Monty Python Will Reunite For One Night Only

…And now for something completely different.

Members of the British comedy group ‘Monty Python’ will reunite for a one-off live show next July. According to a press conference given by the comedy legends, the group wants to see if they are “still funny”.

Original members Michael Palin, John Cleese, Eric Idle, Terry Gilliam and Terry Jones will perform together for the first time in over 30 years.

According to the group, the show’s content will include “some of Monty Python’s greatest hits, with modern, topical, Pythonesque twists”. However, John Cleese has promised that there will also be some new material.

‘Monty Python’s Flying Circus’, a surreal, DaDa inspired comedy sketch show, first hit British screens in 1969 and remained extremely popular with audiences until it ended in 1974. The show acted as the voice of a new generation, with a fresh approach to comedy and an irreverent, sometimes controversial, edge. Many of the group’s most famous sketches have become treasured parts of British popular culture.

The group released their first feature film ‘And Now For Something Completely Different’ in 1971, but it wasn’t until 1974’s ‘Monty Python and the Holy Grail’ that they filmed an entire movie of new material. The film is an enduring comedy classic, as is its sequel, the controversial ‘Monty Python’s Life of Brian’ (1979). The group’s third feature film ‘Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life’ (1983) was a jet black comedy that was closer in style to the sketch show format of the series, but did not fare as well critically or commercially, despite garnering strong fan support.

In 1989, founding member Graham Chapman sadly passed away from cancer, which put any future reunions in jeopardy.

Following Chapman’s untimely passing, Eric Idle famously stated, “We would only do a reunion if Chapman came back from the dead. So we’re negotiating with his agent.”

Since then, the Pythons have occasionally reformed, with the shows usually featuring an urn containing the ‘ashes’ of Chapman (in reality, his ashes were scattered on Mount Snowdon, Wales by his partner David Sherlock). The urn was, in one instance ‘accidentally’ knocked over on stage before being vacuumed up with a Dust Buster. 

The new show is going to feature classic sketches that have never been performed live. Idle, who is also the show’s director, has said that it is going to resemble “a huge musical” in style, whilst John Cleese warned, “The main danger we have is that the audience know the scripts better than we do.”

During the aforementioned press conference, Michael Palin stated that the group “still enjoy getting together to be very silly”.

“After you turn 70, you can be absolutely shameless,” joked Terry Gilliam.

Prior to this news, the troupe’s most recent live performance took place at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles in September 1980, but it has been 40 years since the Pythons last performed on stage in the UK.

 The most expensive tickets have been announced at £95, but the cheapest seats will costs just £26.50, with Idle quipping that it was “only £300 cheaper than The Stones”

“I hope to be able to pay off my mortgage!” said Terry Jones.

The show will also be made available on DVD & Blu Ray later in the year.

SOURCES

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-25031520

Monty Python Will Reunite For One Night Only

Robot Rugby League,

 This is a games of Robot Rugby League, the english commentator has a slightly different take on the rules and game of american football. I laughed!!!!

Robot Rugby League,

Doctor Who Anniversary Special Breaks Record

The 50^th Anniversary episode of popular British TV show ‘Doctor Who’, which aired on Saturday 23^rd November, has broken the world record for largest ever simulcast of a television drama.

A simulcast is a simultaneous broadcast that is viewed via more than one medium.

In the UK alone, some 10.2 million people tuned in to the BBC show, although others still would have digitally recorded the special in order to view it at a time better suited to them.

The episode, entitled ‘Day of The Doctor’ was broadcast on TV in 94 countries, as well as being screened in 1,500 cinemas around the globe. It is also being streamed online via BBC iPlayer, for those who either missed the first showing, or would simply like to see it again.

Guinness World Records editor-in-chief Craig Glenday presented the show’s head writer and executive producer, Steven Moffat, with a special certificate in commemoration of the event, on Sunday. In response, Moffat joked that after years of preventing others from conquering the world, the Doctor had done it himself.

