The Daily Teaser — 20-8-2015: Space Stuff

Right … 

That’s that set up … 

Remember, yesterday, that I told you the second monitor had failed on me?

Awkward, especially once you get used to a dual monitor set up.   Making the slideshows for Nik Nak’s Old Peculiar is something it’s helpful for: I put the question sets on one screen, copying text  the Keynote files on the main screen.

To be frank … ?   I’m grateful I’d managed to squirrel away a spare 4:3 monitor.

And that I had the relevant cables to hook it up to my Mac Pro: it’s a bit fussy, like that.

Hopefully … ?   Hopefully, I’l be able to squirrel away a bit of cash to get a new second monitor.

That way?   I’ll have a spare … 

~≈†≈~

The Daily Teaser — 8-3-2015: The Hitchhiker’s Guide …

Oh, well, THAT seems to works … 

I don’t know about you, but I have a fair collection of films: backed up onto an external hard drive.

Occasionally?

Occasionally, it’s handy to be able to burn off a copy of a film onto DVD: purely for personal use, obviously.

Now, I confess, I’ve using the open source app, Burn, if I want to burn off the occasional disk image.

But, wanting to use an alternative to iDVD, last night?

I thought I’d give Burn’s DVD burning abilities a go.

I’ve not completely checked the results on a DVD player, as yet: although they do play on Lion’s DVD playing software.

Handy to know.

And, if the results play in a regular DVD player?   That’ll be even handier … !

~≈Á≈~

Hikers and Watchers

You know, I’ve got to confess, there was one last pressie I didn’t tell you about, at Christmas.

Bless ’er, Allison managed to pick me up a copy of The Hitch-hikers Guide to the Galaxy for Christmas.

Fantastic to re-read it, again …

To the point where I spent a little of the spare cash I had on the immediate follow up, The Restaurant at the End of The Universe.

Now, in case you didn’t know, The Hitch-hikers Guide to the Galaxy was originally written as a series for BBC Radio 4, broadcast in 1978, and then adapted by script-writer, Douglas Adams, and published in 1979.

Now, I got reading the multimedia hit a while later, after the series had been adapted — again by Douglas Adams — for BBC1.

Which is kind of when I got interested.

After all, this was at a time that — bar the original series of Doctor Who, and endless repeats of the classic series of Star Trek — there wasn’t that much science fiction on TV.

Which made watching something of an event.

And getting hold of the book, back then, kind of an occasion.

•••••

Actually, getting the commemorative edition from Allison was rather good …

•••••

Where was I … ?

Oh, yeah.

Both the TV, book and radio series, though, are all re-tellings of the same basic story: one that sees The Hitch-hikers Guide to the Galaxy’s hero — Arthur Dent — extremely upset, one Thursday morning, when his house get’s demolished to make way for a bypass.

It doesn’t get any better …

A few hours later, the Earth — Arthurs home — get demolished to make way for an intergalactic bypass, while his best friend, For Prefect, turns out to be Betelgeuse — and not from Guildford, as he’s hitherto claimed.

And on top of that, there’s a green slimey monster who wants to read some poetry to him.

•••••

Now I don’t know about you, but this shaped the way I read fiction.

Or, at the least, the sort of fiction I like to read.

And, along with Lord of the Rings, Dune, Doctor Who and others, shaped my long term taste for good fantasy and science fiction.

The simple fact that Adams stopped worked on the series, after the fifth book in the series played a part in my picking up the first in what was to become a long running — and very well known — fantasy series.

•••••

Not that I’m Saying Terry Pratchett’s better than Douglas Adams was.

Not by a long shot.

I personally like both of them, equally as much.

But I am very aware that Adams took one basic story-line; took it, and moulded and re-moulded it into to a many-headed, multi-media hydra. And did a lot of the actual writing for these different forms, himself.

While PTerry built — over the past 27 years and 37 or so books — a whole world.

Entirely on paper.

Very different writers, in other words.

