Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - Release December 26th London

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is sure to be a huge International success. The book itself has sold over 65 million copies and the Swedish version of the film (dubbed in English and released in 2009) – has been a major critical success already.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo Cinema Poster

Now we’re invited to see Hollywoods take on it starring Daniel Craig as the publisher Mikael Blomkvist and Rooney Mara, who plays Lisbeth Salander, a surveillance agent.

The story is gripping from the start – set against a bleak Swedish winter and remote destinations where anything could happen. You can easily imagine a world of serial killers and rapists as depicted in the novels.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (original title in Swedish: Män som hatar kvinnor – “Men Who Hate Women”) was written  by Swedish author and journalist Stieg Larsson. It is the first book in the trilogy known as the “Millennium series”.

When he died in 2004, Larsson left three unpublished novels that make up the trilogy.

They became posthumous best-sellers worldwide.

At the age of 15, Larsson said that he witnessed the gang rape of a young girl. He never forgave himself for failing to help her.
Like the heroine in the books, the girls name was Lisbeth. Clearly, it was a memory he carried throughout his life.

The Plot – beginnings

In December 2002. Mikael Blomkvist, publisher of the Swedish political magazine Millennium, loses a libel case involving allegations about billionaire industrialist Hans-Erik Wennerström.

He is sentenced to three months in prison, and ordered to pay hefty damages and costs. Soon afterwards, he is invited to meet Henrik Vanger, the retired CEO of the Vanger Corporation, unaware that he had commissioned an investigation into Blomkvist’s personal and professional history. This investigation was carried out by Lisbeth Salander, a surveillance agent with Milton Security.

Blomkvist is promised considerable financial reward in exchange for writing the Vanger family history. Vanger believes that his great-niece, Harriet, was murdered by a member of the family 36 years earlier.

Blomkvist moves to the Vanger estate and begins his research into the history of the Vanger family and Harriet’s disappearance.

Meanwhile, Lisbeth Salander, who was ruled legally incompetent as a child, is under the care of Holger Palmgren, her legal guardian. When he has a stroke, her new guardian, Nils Bjurman takes her case. He is a sadist. He uses his position to sexually abuse her in return for access to her own money. After he rapes her, Salander takes her revenge, torturing him and threatening to ruin him unless he gives her full control of her life.

Blomkvist discovers Salander has hacked into his computer, and persuades her to assist him with researching Harriet’s disappearance. They begin to suspect that they are on the trail of a serial killer…and so on.

If this film is only a fraction as good as the Swedish version then it’s well worth the watch….

Climbing Kilamanjaro - a must for the adventurous!

Kilimanjaro is the world’s highest free standing, snow-covered equatorial mountain.

And today, it is the highest mountain that regular tourists can climb, although it remains a considerable feat!

The breathable oxygen at the top is less than half the amount than is common at sea level, and climbers cover at least eighty kilometres on nothing but their own two feet over the five days it takes to reach the top and return.

Climbing Kilimanjaro

Hans Meyer at the Summit

Mt. Kilimanjaro is found in Tanzania, East Africa. It has a height of 19,340 feet or 5,895 meters. The first people who have made it to the top are Hans Meyer, Yoanas Kinyala Lauwo and Ludwig Purtscheller on the 5^th of October, 1889.

The number of climbers has escalated to over a thousand a year during the last century and the increasing numbers each year have made it necessary for the National Park to insist that all climbs are pre-booked, and passes are no longer issued at the last minute at the park gate.

Aside from being the tallest mountain in Africa, the most interesting fact about this mountain is that it has three volcanic cones; the Kibo, Mawenzi,and Shira, wherein Uhuru peak is the highest summit on the Kibo’s crater. Even though two of these volcanic cones, Mawenzi and Shira are extinct and the last reported eruption from this mountain occurred 360,000 years ago, Kibo is still considered dormant. This means that any time, there is still a chance that this mountain could erupt.

Although it is possible to simply trek a route to the pinnacle of Kibo without relying on professional climbing equipment, it remains a hard and serious endeavour that requires a level of physical fitness, stamina and a realistic awareness of the potentially damaging effects of high altitudes.

Many tour operators request that clients consult a doctor before attempting to scale the mountain, and have a physical check-up for overall fitness.

Another Party makes it to the top of Kilimanjaro

Phases of the Climb; First Stage,Tropical Forest
With most of the old lowland forest now cultivated and settled, the first experience of the mountain environment begins with the dense vegetation of tropical montane forest between 1850m and around 2800m.

Cloud condensation mainly gathers around the forest, so this area is usually damp or drenched with rainfall, creating an intriguing mass of plant life and running rivers between endemic tree species. The area of heath just beyond the tree line also enjoys a relatively misty and damp environment as cloud clings around the density of trees. This is covered with heather and shrubs such as Erica Arborea and Stoebe Kilimandsharica, and a number of dramatic looking Proteas.

