2 April 2012
29 December 2011
Vicwood marketing videos
In a recent flurry of activity, I have re-recorded Vicwood’s main marketing video in 6 languages and made some new marketing videos in English, French and Spanish that introduce our engineered veneer and panel faces, our mineral board and innovative panels and, soon to be posted, our African operation logs and lumber.
You can access them from our main Vicwood videos page.
Here is a sample to whet your appetite:
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17 September 2011
Vicwood Low-carbon Innovative Panel burning test video
The below video shows an in-house test that our colleagues at our mill in China made on the burning behaviour of Vicwood low carbon innovative panels.
In the video, a hut made of ordinary plywood is on the left, while another, made of Vicwood low carbon innovative panels, is on the right. A fire is lit inside both. The hut made of ordinary plywood catches fire and burns down within 5 minutes, while the one made of Vicwood low carbon innovative panels does not burn at all.
Vicwood low carbon innovative panels have been tested for their burning behaviour under Chinese National Standard GB8624-2006, and are classified as “Class B.”
Vicwood low carbon innovative panels are flame-retardant materials sold by Vicwood Group. Contact us for more information or to order these products.
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18 August 2011
Vancouver Island BC’s Blacktail Enterprises sawmill website is up.
About a month ago I created a new website for my youngest brother, Tim Fairbank, who owns a sawmill on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. I thought I'd let you know about it here so you can check it out and he can also start getting some hits on his site.
Blacktail Enterprises has 19 years and about 2 million board feet of experience and source their logs almost entirely from salvage logging and small-scale forestry operations. Their most common products are heavy timbers, siding, decking, interior and exterior trim and fencing, but they also produce door and window stock, furniture stock, mantles, garden bed frames and framing lumber. Their production capacity is 2500 board feet per day. Maximum length capacity is 32 feet 0 inches, maximum width is 28 inches and maximum thickness is 28 inches.
Kiln drying is carried out on site providing a current capacity of 1500 board feet per load and 14 foot lengths. A typical drying time is 7 days for 1-inch thickness and 10 days for 2-inch.
Profiling (such as tongue and groove, etc.) can be arranged for you at one of a few local operations.
Their primary equipment is a Woodmizer LT70 horizontal bandsaw mill. They typically work with orders of 20,000 board feet, but no order is too small.
Please go to http://blacktailsawmill.ca for more detailed text, as well as photos and videos by yours truly.
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27 May 2011
2011 Cloverdale Rodeo
So, this was my first time (in memory) at a rodeo, let alone a country fair of this size – and although it was three bus rides away, it was well worth the trip – and definitely a case of being a tourist in my own town – well the 'burbs anyway. First of all, there was the entire cowboy culture and the competition of Americans against Canadians: testosterone, blue jeans, leather boots, fringed chaps, not to mention the horses, bulls, sheep (and also cute bunnies, llamas and chickens in the agricultural showcase).
And not just black and white cowboy hats either, but brown hats, pink hats, turquoise hats, green hats, even one particularly bright red hat.
First into the ring was a herd of horses being bred as bucking equines – who'd have thought they bred buckers? I thought horses were naturally buckers until they'd been tamed – but what can you expect from a city slicker, like me, eh? Then a group of young women on horseback galloped into the ring brandishing flags – the Maple Leaf, the Stars and Stripes, the British Columbian sun and those of the rodeo sponsors including clothing lines, soft drink and beer manufacturers, truck sales, and the Canadian Armed Forces. Once the girls had galloped round the ring a few times in various formations, a group of VIPs paraded into the grounds and a singer sung the two national anthems with a microphone – first the “José, can you see?”, through which most people were silent, and then “Oh! Canada,” which all we Canucks sung lustily, perhaps in an effort to drown out the guest singer – or was it merely to show our national pride?.
Then it was starting time for the final competitions that had gone through their elimination rounds the two previous days. The first competition was to last eight seconds riding bareback on bucking horses (who seemed to have a ring of spikes tied around their back end – no wonder they were so ornery). There were eight competitors, of which one Canadian – an Albertan, and looking at the programme, through the very cowboy-like names, like Steve, Dusty, Tyler, Tilden, Kaycee, Heath, Chet, Wade, Cody, Jesse, Taos, Tyrell, Clayton, and Clint, from such places as Oregon, Texas, Nebraska, Utah, Washington, Wyoming, Iowa, South Dakota, Montana, New Mexico, California, Idaho, North Dakota, Colorado, and one or two from BC and Alberta as well, I felt like a foreigner (or, at the least, very old). The winner of this competition was a 23 year-old Texan, called Tilden, with 91 points out of 100 and a prize of CDN$20,000! Even the two tied fifth place winners won CDN$3,000 each! Not a bad salary for eight seconds of work, eh?
For more of this story and its accompanying photo slide show, go to the website page.
