Bibliophile

Oooo records

2013-05-13T20:57:00.000-07:00

Conversation the other day got around to what was the first record (or cassette, or CD - depending on your age) that you bought.
I didn't have to think for long, still remember it - "Explosive hits '74". I purchased it for my sister's birthday, and the first chance we had to play it was at our grandparents. Our grandfather totally disapproved of this loud pop music on a machine which previously had only ever played classical and operatic works (maybe it had sometime to do with the first track starting with the guttural ooga ooga ooga chaka).

I didn't remember all the tracks, but seeing the listing again -
Side 1:
Hooked on a feeling - Blue Swede
Dance with the devil - Cozy Powell
Billy don't be a hero - Paper Lace
Ships in the night - Vicki Lawrence
Too pooped to pop - The La De Das
The Entertainer - New England Conservatory Ragtime Ensemble
La Grange - ZZ Top
Emma - Hot Chocolate
Seasons in the sun - Bobby Wright
Side 2:
The Loco-Motion - Grand Funk Railway
Devil Gate Drive - Suzi Quarto
I am Pegasus - Ross Ryan
The air that I breathe - The Hollies
Over the rainbow - Billy Thorpe
The last time I saw him - Diana Ross
Evie Part 1 - Stevie Wright
My coo ca choo - Alvin Stardust

brings most of it back, though there were a couple that didn't ring a bell till I searched for them on iTunes, also checked my iTunes library and I have two-thirds of them. Umm is that good or bad?
The other thing that reminiscing about these old tracks is, you also remember events of those times too - listening again conjures up memories...
And then there was "Explosive hits '76"!

Quaint - but pronouncing hell

2013-05-06T19:56:00.000-07:00

Out touring on the weekend to a number of quite small hamlets, localities really.
Like Neuarpurr where the horses (from cute little miniatures up to the large draught horses) vastly outnumbered the human residents. But there was the beautifully rustic Neuarpurr State School building (the perceptive will recognise this is the same style as Boyeo, just flipped) now a private home. I've driven past a dozen times previously without discovering this little gem.

Neuarpurr No. 2645 (1890s-1940s)

Booroopki WWI monument

Talking of little towns , there was Minimay proudly boasting 'population 10' on the town sign, it still has a store/post office, but not sure for how long as there was the For Sale sign out the front.
From the dead-end Domaschenz Road in the Patyah/Jallakin area, bypassed Ozenkadnook and skirted Lake Charlegrark to arrive at Booroopki (the City staff were having a giggle at its pronunciation the other day). Booroopki now has a little picnic shelter at its Avenue of Honour.
Heading west to the new money at Tallageira - the farmers moving to huge centre-pivot irrigation to grow vegetables, even the sheep were eating the discarded onions (readily seasoned lamb roast).

Cast-iron plate outside the Benayeo Hall

Then just short of the border and Kybybolite, to Benayeo finding this relic - apparently the back plate of a fireplace, built by the Victoria Foundry in Carlton for the Education Department in 1876. Was going to finish off at Bringalbert, but the light was fading so it will have to be another alphabet adventure in local nomenclature.

Abandoned app

2013-04-29T20:06:00.000-07:00

Oh, the highs and then the lows...
I was checking out WebUrbanist (as usual) when I came across the 'Abandoned app'.

Half the fun of exploring abandoned places is the hunt – stumbling upon obscure sites, or determining the precise location of better-known ones with a collection of vague clues from previous urban explorers. It’s not a great idea to have hordes of curious people descending upon crumbling ruins and dilapidated structures for obvious reasons, ranging from trespassing laws to dangerous conditions. But for abandoned places aficionados who’d rather cut to the chase, the ‘Abandoned’ iPhone app by The FORM pinpoints locations on a map.

Explore modern day ruins from empty mental asylums to shipwrecks under the Great Lakes. Discover the history and location of dead amusement parks, overgrown hospitals, forgotten hotels and creepy ghost towns.

Great I think where can I get it...then think...check the fine print - is it worldwide or only American - damn it's limited to the United States and Canada

Still I read on though - the community-based app relies on user input to determine where abandoned sites are located. And beyond mere maps, the app allows you to post photos and stories of your own adventures and to store a private log of your own locations if you don’t want to share with others.

Follow the footsteps of other explorers, or post photos and stories of your own adventures. Uncover legends in your own home town, or venture across the country to submerged cities, crumbling prisons and deserted graveyards.

- GPS mapping automatically locates and displays abandoned places near you

- Immersive photos put you right at the scene

- Read and share comments, reviews and experiences about each location

- Community-driven content means there’s always something new to explore

- Upload your own abandoned locations with descriptions and photos

- Contribute to someone else’s locations with your own photos and comments

- Store a private log of your own locations

- View in state-by-state list format, or dynamic map

- Automatic updates when new locations are added

- 1-5 star ratings for each location

- Explore for fun or use for scouting film locations and photo shoots

Urban exploration has long relied upon word-of-mouth. In many cases, people in the know share information about certain sites only with others who can be trusted not to damage the site, call attention to themselves, or take risks that could result in injuries. For that reason, this app might receive mixed response from dedicated urban explorers, and those interested in keeping certain sites secret from the public at large. But on the other hand, a lot of abandoned sites are in serious need of attention, and the sooner they’re saved, the more of their history can be preserved.

It is available @ the iTunes store, just can't wait till there is an Australian version.

Armchair traveller

2013-04-26T23:23:00.001-07:00

Explore Sydney like never before

Has Sydney always been on your travel wishlist?

