Monday, December 18, 2006

Cloak of Smoke


While I'm at home playing with dolls, the Australian cameraman known as WIDESCREEN is busy being an action figure. Last week he took daily chopper trips into Victoria's latest burn zone, where he donned protective gear before mining the blaze's edge for billowing imagery. Come late afternoon he's back in the bay, processing shots for an upcoming broadcast he might get around to watching. Not that he needs some talking hair-do to tell him where he's been...
"By night, I am heating up leftovers at home, watching some TV and as my eyes fade to black upon the pillow I can still taste smoke and smell it and if I close my eyes, I can almost be back there."
Dreams at 11...

1 comment:

Widescreen said...

I rarely post on your site, time seems to escape me. Thanks for the plug. I figure in time your turn will come with fires.

We have gone for a long time with little or no rain and now we are feeling it. Whilst I have this week off, back on over Christmas and then our summer vacation, these fires will burn for weeks and months, so I know I will be back.

Its urban myth that the fire trucks are there to fight the fires. They can’t. The trucks are like boy scouts trying to piss on a bon fire. They are there to protect the homes and town from ember attack. Way up in the mountains are fire fighters from the forestry department and they fight fire with fire. Those guys are awesome. They get around on dozers and back burn and cut containment lines.

They get little publicity and do not seek it either, in fact they shy from it. Like all these events, they become a media circus. We lost a fire fighter the other day in an accident and the headlines were……

“Fires claim their first victim” must be comforting to the other sons and wives that according to media, there must be more!

Sadly he fell from the truck and was run over by another, but hopefully, apart from our New Zealand friends who were burnt, there are no more losses.

BTW, love your 12”………where do I get one?