The 10th Spanish Film Festival will be showing at the Palace Centro cinemas from 23 to 27 May. The opening night fiesta will showcase the Australian premiere of Crossing Borders (Un Franco Catorce Pesetas). Tickets to the opening night cost $40 which includes tapas, drinks and entertainment, plus a DVD of the Spanish movie Dot the I, starring (be still my beating heart) Gael Garcia Bernal. The festival lineup includes a variety of contemporary and vintage Spanish cinema, incorporating influences from Argentina and Brazil. After consultation with trusted friends in Spain, the recommendations are El Concursante (The Contestant) and Siete Virgenes (7 Virgins). The Contestant is on at cinemas in Spain at the moment. Single admission tickets to the festival in Brisbane are $15. Tickets can be purchased by phoning the cinema on 3852 4488. Vamos!
Monthly Archive for April, 2007
Growing up I always wanted a tree house and one of my architectural dream houses is still something built around magnificent trees. Last year, the Dallas Arboretum showcased 13 creative and sculptural entries in the “Ultimate Tree House” design competition. The tree houses could be anything as long as they were interactive, met accessibility requirements, and were not attached to the tree. The winning entry was “Square of Circles” designed by architect Jay Smith. It was a curtain of 108 yellow vertical plastic pipes that were hinged above the ground on a square wood frame. Visitors could swing the pipes to the side, move between them and enter the “room” created around the trunk (approx 5m by 5m). At the end of the exhibition, instead of just taking it down, he sold the tree house on Ebay for the bargain price of $US182.50 and donated the money to the American Cancer Society. Some lucky kid probably has it in their backyard right now.
There’s a little voyeur in all of us. And most people will admit to their penchant for people-watching – sitting in a café, park or other public space, watching the melange of people walk by and hypothesising about their personalities, their relationships and, most importantly, the logic behind their choice of outfit. One of the greatest things about travelling to a foreign city is the chance to wander through the streets amongst whole new mix of people, observing their unique quirks, cultural interactions and crazy fashions. But for those of us with job commitments, limited holiday time and even more limited travel budgets, we have to find other ways to satisfy our wanderlust. Street Peeper, started by New York-based photographer Phil Oh, is a website dedicated to bringing the best street fashions from across the globe, and the low-down on local boutiques, designers, hangouts and parties in the world’s most stylish metropolises. Continue reading ‘watching the world go by’
Testosterone is produced by a pregnant female to provide her young with the strength they need to grow and develop. In a litter of mice, one youngster will receive the majority of the testosterone and hence strength. When born, it will instinctively know (or defend) which teat is the richest source of milk and hence food to survive. It will constantly protect this teat from its brothers and sisters, effectively dominating its environment. This mouse has a .95% chance of living through to maturity. Its smaller, weaker brothers and sisters, have a .15% chance of reaching the same age. Which mouse do you think will be the entrepreneur?
In St Gallen, Switzerland there is a lot of red. They hosted a design competition, calling for creation of a “public living room” in the midst of the financial district. The result was “Stadtlounge” designed by Carlos Martinez with artist Pipilotti Rist. It is covered entirely by red granulated rubber (think of the impact-absorbing surfaces on playgrounds) which creates a visually amazing public space. The red rubber flows around three buildings (1 city block) and over seats, tables, a water feature and even a Porsche sculpture. The red continues to the vehicle roadways that are paved in matching red asphalt.
The striking concept for the Cor building in Miami looks like swiss cheese but on closer inspection it is a very clever building. Oppenheim Architecture + Design came up with this distinct exoskeleton which provides building structure, insulation, shading and cooling. The most stunning feature is the roof where advanced turbine technology is incorporated into the building structure to utilise breezes off the ocean. Additional features will include solar panels to utilise Miami’s sunny climate, the use of concrete made with fly ash (a waste product of coal power plants), all bamboo floors, special programmed elevators that reduce energy use, recycled glass tiles in bathrooms and of course highly efficient appliances and fixtures. It is set to be completed in 2009.
