Speaker 1: The time is almost upon us for sailing Fest twenty
Speaker 1: twenty four. I can't believe it's already here. You know,
Speaker 1: we've been talking about it on the show for such
Speaker 1: a long time now, a lot of preparation in the background,
Speaker 1: but the time is now and your Sailing Fest twenty
Speaker 1: twenty four coverage begins here. So to help me go
Speaker 1: through the schedule of Sailing Fest, I'm invited on my
Speaker 1: longtime friend, friends of the show and the author of
Speaker 1: The Twilight Zone hi Q, Chad Ellis Boykin. Chads, welcome back, man.
Speaker 2: It's great to be here. Tom, Thanks so much for
Speaker 2: having me on. This is really exciting. Now.
Speaker 1: When we last spoke, you were just publishing The Twilight
Speaker 1: Zone high Q. So how's it been now? The book
Speaker 1: is out, the audio book is how's it been for you?
Speaker 2: It's been really exciting. We've done some really cool things.
Speaker 2: We had a book launch event where I had an
Speaker 2: actual cellist do some musical accompaniment to some of the
Speaker 2: select poems and you know, sort of introduced the shows
Speaker 2: that they were based on for anybody in the audience
Speaker 2: that might not be familiar. We've had an art exhibit
Speaker 2: in Brooklyn. We've done multiple signings and readings. We've done
Speaker 2: some visual art pieces, and we've worked on some actual
Speaker 2: haiku comic panels with a collaboration with Weirdo Poetry. So
Speaker 2: we've done a lot of cool stuff. It's been well
Speaker 2: received and it's hard to believe it's almost a year.
Speaker 2: And of course, the the coolest thing is that I
Speaker 2: got the new Millennium Voice of the Twilight Zone to
Speaker 2: do the narration for the audiobook, so that makes it
Speaker 2: really special.
Speaker 1: Well, thank you man, thank you. It was a lot
Speaker 1: of fun to do that. Now that kind of leads
Speaker 1: quite nicely into our sailing Fest coverage because sailing Fest
Speaker 1: itself begins on Friday, the thirteenth of September, and we'll
Speaker 1: get onto the schedule in a moment, but there's actually
Speaker 1: a kind of pre sailing Fest thing going on, but
Speaker 1: I'll just run through my time in Binghamton for anyone
Speaker 1: out there, you know, who wants to kind of say
Speaker 1: hello or whatever. I'm actually going to be there from
Speaker 1: the Thursday now, probably not till late afternoon, early evening,
Speaker 1: but if there are any early birds about then do
Speaker 1: get in touch and I'll tell you a way to
Speaker 1: do that later on. You know, for the early sailing
Speaker 1: Fest gets together, so we'll be doing that. But then
Speaker 1: the next day, on the Friday, there's actually a pre
Speaker 1: sailing Fest thing going on, isn't there that you've organized.
Speaker 2: There is, And until you set it out loud, it
Speaker 2: didn't occur to me that it's a Friday the thirteenth. Yeah,
Speaker 2: so I think that's probably a good omen considering this.
Speaker 2: But yeah, we have put together a collaborative Rod Serling
Speaker 2: author discussion and book signing. I worked with Barnes and
Speaker 2: Noble in Vestal, New York. So they're at twenty four
Speaker 2: forty three Vestl Parkway East and they are hosting a
Speaker 2: two hour book signing discussion. And we've got some real
Speaker 2: heavy hitters. We've got Nicholas Parisi, president of the Rod
Speaker 2: Serling Memorial Foundation, who everyone's familiar with as one of
Speaker 2: the main organizers of Surling Fest. He's going to be
Speaker 2: there discussing his book, Rod Serling, his life, work and Imagination,
Speaker 2: which you know, back in twenty nineteen when we were
Speaker 2: both at the Surling Fest. It was my first one
Speaker 2: and the last one I've been to since his book
Speaker 2: had just come out, And so he'll be discussing his book.
