Man Food -a short clip about Antarctic Cooking!

This post is out of context with my most recent, but its relevant with regards to the season thats just past at the Halley VI site.

Re-Wind back to Feb and in I am still in Antarctica, the guys at the Halley VI remote site are enjoying good food cooked by a great chef (Shaggy). In appreciation for his hard work we decided to make a film in his honour.... this video is the trailer for that movie...which I must add we abandoned after making only the trailer, for reasons that will become clear if you decide to watch the trailer.(By The way just for your information "Man Food" is the slang name for survival food in Antarctica).

Shaggy-_Man_Food.m4v Watch on Posterous

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LA LA LAND, California USA

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Los Angeles has never been somewhere I would consider going too on Holiday. It's not even somewhere I would have considered going to for a quick visit. The stereotype of LA LA LAND with it's plastic surgery and it's cult of celebrity is actually so undesirable, as to actually be off putting. So when it was suggested to me to make the place the hub for my trip to the states, I wasn't too enthusiastic.

The truth is to get from Rio to America isn't that easy. To fly from Rio you are limited to very few options and it can be quite expensive,that's if your not on one of the main routes. I read that there are only six destination that you can fly direct to Rio and after that you have to make connections. To get to LA I had to make two connections one in Peru and one in El Salvador. Though this was a nuisance it did allow me to get out of South America for a very budget price and by flying to LA it was significantly cheaper to go there than fly to most of the other states I had considered. I had made it my priority to go to the Grand Canyon and California is well placed to do this so Los Angeles seemed like a good option. What I hadn't anticipated was to fall in love with the place..I really did.

A lot had to do with finding a brilliant hostel in the centre of Hollywood which had once been the home of Marilyn Monroe. It had lots of character and history that added another dimension to my stay. That said i found Hollywood on the whole to be brilliant. I had heard a lot of bad stuff about Hollywood , people had said it's a dump...it's not what you expect, and that's sort of true...but what is there is so cool that it doesn't matter. If like me you like the movies then the place seduces you almost as soon as you see the Hollywood sign. The walk of fame is strangely fun to walk down, the Chinese Treater has it's own gravity that draws you in. Rather than ramble on and on the following is a list of things which I loved about my stay. 1. Staying in a brilliant Hostel 2. Searching out a good place to get a photo of the Hollywood sign. 3. Saying Iam not bothered about the walk of fame then spending half a morning trying to find Marilyn Monroes star. 4. Stumbling upon Elizabeth Taylors Star and watching all the tributes mount up. 5.Seeing Penelope Cruzes star being made and missing her by two days! 6. Watching a slightly average movie called "Paul" in the Chinese Theater which I might add boasts a HD experience like no other and renders the movie even more average! 7. Seeing the Premier for Sucker Punch. 8. Walking past Hellen Miren doing her foot and handprints and not realising what was happening! 10. Getting lost in the Hollywood hills when trying to walk back from Universal City. 11.Watching live music at howl to the moon and really bad comedy at another bar in Universal City. 12. Gong to see Bill Maher for free. Check this site out for free tickets. 13. Union Station 14. Feeling safe on the tube. 15. Visiting Compton 16. Seeing Superheroes on the blvd. The list goes on and on... And considering I wasn't fussed about going there there was so much I didn't do, I didn't go on a tour of homes, never visited Bel Air or Beverly Hills, didn't go Santa Monica or any of the beaches, Disneyland or Universal Studios. The place is packed with things that seduce you and I was gutted to leave but that said the places I went to after LA I felt the same about both San Francisco and New York play the same trick on me of trying to me a resident!

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The Runcast Antarctica!

I posted a version of this video early last year but pulled it due to the use of some of the images contained within the video. I have since edited and I am re-posting it here for the first time.

This is a video I made during a the 09/10 season when I trained and completed an Antarctic Marathon. I made it to capture the effort of training as well as capture the works and the enviroment that where on going whilst I trained. Hope you like this video its been a long time coming.

Can I also apologies for the poor quality, but its all that has survived of this version and I still think this is of a reasonable standard.   

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Escape 01: Ascension Island

Welcome to to "The Escaped Podcast" A podcast for Vagabonds, Tech-nomads, Runaways and anyone else who has broken free and are running wild.

