X-Volcano-Files

I mentioned in an earlier post that I'm currently watching X-Files. I am not rewatching it as part of some nostalgia trip, I've never watched it before so it's all very exciting, people always tell me to watch cool new programmes but I'm like "I'm only just getting round to watching X-Files, I hadn't watched Buffy until this year, I'm not gonna watch fucking House of Cards'. This post however is not just about what 90s TV shows I have and haven't watched, which would really fucking interesting. I have known for some time that there was likely to be a volcano X-Files episode. It's called Firewalker and it was actually a really good episode, its in the mould of some of my favourite episodes which are monster of the week ones in some remote and claustrophobia inducing setting where everyone goes mad and no one is sure who is sane/alien/trying to kill everyone. It was also notable as it's the first episode Scully's in for a while, obviously I knew that she was coming back as there are shitloads more series but it was good to have her straight talking and impeccable suit wearing back. This is all in the settling of one of the lovely cascade volcanoes with some silicon based life form and people going mental. What more could you want? Here is a totally legal way to watch it.

See inside a volcano.

35 Anniversaries - Mount St Helens and Ian Curtis

Two amazingly important events happened 35 years ago today one volcanic and one not, apparently these events aren't linked but I'm sure I can manage to find a tenuous way in which they are. The events are Mount St Helen's erupted and Ian Curtis died (18th May 1980). Obviously I wasn't alive for either of these events but the fact that Ian Curtis and Joy Division weren't really around in the 80s has pretty much blown my mind.  

The 1980 Mount St Helen's eruption is the biggest in recent history on mainland USA. It's part of the Cascade volcano range which is the American-Canadian range up the west coast, I'm quite obsessed with this area because it also has great forests, cool sounding cities and loads of great fiction is set around there (Twin Peaks, Housekeeping etc). It was a pretty large eruption, perhaps the most dramatic part was that one of sides collapsed producing a massive landslide. 57 people died in the eruption and it was also pretty economically and socially devastating. I think it's really easy to forget about the power and potential impact of ecological disasters especially if you live in the cosy developed world, it's way too easy to feel cut off from nature.

Normally Mount St Helens is portrayed in black and white like Joy Division (although I'm pretty sure colour was invented by the 80s).

Onto Ian Curtis (the link will come later when I think of it), I love Joy Division but it's quite rare that I want to listen to them (apart from now which is research), it's just too hard. It's just so bleak and raw (my boyfriend has epilepsy and depression so maybe it's all a bit too close to home) but I'm not gonna go on about how depressing Joy Division because that is just an established fact. I'm amazed it was 35 years ago because they do sound so modern and relevant and maybe that is because of the depressing nature. Without sounding like too much of a dick that raw emotion does kinda transcend time so it's always going to be relatable.

So there we have my link, some things in humanity and nature are inevitable and those are generally shit. Like the incredible force of volcanoes or your own despair just hope you're one of the lucky ones. That's my Mount St Helens/Ian Curtis suicide anniversary message which is in opposition to 'stop and smell the roses' sentiment. Here at Volcano Club we are more likely to stop and smell the roses realise that they are dying from some parasitic infection and understand that is a metaphor that everything good and beautiful eventually decays and turns to shit. Hopefully you can cope with it otherwise love will tear us afuckingpart.  

Forests and Volcanoes

As any volcano club fans will know- the reason I like volcanoes is that they are linked to pretty much everything. The main reason I am giving for the recent absence of the volcano club is that I have been writing my masters thesis and generally studying and I can't really be expected to write more than one thing at once. For those who don't know I have been studying forestry and one of the main reasons I like forests is that they are also linked to pretty much everything, there are other reasons such as I actually like ecology, trees and all that crap. As volcanoes are linked to everything and so are forests then they are obviously linked to each other - but not in a vague tenuous shit way. You could say that the reason I like forests and volcanoes is because I don't actually them and what I really like is all the other stuff but you'd would be wrong. Anyway I thought that combining volcanoes and forests would be the perfect way to relaunch the VC blog, which is what this is, a fucking relaunch. The new picture at the top = relaunch, there was even a relaunch party with wine in plastic cups, bombay mix and volcanic experts, I might have made the relaunch party up but it sounds fun, I should do it for real. Anyway back to the forests and the volcanoes the basis is that the areas surrounding volcanoes tend to have rich soils which can lead to interesting plant life, here are three examples.

For no real reason I've linked songs to the three forests below, they are all great songs and connected to the forests in my mind at least, also I'm working on a volcano compilation so send me any suggestions.