Speaker 2: I'll be discussing the Twilight Zone Niku. We also have
Speaker 2: Christopher Benedict who's going to be doing a reading and
Speaker 2: discussion of the Twilight Rounds, which is all about Rod
Speaker 2: Serling's work related to boxing, and Coreyn Shadmy will be
Speaker 2: there to discuss The Twilight Man, which is that fantastic
Speaker 2: graphic novel. Again, I think that came out around twenty
Speaker 2: nineteen when we were at that Surling Fest. And then
Speaker 2: finally Tony Alborella Timeless is Infinity. He'll be discussing his
Speaker 2: works that collected all of the Rod Serling scripts for
Speaker 2: the Twilight Zone. So we've got a really nice event
Speaker 2: lined up for everybody. The idea, you know, people who
Speaker 2: are arriving early can come and do this extra bonus event,
Speaker 2: and folks who are in the bookshop and around the
Speaker 2: area might be sort of a gateway drug into Serling
Speaker 2: Fest if it's something that they don't know about yet,
Speaker 2: So it should be a lot of fun. It's going
Speaker 2: to be from two to four on September thirteenth, or
Speaker 2: just a couple hours before Sailing Fest starts in Earnest.
Speaker 1: Okay, and how far away from like the center of Binghamton.
Speaker 2: Is that I believe it's about eight miles so it's
Speaker 2: pretty close.
Speaker 1: Too far then, okay, no, that sounds like a great
Speaker 1: way to kick everything off and you know, get to
Speaker 1: see some of these writers and everything before the actual
Speaker 1: thing starts. So I think that's a great idea. So
Speaker 1: that's going to be two till four and then on
Speaker 1: the Friday night that's when the sailing fest begins. So
Speaker 1: I'll just run through the list of what's on. So
Speaker 1: at six pm we have Great the Evert for the People.
Speaker 1: So I think this Friday night is it's going to
Speaker 1: be all like shows and things that you actually sit
Speaker 1: and watch. It's not so much panels and so on.
Speaker 1: But at six pm Grade de Evert for the People.
Speaker 1: You ever seen that one?
Speaker 2: Chad? I haven't seen that one. So that's one of
Speaker 2: the things I love about this is getting to see
Speaker 2: things that are new to me that I haven't seen before.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, So that's going to be introduced by Nick Parisi
Speaker 1: and that kicks off the celebrations. Then at six point
Speaker 1: thirty five, there's going to be two episodes of The Loner,
Speaker 1: and they are one of the Wounded and the home
Speaker 1: the Homecoming of Lemuel Stove. Now I don't recall one
Speaker 1: of the wounded, but I do know the Homecoming of
Speaker 1: Lemuel Stove is a very good episode of The Loner,
Speaker 1: and that's going to be introduced by Tony Alborella. And
Speaker 1: you've heard them on this podcast on that great Nightmare
Speaker 1: at twenty thousand Feet episode we did. So he's a
Speaker 1: really good guy, Tony, and I'm looking forward to check
Speaker 1: on those outs you watch much Loaner Chad.
Speaker 2: I've watched a couple of episodes, but i haven't seen
Speaker 2: the whole series. I've listened to a little bit. I
Speaker 2: think you've covered it a little bit on the show
Speaker 2: here and there.
Speaker 1: Over on Patreon. Yeah, yeah, Okay. So then seven forty
Speaker 1: five Night Gallery, the Caterpillar and the Tearing Down Tim
Speaker 1: Riley's Bar, two of the most famous and well thought
Speaker 1: of episodes, and that's going to be introduced by Scott
Speaker 1: Skelton and Jim Benson, the co author of Rod Sailings,
Speaker 1: Night Gallery and After Hours Tour. So I'm looking forward to.
Speaker 2: That one absolutely. I've listened to your coverage on the
Speaker 2: Patreon show, and I'm really looking forward, especially to the
Speaker 2: tearing down of Tim Riley's Bar. I think the consensus
Speaker 2: is that's maybe one of the best Night Gallery episodes.
Speaker 1: So after that, to round the night off nine pm,
Speaker 1: we have, in praise of Pip and Deaths, had revisited
Speaker 1: a bit of a down for at the end of
Speaker 1: the night, boar what are you going to do? And
Speaker 1: they're introduced by and Sailing, So that's good, you know,
Speaker 1: always nice to round off the night with a couple
Speaker 1: of twilight zones.
Speaker 2: I guess absolutely. I expect I'll be weeping on the
Speaker 2: way back to the hotel.
