View allAll Photos Tagged Timewatch
As so often happens, winter seas have scoured the beach to expose layers not usually visible later in the year. The specimen is not as good as those further along the coast but it was still nice to find this large but worn ammonite. I've written before that I am no expert but if I've understood the literature correctly, this is c155 million years old.
We needed a short walk after a long journey, so went through a field to the bottom of a rather spectacular waterfall. No-one else was around. There was a hut about the size of a medium garden shed which I thought might be the farm's sauna. However, underneath I could see a shaft (photo below) and was immediately intrigued. The hut door was unlocked and this is what could be seen inside. Someone, presumably the farmer, was renovating an old mill grinding wheel with new wooden hopper, chute and surrounds.
Using water power, the shaft underneath the building would turn the grinding wheel. Awaiting renovation was a wooden leat allowing water to flow from the stream below the waterfall (see photo below)
Totally unexpected. Totally fascinating.
Saturday Timewatch this week features a triptych of photos from my school assignment exercise book circa 1960, see also here flic.kr/p/2pDdBKG
Given that they must have been taken between 1955 (reopening of a small section of the railway) and 1960ish (date of school work) they will have been taken, developed and printed by my dad. The left panel can be seen to feature Prince. The right panel shows a service running out of Porthmadog along The Cob. Can anyone figure out the central panel???
Paddle steamer Waverley underway after leaving Swanage. You can just make out the Needles on the Isle of Wight to the right of the photo. You can read all there is to know about the vessel here en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PS_Waverley
The locomotive was built in Sweden. It operates on the Dutch heritage line Zuid Limburgse Stoomtrein Maatschappij (ZLSM). David, one of the volunteer crew, is from across the border in Germany. Also on the footplate, Kim from Texas and myself from England. That is how enthusiasms work in this world!
This steam locomotive was built in 1910 by Nydgvist & Holm in Trollhättan, Sweden. A plaque showing the original number 1040 and the first owners, Statens Järnvägar (Swedish State Railways), still exists on the cab side. 130 of this class were ordered between 1908 - 1920. In 1937 a number of these E-types were modified by adding an extra axle because of uncomfortable running at higher speeds. Due to the change in the weight balance the boiler was shifted 25 cm forewards and counterweights were placed in front of the smokebox to get sufficient load on the new axle. So the new 2-8-0 type of was named E2. Another benefit was that the maximum speed could be increased to 70 km/h.
This particular engine was modified in 1946 and also equipped with a new welded boiler in 1959. The E2-types finished service with SJ until 1972, after which they went into strategic military reserve.
E2 1040 was bought in 1998 by ZLSM and transported by rail from Sweden, through Germany, to Simpelveld.
Blagging our way onto the footplate, one of the things that stood out was how relatively simple the controls were compared to our recent climb-aboard Britain's Union of South Africa, a locomotive built 27 years later. We were most impressed with the wooden cab floor boards!
Given this bustling scene in this fascinating photo, you wouldn't know this was the dustbowl decade. This week's Saturday Timewatch features the downtown area of the small town of Rusk, TX, on June 12th 1934 when the population was around 4000, about 1000 less than the current population.
Established by an act of the Texas Legislature on April 11, 1846, Rusk was named after Thomas Jefferson Rusk. 10 years earlier he had signed the Texas Declaration of Independence.........from Mexico.
Other claims to fame?? Not too many but according to Wiki it does have the longest footbridge in the nation. I thought you'd like to know that.
PS : Can any of the vehicle aficionados identify the cars?
A second look at Swanage Railway's Strictly Bullied 11 event. This photo concentrates on the Peninsular & Oriental's nameplate. The locomotive rubbles by having emerged from a mighty cloud of steam created when pulling out of Swanage Station.
The photo below shows City of Wells waiting just off the turntable for her turn. Peninsular and Oriental is completely hidden in the steam cloud, moments before the main photo above was snatched!
This week's Saturday Timewatch photo is one in the long-running but very occasional series of puzzle photographs.
So what do you think this is?
In this instance, I do know the answer, or at least the answer that is given in several different places on the internet. For now, I have deliberately omitted the geotag as it would give quite a big clue. I'll leave this open until Monday to give everyone a chance.......unless of course someone scores a bullseye in the meantime!
Over to you.
Apologies in advance for a lengthy attempted description and interpretation. I am most happy for our Dutch contacts to clarify and correct any points!
It was most fascinating to see this route map of the 1933 Elf-Steden-Tocht, a skating tour, almost 200 kilometres (120 mi) long, which is both as a speed skating competition and a leisure tour. Depending on the severity of winter ice conditions, it is irregularly held in the province of Friesland in the north of the Netherlands, leading past all eleven historical cities of the province. It was last held in 1997, though there was a "near miss" and late cancellation in 2012. The 1933 route is shown by bold black lines. You can read about the event in detail courtesy of WikiWhoKnowsAlmostEverything en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elfstedentocht
However there is lots more of interest on the plan. The railways (spoorwegen) are shown in bold dotted red lines. All those to the south of Leeuwarden still exist. I am not sure of the translation for "Tramwegen", somewhat difficult to see in a faded brown colour. There were at least some classic 'trams' as I saw a photo of one. However I do not know the date until which they ran. I would venture that buses have replaced the tramways for at least the last half century and in some cases, much longer.
Google Translate tells me "Stroomsluizen" means "power locks". One is marked at Harlingen and to this day there are indeed canal type locks leading from that harbour area inland. The lighter black lines are "other channels", many of which probably still exist as modern day waterways mostly for pleasure craft in this part of the world. Some may be drainage channels.
Anyways, back to the skating. Just imagine the excitement and huge crowds there will be for the next Elfstedentocht whenever that will be!!
We stumbled across this establishment by chance and the name immediately suggested something of an oddity.
The name derives from the still pervasive influence of a local landed Victorian gentry, Lieutenant General Pitt-Rivers. He already had a museum for his collections under his name in Oxford. Still overflowing with 'treasures' in 1880 he established a second local museum just half a mile from the site of the current Museum Inn. That lasted until the 1970s.
