Happy New Year! My obsession with all things WW1 has continued into 2012. Gruesome, tragic, and ideologically flawed, the Great War captures my imagination like few conflicts do. I think it is in large part due to my fathers collection of history books that I read about WW1 at a really young age. This led to a morbid fascination of the ghastly nature of trench warfare. I still recall this picture vividly, it was my first introduction to human skeletal anatomy.

In the history book I had, the version of the photo was cropped to just show the soldier's remains. I would stare at the skeletons face and try to imagine what the man looked like in life. Did he know he was going to die? Was he wearing a helmet? I wondered if his arm was raised in defense or was it a coincidence that it came to rest covering his throat. I noted the awkward position of his left leg. I wanted to know his story... To this day I am still wondering. Here are some links to some excellent documentaries on specific battles that I have found to be interesting viewing while I am working.
Line of Fire Cambrai 1917
The Somme - From Defeat to Victory
Battle of the Somme - The True Story
A young Indiana Jones imagining of a gas/ flamethrower attack..
Big budget Passchendaele in 11 parts.

Some really cool articles on bizarre and monstrous tanks. I think it was the many trips that I took as a kid to the armor museum at Aberdeen proving ground that greatly influenced me. This is a 2 part article on Dark Roast Blend, an interesting site that has lots of oddities. The second is a British blog Pro Vehicles that features cool articles on unusual vehicles from around the globe.

Silent UK

I found this blog after reading an article about the airplane grave yard that they visited in California. An impressive 200+ planes are there for parts. Too bad I didnt know about it when I was out in Cali. I would have paid it a visit! One of these days I will get around to posting the pictures I took of an demolished Lockheed Martin manufacturing facility near the Burbank Airport. They were taken with infrared film, back in the 90's so I had to scan in the negatives. This was a laborious process!

Atlas Obscura

I read an article on Atlas Obscura about a creepy island that was haunted by the spirit of a young girl. One of the islands residents was convinced that the only way to ward off the spirit was to hang dolls in the trees near the spot where she passed. They still hang in the trees, 10 years after his death by drowning. An appropriate story for October...

Soviet Arcade Machines!

The Museum of Soviet Arcade Machines
I dont know why I never thought about this before. Maybe as a Cold War kid I thought that Russians didnt have any free time. Apparently they had some and they appeared to enjoy arcades much like we did. Here is a site dedicated to 70's and 80's era Soviet Arcade machines. They are awesome to me in their own way. Im wondering if they had pinball machines. Surely they must have!!

New Cool Reference Links

Im always on the lookout for interesting sites to link to for my reference section. Today Im adding a link to Ashley Woods the illustrator known for his Metal Gear Solid concepts among other things. Ive always been a fan of his World War Robot series. The second link is one from Peter Essick a noted nature photographer

Amy Heiden Photography

I came across Amy's site while looking at interesting pictures of decaying buildings. She had some really nice pieces that I found wonderful to look at. I particularly enjoyed her Cold War era shots because I spent so much time researching similar sites for the Black Ops maps Grid and Crisis. Im going to add her site to my references section so that I can check back on it periodically!