Enough doom and gloom

Banks, insurance companies, financial this, going bust that. I'm bored with it. Let's cheer up...

Well, don't see The Women, that will just annoy you. Taken might be cool, out next week, Liam Neeson as a stone-cold killer. Then there is Robert and Al together again in Righteous Kill, hmmm, we'll see. I liked The Chaser, Korean new wave at its best. Total escapism, in the film and in the audience, and great performances. Await the Hollywood remake, which hopefully will do it justice.

Okay, more Colorado snaps. This is the view from the American Eagles site I told you about. Now I wonder when those miners came back up with handfuls of gold and saw this site, they ever thought gold's price could reach the $1,000 an ounce it did this year. I'd love to know what they sold it for, 'cause $1,000 would probably have bought a huge piece of Colorado back then. I look at the pics of the mines though and it does remind me of There Will Be Blood. Now I know that's a different commodity, but there just seemed to be a drive to physically find both of them back then. Now, they seem to be a today price or a future price to be gambled on.

And that brings me to ...

I am going to make a short film with the footage of the Colorado trip. A comparison of the mining back then and the strip mining now. Basically, a little short documentary, taking no sides, 'cause I am sure that if, back then, they had the equipment we have now, they would not have needed, nor wanted, that blacksmith's shop at the top of a damn mountain! Btw, I climbed up that easy slope, from the carpark, not so easy, and I bet it was hard for those horses laden with gold. Well at least the load was only downhill. They must have dreaded the return trip, to start all over again.

Fadin' out...

I've been away so long...

where can I start.

Three years eh. OK, quick synopsis, left job, no leaving present, great leaving do, lunched for a year, work was minimal, met lovely guy, walked more, travelled a bit, freelance now. Wow, three years goes fast.

I am so happy at the mo. Just had a freelance job kinda confirmed for the forseeable and that is great. I am dithering with my fiction writing, don't know why, maybe it's still too raw.

Anyway, in the meantime, here are some pics of one of my travels this year.

I fell in love with Colorado, I know, how weird is that. Small place Colorado Springs considering how big the state is, but oh my, how beautiful is that scenery.

Did you know you can drive up Pike's Peak, well in a four-wheel, even in a snow storm in March. I whined about my headache only to look online to find it was a symptom of altitude sickness. How was I supposed to know, it was only 11,000ft :-0
I love the advice online tho, if you have altitude sickness the best cure is....to come back down, yup, that easy.

My favourite thing in Colorado tho, and my little mission, was to find Ghost Towns. They seem so Hollywood and detached on the screen, but when we got to Victor, an old gold-rush town where strip mining is now the deal, and found it literally closing down, it was really sad. Reality sad.

However, a drive up the mountain next door and there it was, the American Eagles protected site. An old mineshaft, blacksmiths shop and the amazing view over to Pike's Peak. These guys might have mined but they had respect for the land. I'm not sure that is quite the case now.

Cripple Creek just up the way from Victor is thriving on gambling, hey gold miners and gambling must have gotten along like Laurel and Hardy in all their best movies. We did drive the shelf road all the way out of there tho. I recommend that. I hate heights but wow. Those guys were determined to get that gold out of there and not be ambushed: sheer cliff one side, sheer drop the other, no room for bandits.

I'm thinking of making a short film about the whole experience. Mebbe...

Fadin' out