Backdated. Posted 24/5/2018 Sydney getaway continued. First stop: a bakery in the Queen Victoria Building, the spectacular 19th century shopping arcade, where we grabbed some croissants for breakfast. Then to Town Hall Station to hop on a train to inner-city Redfern. A short walk from Redfern Station is Carriageworks, a former… well, railway carriage workshop, ... [More]
Posted 12/11/2014. Backdated to 7/11/2014. On the morning of day two in Sydney, after a sleep-in, we breakfasted. I’d looked at UrbanSpoon and concluded that every venue reviewed has its share of whingers — it’s a matter of identifying who is complaining about Real Stuff and who is complaining about trivia or a freak bad ... [More]
Speaking of sculpture, there’s a rather splendid new one at the corner of Spencer and Flinders Streets — a full-size replica of a W-class tram. Officially titled “Raising the Rattler Pole – The Last of the Connies”, it was installed last week, and when I went by a day or two later, appeared to be ... [More]
Dog poetry I wandered, lonely as a dog With my peeps to Footscray Hill, Amongst the grass, dirt and city views, And just the occasional golden daffodil. Street art Probably overlooked by most, this is inside a road sign on Centre Road.
Before you go looking for it, be sure to read the updates at the bottom. The gigantic transport mural was perhaps one of the best features of the old Spencer Street station. By Harold Freedman, it depicts the first century of Victoria’s transport — from 1835 to 1935. It was commissioned by the state government ... [More]
When I visit the data centre for work, I get my photo taken for a visitor pass. It’s often on a Friday — casual clothes day. The camera (and/or the printer) is black & white, low-resolution, and slightly awkwardly placed. For some reason, the visitor passes have been accumulating in my desk drawer. Here are ... [More]
The mural at Patterson station that I noted some time ago has now been completed and officially opened. It includes a rather neat mosaic version of the Metro logo: (zoom) More faces contributed by (mostly) local community groups and schools have been added. Note Bender from Futurama in there. (zoom) Apparently they got sponsorship from ... [More]
There’s vandalism, and then there’s street art. Some have trouble distinguishing them, but for me, it’s not hard to see that these hidden gems in Finlay Lane (off Little Lonsdale Street, near Queen Street) are clearly the latter. Well worth a look, if you’re passing (and you can find it!)
(Probably my favourite lightbulb joke when they were all the rage was: Q. How many surrealists does it take to change a light bulb? A. Two. One to hold the giraffe and the other to fill the bathtub with brightly coloured machine tools.)
Solar Equation, by Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, part of Federation Square’s The Light In Winter, is a simulation of the sun, “100 million times smaller than the real thing”. Here’s how it looks in daytime, when inactive: At dusk it fires up: