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(BEST SEEN LARGE)
Over a century before the Fall the tower was used for the production of lead shot for weapons.
Derelict, it was roofed over and became the nostalgic centrepiece of a shopping mall.
After the Fall, derelict again, it stood ready to outwait the ages.
Silent in the empty space.
Alone in the night the protective cone glowed amidst the glass and concrete canyons of the dark necropolis.
A solar powered spotlight illuminating the tower for long vanished tourists.
The batteries would fail one day.
Or a wire would part.
Or the collectors would become covered with dust.
And the light would die.
But the tower would still stand.
Dark as the night.
After the Fall.
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I was walking past the Shot Tower in the Melbourne Central Shopping Complex (Victoria, Australia) and stopped, as I often do, to stand and gaze at it.
I realised that if I positioned myself carefully that the spotlight would reflect off one of the windows and give me an intriguing camera flare or two without the need to resort to Photoshop jiggery pokery.
Visually ironic, in the Aussiemandias Post-Holocaust context, against the pitch black sky visible through the cone's superstructure. Without the daytime blue sky to warm things up in the background I think the stark play of light and shade on the metalwork appropriately sterile.
G'day
There are certain items of clothing that have traditionally served to tag us as genre fans: 'message' T-Shirts ("Fans Are Slans!"), picture T-Shirts, and caps, vests or anoraks covered in badges that identify one's fannish 'tribe'. (Okay, then there's the propellor cap, but that's fallen out of unfashion!)
Now, I've 'badged' a couple of jackets in my time, probably the first one being a woodlands camo jacket that I wore under my Aliens Colonial Marine combat armour. Ten years ago, when I began doing my genre radio show (Zero-G, at rrr.org.au, in case y'don't know) , I realized that I now, by default, had a lot of 'tribes' whose colours I wouldn't mind wearing. Well, as a costumer I've always had a wee problem when it comes to being aware of my limitations, and my 'badge' wearable art/costume project would prove no exception to the rule.
I guess I must have had something like this in mind for a long time, since once I committed seriously (!) to the project I realized I had squirreled away over the years a lot of genre and general badge, logo and insignia references. Anyway, the concept kind of...evolved...as I realized that my genre image and text collection was an ideal and extensive database for creating a bloody silly garment that could potentially be completely covered with badges.
It wasn't difficult choosing a cloak design as I've a long history of Star Trek Klingon costuming, specializing in heavily armoured metal versions of their uniforms. (Yes, I'll put those online as time permits. Watch this site!) The cloak pattern I settled upon is a stripped down version of the ones worn by Klingon officers pretty much from Star Trek 3: The Search For Spock onwards. That is: sleeveless, with five large floor length flat panels. Sure, I could have added large flat sleeves for extra badge space, but ultimately decided that would be too cumbersome, and not be as neat looking as the Klingon style. Although, a Kimono style garment would certainly have a lot of room for badges, and would look wicked hanging on the wall! Well, I've got plenty more badges to go after this cloak, so we'll see....
I also enjoyed the idea that the cloak would have sinister connotations when worn over any of my Klingon costumes or indeed with my Predator (based on the Aliens Versus Predator graphic novels) armour. The word 'trophies' might possibly be implied...
As a piece of wearable art the cloak deserved a title. "Fantastique" sprang to mind; I like the play on "Fan" incorporated into the French word.
The research phase has, and continues to be, on going, as new movies, television shows, books, comics and other genre productions continue to add new graphics and potential concepts. Sure, there's only so much room for badges on the first cloak, but having done one I realized that there was nothing stopping me (least of all the risk of suddenly coming to my senses) from starting a second cloak....
Below, you'll find a list of the badges that are on the first cloak. Number #2 Cloak continues to be a work in progress, as, to some extent the first one is. Having made the first cloak, I discovered that it does require periodic maintenance, and the current pictures reflect one such bout of repair work which involves reattaching badges that have lifted, and replacing badges which have become torn, stained or faded. I've also unpicked the shoulder seams to work on some repairs to the lining.
I've included other notes as to construction techniques and so on beneath the separate pictures, so there's lot's more to read!
There's also a master list of the badges that I've incorporated, have fun spotting 'em if you can! That's broken up into alphabetical chunks so it can fit within the description blocks.
No violation of individual copyright is intended. This is a one-off, not for sale orginal artwork.
Rob Jan
The Goblin Forge
Australia
"I may never learn, never know
I may live and learn but never know
I may crash and burn, oh no
I may take my turn..." *
(*Babyshambles "What Katy Did Next" Down In Albion album)
Katy broke off singing and with a flick of her foreleg began to shyly groom her long antennae, pausing only to throw a coy compound eyed glance at the Incredible Shrinking Iron Man.
