HIGH FIDELITY

"I have to say my all time favourite book is Johnny Cash's autobiography *Cash By Johnny Cash*"

Theres nothing more fluid than John Cusack narrating his own bigraphy of a film. He's so enthusiastic, so enigmatic, so vivid and completely likeable mostly to men as a kind of empathy as his struggles clearly reflect ours, but his ... are celluloid.

Some of the anecdotes are nothing short of artful and epic:

Arranging music collection autobiographically the night of a big break up

* we have all somewhere kept a gift we intended for someone because we desired something back

Compendiums of Top 5 lists; Records to play on a Monday morning, records to play at Laura's father's funeral, breakups (we have all compiled our 5 worst breakups).

Alter-Ego persona of Rob Gordon, one minute he's the entrepreneur of a highly popular record shop with elitist views on contemporary audiophile-ism. The next, he displays the hormones of a 16 yr old boy with a crush on every girl but his own loving one. A very modern and HONEST look at men in popular culture.

Apart from a killer soundtrack including, I want candy (Bow Wow Wow, Leave Home (Chem Bros.), Your Gonna Miss Me (The 13th Floor Elevators). The actors fulfulling small and pivotal roles and just fantastic, Cusack's sister Joan plays and annoying bitch again to a tee, Jack Black - animated as ever and as much a genial music geek in real life as he portrays on screen (which must have been a dream job), Todd Louiso - the quiet unassuming musical library (the banter between to the two latter is sensational), Catherine Zeta Jones - who plays a beautiful and alienly brutish lover & of course our holy saviour Tim Robbins, whose involvement in the film is just perfect, from his Steven Seagal hairstyle to his Kaftan he plays a great enemy of Rob's (in particular the fight scene(s) in the shop).

Overall a fantasic watch, I must have seen this film 20+ times, and will see it plenty more.

The Behind Scenes ... Scenes

Pressure vessels look so glamorous when they sit polished or painted in amongst pipes and equipment, but if people really saw how much work goes into making (and designing) they would be very surprised.

See above 8mm thick 316L stainless steel being plasma cut to an aperture.

This is finished off via polishing to receive a rolled ring to block off a heating/cooling jacket. In essence every edge must be welded to prevent buckling occurring. This is not to mention the nomenclature & paperwork work that goes into being able to weld a piece like this.

Weld Procedure Specification - Must be drawn up to allow the physics to be checked to ensure a weld will be substantial enough for the product/process involved.
Weld Procedure - Must be carried out physically infront of a welding engineer (PCN Lvl II). Then radiographed on "d5" agfa fine film (highest fidelity film for radiography), macro examined, dye penetrant tested & finally tensile tested to destruction.
Welders Qualification - With a procedure done (by your best welder!) you then qualify your other welders in accordance with the procedure with only a radiography required for approval. The qualification lasts around 2 years, and the procedure lasts forever but the procedure welder must be re qualified at 2 year intervals along with all his/her peers.

With a pressure vessel designed to PD5500 (lets forget ASME) you will require all of the above procedures in place to even ponder starting one, unless you want to end up in court or jail for neglegence.

Currently listening to: Washed Out - You & I

My First Ever Post

This is purely a log of experiences, personal & work related. Hopefully I can draw on this blog in years to come as a chronological log of actions as an autobiographical description of my life.

I endevour to publish my own creations in regards to the below topics:

Film

Travel
Photography
Design
Music
Literature
Computing

Cheers ears.

Currently listening to: Seu Jorge - Rebel Rebel (David Bowie Cover)