An up-and-coming, straight, hotshot actor falls head over heels for another man, who has a newly pregnant ex-girlfriend. Throw a savvy talent agent in the mix and you have The Little Dog Laughed. Just the right mix of naughty, funny and glossy Hollywood drama, this Queensland Theatre Company production keeps nothing in the closet. The Little Dog Laughed is a clever commentary on our society’s obsession with celebrity and QTC artistic director Michael Gow says the Hollywood jabs and insights are “cutting but never cruel”. See for yourself if this little dog is barking up the right tree, with tickets available through QPAC.
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Finalists have been announced for the Queensland Short Film competition and the top ten filmmakers who have made the cut look set to deliver a diverse and engaging range of topics in their fifteen minute masterpieces. War, blackjack, self-discovery and a murder mystery are just a few of the themes explored by the talented crop of Queensland film buffs. Brisbane-based screen industry training centre QPIX is well represented with 6 of the 10 films selected coming from QPIX filmmakers. Screenings of the top ten films will be held August 8 to coincide with the Brisbane International Film Festival. If you find yourself feeling inspired and compelled to explore a future in film, QPIX run a number of short courses throughout the year which develops and assists in the production of film and TV content.
proving the world is a small is place
It’s often easy to lose perspective, but a visit to the World Press Photo Exhibition at the Powerhouse will serve as a profound and ultimately grounding experience. The 52nd annual event showcases the very best of photojournalism around the world, capturing the state of the world in 2008. The Beijing Olympics, crippling poverty, and the beauty of nature feature prominently, as does the state of the world economy, all played out as a visual tragedy. Flying the Aussie flag is Mark Dadswell, who won second prize in the Sports Action Singles category by capturing the agony and the ecstasy of Usain Bolt as he won the 200m men’s final at the Olympics. The calibre of the imagery and the confronting social issues make this exhibition one not to miss.
It is hard for a sighted person to imagine what it is like to be blind. The innovative and award winning children’s book “The Black Book of Colour’ invites readers to explore what it’s like to read with their fingertips by using black raised line art against black pages to illustrate the story. The descriptive, sensory text, such as “yellow tastes like mustard, but is as soft as a baby chick’s feathers” is featured in both printed text and Braille. This beautiful and clever book makes me think how colour is such a powerful design element to almost everything, and I’ve always been intrigued about how the colour is our rooms, our clothes or other things can make us feel better or different. Today, pink is making me happy. I think pink tastes like your kiss, and is as sweet and fluffy as fairy floss.
I had a lovely day outside the city, and it included a stop to the creative and inventive home of artist, designer, pilot and film-maker, William Lishman. He’s the guy that the movie Fly Away Home is based on, which is the story of how he trained geese to migrate with his plane. His underground house is a series of concrete domes covered in a hill and overlooking a stunning Ontario landscape. It’s an artistic and engineering feat that you can casually stroll on to the landscaped roof from the ground. It is quite an inspiring experience. There is a swing and part of a rock climbing wall IN the living room, and he said simply that “living rooms should be made for living”. All houses should feel like this.
I’ve been playing around with time lapse videos and also stumbled upon slow motion videos. This beautiful ad for Schweppes was shot with a camera that takes 10,000 frames per second.
Nothing if not responsive, the bushfirehousing website was up and running last night to connect people dispaced by the bushfires with those who have spare accommodation to donate. Whether it’s a room, a house or even a caravan, in Melbourne, Victoria or interstate, you can register your offer of accommodation for the thousands left homeless by the fires. With over 200 offers of accommodation in its first day and housing for nearly 700 people, citizen creativity and compassion has seized a wonderful opportunity. Photo Ben Swinnerton via The Australian.
Wisps of clouds linger amongst the treetops of the Himalayan foothills and the gentle chime of Tibetan bells rings out as the smell of incense envelops your senses. You close your eyes and the serenity embraces you as an inner calm sets in and your mind clears of the clutter of Western life. You feel the gentle touch of expert hands upon your shoulders, as they work lovingly to diminish the knots of stress formed in your tired muscles. A soothing voice reassures you, as you settle into a state of bliss. That voice belongs to Miriam van Doorn, founder of the blissful haven of beauty therapy and inner-harmony, Body Essence Day Spa and Yoga Studio in New Farm.
Continue reading ‘local dreamer – miriam van doorn’
cameron sinclair
Cameron Sinclair and Kate Stor are the folks behind Architecture for Humanity, a charitable organisation which seeks architecture and design solutions to humanitarian crises and provides design services to communities in need. They used the 2006 TED Prize to start “Open Architecture Network” the worlds’ first open source community dedicated to improving living conditions through innovative and sustainable design. This week, I saw Cameron speak at EcoGram and true enough he was inspiring and funny. Their projects prove that positive change can and does happen, and the best part is that it can be grounded in super simple, pragmatic and universal principles like involving the community, sharing ideas and using resources in smart ways. The high of getting a business card from a TED speaker is my geeky equivalent to getting an autograph from your favourite rockstar. Cameron Sinclair’s business card doesn’t say “architect” it says “eternal optimist”. I think that is an awesome job title to have.
