Armchair adventuring | Karavansara

16 September 2016
by Davide Mana 2 Comments

Fawcett’s Dream

While I wait for the movie about the expedition of Colonel Percy Fawcett – one of the most famous cases of missing person in the golden age of exploration – I spent some time to re-watch a Discovery Channel documentary on the man’s disappearance, called Colonel Fawcett’s Dream.

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A lean, entertaining feature, the documentary was short on details about Fawcett’s expedition, but more than compensated with gorgeous shots of the sector of the Mato Grosso where Fawcett and his son disappeared¹. Continue reading →

15 September 2016
by Davide Mana 1 Comment

A most disreputable book

51iu0ea3n7l-_sl500_sy344_bo1204203200_ One of the fun bits – well, if you are the kind that finds such stuff fun – of doing research, is that you get a lot of weird stares for some of the books you are reading, or re-reading.
And because in these days either I am at home typing or I am sitting in a waiting room somewhere, I usually read my books in public.

And in the weird stares/odd looks department, my current perusal of a very very old and badly mangled used copy of Ralph Shaw‘s Sin City is certainly setting a record.
Yes, it’s because of the cover.
And the title, that even in an English-illiterate area such as the Astigianistan hills can be pretty obvious. Continue reading →

10 September 2016
by Davide Mana Leave a comment

Life on Mars

As I am seriously thinking about ditching my TV set for good (and thus escape the blood-dripping 120 bucks TV tax our friendly government imposes us), I am once again using the web and MOOCs in particular for my entertainment and edification – and as a break from reading and writing.
And therefore, in October, I will be on Mars, for a short survival course…

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This free online course will introduce the key scientific concepts needed for humans to survive on Mars, where there is no air to breath, no water to drink and no food to eat. The course will also examine interdisciplinary skills and meticulous planning required to sustain human life in such a hostile environment. Case studies and insights from leading experts in the field of Chemistry, Astronomy, Physics and Geology will demonstrate the basic science and problem solving skills you can use in everyday life.

The course is offered by Monash University, through the Futurelearn platform.
It’s free and it will last four weeks.
I think my brother will join me on this one, too.
If you’re interested, see you on Mars next month.

6 September 2016
by Davide Mana Leave a comment

Beautiful Meritamun

My interest for Ancient Egypt is on record – I talked about a book on Egyptian archeology just a few days ago, I used to hang out at the Museo Egizio in Turin as a kid, and I’ve been writing a series of stories featuring an Egyptian sorceress.
I love this stuff¹.
And I liked very much a recent article posted on the website of the University of Melbourne, about a complex, wonderful work of reconstruction carried out on the head of a mummy in the university collection: a young woman of 18/25 years called Meritamun.
It is a type of study called forensic archaeology, and it’s quite interesting: the researchers’ and the artists’ work is extraordinary, and Meritamun is absolutely beautiful².

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If you’d like to read more, here is a link to the original article, which features a wealth of information, and also some fascinating videos.

and it turns out it’s a family thing: not only my brother followed a few courses of Egyptology when he was in university, but my mother, my uncle and his late wife shared this passion. It runs in the family. ↩
and yes, I am thinking about my Amunet. ↩

1 September 2016
by Davide Mana 9 Comments

A little game on Burroughs’ birthday

Today it’s the birthday of Edgar Rice Burroughs, a man that, out of his dreams of escape from a monotonous, soul-killing life, built a whole culture – a culture of which I am part, and if you are here reading this, you are too.
And just don’t take my word on this.

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I loved Tarzan movies and books as a kid, but it was discovering John Carter in high school that was a revelation.
If you really need to know it, my favorite by Burroughs is The Land that Time Forgot, with Pellucidar a close second – yeah, I like dinosaurs.
But should I choose a single title, I’d go for The Master Mind of Mars.
And so here’s a little game, for you… Continue reading →

24 August 2016
by Davide Mana 6 Comments

Reading Skelos #1

And then of course all of your best laid plans go hawry.
A few months back I backed the Kickstarter for the launch of a new magazine, called Skelos.
And you either catch the title reference, or you are on the wrong blog, and there’s no use for me to try and explain.
The complete title is Skelos – The Journal of Weird Fiction and Dark Fantasy, and my backer digital copy of #1 arrived last night – and all my plans went hiwire.

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Of course I had to start reading it straight away, despite the fact that it was night and it’s a PDF – the epub and mobi version will be delivered later on – and it’s not the most convenient format for digital reading. Continue reading →

17 August 2016
by Davide Mana 6 Comments

Fantasy movie done right: Dragonslayer (1981)

As I probably already mentioned I am currently on a sword & sorcery roll, so last night I took some time off to watch again Dragonslayer, a Disney movie (no, really!) released in 1981.
The film was written and directed by Matthew Robins, whose writing credits include the original story that became George Lucas’ THX1138, as well as both story and screenplay for Sugarland Express. He was also uncredited among the contributors to Close Encounters of the Third Kind and recently wrote Guillermo del Toro’s Crimson Peak.
On Dragonslayer, Robins worked with his often co-author Hal Barwood, whose credits include Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, one of the greatest Indiana Jones stories ever written (and yes, it’s a videogame).

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