Open Moorland
From around 3,200m a wide expanse of moorland extends beyond the heath and the cloud line, so that here the skies are generally clear, making the sunshine intense during the days and the nights cool and clear.

The climbing incline remains gentle, but thinning oxygen provides less fuel to energise the muscles and can dramatically slow the pace of walking. Hardy endemic species of Giant Groundsels (Senecio) and Lobelia (Deckenii) towering up to 4m high thrive in this moorland zone and give the landscape a strangely primeval atmosphere.

Alpine Desert, Sparse Vegetation

Even higher, beyond 4,000m, this sensation intensifies as the landscape develops into a more bizarre alpine desert, with sandy loose earth and intense weather conditions and temperature fluctuations so dramatic that barely any plant species survive other than everlasting flowers, mosses and lichens. Only the odd lichen survives beyond 5000m, after Kibo Huts and beyond the Saddle, where the landscape is predominantly rock and ice fields. Here, climbers experience the final steep push to the summit.

Saddle to Summit

The easterly routes, Marangu, Mweka, Loitokitok and Rongai all converge west of the saddle near Gillmans Point, between the peaks of Mawenzi and Kibo. Kibos crater is roughly circular with an inner cone extending to 5,800m, (100m lower than the summit at Uhuru Peak).

At the centre an inner crater with walls between 12 and 20 m high contains another concentric minor cone, the centre of which falls away into the 360m span of the ash pit. This is the 120 metre deep central core of the volcano, and casts sulphurous boiling smoke from its depths despite the frozen, snowy outskirts.

Gibson Super 400 on Left

A rare wartime guitar – played by a member of an award-winning dance band and used to accompany the Glenn Miller Orchestra – hit the right notes with bidders at an antiques auction in the Cotswolds recently.

GIbson 400 and 1940's Amp - Detail

American manufacturer Gibson ceased imports of the Super 400 and other models to the UK at the outbreak of the second world war in 1939, making UK models rare then and now.

However, professional musician Maurice Goodearl – who played with Eric Wakefield and his Blue Rhythm Band and once accompanied members of the Glenn Miller Orchestra at Wycombe Abbey – managed to find one at Francis Day & Hunter in Charing Cross Road in 1941, for which he paid £90.

And when it went under the hammer at Moore Allen & Innocent’s Selected Antiques Sale in Cirencester, it was plucked for £5,000 – at the top of the £3,000 to £5,000 estimate and the joint top price of the day.

Spotlight over New York where the Towers once stood

Every year brings a new image.

Some are startling – some are disturbing.

A few, like the spotlights shining into the sky over New York remind us of the tragedies in our world and why we must never forget.

This selection is of the sadder images of 2011. The loss of Amy Winehouse and Steve Jobs, the death of an American Soldier with his dog.

We hope these images help you remember…and we promise to bring you some Happy and Funny  photos from 2011 before the year is over…

Finished Ferrari Table

Charly Molinelli is an interior designer based in France.

He recently spotted a crashed Ferrari in his local scrapyard and had an inspired idea – make a Coffee Table from it!

Here are the images he published of how he brought the project to life…

Steve McQueen Le Mans Suit

Profiles in History has announced a major addition to their “Icons of Hollywood” auction to take place on December 15, 16  and 17th 2011 at The Paley Center for Media in Beverly Hills.

Steve McQueen’s Gulf driving suit from the film, Le Mans, is to go under the hammer.

Poster of Le Mans film

The two-piece racing suit (jacket and pants) features a zipper and Velcro closure jacket with “Michael Delaney” stitched in blue thread above the right breast zipper pocket, iconic orange and blue Gulf racing stripes as well as Gulf patches on the breast and back.

When filming of Le Mans was completed, Solar Productions donated this suit to the British newspaper, The Observer for a special Le Mans-themed contest in 1971.

By answering 3 Le Mans history questions correctly 12 year old Timothy Davies of Wolverhampton, England was chosen as the winner and presented with the suit by racing driver Richard “Dickie” Attwood, winner of the 1970 Le Mans race and driver of the Porsche 917K Gulf car during driving sequences in the film.

Filmed on location in Le Mans, France, the film’s spellbinding cinematography provides a thrilling glimpse of the sights and sounds of Porsche 917s and Ferrari 512s, locked in fierce competition for outright victory.

It featured footage from the actual 1970 24 Hours of Le Mans race and remains popular with racing enthusiasts today as it accurately depicted the era with lots of racing and minimal dialogue.