Tall buildings that maximise their coastal locations – sounds like a perfect idea for the Gold Coast.
It’s a familiar site around Brisbane. The dry grass, once green is no more. Only the tops of trees now reflect the colour that used to swim around its base. Storm cells split in two and avoid the city like an off ramp on the M1. And still our government hesitates to act. Author of Affluenza, Growth Fetish and the newly released Scorcher: The Dirty Politics of Climate Change, Clive Hamilton knows a thing or two about climate change and on Tuesday night, will speak with Professor Ian Lowe at 6pm at the Queensland Irish Club. These two guys are amongst the eminent thinkers in Australia on climate change and to have the chance to interact with both of them in Brisbane is great news. For his research and writing, it seems Clive has a useful resource in The Australia Institute, an independent public policy research centre funded by grants from philanthropic trusts, memberships and commissioned research. Continue reading ‘one hot night with clive hamilton.’
banker to the poor
When it comes to donating to charity, it’s sometimes hard not to wonder exactly what your money is being used for. And then there’s the old “hand-up vs the hand-out” debate. Give a man a fish, they say, and you’ll feed him for a day, but teach a man to fish and you’ll feed him for a lifetime. This is the basic premise behind the Grameen Bank, the brainchild of Bangladeshi economist and Nobel Peace Prize winner, Muhammad Yunus. Grameen works on the basis of a micro-credit system, which provides the poorest of the poor with miniscule loans – as low as $30 – in a bid to incite a sense of personal initiative and enterprise that will enable them to pull themselves out of the clutches of poverty for good. Continue reading ‘banker to the poor’
heaven in a box
If you are a lover of chocolate and have a spare fifty dollars to spend then I have some good news for you. Dello Mano Brownies. Available at the Powerhouse Farmers Markets or by phone order, these are THE brownies of the brownie world. These gorgeous treats are hand-made locally by owners Deborah and Bien Peralta to a personally created recipe using the finest Belgian chocolate, ensuring they quite literally melt in your mouth. Each hand-cut brownie is then placed into an elegantly presented box, sealed with a chocolate brown ribbon and hand delivered. It doesn’t get much better than this. I recently had the pleasure of having a box of these brownies personally delivered to me, and let me tell you it took A LOT of convincing to get me to share with the rest of the map team. Not that I’m selfish, it’s just an opportunity like that doesn’t come across my desk very often. Don’t tell the map team, but I just might have one or two of these beautiful little delights still hidden under my desk…
The business of imagination is alive and well. Psyop is a New York based film and visual effects company whose use of the screen in communicating a message is very impressive. While the calibre of some of their clients and some self promotion work is less than appealing, the majority of the work is simply beautiful and enjoyable to witness. This clip from sister company Blacklist, is amazing to watch, if not meaningless.
Never say never. This is the lesson I learnt today when I logged onto the Big Brother website. I never thought I would taint my beautiful mac’s url memory as to type in the BB address but there I was, face close to the screen, searching through the flurry of images, headings and flashing adverts to find the site’s search bar. I typed in ‘vegan food’ and presto. My search was over. A friend told me this season’s Big Brother housemates will endure a vegan diet. No meat, fish, chicken, eggs or milk. No fun. Of course the idea is hilarious and seems one of the cruelest jokes Big Brother could play on his housemates because a life of chickpeas and tofu isn’t a life worth living, right? Keeping in mind the program is certainly not an educational one, let’s just imagine for a moment if BB took his vegan punishment one little step further and gave each of the housemates a good book to read about what veganism signifies, like the Meat Market: Animals, Ethics and Money, or even to sit them down for eight minutes to watch the Meet your Meat clip, which shows how chickens, hens, cows and goats are treated in farms, abbatoirs and in transit. After even three minutes of watching the web version, they mightn’t find the concept of veganism so strange. It might even inspire one or two to buy free range eggs instead of cage eggs or to enjoy meat-free days so they don’t condone animal cruelty at every meal. These are just some of the ideas BB could arm the housemates with to consider after they’re evicted, one by one, from the house and sent into the media storm like chickens to the slaughterhouse.