•••••

Now, to other things …

One thing I did notice on the news, this morning, were the report’s about Sarah’s Law.

Now I don’t know if you remember the murder of school-girl, Sarah Payne, by Roy Whiting, that I can.

It was …

Hmm …

I don’t quite know how I feel about this, now: apart from sad, still, that a child has/had been killed.

And still do.

But I can remember at the time, the hysteria about her kidnapping, and killing.

And am very aware of her mother’s — Sara Payne — campaign to have a UK version of what, in the States, called Megan’s Law introduce into the UK.

Basically, the idea of the law — piloted in four different counties of England — was to give parents controlled access to the various sex offenders records, in cases where they’re unsure of people who have unsupervised access to their children.

And those pilot schemes have proven to be successful.

Sara Payne herself has called this “… this is the most important development to date.”

But I’m thinking there’s possibly …

Issues …

Possibly …

Don’t get me wrong, I actually think this is basically a good idea.

I’m thinking that parent — friends of mine, included — would feel reassured, knowing they could check out whether a new family member or neighbour could be easily checked on.

But I’m also aware — having seen what something of what misguided or false accusations can do — that this could backfire.

Lead to a lot more malignant accusations?

Possibly.

Certainly the possibility of … let’s call it … back street vigilanteism seems to be one that’s cropped up.

And the possibility that the offenders this is supposed to monitor may well find even more reason to go underground.

Saying that, according to the report, the initial findings suggest otherwise.

But it is still a bit worrying …

A good idea that’s worrying …

Hmmm …

Guess we’re going to have to see what happens, aren’t we?

§§§

The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy: Always Remember Where You’re Towel Is …

You know, it occurs that, given it was Towel Day, on Monday, I really should’ve watch “The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy”, I really should …

But I do have it playing in the background …

Now I grew up on the TV series, as you probably guessed. But I was rather impressed with the movie version.

If nothing else, the effects budget was considerably bigger.

The plot was pretty much the same, though; unsurprisingly, really, as the film’s script was the last thing Douglas Adams work on, before his untimely death.

And I always thought it worked better on-screen, than on the pages of a novel.

But I digress.

The film version of “The Hitchhikers Guide” is a good addition to the franchise. And, budget aside, the strong point, for me, is the strength of the performances from the cast, it really was.

Two in particular stood out for me.

Martin Freeman was good as Arthur, as was Zooey Deschanel as Trillian. Alan Rickman and Warwick Davies as Marvin were good. Not as good as Stephen Moore, the original Marvin, but pretty good.

But the stand-outs?

Well, for starters, Sam Rockwell as Zaphod!

And my God!

He was bang on perfect!

Not to put down Mark Wing-Davey, the original Zaphod Beeblebrox, but my word, it’s handy having a real American accent being used for the role! And I can’t help but wonder if Rockwell was basing his version on Bill Clinton, or George W. Bush. But I suppose we’ll never know!

But, for me, the real stand-out was Mos Def, as Ford Prefect.

Now I’d seen him presenting a few award shows, around the time that his casting as Ford had been announced. Rapper that he is, Mos blinged it up quite a bit, acting the gangsta.

That’s understandable, but it did have me a touch worried.

Then I actually saw the film.

And got a pleasant surprise, when I saw Mos, as Ford, scootering down to rescue Arthur.

On a shopping trolley.

From there, the film proceeds exactly as I — and many other fans — expected. With Mos Def being — for me — the reason I kept watching it!

At any rate, the movie version of “The Hitchhikers Guide to The Galaxy” is worth watching.

Just for that!

Hanging in the Sky, in the Same Way that Bricks Don’t …

You know, I don’t know if you read today’s Teaser, but one thing I found out, in researching it, was simply this.

It is — in addition to being the anniversary of the original release of “Star Wars” — Towel Day.

Started by a small group of fans, and not long after his death, as a way of commemorating the life and work of the late Douglas Adams; something I can only approve of.

Although I do have reservations.

