Since we don’t live by politix alone (I sincerely hope), what did people get up to this weekend? Join in, share some tales, regulars and lurkers all! As well as going to the wonderful Kenneth Macqueen exhibition at the Queensland Art Gallery yesterday, as described in this post, my friends and I also popped in to see the new State Library, a visit which inspired some thoughts…
As Julianne Schultz wrote in her introduction to the latest Griffith Review – Re-Imagining Australia:
The existence of a vast landmass at the bottom of the southern hemisphere had entered European consciousness – like unseen creatures in the bush at night, present but not visible – well before the last continent was mapped.
As she goes on to emphasise, while settler Australians often disclaimed vision in favour of practicality, moulding this continent in the image of the colonial project was as much an act of imagination and often, of utopian dreaming. The State Library of Queensland’s exhibition, Paradise, traces the projection of that particular key cultural motif onto Queensland – both its built and natural environments and its social and cultural patterns:
From the Garden of Eden to virtual worlds, this exhibition explores notions of paradise through art, historical objects, kitsch and memorabilia and looks in particular at how paradise has been represented in the history of Queensland.
As I hope to show in a few photos I took today, the configuration of the urban space of the Cultural Centre itself gestures towards this desire and perhaps the current exhibition only makes clear what is always implicit in its spatial and social en-visioning.
If you’d like to see a larger image of the photos, click on them then click on “full view” once you’re inside the gallery.
Seeking Paradise I by *phenomenologist on deviantART
Seeking Paradise II by *phenomenologist on deviantART
The inflatable pink dog outside the library is, of course, a Pink Poodle – the name of a famous motel on the Gold Coast which in the 1970s came to symbolise all that was glitzy and unreal about the tourist strip.
Pink Poodle I by *phenomenologist on deviantART
Pink Poodle II by *phenomenologist on deviantART
A constant stream of people going to and from the Gallery of Modern Art is a feature of the current Warhol exhibition, and represents something of a pilgrimage in search of a cultural paradise of the present. That’s an idea not without its ironies, as the quotes from Warhol written on the gallery walls suggest.
Slouching towards Warhol by *phenomenologist on deviantART
Live in Brissy do you Mark? From memory, the art gallery has that giant, chirping metal cicada out the front, doesn’t it? Up here in Gladstone, culture is a little hard to come by unless you mean work, eat, sleep, piss-up (repeat).
Yep, and yep the cicada’s great – it’s actually in the middle of the bus station traffic island between the Art Gallery and the Performing Arts Centre.
Today, painting.
That’s a wall, not a picture. (I leave the art to my husband.)
Cool. I’ll check out the gallery if I get a spare moment, since I’ll be coming down there for union council four times a year now.
Oh, I forgot to add the annual Gladstone mud crab derby – now there’s some culture for you.
I saw Dream Theater at the River Stage on Friday night. I was the iconoclast wearing a green safari shirt amongst the hordes of black t-shirts with heavy metal band logos. Wanky prog metal, which is a guilty pleasure, but the musicianship was jaw-dropping.
Last night was dinner at The Vietnamese Restaurant followed by a stroll up to Judith Wright Center to hear The Necks. Bought a CD. Had some beers in the Valley mall watching the girls go by (the mode du jour seems to be dresses that are nothing more than belts, it seems).
Today was supposed to be off to the Powerhouse for some allegedly free comedy event (or comedy-free event, I dunno which) but the rain and alcohol-induced ennui meant I couldn’t be arsed.
It might have been good, jethro – if you’re a fan of Claire Hooper from Sideshow that is:
http://www.brisbanepowerhouse.org/events/view/livewired/
But, yep, I walked back from the Valley earlier on this arvo and with the rain and seemingly 95% humidity felt like I’d had an unwelcome steam bath, so I decided something would have to be pretty spectacular to take me out of the house again.
I really want to visit Brisbane. Everyone keeps holding it up as an example of good, interesting development as compared to Perth’s bad, stilted and stupid. Is it really like that? Is the river development really so good? I’ll get there one day.
My brother lived in Perth for about a year Worst, and he says it’s one of the more attractive, better planned cities that he’s seen. I’ll get over your way one day – fair old drive though.
