Adventure Time: Distant Lands - New DVD

 

Adventure Time: Distant Lands is an American animated limited series based on the animated television series Adventure Time, which was created by Pendleton Ward . Distant Lands, which comprises four hour-long streaming television specials that were produced by Cartoon Network Studios and Frederator Studios; and were released on HBO Max from June 2020 to September 2021. The DVD was released in March 2022. – Wikipedia (edited)

After four years, it was interesting to see the old gang again and see what they had been up to. The "Distant Lands" go from the depths of space to the past of some main characters to the fifty-levelled dead worlds of the afterlife in Ooo. Much is developed that had only been hinted at in the television show. Whether a second season of "Distant Lands" will be produced is a little up in the air, but seems promising.  

My Cup Runneth Over

Unafraid of Virginia Woolf: The Friends and Enemies of Roy Campbell by Joseph Pearce  (Author)

Roy Campbell (1902-57) led an unquiet life marked by numerous affairs (both real and imagined), brawls (he once attacked Stephen Spender on stage during a poetry recital), and assorted stunts (with the help of Dylan Thomas, he once ate a vase of daffodils in celebration of St. David's Day). It was also marked by numerous scandals, often concerning Campbell's relationship with Virginia Woolf and her Bloomsbury group, about whom he remarked in "The Georgiad": "Hither flock all the crowds whom love has wrecked / Of intellectuals without intellect / And sexless folk whose sexes intersect...."
Capturing the imagination of the English intelligentsia with his romantic background and controversial style, Campbell was acknowledged as one of the finest poets of his generation. Joseph Pearce's biography vividly recounts the story of Campbell's wonderfully romantic life, including his youth in South America, his dangerous sojourn in revolutionary Spain during World War II, the literary friendship he forged with figures such as C. S. Lewis, T. S. Eliot, and the Sitwells, and his and his wife Mary's eventual conversion to Roman Catholicism. In Pearce's judgement, Campbell's poetry was "both perplexing and challenging - yet no more so than the poet himself." – Amazon.

Four Screenplays of Ingmar Bergman: Smiles of a Summer Night, The Seventh Seal, Wild Strawberries, The Magician by Ingmar Bergman

TABLE OF CONTENTS: * Preface by Carl Anders Dymling, Ingmar Bergman's Producer -- * Introduction: Bergman Discusses Film-making -- 1.) Smiles Of A Summer Night -- 2.) Seventh Seal -- 3.) Wild Strawberries -- 4.) Magician - The Face -- * A Chronology of Films Directed by Ingmar Bergman -- * Major Prizes Won by Bergman Films.

It could be argued in this day of readily available personal copies of films that books of screenplays are a superfluous thing of the past. However, there is something to be said for the revelations of authorial intent that are described in Bergman's scripts, and for the slowed-down analytical scrutiny that can be made while reading instead of watching. My brother John once had a copy of this book, and I am glad to now have one of my own.

 Adventure Time: The Enchiridion and Marcy's Super Secret Scrapbook

“This book is great. This is the Enchiridion from Adventure Time and Marceline the Vampire's Scrapbook. The book was bigger than I thought it would be which is an enjoyable surprise. It is about double the size of the Adventure Time Encyclopedia (to which this book is a great companion) and I like that half of the book is the Enchiridion and the other half (just flip the book over) is Marceline’s Scrapbook. Both halves of the book get a good number of pages to impress and expand on the ever-growing world of Ooo.

“I like all the detail; you can tell this was made with love by fans of the show. It is written by Martin and Olivia Olson who both play characters on Adventure Time. Olivia plays Marceline. There are cool little things like taped-down pieces, and tons of little scribbles and sketches. I really like the parchment-style scrolls and spell sections in the Enchiridion and the hand-drawn sketches in the Scrapbook. This book is really great for the price … a wonderful book for any fan of Adventure Time and can be appreciated by anyone of any age. The Adventure Time Enchiridion and Marcy’s Super Secret Scrapbook is mathematical, and you have to get it. FULLY RECOMMENDED.” – Graham Swearingen, Amazon review [slightly edited].

I got the Roy Campbell biography and the Bergman screenplays in the mail yesterday, but most of my time was occupied with first preparing for and then enjoying a combined birthday party and family get-together for two of my nephews. I made cupcakes and hot cheese dip, and there were grilled hamburgers and hot dogs. There was gift-giving and swimming in the pool and then a Scategories game tournament (in which the boys' team won, for once). I was far too busy to post anything. Then The Enchiridion came this morning. I'm of course still working on A Mirror of Shallot and haven't read (or re-read, as the case may be) any of these new acquisitions from the Wish List just yet, so I present these, as it were, potted reviews. I am well supplied for summer reading right now!

Items from the Wish List: TV Fun and Fantasy

 

Adventure Time: The Enchiridion & Marcy's Super Secret Scrapbook!!!

by Martin Olson, Olivia Olson

Gravity Falls: Journal 3

by Alex Hirsch, Rob Renzetti

Gravity Falls Dipper's and Mabel's Guide to Mystery and Nonstop Fun! (Guide to Life)

by Rob Renzetti, Shane Houghton

Star vs. the Forces of Evil The Magic Book of Spells

by Daron Nefcy, Dominic Bisignano

Star vs. the Forces of Evil Star and Marco's Guide to Mastering Every Dimension (Guide to Life)

by Amber Benson, Dominic Bisignano 

On the Shelf

The Wind in the Willows, by Kenneth Grahame (Hardback); The Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum (Hardback); The Book of Dragons, selected by Michael Hague (Hardback); The Reluctant Dragon, by Kenneth Grahame (Softcover); all Illustrated by Michael Hague.

