I do know all of them by sight though (along with probably a dozen more at least). Modelling camouflaged things tends to warp your colour palette descriptions a bit.
Showing posts with label Books. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Books. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 17, 2012
Not quite fifty
I do know all of them by sight though (along with probably a dozen more at least). Modelling camouflaged things tends to warp your colour palette descriptions a bit.
Sunday, February 13, 2011
I like it when businesses have a sense of humour
I happened to wander past Unity Books today. They are dealing with renovations to their frontage in their own interesting way by putting these posters on the temporary wall protecting the footpath:
Sunday, November 21, 2010
Score
Listening to: My MP3 player on random, having finally gotten around to hooking it up to the stereo. Right now it is playing 'Stay' by Aerial, followed by 'Under my thumb' by the Rolling Stones. I really like the low key bass anti-solo on the latter.
Picked up both of these today for cheaps.
Both biographies of sorts, although I am about the only person I know who would want to read both. I have read the 747 one before, a long time ago (it was published in the 90's) and remember it well, one of the key revelations being that if no-on had bought the 747, there would now not be a Boeing company. It makes a nice companion to a similarly aged informal history of the company I also have. There are some interesting tales buried within.
The Zeppelin book I haven't read, but have heard good things about and is only a couple of years old. The older I get the more I appreciate Led Zeppelin. I started out with a greatest hits collection ('Remasters') about ten years ago, and now have most of the albums. Hopefully the book will be a good companion and source of context for them. Note also the image is of the back cover. Clever publishers made the book flippable, with the other side having a suitably epic image in the same style of Jimmy Page in full noise guitar-golden-god mode.
Picked up both of these today for cheaps.
Both biographies of sorts, although I am about the only person I know who would want to read both. I have read the 747 one before, a long time ago (it was published in the 90's) and remember it well, one of the key revelations being that if no-on had bought the 747, there would now not be a Boeing company. It makes a nice companion to a similarly aged informal history of the company I also have. There are some interesting tales buried within.The Zeppelin book I haven't read, but have heard good things about and is only a couple of years old. The older I get the more I appreciate Led Zeppelin. I started out with a greatest hits collection ('Remasters') about ten years ago, and now have most of the albums. Hopefully the book will be a good companion and source of context for them. Note also the image is of the back cover. Clever publishers made the book flippable, with the other side having a suitably epic image in the same style of Jimmy Page in full noise guitar-golden-god mode.
Monday, July 19, 2010
Admission
I picked this up at a book fair earlier in the year. This book was published in 1978. It is more than 30 years out of date, introductory in nature, and frankly, has very little in it in my particular areas of interest that I don't already know, or haven't seen somewhere else.
I admit, I bought it only for the cover illustration:
As covers go, its a pretty good one. The caption says "An English Electric Lightning travelling at 1,300 mph". For a not so brief history of the aircraft, here is the wiki link. The Lightning served as an interceptor with the RAF from the early 60's to the late 80's and is one of my favourite aircraft. It has character in abundance, being completely spectacular in some areas, and almost fatally flawed in others. One of the spectacular bits was the performance; a Lightning was capable of reaching the cruising altitude of an airliner at 36'000 feet in less than 3 minutes from a standing start on the ground, and could then accelerate to Mach 2. Thats an impressive stat now; in the 1950's it was close to science fiction. The unofficial height record for the type is around 88,000 feet. For an aircraft that was initially designed close to sixty years ago it remains serious performance, even compared to more modern stuff.
Note for Wellingtonians: in addition to building awesome jets, English Electric also built, among other things, the older transmetro commuter trains (the ones that used to be painted red, date back to the 40's and 50's, and are still in use).
The caption is short on detail, but just looking at the picture I can tell it is an early or mid-production Lightning, an F.1, F.2, or F.3 because of the single fin on the belly bulge (the ultimate F.6 version had a bigger bulge with twin fins).
The picture was probably taken from another Lightning, since that would have been the only other aircraft the RAF had that was able to keep up. I'm not sure about the '1,300 mph' claim, not because it was impossible (it was capable of 1,500), but only because it would have been a lot easier to formate at a lower speed, then light the burners for the shot, plus with the Lightning's famously limited fuel capacity it would have given more opportunites for the photo (Lightnings never travelled at 1,300 mph for long).
