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Otago Daily Times
10-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Otago Daily Times
Artist resculpting the past
A Timaru tattoo artist has been using his skills to breathe life into a canvas of a different kind. Through the use of clay, fibreglass, paint and whatever else he could get his hands on, Magnetic Tattoo owner Nick Reedy has been transforming the mannequins at the Geraldine Military Museum to represent New Zealanders who took part in various conflicts. As a child Mr Reedy would often visit the National Army Museum in Waiouru and after learning one had opened up in Geraldine he rushed over to check it out. Possessing a strong interest in military history, he was impressed by what he saw but noticed the mannequins could do with a bit of a tidy up. After striking up a conversation with museum owner Don Pelvin, he offered to lend his skills and bring them to life, despite not actually having done any work with mannequins before. He said the first mannequin he was tasked with working on depicted New Zealand Army Sergeant Ian Thomas of the 25th Battalion. "He was at the battle for El Alamein [Egypt] as a machine gunner. Don showed me a pose of what he wanted and I sort of got a mental picture in my head of what it would look like. "I took a bunch of old mannequins and then just kind of chopped them up and re-animated them to make what we wanted. I had to make his arms and hands from casting my own in the right position. I made about 10 bad ones before I got it right. "It was a steep learning curve but I've found every time I do one, I learn and develop newer and better ways to do it. "It's all been pretty much off the cuff, just working at home and trying simple things with paint brushes or throwing bits of dirt at it, whatever works." The next mannequin he worked on was of Peel Forest soldier George Langford, who served in the Boer War, along with his trusty steed. "It turned out that my neighbour knew a bunch of stuff about a person that had gone away to war from Peel Forest. "She told me all about him and had all this provenance. I went to Don and said 'hey there's a guy from here' and I went away began sculpting him using clay. "I wanted him to look like a normal kind of farm bloke, that brave guy from your rugby team, and then Don had a horse and was like 'this is the horse', it didn't look like one. I thought 'surely not' but then I realised it was up to me to change it." It took quite a while to do, with the fibreglassing and research, he said. "I watched Poldark lots, there was a cool black horse on there and I went down to the local haberdashery shop and bought wigs of horse hair and stuff to paint, rough-up and glue on. "I was basically given free rein. Don wanted him to look authentic and he [George] had to sit on that horse without a whole lot of support, so I researched ways to make it happen and basically made him to have moving hips and knees so he wouldn't seem rigid." His latest project was a mannequin of a New Zealand Medical Corps nurse to represent the thousands of women involved with the military. Lovingly dubbed June Winter due to her June completion, she was installed at the museum last week. He said he does not keep track of how much time a project takes to complete. "I'm passionate about it, so it didn't really matter. I want them to take a long time because I don't want them to be s... "I wanted to make things that people value and I think that's kind of the guts of it really. People always ask how long it takes but for me it's all about seeing the response, that's more interesting and that's what makes it worth it for me. "I kind of have this idea that it's up to me to make any person, any item or any thing as cool as possible." Having plied his trade for more than 20 years, he said it was great to have other creative outputs outside of tattooing. "I've always made lots of things, I've been involved with old cars, made the odd steampunk gun and when I was young I loved making up kitset models and model aircrafts. "I didn't finish my diploma but I studied for two years full-time at quite an intensive and high-quality school of design in Christchurch in the early 90s. That's where I built up a lot of my skill base. "I've been a tattoo artist for so long and I really enjoy it but I also enjoy variety and different types of work and not being in just one industry. "I was getting a bit older and was looking to try some new things, something I could sink my teeth into and unexpectedly it has been this." The plan was to keeping making as many mannequins for the museum as possible. "It's amazing to be involved, it's a team process, it's never just me that doing it all, I just put a spin on it to make it look cool and use some of the skills I've acquired along the way. "I'll happily make 50 more of them, just one little bit at a time."
