Happy Birthday, Powerhouse

 

This is the entrance to the Brisbane Powerhouse, a major arts venue here in Brizzy. It's housed in the shell of an old power station which was built in stages between 1928 and 1940. It has these old brick walls that are really high. This year, it is celebrating its 10th birthday. Download the program here.

Private Poetry

This sign is on part of the Brisbane Powerhouse property which is a fab arts venue in New Farm.

Loving Life!

New Farm Park's finest.

Traffic Stopping Art (number 48)

Here we are with another one of Brisbane's painted traffic signal boxes. I've posted this one before which is scandalous seeing as there are so many more un-posted that deserve my attention... but this is from a different angle and I quite like the rest of the shot.

A Woolly Blanket For The Moon

 As a native of more temperate climes, I had to laugh when I went to see comedian Bill Bailey at the weekend and he said that it was almost like the people of Brisbane were mocking him by wearing winter coats in 20 degree heat. After five years here, I have now become one of these softies. It's not the 20 degrees that is cold, it's when you get into the shade and lose 10 degrees instantly... really! If there are any Canadians or Outer Mongolians reading this and rolling their eyes: I don't blame you. Wimps, the lot of us.

Anyway. The nights have been in single figures recently... and the moon definitely needs its woolly cloud blanket.

This post was proudly brought to you by Skywatch Friday.

Blue and Green

This is the State Law Building in George Street - a favourite of mine. They call it "Gotham City" as from other angles it is straight out of Batman. I quite like it from this angle too. The blue glass and green steel go well with the sky and trees.

Doorways of Brisbane

Charcoal Yiros

Greek-style marinated, barbequed lamb and chicken at Char Char Yiros in West End. They serve it with pita bread, Greek salad, chips and a couple of slices of grilled haloumi. Delicious but seriously filling. I had to walk 2kms after eating just to be able to breathe properly!

Bill Bailey

Last night I went to see comedian and musician Bill Bailey on stage at the Performing Arts Centre in South Bank. It was a brilliant night and I laughed loads. At the end when everyone was filing out of the theatre and there would have been about 10% of the audience left in the auditorium, he came back on stage and gave those of us that were left our own private concert - it was excellent!

George Street Kangaroos

These kangaroos sculpted using scrap metal are called "City Roos" by Christopher Trotter. There are a few of them lounging around the city. Two of them were recently hopped off (temporarily) to be part of the Australia exhibit at World Expo 2010 in Shanghai.

Rule Of Thirds

Queenslander houses are a part of Brisbane's heritage yet Brisbane City Council seems hell bent on getting rid of as many as possible in order to squeeze blocks of flats in. There is a law in place to protect any pre-1946 dwelling... but unfortunately the council have acquired and bulldozed the house which stood on the right hand side of this picture a few weeks ago to build a roundabout. The act of doing this means that there are only two period houses left in this pocket of West End. Now here's the thing: some bright spark made a rule that if there are less than 3 pre-1946 houses in a cluster, the protection doesn't apply. So. Within a week of the council knocking down the house on the corner, a developer had swooped in, presumably offering a very sweet offer to the current owners, and the application to demolish the two house in the picture in favour of apartments is in the pipeline. 

Decision will be made by the council in two weeks.

Pastel Skywatch

Being the shortest part of the year, I miss 5 out of 7 sunsets as I am still at work inside with no windows at 5pm... it makes you appreciate them all the more.

Luxuriate in other skies around the world at Skywatch Friday.

Canned Great Barrier Reef Turtle Soup, Anyone?

With the opening of the new walkway on the Go Between Bridge, the top portion of a lovely old building has become visible with this old painted sign. Foggitt, Jones and Co. seems to have been some sort of canned meat factory back in the 1930s from most accounts...

If the Brisbane Courier from November 14th 1931 is to be believed, one of it's meats was live turtles from the Great Barrier Reef. They were shipped from up the coast and straight to the Foggitt Jones wharf where they were turned into canned soup! Yikes! Barbarians!

N is for NAIDOC

It's NAIDOC week from 4th-11th of July. It stands for National Aborigines and Islanders Day Observance Committee but it is known now only by the acronym. It's a time when Australia celebrates it's Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander heritage. 

On Queen Street Mall in Brisbane, they are doing an art installation spelling out the word NAIDOC using a different artist to decorate a letter each day from Sunday to Friday. This is Melita Harris who was just starting the mammoth task of doing dots all over her 'N' as I walked past.

If you weren't planning on celebrating by visiting the NAIDOC website and seeing what's on around Australia, can I suggest you take four and a half minutes at some point this week to familiarise yourself with the fabulous Aboriginal musician Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu.... here.

