My Blog's Still Here?

 Time moves ever forward but somehow my blog is still here.

 The last time I posted was two and a bit years ago and blathered on about creating an animation and a webcomic, well the webcomic never happened but somehow the animation did and I'm still learning.

 Since my last post I've discovered the 'joys' of live-streamers and Discord.
They've brought both great joy and crushing depression, much like real life.

 I very nearly became a Vtuber but to be honest I was only interested in the technical and artistic aspects of it and have still to do a livestream myself.

I have, however, learned some video editing skills which I'm enjoying.

 While I'm writing this I'm watching a livestream and posting on Discord, the love of my life has just woken up and posted, pity I'm not the love of her life

If this blog is still here next year it'll be interesting to see how things have changed. 

 Well with that melancholy ramble I'll bring this little update to an end.

 

CATCH YOU LATER! 

 

Ten Years Old

Ten years ago today I posted my first blog post here

I'd not thought about writing a blog before and I barely even read any - they all seemed to be about teen make-up reviews or really successful rich people wanting to tell us mere mortals how well they were doing.

One day I was searching for winter socks and Google randomly showed a picture of a girl wearing red tights standing in her garden. Back then I was not enjoying my job and was hoping to get back into graphic design and I often saved pictures from image searches just because they included colours I could use in design work for my portfolio. That red was amazing so I clicked on the picture and it took me to the Naturally Dapper blogspot (unfortunately long gone). Ugh - another teen blog was my first thought but then I read the post and it was so well written that I ended up reading every post in the blog over the next few days and continued doing so until it vanished without trace.

This spurred me on into creating my own blog which I initially published weekly, then monthly, then whenever. I discovered video games in 2017 and the blog was something I wanted to do but gaming won out (blame 2B).

I found plenty more great blogs via Blogger Central which also no longer exists. The creator of Blogger Central had her own blog about life in Ireland at a time when she was coming to the end of school life and preparing for university. Annoyingly I can't remember the name of the blog but it was a real work of art - informative and funny.

I briefly returned to blogging as a result of the Spaceships, Vampires and Very Secret Agents blog monthly writing challenge ('Blog Removed' - all the good one's have gone). My last post was on Christmas Eve 2017.

Life intervened in 2020 with family caring duties, the aftermath of a family death and moving house.

I'm hoping to return to blogging with a sort of web comic / short story series. I'd originally wanted to create an animated series for YouTube but quickly realised that it would take far too long with the very limited amount of spare time I have available. We'll see if that happens.

 

Catch You Later!

 

Christmas

I'm back with another entry for the Spaceships, Vampires and Very Secret Agents Monthly Writing Challenge! This months subject is Christmas, so here goes...

Christmas!

Our story starts 2.9 billion years ago on the edge of the Solar System where two asteroids are rapidly closing on each other. For the previous billion or so years their orbits had seen them pass like distant ships in the endless night perturbing each others orbits just slightly on each distant encounter, but now had come the time of their union. They collided in soundless destruction scattering debris in all directions.

One chunk headed towards the Sun, but would never reach it.

It is now December 7th 2017 and a Boeing 767-200F cargo plane is sat on the apron at Beijing airport. It had been due to depart for the UK that morning but had 'gone technical' developing a fault in a generator which meant it would have to stay where it was until a repair team with the replacement parts arrived, undertook the repairs and signed the work off as safe to fly. The repair team were busy elsewhere and the flight crew would just have to wait.

This was nothing new to them, in fact five previous flights had 'gone technical' on them; unfortunately they'd all been in the air at the time resulting in terrifying landings. Other flight crew considered them to be cursed and wouldn't fly with them that's why the three of them stuck together as a team. A cursed team. They consisted of two ex-fighter pilots who made up the cockpit crew and a grizzled load-master who sported a long (non-regulation) beard and a gaudy flight suit he'd 'acquired' (stolen) from a Red Arrows display pilot.

It wasn't until the 15th that the repair team arrived and set to work. The aircraft had been loaded with approximately one and a half tonnes of teddies and plushies so the crew were anxious to get airborne to deliver the cargo before Christmas. But the repair team had brought the wrong parts. They arrived back on the 20th with the right parts and set to work. Slowly. Finally on Christmas Eve the work was finished, tested and signed off. In the early hours of Christmas day the crew boarded their aircraft and prepared to leave. They kicked the tyres and lit the fires and were soon rolling down runway 18R and heading for the UK a mere ten hours away.