Tiny Tony Stark inclined his helmet sympathetically. "So...you were an invalid when you were a young bug but now thanks to your exoskeleton you can walk again?" Stark smiled sadly beneath his visor. "Well, y'know, I get where you're coming from with that...time was, without MY armour I couldn't walk either. "
The miniaturised marvel paused, remembering, "The bullet that was meant to kill me hit my spine instead and left me crippled. Her name...her name was Kathleen Dare and I didn't do right by her...."
"There's a lesson I have learnt
If you play with fire you will get burnt
Hell hath no fury
Like woman scorned."
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Gail spotted this large Common Garden Katydid under the eaves so naturally, I hauled out a ladder, the camera, and Tiny Tony and clambered up to 'take the shot'.
Daylight was fading and this wee beasty was looking for a place to spend the night but kindly allowed me and my diminuitive playboy billionaire pal to intrude long enough to get this picture.
Realising that the 6cm long bug was a Katydid brought to mind Susan Coolidge's mid 19th century children's book "What Katy Did" and its sequel "What Katy Did Next" where the heroine spends a large part of the novel bedridden after a bad fall. The similarity of names reminded me of Iron Man Vol.1 # 243, where a murderous former girlfriend, Kathy Dare, shot Tony Stark and damaged his spine. For a time afterwards Tony could only walk with the aid of his powered armour, and later with an implanted microchip.
Anyway, the tragic tale has parallels in the Babyshamble's song, which can be found here:
au.youtube.com/watch?v=-cTlaIetTSA
I haven't seen many Common Garden Katydids (Caedicia simplex belongs to the Tettigoniidae family) here so this was a bit of a treat for me.
The tiny Tony figure, of course, is the small figurine that I dug out of a superball type toy and repainted with enamels.
The Machine That Goes 'Ping!' prop that I built for Simon Imberger's low budget genre feature film "The Curable".
It's essentially a "Palin-O-Scope", so named after Michael Palin, who was in the original Machine That Goes 'PIng!' comedy medical sketch in "Monty Python's Flying Circus". No hi-tech operating theatre can possibly be considered state-of-the-art without a MTGP! (Also rather useful as a submarine sonar...)
What does it do? Well, it's hooked up to a patient/victim and...goes 'ping!'
It's made out of Medium Density Fibreboard offcuts leftover from my 2007 Victorian College Of The Arts Klingon Spacecraft project. The gadget features in many scenes in the film because it's located on one of Simon's primary sets at Melbourne University's Parkville Campus.
It's dressed with lots of second hand dials and buttons and other mathoms from my 'useful' boxes, and the square aluminium panel has been left blank so SImon can punch in animated graphics in post production.
For lighting FX I've included my old, faithful xenon flash strobe, the same one that I used in my Red Kelly manga battlesuit and also in the Zombie zapping CD firing gun in Jason Heller's "Eat Your Heart Out" short film.
"The Curable" is largely set in a dodgy experimental laboratory complex so Simon's brief to me was to make the MTGP! quite manky looking, maybe even cannibalised from other equipment.
Because I'd fairly well mapped out what I was going to do beforehand it only took about four hours to tool up the basic structure and paint it, and then another couple of hours to distress, weather and add gunk to it.
I had a lot of fun adding little touches like the rubberband around one of the controls, the '108' number (a significant number from the T.V series "Lost"), scratches, dried blood and so on....
THE LAST FALL OF THE INTERNATIONAL RAZOR
"I tell thee, that although it is a long time on the road, it is on the road and coming. I tell thee it never retreats, and never stops. I tell thee it is always advancing."
"Tell the Wind and the Fire where to stop; not me!"
Madame Defarge
"A Tale Of Two Cities" by Charles Dickens.
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This is one of the steel shearing hydraulic accessories that the demolition machines are using to deconstruct the Moorabbin Football Oval stands and outbuildings. Its severely practical construction reminds me of the guillotines that were the official mode of execution in France up until 1977.
I have to smile that this brutally efficient eater of metal's factory colour was a cheerful light blue that wouldn't be out of place in an episode of "Bob The Builder."
(BEST SEEN ROAMING AT LARGE...)
Caged before the Fall.
The stone lion roared and there was no one to hear it.
All gone to their ancestors now.
After the Fall.
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One of the Rui Shi (“auspicious lions”) outside the Melbourne Chinese Museum in Cohen Place, off Little Bourke Street, during renovations in July, 2008. This is the male of the pair, with his right paw clutching the flower of life, an item of complex mythical symbolism, but of course to me, being a cheerful atheist, amounts to no more than a particularly ornate squeaky cat toy. The Asian lion was not native to China, and it is said that Chinese sculptors, who had not seen specimens from India, based their characterisations of the beasts upon dogs.
How singular. A Chinese interpretation of an Indian animal sitting in far Australia! What a diaspora of mythology!
My father was born a few hundred metres from this sculpture, in the aptly named Celestial Avenue....
The ‘caged lion’ aspect of the chain link fence immediately drew my eye to the normally unfettered sculpture and the thought that the noble creature would stay imprisoned forever after an Aussiemandius holocaust saddened me.... until I realised that the fence would rust away long before the sculpture eroded to dust and that the lion would be free again some day.
