On 23 July 1998, acclaimed author JK Rowling sat down with ITN in Nicolson’s Café in Edinburgh to talk about the enormous success of the Harry Potter series. Weeks before, the second of what was to be a seven-book series had been released, and Rowling was working on the third. The Philiosopher’s Stone and its sequel, the Chamber of Secrets, had been enormously successful in the UK and the US and major production companies were jockeying for the rights to make the Harry Potter series into a film franchise. The rest is history.

It was announced on 12 April 2023 that HBO Max were to make a TV series of the Harry Potter books with Rowling as Executive Producer.

http://chronotomo.aaandnn.com/1987/03/soundtrack-robot-carnival.html

The original soundtrack of the last animation project by Katsuhiro Otomo that collects short films by some of the best animators in Japan. The music was composed by Joe Hisaishi (久石 譲), Isaku Fujita and Masahisa Takeichi (武市 昌久). Cover illustration by Katsuhiro Otomo.

CD DETAILS:

Label: Victor Enterteiment (ビクターエンタテインメント)
Release date: 1987-III-21
Duration:
Retail price: ¥3,200
Catalogue Number: VDR-1350

TRACK LIST:

1. カミング・スーン~オープニング
2. ニワトリ男と赤い首1
3. 同4
4. 来訪者
5. DEPRIVE
6. プレゼンス3
7. 同5
8. 和~WA
9. 祭~SAI
10. NANI?
11. ストラッグル
12. ORA
13. ハート&ハンド
14. メリーゴーラウンド
15. ユニット1
16. 同2
17. ニワトリ男と赤い首2
18. 同3
19. バトル
20. プレゼンス1

Product developed based on creating a Walkman roughly the size of a cassette case. This model featured one AA battery, head, pinch roller, and headphone jack arranged in a row, with the cassette placed horizontally alongside this structure. From this point forward, the Walkman was established as a modern necessity, easily carried in a handbag or pocket.

Manufacturer: Sony
Model: WM-20
Gang: Stretchy
Together: 5 6
Year: 1983
Made in Japan
Initial price: 27000 ¥ Today 237 $
Battery: 1AA
Colors: black blue (dark) gray pink
Dimensions: 6711018 mm (133 cm³)
Weight: 190 gr
Window: yes
Expandable: yes
Drive: BSL
Tape selector: Manual switch
Waterproof: no
Speaker: no
DC in: yes
Record by input: no
Record by int mic: no
Hotline mode: no
Cue: no
Balance (L/R): no
Phone type: 2
Equalizer: no
Auto volume: no
Auto reverse: no
AMS: no
Blank skip: no
Logic control: no
Hold lock: no
Bass: no
Noise reduction: Dolby B NR
Radio: no
Remote control: no
Wireless headphone: no
Indicator: led

Conventional thinking suggests autism mainly affects boys. But more and more girls – and adult women – are being diagnosed with the condition. Up to 100,000 girls with autism could be still undiagnosed. Keme Nzerem has been to visit the only school in the UK that’s exclusively for autistic girls.

Even on long voyages between worlds and on isolated scientific stations in deep space, humans can’t escape the reach of politics and power. In Leviathans of Jupiter by Ben Bova, young microbiologist Deidre Ambrose travels from her home in the asteroid belt to Jupiter to take advantage of an opportunity that will provide her a scholarship to study on Earth afterwards.

Unfortunately, she becomes a pawn in a political game being played by a power-hungry heiress who plans the downfall of her perceived rival, the director of the Jupiter station who hired Deidre.

The director, Grant Archer (from Bova’s book, Jupiter) longs to prove that the leviathans, giant creatures discovered living deep in Jupiter’s atmosphere, are intelligent. To do this, he plans to send humans on a dangerous mission to study, and possibly make first contact, with the leviathans. The crew includes Deidre and Dorn, a cyborg from one of Bova’s earlier novels. The heiress places everyone in danger with her attempts to stop the mission.

The descriptions of life in the atmosphere of Jupiter are superbly creative and showcase the imaginative talents of the author. The technical details of the ship and station added immensely to the story — almost becoming characters in their own right.

Space enthusiasts will especially enjoy being immersed in water with dolphins being used in a test of a new communication system, in perfluorocarbon to withstand the high pressure inside the ship, and then deep in Jupiter’s mostly hydrogen atmosphere where the leviathans live. Experiencing these new worlds without the actual danger of going there is one of the true joys of a good science fiction read.

The only thing that somewhat spoiled my reading experience was the use of viewpoint shift to explain what was going on in an almost omniscient way instead of allowing me to figure things out with only the information available to the main characters. However, the story proceeded in a logical fashion and came to a satisfying conclusion.

Leviathans of Jupiter is the 18th book in Bova’s Grand Tour series and well worth reading. The book provides a great escape into a future where humans continue to find ingenious ways to survive in strange and challenging environments, even while enduring the seemingly unavoidable politics involved in all human endeavors.

Whenever I talk to people about the masterpieces of the PS2 era, rarely do I hear people mention ICO, the first game created by the developers who went on to release Shadow of the Colossus. Today, I want to talk about this forgotten gem.

“The lasting and ultimately most important reputation of a film is not based on reviews, but on what, if anything, people say about it over the years, and on how much affection for it they have.” Stanley Kubrick (July 26, 1928 – March 7, 1999)

Stanley Kubrick’s “The Aristocats”

A lifelong subscriber to “Cat Fancier” magazine, Kubrick adopted all unclaimed cats from “A Clockwork Orange”. He later planned to feature them in a live-action version of “The Aristocats”; with Scatman Crothers reprising his role as “Scat Cat”. The script, by Terry Southern, was based on the notorious shaggy-dog-story/dirty joke, “The Aristocrats”.

The project was canceled when Kubrick became concerned about the safety and comfort of the cats during a prolonged production.

Later, he cast some of the cats (and Scatman of course), in “The Shining”, but their scenes were cut after the film’s opening weekend. Traces of them remain, however, such as when Ullman asks Jack if his luggage arrived ok, you can glimpse the cat carrier sitting amongst it, in the big pile by the door. And there was another scene where they cause Wendy to burn some toast, and Jack has a fit about it.

“He was mainly interested in making movies, and feeding his cats when there was a break,” says Vincent LoBrutto, his biographer (in a Movie Geeks United podcast).

“His favorite cat used to sleep in a small climatized room and I had to take him Evian water and fresh grass to eat every morning.” says Emilio D’Alessandro, his chauffeur and all-around assistant.

The writer Alex Ross, in “Stanley Kubrick Was My Friend, Too”, tells of Kubrick’s next attempt to combine his two loves:

Stanley always had trouble with actors, and he had the idea of casting this [new] film entirely with his favorite cats and dogs. I struggled mightily with the limitations that this plan placed on my style. Each page of the script had to be submitted to his very favorite cat, Ophuls, who was only mildly amused by the material. The project gradually ran out of steam.

Below is “Polly”, who appeared in “Eyes Wide Shut”.

“Polly loved Dad. She would sleep on his chest if he let her. I painted the picture of her for his 60th birthday.” (Katharina Kubrick, quoted in The Encyclopedia of Stanley Kubrick)