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11 April 2011
Another Matthew Presidente Video I had a hand in
Back in November 2010, I was invited to help out on another of Matthew Presidente's music videos, this time for his song “Rainbow Reaction”. I was credited for being Assistant Director (which basically means calling out “Action”) and for helping with the sound. I also held the light reflectors a few times and filmed some B-roll though, sadly, it was never used. Also I had a very, very brief role as an extra. See if you can spot me!
Look out for a third music video from Matthew Presidente, in which I played a different very small part, coming to this space soon.
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24 February 2011
Photos from my Christmas Caribbean Cruise are up on You Tube
I have finally put together a 5-minute slideshow of a small token number of the photos I took during my past Christmas and New Years’ vacation for your enjoyment.
As mentioned in the above slideshow, copies of these photos and more can be viewed individually on the website photography galleries page.
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2 November 2010
October 2010 Anak English version newsletter published
As part of my yearly donation programme, I have just completed another English translation of the bi-annual French newsletter of Anak Indonesia, a children's educational sponsorship programme located in Bali, Indonesia.
The objectives of this worthy organization are as follows:
- to create sponsorships intended primarily to provide education for children;
- to organize financing for:
- the purchase of school materials
- the restoration of schools
- assistance in health and hygiene;
- to help bring together European and Indonesian children through correspondence (letters, emails, i.e. pen friends) or by artistic and cultural exchanges among schools and associations.
For more information about this French-language-based organization or to learn how you can become a sponsor and help educate Balinese children, the original website in French is located at http://www.anakbali.fr/index.html; the English version is at http://www.anakbali.fr/English/home.html.
The English translation of the October 2010 newsletter is at http://www.anakbali.fr/bulletins/anak-B18-en.pdf.
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28 October 2010
Pantanal Jaguar Expeditions Through the Eyes of a Photographer
The latest photography book in my “through the eyes of a photographer” series has now been published and is available for sale for US/CDN$45.00 per copy.
Contact us for more information about the book.
With 100 pages and 326 photos it provides an overview of the people, flora and fauna of the largest wetlands in the world, located in the state of Mato Grosso, in the Central West region of Brazil. In addition it contains photos of the Pantanal's gateway city, Cuiabá and a suggested day trip to Chapada dos Guimarães.
Below is the book's preface in full:
Welcome to the State of Mato Grosso, located in the mid-west of the largest country of South America, Brazil. Mainly agricultural, specializing in the production of beef, soya, corn, rice, sugar cane and cotton, this state also contains three eco-systems, the Amazon, the Cerrado and the Pantanal.
Cuiabá, the capital of Mato Grosso, the geodesic centre of South America, and a host city for the World Cup 2014, is also the gateway to the Pantanal, the largest floodable wetlands in the world, where wildlife is plentiful and more visible than that of the Amazon to the North, since the principal composition of the Pantanal is grasslands.
Each year the 170 rivers of the Paraguay River system overflow from the rains of the wet season (from December to May) and the grasslands become floodlands. Due to this phenomenon, on 24 September 1981, the government of Mato Grosso created Mato Grosso Pantanal National Park, which is a UNESCO “Natural Heritage Site” covering an area of 230,000 square kilometres.
The WWF has recorded 1,132 species of butterflies, 656 species of birds, 263 species of fish, 122 species of mammals and 93 species of reptiles in the Pantanal and a very small representation of these appear in this book, a collection of photos from just a couple of short visits to the park in August 2010.
The best time of year to visit is May to October when the rains have stopped and the flora and fauna are plentiful. In August, the pink and purple blooms of the Ipê roxo (Tabebuia impetignosa) trees give the park its special beauty, and in September this colour gives way to the bright yellow of the Ipê amarelo (Tabebuia ochracea) and Paratudo (Tabebuia aurea) tree blossoms.
The book is divided into 3 sections: Cuiabá, the Pantanal, and Chapada dos Guimarães. We start with scenes from Cuiabá (pages 2 to 12): its buildings, festivals, artist community, lively fruit, vegetable and fish market, floral allotment, aquarium and adjacent mural, the university’s indigenous museum and zoo, as well as some of Cuiabá's residents.
We sincerely hope you enjoy the photos. On page 100 we tell you how to book a tour with Pantanal Jaguar Expeditions and how to contact us for more information about this beautiful and fascinating, yet rarely visited, region.
Angela Fairbank, October 2010
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22 October 2010
2011 Calendar from Pantanal Jaguar Expeditions (all photography (c) 2010 Angela Fairbank)
Our 2011 Calendar is now available for sale. This year it is filled with images from the Pantanal, Cuiabá and Chapada dos Guimarães, Brazil.
Its twelve calendar months are inclusive of Canadian, USA and Brazilian holidays. Full colour photos are located on each page. All images were photographed in 2010. Design and photography by Angela Fairbank.
To order your copy, simply email us. The cost is CDN$/US$25.00 plus shipping.
SORRY, THIS CALENDAR SOLD OUT IN LATE DECEMBER 2010. WE HAVE NO COPIES LEFT. ORDER YOUR 2012 CALENDAR EARLY
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