Far to go

Hannah Rowan Hollier born at 00.14 the morning of Thursday 24th February (photo: Richard Baddeley)

After the excitement on Thursday I went to London for the afternoon - Birmingham Snow Hill to Marylebone ... dawdling for my 10.14 train to London, I decided to photo myself alongside the statue between the platforms. A professor of dentistry with a classy camera asked to take a picture of me taking a selfie. He emailed it to me and but edited it with eyes askance in B & W on his Flickr stream.

With John McKenna's Commuter at Snow Hill Station (photo: Damien Walmsley).

From Marylebone I cycled north towards Hornsey to see Francis Niemczyk. I wanted a touch-look-talk at his place - to view the kit he's using to synchronise the ageing 16mm film and 1/4" reel-to-reel tape from my stepfather's archive of Out of Town programmes. Round Regents Park it was still sunny but humid. The forecast rain clouds were gathering. Kentish Town Road, Fortress Road, Junction Road to Archway, and urban heat brought the overcast to breaking point. There was lightning and thunder and on Hornsey Rise - a downpour; rivulets riding down the gutters; vehicles fecklessly throwing up sheets of drenching spray I dodged by walking the pavements until I could shelter below a petrol station canopy; dispense myself a milky coffee and choc cookie, before free-wheeling down Crouch End Hill, through the Broadway and along Park Road to Francis' side street. He's on night shift these days, sleeping from about 8.00am to 4.00pm. I followed him through the house to his garden shed so's I could see the kit he's using on the film and tape [links to the back story - the material and my journey to collect it from the West Country in April 2010)

The process of restoring the material I inherited from my stepfather is taking time. It's nearly a year since the first synchronisation (actually the second, as the restored episode that gave me the original idea of what might be done, was completed in May 2010 by Roger Charlesworth at SWFTA). Although we now have a list of the tapes that go with the films and Lin and I, in June 2013, duct taped a dozen pairs of tapes and film, based on the numbers pasted on them at SWFTA, and had five of these pairs taken to London for Francis to work on, only one pair has yet been synchronised. This sample, just over for four minutes, has been done perfectly, and gives an idea of what's involved.

A trailer from the JH archive from Simon Baddeley on Vimeo.

The restoration process is nothing if not tricky, painstaking; even tedious.
"The atmos sound's not a problem but the spot sounds - like a hammer blow or a gate shutting - are"said Francis. He's lots of other film work, hitches with his machines, and he needs to work nights ... We discussed the possibility that after he's synchronised the next two pairs of sound tapes and film over the next fortnight, he focus on digitising sound tape and film and leaves the synchronisation for the moment. Then I suggested we see if it's possible to enlist additional helpers - people who might not have the technology or the skills to transfer the delicate 16mm film and the reel-to-reel sound tapes to DVDs, but do have the craft and perseverance required to work on synchronising the digitised sound to the digitised image on the archive material if provided with pairs of DVDs for each episode. One volunteer has described this in an email to Francis:

Hello Francis. My name is ***. I live in Maryland and became acquainted with Simon Baddeley and his efforts to rescue heretofore neglected and forgotten Out of Town material through his group on Facebook. 

One of the obvious problems Simon faces is the enormous amount of time and potential expense of stitching back together Stan Bréhaut’s MOS material with Jack’s extant recorded narratives. While Simon has made us aware of some of the technical challenges (e.g. sometimes having to time compress or dilate the narrative to match the flow of the picture), much of the effort appears to be the grunt work of cleaning up noise and persistently fiddling with the timing to get a good match.

Several of us in the circle of Jack’s fans have the digital tools and experience to be able to help with this on a volunteer basis, once the original digitalizations  are made. I suggested to Simon that he might farm out some of this raw material to us to accomplish some of the tedium. The would be little risk in trying this as all that would be passed to us are working copies of the original rips – and they can easily be passed to and worked on anywhere in the world. 

For myself, I was involved with website production for about 15 years which did involve a fair bit of video and sound editing & have use of a fairly powerful machine and the complete Adobe CS6 suite of software. For sound I move back & forth between Sony & Adobe, depending on the tools needed.
You are the one in the position to digitalize the precious originals and to judge which pieces require your technical expertise and which can be passed on to patient and reasonably capable enthusiasts. 