Indian Express
21-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Indian Express
28 years later: Truth behind the haunting 110-year-old World War I chant; how a soldier's breakdown became a modern horror anthem
Danny Boyle's 2025 post-apocalyptic horror, 28 Years Later, features a spine-chilling chant that stirred buzz long before the film even dropped. When the first trailer starring Ralph Fiennes and Jodie Comer released, it had everything: eerie visuals, a broken world, the zombies, but the creepy voice in the background wasn't made specifically for the movie. That haunting cadence actually comes from a 100-year-old recording of 'Boots,' a 1903 poem by Rudyard Kipling. At first, it feels random. But with the chaos onscreen, it lands like a deranged war cry, unsettling and unforgettable. According to Boyle, who spoke to Variety, Rudyard Kipling wrote the poem to show how brutally repetitive life was for British soldiers who marched across southern Africa for weeks during the Boer War. It was recorded during World War I. The version used in the trailer is from the year 1915, read out by actor Taylor Holmes. At first, the chant sounds like a usual military drill, but by the end, the voice sounds hysterical, like it's losing control. For Boyle, it was a perfect way to capture the essence of the trailer. Also read: 28 Years Later Movie Review: Danny Boyle's legacy sequel leaves you hungry for what comes next The lyrics go as: 'I—have—marched—six—weeks in hell and certify It—is—not—fire—devils, dark, or anything, But boots—boots—boots—boots—movin up and down again.' 'And there's no discharge in the war! Try—try—try—try—to think of something different Oh—my—God—keep—me from going lunatic!' According to the Kipling Society, the poem has been used over and over for marches by various army units, and in some cases, given how disturbing it gets towards the end, it has also been used to assess psychological impact by the U.S. military in their schools. Sony's trailer ad team found the old clip and knew it was perfect. Boyle and writer Alex Garland heard it mixed over the zombie footage and said, 'Holy crap… that's it.' Then they modified their version and blended the recording with actual film, during a scene where the main character Spike and his father are walking to face off the enemies, just like a war-like situation. 'We had all these archives that we wanted to use to suggest the culture that the island was teaching its children,' Boyle told Variety. 'It was very much a regressive thing — they were looking back to a time when England was great. Boyle had considered Shakespeare's famous Saint Crispin's Day speech from Henry V, but it felt too obvious. 'Boots', on the other hand, had him gripped in one go. The low bass music under the chant increases the unease. 'We tried it in our archive sequence, and it was like it was made for. It,' the director said. Boyle said it was like the poem had been waiting over 100 years for this moment. It still carries the raw emotional power it did back then—even in our TikTok age.
Yahoo
20-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
That Terrifying Chant in '28 Years Later': Danny Boyle Explains How a 110-Year-Old Recording Came to Define the Film
When the first trailer arrived for '28 Years Later,' the third installment in Danny Boyle and Alex Garland's masterful '28 Days Later' series of horror films, it was scary, filled with gruesome images of zombies and a dystopian world. But what makes the trailer even more terrifying is an eerie, rhythmic chant by a high, nasal voice, moving with a military cadence, monotonal at first but growing increasingly louder and more agitated as it goes on, with the images and ominous musical backdrop growing in speed and intensity as it progresses. More from Variety Box Office: '28 Years Later' Debuts to $5.8 Million, 'Elio' Flies to $3 Million in Thursday Previews Danny Boyle Says He Could Not Make 'Slumdog Millionaire' Today Due to 'Cultural Appropriation' and 'That's How It Should Be': 'I'd Want a Young Indian Filmmaker to Shoot It' '28 Years Later' Duo Danny Boyle and Alex Garland Break Down That Cliffhanger, the Next Two Movies and the Studio's Reaction to Extreme Gore and Nudity Somehow, in that context, the chant, even though the words seem unrelated to the images, is absolutely horrifying, like a deranged rap song. Its use in the film makes an ominous scene even more ominous. The chant is actually 'Boots,' a poem by Rudyard Kipling, first published in 1903 and intended to convey the maddening monotony of soldiers marching; the direct inspiration was the hundreds of miles British soldiers were forced