Now you can try before you fly.

Discover

Sydney Harbour,
Bondi Beach,
Taronga Zoo,
Palm Beach & Barrenjoey,
the Hunter Valley

in fully interactive 360 degrees with five fantastic fly-over videos.

Each clip is just over one minute and has been filmed from a helicopter (I know it will be the only time I fly over the Harbour Bridge). You can control the view via your mouse - pan or zoom.
Unfortunately the Palm Beach one doesn't do a fly-over of Barrenjoey Lighthouse and does a hover out from the beach instead (missed opportunity to my mind).

Link to Sydney 360

Boy-o-boy

2013-04-18T00:15:00.000-07:00

Boyeo in the 1880s (J.Pickering)

I was on a mission to photograph the schools or school sites across the Wimmera region, and after spending the day searching for plaques or signposts, usually surrounded by a ring of sugar gums, I was on the lookout for the Boyeo site. I knew it had been sold at auction, so was amazed to see the wooden building across a paddock. After negotiating an arm of what in winter would be swamp,arrived at the precariously leaning Boyeo School building.

My first view of the school building

Boyeo School No. 2577 (formerly Tarranginnie North became Boyeo in 1888) opened in February 1884 in a temporary building with an iron roof, timber floor, 2 doors & 1 window built by selectors, on Patterson’s selection. A 2 acre site was gazetted 15.5.1885, near the southeast corner of a block largely taken up by a large swamp.

In 1885 the Department erected a timber building with an attached four-room residence. An underground tank was provided in 1887. The Boyeo Post Office was established in the residence in 1888, changing the name from Tarranginnie North to Boyeo. In 1898 permission was given to construct an underground room to combat the excessive heat. By 1910 in an unusually wetter year, the school was completely surrounded by water. Children arrived in boats or waded knee-deep (the school closed from September until January). It finally closed in February 1944.

This is essentially the published article submitted by Joan Pickering (Joan Beacom attended Boyeo in the 1930s) in the “Vision and realisation” book. Fortunately the Library also has her book "Tarranginnie Schools" which has a section devoted to the Boyeo school.

The swamp - interesting to park a school near it - in 1909 the teacher Janet McVicar found "the school is almost surrounded by a swamp and the flies and other insects are often so troublesome that the children have to work in a state of torment", she was requesting a wire door & wire windows.

The sagging residence held up by its chimney

The flood of August 1910 led to the school becoming an island, some parents refused to send their children till the water receded. A month later the school closed when the water rose to cover the schoolhouse floor, entered the outlet pipe of the underground tank,polluting it. The water fell at the end of the year, but rose again with February rains. There were several attempts to shift the school but with no agreement, it remained perched on the edge of the swamp.

The rear of the school faces the prevailing winds

At the other extreme - The underground room was requested by the teacher Thomas Posser as his wife and child had found the heat so intense he had been obliged to send them away to Western Port. He proposed to excavate 8' square by 6' deep with wooden steps leading down, a roof of iron with hessian beneath, with a draught pipe, and whitewashed walls. The Department did not object, provided he filled the hole in should he cease teaching at the school.

The heavily raftered roof gives it stability

Like many other small schools Boyeo suffered from bouts of measles, whooping cough and scarletina. The children (with assistance) tended a school garden and trees for Arbor Days (they won the prize for best garden). And finally like most rural schools it succumbed to declining attendance and closed in 1944, and the school building was sold at auction in Kaniva.

The old weatherboard building still sits on a rise above the timbered swamp, part of a Crown Land red-gum reserve. Erected in March 1886 it has stood for 127 years, 63 of them as an abandoned, derelict structure. Its stability must be due to the construction which has the rafters spaced only a couple of feet apart, though how much longer this will be true is uncertain. I spent nearly an hour strolling around the school, peering in through the doors and windows, checking out the bits and pieces strewn around the yard.

Some of the detritus, yes I found its mate about 20 metres away

Awesome Arapiles

2013-04-09T00:12:00.002-07:00

Have just uploaded my Postcards Project video.

Awesome Arapiles from Ros Ryan on Vimeo.
It is the result of my ABC Open Postcards classes. The aim of the Project is to 'create short video postcards from weird and wonderful places around Australia. Discover or create your own postcard about a place you want to share'.
This short film is no George Lucas or Peter Jackson production, but a huge learning experience.

A couple of stats

one day of filming = 1 minute 26 seconds of video
90% of the film was left on the cutting room floor

Keep out!

2013-04-01T23:09:00.000-07:00

You have to read this book - 100 places you will never visit : the world's most secret locations by Daniel Smith - as the chances of actually visiting the places listed is not possible/highly unlikely/illegal...

Ever wondered what it takes to get into Fort Knox? Fancied a peek inside the Coca-Cola Safety Deposit Box? Would you dare to visit Three Mile Island? The world is full of secret places that we either don't know about, or couldn't visit even if we wanted to.

Gaza tunnel

Sometimes they lie under our feet: London's Whitehall tunnels, Moscow's hidden subway, and the Gaza Strip smuggling passages, or they are so confidential that their existence is not even acknowledged by governments: the USA's Mount Weather Emergency Operations Centre, and Mount Baekdu in North Korea a mountain lair purportedly built by Kim Jong-il.

A series of tunnels has been dug beneath the barrier separating Egypt and the Gaza Strip (a border that has long been subject to an Israeli blockade). The tunnels are used for smuggling people, transporting illicit food supplies, and contraband ranging from arms & explosives to recreational drugs.