‘Day of The Doctor’ is the 799^th episode of the long running show, which first aired in 1963. The series was cancelled in 1989, but was resurrected in 2005 by executive producer Russell T. Davies.

The feature-length anniversary episode starred Matt Smith as the titular Doctor, teaming him up with previous Doctor David Tennant and veteran actor John Hurt (who played an as-yet unseen incarnation of the character, known only to fans as ‘The War Doctor’).

The show also starred Jenna Coleman as the Doctor’s companion, Clara, Joanna Page as Queen Elizabeth I, Jemma Redgrave as Kate Stewart and fan-favourite Billie Piper as a variation on her previous character, Rose Tyler.

Long time fans were also especially pleased to see the return of actor Tom Baker, who portrayed the character of The Doctor from 1974 – 1981.

Via contemporary special effects and cunning use of old footage, all of the actors who have played The Doctor appeared to some degree. Viewers were also treated to a brief glimpse of Peter Capaldi (the actor positioned to be the next Doctor) in the role.

The show continues a tradition of sorts, in which returning former stars have celebrated the series’ anniversaries. The 10^th anniversary of the show in 1973 featured the return of past actors William Hartnell and Patrick Troughton for a special entitled ‘The Three Doctors’. In 1983, the programme’s 20^th anniversary saw the return of Troughton and Jon Pertwee for the special episode called ‘The Five Doctors’. In other instances, past Doctors have appeared in 1985’s ‘The Two Doctors’ and the 2007 BBC Children in Need Special ‘Time Crash’.

Fan response to the show was generally positive, with massive activity on Facebook, Twitter and others, but not all fans were impressed. Christopher Ritchie, writing for Dr.WhoTV.co.uk, suggested that the ending of the show devalued the impact of key events in the character’s history, going as far as to call it a “degeneration” of the relaunched series.

However, the vast majority of the show’s fans, both old and young, were hugely impressed with the episode, with multiple Tweets praising the show’s attention to its history and legacy, as well as the heaps of praise for the performances of Smith, Tennant and Hurt. Fans were sharing their favourite quotes with one another online within minutes of the closing credits.

The 74-minute special will be available on DVD and download from December 2^nd.

 

SOURCES:

http://www.doctorwhotv.co.uk/time-war-no-more-the-degeneration-of-the-doctor-56179.htm

http://www.express.co.uk/news/showbiz/444886/Doctor-Who-anniversary-special-sets-world-records-as-millions-tune-in-to-Day-of-The-Doctor

http://fansided.com/2013/11/25/doctor-fans-react-50th-anniversary-special-day-doctor/

Doctor Who Anniversary Special Breaks Record

What is Ham Radio & How Does it Work?

Ham radio (so called because its operators were originally derided as being ‘hammy’ in the 19^th century, when the technology first emerged) is a term that applies to any form of amateur radio broadcasting.

 

There are designated radio frequency spectra available solely for public use. Uses range from recreation to communication and the non-commercial exchange of ideas. ‘Hams’ take advantage of these frequencies in order to transmit any number of things

 

Strictly speaking, there should not be any money involved in amateur radio (hence the term ‘amateur’). Although the majority of Ham radio practitioners are actually extremely knowledgeable about radio technology (don’t let the ‘ham’ part fool you), they are not considered professionals because they do not profit from their endeavours. Conversely, commercial broadcasting involves (a lot of) money: royalties are paid, producers and performers are paid and the whole thing is ultimately a commercial exercise.

 

Hams use a large amount of frequency bands from all across the radio spectrum, but the majority of frequencies are to be found just above the AM band.

 

A lot of hams, however, use VHF FM, operating hand-held transceivers that send on one frequency and receive on another. Local radio clubs set up FM Repeaters (which borrow space from other broadcast devices such as towers and, in doing so, amplify the radio signal’s strength hundreds of times over), so that hams can communicate with each other wirelessly over a distance of hundreds of miles.

