Game On!

When you have a game of street cricket around here, you get some old towels and lay them over the storm-water drains so that the ball doesn't go in. If you happen to leave one uncovered and the ball does go in, there's no shortage of volunteers willing to swing the drain open and go and get it.

Do you get in trouble for doing this? I'm not sure. You never know with Queensland. I've mosaic-ed the heads just in case!

Under the Melbourne Street Rail Bridge

 This lightbox displays artwork advertising productions from times gone by at the Cremorne Theatre around the corner. Nice wall too.

Sweet and Juicy!

According to some bloke on the telly, Queensland strawberries have had the perfect weather recently: warm days and cold nights. With this in mind, on our way back to Brisbane from the Sunshine Coast on Sunday, we hung a sharp left at the big strawberry. Being inflatable rather than fibre-glass, I don't think this one qualifies as a "Big" thing but it certainly grabs your attention.

They are $15 for a kilo which is about the same as you'd pay in the shops at the moment but the taste is sooooo much better because they have ripened on the plant. We may have scoffed a few on the way round just to be sure. They didn't disappoint. Really sweet and juicy and the best strawberries I've tasted since I've been in Australia.

Showing Dad what she saw in the rockpool

 

...It was some soft coral that looked like it was breathing!

Shelly Beach, Caloundra

Waiting To Cross Adelaide Street

Tights Weather

Highgate Hill yesterday afternoon.

Bus Stop Pit Stop

Adelaide Street bus stops around 9am. The leopard trees filter the winter sunlight really nicely along here.

Chip Off The Old Block

This is 'Apu Kaz' by Dennis Nona (2005) - two beautiful bronze carved sculptures of a mother and baby dugong, sitting upstairs at the Gallery of Modern Art.  You can read about it here.

New Farm Flood Marker

 

Despite the flood waters ebbing months ago, I spotted this just recently on Brunswick Street, near the park.

All Set

 

Coffee time at the Foyer Bistro, GoMA.

You Already Have Everything You Need

as seen on TV... on the roof of Box Vintage on Vulture Street.

Saving City Hall

 

Work has been going on for about a year on Brisbane's City Hall, whose foundation stone was laid in 1920. It's probably one of the most iconic buildings in the city forming part of the Brisbane City Council's logo (so it's even on our bills). In order to support its crumbling walls, they have had to excavate inside the main auditorium. In doing so, they have come across all sorts of artifacts. They've even uncovered the streetscape below complete with paving and drains!

Read more about the history of the building in the very excellent Your Brisbane Past and Present.

Surrealism at GoMA

   It's only been open since December 2006 but in that time, Brisbane's Gallery of Modern Art has really struck a chord with Queenslanders. I heard on the radio the other day that it's now Australia's most visited gallery. Past exhibitions like 'Picasso', 'Ron Mueck' and 'Art in the 21st Century' have had people queueing out the door. (Click the GoMA label below for some shots.) With each major event, there is a cinematic season. The Children's Art Centre hosts a corresponding hands-on exhibition which captures the essence of the art but makes it imaginative and engaging for kids (and adults). 

  

    Right now, the Surrealism exhibition is in full swing and will continue until the beginning of October. Most of the work is on loan from the Pompidou Centre in Paris so you can see works by Marcel Duchamp, Max Ernst, Joan Miró, Salvador Dalí and René Magritte to name but a few. You need to set aside a good chunk of a day to take in all the information, interactive activity, historical documents, sculpture and painting that awaits you. There's even a cafe halfway through where you can sit and take in all that you've learned over a flat white and a fancy biscuit...before jumping back in. Phew!

    They didn't allow photos in the main gallery this time but you can see some great shots of the kids' exhibit and discover the connection between Dalí and Chupa Chups lollipops HERE.

Through The Window Skywatch

I caught the 199 back to West End the other day

Settled down in a window seat

Excellent for people watching

Or nice-house spotting.

But on this particular afternoon

The streets were eerily quiet

And the houses were cloaked in winter shadows

The sky didn't want any distractions

So I set about giving it my full attention.

*part of Skywatch Friday*

Afternoon Light in The Powerhouse Foyer

Flood Proofing, Queensland-style

 Queensland homes are traditionally built on stumps. It has for some time been the trend that people with enough money would raise the level of their home in order to make way for a couple of rooms underneath. Round our way in Hill End, people are going up to escape another inundation.

Unfortunately for me, I live in a brick and concrete block of units so we're rooted. (To the ground).

Rip and Roll

 This is the poster that has been in the news here recently.

