Collectomania Syncs

Collectomania - 

Claudia Chan Shaw

with Sophie Lieberman

When I was at the Byron Bay Writers Festival this year I saw this book in the bookstore, but I'm not really a collector, so it didn't really grab me, except for the blue cars with white/silver wheels on the cover, which did grab my attention, as blue cars with silver\white wheels are one of my signs I keep an eye out for.

Blue Cars 

Too

It wasn't enough of a sign for me to buy the book, but I wouldn't have picked this book up normally, as I wasn't interested in a book on collecting.
But...

Claudia surrounded by robots including the claws of B-9

Ain't nobody got no Mr.Roboto?

when I saw Claudia was a robot collector with a fondness for B-9 out of the Lost in Space TV show, I saw this as another sign that I might have to get this book for some reason.

B-9 on my desktop

 Then I saw this picture in the book, and it was as good as sold at that point.

Jethro Tull's Thick as a Brick record.
The writers festival was in the first week of August and for the last fortnight before the festival I had read this post on Alan Green's blog  
Listen to All the Happy Creatures -
Friday, July 12, 2013
Thick As A Brick In The Wall 
About a week ago I woke from a dream with the idea to play

Jethro Tull's "Thick As A Brick" over the 1982 film "The Wall". 
I gave it a shot and was amazed at how thematically similar the pieces were 
(in ways I never consciously thought about before) 
but the music and images weren't doing much for me as a pair. 
I let it run for a little bit and noticed that a newspaper appears on screen 
(at roughly 9 minutes and 10 seconds into the film) 
and that the Thick As A Brick album cover is a newspaper. 
So, I re-started the album from that starting point and the results were amazing.
The sync stays pristine for the full first side of the album then tappers off. 
However, it turns out that Ian Anderson (lead of Jethro Tull) made a sequel album called 
"Thick as a Brick 2" in 2012. 
 Interestingly, he starts this sequel album the exact same way he started the B-side of the original album, synchronistically telling me that I could substitute the original B-side with this new album. 
Doing so, then starting the original B-side when the 2012 sequel is finished, brings the total audio about 10 minutes over the film. 
So, since I started 9+ minutes late (where the newspaper comes in), I threw that over the beginning. 
A strange sort of dream logic to be sure, but I think the result speaks for itself. 
Here it is:  
Thick as a Brick in the Wall

Thick as a Brick in the Wall

And heard him talk about playing the record and the film together on various podcasts Alan was on during that fortnight leading up to the festival.

Robots Will Steal Your Job

But That’s OK?

While I am a big Pink Floyd fan and have watched the movie The Wall on numerous occasions, I had never heard the Thick as a Brick album at all.

But this sync-up by Alan Green really is quite eerie in the way they come together to tell a very similar story.

This book was a real rabbit hole for me>;-)

But the syncs were flying out of this book for me.
Too many to list here, but I'll try to give you an idea of the syncs and things this book led me to.

Laurence Naismith (Santa) with
Harry S Truman and Richard Nixon

In the opening of Claudia's book John Naismith (son of Laurence Naismith) writes about collecting stamps and letters. 
Laurence plays Merlin in the movie Camelot.

My blogging friend Andrew W. Griffin wrote this post with Camelot in the title on November 4th, 2013.
"JFK assassination, Camelot and conspiracy at Redlands this month"
I also used to play soccer for Redlands United when younger, just to add to the personal sync in Andrew's story.

Laurence was also in the Bond movie Diamonds are Forever.
Lawrence passed away in the Southport hospital, which is halfway between my home and Byron Bay, where the BBWF is held and where I bought the book Collectomania.

There was also a section about collecting first edition books.
There was mention of first editions of The Catcher in the Rye and Andrew W. Griffin also wrote about J.D. Salinger on Nov 3rd, 2013 in a post on his blog.
 "J.D. Salinger's "The Last and Best of the Peter Pans" to be released - when?"
But Claudia also wrote of a Peter Carey first edition, Parrot and Oliver in America, which is synchy, because Peter Carey was at the BBWF this year as well .

The book I bought and had signed
by Peter Carey at the BBWF 2013

I wrote about meeting Peter Carey at the BBWF at this link -
Sync Book 2 Sync Too?

My paragraph as it appears in SB2 (first edition)

There was also a section about collecting Wedgwood with a statue of Minerva opening the chapter, which is synchy again, as I used to rent a house at Minerva Street.

Wedgwood teapots in the book Collectomania

Also, in another book I bought and had signed by the author at the BBWF called Shock Waves by Hanabeth Luke mentions in her book about her breaking Wedgwood teapots at a restaurant she worked in in Cornwall.
Surfing the Wine Syncs

The snow dome chapter of Collectomania

Also, my blogging friend Mike Perry who lives in and writes about Cornwall wrote about messages in a bottle in his latest post at his blog '67 Not Out'.

The Castaway And The Message In A Bottle Coincidence  
Margaux Hemingway's last movie before she passed away was Dangerous Cargo, talking about messages in a bottle and ships.

Margaux Hemingway in a Vivian Chan Shaw
(Claudia's mum) dress in 1975

My blogging friend Trish at Synchrosecrets wrote this post yesterday about St.Jude and a member of the Hemingway clan who was helping her to turn her book into a screenplay.
A Cluster Synchro Involving St. Jude 
"Hilary is a Hemingway, the niece of Ernest, and she wrote a screenplay with Andy Garcia about Hemingway’s last days in Cuba that will go into production next spring. 
She’s married to Jeff Lindsay, the creator and author of the Dexter books.  
Before Dexter, they were struggling as writers. 
So I said, “For your lives to have changed so radically, there had to be a dramatic change in your beliefs. 
What was it?”

She thought for a moment, then said, “I can think of only two things.
We went to Key West one weekend and there’s this big ceiba tree where people write down their wishes and places them in the gigantic roots. I wrote my wishes for Jeff, that his new book would sell and succeed separate from anything Hemingway. 
The other thing was that Jeff lit a candle in honor of St. Jude and kept it lit for a year.” "

Three dead as hurricane-force St Jude 

storm batters UK and Netherlands

People gather to watch the rough seas
 in Cornwall yesterday morning

A storm named after St.Jude hit Cornwall on Oct 28th this year.

Trish also writes, "As a long lapsed Catholic, the only thing I find seductive about the Catholic church and its beliefs is the mystical element – the belief that certain things are powerful."

The MONA gallery in Hobart, Tasmania 
owned by David Walsh

On the subject of lapsed Catholics, in the book Collectomania there is a section on art with the mention of a private art gallery in Tasmania owned by a self-confessed lapsed Catholic, David Walsh.

MONA: The world's most far-out museum

MONA: The world's most far-out museum

http://www.mona.net.au/

There have been a lot of major and minor syncs for me reading this book, but finding out about this art gallery I thought was a pretty good one.
Now I just have to save up and go visit it for myself.

Collectomania 

Audio Interview

This book has proven to be a good collectible after all, for me;-)

UPDATE:

Ironically, I have since since given the book away to a secondhand bookstore in one of my de-cluttering binges ... and the 'Lost in Space' robot, to free up some more space on my desktop:-)