Love & War

"Picasso: Love & War 1935-45" is this year's winter blockbuster at the NGV International and centres around a tumultuous decade in Picasso's life. In addition to the political events of the period, the exhibition explores the dynamic relationship with his muse Dora Maar, an artist in her own right.

I came to this exihibiton with respect but also ignorance of the man. I've never found Picasso very accessible and felt too much anguish and/or sadness in the few paintings I've seen here and there. This excellently curated collection was a revelation, showing many facets of Picasso including still life and etchings and also a compelling series of photographs showing the development of his anti-war manifesto Guernica.
A whole room is devoted to representations of the Minotaur, a mythological creature that Picasso strongly identified with, and it is within this mythic setting that Dora Maar is first seen in a graceful, bird-like form.
And it's the portraits of Maar that represent the real heart of this show. They are striking in their use of media (photographs, paintings, etchings) and also in the various moods that Maar is portrayed in. I found the use of contrasting colours in the paintings especially inspiring.
One fascinating idea was that of Maar and Picasso's obsession with sleep-watching and documentation thereof - this series is at once tender and funny.
Hightail it down to NGV International to catch the last few weeks.

Everyone loves a (c)log

I am in a bit of a pickle.

My lab shoes have holes in them and as I'm a 'fussy' person (pointed out by a kind, slightly over gel-ed salesman), it will definitely take me a while to replace said item. And it's not raining anymore, so there's no hurry yet.
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My sib suffers through constant um-ing and ah-ing about shoe#x blah and shoe#xx blah blah. I can't help it! I know what I want when I see it, but it just takes me a while to 'see'. Does anyone else suffer these conundrums? Please say it is so.

In the meantime, I can dream about these bright red clogs. Too bad they were only a temporary loan...

Moving on and moving up

A tisket a tasket

Let me introduce you to Ella the Elephant. Ella features on a new album from the Baby Loves Music series. These are produced from the legendary Verve record label and is designed to get kids into all different genres of music such as salsa, hip hop (!) and jazz. As an avid music fan myself, I wouldn't mind getting my mitts on some of these - can I borrow a kid anyone?
The koolest thing about Ella? She is voiced by none other than Miss Sharon Jones. There's even an accompanying book where Ella teaches you how to scat! I've often considered jazz to be a four letter word, but with this pedigree, it's gotta be full of fun and spirit.
Even better news, the forthcoming hip hop version is going to be produced by Prince Paul (of De La Soul fame). If kids are supposedly sponges (brain-wise that is), then what better way than to edu-ma-cate them via Sharon Jones as an elephant and the beats of Prince Paul?

So Silly

How's this for a little piece of happiness?

This week sees a couple of great old friends getting married - as measured by years of friendship rather than years of existence!!
As such, familiar faces from the northern hemisphere/states are returning home so the next few days encompasses reconnections and maybe a little bit of nostalgia.
This present is from the northern climes: someone who obviously knows me well. As to what I'm going to do with them? At the moment, I'm quite content to just sit and admire!

Minties and Kodak

As always with lists, I’m sure I’ll change my mind tomorrow about these cherished moments/memories. One thing is clear, they revolve around events or people that remind me what it is to feel at home.

** after a two month summer stint in canberra, rolling in to melbourne on the train and seeing the ‘big’ skyline

** five years later: after a 6 and a half week winter stint in the northern summer and more than 30 hours of travelling from new york city, seeing the ‘tiny’ melbourne skyline

** ok, bear with me on this one. You know those flowers that seem to be made of wispy cotton-like petals that you can blow and they fly off into the wind? One childhood memory is of running around the front garden in the summertime, holding one of those flowers and slowing my mad run-around as those wispy bits drifted (sadly) into my mouth

** walking home from primary school with my nana and siblings to a steamy home cooked meal

** all those *phew/woohoo* moments when you receive your TER or acceptance letters for uni/scholarship or those Eighth Row tickets to [Band X]. all of these deserve a big punch of the fist into the air!


Check out Flygirl, Yossarian, Cassiopeia Gegenbauer III, Serenity Later and Sartorial Splendour for more thoughts on favourite places.

Angel, Hyde and Mouros

Delicious Deli Delights from Angel to take to.... Hyde Park for a Saturday afternoon picnic in the London 'heatwave'
Castelos dos Mouros, Sintra

Mecca

Birthplace of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Salzburg Vienna
Musikverein, Vienna
Art Nouveau at Obecni Dum, Prague
Birthplace of The Ramones and Blondie, New York

Dvorak, the Moldau and the magnificent Vltava River

Antonin Dvorak's The Moldau is an orchestral piece that describes the journey of the Vltava River, which also happens to flow right through the heart of Prague. Prague proved to be one of the most beautiful cities I visited recently; forget the crowds at the castle and Karluv Most, head south for a spectacular hill top view.

