Home Of The Windy Miller (pic 4)

So this Sunday I headed out (at the behest of my lovely wife. OK it was more like, 'Get out from under my feet and take some pictures!' Bless her you gotta love her) to try and find something to photograph. I got into the car and started driving south. After about half an hour I took a slip road off the A23 and headed to Gatwick another 5 minutes and I found this......

This is Lowfield Heath Windmill situated just outside of Charlwood village and has been almost fully restored to working condition. It was closed when I got there as it only opens a few Sundays a year but as I was photographing the outside some of the members of the Trust in charge of the site came to do some work on it and were kind enough to let me go inside. Below are just a few of the many pictures I took that morning.

These were all taken on the first floor just using the light of the sun shining in through a small side hatch. I think they are lit beautifully.

What struck me about this windmill was the skill and care that has gone into the restoration. As you can see from the picture above a lot of new woodwork has been put into place and it impressed me how beautiful it all looked. There's something about wood that you just don't get from modern building materials. All the glass, steel and concrete mausoleums that they throw up in every city could do with more natural materials like wood and stone. Which leads me to the my next pic...

The centre column is an original piece (can't remember if they said from this windmill or not but certainly from an old relic of a windmill) and the cross beam that you can see in the lower left corner that supports the whole thing was an old timber that was originally going to be used in York minster after the fire back in 1984, but ended up not being used. Years later it was secured for use in the restoration of this Windmill. A well travelled bit of wood, big bit of wood.

This is some of the old metal work form another windmill that is on display in the grounds. The picture was taken from the small side hatch that allowed the light to enter for pictures 2 & 3.

So there you have it, the Lowfield Heath Windmill in all its restored glory. The grounds are open all the time so any one can take a close up look when ever they like, or you can go on one of the open days to get a look inside and maybe talk to some of the guys involved in its restoration. I fully recommend it.

http://www.ockleywindmill.co.uk/lowfieldheathwindmill.htm

Till next time...

The voice has spoken

Apes, Aliens and Porn Stars

Well its time to look over the past weeks viewing. Films that is, TV is only just worthy smalltalk and that's been generous. Lets face it most of us could knock out the reality trash that we are fed daily from the airwaves these days. But less of the complaining and more of the films.
There are 3 films that I'll talk about here, one that Ive mentioned before (as I saw it at the cinema) and 2 that I saw for the first time.
First up, the film I had seen already.

RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES (2011) (Blu-Ray)

Whats left to say about this that I haven't said before? Not much I think. Great film, definitely the start of a franchise re-birth. Plenty of clues to a re-make of the classic and a nice lead into how the apes managed to overthrow humanity. Lets face it, if it was just a fight between apes and man then we would wipe them out fairly quickly due to us having lots (and I mean LOTS) of weapons, while they have sticks and maybe a few guns that they nicked. Not to mention the ape army being maybe a few 100 strong while we have more soldiers in the pensioners home guard at Prestatyn. The Hollywood grape vine has been rife with rumours that a sequel will be a second part to Rise and not a remake of the original. Time will tell but there is definitely room for another film between the two.
One final note about this film. I think the Academy needs to change its thinking on motion capture, as Andy Serkis' motion capture performance of Caesar is definitely worthy of a nomination at least.

Film number 2 is a SCI-FI affair known as....

SKYLINE (2010) (sky movies)
This was a bit of an odd one. Filmed almost entirely in a single apartment with the rest of the scenes all in and around the one apartment block,  only an early scene in a plane and the last scene in an alien craft to break the trend.  The film follows a couple who travel to LA to meet up with some friends for a birthday party. Of course as soon as the party winds up some uninvited guests turn up. The aliens seem hell bent on harvesting all the humans for their brains. Yup you read that right, brains. You would think, in a universe this big they could find a more intelligent species to steal brains from but never mind.
The film moves along at a fair pace with a few well set out set pieces on the way. Playing out like an alien version of Night Of The Living Dead the tension builds up between the small bunch of people who are held up in the apartment but never really reaches any kind of fatal breaking point, as the aliens manage to pluck someone out of the bunch just in time to break the tension of the group.
The film obviously didn't have the budget of say ID4 or War Of The Worlds but what they had suited the makers well as this is definitely better that the Spielberg/Cruise atrocity and is a nice change to the, 'We will beat the bad guys because we have god and guns on our side,' type of SCI-FI. There's no big speech before the final battle or spiritual enlightenment to be had, it's just a bunch of relatively normal people trapped in a totally abnormal situation.
The film isn't perfect by any means but as a break from the Hollywood norm its certainly worth a viewing.
Starring no one special and a budget to make most block buster laugh this film has nothing to be ashamed of and everything to be proud of. My congratulations to all involved.
One warning. (spoiler) If you like to see the hero get the girl, save the day and ride of into the sunset in a blaze of glory then go watch the Spielberg/Cruise abortion, avoid this at all costs.

