It looks like Steampunk is starting to make large waves in the media.
BBC News - Steampunks gather for Great Exhibition
more links...
Steampunk Network
SteamPunk Magazine
The Great Steampunk Debate
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
The Right Answer...
Papua Partners Quiz Night
A group of guys from down our street (and some from elsewhere in the village) get together once a year for a Curry Night. During the last meal we agreed to get together again for a Quiz Night that was being held to support a local charity, Papua Partners. We were not overly confident and the initial round on classical music did not help, but we picked up our socks in the later rounds and we eventually came in second by one point. The event was very well attended and was held in a local restaurant and included a meal. Over £600 was raised on the night and we had a very enjoyable time.
A group of guys from down our street (and some from elsewhere in the village) get together once a year for a Curry Night. During the last meal we agreed to get together again for a Quiz Night that was being held to support a local charity, Papua Partners. We were not overly confident and the initial round on classical music did not help, but we picked up our socks in the later rounds and we eventually came in second by one point. The event was very well attended and was held in a local restaurant and included a meal. Over £600 was raised on the night and we had a very enjoyable time.
Westcott in Bloom...
We have been invited to be part of the village committee that is organising this year’s entry into the Britain in Bloom competition via our regional panel South and South East in Bloom
The village have only been entering into this event for a couple of years and they have been improving each time. The aim this year is to get a Silver Gilt or Gold award. We help out with the planting and clearing up activities as well as the organisational tasks.
The village have only been entering into this event for a couple of years and they have been improving each time. The aim this year is to get a Silver Gilt or Gold award. We help out with the planting and clearing up activities as well as the organisational tasks.
More of wot I have seen…
Lee Mack
We have enjoyed Lee Mack in his TV show ‘Not Going Out’ and he tackles his stand up show in a similar manner with quick one-liners, sarcasm aplenty, and stereotypical northern wit. He gave a good show with plenty of pointed observations and barbs that was nicely complemented by his similarly stereotypical southern warm-up man.
Return to the Forbidden Planet
I do like this show, and I have seen several different productions of it since it came out many years ago. This production was the local Am Dram - DDOS annual musical of choice, and it was well received by our group. We bought tickets for several family members as their Christmas present as it was and event we had been to before and hoped they would enjoy. The cast have to be multitalented as many act, sing, dance and play various musical instruments during the show.
The show is subtitled as Shakespeares Lost Rock and Roll Opera and it is loosely based on the Tempest as if crossed with the old American sci-fi TV programme Forbidden Planet to the sound track of 50’s rock and roll music. The jokes are nicely layered with various Shakespearian and sci-fi references that are telegraphed as are the transitions from spoken word to song.
Alice in Wonderland
and another link
We were looking forward to seeing this in 3D at the IMAX, but were unfortunately too late to get the convenient times, so we went to a local cinema that was also showing it in 3D. There was enough entertainment in watching Sue jump at all of the effects to keep me happy, but the show delivered much more. We played ‘spot the famous actor’ from their voices and loved how they merged some of the actors and their characters features. The darkness and weirdness of how Tim Burton, Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter interpreted this classic tale made it their own and was a wonderfully modern wonderland.
Priscilla Queen of the Desert - the Musical
We were bought tickets to this show by friends who we went with to see it. We had seen and enjoyed the movie, but they and their daughters were not aware of it. Some of the themes and language may have come as a bit of a shock, but hopefully nothing too lasting.
We thought the production was fantastic, the songs, the costumes and the set were all brilliant along with the outrageous performance of the cast.
We have enjoyed Lee Mack in his TV show ‘Not Going Out’ and he tackles his stand up show in a similar manner with quick one-liners, sarcasm aplenty, and stereotypical northern wit. He gave a good show with plenty of pointed observations and barbs that was nicely complemented by his similarly stereotypical southern warm-up man.
Return to the Forbidden Planet
I do like this show, and I have seen several different productions of it since it came out many years ago. This production was the local Am Dram - DDOS annual musical of choice, and it was well received by our group. We bought tickets for several family members as their Christmas present as it was and event we had been to before and hoped they would enjoy. The cast have to be multitalented as many act, sing, dance and play various musical instruments during the show.
The show is subtitled as Shakespeares Lost Rock and Roll Opera and it is loosely based on the Tempest as if crossed with the old American sci-fi TV programme Forbidden Planet to the sound track of 50’s rock and roll music. The jokes are nicely layered with various Shakespearian and sci-fi references that are telegraphed as are the transitions from spoken word to song.
Alice in Wonderland
and another link
We were looking forward to seeing this in 3D at the IMAX, but were unfortunately too late to get the convenient times, so we went to a local cinema that was also showing it in 3D. There was enough entertainment in watching Sue jump at all of the effects to keep me happy, but the show delivered much more. We played ‘spot the famous actor’ from their voices and loved how they merged some of the actors and their characters features. The darkness and weirdness of how Tim Burton, Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter interpreted this classic tale made it their own and was a wonderfully modern wonderland.
Priscilla Queen of the Desert - the Musical
We were bought tickets to this show by friends who we went with to see it. We had seen and enjoyed the movie, but they and their daughters were not aware of it. Some of the themes and language may have come as a bit of a shock, but hopefully nothing too lasting.
We thought the production was fantastic, the songs, the costumes and the set were all brilliant along with the outrageous performance of the cast.