 

As an example of what hams get up to, here’s an excerpt from Gary Brown, of ‘How Stuff Works.com’

 

“Although a ham radio does broadcast in all directions, hams generally do not use their radios in a broadcast kind of way as a disk jockey would at a radio station. In normal AM or FM radio, one disk jockey transmits and thousands of people listen. Hams, on the other hand, conduct two-way conversations, often with another ham or with a group of hams in an informal roundtable. The roundtable of hams may be in the same town, county, state, country or continent or may consist of a mix of countries, depending on the frequency and the time of the day. Hams also participate in networks, often called nets, at predetermined times and frequencies to exchange third-party messages. In the case of disasters, hams exchange health and welfare information with other hams”.

 

To become a ham, I recommend that you join a club. You’ll need an amateur radio license, of course, but this won’t break the bank, I’m sure.

 

I hope that helps, Melissa. 

What is Ham Radio & How Does it Work?

‘Shrieks’ Heard From Outer space

The Voyager one spaceship, which recently grew to be the very first man-designed object to leave our solar system, has transmitted peculiar, sharp pitched shrieks and squeals from past the void.

The noises, described by a few as the ‘howl’ and by some others as a ‘scream’, were recorded at a expanse of 12 Billion miles from our sun.

The ‘shrieks’ detected by Voyager’s instruments are actually plasma waves. The high-pitched signal emitted by them are impossible to hear in outer space, but within the range of detection through the Human ear.

A spokesperson for NASA remarked, “The soundtrack reproduces the amplitude and frequency of these plasma waves as “heard” by Voyager one. The waves detected through the instrument antennas may be merely augmented and played through a speaker.”

Ed Stone, a Voyager Project scientist based in the California Institute of Technology said that, “The 36-year old probe will now be sailing in unfamiliar waters of a new cosmic sea and they have brought us alongside for the journey.”

Previously this year, Voyager one’s devices indicated that spacecraft had either left, or was going to leave, the solar system. However, nobody could give an exact figure regarding how long it may take. The transmission of those bizarre sounds has helped scientists to work out, once and for all, that Voyager 1 has certainly left our space for pastures unknown.

The Voyager spacecraft was initially launched in 1977 and, ever since that point, it has traversed billions of miles throughout our solar system. It’s now so far from earth that communication messages, including the creepy shrieks of interstellar outer space, take approximately seventeen hours to turn up at NASA head office.

Voyager 1 is supposed to carry on transmitting until a short time in 2020.

The sounds from outside the boundaries of our solar system are a fascinating way to mark our species historic entry into interstellar deep space.

 

‘Shrieks’ Heard From Outer space

Who He is & How He Came to be A Review of Batman: Year One

“Gotham City. Maybe it’s all I deserve, now. Maybe it’s just my time in Hell…”

As an opening line, it’s right up there with the one about the dead dog in the alleyway that greets you as you first read ‘Watchmen’. Right away, you can tell that this book is something special. It just grabs you and steadfastly refuses to let go.

Ignoring the controversy caused by this particular reprinting (that’s a blog for another time), what we have here is an enduring graphic classic. It is a gritty piece of exquisitely rendered pulp-noir that has been in high demand since its first printing (in four single issues) back in 1987.

I’ll delve into the backstory, even though you probably know it all by now. In 1986, DC comics decided to revamp their entire line of characters and comic books. Following a monster comics event known as ‘Crisis on Infinite Earths’ the readers and creators found themselves with a veritable tabula rasa upon which to create new stories and furnish them with the rich tapestry of established DC comics concepts, characters and ideas. To this end, The Batman was given an expanded origin story that reflected the sombre, acidic, sometimes brutal nature of his more recent adventures.

Writer Frank Miller volunteered for this daunting task and hand picked rising young star David Mazzucchelli to tackle the art duties. The rest, as they say, is history.

I’m not even going to bother to find faults or flaws with this masterful piece of pulp storytelling. I’m sure they are there, if you care to look for them, but I’m afraid that, when it comes to this volume, I’m like the old man who still swears that his aged wife is as beautiful and radiant as the day he married her. I don’t see flaws, only beauty.