It seems that whatever Farnham's local pub was previously known as, it became the Museum Inn to cater for visitors to the nearby museum. Nowadays it seems to be a relatively upmarket place. In the middle of deepest Dorset, it even has eleven bedrooms which possibly largely cater for visitors playing golf on a rather exclusive course at the nearby Rushmore Estate. Yes, the very estate of Pitt-Rivers!
We didn't go in. Subsequent research revealed varied online reviews so perhaps we were wise to stick with our flask and sarnies!
There could only be one subject for this week's Saturday Timewatch that goes back exactly 50 years to the landing of Apollo 11 on the Moon. Yes, like millions of others, I was watching a tiny television in the middle of the night.
Talk about the culmination of childhood comic heroes! The Eagle comic (titled purely by coincidence with the same word used by Neil Armstrong) featured Dan Dare, space adventurer. I was hooked!!
The photo above was taken in 2010 at NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston.
Title music from Brian Cox's BBC extravaganza "The Planets"
BITHBOX # 117
This week's Saturday Flashback shows the remnants of independent mom and pop road motels that were so prevalent across the USA before chains such as La Quinta, Holiday Inn Express and Days Inn became the norm.
BITH'S JUKEBOX #216
ROGER MILLER "KING OF THE ROAD"
Drop a coin in the slot
(I'm no longer in Japan but will continue to post Japanese photos for a while yet)
This week's Saturday Flashback recalls the 1869 Great Fire of Akibahara, from where this small temple was relocated to make way for a subway line. I can't find much information on this fire-crossing event. In fact, without enlisting the help of a trusty local youth and his iPhone, this Tokyo shrine would never have been found as it is hidden away off the normal geijin / foreigner path and there were indeed hardly any geijin amongst the small local crowd.. However, I do know the ceremony is held once a year and is basically to commemorate the Great Fire and presumably give wishes for good health and safety from any such future event. Monks start by spending quite a lot of time chanting prayers and building the fire. Once hot, a path is cleared betwen two rows of blazing charcoal. The monks are first to "fire-cross" followed by assorted local dignitaries such as shown here, followed by local residents, followed by - yes, you guessed it! At that point I made my excuses with a very deep bow and rapidly left. Call me a wimp!
(PS : Akibahara is now Akihabara, Electronics Town, after an administrative spelling mistake changed its name many decades ago. Meanwhile, locals still refer to it as Akiba!)
No. This is Kimmeridge, Dorset. It is the oldest continually working 'nodding donkey' oil well in the UK, been nodding away since first drilliing in 1959. The yield has reduced considerably over the years and is now down to around 60 barrels a day, sufficient for a couple of tanker loads each week.
There has actually been industrial activity around Kimmeridge for centuries. For example WikiWhoKnowsAlmostEverything states "In the mid 19th century the shale was used a source of oil, and in 1847 an Act of Parliament enabled causeways, inclined planes and tramways to be built so the shale could be transported to Weymouth for processing into various petroleum-based products, including varnish, pitch, naptha and dyes. Gas was also extracted from the shale, though like the oil it burned with a strong sulphurous smell, which limited its suitability as a domestic fuel and prevented fulfilment of a contract to supply gas to Paris for lighting"
This week's Saturday Timewatch is a tv screen grab from a programme about London's West End. It features adverts in Piccadilly Circus, date unknown. So does anyone remember Bile Beans? I don't, although I do remember mum used to occasionally say she felt 'bilious'. I was never entirely sure what that meant.
Open just four nights a week, Holman Valley Steakhouse is situated at the lonely t-junction of Farm Roads 155 and 1965, some 12 miles south of La Grange. It is pretty much in the middle of nowhere. Locally owned and staffed, they offer classic country cooking straight out of the last century, all at a sensible price. It is genuine homemade food. Nothing fancy. Steaks, burgers, chicken fried steak or fried catfish with traditional sides such as corn or black-eyed peas. Buttermilk Pie for dessert.
These must be two of the most iconic passenger aircraft from the latter part of the 20th century. In the background is a British Airways Concorde, G-BOAB, last airborne in August 2000. The Boeing 747 "Jumbo" is G-CIVT, 19 years old but still flying. BA's 747 fleet is being retired, so that will probably not be for much longer.
I never flew on Concorde, though I saw her on the gorund and in the air many times. Meanwhile the jumbos have been my favourite plane as a passenger for many a year. Reliable and by today's standards, quite spacious inside especially in the area of the aft galley. I have spent many an hour in that area, chatting away to people without being in the way of the crew going about their business.
I will never forget my first (unexpected) 747 flight after things went snafu and I got diverted, ending up on a New York - London, JFK - LHR red-eye. With its low-angle of climb out, the aircraft seemed to take forever to actually get off the runway. Junior Walker's "Walk In The Night" was playing over the sound system!
BITHBOX # 074
Sunday Seascape meets Saturday Timewatch with this photo from exactly 4 years ago today, March 31, 2020.
The date was just about one week into the UK's official C-19 lockdown. During our daily permitted exercise walk, we were incredulous to see a cruise ship, P&O's Britannia, anchored in Weymouth Bay. Cruise ships were and continue to be regular visitors to Portland Harbour but they always moored alongside one of the harbour piers, never out in the bay.
Little did we know that over the coming days, weeks and months the cruise ships would become a regular feature of the offshore scenery, peaking at 10 ships.
This week's Saturday Flashback looks back to the mid-19th century and settlers moving ever westwards across America.
This representation of a wagon train is carved in wood and is part of an interpretation board about the Barlow Road. This was the first road built over the Cascade Range of mountains by Samuel Barlow in the mid 1840's. He is described as "an Oregon pioneer from Kentucky".
One of three Saturday Timewatch photos this week featuring rail transportation used in Mexico during a visit ten years ago. You can see the other two here :
This photo shows the transfer point from Mexico City's Tasquena metro to one of the city's light rail routes, the Xochimilco line. This route is a great way to pass by the famous World Cup 1970 Estadio Azteca (Aztec Stadium) on the way to the equally well known chinampas (floating gardens) in southern part of Mexico City.
