Grand Sand

 No, That Is Not A Typo Of "Grandstand"

I do not refer to the BBC sports program, which was always on just before "Doctor Who" so when it's jaunty theme ended you knew the eerie theme from the BBC's premier dramamentary was going to begin, and for kids brought up on "The Woodentops" or "Bill And Ben" that theme tune was quite terrifying.  Well, now that I've mentioned the series I'd better put up a picture, hadn't I?

     Where were we?

     O yes.  Your Humble Scribe finished watching "Lawrence Of Arabia" last night, and then spent another hour watching "The Making Of" documentary, which was just as interesting as the film.  Art!

Ignore the reflections!  Ignore the reflections!

     FYI, since he was only a Captain he should not have retained his rank.  Liddell Hart was a shameless self-promoter who buffed his reputation up whilst alive, since when it has tarnished severely.

     Then we come to casting.  Marlon Brando was initially in the producer's sights, except he noped out soonest.  Then they selected Albert Finney, who did a full screen test with costume and set and everything, and the crew thought he was superb.  Art!

     Except he turned them down.  Enter Peter O'Toole, who explained it was no picnic being out in 127 degrees in the Jordanian desert, and full of fleas, because when you see him riding a camel, that's Peter O'Toole riding a camel.  He arrived a month before shooting started in order to acquire camel-riding skills.  Art!

     Because the director was David Lean, when you see a mass of hundreds of horse and camel cavalry, that really is a mass of cavalry, and Ol' Pete was concerned that if he fell off, since there was so much dust, nobody would see him and his mangled corpse would only be found when the whole horde had passed.  To prevent this Mister Lean had his best riders behind Ol' Pete, to make sure nobody bumped into him.  He didn't tell Petey, though.  Art!

     Here we find where today's title comes from.  When a scene was shot, it had to be on pristine virgin sands, which created a problem thanks to the paper cups used for drinking, as these would often blow onto the sands and have to be recovered by a crewmember, who then had to smooth out their footsteps with a rake.  The Production Designer described his incandescent rage when one of the local crew drove a Landrover right across the sands they had prepared to shoot against.  Art!

     It was so hot during daytime that the temperature began to affect the film in it's reels, to which the answer was a wet towel draped over the top of the camera and kept wet, with unused and shot reels being stored in a refrigerated truck.  I bet there were envious glances from cast and crew at that truck ...

     There is more, and we may come back to it.  For the time being, motley, we'll sit in the oven on Gas Mark 1.5 to get a sense of the Jordanian desert.

Wow.  Just Wow

As you should surely know by now, Conrad is fond of astronomical subjects, so anything to do with the Apollo moonshots is of interest automatically, and what's this on the BBC's webpage?  An item about Apollo photographs and how a property developer from Cheshire became a self-taught expert in film re-mastering.  He is Andy Saunders, who went through 35,000 photographs to process 400 that now have a level of clarity that is gobsmacking.  Art!

Before

Very much after

     There are other photographs that have been compiled from film sequences rather than still shots, which again show a startling increase in detail.  Art!

     Conrad hasn't yet checked out how much this volume is going to cost, but you can bet Abebooks is going to get a search or two on this title.  Art!

     Dog Buns.  £45.40.  Hey, I was fearful it might be in the hundreds of pounds.

A Bit Of Gloasting

Conrad was a little flabbergasted when checking the blog's visitor stats earlier this morning, because we're now looking at totals as they were before traffic fell off a cliff in May.  Allow me to motivate Art with this toasting-fork -

     I wonder, I wonder - Art!

     I see Pavel and his mates are still hanging in there - probably a few of the FSB chaps that got themselves fired.  Must come up with another insulting nickname for Bloaty Gas Tout.

Back To "The Sea Of Sand"

Our favourite Time Lord and two archaeologists are warily keeping tabs on an alien machine that has emerged from beneath the desert sands at Makin Al-Jinni.

The funnel lip became shallower, allowing another machine identical to the first to appear and begin to shift more sand.  This process was repeated every five minutes, until a dozen vehicles were moving around the complex.

     "What are they doing?" asked Albert.  

     "Excavating" replied Templeman.  "Completing the work we started.  Which proves that there's a structure under there to be excavated."  He turned slightly to face The Doctor, whilst still watching the synchronised ballet of the excavators.  "We probed the sand with poles and there is an unyielding object at that location.  It is too level and regular to be a natural rock formation."

     More activity at the brink of the sand basin caught their attention.  The Doctor's telescope resolved another black object, a cylindrical tube, the end projecting well beyond the edge of the sand basin, and running back to the sands within.  It was supported clear of the sands by a pair of transverse rollers and the muzzle began to spout a steady stream of sand, throwing it beyond the brink.  Very slowly the rollers moved the tube along the crest.

     "Sub-surface sand removal," explained The Doctor to a puzzled Albert.  "That pipe extends all the way back into this complex and is moving sand from around the very bottom of buildings."

     So, shifting sand, hmmmm?  Clearly not very sinister - yet.

Rail Fail

File this one under "Unsolved Mystery" because the evidence is there, it's just that there's no explanation for it.  Okay, let's have a look at picturesque Lake Pend Oreille - pronounced 'Pend O'ray' over in South Canada.  Art!

     Like all lakes, it is big, wide and wet.  Unlike all other lakes, this one has a train at the bottom of it, as discovered by a local diver.  Art!

Rail

     It appears to be a Baldwin locomotive, from 1900 plus or minus a few years, but there is absolutely no story about a locomotive going missing in state records searched through from 1880 to 1920.  There are no news stories about it.  Indeed, until that diver found it, nobody had the remotest inkling it was there.

     There is speculation that it may have been a train fleeing the gigantic forest fires of 1910, took a bend too fast and went into the lake - but again, no reports of missing trains.  A rather large Hmmmm!

Finally -

Blimey, I've had to put a great big tub of the stew I made earlier this week in the freezer, after having more of it on toast for a hearty breakfast, and having it for a couple of meals, and that was only from the Overflow Tub, not the big one.  There's enough to serve eight people, and in this weather - it's a good few months too early for stew.  Plus, I don't know what ingredient turned the whole thing grey?