Children of the Dogstar- Cult TV Review

Children of the Dog Star is a children's science fiction television program which was produced in New Zealand in 1984. It consists of six episodes of thirty minutes each and was released on DVD in 2009. I first heard about the series whilst carrying out research for Children of the Stones, intrigued by the blurb I thought I’d give it a whirl and this is my review.

The story involved a keen young astronomer called Gretchen, who goes to stay at her uncle's farm for the holidays. Gretchen befriends Ronny, a Māori boy with a troubled city past, and Bevis the birdwatching son of a hated developer who wants to buy a local swamp and drain it for property development. However, Ronny's uncle is the guardian of a traditional Māori tapu (taboo/curse) upon the swamp and he says that the swamp must not be touched as something sleeps there that must not be awakened. Something unnatural.

Taking much of its inspiration from Robert K.G Temple's 1976 book, 'The Sirius Mystery', which sparked of a period of intense debate over how the Dogon could possibly have known the brightest star in the heavens had a small white dwarf orbiting it without modern astronomical equipment, the children's series outs its own spin on it in an interesting way and asks its viewers whether we could we have been visited by aliens in the past.

The rural New Zealand backdrop is a beautiful backdrop to the whole story and the intelligently-written story is wonderfully performed by the child actors. The special effects of their time and so have not aged well but are still passable. The theme tune and incidental music is fitting and never overused.

The mix of Dogon mythology, Maori culture, and modern sci-fi storytelling, all come together to produce an enjoyable series. Its a shame that the DVD is so vanilla with no extras whatsoever but as a whole the package is worth it and will hopefully entertain a whole new generation of children and adults alike.

LINK- Dead of Night: Cult TV Review

LINK- Children of the Stones: Cult TV Series Review

LINK- The Stone Tapes: Cult TV Review

LINK- Tom’s Midnight Garden: Cult TV Review

LINK- Children of the Dogstar: Cult TV Series Review

My Favourite Video Games Ever List

I was reading Retro Gamer and this month to celebrate their 150th issue they have created the top 150 games ever list, as voted for by the public. Looking through the list I realised that I had played 107 of the games listed and completed 28, which doesn't sound like much but not all the games on the list can be competed e.g. Tetris, I'm not trying to justify myself here but merely stating facts.

In the last year I've completed many games including Wolfenstein: The New Order, Assassins Creed: Black Flag, Super Mario 3D World, Monument Valley, New Super Mario Bros WiiU, Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze, Muramasa:The Demon Sword, Asura's Wrath, Broken Sword 5, Everybody Has Gone to the Rapture and Rayman Legends. Not bad for someone who has had a baby, moved to the countryside, got a new job and passed his driving test! Below I've put my favourite 10 games down, they are not in order. Let me know what you think and send me your top 10.

Ico

Gaming in the early oughts was all hip and cool. The PS2 epitomised what was edgy and unique about gaming but Ico went for a different tack entirely, seeking to provide an emotional connection between characters in the game. The fact that the two main protagonists couldn't speak to each other yet depended on each other to get through the huge castle brought home the fact that they needed each other more than ever.

Metroid Prime

I had played Metroid 2 on my Gameboy but had never really got into Metroid, that was until I bought a Gamecube. Metroid Prime blew my mind with all the little details and the excellent cutscenes. The world felt so immersive and open and the music was phenomenal. I recently revisited it again and can confirm that it is still amazing.

Broken Sword

Beuatiful animation, witty dialogue and a conspiracy theory featuring a shady organisation. This game seemed like it was made for me. I had played bits of it on the Gameboy Advance and a few different systems but the iOS Directors Cut which contained all the voice acting and animation was the game that won its way into my heart.

Shadow of the Colossus

After the masterful Ico I was waiting with bated breath for the followup and bought SotC on the first day of release and I was not to be disappointed. The game shared a similar style to Ico and explored the concept of what we would do to save the one we love. The art style was phenomenal and the story-line was told through minimal dialogue. The different colossi all have their own traits and personality and as I killed them with my final blow I had a sense o remorse; who was the real monster here? This game was the original boss rush before it became a thing in gaming.

Super Mario Bros.

The original SMB is a masterclass in design, a fact highlighted by the recent release of Mario Maker where people have had a tough time creating well designed levels. The game was so innovative at the time and I remember fondly the first time my friend and I discovered the warp zone pipes in world 1-2, we thought we'd hacked the game! After so many years this game is still the greatest platformer of all time, well in my opinion at least.

The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening

I got a Gameboy in the early 90's and this pocket sized Link adventure stole hours of my time. The fact that they got so much out of a tiny Gameboy cartridge astounds me. I liked the world that this story was set in and the strange characters and situations Link got himself in. I remember being stuck for a while as a character demanded 'vittels' and as a 14 year old I didn't know what that was! This game is a stone cold classic and the fact that the creators cite Twin Peaks as an inspiration makes it even more cool.

Super Mario Kart

For the ultimate multiplayer game the original Mario Kart is hard to beat. The pure unadulterated fun is hard to explain to the uninitiated but many a night and morning was spent around a friends house playing this one. 

