I’ve recently bought myself a new single lens reflex camera, and I’ve been itching to try it out.  So I went down town to photograph the young Catholic pilgrims that have come to Sydney for World Youth Day.

Let me state right now that I’m not a religious person, and that I’m not anti-religious either.  I wanted to photograph the pilgrims, because I knew that they would be colourful subject matter due to the fact that many of them had wrapped themselves in their country’s flags, and it would be interesting to document the phenomenon.

I have to admit that my preconceived ideas, led me to believe that I could go and look at the pilgrims dispassionately as though they were just some picturesque folk who follow some anachronistic dogma rather than decent people with deeply held beliefs.

On the television news, I had seen a few reports showing the pilgrims playing music and it all looked a bit lame. So when I went down to Hyde Park near St Mary’s Cathedral in downtown Sydney it came as quite a surprise to me, how much I enjoyed the music and watching the people dance to it. 

As I was watching a Spanish group of pilgrims playing the guitar and singing while about 50 people danced in a circle around them, a young neatly dressed Spanish woman came up to me and told me in broken English, that she was part of that group and that she wanted me to know that Jesus loved me the way how I was. I have a standard reply that I tell such people so that I don’t get involved in some long and tedious discussion about the Bible.  I always say, ” thank you, I know”. That always puts a smile on their faces, and they leave me alone because they think I’m one of them. All the same, it did it gave me a warm feeling that someone wanted to share some joy.

Strangely enough, later on, I found myself thinking about why she had said what she had, to me, and the thought occurred to me that maybe because I was unshaven and sporting the generally unkempt look that I cultivate, she might have thought I was some kind of bum, full of despair and she wanted to up-lift my spirits. 

This thought occurred to me because I know that in Europe most people take pride and care in the way how they look and they tend to dress a lot more fashionably and neatly than many people here in Australia. To compound matters, I tend to dress even more casually than most other Australians.  I can imagine that many of these straitlaced young Catholics from Europe must think we’re so poor here, because so many of us just don’t bother spending that much money or time and effort on our grooming.  Sydney is a generally a very relaxed and casual place, and many people have transcended the need to dress up all the time.

In my travels to various parts of the world I have seen series of painted statues on display in cities.  In Denver, USA, a couple of years ago there were differently painted fibreglass cows, all over town as part of a series called “cow parade”. In Vancouver, Canada there are painted orca all over the place. The cows in Denver, were quite interesting, but the orca in Vancouver were lame, lame, lame!

Here in Sydney for World Youth Day, much in the tradition of the cow parade, there are Jesus Christ statues all over town that have been painted in various ways.  I found that most of the painted Jesus Christ statues weren’t very well done, but I did find one that I thought was fantastic. 

 Covered in mirrors, this statue was called “Reflection”.

I suppose it is trying to communicate that we should reflect upon the life of Jesus Christ and the Scriptures.  As I looked at this mirrored statue, I found myself thinking about how we as human beings tend to project our own concerns on the world. Although the Bible says God created man in his own image, I have a sneaking suspicion that man created God in his own image, and the mirrored statue seemed to be a metaphor of how our religions reflect who we are and how we see our place in the world.

Not very far from the reflection statue was a group of Filipinos who are being led in song by a Spanish priest, who played the guitar.

The priest had a beautiful voice, and the Filipinos sang along with him with a result that wasn’t as polished but not too different to the video below.

If the city of Sydney is to be inundated with large crowds of people from overseas, you really couldn’t pick a better bunch than young Catholics. So very different to the hooligan English soccer fans that plague continental Europe every year.

The IMAX Cinema in Darling Harbour is one of my favourite buildings I’ve ever seen anywhere. 

Designed by Australian architect Lionel Glendinning, it’s an architecturally striking and perfect solution for a nightmare design brief. 

Situated between two overhead freeways (the red area on the satellite photo below) on an oddly shaped block of land usually wouldn’t help most architects come up with such an amazing design.

Glendinning has created a building that not only serves its purpose as a large screen cinema he has also designed a landmark that just yodels with the rapturous joy in amongst all the other bland buildings downtown.

It’s a masterpiece of aluminium cladding and a brave colour scheme. The building seems to be a combination of an aeroplane’s wing and a commentator’s stand at a motor-sports event. It looks fantastic as you drive by it on the overpass, and it almost makes you feel like you are on a race track on your way to the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

Every time I see this building it puts a smile on my face to think that such courageous and inventive design can occur on such an ugly and difficult site.

When my wife and I were in South East Asia last year I took these photos of some of the various mosaics and tilework that I came across.

