Posted by Jerry on September 20th, 2008 — Posted in History, Journal, Travel
Well, the evening passed – along with dinner, my body absorbing minimal nutritional value on its way through, but it was still a delicious meal for all that. And the hotel guy cheerily informed us that the air conditioning was still on heat … I decided not to go there.
Nature’s alarm clock in the form of a mob of screeching cockatoos woke us at 6.30am from our hour or so’s sleep – there is just no arguing with a parrot! so if I seem grumpy or churlish today I would just put it down to the lack of sleep and the fact that I am due in the recording studio in 2 hours to play bright and happy tunes like ‘Farewell to Chernobyl’….
The Sienna Marina coffee shop and restaurant is a good place to start one’s caffeine intake, along with free wireless internet access. It will be warm today – 31C is forecast – which would be the height of Summer for Canberra. Two days ago we had minus 2C overnight, so we are unaccustomed to the warmth and humidity. The clear sky and sharp shadows attest to a truly beautiful day ahead.
Woolloomooloo is one of Sydney’s forgotten gems – close to the multi-million dollar Wharf development, and built on reclaimed land beneath and adjacent to the Domain parkland, you can find inexpensive accommodation within easy walking distance of the City, and similar easy walking distance to Oxford Street for the bookshops, art shops and fashion designers.
And everywhere you find evidence of the Convict workings – like the various historic stairs cut directly into the rock face to get to the city and thence via The Rocks to Observatory Hill – which I wrote about previously.
Horderns Stairs in Potts Point is a prime example – they were built in 1882 – and you can still see the tooling marks on the rocks. Noting the signs for falling rocks, I don’t think I’ll be investing in the apartments above that have been built right to the edge of the rock face.
Cheers
Jerry
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Posted by Jerry on September 19th, 2008 — Posted in Journal, Travel
In Sydney to do some music recording, we took the opportunity to take in Berkelouw Books and Ariel Books on Oxford St and came back to the hotel with quite a haul!
On the way to Oxford Street, we passed St Vincent’s Hospital, and right opposite found a memorial drinking fountain dedicated to the memory of one of Australia’s greatest heart surgeons, Dr Victor Chang.
Berkelouw’s has a cafe upstairs serving delightful apple and rhubarb slice and berry cheesecake – we washed these down with two large flat white coffees. Internet connection was a bit flaky so I waited until we got back to the hotel
I found an early Thomas Sebeok book on semiotics, called ‘A sign is just a sign’ – it looks great – I’ve been reading a bit about semiotics lately – the study of how we make meaning with signs.
Ariel’s yielded Alain de Botton’s ‘Essays in Love’ – which we had been hunting for some time – we have all his others.
As we crossed the road from Ariel’s I spotted a pile of steam rising in front of an illuminated sign on a building on Oxford Street and couldn’t resist a moody photo
And on to an art store – Canberra’s main art stores have been taken over by Eckersly’s and the range has narrowed markedly – and they cater more for scrapbooking than fine arts it seems. But the art store on Oxford Street has a huge range of items for artists – I found some orange shellac for varnish, and Sharon some sketch books and a few other things.
Then it was on to a Nepalese restaurant for dinner – it looked quite genuine cuisine, with goat (with or without bones and skin!) on the menu – we settled for a lamb and a chicken curry, with rice and naan bread – delicious!
Weighed down with books we stopped at a 7/11 for some milk and then caught a cab back to the hotel – The Mariner’s Court on McElhone St in Woolloomooloo – great value, comfortable clean rooms recently refurbished.
And so to blog with a backdrop of fireworks.
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Posted by Jerry on August 21st, 2008 — Posted in History, Journal, Technology, Travel
The Powerhouse museum encompasses a massive collection of technology and design. One aspect of particular interest is the computer and telecommunications collection.
Before the Internet, there was the Victorian internet – the telegraph. One of the more sophisticated telegraph machines is this one – the Wheatstone 5-needle telegraph. It was a combination transmitter and receiver, and was used used on English railways. This one was made c. 1837 – 1842.
The needles were activated in pairs by electromagnets to point to the letters. Perhaps this was the sort of machine used by Abraham Lincoln when he checked his t-mail (telegraph mail)
Another radical development was the Apple computer – the first version was built in 1976 in Steve Wozniak’s garage along with Steve Jobs, later joined by Daniel Kottke, Randy Wigginton and others. They made 200 of them – but it was the start of a personal computer revolution.