This was essentially meant to be my Running podcast but I was a bit shy of talking and also have a love of electronic music which i wanted to be the backbone to my podcast. I have therefore opted for a podcast that focuses on my music as something to listen too whilst out on your runs. Giving you a tempo to get in tune with. It will be a monthly podcasts with a mix posted to SoundCloud and also uploaded here for download. I will also be posting the occasional spoken audio podcast to supplement the mixes but these wont be posted to Sound Cloud only here on Posterous.

 <span>The Ascension Mix by Solshadow</span> 

This first mix which Ive posted I recorded with a friend of mine (Jake) whilst we were working on Ascension island in the South Atlantic (somewhere mid way between Brazil and Africa) mid last summer. It was originally recorded to send to a friend for him to use in a podcast but I didn't like the start. The quality sounded really bad and the overall mix is quite dark and foreboding. Since then I've re-listened to it and grown to like it, after all its a moment in time that I can never change but always try to better, i've posted it hear to motivate myself to do exactly that and try and post a mix that is better some time soon,will also dig out a track list.

 

The main purpose for me posting this is really to act as a prelude for things to come and get things started, in the future i will be focusing on Places ive been too and trying to capture some of the mood and Atmosphere of these place in the mix...the next one i have planned is going to be Brilliant as it will be focussed on Antarctica as a place to escape too, until then  I hope you like this one and any comments will be appreciated. 

You can download this from the link below or from SoundCloud or by using one of those fancy RSS type feed which at the moment I have no idea how they work but its my next job to find out.

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Las Vegas, Nevada USA

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My trip back from the Grand Canyon was eventful. The Amtrak train that was travelling from Chicago to LA broke down and had to be replaced midway with a makeshift freight train with a max speed of about 30 mph. As a result it was about 6hrs late when it picked us up from Williams and loosing time with every mile it travelled!

As a consequence I missed my connection to Las Vegas but I did manage to spend sometime in the company of a real life Crystal Meth addict which was quite enlightening and on a par with my expectations of Vegas.

When I did get back to LA I checked my tickets to San Francisco and discovered I had an extra day in LA, so I was able to jump on the Greyhound bus and still get to see Las Vegas.

When I first arrived, the first place I went to first was Circus-Circus and i was struck instantly by the noise! An endless evolving loop of bleeps (loving techno music I should have been in my element but the chaotic nature of this sound unnerved me- you should check my last post to hear what it was like).

The second thing that struck me was that's if your not in the game then your redundant and serve no purpose! I played my small bets and once I reached the point that I didn't want to go any further pulled myself away and became an observer. It was at this point I stopped enjoying my self, all I saw from this point forward was the faces of Greed, desperation, consumption , occasional fleeting happiness ....some jealousy and a lot of despair! It wasn't really my idea of a good time and I had this claustrophobic feeling the struck me moments after I stepped off the bus and just became stronger as the night went on.

Looking back I realised one thing in Vegas...Its not your bad dudes on the street..not the mafia or the so called underclass that scare me in society. With those people at least they may give you some sort of chance, some sort of fair odds! And if the worst comes to the worst you can always run. What scares me more is the faceless corporations that have lost sight of the people and just see us as a way to farm money. In Vegas its the likes MGM (who own everything) and in rest of society it's the big banks and corporations. These are the guys who scare me...faceless, inhuman and unstoppable, with a desire to own you and feed from you. When I think about it it's these guys who are at the root of so much modern day misery! This really hit home as I walked the Strip at 4:30am and has stayed with me ever since.

Anyway... sorry to go off on such a downer, it was'nt all doom and gloom, I did enjoy one thing about Vegas and that was the Beatles tie-in at the Mirage Hotel ...maybe one day Vegas will be more about Entertainment and less about trying to fleece you of all your money...maybe if they got the balance then I might consider going back, for now I think I will just be content knowing that there are other place that do cater for these things...like my home city of Liverpool!

As a final point, just an observation but Vegas was quick to pay homage to Liverpools history with a the Beatles show but doesn't pay the same respects to it's own history- all the old Elvis and Rat-Pack Vegas has been knocked down to make space for the super-casinos...why because it doesn't bring in the revenue! This actually shocked me more than some of the £2000 bets I saw placed...any way that's enough about Vegas, hope you like the photos!

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