Told largely from the point of view of young Lieutenant Jim Gordon (recently transferred to the Gotham Police Department from Chicago), ‘Batman: Year One’ follows both the Dark Knight and his greatest ally through their most formative 12 months. There are no supervillains; there is no Bat-signal, no Batmobile and no Robin. There are just two men who have embarked on individual missions to make this world a better place and happen to cross paths somewhere along the way.

Everything in this book is stripped back, stark and uncompromising. A freezing cold colour palette (although that depends on which version you read) amplifies the emotional alienation of both men, as Gordon becomes slowly separated from his Wife and Bruce Wayne becomes (arguably) annexed from his sanity.

The violence is savage, claustrophobic and hard hitting. A nihilistic riposte to the day-glo captions of the Adam West and Burt Ward TV show of the 60’s, its cartoon ‘BIFFS’ and ‘POWS’ rendered here as achingly wince inducing as possible.

Here, Batman is forced to rely on training and ingenuity, he makes mistakes, but he’s still Batman and that’s what counts.

Both men are stretched to breaking point throughout the course of this book, but, crucially, both men find ways to rise above it with single-minded, (some might say obsessive) determination and a staunch clarity of vision only possible in great works of fiction.

Mention this book to any seasoned comic reader, no matter how cynical and web-weary, and they’ll grow misty-eyed and nostalgic. It is, like a classic of cinema or an album that tethers one to a benighted, embellished youth, an experience to be savoured and enjoyed. Again and again. 

Who He is & How He Came to be A Review of Batman: Year One

VTech Innolab: The Kids Are Alright

Last night I found myself in the grip of a nightmare. In my dream, a Woman dressed like a Victorian widow was drowning me under a sheet of thick, impenetrable ice. Before that, I’d had a series of other nightmares involving a fire, a group of shadow-like stick figures slashing me with long nails and an attack by large tanks aimed at either shooting me or squashing me, whichever came first.

However, in a lucid state of dreaming, I was able to call on a ‘Dream Guardian’ of sorts, who furnished me with a magical suit of armour that allowed me to beat all of the challenges. I ‘burst’ the spindly shadow-men with a blast of light, I doused the fire with water, and I disabled the tanks with a single punch.

Yep, imagination is a powerful thing.

That’s what worries me about tablets for kids. When I was a little boy, we played Sega Mega Drive, but I also had a leftover 70’s Pocket Simon that I adored. Mostly however, it was playing with toys that allowed me to foster and develop the natural imagination that I now use every day in my other life as a contemporary fiction writer.

I immersed myself in comics, books and ghost stories and, in the process, found a career path that felt right to me (although, looking back, I probably should have paid attention in maths and been a banker).

Today’s kids, growing up with tablet PCs, video games and blockbuster movies, may not have as much need for an imagination, or at least, that’s what sometimes bothers me. I worry that kids who grow up with ‘interactive literature’ at their disposal, might become deathly bored with ‘grown up’ literature when they come of age, and that they might even grow to reject the printed word outright.  Not only does ‘Crime & Punishment’ not have pictures, but the only options for playable mini games would have to be desperately macabre.

Pedantic and repetitive explanations don’t necessarily teach children to use computers, either. Anybody can do anything if they have someone telling them over and over again how to do it. So, with more and more interactive toys and less and less cause to take up a cardboard box and ‘just add wonder’, it is easy to play a prophet of doom to a predicted generation of mindless kids, most of whom don’t know how to actually be kids anymore.

However, in my capacity as a tech reviewer, I’ve found considerable cause to hope for better. After extensively reviewing the latest crop of kid’s tablet PCs, I’ve actually found them to be, potentially, an exceptionally useful learning tool. In fact, provided that they are used as part of a ‘balanced diet’ (that also includes traditional picture books, regular play and stimulating creative exercises), a children’s tablet can be a really enriching product.

