A word from S

Excuse me peoples but that Moomin has a cheek wanting to be an Internet star as if it was not for my labour she'd not of been born. No wonder I get jealous! Darn kids today, eh?
Regards Suzie

Funimation SAVE releases

Driving me pretty much to the poor house are Funimation's budget 'SAVE' line in anime dvd's which came out a few months ago.
In essence they are reprints of older titles often keeping the packaging from the previous edition all at a cheap price generally under USD $30 even for a complete series which may have up to 26 episodes.
The one above "The Galaxy railways" is an adventure series set in as the would suggest on the Galaxy Railways with a team of crack railway security people, the SDF, and is really good.
Surprisingly this title has never been issued in the UK.

This one - Aquarion - has and was last out in the UK late in 2009 but the US Funimation box set is cheaper and a good deal neater. As I was a bit short of funds at the time I missed out on getting it but as a Mecha series goes this is great and it is really well drawn.

New skirt

It's been just over four years and three months since I started this blog talking about a load of things such as myself, my interests such as music and likes in a way I had not anticipated nor perhaps you might of been expecting

Going forward, this new skirt is increasingly more where I'm headed at least in so far as more formalish presentations go with a nod toward office or even more college/school style as I like easy to look after on or just above the knee skirts with tights, not being given to baring huge amounts of skin.
Generally I prefer flat shoes as I can't easily walk and so need all the stability and grip I can get.

Lucky Star and Air

Well this is a provision entry title as I'm feeling a little tired this afternoon and I had an entry to prep up although as I say it'll take it's final form in a couple of days time so be sure to return!
I've been watching between work, reading blogs, websites and listening to more music the following two animes:-

I'll be finished watching this one by Saturday.
Issued by Bandai in the States in their budget Anime Legends series, it hasn't seen a R2 issue although Beez have expressed a bit of interest in putting it out.
It's in part a examination of high school recollections that must of us can easily identify with coupled with a great parody of the whole otaku take on life, that never ending dash to be be first with the new manga, collecting points at the store, cosplay, obsessing over RPG's that you play overnight when you're meant to be sleeping.
Much of that is shown through Konata the anime and video game obsessed character who is older than the other three schoolgirls who can put so much into that devising grand plans to get around the comiccons and yet completely mess up with exam revision and homework. On the other hand Kagami is the shy, more seriously mined who has a younger sister Tsukasa who is very much the sweet but ultimately air headed one. For moe appeal it's Miyuki, the cute bespectacled friend with an almost encyclopedic memory for the key facts of all subjects
Heck every episode ends with the Lucky Channel segments of hyper presenters and the shows characters doing karaoke style singing to songs from tv shows and animes, all of which served with loads of side-splitting humour and uber-cuteness.
I mean they even reference Haruhi for crying out loud!!!

Now this is the opposite and strongly recommended for Kanon and Clannad fans and is issued in Funimations S.A.V.E budget series.The story arcs revolve around Yukito Kunisaki and three girls all of whom are connected.
Air is the sad tale of Misuzu a child who is ill, desperately lonely and abandoned by her real Mom, She takes a shine to Yukito,a travelling children's entertainer with only the clothes on his back as possessions who lifts her spirits and we witness her aunt Haruko who in the end quite movingly makes that step from being an Aunt to being her Mom just as sadly she has only a couple of days left to live.
The day after being taken in by Misuzu and Haruko, Yukito meets a girl named Kano Kirishima and a stray dog named Potato; Kano and Misuzu go to the same high school. Later that day, Yukito meets a third girl named Minagi Tohno, Misuzu's classmate, and her friend Michiru.Kano and Minagi like Misuzu, both have strange personalities connected with mysterious pasts. Before long, a legend of "one thousand summers" begins to unfold where the mysteries of the past are framed primarily by the relationship between Yukito and Misuzu.
Misuzu's offer of food and shelter to the destitute and close to starving Yukito causes the lifes of both to change as they grow ever closer sharing dreams of a life lived beyond the clouds. It is obviously that what drives Yukito chasing the story of "The Girl in the Sky". Not knowing when or if he will find her he clings on for hope. His need to find her is so strong and the answers floating in the breeze unfold as the story progresses.
The story arc comes in three parts; Dream (episodes one through seven), Summer (episodes eight and nine), and Air (episodes ten through twelve), with the recap episode (episode thirteen) following. As ADV didn't licence the recap episode for North America originally this dvd misses it off but it's no great loss.
We see hope in the face of adversity, trust even when badly let down and preparedness to do your very best even if it may not be enough.
The dvd adds the Air in summer OVA's issued separately in Japan on disc three.