Nevertheless, it is a cool pic, and I like it because it sums up the aircraft quite nicely, unconventional looks married to awesome power and performance, and reminiscent of a long gone era, and the sort of imagery I loved as a kid (and still do).
I admit, I bought it only for the cover illustration:
As covers go, its a pretty good one. The caption says "An English Electric Lightning travelling at 1,300 mph". For a not so brief history of the aircraft, here is the wiki link. The Lightning served as an interceptor with the RAF from the early 60's to the late 80's and is one of my favourite aircraft. It has character in abundance, being completely spectacular in some areas, and almost fatally flawed in others. One of the spectacular bits was the performance; a Lightning was capable of reaching the cruising altitude of an airliner at 36'000 feet in less than 3 minutes from a standing start on the ground, and could then accelerate to Mach 2. Thats an impressive stat now; in the 1950's it was close to science fiction. The unofficial height record for the type is around 88,000 feet. For an aircraft that was initially designed close to sixty years ago it remains serious performance, even compared to more modern stuff.Note for Wellingtonians: in addition to building awesome jets, English Electric also built, among other things, the older transmetro commuter trains (the ones that used to be painted red, date back to the 40's and 50's, and are still in use).
The caption is short on detail, but just looking at the picture I can tell it is an early or mid-production Lightning, an F.1, F.2, or F.3 because of the single fin on the belly bulge (the ultimate F.6 version had a bigger bulge with twin fins).
The picture was probably taken from another Lightning, since that would have been the only other aircraft the RAF had that was able to keep up. I'm not sure about the '1,300 mph' claim, not because it was impossible (it was capable of 1,500), but only because it would have been a lot easier to formate at a lower speed, then light the burners for the shot, plus with the Lightning's famously limited fuel capacity it would have given more opportunites for the photo (Lightnings never travelled at 1,300 mph for long).
Nevertheless, it is a cool pic, and I like it because it sums up the aircraft quite nicely, unconventional looks married to awesome power and performance, and reminiscent of a long gone era, and the sort of imagery I loved as a kid (and still do).
Thursday, July 01, 2010
Snapshot
Picked up a few books at the ex-public library sale a couple of weeks ago. More than other sales the take from this one gives an interesting snapshot of some of the things I am into (not all of them; I'd need a heap more books to go one for one there). Also noted I had borrowed at least three of these when they were active library books...
So clockwise from top left:
The Art of Deception in Warfare - Basically a history of camouflage. I'm interested in perception and how it can be tricked. There is some very clever stuff in that; The Nuclear Age - The Cold War was a vivid part of my childhood, and I am still interested and intrigued by certain aspects of it; Wings of Fury - Completely naff title, but good insight into how dogfighting tactics developed after Vietnam; Encyclopedia of Volcanoes - because you never know when that might come in handy. I like volcanoes; Tyrannosaurus Sue - the saga of the most complete T.rex fossil ever found, and the legal debacles to figure out who owned it. Also some good insights into the history of fossil collecting and field paleontology; The Big Splat - About how we got our moon, and all the various theories for its origin, from ancient to now.
A steal at $2 each!
So clockwise from top left:The Art of Deception in Warfare - Basically a history of camouflage. I'm interested in perception and how it can be tricked. There is some very clever stuff in that; The Nuclear Age - The Cold War was a vivid part of my childhood, and I am still interested and intrigued by certain aspects of it; Wings of Fury - Completely naff title, but good insight into how dogfighting tactics developed after Vietnam; Encyclopedia of Volcanoes - because you never know when that might come in handy. I like volcanoes; Tyrannosaurus Sue - the saga of the most complete T.rex fossil ever found, and the legal debacles to figure out who owned it. Also some good insights into the history of fossil collecting and field paleontology; The Big Splat - About how we got our moon, and all the various theories for its origin, from ancient to now.
A steal at $2 each!
Friday, March 26, 2010
Book Review
I know you got soul (Jeremy Clarkson, 2005).
I picked this up cheaply (very cheaply) at a book fair the other day, having seen a more upmarket edition in the shops a while ago and thought it interesting (although not interesting enough to actually buy it). The idea of the book is that certain machines can transcend their inanimate nature and become charismatic entities, able to be regarded with affection and mourned when their time has passed, quoting such examples as Concorde, the Flying Scotsman and various other planes, cars, ships and other machinery. As a motoring journalist and co-host of sort-of-about-cars TV Show Top Gear, Clarkson is in theory well placed to comment on the subject.