to march across southern Africa in the Second Boer War around the turn of the last century, according to the Kipling Society. The recording used in the film is nearly as old as the poem itself, voiced in 1915 by actor Taylor Holmes. It is a dramatic reading that starts off militaristic as the initial lines set the scene, but his voice is patently hysterical by the end, even as it follows the lock-step rhythm of the first five syllables: 'I—have—marched—six—weeks in hell and certifyIt—is—not—fire—devils, dark, or anything,But boots—boots—boots—boots—movin' up and down again,And there's no discharge in the war!Try—try—try—try—to think of something differentOh—my—God—keep—me from going lunatic!' Unusually for something featured so prominently in a trailer, the poem plays a very small, although foreboding, role in the film — buttressed with an eerie bass synthesizer, it soundtracks Spike and his father walking to the mainland, which is thick with infected zombies, and presumably conveys that they're marching to war. But out of everything that could have been used to deliver that message, why a 110-year-old recording of a poem that dates back to the peak of the British Empire? Boyle explained in an interview with Variety last week. 'We had all these archives that we wanted to use to suggest the culture that the island was teaching its children,' he says. 'It was very much a regressive thing — they were looking back to a time when England was great. 'It's very much linked to Shakespeare,' he continues. 'For those who know the 'Henry the Fifth' film, there's a very famous speech, the Saint Crispin's Day speech, which is about the noble heroic English beating the French with their bows and arrows. We were searching for a song, for a hymn — for a speech, actually. We did think about using the Crispin's Day speech at one point, but that felt too on the nose. 'And then we watched the trailer — Alex and I remember it vividly — the first trailer that Sony sent us, and there was this [recording] on it, and we were like, 'Fucking hell!' It was startling in its power. It was used very effectively. 'The trailer is a very good trailer, but there was something more than that about that [recording], about that tune, about that poem. And we tried it in our archive sequence, and it was like it was made for. it' A rep for Sony wasn't immediately able to pinpoint the person who chose the chant for that trailer, but it was so effective that Boyle was quick to incorporate it into the film. 'It's like a reverse osmosis,' he says. 'It came into the film and seemed to make sense of so much of what we've been trying to reach for.' He also notes that Kipling's words and Holmes' voice, echoing across the decades in a context neither ever could have imagined, somehow take on a new power in today's context. 'You have to hold your hand up and say, 'How is it that something that's recorded over 100 years ago has that same visceral power that it's always intended to have?' And I think it was always intended to have that power and it still maintains it. In a TikTok world, it still has that impact. It's amazing.' Additional reporting by Bill Earl. Best of Variety New Movies Out Now in Theaters: What to See This Week 'Harry Potter' TV Show Cast Guide: Who's Who in Hogwarts? 25 Hollywood Legends Who Deserve an Honorary Oscar
The Citizen
20-06-2025
- Sport
- The Citizen
It's all a load of Blue Bull
On a Marico stoep, moer koffie meets modern rugby betrayal as locals unpack RG Snyman, Blue Bulls heartbreak, and the changing face of boer identity. Bulls loose forward Marco van Staden of the Vodacom Blue Bulls in action during the United Rugby Championship match between Vodacom Bulls and Hollywoodbets Sharks at Loftus Versfeld Stadium on February 15, 2025 in Pretoria, South Africa. (Photo by Anton Geyser/Gallo Images) 'It is,' said Oom Schalk Lourens as he exhaled a cloud of white vape smoke which put the early morning mist of the Groot Marico to shame, 'the best of times. And it is the worst of times.' 