Friends of the Armchair Traveller

  For Nigel A friendship of so many years... since 1962, almost 60 years. Plenty of water under the bridge. Nigel at home with his minder, Jedda  photo by Ivan Gaal Over the years we helped each other to create some films, well, occasionally.  When I was just starting out as a filmmaker Nigel was starting to shoot “Fun Radio” which was a real buzz for me. I was lucky to ride with Nigel in his fancy sports car when he filmed a few shots and I even got to hold his new Bolex camera for a tracking shot or two as he was driving. We've shared staff-room days at Swinburne, snooker at the Red Triangle, and most recently as editor Nigel helped me create my film tribute to our friend Paul Cox: “The Nude in the Window”   Without Nigel’s gracious assistance that film would never have been completed.    Nigel has assisted many other filmmakers in his life’s journey. The list is far too long, I will not attempt to list them all as I will most probably overlook too many. ...

In a few days Maggie Grout and Miriam Huerta of Thinking Huts will be pitching at Yale. I've written about Maggie in two previous blogs where I mentioned her age as 15 years. I realise that she was 15 when she started out, but now she's 21. However this coming event is a big step foward for Maggie and Miriam. In a virtual presentation which will be hosted via "Eventbrite" Maggie and Miriam will be making their case for their Madagascar project as it was described in The Smithsonian Magazine . Their project is one of only four finalists to make the list for the Thorne Prize for social innovation! Startup Yale 2021     APRIL 30 Here's the registration link for the event: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/ startup-yale-2021-tickets- 146812288507 Maggie and Miriam's session will be live at  10.00 am Mountain Time USA,  which is 2.00 am AEST Saturday, May 1. For anyone who would like to know more about "Thinking Huts" and their "road map" for the ...

The Secret Language of Trees. Another item I discovered via AEON which is also available on YouTube, detailing the amazing relationship between trees assisted by underground networks of fungi  called   mycorrhizae . The incredible – and still quite mysterious – way trees trade information via their roots. While researching her doctoral thesis, Suzanne Simard , now a professor of forest ecology at the University of British Columbia, made an astounding discovery – trees in forests seem to possess complex information superhighways in their root systems that allow them to share information. Her 1995 doctoral thesis on the topic has been part of a revolution in how scientists view plants, leading many to  suggest  that they possess cognitive abilities, and even intelligence. This animation from TED-Ed details the symbiotic relationship – between tree roots and fungi called mycorrhizae – that serves as the foundation of these intricate intra-tree communication networ...

  I'm hooked on some words and "amaranth" is one such. From a great poem by Francis Thompson comes the line Ah! is Thy love indeed       130 A weed, albeit an amaranthine weed, Suffering no flowers except its own to mount? Also, my late friend Colin Maxwell Talbot used the word  "amaranth"   as a chapter heading for his book "Massive Road Trauma" , a work I love deeply. Now, an image to go with the word: I really didn't know much about this "weed" even though I was fascinated by its name. Lately I checked it out on Wiki and found a lot about it. Then the other day an article in "The Smithsonian Magazine" brought it to my attention once more. Around the World in Eight Plants And one of the plants it featured was my amaranth. Here's what they wrote about it: "Amaranth falls into the category of forgotten grains, since it’s often overshadowed by more readily available whole grains like oats and rye. However, it has gaine...

  Is there hope for the future? The reason I ask this question because we are immersed in so much doom and gloom at this time. I could have asked:  “Do you fear for the future?” Or I could have asked: “Are you optimistic about the future of human life on earth?” Another way I could work it is this: “Will the future be better than the present or will it be worse?” There are so many ways of tackling this broad subject area which I often discuss with my friends. I’m always surprised by the different ways each of my friends responds to the general subject area of “the future”, and the different levels of their concerns. Like me, they have quite different views on all questions relating to the future and their views are generally so fearful, as are mine, but what strikes me most is that we all look at the subject in a GENERALISED WAY. Sometimes we break this huge subject area down into smaller components such as the fear of runaway climate disaster, worsening global Covid 19 epidem...

Naomi Strong sends us this article she researched and produced which  was recently published in Dive-Log Australasia Magazine. (#387) Naomi gave us many fine underwater images during the time I was on Facebook. I thank Heather Bertrand for introducing me to the world of the Underwater Photographers Group where I first came across Naomi's images and also those of Matt Testoni, Sam Glenn-Smith and many other fine photographers. Many thanks Naomi, pt

All my life I have wondered about the  Mexican Jumping Bean! I used to think they were a variety of spicy beans favoured by Mexicanos to keep them regular.  Make 'em run, so to speak, or even jump! Then I thought: "Where in the world did this crazy name come from?"  But like a lot of other things which do not seem to be worthy of deep research, I just let it go. Then after 78 years of life on this planet Aeon came to the rescue and sent me a short film which is available on Youtube for all to see and it explains a whole lot of interesting things, the first of which is that the Mexican Jumping Bean is not even a bean! Nothing like a bean. In fact it's just a seed. Another thing this short film explains is that these seeds do not jump of their own accord, they only jump because they have been invaded by moth larvae. And it seems that these particular seeds are sought after by a particular moth larva as a surrogate womb. Well, let's be more precise here: a sort of c...

                                Alain Delon in "Plain Soleil"                                 released in Australia as "Full Sun" In May 2014 when Geoff  Gardner was just starting Film Alert 101 he posted this article about the work of Patricia Highsmith. Here's the first paragraph of that Blog: Wednesday, 12 November 2014 Highsmith's Final Stages Back in the year 2000, when the remake of  The Talented Mr Ripley (Anthony Minghella, UK, 2000)  came out, I wrote a piece for Senses of Cinema ( here ) which began : In 1976 I met Patricia Highsmith at her house in Moret, a tiny village near Fontainebleau. The encounter did not last very long, perhaps three quarters of an hour, and did not lead to any enduring correspondence. Highsmith’s distraction at the presence of this Australian enthusiast was not allowed...