h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Greetings all ye

That is a very strange thought, the nightclub in Reykjavik, with different dancing styles on each floor.

Now I am envisaging a tall building, tall beyond tall, reaching to the stars. It has an infinite amount of floors, because every time you imagine one, it appears. And on each floor are different lifeforms doing their own type of dance.

That's a weird dream. And its lunchtime in England.

I like it. I do have dreams like that (at night). With weird high-rise buildings and odd lifts. In one dream, a group of people assembled in a pattern, and the lift formed around them.

My buildings are always art deco, with marble patterned floors and brass fittings and wrought-iron railings and such. My subconscious is seared by Pittsburgh architecture, legacy of all those engineers.

Yes! The Eye Behind the Camera.

Phone cameras are brilliant, and convenient, because I usually have one in my bag, to catch those passing moments that cannot be repeated.

The only thing with phone cameras for me, though, is that I can't see the screen in bright sunlight so I have to rely on intuition.

Damn, that stray ostrich on the pedestrian crossing just legged it out of the photo, leaving nothing but a tail feather in the left side of the frame.

I'm very attached to my little Panasonic Lumix compact, had it for years. I like the whirring sound when the lens extends, and there are a couple of settings that take me to a home beyond home. Then my eye behind the camera is in the altered state of photographic union, which adds to any composition, methinks.

Well done, mvp!! I wondered if you'd be on that march!

Amazing dreams, Mister! I need to change Dream Directors. . Mine are never that interesting.

You dream of art deco buildings? So no coincidence that the GoHL played the De La Warr Pavilion then? (in our collective dreams, via the mind of FWR, way back on this thread). The De La Warr being an art deco building. Going to try to get a pic, next time I'm in Bexhill.

Are there art deco buildings in Pittsburgh then?

I love the All Good Gifts from Godspell, with the video of the hands of the maestro on the legendary keys.

I love Godspell. Used to have the record, spent my youth singing along with David Essex. There are some incredible tracks in that show.

Godspell and Jesus Christ Superstar. Ah, amazing.

So, on the train again tomorrow, to encounter Archangel Michael on Glastonbury Tor. Perhaps. Or perhaps just sheep.

See you in Hooverville if not before.

Oh, yeah.

See this? It is the Gulf Building.

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pittsburgh-gulf-tower-2007.jpg

It is famous for two things:

1. In the animated series 'Superchicken', millionaire chicken Henry Cabot Henhouse III lives in a penthouse 'high atop the Gulf Building in beautiful downtown Pittsburgh.'

Want to see the freight elevator? Of course you do.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6a_epCE_Yfg

2. In 1974, the Weathermen bombed the 29th floor.

"that stray ostrich on the pedestrian crossing just legged it out of the photo, leaving nothing but a tail feather in the left side of the frame."



"Then my eye behind the camera is in the altered state of photographic union, which adds to any composition, methinks. "

Yes indeed! I know what you mean about the sounds of the camera, that you get to know it like a quirky creature My camera has a pretty good eye, with 25x magnification, but I still need to help it to look in the right places for the best images

Why did the Weathermen bomb the Gulf Building?

Why did the ostrich cross the road?

Is reality sometimes crazier than fiction?

Frequently.

The Weathermen bombed the Gulf Building because of the Gulf Oil Company's actions in Angola.

http://www.pghcitypaper.com/pittsburgh/in-1974-a-group-called-the-weather-underground-bombed-the-gulf-building-can-you-shed-any-light-on-the-reason/Content?oid=1337599

Growing up, we knew the Gulf Building as a giant weather beacon. The colours on the pyramid part at the top forecast the weather. They stopped in the 1970s, but now they have a more complicated LED weather -forecasting system. And the top flashes when the Pittsburgh Pirates hit a home run. It's a strange landmark.

I know nothing of the motivations of ostriches, but if they're anything like cassowaries, I would be careful of them. Cassowaries are just plain evil.

