Anyone for a game?

Can anyone guess what not-so-Ozzy book this quote came from?

The hospice building is not unattractive. They have faced over the grey blocks with some nice yellow brickwork. There is no yellow brick approach road to the place, however.

I was re-reading this book last week (and found myself enjoying it more than the first time), and came across this subtle reference to Oz.

A hint is that I mentioned reading (but not re-reading) this book in my other, more personal blog.

Anyone want to guess what it is?

(This quote is copyright of the author, and quoted as fair use.)

L. Frank Baum's 153rd Birthday Bash!

Yep, I went all out this year!

First up is a teaser for The Dreamer of Oz:


And, even better, the three-part podcast is up at the podcast site.
PART 1
"The Queen of the Field Mice" read by James C. Wallace II
"The Story of the Winged Monkeys" read by Peter Hanff
"Home Again" read by Sera Alexia
"How Tip Manufactured A Pumpkinhead" read by Patrick Quigley
"The Flight Of The Gump" read by Sam Milazzo
"The Transformations of Mombi" read by Travis Black
"Dorothy Says Good-Bye" read by Sam Milazzo

PART 2
"The History Of the Wizard and Oz" read by Jericho Mathew Bloom
"Dorothy Meets Button Bright" read by Jared Davis
"The Rainbow's Daughter" read by Mike Conway
"Dorothy Visits Utensia" read by Nathan DeHoff
"How The Story of Oz Came To An End" read by Sera Alexia

PART 3
"A Song Of Oz-Land" read by Blair Frodelius
"The Home Of Jack Pumpkinhead" read by Alan Cook
"Ozma and Dorothy" read by Dexter F.

And if you want to download the podcast, all three parts, in one go, I also put it on Rapidshare!

Preparing...

I'm getting my multimedia elements ready for L. Frank Baum's 153rd birthday, so there's no time to do a really good blog, but be sure to check back Friday! The special podcast turned out to be much longer than I'd originally intended, and I had to split it into two half-hour segments with a third thirteen-minute segment. The podcast features TWELVE guests, six times as many as we had last time. (Not bad for twenty-seven invitations sent out with less than two weeks notice, sheesh for these late-arriving ideas!)

Do Sam and Al return? Yes, they are among the twelve.

In addition, I'm also putting together a video. Sam had the idea for it, and sent me a plan, but I'm putting quite a bit of my own spin on it.

And that is why I need to go get back to work!

John R. Neill - An Appreciation - Volume 6

I've been meaning to do this blog for awhile...

The Scarecrow of Oz was the the second of three books in the Oz series that some Oz fans take to be written in a creative rut of Baum's. The first of these books was Tik-Tok of Oz, which was based on a play called The Tik-Tok Man of Oz, which was based on the earlier Oz books, particularly Ozma of Oz. The third was Rinkitink in Oz, which was a revision of an unfinished manuscript Baum had tried to sell earlier, and now had Oz characters coming in to save the day.

The Scarecrow of Oz was partly based on Baum's film His Majesty, The Scarecrow of Oz. While I've never heard anything supporting this, it is also possible that he used the remains of an unfinished third "Trot" book. (Two of the new characters introduced in The Scarecrow of Oz, were Trot and Cap'n Bill, who had featured in their own books The Sea Fairies and Sky Island.)

Whether or not these books, or The Scarecrow of Oz in particular, were written during a creative low for Baum (it must also be noted that he was having health issues during this time), he made them enjoyable like all his other Oz books. And if Baum was lacking in imagination, illustrator John R. Neill certainly wasn't.

Here, Neill's illustrations are a little loose and comical.


This isn't to say Neill doesn't pull off his usual elegance and detail:


The Scarecrow of Oz was the last book by Baum that featured people from the Great Outside World coming to Oz. I noticed that Neill managed to do a portrait of each of all of the girls who featured in Oz stories:

Dorothy


Ozma


Betsy Bobbin


And of course, Trot herself.


Neill also managed to give us a glimpse of what the Wicked Witch of the West may have looked like had he drawn her (she does appear in an endpaper for The Road to Oz, based on Denslow's version). Blinkie the Witch was based on Mombi the Witch in His Majesty, The Scarecrow of Oz, whose design was definitely based on Denslow's Wicked Witch.


To finish, while The Scarecrow of Oz may have lacked a bit in the text, Neill didn't drop the ball in his illustrations.