Resident Evil 4

The Resident Evil series was in something of a rut. The games were all extremely successful and playable but merely iterated on the previous games. Resi 4 changed all that with the innovative (at the time) over the shoulder camera. The tank controls remained but rather than frustrate they added to the tension and atmosphere. I revisited this game a couple of years ago on the Wii and it stands the test of time well, but considering that it was made on the Gamecube originally and that was over 10 years ago, this makes me feel very old indeed.

Final Fantasy 7

Prior to FF7 I had had very little exposure to Japanese RPG's (my first experience being Phantasy Star on the Master System and Zelda on my friends NES). When I saw the cut-scenes and heard the music I was sold and over the course of a month during a University term I played the game to completion. At the time Sephiroth and Cloud seemed like the coolest of characters. Having played all the Final Fantasy's up to 13 I think my favourite one is 6 (which I played retrospectively)  but this one is the one that will stick with me due to it being my first.

Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

This is a legendary game and for good reason. Nintendo knew how to create a hub world way before most studios and the fact that they did it with such style is a testament to its game design. The first time I came across Hyrule Fields my mind couldn't comprehend how vast and open it was, looking back it isn't as impressive but for the time this was a huge achievement. This game has stuck with me and I recall it very fondly.

Personal Reflections on the Year: Country Living for a City Boy

A perfect storm of stagnant wages and spiralling house prices due to increased demand has led to a significant proportion of young people , including teachers, being unable to get on the property ladder. All these factors have led to a fracturing of London life. People who have lived in these areas and worked there cannot afford to live there anymore, being priced out by gentrification and rampant house prices resulting from a lack of new houses built over the last couple of decades. An old 3-bed Victorian house in what was a previously undesirable area of Brixton now can fetch upwards of a million pounds. Who can afford that? My wife and I worked in East London and our 2 bed duplex flat cost £1200 in rent in South Woodford, as teachers we are in vocations where wages are above average but even we struggled with these escalating costs. How can cleaners, cooks, shop assistants afford it on less wages that us? In short, they can't.

I remember in the mid-2000s getting on a bus at 5:30 am to get to my placement school which was in the shadow of Canary Wharf. The bus was packed with lower paid workers who greased the wheels of the city, they kept it running... how can they be coping with what has happened over the last 7 or so years since the economic crisis? In their line of work many have been undercut by the new wave of immigrants, its not the fault of the immigrants, they are filling a need but unscrupulous employers are driving down the wages of the workers, knowing there is a plentiful supply of people desperate for work. What is the solution? I don't know but I do see London losing its character and becoming a homogenous playground for businesses and the well-heeled elite.

A lot of my friends, all skilled middle class workers in professions have moved out to the fringe counties, where their money goes a long way towards the cost of a house. London is losing its skilled workforce, this brain-drain will lead to stagnation on innovation in the city. This is not a problem just facing London, as house prices in all the major cities are rising far beyond the rate of pay or inflation.

Country living is quite wonderful... when you get used to it!

My wife and I decided to move to the countryside as living in London was simply no longer sustainable, our decision was made after we found out that she was pregnant. We had an option of living in a rented place in South Woodford for the indefinite future or actually start to save for our future. We bit the bullet and moved to the sticks in early April. So how is life in the country for me, a city boy from Barking? Well it took a lot of getting used to, I am the token Asian in the village and when I go into town (a brief 10 minute drive) and see another Asian my heart races, I'm not alone! However people in the village are very welcoming and apart from downgrading to 2mb internet (from 20mb) life here is great. I love the greenery, calm pace of life and friendly banter with absolute strangers.
I have my man-cave and still go into London every couple of weeks to go comic and computer game shopping, go to concerts and see exhibitions occasionally.
There is a famous quote by Samuel Johnson, 'Tired of London, Tired of Life'... But I say 'Can't afford London, want to have a life'.... Doesn't quite roll off the tongue but the sentiment is the main thing here.

Since moving here I have a new job as a teacher and after getting used to having a distinctly homogeneous and non-multi-cultural class I can say that I truly do love it here. I find I have more time at home with my wife and child and the work level is high but not as much as when I was in East London for those 10 years.

God is in his heaven and all is right with the world!

The countryside can be gloomy when it rains but boy when the weather is great the countryside is glorious!

Creativity and Copyright

Where do ideas come from? Are they plucked from the ether by luck or are they gifted by Calliope (the muse of musicians, playwrites etc). Most people agree that ideas come from a well spring, a well that is tapped frequently and altered.
It's so funny that my view on what it means to be creative is so frightened of copying. There's so many ways that what one person sees as plagiarism is actually a collaboration, It is quite silly that a person thinks they have a unique creative voice or that your authorship is that protected. All creative thought is about interpreting things and being influenced by what has gone before, with or without realising it. If you miss that you miss a lot, for example the covers of songs can far surpass the original; Jimi Hendrix's All Along The Watchtower, The Man Who Sold The World by Nirvana or the piano interpretation by Maxence Cyrin of the Pixies classic Where Is My Mind. However it is important to make sure that you credit those you borrow from. Recently there have been lots of high profile lawsuits between people over sampling music and more importantly companies over technology that is built on the shoulder of giants. So what does this mean?
It means we lose out on wonderful work like Danger Mouse's Jay-Z/ Beatles mash-up The Grey Album and astonishing Music Video mash-ups that litter YouTube with creative panache and flair (as well as the dire Naruto fights mixed to Evanescence, Linkin Park or Nickelback and that song 'Hero' which was originally used for Spiderman 2.
What we are ending up with is more litigation and less social evolution, which aims to promote the betterment of society and peoples through the benefits which development brings. We don't need issues like that hedge fund guy buying a pharmaceutical company which has created an AIDs drug and jacking up the price- the guy who created the vaccine for Polio (Jonas Salk) and gave it to the world for free. Some things are too important for the worlds and society as a whole to turn a profit from.

