Friends of the Armchair Traveller

 One thing I like about doing these posts is that they come and go from everywhere. This one began in some distant part of the USA when I bumped into the work of Wheeler via Vimeo. Seems like just the other day  but it was about five years ago when I stumbled upon some of his work and also work by Gwendolyn. I had no idea then that they were partners in life and they had both responded to something I'd posted on Vimeo at the time. That was before the experiment with Facebook and the nightmare of Covid and before the onslaught of Ukraine by the Russian war criminals who are greatly upset that Ukraine might have made a tiny retaliation on Russian soil... can you beat that?  Well Wheeler is prolific, it's really hard to keep up with the amount he puts out, but recently he responded to my little A Tree for Ukraine and we had another round of what are you up to these days?... you know the way it goes:  "What have you been doing recently Wheeler?" So he sent me Slip S...

  A Paean for Ian I met many fine people when I was on Facebook, you know who they are.   Ian Gibbins  was one such. I liked a lot of his work which I picked up on Vimeo and I've posted a few items since we started this blog which carries on from where we left off on Facebook. Today I'm going to introduce to you some of Ian's smaller pieces which I did not know of until he responded to my email about the presentation I made to U3A last weekend "Little Miracles, Big Puzzles!" Let's start with "Dragonflies"... DRAGONFLIES  from  Ian Gibbins  on  Vimeo . Dragonflies are amazing insects, having evolved back in the Carboniferous era when the earth was dominated by massive forests that ended up forming most of the coal deposits we have today. There has been much research done on how they fly and how they see. Amongst other things, they have a different set for the parts of their eyes looking up compared with those looking down.  Like most insects, ...

Uploaded just 3 days ago and only 17 people in the whole world have seen it so far, we are getting a sneak preview, so to speak. "Santa Mafia Mon Amour" I have no idea what the film is about but I imagine it will be full of engaging images and ideas, and perhaps it will give us some insight in Darko's current dilemmas which I'm told are numerous. It will probably be laced with a sly irony and is likely to encode many cinematic cross references. I'm hoping it won't all be spoken in Croation because I have not yet mastered that language. So we're in for a surprise. Have a good ride! Thanks Darko! pt

Following the recent screening of " JOURNEY TO THE END OF NIGHT " I received this email from J ulie Jolliffe via Bill Mousoulis: Hi Peter, I was given your email address by Bill Mousoulis as I am interested in seeing your 1982 film "Journey to the End of Night" . My interest stems from the people pictured below pre 1942. L-r Lance Howlett (lost on Montevideo Maru, was my great uncle), Bill Neave, Russell Howlett (my grandpa, joined up but was badly injured in Melbourne, hospitalised for 10 months, discharged, was friends with Bill post war) and we believe George Coates - died in jungle escaping with Bill. All 4 were from Dergholm/Casterton Vic. and joined up together, same day mostly. They were mates from working together. I discovered your film about 6 yrs ago when my daughter had to do a school assign on a POW and I suggested she look into my great uncle Lance , only knowing that he was lost after being bombed on an unmarked POW ship, the Montevideo Maru …...