Blue Wolf Reviews

Tag: Sun

  • Good Golden Sun

    Good Golden Sun

    This picture book about the sun encompasses many issues and thoughts that have been posed as questions. Animals, plants and insects all wait eagerly for the sun to rise and to replace the chilly air with warmth and light. Is the sun lonely, does it ever have a tummy ache, does it make a noise? So many questions and so many thoughts.

    The background for Good Golden Sun is shown on double page spreads. Insects, animals and a small boy are seen moving about the day, completing tasks, feeding, or playing games. As they move across the pages, the questions keep flowing to the sun. Won’t you come down to play, can you bounce, do you miss our company?

    These questions are sure to promote an interest in the sun and a curiosity of its functions. The artwork moves the story along and the collage is beautifully worked. Repetition of text at the top of each page ensures familiarity “Good golden sun” begins a question from one of the characters on each page.

    The combination of text, colourful art and double page spreads make this an enjoyable introduction to the sun.

  • The Journeying Sun

    The Journeying Sun

    Soft gentle and soothing, this delightfully delicious compilation of five beautiful and melodious songs from City of Dawn, Sherry Finzer and Karasvana, The Journeying Sun is perfect for relaxing at the end of a long day, when peace and comfort are essential.

    The gentle sounds formed by City Of Dawn are complimented by the rich notes of the flute. Soft percussive effects are added with singing bowls, chimes and on occasion gentle vocals. Each piece is singular, simple and eloquent and when combined into a one continuous chain of melodies, they are exquisite and contemplative.

    City of Dawn aka Damien Duque, specialises in creating thought provoking ambient sound that both encourages and transports, using his music to convey a message of self-exploration through music to quite and clear cluttered minds.

    When combined with the divine music of Sherry Finzer on a variety of flutes and Ella Hunt aka Karasvana on percussive instrumentation the pathway to contemplation and reflection is achieved.

    The Journeying Sun is also symbolic of the transition of life, from sun rise to sun set, the passing of time as marked by the sun’s transition, the mystique and magical elements given to this earth by the rays of an ever present life giving force which goes back far beyond humanity.

  • Klara and the Sun

    Klara and the Sun

    Klara and the Sun is the eighth novel by Kazuo Ishiguro, who has won many prizes for his work. To read this book you need to bend to the author’s wishes, as he drip feeds information throughout the story. The reader needs to be patient and persistent with the minimalistic writing which means the reader has a greater input into the work because one must “fill in the gaps.”  At first this is slow, but once you become familiar with Klara and how she thinks, her narration makes sense.

    Klara is an AF; An Artificial Friend. In America in the future, parents buy their children a suitable AF to keep them company. Life is very different and most parents choose to have their children genetically modified. The story is told by Klara and begins in the shop where other AF’s are stored.

    From the beginning we realise that Klara is more thoughtful, more observant, and more curious than the other androids. She has a beautiful naivety, and clarity of thought without sentimentality. When she is put in front of the shop window, she makes her own sense of all she sees.

    Josie is a teenager who comes by the store with her mother. She has seen Klara in the window and chooses to take her home. Josie is very ill and has times when she is bed ridden and sleepy.

    Klara offers support in many ways and her understanding grows when Rick, their neighbour comes to visit every day. They play a bubble game, where Josie draws people and Rick fills in the bubble above them to show what they are saying.

    There are many versions of love for Klara to examine in Josie’s family. Her mother and Father are separated and have very different ideas about Josie’s needs. She had a sister who died, and the parents have different ways of remembering her, some more physical than others.

    Be prepared to step out of your comfort zone with Klara and the Sun, but glory in the precise and amazing prose it presents.

  • Beyond the Purple Sun

    Beyond the Purple Sun

    Having listened to this latest composition from Jim Ottaway at least five times to date, there is only one conclusion to be reached: This is the perfect excuse for giving yourself permission to do absolutely nothing for at least one hour, as you absorb the tonal majesty and travel to places never imagined, places hidden deep within, when you join the voyage to Beyond the Purple Sun.

    The journey is one only you can take, as you choose the places and visions created on each section of the voyage, passing through subtle and almost eerie Celestial Rainbows, then marvelling at the perfection of Lavender Moons.

    Dark Spaces do appear from time to time, spaces full of spectral sound creating an otherworldly foreboding full of intriguing, ghostly voices reaching outward, leading to the Birth of a Violet Quasar: a massive and celestial objects which has a star like image and beauty, which is thought to contain massive black holes that may or could be considered as a stage in the evolution of some galaxies. Stupendous!

    Space Lightening would accompany the birth of such a magnificent and powerful celestial object; spooky, in an extramundane experience that is almost sinister in its feel. As with all things, the darker moments draw to a close once the Secrets of the Hidden Stars are revealed in all their glorious perfection; soft, gentle, hidden gems full of splendour and excellence.