The Kent village of Broughton Green was one of those places that looked like it was actually a Miss Marple set frozen in time in the 1950s, all twee thatched cottages and climbing roses. One of these chocolate-box cottages was called Bluebell End and was the home of 4 year old Edward Cunningham.

Since October the TV had pummelled Edward with ads and programmes about how marvellous Christmas was going to be this year. Santa was everywhere reminding him that the 'holidays are coming' and advertising the toys his parents should buy for him. Cartoons showed him what Santa's arrival early on Christmas morning would be like - a jolly red-faced, bearded man wearing a red suit, in a sleigh pulled through the sky by magical reindeer and wherever the sleigh went a magical sparkly trail would follow. Edward was four - he soaked it all up like sponge.

By Christmas Eve Edward was so excited he couldn't have been more wired had he just done two lines of coke. His parents kept him up three hours past his usual bed-time in order to tire him out and thankfully it seemed to work and when his parents checked on him later he was asleep. But not for long.

Just after midnight he awoke and his first thought was to look out of his window to see if he could see Santa's sleigh. He scanned the clear, crisp sky but saw only a few of the brightest stars and the blinking lights of airliners on approach to the airports around London. He watched and waited but no Santa. His eyes scanned left to right, up and down. He was about to get back into bed when from the east a thought he saw something twinkling. He did, but it wasn't twinkling, it was sparkling and now he could see the magical sparkly trail he'd been desperate to see. It was Santa's sleigh and it was heading right towards him!

Unfortunately, Edward could not have been more wrong.

Remember that chunk of rock from the start of our story? Well, after meandering between the planets for millennia it had now come under the influence of the Earth's gravitational field and was approaching the atmosphere at about 25,000mph. As it got closer to the Earth its point of impact could be discerned; roughly halfway between the Netherlands and the UK. Thankfully it was going to fall harmlessly into the sea. Unless something got in its way. Like a Boeing 767 cargo plane on its way to Heathrow.

At 20,000 feet above the English Channel approaching UK the Boeing crew were in contact with ATC and were running through their final checks before descending into the holding pattern around Heathrow. As they crossed the Kent coast there was a loud bang from the rear of the aircraft. The pilot looked at the co-pilot, the co-pilot looked at the load-master. The load-master, wide-eyed, jumped out of his seat, opened the cabin door and went to the pressure door leading to the cargo hold. He switched on the cargo hold lighting and peered through the window. As the lights flickered on he could see movement right at the tail end of the aircraft.

Our chunk of rock had now had its outer layers burnt off in the atmosphere and all that remained was a white-hot, orange sized iron core. In an instant it had punched entirely through the rear fuselage of the aircraft. Had luck been on our crews' side the meteorite would have missed the important parts of the fuselage and simply de-pressurised the cargo hold.

But seriously, do you think that was what was going to happen? Nah.

The meteorite hit every vital piece of the framework on its journey through the aircraft weakening the tail-plane's structure more than it could cope with. As the load-master looked on, the movement he had noticed became a twisting motion and suddenly the entire rear fuselage separated and vanished into the night. Within the blink of an eye the cargo of boxes were ripped from their shrink-wrapped pallets and a hale-storm of teddies were sucked out. With the weight of the tail and cargo gone the now un-balanced aircraft immediately pitched down in an uncontrollable dive.

Now, aircrew don't normally carry parachutes but having already had five near-death experiences this crew came prepared. And it's amazing what you can achieve when you need to get out of a crashing plane. The aircraft was coming down at about 45° and, although the G-forces were considerable the crew were able to attach their parachute packs and get the pressure door open. However, on entering the cargo hold they then had to pull themselves along the fuselage wall until they could jump out of the hole at the end. This they managed to achieve with a mere 5000ft still to fall. They pulled their chute D-rings and hung in the air watching the now burning aircraft fall away from them; directly towards Broughton Green.

Cargo aircraft are meant to be flown straight and level, not dived at 45° and with the tail-plane gone the stresses in the airframe were now building. At 3000 feet above Broughton Green the left wing could take it no more and tore away from the fuselage. With the aircraft now considerably heavier on its right side it rolled to the right and impacted in a fallow field 200m from the village; the left wing landing a similar distance to the left of the village. The tail-plane had already landed in a wood some distance away.