This first example is of a Persian style, moraq tile mosaic from the front of the excellent Islamic Arts Museum in Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia.

Just about everywhere you look in Thailand there is a temple adorned with mosaics and tilework made up from porcelain, mirrors and tiles. The most stunning examples can be seen in The Temple of the Emerald Buddha in Bangkok.

Below is a close up of the patterns on the corners of the columns created with mirrors.

Below is an example of the Thai use of purpose made ceramic tiles.

In Vietnam much of the mosaic and tilework was made with broken porcelain and glass.

This is a response to Pat Coakley of “Single for a reason“ post “Local Knowledge Necessary” 

“Quo vadis?”

“Just down the road a way.”

“If you get into trouble, don’t call me.”

“I’ll be OK, I’m 10 feet tall and bullet proof!”

“But there be dragons!”

“Aye! There be, and I have some experience of their fire.”

“The spirit may be strong, but the flesh is weak”

“That is true but time flies, life is short and I have far to travel.”
“After all, I’m here for a good time, not a long time.”

When I was in design college my class was given an assignment to make a piece of  jewellery in a presentation box that could be given from a representative from one country to another.  We were all asked to pull a country’s name from a hat.  I got Poland.

The assignment required that we all some research about the country we were given.

I knew nothing about Poland before I did my assignment and I was really amazed at how bloody and troubled Poland’s history had been. Being between Germany, Sweden, France and Russia has been a curse for the Polish people and it’s amazing that Poland has lasted over the centuries.

The jewellery is made up of various symbols from Polish history. I made the brooch in a rough manner so it would like something made by the common person. I wanted it to communicate that it was a heartfelt gift from one people to another people and not some meaningless bauble from one dignitary to another. 

The background cross comes from a medieval knight’s belt and is made from titanium representing the strength of the Christian faith in Poland. The silver wings are from 17th century cavalry armour when Poland had the best cavalry in Europe and they represent the Polish fighting spirit. The amber in the middle has been fashioned to look like an electrical resistor and represents the Polish resistance to the Soviet Union.

The box is covered with red shellac to represent all the blood that has been spilt and the names around the opening are the names of battles where the Poles have been triumphant. I tried to give the whole thing a medieval look, as though it is the reliquiae of the Polish spirit that has been kept safe through all that Poland has gone through and suffered.

We also had to produce a background poster to go behind the jewellery when it was displayed at the end of the year.

When I was younger (about 10 years old) and I saw street scene pictures of older buildings in places like Europe, I used wonder why the structures weren’t better maintained. I couldn’t understand why the paint was allowed to flake off or why the rendering over the brickwork wasn’t repaired. I used to think, “Oh they must be too poor”.

When I got a little older (mid teens) I remember thinking to myself that Europe was still recovering from WWII and that perhaps the economies still hadn’t recovered enough for people to fix up their houses. Now that I’m older I find that I like the interesting textures and colours that are formed as a building starts to weather and show it’s age. I’m sure I’m not the only one who likes the patina of age on buildings as there is now an industry that is based on reproducing faux surfaces so that the new can be imbued with a bit more character.

I’ve notice that in first world countries like the US or here in Australia that many people like to surround themselves with earthier textures. Things like coarse hand-woven cloth, terracotta tiles and lime washed or distressed wood. I guess it’s a reaction to the smoother more linear surfaces that one sees in newer cities.

As Sir Osbert Lancaster (1908-1986) once said

“All over the country the latest and most scientific methods of mass-production are being utilised to turn out a stream of old oak beams, leaded window-panes and small discs of bottle glass, all structural devices which our ancestors lost no time in abandoning as soon as an increase in wealth and knowledge enabled them to do so.”

Conversely, I’ve noticed that in places like Morocco or Mexico that the locals are sick to death of hand made objects and want things that are more refined.  A sure way to let a Moroccan merchant know that you are a clueless clown that can be separated from their money easily is to wear anything that smacks of ”home spun”, hand-woven”, “natural dyes” or the like. If one looks at the average Moroccan in the rural areas, one will notice that even the poorest people wear clothing made from finely woven materials. No self respecting Moroccan would be caught dead in what they would feel was coarse badly made clothing. The corollary is that if you wear coarser clothing you must be very poor or stupid.  Since, from a Moroccan perspective, foreigners are rich, any foreigner wearing coarsely woven material must be stupid and doesn’t know what quality is and therefore can be sold any old piece of crap.

