Clangers, Bagpuss and Co. Exhibition

Smallfilms may not be a name that you are immediately familiar with but the works of founders Oliver Postgate and Peter Firmin probably are: Noggin the Nog, Ivor the Engine, the Clangers and Bagpuss.
Since its birth in 1959 the works of Postgate and Firmin have delighted millions of fans across the world. To celebrate their contribution to children's entertainment and animation there is a free exhibition running at the V &A Museum of Childhood in Bethnal Green, London.


The exhibition is in the main hall and consists of all the original figures and art materials from all the classic works. The original title card of the Clangers was a real highlight for me as I used to watch this show in my youth and now I watch the new series with my daughter nightly.

The original Bagpuss was there too and I was surprised at how small all the figures were. Overall the exhibition was excellent and the fact that they had the original episodes airing in a closed off room was great for those hoping to revisit these old classics. If you like old skool British animation then this exhibition is a must!

Baby Sitters Club Volume 1: Kirsty's Great Idea Comic Review

I am trying to engage some of the more reluctant girl readers in my class and came across this book by Raina Telgemeier. I've been a fan of Raina for a years now, enjoying her graphic memoirs Smile and Sisters as well as her original story Drama.
I remember that my younger sister used to absolutely adore the Baby Sitters Club series when she was younger so I am pleased to see they have been re-released for a younger generation to enjoy, in a more concise comic version. I read the comic myself to check for suitability and have to say that it reads well and tackles a few different issues like divorce, diabetes and friendship but never anything too adult or risque in theme.

When I took this into class the graphic novel was read by a couple of girls and they were very excited at the prospect of comics being introduced in the classroom; it was lovely to see this level of engagement.
The boys also wanted to read this so it just goes to show, comics can appeal to all genders and ages irrespective of the theme of the comic.

This comic is suitable for all ages but the pupils in my class, aged 7 and 8, really enjoyed it.

Get Lamp Review

Get Lamp is a fascinating documentary that looks at the rise, fall and resurgence of the text adventure game.
Text adventure games were huge in the 1970's and early 1980's, mostly due to the fact that the machines were limited in power and so programmers and game designers created immersive worlds which required the power of the word to create the image in your mind.

Similar to Bedrooms to Billions, a documentary which looks into the micro computer scene in Britain in the 70's and 80's, this documentary is a chronological look at the rise of the video game industry but specifically the text adventure/ interactive fiction based genre.
It kicks off by talking about the importance of Adventure by William Crowther, the first text adventure game that emerged from the university mainframes and moves onto Zork, a smash hit text adventure.
The documentary then moves onto the creation of video game companies like Adventure Software and Infocom, both huge companies who laid the foundations of the billion dollar industry. It briefly discusses how they died out in the late 80's with the evolution of graphics and more complex games before reflecting back on the industry.
Get Lamp is an illuminating (pardon the pun) documentary that is informative and interesting. As someone who enjoys video games but hasn't had much experience with text adventure games at all I found this explained things well, featuring people who were there at the time as well as enthusiasts of the genre.

With tools such as Power Point, Twine and websites like the Internet Gaming Archive there has been a resurgence in interest in these types of games. I played The Hobbit as child in my friends house, he had a ZX Spectrum. I was impressed by the world created but the parser frustrated me.

The documentary had me thinking about the recent resurgence in text based games. For example there was an interesting take on the death of the interactive fiction in that with the advent of the internet text adventure is back, just in a modified form. We no longer >GET KNIFE but rather click links, explore the billions of possibilities on the web and go on a journey almost; we journey through the web. We do what interactive fiction asks of us; we read, make decisions and move on. I don't agree with this point but it is an interesting viewpoint and that is what I found this documentary did, it made me look at this genre of games in a different way.

For anyone with even a passing interest in video games this documentary is a fascinating look at a fondly remembered genre.

If you have been inspired to make your own text adventure then I have produced a series of lesson plans on interactive fiction using ppt and twine.  Check here to see and download them.

