Movie: Edward Sloman: The Lost Zeppelin (U.S.A. 1929) An early talkie, this is a simple story about an American Navy explorer who leads a zeppelin expedition to the South Pole. On the night before he departs, he discovers his wife kissing with his second in command. They leave for South Continue Reading
Antarctica
Antarctic Research Blog #77 – Mind Over Matter
Non-fiction: Ranulph Fiennes: Mind Over Matter (Delacorte Press, 1993) Ranulph Fiennes and Mike Stroud attempted to cross the Antarctic continent manhauling unsupported in the 1992-93 season. Unsupported means that they pulled all of their food and equipment all the way from coast to coast, breaking the record for the longest Continue Reading
Antarctic Research Blog #76 – Ice Bound (the book)
Non-fiction: Jerri Nielsen with Maryanne Vollers: Ice Bound (Ebury Press, 2001) I’ve already talked about Ice Bound the movie here, based on this very book. The book is Dr Jerri Nielsen’s own account of her time as the winter-over doctor at the U.S. South Pole station. She was stricken with Continue Reading
Antarctic Research Blog #75 – 90 South
Documentary: Herbert G. Ponting: 90 South (U.K. 1933) This is the sound version of Herbert Ponting’s earlier documentary of the final Scott expedition, The Great White South. Apparently, the images are quite the same, but there’s a voiceover narration by Ponting himself. The pictures are interesting, but I suspect only Continue Reading
Antarctic Research Blog #74: the Last Place on Earth
TV series: Ferdinand Fairfax: The Last Place on Earth (U.K. 1985) Based on Roland Huntford’s seminal book, this is a British TV series of seven episodes about the race for the South Pole. It’s definitely the best movie or tv series of any kind I’ve seen about the Heroic Period Continue Reading
Antarctic Research Blog #73: Encounters at the End of the World
Documentary: Werner Herzog: Encounters at the End of the World (U.S.A. 2007) A kind of a sequel to Herzog’s scifi speculation documentary The Wild Blue Yonder, this is a movie about the people who go to work in Antarctica. Its a very good movie, poetic and beautiful even when it Continue Reading
Antarctic Research Blog #72 – Shadows on the Wasteland
Non-fiction: Mike Stroud: Shadows on the Wasteland (Penguin, 1994) The copy I got from Amazon’s used books is signed! The book also has an unusually poetic title, with the reference to the T.S. Eliot poem Stroud also quotes at the beginning of the book: Who is the third who walks Continue Reading
Lumimyrsky documentation
(Photo by Aarni Korpela) I created a documentation page for my larp Lumimyrsky (Snowstorm), played in Ropecon 2008. You can access it by clicking on the link in the right sidebar or here.
Antarctic Research Blog #71: Scott of the Antarctic
Film: Charles Frend: Scott of the Antarctic (U.K. 1948) This is the old Ealing Studios version of Scott’s fatal, final adventure. At the time the movie was made, Scott was still a saint, and you can see it in the film. This is not a movie so much as a Continue Reading
Antarctic Research Blog #70: Virus
Film: Kinji Fukasaku: Virus (Japan, 1980) Virus is an Eighties catastrophe movie about a virus that kills everyone on Earth except for the people living on Antarctic bases. Its definitely a Cold War movie, with the Americans and Russians sharing the blame for the apocalypse that follows. As sometimes happens Continue Reading