Let's See What's Through The Arched Window

There is an upside to the Go Between bridge; the new perspectives from it. One being the city framed in the arch of the Merivale train bridge. You are parallel to the trains that go across it and you are about the same height. Given that the trains pretty much crawl across that bridge, you could probably race one if you were so inclined and you probably wouldn't even have to break into a jog. I also quite like the way that you can see just the top of the Kurilpa Bridge with all of its swaying masts suggesting a marina beneath. Not bad at all.

The Go Between Bridge

Here is the Go Between Bridge. It's a 4-lane toll bridge linking South Brisbane with Coronation Drive with free cycling and walking paths and it opens today. I'm not a big fan of it. I don't think it will reduce traffic much and I think the design is boring. There. I've said my piece.

(Apologies for the soap-box moment)

One less way to Stick It To The Man...

Parking meters across Brisbane now ask you to key in your registration number so the inspectors can make sure that the payee is the park-ee. Gone are the days of pulling up next to a coin meter with some time left on it - and that feeling of personal triumph that goes along with it. Boo!

Vehicle Respray

As promised from Wednesday's post, this is the sprayed caravan by Shida which was part of the Trailer Trash installation at The Planting festival in Woodford in May. It sure beats beige!

Ripple Skywatch

The sky rippled up over Brisbane like whipped cream last Saturday afternoon... glorious!

For other glorious skies, visit Skywatch Friday.

July Theme Day: Reflections

It's the first of the month which means it must be Monthly Theme Day for all those City Daily Photo bloggers out there. This month's theme is Reflections.

I've chosen Ron Mueck's Mask Self Portrait which is on display at the moment in Brisbane's Gallery of Modern Art. Being a self portrait, it is by definition a reflection of the artist. I guess it would involve some self-reflection too. From an onlooker's point of view, I think all of his amazingly life-like sculptures reflect and provoke reflection in us all.

My other Ron Mueck posts are here, here and here. 

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Wall Stuff

Roadside doodles. I like those little Lego men. The mechanical-looking crocodile is unmistakeably a Shida. When I was up in Woodford at the Planting Festival earlier on in the year,  Shida was there and someone asked him to paint one of his characters on the side of their campervan. It looked great. I rushed back to my tent to get my camera but by the time I got back there, he'd finished. I did manage to get one of a caravan he did... I'll post that one tomorrow. 

Moonlight Shadow

A partial lunar eclipse was visible from Brisbane over the weekend. The moon rose big and full on Saturday evening at around 7pm and by 9.30pm it was only about half there.

Piñata!

Kids' birthday party fun at the weekend. There's nothing quite like whacking something hard with a stick to release all that sugar energy. And when you've finished whacking it, you can eat all the sweet sugary things inside and go back to square one.

Ghana Go Through!

Quarter finals here we come!!!

Room With A View

A good place to sit and watch the world go by is upstairs at the Gallery of Modern Art. Here we have the Kurilpa footbridge over the Brisbane River. The bigger boat is a CityCat - part of the public transport system here and definitely the way to get about town if you like the wind in your hair and the sun on your face.

Undermined

Something pretty big happened in Australian politics yesterday; the prime minister Kevin Rudd was ousted from power in a bloodless coup that surprised pretty much everyone - even him. This was taken where I work during his emotional exit speech. He has to pause several times to regain his composure.

It's widely believed his proposed tax on mining profits was his downfall.

Bribie Island Deadwood Forest

A king tide washed across the whole of the narrow northern tip of Bribie Island in Moreton Bay last year, killing a lot of the vegetation and leaving this skeletal forest in it's wake.

About as bleak as Australia's World Cup hopes.

Happily, new vegetation is starting to spring up and as for the Socceroos.... NEXT time!

Stencilled Paper Cranes

Youth Reaction

Here's the back of another of Ron Mueck's sculptures called Youth. He is lifting his blood-stained t-shirt to reveal a stab wound.

Ron Mueck at the GoMA

Brisbane's Gallery of Modern Art has a Ron Mueck exhibition on right now and through till August. It's a series of figures SO life-like it will blow you away. You can walk around them and see the astonishing detail with the hair and freckles and veins and skin imperfections.

This is Wild Man. His uncomfortable expression and body language were especially believable as he was surrounded by amazed onlookers scrutinising him, pointing and taking photos.

AUSSIE AUSSIE AUSSIE!!!

We were lucky enough to know a bloke from Ghana (that's him in the middle with the vuvuzela, draped in the Ghanaian flag) who opened up his backyard last night and set up a big screen so that the neighbourhood could watch the Australia vs Ghana game. Kick off was at midnight so we all rugged up. Happily, Australia didn't lose (1-1) and so they remain in the competition - if only by the skin of their teeth. Come on you Aussies!

