National Geographic's Crittercams

I recently read the interesting article about National Geographic's Jumbo Squid Flash, Flail in First Ever Squid-cam Video, and like most of the web versions of their articles, it was loaded with interesting links, such as the one to their Crittercam site.

From there, you can explore "virtual worlds" that are all, to some extent, marine: Antarctica via a leopard seal's crittercam, the Arctic via a bearded seal, or the deep sea via a cam on a sperm whale. The site is very well organized with sections for kids, educators, & researchers, as well as interactive missions, and, of course, maps--plus much, much more.

And if you're interested in scientific papers, do follow the researchers link to Crittercam-Related Publications, a 5-page .pdf file loaded with citations to marine animal imaging.

Scrap Vessel, a film by Jason Byrne

Scrap Vessel, made at CalArts in 2009, documents the last voyage of the Hari Funafuti (ex Bulk Promotor, ex Hupohai), from China to its breaking in Bangladesh. The filmmakers boarded in Singapore and joined the crew in exploring the ship and the mementos of its past that former crewmembers left behind, before filming its dismantling on the beach. The journey didn't end there--they followed the pieces to the Ali Rolling Mill, where the scraps were melted down, bringing the story of the Hari Funafuti's life as a vessel to an end.

The film has begun to tour, and will be shown at the 2010 Asian American Film Festival on Monday, Mar. 15 and Wednesday, Mar. 17. Upcoming screenings will be announced in the screenings section of their website.

And if you're at a venue that would like to screen the film, contact the crew--the director would like to bring the film, vessel plans, and various artifacts, and take the time for a Q&A with your audience.

And if you can't make it to a screening, stay tuned--a DVD version is expected to be ready later this year or early next, and its availability will be announced on their site.

Image property of Scrap Vessel

Popeye cartoons and radio shows

Love him or hate him, one of the most known fictional sailors is Popeye. Starting as a character in the Thimble Theater comic strip in 1929, he later appeared in cartoons, films, books--and on the radio.

The Internet Archive has made many Popeye cartoons available--there is a media type limit available via a pull-down list to the right of the search box on their home page--you'll find "Animation and cartoons" under the "Moving Images" type.

Likewise, you can limit your search to "Audio" to find audio recordings, including six episodes of Popeye the Sailor from their Old Time Radio collection.

And if you want everything they have related to Popeye, leave the limit set to "All Media Types," then use the links on the right of the page to group your results conveniently by Media Type or Collection.

New Villiers resources, and pirates!

Douglas McCarthy (with the Picture Library at NMM, Greenwich), sends along some wonderful new resources. First, new collections are available at nmmimages.com, the Picture Library online:

Pirates: Buccaneers, treasure, dastardly deeds aplenty (real and fictional). This is a wonderful collection, including famous, familiar images, and delightful surprises such as the pirates dressed as women to try to fool a merchant ship.

Alan Villiers: life in the last days of sail. A talented photographer, Villiers' images are full of life and beauty.

In addition to these large collections of images, the Museum has just published a new book on Villiers, Alan Villiers: Voyager of the Winds by Kate Lance.

Even if you don't think you'll buy the book, go to its website and follow the links on the right side of the page--there's a clip from his film, "The Cape Horn Road" (don't miss the adorable cat!), and links to Villiers photos both on the nmmimages.com site and on Flickr commons.

Thank you, Douglas!

Early photography resources

The January 2009 issue of College & Research Libraries News contains a fantastic article, Uncapping the lens : the history of early photography by Ellen Bahr. (Write down the rest of the citation, since the ALA website is notorious for changing its links & the difficulty of navigating it: C&RL News, Jan. 2009, v.70, no.1, p. 32-35. This way, you can always borrow the article via interlibrary loan!)

The article contains a listing of photography sites of interest to anyone involved with any aspect of early photography--even including late 20th century photography processes. The print article is a little easier to scan than the online version; major sections include:

• Overviews
  
• Timelines
  
• Overviews of photographic processes
  
• Individual photographic processes
  
• Materials and workshops
  
• Podcasts
  
• Discussion lists
  
• Organizations
  
• Preservation
  
• Portals
  
• Exhibition catalogs
  
• Searchable image collections
  
• Historians
  

Many thanks to my colleague, Keri Koehler, for passing this issue on to me.

Lecture: Balclutha in the movies

The Friends of the San Francisco Maritime Museum Library send along this lecture announcement:

Balclutha in the Movies
Saturday, January 10, 2009, 6:00 p.m. In the Maritime Library, Building E, Fort Mason Center. Donation:$5($4 Library Friends and SFMNPA) Reservations: 415-561-7040 or melani_van_petten@partner.nps.gov

Park Ranger Debbie Grace will briefly tell the story of Balcutha’s movie career, including Mutiny on the Bounty, with Clark Gable. Her introduction will be followed by a showing of Souls At Sea, a rousing story of the slave trade in the 1850’s. The movie stars the Star of Finland as the William Brown, and includes the Star of Alaska (ex-Balclutha) in a supporting role. Gary Cooper and George Raft are also featured.

TIA: This is the library where I work.

Surf's up!

To celebrate its "Summer Surf" film series, the Library of Congress has posted an an interview with John Severson, founder of Surfer Magazine and director of "Pacific Vibrations." In a short interview, they cover a lot of ground (or water): surfing, making surfing films, making films today, and where the genre is headed.