I am suggesting the following process for yours and Simon’s comment and discussion:

1. Proceed with mass digitalization of material before getting involved with the editing of individual pieces.

2. Do whatever tape to picture pairing can be done or identify a range of possibilities.

3. Provide reasonably detailed technical specifications for the finished product,

4. Send out pairs of rips to potential volunteers & let us do an “apprentice pieces” to see if further cooperation with this or that volunteer has potential.

Perhaps this will free you up to do the most challenging work and let the project progress in a more timely and economical way.

Thanks for your attention & I look forward to your reply. If you think it a go, we can arrange a telephone chat. Cheers, ***

From Hornsey I cycled south - knowing I can never get lost in London - ending up on the Holloway Road, then Camden Road where the rain returned more persistently and I had to shelter in a bus stop where I continued reading my Harris on Dreyfus, pondering the character of George Piquard, the author's interesting narrator,  as successive buses loaded and unloaded wet passengers until a let up...

...in the rain allowed me to continue into Friday evening Camden Town where the one way system fooled me into nearly cycling north again towards Chalk Farm and no-one I asked knew the way south

Passing through Camden Town on Friday evening

I had a sweet supper with family just off the Edgware Road and later cycled fast - the conversation difficult to break off - to Euston to catch a fast train back to New Street.
*** ***
I had a bizarre exchange about a hair-split on the difference between a primary and a secondary source. A didact let fly on a letter copied me by Richard Pine that he''d received from Seamus Heaney. The dialogue on a Wiki Talk page, its owner insisting the letter be removed at once. I disagreed - suggesting the letter was in the public domain permitted by the Heaney estate, quoted by Pine's publisher. This editor replied:

You asked for my suggestions; I replied. If you don't want the facts don't ask for them. Obviously, you are way out of your depth. I find it sad that someone whom claims to have degrees resorts to a website to publish their thoughts. If you can't contribute according to our norms, take your ball and go home. Chris Troutman (talk) 23:44, 23 July 2014 (UTC)

Chris, Such an intemperate and, frankly rude response is unacceptable. You owe Simon an apology. Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 13:38, 24 July 2014 (UTC)

Chris, you have a reputation for speaking bluntly, but I have not seen you behave rudely before. I ask you to consider your words to Simon and make proper overtures to him regarding them and your behaviour in this thread. Even when we have a strongly held opinion we may not express it rudely. Fiddle Faddle 13:56, 24 July 2014 (UTC)

@Pigsonthewing: @Timtrent: So you two have been called upon because my "rather didactic advice" offends someone? Here's some more didactic advice for everyone: WP:PRIMARY and WP:SPS describe this letter as a primary source of questionable verifiability. Without provenance, I think the letter is problematic at best. My degree is in history. The study of history teaches us that a letter written contemporaneously to the subject period is a primary source. Primary sources are not to be used in tertiary sources because they require secondary source analysis, which is meant for qualified individuals, not hobbyists.

On wiki all editors are hobbyists; no one here is an expert even if they really are. Wikipedia is not set up with "verified" accounts; therefore, editors cannot argue from a position of authority. I don't take the word of anyone online, anyway. On Wikipedia we argue the facts independent of users.

Sibadd came to my talk page and asked for my advice. I provided it. That user chose to then argue with me about same and complain when my response was brusque. I didn't nominate anything for deletion or threaten to interfere. I didn't even raise an issue on the article's talk page. I registered an opinion and I wasn't degrading, demeaning, or hostile when doing so (in my opinion). And yes, Timtrent, I will be just as vehement in person; I find such intimation otherwise to be insulting. Sibadd's argument about the letter holds no water with me and I don't understand why a user that's been registered since 2006 doesn't understand these policies, guidelines, and essays or my reaction to their argument. While I have been trying to attract academics to Wikipedia as a Campus Ambassador, I reinforce the clear understanding that Wikipedia is functionally different. I don't care if you hold the Lucasian chair, you're just another editor cobbling together secondary sources on wiki. I do find it sad when academics mistake Wikipedia as an alternative. Adrianne Wadewitz never did that; she contributed encyclopedic knowledge and adhered to our rules, as we all should.

I am disappointed that for the amount of time I take considering how to respond, toning-down my initial response, and assuming good faith that I'm still perceived as some kind of reckless bomb-thrower. So, if my response doesn't meet your needs, take it to a noticeboard. I'd be content with an IBAN from all interested parties.Chris Troutman (talk) 02:22, 25 July 2014 (UTC)

I had not expected a rationale for rudeness to be attempted. I have no issue with your opinion being held strongly, nor with that opinion being expressed assertively. I have an issue with your rudeness to the editor. You can be as blunt as you wish up to but not passing the point of rudeness. I don't care one fig for anyone's degrees. I don't care whether the letter is out or in. I don't care about the article, though I care about articles. I do care about the way people behave towards others. I very much doubt I will say more on the matter in a timely manner, I am travelling today and tomorrow. After that the matter will have cooled and not be helped by being re-raised, so I think any further response form me will be unwarranted. I simply express my surprise and distaste for your behaviour, and for your reinforcing it. It is not your message I quarrel with; it is one you are entitled to deliver. It is your mode of delivery. Fiddle Faddle 05:05, 25 July 2014 (UTC)

Good to find out about Adrianne Wadewitz, and I'm glad other Wikipedia editors responded, reminding me of Jimmy Wales' and Andrea Wekerle's 2009 article on 'keeping a civil cybertongue...

...we need to create an online culture in which every person can participate in an open and rational exchange of ideas and information without fear of being the target of unwarranted abuse, harassment or lies. 

*** *** ***
Ah! The troubles of the bourgeoisie in peaceful Britain, as fire rains on Palestine, we are in the absurd situation of having such a backlog at Birmingham Registry Office that Guy and Amy cannot register the birth of Hannah Rowan, our grand-daughter, within the legal time limit for registering a new birth. The first available appointment is 28th August - a date Guy found after finally finding an unengaged phone slot on Monday morning - constantly ringing and ringing for nearly 40 minutes - will not allow time to get Hannah her compulsory passport, an application for which a birth certificate is essential. So will Amy be able to stay with us in Greece in September or even October?  I've written - via Facebook - to our MP, Khalid Mahmood, who's replied swiftly asking for details and saying he's on the case.
These delays on papers, the trickiness of proving you exist in the matrix...reminds me of Richard Pine's response on reading the wikipedia editors' exchanges about the letter from Seamus Heaney (SH):

Simon - not clear who the authors are, but obviously Chris Trouthead is a nasty person.
The stuff about the letter is BOLLOX - it's tantamount to saying the latter is a forgery, or never existed in the first place. Especially since SH is no longer with us to verify it.... What pathetic small-minded hypocrisy. RP

Now that's interesting. Is Richard's incivility, in a private email, that I've made public in a blog, a tertiary, secondary or primary source?  Is it possible I faked the letter and this email?  Is Seamus Heaney a real person? (continued on p.94)
**** **** ****
Lin and I went round to inspect a garden in Stamford Road that seems a fair candidate for Handsworth Helping Hand's assistance. There's been flytipping into the end of the garden from premises on Putney Road. We need to see if we can stop that, as well as contacting the Housing Agency responsible for the garden next door - get that tidied at the same time if possible.

*** *** ***
I'm as entranced as anyone by some stories in which animals are made like people - The Wind in the Willows especially - but I'm vexed by endless smiles and animals that look nothing like animals.

When I was six, Jack, who'd just started living with us, gave me a Christmas present laced with a treasury of illustration - Richard Lydekker's Royal Natural History in 6 volumes, published in 1896.

Now and then I've immersed myself, and my children and now my grandson in this magical bestiary in which the animals don't speak human, don't smile cheerfully and are, irrefutably, denizens of a feral universe...

 

Oliver's hardly two and half, for goodness sake, but I wanted some imprinting of images to compete with patronised animals, animated cars and Thomas the Tank Engine and friends, for all my tender spot for railways and steam trains; indeed any trains.

