Saturday, June 9, 2012
#VividSydney
With winter moving into full swing, it's the time of year for Vivid Sydney. Each year at this time, the buildings and most importantly, the Opera House, are transformed with lights. Each year a different company is selected to bring the buildings to life. And this year didn't disappoint. I'm still trying to get that "perfect picture" of the Opera House display, but here are a few that I snapped tonight.
Chandelier hung over the bay with the Harbour Bridge in the back ground.
Sydney Museum of Contemporary Art
Customs House
A few illuminated piranha's perhaps for the upcoming release of Piranha 3DD?
Sunday, April 8, 2012
60,000 Years Ago....
The first modern day man "settled." Where did they choose to settle? Australia, but to be more specific, what is now Kakadu National Forrest in the Top End of the Northern Territory. There is a lot of history up here. The origin of modern day man is a pretty good start.
I took a technology free weekend and went up to a remote lodge next to the Mary River National Park. Certainly no cell phone coverage and no wifi either. I even read a hard back book instead of an ebook. Though i will say i now prefer the ebooks. They're just so much more convenient. Outside of not being able to read for the first or last 10 minutes in a flight. The lodge was about 2 hours from Darwin and half way to Kakadu. It seemed to be the perfect location to space out and to see Kakadu without having to spend all day on a bus. I guess it was technically camping because I was in a tent. But this one did have running water and a little electricity. What made me know it was still camping was when I turned a light on, the bugs swarmed. The insect screens only seemed to do so much.
But when you wake up to wallabies outside your tent eating, the bugs didn't seem so bad.
The lodge itself had reclaimed 10 habitats that they moved from Queensland and built 15 tents. Netty, one of the aboriginals working at the lodge said they were built at a cost of $100,000 a piece. For that, I would think they'd have done a better job of keeping the bugs out. But I digress. It was a great spot with some short walks through the termite mounds.
The next day I took a day trip to Kakadu. We started out driving past Ranger Mine which is apparently the second biggest working uranium mine. It was quite a scene in the middle of a World Heritage listed park. After the quick detour we went on to Nourlangie. We stopped here to look at some rock art. It's crazy to think that this dates back thousands of years. The majority of the rock art sites (some 5,000) are on traditional peoples land and not accessible to tourists. They are typically on ceremonial grounds and very sacred to their people. Most Aboriginal art is of only non-sacred scenes. They don't share their clans deep secrets in art.
Kakadu National Forrest is roughly 20,000 square kilometers. And since 1976 (I think) there has been a law introduced that allows the Aboriginal clans to reclaim the land their people lived on, if they can prove it. Now this isn't talking about showing the house their grand parents lived on, they need to prove back thousands of years. And one of the best ways of doing this is through carbon dating of these rock art sites. Sine the law was introduced, roughly 2/3rds of the land is now back with the original clans.
After checking these sites out we drove a bit further to go for a swim. This was the hardest I've ever worked to get to a pool. The sign said 3KM but with the up and down, over rocks and under trees, it had to have been at least 4KM one way.
The scenery was great but the big payoff was getting to the Garden of Eden. A small, crystal clear rockpool with a water fall which gave a nice shoulder massage.
We just had to be in the lookout for crocs. I swear, there no safe place to swim in this country. The pool was closed in the morning at the lodge because of the snakes (2-3 feet, though not poisonous) that fell in and needed some help getting out.
Getting back to the lodge helped me catch up on some reading. The scenery was well worth the few bug bites I got.
I took a billabong cruise this morning in hopes of seeing the 5 meter croc close by, but came up empty. No water buffaloes either. All I got were a few photos.
Reading "Unbroken" has got me wanting to learn a bit more on the pacific side of WWII, so when I got back to Darwin I spent the arvo at the Defence of Darwin museum. It chronicled 19 Feb 1942, the day Australia was first attacked by the Japanese. The museum had great exhibits of the day with a pretty powerful video showcasing the day from the view point of some locals as well as military. There was quite a large display of guns and tanks used during WWII.
