Sorry about the missing newsletter last month. Syslog.com, the server that
hosts the Infiltration mailing lists, suffered a hard drive crash over the
Easter weekend and I spent the following week dealing with technical hassles
(and so did a lot of people on the lists -- thanks for your patience).
Everything seems to be back to normal now, but if you receive this message
in error please let me know.
News from Down Under
Melbourne correspondent FiL reports that Cave Clan's 12th annual Clannies
award ceremony was a success, and gives this breakdown of the big winners:
"Bathory won the Gold. Fortress won best drain. Deathstar won best cavity.
Nomis won best first year. Siologen won best non-Vic[torian explorer]." The
award ceremony is held in a stormwater drain under Melbourne each year and
is the high point of the Cave Clan's social calendar.
In other Australian news, the Clan has explored the very large steam
tunnels system under La Trobe University for the first time, and a rave was
held in Deathstar, with about 150 people in attendance. The best Cave Clan
story in recent weeks, though, has to be Green's adventure in Tasmania.
Finding himself short of cash while staying in Hobart for a week, Green
temporarily moved into Hobart Darkie, a very large drain. After a few days
it started to rain. He ran back to the drain and jumped in to get his stuff.
He was spotted doing so, but not when he exited through a manhole. A
headline on the front page of the major paper in the area the next day read
"Man Dies In Drain". Green has a photo of himself holding the paper up.
Thanks to FiL for these stories.
Toronto Megaplexes
Toronto is currently in the middle of a huge wave of entertainment complex
construction, and exploration opportunities abound. The latest entrant in
the battle of the megaplexes is the new Festival Hall building in downtown
Toronto, a tall, city-block-sized building which will house 14 huge movie
theatres (including an IMAX-3D theatre), a Playdium arcade and other goodies
when it opens later this month. The building is quite accessible and has
lots of fun stuff to look at -- you can find a few more details at
.
Another new megaplex is on the verge of construction in downtown
Toronto, at the corner of Yonge and Dundas, Toronto's busiest pedestrian
intersection. A 30-screen AMC theatre lies at the heart of the new project,
a huge entertainment complex called Metropolis. Demolition of the discount
stores that had previously occupied the area is currently underway.
Scheduled to be completed by the summer of 2000, the 30,000 m2, five-level
development will include restaurants, bars, retail and entertainment
facilities. AMC Theatres expects to have megatheatres in most other major
cities in Canada within the next few years, including a 30-screen theatre
currently taking shape inside the old Montreal Forum; it too is scheduled to
have its doors open in the summer of 2000.
underground@urbanexplorers.net
Paul Rice's long-running Underground Discussion List has resubmerged at a
new location on Paul's new server, urbanexplorers.net. Originally created as
an alternative to the alt.college.tunnels newsgroup in 1997, the Underground
Discussion List now welcomes all discussions related to tunnelling and other
subterranean activities. Quoting from the website, "We are all curious about
all things that are Under Ground. Man made only, however, so no natural
caves or anything like that. Our primary interest is college campus steam
tunnels."
To find out more about Paul's highly-recommended list or to sign up, visit
.
Urban Exploration Ring Update
It's been a good couple of months for The Urban Exploration Ring, which had
more than 22,000 hits over the past eight weeks and now has 43 member sites.
New members include:
Abandoned Buildings of the Hudson Valley [New York]
dventuring by Wes Modes [California]
Catacombes de Paris [France]
Dark Passage [New York]
Hudson Valley Ruins [New York]
Katacomb [France]
Monuments to the Past: Michigan Central [Michigan]
Planet Jinx [New York]
Rappel Action Team [Finland]
Ruins [New York]
San Francisco Cacophony Society's 1990 Sewer Tours [California]
Transit Tunnels in Washington, D.C. [D.C.]
Under BCCC [Ontario]
Hope you enjoyed this edition of Infilnews! If you have any comments,
corrections, questions, suggestions or submissions, please get in touch. In
fact, even if you don't, get in touch anyhow. I'm not some sort of cheap
dancing monkey -- I need feedback.
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