There were faces on the bridge last night...

Dubmarine at The Dreaming

It was The Dreaming indigenous arts festival up at Woodford (an hour north of Brisbane) last weekend - where this shot was taken. These two front the very excellent Brisbane band Dubmarine. See a clip of them at The Dreaming last year here. On Monday, after many months of fundraising, they flew to Europe.  Lucky Europe!

Thanks to Mouse for the great shot.

A Whole Different Ball Game

It's not a football or a Rugby ball so half of the population of Brisbane won't be interested in it right now but this is a giant ball of wool in Brisbane Square. It's part of the huge knitting project that has taken over Brisbane for the month of June, wrapping statues in their winter woolies and decorating some of the city's most recognisable icons in yarn. This ball is one of several in the square whose metallic surfaces normally look like this.

A Welcome Distraction

After Australia's painful 4-0 loss to Germany on Monday morning in the World Cup, it's nice to focus on something else for a day or two. Brisbane is gearing up for the State Of Origin Game 2 of 3. Incase you care, New South Wales need to win this game tonight to stop Queensland from a 5 series whitewash.

Tonight's game is at Suncorp Stadium (aka Lang Park), close to Caxton Street where all the hard core revellers will be heading. It's a great atmosphere with bars and restaurants brimming and the street closed to traffic. It might even make you want to like Rugby League a little bit. Maybe. This house is within spitting distance of the ground. The picture was taken last year at the start of game 3. Hopefully they'll set it up again tonight. As you can see, they built their own grandstand, big screen, signs and everything. A great effort, if you ask me! All they need is a nice heater.

The Devil In The Detail

I spotted this over a doorway in George Street. I think it refers to a Printer's Devil. Print apprentices used to get so black with ink they were referred to as devils.

No Spicy, No Fun!

Ripe and juicy bird's eye chillies in my garden at the moment. They grow with gusto round here.

Shopping at Inala Civic Centre

An Asian oasis. I recommend a visit - especially on a Saturday morning- for a real multicultural taste of Brisbane.

I heart BNE

This lovely knitted heart is attached to a tree in Elizabeth Street as part of the I Knit BNE installation that's happening here throughout June. Knitted stuff all over the place. 

 A couple of years ago, Brisbane City Council launched it's Green Heart Program which is all about getting Brisbane carbon-neutral by 2026. The logo is very similar to the "I heart NY" logo with the same font but a green heart. I wonder if that's what inspired this one...

Spray-on cloud skywatch

I really haven't done the amazing clouds that were about yesterday morning justice. Some were like rippling silk, some like torn cotton wool and others like they had been sponged onto the brilliant blue background.

Check out more skies around the world today at the brilliant Skywatch Friday.

William Jolly Bridge, Last Night

The William Jolly Bridge (aka The Grey Street Bridge) has two permanent lighthouses, built at the end of last year, set up to project slides onto it.

I'm sure I've eaten off plates with this pattern on them. 

Trendy Market Threads

Vintage clothing stall bathed in early morning sun at the West End Markets.

Rush Hour

Let Them Eat Cack!

Spotted at the children's cake competition at the West End State School Fiesta yesterday.

Traffic Stopping Art (number 47)

Welcome back to our meander through Brisbane and it's painted traffic signal boxes. We're up to 46 - wow my feet are killing me!  This one is on Adelaide Street near the junction of Albert Street and it's by artist Douglas Trudgeon.

Rogue Cosies

Decorated bollards on the south side of the Goodwill Bridge with thoughtfully designed holes at the top for the lights. Aaaaah.

Hand In Glove

Continuing from yesterday's post about these knitters who have gone in overnight and wrapped things up in their winter clothes... here's the hand sculpture on Eagle Street by Sebastian Di Mauro. Normally, the hand looks like this.

The project, which includes wrapped up lamp-posts, statues and bollards, a clothes line and a giant spider web, had over 800 contributors, knitting for months to make this all happen. Find out more here.

Want to visit all the sites yourself? See a map with the sites marked here.

I Knit Brisbane Project

To coincide with the first day of winter in Brisbane (June 1st), a bunch of rogue knitters have wrapped up parts of the city all nice and cosy in some fantastic woollies. I had a wander around town yesterday and found statues, bollards, lamp-posts and buildings that were all looking a bit cozier than usual. This statue of Thomas Joseph Ryan (premier of Queensland 1915-1919) looks very fetching with his bag and his shawl, don't you think?

More about this tomorrow!

Church Dangles Enticing Carrot:

June Theme Day: Funny Signs

This is an adult shop.
Forgive my teenage humour.

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