Afternoon all

Catchin' up. Bit late. Been on an amazing trip to Glastonbury with a friend of mine. I sent Dmitri a pic of the Tor at first light with the mists of Avalon. I also sent him a fish.

I know you're all out of town right now. I'm not expecting you to speak to me in this life or the next.

Thirty Hours in Hooverville is a developing masterpiece. I check in every twenty two minutes.



Love that freight elevator!!!

Lifts and elevators. Same thing I know. I might get obsessed with them.

I got stuck in a lift once with a Turkish news translator and two typists in mini skirts at BBC Bush House, where I worked in the 70s. We didn't spend long together, perhaps about fifteen minutes. I wonder where they are now.

The hand operated door of that freight elevator is amazing. I've gone back to Dmitri's link now, I've left the BBC memory.

I knew an elevator like that in the Fowey Hotel, Cornwall. I think I sent a pic to the Post a very long time ago. Elektra described it as steampunk. I remember that well, because I then wondered what steampunk meant.

And the Gulf Building. That's a tall tower indeed.

Yes Sasha! You like the sounds of your camera also! They are like quirky creatures.

I wonder if cameras have a soul? I think they do. I think lots of things have a soul, chairs and carpets and TVs. Perhaps everything has a soul. Or at least an is-ness.

Was it Aldous Huxley who coined the phrase is-ness? Or maybe the Buddha. Or someone else entirely.

I know nothing of the cassowary. One should be wary of the cassowary.

Well, mvp, I used to think that fact was crazier than fiction until 1st November .

Yes, it's getting very weird, indeed. I am in awe of the writing ability of this group.

I remember reading a book a long time ago, but I don't remember the title, by a wildlife guy in Australia. Or maybe he was a large-animal vet. Anyway, this lady called him. She lived in the Outback, and she was trapped in her house.

An angry cassowary was determined to attack her. If she tried to go out the front door, it would charge her. If she ran to the back door and tried to get out, the cassowary got there faster... He showed up and distracted it so that she could get into her car.

I had one try to charge me from behind a chain-link fence in Virginia one day. They're about six feet tall, beautiful, and evil. Like very ticked-off giant chickens, or the velociraptors from which they are no doubt descended...

Dear journal,

Seeing as how everyone is out of town, I'm going to take this opportunity to introduce to you my twin sister, Leonora Rivera.

This all came about because ..

Oh well, never mind right now. Suffice to say, I blame November 1st.

The name Leonora is Italian in origin, meaning Light. My name is Eleni which is Greek for Light.

I think my father should have named us Light and Dark, for balance, but we are two Lights. The headlight twins. Better really. Who would be Dark?

Rivera is a Spanish or Italian name, meaning river bank or shore.

Both Leonora and I have spent our lives trying to return to our own shores. She prefers inner shores, but I like a bit of geography.

Now both in our 60s, I'd say we do reside happily on our own shores. We don't often visit. The ferry to her shore won't accept my seven miniature poodles, and she can't even steer a wheelie bag.

So we prefer to stay home and communicate telepathically, or phone-text if the psychic signal is weak.

(coughs politely from a dark corner) the Dark has a daughter named Helen as I recall!

Hullo darlin Ohmigod! We are all connected, I forgot. Temporarily. The strands of our stories yes! yes! the strands. I'll be back about the strands.

Ohmigod now I'm going to have weird velociraptor dreams.

Dear journal

So, on November 1st, these friends of mine started a month long writing project involving a fictional town named Hooverville, and a cast list of great peculiarity and genius. Many cats are also involved.


I informed Leonora of this event, and mentioned the Waffelhaus Cafe.

She announced she must go there, to find the Answer.

No! The people of this town are organised, I protested. There's an infrastructure. They have a newspaper.

She said she would use a psychic cloaking device, like Starbug in Red Dwarf, so no one could see her.

So ....


tbc