Princess and the Pea

Schonbrunn Palace, Vienna


Nymphenburg Palace, Munich

Magnolia Bakery Delights, New York

Life's tough...

It's been difficult getting back into work-mode.
What with reagents not quite ready to start experiments, my thumbs are well twiddled by now!
To ease guilt of inappropriate use of internet facilities, try this:
www.workfriendly.net

Around the World in 48 days

The business end of my Northern Hemispherean summer: I'm leaving for Melbourne tonight after a cruisey week in Toronto and New York City.

There's a book by Julian Barnes titled "England, England" and a theme park in Japan which encapsulate some aspects of this whirlwind tour.
Barnes writes of an entrepreneur who builds a theme park containing all of the great icons of England, and the real life Japanese version contains white miniature replicates-to-scale of world monuments- come see the Eiffel Tower, Stonehenge, Buckingham Palace and the Empire State Building all in the one convenient location.

So I could babble on about some of the things I've seen, but you can imagine that when in Paris, you'll probably go and see the Notre Dame.

A few highlights:
* The pastries in Portugal, the food in Paris and the deli in Angel behind the antique market which supplied our Hyde Park picnic in the sweltering London heatwave.
* In Sintra near Lisbon, climbing up the ruins of the Castelo dos Mouros and looking over to the Palacio Nacional de Pena.
* Meeting some Glaswegian students at their local as I watched Australia beat Croatia to march into Round 2 of the World Cup. Our own triumph followed when we won a food voucher during the trivia quiz.
* Finally making it to Austria (a childhood dream/Mecca of sorts). Whereas in London, there are statues to Kings, Queens and Military, the first statues I found were of Haydn and Mozart. It was a thrill to be perched in the balcony of a Viennese concert hall watching an orchestra in period costume playing a mostly Mozart program. And the train ride to Salzburg with amazing breathtaking alpine scenery - stunning!
* Discovering the Art Nouveau movement in various guises beginning with Charles Rennie Mackintosh of the Glasgow School, Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele of the Secession movement in Austria, Alphonse Mucha in the Mucha Museum and an exhibition on the Croatian Art Nouveau movement in the amazing Obecni dum building, both in Prague. My favourite experience belongs to Vienna: basking in the warm glow of Gustav Klimt's "The Kiss" at the Belvedere.
* Another musical pilgrimage, visiting CGBGs in New York before it closes in September for yuppified apartments - a sad demise for the birthplace of American punk music. In the 70s, this club hosted The Ramones, Blondie and other music for uplifting gourmandisers. The room is tiny, dark and dank with walls plastered with posters and stickers of the last 23 years.
* In Prague, watching a thunder and lightning storm rumble up the Vltava River towards our spot on the hill near the Vysehrad. Our vantage point encompassed the southern part of the river all the way up past Karluv Most and to Prague Castle - an incredible sunset spectaular.
* And seriously, it would be worth all the pomp, circumstance and excessive ...excess to live in a Palace if that's a ticket to explore/ponder/play/daydream in the accompanying palatial grounds: I would revisit the gardens of the Schonbrunn Palace, Vienna and the Nymphenburg Palace, Munich in a heartbeat.

Will update with photos when I get back home-sweet-home!

As much fun as it is to see the sights, my trip was really made by intermittent pitstops visiting ex-pats. It was nice to have a 'home' to come back to after traipsing around in the European summer or crazy New York weather. Many thanks to Cam (+Pat+Eric+Candid+Paul), Geoff, Nancy (+Laura) and Leonie (+Ben) for looking after me and showing me the favourite parts of their newly-adopted cities!

Apart from a blister here and there and a tan to rival solarium addicts, I've been healthy and happy. I have also met a lot of lovely people, travellers or otherwise.
However it will be fantastic to resume a semblance of normality - my travel bug is well and truly satisfied for a little while yet!

Ola_Och

Portugese tart for the day ahead...

Lisbon

Sintra - Lisbon nobility summer hangout

Luis Ponte I - Douro River, Porto

Kool fonts everywhere in Porto

Edinburgh Castle

Glasgow Gallery of Modern Art

furious five_cover art

i must admit, i don't often stop to think about cover art. even though we live in an increasingly visual culture, i'm ruled by fonts for books and my ears for music.if anything, i recognise books and ceedees by their spines... i could make a great list of "best spines" (you'd be right in thinking that this revolves around fonts!)