"Sir. Passengers by the Furness and Whitehaven lines who have the misfortune to be detained at Foxfield (a by no means unusual occurrence) in rainy weather with a little wind, and it is rarely calm there, are speedily convinced that if it was the intention of the management to contrive a station including the greatest amount of discomfort to passengers in general, and ladies in particular, it has succeeded to a miracle. Then there is a good roof, ditto wall, but let the wind blow from what part of the compass it chooses, it brings the rain in with it more than half way across the platform, damping at once the clothes and spirits of those exposed to it by anything other than homeopathic doses.
Yours & c, J.B. Thursday 18th May 1865.
Pat Rooney and Michael Palin in a book shop on 42nd Street in New York on the 6th June 2005. Normally I would not allow the big stars in entertainment to have their photo taken with me. As Michael is a nice guy and we had a few things in common, like travel, I relented and was delighted and it made his day.
Seriously, he is a gentleman and a lovely guy and it was just a bit of luck that I met him as he had finished signing his latest book. I came into the book shop almost by accident. We had a chat he told me he was off in a few weeks to stay in Lismore Castle in Waterford.
Michael Edward Palin, CBE, FRGS ( born 5 May 1943) is an English comedian, actor, writer and television presenter best known for being one of the members of the comedy group Monty Python and for his travel documentaries. Palin wrote most of his comedic material with Terry Jones. Before Monty Python, they had worked on other shows such as the Ken Dodd Show, The Frost Report and Do Not Adjust Your Set. Palin appeared in some of the most famous Python sketches, including "Argument Clinic", "Dead Parrot", "The Lumberjack Song", "The Spanish Inquisition", and "The Fish-Slapping Dance".
Palin continued to work with Jones after Python, co-writing Ripping Yarns. He has also appeared in several films directed by fellow Python Terry Gilliam and made notable appearances in other films such as A Fish Called Wanda, for which he won the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role.[1] In a 2005 poll to find The Comedians' Comedian, he was voted the 30th favourite by fellow comedians and comedy insiders.[2]
After Python, he began a new career as a travel writer and travel documentarian. His journeys have taken him across the world, including the North and South Poles, the Sahara Desert, the Himalayas, Eastern Europe and, most recently, Brazil. In 2000 Palin was honoured as a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for his services to television.[3] From 2009 to 2012 Palin was the president of the Royal Geographical Society.[4] On 12 May 2013, Palin was made a BAFTA fellow, the highest honour that is conferred by the organisation.[5]
Early life and career[edit]
Palin was born in Broomhill, Sheffield, West Riding of Yorkshire, the second child and only son of Mary Rachel Lockhart (née Ovey) and Edward Moreton Palin.[6][7] His father was a Shrewsbury School and Cambridge-educated engineer working for a steel firm.[8] His maternal grandfather, Lieutenant-Colonel Richard Lockhart Ovey, DSO, was High Sheriff of Oxfordshire in 1927.[9] He started his education at Birkdale Preparatory School, Sheffield, and later Shrewsbury School. His sister Angela was nine years older than he was. Despite the age gap the two had a close relationship until her suicide in 1987.[8][10] He has ancestral roots in Letterkenny, County Donegal.[11]
When he was five years old, Palin had his first acting experience at Birkdale playing Martha Cratchit in a school performance of A Christmas Carol. At the age of 10, Palin, still interested in acting, made a comedy monologue and read a Shakespeare play to his mother while playing all the parts.[12] After his school days in 1962 he went on to read modern history at Brasenose College, Oxford. With fellow student Robert Hewison he performed and wrote, for the first time, comedy material at a university Christmas party.[13] Terry Jones, also a student in Oxford, saw that performance and began writing together with Hewison and Palin.[12] In the same year Palin joined the Brightside and Carbrook Co-Operative Society Players and first gained fame when he won an acting award at a Co-Op drama festival.[14] He also performed and wrote in the Oxford Revue (called the Et ceteras) with Jones.[15]
In 1966 he married Helen Gibbins, whom he first met in 1959 on holiday in Southwold in Suffolk.[8] This meeting was later fictionalised in Palin's play East of Ipswich.[16] The couple have three children and a grandchild. His youngest child, Rachel (b. 1975) is a BBC TV director, whose work includes MasterChef: The Professionals, shown on BBC2 throughout October and November 2010.[17][18] While still a baby, his son William briefly appeared in Monty Python and the Holy Grail as "Sir Not-appearing-in-this-film". His nephew is the theatre designer Jeremy Herbert.[citation needed]
After finishing university in 1965 Palin became a presenter on a comedy pop show called Now! for the television contractor Television Wales and the West.[19] At the same time Palin was contacted by Jones, who had left university a year earlier, for assistance in writing a theatrical documentary about sex through the ages.[20] Although this project was eventually abandoned, it brought Palin and Jones together as a writing duo and led them to write comedy for various BBC programmes, such as The Ken Dodd Show, The Billy Cotton Bandshow, and The Illustrated Weekly Hudd.[21] They collaborated in writing lyrics for an album by Barry Booth called Diversions. They were also in the team of writers working for The Frost Report, whose other members included Frank Muir, Barry Cryer, Marty Feldman, Ronnie Barker, Ronnie Corbett, Dick Vosburgh and future Monty Python members Graham Chapman, John Cleese and Eric Idle. Although the members of Monty Python had already encountered each other over the years, The Frost Report was the first time all the British members of Monty Python (its sixth member, Terry Gilliam, was at that time an American citizen) worked together.[8] During the run of The Frost Report the Palin/Jones team contributed material to two shows starring John Bird: The Late Show and A series of Bird's. For A series of Bird's the Palin/Jones team had their first experience of writing narrative instead of the short sketches they were accustomed to conceiving.[22]
Following The Frost Report the Palin/Jones team worked both as actors and writers on the show Twice a Fortnight with Graeme Garden, Bill Oddie and Jonathan Lynn, and the successful children's comedy show Do Not Adjust Your Set with Idle and David Jason. The show also featured musical numbers by the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, including future Monty Python musical collaborator Neil Innes. The animations for Do Not Adjust Your Set were made by Terry Gilliam. Eager to work with Palin[23] sans Jones, Cleese later asked him to perform in How to Irritate People together with Chapman and Tim Brooke-Taylor. The Palin/Jones team were reunited for The Complete and Utter History of Britain.