Each city has its own charm. Having said that, on my one visit to Perth, I was struck by how it felt a lot like Brisbane back in the 80s – shops closed on Sunday, no bars that weren’t pubs, CBD that felt like a ghost town after 5pm. In fairness, a lot of the development in Brisneyland is very much a mixed bag to put it mildly, but it really is a city that’s been coming into its own the last few years in many ways.
Flew back from Dili on Saturday, spent the night in Brisbane on a lightning visit: bit of a pub crawl with friends ending up at the Pineapple.
Brekky at Cantina on Hardgrave road (yum!), soaked up some excellent brisbane rain, and back to Melbourne!
That’s a pub I haven’t been to in about a million years (= over a decade and a half). In fact Lefty E, you may have been there the last time I was. 91ish. My sister, her ex, etc. And a very large group of Maori blokes who’d been playing social rugby.
Hmmm, sounds vaguely familiar Mark… I hadn’t been there in years either, but the last time was definitely a friends buck’s night thingy back in 99.
Coincidentally, I just saw your sister (from a distance) at Tullamarine earlier this evening.
Childcare debit meter was at max after 10 days in Timor, so had to scurry along. But say hi from me!
Will do, Lefty E. I think she was having a holiday in Melbs pre the whole baby thing.
A baby! Pass on congrats. Seems to be a lot of it going around in Brisbane, anyway.
Btw: the Pineapple has had the same reno job done on it as the Story Bridge, they look just the same now!
Story Bridge hasn’t been the same since it was renovated!
/grumble
Agreed (and aggrieved)
Pineapple might be slightly better now – old bar at front is much the same.
Btw: a friend gave me a heads-up on the German Club at the gabba. Reckons its one of the best, most untouched pub in Brisbane.
I’ve never been. Will check it out next time.
I’ve never been there, but know someone who used to go regularly in the early to mid 90s. Old German and Austrian blokes drinking schapps was the story back then!
I don’t know where to start with that one. Will leave it for everybody’s sake.
Yes, some of them are my in-laws. I got myself embroiled in the whole German-Australian deal through Ms LE.
Anyway – sposed to be good. I expect a full report from LPs roving Brisbane nightlife correspondent!
Will do my best, LE! I’m not sure if it’s gone down the “aging membership” thing that bowls and RSL clubs have done and thrown itself open to all comers not just members, though…
I can assure you Ms LE aint gonna follow suit and leave it, Wbb!
Work commitments dont really wash as an excuse.
I’ll be on 7am duty for the foreseeable future!
Well I spent today rising late, having a leisurely levee and then attending the memorial service for one Ray Stanley. Lotsa Noel Coward songs, chicken and champers and some classic old Australian stage veterans like Patricia Kennedy and Terry Donovan tottering around the place (Actually Terry was was very spritely and full of beans. For a bloke approaching 70, he has far more joie de vivre than his son Jason has manifested lately).
Then I went home and, feeling intimidations of mortality, hit the whisky, music mashups, photoshop and called up old girlfriends now living in other countries. As you do.
Now they’ve all gone to bed which is why I’m commenting here now.
Saturday, had a friend visit from Goulbourn. She finds the working class there decidedly dumb, obsessed with sport, uninterested in literature, addicted to action movies, nicotins and marijuana – and she is working class. Reassured her we weren’t all like that, but she is finding it hard to believe.Spent afternoon reading ‘A Spirited Resisistance’ (cf. Saturday Salon.) Watched The Bill, went to bed early.
Sunday. Insiders back on again next week. Spent morning mostly reading. Afternoon watched DVD, Inside Man – heist movie. Evewning – decided to watch Robin Hood instead of Cathy Freeman. Watched Miss Marple – did or did not the plot creak like it was from one of Dickens’ less accomplished works? Read a bit, went to bed early.
I spent last week in Byron Bay, enjoying the monsoonal conditions and the wonderful (but all too brief) feeling of freedom that comes from holidaying in the hiatus between jobs. That feeling was enhanced by the fact that I had completed my last time sheets for the foreseeable future, having made the transition from law to politics. I have now joined the advisory staff of a senior federal parliamentarian (no further disclosure at this stage), and am busy getting kitted out with APH access material, communications hardware, etc, ahead of a round of briefings for party meetings this week and the opening of Parliament next week. May make the occasional posts here with whatever gossipy morsels come my way over the next few weeks.