Now you can glimpse the Tora Bora caves in Afghanistan, visit the Tuscon Titan Missile Site, tour the Vatican Archives, or see the Chapel of the Ark.

The seal in the lobby of the headquarters building

The only secure way to see these shadowy and mysterious facilities, this fascinating guide book takes a look at 100 places around the world that are either so hard to reach, so closely guarded, or so secret that they are virtually impossible to visit any other way.

The US Central Intelligence Agency in Langley Viriginia is among the most secure buildings on the globe. The CIA is responsible for providing intelligence on matters of national security to Washington, and operating a network of spies around the world.

There are three Australian entries - the Woomera Rocket Range, Pine Gap, and the headquarters of the Joint Operational Command. Why can't they be interesting sites like the Amber Room, the Vatican Secret Archives, or the Skywalker Ranch instead of scientific-military facilities.
This is one time when reading the book is better than actually being there...
100 places you will never visit : the world's most secret locations by Daniel Smith.

One of those days

2013-03-25T23:38:00.000-07:00

I'm aware that the role of advertisments is to encourage you to purchase the product, but I think a truly good ad is one that is memorable, inventive, becomes part of the vernacular, or a clever parody eg. the Evian baby one
I remember the best part of having to watch the football replays on a Saturday night was the series of SGIC ads - didn't make me want their insurance (the South Australian State Government Insurance Commission), they were just well-made witty clips.(AAMI are currently attempting to emulate them, but it just doesn't have the same flair).
My favourite was the Milk Bar one, but I couldn't find it, so this is the second best (love the car-wash attendant). This one leaves Mr Bean for dead.

It is so easy to say "Sorry!"

Gobsmacked

2013-03-16T00:12:00.001-07:00

It is not enough that Facebook, iTunes, and the rest keep changing layouts, hiding features, etc - telling us that we want it that we just don't know we do, now Google have decided to retire Google Reader its RSS reader!

Copied from the New York Times

Having had to change from Bloglines to Google Reader, I'm not impressed with the decision from the people who wish to be the sum of all printed knowledge. The 'RichSiteSummary Feed' harks back to my early blogging days with '23Things', monitoring the sites I follow for new stories.

Literal literates

2013-03-14T01:23:00.000-07:00

What should have been a winning word score - was disallowed. Seems the people at Words With Friends aren't big library users (also checked with Scrabble word finder and it didn't include it either - Philistines!)it may be disallowed due to it being a 'proper noun' but that just takes all the fun out of the situation.
Words With Friends is like an app version of Scrabble (selecting lettered tiles of differing values to create words horizontally or vertically) allowing you to play remotely with your. ..friends!

Battle Victor

2013-03-03T22:23:00.000-08:00

The first time I watched "Time Team" on tv, I thought I recognised the style used in the pencil sketches - looks just like Victor Ambrus, later I checked the credits - yep Victor G. Ambrus.

I fell in love with Victor's work when reading childrens books (many of them Australian) - all the Nan Chauncy's, Elyne Mitchell's "Silver Brumby" books, Ronald Welch, K.M. Peyton's "Flambards" series, Rosemary Sutcliff ... even his picture book version of "Dracula".

The paintings and drawings of Victor Ambrus are familiar to several generations. He has illustrated over 300 books on classical and historical subjects in his own instantly recognisable style.Now there is "Battlefield panoramas : from the siege of Troy to D-Day". Over the years Victor has amassed what amounts to a visual record of the entire history of warfare, brought together here in one volume.

A few simple lines create a sketch

With a concise text explaining the background of each battle scene, "Battlefield panorama" is an art book.

Beginning with the siege of Troy, there's Caesar's invasion of Britain, the Viking raid of Lindisfarne, the Battle of Hastings, the bowmen at Agincourt, the Battle of Sedgemoor, the storming of the Bastille, Trafalgar and Waterloo, The Franco-Prussian War, the British Expeditionary Force in the First World War, the Normandy Landings, and the 1956 Hungarian Uprising (this takes on particular power and resonance when you know that Victor was actually there).

The Siege of Athlone in 1691

Victor was born in Budapest in 1935. He studied at the Hungarian Academy of Fine Art, then fled the invasion, and arrived at the Royal College of Art in London. He has won the prestigious Kate Greenaway Medal - twice, with 3 books.

Classic Victor - the Iceni Uprising

The Battle of Trafalgar

He has been part of the Time Team as its reconstruction artist for many years. Tony Robinson (the presenter and world's best audio book narrator) describes him as 'an archaeological alchemist - he can transform a few stones and bits of pot into a vivid world of living, breathing people'.

Fire by night

2013-02-21T20:09:00.000-08:00

At Brimpaen, 7:30pm on 20th

The next installment in the Grampians Bushfire.
The fire takes on a different aspect at night -

From Gary Smith of Casterton

The large slow-moving fire is travelling in a westerly direction, and is still out of control.
It has now grown to over 32,500 hectares.

Brimpaen on 21st, Lynton says this thunderhead had its own lightning show

Community Meetings to discuss the fire efforts are being held at Cavendish, Balmoral and Dunkeld. Relief Centres have been established at Hamilton and Balmoral.
The Henty Highway remains closed between the Brimpaen-Laharum Road and Mooralla. Diversions are in place at Horsham and Cavendish.

Between Brimpaen & Cherrypool looking southeast, on 21st

Compare this CFA map to the one in the previous post. This image was created at 8am today.