As a teacher I want my pupils to be creative and experiment with tools, ideas and applications- build on the shoulders of giants if you will. The locked-in infrastructure of a lot of modern technology is preventing this from happening so something needs to change.

Toms Midnight Garden- Cult TV Review

I have very fond memories of Tom's Midnight Garden as it was shown on the BBC in the late 80s/ early 90s at 5:05pm after Newsround and just before Neighbours. I have been fortunate enough to revisit most of the programmes of my youth as they have become available on DVD, Blu-Ray and streaming services but this series remained elusive. I don't know why as I remember it being brilliant. So after 25 or so years since I last saw it I finally found a copy uploaded on YouTube and consumed the whole 6 part series in one sitting. So was this series as good as I remember?
Well, when the introduction music started up I felt a huge wave of nostalgia and similar shows of the time came flooding back; The Narnia series, Moondial and Box of Delights to name a few. All those series had pretty good production value for a children's series and Tom's Midnight Garden fell into the same category.


The story itself is quite simple; When his younger brother contracts measles at the beginning of the school holidays in the summer, Tom is sent away to his Uncle Allen's flat in the country. The flat was part of a manor house and Tom finds to his amazement that as the clock strikes midnight the back door, which usually leads to a small backyard, suddenly transports him to the past to the Victorian times when the Manor House was in its prime.
The sets are real and it seems to be filmed on location in an old house rather a studio, this lends the whole story a sense of place and cohesion. The sets and costumes are excellent at setting the time and mood of the 1950's era and the child actors are solid without a hint of pantomime or melodrama. The two main young actors do a fine job and the interactions between them as Tom and Hettie are sweet and have a ring of truth. The timeslip mechanic is handled well and is gently paced. It may be too slow for some children today but I still found it engaging and intriguing in equal measure.


Even after 25 years this adaptation of Philippa Pearce's novel is still well regarded and remembered affectionately and for good reason.
I would definitely recommend this series. I am all for supporting the company and actors by purchasing the media legally however this show only had a very limited DVD run by Readers Digest and has never been re-released so the only way to view it is off of YouTube for free. But I'm just thankful to be able to watch it again and you should be too, whether it's your first time or like me a return to it after many years.

Ico and Shadow of the Colossus- Reflections On A Gaming Life

Ico and Shadow of the Colossus were released 10 years ago and so I thought I'd do a retrospective on some of my favourite games of all time.

 I had a Nintendo 64 and PS1 and my interest in gaming was waning. It wasn't because the games coming out were bad but rather I was at university, discovering the joys of clubbing and just generally socialising. I worked part-time as a youth worker in a youth center in East London, one of the ones always in the papers because of the spate of regular stabbings, and we were creating gaming collages for our games room. It was through this that I saw a review of Ico and the art style of the game intrigued me.

The Ico cardboard cover is in the style of famed artist De Chirico and it was in part this art style that intrigued me. I saw a wrapped copy of Ico for sale at my local second hand video game shop and so I bought the game and a PS2 that same day. The packed cardboard box edition with postcards had me impressed and then I played the game and it blew me away. The first introduction to the character is full of mystery and very little is explained. Why is there a boy with horns? Why is he being taken to the temple? Why is he placed in the sarcophagus? What happened to the people of this land? The wonderful thing about this game is that very little is revealed to you, even when you finish the game. The world seemed rich and immersed in a history which I didn't know, no lore was presented in Ico but you could create your own narrative through events and the structures within the castle. A lot you had to interpret and guess and for someone who likes media that makes you think and question, that suited me just fine.

Playing the game I fell in love with the simple but powerful mechanic of not understanding my partner Yorda, but knowing that I had to help her escape the castle. The game itself is an escort mission but not annoying; you develop a protective bond with this ethereal girl who you can't communicate with. The bond of holding hands is powerful and later on when you are without her it feels terrible, not many escort missions can achieve that.

When Team Ico, the creators behind Ico released Shadow of the Colossus I bought it the day it came out and played it solidly for a week. At the beginning of SOTC we are given some narrative but events feel bigger than us and the world seems to have existed before our character comes into play, it seems like a lived in world yet so very little is told; Why is Mono dead? Who is Wander and what is his relationship to Mono? What is the desolate place and how did Wander know of the prophecy to cheat death and bring people back from the other side? Who are the Colossi and who is the voice guiding you to destroy such beautiful creatures?

There seems to be a connection that you felt if you worked hard enough you could understand, but with the economy of design and lack of voice over work and cut scenes explaining the story, you could create your own narrative based on what you saw and felt. There is no ludo-narrative dissonance; the world is free to explore and it is only by holding the sword aloft that you are directed where to go. Meeting the different colossi for the first time was such a thrill, very few games have matched the sheer awe of meeting these mysterious creatures for the first time. As you fulfil your dread destiny and kill these mighty beasts there is a feeling of remorse and regret. After each killings there is a futile interactivity as the black tendrils envelop you and leave their mark on your slowly mottling skin, a mark of your sin.