1. Aokigahara 
I've written about this forests lots before, basically it's at the base of Mount Fuji (my favourite volcano), is one of the mostly densely vegetated places in the world and a suicide hotspot. The forest is quite small and so dense and dark that there are very few animals there, obviously it's haunted too. It is also known as the sea of trees which sounds quite pretty and reminds me of the linked song, because thinking of a suicide forest wasn't depressing enough.

Do not do a google image search for Aokigahara unless you want to see dead bodies in a forest. 

2. Eastern Java

All of Java is volcanic and has great forests and it's a place with volcanoes that I have actually been to! While I have been to West and Central Java and I did see some forests (because I was there on a forestry field trip) I didn't get the volcanic vibe. But in East Java I went to both forests and volcanoes, yes it was fucking great. Volcanic soils tend to be good due to the breakdown of nutrients and large amounts of trace elements (which can be limiting to plants) when you go to areas with volcanoes you can really see this. Ijen is probably the best volcano to use as an example, because I went there twice and is surrounded by a lovely forest, where I saw monkeys. It is the volcano where they do sulphur mining, which is job that does not pay well especially when considering the health hazards, I did have a great conversation about Wayne Rooney with one of the sulphur miners though. 

Anyway back to my point, amazingly I do actually have one, which is that you can actually see effect the volcanicity has on the soil. Quite soon before I climbed the volcano there had been heat flare things (technical term) meaning that most of the vegetation at the top of the volcano had been killed. This meant you could really see the rocks and soil which were all really amazing colours and small plants were springing up everywhere as you can see in the above pictures. You have to climb the volcano at night (otherwise it's too hot) so the first time I really saw the area surrounding the volcano was when climbing down. Which was a really weird experience as you started at this strange barren crater and walked down into this amazingly lush forest and you could really see the zonation and were also aware of how special the conditions were. So it was quite a nice illustration of what a field trip is actually for; that when you actually see something even for a really short period time it makes so much more sense than any reading or anything else you can do (even though we weren't really studying any of the shit I've just said). 

3. Pacific Northwest
I don't really know much about this, not so surprising I know but I live a state of fear where someone will tell me everything I've written on my blog is crap, so this is just a little disclaimer, please don't use this to write essays or anything. But here are two facts that I know to be true- this area has shitloads of volcanic activity and this area has shit hot forests. So I think that probably all the volcanic activity had some kinda long term positive effect on soil quality on the growth of plants in this area, which is home to the most productive temperate rainforest in the world, but I can't find much info on it (it's not on Wikipedia). You learn shitloads about these trees when studying forestry as lots of the trees such as Douglas Fir and Sitka Spruce as really fast growing and are used in European forestry. There was also a lot of interesting forestry techniques that was pioneered here, the main volcanoes are the cascade range which contains Mount St. Helens. It's also the bit of USA and Canada that looks amazingly great and people keep going there and I really want to go.

Loads of volcanoes

A volcano and a forest! (Mount Bachelor to be precise, which is just south of Mount Hood)

That's a little bit about some volcanic forests, hopefully marking the beginning of period of high VC activity. 

Volcano Top Trumps

One of the things I said I would write about is Volcano Top Trumps which are pretty amazing and my only volcano related Christmas present and therefore the best (thanks Paul!). As you may know/have guessed/deduced I am a massive top trump lover. Football top trumps were previously my favourite because of the great stats, I think I have 7 packs; Arsenal, Man Utd, Liverpool, Chelsea, World Stars, European Stars and Legends (if you're interested). I actually have a top trump card where 2014 Ballon D'or winner Christiano Ronaldo (to use his full title) has no Utd goals or int. caps, probably a great collectors item that's now worth a lot of fucking money. What is really fun with the football top trumps is you can combine packs so either have a really really massive game or people start with different teams which is a bit like a football match, if football was judged purely on facts like height and the year of birth. Lord of the Rings Top Trumps are also great, the main object here was obviously to keep Aragorn for as long as possible/ get all 3 Aragorn cards from all 3 films (and say "they have a cave-troll" as much as possible). I also used to collect the pop trumps cards on the back of Smash Hits which were really good as they were top trump cards with lyrics on the back, amazing I know (also probably now collectors items). The take home message from this paragraph is basically I LIKE TOP TRUMPS and I am incredibly cool. I like top trump so much and am so cool that once I made my friend a pack of Nigella chocolate cake top trumps, obviously there are enough recipes for 30 cards.

