Gatekeepers and Murals

My dad sent me this link about the gatekeeper, Pak Asih, of Mount Merapi and his father the previous gatekeeper of Merapi, who had died in the volcanoes last eruption. And I remembered that I knew about this and had written about it but then I found out it was two years ago which pretty much blew my mind as it seems crazy that I've been writing this shit for over two years. I know if I look down the side of my blog I can see the dates but I don't really pay any attention to that. Obviously Volcano Club dates back to 1995 it's just the blog that was created two years ago. I don't know if it's good that I've been doing this so long or that it's how I should mark the time passing.

The gatekeepers funeral

Anyway it's actually a really interesting programme, I particularly like the bit where he says 'I'm uneducated why would I want to go anywhere else', which makes a lot of sense. Then talking about his daughters and how he wants more for them - to be educated and travel. I'm not really sure if this is progress being gatekeeper to a volcano must be very fulfilling and they must have a deep connection with the volcano - I believe him when he says the government gets it wrong. It's all too easy for to dismiss the knowledge of local people as unscientific however the accumulated experience of centuries must have some truth. The role of these gatekeepers to live by the volcano and observing it maybe is as good research and warning system as anything else available.

On more trivial volcano news I have a big space on my wall that I want to paint a mural on - obviously my initial thoughts have all been volcanic. Is this a good idea? Is any mural ever a good idea? I really don't want anything twee so whatever I do has to be actually good. So maybe some kinda volcanic landscape, I've been  looking at 36 Views of Mount Fuji so I'm thinking along those lines, but maybe it'll just look crap and I don't want it to look like I'm trying to do a Japanese painting cos that will look crap. So any advice would be greatly received.

Also you can still buy copies of my zine here

Bjӧrkano

This is amazing- it's basically Bjӧrk (I'm nordic now I use weird vowels) being a volcano which is obviously two of the best things in the world. I think this is really what I should have dressed up as for Halloween because while pussy riot was good  it's not a Bjӧrk-volcano hybrid. 

Exciting Present from Etna

Absolutely ages ago, I got sent a really nice present from my friend Emma (a long term supporter of the Volcano Club) who had just been to Sicily. Like the good friend and volcano supporter she is she bought me a lovely postcard and present.

As you can see from the postcard the post got slightly damaged on the trip from Italy to Sweden via England and possibly France? This is because the aforementioned lovely present got broken, probably due to Italy's corrupt infrastructure. IT WAS A BRACELET MADE FROM ETNA ROCK! This is written in capitals because it combines two of my favourite things ever - jewellery and volcanoes. I know that on this blog I do say quite a lot of things are my favourite things ever but fuck off I'm just an enthusiastic person.

This is all that's left of the lovely bracelet but I do have rocks from Etna which is amazingly great. As I have moved since receiving the letter I'll probably keep finding bits of Etna in my stuff, which will be really exciting if I don't mistake it for gravel. Finding gravel isn't fun. But anyway it's quite funny because I made up some volcano jewellery in one the zines (which I made when I lived with Emma, freaky shit). 

It's becoming quite common that stuff I make up for Volcano Club are actually real things like cooking with volcanoes. This is a bit disappointing  but it's how Armando Iannucci must feel soon after every episode of the thick of it is aired. 

But anyway thanks Emma, it was a lovely present and I'm very pleased to have Etna fragments in my life- who wouldn't be. 

For Sale

Here  is where you can buy copies of the last Volcano Club Zine, it's in the under £10 category which I know might be surprising as a badly made thin zine should obviously cost over a £100. So it's clearly a bargain. There is also loads of other cool shit on the website like greetings cards. Also I really need to write about something volcanic but I can't be bothered to do it now. I'm sure I will do it soon though cos I have exams this week so I'll be spending lots of time bored on my computer and writing about volcanoes is obviously much more fun than revising Silviculture of Southern Sweden. And I've just moved to a really nice flat so I want to do some volcano decorating soon.

But yeah buy this! It's amazing. 