Speaker 1: So that's going to finish around ten pm. Now what
Speaker 1: happens after that, I don't know, because I'm not going
Speaker 1: to be hitting the bars or I mean, i might
Speaker 1: go out just for a beer, but I've got to
Speaker 1: be on the stage the next day, so I'm not
Speaker 1: going out and getting drunk or anything like that. I'm
Speaker 1: going to have an easy night. But I might if
Speaker 1: there's a lot of people and they're going to go
Speaker 1: to a bar or something, then I might come out
Speaker 1: for a little bit, but I will be taking it
Speaker 1: easy that night.
Speaker 2: Probably a good plan. Well, we'll make sure to sneak
Speaker 2: some airplane bottles in for you on Saturday morning.
Speaker 1: So here yeah, yeah, okay, So Saturday is when you
Speaker 1: know the thing really kicks off into high gear. So
Speaker 1: ten am at the theater is it the Forum Theater
Speaker 1: in Binghamton, it's called I believe it is. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: So ten am welcoming remarks and video tributes by Nick Parisi.
Speaker 1: So that's going to go on for half an hour.
Speaker 1: Then a tenth eighty Sailing unscripted with Tony Alborella. And
Speaker 1: on the website it says, through an array of interview clips,
Speaker 1: Rod Sailing exhibits his trademark wisdom and insight on topics
Speaker 1: such as race, politics, the Twilight Zone, writing and television.
Speaker 1: So there's nothing better than a Rod Sailing interview, is
Speaker 1: there where he's just dishing out wisdom like so effortlessly.
Speaker 1: So I like the sound of that.
Speaker 2: One absolutely, And it sounds like they've put sort of
Speaker 2: a collage together. So I'm really excited to see how
Speaker 2: they've curated that.
Speaker 1: Now this one eleven forty five, The Twilight rounds Christopher Benedict.
Speaker 1: Now I met Christopher at sailing Fest last time. Really
Speaker 1: good guy. Unfortunately I kind of missed his book so
Speaker 1: he wrote you mentioned it before, like a history of
Speaker 1: rod sailing and boxing, you know, because sailing he was
Speaker 1: a boxer at some point and you know, wrote several
Speaker 1: stories about boxing. I hope he's got some of his
Speaker 1: books for sale because I wouldn't mind picking one of
Speaker 1: those up. Have you managed to catch that I have?
Speaker 2: They are a little bit hard to find, so you
Speaker 2: have to reach out to him. He's actually gonna have
Speaker 2: some copies both at the at the Serling Fest event
Speaker 2: and at that Barnes and Noble signing, So he's he's
Speaker 2: going to have a stack and I'm going to be
Speaker 2: tabling and well, I think we're gonna split a table
Speaker 2: and he'll he'll be there and he'll have some on hand.
Speaker 2: So I've I've got a copy of it. It's really
Speaker 2: good because Serling there's the famous Serling boxing works that
Speaker 2: we're on the Twilight Zone, but he also has other
Speaker 2: works that Benedict has dug up, and Benedict is a
Speaker 2: real sort of notable boxing historian and scholar, and he's
Speaker 2: done a lot of incredible stuff.
Speaker 1: So it's it's a really a good piece, excellent. Well,
Speaker 1: I look forward to catching up with Chris again. And
Speaker 1: get me hands on that book. So twelve thirty Rock
Speaker 1: from the Twilight Zone from Gail flug longtime music journalist
Speaker 1: Gail Fluke discusses the many times that Rod Serling's most
Speaker 1: famous career crossed over into the dimension of rock and roll. Gail,
Speaker 1: I believe does a lot of the work on the
Speaker 1: newsletter from the Memorial Foundation, putting it together, making it
Speaker 1: look really professional and nice. And I think I met
Speaker 1: her last time. But yeah, she's a she's a great lady.
Speaker 1: So this sounds pretty interesting.
Speaker 2: It does. And if I remember from twenty nineteen, didn't
Speaker 2: they have sort of a music panel where they were
Speaker 2: talking about maybe the scoring of the show or oh okay,
Speaker 2: I kind of remember that, and I remember liking it
Speaker 2: a lot.
Speaker 1: Okay, So another good one there for the morning, so
Speaker 1: that will set us up for the morning. And then
Speaker 1: at one point fifteen until two thirty, it's a lunch break.
Speaker 1: And then who's this clown? Who's on a two thirty?
Speaker 2: Oh?
Speaker 1: Tom Elliott?
Speaker 2: Okay, Yeah, this is the one point in the show
Speaker 2: where I thought, man, maybe they made a misstep here.
Speaker 2: I don't know what they were thinking with this one.