Now, my teenage years were during the 80’s, and that was one heck of a time to be a science fiction fan; for starters, there wasn’t the almost respectable air that fandom has, today.

“Doctor Who” was having the ups and down’s any long tern series will.  And there was — until “The X Files”, and “Star Trek: The Next Generation” turned up — little beyond “V” coming from out of the US.

But the BBC did have a little sci-fi, multi-media oddity tucked up its sleeve, courtesy of Radio 4.

“The Hitch Hikers Guide To The Galaxy”.

Which was odd, because it literally was multi-media.

Radio 4, for those of you who don’t know is one of four — obviously — national radio stations run by the BBC, and it’s the talk station of the four.

Well, I say talk.

It really does cover lots of territory; from the serious intensive, and forensic, way that politicians of every stripe are interviewed on the early morning “Today” programme, to the unmissable comedy, like “I’m Sorry, I Haven’t a Clue” and “Just A Minute”. Going via the eternal soap opera that is “The Archers”, the afternoon plays and the much missed John Peel series, “Home Truths”; and the assorted documentaries that have covered the moral implications of feminism’s place in modern organic farming, to a potted history of 2000AD.

All of that, and it closes at night with the Shipping Forecast.

And the National Anthem; Radio 4 is possibly still the only UK station, on radio or TV, to do that!

But it also has serial’s.

“The Hitch Hikers Guide To The Galaxy” was first broadcast as just such a serial, back in 1978.   And was a bit of a huge hit; to the point where, like “Ladies of Letters”, “Dead Ringers”, and “The Mary Whitehouse Experience”, after it, got transferred to TV, in 1981.

Which is where I first came across it; don’t forget, the late 70’s and early 80’s didn’t have that much in the way of science fiction.

“Star Wars”, and its sequels were doing well, as was “Star Trek”.

But there wasn’t much on TV, which meant “The Hitch Hikers Guide To The Galaxy” created a lot of buzz.

And that first episode caught me …

With that quite simple idea, that the title summed up, quite well.

You could hitch hike … on a spaceship.

Although, admittedly, the story’s hero, Arthur, was a very unwilling hiker.

The opening episode tells us one little guaranteed thing about Arthur; his life is getting seriously screwed up.   By a cock up.

That meant he only finds out his house is going to knocked down the day before the bulldozers turn up.   And to compound things, it turns out that those large alien space ships that have just turned up want to do the same thing to the planet Earth*.   What makes things worse is his best friend, Ford, is from a planet somewhere near Betelgeuse — rather than Guildford, as he’d hither-to claimed — and has a plan to get himself and Arthur off world.

And keeps insisting Arthur a) read this book, it explains thing a bit better, b), doesn’t panic, and c) stick a fish in his ear.

Not something you want, if you’re still in your dressing gown …

I fell in love with that series.

And yes, some 28 years after its original production, the effects — Zaphod’s head in particular — do look iffy, but for the time, they were pretty good.

But script-wise?

It was pretty fantastic.

Now the novels, on the other hand.

I had no problem, with the first two (pictured) entries in the series of novels Adams did, but the latter three came with increasingly large gaps between publication.   Impatient as I can get, that was something that I found seriously irritating.

And the background universe never struck me as being as developed as it could be.   That’s part of the reason that Terry Pratchett’s Discworld’s has been such a joy for me, other the years; I’ve watch PTerry develop the Disc itself as much of any of the character’s who inhabit it.   And J. R. R. Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings” trilogy were just as developed.   Indeed, “Lord of the Rings” set the standard, I think.

But that lack of output from Douglas Adams was frustrating.   Enjoyable when it turned up, but hanging around for it?

Like I say …

At any rate, I still treasure the TV and radio series, and — more recently — the movie version.

That’s where I think “The Hitch Hikers Guide To The Galaxy” works best.

On screen.

That’s why I’ve — metaphorically — kept my towel with me, today.

* To make way for a hyperspace bypass.