The vertical arrival of a Boeing 767 not surprisingly got the attention of the entire village. Edward had, of course, seen the first part of the events but had raced off to inform his parents of Santa's arrival and had missed seeing the diving aircraft. He'd breathlessly got as far as "I've seen Sant-" when there was an almighty explosion from one side of the village. He and his parents raced out into the street along with numerous other villagers. The stench of burning jet fuel hung in the air and a huge black and orange pall of smoke billowed up from behind the houses. Everyone feared the worst.

After the tail of the aircraft had separated it began to tumble which slowed its forward momentum and on landing in the wood had only managed to take out a few branches and saplings. However, the cargo, although relatively light in weight had been travelling at about 350mph prior to its hasty exit into the night. It had maintained a considerable momentum and the boxes were now starting to break apart and spill their contents out. In the village below some people had spotted what looked like small dots rapidly approaching from the sky to the east. 1000 feet above the village the three crew could hear a faint whistling noise behind them and within seconds thousands of teddies had shot past them missing them by inches. A few more seconds later and the teddies were now raining down on Broughton Green, on the roofs, the cars, the streets and the people. The villagers ducked inside to avoid them and when they peeked outside again there were teddies everywhere.

Edward and his parents went back onto the street.

"Presents!" shouted Edward, "I told you I saw Santa!"

His parents were suddenly alerted to the sound of flapping fabric from above and on looking up saw two figures descending on parachutes. The flight-crew in their olive coloured flight-suits landed in the street and slipped a little in the snow before gaining their balance and pulling in their 'chutes.

"ELVES!" shouted Edward running on the spot.

A few seconds later and the load-master was on the ground.

Edward took a long look at the old man in the red flight-suit with the long beard and, wide-eyed shouted

"IT'S SANTA!"

A Very Merry Christmas to all my readers and I'll Catch You Later!

Colours

Well it's been a while and I thought maybe I'd not be writing any more posts but thanks to Andrea's (Indigo's) Monthly Writing Challenge on the Spaceships, Vampires, and Very Secret Agents blog I have returned!

I've written the odd short story in the past but never published any online - I've written a few more in my head which have never seen paper but I decided to take up Andrea's challenge, and so for the first time you can enjoy/suffer my limited literary skill in the form of Colours, a short story about two people lost in a landscape.

Colours

 

White

A burst of static radiated out across the landscape and a thousand lights flickered in response, then faded.

 

A young woman stirred into consciousness and a second later screwed up her eyes against the brilliant white daylight that surrounded her.

She raised herself up on her arms still not wanting to open her eyes. She tilted her head down and the wind blew her short white hair around her face.

Grey

Slowly she opened one eye and squinted; the white light seemed to be everywhere but now she could discern shapes on the horizon - grey angular shapes that could have been mountains but were too close. Now with both eyes open she could see that the shapes were tall buildings, but set at all angles. "What the hell happened here" she whispered to herself.

She was now able to see clearly and looked around herself only to discover that she was on the top of one of those tall buildings and around her was scattered broken concrete and rusted metal. She walked to the parapet and carefully peered over the edge. Below her a crater was spread out like a vast arena, edged with broken and leaning buildings.
"There must have been an earthquake, or a meteor or... I just don't know...".

She turned around and walked towards the other side of the roof but stopped abruptly.
From behind a large slab of broken concrete she could see a boot sticking out.

Black

Her blood ran cold and for a second, only that boot seemed to exist.

She moved closer and saw a boy lying propped up against the concrete slab. He was dressed in a dusty black, intricately embroidered page boys outfit and wearing calf length black boots. Was he asleep? Unconscious? Dead?

She edged nearer and as her shadow crossed his face he began to stir.

He had trouble discerning what the dark shape in front of him was, until it said "hello".
"Hello, uh, what the, uh, where am I?" he said
"I have no idea" responded the woman as she kneeled down next to him.

It was at that point that she noticed what she was wearing; a black velvet, knee length dress with the same intricate embroidery as the boys outfit. Bizarrely she was also wearing thigh length leather boots and silk evening gloves.
It also occurred to her that she had no idea who she was.

"Are you OK?" she asked the boy.
"Um, I think so, nothing's broken, I just feel a bit fuzzy. A lot fuzzy in fact". He responded.
"What's your name?" she asked.
After a few seconds the boy turned blankly to her a said slowly "no idea".
"Well that makes two of us then!" the woman quipped.