These games still resonates with me 10 years after the release of Team Ico's first game,  and this is in no small part due to their phenomenal soundtracks which were both created by Kou Ootani, who also sound tracked the wonderful Haibane Renmei (one of my favourite anime). The Ico OST is scarce but perfectly pitched for key events, like the original Prince of Persia game. SOTC has an emotive score full of sadness but also adventure, it suits the mood perfectly and both soundtracks are masterclasses on scoring for a game and how much a score can lend to an overall games impact.

I look forward to The Last Guardian and wait, like most of the world, with unquenchable excitement at what Fumito Ueda, the auteur of Team Ico has spend a whole console generation to produce.
 

London Gaming Market Hits the Spot

Today was the first of hopefully many more London Gaming Markets, which was held at the Royal National Hotel.
I have been to the Hotel before on a few occasions when they used to do the Comic Expo but this was a new thing entirely. I expected it to be busy but oh boy was it rammed!
There were people of all ages and backgrounds and it was heartening to see so many female gamers, a high percentage of gamers are females bur not they are not always present in events so it was great to see such a large female turnout here.
The Market itself took the space of 2 halls, with one focused on retro gaming and systems and the other more focused on board and card games like Magic or Dungeons and Dragons.
The main hall was packed tight with sooo much stuff to buy, it wasn't all just games either. There were perler bead stalls with amazing 8 and 16-bit art pieces, t-shirts, fanzines and magazines.

There were also many systems set up around the edge of the hall so people could play for free including Micro Machines 2, Goldeneye, Mega Bomberman, Mario Kart on the SNES and R-type. My cousin and I played R-type as we have fond memories of this game from the arcade and Master System. It was great to see lots of children playing on the games that their parents probably played in their youth.
To be honest if I didn't have priorities (family) and a spending limit (£80) I could have bought so much more but as it was I bought Super Mario World and Allstars on one cartridge for the SNES, a see-through Gameboy Colour for my wife's nephew (I know he was interested in getting one when I saw him a few weeks ago to play Pokemon) and a signed Sonic 2 art print by the game artist who drew the iconic image in 1993, Duncan Gutteridge.
As a whole the Gaming Market was brilliant,
It was all very busy and polite, lots of different games and systems represented... But I still had no luck in finding Thunderforce V on the PS1; my white whale. I could eBay it but I like the thrill of finding it in the wild. Oh well, maybe at the next Gaming Market!

Fear Itself- Cult TV Review

I watched Fear Itself last night and it was an interesting piece of work which used clips from over a hundred years of horror cinema to create something new. It talks about how the scariest movies exploit our greatest – and most basic – fears.

Charlie Lyne’s film explores how filmmakers scare us – and why we let them. The monologue and story is told from the perspective of a girl haunted by traumatic events, here presented through clips of films as varied as Vertigo, Psycho and Nosferatu- a real smorgasbord of world cinema over the last 100 or so years.
This mesmerising journey through horror cinema looks at the fundamental nature of fear and there are profound truths toldincluding my favourite line “You never see fear coming ‘til it swallows you whole”. The film covers a lot of ground; school shootings, home invasions and the fear of the great unknown: all are presented with a though provoking monologue spoken with gravitas that draws you in.

This is an unusual film as it feels almost like a YouTube mash up or a think-piece from Radio 4 but the effect was unsettling. It was enhanced by the fact that I live in the countryside and my wife and child are away, my cottage is old and creepy and whilst watching this I locked my bedroom door and didn't go downstairs to pee. It's not wet yourself scary but there is definitely a higher filmic literacy required here to appreciate its full effect.

Hedgehog in the Fog- Cult TV Review

Hedgehog in the Fog is classic animation with an eerie premise and unique art style. It was this type of cartoon that inspired a legion of fans including the brothers Bolex and Quay and contemporaries like Jan Svankmajer which in turn inspired Radiohead to make their stunning music video to There There.

The animation is creepy and slightly unsettling, sort of like the weird Moomins stop motion which scared me as a kid in the 80's.  The story itself is very simple; a hedgehog is going to see his friend the bear in the evening with a gift of a jam sandwich, the problem is that it's a foggy night and he sees things that frighten him from the shadows. During his journey he has a chance encounter with a very special creature, which I won't spoil for you here, and it changes him forever.

If I was go to go all allegorical I think the whole animation is about the transition from childhood to adulthood and how we are changed by a certain moment in our life, it may not seem special at the time but we are forever changed. I may be reading wayyy to much into it but it was a hugely influential piece of art, considered to be the finest piece of Russian animation by Yuri Norstein. Looking at it now, about 40 years after it was created I can still say that it is an impressive piece of work that has stood the test of time well. Some of the animation techniques are impressive and the visuals are sumptuous and are to be savoured. It's available for free on YouTube and has English subs so check it out!

The 13 Best Episodes of Are You Afraid Of The Dark

I've covered a few British series, especially children's series with a slight creeping horror. However it wasn't just in Blighty that children's series were scaring children, during the 90's Nickelodeon aired Are You Afraid Of The Dark, a programme that had 52 episodes and lasted for 10 years. I never watched the series when it was shown but having looked at several websites and blogs with the best of lists I compiled a 20 episode watch list and over the course of October have been watching them, one episode a night. So now submitted for the approval of the Midnight Society my list of the 13 best AYAOTD episodes.

