I wanted to post my appreciation and memory of Ray Bradbury today on news of his passing. I'll never forget when I was asked to write music for a short film the summer of 2000. I had just made a permanent move to Los Angeles, and being fresh out of school, I advertised myself as a composer looking to collaborate with filmmakers. I was fortunate to meet my director friend Roger Lay who presented me with his short film called Homecoming. It was based on Bradbury's short story "The Lake" from his bookThe October Country. Homecoming became the first of three films based on Bradbury's great writing that Roger and I collaborated on and that I had the pleasure of writing music for. We collaborated on these quality stories within the first few years of living in Hollywood which was exciting and gave us a lot of encouragement. The second film I worked on was A Piece of Wood, a short from Long After Midnight. It was shot on 35mm, our first indie short and a bit longer (it was a perfect Twilight Zone or Amazing Stories type of project). The latest (and hopefully not the last) was Chrysalis, a short story from his book S is for Space, where we were able to get a music budget and make a feature length version of Bradbury's work for the first time. DuringChrysalis Roger worked closely with the man himself, adapting his story into a screenplay. I was lucky enough to meet Mr. Bradbury a couple of times. In fact, I'll never forget the time I attended a stage production of Fahrenheit 451 in Pasadena with him sitting directly in front of me in the audience. What impressed me the most was how each ending of a Ray Bradbury story was so inspiring and stayed in your mind long after reading or watching it unfold. Thank you Mr. Bradbury for the inspiration. We will miss you.