''Dreams of Rio'' is a

radio drama Radio drama (or audio drama, audio play, radio play, radio theatre, or audio theatre) is a dramatized, purely acoustic performance. With no visual component, radio drama depends on dialogue, music and sound effects to help the listener imagine ...

, produced by the

ZBS Foundation ZBS Foundation, a small non-profit audio production company, was founded by Thomas Lopez (aka "Meatball Fulton") in 1970 with a grant from Robert E. Durand as a working commune, located on a donated farm in Upstate New York. ZBS stands for "Zero Bu ...

.ZBS.org
link
(Dreams of Rio) It is the fifth of the

Jack Flanders Jac Flanders, full name Jonathan L. Flanders, is the protagonist of a series of audio dramas produced by the ZBS Foundation. He is the creation of writer and sound artist Thomas Lopez and is played by actor Robert Lorick. Jac is an adventurer w ...

adventure series, and combines elements of

American culture The culture of the United States of America is primarily of Western, and European origin, yet its influences includes the cultures of Asian American, African American, Latin American, and Native American peoples and their cultures. The U ...

and

Old-time radio The Golden Age of Radio, also known as the old-time radio (OTR) era, was an era of radio in the United States where it was the dominant electronic home entertainment medium. It began with the birth of commercial radio broadcasting in the early ...

with themes of lost cities, jungle exploration and shamanism. It immediately precedes but is not part of the "Travels with Jack" adventures, each of which is entitled ''Dreams of ...''

Recording and Writing

Thomas Lopez Thomas Lopez, aka Meatball Fulton (born 1935), is president of the ZBS Foundation and one of the foundation's founders. He writes and produces the ZBS Foundation's audio drama productions. When he was working in radio in the 1960s, Lopez took "M ...

, the author and director, of the drama spent a month in

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

digitally recording sounds of the Amazonian rain forest and Brazilian cities. He first recorded the location sounds and then wrote the story around the sounds he recorded. More than 20 hours of sounds were recorded by Lopez in Brazil to be used for the story's aural setting. The story's script continued to evolve as Lopez worked with the drama's actors and composer, Tim Clark.

Plot

Despairing of a

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

where consumerism has completely taken hold, Jack, while trying to escape the endless

mall Mall commonly refers to a: * Shopping mall * Strip mall * Pedestrian street * Esplanade Mall or MALL may also refer to: Places Shopping complexes * The Mall (Sofia) (Tsarigradsko Mall), Sofia, Bulgaria * The Mall, Patna, Patna, Bihar, India * M ...

, has a chance encounter with Short Top Detroit that sends him off to

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a b ...

and into possession of a mysterious

crystal skull Crystal skulls are human skull hardstone carvings made of clear or milky white quartz (also called "rock crystal"), claimed to be pre-Columbian Mesoamerican artifacts by their alleged finders; however, these claims have been refuted for all of th ...

. Dodging crooks,

Candomblé Candomblé () is an African diasporic religion that developed in Brazil during the 19th century. It arose through a process of syncretism between several of the traditional religions of West Africa, especially that of the Yoruba, and the Roman ...

practitioners and vampire bats, Jack journeys deep into the jungle with a beautiful anthropologist, in search of a lost city, finding time to fall in love along the way. Meanwhile, Short Top bumps into Miranda and they drift around the city together, discovering their mutual love of

Carmen Miranda Carmen Miranda, (; born Maria do Carmo Miranda da Cunha, 9 February 1909 – 5 August 1955) was a Portuguese-born Brazilian samba singer, dancer, Broadway actress and film star who was active from the late 1920s onwards. Nicknamed "The B ...

Notes & themes

This adventure marked a major departure from the previous stories in that it is set entirely in 'the real world' - Jack does not travel to any of the Invisible Realms. Although not mentioned in this story it marks the beginning of the "Jungle Jack" aspect of his character. Previously his aspect had been that of a

shaman Shamanism is a religious practice that involves a practitioner (shaman) interacting with what they believe to be a spirit world through altered states of consciousness, such as trance. The goal of this is usually to direct spirits or spiritu ...

and later "Captain Jack" is added. Lopez planned for Little Frieda to appear in ''Dreams of Rio'', but actress P.J. Orte wasn't interested in returning. In her place, Sabine Thomson appeared as "Big Frieda". Orte eventually returned to the character in 2000 for ''

Return to Inverness ''Return to Inverness'' is a 2000 radio drama, the twelfth in ZBS's Jack Flanders series. The serial was written and directed by Meatball Fulton, as a sequel to the 1972 story ''The Fourth Tower of Inverness ''The Fourth Tower of Inverness'' ...

