Space Captain Tim
Space Captain Tim Adventures In The Distant Fear Zone was the first of three published science fiction novels featuring the ruggedly handsome and devoted father and space captain by Ryan Hedley, Sr during the late 1960s and early 1970s. The books were written for Hedley’s infant-then-teen son although they were marketed for an adult audience. Generally, the stories followed the heroic captain of the Space Voyager Cosmic 10 as he steered his vessel and crew through perilous space adventures all with the aim of saving his son from the clutches of Alien Witchqueen Audrey who steals the child in the opening chapter of this book. Hedley’s devotion to his own son accounts for the artwork present on each book’s cover, allowing Ryan Junior to design Space Voyager Cosmic 10 for the first in the series as well as the wrestling aliens that adorned the outside of Space Captain Tim Conquers The World Of The Warriors and the huge weapon that graced Space Captain Tim Unleashes The Ultimate Power. The latter two books were eventually withdrawn from sale and pulped as their covers were deemed to violate anti-homosexuality and obscenity laws...
1980s Movie Music Triple
Three bits of music from 1980s movies for your listening pleasure. 1980s movie master Kenny Loggins produces a song that is only surpassed by the gopher’s dancing skills in Caddyshack, skills I’ve mastered to the detriment of any other dancing style. Used in a ridiculous number or movies and TV scenes (see: Wikipedia: Oh Yeah) but probably most famously in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. Weird Science, just one of those 80s movies that can be a little uncomfortable viewing in later years if you question some of the attitudes to sex and age. But still...
The Queen’s Dolls’ House
Scans from the Girls Own Annual, 1924, featuring an article on the Dolls House built for Queen Mary, the wife of King George V, and constructed with the help of architect Sir Edwin Lutyens. Click the images for larger...
Britain First: Misunderstood Athletes
A friend shared a link on Facebook which included an image and quote from Britain First’s Jayda Fransen: On the face of it that’s a pretty damning quote implying anyone considered to be a traitor by Jayda and her chums will be killed. The problem with quotes like that, though, is that they’re all too easy to take out of context. Just because Britain First is filled with racists and people unable to get jobs through a lack of social or technical skills plus an inability to learn anything new (or old for that matter), and just because Britain First’s members are anger-filled, violent subhumans it doesn’t automatically follow that Jayda Fransen was necessarily saying that a lynching (the sort of thing that used to happen to dark-skinned people a lot) would be the end result for anyone considered traitors to the really small-minded (really small-minded) organisation that considers itself Christian mostly because it’s kinda guessing what happens later in the Bible but hasn’t really got past the first half of Genesis so far as a collective. But they’re really trying to crack three-syllable words any day now. Good luck Britain First. In fact, in this case – and it’s always worth doing your research on quotes for things like this – Jayda’s comments were a simple call for a sporting competition in order to build some team spirit with “the enemy”. It followed on from someone taking the time – three and half years in this case – to sit down and explain what had just gone on in the London Olympics. So there you go. Sure, they’re amongst the worst scum of the Earth but always engage your sceptical mind when considering whether everything Britain First says is just pure hate and...
Discs Of Despair
In 1969 an independent publisher called Flimflam Books put an advert in local newspapers across the Pacific Northwest area of America looking for authors willing to engage in a novel (no pun intended) revenue-sharing scheme. One of the first books that appeared in the stores of Seattle in early 1970 as a result of this advertisement was Discs of Despair by E.C. Clamp. Discs of Despair followed the story of two best friends, George and Henry, abducted by a UFO whilst playing with their flying disc on a beach at twilight. They effect an escape from the craft, destroying it in the process, but in doing so find themselves stranded on an alien planet. With just what they can salvage from the wreckage, their wits, and their disc to keep them occupied they search for a way home that ends up taking them through interstellar portals and eventually into a bloodthirsty disc-throwing competition with family members of the aliens who originally captured them. The novel revenue-sharing scheme revolved around playing rock-paper-scissors to determine cut of the profits. E.C. Clamp lost all three rounds against the publishing house and ended up with no royalties from sales of the book. This experience turned Clamp off writing for the rest of his...
South America Cruise Videos
A companion post to the two articles that I recently posted outlining our recent cruise from Buenos Aires, Argentina to Valparaiso, Chile on board the Princess Cruises ship Star Princess, containg the videos that I’ve subsequently uploaded to YouTube along with some brief notes. To read a review of the cruise see: Star Princess: South America Cruise (Part 1) Star Princess: South America Cruise (Part 2) A quick pan around the admittedly not terribly photogenic dockside area in Buenos Aires from our mini-suite stateroom balcony. We boarded a steam train in order to get to the winery at Juanico in Uruguay. This is a few minutes of the countryside and small towns rolling past which sadly doesn’t capture many of the happy, waving, or just plain gobsmacked locals who stopped to stare at our mode of travel. A zumba session taking place out on deck. People who know me will not be surprised to learn that not only did I not partake I also didn’t even consider partaking. The Star Princess outside the influence of the River Plate and on the South Atlantic, as seen from our balcony once again. A Magellanic penguin wandering past us as we strolled through its rookery at Punta Tombo reserve in Argentina. Two dancers showing off some Argentina Tango moves in the piazza to the enjoyment of three decks of viewers. The dancers were very good but they weren’t as good as the Uruguayans who danced for us as the winery and with whom I “danced” in front of everyone. And nobody was as good as the dancers who put on the tango show in Buenos Aires. But still good, as you can see. You’re probably looking at this and thinking “nice filters” or “nice processing” or something along those lines. Well, stop that. The sunset that you see here was exactly as it appeared as the ship made its way southwards from Argentina towards the Falkland Islands. We’d been sitting down in one of the bars (shock) when we noticed the sudden colour of the sky outside so, along with a great many other passengers, headed out onto the promenade deck to stare at it and take some photos and video. A quick pan around on our Falklands War Battlefields tour that we took on the Falkland Islands. As you probably could have guessed. Fascinating tour that you can read more about on the first article I wrote about the cruise. The next three videos are from our cruising around Cape Horn. The theme of these videos is “grey”. Now for three videos shot on a catamaran trip out onto the Beagle...
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