Having just finished listening to all three story arcs by Paul Magrs I thought I might write a little something about each of these lovely stories. So expect some waffling on about Doctor Who over the next few days. Not that you wouldn’t expect waffling on about Doctor Who if you’re a regular reader of this blog.
Month: December 2013
Starting Serpent Crest
I’ve listened to the Hornet’s nest and Demon Quest, and now it’s time for the third in the Paul Magrs set of stories, Serpent Crest. I don’t think I’ve listened to this for about a year or so and I’m looking forward to hearing it again this week. The whole thing is in 5 episodes and runs for about five and a half hours, which is just about right for listening to in a week.
That should keep me going until some new Doctor Who arrives in January anyway.
New Who!
Ferril’s Folly
Tales from the Vault
The Stealers from Saiph
Ok, not exactly new Doctor Who, and, in fact, arguably not Doctor Who as these are of course “Companion Chronicles”. However, they are the remaining Mary Tamm stories that I haven’t heard, so I’m looking forward to listening to them a great deal.
Blancmage: Irene and Mavis
This has only just been re-released, and from what I hear it isn’t indicative of what Blancmange went on to do later, but I did feel compelled to get a copy. I haven’t played it as yet, but it won’t be long and we’ll see (or rather hear) what it’s like.
The Wire 2013 Rewind
So it’s time to find out what the alignment has been between the Wire and my personal listening tastes over the last twelve months. In previous years it hasn’t been as close as you might think, but I think that this year it may be a lot closer. A tentative flick through the magazine will show what the results are.
Either way I do find the Wire’s annual rewind a good way to catch up on releases (and re-releases) that I’ve missed or not properly listened to, so this year’s edition will make for good reading I’m sure.
I do like Teenage Engineering
Apart from the fact that it’s a great name for a company, they also make totally awesome things.
Doctor Who: The Sands of Life
Another great fourth doctor story with Mary Tamm, and with the excellent inclusion of David Warner. This is the second story in Big Finish’s second season for Tom Baker, and this story is really the kick off for the main story arc in the series. It’s a great story arc too, and David Warner is at the centre of it. It’s far more like a serious Doctor Who story as opposed to the Auntie Matter, which was quite frivolous and yet wonderful to listen to.
The Sands of Life is quite a traditional story in many ways. The doctor meets a life form he’s not met before which is threatening all life on earth but only due to a mistake caused by Cuthbert (played by David Warner). I won’t say anymore about the story in case you do listen to it. I’d recommend it, it’s an excellent story and it continues with “War with the Laan”, but more of that another day.
Now that would make a great album cover wouldn’t it?
A great picture from my weekend in Gdansk. Love this shot.
The new Jasuto is the new Jasuto
Something complicated
Something not so complicated
Of course it was wonderful to see the new version of Jasuto (v 1.5) finally arrive on the app store after such a massive gap. And it wasn’t a disappointment at all. There’s plenty of new toys in there that are all great and shiny. It’s fun to play with this after such a long time. It reminds me just how good it is to make things, to put things together and see how they work.
I remember when Jasuto first came out it was a truly amazing step forward for music making on mobile devices, but it was hard to get into and I think a lot of people found that too, not really understanding how to make things work in Jasuto. It too me a while, but it was worth the effort and when I went back to it this week it was just as I’d remembered.
So I’m looking forward to spending more time with it and making more things as a lead in to some increased creativity after a somewhat dry spell.
Jasuto Modular Synth is available on the app store:
Android Inventor 2 has arrived
I’ve messed about with Android App Inventor since it’s very early days, when Google brought it out and made it available to the public. Then of course it moved off to MIT who’ve done a great job with it so far, and now it’s finally done away with the download and files you need to install. It’s now all in the browser at last. I’m looking forward to trying it out at last.
The only downside is that at the moment there’s no easy way to port projects from App Inventor ‘Classic’ to the new version. Still, that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
I am Ashley Elsdon 