Speaker 1: I know, who let this guy in so, Tom Elliot,
Speaker 1: as host of the Twilight Zone podcast, dives deep into
Speaker 1: sailing history, presenting a fresh take on one of Rodd's
Speaker 1: earliest pieces of work. No Christmas this Year originally produced
Speaker 1: on Rod Sailing's Antioch College radio series. So I'll just
Speaker 1: expand on that a little bit. No Christmas this Year. Unfortunately,
Speaker 1: I don't think a recording of it exists anymore, but
Speaker 1: the script does exist, And because Rod Sailing was born
Speaker 1: on Christmas Day, it's one hundred years since as birth
Speaker 1: on this upcoming Christmas, I thought i'd, you know, tie
Speaker 1: all these things together. So while unfortunately No Christmas this
Speaker 1: Year you know, doesn't exist, the script does. And basically
Speaker 1: I sort of run through some of Rod Sailing's where
Speaker 1: can we see how? You know, the roots of it
Speaker 1: are in this kind of lost radio play that he
Speaker 1: made when he was a young man. So, you know,
Speaker 1: I've put a lot of work into it. I hope
Speaker 1: people like it, but it's it's so difficult to not
Speaker 1: get a tunnel vision on this and you lose all
Speaker 1: kind of perspective on it, you know. But I think
Speaker 1: I've put together something that people should enjoy anyway.
Speaker 2: Well, I think You've got an amazing track record to
Speaker 2: go on, and honestly, how do you get your hands
Speaker 2: on something like that? Like this is sort of an
Speaker 2: unpublished piece, right, Like, how do you make that happen?
Speaker 1: Well, one of the Rod Sailing Memorial Foundation gave me
Speaker 1: a copy of that script a while ago, and it
Speaker 1: was always a case of, well, what do I really
Speaker 1: do with it? You know, maybe I could try recreating
Speaker 1: some of the scenes or so none of that, unfortunately,
Speaker 1: because the main characters at a child and I can
Speaker 1: do some voices, but I'm not sure I can do
Speaker 1: that one. So you know, it's interesting and I will
Speaker 1: allude to the script quite often. It's it's just a
Speaker 1: shame that the piece doesn't exist anymore in the actual
Speaker 1: radio for you know, it's quite interesting anyway.
Speaker 2: That's exciting, And some of the most memorable Twilight Zone
Speaker 2: episodes right were you know, based set in winter and
Speaker 2: you had the some of the Christmas episodes, and so
Speaker 2: it looks like a really great starting point.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, absolutely so, three forty five odes for episodes. Man,
Speaker 1: they'll let anyone into this thing. Two poets inspired by
Speaker 1: the Twilight Zone chat Boykin and Ricky Santa Okay, go
Speaker 1: on over to you, Chad.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they're stooping to anything this year to get something
Speaker 2: to happen. So I don't know if I'll have time
Speaker 2: to tell the backstory of this. But this came about.
Speaker 2: I got a message from you that, hey, congratulations, you're
Speaker 2: on the You're gonna be on the panel, and.
Speaker 1: It was news to me, and they've forgotten to tell
Speaker 1: you about it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he had done a live stream saying, hey, we've
Speaker 2: got this this new panel we're announcing, and he's like,
Speaker 2: there's a Twilight Zone poetry and it was unbeknownst to me.
Speaker 2: But in twenty twenty one and Ricky Saner. We've had
Speaker 2: a conversation since then. She's a very accomplished poet, award
Speaker 2: winning multiple books, teaches poetry, really a top notch poet.
Speaker 2: So I don't know what they're doing putting me with
Speaker 2: her because I'm a hack. But yeah, she did a
Speaker 2: book called Stopover in twenty twenty one, which was just
Speaker 2: a couple of years after the serling Fest we attended.
Speaker 2: You know, the serling Fest kind of kicked off the
Speaker 2: Twilight Zone haikup because you could put people together on
Speaker 2: a chat app to say Hey, if anybody is at
Speaker 2: loose ends you want to meet up with people who
Speaker 2: listen to the show, here's this app. And I remember
Speaker 2: it was such a memorable experience being there in twenty
Speaker 2: nineteen and the carousel and all the great events, meeting people.
Speaker 2: And so i'd been doing haiku for a while and
Speaker 2: actually there's a piece coming out in the Serling Memorial
Speaker 2: Fest newsletter that'll give a little bit more backstory about that.
Speaker 2: But I threw out a couple of Twilight Zone high
Speaker 2: coup on that chat app, and people sort of had
Speaker 2: fun with it and they were doing some of their
Speaker 2: own and that was sort of the birth of it,
Speaker 2: you know, around twenty nineteen, And of course took me
Speaker 2: a long time to finish the piece and put all
Speaker 2: the stuff together. But twenty twenty one, Santra had done
Speaker 2: a book called Stopover, and it's a different type of poetry.
Speaker 2: It's it's a really good book. I finished it recently,
Speaker 2: and so the idea is, hey, we're going to have
Speaker 2: these two. You know, when I did the twilets on
Speaker 2: coup I thought, well, there's been so much amazing work
Speaker 2: done on the Twilight Zone and research in Rod Serling's
Speaker 2: life and history and all of the amazing works that
Speaker 2: he did. You know, I thought, what's something that hasn't
Speaker 2: been done. Well, I bet nobody's done a poetry book,
Speaker 2: right for the Twilet Zone. Well I was wrong. Somebody
Speaker 2: had already done a wonderful poetry book. So again it's
Speaker 2: called Stopover, and the really interesting thing about it is
Speaker 2: the Twilight Zone. My coup is Jabra House Press. So
Speaker 2: if you're familiar with kind of related to boxing but
Speaker 2: pro wrestling, the term jobra is used to describe the
Speaker 2: person who loses the match. But really, if you're a
Speaker 2: fan of it, you know that they're doing a lot
Speaker 2: of the work, and in some cases most of the work,
Speaker 2: and they're making the winner look good. And what does
Speaker 2: a publisher do but they make their creators look good.
Speaker 2: That's their job. So Jaber House Press is sort of
Speaker 2: based in sort of the wrestling mythology, and the symbol
Speaker 2: is a luchador, which is like a Mexican wrestling mask
Speaker 2: with sort of a punk rock mohawk. Well, when I
Speaker 2: learned that there was you know, Stopover, and I got it.
Speaker 2: I looked at the back and who published this book?
Speaker 2: But the publisher is called Luchador Press and it's literally
Speaker 2: the logo is like El Santo from the famous Mexican
Speaker 2: wrestler who's in all the sci fi movies from the sixties.
Speaker 2: So I thought that was like my twilight Zone moment
Speaker 2: where it was like, I can't believe this is real.
Speaker 2: But it's gonna be an excellent panel. We're putting it together.
Speaker 2: And it's two different types of poetry. So Haiku is
Speaker 2: like Japanese short form poetry. She does more traditional poetry.
Speaker 2: So it should be really fun hopefully, And you know,
Speaker 2: the idea is that these sort of poetry books can
Speaker 2: be like a gateway drug where if you're a fan
Speaker 2: of poetry, you can maybe be exposed to the twilight
Speaker 2: Zone that everybody listening to this show knows and loves.
Speaker 2: And if you're a Twilight Zone fan, maybe it's the
Speaker 2: gateway into another world that maybe you're poetry and different
Speaker 2: types of poetry too. So yeah, hopefully we'll have a
Speaker 2: little bit of that. We're gonna have a little audio
Speaker 2: visual presentation and should be a lot of fun. Great.
Speaker 1: Have you have you had a dry run yet or
Speaker 1: anything or not quite yet?
Speaker 2: Oh of course not no. And you know, the worst
Speaker 2: part is we have to follow you, which means you know,
Speaker 2: everybody's going to be on this high from from from
Speaker 2: your presentation, and then you know it's it's it's gonna
Speaker 2: be a lot to follow. I don't know that they're
Speaker 2: really setting us up after you.
Speaker 1: Okay, well i'll tone things down. I won't be lower
Speaker 1: its onto the stage by cables, or I'll cancel the
Speaker 1: pirate technics, you know, I'll try and just just pull
Speaker 1: it down a little before you. So so next up
Speaker 1: four point eighty PM rod in Ohio, and that's with
Speaker 1: Mark Dewiziac. Now he wrote the book Everything I Learned
Speaker 1: I Learned in the Twilight Zone. But he is like
Speaker 1: a really my goodness, the things he's done. You know,
Speaker 1: he's like an expert on Colombo, he's an expert on Poe.