My final film is a controversial movie from Serbia. Available in only a heavily edited form in most countries of the world I had to download it in order to be able to give it a fair review. Be warned, what follows may shock.

A SERBIAN FILM (20111) (download/torrent)

Where to start with this film? Well, here goes.
The story involves a retired porn star who is given the chance to star in a new form of Serbian porn, Art Porn. Offered a sum of money that he and his wife find too much to refuse, he accepts. What follows is a slow and terrorising descent into hell for both the porn star and the viewer, as the film he's making quickly turns into a necrophilia, pedophiliac, violent snuff film. This film does have something to say. The obscenity of art and what constitutes art these days, the power of those who have over those who have not, the corruption of government and its view of its people. This film says it all. The director/star/co-writer himself (Srdjan Spasojevic) has stated that it represents how the government fucks us all. I think it succeeds in saying this and a lot more.

The film reminded me of 'Salo, or 120 days of Sodom' by Pier Palo Pasolini. A film he made with the sole purpose of shocking the audience.  It succeeded on all levels. Cinema audiences are becoming desensitised by the constant stream of torture porn films like the Hostel and Saw movies. Ive seen people laugh at the most violent scenes (a showing of Straw Dogs in 1990 at the Leeds Film Festival) I found this to be more shocking than any scene from that or any movie since including this one. Audiences need to be knocked back and sickened again as Pasolini did and this film does just that. Should it be banned? probably. Should it be watched? If you can stomach it then yes. Will you remember it? For the rest of your life.
The movie going public needs to be reminded that horrifying movies are horrifying and that just because its a movie doesn't mean that you should laugh or even enjoy graphically violent scenes or violent sexual scenes. If this film or the idea of watching this film makes you nauseous then congratulations, you're still a good human being. If it doesn't then I suggest you see a shrink.

Till next time....

The voice has spoken.

A flock of sea gulls (no not the band. Pic 3)

This post isn't just about my next picture in the 52 weeks 52 pics project but also my first attempt at fixing things using Photoshop CS5. Needless to say more training is needed but, I don't think I did too bad for a first attempt.
Just like last weeks pic (come fly with me) this was taken in Tooting Common by the pond. The camera was set to RAW by mistake but as it turned out it was a stroke of luck as it allowed me to play with it a lot more in Photoshop. Presented first is the picture before I tweaked it.

I took this image and toyed with the brightness, saturation, grain and a few other things in order to bring out as much detail and colour as I could. I'm quite please with the results.

I was impressed by the amount of detail that was dragged kicking and screaming from the shadows and the colour of the trees in the back ground gives a real autumn feel (though as you know it was actually taken in winter)
For a first attempt at Photoshop I don't think I did too bad.

Till next time....

The voice has spoken.

Come Fly With Me (pic2)

I was in Tooting Common with my lovely wife and daughter when I decided to try and catch a few pics of the birds around the lake. I managed to get quite a few pics around the lake but this one was a very lucky shot. I just managed to raise my camera in time as this bird came past and following with my lens I clicked. Luckily for me the settings I had used for the few shots before this worked out just fine as I had no time to change, it really was a one chance shot. How I managed to keep the bird central to the image is beyond me but I think I did quite well. So here we have my pic for week 2 of the 52 week challenge.

WITHOUT WINGS WE FALL

In fear and disgust I close my eyes and turn them inward. The darkness scares me but then I see something, something blurred and as it slowly becomes clear I begin to understand.
on the inside of my mind there's a mark and upon that mark there is a sign, written on this sign are words that read:

'No entry to the disease that flows within me.'