This is the card, someone has actually put it on ebay, no bids yet amazingly.

I also like volcanoes, so something that combines the two such as volcano top trumps is fucking heaven. I've only actually had one game with them so far, which was a large game with about 6 people. I think I was the first person out (which has nothing to do with my volcano knowledge) but it was very exciting. I'm sure I'll win all the other games I play, there will be lots. I'm not sure what my favourite volcano top trump card is, some famous volcanoes like Eyjafjallajökull are shit cards so that also sways your opinion. Also I haven't got the pack with me so it's hard to say but Vesuvius is always a goodun.  The project is made by STREVA with actual volcanologists from the University of East Anglia and the University of Plymouth. The website is pretty great and informative too, you can see that the selecting of categories was taken very seriously which is something we applaud here at volcano club. The categories are height, unpredictability, wow! factor, deadliness (best one), explosivity and devastation potential. I know wow! factor seems like an unscientific, vague category but you're wrong it's very scientific. It was done using paired comparisons (you see science) but all this is on the website where you can also order a pack of volcano top trumps. I'll let you know how my future games go.

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. 

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. 

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.

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 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

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. 

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. 

More Volcano Lovers

Have just found the most amazing volcano blog, which has really up to date information on ALL THE ERUPTIONS. It also has a twitter feed which has almost made me want to join twitter but only almost as if I join I will inevitably start posting facts about my life then everyone will know how boring and unfulfilled my life is (if you can't already tell). Here's a roundup of what's new in volcanoes, you could just read the blog but personally I like having stuff retold so many times that it becomes meaningless. 1. Someone else loves volcanoes! 2. There probably won't be a supervolcanic eruption soon. 3. Lots of volcanoes are erupting all the time. 4. Volcanoes in Space. Maybe I should make friends with the person who writes this blog, it's probably better than mine, although I haven't seen any volcano jokes or anything about volcanoes in popular culture.

Is this funny?

P.S If you search for volcanoes in popular culture you get loads of links for volcano club!

If anything will ever make you want to go anywhere

I've just watched this programme Julia Bradbury's Icelandic Walk where she walks up to Eyjafjallajokull and sees lots of beautiful volcanic landscape, hot springs, sulphur vents, nice huts and lovely Icelandic people with jumpers. I really enjoyed the simple explanations of geology which are made easier to understand by seeing the stunning effects they have on the landscape. Another thing that was significant was the recentness of the landscape which means it is quite barren so this not only fascinating from a geological point of view but also a biological one as you will actually be able to see the vegetation and life forming. I just think I'm going to have live in Iceland, be a hut warden and paint volcanoes every day, going to Sweden should bring me a step closer. The lunar like landscape slightly reminded me of the Outer Hebrides which have a similar barren bleakness, geographically they are fairly close too I suppose. I also watched this video which has a nice culinary slant on the guardian website. It's really great for me to see so much about Eyjafjallokull as its eruption was really what restarted the Volcano Club and while I do love all volcanoes, there is something really magical about Iceland; maybe it is the new landscape, the contrast of fire and ice or just the fact that it's like no where else in the world. If you're not an Icelandophile (it's a real term) then here are some more pretty pictures of volcanoes, having said this if you're not an Icelandophile you really need to look at your life. I just did a Google image search for Iceland and literally every picture was amazing so I just picked the first one.

Now I have to find a costume for Fake Christmas- which is tomorrow incase you were unaware, I can dress up as anyone from history, ever. Which is a harder theme than you may think. 

Happy Volcano Listening.

For a while now I've been mentally compiling a volcano play list (and slightly on this blog) and I aim to do a pop culture zine special soon. The main reason I haven't is cos my friend Alice said she'd write me a volcano song and I am currently too wrapped up in guilt for not contacting her in ages to ask her about said song. So Alice if you're reading this then writing you a letter is lit on my to do list- well it will be as soon as I can find a pen. But anyway I recently got notified to some new volcano music by a friend Rob. Firstly here is a pretty picture of a volcano record he bought (records with pictures of volcanoes on is a whole new field that my mind had never considered before but I'm pretty sure I don't have any).

 

Then we have a band called Volcanos with (It's Against) The Laws of Love, which is a lovely little song.

 

This has reminded of another band called Volcano who are a punk/country supergroup! Formed by one of the Meat Puppets, I haven't listened to this song yet because I'm listening to the radio now, its Josie Long's show and I need to pay attention so I can convince her that we should be best friends one day. But anyway it must be a good song as the band, album and song are all called volcano.