LINK- Adventure Maker App

LINK- The Hobbit ZX Spectrum online (free to play)

LINK- Steve Meretzsky Treasure Trove of Infocom Material

Black Canary: Kicking and Screaming Volume 1 Comic Review

Straight up off the couch from the soft rebooted Batgirl comes Black Canary, a comic about the world of music and the intrigue within.

After years as a crime fighter, Dinah Lance (Black Canary) never imagined herself as a singer...but now she's the lead singer in a band which consists of Lord Byron (drummer), Paloma (keyboards), and Ditto (guitar), their manager Heathcliff and Driver Flo. This band of misfits has trouble following them around and has a central mystery about the record company which put the band together. There are also other plot points that appear along the way but the main story arc is about Dinah and her relationship with her band. We get an insight into their lives and this is where this comic diverges from many other capes costumes hero comics, it's less about superpowers and more about the interaction between individuals, although a super sonic battle of the bands sees plenty of powers used too.
The art style overall is frenetic and chaotic but in the best possible way, and the story has me invested in this world. I look forward to the next collection.

The softcover collects issues #1-7 of the series, and a story from convergence blue beetle #2

For The Love of Comics

I've been into comics for a long time, I first fell in love with them through the bande dessinée, Tintin and Asterix but when a friend lent me Iron Man #256 my mind was blown and it was love at first sight.

I'd go weekly to my local comic shop,  Rodney's Books and Games, in the town centre for my pocket money infused fix of comics. By buying grab bags for £1 I'd find a wide mix of stuff, some great some dreadful but comics nonetheless.

I fell out of love with comics in the late 90's when there were too many titles to keep up with and so many 'event' comics that I couldn't keep up with the pace. I went instead into manga and anime, which at that time was smaller and more focused here in the UK. It was here that I discovered Battle Angel Alita and GTO and again it was love at first sight. I also discovered Vertigo and voraciously devoured Sandman, Preacher, Hellblazer, Y: The Last Man and Fables.
Since then I've fallen out of favour with anime and manga for the same reason I had fallen out of love with comics in the first place and now once again, over the past 4 years have delved back into mainstream comics.
There has been a sea change in the mainstream comics as I feel the higher ups have realised that they had huge successes with their films but this didn't correlate with their comic sales. The reasons are numerous but I'd say it was due to the fact that the comic scene is overwhelming for newcomers and that the comics didn't cater for all tastes. A lot of the comics were created in the 50's ,60's and 70's and were often white male power fantasies, not a problem in itself but when you are catering for a world market you do need to appeal for a wide range of people.
In the past few years there has been a push for diversity with a black /Hispanic Spiderman in Miles Morales, an Asian American Ms Marvel with Kamala Khan and a female Thor.
However it's not just the mainstream where comics are diversifying, the fringe comic scene has always been the champion of change and difference and there is a huge market here with Junji Ito, Emily Carroll, Raina Telgemeier and Noelle Stephenson catering for different tastes. 
I'm introducing my pupils to comics as I feel it opens up worlds, encourages reluctant readers and promotes creativity. I will be reviewing the comics I buy for them here and hope to encourage other schools and people to push comics and graphic novels into their world. As well as comics for my pupils I will also be writing reviews about comics I buy for myself.
Come join me on my journey and if you get into comics I'd like to recommend a couple of comic podcasts I listen to which are linked below.

Don Hertzfeldt's Amazing Animations

Don Hertzfeldt has been producing animated short films for a long time yet the man himself is only in his 30's, an extraordinary achievement for the Oscar nominated animator famed for his rudimentary stick figures and whimsical philosophising. Hertzfeldt released World of Tomorrow a little while ago, it is a simple story of a 4 year old girl who meets her future clone. Without going into spoiler territory the story is equal parts hilarious and deeply profound. The film has garnered a lot of praise and is up for an Oscar at this years awards ceremony in the Best Animated Short Film category. Check out why there is so much buzz for this film, you owe it to yourself.

The story carries themes that were explored in Christopher Nolan's Intestellar but in a more playful and lyrical way. The animation is a step above Hertzfeldt's previous work, enhanced by his use of digital animation techniques. The short film is only 17 minutes long but is well worth the £1.49 price of admission.

