Blue Planet II Narrated by David Attenborough

Blue Planet II was just released on DVD, Blu Ray and 4K UltraHD on Tuesday and all I can say is "WOW". I've only watched the first two episodes so far, but it is absolutely spectacular, every minute of the show.

The amazon.com product description is as follows:

In recent years, our knowledge of what goes on in our Ocean has been transformed. Blue Planet II uses cutting-edge breakthroughs in science and technology to explore new worlds, reveals astonishing creatures and extraordinary new animal behaviors. As we journey through our deep seas, coral reefs, open ocean, green seas and coasts we share these extraordinary new discoveries. But we now know that ocean health is under threat. Never has there been a more crucial time to explore our remotest seas, and to examine what the future will hold for our blue planet.  

I've loved everything by David Attenborough that I've seen so far, and to date, Blue Planet II is no exception. I loved both the original Planet Earth series, along with The Blue Planet - both of which I have on DVD, but the clarity of the 4k viewing for this one and the new Planet Earth II that came out last year just blows both of those away! I raved about the first two and his Wildlife Specials series in this post a few years ago.

The filming in this one is just spectacular - they've managed to capture some truly glorious waves with the light glowing through as just one example from the first episode. That doesn't even begin to cover watching a school of Giant Trevally catching birds in flight, or looking at a very, very strange looking deepwater fish which has a transparent head that it looks through, the Barreleye fish. I'm still trying to wrap my head around that one since I watched the episode earlier this evening.

David Attenborough shows us so many things about our own planet that I think we'd never see without a show like this. How about the twilight zone and the midnight zones of our ocean? Without the specialized equipment he has access to, there's no other way to see it - and there's so much beauty hidden down there and almost unknown! What's more, we're destroying more and more of it as we go!

The next episode on the first disc is going to be just as spectacular I think. Where the first episode was an overview of the oceans in general and the second episode looked at the deepest waters in more detail, the third episode is going to be focused on coral reefs around the world. I'll admit to having a soft spot for those - especially after my two visits to Hanauma Bay in Hawaii. Watching this episode will probably bring back some fond memories.

Nifty! Some searching just showed me that there is a CD version of the soundtrack for this show available too! The music is just as spectacular as the footage for these two shows. Of course, I have a particular fondness for the music of Hans Zimmer, who did some of the music for these shows, so your opinions on this may vary.

With Planet Earth II, we ended up having to go with an iTunes version. Maybe I'm just really old-fashioned, but I have a strong preference for having a physical copy of my music - and I know I listen to far more music from CD's than I do my phone. Of course, having said that, I now see that there is a CD version for Planet Earth II as well. Go figure!

The Crown: The Official Companion Volume 1: Elizabeth II, Winston Churchill, and the Making of a Young Queen

The Crown: The Official Companion Volume 1: Elizabeth II, Winston Churchill, and the Making of a Young Queen
Robert Lacey
Crown Archetype
Copyright Date: October 2017
978-1524762285

The amazon.com product description:

The official companion to the Emmy-winning Netflix drama chronicling the reign of Queen Elizabeth II, and starring Claire Foy and John Lithgow, The Crown by Peter Morgan, featuring additional historical background and beautifully reproduced archival photos and show stills

Elizabeth Mountbatten never expected her father to die so suddenly, so young, leaving her with a throne to fill and a global institution to govern. Crowned at twenty-five, she was already a wife and mother as she began her journey towards becoming a queen.

As Britain lifted itself out of the shadow of war, the new monarch faced her own challenges. Her mother doubted her marriage; her uncle-in-exile derided her abilities; her husband resented the sacrifice of his career and family name; and her rebellious sister embarked on a love affair that threatened the centuries-old links between the Church and the Crown. This is the story of how Elizabeth II drew on every ounce of resolve to ensure that the Crown always came out on top.

Written by the show’s historical consultant, royal biographer Robert Lacey, and filled with beautifully reproduced archival photos and show stills, The Crown: The Official Companion: Volume 1 adds expert and in-depth detail to the events of the series, painting an intimate portrait of life inside Buckingham Palace and 10 Downing Street. Here is Elizabeth II as we’ve never seen her before.

This was a captivating book! That's honestly my gut reaction on turning the last page. It pairs with the series very well, being structured around the episodes of season one. Essentially, Robert Lacey has laid out the real events that formed each episode, giving more details and background information - including where the show-writers have chosen to make things up or condense them to a noticeable level.

There are a mixture of photos from the show and also the real archival photos of the Queen's life included in the book - in fact, that's where my only real grumble comes in with this book - the lack of captions on a lot of the inline photos in the text. That's something that I don't care for in a lot of books, the lack of captioning. Still, this book is definitely lavishly illustrated with many inline photos and also two sections of color photos on glossy pages.

