Speaker 1: M hm.
Speaker 2: So off we go to Sailing first twenty twenty four.
Speaker 2: I can't believe in finally on the way. The build
Speaker 2: up has been massive, you know, or the planning or
Speaker 2: the moving parts to it, planning, the presentation, staying in
Speaker 2: touch with people who you want to meet up with,
Speaker 2: you know, all that kind of stuff. It's been great.
Speaker 2: I've really enjoyed it. But I'm glad to actually be
Speaker 2: on the road now. Now. There are quite a lot
Speaker 2: of moving parts of this trip, and this is the
Speaker 2: first part. This is me on the train in Liverpool
Speaker 2: on the Maysey Rail and that is the first of
Speaker 2: many moving parts. So it's a train from Liverpool into
Speaker 2: Liverpool City Center, then another train to London, and then
Speaker 2: in London another train and then in London, then I'll
Speaker 2: get the plane from Heathrow. Then I'll get to the
Speaker 2: US and flying over to the West Coast, and then
Speaker 2: getting the train all the way across the country, which
Speaker 2: will end up in New York City. I'll meet up
Speaker 2: with Zach and then we'll take another train to Newick
Speaker 2: to meet up with Emmy, and then we're going to
Speaker 2: drive to Binghamton. So it's a proper trains, planes and
Speaker 2: automobiles kind of trip a lot of moving parts to it.
Speaker 2: I suppose it makes me slightly nervous when there are
Speaker 2: so many moving parts, because it just means that there's
Speaker 2: potential for things to go wrong, you know, if one
Speaker 2: of those parts doesn't quite go to plan. But I've
Speaker 2: planned it out as best I can, I think, so
Speaker 2: you know, fingers crossed, everything falls into place, and they've
Speaker 2: been switched with you along the way. So there I was,
Speaker 2: my belongings packed along with my hopes and dreams, to
Speaker 2: embark on the trip of a lifetime, which would take
Speaker 2: me across the width of the United States and into
Speaker 2: the waiting arms of friends and listeners to celebrate the
Speaker 2: life of Rod Sailing at Sailing Fest twenty twenty four.
Speaker 2: But little did I know that from the moment I left,
Speaker 2: nothing would go as planned, and I was about to
Speaker 2: embark on a trip to the darkest depths of the
Speaker 2: twilight Zone. Good morning, everyone, So this is a very
Speaker 2: hoarse sounding Tom Elliott. I'm not sure you can hear
Speaker 2: me that well over the train, so I'm not sure
Speaker 2: I'm going to use this clip. I'm just hoping my
Speaker 2: voice sorts itself out by the time I get to Binghamton, Man,
Speaker 2: so this is pretty surreal. I'm sitting on a train
Speaker 2: called the California Zephyr, which is going from the West
Speaker 2: Coast all the way over to New York. So the
Speaker 2: last few days of this trip has just kind of
Speaker 2: become a real just snowball effect of bad luck. So originally,
Speaker 2: you know, sailing festivals happening. I have been lucky enough
Speaker 2: to have a lot of listeners and things contribute to
Speaker 2: the cost of it, because even though it's just a
Speaker 2: weekend in New York, you know, just costs crop up
Speaker 2: here and there, and you know, you try and do
Speaker 2: it as cheaply as you can, but there's you know,
Speaker 2: everyone's got their handout when you're trying to travel. It's
Speaker 2: just the way it goes. Unfortunately. So I I thought, well,
Speaker 2: you know what, this is my last sailing fest. I
Speaker 2: would like to do something a bit special for it.
Speaker 2: So I decided that I would try and take this
Speaker 2: train that goes from the West coast all the way
Speaker 2: over to the East Coast to New York and then
Speaker 2: head to sailing fest because I love the US. You know,
Speaker 2: given enough time, enough money, I would like to visit
Speaker 2: everywhere you know, but this gave me the opportunity to
Speaker 2: kind of see it, see a lot of the country
Speaker 2: in one go on one trip, and the kindness of
Speaker 2: people who contributed to me going to sailing Fest, I
Speaker 2: could make the whole trip happen. So I got to
Speaker 2: the airport in England and I got on the plane
Speaker 2: and I sat there for four hours as they investigated
Speaker 2: some kind of fault on the plane, and then the
Speaker 2: plane their flight got canceled. So that puts me a
Speaker 2: day late get into the US. But that's okay because
Speaker 2: I wasn't catching that train for a couple of days.
Speaker 2: It wiped out a lot of things that I would
Speaker 2: have liked to have seen, but at least I would
Speaker 2: catch the train in time. So then I get to
Speaker 2: the US a day late, the day before I'm supposed
Speaker 2: to travel on the train, and I get to the
Speaker 2: airport and I hear my name over the loudspeaker system
Speaker 2: and I'm like, man, that is not good. So then
Speaker 2: they they say to me, listen, we know where your
Speaker 2: bag is, but it's not here, so we need to,
Speaker 2: you know, send it to you and your hotel. And
Speaker 2: I'm like, you don't know how much You've just screwed
Speaker 2: me over, you know, because I'm not staying in a hotel.
Speaker 2: I'm getting a train tomorrow morning, and there's no way
Speaker 2: you can get that back to me on this train.
Speaker 2: So you have no idea how much you've messed me up.
Speaker 2: And fair play to the staff member, you know, he
Speaker 2: was great and put up with my frustrations, and I
Speaker 2: was never rude to him, but I was clearly just
Speaker 2: livid at what had happened to me. So honestly, at
Speaker 2: that moment was it was a case of should I
Speaker 2: just call the whole thing off? Because this is a mess.
Speaker 3: Now.
Speaker 2: You know, I've already spent by this time, I've spent
Speaker 2: two days in the same set of clothes, you know,
Speaker 2: got no baggage, and this is just a mess. I
Speaker 2: don't trust the airline to follow up on anything and
Speaker 2: get my bag to me. So I decided to pace
Speaker 2: severe and I got on the train. And to be honest,
Speaker 2: the train has been great. I would highly recommend it
Speaker 2: to anyone. You know, seeing the US in this way
Speaker 2: is wonderful, lots of beautiful scenery, you know, met some
Speaker 2: great people on the train, and so yeah, it's been good.
Speaker 2: It's been good. So at this moment I have heard
Speaker 2: way that they're flying my bag to New York, so
Speaker 2: hopefully it should be there when I get there. Again,
Speaker 2: I don't trust anything that they say at the moment. Well,
Speaker 2: I'm hopeful. I'm hopeful, but yeah, so that's where I'm
Speaker 2: up to. It's a bit modeling, but I kind of think,
Speaker 2: like last time, as well as being a document of
Speaker 2: sailing fest, it's also a bit of a travelogue, and
Speaker 2: that's what the situation is at the moment. So I
Speaker 2: can't sugarcoat. It's been hellish, you know, it really has,
Speaker 2: But I can really hope for better things going forward,
Speaker 2: and I hope that my voice sorts itself out for
Speaker 2: the stage. Despite getting gradually sicker. The trip across the
Speaker 2: US was everything that I hoped it would be. Beautiful scenery,
Speaker 2: interesting people, and there's just something so soothing about switching
Speaker 2: off from everything else and letting your will just be
Speaker 2: the small room around you and the view from the window.