During this period Cleese contacted Palin about doing the show that would ultimately become Monty Python's Flying Circus.[8] On the strength of their work on The Frost Report and other programmes, Cleese and Chapman had been offered a show by the BBC, but Cleese was reluctant to do a two-man show for various reasons, among them Chapman's reputedly difficult personality. At the same time the success of Do Not Adjust Your Set had led Palin, Jones, Idle and Gilliam to be offered their own series and, while it was still in production, Palin agreed to Cleese's proposal and brought along Idle, Jones and Gilliam. Thus the formation of the Monty Python troupe has been referred to as a result of Cleese's desire to work with Palin and the chance circumstances that brought the other four members into the fold.[24]
Monty Python[edit]
Main article: Monty Python
In Monty Python, Palin played various roles, which ranged from manic enthusiasm (such as the lumberjack of the Lumberjack Song, or Herbert Anchovy, host of the game show "Blackmail") to unflappable calmness (such as the Dead Parrot vendor, Cheese Shop proprietor, or Postal Clerk). As a straight man he was often a foil to the rising ire of characters portrayed by John Cleese. He also played timid, socially inept characters such as Arthur Putey, the man who sits idly by as a marriage counsellor (Eric Idle) makes love to his wife (Carol Cleveland), and Mr. Anchovy, a chartered accountant who wants to become a lion tamer. He also appeared as the "It's" man at the beginning of most episodes.
Palin frequently co-wrote sketches with Terry Jones and also initiated the "Spanish Inquisition sketch", which included the catchphrase "Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!" He also composed songs with Jones including "The Lumberjack Song", "Every Sperm is Sacred" and "Spam". His solo musical compositions included "Decomposing Composers" and "Finland".[25]
Other work[edit]
After the Monty Python television series ended in 1974, the Palin/Jones team worked on Ripping Yarns, an intermittent television comedy series broadcast over three years from 1976. They had earlier collaborated on the play Secrets from the BBC series Black and Blue in 1973. He starred as Dennis the Peasant in Terry Gilliam's 1977 film Jabberwocky. Palin also appeared in All You Need Is Cash (1978) as Eric Manchester (based on Derek Taylor), the press agent for the Rutles.
In 1980, Palin co-wrote Time Bandits with Terry Gilliam. He also acted in the film.
In 1982, Palin wrote and starred in The Missionary, co-starring Maggie Smith. In it, he plays the Reverend Charles Fortescue, who is recalled from Africa to aid prostitutes.
In 1984, he reunited with Terry Gilliam to appear in Brazil. He appeared in the comedy film A Fish Called Wanda, for which he won the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role.[1] Cleese reunited the main cast almost a decade later to make Fierce Creatures.
After filming for Fierce Creatures finished, Palin went on a travel journey for a BBC documentary and, returning a year later, found that the end of Fierce Creatures had failed at test screenings and had to be reshot.
Apart from Fierce Creatures, Palin's last film role was a small part in The Wind in the Willows, a film directed by and starring Terry Jones. Palin also appeared with John Cleese in his documentary, The Human Face. Palin was in the cast of You've Got Mail, the Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan romantic comedy as a subplot novelist, but his role was eventually cut entirely.[26]
He also assisted Campaign for Better Transport and others with campaigns on sustainable transport, particularly those relating to urban areas, and has been president of the campaign since 1986.[27]
Palin has also appeared in serious drama. In 1991 Palin worked as producer and actor in the film American Friends based upon a real event in the life of his great grandfather, a fellow at St John's College, Oxford.[28] In that same year he also played the part of a headmaster in Alan Bleasdale's Channel 4 drama series G.B.H..
Palin also had a small cameo role in Australian soap opera Home and Away. He played an English surfer with a fear of sharks, who interrupts a conversation between two main characters to ask whether there were any sharks in the sea. This was filmed while he was in Australia for the Full Circle series, with a segment about the filming of the role featuring in the series.
In November 2005, he appeared in the John Peel's Record Box documentary.[29]
Michael Palin, Nightingale House, November 2010
In 2013 Michael Palin appeared in a new First World War drama titled The Wiper Times written by Ian Hislop and Nick Newman.[30
Television documentaries[edit]
Travel[edit]
Palin's first travel documentary was part of the 1980 BBC Television series Great Railway Journeys of the World, in which, humorously reminiscing about his childhood hobby of train spotting, he travelled throughout the UK by train, from London to the Kyle of Lochalsh, via Manchester, York, Newcastle upon Tyne, Edinburgh and Inverness. At the Kyle of Lochalsh, Palin bought the station's long metal platform sign and is seen lugging it back to London with him.
In 1994, Palin travelled through Ireland for the same series, entitled "Derry to Kerry". In a quest for family roots, he attempted to trace his great grandmother – Brita Gallagher – who set sail from Ireland 150 years ago during the Great Famine (1845–1849), bound for a new life in Burlington, New Jersey. The series is a trip along the Palin family line.
Starting in 1989, Palin appeared as presenter in a series of travel programmes made for the BBC. It was after the veteran TV globetrotter Alan Whicker and journalist Miles Kington turned down presenting the first of these, Around the World in 80 Days, that gave Palin the opportunity to present his first and subsequent travel shows.[31] These programmes have been broadcast around the world in syndication, and were also sold on VHS tape and later on DVD:
Michael Palin: Around the World in 80 Days (Travel 1988; Programme release 1989): travelling as closely as possible the path described in the famous Jules Verne story without using aircraft.