''. There is a strong

ecological Ecology () is the study of the relationships between living organisms, including humans, and their physical environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere level. Ecology overlaps wi ...

theme running through the story illustrating the mass consumption of a consumer society and the destruction this is wreaking in the third world and in particular the

Amazon rainforest The Amazon rainforest, Amazon jungle or ; es, Selva amazónica, , or usually ; french: Forêt amazonienne; nl, Amazoneregenwoud. In English, the names are sometimes capitalized further, as Amazon Rainforest, Amazon Forest, or Amazon Jungle. ...

. "You can't do a story of the Amazon without bringing in the destruction of the Amazon," Lopez said.

Quotes

Voice: "On Wednesday, all the malls across America connected. They merged into one gigantic endless mall."
Jack: "You mean America has only one shopping mall?"
Voice: "America IS one shopping mall."
Jack: "You mean we've been--"
Voice: "--Yes. Malled from stem to stern."

Carmen: "I don't want him."
Frieda: "Well that's good because he has someone else, she has him now."
Carmen: "Who?"
Jack: "It's just some snake goddess who came out of the skull, it's nothing, really."

Credits

Robert Lorick Robert Lorick (died January 2016) was a lyricist, actor, and writer, best known as a Broadway lyricist and for his work portraying Jack Flanders, the lead character in a series of ZBS Foundation audio adventures produced from 1972 until Lorick's ...

* Mojo Sam - Dave Adams * Carla D'Avila - Lia Moraes * Paulo Pompadora - Andre Adler * Carmen - Virginia Rambal * Short Top Detroit - Bill Raymond * Claudia Guedes & Gas Station Attendant - Claudia Zagarodne * (Big) Frieda - Sabine Thomson * Professor Klaus Vargas - George Ernst * Mia Josefa & Talking Statue - Maria Pompeu * Zeca & Museum Guard - Zeca Ligiero * Senior Bulldoza - Gregorio Rosenblum * Kelley - Gail Pawell * Short Top's Secretary - Hillary Mayall * Narrator - Dave Herman * Zuom - Illion Tryna * Author -

Meatball Fulton Thomas Lopez, aka Meatball Fulton (born 1935), is president of the ZBS Foundation and one of the foundation's founders. He writes and produces the ZBS Foundation's audio drama productions. When he was working in radio in the 1960s, Lopez took " ...

* Director -

Tom Lopez Tom Lopez is an American composer of electronic music. He serves as Director of the Computer Music Program at The Walden School. Lopez is best known for his extensive history with the TIMARA Labs at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music. Lopez gr ...

* Executive Producer - Thomas Manuel Lopez * Associate Producer and Graphics - Jaye Oliver * Engineers - Robert Harrari,

Fulton Fulton may refer to: People * Robert Fulton (1765–1815), American engineer and inventor who developed the first commercially successful steam-powered ship * Fulton (surname) Given name * Fulton Allem (born 1957), South African golfer * Fult ...

& Clark * Composer - Tim Clark * Illustration - Alan Okamoto * Promotions Director - Kathy Grownow Voices Recorded at 39th St Music Productions
Post Production at ZBS
Ambiance Digitally Recorded in Brazil by

and Clark

Special thanks to Ruth Hirshman, Roberto Zuazo, and Robert Durand. Also, thanks to Kathy Gronau, Sarah Spitz, and Carolee Brockway.

Series Produced with Funds Provided by the

Corporation for Public Broadcasting The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) is an American publicly funded non-profit corporation, created in 1967 to promote and help support public broadcasting. The corporation's mission is to ensure universal access to non-commercial, ...

NPR National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...

's Satellite Program Development Fund,

New York State Council on the Arts The New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) is an arts council serving the U.S. state of New York. It was established in 1960 through a bill introduced in the New York State Legislature by New York State Senator MacNeil Mitchell (1905–1996), ...

, the

National Endowment for the Arts The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal ...

and Santa Montica College Station

KCRW KCRW (89.9 MHz FM) is a National Public Radio member station broadcasting from the campus of Santa Monica College in Santa Monica, California, where the station is licensed. KCRW airs original news and music programming in addition to programm ...

. Also, assistance from

Varig Airlines VARIG (acronym for Viação Aérea RIo-Grandense, ''Rio Grandean Airways'') was the first airline founded in Brazil, in 1927. From 1965 until 1990, it was Brazil's leading airline, and virtually its only international one. In 2005, Varig went i ...

, Brazilian Tourist Commission, Omni Magazine and

Pan American World Airways Pan American World Airways, originally founded as Pan American Airways and commonly known as Pan Am, was an American airline that was the principal and largest international air carrier and unofficial overseas flag carrier of the United States ...

. Photographic products by

Vivitar Vivitar Corporation is a manufacturer, distributor, and marketer of photographic and optical equipment originally based in Santa Monica, California. Since 2008, the Vivitar name serves as Sakar International's house brand for digital imaging, o ...

References

External links

ZBS Foundation

Whirlitzer of Wisdom fansite
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dreams Of Rio American radio dramas ZBS Foundation