Classical music update

Recently I've gotten some more classical music cds that I've been slowly working my way through and I hope to complete this entry about them in a few days time.
First off, I kind of got off on a lopsided approach to Beethoven, missing out on his Violin and Piano Sonatas completely plowing through the Symphonies and then  Piano Concertos  2 and 5.
In the early 1960's DG had a stereophonic remake of Wilhelm Kempff's series of the complete piano concertos made again featuring the Belin Philharmonic Orchestra but this time featuring Ferdinand Leitner conducting.
They had been issued  previously on cd in the DG Galleria series in 1987/8 but were remastered to good effect a few years back and issued in 2 cd sets.

This one has the first four piano concertos.
The fifth known as the Emperor was issued in a second pack with the Triple Concerto performed by Wilhelm Geza Anda on piano, Wolfgang Schneiderhan on violin and Founier on the cello coupled ith a second disc with Schniederhan's masterful 1961 account of the Opus 61  Violin Concerto.

Well, I got the first two discs in series of Wilhelm Kempff's masterful Piano Sonatas cycle from the mid 1960's that as recordings weren't unfamiliar to me as I'd borrowed tapes from the public library of them before. I think there was a big box with all thirty two of them but I kinda thought it would be overkill and have picked up a 2 cd set with the late Sonatas, numbers 27 through 32.
I eventually got the cd in the same series yesterday of Menuhin and Kempff's account of the Sonatas for Piano and Violin numbers Five and Nine from 1970 that remains one of the finest ever recorded. I also picked up used the Violinist Anne Sophie-Mutter's recording with Herbert von Karajan of the Triple Concerto from 1980 which was a full price disc issued 1985 with three overtures tacked on to fill up the disc.

Dvorák: Well I always had a soft spot from his work but outside of the odd Piano Sonata plus recordings of his Cello and Violin Concertos, hadn't gone beyond his famous Ninth symphony (the New World).
I bought a re-issue of a 1991 cd set packaged in a cardboard box and card sleeves of Rafael Kubelik's complete cycle of nine symphonies recorded 1968 thru'1973 for DG, something I'd always dreamt of getting as a kid which were amongst the strongest interpretations ever and anyway I've always loved theses performances having the Ninth on lp.

Finally to Brahms. Poor thing I kinda neglected him beyond the cat gut works and a recording of his Second and Third symphonies I inexplicably picked up in the early 1990's. I've finally added his First and Fourth symphonies as performed by Herbert von Karajan (1978 and 1988 respectively).

Motivation

Sometimes people wonder just what drives me on and why it is sometimes I can appear to be out of sync with other peoples takes on it.

You know what really matters don't you?

Love.

Well, most of would agree they can feel it and share it but just how far does it go?

For some people it's kinda like 'I will offer you my love but don't let it come between what I really want right now' as if the one prevents the other.

Now sure you might not want to do any anything rash like give away all your life savings to someone who you don't know much about bar a lack of money but what enables you to progress yourself?

That's right, Love. Someone else's love for you, the word put in your favour, some help dealing with problems you may be experiencing or the offer of immediate physical comfort such as a reassuring hug and so on.

For me and maybe a few others it goes further in that we'd exchange a bit of our own comfort to help another even if we could use that ourselves such as the winter day I went a bit cold so my scarf could be used to minimize stomach cramps a friend going through her monthly cycle was experiencing. I could not let her suffer if there was something practical I could do in that situation. Could you?

If you're a Mom, you'd reassure your child if they were in pain or sick even putting off other things you had planned because your child's wellbeing is that important. Naturally and in your own way you would hope your child, as they grew up would begin to understand the sacrifices you made for them arising from that love and they themselves would continue that much needed cycle.

A cycle humanity needs and the only motivator I have.