Pole to Pole (Travel 1991; Programme release 1992): travelling from the North Pole to the South Pole, following as closely as possible the 30 degree line of longitude, over as much land as possible, i.e., through Europe and Africa.
Full Circle with Michael Palin (Travel 1996/97; Programme release 1997): in which he circumnavigated the lands around the Pacific Ocean anti-clockwise; a journey of almost 50,000 miles (80,000 km) starting on Little Diomede Island in the Bering Strait and taking him through Asia, Oceania and the Americas.
Michael Palin's Hemingway Adventure (1999): retracing the footsteps of Ernest Hemingway through the United States, Europe, Africa and the Caribbean.
Sahara with Michael Palin (Travel 2001/02; Programme release 2002): in which he trekked around and through the world's largest desert.
Himalaya with Michael Palin (Travel 2003/04; Programme release 2004): in which he travels through the Himalaya region.
Michael Palin's New Europe (Travel 2006/07; Programme release 2007): in which he travels through Central and Eastern Europe.
Brazil with Michael Palin (2012) in which he travels through Brazil.
Following each trip, Palin wrote a book about his travels, providing information and insights not included in the TV programme. Each book is illustrated with photographs by Basil Pao, the stills photographer who was on the team. (Exception: the first book, Around the World in 80 Days, contains some pictures by Pao but most are by other photographers.)
All seven of these books were also made available as audio books, and all of them are read by Palin himself. Around the World in 80 Days and Hemingway Adventure are unabridged, while the other four books were made in both abridged and unabridged versions, although the unabridged versions can be very difficult to find.[citation needed]
For four of the trips a photography book was made by Pao, each with an introduction written by Palin. These are large coffee-table style books with pictures printed on glossy paper. The majority of the pictures are of various people encountered on the trip, as informal portraits or showing them engaged in some interesting activity. Some of the landscape photos are displayed as two-page spreads.
Palin's travel programmes are responsible for a phenomenon termed the "Palin effect": areas of the world that he has visited suddenly become popular tourist attractions – for example, the significant increase in the number of tourists interested in Peru after Palin visited Machu Picchu.[32] In a 2006 survey of "15 of the world's top travel writers" by The Observer, Palin named Peru's Pongo de Mainique (canyon below the Machu Picchu) his "favourite place in the world".[33]
Palin notes in his book of Around the World in 80 Days that the final leg of his journey would originally have taken him and his crew on one of the trains involved in the Clapham Junction rail crash, but they arrived ahead of schedule and caught an earlier train.
Art and history[edit]
In recent years, Palin has written and presented occasional documentary programmes on artists that interest him. The first, on Scottish painter Anne Redpath, was Palin on Redpath in 1997. In The Bright Side of Life (2000), Palin continued on a Scottish theme, looking at the work of the Scottish Colourists. Two further programmes followed on European painters; Michael Palin and the Ladies Who Loved Matisse (2004) and Michael Palin and the Mystery of Hammershøi (2005), about the French artist Henri Matisse and Danish artist Vilhelm Hammershøi respectively. The DVD Michael Palin on Art contains all these documentaries except for the Matisse programme.
In November 2008, Palin presented a First World War documentary about Armistice Day, 11 November 1918, when thousands of soldiers lost their lives in battle after the war had officially ended. Palin filmed on the battlefields of Northern France and Belgium for the programme, called the Last Day of World War One, produced for the BBC's Timewatch series.[34]
Activism[edit]
In July 2010, Palin sent a message of support for the Dongria Kondh tribe of India, who are resisting a mine on their land by the company Vedanta Resources. Palin said, "I’ve been to the Nyamgiri Hills in Orissa and seen the forces of money and power that Vedanta Resources have arrayed against a people who have occupied their land for thousands of years, who husband the forest sustainably and make no great demands on the state or the government. The tribe I visited simply want to carry on living in the villages that they and their ancestors have always lived in".[35]
On 2 January 2011, Palin became the first person to sign the UK-based Campaign for Better Transport's Fair Fares Now campaign.
Recognition[edit]
Class 153, no. 153335 'Michael Palin' at Cambridge.
Each member of Monty Python has an asteroid named after him. Palin's is Asteroid 9621 Michaelpalin.[36]
In honour of his achievements as a traveller, especially rail travel, Palin has two British trains named after him. In 2002, Virgin Trains' new £5 million high speed Super Voyager train number 221130 was named "Michael Palin" – it carries his name externally and a plaque is located adjacent to the onboard shop with information on Palin and his many journeys.[37] Also, National Express East Anglia named a British Rail Class 153 (unit number 153335) after him. In 2008, he received the James Joyce Award of the Literary and Historical Society in Dublin.
Palin was instrumental in setting up the Michael Palin Centre for Stammering Children in 1993.[38]
In recognition of his services to the promotion of geography, Palin was awarded the Livingstone Medal of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society in March 2009, along with a Fellowship to the Society.[39] In June 2013, he was similarly honoured in Canada with a gold medal for achievements in geography by the Royal Canadian Geographical Society.[40]
In June 2009, Palin was elected for a three-year term as President of the Royal Geographical Society.[41]
Because of his self-described "amenable, conciliatory character" Michael Palin has been referred to as unofficially "Britain's Nicest Man."[42
Bibliography[edit]
Travel books[edit]
Around the World in 80 Days (1989) ISBN 0-563-20826-0
Pole to Pole (1992) ISBN 0-563-37065-3
Full Circle (1997) ISBN 0-563-37121-8
Michael Palin's Hemingway Adventure (1999) ISBN 0-297-82528-3
Sahara (2002) ISBN 0-297-84303-6
Himalaya (2004) ISBN 0-297-84371-0
New Europe (2007) ISBN 0-297-84449-0
Brazil (2012) ISBN 0-297-86626-5
All his travel books can be read at no charge, complete and unabridged, on his website.
