Saturday, August 21, 2010

Back From The High Castle

Becky and I, along with our son John and his friend Melody, spent last weekend in the high Rocky Mountains of Colorado where I, at least, thoroughly enjoyed myself at the first Philip K. Dick Festival. I met some friendly and gregarious Philip K. Dick fans, renewed an old friendship with venerable Dickhead John Fairchild, and made some new friends as well, among them David Gill and Erik Davis. I had a wonderful time and found the informal talks and lectures invigorating. My own lecture was on PKD's masterful, Hugo Award-winning novel The Man in the High Castle, but I marveled at the insightful knowledge of the author's many fans, admirers, and scholars present at the festival. Special kudos must be given to Festival organizer Dave Hyde, AKA Lord Running Clam, a devoted and knowledgeable fan and author of the highly recommended Pink Beam: A Philip K. Dick Companion who spent months working on the event. I found myself in awe of his indefatigable energy and dedication to the great SF author, and I'm sure I speak for others when I say he did a great job both organizing and hosting the festival. Thank you Dave for hosting this wonderful event!

Over at his highly recommended Total Dick-Head blogspot (link is available on the right), David Gill has written on the festival and also posted a link reporting on the festival that can be found here or through the link on David's blog. Thanks to festival guests and speakers for a great time, and special thanks to David Gill for posting the pictures and his own take on the event.

Sunday, August 1, 2010

Johnny B. Gone

Elvis News has reported that fans who have already gotten hold of a copy of the new DVD of Elvis On Tour (the official release of which is this Tuesday) report the unfortunate fact that the film's opening sequence, during which Elvis sings “Johnny B. Goode,” has been retained...but the song “Johnny B. Goode” has been removed and replaced with “Teddy Bear”/'Don’t Be Cruel”—the same version of “Teddy Bear”/”Don’t Be Cruel” heard later in the movie—due to copyright problems. Incredible as it seems, the much touted Elvis On Tour DVD/Blu-ray Disc re-release is not the film as originally released in theaters 38 years ago. Happily, however, the opening sequence of On Tour with “Johnny B. Goode” intact is available on YouTube here. Several fans have also reported the omission of "Johnny B. Goode" on Amazon.com; their comments are available here.