Life, Meet Art

No!
I do not refer to our resident coal-eating sloven Art, the Neanderthal with a pash for Mara Corday.*  I refer to the high-concept representation of human imagination by manipulation of the real world.  Pictures, statues and shizzle like that.
     Okay, cast your minds back across the years to 1853, and then ignore that, because it's not when we're going.  Instead we want 1967, which is when the film "You Only Live Twice" emerged.  Art?

Look, ma - no-handed flying!

     If you remember, this is the one with Ken Adam's brilliant set for the eeevil lair of arch-villain Ersnt Stavro Blofeld, set inside a volcano.  Art?

Set the template for all other arch-villains

     Conrad is not sure how they managed to sculpt the interior of this base, nor import all the hardware, and the personnel and the toilet rolls without being discovered, but there you go - IITS.  Anyway, it all ends in tears, because our hero James foils ESB, who, in a fit of pique, sets the base to self-destruct, which then blows up.  Art?

Probably works as a tax write-off, mind

     This sprung to mind when I read about the real-life Japanese location where YOLT was filmed, and how it is now erupting into - what's that?  No!  James Bond films are NOT documentaries or reconstructions!  Sorry to  burst your bubble.  Blimey, next you'll be questioning the dramamentary status of Doctor Who - erupting into such dangerous activity that people within two miles are being warned about the potential hazards of falling rocks.  Art?

The real thing

     Life in Japan: bullet trains, manga, exploding volcanoes and Godzilla.     
     As I say, this brought home one of my objections about establishing your Sekrit Layr inside a volcano: you never know when it will move from "Extinct" to "Dormant", nor from "Dormant" to "Active".  Yes, I know that vulcanologists say the move from Extinct to Dormant has never happened yet, but it only takes them to be proven wrong once ...
     Time to put the motley into the log flume, strapped to a broomstick backwards!

Further Of Food
I may not have mentioned this before, but the workforce I labour amongst in the Dark Tower is quite cosmopolitan, to the extent that UKIPpers or nasty Little Englanders would swoon with horror.  We have Azerbaijanis, Poles, Spaniards, Lithuanians, Germans and - a real mark of tolerance - Yorkshiremen.  
     This came to light during our Big Buffet of Friday.  Art?

     In the foreground we have Damian's (Polish) Sourdough with Sun-dried Tomato Bread, and he explained how to make it to your humble scribe - you know, me being into baking and stuff - and it seems like quite the long-winded faff, so thanks for making it.
     Behind that we have Jimena's (Spanish) Spanish Omelette, which is far superior to any such that I have tried to make myself.  Those potato slices were so thin she must have done them with a razor blade.

More Of Matters Martial
As you may know, your humble scribe's imagination is principally visual, so he very much appreciates those military histories which include a decent map.  He also curses those that have two wavy lines, an arrow and a dot with a town name against it and which pretend to be an useful description of anything.
     So!  In aid of further enlightenment, I am going to try and follow the Battle of El Alamein with the aid of a map bigger than any you will find in a book.  Art?

With can of beer - er - for scale

     This is a fairly basic hex-and-counter boardgame.  Above you see the British in green, and the Axis in buff, so I now have to find an account of the battle which lists units down to about brigade level, and then see if I can make sense of things by moving the counters around, in accordance with what's described in the book.  John Strawson's "El Alamein" has already been found wanting - not detailed enough.  Pretty sure Niaill Barr's book will be too detailed.   Oh well, we shall see!

Ah.  Mara Corday.  Art strikes again.  Well, it could be worse, at least it's only from the neck upwards

*  Mentioning her is a calculated risk - we might get an avalanche of her photos from Art.