Volcano Tattoos

I need to go to the booze shop (which in Sweden is a major planning operation) but it's raining so I'm looking  at crap on the internet. One thing I really love are really large, really realistic tattoo like when people get a photo of their dog tattooed on their chest, excluding all the other issues with this, surely your dog would find it pretty scary. But I have actually recently seen a photograph of a tattoo better than a dog's face (I know hard to imagine) but brace yourself







you better be bracing

What a beautiful sentiment. On every level this is so weird. here are some more.

But seeing this has made me realise that there literally has to be some people with really amazing volcano tattoos. If people want dog's faces, Pat Butcher or all that other weird shit there must be people with volcano tattoos. Because, lets face it volcano people are weird, I should know. As always Google did not disappoint me.

These three of my faves but there are a lot lot more and I suppose if you want to get a tattoo of something, then a volcano is as good as anything. But even as much as I love volcanoes I still don't want one permanently etched into my skin, this probably has more to do my views on tattoos than volcanoes. I can't ever imagine wanting anything permanently etched onto my skin, I can't even wear earrings for an entire evening, maybe this would be different if I had volcano earrings.   

I'm in a interview (where I get called a genius)

which is very exciting especially as there is nothing that makes you sound cooler than saying 'I've just moved to Sweden' well it either makes you sound cool or like a complete dick. I'm probably only a minor dick. But anyway when the shop is up and running there will be some volcano club zines sold, the one I did ages ago, with the free poster. It's an online shop called DEREKS which will sell other cool stuff. I am still planning to make another zine soon but stuff keeps distracting me which is the nature of volcanoes really (not that they get distracted, that they are unpredictable apart from really dormant or really active ones). I wish I had time to write a better post maybe even one about volcanoes but I have to write about spruce silviculture instead.

Here is the interview

here is said map that is free with said zine issue that is being sold at said shop. (said has now lost all meaning)

Celebrity Volcanoes

So apparently Katy Perry has climbed a volcano which in itself is quite dull news, mainly as it's about K Pezza, who lets face it is pretty dull. Also a moron as she doesn't even say which volcano she has climbed thinking that she is more interesting than volcanoes. Very few people are more interesting than volcanoes, actually I can't think of a single person but interest is quite hard to quantify so maybe some people don't find volcanoes interesting, but they would be mental. But this fact about Katy got me wondering if there were any other celebrities who were into volcanoes. The first thing I found was an article about throwing Chris Brown into a volcano which would obviously ruin an otherwise good volcano. So far I'm really not enjoying the mix of douches and volcanoes, imagine douching a volcano that would be really gross. But have actually found the celebrity volcano post that I have been looking for which is about a celebrity volcano poetry slam which in my mind definitely happened. I think it was an Eyjafjallajoekull response thing, the poems are about the same quality as my volcano poetry, maybe I'll write some more soon. Sting is a massive twat.

It's really hard to find good celebrity volcano pictures

I'll write a better post soon, maybe some volcano poetry or maybe about the volcano in Guatemala that has erupted as that would actually be volcano news. Or maybe I'll find something volcanic in Sweden but that seems quite unlikely it's a pretty unvolcanic place. 

Volcano of the Week #25 - Kilauea

I haven't done any blogging in a long time, because of the Olympics and moving to another country and stuff but mainly the Olympics- it's more important as it only happens every four years, I move all the time. As I haven't seen anything volcanic recently that I can write about I thought I'd do a volcano of the week. Kilauea is probably the most obvious volcano that's never featured, probably because I have so much trouble spelling it which is because I'm never allowed to play Hawaiian Scrabble. The volcano is one of the five shield volcanoes that make up Hawaii's big island and is characterised by continuous, slow eruptions - this one has been going on since 1983.

