Nothing very complicated, just a great photograph from a fun movie.
Category Archives: Armchair adventuring
Pulp TV – Adventure, Inc.
Looking for some diversion in this dead dead dead week of mid-August, when Italy all but shuts down and it feels like a zombie plague is on, I dug up the DVDs of Adventure Inc., an old TV series from 2002 which I missed when it first came out, and shelved after viewing the first three episodes.
The series was apparently inspired by the exploits of real-life adventurer and treasure hunter Barry Clifford – and this is the foremost reason of interest, for me, as I read and liked Clifford’s books quite a bit (we’ll talk about the guy sooner or later).
Then it’s an adventure series, and I’m a sucker for adventure.
And while a cursory perusal of the first three episodes left me cold way back in the days of yore, now boredom has been mightier than that initial disappointment, and I gave the series a second opportunity. Continue reading
I passed the test, I guess…
After-lunch idleness on a sunday afternoon.
I did one of those silly test things of Facebook.
I must admit the result was…pleasant.
Nero’s revolving room
Trust good old Suetonius…
Its vestibule was large enough to contain a colossal statue of the emperor a hundred and twenty feet high; and it was so extensive that it had a triple colonnade a mile long. There was a pond too, like a sea, surrounded with buildings to represent cities, besides tracts of country, varied by tilled fields, vineyards, pastures and woods, with great numbers of wild and domestic animals. In the rest of the house all parts were overlaid with gold and adorned with gems and mother-of-pearl. There were dining-rooms with fretted ceils of ivory, whose panels could turn and shower down flowers and were fitted with pipes for sprinkling the guests with perfumes. The main banquet hall was circular and constantly revolved day and night, like the heavens. He had baths supplied with sea water and sulphur water. When the edifice was finished in this style and he dedicated it, he deigned to say nothing more in the way of approval than that he was at last beginning to be housed like a human being.
Now turns (…) out the story about the revolving room was true.
More details here.
Related articles
Trains
Today, just a quick image – which I guess my friend Claire will appreciate.
Asia Overland
Back in 2003, I think, I wrote the following, in an article which appeared in the magazine LibriNuovi, published in Turin…
The day I’ll start writing Clive Cussler-style adventure yarns (ehi, why not?) the Silk Road and the Taklamakan desert will be a central element in my stories.
Well, having written a few sword & sorcery stories set between the Roman Empire and the Chinese Empire, I sort of kept half of that promise.
And now that I’m working on a honest-to-goodness pulp adventure tale set in the Taklamakan area, well, I think I can say the promise is fulfilled completely.
Or it will be as soon as my story gets published. Continue reading
Dine like Indy
A friend passed along this photograph, that I find highly suggesting.
Time to get back in the kitchen – it would be a nice menu for a themed diner party with some friends.
While they appear weird and exotic, most of the courses are pretty straightforward – and any good coockbook or online recipe server should give ample information on how to replicate the dishes.
For instance, here’s a good one for Crawfish Korma.
And here’s a basic recipe for Wanton Soup.
Enjoy!
Karavansara 