The old in the new: Paddington and the Secret Seven

Almost a catchphrase with me, the new and old intermingle in this life and this entry looks at some examples .

I tend not to write book reviews on this blog although you'll spot the odd one dotted about but while she didn't write much specifically for boys, one series I did enjoy as a boy first time around by Enid Blyton was the Secret 7 series that had 21 original stories featuring six children in a secret society investigating mysteries and a dog called Scamper.

There has been a trend rather like with prequels in the film industry to extend the scope of original titles through so-called continuation novels written to varying degrees in the style of the original author by people invited by the rights owners of the original authors works.

Pamela Butchart is a well know Scottish author of children's mysteries  and was asked to write two more stories in Enid's Secret 7 series. This came out in February of this year.

This one starts with a Travelling Theatre moving where the Secret 7 live and the children curious because no theatre has been operating here for ages, indeed the premises were boarded up but it transpires they to put on a opening performance as it brought back to life.
The six children are invited to take part in the performance by Mrs Bagnall but as they get involved in learning their lines and rehearsing, strange goings on occur with lights and sound systems playing up, trap downs coming open plus tales of ghosts and it soon becomes apparent someone is trying to sabotage the show.

This provides the mystery the six plus Scamper look into hindered as ever by group leader Peter's nosy sister Susie and her friend poking their noses in, they work out who is doing it, why and bring in adult help as events draw to a conclusion.

Pamela wisely keeps the twenty-first century out of it so we have no smartphones, internet, tracking devices and so on so in some respects it's more like the nineteen-seventies and eighties.

In terms of language it is a little more modern than Enid's own but in the main follows the kind of dialogue she would of used with just the odd term like "try out" which very modern in British English and perhaps too much reference to Scottish Tablet which actual is a caramelized fudge concoction made from condensed milk that much outside her home nation will be puzzled over.

Overall I'd give it a 8 out of 10 for fans of the Secret Seven as she's kept as true to it's roots as she possible can with just a nod toward a more equal role for Pam,Barbara and Janet.

I mentioned Blue Peter, the long running children's BBC Tv series in connection with my birthday and there is a reference in the earlier bit of this blog to the link between a native of deepest darkest Peru and that show,

Around the era I first watched the show, also transmitted in five minute episodes were a series of animated cartoons based on the Michael Bond stories that I and countless boys (and girls too) loved to watch at the time.

Many of us feel that they caught the feel of the books better having more subtle humour for instance  than the more recent live action movies and I recently got a two dvd set that has most of the episodes on it.

This set has all the episodes from the thirty that started January 5th 1976 and the later ones plus the tv specials that run for 21 minutes each including the last one from 1987 although it is lacking information on which ones come where but there is a excellent piece on Wikipedia that lists all, gives a short account including the transmission date that helps.


One new story in an old series I loved and a shiny new dvd of the original paddington bear cartoons are just thing for an eternal ten year old child.

David Bowie: Ziggy Stardust

A few weeks and forty odd years ago an album was issued that became in many respects bigger than the artists own profile dominating the popular music scene for 1972/3.

It's an album almost  every student of any generation feels they have to heard never mind own regardless of what format may be prevalent at the time and it was a major musical and social influence either on me at that time.

Ziggy Stardust is a character - a singer in a rock band - and through him we see his raise to fame and tellingly his burn out that mirrors all too sadly what actually happens in real life. 

Everybody wants a piece of his pie from the management team, record label  even ultimately, the fans themselves and the artist struggles to "Hang on to yourself" to quote the title of one of the songs featured.

If the Monkees were a made for TV fabrication of a rock group based upon the Beatles, here was in many ways a more credible fabrication for the modern era -  a complete fabrication from individuals persona onward.

Any person going down down Heddon Street, London would see the buildings in the cover shot although the trash can and K West sign are long gone.

The first single off the album was Starman and I recall the first time I heard that on the radio well being aware from the billboards and older friends of this Bowie character. 

What got to me about was -and still is - is the sense of detachment, alienation even of the lead character in the lyrics and the unamerican style of singing.

I first had the album on RCA 8 track tape although my brother had the lp and have been through cassette and cd versions.

This album has been re-issued numerous times and unfortunately like most of David Bowie's back catalogue their is no such thing as a really good cd version although on the advice of a friend of mine, I got the original RCA cds from the mid 1980's which were more listenable than either the thin sounding EMI (US: Ryko) titles from 1990/91 with bonus tracks or Peter Mew's bloated and highly compressed versions from 1999 on EMI (US: Virgin).

In 1990 a boxed edition was issued by EMI with a  72 page booklet with the regular cd
recognizing it's iconic status and this June  two new editions came out.

The cd version is just a straight re-issue of the 11 track album in a card digpack cover which I can't say I really like as packaging preferring Mini Lp style i we're having paper based.

While there is a little compression on it compared to the 1984 RCA, the tonality is spot on and let's be honest here the analogue to digital conversion technology has come an awful lot in 28 years (I can hear the convertors' sound on many older cds) so for the first time ever there is a pretty acceptable in print cd even though I won't be tossing out the RCA.