Quick Thought

Well, if you also read my personal blog, you may have seen this entry about Friday, when I got caught out while a tornado was going on while I was trying to get to work.

As we were at Dillon's, of course the famous cyclone from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz came to mind.

Now, we were all pretty close to the doors. You might think this odd, but here in Springfield, Missouri, we rarely get weather that turns destructive. At one point, I heard the wind blowing in a very creepy way. I suddenly thought, "I wish I could record that for reference for my Oz movie..."

Well, then... Now for a blog that's really worth reading...

Looking For Oz Elsewhere

I'm going to talk a bit more about my adapting The Wonderful Wizard of Oz as a film...

When you're writing a script like this, it's not enough to just transcribe the book into script form. The book's story works well on film, but this would offer you nothing that reading the book wouldn't.

It came to mind today where I got my inspiration on how to handle the melting of the Witch. Most writers would turn to a fantasy or maybe a comedy for this. Maybe they'd even try to make the scene reminiscent of the MGM movie, or some piece of artwork. (One animated adaptation made the Witch's final moments resemble "The Scream" by Edvard Munch.)

I saw the moment as breaking down into two parts, the visuals and the feeling.

The visuals, I didn't want her turning into water or just sinking into the floor (or a toilet...). Instead, I had the idea that the Witch's body is extremely dry, and only her magic is keeping her alive. When she is struck with water, her body soaks up the moisture like a sponge, but it's too much for her structure, so she loses control of the magic that is holding her together. As such, her body begins to sag and stretch before turning into this gelatinous goo that would be quite a nasty mess to clean up afterward. (Poor Dorothy.)

The feeling of the moment came from an not very-Ozzy source. Dorothy, is, of course, guilty of a murder (unless you want to say the Witch is still alive in this shape, but then, she's defenseless and unable to communicate), albeit unintentional. In which case, when she realizes what she's done, she's very distraught over it, mixed with only a little sense of victory.

Instead of turning to Oz or a fantasy, I turned to the movie Heavenly Creatures, Peter Jackson's retelling of the true story of the Parker-Hulme murder. The feeling that that movie's closing scene gave was perfect for this scene in Oz. (Two sobbing girls beating a woman to death, a woman who happened to be the mother of one of the girls.)

Yeah... Inspiration can come from a variety of sources.

Quick change of plans

That second Ozma of Oz podcast got delayed again... So, while we keep trying to find a good time to record it, we'll do other podcasts! The first one is going to be released on (maybe a little early for people in other time zones) May 15, L. Frank Baum's birthday. Like last time, it's not an ordinary podcast like most people do, but it's shaping up to be a good one, with at least eleven different people on it! (Maybe more to come!)

(Any readers who are in the know, please keep it under your hat.)

Sam is also planning a video for me to whip up for the occasion. (Hurry, Sam! We've less than two weeks!) In addition, there's another video I've started work on, so... I could really use a clone to help me out here!

And sorry for the lack of Oz blogs recently! I have a couple ideas for blogs, though. Always something in Oz to discuss...

Nonestic Linkage!

Hey, if you recall my mentioning the Nonestica book project that two very good friends of mine are working hard on, there is an update!

But, as it's not mine to share, here's a link:

LINK

Cheers!

Next podcast?

Just letting you know we're trying to get the next podcast together soon. Some of us are up for a Wednesday morning (for the US) recording time, while we're still trying to see if the other is ready.

This one we're planning will reunite Sam Milazzo, Al Cook, and myself for more Ozma of Oz illustration discussion, but expect a bit more of a formal format this time. I've picked out ten illustrations to discuss and how to properly open it and close it.

If it works out, it should definitely be up at the end of the week. It's just that with three people who have jobs and lives and who live in three different countries with different time zones and different Daylight Savings Time rules (and two are in the Northern hemisphere, while the other is the Southern hemisphere), it can get a little difficult to find a good time for all of them to do such a call...

As such, don't expect both Al and Sam to appear together in many future podcasts...

Remember folks, I'm open to suggestions for topics, as I don't want to limit the podcast to one Oz subject. I've got my contact information in a link over to the side there...

(Please don't contact me to suggest interviews with yourself.)

The Wonders of Oz Episode 12

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NuBdtbGJCq0

This is the last numbered episode. The next entry is Sam's "The Wonders of the Land of Oz," and then the finale.