Lightning McQueen

Richard and Aristeidis in Wikipedia

Ο απολογισμός μας στην Νικηφόρου Θεοτόκη

Richard Pine

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Richard Pine (born 21 August 1949) is the author of critical works on the Irish playwright Brian Friel and the Anglo-Irish novelist Lawrence Durrell. He worked for the Irish national broadcaster, Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ), before moving to Greece in 2001 to found the Durrell School of Corfu ^[1] which, after he had resigned the directorship in 2010, closed in 2014. In 2012, to mark the centenary of the birth of Lawrence Durrell, Pine edited and introduced a previously unpublished novel by Durrell, “Judith”.^[2] He writes a column on Greek affairs for The Irish Times^[3] and is an obituarist^[4] for The Guardian. His work on Friel has been described by the critic David Ian Rabey as 'immensely stimulating, courageous and encouraging....' ^[5]

Contents

  [hide] 

• 1 Early life
• 2 Career in Ireland
• 3 Greece
• 4 Family
• 5 References

Early life[edit]

Richard Pine was born in London on 21 August 1949, the only child of Leslie Pine and his wife Grace. After attending Westminster School (1962–66), he began higher education in Ireland taking a BA in 1971 at Trinity College, Dublin (TCD) and a H.Dip.Ed in 1972, being President and gold medallist of the University Philosophical Society and winner of the Vice-Chancellor's Prize for English.

Career in Ireland[edit]

After university, Pine remained in Ireland, joining RTÉ as Concerts Manager. In 1983 he became Senior Editor for RTÉ's Public Affairs Division; a post he held for 16 years, writing and presenting many programmes for RTÉ Radio, including a 15-part documentary, “Music, Place and People: the Irish Experience 1740-1940” on RTÉ's classical music channel, Lyric FM.

From 1988 to 1990 Pine was Secretary of the Irish Writers' Union and a music critic for The Irish Times. From 1990 to 1994 he was co-editor of the New York-published Irish Literary Supplement.

Between 1978 and 1988 Pine was a consultant to the Council of Europe on cultural development programmes. A seminal essay on cultural democracy was published by the Finnish Committee of UNESCO in 1982. He has lectured on this at the Cultural Research Centre, Belgrade (Yugoslavia) and at the City University, London.

Pine has held guest lectureships in literature and Irish studies at Berkeley, Emory (Atlanta), New York University, Georgia Southern, University of Central Florida, Centre for Irish Studies at CUA, Washington, and the Princess Grace Library, Monaco.

In 1989 to he was elected a Governor (trustee) of the Royal Irish Academy of Music, which, in 1998, bestowed on him a Fellowship honoris causa. He resigned from the RIAM in 2006.

Since 1978 Pine has been a prolific author of articles and books on Irish theatre and Irish playwrights including Oscar Wilde and Brian Friel. Of Pine's book The Diviner: the Art of Brian Friel, the Nobel poet Seamus Heaney wrote personally to the author "One good contribution this book will make will be to the understanding of how Friel and his plays transmit meaning within the acoustic of the Irish cultural and political scene. And not just the Irish scene, since the book itself will be part of the transmission and amplification of the plays in a wider context. The particularity of quotation joined with the meditative, associative habit of your mind is the book’s strength. It provokes a thoughtful response in return and, as such, will be a welcome addition to the critical reaction to Friel. It should deepen the sense of his complexity and modernity, while rendering a sense of those 'truths, immemorially posited'."^[6]

Greece[edit]

Continuing his career as a writer, Pine moved, in 2001, to the Ionian Island of Corfu in Greece to found the Durrell School of Corfu (DSC) which, for twelve years, hosted seminars on literature and the protection of the environment. The school aimed to enrich international understanding of the writings of Lawrence Durrell and his brother, the innovative ecologist and zoologist, Gerald Durrell. It closed in 2014. Pine is an advisor to the Laboratory for the History of the Documentation of British-Greek Relations^[12] at the Ionian University, Corfu

Family[edit]

In 1972 Pine married Melanie Craigen. They have two daughters, Emilie Pine (b. 1977), a lecturer in film and drama at University College Dublin and Vanessa Pine (b. 1981), an artist and cookery writer. Pine and Craigen separated in 1983. From 1994 to 2008, Pine's partner was the concert artist and piano professor Patricia Kavanagh.