Each was handmade and users built them into a small case – bearing some resemblance to the ‘enigma’ encoding machine used by the Germans in WWII. Storage was by cassette audio tape, and a TV was the monitor. The machine used a MOS Technology 6502 motherboard with 8kb of RAM. The later ones used a Motorola 6800 board.
Then came telepresence in the form of virtual reality technology – remember the VR cafes of the 1990s? This was the start of truly immersive 3D environments. The accompanying data glove enabled the user to interact with the environment and fight dinosaurs and the like. When these were around I remember people complaining that the refresh rate was too slow and that the sense of disconnected movement gave people motion sickness. But it was a major step forward in immersive environment technology.
The Powerhouse is well worth a visit – check out the ‘Wedge’ 3D environment – one of the prototypes developed by the Australian National University.
It is open every day except Christmas day 10.00am-5.00pm, and is located at 500 Harris Street, Ultimo, Sydney NSW. There is an admission charge – you can find the details on their website.
Cheers
Jerry
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Posted by Jerry on August 17th, 2008 — Posted in Journal, Travel
As you walk around Sydney, it pays to be alert to the amazing art works that you can encounter. Here are three of them that I found yesterday, just by walking around.
Brett Whiteley’s matches – titled “Almost Once” – This sculptural work can be found at the Domain. While Whiteley is known more for his paintings and wall panels, such as the ‘American Dream’ – now in the Art Gallery of Western Australia – or his views of Sydney Harbour, he also made sculptures. The two matches – one unused, and one burnt set up a contrast between potential and extinguishment, life and death, future and hindsight. And all this can be viewed while eating your sandwiches and resting on the lawn. They were erected in 1991 behind the Art Gallery of New South Wales. They are made from blackbutt timber and fibreglass.
Bert Flugelman’s sculpture is encountered almost by accident in a side street in the Rocks. He was famed for his stainless ball stack in Adelaide’s Rundle Mall, but this one mirrors in broken facets the surrounding chaotic high-rise development in Sydney. It is known colloquially as the “shish kebab” and was constructed in 1978. It was originally located in Martin Place, but has since been moved to its current location in Spring Street. Flugelman was born in Vienna in 1923, but moved to Australia before WWII.
The third is a street mural in black and white of a laneway taken from a 1901 photograph. It was commissioned by the Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority and was paited by Pierre Mol of Artempire. The scene is an image of Brown Bear Lane, later called Little Essex Street. It’s original name was taken from a pub of that name that existed on that site between 1804 and 1901. The pub was demolished the 1950s to make way for the City Circle railway and Cahill Expressway. As I took the photo a woman stepped into the frame about to cross the road – it looks as though she has just stepped out of the 1901 scene into modern Sydney!
Cheers
Jerry
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Posted by Jerry on August 16th, 2008 — Posted in History, Journal, Travel
The The Rocks and Sydney Observatory provide wonderful vantage point to see some of Sydney’s iconic constructions.
The Sydney Harbour Bridge – known locally as “the coat hanger” was completed in 1932. The single span bridge was completed in eight years – the £6.25m loan took a little longer, and was paid off only in 1988!
The arch spans 503m (1,650 feet) and supports the weight of the road and rail beds on steel cables.
Over 150,000 vehicles cross the bridge each day and if you’re feeling adventurous you can join one of the three hour climbs to the summit, led by specially trained guides.
The Sydney Opera House, designed by Danish architect Jorn Utzon, took 17 years to complete at a cost of $102m. A competition was announced in 1955 and won by Utzon’s design in 1957. But the design entailed novel building techniques and several controversial design compromises were made, resulting in Utzon resigning from the project in 1966. The building was completed by Australian designers. More recently, Utzon was brought back to help prepare a set of design principles to guide any future modifications.
The building is not a single opera house, but rather a series of performance spaces, including an opera theatre, a concert hall and a drama theatre, which are housed beneath its ten roof sails. The building covers 2-hectares and contains more than 1000 rooms. Check their website for what’s on and when.
Luna Park – Sydney’s famous fun fair was built on the site of the workshops used to build the Harbour Bridge. It was modeled on New York’s Luna Park on Coney Island, and was built in South Australia and moved to its present site in 1935.
Its entrance – a giant laughing face – is flanked by twin art deco towers. Today’s face is the eighth in the series. The first four only lasted between 1935 and 1945. In 1977 a catastrophic fire in the ghost train killed seven people, leading to Luna Park’s eventual closure in 1988. The funfare was renovated in the 1990s and reopened in 1995.
Check the Luna Park website for opening hours and prices. Group discounts are available.
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