Greenhouse by Joost
via That’s Melbourne: Melbourne will witness an Australian first in Greenhouse by Joost - a self-sustaining temporary event venue at Federation Square that will engage and inspire from October, 30 2008 to January 2009, constructed entirely from recycled or recyclable materials. Open to the public by day as a gallery, cafe and place to ponder your impact on the planet. Feast on the freshest fare in town, using ingredients from the rooftop garden worked into delectable dishes by the lads from Seamstress. At night, Greenhouse will entertain the new “in-crowd” -being the savvy set who’ve simply grabbed a ticket from one of the outlets around town. Greenhouse by Joost is also available for exclusive functions, with food by Shannon Bennett. Greenhouse by Joost is a joint venture between flower artist & waste wizard Joost Bakker, and events guru Corina Baldwin, Director of bttb (bigger than ten bears).
Turn it into a hostel! Welcome to one of the world’s coolest hostels in Arlanda, Stockholm! The 1976 Boeing 747-200 has been converted into the Jumbo Hostel. The 85 room hostel is the sheer ingeniousness of Oscar Dios – previous owner of hostel Uppsala Vandrarhem och Hotell. Here you can spend the night onboard a real jumbo jet – in the ground! Choose between sparkling three-bed rooms with shared shower and toilet in the corridor or the luxury suite in the converted cockpit with its panoramic view of the airport. In December 2007, Oscar Dios was granted the building permit for establishing the Jumbo Hostel at the entrance to Arlanda airport and this summer it will open to the public. Welcome aboard!
Every year we can read about the top 100 men and women whose power, talent or moral example are transforming the world - thanks to Time Magazine. Which makes me wonder about those persons who have the drive, ability, inspiration and intention to transform the world, but may be unable to given the circumstances they were born into. Who is the world missing out on - because of the current failures of society?
Continue reading ‘Future Inspiration’
inhabit
Inhabit is a new Brisbane City Council program of public art and events that will transform forgotten and overlooked places throughout Brisbane’s CBD. During July and August, laneways, ‘pocket parks’ and concrete nooks around the city will be re-defined by innovative sculpture, design and events. It is part of the Brisbane Festival, and implements objectives of the CBD Masterplan about improving pedestrian environments.
“Escapespace” by Nicole Voevodin-Cash located at Eagle Lane (junction with Queen Street) is just one of the exciting works. This astroturf oasis creates an unexpected burst of colour, texture and usable space in an otherwise bitumen environment. It was only installed a few days ago but this playful space is already proving popular with nearby office workers. Enjoy this ‘park’ until August. (I hope it stays longer)
Many chefs see their food as art but do artists see their work as food? The Umami Festival is a food and art festival, which takes place in April in New York City and is designed to open up the avenues between those artists who use food as a medium. At the last festival, a 10-day smorgasbord of food and art was enjoyed, which included water tasting events and a ‘Paint With Your Food’ workshop for children. The festival opened with a weird yet strangely wonderful ‘main course’ of ‘Orphic Memory Sausage’ – a performance piece demanding the participation of the audience. Continue reading ‘orphic memory sausage’
map magazine’s global dreamer from last year’s October issue was Jonathan Harris, an artist and computer scientist who creates online art to capture the world’s expression. Though he is known best for his breathtaking graphic interfaces that help to create a visual representations of the data floating around the internet (including We Feel Fine – a project that scours blogs to collect the planet’s collective emotions), Jonathan’s artistic talents are not simply limited to the virtual world. The Polaroid Project was a live art event created in the space of two hours, using 150 cut-up Polaroid photographs. Three photographers were each given a Polaroid camera, with 150 exposures, a bag of tools and an audience of 300 people dressed as grandmothers. Their task? To take and assemble 150 photographs into a mosaic that told some kind of story. Starting in opposite corners are uncut pictures of a fully clothed man and a fully clothed woman. Both genders twist towards the center along curved paths, discarding clothes, wigs, shoes, and other accessories along the way, as the photos start to shatter, becoming less about objects and more about flesh. Approaching the center, the pictures are increasingly difficult to discern, as body parts blend together and their owners’ identities dissolve. Throughout the piece, the male and female cut marks are symmetric, mirrored copies of each other, extending beyond the boundaries of the photographs into the white border, itself composed of the individual white borders of all 150 Polaroids, so that the whole canvas comes to resemble a single giant Polaroid exposure.
top end magic
Living in a new place is bloody exciting. New town, new territory, new job, new house, new friends, new car; barely a trace of normalcy remains in this stimulating dawn. The first few months form a whimsical honeymoon period; a time of wide-eyed discovery and exploration, when you can relish being a tourist in your new hometown. Every day is a chance to meet new people, visit a new café or walk down an unfamiliar street. There is such excitement in getting blissfully lost on your walk home from work; driving in a new direction to see what you find; and eagerly noting the must-dos for newcomers from friendly locals. Instead of spending weekends in the usual pursuits of reading, writing or reflecting; they become time to get a sense of the lay of the land, or simply find a new vantage point to contemplate your new aesthetically-pleasing surrounds from. Continue reading ‘top end magic’
a new optimism.
From one of the world’s leading change agents comes Al Gore’s second major presentation on climate change. Unveiled in March this year at the renowned TED conference in California, Al delivers a stirring and resonating twenty-five minute talk urging observers to not only change their individual behaviour at home, but also to change the laws at the required political level. He attempts to define a new meaning for optimism; that which means more than just believing in something, but also through achieving a desired outcome. He also draws interesting parallels between the capacity of the human species to fight each other in local, regional and global conflicts, and yet, what is similarly required to combat climate change on the same levels. Continue reading ‘a new optimism.’