    This is a voyage that does not draw to a close, as eventually you go Beyond the Purple Sun in a gentle and timeless manner, floating free, relaxed and in perfect harmony with the soft, downy comfort surrounding you, as you free fall through space, to return whenever you choose.

    Spacemusic as this style of electronica is known, is a genre that has no boundaries, no limitation and no set scripting; it is simply the place where the dreams, emotions and desires of the composer are allowed to flow-free, no encumbrances, no final destination. Beyond the Purple Sun as an album is simply that, free-flowing and perfect in tone and excellence.

    Jim Ottaway is an absolute master of his craft, producing an ambient album of consistently beautiful pieces in Beyond The Purple Sun making this mediative, peaceful work a fitting addition to his Spacemusic suite of works as well as presenting his 13th International release.

  • Sleep Sense

    Sleep Sense

    At last a book full of common sense, easy to use technics, and well-presented explanations as to the role sleep plays in the health and well-being of the human body, and the fall out when the basic fundamentals of getting a good night’s rest are ignored.

    Commencing with warm welcome from the author Dr Katarina Lederle, followed by the Introduction where you are immediately offered the concept of being able to understand the complexities of sleep, sleep habits, and how to make positive change if your sleep habits have gone off course, all in easy to understand language, which certainly helps when discussing such a complex aspect of health.

    Lderle has begun her research by asking a range of people, commencing with her own family, what they considered the most important aspects of sleep, what they thought they needed to be able to improve their sleep patterns or habits and proceeded from this fundamental base. This makes fascinating reading and presents even more interesting concepts as to how to make, often small changes to improve sleep and overall emotional and physical health.

    Sleep and dreaming are still areas where much is being discovered by Scientists and Researchers as there is still much, they do not understand, such a dreaming and why it is done, jet lag and the significant difference that can be made by changing sleep habits slightly before flying long haul, to identify just two of the many areas under discussion.

    Sleep disorders such as nightmares, sleep walking, sleep related eating and sleep paralysis also provided a fascinating insight to conditions that are very real, cause a raft of issues for the sufferer and offer solutions that are easy to understand and try, or recognise when there is the need to seek medical advice for other more distressing sleep disorders.

    Divided into four specific sections, with the middle two considered as the core to understanding and changing sleep disorders, this is a work that impresses, offers a scaffold toward healthy sleep and also presents what Lederle considers as the three pillars of good health: Physical health, mental performance and emotional wellbeing.

    She shows with easy to relate too case studies, that if any of these three areas are out of balance, out of sync because of poor sleep habits, what effect this has on overall health and offers a way forward to a happier, healthier sleep habits which can be immensely beneficial.

    By the end of the book, a better and more comprehensive understanding of sleep, the important role it plays in heathy bodies and the fall out when sleep patterns go wrong will be well understood.

  • Wonderful Life

    Wonderful Life

    An oldie but a goody, this re-release of the 1964 movie, Wonderful Life, was created as another vehicle to promote the rising career of pop sensation Cliff Richard, but failed to be as successful as several of this other movies, such as Summer Holiday, but none the less, the teenagers of the 1960’s still flocked to watch their idol in his latest ‘rather corny’ movie. Mind you, this was not considered ‘corny’, as way back then, to see such a ‘God’  on the silver screen was almost incredible and something not to be missed. Oh how we all swooned!

    Also starring the Shadows, the music is still as enjoyable this many years on.  Una Stubbs, the delightful Susan Hampshire and the indomitable Richard O’Sullivan, along with a number of others find themselves in the ‘dessert’ and somehow become involved in trying to make their own film.

    When five young musicians manage to get themselves kicked off the cruise ship they were working on they discover they have to some way or other, find their way back to Britain and to do that they needed money.

    By paddling a life raft with their guitars across what we presume to be the Mediterranean, they successfully land on a shore, which just happens to be a desert. Johnnie (Richard) sees what he thinks is a girl on a runaway camel and rescues her. The problem soon becomes apparent this was no runaway, not even a damsel in distress, but a delightful young lady appearing in a movie although  not doing too good a job of the entire thing.

    Of course, Johnnie and the boys become involved, make a hash of trying to make their own movie version, but in the end, the movie, a combination of the correct and the alternate versions, becomes a hit and accompanied by wonderful music from the Shadows, the hero not only wins the day, but the girl of his dreams.

    Do You Remember provides the soundtrack for wonderful cameo performances by Cliff Richard doing impersonations of Groucho Marx, Al Joplin and Sean Connery in Dr No, with Richard O’Sullivan doing an uncanny impersonation of the incredible Charlie Chaplin.

    Hits from the movie are the evergreen Summer Holiday and Batchelor Boy with the wonderful ballad A Matter of Moments still holding that dreamy and sensual appeal. 

    A great journey down memory lane for fans and movie buffs alike, Wonderful Life still makes for a comfy afternoon on the couch with a good glass of red, enjoying a return to a time when life appeared to be so much less complicated.