XBOX 360 - The Future? An Update

Back in March 2012 I wrote a piece about the future of the XBox 360 and the evolution into the XBox 720.

With the technological advances I could see some way to an arguement for such a games console but was bothered that games could only be downloaded without any redress for the purchaser of those games being either able to get a refund for an unplayable game or sell it on in the second hand market.

Almost a year on and the same problems have been aired by 'The Edge' magazine. They too talked about one game/one machine. However, XBox 360 the official mouthpiece immediately refuted this as saying that it was rubbish. Instant denial, in my book, means that there is some accuracy in both 'The Edge' and my way of thinking. In this months XBox 360 magazine Edwin Evans-Thirlwell (online editor) though agreeing with one hand that trade-ins are desirable says, on the other hand, do we need them?

One can argue about the digital age and that 'downloads' are the 'in' thing but the whole idea of trade-ins is that games can be traded for a new one. Somehow that simple thing gets lost in the gushing throes that demand 'something' new.

And to download - you have to have an XBox Live membership.
So I would not only have to pay for my XBox 720 but pay out for the privelege of using it.
The counter-arguement is that you have to have an XBox Live account to play on the XBox 360. Not strickly true. If I want a games console - I don't have to have an account - simple. With an XBox 720 it would seem that no one would have that choice.

If Microsoft choose to go down that route - then they could be on the road to join the likes of HMV. But, I think, that it will all depend on what Sony do next. At the moment it looks as though the PS4 may be giving players the freedom of choice and would not want to jeopardise their market. The PS3 lost out to XBox last time around and if they want to come out on top again then they have to produce a better deal.

The debate will, no doubt, go on.

Whichever, as it stands I won't be in the queue for the new XBox.

3 D - Or How To Wreck A Movie

Back in 1953 we kids who enjoyed Saturday morning cinema were given a treat. We were handed a pair of cardboard glasses with a green lens and a red one. When we were told to put them on we went 'wow'. There was a guy whacking paddleballs at us - girls shreiked and boys ducked. All manner of things came at us from golf balls to snarling tigers.
It was a great experience and we would get to experience more.
'Mighty Mouse' comic in 3-D; books with pirates, dinosaurs and westerns with Indians firing arrows straight out of the page.
Of course, the adults got to see the movies like 'The House Of Wax', 'Hondo', 'I,The Jury' along with some horrors all done in three dimension.

For us kids the phenomenon was short lived - like all good things we moved on. 3-D movies didn't though.

Each decade that has followed has attempted to revive this type of movie. Comic wise has seen 'Batman 3-D' and movies cropped up in the 1990s and still persist in their droves to the present day.
With some films it is an interesting experience but seen it once it becomes monotonously boring.

In this modern technological world these movies have not moved on. It is 1953 all over again - chuck something at the screen again and again. Surely, there is someone out there who can use 3-D to create depth inwards rather than outwards.

While I am ducking, because my brain is telling me that there is an axe coming in my direction, I am missing the action.

As far as I know there are no sequels planned for movies like 'Priest', 'John Carter' and 'Dredd' - all three pretty good movies when seen in a normal format - but they were in cinemas in 3D and flopped because, in reality, hardly any 2D screenings were available.

Of course, we now have 3D tv and 3D Blu-Ray players - but like all things even they last only until the novelty wears off.

ALEXANDER BARON AND 'THE HUMAN KIND'

Joseph Alexander Bernstein was born during 1917 in Maidenhead, Berkshire but this was due to the fact that his mother had been evacuated from the family home in London's Bethnal Green because of the Zeppelin raids.
During the 1930s he joined the Labour League of Youth before moving further left to the Young Communist League though he never became a member of the Communist Party. At the time many in London's East End were following this route purely to stand up against the growth of the 'Blackshirt' fascism that made the Jewish community the prime target.
The young Alec wanted to join the International Brigade and fight Franco's forces in Spain but, as his later attempts to join the R.A.F. were to prove his eyesight failed him.
Despite this drawback Alec was conscripted into the Pioneer Corps and to fight a war not with a rifle but a pick and shovel.
As one of those who were first ashore in the D-Day landings in Normandy he did not realise that within a few years his experiences were going to lead to three of the best known war novels.