It's an idea I completely agree with, and think would make a great book. Unfortunately, that isn’t this book. As I progressed (rapidly, it isn’t exactly Dawkins or Fisk) through its 233 pages, I quickly reached the conclusion it was aimed at people who know nothing about the subjects under discussion. It was also apparent that the author (or his editor) doesn’t know much about them either, just enough to appear knowledgable to the uninitiated. The writing style is that of an excitable fanboy who thinks he knows more than he actually does rather than a genuinely knowledgable enthusiast.
The book is littered with inaccuracies, mis-representations, mis-interpretations, exaggerations, omissions and simple errors of fact on almost every page. Some basic fact checking would have been handy. The best entry is the one about the Millenium Falcon, which being fictional says a lot about the entries concerning the real-world rest of the book. As someone who does know something about some of the subjects, it quickly became a frustrating read, and one which I hurried to finish and be done with. I didn’t expect it to be great (I mean, with this author it's not exactly going to be a definitive reference work), just not as bad as it is.
Having enjoyed his other scribblings about cars in particular, a subject he actually does know a lot about, having established a career as a motoring journalist before the fame of Top Gear (although that said, I’m not exactly a car guru), and even acknowledging that Clarkson doesn’t pretend to be a serious authority on things, I was expecting better. It's just not very good, even by the standards of the author. Yet it's a bestseller. Go figure.
It’s good for a no stress no brainer read, but don’t be surprised if you quote something from it and someone corrects you.
I picked this up cheaply (very cheaply) at a book fair the other day, having seen a more upmarket edition in the shops a while ago and thought it interesting (although not interesting enough to actually buy it). The idea of the book is that certain machines can transcend their inanimate nature and become charismatic entities, able to be regarded with affection and mourned when their time has passed, quoting such examples as Concorde, the Flying Scotsman and various other planes, cars, ships and other machinery. As a motoring journalist and co-host of sort-of-about-cars TV Show Top Gear, Clarkson is in theory well placed to comment on the subject.
It's an idea I completely agree with, and think would make a great book. Unfortunately, that isn’t this book. As I progressed (rapidly, it isn’t exactly Dawkins or Fisk) through its 233 pages, I quickly reached the conclusion it was aimed at people who know nothing about the subjects under discussion. It was also apparent that the author (or his editor) doesn’t know much about them either, just enough to appear knowledgable to the uninitiated. The writing style is that of an excitable fanboy who thinks he knows more than he actually does rather than a genuinely knowledgable enthusiast.
The book is littered with inaccuracies, mis-representations, mis-interpretations, exaggerations, omissions and simple errors of fact on almost every page. Some basic fact checking would have been handy. The best entry is the one about the Millenium Falcon, which being fictional says a lot about the entries concerning the real-world rest of the book. As someone who does know something about some of the subjects, it quickly became a frustrating read, and one which I hurried to finish and be done with. I didn’t expect it to be great (I mean, with this author it's not exactly going to be a definitive reference work), just not as bad as it is.
Having enjoyed his other scribblings about cars in particular, a subject he actually does know a lot about, having established a career as a motoring journalist before the fame of Top Gear (although that said, I’m not exactly a car guru), and even acknowledging that Clarkson doesn’t pretend to be a serious authority on things, I was expecting better. It's just not very good, even by the standards of the author. Yet it's a bestseller. Go figure.
It’s good for a no stress no brainer read, but don’t be surprised if you quote something from it and someone corrects you.
Sunday, May 24, 2009
Enjoying The Da Vinci Code
Listening to: Our time in Eden - 10,000 Maniacs.
Apologies to any fans of the book, but firstly I'll admit that the title of this post is something of a misnomer. I didn't enjoy reading the book, and only went to see the movie because Fi wanted to and I had nothing else to do. The book I found to be all action and no substance, with lots of exclamation points and things I was suposed to be amazed (or at least surprised) by, and frankly felt a little Scooby Doo (for lack of a better description and not in a good way). I am still not quite sure what all the fuss was about.