Speaker 2: But after four days and three nights on the train,
Speaker 2: I was ready to be in the company of friends again,
Speaker 2: and thankfully I met up with two of my best ones,
Speaker 2: Zach Moore from the podcast All he's hold on to
Speaker 2: Smallville and Emmy, who podcasts with me over in the
Speaker 2: after hours club. And as we were heading out from
Speaker 2: our apartment, which was right next to Recreation Park in Binghamton,
Speaker 2: we spotted an unusual shape in the park. So it's
Speaker 2: seven point thirty pm in Binghamton and I'm here with Emmy, Emmy, Hello, hello,
Speaker 2: and Zach Hello there. And you know, we had a
Speaker 2: nice drive to Binghamton from New York and as we
Speaker 2: were on our way to our B and B, we
Speaker 2: just saw this shape in Recreation Park covered in a
Speaker 2: black sheet, and it's a statue of rod sailing. It's
Speaker 2: It's kind of surreal, isn't it to just see it
Speaker 2: out here on its own.
Speaker 4: You know, It's kind of just made me more excited
Speaker 4: to see actually what it's going to look like. I
Speaker 4: think they're seeing the shape of all and how it
Speaker 4: really is.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's like it's like a Christmas present.
Speaker 2: Still when it's right, I'm quite pleased to how accessible
Speaker 2: it looks, you know what I mean. They haven't put
Speaker 2: it out the way. It's like right next to a path.
Speaker 2: You know, you will walk by, and it's not even
Speaker 2: like on a tall pedestal to put them like really
Speaker 2: high up so you'll be able to stand right next
Speaker 2: to him and get a good look at him. So
Speaker 2: that's quite nice, I think.
Speaker 4: Yeah, And it's in between all the trees. It's gonna
Speaker 4: make for some really beautiful photos when people come and
Speaker 4: you know, come to visit it.
Speaker 2: Okay, well we're going to turn in for the night.
Speaker 2: We've got to speak about what we discovered when we
Speaker 2: got back to our when we got to our airbnb.
Speaker 2: Well maybe we'll tail the microphones on later on and
Speaker 2: talk about that. So yeah, my goodness, it's what a
Speaker 2: strange feel and being in Recreation Park ready to see
Speaker 2: what unveiled in a couple of days time. Alright, signing off. Unfortunately,
Speaker 2: we never got to called that clip about what greeted
Speaker 2: us when we entered our apartment because the reasons that
Speaker 2: I'll come to later on. But when we entered our
Speaker 2: wonderful airbnb, our host Diane had decorated the place with
Speaker 2: all manner of Twilight Zone decorations, posters, craft pieces, Twilight
Speaker 2: Zone magazines and even a life size standee of rod sailing.
Speaker 2: So we arrived in Binghamton on Thursday, September twelfth, but
Speaker 2: I could feel that, unfortunately, the sickness that had started
Speaker 2: on the train was getting worse. So I took things
Speaker 2: easy and tried to rest up in the hope that
Speaker 2: I would be well to take advantage of the rest
Speaker 2: of the trip. But of course, who can resist a
Speaker 2: walk in Recreation Park on a beautiful sunny day. So
Speaker 2: it is Friday, the thirteenth of September, and so I
Speaker 2: might say it's unlucky, you know, unlucky for some and
Speaker 2: had certainly been unlucky for me in some ways. I
Speaker 2: think I'm very lucky in most ways. But unfortunately, over
Speaker 2: the past week I've seem to have picked up a cold.
Speaker 2: I think the stress at the beginning of the trip
Speaker 2: and just generally, you know, living on a train for days,
Speaker 2: breathing that recycled day, and not sleeping well because of
Speaker 2: the time difference has given me a bit of a cold.
Speaker 2: So I am desperately trying to dose myself up on
Speaker 2: various things to get rid of it before tomorrow, which
Speaker 2: is a tall order. But as long as I can
Speaker 2: get to the point where I'm just not coughing through
Speaker 2: that presentation on stage, then I should be okay. But yeah,
Speaker 2: we'll see how that goes. But the reason I turned
Speaker 2: the mic on is that it's in the middle of
Speaker 2: the day. It's in a bit of a lull. So
Speaker 2: I'm traveling with Zach and Emmy and we haven't actually
Speaker 2: met any other kind of podcast friends or anything like
Speaker 2: that yet because I just had to stay in last
Speaker 2: night because I was feeling so ill and I'm just
Speaker 2: really trying to salvage the situation before the presentation. But
Speaker 2: I've just come out for a walk in Recreation Park.
Speaker 2: Is the place where I'm staying is right next to
Speaker 2: Recreation Park, and when we went in, a wonderful lady
Speaker 2: named Diane, who keeps the place, had decorated it with
Speaker 2: all manner of twilight zoned stuff, even you know, a
Speaker 2: full sized standie of road sailing, which we've we've all
Speaker 2: enjoyed putting outside each other's bedrooms at various opportunities. So
Speaker 2: when they cut up, when people come out, they get
Speaker 2: a bit of a fright, but you know, but yeah,
Speaker 2: she's she's been a great host. But we are right
Speaker 2: next to the park, So I've just come out in
Speaker 2: the middle of the day before the celebrations kick off,
Speaker 2: really just for a bit of a walk, get a
Speaker 2: bit of sun, and it just reminds me of five
Speaker 2: years ago when I was here, because I was staying
Speaker 2: closer to the center of town then. And you know,
Speaker 2: it's fine, it's nice, it's okay. But it wasn't really
Speaker 2: till I walked to the park and the scenery kind
Speaker 2: of changes to these beautiful, traditional American looking houses. There's
Speaker 2: really nothing like an American small town. And it was
Speaker 2: the moment where I started to really find road sailings Binghamton.
Speaker 2: I think the Binghamton that he valued. And it's nice
Speaker 2: to just come out for a walk by myself today
Speaker 2: and for the same thing to happen. So I'm going
Speaker 2: to stay out and enjoy the sun, you know, go
Speaker 2: and pay my respect at the statue again and check
Speaker 2: out the carousel and things. But yeah, I will catch
Speaker 2: up you later. After people began trickling into Binghamton over
Speaker 2: the Thursday and Friday, Sailing Fest began in Earnest on
Speaker 2: the Friday night to a packed Forum Theater in Binghamton,
Speaker 2: where the audience was treated to episodes of The Loner
Speaker 2: Night Gallery and a Sailing penned episode of Hollywood Opening
Speaker 2: Night called Grady Everett for the people, and of course
Speaker 2: a couple of episodes of the Twilight Zone. And all
Speaker 2: of these things were introduced by various Rod Sailing scholars,
Speaker 2: and the Twilight Zone episodes in Praise of Pip and
Speaker 2: Death'shead Revisited were introduced by Ann Sailing.
Speaker 6: I'm going to be I'll just add some things that
Speaker 6: you might not know.
Speaker 7: This episode in Phrase of Pip began the fifth and.
Speaker 6: Final season of The Twilight Zone.
Speaker 7: Jack Clubman and Bill Mulley are both, as you'll see terrific.
Speaker 6: Clubman was in four Twilight Zone episodes.
Speaker 7: And Bill Money three. Apparently the role of Clubman plays
Speaker 7: was originally authored to our Harney, but he was unable.
Speaker 3: To accept it.
Speaker 7: Both Carty and Clubmans were in my Dad's script The
Speaker 7: Velvet Alan.
Speaker 6: In Mark Duwitzia's book.
Speaker 7: Everything I Need to Know I Learned in the Twilight Zone,
Speaker 7: he shares what Jack Clugman told him.
Speaker 6: There are certain playwrights like Rob Sterling who just suit me.
Speaker 6: It was a joy to play his characters.
Speaker 7: He gave you to play, what words he gave you
Speaker 7: to say, lovely orders.
Speaker 6: They just seemed to resonate with me. There had been
Speaker 6: three writers who seemed to most suit me.
Speaker 7: Rod Sterling, Clifford Odette, and Neil Simon.
Speaker 6: With Neil Simon, who was the humor and the rhythms.
Speaker 7: With Odettes, it was the staccato style and moveograck reading attitude.