life and death
I am constantly reminded of the significant beauty in the world both in life and death and yesterday was another one of those days. I celebrated a friend’s birthday with the wonderfully crazy idea of breakfast on top of Mt Warning. As we began the journey at 4am, the much-needed draw card to get to the top was stove-top espresso and fresh French Twist pastries. This incentive was much-needed as I was carrying my 15kg boy Jasper in a backpack and as we soon found out, a huge physical challenge! As we slowly stepped the muddy track in darkness with head torches, I was deep in thought and respect for our diggers and also, as painful as it was, the beauty and sheer joy of carrying my son on my back - strange dichotomy! The journey took about two and a half hours to the top and for all that time I got to share his baby space - a multitude of cute sounds. The highlight was as I listened to him copy the bird calls that began to sound as dusk broke. There was something incredibly peaceful in my pain knowing that I was going to get him to the top no matter what it took. It made me feel happy and alive. Beauty, pain, ANZACs, death, nature, the solar system, trees, climate change, war, love, forest, friends, love, life… so many thoughts ran through my head as I trekked to the top and back. Continue reading ‘life and death’
Sydney Writers Festival kicks off from May 28 and is proudly flashing its ‘first climate friendly Australian literary festival’ tag. Festival organisers have teamed up with NRMA Insurance to offset all carbon emissions as well as introducing other initiatives to reduce the festival’s environmental impact. Hopefully the Byron Bay Writers Festival (program to be announced June 1) will take notes from the lessons learned in Sydney. Aside from the writers worthy of the ‘highlights’ page of the festival website, other interesting events include the Sydney premiere of the film adaptation of Raimond Gaita’s novel, Romulus, My Father, featuring Eric Bana; and the d-factory talks about design publications with, amongst others, the inspiring Kate Bezar, publisher and editor of Dumbo Feather magazine. d-factory is a monthly public forum in Sydney where industry insiders, students, artists and journalists get together to talk about cutting-edge design. Possibly the quirkiest experiment on the program is The Don’s Party non-stop marathon reading of Don Quixote over three nights at the Ariel Booksellers in Paddington. Interested readers are welcome to volunteer to read snippets of the famous tale along with other book lovers, festival guests, and well-known Sydneysiders, while enjoying tapas and sangria. Aside from guest lectures and debates about literature, politics, religion, sex, and yum cha, there are also literary salons, readings, workshops, launches and parties. Now, who said bookish types don’t know how to have a good time?
I think the term ”cube farm” is a hilarious description of those workplaces full of partitioned cubicles. Cube farms are often found in large corporations and create a certain culture that is parodied in shows like the Office and comics like Dilbert. Taking inspiration from Dilbert, IDEO designed “Dilbert’s Ultimate Cubicle”. The prototype addresses real workplace issues such as lack of space, little personal control and false sense of privacy. With a great sense of humour, the resulting modular design offers workers a range of custom components to personalize their space. They included components such as lighting effects, fake grass flooring, an aquarium, a punching bag, and even a hammock.
Typical of many design professions, my workplace has a very open plan layout and in fact no one has an office - but personally I wouldn’t mind working in an IDEO designed cube.
Arup UK with WaterAid have been running the “drawing water challenge” competition to find innovative solutions to help people access clean water. These ideas tend to be more targeted for developing nations, but as we face water restrictions it’s increasingly relevant in our cities that we think of water in new ways. The winning design “WatAir” was inspired by spiderwebs and the dew-catching properties of leaves and uses lightweight panels to funnel moisture to one collective source. The panels are flexible, movable and also provide shade and some shelter.