Compared to the other Hawaiian volcanoes Kilauea is fairly young being between 300,000 and 600,000 years old, the oldest Hawaiian volcano Kohala is over 1 million. The Hawaiian hotspot differs from other volcanoes as most volcanoes are caused by a meeting of plates creating a ridge in which the pressure of magma creates the volcano. The Hawaiian hotspot is right in the middle of a tectonic plate and is an incredibly hot patch of magma that seeps through a gap in the plate, the volcanoes that form here do so underwater and grow from the slow eruptions and cooling of magma. The only quiet period the volcano has had in recent  times was from 1934 to 1952 when the volcano didn't erupt at all, the first recorded eruption was in 1820, since then the volcano loads with a massive output, a bit like Prince (sorry I'm listening to a Prince documentary so forgive me if I go astray, hahahahaha).

Kilauea is the thought to be the body of Pele, the Hawaiian volcano goddess not the Brazilian footballer although they are pretty similar. Pele the goddess was a bit of a bitch (I think the other one was quite nice), one legend is that there was a young couple Ohi'a and Lehua who were deeply in love and Ohi'a built them a home in the forest. One day Pele was walking nearby and saw Ohi'a and thought he looked pretty hot however Ohi'a rejected Pele's advances. Lehua brought out a meal to Ohi'a (I love the rigid gender roles in this story), Pele went really mental when she saw Lehua and Ohi'a together as they looked so happy. Pele returned to her goddess form and turned Ohi'a into an ugly tree, Lehua was so upset and begged Pele to either turn her into a tree or Ohi'a back into a man which Pele refused, however some other gods took pity on Lehua and turned her into a flower to go on the tree so they could be together forever. But Pele was probably right as the couple's love seemed to be based mainly on physical attractiveness so they probably would have got bored of each other and Ohi'a would spend all day at work while Lehua would be bored and stuck inside all the time - so at least they avoided all that. So basically Pele gets really angry which she expresses as lava output, this means she's been really angry since 1983, it was probably Thatcher's re-election and the introduction of the McNugget, who wouldn't be angry in that sort of world.

Volcano Live - it's a bit annoying.

Things are getting a bit difficult as now whenever I turn on the TV there seems to be something on about volcanoes, so if everyone else starts liking volcanoes I might have to stop (probably not really though). I hate it when this happens here are some other occasions where it has; Andy Murray, peplums, actually I can't think of any more but there are loads. Apparently this has been on  and is quite good. I would watch it now but as I speak there is some sun so should probably enjoy that outside. 

How football tournaments should be judged

Because my life has pretty much been taken over by the Euros (the football tournament not the currency) I haven't posted on here in a while but I have managed to find a way to combine them = YAY VOLCANOES AND FOOTBALL TOURNAMENTS! Basically this is going to imagine if the teams still left in the competition were judged for their volcanoes not their footballing ability. Countries will then be given a VFI (Volcanic Footballing Index) and the higher index will win the round.

 


First up, Czech Republic v Portugal

Czech Republic, the only instance of volcanoes in the country (only mention in Wikipedia) is Trosky castle which is built on a volcanic plug, which are remnants of the magma chamber. The football team aren't too exciting either. VFI = 2/10
Portugal - the mainland has no active volcanoes but the islands of Azores and Madeira have many active and extinct volcanoes. Madeira also has amazing plant life partly due to the volcanic soil and it's where Christiano is from and he's pretty eruptive. VFI = 6/10
Portugal wins!

 




Tomorrow Greece v Germany
Greece has 6 volcanoes, which are all on the islands, the best is Santorini which possibly wiped out the Minoan civilisation. I think the unpredictability of the team also adds to their VFI and the fact they have the ability to upset THE WHOLE FOOTBALLING WORLD. VFI = 7/10
Germany only has one incident of volcanism, which is the West Eifel Volcanic Field, a 600 sq km area in the Rhineland containing small extinct stratovolcanoes, but it's not very impressive and hasn't erupted since the Holocene era. Germany also has quite an organised footballing style which is not very volcanic. VFI = 3/10
Greece wins!