Another helpful feature included in The Crown book are the numerous one and two page biographies of the secondary characters we see in the show - including who the actor/actress playing them was. Yes, of course the main focus of the book is Queen Elizabeth, but still, for those of us too young to remember the events Seasons One and Two are based around, this is a very helpful thing - especially when it comes to the various politicians in the show. I know I found myself scratching my head more than a few times on watching, going "who is this?" with some of the secondary politicians - Churchill, was of course, quite evident and I think John Lithgow did an amazing job portraying him - one of my favorites from Season One!

Well written, and not bogged down in the details at all, though there was plenty of detail - after all, this book only covers the first eight years of Queen Elizabeth's reign, I'm looking forward to whatever the author puts out to go with Season Two (which was outstanding to watch as well).

By the way, for those people not subscribed to Netflix, The Crown is now available on DVD/Blu-Ray, and it is very, very worth watching (really for me it was the only reason we subscribed to Netflix two years ago). Also available are the first two season soundtracks (I'm listening to Season One now and loving it a lot). I will admit to being a sucker for most of Hans Zimmer's music and he did the theme for The Crown - and I suspect had influence on the rest of the soundtrack, as there are parts of it that remind me of the music from The Last Samurai.

Hooked On A New (Old) Series - Babylon 5

I am now officially hooked on this series. I'd never seen any of it before, but I'm loving it now! In maybe a month we've gotten through the first two seasons and just started watching the third this morning. I think we're averaging about two or three episodes a day.

I'm loving the overall atmosphere and connecting arc of all the episodes - not to mention the characters.

The series premise is as follows (from the first season):

In 2257 A.D., the Earth Alliance places a massive space station, Babylon 5, into orbit around a planet in a neutral corner of a distant galaxy to serve as a refuge for anyone seeking sanctuary from the tyranny of the hostile federations that dominate the outermost regions of space. In this strange, exotic and dangerous world, humans and aliens strive to build a new and better future.

Elements of Babylon 5 remind me of Stargate SG1, which I watched my way through a few years ago - kind of want to re-watch some of them again too soon - but this is most definitely it's own series.

From the start there are hints of the greater story-arc, even though there are also a number of episodes that more or less stand on their own. However, into the second season those stand-alone episodes become fewer and fewer, while the overarching arcs become stronger and stronger.

While the graphics are somewhat dated, the storylines certainly aren't. Peel away the alien facades and you will find the issues that we as a world are grappling with today like racism, fear of the "other", hatred, working conditions, poverty and so much more. Despite that, the stories told in the episodes are not simply allegorical in-your-face messages. Don't ask how many times we've found ourselves putting in another disc because we both want to know what's going to happen next!

The Season Two finale was a good example of that. I'm really glad that we're watching now with the complete series in our possession. Waiting for the next season to start would have been a form of torture I think!

Moments of laughter mixed with absolute edge of the seat questions of what's going to happen next. If Babylon 5 was a book, I'd be saying it was one I couldn't put down. It's definitely the equivalent as a TV series!

Personal opinions here so your mileage may vary greatly, but I'm definitely preferring the Narns and their attitudes to those of the Centauri - at least those of the Centauri we've seen so far! Looking forward to seeing the moment when Londo truly realizes how badly his choices have messed things up and to see him trying to make amends.

Also looking forward to learning more about the Rangers and their role in things to come - have only seen a few episodes with them so far. I can't help but wonder what historical reference will come up next either - last one I saw and I still believe it to be an omen was the line about "peace in our time" on the signing of the nonaggression treaty between Earth and the Centauri. Somehow I can't see anything good coming of that at all.

Netflix and Crafting

Those blog posts you see about how Netflix is bad for your reading time? All true. All very, very true. We signed up for Netflix this past month - it was cheaper than buying the seasons of all the Star Trek shows - initially mostly for my husband. I did have hopes though that they might have Outlander - my current favorite T.V. show. No luck. That, among a number of other shows and movies I'd like to see are not a part of the Canadian version of Netflix currently. Didn't think I'd be using it that much... Most of the shows I watch I own on DVD or Blu-ray already.

Then I started to go looking. They had the David Attenborough shows, even the ones I hadn't bought yet - though not the one about the Great Barrier Reef - for which I've only seen the final episode unfortunately. Downton Abbey. I've wanted to watch that one. And then I discovered The Crown. Firmly down the rabbit hole now, and my "to watch" list is growing. Mostly historical drama series and animal shows.

Add to this that I've gotten back into crochet again after about a month of doing next to none. And the project of the day is the beaded shawl I've been working on for the last three or so years. The one I tend to refer to as "what the heck was I thinking" especially when I get to a beaded row.  I have to admit however, that I know exactly why I've picked up this project again. It's thanks to the Knitters Pride blocking mats I just bought. I want to have a project finished so I can try them out. I'm making some pretty good progress too - about four rows in the last week. I really do need to get some photographs taken to show it off.

Up until now I've been using some of the bigger foam mats bought at Canadian Tire. They've worked well enough, but they're no fun to store. I think that right now, a couple of them are behind the basement sofa, one is in the furnace room and the final is hiding in the closet under the stairs. All of them though, are collecting dust, and are highly awkward to stash away.

