Friends of the Armchair Traveller

PICKING PARTS ONE BY ONE (LET ME INDRODUCE MYSELF) Since my dear friend Peter recently suggested me to present one author at the time I decide to start with myself. This is copy/paste screenshot from the Cine Club Split web Page with my short bio (in English): And here is the You Tube link for my recent interview for the "PVH Film Production" project lead by Matt Helme (given to Sylvia Toy st. Louis): Peppe Pig: Some of my photos: And the link for my brand new experimental movie: More from Matt Helme and the "PVH Film Production" in my next post... Happy New Year... Love will tear us apart again... Greetings from Split, Croatia... Darko Duilo ...

  Ivory Carvings     Two tiny carved heads from Europe, dated approx. 25,000 years ago On Sunday I had lunch with friends in the Botanic Gardens, Kyneton. It was a lovely day for a picnic and we all had a good time. Something most important for me arose from discussions of a general nature. I raised an item which has interested me for many years: a tiny carving of a woman’s head from 25,000 years ago, found in modern day France. I mentioned it for a number of reasons, including the unusual carving of the “hair”’ or “snood” which had been carved in considerable detail on a tiny pierce of mammoth ivory. I also mentioned the unusual facial features which seemed to represent a particular person rather than a generic image of a woman’s face, detailed as to eyes, brows, nose, a strangely prognathous chin, but no mouth. One of the ladies at our picnic, Fiona, knew of this little figurine and called up some special info from her mobile. She kindly put me onto a youtube piece...

 Today I'm posting a short film I made some years ago about the artist                                                    Janet Cumbrae Stewart I discovered the work of this remarkable woman whom I had never heard of before I saw one of her works at an exhibition in Bendigo. That work is not included in my video because I could not find a representation of it on the net. But it was a stunner, it really bowled me over. And although I call it a "painting" it was not an oil or a watercolour, it was created in pastel on card. That is also the case for most if not all of the works in my video. But the day I saw it, it stood between a very fine Streeton and a wonderful Dobell where it took my breath away.  All the qualities I saw in that image that day are also present in this particular "painting" copied from the net. Early Morning   Janet Cumbrae S...

 Last night I viewed this short clip courtesy SBS TV NEWS The guts of this "news item" was about chimpanzees being squeezed out of their forest habitat by their close relatives: humans! It also mentions how sad the humans are that the chimps have killed some of their children, and that this terrible behaviour has caused people to give up farming "their land" and flee to the big cities. It is really a complex set of ideas presented here which includes the "disappearance" of the Ugandan forest, home to the chimps. Like the rainforests of Brazil, this reserve provides oxygen which is important for the lives of both chimps and humans.  We are a terrible species. When I see clips like this I am convinced that we are beyond hope. All the species which we have displaced from their habitat and all the species which are facing extinction have been well documented and yet it just keeps rolling along. As a species, despite being able to achieve wonderful things, we a...

 A few days ago I received an email from my friend Tom Cowan, he was clearly in a state of frustration, possibly more like fury!  As you can see from the photo, Tom is a mild mannered reflective sort of chap and it was a surprise to see him so stirred up. An item on the "news" had stirred him up and I responded to him about it. Then he sent me a clipping of an article written by wonderful Barry Jones, famous quiz king and great parliamentarian from the Whitlam- Hawke-Keating era when we had some wonderful people in Canberra. Barry's piece was about our relationship to the Monarchy and "King Charles" being lauded by our Governor General. It gave a lot of information about the historical steps which lead to today and the ongoing relevance of the Monarchy to us in Australia: https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/opinion/topic/2022/12/10/the-monarchy-and-the-constitution#hrd I've also added the JPG copy Tom sent me as a footnote at the bottom of this blog page. It...

                         Zanzibar  Every face, every texture, every place is spicy: it's a spice island.  Swahili, Arabic, Indian and a bit of British and Omani colonization.     "Stone Town"   STONE TOWN is so called as it was constructed  of coral stone. The very narrow 'streets' were  designed for coolness and also to confound invaders.  This also confounds modern visitors... we kept getting  lost and so discovered more interesting places. Lesley prompted our visit. She is a sculptor and mosaic artist  and is influenced by African art and I just took holiday pics.  We loved Zanzibar on our first visit in March 2013 so we  returned in May 2015. I shot the video on our second trip.  By then I knew a bit more about the mix of cultures. For several hundred years the Sultans of Oman lived in their  palace ...

  ANTHROPOLOGICAL ROOTS OF SOCIAL PATHOLOGY, PERSONAL PSYCHONAUTICAL HEALTH JOURNEYS AND THE RETURN OF IT ALL BACK HOME SYNDROME ( “All mankind is divided into three classes: those that are immovable, those that are movable, and those that move.” -Benjamin Franklin) Before I elaborate on the basic features of the work of three very important experimental filmmakers to me, I would like to mention once again that during the next three days (European time), from December 3th to December 5th, you can watch (highly recommended) the second part of this season's "Eclectic Visions" recent experimental cinema presentation program (through Dutch web television), curated by David King, award-winning Australian director and one of the maintainers of this blog. So put aside an hour over 03 – 04 December and get blown away by some of the world’s finest risk-taking filmmakers, streaming internationally from The Screening Room: www.salto.nl/programma/the-screening-room/ Ok, thanks David...