Coraline

Typically the Baftas gave the award to Mr Fox rather than this for the best animated movie category for 2009. Grrr!
My copy of the DVD is 2D cos I have a visual impairment affecting my left eye that makes 3D movies and Magic Eye books a pain to view.
Although a bit scary in parts for younger children it is a tale of courage in defeating the deceptive other version of her life on the surface 'better' life on the other side as they try to trap her.

Kanon

This was a four disc region 1 dvd set I got for Christmas and have been watching recently.

The story is narrated through Yuichi who hasn't seen his cousin Nayuki in years. Upon his return seemingly all his knowledge of ever visiting has vanished. He senses something vaguely familiar around his surroundings trying his best to adjust but his memory gaps haunt him as time grows ever short.

He sees in time the pieces of this puzzle, the mysterious girl with the winged backpack, a sword wielding dragon slayer and an eerie silent beauty with blazing tresses but it's up to Yuichi to discover how all these pieces of the puzzle fit together.

Beanbag target

Now this was one of my favourite games that we did in PE and also for schools sports days. The idea is to throw the beanbag to set of targets each having a seperate points value. The one with the most points wins!
We also used beanbags lifting and lowering them in our hands as a form of exercise.

The Doobie Bros: 2006 Japanese remasters

I've always like the Doobie Bros, but recently started collecting their albums on compact disc.
My first discs were regular German copies but I recently saw Rare Waves had these Japanese discs in that looked like a miniaturized lp record and I bought a few to go with the Mofi discs I bought recently such as The Captain and Me.
They look a bit like this:




















The gatefold version have a gatefold, the original inner sleeves for the lps are reproduced exactly as they were and the cds feature the original lp label designs used back then.
In addition 'Vices' has the poster too!
The sound quality of these is very good indeed much better than the old German discs that are still on catalogue over here.
WPCR 12349 S/T (1971)
WPCR 12352 What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits (1974) features Black Water
WPCR 12353 Stampede! (1975) Features Take Me In Your Arms
WPCR 12354 Takin' It To The Streets featuring the title track and It Keeps You Runnin'.
WPCR 12355 Livin' On The Fault Line (1977) Features Little Darling and Chinatown
WPCR 12356 Minute By Minute (1979) Features What A Fool Believes
I compared this to the 2005 Audio Fidelity AFZ025 gold disc done by Steve Hoffman and there was just a little bit more detail on that and slightly smoother but the tonality was basically the same and this unlike the Audio Fidelity is in print.
WPCR 12357 One Step Closer (1980) includes Real Love.
Rare Waves has Ebay UK and Amazon UK stores and the service is extremely good.

Duran Duran on Record

Do you know all about me and Duran Duran?
Well for me and my high chums in the early 1980's they were an all consuming passion -we had as much stuff about them as our allowances collectively could muster and during that period and beyond I've amassed a collection of singles and albums on tape, record and compact disc being in a period where how listened to music was rapidly changing.

Japanese Mini lps:
These were a cross between a full length album and a 12 inch single that were issued in lp style jackets in Japan often with a lyric sheet. I loved buying these from the import section of our nearest city store:
Nite Romantics - note this one plays at 45 RPM like a (UK) 12" single but has 4 tracks including Fame a cover of the David Bowie number Planet Earth and Girls on Film.

Carnival - five track album of remixes including My Own Way, Rio, Hungry like the Wolf and Hold Back The Rain (I like the guitar work on that track). Note it is different than the US and Dutch versions of the same title.

Tiger! Tiger! comprises of the 12" mixes of the singles from Seven and the Ragged Tiger plus 12" of Is There Something I Should Know.

There was 2cd set that has these versions on issued in Japan in 1991.

Duran Duran (S/T):
I have two versions because I was Durannie as we who followed them rabidly called ourselves back in the day.
The first was my original 1981 UK lp on EMI which has 9 tracks including To The Shore.
The second is the re-packaged 1983 version for Japan that added the Is There Something I Should Know single to the start of the original 9 track album taking it to 10 tracks. It's very quiet as Japanese vinyl always was and sounds great.

Rio:
Again 2 versions:
The 1982 original UK import (there were three versions issued in North America over 8 months!!!)
The 2009 re-mastered lp that has two discs of which the first is from the original UK version and the second that has unique to America versions from their third and final lp version meaning you can play this as the Americans heard it or in it's UK configuration.
It arrived today!!!
The sound quality is marvellous with deep bass clear transients and is very quiet.

Seven and the Ragged Tiger: I have just the UK 1983 edition of this, a often maligned album by them taking in The Reflex, New Moon On Monday to which I had the lyrics from smash hits magazine blu-tacked on the bedroom wall and Union Of The Snake.

I never got Arena - the live album that is a kinda of sound track to the sci-fi concert video - on vinyl as this was as I mentioned on the Now post was an era of format change and my first exposure to Arena was via the Capitol/EMI XDR cassette tape and then a couple of years later the Japanese pressed compact disc.

Blue Peter

 There's a fair chance some of you may well remember having these annuals during your childhood as avid viewers of the BBC TV Blue Peter program. It may surprise you to know I also have a number that are co-related to the period I was (officially) a child having not just information about what was shown during that 12 month period, but also on the news of the day such as with this edition information about the US space carrier, Skylab and some good illustrated bits about British History.

It all helps to jog my memory back to the year and what mattered to me as a child during it such as the arts and crafts which at all the schools I attended we did.

As far as I'm aware that's John Noakes a Northern English presenter during most of the 1970's with Shep, the Boarder collie to the left of him.

Girlie socks!

Through my love of the cute and my 'Little Girl' side I'm strongly drawn to these very girlie socks that aren't a million miles removed from what I'd of had on as an actual little way back when.
While at British Home Stores who have branches in most UK cities I spotted these really cute ankle socks that were on special offer are are great with trousers or mid to short length skirts.
 During the recently snowy patch I went out shopping as work had called advising not to turn in as they'd shut down.
I have issues about being out in the winter following a childhood accident and in an attempt to deal with that I gritted my teeth and went out.