These new mats are smaller, and come in a neat carrying case - they're always going to be nice and clean and ready to use. No "where is the final mat hiding this time" issues to deal with any more. I do wonder though if the Knitters Pride mats will interlock with my older mats should I need to expand the area for a larger project. Any other knitters/crocheters have the answer?

My final snark of the day on crafting concerns crochet hooks - and I'm not referring to the tiniest ones that got bent trying to open up an old family filing cabinet that was missing its' key (attempt failed by the way). No, those are still on my "to replace" list and the attempt can be filed under "unusual ways of using crochet hooks" of which I have a few stories.

Instead I'm referring to the Addi Comfort Grips crochet hooks I'd been buying a few years ago. I've got something like four or five of them now, and over the last five years, all of the handles have cracked. I'll admit that I've not been overly careful with them - keeping them in traveling project bags for example, but I also don't think I've been all that rough with them either. Still, I most definitely expect better durability for the price I paid for each hook.

I don't think they're worth what I've paid for them, and I'm fully intending to go back to using the Boye metal crochet hooks - which have never had a problem - unless I've been using them for non-crochet purposes like picking a rock out of a truck wheel mechanism. No, my plan as I finish each of the projects that uses one of these hooks is to retire it and take up any new projects with the Boye hooks again. They're nearly as comfortable to use and far less expensive, which is good as I prefer to keep the correct hook with each project I'm working on - thus I can have four or five of the most commonly used sizes.

I'd love to know though what your favorite crochet hooks are - maybe I'll give them a try.

At any rate, all of the above has been quite bad for my reading time - especially since I've now joined my husband in watching two to three episodes of Deep Space Nine in a day - from part way through season 5 and I'm now hooked for the most part. It makes for a good time to do some crocheting. Reading time? What reading time?

I'm still claiming to be reading Drums of Autumn though, and am about a hundred pages farther in than I was last week.

Outlander

Honestly, I'm rather amazed at the way Outlander themed products are popping up everywhere. There are, of course, the books, short stories, one graphic novel, two seasons of the TV series, soundtracks, and then you find all the other odds and ends. A quick search of Amazon.com results in calendars, dolls, interview videos, a reading order e-book? (I'm blinking at this last item. Why would you pay for something like that?), the colouring book - which I have to say is pretty good, and a fun way to spend some time, T-shirts, photographs, knitting patterns (that might be interesting to try out), and more.

Nonetheless, it's becoming one of my favorite series (both to watch and to read). I can't wait for the third season to air next year - and I'm doing a re-read for the first time in about ten years - maybe more. I'd only read up to the Fiery Cross previously. In my re-reading though, I'll admit to really only picking it up at Voyager - I decided that the TV series version of the first two seasons would stand in very well at refreshing my memory. It's also had one of the best soundtracks I've heard in a while - I'm listening to the first soundtrack cd at least once every couple of weeks or so. More detailed thoughts on some of the books have been posted here in the past:
The Fiery Cross (reviewed in 2009)
Outlander (2012 review)
Exile: An Outlander Graphic Novel (2010)

My husband and I got busy over the summer and rather forgot about Outlander for a couple of months. Then last week, we were reminded that we had the second half of the season sitting on the PVR. It only took us a week to finish watching the season - couldn't wait until the next evening to watch the next episode (with hour and a half to two hour episodes finishing the season, we couldn't justify staying up late enough to watch more than one episode at a time).

Now I'm getting sucked back into the book series - it's a great way to tide over the gap until the next season airs, and remembering why it was that the first time I read Outlander I was highly frustrated by discovering that there were sequels, but that I was going to have to wait a month before I could read any of them. I just couldn't wait - but couldn't borrow them from the library right away.

A question for anyone who has the newer version of the Outlandish Companion - first volume. Is there any difference between the new version and the old version for the Outlandish Companion?

Thoughts on the Adult Coloring Book Craze

I like them, although I've only gotten one so far - the Outlander Coloring Book. I'm thinking of getting another though - with a different type of picture, one that's more abstract. Sometimes I'd just like to play with colours, and the Outlander one calls for too much realism to allow that. By which I mean that I've found myself googling the correct colours to use for this or that aspect of the picture - including common colours for cars as in the first image. I'm a bit picky that way.

I think I've been waiting for this since they had one of those giant colouring posters on the wall in the staff-room where I used to work. I don't think it ever got finished though. Still, I had a great time on my breaks - at least before the pens disappeared. This is the kind of picture I'd like to find for a second book:

There's been another variant on the adult colouring book that's been around for decades; the informational one. I've gone through a few of those too, and I'm thinking of getting some of them again as they've disappeared over the years - unfinished. The most notable of these were the Human Evolution Coloring Book and one I had on bird identification. At least for me, these made a great way to learn the subject.

Are you someone who's getting into the coloring book craze? If so, what are your favorites?