 

Saturday Spain v France
Spain there are a couple of volcanic fields in the Pyrenees which like Germany's have been extinct for ages. The Canary Islands like Madiera are volcanic, the most notable volcano being Teide on Tenerife. But I don't call passing the ball very accurately a million times very volcanic so some minus points. VFI = 5/10
France again has a mainland volcanic field that has long been inactive. But France still has loads of overseas territories (which is a bit weird) and Gualdeloupe, Reunion and Martinique all have active volcanoes. The team are bit too structured to be volcanic. VFI = 5/10
Spain win on Penalties.

 


Sunday ENGLAND v Italy
England, now if we're looking at England as opposed to the UK then England are crap as Scotland and Wales has some volcanic landscape and like France the UK has some volcanic overseas territories but I can't include those. So all we've got is the Scafells (remnants of a supervolcano) and Wayne Rooney's eruption of hair. VFI = 1/10
Italy - Vesuvius, Etna and Stromboli, Italy is pretty much the king of volcanoes and Balotelli could erupt at any moment. VFI = 9/10
Italy win, conclusively (sorry)


Semi Final 1, Greece v Italy
This will a be crazy game with lava flowing everywhere but in the end Italy are unbeatable.

Semi Final 2, Portugal v Spain
In this Iberian derby (I bet 20mill that a commentator will say that) Portugal just get ahead, goal from Christino. 

FINAL Italy v Portugal
Despite Mario Balotelli getting sent off Italy prove to be unbeatable and take the trophy home.

ITALY WIN! (This picture isn't in Italy)

Now I have to go and get changed into my Christano Ronaldo shirt which will definitely please my blog editor. Also it's a shame Russia are out as they would given Italy a run for their money.

Spacano

When I was in the shop Lush the other day I noticed a product called Volcano, obviously after I had sneezed repeatedly from the assault to my senses (I do love lush but it smells a lot). I would have bought the product but I didn't bother as I saw it was for feet and I don't like to care for my feet in anyway, as I see my hard and cracked skin as a mark of honour, also rubbing away the dead skin gets rid of the goodness. But it did remind me of the many volcanic spas around the world which look pretty fucking cool.

There is this luxury one in Costa Rica powered by the Arenal volcano

Or if you just fancy splashing about in mud there's the island of Vulcano in Italy. This picture reminds me of walking out to the sea at WSM at low tide, although I'm sure that mud has a more sewage-like quality than the purifying mud of volcanoes.

There is also a mud bath crater at the Sea of Azov which might just be my new fave place in the world, it's located just north of the Black Sea and linked by the Kerch straight, which can be seen in the top picture (Black Sea bottom, Sea of Azov top). It also separates Russia and Ukraine and is the worlds shallowest sea, average depth 7m. The Tamansky Peninsula, which is on the Russian side of the Kerch straight, google maps obviously shows this better, has around 25 mud volcanoes causing the lovely mud baths. I saw a great picture of people bathing here in the volcano book, which I haven't read yet as I've just read a book about the Manson Family which was FUCKING NUTS, I also read a book set by the black sea where someone worked in a bathing house- I'm mentioning that to prove people who live round the black sea like bathing. Hope you enjoyed that brief summary of everything I've read and haven't read in the past month.

Sadly I didn't quite manage to proof read before Greece-Czech Republic kick off, I'm not sure whether proof reading or watching sport is more important in my blog editor's (who also happens to be my mother) world. 

I'm in Print!

At the weekend I bought this book which is very exciting as it's about volcanoes, it's by the curator of the Volcano: From Turner to Warhol exhibition which was at Compton Verney last year and was very good. But I think the best thing about the book has to be that I'm referenced in it! Not to say that it isn't otherwise a great book but everyone likes to feel important (and what makes you feel more important than seeing your name in print?)

I haven't really started reading it yet as I'm still recovering from the Eurovision at the weekend at which there were no volcano references- Come on Italy and Iceland, pull your fingers out. I know Russia also has lots of volcanoes but their entry could not have been improved on in any way. Back to volcanoes as sadly this isn't a eurovision blog. Anyway when I've read the book I'm sure I will have lots more stuff to blog about, as it opens with a quote from The Volcano Lover, it's bound to be great. It's part of the Reaktion Earth Series, of which the series editor Daniel Allen says.