The dandy big bad is quite malevolent for a children's show

The Tale of the Whispering Walls

While driving back home from a carnival, a babysitter and the two children she's looking after get lost. When their car breaks down, she goes inside a house to call for help. Trouble begins when she disappears and the kids soon find out that while they aren't the only ones in the house, they're the only ones that are alive. Their only hope in escaping comes in the form of a helpful female ghost who must right the wrongs of her former master's crimes.

This vampire story is pretty scary and the special effects are quite effective

The Tale of the Nightshift

Amanda starts volunteering during the nightshift at the local hospital. But the hospital seems to have more than just a new volunteer. Someone or something is feeding on the hospital's patients and employees draining them of their blood and turning them into walking blood-thirsty zombies.

Dr Vink is suitably zany

The Tale of the Midnight Madness

A movie theater on the brink of closure due in large part by a new multiplex that recently opened in town gets a revival courtesy of Dr. Vink, who offers a rare copy of the 1922 film Nosferatu for screening -- as long as they agree to show his other films one night a week. When the arrogant manager refuses to honor his deal with Vink, strange things begin to happen.

There's evil in them thar woods

The Tale of Watcher's Woods

Long ago, three girls attending camp got lost in the woods never to be seen or heard from again leaving only their whistles behind. At the same exact time, a camper went crazy and started babbling about a "Watcher" lurking within the woods creating the nickname Watcher's Woods. When Kelly and Sarah, two present-day campers, get lost in the woods they soon discover that there's definitely something evil lurking within.

The fashion and style in this episode are great and quirky

The Tale of the Thirteenth Floor

Karen and her adopted brother Billy like to spend all their free time playing hockey on the empty 13th floor of their apartment building. One day, the regular elevator operator disappears and they find that the floor is now being used by a company to manufacture toys and games. However the toys that they're creating aren't exactly from this world and it's later revealed that Karen is actually Olga's daughter whom she, Leonid and Raymond had been trying to rescue.

They're ooky and they're kooky, they're the mysterious gothic family

The Tale of the Nightly Neighbours

When a new family moves in next door to Emma and her brother, the kids can't get over their strange behavior. They notice that their new neighbors seem to only come out at night and they always wear black. When several people start to get sick, they come to the conclusion that their new neighbors are vampires.

The masked girls are proper scary!

The Tale of Many Faces

A struggling teenage model named Emma finds employment with a stage actress who uses a magic book to steal the faces of her young workers and forces them to be faceless slaves.

The editing in this episode is suitably quirky and fun

The Tale of The Ghastly Grinner

Ethan wants to be a comic book artist but his submissions are constantly rejected and his lazy parents don't believe he has the talent for it. One day he's invited to a comic shop where he gets the only copy of the comic "The Ghastly Grinner" a comic book featuring a Joker-esque clown villain who turns his victims into drooling giggling idiots by staring them into their eyes. Things get an unexpected dark turn when he accidentally brings the villain to life by microwaving the comic after it gets wet.

This story is similar to the classic TV series 'Escape into Night' and 'Paperhouse'

The Tale of the Dollmaker

A young girl named Melissa goes to the countryside to spend a summer with her uncle and aunt and her best friend Susan. However, upon arriving she discovers that Susan's family has moved back to the city and that Susan is missing. Soon Melissa discovers that a mysterious dollhouse in the attic of Susan's house may be responsible for her friend's disappearance. To set things right, Melissa must go inside the dollhouse and rescue Susan.

The Crimson Clown is very creepy!

The Tale of the Crimson Clown

After stealing the money his older brother Mike had saved up for their mother's birthday present, a young bratty boy Sam learns a lesson when an evil clown doll comes to life and starts terrorizing him.

Again clowns are scary in this tale

The Tale of Laughing in the Dark

Weegee, his little sister Kathy, and his friend Josh come across the rebuilt funhouse called Laughing in the Dark and Weegee asks Josh if he had ever been inside to which Josh replies that he hasn't. Weegee subsequently dares Josh to go in and he accepts, deciding to prove that he went through by finding the clown dummy, which is modeled after Zeebo, and stealing its nose. The spirit of the clown is disturbed and chases Josh to retrieve his nose.

Who wouldn't look pimp with these glasses?

The Tale of the Super Specs

Weeds loves April Fool's Day and has planned numerous pranks for everyone that he knows. After buying a pair of "Super Specs" from Sardo's store they give his girlfriend, Marybeth the power to see beings from another dimension who live among humans. Soon everywhere she looks she sees strange figures covered in black...

This episode is my favourite of the lot

The Tale of the Deadman's Float

Zeke is good at chemistry but not at girls. When he befriends Clorice she teaches him how to swim at the school pool. However the pool has a secret: It was built on top of a graveyard and is haunted by the angry ghost of a body that was previously buried there and who takes vengeance upon anyone who dares to swim in the pool. "home".

The Owl Service- Cult TV Review

Whilst carrying out research on the children's TV series The Children of the Stones, I heard mention of a series called The Owl Service. The premise seemed quite interesting so I purchased the set and, over the course of a week, watched the entire 8 part serial. The series was produced in 1972 for children's television and was based on a book by Alan Garner, but was never shown again as many thought it was too dark and inappropriate for younger viewers. Looking at it now, I can kind of see why the powers that be thought this.

