Lakes of Lava

Now like all sane people I fucking love a good lava lake which are pretty much what they sound like, a lovely crater full of lovely lava. While eruptions can be a bit scary and show off, lave lakes are just there chilling, not really posing any threat, just looking pretty. 

This video is of Kilauea and is about to ooze and spill out over the edge. The volcano has technically been erupting for absolute yonks but probably not from this crater or something.

Looking at lava lakes is one of those vaguely hypnotic things like looking at fire, ice melting or test cricket all of which I can happily watch for hours. There are different types of lava lakes depending on whether or not the lava has formed in that crater or spilled into the crater from another flow, the viscosity of the lava and all that shit can also affect the lava lake. Here are two more excellent lava lakes.

This is one my favourite lava lakes Mount Nyiragongo which is on the DRC and Rwandan border and this volcano is formed by a rift in the African plate. The picture is part of this photo series which is worth looking at. 

This is another African lava lake, Erta Ale and I really like the black scorched look to this lava. Also in all these photos you can see the lovely volcanic rock I'm always amazed at their colours which seem unreal.

Its nice to see the dormant and understated side of volcanoes in comparison to the all the eruptive shit and these glowing lava lakes look like some portal into another dimension. This post is for my mate who is in a six hour meeting which I think has some parallels to lava lakes. 

Volcano of the Week #28 - Calbuco

I appear to now to be doing the series about Chilean volcanoes that I said I would write for my friend as she was travelling there. The timing is obviously very apt as she has now left Chile so this will all be really useful travel information. I do keep having to write about volcanoes in Chile as they keep fucking erupting, which may or may not be down to her visit, causing volcanic eruptions would be a great superpower. The latest volcano to erupt is Calbuco in the South which is one of the country's most eruptive volcanoes and there was a very large eruption in 1893. This recent eruption has caused evacuations and flight cancellations and is the first major eruption in over 30 years. There are loads of amazing photos of the eruption which everyone has probably seen already. 

Volcanic Perspective

I've been looking lots of different ways of using perspective, often my favourite paintings are quite flat and place things in almost impossible positions. Examples of this are these two paintings, one from the David Collection of Islamic Art in Copenhagen and, on the volcano front a Hiroshima street scene.

In both of these paintings I like the way that your eye is drawn to the stuff in the background. In the case of the volcano it really makes it stand out and seem important giving an idea of what it is must be like living close to such as massive volcano. Pop-up books and paper dioramas are another way of using this flat layering technique, like the end bit of 'The Jolly Postman' which sadly I can't find a good picture of. Here are some examples of Volcano diorama things, all I which I used to own and have now misplaced. The top two are a Hokusai paintings and was part of a kit, the bottom one I made all on my own (impressive right). Volcano diorama things work well as the volcano can still be really fucking big and in the background which generally volcanoes are. 

Spring Cleaning

To anyone who has ever visited anywhere that I've ever lived it will come as no surprise that I'm a bit of a hoarder. The upside of this, in addition to having to loads of cool shit, is that every so often you have to sort through aforementioned shit and find some fun things.

 This is a birthday present I got a while ago, when you're finished you can reappropriate the vinegar and bicarb for cooking/cleaning purposes (Boom, life hack!)

Here are all the covers for all the recent Volcano Club issues. I think my favourite apart from Heston (which I didn't do so lets forget about that) is Simmer & Devour and I always think I'm crap at drawing people which just shows what a lazy twat I am. I also love the map because I love maps.

Here are all the back covers because I love word searches. 

All the issues are available to read on the links in the side of the page. 

Volcano Songs

For ages now I've wanted to make a Volcano Club playlist/mixtape/CD or something of that ilk. Sometimes I do find songs that I put on the blog and people often send me volcanic tunes however due to a popular music streaming service I can now compile a playlist as I find songs and then release it when it's big/good enough. So far I have 6 songs, and only one is by Bjork, a general stipulation of playlists that you are only allowed one song per artist, although obviously Prince, Prince & the Revolution and Prince & the New Power Generation are all different artists sadly I haven't actually found any Prince volcanoes song but don't worry I will. I also can't decide whether or not the songs have to be about volcanoes or can just be by bands with volcano in the name - which really widens the subject but may make the playlist less volcanic

Here is the list of the first six songs
1. Volcano - Beck
2. Volcano - Jimmy Buffett
3. Vesuvius - Sufjan Stevens
4. Java Girl - East of Underground
5. Take Me Back Again - Volcanoes
6. Mutual Core - Bjork

So send me more songs and I'll make a really good playlist and post it at some point.