The Earth series traces the historical significance and cultural history of natural phenomena. Written by experts who are passionate about their subject, title in the series bring together science, art, literature, mythology, religion and popular culture, exploring and explaining the planet we inhabit in new and exciting ways. 

The book is also full of lovely pictures such as these.

 Bernhard Picart, Enceladus buried beneath Mount Etna

 Brynjolfur Thordarson, Hekla

 Wilhelmina Barns-Graham, La Geria, Lanzarote

 Athanasius Kircher, Mundus Subterraneus

 Joseph Wright of Derby, Eruption of Vesuvius

 JMW Turner, Naples: Vesuvius from Naples: Rome

 Karl Briullov, Last Day of Pompeii

 Dieter Roth, Surtsey 

Volcano of the Week #24 - Popocatepetl

I realise that this is actually the first volcano of the week that I've done all year making Popocateptl the volcano of the year! Yay congratz! lolz! etc... This is appropriate as Popocateptl has very much been the most active volcano of the year apart from maybe Etna (but @IAmMountEtna, so we've covered that base) unless I'm forgetting another big eruption this year. Which is likely as it's already May- Fuck where has this year gone- oh yeah I remember. Back to Popo (which is what Popocateptl lets you call him when you're friends, but he's not that great a friend- bit moody), the wiki entry is a bit short so I might just make some stuff up - that's just me covering my back in case someone tells me my information is incorrect.

Popo is around 70km southeast of Mexico City, part of the Trans-Mexican volcanic belt and 5,426m tall. The volcano used to be covered in glaciers however these became extinct in 2001. The crater is a massive 400x600m, the volcano formed around 730,000 years ago. During the last 20 years or so Popo has become very active and since 1993 one can almost constantly see smoke rising from the crater. In April this year Popo had a pretty large eruption and covered a lot of the surrounding area in ash, in some places up to 7cm thick (reminds me of my old living room). And has continued to do this for about a month, putting the area on alert, an eruption is of particular concern due to the proximity to Mexico City. Thank to this site one of my new hobbies is watching volcanoes on webcams and here is Popo if you wanna check what it's up to.

There are a lot of cool legends about Popocatepetl and Iztaccihuatl, which is a lady mountain north of Popo and I'm not just gendering volcanoes- they're in the stories. What Wikipedia is telling me is that there are three versions of the legend- however I'm sure there are many others. The first (which is a bit Romeo and Juliet) is that Popo went to war under the instruction of Izta's (to he was betrothed) father. As Izta's dad was unhappy about the union he told Izta that Popo had died in battle and Izta died of grief when Popo heard this he lay down beside Izta and killed himself. They were both covered in snow and then turned into mountains and Popo is the volcano because he's angry. In the next version, which is very like the Ruapehu, Tongariro, Taranki volcano story, Popo and Izta are engaged however Xinantecatl (Nevado del Toluca) wants to get it on with Izta. So Xina and Popo have a massive fight and Popo ends up throwing a massive stone and decapitating Xina.

The final one is that Izta was the daughter of the Emperor and Empress of Tenochtitlán (Mexico City) and she loved Popo who was the leader of a tribe. One day Popo and tribe went off to battle and one day a warrior who hated Popo (who told him he wore crap shirts when he was on TV or something) sent a message to the Emperor that Popo had died in battle. Izta was very upset and became ill and died through sadness, when Popo came back the Emperor told him Izta had died. Popo carried Izta a long way and then made a funeral table, he then died of sadness watching over Izta, the gods were moved and turned them into mountains, the volcano stills smokes to let us know he is looking over Izta. 

Hopefully it'll less than 6 months before I do another volcano of the week as writing that was fun.