The story is about two families joining to enjoy a holiday together. The dynamic is difficult as both parents are a recently married divorcee and widow couple. They both have a son and a daughter and are trying to get along as a complete family unit. The daughter inherits a house in the country from her dead father and this house is looked after by an eccentric Welsh valley gardener, maid and her son. In the valley nearby, there is a mysterious stone with a hole through it and a tale of a love triangle gone wrong where someone is murdered. The story is replaying out again with the son, daughter and the maid's son, almost like a dark prophecy.

Watching it for the first time I was taken with the title sequence, which got me invested straight away. They were strange as they bounced from moody mellow to wonderfully surreal amid squeaky balloon like noise - which I guess are the calls of an owl. The title sequence featured a hand shadow depicting an owl in flight, photographs of the valley and a flickering candle along with sound effects.  All in all the titles set up the creepy mood of the series.

The small ensemble cast perform admirably in what is a small, slightly creepy, production of an old Welsh myth played straight with a difficult family dynamic. The actress, Gillian Hills, deserves special mention as she is great, playing a precocious girl haunted by an owl dinner service, yes you read that correctly, owl dinner service... as in plates. Sounds daft but it kinda works as she descents into a gentle madness which involves paper owls and an old dolls house. The owls are most definitely not what they seem.

As a whole the series is worth a look but in my opinion does not chill me as other TV series I have discussed before. I'm not sure why but I wasn't as invested in the characters, apart from Gwyn (the maid's son who wants to better himself by speaking proper) as they seemed spoilt and bratty. The ending is pretty anti-climactic too but I won't spoil it for you here in case you do want to watch it.

Special mention must be made to the scenery, it was shot outside in the British countryside and is all the better for it, featuring picturesque hills, rivers and woods which adds much to the mood and atmosphere.
So in summation, the series is worth watching if you are looking for something new but I'd check out Children of the Stones or the Stone Tapes first.

Europe in 8 Bits Review

The chiptune scene has grown in prominence over the past few years, this is due to a heavy dose of nostalgia but also bands such as Crystal Castles and Anamanguchi, which have brought it to the fore and entered the zietgiest.

Europe in 8 Bits is a documentary that looks at the rise of the scene. The documentary is super informative as it told me a lot about the origins and counterculture; the idea of fighting modernity, actually embracing the past technology but utilising it in new ways as exemplified by the mole man who goes to the dump regularly to collect old material and build new stuff from it. Such dedication is to be praised, really!

The Stone Tapes- Cult TV Review

Nigel Kneale is one of the great British writers, gaining prominence with his Quatermass trilogy and other sci-Fi/ supernatural works in T.V. drama. Over his 50 year career in writing, Kneale wrote many pieces that are high televisual watermarks. One of these is The Stone Tapes, a legendary work he wrote which is fondly spoken of so I thought I'd give it a looksie.

Originally shown in 1972 on Christmas Day, this ghost story had just the right mix of the supernatural and science fiction to make a lasting impression. Looking online many people fondly recalled watching the series on their black and white TV's (even though the show itself was shot is colour) and the sleepless nights and nightmares that followed.

The basic plot element identifies that the fabric of a building, the stones, can absorb or record events of the past and re-play them when triggered by another event . In this case, some re-building work taking place in a gothic mansion awaken a malevolent spirit. I don't want to spoil it but the payoff is great and will haunt your dreams.


The whole thing is and looks like it was all shot in a studio, similar in style to Doctor Who, but it works well and stands the test of time after nearly 40 years- a sign of great writing. The cast itself is solid but can be a little shouty at times. Jane Asher plays her role well as a scientist who is experiencing the supernatural phenomenon and slowly losing her mind. Iain Cuthbertson is a dependable actor, performing his role as a friend to Asher well and Michael Bryant excels in his love rat role as Peter, even though he does go bug-eyed and over-dramatic a few times.

The horror of the film does not come in the form of blood and gore but from cranking up tension- something that British television did extremely well in these productions, due to the lack of finances and economy of design- sometimes what you don't see is far more scary than what you do.

After watching the film I was impressed with its contemplation of an uncanny alien presence in the midst of our human world, a very Lovecraftian theme. Don't be put off by the 70's period detail and old-tech computers-this is a thoroughly modern story about the search for a perfect technological archive and could just as easily be about digital media or the web.

The whole production is greatly enhanced by the wonderful Radiophonic Workshop tracks that make the genuinely shocking conclusion all the more powerful. After meditating on the film I can see why this series is so fondly remembered, back at a time when the mass British population weren't desensitised to violence and horror a work like this would have shaken people to the core and after 40 years it still has the power to chill. Thoroughly recommended!

LINK- Dead of Night: Cult TV Review

LINK- Children of the Stones: Cult TV Series Review

LINK- Tom’s Midnight Garden: Cult TV Review

LINK- Children of the Dogstar: Cult TV Series Review

The Nostalgia of Low Poly Art

I've spoken before about how nostalgia typically works in 20/ 30 year cycles (linked below). And so it comes to pass that on the 20th anniversary of the Playstation people have looked back with rose tinted eyes at the games of the early Playstation.