A disease that devours, that engulfs and swallows all that there ever was within me. Leaving nothing but the flowing, pumping stink. the stink of putrefaction.

As the mind decays and the thoughts erased leaving nothing but the never ending agony of silence, the stink churns my stomach. So I turn away and open my eyes to find myself perched upon an angels wing, an halo of guilt surrounds me. The guilt of a life that shouldn't be, a moment stolen from God that the Devil dealt in sin.

Angel beats its wings and throws me to the ground. As I fall I see for the first time the world as it is, the truth of its nature. I hit the ground and it wraps its arms around me like a grieving mother holding a still born child. Through the cracks in the glass that form my eyes I witness the horror of society. The theft of innocence as lies smother truth, the gift of death before life is given a chance. The people decay before they have ripened.

Angel looks down and points in judgement at all that there is and then disappears into the burning sky of Gods abandonment. Nothing but backs I see as all turn away and fall into the sky.

Now I stand alone among a billion people, all living in a world of terror. Governments crumble, armies fall, churches burn and people cry in fear.

Slowly a feeling builds inside of me, an urge takes control of me and my hands begin to tremble. The cracks fade and all becomes clear. Here in this horror, in this terror and the fear, I stand tall and I laugh. I raise my hands and shout:

"I AM HOME!"

Stop The Moaning and Start The Healing

The last 2 days I have heard things on LBC that have concerned me, wound me up, annoyed me and slightly peed me off. So I decided to vent.
Prepare for some venting.

Vent no. 1
Yesterday I heard people complaining about the amount of money the heads of banks are getting paid and the fact that the government are thinking of creating some legislation that will limit the amount they can get paid and of course people were agreeing with the governments idea. MORONS and I mean that in the most insulting way. Apologies if you are one of these people but hear me out (then call me a moron back if you like)
In this country we seem to eagerly hunt down and punish the successful. For starters these bosses are not the only ones to blame for the financial crisis, Ill come back to that later. They were only the ones that fired the starting pistol on the whole recession race. Just take a look at the state of the banks now, they are raking the money in. They have gone from being heavily in debt to being quite healthily in profit. Now who do you suppose has done this. Let me think now, do you suppose it could be the bosses who are now being paid well. Don't you think that anyone who can take a multinational business from near bankruptcy to swimming in profit should be rewarded well, regardless of what went on before. Yes there were mistakes by the banks and yes it cost the country deeply but these bosses, or fat cats if you prefer, have turned the banks around. I wish I were capable of doing that but unfortunately, just like most of us (including the moaners and complainers), I cannot. But these men can and did. So don't they deserve paying well? Lets not forget also that these businesses also employ thousands upon thousands of people, that's a lot of people to be responsible for and a lot of stress. The government is planning on capping their earnings at 1million, 'thats a lot' your probably saying and yes it is. These guys are currently getting paid up to 4 mill at the moment. Lets not forget though that the top rate of tax is %50, so if these guys earn 4 mill then that's nigh on 2 mill in tax, now isn't that better than 500000. Sure they will look at ways of paying less tax and that sure does pee the moaners and complainers off even more, but what they won't do is admit that given half the chance they would do the same. So we not only want to punish the success of these people but we also want to punish them for doing something that each and every one of us would do if we could.
All this is because of two things. One, people are jealous of the money they earn and 2, people want to punish the banks for the problems that we are going through right now. Both of these reasons carry no weight and hold no water, they are trivial and childish.
Now back to the other people responsible for the countries troubles, the ex-government. These were the people that encouraged, I repeat that, encouraged the banks to lend out more riskier loans in order to try to encourage growth and failed to regulate the banks properly for fear of capping that growth. They also spent years spending money the country didn't have to create public sector jobs. Great you might say, more jobs for the people, problem is these jobs don't make any money. They are non-profit making rolls, as are most within the public sector. So the money to pay for these jobs came out of the public purse with very little going back in till eventually, you guessed it, they ran out of money. So much so that Mr. Brown sold off nearly all of our gold reserves. I think my wife has more gold on her finger that the government currently has in its vaults. The government took us to the edge of the cliff, the banks merely gave the final push. Sure there needs to be regulation to prevent anything like this happening again, yes there needs to be safeguards to stop irresponsible banking but does that mean we should punish success. NO, if we start doing that it will drive the big business's out of the country to more understanding shores. And that would cripple the country far more than we could ever imagine.