Nocano of the Week

I listened to the first part of this radio programme which is about the eruption of Soufriere Hills on Montserrat and thought that could be my volcano of the week as it was really interesting and makes you think about the people involved in these disasters in a very humane and touching way. But it turns out it's already been volcano of the week, it would seem a bit weird having a different volcano as volcano of the week (any suggestions welcome) and I want to post something as I haven't done so in a while but I can't think of anything else. Also my computer is so slow that using it is torturous so listen to the radio programme and here is a pretty picture of Soufriere Hills, I'll write a better post soon.

Volcano the Bear

I like bears almost as much as volcanoes, I even have a bear necklace and no volcano necklaces (but that's cos I've never seen one, I'd pay a lot for one). But anyway here is a band called Volcano the Bear- don't know how much I like them, bit annoying which means my dad will probably like them, they are also from Leicester which means my dad will definitely like them. You can listen to them here on the Free Music Archive (which can only be a great thing). Also got another track for my Volcano Club compilation, sweet.

This bear lives on a volcano- I don't whether I'd prefer to be a bear or live on a volcano. Why choose?

Joga

This is going to be another Bjork post so I'm sorry, actually I'm not cos if you're not a Bjork fan THEN WHY THE FUCK ARE YOU READING MY BLOG? Right now that's out of the way let me get to the crux of the post which is that yesterday I watched a Bjork DVD and planned the next VCZ (I'm unemployed so I can do fun stuff like that). She was going on about Iceland and nature and volcanoes and all that cool shit and the song Joga uses volcanic beats which is pretty great. I'm struggling to find out exactly what that means, I think it means she did something very complicated involving recording volcanic beats. The album Homogenic which Joga is from is supposed to be sort of a return to Iceland so it's full of references to all that amazing landscape and Bjork wanted it to sound like "rough volcanoes with soft moss growing all over it..." Which you can see in the Michel Gondry directed vid. 

Also as I said I'm said I'm planning the next zine which is going to about the differences between eruption and dormancy but also how they are linked, how you need one for the other to exist so let me know if you've got any examples, Volcanic or otherwise. So I've got Melanie Hamilton Wilkes and Scarlett O'Hara, guess which is which?

I Am Mount Etna

I have decided to start my tweeting as Mount Etna exercise partly because I'm bored, partly because I have never tweeted, partly because I haven't done anything here for ages, partly because Etna's erupting and partly because no one has told me it's a dreadful idea. But the problem is how much to personify Etna as I generally hate the anthropomorphising of volcanoes so I worry that I will become the knife that stabs my own back like Charlie Brooker Pizza Cutter. Etna is a good choice to tweet as she (see I'm already doing it) erupts all the fucking time and gets quite a lot of press for it. Tweeting as an ever erupting volcano a la Kilauea would be dull, a never erupting volcano a la Fuji would be equally dull. I think the advantage of tweeting will be that there are lots of really cool Etna videos so that'll be fun for everyone to watch, when I say everyone I mean Volcano Club members when I say Volcano Club members I mean about 3 people. Also I might be quite fun to see what kind of personality me as Mount Etna emerges as and whether or not me and Etna are deeply linked, I'd like to think so.

Already out as a Prince fan #(with a silent h) awesome.
This is probably how you get to said twitter account

If this is true

I really need to sort my life out and I refuse to watch Joe vs the Volcano because I really fucking hate Tom Hanks and Will.I.Am (which looks a bit like William, which is clever but he's not in Joe vs the Volcano although he is going to the core of volcanoes). I have no strong opinions on anyone else involved in the project, although I have met Richard Branson's sister, she was nice - she told me never to tie your hair with elastic bands, very useful advice. It's definitely not true though.