Gravity Fall Complete Series Review- No Spoilers

Gravity Falls is a special place—a town that feels like it's just a stones throw from Twin Peaks and a hop skip and a jump from the island in Lost. In this land oddities including rainbow vomiting gnomes, mermen and ghosts roam free. The series involves twins Dipper and Mable, who are sent to stay for the duration of the summer holidays, with their Uncle Stan (Grunkle Stan) at the Mystery Shack, a ramshackle building housing fake phenomena. There's no Log Lady but there are a stereotypical miner Old Man McGucket, Lazy Susan and manchild Soos; a colourful range of characters that give Gravity Falls a wonderful eclectic cast that brings the place alive.

The series is 39 episodes long and is similar to The X-Files in structure in that there is a story arc, as well as a monster of the week. The central mystery is where the monsters are coming from and who is the author of the 3 tomes that Dipper discovers which describes the phenomena in the town in great detail? Over the course of the 39 episodes many questions and mysteries arise. The cliffhanger at the end of series one was reminiscent of the end of series one cliffhanger in Lost but this one had the writing chops to pull it through to the second series and continue wonderfully through the second series to a satisfying conclusion.

Gravity Falls is a Disney production, surprisingly so, as it does feel like it would feel more at home on the Cartoon Network alongside Adventure Time, Over the Garden Wall or Stephen Universe. It feels edgy and on the nose, especially when you consider the age of its target audience but there is a definite heart and maturity to it that has led to a larger adult and maturer teen fanbase who enjoy the cryptography and codes that litter the episodes, but without excluding the younger viewers. During the course of the show over 3 years, thousands of fan theories abound, each week after each show discussion boards would be ablaze dissecting the details in intricate and exacting detail. The last time I saw this kind of clamouring around a series was with Lost when it was at its prime and in gaming when Bioshock Infinite wowed/ confused us with it's ending.

The final episode of Gravity Falls was on earlier this week and I won't spoil it here but I will say that the ending was a wonderful way to tie up the series and had a huge emotional punch. The character arc is beautifully realised here and unlike Lost, the ending was worth the many years of waiting and delivered. The pure wonderful weirdness of the final arc, the 3 part Weirdmegeddon, truly encapsulated what made Gravity Falls such a pleasure for its fans. The stakes were high and it didn't patronise its audience, there was real danger and real cost and true character development, something a lot of animation has lost today.

There are very few series that are as well conceived, written and executed as Gravity Falls and when an animated series leaves you thinking about parallel dimensions, alternate universes and man's place in the cosmos then you know there's something special. There are few shows that quote or are influences by Satre, H.P. Lovecraft or Danielkewski.

Gravity Falls is the perfect example of what other kid shows should strive to achieve. If you haven't watched Gravity Falls yet, look it up. You'll be glad you did.

Comix Creatrix: House of Illustration Exhibition

Whilst in London for the London Anime and Gaming Con 2016 I popped into Kings Cross and headed for the Comix Creatrix exhibition currently being held at the House of Illustration. I've mentioned this exhibition before and was excited to see females being given the credit for their contribution to the comic industry. The exhibition is a small one but covers 100 female artists including Kate Beaton, Posy Simmonds and Audrey Niffenegger. The exhibition is in roughly chronological order and goes through the role that women played in the art form. I thought I knew quite a lot about comics but this exhibition really opened my eyes to a lot of the issues that women had to fight through to be an active and appreciated part of this counter-culture art form.

The highlight of the exhibition for me was the original pencil drawings of the Moomins from the first set of strips created by Tove Jansson in 1958. As a big Moomin fan seeing this really warmed my heart and filled me with joy.
The exhibition runs until 15th May and is well worth a visit. Some of the images on display were of a sexual nature so if you are thinking of taking children I'd recommend you do a quick scan beforehand.

