Get Carpark!

News comes of the imminent destruction of the multi-story parking garage (and Get Carter film location) at the Trinity Gateshead Centre.

The car park was designed in 1962, when Brutalism was regarded as the cutting edge of architecture, but by the time that it opened in 1969, interest in the movement had begun to decline. The building's raw concrete weathered poorly, and by the time Get Carter was filmed the following year, the car park had already become an emblem for decline.

Here is a page dedicated to documenting the process.

Finally, I decided to see if I could find the thing on Flashearth, but got a bit muddled. From all the different things I could find, I've managed to narrow the garage down to two places, shown here:



If I am understanding what I have found correctly, the site indicated by the lower circle is the garage. The upper circle indicates the structure that looks right to me.

A particularly silly castle

This is Castle Doune, where most of the various castle scenes from Monty Python and the Holy Grail were filmed.


Have a look.

Not filmed at Castle Doune were the final scenes of the film. They were done at Castle Stalker which can be found here (currently not nearly as good resolution).

Album cover location hunt

Another in an intermittent series:

The cover photo from Paul's Boutique (US, UK) - shot here.


You can also see it in street view at Google Maps

Garlic?

Garlic!

I'm just a big old beta-testing fool

Blogger has opened up access to some of the functionality that they are still tinkering with in a service that they call "Blogger in Draft."

The upshot is, if you are an adventurous blogger you can sign in and watch as all sorts of goofy extra buttons pop up and go away.

First up on the testing block - video!

Funny that, as I had just decided to start noodling with my digital camera's crappy little video function, so I happen to have a crappy little video on hand:



For the curious, I was here when I shot that. I will be explaining in a little bit.

Where the Banshees live and they do live well

I was looking at the recent news about recent archaeological discoveries near Stonehenge and decided to see what there was to see on the ol' satellite view.

Here's Stonehenge:


and over a bit to the north and east you can see this bit of business which looks like the "woodhenge" pictured here


Of course as far as I know, that's just someone staking out a new subdivision or something.

Buying the New Yorker 1986 - page 44

Not knowing much of anything about golf, I was inclined to think that the 19th hole was something rude. (and that "Arizona style" was even ruder.)

Shame on me - they're talking about the bar.

The Wigwam is still there, but they are downplaying the "bunch of cowboys" vibe and going for a "wealthy pueblo" look.

Digging into the Wigwam's site I discover that they are "the Official Spring Training Resort of The Kansas City Royals." I wasn't sure if that meant that they actually trained there or not, so I looked it up. The Royals train at Surprise Stadium, which is 22 miles away. Here's the satellite view of Surprise Stadium. I like that it ended up on the corner of N. Slugger Way and W. Curveball Lane. What are the chances?


In the course of looking at all of these ads I have learned that many of the vendors take an active interest in what is said about them on the internet. Generally this has taught me that I can, on the one hand, state my opinion, but on the other hand, I should be fair. My taste is not the same as all tastes. There are some things that I personally have no interest in, either aesthetically or from a lifestyle perspective. But I do try to recognise that these folks are doing their best to put out a product that is, to their eyes, excellent.

It is because of this that I look at this ad and think "Dear heavens, Brunschwig & Fils, how many golden retrievers did you have to mug to get the bandannas that were used to upholster that poor innocent chair?"

And then I feel bad.

Buying the New Yorker 1996 - page 41

All of the ads on this page fall into the category of "Homes & Estates." I'm not sure why they need to delegate a page for this every other issue as we've seen that there is already quite a lot of ads like this.

For example, here's more from Kiawah Island. We just saw them a page ago. Bless their hearts. Here they are from the satellite. Heaven's, there's a lot of golfing to be done.

The website for the "London Flats" and "Cotswold Cottages" didn't look too promising, and sure enough, it brings up a 404 error. So I tried just the domain, ditell.com. It's now part of the Overstock.com travel network, and is a conduit for info about Park City, Utah. Time and the internet will eventually sweep all clean.

Bonnie Bachman seems to still be in the realty game, but as the industry is a slippery one, I can't quite find my way to a site that is definitely hers. Meanwhile, Google seems absolutely convinced that the person I am trying to find information on is Tal Bachman (His website is down at the moment but continue on to his message board so you can talk about "all things Tal"). So in addition to looking around all sorts of half-active realty sites for places that I don't want to live in, I have that blasted "She's So High Above Me" song wedged in my head.

