All Star Wars'd Out

On the last day of 2017 I went to see the Latest Star Wars the Last Jedi for the third time since it came out this month – it still stacks up. Before this I had seen the Last Jedi at midnight on the day it was released, which was shown as a double bill following the Force Awakens; that makes the second time I had seen Episode VII, too. In preparation for this I had watched the original trilogy a couple of days before. Then I decided to watch the latest for the second time the following Sunday. To follow these I then watched the prequel trilogy, too, and then at the close of twenty seventeen I decided to round the year off with a third viewing of Episode VIII. Simply terrific still!

Rest in Peace LOVEFiLM by Post

This marks the sad passing of LOVEFiLM by Post

I was just looking through my previously rented discs with a heavy heart, I have accrued 200 films and TV series since 2011 and all that has now ended. I will remember fondly, those little, red envelopes – of ingenious design – falling on to the mat, and my heart is saddened for the passing of such a delightful time.

May LOVEFiLM rest in peace.

Cowboy Bebop: Awesome Action in only Twenty-Four Minutes

Game of Thrones and Homeland do it in 55 minutes, Firefly and Dr Who in 45 minutes, the episodes of Cowboy Bebop tell their stories in little under half an hour: 24 minutes to be precise. Its stories are wonderfully short and sweet, a brief and vivid slice of beautifully drawn life, and a quite delightfully spirited piece of animation.

In twenty-four minutes this television show tells a story packed full of action and adventure, humour, drama, intrigue and some romance. It does what longer films do but in less time, and with a lot less fuss; its brevity is brilliant! It is an astonishingly different and refreshingly irreverent show. It has a unique visual style, exciting theme music and pace.

The show’s titles are bold, and striking to behold, with a lively, energetic bebop-like jazz theme, which always fills me with excitement and anticipation of the episode to come. The ending theme wound down the episode and left me ready for the next one.

The show has quite an orthographic, technical style to its drawing, which suits its science fiction world to no end. The worlds themselves were always well realised, with great clarity, brilliant colour and an attention to detail that betrays a keen eye for observation in its animators. The characters are depicted in highly contrasting darks and lights especially for the titles where they are overlaid on vivid colours. Shown at quite a pace, these titles evoke the pace to come.

The regular cast are well drawn in line as well as in character. They all seem like individuals with nimble wits and sharp tongues and minds. The scenarios are all well conceived, nice and accurate, and precisely plotted to reveal just what was wanted and needed, but no more nor no less.

A thoroughly enjoyable, exciting, engaging and intriguing series of short films (as television is) all told in 24 mins. Superb.

Sword Art Online

Finished Sword Art Online: a quite beautiful, vivid and colourful world. It has an interesting premise that serves the story well, creating a brilliant fantasy world and one that is truly tense at times. It is a very good Japanese animated television show. It does go at quite a pace, but has moments of calm and thoughtfulness. There are a lot of surprises and unexpected moments in the plot and narrative, which kept me gripped.

The title sequence and theme tune always got the blood pumping, lifted the spirit to another realm and set the mood for the show very well. The end credits had a very intriguing song — according to the subtitles, which nicely wound down the episode. The art of the title and credit sequences are very well done.

The world of Aincrad was realised wonderfully with a well drawn, painted and animated environment and setting. The places visualised were colourful and vivid, a treat for the eyes. There was an interesting treatment of the game-play graphics which popped up at times appropriate to the story: when the story had them duelling players and bosses.

There was a story there that was engaging, with drama, action, some tragedy and humour. The story was about people getting trapped in a Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game: an interesting, but potentially exclusive, premise. Yet it makes good use of the video games culture of its characters, and explains well, to the slightly-initiated, and potentially uninitiated, audience alike, making the hidden world of gaming more accessible in service to the story. It never felt like it was trying to be a game, or that the viewer was watching others playing a game. It was just the story of some people trapped and living their lives in a game, told well and with respect for the characters and their lives.

Wray Castle Bin Store: One Year On

Almost one year on, the frame of Wray Castle's bin store has been clad and a roof put on.

A Welcome Return: Dead Ringers II

On Wednesday 30th July 2014 at 1830 Dead Ringers returned to radio 4, with all the wit, sillyness and funny impersonations of when it first aired; it must have been the late 1990s or early 2000s when Radio 4 first broadcast it, then it stopped for a while: but now its back!

This was the first half-past six Radio 4 comedy that I can remember listening to, and enjoying. I loved the impersonation of Tony Blair, the way he would narrate his appearance as he spoke; and the impersonation of Tom Baker as Doctor Who and the phone calls he made to unsuspecting members of the public.

It is a blast from the past with fresh content in a familiar format, with all the old favourites (and some new); I can hardly wait to listen to the next one.

14 7 14

14.7.14 A curious date, worth marking

... with a drawing. This is my dog Lucky sitting on his bed; he could be looking at his favourite builder walking through the door (the one that feeds him treats).

A Flight of Stairs

A flight of stairs seems the most apt and aspiring collective noun for stairs (and for steps, too). It puts me in mind of ascending into the sky, and flying; which we are always told is something man has always aspired to do.

A drawing that I did on Photoshop, about a flight of stairs.

Rest In Peace lovefilm.com

It seems your days have passed

LOVEFiLM Instant is switching to Amazon Instant Video (or Prime Instant Video) and the rest of the lovefilm.com website seems to have been transfigured into mere services on Amazon's own site: this seems a shame! With this switch, the brand of LOVEFiLM seems to have lost a bit of its value.