Being of the type to attend bookfairs, and browse the fiction category for my own finds, I have noticed 'The Da Vinci Code' is readily available second hand. So that got me thinking:
Ways to enjoy 'The Da Vinci Code' without having to read or buy it
You will need: A bookfair, and 2 or more players
Option 1 - Its all in the numbers
Players peruse the bookfair as normal, and count the number of copies of 'The Da Vinci Code' they come across. One point for each, with one extra point for each different edition sighted. Two extra points if it is in hardback, three extra if it is an audio book edition, 10 extra if it is an audio edition read by Morgan Freeman or James Earl Jones.
Option 2 - The evidence is right in front of you
Players disperse to random points of the fiction section. Winner is the player who can see the most copies of 'The Da Vinci Code' from their location (can also be applied to sighting Starmarts on Queen Street in Auckland).
Option 3 - Collect the evidence.
Players gather as many copies of 'The Da Vinci Code' as they can find. Whoever can carry the most without being mistaken for a second-hand bookshop owner wins.
Option 4 - Scatter the evidence
Reposition any copies found so that they appear at regular intervals throughout the stock. At least one per row or box of books. This game is deemed won if a non player notes the distribution and suspects some sort of conspiracy. Expert players can determine the placement according to the fibonacci sequence.
Option 5 - The Gathering
This is more of a long term game that can be played over the course of several bookfairs. After a suitable central point is determined, players must return any copies of 'The Da Vinci Code' to that point. The aim is to find all copies and assemble them in one place, thus acheiving market saturation at the point of sale, or a critical mass, whichever comes first. Once a record is set, try and beat it at the next bookfair.
If for some reason (likely to be conspiratorial in nature), 'The Da Vinci Code' isn't present at a bookfair in signifcant numbers, substitute authors such as Wilbur Smith or Patricia Cornwell can be used.
Apologies to any fans of the book, but firstly I'll admit that the title of this post is something of a misnomer. I didn't enjoy reading the book, and only went to see the movie because Fi wanted to and I had nothing else to do. The book I found to be all action and no substance, with lots of exclamation points and things I was suposed to be amazed (or at least surprised) by, and frankly felt a little Scooby Doo (for lack of a better description and not in a good way). I am still not quite sure what all the fuss was about.
Being of the type to attend bookfairs, and browse the fiction category for my own finds, I have noticed 'The Da Vinci Code' is readily available second hand. So that got me thinking:
Ways to enjoy 'The Da Vinci Code' without having to read or buy it
You will need: A bookfair, and 2 or more players
Option 1 - Its all in the numbers
Players peruse the bookfair as normal, and count the number of copies of 'The Da Vinci Code' they come across. One point for each, with one extra point for each different edition sighted. Two extra points if it is in hardback, three extra if it is an audio book edition, 10 extra if it is an audio edition read by Morgan Freeman or James Earl Jones.
Option 2 - The evidence is right in front of you
Players disperse to random points of the fiction section. Winner is the player who can see the most copies of 'The Da Vinci Code' from their location (can also be applied to sighting Starmarts on Queen Street in Auckland).
Option 3 - Collect the evidence.
Players gather as many copies of 'The Da Vinci Code' as they can find. Whoever can carry the most without being mistaken for a second-hand bookshop owner wins.
Option 4 - Scatter the evidence
Reposition any copies found so that they appear at regular intervals throughout the stock. At least one per row or box of books. This game is deemed won if a non player notes the distribution and suspects some sort of conspiracy. Expert players can determine the placement according to the fibonacci sequence.
Option 5 - The Gathering
This is more of a long term game that can be played over the course of several bookfairs. After a suitable central point is determined, players must return any copies of 'The Da Vinci Code' to that point. The aim is to find all copies and assemble them in one place, thus acheiving market saturation at the point of sale, or a critical mass, whichever comes first. Once a record is set, try and beat it at the next bookfair.
If for some reason (likely to be conspiratorial in nature), 'The Da Vinci Code' isn't present at a bookfair in signifcant numbers, substitute authors such as Wilbur Smith or Patricia Cornwell can be used.
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Book season
Listening to: Boys for Pele - Tori Amos. Haven't listened to this in a long long time. A bit of rediscovery is in order.