Speaker 1: He's an expert on Mark Twain. You know, he performs
Speaker 1: as Mark Twain. And he's just really such an interesting
Speaker 1: man with a really great way of speaking. And you know,
Speaker 1: he's a great storyteller. If you were sat around the
Speaker 1: table with him, he could, you know, just really regale
Speaker 1: you with stuff all night. And so that that should
Speaker 1: be pretty cool.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, And I actually recently just picked up the Death
Speaker 2: and Life of Edgar Allan Poe. Unbeknownst to me, it
Speaker 2: was Dewiziac's book, so it was kind of fun and
Speaker 2: I haven't started it yet, but yeah, I think that's
Speaker 2: maybe they do know what they're doing, because they're putting
Speaker 2: him on after us, So you know, he'll he'll save
Speaker 2: the day. If everybody's ready to riot and throw things, he'll, he'll,
Speaker 2: he'll save it for us.
Speaker 1: That's a clean up the act. Now five point fifteen
Speaker 1: High Values, Highly Valued and Sailing Mark all Shaker and
Speaker 1: Mark Dewiziak. Mark Dewiziak joins An Sailing and Mark Olshaker
Speaker 1: to discuss Rod Sailing's well known social conscience and how
Speaker 1: it informs his life and work. Now we spoke about
Speaker 1: Mark Dewiziak. Obviously we all know Ann Sailing and her
Speaker 1: wonderful book. As I knew him Mark Allshaker, he was
Speaker 1: actually on the podcast. We've done a little interview with
Speaker 1: him at Sailing Fest in twenty nineteen. Again, just a
Speaker 1: really interesting guy. Was actually friends with Rod Sailing, so
Speaker 1: I'm sure he'll speak about that. So, yeah, another good panel.
Speaker 2: I think I'm really looking forward to that one. I mean,
Speaker 2: one of the things that really drew me in into
Speaker 2: this realm, you know, of Rod Sterling and the Twilight
Speaker 2: Zone was exactly that sort of morality and social conscience
Speaker 2: that Rod Sterling had in his day. Probably our day
Speaker 2: is no less fraught with some of the same problems
Speaker 2: that he dealt with head on. So I'm really looking
Speaker 2: forward to that one, Okay.
Speaker 1: And then at six point eighty pm and after I
Speaker 1: was tour, Scott Skelton and Jim Benson, the co authors
Speaker 1: of the Definitive Book on Rod Sailing's Night Gallery, provide
Speaker 1: a guided tour through Rod's Museum of the Macarb. I'm
Speaker 1: really looking forward to this one because that's an excellent book.
Speaker 1: And I know, these two guys, when you've got a
Speaker 1: million people talking about the Twilight Zone, they were kind
Speaker 1: of flying the flag for Night Gallery for.
Speaker 2: All these years.
Speaker 1: But again just both experienced in their fields, you know.
Speaker 1: And while maybe the hit rate in Night Gallery isn't
Speaker 1: as good as the Twilight Zone, there is some great
Speaker 1: stuff in there, and there's a lot of law surrounding it.
Speaker 1: And you could ask for two better people to be
Speaker 1: telling you about Night Gallery than these two guys.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and it looks like the guided tour makes me
Speaker 2: think maybe they're going to have some nice visuals. And
Speaker 2: you know, the Night Gallery had all those amazing paintings
Speaker 2: and everything, so got high hopes for that one for sure.
Speaker 1: Okay, and then seventh thirty raffle drawing and closing remarks
Speaker 1: and that is your Sailing Fest events. Now that's the Saturday.
Speaker 1: So that Saturday night I will be out in the bars, restaurants,
Speaker 1: whatever we end up doing. But that's going to probably
Speaker 1: be the big night out if you like, you know,
Speaker 1: so you're going to be along for that.
Speaker 2: Chad, absolutely good. Good.
Speaker 1: So then the thing is we can all take our
Speaker 1: hangovers to Recreation Park the next day because it's the
Speaker 1: unveiling of the statue and I think I think it's
Speaker 1: about twelve o'clock, but yeah, keep an eye on that.
Speaker 1: But man, it feels like this has been so long
Speaker 1: in the making and now it's finally here, and you know,
Speaker 1: there's the bricks that people bought and so on that
Speaker 1: it surrounds, and I'm so looking forward to seeing this statue.
Speaker 2: Man. Yeah, that's one of the real capstones. They don't
Speaker 2: have that as part of the official sort of schedule.
Speaker 2: I'd heard either eleven or twelve, so I'll keep an
Speaker 2: eye on that. But that's something I'm really looking forward to.
Speaker 2: They've put some images of the statue online and it's
Speaker 2: absolutely gorgeous and you know, what a fitting tribute. You know,
Speaker 2: It's so many statues are sort of questionable. You know,
Speaker 2: I don't know how it is on your side of
Speaker 2: the pond, but you know, this is something I don't
Speaker 2: think anybody's ever going to be compelled to pull down
Speaker 2: or challenge a statue of Rod Serling. I think this
Speaker 2: is something that's really well deserved and something that's going
Speaker 2: to be a real bright spot and probably a tourist
Speaker 2: attraction for Binghamton. I mean, this is really an amazing thing.
Speaker 2: It's been in the works for years. There were this
Speaker 2: multiple kickstart and like you said, the bricks they're going
Speaker 2: to be at the foundation. It's really going to be exciting.
Speaker 1: Just everyone together there because that, man, that's going to
Speaker 1: be some crowd, I imagine, because it's not just going
Speaker 1: to be the festival goers. It's going to be people
Speaker 1: who live in Binghamton as well, all kinds of people there.
Speaker 1: So I really cannot wait for that. And then that
Speaker 1: is that is the weekend really and then it's just
Speaker 1: a case of you know, whether people go home on
Speaker 1: the Sunday or the Monday. And yeah, I just you know,
Speaker 1: I really can't wait for it. I think the podcast
Speaker 1: turn out people who listen to the podcast is pretty staggering.
Speaker 1: The number of people who are going. I am you know,
Speaker 1: the fact that a lot of people who listen to
Speaker 1: this show have decided to go because of coverage that's
Speaker 1: been here and so on. I'm just completely humbled by that.
Speaker 1: And what I would say is this is probably going
Speaker 1: to be the last time I go to Sailing Fest. Now,
Speaker 1: I would never say never. There's a very possibility in
Speaker 1: the future that maybe I'll think, oh yeah, I could
Speaker 1: go back again, but the likelihood is this is going
Speaker 1: to be the one. And I think there's a certain
Speaker 1: poetry of the Twilight Zone. You know, I've got about
Speaker 1: twenty episodes left to cover it. It probably takes me
Speaker 1: like a year and a half to do it. But
Speaker 1: then I think there's a certain poetry and kind of
Speaker 1: ending here with rod sailing statue, it's like, great, you know,
Speaker 1: we did it. Not that I'm responsible for the statue,
Speaker 1: but you know what I mean, it's like it all
Speaker 1: kind of comes together. So if you are going, please
Speaker 1: do come over and say hello. You know, I want
Speaker 1: to meet you. Let me know who you are, and
Speaker 1: I would love to meet you, you know, because this
Speaker 1: is the only time this is probably going to happen
Speaker 1: and at this amazing event, I really do want you
Speaker 1: to come over and say hello.
Speaker 2: If you want, I'll tell them extra. I mean, I
Speaker 2: think that people are excited to see you, Tom, because
Speaker 2: in twenty nineteen that was sort of your first appearance.
Speaker 2: I remember walking up to the carousel and couple of
Speaker 2: people came up to me and they said, hey, are
Speaker 2: you Tom. I think I was wearing something really outlandish
Speaker 2: or garish, like a purple suit vest, suit jacket or something,
Speaker 2: and I really wanted to say yes, but I knew
Speaker 2: as soon as I opened my mouth it was going
Speaker 2: to be more than clear to even the most casual
Speaker 2: listener that I was not you. So I didn't try
Speaker 2: to fool anybody. But no, I think it is a
Speaker 2: big draw and people are gonna be excited to see
Speaker 2: you and have this. You know, you're doing the final
Speaker 2: season of the Twilight Zone on the show, and I
Speaker 2: think everybody is really looking forward to seeing you.
Speaker 1: So back in twenty nineteen, we had an app that
Speaker 1: we used to kind of keep in touch with each
Speaker 1: other when we were there. Now, sadly that app has
Speaker 1: gone away. Now it doesn't exist anymore. But I have
Speaker 1: set up a group on an app called Telegram. Now
Speaker 1: Telegram you can download it in your app store. It's
Speaker 1: free and if you want a link to join this group,
Speaker 1: then just email me Tom at the Twilight Zone podcast
Speaker 1: dot com and I will send you the invite link. Now,
Speaker 1: the thing is a lot of people go to Sailing
Speaker 1: Fest on their own, which you know I did in
Speaker 1: twenty nineteen, and you know, you don't necessarily know people,
Speaker 1: and it's like, oh, where are people going to be?