In 1947 Alec Bernstein received an advance of £50 from Jonathan Cape with the promise of a further £50 on publication for his first novel.

'FROM THE CITY, FROM THE PLOUGH'

This was the novel that changed the whole concept of the war.
It was a story of the 5th Wessex and of the men who lived and died. The ordinary soldiers who were farmers and rural tradesmen from the country and the clerks and office workers from the cities. It was a novel that was lauded because it was written by a former army corporal about ordinary people who trained together, arrived on the beaches and fought their way to Mount Pinchon where they were decimated.
Reality was the instances of sudden death - follow a character's thread and then nothing. Killed in action and you feel the sudden loss.
Also this book dismissed the celluloid stereotype of men on board ship writing home, looking whistfully back, or playing mournful tunes on harmonicas. Anticipation and fear of what lay ahead yes but not the other.

From The City, From The Plough' was a well received novel both sides of the Atlantic.
And it would go on to inspire other like Elleston Trevor and the Australian author, Eric Lambert to write in a similar vein. This is the original band of brothers.

'THERE'S NO HOME'
This 1950 novel was a change of pace.
The invasion of Scicily was over and the assault on Italy had yet to begin.
Weary from the battlefield a battalion arrive in the bombed out city of Catania where they are greeted by women, children and old men.
In a moment of peace lives begin to intertwine and unlikely relationships begin to form.
At the centre of the book is the love affair between Graziella, a young mother and Sergeant Craddock.
What this book does is highlight the impact  of war and emotions.

'THE HUMAN KIND'
A sketchbook of short stories and like the previous books containing elements of autobiography. These stories not only traverse the journey through Scicily, Italy, France and on to Berlin but the final story is set against the backdrop of the Korean War.

'The Human Kind' was turned into the movie 'The Victors' written and directed by Carl Foreman. Sadly, the exploits of the British soldiers became American.

This trilogy of war novels set the benchmark and sixty odd years on from their first publication it seems that someone has woken up to their importance for all three books have been re-published by
Black Spring Press and Sort Of Books.

Also, on re-release are Alexander Baron's East End novels 'King Dido', 'Rosie Hogarth' and 'The Lowlife'.

Alexander Baron went on to write a total of 14 novels between 1947 and 1977.
He wrote the screenplays for 'The Seige Of Sydney Street' and the Australian western 'Robbery Under Arms'. He, also, wrote for the BBCs 'Play For Today' along with episodes for the TV series 'Poldark' and serials 'Jane Eyre' and 'Vanity Fair'.

Alexander Baron died in 1999.

THE ORPINGTON HISTORY ORGANISATION

It is no secret that most my formative years were in Orpington, Kent. So the discovery via Facebook that there was now a site devoted to the history of Orpington was around came as something akin to a happy event.
Orpington is famous for a couple of events - like it was the last place hit by a German V2 rocket. This was up by Kynaston Road and the only person killed was a Mary Millichamp who was the last civilian casualty of the Second World War.
1962 - and Eric Lubbock won the seat for Orpington from the Conservatives. Many record this as the start of the resurrection of the Liberal Party.
And no one can forget that this is the place that was the origin of the Buff Orpington chicken.
One of the most intriguing photos on offer is an ariel view of my old school. The huts are missing so the photo has to be pre-1955 but the chimney is prominent and I had fun testing my knowledge of which classroom belonged to which teacher.

This site, though in the early stages will always be a work in progress as both the oral and photographic images build up a picture of both past and present.

I still wander down the High Street from time to time.

The doorway (and read nothing into this) where I first met my wife has gone - but not the shop. Divito's the coffee bar where I hung out has gone and my old school is now a housing estate. Gone too are the old air raid shelters that stood for so long after the war in Spur Road one of which was home to a branch of the Young Conservatives.

