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.