When I found my way to the Vacances Provancales Vacations site, I saw that it has a tab for "barging." My first reaction was that they mean as in "barging into someone's house and taking it over as a vacation rental." No, they mean those seven day river cruises. Just picture yourself in a boat on a river. (I say that only as an attempt to get the last song out of my head. It didn't work.)

The Farnum & Christ Page has weekly flat lets starting at £700 ($1,288 by my reckoning). Not too much of an increase in ten years. Until you notice that the $1,014 price in the 1996 ad included airfare. Which would have been an astonishingly good deal. Unless the ad means that the $1.014 is the deal they can get you on airfare when you let a flat from them. If I might venture an opinion, I would have to say that the phrase "English Charm with American Standards" seems to me more of a compromise than an aspirational goal, but then I also think that "Farnum & Christ" sounds like a perfect name for a most excellent circus.

Fearrington, North Carolina was originally a farm. Now it is being done up as a "relaxed country community." In other words, retirement. Of course, they want to downplay the "we're just a bunch of old people" angle by saying that they are "full of . . .Fascinating people of all ages." Bonus!: They have recently acquired "a wonderful herd of Belted Tennessee Fainting Goats. . . . Named for their muscular condition known as 'myotonic,' the fainting goats do not truly 'faint' but stiffen when startled."

More satellite fun

Windows Live Local has just had a major update of the UK. Apart from some interface troubles (Mac Users will find that Firefox is the best browser choice). The image below is for a friend who could use a smile.

Buying the New Yorker 1996 - page 25

El Castillo San Felipe del Morro is one of those places where you look at a map of the area, and you know exactly where the fort is going to go. Take a look on Google Maps, you'll see what I mean. No wonder the thing has been there since 1539. You can learn more from Wikipedia, the Puerto Rican Tourism Company and the National Park Service. It looks like a fascinating place.

However, from the ad copy, I am worried that it might drive me insane.

The color of progress

Longtime visitors will know my love of poking around the Google Satellite Maps. One of the most interesting things I've noticed is the way the sunlight refracts off of the British Museum's great court, turning it blue. At right is an image from Google Sightseeing

The other day, Google had a massive update of their satellite imagery (You can zoom in closer now!) The views of London are particularly fine, especially as the older images were taken from a low angle so it sort of felt like you were hanging upside down when you looked at it. Now look at The British Museum here.

This one's for you, Mom.

One of the stories that I recall hearing about the trip to Europe that my parents took in their youth regards my mother's enthusiasm when she discovered that their driving plan took them across the border between a country where cars drove on the left side of the road to one where they drove on the right.

Being a clever person with the heart and soul of an engineer, she set about wondering how the switchover would manifest itself. I believe that she was hoping for an elaborate set of ramps. Not that I find anything wrong with that, I too enjoy driving along elaborate ramps, and look forward to journeys where I can do so. (I am hoping to one day drive along the Norwegian northwest coast highway, as it looks like a big bunch of fun.)

The story goes that when they arrived at the changeover, they found a uniformed policeman who blew a whistle, stopped them, waved some cars coming the other direction to cross in front of them, and then sent them on their way.

Disappointment!

The Google Sightseeing page brings us a shot of The Lotus Bridge, which connects China (drives on the right) and Macau (drives on the left).

Now this is how it should be done.

The loops are enticing, no? Perhaps some week when I have nothing better to do, I will go to China and drive back and forth across the bridge. In the process, I am sure to make friends with all of the customs officials and help further international good will.

As with almost all things, you can learn far more than you ever needed to know about driving sidedness at Wikipedia.

As I walked out in the streets of Laredo,

Here are some of the streets of Laredo, via google maps

Google Satellite maps slowly covers Norway!

Here's Vigeland Park.

For more on the park, look here.

Questions? Lets go the the skycam.

Floating in the middle of the Thames is this interesting contraption:


On the side it says "I Eat Rubbish." It seems to be some sort of trash collecting filter thing, but I haven't been able to find any information on how it works. Here it is on Google Maps.

A bit up stream we can see this set of structures:


An interesting set of structures, don't you think? A look from the satellite helps to show that these columns line up with the bridge on the left. Is it coming down, or going up, or halfway between?