From Reeds Lookout overlooking the Victoria Valley to the fire on the Victoria Range

Ongoing fires

2013-02-19T23:34:00.000-08:00

North of the Western Highway looking south to the Grampians, 10pm on 18th

How un-prophetic my post from Thursday 14th now appears
This morning DSE & Parks Victoria advised that multiple fires (14) occurred due to lightning strikes in the Grampians National Park area. All fires are small and not posing any threats to park visitors or adjoining landholders. The fires are being controlled by DSE and Parks Victoria crews supported by water bombing aircraft. The fires were started by lightning, and are located in the Mt William, Victoria Valley, and Mt Abrupt areas. More lightning activity is expected this afternoon and overnight.

In the Southern Grampians, on Saturday 16th

The Victoria Valley Complex as it is now named, is currently 14,600 hectares and still out of control. There are 71 units including aerial appliances fighting the fire.

The smoke trapped in a inversion layer on 16th, south of Glenisla

After a number of the the small lightning strike fires joined up, they threatened Mirranatwa, then after the cool change brought on a new wind direction the fire roared up the Victoria Valley and into the Victoria Range, it is now threatening the Glenisla and Woohlpooer Forest areas. News Flash - the Henty Highway has just been closed.

Long exposure looking back to the Grampians, 11:15pm on 17th

Again I've included some of Lynton Brown's photos, as he's making numerous drives out to the area. Below is one that seems to typify these fires - CFA volunteers watch a helicopter water-bomb the fire as it nears private property in the Southern Grampians on Monday 18th (the property was saved).

A map representation from the CFA Country Fire Authority of the Grampians fire (as at 19th).
The Blue symbol = Controlled, Yellow + Contained, and Red = Going.
The fire is now breaking out of the range and national park and heading west to threaten private land and the Henty Highway (the red line).

The Grampians fires are not the largest bushfire in Victoria at present. From the CFA's site on 10th, the map below gives you an idea of the size of the Aberfeldy fire (currently over 82,000 hectares) here's how it would look if it was across Melbourne.

By today, the Aberfeldy-Donnellys Fire has burnt through approximately 84,860ha, has a 388 km perimeter and has now been burning for 32 days. DSE, CFA, Parks Victoria and NSW Rural Fire Service personnel continue to work to control this fire. The fire will continue to burn within control lines into the coming weeks.The aim of the authorities is to secure control lines and complete burning around the Licola Valley to protect private property. Currently there are 258 personnel, 6 tankers and 63 slip-ons and 23 bulldozers working. CFA and DSE crews are based in Licola.

Images from Crusty's mobile phone

Crews from the Southern Grampians Shire area - Penshurst and Grange brigades protecting some of the historic huts in danger from the Aberfeldy fire. Here, near Licola, smoke from the fire is visible in the fold of the valley beyond.

Infrared camera image for identifying fire hotspots (from CFA)

On the 8th February, this fire at Mt Arapiles didn't even seem to rate a mention in the news. CFA crews stopped this fire on Friday, less than 100 metres from the forest flanking Mt Arapiles.

Aerial shot from the CFA

Nature's most electrifying

2013-02-14T18:57:00.000-08:00

There has been some dramatic weather around during the last 24 hours, and its progress is best demonstrated by photographer Lynton Brown who as usual was out taking photos of sunrises, sunsets and clouds.

This first in the sequence was taken just before 4:30pm looking west towards the approaching storms. At that stage he was checking the weather radar with storms near the border, Kaniva and Goroke areas.

An hour later - 5:30 near Drung

Snapped on his way to the Grampians, to capture the action, the storm front is approaching.

Taken at the Laharum Football Ground, the Grampians in the background

Looks like the Laharum shot is now Lynton's Facebook Cover Photo - check out more of his work at his facebook site Lynton Brown Photography or his website

Near Mount Zero

Inevitably all this dramatic climatic action caused a number of bushfires from lightning strikes, fortunately the accompanying rain dampened some.
This morning DSE & Parks Victoria advised that multiple fires (14) occurred due to lightning strikes in the Grampians National Park area. All fires are small and not posing any threats to park visitors or adjoining landholders. The fires are being controlled by DSE and Parks Victoria crews supported by water bombing aircraft. The fires were started by lightning, and are located in the Mt William, Victoria Valley, and Mt Abrupt areas. More lightning activity is expected this afternoon and overnight.

On the opposite side of Horsham, the Country Fire Authority advises that there is fire activity in the Little Desert National Park, where multiple lightning strikes overnight caused multiple fires in the area. These fires are being controlled and emergency crews are monitoring the area. Smoke may be visible from the nearby communities of Goroke, Gymbowen, Minimay, Miram South, Kaniva, Miram, and Ozenkadnook.
Then to the west are the Kadnook fires (affecting Kadnook, Harrow, Edenhope, Powers Creek, and Dergholm) also started by lightning these were the earliest strikes and being controlled.
To all the firefighters and residents out there - play it safe.

Boort to its knees

2013-02-13T22:27:00.001-08:00

Driving through Boort yesterday, my passenger (on lookout duty) drew my attention to the Boort railway station building.

The railway station at Boort is a closed and unused railway station located on the Robinvale line. The line branches from the Mildura line at Dunolly.

A broken window provides views of a partly trashed interior

The line to Boort opened in 1883. Passenger services to the station ended in June 1978.

