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 

Tenuous Volcanoes

This is going to be one of those everything that I have seen recently that slightly reminds me of a volcano posts. So it could be crap, rambling and boring or really amazing and insightful. Firstly this blog is about a year old (it's useful when you have a similar birthday to your blog) so that's possibly good and worth celebrating.

Firstly I've got another track for the upcoming and coming volcano club CD, still waiting for Alice's specially commissioned piece (see interview in Love, Lust and Lava) this video was actually sent to me by her brother. That family are very into volcano music. If anyone has more suggestions for the compliation please let me know.

I saw the film Le Quatrro Volte over the weekend which was fantastic. The opening and closing scenes consisted off an earthy smoking mound, which was very reminiscent of a volcano with lots of lovely little fumeroles. This is how charcoal is made, I suppose volcanoes can also make charcoal . The film has no other volcano references just a lot of lovely goats, a nice old man and a great tree. But it did give me an idea of how to make a volcano like structure and some good winter fuel.

Finally the newly opened Turner Margate gallery actually only has one Turner painting, which is of a volcano, the same painting that inspired the Turner to Warhol exhibition. It's of the Caribbean volcano Soufriere Hills which erupts fairly frequently. I think they were probably planning on having more Turners there but then they saw the volcano and thought that nothing else would stand up in comparison (which is how I frequently feel).

As I predicted the ash cloud was fine and I'm definitely flying to Sweden, YAY!

Volcano of the Week #15 - Vesuvius

As stated before I will try and cover all the volcanoes you can vote for. Amazingly although I have written about Vesuvius before it has never been volcano of the week so I though I would rectify that. Vesuvius has also been on my mind this week as I have received a copy of the exhibition catalogue for the Volcano exhibition that I went to at Compton Verney last year in which Vesuvius was the most widely featured volcano. The catalogue was very kindly sent to me by the exhibition's curator for which I am very thankful.

Andy Warhol- Vesuvius

Vesuvius is such a well documented volcano that it is quite hard to write about, The chapter in the exhibition catalogue is called 'The Romance of Vesuvius' which is very apt and shows how the volcano (the 79AD eruption anyway) is swathed in stories and such a common reference. I'd say about 80% of references to volcanoes are to Vesuvius and the destructive event of 79AD is probably the one that most people of think of when they hear the word volcano. And it's hard to say why as many eruptions, Krakatoa, Laki, have been more powerful and others have been just as dramatic, Santorini which produced the same utter destruction to a civilisation as Vesuvius. It was thought that absolutely no life survived on the island of Krakatoa after the 1883 eruption. I suppose it's partly due to Italy being an important centre for artists which firstly gave it a reputation and the volcanoes popularity has grown. Which is why you find it in paintings by Warhol and in songs by Flaming Lips and Sufjan Stevens (I should probably make a volcano compilation CD) and in novels by Susan Sontang and Robert Harris. I think that for me Vesuvius is almost an embodiment of everything I love about volcanoes, the amount of myth and legend relating to it, the references in popular culture and art, and the geological features of the eruption. I do however think that the fascination with Vesuvius is a very Western thing, as Mount Fuji is an equally well documented and referenced, although doesn't have the same destructive history.

Some people hanging out by Vesuvius 

What I should probably say about Vesuvius is that in 79AD it produced a Plinian eruption (the term Plinian comes from Pliny the Elder and Pliny the Younger who died in and witnessed the eruption retrospectively) and buried the towns of Herculaneum and Pompeii which were discovered in 1599. The eruption preserved the towns remarkably well has given the town a ghostly and eerie feeling.

Modern Vesuvius

This has been quite a strange Volcano of the Week for which I apologise. In other volcano news I have done lots for the new zine and there will be a volcano round at my pub quiz on Tuesday, I'll let you know how it goes. 

Things learnt at Compton Verney

Finally went to the Volcano: from Turner to Warhol exhibition at Compton Verney on Saturday. It was supposed to be my brothers birthday outing, but he didn't actually make it, due to some drunken escapade involving a lost bag and a gay club (which is definitely enough information for me). I will probably do more in-depth posts on lots of the stuff there but here is a brief summary of things I learnt and saw about volcanoes.

1. Volcanoes are a lot more popular than even I thought; the exhibition catalogue had completely sold out, which is a shame as I was kinda hoping to do all my up and coming blog posts based entirely on that
2. The angle of a volcano should never be more than 30 degrees, I need to correct this in my volcano drawings

Good Volcano- John Ruskin                                                                  

Bad Volcano- Augusta Ward

3. Andy Warhol knew about the stages of a volcanic eruption
4. In this painting the people and plants wouldn't actually be able to be that close to a volcano as they'd be incinerated. Probably the best thing in the exhibition was the geologists view on the artwork saying if they were scientifically accurate, as well as being informative they were very very funny.

Vesuvius Erupting at Night

Pierre-Jacques Volaire

5. Pictures without volcanoes aren't as good as those with them in (I was already pretty sure about this)
6. The best pictures are of erupting volcanoes
7. I really really want to go to Iceland (the country not the supermarket)
8. Vesuvius is easily the most documented volcano, maybe because of its proximity to civilisation (or Western civilisation)
 9. Me and my mummy are really good at guessing restaurant menus (not so much to do with volcanoes)

I will hopefully do more posts on the exhibition as it was pretty great it would really help if I could get an exhibition guide; otherwise I'm gonna have to like remember stuff or just make it up.
Issue Three (fashion one) is coming along nicely,but contributions would be good as I'm pretty lazy.