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in no particular order*
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Ocean Songs - Dirty Three

for a cover that represents the all-at-once rollicking..calming..turbulent temperament within

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it's a tie: Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next series / Kerry Greenwood's Phryne Fisher seriesi love these detective series. greenwood's harks back to an elegant, feminine 1920s style and i just dig that b-grade font of fforde's

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Plastic Fang - Jon Spencer Blues Explosion

before they stole his thunder, jon spencer and his blues explosion were pioneering dirty blues/garage way before white stripes and black keys. and he's got tons more charisma in his little finger than jack, meg and those akron ohio dudes combined!

werewolves /wide-eyed horror /comic styled gasps /kool font...the BLUES IS #1!

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Nightmare Before Christmas - Tim Burton

i used to love going to cinema bookshops to check out old movie posters - they have so much character and represent an energy that slick modern posters don't seem to possess. i have many a soft spot for the posters of 50s sci-fi monster movies or old school Italian filmmakers Fellini /Bertolucci /Leone or the wide spectrum of Japanese anime or those crazy screwball comedies from the Depression era.

and then there's hitchcock too.

i love poring over a new Astor calendar!

having said all that, Tim Burton is a director with a true, unique vision and the fractured fairytale Nightmare Before Christmas poster embodies the tone and style of the film (with a bonus great font).

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Cammers You Am I Dress Me Slowly
does this count? my dear friend cammers once made me a copy of You Am I's Dress Me Slowly. the makeshift cover featured red card with a photograph of Rose Porteous -in all her faux glamour- posing for the cameras at the Logies unaware of Lano and Woodley creeping up behind, fingers curled, ready to Attack! absolute hands down favourite

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* nick hornby type declaration: if you were to ask me in another moment, this list would resemble another beast...

Anyone for waffles?

You Had Me At Hello

For all the grandstanding about needing study time, for all the warnings to my nearest and dearest that I have No Time For Fun Until June, for all my big mouthing blah blah- I think I deserve this current state of inertia.

After three days of self-induced hermitage, I'm still sitting at the computer, brain overloaded from (re)reading papers, mental space brimming over full capacity and a small brain nook of floating fluorescent microscope images looking to land on a Powerpoint slide or two.
It's true: all work and no play makes no good sense!

So while other sensible people are attending Eurovision parties or watching silly Sunday night movies or having a few beers, a moment of procrastination allows an introduction to my new Korean claypot!

My good friend Ji showed us her own claypot and shared a few insider tips over a very lovely dinner last week (Thanks Ji and Soapy!).
Day One: The claypot has already been christened with vegies and bean curd in a soy bean and chilli paste soup.
Day Two: As I was a little too enthusiastic with the vegies the first time 'round, I stirfried the rest up with some beef and a bit of kecap manis sauce, lined the claypot with some steamed rice and popped the vegies on top.


Delicious! And it's all kept warm and snug as a bug - imagine how great it will be when winter really hits Melbourne...mmmm.
Ahem, so No Time For Fun Until June - back to it then.

time flies like an arrow. fruit flies like a banana

This may well be my last post for a while as I'm about to head over to my first Northern Hemispherean summer. Although it's only a short blitz around the world, the work/travel preparations are starting to invade my mental and physical space. Exciting prospects that leaves little time for the extracurricular.

ACMI is currently featuring the new media installation monkey bear robot to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the 8 hour day. Each creature stands for Play, Rest and Work respectively and punters stand on floor touch pads to manage these different aspects of life. More weight on one over another leads to a certain death. A balance between the three and you are rewarded with a semblance of a Vitruvian man. As antiquated and unrealistic as this 888 idea sounds these days, it's an ideal worth striving for.

So jfox is going into hibernation as the Robot identity gets a massive workout for the next month. In an online effort to place more weight in the Monkey department I present some small projects.

Unless I can work out how to blog on European keyboards, we'll see y'all in August!

Happy Hippy

Just to confirm a sib's suspicion of my secret life as a hippy (wearing clothes with flowers on them doth not maketh a hippy doth it?), I recently volunteered with Conservation Volunteers Australia. This involved some planting and vegetation management in Blairgowrie on the Mornington Peninsula. Not bad for a hippy's day out eh?

Our group of 6 met up with local volunteers to remove a few weed species and also plant some native grasses and trees. We considered ourselves lucky to be at this beachside location and were even more grateful for the gorgeous overcast day, a minor blip in Melbourne's current crisp cold snap/hailing/etc.
The weed removal created trailers and trailers worth of unwanted vegetation. However, I spent the majority of the day planting: a bit of fertiliser, some water saving crystals and a fresh young green plant.

It was quite a thrill to be placing these lifeforces into the ground, an incredibly rewarding experience. We all vowed to return in a year to see how our little patch would mature.

The rest of the afternoon? Looking out over the Sorrento back beach whilst a wedding party celebrated, surfers hurled themselves at giant waves and clouds rumbled across the sky.