A quaint little picket fence shaded by an old elm

Today the rail line today is a grain only service (there is a GEB siding nearby), and containerised freight to Boort is operated by Wimmera Container Lines.

The track switching gear beside the station building

Yet more light

2013-02-08T19:09:00.002-08:00

WebUrbanist have come up with more lighthouses. This post is titled Coast Stories: 9 More Abandoned Lighthouses.

Whiteford Point Lighthouse

Whiteford Point Lighthouse located just off the coast of Gower Peninsula at Whiteford Point, south Wales, was a triumph of engineering in its heyday. Activated in 1866 and turned off for good in 1921, the lighthouse’s cast-iron walls were once covered in protective black bitumen. 105 tapered cast-iron plates, each one 32mm (1.28 inches) thick, form the lighthouse’s outer walls. The plates were fastened to one another with cast-iron bolts weighing 2 pounds each. It sits on a pitched stone apron just above the low-water mark in the Loughour Estuary. Sixty years after its decommissioning and in response to pleas from local fishermen, the Whiteford Point Lighthouse was relit using an automatic solar-powered beacon but when that failed a few years later, the lighthouse was dimmed permanently.

Following World War I, the Japanese Empire seized the Northern Mariana Islands from Germany and developed a substantial amount of infrastructure. The Garapan Lighthouse on the island of Saipan sits on the highest point of Navy Hill, overlooking the lagoon. The concrete structure stands about 50’ high and rises above a single-storey gatekeeper’s quarters. Built in 1934, the lighthouse was extensively damaged during the American invasion of Saipan in the summer of 1944. Following the three-week battle, the 117th Seabees were sent in to repair the lighthouse. In the early 1990s an attempt was made to repurpose the now-abandoned lighthouse as a restaurant but by 1995 the venture was deemed unsuccessful and the structure was once again abandoned to the vagaries of wind, weather and vandalism.

Southerness Lighthouse, located on the southwestern coast of Scotland near Dumfries, is the second-oldest lighthouse in Scotland – built in 1749, its beacon was first lit in 1800. The square lighthouse is surrounded by the sea at high tide. The lighthouse was raised in 1795 and again in 1844 to its current height of 17 meters (56 ft), the latter modification giving the tower its distinctive squared-off style. The lighthouse’s lamp was extinguished between 1867 and 1894 due to financial difficulties and snuffed for good in 1936.

When coastal erosion is accelerated by rising sea levels, shore-level lighthouses like the leaning Kiipsaare Lighthouse on Estonia’s Saaremaa island lose out. Built in 1933 at a seemingly safe 25 meters from shore, the lighthouse’s base is now completely awash during high tide. The good news is now that the waves can do damage to all sides of the lighthouse’s base, the tower’s formerly pronounced seaward lean has been reversed. The lighthouse was made inactive in 1992. For philatelic fans a Kiipsaare lighthouse stamp was issued last week.

There are more lighthouses mentioned at the WebUrbanist post

Headhunted

2013-01-25T19:59:00.001-08:00

'Headhunters' by Jo Nesbo - the gritty thriller has been made into a film.

Roger Brown works as one of the most powerful corporate headhunters in Norway. To support his overly extravagant lifestyle, he is also an art thief using the information he gains from interviewing clients to break into their homes. With his friend, the gun toting security employee Ove Kjikerud, they replace the originals with forgeries, which go undetected at least until the trail back to the thieves goes cold. His outward bravado masks his insecurities, especially in his short physical stature. He feels he needs that confident demeanor and wealth to get what he wants, including his beautiful art gallery owner wife Diana. As such, he has a mistress on the side named Lotte. The issue of having a baby - Diana wants to get pregnant while Roger doesn't want her to - is another bone of contention in their marriage. The two sides of Roger's professional life intersect when Diana introduces him to Clas Greve.

Clas Greve, a former elite soldier and executive in the electronics business, is in possession of a missing Rubens painting. A painting whose heist would permanently rid Roger of his financial problems.
But Clas is playing a game of his own. When Roger breaks into Greve's house, it changes his life completely, and soon forces him to run for his life...

The serenity of a Norwegian wood, but trouble lurks below

There are plenty of bloody gore scenes as the body count climbs, but there’s also the humour: the twin police officers in the hospital, the toilet scene, the police radio calls.

This is my second Scandinavian thriller-film (after the Stieg Larsson ‘The girl with the dragon tattoo’ – so much better than the Daniel Craig version) from Yellow Bird Films, and apparently this story too has had the rights for a Hollywood remake taken up. So after I ignored the Norwegian and concentrated on the sub-titles, I really got involved with the fast-paced plot and many unusual and unexpected twists.

The film stars Nicolai Coaster-Waldau as the suave Clas Greve, and Aksel Hennie as the diminutive Roger Brown, when you first meet him you think small person’s disease, but as the action ramps up you have to feel for the guy, he can’t take a trick, but in the end he has schemed with the best of them. The gift of the film is its ability to change your perceptions of the two main characters as the story progresses – you begin to empathise with Roger as his inferiority complex insecurities take a back seat, while the increasingly silent Clas becomes more sinister.

You just know this isn't going to end well

The film is well executed by its director Morten Tyldum who escalates the graphic action scenes while counterbalancing the comic undertones that are present in some of these scenes - a device which can fail dismally, but here is the success of the film.
The 'Headhunters' DVD has an MA15+ rating for its strong violence and sex scenes.

Shedding light

2013-01-08T22:18:00.001-08:00

It was the cover of 'Around the sheds' which first captivated me, and then when I flicked through the pages I was won over.