She reached out her hand and helped the boy to his feet.
"Thanks" he said, brushing his short white hair away from his face.
He surveyed the scene. "What happened? Was there an earthquake?"
"I don't know, something terrible that's for sure" she replied. "I think we should get off the top of this building though in case it was an earthquake and there are after-shocks".
"Good idea" replied the boy and looked around for a way down. On the roof was a small concrete structure with an open doorway. "Looks like that's the only way down" he said and they headed for the structure.

On reaching it they looked inside and found a concrete stairwell still intact and proceeded downwards. Each floor they reached was empty, not just of people but of anything. The building was a shell, devoid of doors, window-glass, furniture or anything that would hint at human occupation. Only rubble and bits of rusted metal lay scattered across the floors.
"This is really weird" said the boy. The woman looked around with a feeling of rising trepidation. "Very weird" she added.

On approaching the ground floor they could hear water running and could see that a large water main had burst and water was pouring through the building. They picked their way to the door and could see that the water poured like a waterfall into the crater below. Carefully picking their way out of the doorway they edged along the top of the crater and around the side of the building.

Before them stretched an overgrown concrete roadway heading into the remains of the wrecked city.
"Which way?" asked the boy.
"That way" pointed the woman briefly as she looked up through the street.

Brown

After walking for some time they arrived at a small flooded park between the buildings. A young deer that had been drinking suddenly shot its head up in the direction of the strangers then bolted across the shallow water and disappeared through a narrow alleyway.
The woman started to say "Well that's the first living thing we've..." but trailed off as the sound of canvas whipping in the wind echoed between the buildings.

To their left a bleached beige canvas awning was spread on poles across the broken entrance to what may once have been an hotel.
"Looks like we may not be alone" said the boy and they both walked towards the awning.
On reaching the entrance they both instinctively paused to listen for who may be inside. Silence. The woman glanced at the boy and they walked on into the building.

Inside, broken equipment lay strewn across the remains of the lobby, now open to the sky as a large section of the interior had collapsed and at some time had been pushed away to the sides. Spare parts, broken vehicles, tables, benches and electronics were everywhere. But no sign of the owners.
"It's like this was some kind of military command post or something" said the boy.
"Let's see if any of this stuff is working, like a phone or a radio or something" said the woman, "surely we can't be alone here".
"Unless we're the only one's left" added the boy.

That was a distinct possibility thought the woman. The only life they'd seen was the deer and a few birds wheeling high overhead. Now they'd found what looked very much like a military camp which most likely had been over-run. That, of course, would mean that the devastation had either been caused by conflict or that some natural disaster had so badly affected the area that armed groups were now roaming the area taking what, and maybe who, they could, in order to survive. Both the woman and the boy were wearing what appeared to be fancy dress - did that mean their clothes were typical of those worn by one of these groups?
She dismissed all of these thoughts as too far fetched and began searching for any undamaged equipment being careful not to make too much noise just in case some of the residents were still present and watching their every move.

As they both searched, the woman noticed for the fist time that the boy had a small back-pack.
"What's in the bag?"
"What bag?"
"The one on your back."
The boy looked over his shoulder and spotted the bag.
"I didn't know it was there" he said and proceeded to remove it and undo the strap.
Inside were a set of keys on a large ring, a small pack containing a set of lock pocks and a single larger key with a triangle set within a circle at one end.
Seeing the large key the woman said eagerly "That symbol on the large key, that's the same as above the door over there" and pointed to a plain looking door lurking in the shadows.

The boy tried the key in the lock and the door clicked open. A light buzzed and popped into life, dully illuminating what at first appeared to be a store-room. Copper-brown boxes and crates littered the floor, and between them shelving racks were filled with books and manuals. At either end of the room was a bed.

"Do you think we lived here?" asked the boy.
"I think we must have at least have been staying here seeing as you have the key" replied the woman.
The boy opened one of the manuals - "Have you seen writing like this before?"
"Nope".
The woman opened one of the books - "Same language here - no idea what any of it means - useless!"
The woman replaced the book on the shelf and noticed a small beige slip of paper between two other books. Sliding it out she could see that it was a large sheet folded into four. On opening it it was clear that it was a hand-drawn map.
"Take a look at this" she said excitedly. Pouring over the roughly drawn map she spotted the flooded park in front of the building they were in; the boy pointed out other features that they'd seen on the way, "let's take it outside and see what else we can identify" he said.