For many it was the first real introduction to the world of polygons, typically games had been 2D and sidescrolling on consoles, PCs had been experimenting with polygons for years, but due to their prohibitive price point was unavailable to many. So with the PS release the first wave of polygon games into being, looking at the gallery below you can see that the art was in it's early stages but there was a cubist beauty to its angles and contours. Many polygons had to be sacrificed in the quest for an improved frame rate. The games may look quite janky now but some, especially those with an interesting art direction, still hold up pretty well.

Over the decade we have seen the revival of pixel art and pixellated games, this has in part been due to the rise of the Indie scene and the affection that the creators have for 8 and 16 bit games... but now its the turn of polygon games. For those in the know the low poly art scene has been in full swing for about 3 years. The idea of producing simple items through limited polygons presents an interesting artistic challenge and there are many tools available to do the job. Some are easy and some are more complex but the end result can be curiously spellbinding. I have spoken before about how you can create immersive worlds without the use of photo-realistic graphics and the same applies here in low poly art, you can create wonderful worlds without needing to make it look exactly like the object as we can fill in the details ourselves. A similar event occurred in ancient Greece, although obviously not with computers, where the statues had become so lifelike that there was nowhere else to go with artistic interpretation so there was a move towards more stylised sculpture.

I for one am glad that there is yet another facet to the video game and art scene and am all for different forms of expression. Long live low poly!

LINK- Video Game Soundtracks on Vinyl

Females and Diversity in Mainstream Comics

There was a charge leveled against most mainstream comics that they are white men power fantasies. Looking over the Marvel and DC universe of old, most of the heroes were indeed Caucasian males.  However I feel that this is too harsh a judgement for many reasons; many of the superheroes were created in the 60's when diversity wasn't such a big thing and the comics were aimed at the youth audience, who were traditionally white. So the comics mostly dealt with young white males given or gaining extraordinary powers. This worked for many years but as the story canon has become more obtuse and conflicted it has been difficult for a younger, newer and more diverse audience to access comics.
In a day and age of billion dollar grossing movies the comics industry is trying to branch out and appeal to the diverse audience who access and appreciate these films globally and why shouldn't it? If comics continued on the traditional path they would die a slow death.

When I went to comic shops in the 90's it was mostly older white folk ( which was surprising as I lived in a very culturally diverse town in East London, a melting pot of ethnicities) only really diversifying with the explosion in Marvel Flair '95 and '96 cards due to the popularity of the X Men animated series. But now with Kaboom, Image and small publishing prints it's much more diverse. A large amount of younger female readers have joined the comics wave, either writing, drawing or reading the new versions of classic characters.
Sensing this new audience demographic Marvel and DC have attempted to diversify their cast. The success of comics like the soft rebooted Ms Marvel and She Hulk have led to DC broadening their target audience with comics such as Batgirl and Black Canary (both reboots which don't negate what happened before).

I bought these trades a couple of weeks ago and am enjoying the storylines, artwork and general empowerment of females.

I'm a British Asian male and I love the traditional comics but the newer more diverse comics speak to me (as I mentioned in my article about how Ms Marvel is changing the world). I'm really enjoying the new wave of diversity in comics and long may it continue. Reading the recent trades of She Hulk by Soule and Pulido I came to the 'Legal briefs' page at the back, where the creators come together to share their views, ideas and opinions. A piece written by the editor Jeanine Schaefer really spoke to me as a recent father to a daughter. Women are represented in mainstream comics but only recently are they really getting their due in my opinion.

Jeanine Schaefers editorial to the fans is heartfelt and really struck a cord with me

Video Game Soundtracks on Vinyl

Nostalgia normally works in 30 year cycles. In the 70's and 80's Happy Days was huge, looking back through rose tinted eyes at the 50's. Well now, having reached the ripe old age of 34 I guess I'm the demographic companies are trying to target by appealing for my nostalgia. To that end Data-Discs is releasing video game soundtracks of classic games Streets of Rage and Shenmue on vinyl. Both are the work of legendary Yuzo Koshiro, the influential composer who was particularly renown in the 80's and 90's for creating thumping rhythmic electronic and chiptune music on 8 and 16-bit machines.

In the words of Data-Discs:

We carefully remaster game soundtracks and present them as officially licensed, high quality packages. Our intention is to promote the work of game composers, which is all too often overlooked, and introduce people to an area of music that, despite being culturally significant in many ways, has seldom been available on any format, let alone on vinyl. We aim to release soundtracks that work as standalone pieces; albums that can be enjoyed by casual listeners as well as game fans, and showcase the creativity and ingenuity of the people behind them. 

I have spoken about my love of vinyl before but this is something different. The thought of hearing the tunes of my formative years on my record player is so exciting; this couldn't more hipster if it tried but I'm so in! My wife is buying me the Streets of Rage on vinyl as an Eid present and I can't wait. I have a couple of other video game soundtrack vinyls I hope to be getting soon including the Journey soundtrack by Austin Wintory,

These soundtracks being released got me thinking about other albums I'd like to see on vinyl and so I've compiled a video playlist below. Click away and enjoy. What video game soundtrack would you like to hear on vinyl?

