Bears hate sun, even sun bears. And therefore we saw none yesterday. So here’s the bear-iest shot of the zoo 🙂
Archive for the ‘Miscellaneous’ Category
No-Sun Bears
Saturday, January 1st, 2011Happy New Year
Friday, December 31st, 2010Today, we went to the zoo. This meant a ferry trip across the harbour:
During which Adam wisely avoided the sun and spent the time reading rec.games.mud on his phone:
The zoo was quite different from even four years ago, with many animal enclosures either changed or in the process of being changed. It’s turning from a great zoo into an even better zoo though, and virtually none of the old-type enclosures (ie. concrete boxes) remain. Here is a selection of the beasts we beheld:
Here’s a sleeping wombat:
And a kookaburra sitting in an old gum tree:
And some crazy dude astride an elephant:
As you may be able to tell, the weather today was incredible. As in incredibly hot 🙂
The sky was cloudless, and this was taken advantage of by various factions:
The first is a skywriter in the middle of writing “marry me”. Presumably, somewhere in Sydney a girl was about to be told to ‘look up’. The second is a helicopter (!) dragging a massive banner advertising headache medicine. This was no doubt targeting the numerous revellers already waiting on their boats in the harbour in position for tonights fireworks:
The zoo closed early due to the fireworks, and by the time we got back to Circular Quay the crowds had started to mass. This was a full ten hours before midnight – and in the blazing sun no less. We hopped on a bus and headed home. Both of us had gotten a touch of the sun, it was obvious we wouldn’t be heading back to the city for the fireworks tonight.
Here is some spectacular graffiti on the back of a bus seat. I’m no expert, but this looks like a rendition of Ptilonorhynchus Violaceus to me:
And here, should you be interested, is a number you can call to buy Chicken McNuggets in bulk:
Yep, that’s an ad from the classifieds in todays paper. My guess is only McDonalds lawyers called 🙂
Good-Looking Men About Town
Thursday, December 30th, 2010
The above photo shows a graffiti mural not five minutes from Adam’s apartment. It shows a mural of images from Bollywood films, including one particularly disturbing blue-skinned evil naga zombie girl.
I have it on good authority that the local cats love it.
The weather today was tremendous (as it has been since I arrived). Not a cloud in the sky and 28 C, it was a day to walk and sweat and revel in being a man. And that we did, as we headed into the city for a bit of chinatown exploration.
Our first stop was the Wildlife Photographer Of The Year exhibit at the Australian Museum. It was as impressive as ever, with many remarkable photographs on display. And yet it left us both contemplative and a little saddened by the reality of the effect mankind is having on the planet. It was as if the judges had a mandate to choose images that illustrated the negative effect of man’s actions on the animal kingdom. Many photos were simultaneously superb and disturbing, and with no obvious way to stem the wave of extinction, it is depressing to think that sooner that we hope many of the wonderful animals on display today will exist only in photographs.
At the risk of being glib, all the animal photos made us hungry, which brings me to a photo dedicated to my brother:
What this photo doesn’t spell out is that it was the second time I had eaten Oporto. Yes, good people, it was dinner and then lunch the next day. As it is quite literally the best chicken burger that is not only being made today, but has ever been made or will ever be made, I can assure you I shall happily eat much more.
And then we walked and we shopped. Asian bootleg DVD shops. Cute good shops. Game shops. Arcades. Comic stores.
I bought quite a bit of stuff, and will likely return before I leave Oz to buy more. I did not, however, buy the Japanese Monster Hunter Portable 3rd (which I did see). But I may have bought the hint guide…
Here are the two best signs-in-the-windows I saw today:
Which is your favourite?
And here is an item seen in the window of a store in the Randwick shopping street:
They are each apparently fashioned of old car parts. They are very cool, if a bit pricey.
But then everything here is a bit pricey. Or, to be honest, ‘makes me cry’ expensive 🙂
Tomorrow we’re off to the zoo. Will we both be dead by 6 pm, or will we venture out before midnight to see fireworks? Time shall tell…
The Norman Lindsay Gallery
Thursday, December 30th, 2010I don’t remember when I first saw Norman Lindsay’s work. I think it was perhaps in High School. I remember a painting in a gallery; one of his typical oils showing a nude woman and greek mythical elements. It had a strikingly fantastic quality which appealed to me. Of course at the time I wouldn’t have remembered it or even noted his name, and I certainly wouldn’t have known he was the same guy who wrote The Magic Pudding.
