Recently picked up Grand Theft Auto V again after a lengthy hiatus from playing.
Being interested in photography, it was only a matter of time before I rediscovered the in-game camera phone… I really need to start taking and posting more real-life photos.
(This is a follow-up to my December 2013 post GTAography)
Originally published in Maclean’s Magazine, May 28, 1955.
A MACLEAN’S FLASHBACK
By Stanley Fillmore
Almost Every Home In London, Ontario, Was Draped In Mourning When The Bodies Of a Hundred And Eighty-One Victoria Day Excursionists Formed The Final Link In An Incredible Chain Of Blundering Irresponsibility.
On a sparkling Tuesday in May 1881, while Queen Victoria was celebrating her sixty- second birthday in London, England, a steamboat, also named VICTORIA, was cruising
on the Thames River near London, Ontario, crowded with more than six hundred exuberant excursionists. Suddenly, something happened.
From his seat in a racing skiff less than a hundred yards off the VICTORIA’s starboard bow, Harry Nicholls watched the boat wallow toward London. He saw her rock ponderously from side to side responding to the motion of the upper-deck passengers who were running from rail to rail. The unusual swaying did not startle Nicholls who was aware of the VICTORIA’s shallow draft, but as he watched he saw the rocking increase until inches of water were shipped at each swing. Suddenly, with a roar of hissing steam, the boat’s huge boiler broke loose from its mounting and crashed through the bulwarks. Water poured through the opening and Nicholls was enwrapped in a cloud of live steam. With a slow, almost deliberate, movement the VICTORIA settled on her side. From both decks passengers were catapulted into the river. Nicholls heard the muffled screams of those trapped between decks. His slim shell was almost swamped in the wake as the VICTORIA went down.
At least a hundred and eighty-one persons drowned on the May 24 excursion; of these, a hundred and ten were children. It was the blackest day in London’s history, the result of an almost incredible series of blunders that could easily have been averted.
By nightfall the flags that bedecked London homes and businesses to mark the Queen’s birthday were lowered to half-mast. For eight days afterward, the dead who had been hooked from the river were carried to their graves. Funeral directors started work before dawn and were still conducting services long after dark. The supply of coffins in London was exhausted the first day and one infant was buried in an adult casket.
All London’s nineteen thousand residents lost relatives or friends. One family, the Fryers, lost five members. By official decree a black armband became a Londoner’s badge of mourning for a thirty-day period. Business firms and schools closed for two days. Most homes in the city were draped in mourning. One milliner advertised in the London Advertiser: “Family mournings at A. B. Powell and Co. who are showing a large range of crapes and mourning-dress material. Our prices are low. Millinery orders executed at the shortest possible notice. Also dressmaking orders.” Draymen charged double their usual funeral rates.
After two years of being in the journalism program at Fanshawe College, I can finally look back at my time in it, and reflect. Reflect about what? Well, listening to my older newscasts, reflect on how far I’ve come when speaking into a microphone.
Being the digital packrat I am, I tracked down both my first cast done for the program (which was really a pre-recorded newscast for an assignment and never actually went on air) and my last newscasts done for the X this past March.
First off, the pre-recorded newscast from September 26, 2012.
And now a news update from 6:30am on March 14, 2014 (I would post the very last, done at noon with Emina, but I can’t find it on my computer! Of all the things!..)
It’s not the greatest clip, as I was still waking up. That being said, there still is a good difference (somewhat) between September 2012 me and March 2014 me.
I’m still in the midst of sorting through audio (LOTS OF AUDIO), files, and documents from my time in the program. There’s no doubt that more stuff will make its way up here.
A bit of a throwback here. I put together this hour-long podcast full of nothing but Beatles tunes back in 2012. I still like how it turned out, so here it is!
Nothing but fab-four for an hour.
——————————————
30 Minutes of Music – Episode 6 ORIGINAL POST DATE: May 26, 2012
60 minutes – 256kbps *Sounds best with over-the-ear headphones*
0:00 – A Beginning (Anthology 3)
0:50 – Hey Bulldog (Yellow Submarine Songbook)
3:57 – Flying (Magical Mystery Tour)
6:03 – Baby’s In Black (Take 7)
6:16 – Baby’s In Black (Beatles For Sale)
8:16 – I’m Looking Through You (Take 1)
11:18 – Don’t Bother Me (With The Beatles)
13:41 – Helter Skelter (The White Album)
18:11 – The Word (Rubber Soul)
20:52 – You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away (Take 5) (Anthology 2)
21:16 – You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away (Help!)
23:23 – Misery (Take 1)
25:14 – She Loves You (3rd-Party Stereo Mix)
27:32 – Hold Me Tight (Take 22)
28:19 – Hold Me Tight (Take 23)
28:55 – Hold Me Tight (Take 24)
28:58 – Hold Me Tight (With The Beatles)
31:26 – And Your Bird Can Sing (Take 2)
33:46 – A Day In The Life (Take 1)
34:18 – A Day In The Life (Take 6)
38:37 – Sgt. Peppers Hearts Club Band (Own Acapella mix with crowd/audience sfx.)
40:20 – Got To Get You Into My Life (Take 5) (Anthology 2)
43:06 – Baby You’re A Rich Man (Magical Mystery Tour)
46:02 – Get Back (Rooftop Performance #2)
46:04 – Get Back (Rooftop Performance #3)
49:06 – Get Back (Let it Be)
49:16 – Within You Without You/Tomorrow Never Knows (Love)
52:31 – Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds (Love)
56:42 – Goodnight (The White Album)
So, long story short, I’ve been scanning. A lot. Mostly stuff shot by my Dad and my Grandparents over the decades. All of them have been on slide transparencies.
For the longest time, I was using a Minolta Dual Scan II to scan the slides, as it was the best I had, and the best I could afford.
Fast foward to December of last year. I finally got a new scanner. One that was made in the last two years too! (The Minolta, in contrast, was over 10 or so years old.)
Being the annoying perfectionist I am, I decided to redo every single slide all over again, at higher resolutions, and with multi-exposure and ICE.
And boy, am I glad I did! Below is the same slide, taken in Alberta circa 1976 by my Dad.
The top is scanned on my old Minolta, the bottom on my new Plustek Opticfilm 8200i.
(Click to make bigger)
A major, majorupgrade in every possible sense. Better colour representation, better dynamic range, better resolution, everything.
I tried to replicate the scans as best I could so that they matched eachother, but it’s tricky to do so in Lightroom.
This is mainly just to show how much a difference a good scanner makes (especially one with multi-exposure.)
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