As the Airshow season ends, so the bookfair begins. I like reading, always have, and bookfairs are an excellent place to score fresh material. Apart from the library sale, the first big fair of the season is the Bookfest in Upper Hutt, with smaller fairs dotted around the winter, culminating in the season finale second hand orgy that is the Downtown Community Ministry fair on the waterfront in September. Sometimes the fairs can be spectacles in themselves, as summarised in this post by the able judge, but the best thing is browsing without knowing quite what you will find, even if you can't find the particular book you were looking for (yes, I hunt for specifics as well as gather).
Biggest score from the Upper Hutt fair two weeks ago was this, for the princely sum of $4:
The day in question was in 1987, when the Cold War was still very much a going concern, and mystery about life on the other side was still rife. No-one at the time had any idea that the whole enterprise would come tumbling down four years later, but the new policies of Glasnost and Perestroika put in place by a certain Mr Gorbachev were hinting that things might be changing. Given that the Cold War was prominent in my childhood, I find this sort of stuff immensely interesting.
Occasionally due to the nature of the books, some unexpected items are found within:
I think this book was bought in Australia as a gift for a girlfriend. The card and paper are by a then prominent Australian artist, and the beautiful (seriously) inscription in the card mentions a trip to the country. What happened to you 'Princess' and 'Froggy'? How did your life together work out I wonder?
As the Airshow season ends, so the bookfair begins. I like reading, always have, and bookfairs are an excellent place to score fresh material. Apart from the library sale, the first big fair of the season is the Bookfest in Upper Hutt, with smaller fairs dotted around the winter, culminating in the season finale second hand orgy that is the Downtown Community Ministry fair on the waterfront in September. Sometimes the fairs can be spectacles in themselves, as summarised in this post by the able judge, but the best thing is browsing without knowing quite what you will find, even if you can't find the particular book you were looking for (yes, I hunt for specifics as well as gather).
Biggest score from the Upper Hutt fair two weeks ago was this, for the princely sum of $4:
The day in question was in 1987, when the Cold War was still very much a going concern, and mystery about life on the other side was still rife. No-one at the time had any idea that the whole enterprise would come tumbling down four years later, but the new policies of Glasnost and Perestroika put in place by a certain Mr Gorbachev were hinting that things might be changing. Given that the Cold War was prominent in my childhood, I find this sort of stuff immensely interesting.Occasionally due to the nature of the books, some unexpected items are found within:
I think this book was bought in Australia as a gift for a girlfriend. The card and paper are by a then prominent Australian artist, and the beautiful (seriously) inscription in the card mentions a trip to the country. What happened to you 'Princess' and 'Froggy'? How did your life together work out I wonder?There are some great and revealing pictures in the book, but this from a Soviet maternity ward is my fave:
Also interesting in my childhood (and now) were volcanoes, and scored for the sum of $1 was this little book:
Despite the somewhat strange title, this is a really neat little guide to the Ruapehu, Ngauruhoe and Tongariro volcanoes.
It will make the Tongariro crossing even more interesting when I do it eventually (next summer hopefully. At the third attempt. Stupid mountain weather).
Getting an honourable mention is the Usborne Mysteries of the Unknown omnibus. Originally published as three volumes (two of which found their way to my sisters), I devoured these as a child, fuelling a continuing fascination with the unexplained:
I mean, how can you go past gatefolds like these?
A lot of effort went into making these things look good (without a hint of sarcasm). These are quality publications, even at 30 years old.
They were originally published in 1977, which I remember thinking was a long time ago when I first encountered these books in 1983 or so. Endearingly, the UFO volume makes no mention of Roswell, or any hint of cover up or conspiracy, bless its sweet little heart. I'll have to find modern day equivalents for Charlotte when she is old enough to read them. Or she can just read these.
Also they make a great companion for this from the same era and publisher, which I picked up at a fair last year:
I love how colour pictures are advertised as a selling point. Does it have experiments? Yes, lots. Did I try them all as a child? You bet.
Also interesting in my childhood (and now) were volcanoes, and scored for the sum of $1 was this little book:
Despite the somewhat strange title, this is a really neat little guide to the Ruapehu, Ngauruhoe and Tongariro volcanoes.Its 25 years old, so doesn't include the most recent eruptions, but has a ton of interesting information about the geology involved. And lots of pretty picures of past events:
It will make the Tongariro crossing even more interesting when I do it eventually (next summer hopefully. At the third attempt. Stupid mountain weather).Getting an honourable mention is the Usborne Mysteries of the Unknown omnibus. Originally published as three volumes (two of which found their way to my sisters), I devoured these as a child, fuelling a continuing fascination with the unexplained:
I mean, how can you go past gatefolds like these?
