When I first moved out of home in 1973, to live with my girlfriend, I was seventeen years old. The house I moved into was a shared student house on Harris Street in an inner city suburb of Sydney called Ultimo. Ultimo was a very squalid and ugly area back then and it still is. Much of inner Sydney has become gentrified as the slums have been renovated. Ultimo has been resistant to gentrification due to the very busy, four lane Harris Street that runs through the middle of Ultimo. The side streets are narrow and and dark.

The houses that line Harris Street are charm less worker’s row houses of the Dickensian kind built in the late 1800’s. The terraces of houses of are completely bereft of any kind of grace as they sit directly on the street with their doorways opening straight onto the sidewalk without any intervening space. The windows of the living rooms are on the walls that meet the sidewalk and passer-bys can press their noses up against the glass if they wish.

The only thing to recommend Ultimo is that it is very close to the centre of the city. There are no nearby playgrounds for the children and when I used to live there, the kids used to roam the streets.

 There used to be a group of very young boys who lived nearby that used to peer through our mail-slot or our living room window they were so bored. It makes me shudder when I think back to how at risk these children were.

 Every time I drive down Harris street I marvel at how little it has changed when the there is so much rapid change in the rest of Sydney.

Back in 2005 my wife and I went to Japan and while we were there we went to the Expo in Aichi Prefecture, which is near Nagoya. The Expo wasn’t that good but the highlight of our Japanese trip was a homestay we had with a Japanese family for four days in Nagoya.

Anyone who has been to Japan will tell you how friendly and nice the Japanese people are. One of the problems with travelling is that one tends to only meet the locals who are involved in commerce and you don’t get to see how they actually live.

Because of the Expo the local government set up a homestay program for overseas visitors. I lived in Japan for a year in the mid seventies and I knew what the Japanese were like but my wife had never been there before. So we thought it would be good idea to do a homestay.  The family we stayed with were the Oharas and they were a delight. The father of the family was a master carpenter and had built the beautifully harmonious traditional Japanese room we stayed in.

Mrs Ohara (Satchiko) not only escorted us to the Expo , she also cooked a wide range of Japanese meals for us each day. The youngest daughter, a university student called Yae was a lot of fun at dinner time making faces and playing with nori (dried seaweed).

Yae also took us to Kyoto by bullet train and showed us around the city.  All in all, our homestay was an excellent way to for us to not only meet some extremely nice people but to also experience Japanese culture.

I’d highly recommend a homestay to anyone going to Japan.

Back in the early eighties, when I lived in the US, I used to work in a travelling Laser Light show that used do the carnival circuit in the summer and the car show circuit in the winter. The Laser show was called “Laser One” and it was transported in a three-wheeled trailer towed by a high cube truck with a tow ball. The trailer had a fold out façade with two revolving-door entrances at either end and it housed the control room with the actual laser in the middle.

The positioning of the entrances meant that the triple axel with the very small wheels were in the middle of the trailer, instead of the end. The mid mounting of the axels and the tow ball hitching system led to a very unpredictable and dangerous ride. The trailer was quite heavy and it used to seesaw up and down over any undulations in the road plus wheels would regularly tear off while we were driving down the highways. The wheels used to tear off because of metal fatigue caused by the forces exerted on the outside wheels as they were dragged around the middle wheels when very tight turns were made during parking. It wasn’t unusual to be travelling down the road and to see one of our wheels passing us and a shower of sparks coming off the dragging hub. I didn’t get my drivers licence until I was 35 so my job in lieu of sharing the driving was to change wheels and tyres when needed. It was needed often and, often it was in the middle of the night in freezing conditions.

Most of the driving was done by our manager, Brian “Buzz” Carlos, and sometimes my other co-worker, Jordan would help out.

Buzz was a very levelheaded and intelligent guy who was a pleasure to work with. None of us smoked and it came as a surprise to Jordan and I that Buzz started smoking when we were in Milwaukee. At first it was only one cigarette every couple of days but then of course it turned into one a day and when he starting a couple a day. I thought it would be hilarious to play a practical joke on him. I went to a magic and novelty store and bought some “spikes”.

Spikes are about 1cm (1/3 of an inch) long and about half the thickness of a matchstick. They are pushed into the end of cigarettes to make them explode. So when Buzz put his smokes down one day, I inserted a few spikes into them, while he wasn’t looking, and waited. Lo and behold, Buzz didn’t pick a “spiked” cigarette for over a week. In the meantime, winter was coming and as it was getting colder Buzz went out and bought a very nice parka with wolf fur trim because the heating in the truck wasn’t adequate.

At the end of a “spot” (the place where the show was held) we’d do the “strike” (take down the show) at the end of the last day, which would take about five hours and then we’d jump into the truck and drive through the night, straight to the next spot.

With the show in Milwaukee finished we headed south through Tennessee as it was starting to snow and by the time we reached the Smoky Mountains there was a blizzard. We’d been up all night, and Buzz had been at the wheel without a break, when we started to hear frantic messages over the CB. Things like “if you heading down the mountain at such and such, get out of my way, cause my brakes ain’t working!” or “watch out for such and such a place as there is black ice and two trucks have left the road”, etc. There were smashed cars and trucks all over the place. Buzz took it all in his stride and just drove on through the carnage. After all, we had to get to the next spot on time. The snow just kept on falling and the blizzard winds made the visibility very poor.

During one particularly long steep descent down a mountain road thickly covered with snow; almost no visibility and a bucking and weaving truck, Buzz in his nervousness decides that it would be a good time to light a cigarette. BANG!! The cigarette blew up and hot embers went into Buzz’s eyes, blinding him and also setting his brand new parker on fire! The truck was starting to fishtail because of Buzz’s flinch at the wheel when the spike went off. Jordan grabbed the wheel and helped Buzz regain control. When we got to the bottom of the hill Buzz pulled the truck over and jumped out of the cab to put out this smouldering parka.

