The Owl Service

The Owl Service is a low fantasy novel for young adults by Alan Garner, published by Collins in 1967. Set in modern Wales, it is an adaptation of the story of the mythical Welsh woman Blodeuwedd, an "expression of the myth" in the author's words.

Garner won the annual Carnegie Medal from the Library Association, recognising the year's best children's book by a British author. It was named one of the top ten Medal-winning works for the 70th anniversary celebration in 2007, selected by a panel to compose the ballot for a public election of the all-time favourite. Garner also won the second annual Guardian Children's Fiction Prize, a similar award that authors may not win twice. Only six books have won both awards in the 45 years from 1966 to 2011.

The mythical Blodeuwedd is featured in the Fourth Branch of the Mabinogi. She is a woman created from flowers by Math and Gwydion, for a man cursed to take no human wife. She betrays that husband Lleu in favour of another man, Gronw, and is turned into an owl as punishment for inducing Gronw to kill Lleu. In Garner's tale three teenagers find themselves re-enacting the story. They awaken the legend by finding a set of dinner plates (a "dinner service") with an owl pattern, which gives the novel its title.

The Owl Service (band)

The Owl Service is an English alternative folk band formed in 2006 by multi-instrumentalist Steven Collins, named after the 1967 novel by Alan Garner.

History

The Owl Service was originally intended to be a studio-based solo vehicle for Steven Collins, but while working on the first Owl Service release (the Wake the Vaulted Echo EP from 2006) he felt the need to enlist some help with vocal duties and this resulted in collaborations with Rebsie Fairholm (who sang on the debut EP, but then made only one more fleeting appearance with the band on the Bitter Night EP in 2008) and Dom Cooper of The Straw Bear Band, who remained involved with The Owl Service until March 2012; singing, writing songs and co-ordinating the band's graphic design. The Wake EP was warmly received in psych-folk circles and this lead to Collins being asked to contribute a track to the 2007 compilation album John Barleycorn Reborn on the Cold Spring label (for which he also wrote sleeve notes). For the JBR album, Steven recorded the traditional song The North Country Maid with session singer Rachel Davies, a song the band would revisit on the debut album in an alternative version. While recording the debut Owl Service album later that year, two permanent female singers joined the band; Jo Lepine and Diana Collier.

The Owl Service (TV series)

The Owl Service was an eight-part television series based on the fantasy novel of the same name by Alan Garner. Produced in 1969 and televised over the winter of 1969-1970, the series was remarkably bold in terms of production. It was the first fully scripted colour production by Granada Television and was filmed almost entirely on location at a time when almost all TV drama was studio-bound. It used editing techniques such as jump cuts to create a sense of disorientation and also to suggest that two time periods overlapped. For the series, the book was adapted in seven scripts (later stretched to eight) by Garner and was produced and directed by Peter Plummer. The direction was quite radical and seemed to be influenced by the avant-garde, a noted contrast to what might be expected of a children's serial.

Background

Following the success of the novel, which had won the Carnegie Medal and Guardian Award for children's literature, there was much interest in turning the story into a TV series with three companies vying for the rights. In the end, during the summer of 1968, Granada won out, approaching Alan Garner to script the series himself. The director chosen was Peter Plummer, who also acted as Producer. Since the novel was based on real locations, Plummer opted to use the same places where possible and although the scenes in the house were filmed in a manor near Liverpool, the rest of the filming took place in Wales (where the story was set). Filming began on location on 11 April and was completed 20 June, a few studio scenes were shot for the production, with these wrapping up on 3 July 1969. Trailers for the series were also shot, featuring material not used in the finished show.

Night bus service

A night bus service or an owl service is a public transport bus service which operates through the nighttime hours. Many cities operate such services, either in addition to or in substitution for ordinary daytime bus services or rapid transit rail services which may shut for maintenance or due to lack of passenger volumes at night.

Twenty-four-hour rapid transit operation is practiced in some cities, which renders these services unneeded. Night bus service is generally much more limited in geographic coverage than daytime services, there are usually fewer lines and routes may run over entirely different paths to daytime services, or the night bus terminus may be in a different place. Some networks may run longer routes than daytime services, which may use interchanges to reach the same outlying districts. Night services usually also run less frequently.

The difference in services may be prefixed with an "N" for Night bus, or otherwise specially branded compared to the daytime services. Another common way of distinguishing them from their daily counterparts are dark-colored line numbers. Some night services may be provided by virtue of operating some routes as 24-hour services. Some cities apply a different night bus fare structure to the daytime services. Some services may allow users to alight at a requested place of stopping rather than at specific bus stops in deference to passenger concerns about safely walking long distances.

Owl (disambiguation)

Owls are nocturnal birds of prey.

Owl, Owls or OWL may also refer to:

Organizations

Places

Military

Arts and entertainment

Film and television

Owl (Dell Comics)

The Owl is a fictional superhero character who first appeared in Dell Comics in 1940; not to be confused with the Marvel Comics villain of the same name or with DC Comics’ Owlman.

Fictional biography

Police detective Nick Terry became The Owl so that he could more freely protect his home city of Yorktown from criminals. Not having superpowers, he instead relied on his fighting skills and a number of gimmicks, such as his flying “Owlmobile,” a cape that functions as a hang glider, and a hand-held “black light” gun that casts a beam of darkness. His girlfriend, newspaper reporter Belle Wayne, found out his secret and became his sidekick, Owl Girl.

At some point after World War II, The Owl (along with dozens of other heroes) was trapped in the Urn of Pandora by the misguided Fighting Yank. Decades later, the Urn was shattered and the heroes freed, many of whom were transformed by the experience. The Owl now had the power of flight and the power to emanate a field of black light from his body. He returned to Yorktown and found that it was now being watched over by a ruthless new Owl Girl who was the granddaughter of the original.

The Owl (TV series)

The Owl, also known as La Chouette, is a series of short CGI-animated episodes for children's television. The series features the eponymous owl, pink in colour, and with blue feet that "float" below her body. Each of the minute-long fifty-two episodes centres on the owl attempting to overcome unfortunate circumstances (sometimes created by her negative attitude and antisocial behavior), but end in her demise by her various appendages and body being dispensed of in unusual or comical ways. The series also feature a surrealistic world with floating objects and exploding apples.

List of episodes