Andrew's desire was to document an aspect of Australian life that is disappearing altogether.Over the years he has photographed shearing sheds and the people working in and around them poignantly revealing their design, the flow of work from harvest to pressing, and the evolution of technology and innovation in the industry. He began this project with an urgency described by others photographing abandoned places never knowing when their subjects may be destroyed before being recorded.

Innovation - hand-made gate at Angorichina

Andrew says "In my photographic odyssey, I am taking you on a visual journey where much has changed from thoses early days, yet so much remains the same."

Angorichina Station is east of Blinman in the Flinders Ranges. The working sheep station has been in the Fargher Family for four generations, and is now also an exclusive outback lodge accommodation. The woolshed, still in use, is a timber slab shed built of native Flinders pine.

The octagonal Deeargee shed near Uralla, Armidale region, N.S.W.

Deeargee woolshed is unique, it was part of the vast Gostwyck property, one of the first sheep runs established on the New England tablelands in 1831. The original 1852 shed was destroyed in an arson attack in 1872, and Henry Dangar then built an octagonal blade shed. In 1888-89 an extension was added to accommodate 27 new shearing machines, and a brick bale storage section in 1903.

Kinchega station is now part of a national park on the Darling River near Menindee in Outback New South Wales. However the 1875 shearing shed still with its blade and machine stands, wool presses and tables, machinery room and original steam engines. The red gum and galvanised iron building provided for 64 shearer stands in 2 rows. The last sheep was shorn at Kinchega in May 1967 when the pastoral lease of the property expired. The western section of the original woolshed has been demolished. You can stay in Kinchega's shearer's quarters or camp near the river.

Old steam engine boiler, Kinchega woolshed, Menindee

Andrew will be conducting a talk and exhibition of his work at the St Arnaud Library at 7:30pm on 31st January.
Check out more at Andrew's site -

Steam returns to Dim

2013-01-07T18:17:00.000-08:00

I'm still playing with 'now and then' photos, so when a copy of Shane McCarthy's "Patterns of steam" passed my desk at a time when I was recording local railway stations, well, these photos were the result -

The black and white image from December 1968, is of the K154 steam loco shunting in the Dimboola yard on now disused tracks. On the right is the now dismantled signal box proclaiming the stop as Dimboola. The pedestrian bridges, station building and silos still exist, but the goods shed has been removed.

Also from the wonderful "Patterns of steam" was this one of Kaniva. Here the J555 pauses at Kaniva with a Dimboola-Serviceton goods train in December 1967. Again the changes are evident, the trees have grown, the station building is now boarded up and abandoned, and not visible but behind the empty wagons is a silo complex. Also as at Dimboola, only the main Melbourne-Adelaide track is in service, the others rusting away.

The film, the book, the app

2012-12-31T21:11:00.002-08:00

I ~~want~~ need an iPad, ‘cos…

It’s not often that a film precedes a book, but it happened with the Academy Award winning animated short film for all bibliophiles – ‘The fantastic flying books of Mr Morris Lessmore’. The story follows reader and writer Morris Lessmore and his custodianship of a magical library of flying books. It was created using miniatures, computer CG & stop-motion animation, and traditional hand-drawn techniques.

Wonderful quirky work with books

I first saw this on YouTube, and now the actual book has been published as a hardcover children’s picture book ‘The fantastic flying books of Mr Morris Lessmore’ by William Joyce.

There is also an iTunes app by Moonbot Studios (Moonbot is the storytelling and animation collective co-founded by Joyce) to accompany the book/film, which as iTunes states “blurs the line between picture books and animated film”.

From the app which lets you draw, play piano & more

‘The fantastic flying books of Morris Lessmore’ is a story of people who devote their lives to books and books who return the favour. Morris Lessmore is a poignant, humorous allegory about the curative power of stories and how they can positively affect our lives.

The real book

William Joyce began working on the story in 1999, as a tribute to the late Bill Morris the soft-spoken, dry-witted pioneer of library promotions. The hurricane Katrina devastated Joyce’s home state and interrupted the story’s progress. Joyce saw firsthand the curative power of stories when he visited displaced children reading donated books in the shelters.

Setting the scene - stop-motion miniature

And even better, the story has also been released as an augmented reality app by Moonbot Studios, the IMAG•N•O•TRON, which brings the pages of the book to life!

It starts with a real or digital book! Once you have your copy of ‘The fantastic flying books of Mr. Morris Lessmore’, users can view the picture book through the IMAG•N•O•TRON app using an iPad 2/3 or iPhone 4+ camera, you get swept up in a storm, Humpty Dumpty befriends you and you get a sneak peek into a part of Lessmore’s world not shown in the book or movie. Check it out on this Vimeo video -

See the IMAG•N•O•TRON in action! from Moonbot Studios on Vimeo.

To download the IMAG•N•O•TRON app

Integrating such innovative and exciting technology with books is awesome and awe-inspiring – what's next?

I believe it says something profound that a short film and app are about the preciousness of the paper book.

Merry Christmas

2012-12-21T22:15:00.001-08:00

Happy Christmas to All

An alternative view on the traditional tree.

Detroit - now and then

2012-12-12T23:19:00.002-08:00

I've spoken before about posts combining aspects that interest me, and WebUrbanist has produced a 'now-and-then' with abandonment!