WatAir is a nice example of biomimicry. Biomimicry is based on the idea that there are lessons and inspirations in plants, animals and nature that can help us design better and more efficient solutions. It can result in both low-tech solutions or highly sophisticated designs – but it seems that any idea taken from nature has this great certain logic, integrity and grace. Last year I heard Janine Beynus speak about it and she mentioned how all university design courses like engineering and architecture should study biology as a compulsory unit - I think that’s a great idea.
Donna Piacenza of Studio 1a.m., the creative genius behind eco-friendly jewellery like the Cork Cuff and Industrial Bloom, has just produced a new table concept that offers individualism for potential purchasers. Studio 1a.m. formed from a desire to question what is assumed, expected, and possible. They explore new ideas in materials and processes through projects like recycled jewellery and adaptable objects. Called ‘This table will self-destruct.‘ the table is structured as a grid of concrete pixels. Each time a new table is produced a pixel is removed from the design. Because material is taken away with each rendition, every table is unique. Following these set rules of self-destruction, the shape becomes more intricate as it diminishes. As a result, the project is a limited production, made only until the shape is no longer desirable. The table is made using sustainable materials - White portland cement, recycled white marble chips and silica sand and the base is made of salvaged sorghum plant branches collected after harvest. So far six pixels have been removed.
I feel a little under the weather today. I think I’ve been experiencing what some environmentalists such as John Seed and Joanna Macy term ‘despair’. It’s a lonely, cementing feeling of helplessness and inaction in response to the current ‘climate’ of local, national and international events. In search of an offer of knowledge-a slice of my soul, a question from the grey that matters to share with you, I opened up a book I’ve been reading called Massive Change. It proposes that a new breed of designer is needed, one who is in the words of R. Buckminster Fuller, a “synthesis of artist, inventor, mechanic, objective economist and evolutionary strategist”. Continue reading ‘buckminster fuller.’
“A Nest is something you build yourself. You build it out of found objects, life experiences, dreams, hopes, inspiration. You gather it all together and make it your own.”
Nest is run by a group of female designers to raise awareness of female talent and foster young designers throughout the world. Nest cleverly use the colloquial references to women as ‘birds’ or ‘chicks’ to create a place to meet, be inspired and inspire other girls in the industry. Nest features and profiles designers and artists, and invites them to submit work for show on the site. The group also provides a way for design students or graduates (‘fledgling chicks’) to present their work.
Inn an article about Marilyn French, author of The Women’s Room, and now a 77-year-old cancer-survivor, Jane Wheatley tells an anecdote about a “bright, academically-able 18-year-old’ who ‘curled her lip’ when asked if she considered herself a feminist. “None of us do”, she said, “Well, there’s one girl, but no one likes her.” That’s a bit what it felt like when, all last year, Brisbane was being entertained by Menopause the Musical, with busloads of women going along to listen to songs slightly revamped to contain apparently hilarious references to hot flushes and getting saggy. There must have been quite a few women who felt like that girl whom none of the bright young things like because she chooses not to be part of the new-feminine image-making. But anyone who did think that such theatre is not, as it is pitched at us, empowering at all, but just another way to stereotype women, this time, older ones, probably thought better of speaking out. We aren’t allowed to be critical in Australia, not about ideas and philosophies. So, if you’re that woman no one likes, rejoice:this was in the Guardian newspaper this weekend, a review of Menopause the Musical:
” Some of this (product placement and songs abouut hot flushes) might just be forgiven if the show had any flair at all,” writes Lyn Gardner, “but it is dire in construction and execution and quite offensive and reactionary in the way it reduces all women over 50 to their hormones and portrays them as a bunch of chocolate-craving, weight-obsessed neurotics.”
Phew! What a relief. At last, to hear someone talk about how simplistic such an idea for a show is. I don’t remember anyone in Australia coming out and saying how offensive are hot flush jokes and guffawing at chocolate cravings. If we must be grumpy, let’s do it with our brains switched on.
