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!
I have very little to report - since my weekends as with my weeks at the moment are a combination of sleeping and thesis work. So, instead a few photos of curios in the Brisbane CBD. First, a “printer’s devil” sculpted above the main door of the old State Government Printing Office in George Street. The origin of the phrase is uncertain and disputed but what’s certain and undisputed is that it inspired some rather fab sculpture on buildings. Secondly, two facades of old buildings between the Treasury Hotel and the Myer Centre on Elizabeth Street - the buildings themselves were demolished long ago (as long ago as the 1980s, I think) but their facades remain - seemingly immunised from redevelopment for reasons I don’t know. But I like the gap in the streetscape.
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.
Printer’s devil by *phenomenologist on deviantART
Facade I by *phenomenologist on deviantART
Facade II by *phenomenologist on deviantART
Facade III by *phenomenologist on deviantART
I’ve still got a suit from George Symons’ Suits, which my parents got made up for me as a birthday present back in 1982 when I was a callow and gangly 17-year-old (which, I suppose, makes it my “birthday suit”).
The building beside it in Elizabeth Street was, in the early 1980s, Reads’ Rare Books.
To the right of George Symons used to be Royal Lane (beside the old Theatre Royal), which was a private laneway which delayed the building of the Myer Centre because the developers couldn’t find the owner of the laneway so they could acquire its land.
Thanks for that, Terangeree!
I have news of excitement! My flatmate just bought a laptop and a router and I’ve successfully connected the router to my cable connection so I now haz wireless intertubes. Can watch tv and internet or lie in bed and internet…
Didn’t get up to much, which was really quite a lovely change! Gave me a chance to rest a recover from all the bugs I’ve been carrying!
I went to a choral music concert last night (Tallis, Byrd, Vaughan Williams) and a chamber music concert this afternoon (Haydn and Beethoven piano trios) both featuring virtuoso performances by young women I’ve known since they were children. One of the consolations of the ageing process is being able to take the long view. The backwards one, anyway.
Read Terangeree’s post and had a sudden burst of realisations.
* Haven’t been back to Brisbane in over 20 years (sheesh)
* Last time I was in Brisbane I went to “Reads Rare Books” .. (weird)
* Am really really getting old (bleh!)
Isn’t the building on the left where Skinny’s Records used to be? (That’s Brisbane’s ‘alternative’ record shop that isn’t Rocking Horse)I remember buying TMBG’s ‘Flood’ there in 1991 or 1992 and the building was vacant for a bit after that…
d
Skinnys is no more, Darryl - closed down earlier this year. Rocking Horse is the last one standing.
Skinnys were first in Queen’s Arcade, then on t’other side of Elizabeth Street, in the old Teacher’s Federation building.
Lazy Sunday: Monday Edition
“Imagine there’s no Lennon,
It isn’t hard to do….”
Mr 17% to resign? Why would he, out-polling Admiral Nelson so decisively??
What, Lennon’s Labor, you say? Oh, well then, that’s different. The Labor boys have an entirely different calculus of leadership: it’s not like the Liberals.
cheerio
Saturday,
Quiet day. Reading and note-taking from Merrill Jensens “The Founding of a Nation”. Afternoon watched DVD of Pandaemonium, a very inaccurate biopic of Coleridge and the Wordsworths. Was fun, though. On line a bit. Getting more and more enraged at Rudd and Labor’s hypocrisy and timidity over the Henson affair. They sound like the Howard Government.I think this has brought Rudd’s honeymoon with the arts community to a grinding halt in the worst possible way, and the rest of the community is pissed off at his apparent giving up on reducing petrol and grocery prices. (Not that I want the Libs back, but the glow is GONE.)
Saturday night, watched A Bed of Roses, which I’m now really enjoying, The Bill then a DVD of Apocalypto. (My next door neighbour has heaps of DVDs, some of which he’s kind enough to lend me.)
