Another Day, Another SiF Blog!

Written by Ryan

YouTube Strike Again
A short rant to start us off - apparently Chris, aka FlyingKipperStudios, has had both his YouTube accounts removed, in a similar move to what they did with me. I'm getting rather sick of this aggrovation with YouTube, and really, since my own previous account was suspended, have generally distanced myself from there, prefering to let DailyMotion take over the hosting of the SiF Meeting Videos.

Wales 2008 Meeting sorted!
The SiF North Wales Railway Adventure 2008 kicks off on August the 15th. However, there was due to be some slight problems this year - while eight of us move into the cottage for a week on Friday, the other five don't move into their caravan until Saturday afternoon...! Thankfully though, I've managed to get them accomodated at Borth Youth Hostel overnight on Friday to save the trip ever so slightly, and give us back our Saturday together.

Noteworthy though that Borth is actually 40 miles south of Fairbourne, where we'll be staying. Initially tried to get accomodation at Dollegau, but they were full on the Friday, and recommended Borth as the nearest place to them. Dollegau is 9 miles from Fairbourne, which is reasonable... and somehow I thought he meant slightly closer than 40 miles! But no matter, it's close enough and that'll do for us.

Brand New Story Narrations Page for the Fansite
The Story Narrations thread has been moderately popular in recent months - kicking off with a huge spate of recordings, but since trailing off to a more steady pace. In recent weeks, I have promised a set of recordings by Johnny Morris, Willie Rushton and Ted Robbins - which I have delivered upon and gladly so too. A selection of their storytelling will now be available on the Fansite for download, as well as storytelling by SiF members. As well as these, there are also rare narratives by Ringo Starr as well from the 1985 to 1987 Ladybird books with a selection of five stories from both Series 1 and 2 recordings.

You'll be able to hear stories from the Railway Series and Awdry written Annuals, as well as our own Extended Railway Series fictions - the only full book to be narrated, which we have available, is Chris The Xelent's Blandford the Somerset Engine, told by the author himself. We hope this will raise the profile of the standard of our fan-fictions and of the forum itself also. That, and we also hope people appreciate hearing something fresh and different also.

Current and Future Media
With redubs such as Chris Burrell's Gordon the Big Engine and Alaric's Toby and the Stout Gentleman, we have seen a bit of a resurgence back into visual redubs, and I hope for more to come too outwith Sodor Studios. It's one thing the media site has been lacking in, giving way to audio dubs and the creative freedom they provide.

The follow up to the first Tugs Audio - Lost - is currently underway, with further installments due to follow afterward in due course. The first of these is Big Mac, which focuses upon the title character's lack of confidence, and the other, Chimera, where a group of Tugs come across a liner floating in the mid ocean - which isn't all it seems... the first Tugs Audio Production was very well received, so we look forward to releasing the impending follow ups.

As for my appearance in The Fat Controller's Monologue - I hope you can now further appreciate the difference between a Kettle and a Steam Tram, and that you found my demonstration helpful to you. And yes, the OaSiF album will be released in time for Christmas - a track listing will be made available as soon as we lay down tracks.

Anyway, till next time folks,

All my best,
Ryan! :D