Why change the name to Prime Instant Video? it only makes it sound cheaper. After all the service is for film and television. Video is neither: the word video seems a more common word and a less important one than say film. Instead video has connotations of home-made, or some nineties or early twenty-first century extra on a compact disc. Puzzling.

Drunken Monkey in the Tiger's Eyes (1978)

This is an exciting and brilliant film that is full of the action and slapstick which has made Jackie Chan famous, and is just as fresh as his later films; it is great to see how his younger self developed his style of kung-fu and his comedy. He has a very expressive face that suits his physical comedy. The colour is brilliant and the photography, too.

Green Woodworking Week in the Lakes

Last week, Sat 20th to the 27th, I was learning to make a timber frame shed out of green wood. The project was a National Trust working holiday and was run by their rangers at the High Wray Base-camp, which is one of the first bunkhouses to be built by the National Trust. It was a fun week where I learnt to fell a tree and hew a beam from it, and how to design, build and assemble the timber frame. The weather was mostly good, being clear, hot and, unusually dry for most of the week, for the Lake District.

Yesterday morning there was snow lying on the ground!

Yesterday, Monday 18th March, there was snow on the ground, and it is March! That has been quite unusual in recent years. The snow had cleared from the hard surfaces by the afternoon, but remained as slush on the grass. Even today, 19th March, there are still traces of slushy, icy snow left on the grass. It has been unusually wet over the past eight months.

Today is the 20th day of the 12th month of 2012

Today is 20 12 2012! This date seems special. The weather here is grim today, wet and overcast; so wet that the fields are saturated with water and huge puddles are appearing on the surrounding fields.

With the wet weather of recent months, it seems so odd to reflect that throughout the first half of this year parts of England were experiencing a drought. Meteorologically speaking, 2012 seems to have been one of extremes.

National Trust hedge-laying working holiday

Last week I have been in the south lakes. I have been taking part in a hedge-laying working holiday for the National Trust. I had a great time in the fresh air. I have improved my pleaching and laying of the plants in the hedge.

I stayed at the Acland Block of the Highwray bunkhouse, which was the first bunkhouse built for the National Trust. It is situated high on a hill with really excellent views over Windermere and north towards Ambleside.

At the beginning of the week, the site was very boggy and muddy, but not rainy. The sun came out from Wednesday onwards and by the end of the week it became very cold and crisp, though not too windy. On the whole the weather was good, and there were plenty of great views especially of Helvellyn and Fairfax from Basecamp and the site.

Today is the 20th day of the 11th month of 2012

Another curiously special date: 20.11.2012.

And here is a drawing that I did on the 20th of November. I was experimenting with the combination of an eye and the rising sun.

Today is the 10th day of the 11th month of 2012

10.XI.2012 or 10.11.12 is another one of those dates

... and here are two painterly drawings that I did on this curiously special date.

The artwork below is of my black Labrador, who turned fourteen years old on the 7th of November (that is ninety-something in human years); he is still a puppy at heart, though!

He is part chocolate as well, and when the sun catches him in the right place you can glimpse patches of chocolate colour amongst his back coat. Charming. I tried to capture this by using a chocolatey under-drawing with solid greys and black to fill in the shape.

Acylic inks and watercolour were used.

Today is the 8th day of the 8th month of 2012!

Another nice date: 8.8.2012 . I like it when dates align like that, in some way it seems special.

Charley Harper 1922-2007

The artwork on this jigsaw is called “Wings of the World” and is by American Wildlife artist Charley Harper.

I bought this jigsaw from a charity shop, and my young cousins and I put it together in July. It caught my eye because I like Charley Harper’s style of painting.

I discovered his work serendipitously, at my University's library, where a new book caught my eye: Charley Harper: An Illustrated Life by Todd Oldham.

I liked the simplicity of his style, his colour and his compositions. His work seems to be notable for the simple, geometric style that he employed when painting wildlife, especially bird life.

Sad news: illustrator Maurice Sendak has passed away at the age 83

The author and illustrator of "Where the Wild Things Are" has died today, the 8th of May 2012, at the age of 83; may he rest in peace.

Maurice Sendak was born in 1928. He was a prolific illustrator and is the author of prize-winning and internationally renowned children's books, most notable among them is "Where the Wild Things Are".

My favourite book by Maurice Sendak has to be "In the Night kitchen", its use of the comics format and the rhyming of the words that go along with the pictures is just brilliant. A close second would be "Where the Wild Things Are".

Further Information and Other Interesting Things

NY Times website."Maurice Sendak, Author of Splendid Nightmares, Dies at 83".

BBC News website. "Wild Things author Maurice Sendak dies at 83".

Sieruta, P. D. "Maurice Sendak, 1928-2012". A great article about Sendak's first book illustration project, for a physics text book Atomics for the Millions.

Thoughts on the film "Seven Samurai" (1954)

The film is directed by Akira Kurosawa. It stars Toshirô Mifune, Takashi Shimura and Keiko Tsushima among others. It is set in 16th Century Japan, and tells the story of a poor farming village beset by a group of bandits, who plunder their crops and abduct their women. A few villages go to the nearest town to seek help from samurai in return for the meagre payment of bed and board; most samurai consider the terms insulting and rebuff them. Finally, they meet a master-less samurai, a ronin, and he agrees to help them fight the bandits, so long as they can find seven more to follow him.

A Classic of World Cinema

This film is definitely a classic of world cinema, and as such deserves well its place among the British Film Institute's selection of World Classics and its status as number one in Empire's The 100 Best Films Of World Cinema¹: it has at least seven great actors, great characterization and great action sequences, a great score and great peaks and deep troughs of the human spirit. This is a tremendous, terrific, thrilling film.

(spoilers maybe found below)