New AV for March 2008: Grammys, Star Blazers, more
We just received our latest shipment of wonderful music and movies last week.
In music, we snapped up an armful of Grammy Award winners artists from Herbie Hancock’s “River: The Joni Letters” and Amy Winehouse to the amazing collaboration of Robert Plant and Alison Krauss.
In video, we snagged some of the latest releases, but Jane Austen and James Bond fans will especially rejoice as you’ll read below. Of unusual interest is the first season of the animated space opera Star Blazers.
Star Blazers
If you want to watch the television show that started the golden era of Japanese anime, this is the one.
Star Blazers debuted in Japan in 1974 as Space Battleship Yamoto. It started as a quiet cult classic, but soon cascaded to outsell even Star Wars in the movie houses. It became a runaway success that spanned three TV series and five movies.
They dubbed the show in English and introduced it to our shores as Star Blazers in 1979. Everyday that year my friends and I converged on the television after school to see if the Star Force could save planet Earth from the Gamalon’s deadly radio-active planet bombs. We were absolutely hooked.
I’m rewatching the series now. It definitely shows its age in places, but the animation and plot are great.
For adults, it’s also interesting to see the post-WWII Japanese cultural politics at play. The spaceship was cast from the battleship Yamoto, the nation’s most powerful World War II navel vessel. In the early episodes, it’s noted the tool of war was being transformed into a tool of peace to save humanity.
—Jerry Yarnetsky
Here’s what we’re adding to our collection…
New Music
Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace, Foo Fighters
No Hay Espacio, Black:Guayaba
Raising Sand, Robert Plant and Alison Krauss
River: The Joni Letters, Herbie Hancock
Dirt Farmer, Levon Helm
Avant Gershwin, Patti Austin
In Rainbows, Radiohead
Back to Black, Amy Winehouse
Detours, Sheryl Crow
Momento, Bebel Gilberto
Last of the Breed, Willie Nelson
We Are the Night, The Chemical Brothers
Live: One Last Time, The Clark Sisters
Icky Thump, The White Stripes
Graduation, Kanye West
Washington Square Serenade (DIG), Steve Earle
The Very Best of Cole Porter, Cole Porter
The Greatest Hits: Why Try Harder, Fatboy Slim
Across The Universe [soundtrack]
Dreamgirls [Soundtrack]
Juno [Soundtrack]
Ratatouille [Soundtrack]
Movies
The Prestige
The Jane Austen Book Club
Across the Universe
Gone Baby Gone
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
Michael Clayton
Smoke Signals
A Good Year
No Reservations
Lucky You
High School Musical 2
Underdog
Moonstruck
3:10 to Yuma
The Game Plan
James Bond movies
A View to a Kill
Thunderball
Die Another Day
The Spy Who Loved Me
Licence to Kill
Jane Austen BBC Collection
Sense & Sensibility
Emma
Persuasion
Mansfield Park
Pride & Prejudice
Northanger Abbey
Television series
Star Blazers – The Quest for Iscandar – The Complete Series I
The Avengers 1962
Dallas, 1st and 2nd seasons
Star Trek. Season 1
Dexter – The First Season
Kids video
The Aristocats
Between the Lions Season 1
Bob the Builder: Bob’s Hard at Work Collection
Ben 10 – Season
Hannah Montana, Vol. 1 – Livin’ the Rock Star Life
The Beatrix Potter Collection
Dora the Explorer – Dora’s Ultimate Adventure Collection
Non-fiction
You Can Heal Your Life, the movie
Christy Lane’s Square Dancing Today
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