Speaker 6: But with Rod Sterling, who was the anger, the defiance,
Speaker 6: and the fire. He brought such fire to everything, he wrote.
Speaker 6: Clegman also said in another interview, I couldn't believe when
Speaker 6: Rob died. I loved him.
Speaker 7: Mark Dickree, in his book The Twilight's Own Companion, wrote
Speaker 7: that a praise of Hip was likely the first depiction
Speaker 7: of an American casualty in Vietnam in any dramatic show
Speaker 7: TV show. Mark went on to say Surling was replaced
Speaker 7: the action in Laos. This was changed when the script
Speaker 7: was reviewed for inaccuracies and to Forest Research, who reported
Speaker 7: back in part there are officially no combat or.
Speaker 6: Special forces in Laos.
Speaker 7: The implication that the US has troops fighting in Laos,
Speaker 7: even in the Twilight Zone, could be an embarrassment and.
Speaker 6: Might cause repercussions.
Speaker 7: The relationship between Floodman and movie's characters feels so genuine.
Speaker 7: Movie shared that before filming, Flugman came up to him
Speaker 7: and his parents to prepare them for the highly affectionate
Speaker 7: way in which he wanted to do the scene.
Speaker 6: The article said movie worked exceptionally.
Speaker 7: Well, with Jack Clubman allowing Clubman to pick him.
Speaker 6: Up, spin him around, and kiss.
Speaker 7: And hug him, all in a highly naturalistic manner. The
Speaker 7: nad father's son relationship immediately believable. I have a TV
Speaker 7: personal connection to the sepisode, which I'll.
Speaker 6: Share on a pan with Martin Witty and MARKL.
Speaker 7: Shaffer tomorrow and so without further ado in praise of him.
Speaker 2: So after the movie showings, even though I felt like
Speaker 2: my sickness was settling down, I stayed true to my
Speaker 2: word and didn't have a wild night out. But I
Speaker 2: did spend the evening with friends old and new in
Speaker 2: one of the Binghamton night spots and had a respectably
Speaker 2: early night ready for the next day, when hopefully i'd
Speaker 2: wake up rested and ready to go and do my
Speaker 2: presentation on the Saturday afternoon. Well that was the plan,
Speaker 2: so fast up in the Forum Theater on Saturday, Tony
Speaker 2: Alborella of the Rod Sailing Memorial Foundation presented a montage
Speaker 2: of Rod sailing clips and outtakes, bringing home to the
Speaker 2: audience just what a funny guy Rod Sailing.
Speaker 8: Was, all right, steemporteke one.
Speaker 9: The mindless depletion of our natural resources is challenging our
Speaker 9: comforts and also the movement of this mother grabbing thing.
Speaker 8: Alright, steam porteg two.
Speaker 9: The mindless depletion of our natural resources is challenging this
Speaker 9: very goddamn mother grabbing chandment doesn't seem to work. Don't
Speaker 9: be mad.
Speaker 8: A scene for taking away.
Speaker 9: If we ignore the environmental damage we do while trying
Speaker 9: to meet our energy demands, we will find ourselves not
Speaker 9: only without gasoline and electricity of us, but a vast
Speaker 9: about there and fault. We will find ourselves not only
Speaker 9: without gasoline and electricity, but also without water to drink,
Speaker 9: shit water to drink. Oh we're god sorry, this is
Speaker 9: good wine, you know.
Speaker 2: Now. Next up, Christopher Benedict presented a fascinating talk based
Speaker 2: on his book The Twilight Rounds about Rod Sailing's connection
Speaker 2: with the sport of boxing. Well, unfortunately I don't have
Speaker 2: a clip of that talk, but Chris did a great
Speaker 2: job of kicking things off. But what I do have
Speaker 2: is a clip of him being interviewed by students from
Speaker 2: Ithaca College who were handling the media for the event,
Speaker 2: and they did a great job too. So here is
Speaker 2: Chris talking to them.
Speaker 5: Mister Benedict, thank you so much for being with us today. Yeah,
Speaker 5: of course, I want to start by saying that you
Speaker 5: were one of the panelists today for anyone who may
Speaker 5: have missed that. Would you like to talk about that
Speaker 5: panel a little bit?
Speaker 7: Sure?
Speaker 10: It was based on my book called The Twilight Rounds,
Speaker 10: which just happens to be a happy coincidence, and then
Speaker 10: as you know, kind of mirrors the Twilight Zone title.
Speaker 10: But it was written many years before that, nineteen fifty two,
Speaker 10: and you know, it began the There wasn't the first.
Speaker 10: His first boxing story was actually written in college and
Speaker 10: he attend at Antioch College in Ohio and wrote his
Speaker 10: very first published story was actually a boxing story, and
Speaker 10: he would go on to write many more before you know,
Speaker 10: deducing what he considered to be his personal masterpiece, which
Speaker 10: is reckoning for a heavyweight. And as you mentioned, he
Speaker 10: had boxed in the military, so he drew on that
Speaker 10: experience also, even though he was only five ft four,
Speaker 10: one hundred and eighteen pounds, so you know, the little
Speaker 10: guy but he was, you know, feisy, and he won
Speaker 10: seventeen bouts until he was matched, for some reason against
Speaker 10: a two hundred pound heavyweight who proceeded to knock him
Speaker 10: out and broke break his nose black as I black
Speaker 10: at his eye, And that was basically the end of
Speaker 10: the end of his boxing career, but the beginning of
Speaker 10: a you know, an amazing creative career.
Speaker 2: So after Chris's presentation, Rod Seiling Memorial Foundation board member
Speaker 2: and music journalist Gail Flug presented a really fun presentation
Speaker 2: about the Twilight Zones connection to rock music.
Speaker 11: And then there are these guys. The Canadian band Rush
Speaker 11: made their love for the series quite clear. The band
Speaker 11: mentioned Rod on the carressa Steel album, which was released
Speaker 11: a few months after Rod's death. Getty Lee said in
Speaker 11: an interview quote, the new album is dedicated to Rod
Speaker 11: Serling because he's one of our great teachers, and at
Speaker 11: times the band tends to be.
Speaker 5: Very Rod like.
Speaker 11: A year later, they included the song Twilight Zone on
Speaker 11: their album twenty one to twelve. Drum and Neil Perrot,
Speaker 11: a fan of fantasy and science fiction, was the band's
Speaker 11: primary lyricist and wrote many songs along these themes. When
Speaker 11: the band released the single as a limited edition single,
Speaker 11: this was the artwork and so Noe, without further ado,
Speaker 11: he is twilight zoned by Rush.
Speaker 2: So then the convention broke for lunch, and after lunch
Speaker 2: it was my turn now just to fill you in.
Speaker 2: After the TV program showings the previous I had brave
Speaker 2: to Binghamton night spot because I wanted to meet people.
Speaker 2: I was still feeling ill, but I felt that hopefully
Speaker 2: I was turning the corner. So I went out and
Speaker 2: I stuck to my plan of not drinking and had
Speaker 2: a great time meeting with older new friends. But unfortunately,
Speaker 2: as I sat outside, the warm Binghamton evening turned into
Speaker 2: a cold Binghamton night, which gradually crept into my bones
Speaker 2: as I sat there, and by the time I got home,
Speaker 2: I was a shivering wreck. Then the next morning, after
Speaker 2: a feverish night's sleep, I was even worse. I woke
Speaker 2: up and I could barely talk. I had a temperature
Speaker 2: and I said to Zach and Emmy, I just don't
Speaker 2: think I can do this. But because there was still
Speaker 2: a few hours to when I had to do my presentation,
Speaker 2: I just took my time and I dosed myself up
Speaker 2: and got to the theater. But I have to thank
Speaker 2: Zach and Emmy for helping me out, getting me medication
Speaker 2: and getting me there. And then when I was there,
Speaker 2: I have to thank both Gus Howerda and Chad Boyken
Speaker 2: for just making sure I was okay while I was
Speaker 2: there and getting me drinks and things. So I did
Speaker 2: the presentation and I got it done. It might not
Speaker 2: have been the performance that I really wanted to give,
Speaker 2: but I did my best under the circumstances.
