Steve Zodiac - Analogue Puppet!

I remember watching one of the first episodes of Fireball XL5 in black and white back in the 1960s. Steve Zodiac and Dr Venus were visiting a strange planet and making their way through some spooky caves on their jetmobiles. Venus was attacked and fell from her jetmobile ... blood...blood on her head ... what would Steve Zodiac do?
I was about 7 years old at the time and it scared me!
Steve Zodiac, Venus, Mathew (Matt) Matic, Robert the Robert (On our way home!!) and that strange creature Zoonie.
The series was way ahead of its time, imagine if they made the series again using digital technology?
They remade THUNDERBIRDS using real life characters and changed the look of the crafts .. it was awful!
Let's remake FIREBALL XL5 using computer animations similar to Shrek or Ice Age

Some great Fireball XL5 websites and images:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQhw05Ssxiw&feature=related
www.nostalgiacentral.com/tv/kids/xl5.htm
http://www.aiai.ed.ac.uk/~bat/GA/fireball-xl5.html

Avril

Today was my last day after an incredible year at my new school site. Moving into a new level of digital technology makes me reflect on where I was this time last year. Last night and this afternoon the children leaving school presented their end of year Mass to their parents and rest of the school, part of this was our Powerpoint Presentation. I have done this a couple of times with the children before, but this time the feelings came right to the surface - a real tear jerker. This along with the school play (Joe White) and some wonderful kids brought to life the technology behind it.
The Powerpoint was so popular that we needed 60 copies of it on CD in half a day. The kids responded and set up a production line of disc burning using Dell Laptops churning out discs in packets ready for distribution!
Fantastic!
These are nine year old kids!
They harnessed the digital technology!
The song by Avril Lavingne 'When you're gone' was used in the presentation and will never be forgotten ... Rock on Avril!!

Disco Diva!

Back in 1991 I became a DJ!
I can't believe that some of this equipment is being used at this moment at school in the same hall that it was was originally designed for...
The story...family night discos at The Moss School where my children are and one night the disco does not turn up. The hall is full of parents and children waiting for a disco and we have a problem. Some quick thinking and I decided to wheel in the school hi-fi connect it up and run home to get some records and tapes along with a couple of children. We now had a disco!
I became a DJ overnight and had a great night, the parents and kids didn't even notice the lack of disco! After this I decided to build some equipment and have a disco of my own to use in school. I have lost count of the number of discos that I have done over the years, first with two twin SP25 decks and then added one and even two CD players. We had flashing lights and a superb 100 watt FET Amp (Kit from Maplin) Speakers are brilliant, I later added tweeters which further improved the quality. A couple of years later I bought a Maplin Mixer Unit which I still use today.
The photo shows the new equipment ready be used along with my BBC Computer and twin disc drives, printer and modem in 1991.
On Friday in our new school building (Re-built The Moss School) we presented our Summer production in the same hall area as 1991 and with the same equipment - it still works!!