From in front of the building they soon located all the features that were visible. "So what's behind us?" asked the woman, "It looks like a town" she continued, "perhaps the older part of the city, and look here..." she continued pointing to the back of the camp shown on the map "this looks like a back way out".

They headed back inside and made their way to a compound at the back of the camp. Behind some large crates daylight shone through a broken hoarding. They squeezed through the gap and into an open glade surrounded by tall trees that filtered the sunlight into a myriad of shimmering shadows. Through the trees they could see the edge of a town.

Red

The town was a mix of medieval and Victorian era buildings but all in an eastern European style and all made from either deep red brick or dark honey coloured stone. It was now late afternoon and the sun illuminated the buildings making them appear as if flashed with fire and casting dark shadows from one building to another intensifying the the reds and yellows.

" It's beautiful" said the woman.
"And empty" said the boy.

It was both of these things. Just as in the city there were buildings but no people.

By now both of them were becoming disillusioned at the still, quiet emptiness that pervaded this place that neither of them knew but were clearly part of at some time. It was like they had been left behind from some tragedy that had left them unscathed, but how, and why?

Green

From a walkway above the town square they could see the little town laid out before them and as they continued to walk they could see that the walkway curved around and continued out of the town and towards a small wood. The walkway slowly descended into the trees and they passed little shacks like tree-houses before the walkway ended and a path descended down and around further into the wood.

The path was moist with mosses and beautiful white lilies; it twisted gently here and there all the time descending. Suddenly emerging from the undergrowth was a stone archway, it's doors fallen long ago and lying to either side. Walking through it they were both left speechless. Before them was a large courtyard with pillars and arches leading to the amazing spectacle of a huge fairy-tale castle complete with towers and spires. They both looked at each other then walked slowly through the arches towards a stone bridge which lead to the castle.

Blue

Far below the bridge thundered a broad, rapid river that flowed to a waterfall and then onwards to a canyon and out of site. The water was a deep silver blue which foamed and steamed as it cascaded over the falls. They both crossed the bridge towards the castle with some trepidation considering their great height above the river and the parlous state of most of the buildings they'd encountered. On reaching the other side they passed through a gate house, the walls of which were inlaid with shimmering sky-blue, ultramarine and indigo stones which formed words in the same style that they had seen earlier at the camp.

Beyond the gatehouse steps lead down to a wide courtyard where more deer grazed in front of the enormous entrance to the castle. More steps lead up to the castle doors which were partly open; they too were inlaid with azure and turquoise stones which sparkled in the fading, misty sunlight.

As they both peered in through the doors they suddenly heard footsteps approaching them from within.

A tall woman with short white hair and wearing black, skin-tight clothes walked up to them, paused, and putting her hands on her hips looked them both up and down.
"You took your damn time" she said staring at them. She turned, and looking over her shoulder said "Well come on then, I haven't got all day".

The End (or is it?)

 

 

Well I hoped you liked that little tale - if you're a gamer you might have recognised the characters and locations as they're inspired by the PS4 game NieR:Automata which is what I've been playing for the last few months and why I haven't been blogging. Sorry, but now you know. If you've finished the game you'll know that it doesn't end well but my story picks up from where it ends and hopefully provides a ray of hope for the surviving characters.
 
 
 

Catch you later!

 
 

Almost Alice - Part 2

Have you ever watched Disney's 1951 classic animated film 'Alice in Wonderland'?

 

Disney originally had the idea of creating an animated Alice in the 1930s but Walt turned down the original draft as it was akin to an 'Itchy and Scratchy' episode. The storyboards are available on YouTube:

With the original pitch turned down the idea was to eventually make a live action version but by 1946 Disney started work on a more modern styled animated version.

The very English actress Kathryn Beaumont was chosen to voice Alice. Walt cast her after seeing her in the film  'On an island with you'. After 'Alice in Wonderland' Kathryn went on to voice Wendy in 'Peter Pan'. 

In the picture above Kathryn is dressed as Alice as she also acted the role to provide a reference for the animators.

For more information you should visit the most excellent alice-in-wonderland.net

Catch You Later!