Needless to say, I wasn’t a very popular boy that day. I won’t be putting spikes in people’s cigarettes again.

I took this shot with my old Nikon F2, which had a very big and noisy motor drive.

One had to make sure one got the shot the first frame as the second frame invariably showed the subject’s reaction to the noise.

On a techincal note, these shots were scanned from Kodachrome 64 which is a fairly contrasty film. Unfortunately I’ve lost the shadow detail in the process. I’m currently in the market for a digital camera that can handle a wider contrast range and the Fuji S5 Pro has caught my eye. Pity about the price.

Last night I went to a painting exhibition by Tim Allen at the Defiance Gallery in Enmore Sydney.

 This is first solo show Tim has had in over a year. The reason for this is that Tim changed galleries and he has been exhibiting in various mixed shows, most notably his acceptance into this year’s Wynne Prize.

I’ve know Tim for about 15 years and I’ve seen the changes that have taken place in his art over that time. Tim has been exploring mark making and it has been interesting for me as I’ve seen Tim swing from almost pure abstraction to more figurative and the back again. It’s a bit like watching a creative pendulum as he explores an area to then go back a little the other way, only to return again; each time taking a little from each exploration into the next. 

“Constantinople” 1997

“Pass” 1999

“Mt. Piddington” 2003

“Tributary” 2006

“North Lawson (Em with stroller)” 2007

In Tim’s latest work he has used oil stick in combination with oil paint to combine both drawing and painting. If you want to see more of Tim’s work click here.

Mexico City has an excellent metro system.

 It’s very cheap (possibly the cheapest in the world), clean, efficient and much safer than many other subway systems I’ve traveled on.

With the exception of peak hour, the trains aren’t too crowded and they run very frequently. The trains are similar to the trains used in Montreal in Canada in that they have rubber wheels, which makes the ride much quieter and smoother than normal trains.

Another way that the Mexico City Metro is similar to the Montreal Metro is that many of the subway stations have art displayed in them.

I’ve read that pick pockets are problem on the metro but I think that if you avoid the rush hour and keep your wits about you, you won’t have any troubles. The metro also serves as a bit of a marketplace as vendors (quite often blind) travel up and down the carriages hawking their wares. I didn’t see anyone buy anything from the hawkers on the trains, the whole time I was in Mexico City. Some people have a hard time making a living.

Technical notes:
This shot was taken with infrared film and then over developed. The negative was then bleached with potassium ferrocyanide. The neg was then printed and the print was also bleached. I used this treatment to make the image look dreamy, like a long ago memory of childhood.

This weekend I went to my in-law’s holiday home with my wife and an old friend (Doug) with one of his co-workers (Sebastian). Doug suggested that he and Sebastian bring Sebastian’s crepe maker and they would make breakfast for us the next day. Sebastian is from Alsace in north of France and we thought it would be a great idea to have authentic crepes made by a Frenchman, and it was!

The humble crepe is so versatile. Not as heavy and stodgy as normal pancakes, the crepe is good with sweet or savoury fillings. Fortunately Sebastian made too much batter and we had crepes for breakfast one day and crepes for lunch the next. The breakfast crepes were filled with fresh fruit, cream and maple syrup and the lunch crepes were filled with mozzarella cheese, sautéed mushrooms and smoked salmon. Heaven on a plate.

Recipe for 4 people (about 2 crepes each)
Batter Ingredients

3 Eggs
250gr plain flour (you can substitute 1/3 of the flour with buckwheat flour)
500 ml milk
Pinch of salt
Dash of olive oil

Savoury Crepe suggested ingredients
Mozzarella cheese, shredded
Smoked salmon or ham
Sautéed Mushrooms

Sweet Crepe suggested ingredients
Sliced fruits of choice
Double cream or Crème Fraise
Maple syrup

Method
Mix all the batter ingredients in a bowl and chill in the refrigerator for at least an hour. Longer is better as it reduces the bubbles that are formed when the batter is cooked.

Grease up the crepe maker (or pan) when it gets hot, with either butter or olive oil. Pour about one and a half ladles of batter onto the crepe maker and spread quickly with a T-scraper (or spatular) using an arching motion. Allow the crepe to cook until the up side of the crepe is dry and the edges are starting to brown.

Next, lift the crepe with a spatular and flip it over.

If you are making a savoury crepe, this is the time to sprinkle on some cheese and what ever other ingredients you wish over the cooking crepe. Leave the crepe to cook for about another minute or two and then, using the spatular, fold over the sides and remove to a plate to serve.

If you are making sweet crepes, just remove the crepe and place the ingredients in the middle and roll it all up on a plate to serve.

Another sweet variation is to sprinkle some sugar onto the flipped side of the crepe and squeeze some fresh lemon juice over the sugar as it caramelises. When the sugar has melted and mixed with the lemon juices, roll up the crepe with the spatular and serve.

One of the really good things about crepes, besides their simplicity, is the fact that each person can make their own. It’s all a bit of social fun that tastes fantastic.

On an interesting side note, Sebastian who has lived in Australia for nearly ten years, told us of how when he travels, he “couch surfs”. Couch Surfing is a worldwide network of people who contact each other over the Internet and arrange free accommodation with other like-minded people. Sort of like hitchhiking but from couch to couch rather than car to car. Sounds like a great way to meet the gregarious and generous people of a society. If Sebastian is anybody to judge “couch surfing” by, then I’d say it’s a good way to meet interesting nice people from overseas.