The Beauty of 'Walking Simulators'

The term 'walking simulator' is used to describe a genre of games where a person is asked to explore a setting but there are little to no action buttons to press. As a result many gamers speak of 'Walking Simulators'  in a derogotory way claiming that they are not in fact games. It may seem like semantics but how we label the genre implies that all you do is walk from one side to the other in a guided tour fashion. However there is more to these types of games which I will discuss below.

Walking simulators have gone through a bit of a journey themselves, gaining prominence with Dear Esther and Proteus, which initiated the debate on whether they were games or not. The games did well, but some people asked for a refund from Steam, an online gaming marketplace, claiming there was nothing to do and that these were not games.

In these games Ludonarrative is told by journeying through the world and finding elements of the story rather than through traditional storytelling narrative and the players input is often minimal. However I find that they are incredible experiences that reward exploration and discovery to understand the bigger narrative. Often by finding diary entries, audio files and environmental clues you get to understand the mystery box structure of the narrative, told slowly and carefully through the game.

This genres provides immersive worlds to engage and interact with. In the same way that art has many different forms so do computer games. I recently played through The Evil Within and Wolfenstein: The New Blood and whilst I loved those games sometimes it is great to try something more cerebral and emotional. All are games and all deserve their place in the video games landscape- maybe we can reclaim the name 'walking simulator' and turn it into a positive but I prefer the term "Environmental exploration games."

For those who crave action 'walking simulators' may seem a little boring, but for people open to what a game can be and achieve everyone should experience at least one walking simulator. I have just finished playing The Chinese Rooms Everybody's Gone To The Rapture. This game is a stunning example of how an interactive narrative can deliver an emotional pay-off like no other medium.

I won't spoil it for people who haven't played it but the game sets you in an English village where some catastrophe has occurred and you are the lone survivor. You spend the 4 or so hours of the game exploring the village finding orbs of light that relay events which occurred in the village, like a voyeur. It feels almost like survivors remorse in that you hear peoples pains, anguish and worries. There are some profound moments in the game that will stick with me forever, more deeply embedded than some forms of media because I was the active agent that made these things occur. The way the narrative is presented eschews the typical linear chronological route and instead you have to piece things together, like a David Mitchell novel almost, that is quite an achievement.

'Walking simulators' are a wonderful genre of video games and they encourage us to immerse ourselves in new worlds and scenarios. They are rather passive and sometimes that is what I look for in gaming, its a bit of a change from the norm. A palate cleanser if you will.

Manga Now Exhibition at British Museum is Great

I was lucky enough to go to the British Museum to see the Manga Now exhibition today and it was a wonderfully short but sweet experience. Manga has a long history and so a small room in the museum does not do it justice but it is a welcome exhibition that hopefully will continue to spread the popularity of this art form. As I entered the room I was pleasantly surprised to see so many people walking around and appreciating the art on display. Also there were many people reading a wide variety of manga which the British Museum had laid out for people. All in all I was only there for about 20 minutes but it was good to see 3 distinct manga artists covered. If you're in London it's well worth a look!

Moondial- Cult TV Review

Whilst watching Children of the Stones for my inaugural Cult TV Review I was reading through the YouTube comments and a lot of people kept discussing Moondial, another British TV series which was popular, so I ordered the DVD and watched it and here are my thoughts.

Broadcast originally on the BBC in February 1988, Moondial was a 6 part supernatural/time travel drama based on the book by the popular author Helen Cresswell. During the 80's the BBC had a great reputation for adapting children's books; they were especially good at the slightly creepy and unsettling and this series fits that bill nicely.

Watching the series for the first time I was taken with the opening credits, a wonderfully arthouse and atmospheric piece of work.

The series starts with a bang as young teen Minty has to stay with her Aunt until her mother recovers from a car accident. She has to stay in a small village with a large Manor House containing a beautiful garden and a mysterious moondial. Minty is drawn to the moondial and one night when she feels is drawing her in she goes to it and faints. When she wakes up she finds she has been transported back through time to the turn of the century. Minty spends the series trying to figure out the mystery of the Moondial and the cursed child with the 'Devils Mark'

This series is indicative of the style of programmes British TV was airing during that time for children; at times unusual and slightly spook- and for that it has to be commended. No-one does creeping dread like the British and this sort-of ghost story is beautifully realised. Whilst some of the adult actors do come across as quite hammy and theatrical and some of the child actors precocious to the point of annoying the whole thing generally works. There are moments where things lag, for example pretty much any scene with Minty's annoying Aunt but these are tempered with end of episode cliffhangers that really keep you intrigued and excited.

With my previous review of Children of the Stones I discussed how there was higher level thinking required to figure out the ending. With Moondial the reason why and how Minty is transported is never explained, to quote The Simpsons "Wizard" but I would still recommend this for anyone with an interest in unique and unusual children's TV programmes.

The 3 Best Openings to Films

I've been watching the 3 part BBC series, The Sound of Cinema: The Music of the Movies and it got me thinking about the movies. I have seen hundreds of films of all manner of genres and there are definitely a few that stick in my mind. I have chosen to select the 3 movies which I feel have the most powerful openings; I could have chosen anything really but let's go with this. What are your 3 favourite openings to films? Your job is to watch the ones below and then reply in the comments sections with your 3 favourite openings with links to the openings if possible. Spread the word to 3 other people and let's go viral!

Aguirre: Wrath of God

Blade Runner

Up