. I saved it until we had to get rid of that answering machine.
posted by Ben Trismegistus at 9:07 AM on September 9, 2014 [2 favorites]