With literally hundreds of apps available for cheap download, kids tablets can offer anything from reading and writing programs, to maths, elementary science and even foreign languages. The sheer variety available on tablets like the VTech Innolab or the Leapfrog LeapPad is actually amazing. Some of these tablets (such as the LeapPad) even have specially designed operating systems that give children a basic introduction to the underpinnings of MAC OS, Windows, or Android.

In fact, there’s a lot to be said for interactive activities being better than more enriching than ‘passive’ activities like watching TV. Of course, there will be those parents who don’t take the time to use the tablets with their children, but those parents are no different from those who use the TV as an all-purpose babysitter or those parents who never make the time to read to their children.

However, if you want your child to gain a basic grasp of computers and have access to an array of interactive learning facilities, then I can honestly say that you could do a lot worse than getting a kid’s tablet.

In moderation a children’s tablet can be a passport to excitement, adventure and a high degree of preschool learning. Remember though, I said moderation. Drawing, writing, reading and traditional play are still very much number one in my opinion.

After all, without a little imagination, the adult world can be one nightmare after another.

Get the VTech Innolab from amazon right here

 

VTech Innolab: The Kids Are Alright

Author Neil Gaiman Defends Children’s Literature From Adult ‘Snobbery’

52-year-old British author Neil Gaiman has spoken out against ‘snobbish’ adult judgements being placed upon children’s literature.

The author, who delivered the second annual Reading Agency lecture in central London this week, chose to use this time, at least in part, to speak out against what he feels is a damaging trend in modern literary criticism.

“I don’t think there is such a thing as a bad book for children,” began the author, addressing a crowd that included many leading figures from the arts and entertainment world, as well as several representatives from educational institutions.

“Every now and again it becomes fashionable among some adults to point at a subset of children’s books, a genre, perhaps, or an author, and to declare them bad books, books that children should be stopped from reading,”

“I’ve seen it happen over and over; Enid Blyton was declared a bad author, so was (‘Goosebumps’ author) RL Stine, so were dozens of others. Comics have been decried as fostering illiteracy”.

“It’s tosh, it’s snobbery and it’s foolishness”, he continued.

Mr Gaiman, who’s works include children’s books (Odd & The Frost Giants), comic books (Sandman, 1602) and prize winning novels (The Graveyard Book, Coraline, American Gods), has seen his works adapted into popular films (Stardust, Coraline), and has written for several TV shows (Babylon 5, Dr. Who, Neverwhere). He is generally considered to be one of the most prolific and celebrated authors of his generation, so it is likely that his criticisms will carry some weight.

Gaiman continued, saying that, “There are no bad authors for children, that children like and want to read and seek out, because every child is different. They can find the stories they need to, and they bring themselves to stories”.

“A hackneyed, worn-out idea isn’t hackneyed and worn out to them. This is the first time the child has encountered it. Do not discourage children from reading because you feel they are reading the wrong thing. Fiction you do not like is the gateway drug to other books you may prefer. And not everyone has the same taste as you.

He continued with a warning to parents, teachers and even older siblings, when he said that,

“Well-meaning adults can easily destroy a child’s love of reading: stop them reading what they enjoy, or give them worthy-but-dull books that you like, the 21st Century equivalents of Victorian ‘improving’ literature. You’ll wind up with a generation convinced that reading is uncool and worse, unpleasant.”

Gaiman’s own book, ‘Neverwhere’ was recently removed from a High School reading list in New Mexico after a parent complained that it was inappropriate.

Gaiman’s response to this was wry and well-considered, as he told a BBC reporter, “I tend to take books of mine being challenged and occasionally being banned – and very occasionally being burned – as a kind of badge of honour. You know you are doing something right.”

Mr. Gaiman’s concerns were echoed by a number of the lecture’s attendees.

 

SOURCES:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-24521225

Author Neil Gaiman Defends Children’s Literature From Adult ‘Snobbery’