Speaker 3: All right, guys, welcome back.
Speaker 12: Thank you for coming back. We were always afraid every
Speaker 12: time we let anybody go, we're afraid they're actually going
Speaker 12: to return, So thank you for returning. You know, when
Speaker 12: you bought tickets for sirling Fest, I'm sure most of
Speaker 12: you anyway, if you brought them through our website Zephi,
Speaker 12: it asked you how did you hear about sirling Fest?
Speaker 12: And the number one most cited source for hearing about
Speaker 12: stirling Fest was The Twilight's Own podcast with Tom Elliott.
Speaker 12: So we all love Tom, and I love Tom, especially
Speaker 12: because he gets to make me feel like it's solvent
Speaker 12: all the way from Liverpool.
Speaker 3: So Tom Elliott, thank you.
Speaker 13: Everybody, thank you, Nick.
Speaker 2: Hello, thank you very much. I appreciate that. So for
Speaker 2: the past fifteen years I've been the host of the
Speaker 2: Twilight Zone podcast, so when I was given this opportunity,
Speaker 2: So after my slot, my friend, an author of the
Speaker 2: Twilight Zone High Coup, Chad Boykan, took to the stage
Speaker 2: to read out some of his High Coup and he
Speaker 2: was also joined by another poet called Ricky Santa, who
Speaker 2: wrote a book of poetry called Stopover, which is all
Speaker 2: based on the Twilight Zone.
Speaker 6: He's the honor and career of jobber House Presses, the
Speaker 6: author of Mowie Tyme, The Lean Guy.
Speaker 14: To Conditioning, Training and Fighting, and of course the Twilight Sonikup, which.
Speaker 6: We're going to be treated to tonight.
Speaker 14: Which has been nominated for an Independent Publisher Book Award
Speaker 14: for Poetry.
Speaker 6: He's co authored the Cash You High Cocomic Zine, which.
Speaker 14: Will be published when We're twin dwenty five, and has
Speaker 14: contributed to the forthcoming book by at Press Outside Inn
Speaker 14: Can Live with It, one hundred and seventy four Deep
Speaker 14: Space nine Stories. He's currently developing Kitschu and Kfa essays
Speaker 14: on the uniquely interconnected history of giant Japanese monster cinema
Speaker 14: and the art of professional wrestling, and he can be
Speaker 14: reached at job erhouse dot com.
Speaker 3: Here's the man.
Speaker 15: That's so great to be among your people, isn't that
Speaker 15: can So A quick backstory in the book, A Twilight
Speaker 15: Zone haiku actually started right here at Sterling Fest five
Speaker 15: years ago in twenty nineteen. Like a lot of you,
Speaker 15: I learned about at surling Fest and the Rod Zone
Speaker 15: Memorial Foundation through the Twilight Zone podcast and Tom Elliott
Speaker 15: and I found myself here surrounding by Rod Serling Royalty, authors, scholars, musicians, artists,
Speaker 15: and if that doesn't.
Speaker 3: Inspire you to create, I don't know what will.
Speaker 15: So what happened is I wrote a few haiku about
Speaker 15: episodes of the Twilight.
Speaker 3: Zone and hosted them to a chat, a group.
Speaker 15: Chat Tom Elliott started for podcast listeners to find each
Speaker 15: other when they were here.
Speaker 3: Because they were a diaspora, they came from all over
Speaker 3: the place.
Speaker 15: It was fun to do. But something unexpected happened and
Speaker 15: a few people in the chat wrote them back to me.
Speaker 15: They wrote their own Twilight.
Speaker 3: Zone haiku, and that was the spark that started the inferno.
Speaker 15: That became the Twilight Zone haiku. So this place, this event, Binghamton,
Speaker 15: the Surling Fest, was the birth of this idea and
Speaker 15: this tribute to Rod Serling in the Twilight Zone.
Speaker 3: And one of the best things about this project has.
Speaker 15: Been I've been able to collaborate and do some incredible collaborations.
Speaker 3: And the first one is I actually.
Speaker 15: Got to work with Tom Elliott, who graciously agreed to
Speaker 15: narrate the audio book, so you can get the audio
Speaker 15: book on Audible, libro, FM, band Camp, all those places.
Speaker 15: And it was such an honor for him to do
Speaker 15: that because Tom's podcast is in reason I was here
Speaker 15: in twenty nineteen, so he does an amazing job. And
Speaker 15: of course he would expect he would reading the haiku.
Speaker 15: Unfortunately for you all today I'm going to be reading them,
Speaker 15: not him, but maybe it will be too bad, but
Speaker 15: it was really an honor for him to do that.
Speaker 3: He also wrote the forward and as a little preview
Speaker 3: to come.
Speaker 15: In his forward he wrote haiku fort Serling, and I'll
Speaker 15: be reading that today.
Speaker 3: I'll be reading one of Thomas.
Speaker 15: So the collaborations kept on to sort of promote the book.
Speaker 3: I worked with artist Karen Klutz, who turned.
Speaker 15: Some of the Twilight Zone haiku individual art pieces. The
Speaker 15: one on the left of the sixteen elemor Shrine is
Speaker 15: one of those, as she did. I also worked with
Speaker 15: Jason McBride of Weirdo Poetry on comic book art panels.
Speaker 3: With customs Twilight Zone I two haikus. We've got more
Speaker 3: of those coming.
Speaker 15: You can see those on our jobber House Instagram page
Speaker 15: or on our website.
Speaker 3: But these collaborations are really.
Speaker 15: Meaningful, and today I get to do a brand new
Speaker 15: collaboration right here on the starling Fest stage with Ricky Santor.
Speaker 3: This is a first and we're very honored to be
Speaker 3: able to do this for you.
Speaker 15: What we've done is we've paired our poems and there
Speaker 15: are different types of poems minor haiku based on the
Speaker 15: episode of Ricky's traditional poetry with the thieves and episodes
Speaker 15: and characters worked in.
Speaker 3: So if you listen closely to both, I hope that
Speaker 3: you will hear some of your favorites. And this is
Speaker 3: an honor to do this for you. Are one one
Speaker 3: for the angels. Kind salesman cheats death, makes the sales
Speaker 3: pitch of his life. There are no returns. The big
Speaker 3: Tall wish hardened pugilist.
Speaker 15: His bus has already gone with a child's selfless gift.
Speaker 15: The sixteen millier shrine beloved film Queen trapped in celluloid hammer,
Speaker 15: the past reels her in.
Speaker 3: Mirror image, waiting for the bus.
Speaker 15: She sees herself everywhere across the parallel walking distance dream
Speaker 15: of carousel Aeron, to which the laughing ghosts lived ever forwards.
Speaker 14: So the fact of my collection, I have methodically listed
Speaker 14: all the episodes that for various poems I know I
Speaker 14: don't have to do for this audience.
Speaker 6: So this poem you'll.
Speaker 14: Recognize eleven different episodes, and I have some pieces of
Speaker 14: dialogue in it, so all are all posibile, so you
Speaker 14: can hear those paul is called considered. When you consider
Speaker 14: a pitch to end all pitches, a pitch for angels,
Speaker 14: Some say what materializes in the dusty corners of your
Speaker 14: apartment will be a pitch as delicate as shame tongue
Speaker 14: silk carried across ocean in satchels underneath the roovy throats
Speaker 14: of birds.