Vent no. 2

Today I heard about a new high speed rail road from London to Birmingham and then slowly stretching beyond up to Edinburgh. Guess what people were saying about this. Yup you got it right, they moaned and complained once again.
People were saying that it wasn't worth it, it wouldn't speed up the journey by enough to make it worth the investment, we can't afford it, we don't need it. SHUT UP PEOPLE!!!!

They complain, they whinge, they moan, they sit around tables in pubs spouting nonsense about how it won't improve anything. What happened to the pioneering spirit that allowed us to rule half the world? What happened to the thirst for innovation that allowed us to take the lead in many areas of science and industry. It seems to me it has disappeared under the weight of a nation wide blanket of endless complaining. To say I'm disappointed in the way the people think is an understatement.

Now before you start bleating that I'm a Tory, right wing voter let me just tell you that I don't trust any of them. They are all corrupt and the expenses scandal proved it. I just stand for the truth of what is good for the country and for the people as a whole and that means I support the success and rewarding of success. I support innovation and the need to invest in the countries infer structure in order to keep us competitive as a small island in a big world.
Its all this complaining that fuels the recession, its the whinging that prevents the country from being what it is capable of being, that stops it from being great once again. Just like the complainers have stopped Heathrow from being the central hub of global travel for Europe they are in danger of making sure this sick old man of Europe keels over and dies.

So stop the complaining, stop the moaning and start embracing the changes that are needed to keep this country an active part of a global society. When the government wants to invest in new transport links and runways cheer for them. When big bosses are getting big money for making big profits congratulate them and welcome more of the global winners to this country, get them to bring their businesses here. And for gods sake stop frowning and start smiling. Yes times are hard but if we all head out this weekend and spend an extra £10 guess what. Some business's may even start making money. If we start behaving in a more rational way and stop believing everything the media sells us then we may be able to start putting things right. The longer we live in fear the longer we will be told to live in fear.

Venting over.

Now lets start putting things right and lets start living a little more. Like the Monty Python team said.......
"Always look on the bright side of life."

Till next time...

The voice has spoken.

Pic 1. 'Im Having An Old Friend Round For Dinner'

I found this Fella having his lunch above a jumper frame in the Battersea Park BT shed. A bit of light conversation and a glass of Bollinger 53 later I found out his name was Trevor and he's an out of work accountant. He moved into the BT shed a week ago. He considered it an ideal location for a spiritual retreat. He's trying to get in touch with his inner self, though I think he's more likely to end up getting in touch with the inners of his lunch a long time before any spiritual enlightenment should befall him.

So please join me as I raise a glass to Trevor, may he live a long and full life. Unlike his dinner.

Till next time...

The voice has spoken

The year ahead on the big screen

So here we are at the start of another 12 month, and what a 12 month it will be. The movie world is rife with big movies this year, personally speaking I think its going to be one of the best years in a long time.
There are so many promising projects in movie land at the moment so I thought at my duty as a self proclaimed film buff to write about it. So here goes.

Well I'm sure you are all aware of the big marvel boys that have graced our screens in the last few years. From The Hulk to old stars and stripes wearing Captain America they've all had their turn. But this year sees the biggest mash up in movie history. Not since Dracula met Frankenstein has the silver screen been ablaze with larger than life characters as it will be this year. I am talking of...

The Avengers.
I'm sure most of you will know who these guys are, no not the camp 60s TV show (though that does deserve a decent movie version. Forget the atrocity from a few years back) I'm talking of Iron Man, Thor, The Hulk, Captain America, Hawkeye and Black Widow. This will be the mash up of the year, possibly the decade (except Avengers 2 ;o) ) And lets not forget Sam L. Jackson as Nick Fury, lets face it this guy could make hanging wall paper look cool.

Next up is the one super hero movie that could possibly over shadow the Avengers.

The Dark Knight Rises.
Christopher Nolan's final Batman film will complete his Dark Knight trilogy. This will see the return of Christian Bale as Batman, the legend that is Michael Caine as Alfred as well as Gary Oldman and Morgan Freeman. The villains this time are the Big Brute that is Bane played by the great Tom Hardy (who will be seen soon as the new Mad Max) and Anne Hatheway as Catwoman. If this is any where near as good as the Dark Knight it will be EPIC. (must have gone to money supermarket.com)

Next up is another superhero, the one and only web slinger.