'What the dickens are you on about?' burst out Jasper Bledingworth-Jones, the only one of the four sitting on the stoep of the Alleenfontein general store who was wearing long trousers. Real boere, of course, don't wear longs, except to church or court. But then BJ, as he was sometimes crudely referred to, was a soutie, invited into the early morning coffee group in the name of community-building when he moved to the district to set up a polo estate… unsuccessfully as it turned out, but that is another story. Kerneels harrumphed as he drew on his pipe. Not for him vapes – what was Oom Schalk thinking? – or souties. The Boer War hadn't been that long ago, was the view of Kerneels and he was not about to 'get over it'. Oom Schalk continued: 'We won the cricket so we are again the best in the world. But, alla wêreld, what happened to the Blue Bulls?' Windpomp Labuschagne (you wouldn't dare call him Labu-Shayne, like that Aussie) shook his head and thumped his fist on to the upturned barrel which served as the coffee table. ALSO READ: URC report card: We rate South Africa's four franchises in 2024/25 season 'Why did he have to smile and laugh so much?' he asked in a pained, but angry, voice. BJ interrupted: 'You chaps talk in so many riddles it's no wonder you lost the country… what are you on about?' The three others glared at him. Once a colonial master, always a colonial master… Kerneels put him straight: 'That blerrie Err Gee Snyman thought it was such a big joke playing for the Irish against his old team…' Just as enlightenment fell slowly over the soutie's face, Windpom chipped in: 'Sarie's neef tells me that Ernst Roets and Kallie Kriel-hulle won't allow that sort of thing once they get their decentralisation and self-government. 'They will charge an export tariff for any rugby player who wants to go overseas. And it will be double for Bulls players, because something has to be sacred…' ALSO READ: PICTURES: The best from the world of sport over the past weekend Oom Schalk took a sip of the strong moer koffie… at least that was still the same – vaping couldn't quite match the rum-flavoured tobacco he used in his old meerschaum pipe. 'The world,' he said, 'is changing so fast I wonder what we can believe in…' As the others nodded, he went on: 'It used to be easy to define a boer in the old days – even for the Yanks. Dirt under the fingernails and that special tan we get. But today…' Kerneels chipped in: 'Ja, my son-in-law Frikkie has a R20 million tractor with computers and GPS which you need a degree to understand. For goodness' sake… a trekker!' Windpomp added: 'And you should see my wife's cousin's kid. He drives a Ford Ranger Raptor. Bliksem – a bakkie which can do 120 myl per uur with leather seats! A bakkie! That's not right!' A contemplative silence descended. ALSO READ: White: SA teams can only topple sides like Leinster if Springboks come home BJ broke it: 'So the people from the National Dialogue are going to be here next week and I presume they want to hear what we think…' 'I've seen plenty of political foefies in my time,' said Oom Schalk, 'and this is another one. 'But if they bring Siya along, that will be bakgat because I can get his autograph.' Kerneels couldn't hold back: 'But they better not bring that verraaier Snyman. I'll sort him out!' 'Kerneels,' Oom Schalk reminded him, 'RG is a helluva lot bigger than you.' 'Oh, ja…' NOW READ: 'By far the toughest final we've had': Bulls say any other team would have lost
Powys County Times
08-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Powys County Times
David Bellamy to sign copies of his new book in Powys
Aberedw artist David Bellamy will sign copies of his new book in Powys. Mr Bellamy is set to appear at the Erwood Station Gallery and Craft Centre on Saturday, June 14th, where he will speak to fans and art enthusiasts alike. The event promises to be more than just a typical book-signing. Mr Bellamy will also display local paintings featured in his latest work, Watercolour and Beyond, which boasts roughly two dozen scenes from Powys. Alongside his varied global subject matter, the Powys artist's watercolour painting guide is unique in its approach. He introduces innovative techniques, with a notable emphasis on experimenting with the watercolour medium. The book is packed with clever methods for rescuing a watercolour that may not have worked out, using non-standard art materials, and highlighting exciting new pigments which can produce stunning effects in a painting. Mr Bellamy's work also highlights the therapeutic potential of art. He stresses the fun element and recognises art's capacity to help people cope with loneliness and long-term illness. Watercolour and Beyond extends beyond traditional art, featuring pieces that can be used to illustrate family events, characters, memorable holidays, and community or historical projects. Notably, one of the book's projects includes a painting of Aberedw railway station from the 1960s. Another project explores Mr Bellamy's grandfather's experiences during the Boer War in 1901, offering a vivid portrayal. Other pieces feature the Garreg-ddu Reservoir, captured in the golden evening light when water levels were unusually low. The Elan Valley remains one of Mr Bellamy's favoured locations.