 

Credits:
The Walt Disney Company
https://thewaltdisneycompany.com/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_in_Wonderland_(1951_film)
http://disney.wikia.com/wiki/Alice_in_Wonderland_(1939_film)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DeDdQSeRFug
http://lostmediaarchive.wikia.com/wiki/Alice_in_Wonderland_(1939_David_Hall_Leica_Reel)
http://www.tor.com/2015/06/11/an-intriguing-failure-disney-alice-in-wonderland/
http://www.alice-in-wonderland.net/






Tags:
#alice
#wonderland
#kathryn Beaumont
#walt
#disney

Almost Alice

 

In Tim Burton's 2010 movie 'Alice in Wonderland' Absolem the caterpillar states that Alice is 'Almost Alice' - and he was right.
 

 

As you will most likely know, the movie was based on Lewis Carroll's 1865 novel 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland' and, in my humble opinion, does a fine job of bringing the novel to life (even though it changes quite a few bits).

Lewis Carroll (real name Charles Lutwidge Dodgson) probably based his Alice on the real Alice - Alice Pleasance Liddell.

Alice Liddell was born in 1852 and in 1856 her family moved to Oxford where she first met Dodgson. In 1862, whilst on a boat trip with her two sisters, Edith and Lorina and Dodgson, Alice asked him to tell them a story; this story became 'Alice's Adventures Under Ground' and, subsequently 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'.
 

Dodgson maintained a relationship with the Liddell family until 1863. Various sources suggest that Dodgson may have been obsessed with Alice or her sister Lorina and this forced the break with the family (Wikipedia has loads more on this).

 
Alice later toured Europe with her sisters Edith and Lorina. Later, it was rumoured that she may have been romantically connected with Prince Leopold. In 1880 Alice Liddell married Reginald Hargreaves in Westminster Abbey and they went on to have three sons (two of whom died in the First World War).

 
Reginald died in 1926 and in 1934 Alice followed him. She was cremated and her ashes buried in the graveyard of the church of St Michael and All Angels Lyndhurst, Hampshire.

 

 

 

If you're a regular reader of this blog you'll have noticed a distinct lack of blogging in 2016 - hopefully in 2017 I'll return to regular monthly posting (and hopefully the migraines will stay away...)

 

 

Catch You Later!

 

 

 



 
Credits:
Alice-in-Wonderland.net
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_Liddell
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Alice_Liddell_grave_in_Lyndhurst1.jpg
https://nhetic.wordpress.com/2013/03/06/mon-avis-sur-alice-in-wonderland/
http://www.playbuzz.com/shaythewolf10/which-tim-burtons-alice-in-wonderland-character-are-you
www.express.co.uk 
https://uk.pinterest.com/cuzinelmer/alice-liddell-hargreaves/

Chase Me, Chase Me

 

A few days ago I was walking in the woods a few miles from where I live and noticed a sign about how a local conservation group had dredged the pond in the woods to encourage more wildlife to the area. When I got there I discovered a small pond about 10m across, and it stunk. There was no obvious inlet or outlet so the water was just sitting there looking lifeless.

However, from the corner of my eye I noticed something zoom around the edge of the pond. It was a light blue dragonfly flying around the perimeter of the pond and then disappearing. I watched for a while and then noticed a brown dragonfly hovering and dipping it's abdomen into the water - clearly a female ovipositing her eggs. I then realised that the two must have just mated and whilst the female was depositing the eggs the male was 'keeping guard'.

I walked slowly around the pond and then spotted the blue dragonfly on the branch of a small bush on the waters edge - that's where it had been disappearing to.

On my return home I identified the dragonflies as Broad Bodied Chasers (Libellula depressa) - very common in the UK but it was the first time I'd seen one.

Wikipedia has a page here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libellula_depressa


I'll head back to the pond again this summer and see if any other wildlife has colonised it.

Catch You Later!

Glass Beach

Glass Beach is situated near Fort Bragg in California. There are actually 3 Glass Beaches situated near each other but it's the third site which is usually referred to as Glass Beach.

In 1906 a dump was created for Fort Bragg residents to dispose of their waste. By 1943 this site had filled up and a new site was opened which by 1949 was also filled. A third site was then opened which was filled by 1967 and was subsequently closed. Over the following decades the waste was cleared and recycled but the broken glass and pottery that had been dumped there was left behind and became rounded by the action of the sea tumbling it over the pebbles.

Glass Beach has been a tourist attraction for many years and attracts tens of thousands of people each year. Visitors not surprisingly want to take away a souvenir; some take a few glass pebbles but others take bags and buckets of pebbles away with them. This has meant that depth of glass pebbles has reduced from around a foot (30cm) to just a thin layer today. Collecting is banned on the beach but this does not stop peoples collecting.

