Category: archaeology

Dangerous curves

Who is your favorite historical figure?

Spending most of my life in the arts because of personal bias and without reasonable perspective, I might choose someone like Van Gogh, Rimbaud or Hildegard of Bingen.

But I am old enough to appreciate my limited view. Taking nothing from the aforementioned, I have wound up knowing more about less (or is it less about more, more or less? Dah).

A grander view would include Newton, Epicurus or Joan of Arc but I know little about them. These days I like the left field characters, the misfits that take the untrodden path. Moondog, Thelonious Monk, Erik Satie.

Oh but I forgot to mention the irresistible. A most uncompromising historical figure. Someone who has survived boundless human endeavour and vicissitudes. A force of matchless beauty and remains undiminished from centuries past. Oh, Venus de Milo you have dangerous curves! I have a crush on you (a stone crush).

Apollo 11

The fifty year anniversary of the moon landing has finally arrived (and you can almost hear the sceptics and conspiracy theorists kicking and screaming).
But haven’t we seen all the existing footage numerous times? Todd Douglas Miller’s Apollo 11 is special because much of it consists of rediscovered 70 mm film left in canisters from the National Archives. The angles are new, the faces, the rooms and people all seem from now and not then but for their ’60’s clothing. The effect is disconcerting because the colour and the fresh intensity of the Florida light is beguiling and you are immediately thrust into the magnitude of the event. Continue reading Apollo 11