The film featured numerous top-level racing drivers of the day for the driving sequences including Derek Bell, Vic Elford, Jacky Ickx, Brian Redman, Jo Siffert and many others.

The suit is in excellent condition and without question, one of the pinnacles of motorsport memorabilia and the Holy Grail of racing film costumes.

The suit has a presale estimate of $200,000-$300,000. Image of Steve McQueen in Le Mans (©) Solar Productions 1971.

The Design Museum has recently added an M1 Motorway sign to its collection along with an AK-47 Rifle and Sony Walkman.

Margaret Calvert Designer

The road signs, commissioned by the government for Britain’s new network of motorways and major roads, were tested in 1958 in an underground car park and in Hyde Park, where they were propped against trees to determine the most effective background colours and reading distances.

‘Style never came into it,’ says Margaret Calvert of the typeface she used.

Calvert redesigned many of the picture signs to reflect her personal experiences. She replaced the image of a boy in a school cap leading a little girl on the school children crossing sign, with one of a girl, modelled on a photograph of herself as a child, leading a younger boy. Calvert described the old sign as being ‘archaic’, almost like an illustration from Enid Blyton.

The Design Museum’s acquisition of the 1979 Sony Walkman, a product that sold at a rate of 50 million in ten years, marks its journey into obsolescence. Nevertheless, the term ‘walkman’ is preserved in the language, listed in the Oxford English Dictionary as a description for any cassette player.

The Kalashnikov AK-47 Rifle was one of the first assault rifles to be manufactured. Developed in the mid 1940s by the Soviet Union for ease of use in arctic conditions, it’s cheap production and durability have made it one of the most widely used weapons in the world.

The Design Museum is developing its Collection ahead of its relocation to new premises at the former Commonwealth Institute, Kensington in 2014.

Rifle, Kalashnikov AK-47
Mikhail Kalashnikov
Unknown Manufacturer, 1945-1946 China
One of the most iconic and widely disseminated piece of weaponry used today, the AK-47 was one of the first true assault rifles to be manufactured. Developed in the mid-1940s by the Soviet Union for ease of use in Arctic conditions.

Type Writer
Valentine
Ettore Sottsass,1969. Olivetti, Italy
Olivetti’s Valentine typewriter made a piece of office equipment fashionable. It’s bright red case and portability made it the desirable product of its day.

Sony Portable Cassette Player
TPS L2 Walkman, 1979. Nobutoshi Kihara
Sony, Japan
Sony revolutionised the way in which music could be enjoyed with the introduction of the first portable music player, the Walkman. With this portable unit, music was able to accompany a person anywhere they went. Gone were the restrictions of a stationary player. The Walkman became part of culture and even part of fashion.

A 1:30 second short video.

Times Like This by Sertac Yuksel:

Shot over a couple of days on the streets of Istanbul. I took my camera, strolled through the streets alone and had a great time with the help of summer and a real life outside.

Sertac adds:

I make my films with low budget conditions. I believe that the “idea” itself is the most valuable factor for a good film. I’m using video DSLR to shoot my films and trying to add some gears to eliminate its drawbacks and have more film-like shots. Living and experiencing things outside of the world of film feeds me to create.

Usman Riaz

Usman Riaz is a 20 years old Pakistani musician from a creative and musically-literate family.

Here he plays a piece called Firefly that you have to listen to for a few minutes to appreciate just how good he is.

Grand-Nephew of Zia Mohyeddin, Usman’s great grandfather was an eastern music scholar.

Usman began playing music at the age of 6 when his grandmother recognized his musical potential while he was playing her harmonium. An enthusiastic and talented musician herself, she, along with Usmans parents convinced him to take up the piano.

It was here that his love for classical music developed, Usmans teacher was a well learned and experienced classical pianist himself who nurtured Usmans musical enthusiasm and greatly influenced his musical taste.

Everything in this video is lifesize but made to look small through a technique known as ‘Tilt Shift Photography’.

Keith Loutit photographer

This particular video piece is by Australian, Keith Loutit and is known as Bathtub IV.

It was selected by the YouTube Play Jury to be exhibited at the Guggenheim museums in New York, Bilbao, Berlin & Venice.

Keith Loutit first attracted media attention following the release of his ‘Bathtub’ series of short films a few year ago.

In this series, he transformed familiar Sydney scenes into miniature wonderlands. Known as the pioneer of the tilt-shift / time-lapse technique, Loutit was the first to recognize how time and focus combine to support the powerful illusion of miniaturization in film.

In his scaled down and sped up realities, real world subjects look miniature. Boats bob like toys in a bathtub, cars race like slot-cars, and crowds march as toy armies. Loutit’s aim is create a sense of wonder in our surroundings by “challenging people’s perceptions of scale, and helping the viewer to distance themselves from places they know well”.