Speaker 6: Then your performed scarp.
Speaker 14: Will touch down upon a vegetable's tapestry rug and proclaim
Speaker 14: your final excite. How euphemism spiral into themselves as our
Speaker 14: jewels slow and can tank or astatic clings.
Speaker 3: To our nose ears.
Speaker 14: How we want to chew the dat off our ticket
Speaker 14: to the immial lounge and just falling around the lush
Speaker 14: cornfield where we were wished ali ali els and free.
Speaker 14: How we yearn to get drunk on cocktails of instant
Speaker 14: smiles and cellul their serums, our inkies tapping our lips.
Speaker 14: How we limit to a parakeet mirror, our scavenger hunts
Speaker 14: for wrinkles, and dearly pay to have done what alchemists
Speaker 14: do with plastic death, will launch the trajectory of our
Speaker 14: accumulating selfies and leave us with.
Speaker 6: Our monkey minds.
Speaker 14: God snapped like undigestive bits of beef. So wag your
Speaker 14: tongue all you wanted that grandfather clock and sway your
Speaker 14: phone and a crew shay shaw to muffle calls from
Speaker 14: the grave branch shadows for play upon your sleeping face
Speaker 14: and your scar of brain too loose now for your
Speaker 14: fingers will twang to the fore.
Speaker 6: No such place as exactly what happened.
Speaker 2: Next up, Author and Rod Sailing Memorial Foundation board member
Speaker 2: Mark Dewiziak gave a spirited speech about Rod Sailing's connections
Speaker 2: with Ohio.
Speaker 3: Really, from the horrors of World War.
Speaker 1: Two, Rod Serling decided to head for Ohio in nineteen
Speaker 1: forty six. I'm sure of what he wanted to do
Speaker 1: with his life. He was searching for a sense of direction,
Speaker 1: and first he was looking for a place where there
Speaker 1: was at least a chance, a chance of coping with
Speaker 1: his hellish battle experiences as a paratrooper in the South Pacific.
Speaker 1: To his great fortune and to ours, he found all
Speaker 1: of this and quite a bit more in Ohio.
Speaker 3: The Buckeye State.
Speaker 1: Indeed, the path that eventually would lead him to the
Speaker 1: land of shadow and substance, the Twilight Zone, truly began
Speaker 1: on the campus of Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio.
Speaker 1: And this is where we start with the first image
Speaker 1: Rod Serling proudly wearing his Antioch College sweatshirt during the
Speaker 1: late nineteen forty stay at the family.
Speaker 3: Cottage on Cayuga Lake in upstate New York.
Speaker 1: It is no understatement to say that without Ohio Rod
Speaker 1: s may have never found his way to the fifth dimension,
Speaker 1: beyond that which is known to men. It was there
Speaker 1: that he discovered writer. It was there to be sure
Speaker 1: that Rod Serling realized he was a writer, and it
Speaker 1: was there that he learned his craft, served the apprenticeship,
Speaker 1: and honed the skills that would win him six Emmy Awards.
Speaker 3: And enduring fame and ladies and gentlemen.
Speaker 1: This is the reason that we in Ohio consider Ohio
Speaker 1: holy ground. It is because Rod Serling actually became a
Speaker 1: writer in Ohio.
Speaker 2: So Mark stayed on the stage and he was joined
Speaker 2: by Mark Olshaker and Unsailing for a presentation about Rod
Speaker 2: Serling and his moral compass and how he brought that
Speaker 2: to his way. Yeah, and think about that.
Speaker 16: Think about Aya that Beholder for a second, and think
Speaker 16: about how it was relevant then. But think about today,
Speaker 16: think about this era of cyber bullying and anonymous online
Speaker 16: comments and relentlessly packaged and unrealistic ideas of beauty that
Speaker 16: people are being force fed every day by the culture,
Speaker 16: And then think about Aya the Beholder. It's more relevant today.
Speaker 16: It's so much more powerful a message today. And that's
Speaker 16: true of a lot of Twilight Zone episode.
Speaker 17: First of all, I just want to say that the
Speaker 17: Mark Twain suit is in is in honor of Mark,
Speaker 17: who has taken over, who has assumed the mantle of
Speaker 17: Hal Holbrook as the foremost interpreter of Mark Twain.
Speaker 2: Today.
Speaker 16: Let's make up every year, I might.
Speaker 17: Add, as as Hell himself did.
Speaker 16: But I do want we should yeah throw this thing
Speaker 16: because I know Anna has something she wants to show.
Speaker 17: Yeah, And what we want to get into here is
Speaker 17: the everything's come full circle. I remember when Nick was
Speaker 17: interviewing me about the episode It's a Good Life, and
Speaker 17: he was asking me what I thought about it. One
Speaker 17: of the things I said was, it's about the consequences
Speaker 17: of parenting and not good parenting. I said, Now, I
Speaker 17: think I also realize, as Nick has shown us all,
Speaker 17: it's about what happens when nobody says no to you
Speaker 17: on the subject of parenting, which is very much like
Speaker 17: what was your parenting like?
Speaker 18: Well, my father was the polar opposite of what you
Speaker 18: imagine when you see the Twilight Zone and you see
Speaker 18: this dark image walking across the stage. Any serious and
Speaker 18: he's tight lipped because the dad at home was so funny,
Speaker 18: so kind, so sweet, and so silly. He was a
Speaker 18: practical joker. I wasn't going to share this story, but
Speaker 18: I am going to share it.
Speaker 6: When I was.
Speaker 18: About thirteen, I got my rumory decorated, and I got
Speaker 18: new wallpaper, and I did share this in the book.
Speaker 14: So I guess I can share this.
Speaker 18: I got new wallpaper and new carpeting, and I couldn't
Speaker 18: wait to get home from school to see how the
Speaker 18: room looked. And my dad actually came in the room
Speaker 18: with me, and I discovered in the corner one of
Speaker 18: the dogs had gone to the bathroom, and I was sunned,
Speaker 18: and I just sort of pointed to it, and my
Speaker 18: father kind of shrugged and walked over and picked it
Speaker 18: up with his hands, and I realized it was one
Speaker 18: of those fake things. But for months we would hide
Speaker 18: this on each other, and I hit it in his bedroom,
Speaker 18: and I hit it in his office, which was in
Speaker 18: the backyard. But my dad, it was very clear that
Speaker 18: what I really remember is racism really deeply upset him.
Speaker 18: And when Wallace was maybe going to run for president,
Speaker 18: I remember he threatened that we were going to move
Speaker 18: out of the country. Fast forward, but in terms of
Speaker 18: his own parenting, I wanted to read something that my
Speaker 18: dad wrote in his college application when he was twenty
Speaker 18: one years old. To the credit of my family, any
Speaker 18: inherent decency, all my liberalness and my ability to distinguish
Speaker 18: between right and wrong can be attributed to my training.
Speaker 4: At the age of ten.
Speaker 18: I believe deeply in the rights of all men and
Speaker 18: had a basic philosophy which maintained that a person was
Speaker 18: not measured by their color or their race. It's powerful
Speaker 18: and when I was writing my memoir, a friend of
Speaker 18: my dad's from Antioch College told the story of in
Speaker 18: Yellow Springs, there were just two barbers and only one
Speaker 18: of them would cut the hair of African American students,
Speaker 18: and my father was furious if anybody went to the
Speaker 18: other barber and actually started.
Speaker 17: According to this colleague, Mike Newman actually started a campaign
Speaker 17: to get people to boycott the racist barbershop.