Speaker 1: You'll back me up on this chat that one of
Speaker 1: the best things about it is sure, the panels are good,
Speaker 1: and you know, watching the shows is good, but it's
Speaker 1: the moments between where you're mixing with other Twilight Zone
Speaker 1: fans and things like that. And I think if you
Speaker 1: are on your own and it's like, well, I want
Speaker 1: to kind of go where the people are, but I
Speaker 1: don't know where they are, then I will be put
Speaker 1: on where I am on the app or even independent
Speaker 1: of me. If you're at a loose end and it's like, hey,
Speaker 1: is anyone getting dinner tonight? Can I join you? I
Speaker 1: guarantee someone will say yeah, you know, and you will.
Speaker 1: You will find the group.
Speaker 2: If you like.
Speaker 1: So if you want a link to that, then just
Speaker 1: email me Tom at the Twilight Zone podcast dot com
Speaker 1: and I will send it to you. Now you can
Speaker 1: use the app without revealing your phone number two other people,
Speaker 1: so there's a level of privacy there as well. So
Speaker 1: send me a message and I will get that over
Speaker 1: to you or Chads. I mean, what was your experience
Speaker 1: like that last time with the people? If you like
Speaker 1: the people aspect of it.
Speaker 2: In a word, it was magic. It was like I
Speaker 2: was surrounded by strangers who I knew better than some
Speaker 2: of my own friends, and you know, you just you.
Speaker 2: It's a camaraderie. It's like you found your people, all
Speaker 2: your people are in one place, and uh, I think
Speaker 2: you were exactly right. It's it's those moments in between,
Speaker 2: and it's it's it's a They seem to keep this
Speaker 2: relatively small, you know, like this is limited to the
Speaker 2: Twilight Zone and to Rod Serling Fantom. It's not like
Speaker 2: San Diego Comic Con, where there's you know, a million
Speaker 2: people around and all of that. This is uh sort
Speaker 2: of like a really small group of friends, whether you
Speaker 2: know them or not. And I actually, you know, met
Speaker 2: people at the Curling Fest and twenty nineteen that I've
Speaker 2: kept in touch with over the years. So it's really
Speaker 2: one of the best parts of it.
Speaker 1: So it begins here. Next time I speak to you,
Speaker 1: it's probably going to be from there. Now. Obviously I
Speaker 1: can't broadcast live from the event, but I will be recording.
Speaker 1: I'll be talking to people and then when I get back,
Speaker 1: I will put something together so that Unfortunately, if you
Speaker 1: can't make Sailing Fest, then at least you can listen
Speaker 1: to the podcast and get a flavor of it. So
Speaker 1: I will be doing that. So Chad, I can't wait
Speaker 1: to see you. Man, can't wait to see you.
Speaker 2: Yeah, same here, and I'm looking forward to it. It's
Speaker 2: hard to believe it's only a few weeks away, and
Speaker 2: it's going to be a great time and I look
Speaker 2: forward to seeing everyone. And you've also got an Instagram
Speaker 2: thing right.
Speaker 1: Well, the main Twilight Zone podcast Instagram. There'll be stuff
Speaker 1: on there now. I did set one up as well
Speaker 1: for people on Patreon. So if you're a patron, then
Speaker 1: hit me up and I will send you the link
Speaker 1: to that one as well. But yeah, it's gonna be
Speaker 1: all over the place. There's gonna probably be a little
Speaker 1: bit on you know, Twitter. I don't really use Twitter
Speaker 1: that much anymore, but you know, maybe the occasional picture,
Speaker 1: but the Twilight Zone podcast. Instagram is probably the place
Speaker 1: to go, and you know, and things like that or
Speaker 1: other Patreon. I'll be putting a few things on there
Speaker 1: as well. So thanks for joining me, Chad. It's been
Speaker 1: a pleasure.
Speaker 2: Absolutely thanks for having me on. Look forward to seeing
Speaker 2: you in a few weeks and this is gonna be fantastic.
Speaker 1: I'll speak to you all on the other side.
Speaker 2: Bye for now.