A lot of effort went into making these things look good (without a hint of sarcasm). These are quality publications, even at 30 years old.
They were originally published in 1977, which I remember thinking was a long time ago when I first encountered these books in 1983 or so. Endearingly, the UFO volume makes no mention of Roswell, or any hint of cover up or conspiracy, bless its sweet little heart. I'll have to find modern day equivalents for Charlotte when she is old enough to read them. Or she can just read these.Also they make a great companion for this from the same era and publisher, which I picked up at a fair last year:
I love how colour pictures are advertised as a selling point. Does it have experiments? Yes, lots. Did I try them all as a child? You bet. Sunday, June 01, 2008
Bedside Jenga
Listening to: New Order-Get Ready
Is this too many books and things to have beside the bed?
Probably...
Is this too many books and things to have beside the bed?
Probably...Sunday, May 25, 2008
Book Fair haul
Listening to: the much underrated The Unforgettable Fire: U2
Not a bad haul from the Wainui bookfair this year. Non-fiction on the right.
Not a bad haul from the Wainui bookfair this year. Non-fiction on the right.
Picked up much pulpy thrillers of the kind of fiction I like to read, by a couple of authors I like to read. The saucer books sound like rubbish from the blurb, but will probably be fun anyway.
The 6 Days book at top left is by a guy I have come to like, Brendan Dubois. He is a good 'what if' style of imagineer (the two previous works of his I have read have dealt with a post cuban missile crisis america where the crisis developed into a war, and also america after a yugoslav style civil war, complete with UN peacekeepers and ethnic cleansing). All thrillers of some description, although I tend to be much more jaded reading them these days.
Straddling the fiction/non fiction line somewhat is a novel about alien contact written by a guy who used to work in the UK ministry of defence, investigating UFO reports. Prognosis pulp, but maybe some interesting ideas therein. Also on the line is an apparently rationally researched book called 'Alien Liaison' attempting to find out if alien contact has actually happened or not. Also some intrigue to be found within I expect.
Proper non-fiction was thin on the ground if you didn't like books about sport, of which there were three tables. Non-fiction was also haphazardly scattered around the fiction areas.
Interesting finds: A history of the internet, a russian-perspective book from 1970 something about the space race, a fully intriguing investigation into the possibility of antigravity technology being developed, which I have previously read and found rational, a couple of good issues of National Geographic, a photo essay book about Auckland from the mid eighties, a complete bound collection of 'The Falklands War' magazine series from the early eighties (articles therein vary radically in quality, but overall not a bad history) which I had previously but lost, and a book about planes which was probably the biggest score of the day in terms of price ($2 vs $30+ when I have seen it in secondhand bookshops).
And an observers book of ships. For no other reason than I wanted to know what a Kort Nozzle was.
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
A Day In the Life
Listening to: So-Peter Gabriel
I have been busy lately, more so than usual, so haven't been blogging or facebooking as much.
Update:
-I am sick of watching the sunset from work, so I am officially job hunting again. Not enjoying the 'new' job anymore and want to do something else. Suggestions and offers welcome....
-None of my netball teams have won games for ages it seems. Close games, just not winning ones.
-I am too busy to ride to work at the moment. I like riding to work.
-I am buying the new Shihad album tomorrow (well actually today since it is after midnight).
-I am still looking for a Homegrown ticket.
-I am a lot more interested in holding babies than I ever used to be.
-Our new houseguests are working out well, and very pleasant company.
-Damn if it doesn't feel like winter all of a sudden.
Right then, on to the thing I was going to post about.
I should have posted this about a month ago, but I have been busy.
March 18 2008 marked the 25th anniversary of A Day in the life of New Zealand.
The 'day in the life' concept was essentially send a bunch of photographers to various points around the country, and have them shoot anything that took their fancy, all on the same day.