More of wot I have read…
The Algebraist by Iain M Banks
This is more my speed. I like a lot about the worlds the author has created in his sci-fi work and this is no exception. There are always difficulties in seeing the creations of an author the way he does, and sometimes you can find this a little hard to accept. Also there are many obstacles an author must overcome for the sake of a good story (languages, alien compatibility, technology etc). I find that this author makes a good job at talking all of these and still being able to spin a captivating yarn.
‘It is 4034 AD. Humanity has made it to the stars. Fassin Taak, a Slow Seer at the Court of the Nasqueron Dwellers, will be fortunate if he makes it to the end of the year.
The Nasqueron Dwellers inhabit a gas giant on the outskirts of the galaxy, in a system awaiting its wormhole connection to the rest of civilisation. In the meantime, they are dismissed as decadents living in a state of highly developed barbarism, hoarding data without order, hunting their own young and fighting pointless formal wars.
Seconded to a military-religious order he’s barely heard of – part of the baroque hierarchy of the Mercatoria, the latest galactic hegemony – Fassin Taak has to travel again amongst the Dwellers. He is in search of a secret hidden for half a billion years. But with each day that passes a war draws closer – a war that threatens to overwhelm everything and everyone he's ever known.’
This is more my speed. I like a lot about the worlds the author has created in his sci-fi work and this is no exception. There are always difficulties in seeing the creations of an author the way he does, and sometimes you can find this a little hard to accept. Also there are many obstacles an author must overcome for the sake of a good story (languages, alien compatibility, technology etc). I find that this author makes a good job at talking all of these and still being able to spin a captivating yarn.
‘It is 4034 AD. Humanity has made it to the stars. Fassin Taak, a Slow Seer at the Court of the Nasqueron Dwellers, will be fortunate if he makes it to the end of the year.
The Nasqueron Dwellers inhabit a gas giant on the outskirts of the galaxy, in a system awaiting its wormhole connection to the rest of civilisation. In the meantime, they are dismissed as decadents living in a state of highly developed barbarism, hoarding data without order, hunting their own young and fighting pointless formal wars.
Seconded to a military-religious order he’s barely heard of – part of the baroque hierarchy of the Mercatoria, the latest galactic hegemony – Fassin Taak has to travel again amongst the Dwellers. He is in search of a secret hidden for half a billion years. But with each day that passes a war draws closer – a war that threatens to overwhelm everything and everyone he's ever known.’
More of wot I have read…
Don Quixote by Cervantes (translated by P A Motteux)
This was one of the most difficult reads I have ever had. It has taken me months to plough through this translation (which I now find out is perhaps not one of the better ones). Having been written so long ago 1600’s and in Spanish it is very different in style to that of modern novels. Also since the translation itself is hundreds of years old, the references are also dated and at times hard to follow. In addition to the style and structure being quite difficult to grasp, the story arc is strange and hard to follow. There are many interesting and funny passages hidden away in amongst the more challenging paragraphs, but I am not sure they alone make the ordeal worthwhile. This sort of book can make one feel a total dunce.
‘Cervante’s tale of the deranged gentleman who turns knight-errant, tilts at windmills and battles with sheep in the service of the lady of his dreams, Dulcinea del Toboso, has fascinated generations of readers, and inspired other creative artists such as Flaubert, Picasso and Richard Strauss. The tall, thin knight and his short, fat squire, Sancho Panza, have found their way into films, cartoons and even computer games. Supposedly intended as a parody of the most popular escapist fiction of the day, the ‘books of chivalry’, this precursor of the modern novel broadened and deepened into a sophisticated, comic account of the contradictions of human nature.
On his ‘heroic’ journey Don Quixote meets characters of every class and condition, from the prostitute Maritornes, who is commended for her Christian charity, to the Knight of the Green Coat, who seems to embody some of the constraints of virtue.
Cervantes’ greatest work can be enjoyed on many levels, all suffused with a subtle irony that reaches out to encompass the reader, and does not leave the author outside its circle.
Peter Motteux’s fine eighteenth-century translation, acknowledged as one of the best, brilliantly succeeds in communicating the spirit of the original Spanish’.
This was one of the most difficult reads I have ever had. It has taken me months to plough through this translation (which I now find out is perhaps not one of the better ones). Having been written so long ago 1600’s and in Spanish it is very different in style to that of modern novels. Also since the translation itself is hundreds of years old, the references are also dated and at times hard to follow. In addition to the style and structure being quite difficult to grasp, the story arc is strange and hard to follow. There are many interesting and funny passages hidden away in amongst the more challenging paragraphs, but I am not sure they alone make the ordeal worthwhile. This sort of book can make one feel a total dunce.
‘Cervante’s tale of the deranged gentleman who turns knight-errant, tilts at windmills and battles with sheep in the service of the lady of his dreams, Dulcinea del Toboso, has fascinated generations of readers, and inspired other creative artists such as Flaubert, Picasso and Richard Strauss. The tall, thin knight and his short, fat squire, Sancho Panza, have found their way into films, cartoons and even computer games. Supposedly intended as a parody of the most popular escapist fiction of the day, the ‘books of chivalry’, this precursor of the modern novel broadened and deepened into a sophisticated, comic account of the contradictions of human nature.
On his ‘heroic’ journey Don Quixote meets characters of every class and condition, from the prostitute Maritornes, who is commended for her Christian charity, to the Knight of the Green Coat, who seems to embody some of the constraints of virtue.
Cervantes’ greatest work can be enjoyed on many levels, all suffused with a subtle irony that reaches out to encompass the reader, and does not leave the author outside its circle.
Peter Motteux’s fine eighteenth-century translation, acknowledged as one of the best, brilliantly succeeds in communicating the spirit of the original Spanish’.
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