It's a campaign by the Queensland Association for Healthy Communities to promote safe sex among gay men (you can just make out the red-wrapped condom that the guy is holding on the bottom left). After plenty of coverage all over Brisbane, the Advertising Standards Bureau received so many complaints that Adshel had to pull the plug on the whole campaign. Then there was the counter attack: people were up in arms. There was a rally outside Adshel. After an investigation, it was found that the complaints all came from members of the Australian Christian Lobby. Infact it had been an orchestrated campaign deliberately giving the impression that they were from the wider population and weren't linked in any way. So the ban was overturned and now all the posters are back and you can see them all over the place.

Which is good cos I reckon it's a great shot.

And the ACL gets a big eye roll from me.

Third time's a charm.

The old house in the block behind ours, empty for so long, is now being pulled apart.

It was such a great old house, full of character. It's beaten the odds twice since I've started this blog. The first time here. Then again here. This time there was no notice of intent so nobody saw it coming.

See also A-M's post about it from yesterday here.

Simon Says Gimme A Pancake

I was taking some pictures for The Sneaky Cafe at the Powerhouse market yesterday when I met a dog called Simon. Just looking at him makes me laugh. "Hurry up and take this bloody picture."

His owner gave him a little Dutch pancake as a reward for his patience and restraint while I faffed around with the camera.

Dry Run

This is what is commonly known as "the flood sculpture" in New Farm by the river. The artwork by artist Richard Tipping is called "Watermark". I think it's supposed to represent the water level of the 1974 flood (to the tops of the f, l and d). During the floods this year the water lapped around it's base. I didn't get a shot at the time but you can see one here.

Last night's roasted Queensland blue pumpkin and sage

I went to Moo Moo restaurant last night in the Port Office building to celebrate my fella's birthday. It reopened recently after being affected by the floods and is looking very snazzy. I think it may just be the poshest restaurant I've been to in Brisbane... with prices to match. But the food and wine were heavenly.

Walking With Dinasaurs at the Entertainment Centre

As part of the promotion for this show earlier in the year, some of the puppeteers visited our local school in West End. They kindly gave the kids who were flood-affected free tickets to take their families which meant I got to go along for free! Hurray!

The models are incredibly detailed and so life like.

Kiosk Outrage at New Farm Park

Checking out the photos at World Press Photo 11

Despite my brief amusement with what was going on below the photos, the exhibition itself was what I was there for. It is a brilliant and provocative assortment of images taken by photojournalists from around the world in the past year . If you get a chance to get down to the Powerhouse before June 26th, I recommend it. Failing that, check out the winners on their website.

Photo Booth at West End Fiesta

It was the West End State School fiesta yesterday and I was one half of the photo booth photographers.
Kids grabbed their friends or family, chose from the dressing up table and struck some funky poses. It was loads of fun!

Grillside at The Norman

 

 The Norman Hotel in Woolloongabba bills itself as "Brisbane's Worst Vegetarian Restaurant". True to form,  last night they would have had about half a cow on the grill at any one time. The line-ups were out the door.

Morning on Adelaide Street

Setting of the Soleil - Skywatch

The tall skinny looking silhouette on the left is going to be a 74-story high apartment building called Soleil. You can pick up a studio flat for $382,000 if you're interested. When it's finished, it will be Brisbane's tallest tower.

But anyway. How about them ripply clouds?

Need more sky? Get over to Skywatch Friday.
 

Great Big B.U.M.S.

I went along to another Brisbane Ukelele Musicians Society (B.U.M.S.) jam at the Coorpooroo Bowls Club last night. It was an even bigger turnout than last month with an open mic section and songs for everyone to play and sing along to.
As we strummed and sang into the night upstairs, the "Bingo Bitches" punk-inspired bingo game downstairs rattled off numbers of their own.
Ace!

June Theme Day: Under Construction

It's the first of the month which means it's the City Daily Photo theme day. This month's theme, as you can see, is "Under Construction".  To warm me up, I've decided to go back to balmy February and re-visit the Lego installation that was in the Gallery of Modern Art's "Art in the 21st Century" exhibition.

The huge hands-on display of thousands of classic white Lego bricks encourages you to get in there and start constructing. Not surprisingly, when the little kids had long since found other things to take their attention, it was the adults who remained, sometimes for hours, lost in the joy of a toy that usually reaches only a fraction of its potential.

The installation is the brainchild of Olafur Eliasson and purchased by the GoMA in 2005.

It's called "The cubic structural evolution project (2004)"

Click here to view thumbnails for all participants