My lens was fogged over but this seemed appropriate. This was from the USS Peary destroyer that was sunk off the Darwin coast. It was the spot of the largest US casualties in Australia during WWII.
I took a technology free weekend and went up to a remote lodge next to the Mary River National Park. Certainly no cell phone coverage and no wifi either. I even read a hard back book instead of an ebook. Though i will say i now prefer the ebooks. They're just so much more convenient. Outside of not being able to read for the first or last 10 minutes in a flight. The lodge was about 2 hours from Darwin and half way to Kakadu. It seemed to be the perfect location to space out and to see Kakadu without having to spend all day on a bus. I guess it was technically camping because I was in a tent. But this one did have running water and a little electricity. What made me know it was still camping was when I turned a light on, the bugs swarmed. The insect screens only seemed to do so much.
But when you wake up to wallabies outside your tent eating, the bugs didn't seem so bad.
The lodge itself had reclaimed 10 habitats that they moved from Queensland and built 15 tents. Netty, one of the aboriginals working at the lodge said they were built at a cost of $100,000 a piece. For that, I would think they'd have done a better job of keeping the bugs out. But I digress. It was a great spot with some short walks through the termite mounds.
The next day I took a day trip to Kakadu. We started out driving past Ranger Mine which is apparently the second biggest working uranium mine. It was quite a scene in the middle of a World Heritage listed park. After the quick detour we went on to Nourlangie. We stopped here to look at some rock art. It's crazy to think that this dates back thousands of years. The majority of the rock art sites (some 5,000) are on traditional peoples land and not accessible to tourists. They are typically on ceremonial grounds and very sacred to their people. Most Aboriginal art is of only non-sacred scenes. They don't share their clans deep secrets in art.
Kakadu National Forrest is roughly 20,000 square kilometers. And since 1976 (I think) there has been a law introduced that allows the Aboriginal clans to reclaim the land their people lived on, if they can prove it. Now this isn't talking about showing the house their grand parents lived on, they need to prove back thousands of years. And one of the best ways of doing this is through carbon dating of these rock art sites. Sine the law was introduced, roughly 2/3rds of the land is now back with the original clans.
After checking these sites out we drove a bit further to go for a swim. This was the hardest I've ever worked to get to a pool. The sign said 3KM but with the up and down, over rocks and under trees, it had to have been at least 4KM one way.
The scenery was great but the big payoff was getting to the Garden of Eden. A small, crystal clear rockpool with a water fall which gave a nice shoulder massage.
We just had to be in the lookout for crocs. I swear, there no safe place to swim in this country. The pool was closed in the morning at the lodge because of the snakes (2-3 feet, though not poisonous) that fell in and needed some help getting out.
Getting back to the lodge helped me catch up on some reading. The scenery was well worth the few bug bites I got.
I took a billabong cruise this morning in hopes of seeing the 5 meter croc close by, but came up empty. No water buffaloes either. All I got were a few photos.
Reading "Unbroken" has got me wanting to learn a bit more on the pacific side of WWII, so when I got back to Darwin I spent the arvo at the Defence of Darwin museum. It chronicled 19 Feb 1942, the day Australia was first attacked by the Japanese. The museum had great exhibits of the day with a pretty powerful video showcasing the day from the view point of some locals as well as military. There was quite a large display of guns and tanks used during WWII.
My lens was fogged over but this seemed appropriate. This was from the USS Peary destroyer that was sunk off the Darwin coast. It was the spot of the largest US casualties in Australia during WWII.
Location:Darwin, Northern Territory
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
Plain White Walls
I've been searching for at least the past year to find some Australian art. I've haven't found anything that has really caught my eye and I've been searching quite a bit. I'll stop in random galleries and have even come across a few auction houses (to be honest though I was looking for wine auctions). I haven't had much luck outside of the weird face sculpture I won at a charity auction.
It's got a funny story behind it an it is growing in me, but I'm still looking.