The Amazing Spiderman
This isn't a sequel to the Sam Raimi trilogy but a re-boot of the series.
Directed by Mark Webb (talk of irony) and starring Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone and Rhys Ifans this takes the story right back to the beginning. Will it be a good move by the studio? I guess we will find out in the summer.

Its just a pity the summer won't be finished off with Superman, Man of Steel but I suppose they had to save something for 2013.

Next up sees the return to SCI-FI of Ridley Scott. The last time he touched this genre was way back in the early 80s with Bladerunner and his earlier horror classic Alien. This next movie is rumoured to have loose connections to the Alien franchise.

Prometheus
The story, what is known of it, follows an expedition into the outer reaches of the universe on a quest to find a clue to the origins of man kind. Unfortunately they find more than they bargained for. Starring Noomi Rapace (the original Girl with Dragon Tattoo trilogy) Michael Fassbender (X-Men First Class) Charlize Theron and Guy Pearce this film is generating a great deal of buzz at the moment due to Scotts 2 previous Sci-Fi films being such classics. Lets hope he pulls it off a third time.

Then with the year coming to a close we have 2 major cinematic events.

The Hobbit

Gandalf returns in this first part of the Hobbit story with other members of the Rings trilogy coming along for the ride. Sure to be great but will it live up to the hype. Its got a large mountain to climb to make as big an impact as the previous trilogy did.

In October we will see the return of the worlds greatest secret agent. I am talking of the one, the only.... BOND

Yes he's back for the 23 time (3rd for Daniel Craig) This one goes by the name of Skyfall.
The story line sees him going up against an attack aimed directly at MI6 but in doing so he ends up finding out more than he should about his boss M. I think this is the one I'm looking forward to the most. As a life long Bond fan its good to see him return to the big screen and Daniel Craig is as close to Connery as its ever been.

Trailers for all the above films can be found on www.imdb.com be sure to check them out. Awesome.

So that's it for my brief run through of some of the biggest movies of this year. all that's left to say is. Dim the lights, roll back the curtains and cue music.

Till next time....

The voice has spoken.

A New Year, A New Mission

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU ALL!!!!!!!

OK now that's out of the way lets get on with business.

So its been a while since my last post, December was a very busy time for me and the family. As it is for most families this time of year. But now its time to get back on the blogger train.

I finished my photography course and have pledged to take at least one photo good enough to put on here on a weekly basis. The course finished well, I'm certainly glad I did it as it really has made a difference to my knowledge of photography, and it has made a big difference to the pictures I take.  The course also covered the basics of photoshop which was going really well for me until the last week before Christmas, then I hit a big wall as far as photo editing was concerned. Why is that you may ask, ask away, ask away and I shall answer.
You see the course used windows based PCs which worked well with my windows based laptop at home. Then my lovely wife took me out to buy an iMac, you see where I'm going with this, now I'm struggling with Photoshop. The program is the same you might say, well yes it is, to a certain point. But then I stumble across something that is just that little bit different and it all falls apart. I am sure though that with time, just like all things Apple, I will get used to it and find my way around.

Strange thing is since buying the iMac I have suddenly become interested in Tech like things. Just the other evening I downloaded PS3 Media Server so I could stream movies and pictures directly to my TV. Unfortunately Samsung don't seem to like installing their DLNA connection with all the necessary codecs for the files iTunes uses. this is no big problem but it would have been nice to exclude the PS3 from the equation. Another electronic device to power up. I know it doesn't seem like much but in these hard times all savings are good savings.

The iMac means we are now a fully equipped Apple household, we both have iPhones, we have several generations of iPods an iPad and now the iMac. Who would have thought it, certainly not me. Who knows what will happen later this year if Apple go ahead with their TV. I expect it will be called an iTV.

One last thing.....
Isn't their always.
No matter what your interest in, from music to motherhood. You can find a blog about it at loveallblogs.com
Here you can read about anything you like as well as my bi-weekly intro to the tech section.

Till next time

The voice has spoken