My uncle Dan sent me a link to this terrific video of French freestyle rock climber Catherine Destivelle filmed in 1987 in Bandiagara, Mali.
It is very much worth the whole ten minutes of viewing time. Sure there are some stomach churning hangs and other examples of what looks to be fine climbing. But just wait for the appearance of a trumpet playing Dogon “witch doctor”, a pygmy cliff dwelling, a cave full of skeletons, an idiot in jean shorts shooting a gun and the masked dancing stilt-walkers. Thanks Dan!
“The other day I made a comment on someone’s blog and I noticed I was the only one that put my online pseudonym into the name field,”MetaFilter founder Matt Haughey once wrote of the changing nature of online self-identification. Haughey had found himself the lone alias in a field full of real-life, first-and-last-named commenters. “This is one of those moments when you notice you’re becoming a dinosaur,” he wrote.
That was 2003. Since then, the trend toward aligning our online and offline personas has only accelerated. Today, humans stake online claims to their real-life names before they can even form words orsurvive outside the womb. (via Kottke)
Here’s mine
Handle: HANDSOFFIT
Platform: AOL
User: Kevin Casey AKA astro_astro, astroblastro, kcasey, kvncsy
Why: Maybe fighting over the keyboard with my sister? I don’t remember why really, but it was cool in a Kid Vid kind of way. That was back in the chat-room days. (ASL?) I can remember being put off by the in appropriateness of someone asking “hands off what?”
Here are some old photos from life in Wellington that were taken five years ago this month. The view from the picture window in my old apartment. Me at the Paramount waiting for the cue. My old bag and scooter helmet. My overdue student visa.
Five years seems like no time at all and forever ago all at once.
In the summer of 1995 I spent two weeks in Red Lodge, Montana with my friend Kurt and our families filming a movie. I was Dougy and Kurt was Ralpho, we were the school yard bullies in a feature called Amanda. This week I watched it for the first time.
AN INSTANT CLASSIC?
Amanda stars Kiran Culken who plays a Montanan and a pipsqueak, Biddle Farnsworth, who starts to go blind in one eye after falling from a horse. That is, until he meets Seven, a magical black blacksmith and his horse Amanda, a massive (18 hands) animal who may be an angel. Seven forges Biddle a pair of magic metal eyeglasses that improve his vision.
Kurt sent me some of his recollections of the time:
I definitely remember our production assistant, Michael who smoked all the time. I remember that we ate in a separate tent from the “extras” and had catered hot food where they had only sandwiches. I remember the problems with recording my line that I spoke in that scene, far away from you and the boom, and they had to wire me with a mike which kept malfunctioning. I remember Kieran and playing video games next to Macauley in our hotel. I remember how our moms were sitting talking with this woman about how stressful it was to be a stage mother, and then an assistant came over and said, “Mrs. Culkin, they’re ready for you.”
WORLD PREMIER
The whole experience was incredible and overwhelming in all the best ways, but for all these years, if ever the subject came up, the story ended with a big question mark because the movie was never released in the US.
Thanks go to my brother-in-law for finding the DVD. After hearing the stories my sister* and I had about the filming he refused to believe that it was still unavailable on video. After a quick search he found it for sale from this reputable online store. Easy as that. *You can see Sara in pink dress waking away from Jenny in the outside scene.
I’m thinking of trying that hairstyle on again though, I think it suits me.