A second floor hallway

Now & Then: hybrid images of a deserted school in Detroit In this post DetroitUrbex takes documentation to new depths (and heights) in this series of collages that show historical use and present conditions in abandoned structures through the lens of students and teachers overlaid with the haunting shots of an urban explorer.

Cass Technical High School was founded in 1907, and a grand building built in 1919. A fire in 2007 led to its demolition in 2011. School continues in an additional facility erected in 2004.

Check out the serious warping of the basketball floor in the gym, due to moisture damage.

DetroitUrbex has a whole site on exploring and understanding the city of Detroit, with images, interactive 3D models, even tours.

The library's decline from the 90s

Argus bomb site

2012-11-21T23:22:00.001-08:00

While I was in Melbourne waiting for the train, I had time to check out the abandoned Argus building.

The Argus was Melbourne's first newspaper, an amalgamation of a number of early colonial papers including the Port Phillip Patriot and the Melbourne Advertiser.
Its readership filled a compromise between the more conservative 'Age' and the sensationalism of 'The Sun'.

The Argus newspaper was established in 1846, and with its partner The Australiasian (est 1864), was housed in the Argus building on the corner of Elizabeth and La Trobe Streets, from 1926 (the foundation stone was laid in 1924).

It closed in 1957 when sold to Keith Murdoch’s 'Herald & Weekly Times', and the building was later purchased by the Stamoulis family.

The building is an 8 storey stripped classical combination of neo-classical Beaux Arts style with Chicagoesque and Moderne influences, complete with a regal classical tower. La Trobe University purchased it for $8 million in 2004, and apparently spent $34+ million gutting the building. The building had lead-paint and was riddled with asbestos. They then sold it for $15 million in 2010 to the Melbourne Institute of Technology. MIT intend to convert the site into an educational facility.

Now a large portion of the roof and several sections of floors are missing. There is exposed reo and rusty iron beams. Water has damaged parts. Melbourne City Lord Mayor Robert Doyle declared it one of Melbourne’s “bomb sites” -said it was a building of ''historic significance, but it is deteriorating as we look at it and I want to give them the strong message that we will not tolerate the tactic of allowing a building to deteriorate to a point where you can't do anything with it''.
The building is classified by the National Trust and is on the Victorian Heritage Register.

The Argus building is hosting the Melbourne Music Week a 9 day program of events. MMW with the Melbourne City Council have a short-term lease for a festival site of performance, dining, learning and socialising with bands, DJs, film screenings, vintage clothing stall and more.

Unfortunately most of The Argus building remains off limits, the two lower floors have been renovated to allow 400 people upstairs and 800 people downstairs in the temporary concert hall, which will host both local and international acts.

"Be free"

Here's a short YouTube video of the site and MMW, which shows the bare building and gives a better idea of its dimensions.

Fire and brimstone

2012-11-13T22:37:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago I created a post regarding Shawn Glover’s Drawbridge photos, but I was drawn to Shawn’s work with ‘now and then’ of San Francisco "The Earthquake blend". The colour photographs of modern-day scenes in the city contrast with the black-and-white images of destruction – buildings half-collapsed, damaged roads revealing yawning subterranean pits, facades blackened, trolleys smashed. Shawn has painstakingly researched and constructed images reminiscent of Sergey Larenkov’s “Ghosts of WWII series (see my ‘Penetrating the layers of time’ post).

To put these photos together, Shawn created a catalogue of historical photos that looked to have potential to be blended. “Unfortunately most of these photos end up on the digital cutting room floor because there’s simply no way to get the same photo today because either a building or a tree is in the way. Once I get a good location, I get everything lined up just right. My goal is to stand in the exact spot where the original photographer stood. Doing this needs to take into account equivalent focal length, how the lens was shifted, light conditions, etc. I take plenty of shots, each nudged around a bit at each location. Just moving one foot to the left changes everything.” His original idea was to tear away a piece of the modern photo to expose the 1906 photo, but after playing around a bit, everything seemed more interesting when the two were softly blended together.

Shawn kept running into delays. In the case of the Valencia St. Hotel, he had to return to the scene on Valencia Street four times before managing to get it right. There’s quite a bit of conflicting information of exactly where this building once stood.

A variety of photos taken from April 18, 1906 to 1907 of the devastation of San Francisco’s 1906 earthquake, that give a well-rounded depiction of the city at the time. Luckily photography was a common hobby by 1906 and thousands of photos have survived to this day.

The San Francisco earthquake struck on April 18^th 1906 with 42 seconds of intense shaking estimated at 7.8 on the Richter scale. Buildings fell, sinkholes in the streets opened up, the ground liquefied, railroad tracks bent, and collapsing bricks crushed cable cars. However, it was the out-of-control fires that did 90% of the destruction. Over 30 fires, caused by ruptured gas mains, destroyed approximately 25,000 buildings on 490 city blocks, many fires were started when firefighters used dynamite to demolish buildings to create firebreaks, which resulted in the destruction of more than 50% of the buildings that would have otherwise survived. The fires burned for four days and nights.

The city was in disarray. Federal troops and police had orders to shoot and kill looters. Thousands of tents and temporary relief houses went up to house the 20,000 displaced people.

A cable car heads towards the California Street incline while shocked residents walk aimlessly through street amidst the devastation. The tower in the background belongs to the Old St Marys Church, which survived the quake but was gutted by fire. It was rebuilt and still stands at the corner of California Street and Grant Avenue.