And as my wife reminds me there was the celebrated 'Iron Curtain' - The Who and Tina Turner - Swinging Blue Jeans but not The Rolling Stones all played live there.

The Orpington History Organisation can be found at www.orpington-history.org - and they have a Facebook page.

WANDERINGS IN THE BLOGOSPHERE

Every so often I wander off into the blogosphere and have found three new sites that are worth checking out.

First up is AGE OF UNCERTAINTY (http://ageofuncertainty.blogspot.com) - The blogger known as Steerforth is an interesting guy. I only found his blog because I was looking up something about James Barlow. He has a lot of interesting things to say about his locale and about books, many of them old books.

Next is CONFESSIONS OF A WESTERN WRITER (http://confessionsofawesternwriter.blogspot.com) Neil Waring has a wonderful slant on the art of writing westerns - he also has another couple of blogs one of which is about Wyoming.

Third is RAYZER SHARPIE (http://rayzersharpie.blogspot.com) - Not much there at the moment but the pieces that he has done on Reacher, Deep Purple and 'Slay Bells And Six Guns' are interesting.

FELIXSTOWE: THE 1953 FLOODS

Walking along the beach at Felixstowe today and despite the stiff breeze and the rushing waves it is difficult to believe that 60 years ago it was a completely different pictures.
On the 31st January 1953 the combination of hurricane force winds from the north and a high spring tide produced an 18 foot storm surge that swept down the east coast of England at a high cost to life.

Of course, I was an eight year old kid when this happened and I lived miles away in North London totaly unaware of this tragedy. That was until my dad took me to see 'The Snows Of Kilimanjaro' at the local Odeon.

Normally, there would have been a 'B' movie but, instead, was a black and white newsreel that showed the devastation that this storm had brought to places like Hunstanton, Felixstowe and Canvey Island. The opening words: "We are sorry that you were woken in the early hours of the morning...." somehow have stuck with me over the years.

In Felixstowe alone 41 people died and thirteen of those were children. Not all of them were drowned, some died in their parents' arms trapped in the freezing cold weather shivering inside their pyjamas as they huddled together on the roofs of their homes.

Most of the homes were of the pre-fab design that were destroyed by the floodwaters and when you walk along Langer Road today you can only imagine what happened there.

But it was the suddeness of the storm - a policeman knocked on one door and told the occupants that they should get out but within seconds of waking their daughter they were fighting the floodwaters to escape their home and climb to the roof.

I can only imagine that it was as sudden as the tsunami that hit Thailand - but even so after 60 years I can recall the images that I saw in the cinema.

Today a memorial (pictured above) stands at the junction of Langer Road and Beach Station Road - the blue line at the top of the wall shows the height of the floodwaters.

Although there are walls and new sea defences there now I doubt that they could halt another eighteen foot surge. On the other hand there appears to be an early warning system in place to evacuate the area if needs be.

The sea is a force that can never be underestimated.

DEVINE by I.J.Parnham

Lieutenant Governor Maddox Kingsley intends to clean up the county so hires Pinkerton detective Nimrod Dunn to infiltrate Cornelius Lee's gang and bring them to justice. Just as it seems that the job is done so the detective's cover is blown.

Marshall Jake T. Devine is sent in to bring the gang to justice - but Devine is a law unto himself.

Devine is a man who acts as Judge, Jury and Executioner who is totally committed to the law. Against him is Nimrod Dunn who is anxious to regain his reputation yet proves to be the perfect foil for the Marshall. And as long as the Pinkerton man does his job then he is the one walking around with a target on his back.

Bounty hunters, hired guns, crooked politicians all are subject to Devine's law - and life changing moments do occur.

If you read the original 'Devine's Law' then this book will not disappoint. Devine makes Edge seem saintly - a great character and a towering prescence.

Publisher: Black Horse Westerns (Robert Hale Ltd)