Speaker 2: Now we all know the Twilight Zone Companion by Mark
Speaker 2: Zichre or Unlocking the Door to a television Classic by
Speaker 2: Martin Graham's Junior. While they're the definitive volumes about the
Speaker 2: Twilight Zone, there's only ever been one definitive book about
Speaker 2: the Night Gallery, The After I was tour written by
Speaker 2: Jim Benson and Scott Skelton. Now I owned the first
Speaker 2: volume of that book and it was great, But in
Speaker 2: the past couple of years Jim and Scott have updated
Speaker 2: it to a second edition.
Speaker 8: Now.
Speaker 2: I never picked up that book at the time because
Speaker 2: the postage to the UK was more than the book itself.
Speaker 2: But I was able to pick up a copy directly
Speaker 2: from Scott and Jim at Sailing Fest. And I have
Speaker 2: to say this book is remarkable. It's huge and just
Speaker 2: packed to the brim with photographs, new information, and interviews,
Speaker 2: and it is without a doubt one of the best
Speaker 2: and most definitive books about any TV show period that
Speaker 2: I've come across. And these are two very entertaining and
Speaker 2: informative guys, and they too did a great panel at
Speaker 2: Sailing Fest about the Night Gallery.
Speaker 16: I know that there's a tendency historically in Rod Serling's
Speaker 16: scholarship has sort of dismissed Night Gallery as lesser Twilight Zone,
Speaker 16: a last act.
Speaker 2: That didn't produce all that much.
Speaker 16: Your first book pretty much shot that theory all the hell.
Speaker 16: But this one really comes through to say, this is
Speaker 16: incredibly important show to Rod Serling's career. So why is
Speaker 16: Night Gallery important?
Speaker 19: It is Rod Serling's final foray into TV production, TV
Speaker 19: writing for TV before he essentially retired and started teaching.
Speaker 19: I think he felt he was didn't have the same
Speaker 19: juice he had when he started. I think he was
Speaker 19: realizing with his Night Gallery experience that he was his
Speaker 19: what do you want to call it is is his
Speaker 19: fame had not carried forward as he'd liked. He thought
Speaker 19: his name over the title of Night Gallery would give
Speaker 19: him essentially last say in creative issues, and he did
Speaker 19: not to his I'm sure his feeling that he should
Speaker 19: have probably gathered some He should have taken executive role,
Speaker 19: It should have been a showrunner, but he didn't want
Speaker 19: to give that much time away from raising his family,
Speaker 19: so he didn't do it, and Jack Laird became the showrunner,
Speaker 19: and that became the problem because he did not have
Speaker 19: the same relationship to the producer that he did on
Speaker 19: Twilight Zone. He had Buck Houghton there, who was an
Speaker 19: extraordinary sympathetic producer. He and Rod were on the same wavelength,
Speaker 19: and he and Jack Laird were oil and water. Jack
Speaker 19: was not interested in having the same sort of viewpoint
Speaker 19: that the Twilight Zone had. He was far more interested
Speaker 19: in being more out there, more revolutionary, more unusual in
Speaker 19: the choice. He was willing to take that energy from
Speaker 19: the seventies that was taking over and let Night Gallery
Speaker 19: run with that, which led to a highly varied set
Speaker 19: of tales, but not all of them were what Rod
Speaker 19: Serling would have okayed. Still, Jack was an excellent showrunner,
Speaker 19: he just didn't agree with Rod on choice of stories. Now,
Speaker 19: there were some great writers on Night Gallery, but Rod
Speaker 19: still wrote one third of them, and there was a
Speaker 19: rumor for years that he had nothing at all to
Speaker 19: do with it. Essentially he just had his name on it.
Speaker 19: But that's not true. He wrote a lot of the
Speaker 19: stories and some of them are some of the best
Speaker 19: stuff he ever wrote in my opinion. But that's why
Speaker 19: it's important to me. It's I mean, it carries forward
Speaker 19: Rod's Twilight Zone legacy and brought out some brilliant episodes
Speaker 19: as inconsistent as the show was.
Speaker 20: That's right, and beyond that, what made Nike Gallery important
Speaker 20: in my view is it was a collection of extraordinary
Speaker 20: talent both in front of and behind the camera. The
Speaker 20: artisans who worked on Nike Gallery were really the last
Speaker 20: generation to have worked with the great classic filmmakers like Robert,
Speaker 20: like Alfred Hitchcock and Orson Welles, the DP Lionel Linden
Speaker 20: on Night Gallery worked he was the Assistant DP I
Speaker 20: believe on the Manchurian Candidate and gave that film an
Speaker 20: extraordinary look. It also launched because of at least in
Speaker 20: part because of Jack Laird. It launched an amazing amount
Speaker 20: of careers, again both behind and in front of the camera.
Speaker 20: Of course, it was the first thing that Steven Spielberg
Speaker 20: ever directed. It was the first thing that Leonard Nimoy
Speaker 20: ever directed. It was the first television production that that
Speaker 20: John Aston ever directed. And it was the first dramatic
Speaker 20: debut role for Diane Keaton, Mark Hamill, Lindsey Wagner. It
Speaker 20: was only her second.
Speaker 2: Role in her career. Randy Quaid, I believe.
Speaker 20: Randy Quaid and and I mean the less you can
Speaker 20: just go on and on and on and again. A
Speaker 20: lot of the reason for that was producer Jack Lard,
Speaker 20: because he gave young people a chance who maybe other
Speaker 20: producers wouldn't uh and he he he went out of
Speaker 20: his way to help people in the business, which is
Speaker 20: very rare.
Speaker 2: Just ask anybody in that business. So, ladies and gentlemen,
Speaker 2: my coverage of Sailing Fest was not what I hoped
Speaker 2: it would be. In the ideal world, I would have
Speaker 2: interviewed the guests that were there, got some thoughts from
Speaker 2: the attendees or unfortunately, I was just in no date
Speaker 2: to do it, so I got together with my friend
Speaker 2: Zach and Emmy over in the After Hours Club for
Speaker 2: a little post event debrief, some of which I'll play
Speaker 2: for you now. So I guess we will finish up there.
Speaker 2: There's probably a lot of other stuff we could talk about,
Speaker 2: or just to finish off, I'm going to ask two
Speaker 2: questions of everyone. The first question is just name me.
Speaker 2: It doesn't have to be a favorite moment, because I
Speaker 2: know it's hard to choose favorite moments when you've had
Speaker 2: such a great weekend or a favorite moment from Sailing Fest.
Speaker 5: Well, again, it's going to sound self serving to you, Tom,
Speaker 5: but I think just just watching you give your presentation
Speaker 5: was fantastic because I mean, we're we're all here talking
Speaker 5: because of this podcast you started it, and then also
Speaker 5: knowing how many obstacles you had to get through to
Speaker 5: get to just physical obstacles as far as your travel
Speaker 5: and then overcome your sickness and all that. But to
Speaker 5: see you stand up there and give you presentation, which
Speaker 5: I know you worked really hard on, it really went
Speaker 5: off without a hit, really, and that was just a
Speaker 5: very fulfilling moment. So to me, if I had to
Speaker 5: pick something, I would say, you know, because now you're
Speaker 5: not just some podcast or workshires my friend now. So
Speaker 5: it's fun to see my friend up there doing some
Speaker 5: stilights on stuff. And I really enjoyed that.
Speaker 2: Thank you man, Thank you.