Sunday, watched Ch. 9, then Insiders. Isn’t Pears repulsive? What racist sh*t he was going on with.
Blogged a bit. Spent most of day reading. Had an Aboriginal friend visit in the afternoon trying to sell me a mobile phone. Suppose if I could use them, or had a use for them I might have been tempted, but I had to decline.Sunday night - that wonderful China doco on ABC. Did anybody else get the impression the ABC has skipped more than a few episodes of the Sally Lockhart series? Anyway, looking forward to a month or more of Jane Austen on Sunday nights.
wonderful photography and information in the “Wild China” doco; and yet more (human) “ethnic minorities” featuring in last night’s episode.
Spent the day carting rubbish to the dump.
I can haz nyoo brane?
Sunday started on Saturday morning for a change, drinking beer and making a robot costume, then drinking beer and watching the Dockers lose again in the 4th quarter at Telstra, then drinking “robot punch” (warning, may contain unspecified quantity of amphetamine) and playing synthesiser, synth drums, guitar through a synth and vocoder in (wait for it…) a robot synthesiser band. Still couldn’t sleep until after midnight last night, and I’m starting to think I’m too old for it.
To miss one last opportunity for a long, grinding come-down, Bloody Maries in a sun-drenched North Fitzroy backyard with my old mate Kilbot would have been a tragedy though. Enjoy San Francisco, me old china.
*sniff*
Making cakes for m’Mum’s birthday. Did watch Insiders & yes, Paul Burns, Piers (spelling?) is somewhat unpleasant. Enjoyed seeing David Marr again - it’s been while I think (Insiders isn’t as enjoyable post election, but life in general is). Sunday evening we had a delish Indian feast, and a DVD I recommend as fun & for anyone who was at uni in the 80s (although it’s British so not like wandering around barefoot at the Griffith uni Aussie bush campus) ‘Starter for 10′ starring James McEvoy of Atonement fame. It’s about a working class lad with a penchant for ‘general knowledge’/trivia who goes to uni & gets onto ‘University Challenge’. It’s quirky, but in a good way (i.e. that’s not code for good idea, underdeveloped script as in so many underwritten Aussie flicks, sigh). Kind of an intellectuals’ teen movie if you like.
No, they haven’t skipped any, it’s just that so far only two of the four Sally Lockhart novels have been adapted for telly. They’re willing to do short drama runs in the UK, focussing on getting the quality just right instead of assuming that they must produce at least 6 episodes of everything. There are plans to adapt the remaining two with Billie Piper returning to the role, but they have to fit that around her extensive prior commitments to other projects at the moment, so it might take a while for them to get around to it.
Looking forward to the Jane Austen as well.
Oh, what I got up to on the weekend: gardening, went to the Super 14 semifinal on Saturday night, came home and celebrated and recovered on Sunday.
Thanks, tigtog.
Well, then my question is, did the BBC make the episodes in the order the novels were written? There seems to have been some disconnection.
Ooh yes, Austen on Sunday nights! It’s going to be ‘Emma’, right? My partner and I read the novel recently, and then happened to see the mid-90s film adaptation (with Gwyneth Paltrow) which was really, really horrible. We wanted to try the BBC version to get the bad taste from our mouths, and here it is, right on time.
Paul, the episodes have been adapted in order.
It’s just that the novels are very dense, and can’t be done full justice to in a single-episode adaptation, and Pullman also allows gaps in time between the events of each novel rather than writing them as a continuous journal of Sally’s adventures.
Mark, you are on the front page of the Brisbane Times!
What’s the Brisbane Times?
Oh this thing!
http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/news/queensland/smoking-zones-for-queen-st-mall/2008/05/26/1211653927000.html
Ha! Thanks Iain - I was wondering if that would pop up.
The story is told here:
http://larvatusprodeo.net/2008/05/26/im-the-pops-in-the-vox-pops/
tigtog @ 19,
Thanks for that clarification. Guess I’ve been too conditioned by the serial nature of TV series.