Autobiography (contributor)[edit]
The Pythons Autobiography by The Pythons (2003) ISBN 0-7528-5293-0
Diaries[edit]
Diaries 1969–1979: The Python Years. 2006. ISBN 0-297-84436-9
Diaries 1980–1988: Halfway to Hollywood – The Film Years. London, Weidenfeld & Nicolson. 2009. ISBN 978-0-297-84440-2
Fiction[edit]
Hemingway's chair (1995) ISBN 0-7493-1930-5
Bert Fegg's Nasty Book for Boys and Girls w/Terry Jones, illus Martin Honeysett, Frank Bellamy et al. (1974) ISBN 0-413-32740-X
Dr Fegg's Encyclopaedia of all world knowledge (1984) (expanded reprint of the above, with Terry Jones and Martin Honeysett) ISBN 0-87226-005-4
The Truth (2012) ISBN 978-0297860211
Children's books[edit]
Small Harry and the Toothache Pills (1982) ISBN 0-416-23690-1
Limerics or The Limerick Book (1985) ISBN 0-09-161540-2
Cyril and the House of Commons (1986) ISBN 1-85145-078-5
Cyril and the Dinner Party (1986) ISBN 1-85145-069-6
The Mirrorstone with Alan Lee and Richard Seymour (1986) ISBN 0-224-02408-6
Plays[edit]
The Weekend (1994) ISBN 0-413-68940-9
Television[edit]
Now! (October 1965 – middle 1966)
The Ken Dodd Show
Billy Cotton Bandshow
The Illustrated Weekly Hudd
The Frost Report. (10 March 1966 – 29 June 1967)
The Late Show (15 October 1966 – 1 April 1967)
A Series of Bird's (1967) (3 October 1967 – 21 November 1967 screenwriter (guest stars)
Twice a Fortnight (21 October 1967 – 23 December 1967)
Do Not Adjust Your Set (26 December 1967 – 14 May 1969)
Broaden Your Mind (1968)
How to Irritate People (1968)
Marty (TV series) (1968)
The Complete and Utter History of Britain (1969)
Monty Python's Flying Circus (5 October 1969 – 5 December 1974)
Saturday Night Live (Hosted 8 April 1978 with Musical Guest Eugene Record, and 27 January 1979 with The Doobie Brothers)
Ripping Yarns (1976–1979)
Great Railway Journeys of the World, episode title "Confessions of a Trainspotter" (1980)
East of Ipswich (1987) writer
Michael Palin: Around the World in 80 Days (1989)
GBH (1991)
Pole to Pole (1992)
Great Railway Journeys, episode title "Derry to Kerry" (1994)
The Wind in the Willows (1995)
The Willows in Winter (1996)
Full Circle with Michael Palin (1997)
Palin On Redpath (1997)
Michael Palin's Hemingway Adventure (1999)
Michael Palin On... The Colourists (2000)
Sahara with Michael Palin (2002)
Life on Air (2002)
Himalaya with Michael Palin (2004)
Michael Palin's New Europe (2007)
Around the World in 20 Years (30 December 2008)
Brazil with Michael Palin (2012)
Awards[edit]
BAFTA Awards[edit]
1984 Nominated – BAFTA Award for "Best Original Song" (the award was discontinued after the 1985 ceremonies) for Every Sperm is Sacred from The Meaning of Life (shared with André Jacquemin, Dave Howman and Terry Jones)
1989 Won – BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for A Fish Called Wanda (as Ken Pile)[43]
1992 Nominated – British Academy Television Award for Best Actor for G.B.H.
2005 Won – BAFTA Special Award
2009 Won – BAFTA Special Award as part of the Monty Python team for outstanding contribution to film and television[44]
2013 Won – BAFTA Academy Fellowship Award[45][46
References[edit]
^ Jump up to: a b "Film Nominations 1988". BAFTA. Retrieved 11 January 2008.
Jump up ^ Michael Palin Biography Yahoo.com. Retrieved 7 May 2012
Jump up ^ "Trio of Dames lead showbiz honours". BBC News. 31 December 1999. Retrieved 15 August 2006.
Jump up ^ People & Staff Royal Geographical Society. Retrieved 24 June 2012
Jump up ^ "Michael Palin To Receive Academy Fellowship At The Arqiva British Academy Television Awards".
Jump up ^ Nick Barratt (11 November 2006). "Family detective". The Daily Telegraph (UK). Retrieved 25 October 2008.
Jump up ^ "Michael Palin Biography (1943–)". Filmreference.com. Retrieved 2011-06-01.
^ Jump up to: a b c d e Chalmers, Robert (29 July 2012). "The dark knight rises: Perhaps Michael Palin isn’t the nicest chap in Britain after all...". The Independent. Retrieved 14 August 2012.
Jump up ^ The Pythons Autobiography by The Pythons, pg. 31
Jump up ^ "The wandering man". Thestandard.com.hk. Retrieved 2011-06-01.[dead link]
Jump up ^ "First Letterkenny heritage magazine launched". Donegal News. 14 March 2013. Retrieved 14 March 2013. "Over 100 people attended the official launch of Letterkenny Community Heritage Group’s new magazine in the Station House Hotel this week. [...] Did you know that Michael Palin of Monty Python fame has ancestral roots in the town?"
^ Jump up to: a b Ross, 200
Jump up ^ Michael Palin biography[dead link]
Jump up ^ "ABC TV Documentaries: Sahara episode 3/4". Australian Broadcasting Company. Retrieved 2 September 2006.
Jump up ^ Desert Island Discs, Radio 4, Sat 17 November 1979 - www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/features/desert-island-discs/castawa...
Jump up ^ Ross, 57
Jump up ^ Warman, Anna. "Travelling with Michael Palin". Retrieved 14 August 2006.
Jump up ^ "Home truths on Wanderlust". Camden New Yournal. 27 September 2007. Retrieved 7 September 2008.
Jump up ^ Michael Palin by John Oliver at BFI Screen Online, URL accessed 13 December 2006
Jump up ^ Hodgkinson, Tom (2006). "In Conversation with Michael Palin". The Idler. Retrieved 20 December 2006.
