Music

Duprée and Ashley, Britannia Must Rule the Air
1910s, Archives, Art, Film, Music, Periodicals, Phantom airships, mystery aeroplanes, and other panics, Pictures, Videos

Britannia must rule the air!

This stirring scene is the cover for the sheet music for a song published in 1913, Britannia Must Rule the Air, written by Frank Duprée and composed by Charles Ashley. It shows a reasonable (if stubby) approximation of a Zeppelin in the process of being destroyed by gunfire from two aeroplanes, a Farman-type biplane and […]

Academia, Australia, Conferences and talks, Music, Other, Videos

And back again

In two weeks from today I’ll be leaving Armidale for good, and heading back to Melbourne, my hometown. It’s mostly for excellent personal reasons, but in part it’s also because of the usual early-career academic story of precarious employment. My colleagues at the University of New England have supported me as much they could, but

Major Kong
Aerial theatre, After 1950, Music, Pictures, Television, Videos

US AF

What could be more American than football, cheerleaders, and country music? According to Hank Williams Jr in 1989 [edit: more like 1996 — thanks, Robert Farley], only football, cheerleaders, country music, and air strikes on US national monuments (which magically transform them into symbols associated with football):

Acquisitions, Books, Music

Acquisitions

Michael North and Davy Burnaby. ‘Lords Of The Air’. Sydney: D. Davis & Co., 1939. Thanks, Bart! Frank H. Shaw. Outlaws of the Air. Glasgow: The Children’s Press, 1927. Thanks again, Bart! Shaw was a former naval officer who was also a prolific writer of war stories and science fiction aimed primarily at boys. This

1920s, 1930s, Music, Periodicals, Radio, Sounds

The oscillation of R33

The May 2015 issue of Fortean Times (a periodical I warmly recommend) has a fascinating article by Daniel Wilson about a type of radio interference known as oscillation, which afflicted radio broadcasting in the 1920s and 1930s, about which, I’m ashamed to say, I previously knew nothing at all.1 What’s fascinating about oscillation is not

1910s, 1920s, Art, Before 1900, Blogging, tweeting and podcasting, Ephemera, Music, Periodicals, Phantom airships, mystery aeroplanes, and other panics, Pictures, Tools and methods

Half full and half empty

Getty Images has just announced an embed function, which makes it possible to very easily use images from their collections in blogs and other social media, while simultaneously maintaining Getty Images’ rights and — this is the really nice bit — avoiding the use of unsightly watermarks. This is rightly being greeted with enthusiasm (though

Press interest in airships, January-April 1913
1910s, Music, Periodicals, Phantom airships, mystery aeroplanes, and other panics, Plots and tables, Post-blogging the 1913 scareships, Tools and methods

Everybody’s doing it

‘Everybody’s Doing It’ was the name of a popular revue which opened in the West End in February 1912; the music and lyrics (including a near-eponymous song) were co-written by Irving Berlin. It was also the Manchester Guardian‘s stab at a contemporary pop cultural reference to describe just how widespread the phantom airship scare had

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