I've not personally visited the area but I was made aware of its existence whilst searching for music samples. Soundiron is a company producing deep-sampled instrument libraries. They've recorded numerous sounds from Glass Beach which are available as a set of samples for the Kontakt player.

Below is a track created by Soundiron using the Soundiron Glass Beach set:




If you want to visit you should do it sooner rather than later as the pebbles are disappearing fast.

 

My little blog is now 2 years old!

 

Catch You Later!

Credits:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glass_Beach_(Fort_Bragg,_California)http://www.zmescience.com/other/glass-beach-10102011/
http://soundiron.com/products/glass-beach
https://soundcloud.com/soundiron/freewayland-soundiron-glass-1
http://beachblissliving.com/best-sea-glass-beaches-america/

1972 - Part 2

Last September I posted about the 1972 Great Universal Stores mail order catalogue that I'd found. Well now I'm back with more!

This time, where possible, I've included the prices for you to compare. As most of my readers aren't from the UK here's a link to XE.com to convert £ (GBP) to your local currency:

http://www.xe.com/currencyconverter/

So let's make a start with Courtelle knitted trouser suits:

 

 

Dicel and Tricel tops and skirts. The print on the right is Aubrey Beardsleys 'The Peacock Skirt' from 1893:

 

 

 

Cotton and Dicel tops from Hardy Amies:

 

 

 

Fabulous greens from Contesa:

 

 

 

Cotton/Terylene 'young mans' jacket and trousers:

 

 

 

Yay! - Father Ted's back and looking slick:

 

 

 

Too lazy to exercise? No problem with Valor and Ablec massagers:

 

 

 

Curling tongs and stylers from Pifco and Remington, and wigs from John London:

 

 

 

Before Dyson there was, of course, Hoover. Here's their Hooverette, Constellation and Dustette:

 

 

 

Beautiful, retina-burning, electric-shock inducing nylon carpets:

 

 

 

Boom shake the room! Yes, Dunlop really did have a rubber flooring material called Semtex:

 

 

 

I hope you've enjoyed the second trip back to 1972! The next time we head back in time it'll be for the instalment you've all been waiting for - the Underwear Edition!

 

 

Catch You Later!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Streamliners

When I'd seen Art Deco posters like the one above I had assumed that these were imaginative flights of fantasy - an idealised version of 1930s streamlined technology. Then, by complete chance, I found this picture on Tumblr:

 

This is a New York Central Railroad Mercury which operated from 1936 to 1959.

 

Wow - so they were real! A quick search on the web turned up plenty more photos:

 

 

This is a New York Central Railroad 20th Century Limited train operated from 1938 to 1945, also seen in this painting:

 

 

 

Below is The Aeolus from 1937 operated by the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad:

 

 

 

The more I looked, the more I found. Streamliners were operated across the world.



 

In the United Kingdom the LMS Coronation Class locomotives were operated from 1937 until 1964 although their streamlining was removed by 1949 as it provided little benefit and was unpopular with maintenance teams:

 

 

 

In 1937 the Soviet Union introduced the IS20-16 Iosef Stalin which operated until at least 1962:

 

 

 

Below is the unique Soviet 2-3-2K which operated from 1937 to at least 1957:

 

 

 

Another unique streamliner was the US PRR S1:

 

 

 

Czechoslovakia had the ČSD 386 Series which operated from 1937 until 1948:

 

 

 

This is just a brief introduction to the myriad designs of streamliners which operated across the World from the 1930s to the 1950s and beyond.

 

For more information I'd recommend the following excellent websites:

 

http://www.dieselpunks.org/

 

http://lattercars.com/2015/01/the-most-beautiful-streamline-designs-of-locomotives/

 

http://io9.gizmodo.com/the-zeppelin-train-the-aerotrain-and-other-classic-str-1564713752

 

 

Catch You Later!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Credits:

http://www.dieselpunks.org/

http://dev.fortwaynerailroad.org/page/4/?post_type=event

http://cruiselinehistory.com/1940s-and-1950s-the-golden-age-of-american-passenger-trains/

http://io9.gizmodo.com/the-zeppelin-train-the-aerotrain-and-other-classic-str-1564713752

http://www.oil-electric.com/2012/03/rail-quiz-7-solution-city-streamliners.html

http://lattercars.com/2015/01/the-most-beautiful-streamline-designs-of-locomotives/

http://www.tumblr.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/