Jump up ^ Biography at Pythonet.org, URL accessed 17 December 2006
Jump up ^ "A Series Of Bird's". BBC Guide to Comedy. Retrieved 16 September 2006.
Jump up ^ Ross, 91
Jump up ^ The Pythons Autobiography By The Pythons; Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Michael Palin, John Chapman, David Sherlock, Bob McCabe; Thomas Dunne Books; 2003
Jump up ^ Monty Python Sings - Monty Python : Songs, Reviews, Credits, Awards : AllMusic
Jump up ^ "NEWS 1999_01_17 - Michael Palin Dropped From Final Print of Hanks/Ryan Romantic Comedy". Daily Llama. Retrieved 2011-06-01.
Jump up ^ Campaign for Better Transport website[dead link]
Jump up ^ American Friends at Rotten Tomatoes.com, URL accessed 13 December 2006
Jump up ^ "John Peel's Record Box", 2005
Jump up ^ "Python Palin stars in BBC WWI drama". BBC News. Retrieved 2 July 2013.
Jump up ^ Vestey, Michael (6 August 2005). "Watching over Whicker". Findarticles.com. Retrieved 25 October 2008.[dead link]
Jump up ^ Webster, Ben (14 January 2005). "Globetrotter Palin brought down to earth by eco-lobby". The Times (London). Retrieved 14 August 2006.
Jump up ^ Wilkinson, Carl (8 January 2006). "My favourite place in the world". The Observer (UK). Retrieved 18 August 2007.
Jump up ^ "Timewatch – The Last Day of World War One". BBC. Retrieved 1 November 2008.
Jump up ^ Michael Palin sends message to support Dongria Kondh, Survival International
Jump up ^ "JPL Small-Body Database Browser". Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Retrieved 17 October 2006.
Jump up ^ Virgin Trains, URL accessed 13 December 2006
Jump up ^ "Palin's centre for stammerers wins £340,000 grant". Retrieved 9 September 2008.
Jump up ^ "Royal Scottish Geographical Society: Medals & Awards". Retrieved 29 January 2010.
Jump up ^ Ouzounian, Richard (26 June 2013). "Michael Palin, from Monty Python to travel series host". The Toronto Star. Retrieved 26 June 2013.
Jump up ^ "Michael Palin announced as new president of Royal Geographical Society (with IBG)". Retrieved 25 November 2009.
Jump up ^ Lee, Marc (24 August 2009). "Michael Palin: he's not a Messiah, just a very nice man". The Daily Telegraph (London).
Jump up ^ "BAFTA Film Awards - Best Supporting Actor 1989". BAFTA.
Jump up ^ "Monty Python Special Award". Retrieved 20 October 2009.[dead link]
Jump up ^ "TV Baftas 2013: all the winners". The Guardian. 12 May 2013.
Jump up ^ "Michael Palin To Receive Academy Fellowship At The Arqiva British Academy Television Awards". BAFTA.
Originally called Liebig's Extract of Meat and Malt Wine , Wincarnis is a 17% fortified wine, still sold, apparently tastes like a sweet sherry. The modern version no longer contains meat!!
In the 1980s and early 90s it was really quite difficult to see either a Little Egret or a Great White Egret in Britain. What a difference a few decades has made. Now both have become widespread and are established annual breeders. Who'd-a-thunk that you can now wander locally and see both species on the same pond!
This week's Saturday Flashback recalls the heyday of rice production in America's south. Before Houston's population explosion and dramatic urban expansion in recent decades, it was apparently quite easy to see rice production not that far out of town. It still just about exists but very much reduced and further from the centre.
The building in the photo remains as a reminder of all the processing and distribution that took place after the twice-yearly harvest. It is situated in Jacinto City, close to the Houston Ship Channel and a myriad of rail freight lines. I cannot find exactly when it was abandoned. However, an internet photo indicates it may not have been not much more than a decade ago. Another photo suggests that silos on the near side of the elevator tower have been demolished since 2005.
A company called "American Rice Inc" still operates elsewhere in Houston and I do wonder if they bought out Texas Rice Inc and in doing so closed this particular plant?
I always say that I am by no means a fossil expert.
However, as far as I know, this week's Saturday Timewatch features a fossilised oyster (Deltoidium delta) from Ringstead Bay, Dorset. These are by far the easiest fossils to find at the site, either washed out onto the beach or sticking out of the mud just above the foreshore.
However, most are either broken or only have one half of the bivalve. Photographed in situ emerging from the muds of time, the example above was unusual and impressive in that it had both halves of the oyster still together. The length is approximately 5" / 12cms and the width 4" / 10cms. Once removed from the mud, it was rather flatter than it appears in the photo with the maximum depth being 1" / 2cms.
It was a good find!
There are several interpretations as to how the tiny Dorset hamlet of Poxwell got its name. A popular one is to do with the Black Death plague of the 14th century. However, the settlement seems to go back many hundreds of years before that.
Some say Poxwell is named after a tribesman 'Poca' who lived on the hill, the 'well' coming from the old English 'swelle' meaning hill. Others that the derivation is 'Puck's Well'. Wiki recklons the name originates from the ‘Pokes well’ – a well dating from the period when occupied by the Romans in the 1st century which is located on a hillside in the village. The hamlet is named Pocheswelle in the Domesday Book of 1086.
So take your pick! This water conduit, no longer in use, lies alongside the main road that now runs through the hamlet.
We are back in England but photos from our Texas visit will continue to appear, hopefully mixed in with some new photos from Dorset.
We stayed three nights in an Argosy trailer. I was not familiar with the brand but soon discovered it had many similarities to the more famous Airstream and was effectively manufactured by the same company. It was marketed as a somewhat cheaper version to the Airstream in the 1970s and 1980s.
I was delighted to find an original sales document on the inside of a cupboard. I have no idea why it wasn't filled in and returned during the purchase.