 

Finally the Bjork volcano song cos I don't think I've posted it here yet, even if I have, you can never have too much Bjork. 

Feel free to post more volcanic music below. 

Finally, a good film called Volcano

I am aware of the 1997 film starring Tommy Lee Jones however I am wary of watching it as it looks appalling and I fear it may reduce my love of volcanoes ever so slightly (which may not be a bad thing). I have also seen Twister and I don't think it is actually necessary to watch every single disaster movie when all they do is substitute the natural disaster. But the film that actually looks good is Icelandic, like most good things, it won prizes at Montreal film festival and also been nominated for Reykjavik film festival's Golden Puffin (see everything Icelandic is good). My favourite types of films are very slow and depressing, however I did watch Dancer in the Dark last night and it was a bit too much (I'm really resisting writing another Bjork related post but I'll try), Volcano seems to fit this bill- slow and depressing not Bjork related. After retiring and returning to the capital which I think is due to an eruption, Hannes starts to get know his family again but due to years of neglect this doesn't seem possible. I can't really write a proper review as I haven't seen it but I think it looks pretty great. So watch it if you can and it has footage of a volcanic eruption which should surely be enough reason to watch it. Here is a link to website with a trailer and reviews from people who have actually seen the film. 

Volcano of the Week #21 - Anak Krakatau

It's erupting again which is pretty exciting, the volcano isn't actually that exciting, the main interest of Anak Krakatau is that it was Krakatoa. When Krakatoa erupted in 1883 it blew itself and its island apart, over years and years of tectonic activity another volcanic island Anak Krakatau grew and was visible in 1927. However due to frequent eruptions that followed the island kept disappearing and reappearing, Anak Krakatau in its current form didn't materialise until 1930 and it continues to grow at about 13cm per week. I like the idea of a young volcano struggling to form and become its own entity especially when it has such a large legacy to live up to. It's one of my favourite volcanoes though because of this history and also because it has such a distinctive shape. It is still growing and erupting so I suppose the future for this young volcano is fairly unknown but eruptions are frequent and tend to be Strombolian, the last one has been going on for a while and it has erupted earlier this year.

I wrote a sonnet about the original Krakatoa (when I say wrote I mean it was found in the ruins after the 1883 eruption) for the new travel zine which has just gone to print (when I say gone to print I mean sent to my parents) and I was going to post it here in celebration but I can't remember it. So you can have Bjork's plate tectonic song instead. The moon one is also really really good so if you want to diverse from volcanoes I strongly recommend that one.

New zine should be printed and up next week, let me know if you want one (when I say want one I mean to buy, I am unemployed)

Semiconductor

Last Wednesday I went to the Semiconductor exhibition at FACT in Liverpool, semiconductor are a Brighton based duo who do volcanic video installations, needless to say I have been wanting to go to one of their exhibitions for a while. They did a residency in Ecuador studying volcanoes and also the practices involved in studying volcanoes, the methods used and the people who do it. The videos from Ecuador really showed how much the volcano is part of daily life, workers were playing football in the foreground of the volcano and there were also pictures of it drawn onto the windows. There were also images of volcanoes in beautifully untouched landscapes which gave a sense of timelessness and absence of the man made which was juxtaposed with images inside laboratories reminding me how modern science compels us to understand and research everything. While I do find beauty in scientific findings there is also great beauty in mystery and bizzare yet logical interpretations of it. Other videos were the formation of crystals which were created from sounds, this is so like Bjork's single, which isn't a criticism as similar things often happened around the same time like convergent evolution which is one of the coolest things in the world. And I if could convergently evolve to be like Bjork I'd be pretty happy. 

While Bjork and convergent evolution are of course incredibly relevant, they weren't actually what the exhibition was about. There was however a room which looked like a junkyard of discarded TVs which showed archive videos of people studying volcanoes. Again one on hand it showed how much a volcano becomes part of life, while monitoring people were eating sandwiches and drinking coffee, but it also showed the wide range of completely mental ways people study volcanoes such as running up to lava lakes with massive sticks and ramming them in and then using whatever is on the end of the stick to light cigarettes. But I can really understand how people do become that obsessive (especially about volcanoes) and I always love to see it probably because I can see myself becoming one of them. There was also a room where you could make your own volcano, by make I mean pour some bicarb, vinegar and washing up liquid down a papier mache volcano, but it was amazing. Sadly it has now finished so you can't go and make your own volcano but I suppose you could actually make your own volcano.