References[edit]

1. Jump up^ Durrell School of Corfu (DSC)
2. Jump up^ Published in a limited edition of 500 copies by the Durrell School of Corfu
3. Jump up^ Articles by Richard Pine in The Irish Times
4. Jump up^ Guardian obituaries by Richard Pine
5. Jump up^ David Ian Rabey (Autumn 1991). "Brian Friel and Ireland's Drama". Theatre Research International 16/3: 277–278. Retrieved 8/7/14. "'immensely stimulating, courageous and encouraging'"
6. Jump up^ Personal letter to the author and critic, Richard Pine, from the Irish poet, Seamus Heaney, dated 5th April 1989
   
   

   

   Personal letter to the author and critic, Richard Pine, from the Irish poet, Seamus Heaney, dated 5th April 1989 (page 1)
   
   

   

   Personal letter to the author and critic, Richard Pine, from the Irish poet, Seamus Heaney, dated 5th April 1989 (page2)

• All for Hecuba: The Dublin Gate Theatre 1928-1978 (Dublin: Dublin Gate Theatre,1978)
• Oscar Wilde (Dublin: Gill and Macmillan, 1983/97)
• The Dublin Gate Theatre 1928-1978 (Cambridge: Chadwyck-Healey, 1984)
• The Dandy and the Herald: Manners, Mind and Morals from Brummell to Durrell (London and New York: The Macmillan Press/St Martin’s Press, 1988)
• Brian Friel and Ireland’s Drama (London: Routledge, 1990)
• Dark Fathers into Light: Brendan Kennelly (ed.) (Newcastle-Upon-Tyne: Bloodaxe Books, 1994)
• The Thief of Reason: Oscar Wilde and Modern Ireland (Dublin: Gill and Macmillan, 1995)
• Music in Ireland 1848-1998 (ed.) (Dublin and Cork: Mercier Press, 1998) Thomas Davis
• To Talent Alone: the Royal Irish Academy of Music 1848-1998 (ed. with Charles Acton) (Dublin: Gill and Macmillan, 1998)
• The Diviner: the Art of Brian Friel (Dublin: University College Dublin Press, 1999)
• 2RN and the Origins of Irish Radio (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2002)
• Music and Broadcasting in Ireland (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2005)
• Creativity, Madness and Civilisation (ed.) (Newcastle-Upon-Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2007) [seminar proceedings on “Madness and Creativity”]
• The Literatures of War (ed. with Eve Patten) (Newcastle-Upon-Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2008)
• Nostos: Proceedings of the Durrell School of Corfu 2002-2005 (ed.) (Corfu: Durrell School of Corfu, 2008)
• Charles: the Life and World of Charles Acton 1914-1999 (Dublin: Lilliput Press, 2010)
• Theodore Stephanides, Corfu Memoirs and Poems (ed.) (Corfu: Durrell School of Corfu, 2011)
• Judith – a novel by Lawrence Durrell (ed.) (Corfu: Durrell School of Corfu, 2012)
• The Disappointed Bridge: Ireland and the Post-Colonial World (Newcastle-Upon-Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2014)

*** *** ***
Read the first lines:

'It's windy, really windy. They've smashed that street light again. Not kids this time, it was those people, the people who carry darkness inside them. Better ring City hall tomorrow. No, not tomorrow; tomorrow's Sunday - first thing Monday. They'll get onto it at once...' 

Sergios Gakas Σέργιος Γκάκας, who published this book in Greek in 2004 as Στάχτες. I got this off Amazon UK, £1.00 used v.good condition, 'withdrawn from Devon Library Services'. Withdrawn?
*** *** ***
And I've added some images and references to the Wikipedia article on Aristeidis Metallinos:

Aristeidis Metallinos

Stone relief by Aristeidis Metallinos - on the front of the museum he built to display his art

Shoe, 1928. Metallinos' first work, a carving in local stone by the sculptor when he was 20.