This photo was taken in the loo at Middleport Pottery, Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent. As I understand it, although Middleport is currently being turned into a 'working museum' this artefact is still in use today because previous owners took the view that if it ain't broke, don't fix it. So around what little of the works you can currently visit there are some things left that got put in decades ago and never got taken out!
I can't find any information about this particular product though the company,Keeling and Walker, still exist. Does anyone have any idea what date this would be from?
The photo for this week's "Saturday Flashback" was only taken a few weeks ago. However, it illustrates a traditional Japanese Shinto wedding, where layer after layer of clothing and ceremonial custom have literally built up over centuries. The bride is dressed in what I understand to be "shiromuku" style. She is all in white because just like in the west, white represents pureness, cleanliness, virginity. Meanwhile the groom is also in a very traditional black and white. Note how one of the attendants is bowing as the wedding party passes.
No. 31806 waits at Corfe Castle. She is about to head down to Swanage in reverse. I always think it is good to see engines running along their original routes and this is the case here. To quote from Swanage Railway's website "No. 31806 used to run down to Corfe Castle and Swanage during the British Railways days of the 1950s and is the quintessential Southern Railway branch line locomotive"
Life so often gets in the way of ongoing projects. So it was nice today to spend an hour re-booting the Old and New Portland photo project.
This is just off Easton Square, Easton, Isle of Portland, dated around 120 years ago, photographer unknown. Look carefully at today's photo below and you can all the buildings are still intact, albeit updated in a variety of ways. For example, above what used to be E.Hoare's shop, a much larger upper window has been installed whilst the one next door (with the scaffolding) is currently being repaired and probably modernised.
The next shop along, with the Popular Lending Library upstairs is now an estate agency, Hull Gregson Hull, including a link with the Yorkshire Building Society. Note that unlike other properties, a stub of the old chimney has been retained.
Next along, what used to be a residential property is now Ukiyo. The front door has been moved from the centre to one side.
The last but one building in the row is very recognisable despite the modernisation. The end property has been converted from an unknown shop to residential, has lost the chimneys but has a loft window added.
Not visible in the photo but next to the end property is Foundry Close, surely an indication of previous industrial activity.
Duties : 1) Single-handed to maintain the one acre garden, paddock, greenhouse and conservatory 2) Clean knives and shoes 3) Cut wood for fires in house 4) Light boiler daily 5) Pump 500 strokes from well to fill water tank for household use and extra when guests visited 6) Store apples, pears, potatoes and onions in loft 7) Feed and slaughter when necessary the Rhode Island Red chickens and finally 8) sweep paths.
Pay and hours as described.
Another free visit during English Heritage Open week was to Thomas Hardy's house. Although it was primarily about Hardy, it was the lives of his employees, chambermaids, kitchen maids, gardener etc that really caught my attention.
Ammonites : from the sea and back to the ocean over 150 million years.
I am very far from an expert on geology or fossils. This is what I understand happened to the multitude of ammonites found along the Dorset coastline.
It began 200 million years ago when sea levels rose and transformed the Triassic desert into a shallow tropical sea. With the new marine habitats came a profusion of marine life and many of the animals living at the time are preserved as fossils. At Ringstead Bay, Dorset, it is mostly Kimmeridge Clay from the Upper Jurassic, dated by geologists as just over 150 million years old at this location.
Ammonites are an extinct group of molluscs most closely related to today’s squid, octopus and cuttlefish. Upon death, they fell to the seafloor and were gradually buried in accumulating sediment. Chemical conditions then allowed some to ‘survive’ as fossils, buried in rock for millions of years as geological conditions changed time and again.
The wheel turns full circle as Dorset’s present-day cliffs erode, eventually washing out the fossils at the shoreline. Whilst some ammonites at Ringstead are extremely robust and solid, as they are elsewhere along the coast, most at Ringstead are very fragile, such as can be seen in the photo. Once exposed they quickly return to the ocean as specks of matter.
The regulars might remember that we have always admired the short-lived spring blossom of a local cherry tree that we learned had a back story.....see here www.flickr.com/photos/99303089@N00/51984754383/
Now that back story has expanded! One of this week's local council candidates was delivering campaign leaflets. I immediately recognised the name 'Ross Skinner'. So instead of him 'doorstepping' me for political purposes, I doorstepped him to let him know how every year we enjoyed the cherry tree's blossom at the end of his driveway.
To cut a long story sideways, it was quite a surprise to discover in the conversation that the lady associated with the tree was also the author of several novels including "The Lighthouse Keeper" from 1965. An eBay search revealed one for sale at a reasonable price and here is the photo of the hardcover with a photo of the author shown below. I haven't got around to reading the book as yet but isn't it amazing how local village histories slowly reveal themselves bit by bit.
Today's *Saturday Flashback* is from 1974. It was taken in a small town near Tanger, Morocco.
(This is a weekly series of flashback photos. The above is scanned from a 35mm slide)
A dastardly challenge. What is this?
Notes :
The yellow and black in the background are irrelevant.
The competition will remain open until Monday evening UK time unless someone gets the answer before then.
Yes, I do know the answer!
Picture this! Sometime in the late-19th century, a Victorian explorer came down from London to Dorset, probably by train, undertaking an expedition to look for fossils. Wearing plus fours, maybe even a jacket, tie and waistcoat, one day he climbed part way up the cliff at Charmouth, which is perfectly possible where the land has slumped (see second photo below). After several hours searching around Black Ven, he took lunch on site, spreading a jar of anchovy paste onto biscuits. Lunch finished, he tossed the jar away. Over 100 years later the broken lid of the jar re-appeared, jutting out of the latest mudslide at the bottom of the cliff!
Apparently these jars are not that uncommon though finding one in good condition is unusual. Sadly, I could only find this half of a lid.
......it was 10 years ago today that I uploaded my first post to flickr. The photo was taken on June 18 2006 but uploaded on August 6th 2006.
The original is linked below. It didn't exactly take flickrworld by storm, with two comments and two faves and one of those was quite recent!
Apologies : The laptop screen photo is a bit dark, but heho.