Speaker 4: Yeah. I mean that would be a very very close
Speaker 4: second for me to actually watch you do. It was
Speaker 4: pretty high up there. Mine is slightly different though. I
Speaker 4: think on the day after the unveiling ceremony, you know,
Speaker 4: everybody from sarling Fest, well pretty much everybody from serling
Speaker 4: Fest from our group all stuck together and had stayed
Speaker 4: to watch the unveiling, and we kind of had this
Speaker 4: hour after the unveiling had happened where people were going
Speaker 4: back on the carousel and we all just kind of
Speaker 4: wandered through the park and we would see people that
Speaker 4: we'd met over the course of the weekend and we'd
Speaker 4: wave and we'd chat to them, and we all kind
Speaker 4: of knew it was coming to an end, but where
Speaker 4: we're still sort of riding on the high and there
Speaker 4: was this moment I think where we all kind of
Speaker 4: felt like locals like we all felt like we lived
Speaker 4: a little bit in Binghamton. It felt like that real
Speaker 4: neighborhood feel where you were just seeing people that you've
Speaker 4: known for such a long time, you were saying hi,
Speaker 4: or do you want to get a lemonade? And you know,
Speaker 4: it felt so natural, so quickly for everybody that we
Speaker 4: had been with. And yet that is absolutely because you know, Tom,
Speaker 4: You've brought everybody together. We've created this amazing group of
Speaker 4: people who are just so lovely and kind and inclusive.
Speaker 4: But there was this there was this feeling at the
Speaker 4: end of the unveiling where we all kind of knew
Speaker 4: where we're going away, but for a moment, we all
Speaker 4: felt like we all lived there and that we were
Speaker 4: all just going to kind of catch up with each
Speaker 4: other the next again day, and there was something pretty
Speaker 4: magical about that.
Speaker 2: So I'm going to mention a couple of things. I'll
Speaker 2: try not to go on too long. So the first
Speaker 2: one is, you know, I did my presentation and people
Speaker 2: have been very kind about it, like yourselves, and I'm
Speaker 2: happy that it was okay. But I was very safe
Speaker 2: when I was doing it, and part of me felt
Speaker 2: like I was just saying the words you know, and
Speaker 2: I couldn't enjoy it as much as I would have liked,
Speaker 2: you know, which was a real shame. But as long
Speaker 2: as it played, okay, that's the main thing. But when
Speaker 2: I got off the stage, I was it was like, okay,
Speaker 2: I've done it now, you know, just like I want
Speaker 2: to crumple up into a corner and just go asleep
Speaker 2: or something. Now at the back of the stage was
Speaker 2: kind of like a green room, and then that led
Speaker 2: into the vendors room, and I just sort of wandered through,
Speaker 2: and I went into the vendors room and I'm just
Speaker 2: sort of getting my stuff together, and then all of
Speaker 2: a sudden, I, you know, I sort of look up
Speaker 2: and there's like a queue of people formed to come
Speaker 2: and say hello. And you know, I was feeling so
Speaker 2: rough and so bad, but I was able to just
Speaker 2: forget that for a little moment because it was so
Speaker 2: nice that all these people had come to say hello
Speaker 2: to me and introduced themselves and talk about the podcast
Speaker 2: and so on. Again, I don't want to mention names,
Speaker 2: but you know, there was Rebecca from the Girls, Ghosts
Speaker 2: and Girls podcast. She came over. Kenneth Saul, who's been
Speaker 2: a long time friend of the show came over. There
Speaker 2: was this lovely young couple who came over to say hello,
Speaker 2: and I thought it was especially nice because you know,
Speaker 2: the average age of people at this thing is quite high,
Speaker 2: or you know, they were these young sorts of Twilight
Speaker 2: Zone fans. It sort of meant the world that everyone
Speaker 2: came over to say hello like that. And then the
Speaker 2: second thing is that I missed the Saturday night that
Speaker 2: was supposed to be the big victory night. You know,
Speaker 2: we're all together, we're all having a drink, but I
Speaker 2: was just too sick, and I was watching all the
Speaker 2: pictures come up on the Telegram channel, and you know,
Speaker 2: everyone's having a great time. But it was fine. And
Speaker 2: then the next morning I got up and I was
Speaker 2: feeling a bit better. So you two were, you know,
Speaker 2: nursing your hangovers in your rooms. So I just wandered
Speaker 2: out a recreation park and I just sat by the
Speaker 2: carousel on the bench. It was a beautiful day, you know,
Speaker 2: and just watch the kind of comings and goings of
Speaker 2: the park. But then just gradually, as the morning went
Speaker 2: on and we got closer to the time, all these
Speaker 2: people just gradually started to appear. Oh there's NASA. You know,
Speaker 2: there's Joe Brown, you know, and it was just this
Speaker 2: natural sort of No one had said, oh let's meet
Speaker 2: at this time. It was just gradually everyone sort of
Speaker 2: gravitated towards the park because that's what we were there for.
Speaker 2: And it was just a beautiful day and a natural day.
Speaker 2: And then all of a sudden, everyone's together and we're
Speaker 2: watching this statue being unveiled. So that's that's a big
Speaker 2: memory for me. And even after having missed out on
Speaker 2: so much, you know, at least I got that time,
Speaker 2: and I was very appreciative of it. So I guess
Speaker 2: the second question is would you go back to sailing
Speaker 2: fest Zach.
Speaker 5: You know every on twice now in the last once
Speaker 5: every five years. I mean, to me, that seems to
Speaker 5: be a good pattern. You know, what's a good a
Speaker 5: good pattern to go every five years or so. I mean,
Speaker 5: went for the sixtieth, went for the statue unveiling. Look,
Speaker 5: I enjoy it quite a bit, but it's it's not
Speaker 5: just the place, it's the people too, right, So it
Speaker 5: would depend on who else is all gonna go and
Speaker 5: and all that sort of thing, all those intangibles. Because
Speaker 5: again I love and I respect all the content there.
Speaker 5: I mean, that's that's the backbone of why we're there, right,
Speaker 5: But it's it's that intangible, like you know, hanging out stuff.
Speaker 5: Everything outside and the outside of the program, so to speak,
Speaker 5: is the real stuff that I that I cherish and
Speaker 5: hold close in the memories. So I would go again
Speaker 5: on the right circumstances. But I think this, this five
Speaker 5: year rotation, at least for me personally, seems to be
Speaker 5: a good pace.
Speaker 4: I mean, yeah, so before I went, I was absolutely
Speaker 4: adamant this would be the only time I would go.
Speaker 4: It's it's not an inexpensive thing to come from the UK,
Speaker 4: as you know, Tom, you know it's there is there's
Speaker 4: an awful lot of moving parts that mean it can
Speaker 4: be tricky. I've got a young family, I've got a career,
Speaker 4: all this kind of stuff. It makes it difficult. And
Speaker 4: I absolutely was comfortable with the fact that I was
Speaker 4: going to come this one time. I was going to
Speaker 4: meet you guys, I was going to meet everybody. That
Speaker 4: was going to be the hurrah. And actually, pretty much
Speaker 4: from the second that I've come home, I've thought, how
Speaker 4: am I going to get there next year? And I
Speaker 4: totally agree with these acts like it is. If if
Speaker 4: hardly anybody from the core group said that they were
Speaker 4: kind of going, I might be more reluctant. Again, it's
Speaker 4: a huge outlay for us to get over there, in
Speaker 4: both time and money and everything. But I absolutely thought
Speaker 4: I had its own up. I thought, I'm going to
Speaker 4: go this one time. It's going to be great. It's
Speaker 4: the only thing I'm going to do, you know. And
Speaker 4: actually now I'm thinking, well, if the same crowd of
Speaker 4: people went next year, and we could all sit around
Speaker 4: and watch the presentations, different presentations again, same vibes as
Speaker 4: this year, and I get that. I think this is
Speaker 4: kind of like me trying to relive the weekend rather
Speaker 4: than me actually wanting to go to serling Fest again.
Speaker 4: I totally agree with that. But I think if it
Speaker 4: was possible for me to go again next year, I
Speaker 4: probably would. And I'm surprised by that. I really kind
Speaker 4: of thought it was gonna be a one off.