ΕΟΚ (Ευρωπαϊκή Οικονομική Κοινότητα) 1980. The EEC as a broody chimaera

Village olive-oil press, 1982

Αριστείδης Μεταλληνός was a Greek sculptor. He was born in 1908 (no official record of birth date), one of three sons of Zacharias and Eleni Metallinos, and died at the age of 79 on 19 May 1987.

He spent the greatest part of his life working as a shoemaker, stone mason, builder and general craftsman in the village of Ano Korakiana^[1] on the island of Corfu in Greece. Despite early evidence of his imaginative talent as a carver of stone, Metallinos was prevented by poverty from artistic training. He did not begin his work as a self-taught sculptor until 1973, when at the age of 67 until his death in 1987, he fulfilled a long held intention of using hammer and chisel 'to bear witness to human nature and its weaknesses' «να παρουσιάσω τον άνθρωπο και τα ελαττώματά του», depicting in stone and marble a unique record of a fast changing pastoral economy, that emphasised the primacy of the family, village institutions and traditional customs, yet mingling with this account of Greek folklore, works that are erotic, ribald and subversively political. The Scops owl he carved on a stone plaque fixed to the front of his house, displaying his initials, and holding a builder's trowel and a sculptor's hammer, is dated the year Metallinos made his transition from builder to sculptor.

His work of over 250 pieces, nearly all completed in the last 12 years of his life, is kept together in a family museum in Ano Korakiana - a museum he built himself, intending it as a gift to the village.

Metallinos' first wife, Eleni, died childless. He was married again, late in life, to Angeliki, who bore him two children, Andreas and Maria. Andreas and his wife Anna continue to live in Ano Korakiana in the museum that houses a unique collection of work largely unknown outside the village in which it was created.

References[edit]

1. Jump up^ [1]Η Άνω Κορακιάνα Σήμερα… Ano Korakiana today...

• Giannis M. Maris (1978) "Βιογραφικό - Αριστείδης Ζαχ. Μεταλληνός", in Απάνθισμα Γραμμάτων και Τεχνών, Athens, pp. 611-617
• Ευρυδίκη Αντζουλάτου-Ρετσίλα (1985) "Θέματα Κερκυραϊκής λαoγραφίας στo έργo τoυ λαϊκoύ λιθoγλύπτη Αριστείδη Μεταλληνoύ" στο Μυριόβιβλoς, τεύχ. 7, Αθήνα, σελ. 37-47
• Evrydiki Antzοulatοu-Retsila (2005) "Θέματα Κέρκυραϊκής λαογραφίας στο έργο του λαϊκού λιθογλύπτη Αριστείδη Μεταλληνού", inΠολιτιστικά και Μουσειολογικά Σύμμεικτα, Papazisis Editions, Athens, pp. 47-70 ISBN 960-02-1860-9

External links[edit]

• [2]Aristeides Metallinos in Greek Wikipedia - Αριστείδης Μεταλληνός στη Βικιπαίδεια
• [3] Extract from the blog 'Democracy Street' showing further images of the sculptor's work
• [4] 'Λαϊκή παράδοση' 19.06.14 - Ano Korakiana website

Email from a friend:
Dear Simon and Linda. I attach the translation you require and hope it is to your satisfaction! Waiting to see you in September, please give me a call to meet! My lessons at Sally's start again on the 4th November!!! Anything you may need please don't hesitate to contact me! With love to you both, Aleko...

Ο Αριστείδης Μεταλληνός ήταν ένας Έλληνας γλύπτης. Γεννήθηκε το 1908, αλλά δεν υπάρχει επίσημη εγγραφή της ημερομηνίας. Ήταν ένας από τους τρις υιούς του Ζαχαρία και της Ελένης Μεταλληνού και απεβίωσε τις 19 Μαϊου 1987 σε ηλικία 79 ετών.

