Ruby holds a special place in my heart. In the early 90's I used to listen to the UTEP Jazz/Pop station in the El Paso. Okay, having just written that, I suddenly realize how embarrassing all of that statement is. Anyway, one of my favorite features on the station (Jazz/Pop? Really? What was I thinking?) was a daily three to five-minute feature called Ruby. It was a very cool, very trippy, quite metaphysical, philosophical even, sci-fi serial.
Ruby defies easy description because much of its charm is how stylish and stylized it is. Here's where I'd like to link to the show's producers, ZBS, so you could listen to some samples of the show. Unfortunately, they're not there. I could tell you that it's worth paying for, but you're unlikely to do so just on my recommendation. In later seasons, the show expanded to a half hour and only got trippier. Then I finally searched Youtube, like a boomer, and found the samples. Duh.
I loved the modern radio shows of the time. ZBS also produced a great Jack Flanders adventure show. I really enjoyed Dreams of Rio. Two of my other favorites were Visit New Grimston Anyway and Riders Radio Theater (which was later a Saturday morning show). I have heard a few classic radio shows. Several of them are up on the Internet, including a Jean Shepherd archive. (He's the guy that basically wrote A Christmas Story.) The audio drama tradition is pretty much gone from the radio, but it does continue online. Second Shift is one I can recommend.
To explain the pictures (and the reason for this post), Ruby gave out an address and said they'd send a free poster back. What nice people. The mailer came with a brochure offering shows on cassette tape (to give you an idea of how long ago this all was).
No comments:
Post a Comment