Secondly and even better news is that there was a new lp lovingly mastered by Ray Staff who used to work at Porky's mastering that many of us feel surpasses the original UK orange RCA lp when it comes to sound quality and dead quiet surfaces. 

It comes with a audio dvd that will play on a computer or Blue-ray player capable of 96khz/24Bit resolution (most do) offering  both stereo and 5.1 surround sound mixes with bonus tracks which will sound smoother than the regular cd.

Recommended.

Arrietty

I had this for a while but forgot to write about it with having a damaged disc on arrival to deal with.

Arrietty is  based upon the classic English children's book The Borrowers by Mary Norton, this adaptation takes the action to Tokyo where Arrietty's family are discovered in a mansion by Sho, a young boy.

The anime was developed by Hayao Miyazaki and directed by Hiromasa Yonebayashi being released on dvd and blu ray January 9th in the UK.

This anime is well up to the Studio Ghibi standards being a largely faithful retelling of the original story but with a poignant ending as Arrietty realizes she and the Big People have to live alone departing with gifts from Sho.

Recommended to all.

Are your dvd's what they seem?

It may seem like a funny question but having been on the NEO forum, it seems a few of my anime titles may in fact be illegal copies something which seems to be rife.
I had my suspicions about a copy of Clannad After Story that was billed as the Japanese Version - well they all are just subtitled - which arrived with a big sticker over from Anime MegaStore which when I peeled it back revealed it was region zero and was issued on two cd's whereas the US version used four so some highish degree of data reduction was being used to squeeze the content into each disc. The discs were made in Malaysia.

I also realized after checking my Haruhi Taiwanese set was bootlegged too as the official set was Region 3 and again spread over four discs. That one had a stop/start problem for several minutes and as the UK distributor has just re-issued their version four discs I've replaced the Taiwanese import with there's although it's in PAL colour.
I have ordered up the first part of After Story as a US import and completed this by ordering part two.

It is my intention that as soon as any other discs of questionable origin are found and authorized replacements have been identified to replace them all.

The funny thing is that some of these titles for all of that compression do look reasonable compared with either Digital TV or 360/480P streamed pictures which suggests the encoders they use are rather good although when you get a lot of activity you may detect the odd artifacts
.
And there is this: Some titles have yet to make a Western Version R1 or 2 or like Cardcaptor Sakura don't have readily available dvd's as they were only out briefly. I can't help but wonder if these bootleg titles exist at least in part because they fill a void in the market that could be tackled through simple bare bones packaged sets issued here or in the US.
One things for sure it's often easier to find these copies in search than anything kosher.

Coraline

Typically the Baftas gave the award to Mr Fox rather than this for the best animated movie category for 2009. Grrr!

My copy of the DVD is 2D cos I have a visual impairment affecting my left eye that makes 3D movies and Magic Eye books a pain to view.

Although a bit scary in parts for younger children it is a tale of courage in defeating the deceptive other version of her life on the surface 'better' life on the other side as they try to trap her.

Out with the old!

I first started buying DVD's about 2002 but It was only those titles that went straight to first time DVD release plus a few classic TV and Music releases I bought leaving a legacy of titles I had to use my trusty S-VHS recorder for.
At long long last I have been replacing a good many of my VHS tapes of movies with DVD versions since updating my DVD player a short while back.

I replaced recently the following:
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
The Wiz
Flash Gordon
ET
Staying Alive
Two Of A Kind
Streets Of Fire
Top Gun
Labyrinth
Cocktail
Days Of Thunder

The improvement over the tapes is hard to describe but they are sharper with better colour rendition

An American Tale

Following on from that last batch, I replaced my VHS tapes of Steve Spielberg's An American Tale series with the double pack 2 DVD sets. I have felt for along while this series starting from the mid 80's was well animated with a good storyline running through it

Starship Operator

 

For the 73rd class of cadets of the Defense University of the small planet Kibi, a shakedown cruise on the fleet's new starship "Amaterasu" is a fitting lead-up to graduation. 

As they are returning to their home planet, however, they are shocked to hear news of a declaration of war by the aggressive Kingdom against Kibi. 

When their planetary government surrenders without a struggle, the cadets decide to launch their own war, aboard the "Amaterasu". 

To gain funding, they make a deal with a galactic news network - and find themselves the "stars" of their own "reality show". 

Unfortunately, this is the kind of reality show that can get you killed... 

The last volume I bought earlier in the year.

Howl's Moving Castle

Today I'm going to talk about an anime I've always liked from 2004 and recently bought

Howl's Moving Castle is based upon the book by Briton Diana Wynne and is set in a magical world of wizardry and spells we follow the adventures of Sophie and her incredibly Odyssey to lift  a witch's curse all while being swept off her feet Howl a handsome and mysterious wizard who kindly offers her refuge in his most magical moving castle.

Howl as a character while being quite enchanting can at times by very childish, self-centred and tormented even while Sophie, is a beautiful but very reserved young woman who is rather mousy and soft-spoken.

She has a sister called Lettie but in the story she only has a small part to play as worker in the bakery and so only shows up in just one scene.

What I love about this is goes beyond the story but to director Hayao Miyzazki brilliant animation and inspirational story telling in  this art form.

Pix edit August 2017 for blu ray edition