Τον περισσότερο καιρό της ζωής του εργαζόταν ως τσαγκάρης και γενικός τεχνίτης στο χωριό Άνω Κορακιάνα, Κέρκυρα. Είχε μεγάλο ταλέντο στη γλυπτική τέχνη αλλά δυστυχώς λόγω φτώχειας δεν μπόρεσε να αξιοποιήσει το ταλέντο του. Άρχισε να εργάζεται ως αυτοδίδακτος γλύπτης το 1973 όταν ήταν 67 ετών μέχρι τον θάνατό του το 1987. Εκπλήρωσε την επιθυμία που είχε για πολλά χρόνια να χρησιμοποιεί σφυρί και καλέμι ώστε να είναι μάρτυρας «του ανθρώπου με τα ελαττώματά του» οπότε σκάλιζε σε πέτρα και μάρμαρο. Ένας μοναδικός τρόπος να παρουσιάσει μια αγροτική οικονομία που άλλαζε με πολύ γρήγορους ρυθμούς, με έμφαση στην οικογένεια, θεσμούς τους χωριού και παραδόσεις που αναμιγνύονται με Ελληνικές λαογραφίες με έργα ερωτικά, κοροϊδευτικά και ανατρεπτικά της κυβέρνησης. (Tr: Aleko Damaskinos)

Τα έργα του, περισσότερα από 250 κομμάτια είναι σχεδόν όλα τελειωμένα τα τελευταία 12 χρόνια της ζωής του και φυλάγονται στο οικογενειακό μουσείο στην Άνω Κορακιάνα- Ένα μουσείο που κατασκεύασε ο ίδιος που το προόριζε ως δωρεά για το χωριό.

Η πρώτη γυναίκα του Μεταλληνου,  Ελένη απεβίωσε άτεκνη. Ξαναπαντρεύτηκε σε προχωρημένη ηλικία την Αγγελική με την οποία απέκτησε δύο παιδιά, τον Ανδρέα και την Μαρία. Ο Ανδρέας με την γυναίκα του Άννα, σήμερα διαμένουν στην Άνω Κορακιάνα μέσα στο μουσείο το οποίο περιέχει μια μοναδική συλλογή έργων του τα οποία γενικά δεν είναι γνωστά έξω από το χωριό όπου δημιουργήθηκαν.

...and thanks to our friend Aleko Damaskinos, and the completely bi-lingual Wikipedia editor Konstantinos Plakidas, there's now an entry for the sculptor on Βικιπαίδεια for...

Linda and Angeliki, the sculptor's grand-daughter, in the Aristeidis Metallinos Museum

****** ******
Delta Leisure, current retailers of my stepfather's films, are going to sell individual DVDs of programmes which for the last two years they have been selling as box sets of 10 disks...

Simon Baddeley

9 July at 21:55

The first three volumes will be released in August. £5.99 & FREE Delivery in the UK on orders over £10. Details. Pre-order....

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  Simon Baddeley Of course they will be different from old Contender single DVDs of programmes that JH made in 1985, long after the demise of Southern Television and which are regularly sold on ebay and Amazon, but I'm not quite sure how these individual DVDs that Delt...See More
  

  
  

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  Simon Baddeley I've just written a review on the Amazon UK page for these singles: QUOTE Jack Hargreaves OBE (1911 – 1994) was an English television presenter and writer. His enduring interest was to comment without nostalgia or sentimentality on accelerating distortions in relations between the city and the countryside. He's remembered by many for appearing on 'How' - a children’s programme that went out live, mistakes and all, about how things worked, but Jack, my stepfather, really made his name as the gentle-voiced presenter of the weekly magazine programme 'Out of Town', first broadcast in 1963.
  I've seen all the films in Delta's 'Lost Episodes' box-set of 10 DVDs - several times! These are now being offered as individual DVDs, with three episodes of 'Out of Town' on each. These, as far as anyone knows, are the only episodes of 'Out of Town' yet recovered*. And even these, broadcast in the last years of 'Out of Town', before the programme ended, in 1981, with the demise of Southern Television, nearly disappeared, like so many others, into a skip, as an international media company cleared costly storage space. As Jack Hargreaves' stepson, earning royalties on the sale of his 'Lost Episodes', I give this DVD and its companions, a five star rating. I would, wouldn't I? 
  I was delighted with Delta's work on the whole boxed collection, but I'm very pleased that, while continuing to offer the box sets, they will, from this August (2014) be starting to issue all 34 'lost episodes' as individual DVDs. 
  