Speaker 5: I feel that because of me. I went again five
Speaker 5: years ago for the sixtieth and I was like, Okay,
Speaker 5: I'll do this once and I was like, oh, that
Speaker 5: was fun. And I think I left it saying like, oh,
Speaker 5: we definitely we got to do this again, right, And
Speaker 5: then I think and then it had been five years
Speaker 5: because we were all kind of waiting like what's the like,
Speaker 5: what's the big thing it's going to get us all
Speaker 5: to go again? And the rock sterling statue, I was like, oh, well,
Speaker 5: then we were all looking towards that as like, Okay,
Speaker 5: that's the next big one, and we all looked towards that.
Speaker 5: So if something else pops up between now the next
Speaker 5: five years, who's to say. But no, I definitely feel
Speaker 5: that feel that same thing. And there is more than
Speaker 5: one ticket for customer to badly pairaphrase to walking distance
Speaker 5: because I've been twice and I liked it, and I
Speaker 5: know that if I went again, it would you know,
Speaker 5: it's it's different every time, right, I mean, it's not
Speaker 5: going to be you can't all come well, you know,
Speaker 5: the first year we did this, the second year we
Speaker 5: did that, and yeah, that's all well and good, but
Speaker 5: that doesn't mean one is necessarily better than the other.
Speaker 5: And I'm sure if I want a third time that
Speaker 5: would have its own unique memories and things. So yeah,
Speaker 5: I totally I totally feel that.
Speaker 2: I Mean I said it many times on the podcast
Speaker 2: before I went this time that this would probably be
Speaker 2: the last time that I went, and what a last
Speaker 2: time it would be, you know the statue I was
Speaker 2: getting to present something on stage. The Rod Sailing Memorial
Speaker 2: Foundation said the number one reason that people said they
Speaker 2: had about Sailing Fest was through this podcast. And the
Speaker 2: turnout of podcast listeners and friends of the show was
Speaker 2: just incredible, you know, very humbling. And that's that's even
Speaker 2: the ones that I knew about being there. You know,
Speaker 2: people have emailed me since and said, you know, I
Speaker 2: was there, but I didn't come over. You look like
Speaker 2: you were swamped and stuff. So so there was more
Speaker 2: than I even said hello to there who are podcast listeners.
Speaker 2: So the turnout of podcast listeners was incredible. So if
Speaker 2: there was ever a year to bow out on, it
Speaker 2: was this year. But it didn't go as planned, you know,
Speaker 2: and I feel like I missed out on a lot
Speaker 2: because because of the travel issues that I had, and
Speaker 2: then by the time I got to Binghamton, I was
Speaker 2: just so sick. And I kind of feel that I
Speaker 2: would like to rectify that. Whether that's next year, I
Speaker 2: don't know. Maybe the thing that would get me to
Speaker 2: go back is, you know, I'm working on this book.
Speaker 2: And it would be nice to be on a table
Speaker 2: in that dealer room with a stack of this book
Speaker 2: that is the culmination of this podcast, and you know,
Speaker 2: be able to sign it and speak to people as
Speaker 2: they get the book. That would be pretty amazing. But
Speaker 2: I think both of you are a spot on. It's
Speaker 2: like who else is going? You know? Because goodness, did
Speaker 2: I ever ask for a better tan out than this one?
Speaker 2: I don't know, man, it was just insane the number
Speaker 2: of podcast people who were there, you know, people I
Speaker 2: haven't even mentioned yet, like the Twilight pone guys, you know,
Speaker 2: and and stuff like that.
Speaker 5: Can I say something to that real quick, Tom, I
Speaker 5: think because you had met one of them before before, right,
Speaker 5: And I love the Twilight poone, I mean obviously the
Speaker 5: well it's the internet's third most popular twidzone podcast, as
Speaker 5: anybody who listens to it knows, but after you, I mean,
Speaker 5: I that was definitely that the twides one podcast listened to.
Speaker 5: And so when the three of you guys met kind
Speaker 5: of in person here this time, I was just sitting
Speaker 5: because we were sitting here with each other, and then
Speaker 5: you went over and talk to them, and like, I'm like,
Speaker 5: so like I kind of heard this. This heard this
Speaker 5: off the books crossover of these two podcasts. If you
Speaker 5: guys talking, Oh so you're you know, Fred and Tom
Speaker 5: and John, And that was fun to hear that. It's
Speaker 5: fun to talk to them and connect with them, because
Speaker 5: I you know, if you listen to the podcast, you
Speaker 5: would never expect that they would go to fest. But
Speaker 5: the fact that they came in a lot right and
Speaker 5: it was it was and they kind of out with us,
Speaker 5: you know, over the weekend. It was cool to put
Speaker 5: some names to faces. And yeah that anyway, since you
Speaker 5: since you mentioned them, I wanted to mention that as well.
Speaker 5: So and also, you know, Emmy, I think I've taken
Speaker 5: for granted now that you and I met each other
Speaker 5: on this on this trip which together, and.
Speaker 4: I only met Tom like for the first time to do this,
Speaker 4: I mean this, this was a big part of it
Speaker 4: as well. It's like all these people you've spent all
Speaker 4: this time speaking to interacting with this kind of stuff,
Speaker 4: and that was a big part of I think why
Speaker 4: it probably felt so natural and easy and not awkward
Speaker 4: in any way, you know, because as well as having
Speaker 4: this big thing in common, we felt like we knew
Speaker 4: each other really m yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So all that to say, I feel like I've
Speaker 2: got unfinished business with Sailing Fest. Like I say, whether
Speaker 2: it's next year, I don't know, maybe that's a bit soon,
Speaker 2: but I would certainly like to go with with that
Speaker 2: book complete, you know, and be able to speak to people,
Speaker 2: so you know, watch this space because what I would
Speaker 2: also say as well is that it would kind of
Speaker 2: break my heart if it was the last time I
Speaker 2: ever saw that statue, you know, and I want to
Speaker 2: go when it's sort of beded in, you know, the
Speaker 2: bricks are all down. It is what part of the
Speaker 2: scenery I would really like to go and see that again.
Speaker 5: So well, that works with my schedule, Tom, because the
Speaker 5: five year rotation, I think it's gonna about five more years.
Speaker 5: You finished the podcast and your books, wow.
Speaker 4: Thing, So yeah, that's that's your time schedule, Tom. You
Speaker 4: have you have five years, very maximum to finish the
Speaker 4: podcast and write the book.
Speaker 2: Okay, I'm on it. I'm on it. Guys. Thank you
Speaker 2: so much for being such great travel companions, roommate and
Speaker 2: looking after me when I was sick. I really appreciate it,
Speaker 2: and thank you for coming back and talking about it.
Speaker 4: I've been talking about it to anybody who listened. Frank
Speaker 4: place well being able to do this as just an
Speaker 4: added bonus.
Speaker 5: Absolutely, yeah, it's funny just to revisit that great weekend,
Speaker 5: as I'm sure we will be doing until our next
Speaker 5: great weekend there at Bingington whenever that may.
Speaker 2: Be absolutely okay, Well, that's enough from us and our
Speaker 2: sailing fest coverage and I'll speak to you soon. Bye
Speaker 2: for now. So while that might be the end of
Speaker 2: our sailing fest coverage, it's not the end of your
Speaker 2: sailing fest coverage. In the next episode, I'll be handing
Speaker 2: over to some of the attendees so you can hear
Speaker 2: their messages about their experiences. Then after that it'll be
Speaker 2: back to business as usual with the episode number twelve
Speaker 2: looks just like you and I will speak to you
Speaker 2: soon