I remember once back in the early 80s, when I was first in Mexico, I was standing in line to see a movie. I was just dressed in a T-shirt and jeans and I noticed that all the locals were dressed up in their finest clothing. Obviously going to the movies was a much bigger deal to them than me. It occurred to me that the locals were still trying to reach some kind of “escape velocity” from poverty so they could live the life they saw in movies or on TV. Where as many people in the more developed world are seeking an escape from the “plasticness” of their lives by surrounding themselves with more “natural” textures.

So what’s all this got to do with the picture above?

If you look at the light fitting on your right you will notice that there is a line of lighter coloured material that goes straight down from the base of the obviously new (faux) coach light where the wiring has been put in. This begs the question, why not repair the cement rendering over the exposed brick while you’re covering over the wiring for the light with cement? It would’ve been a small thing to do and it’s not like the cement or the local labour for that matter, are very expensive (in comparison to the light).

I suspect the reason why the brickwork was left uncovered is because San Christobal de las Casas makes a fair bit of it’s income from tourists who come to see the quaint old houses with their “picturesque decay” and the locals with their “hand made and woven” clothes.

I think that most people would recognize this chair

It’s the model 14 Thonet bentwood chair designed by Michael Thonet in 1859. It’s still a very popular design that is still being produced and I’ve seen Thonet chairs all around the world in various cafes and restaurants. It’s a real design icon.

I was in Melbourne two weeks ago and I went to the National Gallery of Victoria where I saw this amazing Thonet bentwood cradle.

Although it doesn’t have the same paired back classic look of the model 14 chair, the cradle is still is a tour de force of bentwood.

I love the discordant colour combinations one sees in Sapa, Vietnam

 and it would seem that the local Zao people do also.

If I were to compare Sydney and Melbourne to people, I’d say that Sydney is one of those naturally beautiful but vacuous people who just sits there expecting everyone to adore them just for how they look and Melbourne is one of those plain looking people, who has been forced to develop an interesting personality to attract people.
 
I not only live in Sydney, I love Sydney, but I also have to say that during my recent visit to Melbourne, I was left with the feeling that Sydney is somewhat lacking.  Sydney just seems to be relying on its natural beauty, which comes from being located on a spectacular harbour.  Although Sydney has the world-famous Opera house, and the clunky Sydney Harbour Bridge, it’s not a particularly nice city, to walk around.  Once one gets away from the harbour, most of Sydney is merely functional rather than beautiful. 
 
There have been articles in the Sydney Morning Herald describing a recent visit by a Danish urban planner, Jan Gehl and his comments about Sydney. Gehl was quoted as saying that Sydney “is a doughnut, because it has nothing in the centre.” I couldn’t agree more.
 
Melbourne on the other hand has instituted changes suggested by Prof  Gehl after studies his team conducted in 1994 and 2004, that have completely transformed that city into a much more liveable place. 
 
Melbourne has many kilometres of cycleways that encourage people to get exercise, and reduce the amount of cars on the road.  There is also much more public art in Melbourne.  I really enjoyed seeing Duncan Stemler’s “Blowhole”,

a 15 metre (50ft) high wind powered sculpture set in a children’s playground, and John Kelly’s joyously quirky  “Cow up a tree”, not only put a smile on my face, it brightened up the rest of my day.

As a matter of fact, many public structures in Melbourne exhibit beauty in their design, more than mere functionality.

When I told my friend that I was going to Melbourne, she recommended that my wife and I take our bicycles.  Luckily, I took that advice and spent a few days cycling around Melbourne’s beautiful art filled streets.  We’ll be going back to Melbourne again, we loved the place.

As for Sydney… get your act together, Melbourne’s kicking our collective butts!

Mike Stasse is one of my oldest friends (here in Australia) and he is the owner of the “Running on empty Oz“, peak oil discussion group. “Peak oil” refers to the imminent decline of oil production.

Mike and his wife Glenda have moved to beautiful Cooran in Queensland and are getting ready for what they see as the inevitable chaos that will result from the shortage of oil by becoming self-sufficient. Two years ago, my wife and I visited Mike and Glenda on their land as Mike was still building the outside of their self-designed and built home.

 We stayed with them for about three days. During our time together we were shown their permaculture garden,

solar electricity system (they sell electricity to the power company when they have excess) and various other ecologically sustainable systems that have installed, such as:

• A simple off the shelf greywater system that uses no power
• A kitchen greasetrap that works with compost and worms, no odours, no maintenance to speak of 
• A zero flush toilet that saves thousands of litres water a year

It is a lovely house in a beautiful setting. The picture below was taken from the back window at sunrise, looking out towards Mt. Cooran.

It takes courage and commitment to do what Mike and Glenda are doing. The sort of courage and commitment that I sometimes wish I had, but I will be instituting some of their ideas into our next house we buy later on this year.