I first started getting Hague editions in the early 80’s, with ‘Willows’; I remember at the toy store ‘Yellow Brick Road’ they had little stuffed toys of Toad and the others with Hague’s art printed on cloth as a tie-in. I like his work; it is reminiscent of a classical style, like Rackham’s. And dragons and Oz? Of course I must have them. He did an edition of “The Hobbit” too, which I’ll get to in time.

Ranking: Keepers.

File Code: Illustrated Editions. Classics.

The Adventure Time Encyclopaedia: Inhabitants, Lore, Spells, and Ancient Cryptic Warnings of the Land of Ooo circa 19.56 B. G. E. – 501 A. G. E., Compiled by His Lowness Hunson Abadeer, Lord of Evil. Translated from the Scrolls of Ooo by Martin Olson.

Another ‘fake book’, covering the period when Adventure Time was a great series, before it became too preachy and stumbled down into darkness. Man, what a ride. A guide to characters, events, and lore, with copious illustration on every page. Even its calligraphy is ever-changingly amusing.

Ranking: Essential.

File Code: Guidebook. Cartoon. Hardback.

Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency, and The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul, by Douglas Adams.

“Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency is a humorous detective novel by English writer Douglas Adams, first published in 1987. It is described by the author on its cover as a "thumping good detective-ghost-horror-who dunnit-time travel-romantic-musical-comedy-epic". The book was followed by a sequel, The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul. The only recurring major characters are the eponymous Dirk Gently, his secretary Janice Pearce and Sergeant Gilks. Adams also began work on another novel, The Salmon of Doubt, with the intention of publishing it as the third book in the series, but died before completing it.” – Wikipedia. I kept these novels after abandoning the Hitchhiker’s series; they are an ace better, or at least less annoying. Has been made into a questionable BBC television show.

Ranking: Keepers.

File Code: Fantasy. Novel. Hardbacks.

The Deeper Meaning of Liff, by Douglas Adams and John Lloyd.

Perhaps the best and funniest of all Adams’ books, it is “a dictionary of things that there aren't any words for yet". Rather than inventing new words, Adams and Lloyd picked a number of existing place-names and assigned interesting meanings to them, meanings that can be regarded as on the verge of social existence and ready to become recognisable entities. All the words listed are toponyms and describe common feelings and objects for which there is no current English word. Examples are Shoeburyness ("The vague uncomfortable feeling you get when sitting on a seat that is still warm from somebody else's bottom") and Plymouth ("To relate an amusing story to someone without remembering that it was they who told it to you in the first place"). The book cover usually bears the tagline "This book will change your life", either as part of its cover or as an adhesive label. Liff (a village near Dundee in Scotland) is then defined in the book as "A book, the contents of which are totally belied by its cover. For instance, any book the dust jacket of which bears the words, 'This book will change your life'." – Wikipedia. An expanded edition of “The Meaning of Liff.”

Ranking: Keeper.

File Code: Humor. Parodic Dictionary. Hardback.

Letters, by Sylvia Townsend Warner. Edited by William Maxwell.

The two works of Warner that I have (Kingdoms of Elfin and a biography of T. H. White) are so good that when I saw this at a San Marcos Library sale, I had to have it. There is something very personal about reading an author’s letters, especially from such as a good writer as Warner, as she writes about her life as it was lived. Of special intensity for me was her letter on page 226, when she talks about visiting White’s house on Aldernay, just four months after his death, and seeing all his personal items still sitting around, ‘defenceless as a corpse’. She said she could feel his presence ‘morose, suspicious, intensely watchful, and determined to despair,’ as imminent a haunt as she had ever experienced in her life. Most of the letters of course, are about her life, her writing, and her love Valentine, all told in the most perceptive and lucid prose that is almost poetry, supple without being high-flown.

Ranking: Essential.

File Code: Letters. Biography. Hardback.

A Treasury of the Familiar Volume I, Edited by Ralph L. Woods.

I found this book at a local library sale, and was surprised to find it had belonged to Malcolm Bonorden, the rather scary 6^th grade teacher at McQueeney, the only male teacher at school. I was looking through this copy (once Malcolm Bonorden's, bought at a library sale). The man was 57, dude; in a month I'll be as old as Malcolm Bonorden ever was. The man always seemed writhen to me, but then I was only 8 or 9. I kind of foolishly dreaded being in his class, not being a manly little boy, then Briesemeister opened up and saved me from ever having to face that. Looking at his book (with pages turned down at "The Shooting of Dan McGrew" and "Little Orphant Annie" and especially "The Fool's Prayer" - which I always liked since I was a freshman in high school - gave me a strange new insight into his character. The book itself is an amazing treasury of what was popular in 1942, recitation pieces and famous addresses and poetry and documents like the Declaration of Independence … if you want to put your head into a certain historical American state of mind, browse this book.

Ranking: Essential.

File Code: Treasury. Hardback.

The (DVD) Shadow Library (of Discs I Never Had)

DVD Library: Adventure Time!

Adventure Time!