Happy tourists pass by the Fairmont Hotel, on top of Nob Hill, which still stands, but was destroyed inside from the fires. Built in 1902-06 the opulent Fairmont had not yet opened at the time of the quake though the interior furnishings were there. It finally opened exactly one year after the earthquake struck.

People cross Market Street in front of the destroyed Hearst Building. The building caught fire at noon on the 18^th, and the front wall facade was all that remained standing. The dynamiting of buildings started at 2.30pm.

Pedestrians cross Jones St towards a pile of rubble on Market Street. The Hibernia Bank building on the McAllister Street corner is burned out, but still standing strong. It was repaired and temporarily housed the Harbour Police after the quake. It was restored to bank use, then again became a police substation when the Hibernia Bank closed in the late 1980s.

A woman opens the door to her Mercedes in the fish wholesaler’s district on Sacramento Street while horses killed by falling rubble lie in the street. After the original photo was taken, the entire area was burned out.

Two girls stand before the partially destroyed Sharon Building in Golden Gate Park. Built in 1888, the Romanesque sandstone building was a canteen for children visiting the park. It was damaged by fire in 1974, and is now an art studio.

Cars travel down S. Van Ness, which has buckled after the quake. The fires reached Van Ness Avenue on the 20^th

A bicyclist rides towards the fallen Valencia Street Hotel and a huge sinkhole that has opened up in the street. The hotel on the west side of Valencia Street between 18^th & 19^th Streets sank one storey into the sinkhole, which was a filled-in swamp known as Lake Coppin. Up to 200 people may have died in the hotel, many drowned as a major water-main broke as the hotel sank.
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People walk up California Street amid charred scraps of lumber. The dark bricks of the Old St Marys tower is visible behind the modern day woman.

People stroll by the original adobe Mission Dolores which survived, while the brick Gothic Revival church (built 1876) next door was destroyed. The Mission District is up the hill and the fires reached there on the 21^st. The Notre Dame Convent across the road was dynamited, but the fire jumped the road to the church and damaged to the extent it was razed. The fire was halted almost on the Mission doorstep. Dedicated in 1791 the Mission Dolores is now the oldest surviving structure in San Francisco. A new grand basilica was built on the church site in 1913-18.
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Horse carriages and cars park in front of Lafayette Park while a destroyed city looms in the background. Lafayette Park encompasses a four-block area bounded by Sacramento Street to the south, Laguna Street to the west, Washington Street to the north, and Gough Street to the east. More than half the city was homeless, and 11 relief camps were set up in public parks.

A double delight

2012-11-05T20:20:00.002-08:00

OMG lighthouses AND abandonment! It is WebUrbanist's "Lights Out!: seven more eerie abandoned lighthouses"
7 scenic sentinels slowly succumbing to the endless onslaught of wind and waves stand – barely – as solitary reminders of a time when fog-piercing lighthouse beams guided wayward mariners from the cold clutches of the devil and the deep blue sea. Often built in isolated locations beset by the harshest of environments, these relics of a more romantic age are gradually giving up the ghost, ravaged by the same seas they sought to make safer for sailors. Last one to leave, please shut the door and turn out the light.

Mys Aniva Lighthouse on the rocky outcrop

Mys Aniva lighthouse, built under extremely difficult conditions on a formerly jagged rock just off the southeastern-most cape of Sakhalin island, Russia. Firstly, Japan ordered the lighthouse built in the late 1930s when Sakhalin was divided between that country and the USSR. The Soviets seized the whole of Sakhalin at the end of World War II, they installed a Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator to supply electricity to the lamp. The fall of communism in the early 1990s led to a decade of near-chaos with funds in short supply. The Mys Aniva lighthouse, isolated though it was and is, was looted, ransacked and abandoned.

Looking derelict Grand Harbor Lighthouse

The Grand Harbour Lighthouse and attached keeper’s house at Fish Fluke Point on Ross Island, New Brunswick, Canada opened in the fall of 1879 and has been in a state of slow-motion collapse since the station was closed in 1963. The once-picturesque lighthouse’s degeneration was accelerated by the great Groundhog Day Gale of 1976, but the wood-framed complex hangs on.

Klein Curacao

Klein Curacao Lighthouse on the Caribbean island of Curacao was constructed in 1850 on the tiny, (3 km square) island situated 10 kms south-east of the mother island. In 1877 a powerful hurricane destroyed the original lighthouse and in 1879 a stronger replacement was built. It was subsequently storm-damaged and repaired again in 1913. Though the lighthouse had been abandoned and left to decay, the light itself was recently reactivated and an automatic solar-powered LED beacon was installed.

Though shattered by two decades of on and off civil war, the city of Mogadishu in Somalia has a long and prosperous history based on sea trading. The Mogadishu Lighthouse was built in the 19th century by Italian colonisers. Its light long dimmed and its open spiral staircase on the verge of collapse, the lighthouse ruins serve as a shady retreat for fishermen.

The remains of the Mogadishu Lighthouses's spiral staircase

Great Isaac Cay Lighthouse was built in 1859 on tiny Great Isaac Cay in the Bahamas. The rusting 152ft tall tower is surrounded by a group of decrepit and decaying outbuildings abandoned after the last two keepers mysteriously vanished in 1969. The lighthouse still functions using an automatic light. It has acquired a reputation for being haunted by the ghosts of shipwrecked ship passengers - when the full moon shines, the spectral shades of a mother and child shipwrecked off the island in the late 19th century can be heard bemoaning their fate.

As always photos, information and 2 more lighthouses at WebUrbanist
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