Werner Herzolcano (he should def call the film that)

This post is again going to be me going on about how excited I am about a volcanic project but this REALLY IS EXCITING! Werner Herzog's next film is going to be a VOLCANO DOCUMENTARY!!! (you can tell I'm really excited by the amount of caps and exclamation marks I'm using). Really I don't know why I'm that excited it's not very surprising as I'm sure by now everyone has worked out that everything great is linked to volcanoes however tenuous that link may be. It's also not that surprising as there is something quite volcanic about Herzog's films anyway, it might be that they often have a sense of waiting, of something building up which can be a bit like a cano. There is also the obvious amazing cinematic quality of volcanoes and man vs nature which both crop up Herzog's film all the facking time (I should know I did my AS level German oral exam on Herzog and my teacher hadn't even heard of him- what a loser!). Actually it turns out that he has already directed a film about a volcano erupting on Guadeloupe, the focus was on the inhabitants that refused to leave and their views on death and the volcano. The film is only 30 mins long, I will try and get hold of  a copy. 

I'd have to agree

Here's a video of him talking about volcanoes (I didn't really watch it, I was a bit distracted by the Wizard of Oz because because because etc...)

This shows the lovely cinematic quality of volcanoes- as always there are loads of volcanoes erupting at the moment I'll write about them soon. 

Risk Registers and Doctor Who

A massive volcanic eruption has been added to the UK national risk register, which already includes pandemic flu, flooding and terrorism. The particular worry is an Icelandic Laki style eruption which will produce large toxic gas clouds, the eruption in 1783 caused death and crop failure. While this clearly is a worry it is however more surprising that space war is not included on the risk register. As someone who has watched loads of Doctor Who episodes I can tell you that in the 21st century space war is a much bigger threat than volcanic eruptions. As in all the episodes I have watched there have been countless wars with the sycorax, sliltheen, tocloafane, daleks, cybermen, bat creatures, etc and only one volcanic eruption. And that volcanic eruption was Vesuvius, the 79AD one which clearly isn't a threat any more. I can't remember that episode too well at the moment as I've just watched the previous series, so should watch it soon and will let you know if it's still a threat. So either the government is lying to us about the real risks or Doctor Who needs to be more accurate and anyone who has seen the spaceship/ 18th century France episode (my favourite) will tell you that it is not. So I think in conclusion more Doctor Who episodes should feature more volcanoes although it's really not the same without lovely David Tennant.

Noel Cowardano

There are times in your life when you read about something and realise you have seen/have read it. And I have recently discovered a Noel Coward play called Volcano that was written with Katharine Hepburn in mind. Which sounds amazing, sadly as it's an undiscovered masterpiece there isn't too much information about it aka it has no wikipedia page. It's going to be on at the Theatre Royal in Bath this summer so hopefully I can combine seeing it with a trip to Bath Spa, which due to geothermal activity I can link to volcanoes. The play was written when Noel Coward moved to Jamaica, is set on a volcanic Caribbean island, it's about 2 women falling for a married man and his acid-tongued wife (presumably KH) trying to fight them off. Then I reckon the play will end in a massive hilarious eruption/argument but its hard to know as I haven't seen it. I'll let you know what happens when I have. I think I would cast Katharine with an Icelandic volcano because as well as being cutting she was also icy but sadly I will never be able to direct a play starring Katharine Hepburn about volcanoes.

Roxy Oxy-Moron plagiarism

Among the things that have happened in my life recently, I have joined twitter, more about my twittering later. But the reason I joined twitter is so I can follow volcanologists and see links to volcanic articles, which is working pretty well at the moment so much so that I might have to start writing about serious volcano things (but not yet). Today I saw this amazing link, the restaurant was built in the 70s and must have been stolen from Simmer and Devour. As you can see below the issue featured the Gods cooking with volcanoes and a feature by Roxy Oxy-Moron from 1933 about the Hawaiian cooking method. So I really want to go to Lanzarote and I'm not sure whether to sue the restaurant or just eat there. 

Now back to my twittering (delib mistake), I haven't actually done any yet but I think I might start posting as Mount Etna or another fairly active volcano. I'll decide if I can be bothered later in the week. Another consequence of me joining twitter is that I now like Joey Barton and I used to hate him which is good. But I think I need to follow someone other than volcanologists and Barton as it's a bit weird.