I was searching an auction catalog and came across a piece that I liked quite a bit. So I wandered in (out of place) to the auction with my max bid that I would go up to. I was hopeful that since it was one of the first lots that people would stay away from early bids to keep their wallets full for later in the auction. There were probably 50 people in the room as it was starting (with over 300 lots going on the block) I was hopeful. Most people were older so I was hoping they wouldn't go for the contemporary art at auction. I grabbed my number, found my assigned seat and turned down the booze to prevent another face sculpture and waited. The lot I wanted came up and most previous lots had gone for less than their estimated value so I was even more hopeful. The auctioneer opened the bidding, my heart racing, stuck to my eBay tactic of not jumping in early. Well, in a matter of seconds, this piece was well over twice what my max bid was going to be. A bit defeated, I stuck around for a few more lots as there were some lower priced lots that I liked, just not as much. There was another work by the same artist but i didn't like it as much as the first and thankfully it went over my max, though only by two bids. I came away empty handed, but started searching for works by this artist.
Fast forward, I was in Melbourne this past weekend for a Ryan Adams concert. It was a great solo show where he even played some old Whiskeytown songs. Something I didn't think he did, ever. As I was searching for info on Adam Cullen, the artist, I found a small boutique hotel in Melbourne called The Cullen. Turns out this company has built three hotels based on the art of three important Australian artists. So I immediately booked The Cullen. The whole hotel is built around the art. The architecture of the hotel even matches the feel of the pieces, funky, modern with clean lines. The lobby has a bunch of originals and in the halls and rooms there are prints everywhere of his works.
I snapped a few pictures from around the hotel and after staying there I'm on a mission to find an original.
I've done some research looking for pieces and have a few potential leads. I also found out that the artist was the Archibald Award winner in 2000 which is apparently one of Australia's top art awards. If anyone had any tips on how to go about commissioning a piece of art, let me know. I'm hoping to find a contact info from a gallery to see if that will work.
It's got a funny story behind it an it is growing in me, but I'm still looking.
I was searching an auction catalog and came across a piece that I liked quite a bit. So I wandered in (out of place) to the auction with my max bid that I would go up to. I was hopeful that since it was one of the first lots that people would stay away from early bids to keep their wallets full for later in the auction. There were probably 50 people in the room as it was starting (with over 300 lots going on the block) I was hopeful. Most people were older so I was hoping they wouldn't go for the contemporary art at auction. I grabbed my number, found my assigned seat and turned down the booze to prevent another face sculpture and waited. The lot I wanted came up and most previous lots had gone for less than their estimated value so I was even more hopeful. The auctioneer opened the bidding, my heart racing, stuck to my eBay tactic of not jumping in early. Well, in a matter of seconds, this piece was well over twice what my max bid was going to be. A bit defeated, I stuck around for a few more lots as there were some lower priced lots that I liked, just not as much. There was another work by the same artist but i didn't like it as much as the first and thankfully it went over my max, though only by two bids. I came away empty handed, but started searching for works by this artist.
Fast forward, I was in Melbourne this past weekend for a Ryan Adams concert. It was a great solo show where he even played some old Whiskeytown songs. Something I didn't think he did, ever. As I was searching for info on Adam Cullen, the artist, I found a small boutique hotel in Melbourne called The Cullen. Turns out this company has built three hotels based on the art of three important Australian artists. So I immediately booked The Cullen. The whole hotel is built around the art. The architecture of the hotel even matches the feel of the pieces, funky, modern with clean lines. The lobby has a bunch of originals and in the halls and rooms there are prints everywhere of his works.
I snapped a few pictures from around the hotel and after staying there I'm on a mission to find an original.
I've done some research looking for pieces and have a few potential leads. I also found out that the artist was the Archibald Award winner in 2000 which is apparently one of Australia's top art awards. If anyone had any tips on how to go about commissioning a piece of art, let me know. I'm hoping to find a contact info from a gallery to see if that will work.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)