sedimentary rock ceiling from Nanaimo's Old Mine Shafts

We are trying to establish some kind of visual record of how the remaining mines look in and around the 2010 era. We can't say how much red tape or the funding one would have to endure in order to do this 'properly', so we have decided to locate a number of abandoned coal mines in Nanaimo on our own and obtain our so called visual record by ourselves. We will take the necessary precautions to ensure we have enough oxygen and that no harmful gas may be present, we will ensure that the walls and ceilings of the mine are sound and will only continue if we feel it is safe enough to do so, and we will seal the mines back up the best we can afterwards to prevent the public from getting hurt...

Danny Trejo

I remember a director handed me a shotgun and he said, “Kick in this door and take control.” There was a poker game going inside, and the director said there would be a couple of stunt people inside. He said to improvise. So I kick in the door, somebody jumps up, I bash them with the shotgun, and I ask this guy, “Oh, you wanna die, huh?” This lady starts screaming, and I put this gun right in her face. So the director yells, “Cut! Cut! God, Danny, where did you study?” I said, “Let me see. Von’s. Safeway. Thrifty Mart...."

What Publishers Today Can Learn from Allen Lane: Fearlessness

Lane’s other invention, alongside the cheap, quality paperback, was the Penguincubator, first installed outside Henderson’s (the “Bomb Shop”) at 66 Charing Cross Road, which signaled his intention to take the book beyond the library and the traditional bookstore, into railway stations, chain stores and onto the streets. It is worth noting, given publishers’ frequent timidity in this area, that this really annoyed booksellers...

Local trees & c.

Tim Hardin - The Homecoming Concert (1980)

It's all here. Tim, his music, his love for his audience and their love for him. This is the last live concert Tim gave. He returned to Hollywood, was in the process of recording an album, which was one-half completed, when he died on December 29th, 1980, six days after his 39th birthday...

rocks from Thomas Bewick's British Birds vol ii Waterbirds Newcastle 1826

Eyjafjallajokull

the voice of Borges

I remember when I read a biography of Oscar Wilde by Hesketh Pearson. Then there was a long discussion going on about predestination and free will. And he asked Wilde what he made of free will. Then he answered in a story. The story seemed somewhat irrelevant, but it wasn’t. He said — yes, yes, yes, some nails, pins, and needles lived in the neighborhood of a magnet, and one of them said, “I think we should pay a visit to the magnet.” And the other said, “I think it is our duty to visit the magnet.” The other said, “This must be done right now. No delay can be allowed.” Then when they were saying those things, without being aware of it, they were all rushing towards the magnet, who smiled because he knew that they were coming to visit him. You can imagine a magnet smiling. You see, there Wilde gave his opinion, and his opinion was that we think we are free agents, but of course we’re not….

Victoria area put on alert for book-loving ex-mobster

Described on the FBI website as the leader of Boston’s notorious Winter Hill Gang, Mr. Bulger is wanted for a variety of mob-related crimes including racketeering, money laundering, drug trafficking, extortion and as many as 19 murders.

He is also “an avid reader with an interest in history” and “is known to frequent libraries and historic sites,” the FBI website says.

Mr. Bulger was a key figure during the most violent decades of Boston’s underworld, an era that forms the basis for the 2006 Martin Scorcese film, The Departed, in which Mr. Bulger was played by Jack Nicholson.

He disappeared from the Boston area in January, 1995, after receiving a tip that FBI agents were about to arrest him. He has been on the bureau’s Top 10 Most Wanted list ever since.

An FBI task force dedicated to capturing Mr. Bulger has scoured five continents in search of the aging fugitive, who is known to be adept at using disguises...

Mr. Munro, who was out of town for the FBI visit, said the agents didn’t give his staff much information about why they were warning bookstores specifically in the Victoria area.