http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Schwann/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Schwann en-us Thu, 12 Nov 2009 03:40:05 +0000 Thu, 12 Nov 2009 03:40:05 +0000 Everyonersquos looks for a magic bullet at one time or another. In my case I wasnrsquot sure what it was except that a road trip seemed important. Not so surprising when Irsquod just spent a large chunk of time cooped up in the studio. So when I got invited to show Cognition Factor at the 2008 Grahamstown Film Festival I made plans to ensure that a road trip was also what I got. Irsquo http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/South-Africa/Eastern-Cape/Grahamstown/blog-296590.html The Ghana Totality caper. Experienced on 29th March 2006Going to Ghana wasn't something I'd ever considered so when I answered Dr. Peter Martinez's phone call the last thing I expected was to be invited to join the South African team from SAAO to fly up to view a solar eclipse at the University of the Cape Coast in Ghana. I'd once in December 2002 tried to view a solar eclipse. We'd driven http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Ghana/Central/Cape-Coast/blog-94326.html Distilling some kind of message for future historians while offering entertainment at the same time is not as easy as I'd once thought or maybe it will be after I get back from the Kalahari as I have been persuaded by my AD Mike and my best friend Mike USA botanist to take a 'quick' trip up to Augrabies Falls tomorrow morning to the Southern edge of the Kalahari desert for 6 days. The http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/South-Africa/Northern-Cape/Augrabies-Falls-National-Park/blog-87652.html Greetings I'm back from Basel for nearly two weeks now. Usually I would have blogged live from the event itself but the reality of shooting with three cameras slowed me down. The event started on Friday 13th January but we arrived early on Thursday 12th in the morning blearyeyedafter the long overnight flight from South Africa to case the jointas we knew things wouldn't let up once it starte http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Switzerland/North-West/Basel/blog-42963.html O illustrious denizens of compound interest in the fascination of dreamtime avenues O Greeters of the dawn O mindspring overloaders and resistors of note Yeah though we walk in the shadow of bomber Harris we fear no fear for we are the cut and pasted the transplants of civilisation the xpollinators of memetic positivity the destroyers of evil myth and unbelivers in lies transhumanic fad c http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/South-Africa/blog-17652.html I looked back at some records and found that it was exactly a year ago today that I embarked on a trip to Tenerife and Spain. At that time I was surrounded by ever increasing piles of stuff requiring compression into various suitcases but now all I'm really doing is compressing my music collection onto my IPOD. There's this cool gadget called ITRIP that lets you play the pod onto your car radio w http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/South-Africa/Western-Cape/Cape-Town/blog-10213.html Thursday 18th Day 12 Breakfast is overlooking the Las Palmas beach front and what a wonderful sight. White beaches palm trees and the winding promenade accompanying the natural sweep of the beach plus lots of people in swimwear abound but there isnrsquot time for too much sight seeing here because I need to get to Tenerife as quickly as possible and this is why Irsquom taking the Fred Ol http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Spain/Canary-Islands/Tenerife/blog-855.html Subject Blog Once in a lifetime Chapter 1From SchwannEven before 911 I started hating air travel but my oldschool friend Roy who now lives in London but owns hotels in Spain has lured me North to Spain for the summer with offers of a Villa with a Mercedes convertible and a 30ft twin V8 power boat to play with when I'm not hanging out on the Piazza surrounded by beautiful sweating girl http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/South-Africa/Western-Cape/Cape-Town/blog-802.html So it's 2.05AM Sunday 30th May 2004 and there's now less than a week to go. Surrounded by every increasing piles of discarded cardboard and plastic I stumble towards departure with an ever decreasing sense of reality. I remember once writing somewhere it never get's weird enough for me. I guess the words themselves don't mean much it's what they're hotwired to things words can't do by themsel http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/South-Africa/Western-Cape/Cape-Town/blog-821.html Sunday June 6 th 2004 It wasn't easy cramming my studio into a suitcase so it took me nearly two months and without the help of Daene I would probably have missed the boat but I was nearly ready by the time the Safmarine driver arrived at 10.00 AM on Sunday. This was not to be the only time on Sunday I was to be grateful not to be traveling by air but more on that later. The ship is berthed at http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/South-Africa/Western-Cape/Cape-Town/blog-822.html Title Travelblog from Schwannatsea Chapter 5 Days Wednesday 10th Day 4 Just another peaceful day. No transits just some trance. Getting to know the ship the crew and my fellow passengers. Got a good connection with Willy the 2nd engineer who says hersquoll try and get this journal out via email tomorrow so Irsquove been preparing a movie to amaze and astound. Eat this blog from d http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Angola/blog-823.html Talking about dolphins and other marine life yesterdays post closed out early because I took an available opportunity to get email sent from the Chief Officerrsquos cabin this time. I think it helped that a shot a cool still sequence of the Second Officerrsquos wife Sonya so I got to use the system early. The Fuji 6.02 still cam is impressive and Irsquove been getting cool shots. Besides http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Senegal/Cape-Verde-Peninsula/Dakar/blog-831.html Wednesday 17th Day 11 Today I did breakfast but it didnrsquot matter because even though we could see Las Palmas from 9.00 AM in the morning they kept us waiting for a pilot until nearly 10.00 PM by which time Irsquod gone all around the ship taking what photos I thought I may have missed but probably didnrsquot. Although I am not in a hurry to get off the ship but after 11 days at sea I http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Spain/Canary-Islands/Gran-Canaria/blog-832.html Sunday 20 th June Day 15 I wake with anticipation but also with some stress. Will my wife and four year old make it on time or will I spend the day at the airport trying to figure out where they are Their flight goes from Cape Town to Joburg then on to Madrid where there is a four hour wait before catching their connection to Tenerife. That's a lot of flying. Waking at 8.00 AM I still don't http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Spain/Canary-Islands/Tenerife/blog-870.html The Tenerife Experiment Download the movie from www.webtrance.co.zaTravelblogMediaTenerifeExperimentJuly2004.wmv but because this movienbspserver is in South Africanbspplease rightclick on the link and save the file somewhere younbspremember on your hard drive before trying to watch it because there are spinning things in the movie which aren'tnbspoptimized for streaming.nbsp Tu http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Spain/Canary-Islands/Tenerife/blog-958.html Sitting under the palm trees on Ibiza surrounded by Gods and Goddesses I could not help but thrill to the synchronicity of it all even though I donrsquot really subscribe to any lsquopatternrsquo. In a background window my hilarity may even have cheered up the jetlagged Goddesses for some short time but after a few hours of core dumping the table folds back into two cars Richard W. and gi http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Spain/Balearic-Islands/Ibiza/blog-1445.html Cognition on the Costa Del SolAdapted from a much longer version especially for TravelBlog.orgIt's nearly Monday afternoon by the time we get started and there isnrsquot much time left. Trying to film Dennis Mckenna isnrsquot easy because he keeps making me laugh and to make things worse my arm muscles have locked up after hours of filming without a tripod and Irsquom oxygen starved becaus http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Gibraltar/blog-1512.html Edinburgh. Met Iain M. Banks as planned handed him over a copy of the Headspace movie and told him to stay in touch which was a lot better than the day before when we got thrown out of the book festival because we honed in on Stephanie Turner the socalled 'Press Officer' who was mostly out to lunch even when doing her job stephanieedbookfest.co.uk and lets not forget about the pasty loo http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/Scotland/Edinburgh/blog-1514.html