For the non-Australians out there, Norman Lindsay is one of our most famous artists. For about fifty years, he produced an absolutely staggering amount of work in many different fields including watercolours, oils, etchings, sculptures, pen and ink drawings and even model boats. He also wrote several novels and an extremely popular childrens book. By far the most popular topic of his work was nude women, especially coupled with imagery from greek myth.
Because of the nudity, his work was vilified by critics and much of his work was banned from display or sale. He remains controversial and is currently not exhibited in any major Australian gallery. This is a true shame for he was unquestionably a man of enormous drive and talent, and a truly unique Australian artist.
Many years ago I became aware of the Norman Lindsay Gallery in a town called Faulconbridge in the Blue Mountains. I wanted to visit it, and had intended to do just that during my past two trips. As it turns out that never happened, but yesterday Adam and I made the trip, which turned out to be much easier than either of us had expected.
The gallery is inside the house in which he lived for many years up to his death. It was here he created much of his work, and his studio and etching studio are still on display. The grounds are full of sculptures he made out of concrete, and even the house itself shows evidence of his own creation. For instance he hand made all the columns around the verandah, in addition to much of the detailing inside the building.
Many of his works were on display, and we were treated to a wonderful tour by one of the ladies who works at the gallery. I was particularly pleased that – in addition to the permanent displays – an exhibit focusing on his work containing mythical creatures was on display. As a fan of fantasy games and books, it was remarkable to see his depictions of such things as mermaids, harpies and centaurs – all painted over 50 years ago and incredibly detailed and imaginitive and just beautiful.
One painting in particular, showing mermaids swimming amidst the ruins of a sunken Atlantis, was just breathtaking. If I had a few hundred thousand dollars, I’d love to buy one of his originals and display it on my wall 🙂
Happily the gift store was well stocked, and I was finally able to buy some nice prints of various of his works. They also had original etchings for sale, and two original (tiny) hand-drawn sketches. The prices of such items were well, well beyond my meagre means (one etching was A$29,000), and one can only wonder at the total value of his body of work nowadays, since he painted over 5000 oils of just one of his models.
Ironic, and somewhat pleasing, given the way he was treated when he lived.
If you’re ever in the area I highly recommend the gallery. Both Adam and I loved it, and it was far better (and far more complete) than I ever expected.
Creepier Than Me
Wednesday, December 29th, 2010So… going back a few days, the trip here was terrible. About 32 hours of no-sleep, loud plane noises, bad food and general discomfort. It seems to have led to more jet-lag than I typically get as well, which I’d prefer not to have. But, I got here safe and sound which matters most 🙂
Adam looks younger than last year, perhaps because his hair is short and his beard gone. He gave me a rather spectacular item for Christmas (a Monster Hunter satchel-bag containing – amongst other things – a book on how to run PBM games!) and took to my MTG decks like Yossie to a tree:
I bought a bunch of candy and other junk at the grocery store the first day (reeling at the sticker shock…) and we just played MTG and watched TV in the evening. I wanted to stay awake until at least 6, which I managed to do. But when my head hit a pillow around 7:30 I was out like a light.
The next morning I woke very early (3:30 am) and was unable to resleep. I slunk out at about 5:30 for a walk around Randwick, including Centennial Park. It was on this walk I spied these fellows:
The one on the left was about 6 cm in length and had made his home above a storm water drain. The one on the right was living under a bush and was tiny – about about 1 cm. It’s so easy to find spiders here, of all sizes. Here’s another:
That’s an old classic – an orb weaver. A big fellow as well, about 8 or 9 cm in length. To get him in focus I had to put the camera very close, and he became alarmed and waved his feet a bit. It was, I must admit, a bit scary.
And here’s another guy:
The cockroaches here are big! Including antenna, the above guy is about 10 cm in length! They have no fear as well. I put the camera very close to this guy and he got interested and approached me. I like the detail on his wings. I saw a lot of them on my walk, just strolling along the ground or on trees. Curious!
And then, this:
I think it’s a cicada season. In the bush behind the Lindsay Gallery yesterday the din was impressive. I look forward to my Newcastle bushwalks.