The results were collated, edited, and published in a book later that year:
1983 doesn't seem that long ago, but twenty five years before 1983 it was 1958, which puts the gap into perspective. I've always liked big style picture books, but this one has always been the king, because it offered a perspective of my own country, and I have always been interested in that. My aunt and uncle had a copy, and I leafed through it countless times. All of the images are now familiar.
Its an interesting book, because it is a snapshot of a time I can remember, with some things that are still familiar, but others that are long gone. I wonder what happened to the people in the photos, if being in the book was significant to them. Some are undoubtedly now dead, children have become adults. I tried googling the names of the newborns featured, but didn't find much.
18 March 1983 was a Friday, so on the day these pictures were taken I was at school at St Michaels Catholic Primary in Taita. We had only moved to Lower Hutt four months previously, so I was a few weeks into a new school. Fortuitously we were doing a class project on aviation, which no doubt helped the settling in process.
I had a look and tried to pick out a few favourites. This one on Mt Aspiring has always stood out.
And this dustie in Newtown leaping from his truck. I vaguely remember the tills on the back of the rubbish trucks, but can't remember why they were there. The dusties are long gone now, replaced by kerbside collection. I love all the incidental details; the guy fixing the window, the 'Big Red' bus visible on the right, the cars. I wonder who 'Don Cortina' was.
At the time I gravitated to the images of kids my age, or close to it.
I remember this mural quite well. I think it survived the Pigeon Park/Te Aro Park transition, but it is gone now. The XA Falcon in the background would not have been a new car even then. It would be a classic now.
The effort was repeated in 2000 for the dawn of the millennium, but it is an inferior work, and doesn't cover as much ground.
I have been busy lately, more so than usual, so haven't been blogging or facebooking as much.
Update:
-I am sick of watching the sunset from work, so I am officially job hunting again. Not enjoying the 'new' job anymore and want to do something else. Suggestions and offers welcome....
-None of my netball teams have won games for ages it seems. Close games, just not winning ones.
-I am too busy to ride to work at the moment. I like riding to work.
-I am buying the new Shihad album tomorrow (well actually today since it is after midnight).
-I am still looking for a Homegrown ticket.
-I am a lot more interested in holding babies than I ever used to be.
-Our new houseguests are working out well, and very pleasant company.
-Damn if it doesn't feel like winter all of a sudden.
Right then, on to the thing I was going to post about.
I should have posted this about a month ago, but I have been busy.
March 18 2008 marked the 25th anniversary of A Day in the life of New Zealand.
The 'day in the life' concept was essentially send a bunch of photographers to various points around the country, and have them shoot anything that took their fancy, all on the same day.
The results were collated, edited, and published in a book later that year:
1983 doesn't seem that long ago, but twenty five years before 1983 it was 1958, which puts the gap into perspective. I've always liked big style picture books, but this one has always been the king, because it offered a perspective of my own country, and I have always been interested in that. My aunt and uncle had a copy, and I leafed through it countless times. All of the images are now familiar.Its an interesting book, because it is a snapshot of a time I can remember, with some things that are still familiar, but others that are long gone. I wonder what happened to the people in the photos, if being in the book was significant to them. Some are undoubtedly now dead, children have become adults. I tried googling the names of the newborns featured, but didn't find much.
18 March 1983 was a Friday, so on the day these pictures were taken I was at school at St Michaels Catholic Primary in Taita. We had only moved to Lower Hutt four months previously, so I was a few weeks into a new school. Fortuitously we were doing a class project on aviation, which no doubt helped the settling in process.
I had a look and tried to pick out a few favourites. This one on Mt Aspiring has always stood out.
And this dustie in Newtown leaping from his truck. I vaguely remember the tills on the back of the rubbish trucks, but can't remember why they were there. The dusties are long gone now, replaced by kerbside collection. I love all the incidental details; the guy fixing the window, the 'Big Red' bus visible on the right, the cars. I wonder who 'Don Cortina' was.
At the time I gravitated to the images of kids my age, or close to it.
I remember this mural quite well. I think it survived the Pigeon Park/Te Aro Park transition, but it is gone now. The XA Falcon in the background would not have been a new car even then. It would be a classic now.
The effort was repeated in 2000 for the dawn of the millennium, but it is an inferior work, and doesn't cover as much ground.I picked up a copy of the original at a book fair last year, and still take the time to lovingly peruse it every now and then.
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