  *Note: Jack and colleagues from Southern TV made versions of 'Out of Town' in 1985, selecting from an archive of brilliant location film made by Jack's friend, Stan Bréhaut, who he called "the finest outdoor cameraman in England". Delta markets these too, but the 'Lost Episodes' are the only full originals left - barring restoration of the silent 16mm films and 1/4" reel-to-reel sound tapes I inherited from my stepfather and now store in a temperature controlled lock-up in Birmingham awaiting the slow, expensive and complex process of synchronisation. END https://flic.kr/p/LLBFQ
  

  
  

  Jack & Simon 1951

  www.flickr.com
  

  This was a photo I came across in May 2007 in an old file found when tidying the garage. It was taken by my mother and dates back to before Jack started to appear on television in the UKen.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Hargreaves Some of my my stepfather's Out of Town films are now available from www.out…

Simon and Jack at Raven Cottage ~ 1 Jan 1992 (photo: Isobel Hargreaves)

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The Ano Korakiana website reports thefts in the village; one attempt in daylight was foiled, others involved stealing out-of-use equipment from an old pumping station - (scrap value?); two more were from churches involving the loss of a chalice, candlesticks and an old Gospel, ένα παλαιό Ευαγγέλιο:

Μπαράζ κλοπών  10.07.14
Εβδομάδα κλοπών αυτή που διανύουμε, που ήρθε να μας θυμίσει τον προ-πέρσινο χειμώνα. Στην αρχή κλάπηκε μέρα-μεσημέρι ιδιωτικό λιθάρι παλαιού ελαιουργείου στο δρόμο της Νεροσυρμής, το οποίο στη συνέχεια επεστράφη άρον-άρον, προφανώς γιατί έγιναν αντιληπτοί οι δράστες. Την ίδια μέρα «απαλλοτροιώθηκε» το παλιό αντλιοστάσιο (μουσειακής πλέον αξίας) του Συνεταιρισμού στον Αθραουλιά, αφού διανοίχτηκε δρόμος και γκρεμίστηκε το μικρό οίκημα!!!…Οι δράστες αναζητούνται. Χθες είχαν σειρά δύο εκκλησίες του χωριού, η Αγία Αικατερίνη και ο Ταξιάρχης, από τις οποίες «αφαιρέθηκαν» ασημένια καντήλια, Δισκοπότηρο και ένα παλαιό Ευαγγέλιο…Και «ο Θεός να βάλει το χέρι του»!

...and on 13th July an angry rebuke to the unknown 'humanoid beast without a trace of sensitivity' who, around Nerosyrmi Νεροσυρμή in the village, has poisoned cats which 'protect us from snakes, mice etc, ' and then a short time later,  done 'the same to domestic dogs. Abominable act Αποτρόπαια πράξη!'

Αποτρόπαια πράξηΤο πρωί του Σαββάτου στην γειτονιά μας, Νεροσυρμή, κάποιο ανθρωπόμορφο κτήνος χωρίς ίχνος ευαισθησίας δολοφόνησε ΕΝ ΨΥΧΡΩ με φαρμάκι ΟΛΟΥΣ τους γάτους που είχαμε για να μας προστατεύουν από φίδια, ποντίκια κ.λ.π.
Έριξε φαρμάκι σε όλη την γειτονιά και ψόφαγαν σπαράζοντας από πόνο ΟΛΟΙ οι γάτοι της γειτονιάς μπροστά στα μάτια μας.
Τα ανθρωποειδές αυτό κυκλοφορεί ανάμεσά μας και μας λέει και καλημέρα. Πιθανόν να μας χτυπάει φιλικά και την πλάτη.
Ντροπή και αηδία. Βαρβαρότητα σε όλη της μεγαλείο.
Συγχωριανοί να μας χαιρόμαστε όλους μας. 

Νίκος Μεταλληνός 

Το συμβάν είχε και συνέχεια, αφού λίγες ώρες αργότερα βρέθηκαν και οικόσιτοι σκύλοι της γειτονιάς δηλητηριασμένοι...Και οι κάτοικοι κάνουν δεύτερες σκέψεις για τη σκοπιμότητα της ούτως ή άλλως αποτρόπαιας πράξης...