London Anime and Gaming Con 2016

The London Anime and Gaming Con 2016 (LAGC) was on this weekend near London Metropolitan University. I had been to several anime and manga cons at the ExCel Centre but never to this one at the Rocket Centre in Holloway Road. So, having nothing to do this weekend I put on my best Tezuka t-shirt, hopped on a train and went into London.
The LAGC had been running for several years now and as a result is very established. There were lots of events running including the usual cosplay, anime voice actors and musical guests. But there was a big emphasis on gaming too. The Heart of Gaming were there with their arcade machines, pushing the retro gaming agenda and giving many youngsters an experience of social gaming that didn't involve headsets or online play. The whole vibe was very relaxed and there was a wide range in ages represented.

I was really into manga and anime in the 90s and early noughties but with the exception of a few notable anime and manga series am behind in the current wave of popular series. The last series I watched was Soul Eater and Death Note. I have Attack on Titan and Sword Art Online stacked in my 'to watch' pile but haven't got around to it, however classic series like Cowboy Bebop and Evangelion were present and correct so I didn't feel too out of my depth.
The Rocket Centre is a wide space and all spaces were packed with things to see, buy and do. I spent a long time with my cousin in the retro gaming area playing R-Type on the Master System and Rival Schools on the PS1.
The market area was packed with anime and manga goodies and I purchased a few bits including a cool Racoon Mario and classic Link figures and a great coaster for my mancave.

The LAGC is well worth the £13 price of admission and a younger me would have loved it more back in my manga prime even though I did enjoy myself, but for anyone with the anime and manga bug it's a great con to go to.

For the Love of Libraries

'Libraries give us power' extolled the Manic Street Preachers in their anthemic Design for Life and how right they were. The combined collective history of the world, the knowledge and wisdom thereof is contained within. I've always loved libraries, their peace, the smell of old books and the atmosphere they give... wonderful. I've always loved reading and read voraciously in my youth and formative years. Most Saturday mornings were spent going to Barking Library, heading off to Cash Converters to look at all the cool (probably stolen and resold- this is Barking after all) NES and Megadrive games then it would be topped off by a visit to my local comic shop, Rodneys Books and Games... But it all started with the library.

I would spend hours in there perusing the shelves, reading away in a comfy faux leather chair listening to my Jean Michel Jarre recorded cassette of Oxygene. Ah the memories. Well Beyond the Frame has created a marvelous mash-up celebrating the most wonderful places in the world. So what do your library memories consist of?

Life is Strange Complete Season Review (Spoiler Free)

About a year ago the first part of Life Is Strange was releases onto an unsuspecting world. The creators, Dontnod, had previously produced an okay but unremarkable game, entitled ironically enough Remember Me. As such, an episodic tale about an introverted photography student with the power to rewind time did not garner much excitement yet it has ended up being one of the most talked about games of the year, gathering strong reviews and approval from the video games community at large. As the episodes were released over the year Word of mouth spread that Life Is Strange was a great story based games and even though the graphics were not impressive the artistic style and quality earned it unexpectedly high sales.
The games has you play as Max Caulfield, a young student who moves back to her home town of Arcadia Bay to study photography at the local academy. Max discovers that she has the power to rewind time but there are repercussions for her actions

The game is like a mumblecore movie but in the best possible sense with authentic sounding dialogue delivered well with only a few clunky pieces of dialogue. The game is shot with an eye at cinematography and despite the aged software used is composed well with great angles which add to the mystery and atmosphere.

Playing the 5 episodes over the course of the week I found that in the game there were moments of wonder, surprise and tenderness that will stay with you for a long time. Max and Chloe are wonderfully nuanced characters portrayed with depth and personality and you can understand why the game has received a lot of praise for its portrayal of strong women. Overall, this was a great experience and at the price of just over £10 for the entire season is unmissable.

LINK- Japan: My Journey to the East

LINK- Mysterious Cities of Gold Season 3 (English Dub) - Complete Series Review

LINK- The Midnight Library and the Idea That You Can’t Go Home Again

LINK- Manga Exhibition at the British Museum

LINK- The Golden Voyage of Sinbad- Cult Movie Review

LINK- The Transportive Nature of Objects (And the Power of Mini Consoles)

LINK- My One True Gaming Constant in Life- Nintendo

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!