(BEST SEEN HEROICALLY LARGE !!)
"HAIR OF THE GOD, MORTAL?"
"OWWWARGGGH !! GOTTA THUNDERING GREAT HEADACHE !! WHAT IN THE NAME OF SIR ISAMBARD BLOODY KINGDOM BRUNEL DID I DRINK LAST NIGHT?"
Poor old Tony Stark, he's been through the Ringer. The Civil War. The Aftermath. Captain America's assassination. Assembling the new Avengers and the national registered superhero teams. Mortally wounded in the Hypervelocity attacks. Subverted by Ultron. Now he's Director of SHIELD, not to mention the Illuminati crisis and the looming return of a considerably peeved Hulk to Earth.
To top it all they've cast Robert Downey Junior to play him in the Iron Man movie....
Something had to give.
He fell off the wagon.
And when Iron Man falls he falls far and hits hard.
And what he hits hardest is...himself.
Tony Stark's teammates in the Avengers knew all about his alcoholism and decided that the God of Thunder, Mighty Thor, should take a whack at applying aversion therapy.
Good old Thor. You can always rely upon him to hammer out a solution.
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Well, Irony Man is back! What can I say, but deny any and all rumours that Mr Stark has been away in rehab.
The benchtop set didn't need to be too complex for this shot. The backdrop is the reverse side of my drawing board. The widgets in front of it are the baseplates for Asylum Klingon action figures. The cartoon Iron Man and Thor are from the Marvel Super Hero Squad range, and were packaged together. Bemusingly, I've had this idea stuck in the back of my head for a while, the coincidental team-up just made it easier to knock it loose!
I didn't want to make this another Noirish shot, mainly because a hangover in the full blaze of morning light is even worse! I couldn't resist bumping up the lighting levels with some appropriate thunderbolts. I used lens flares and specialised brushes including some custom Photoshop Lighning Bolt brushes found here:
Oh, and who else should Tony Stark, supergenius, swear by but the great engineer Sir Isambard?
(BEST ORDERED LARGE WITH ANCHOVIES, HAM, CHEESE, AND SERPENT WORMS)
Gail went shelling at the beach last week. (Pauses to consider how Klingon that sounds. Smiles evily!)
She found a lot of ones which had been bored by predatory molluscs or other beasties.
(Also very Klingon! Songs could be sung...!)
I thought they would look interesting arranged on the light table and that it would help highlight the holes. It's singular how the holes are similarly placed on each shell. It must be the optimum placement to cut through the shell and extract the meat.
The holes are so well drilled that even a power tool would have difficulty duplicating them, especially the conical cross section. As someone who makes and wears suits of armour I have to say that these empty, pierced cuirasses give me the shivers!
I almost junked this shot because I found two of the shells were too thick to let much light shine through. Then I let it stand because I liked the fact that this testified to the persistence of the besiegers who breached (beached!) the defences. As we Aussies say, "Shell be right!"
Previously on "Heroes": the Mighty Montana....carefully watching the world through the slats of a garden chair! His Special Power, the "Come To Me Birdies!" stare.
Monty was doing a recce on some doves on the other side who were tucking in to recently planted birdseed...sorry, that's 'grass seed' (actually had it right the first time!)....scattered on the ground.
Heh, it's just occurred to me that this is rather like my Zero-G avatar...
(BEST SEEN LARGE, FECUND AND JUICY!)
Before we moved house we benefited from having a pomegranate tree in the backyard that yielded lots of very large fruit. The thrived in the dry soil where they were planted. The arils (seed casings) are amongst some of the reddest natural objects I can recall seeing and you don't want to get the juice on your clothes as it stains are hard to shift; so yes, it can be used as a dye for non synthetics.
The seeds are edible and can be used in sauces, liqueurs, toppings, marinades, spices and so on. Pomegranate juice is widely touted as having many health benefits, with some claims verified by scientific research. At least, the fruit is a rich source of vitamin C, and pomegranate extracts have no sugar content. The juices anti-oxidant properties are the subject of much hopeful anti-cancer research.
Pomegranates are 'classical' trees that were cultivated in ancient Persia, amongst other cradle civilizations, so they are mentioned in fantasy fiction like the Bible and Koran, as well as generally being woven into myth, legend and ritual. The fruit is, for example, one of the symbols of Hera. They are quite often found as fertility symbols.
Xerxe's crack troops, The Immortals, had spears with pomegranate shaped counterweights and the fruit's resemblance to hand held bombs much later gave us the word 'Grenade'. On a Moor peaceful note, the city of Grenada also owes its name to the fruit.
It gave me a sense of historical connection having one of these hardy trees nearby, and certainly the native and introduced birds who made a meal of the fruit seemed also to be enthusiastic amateur historians!
(BEST VIEWED MONOLITHICALLY)
The City's nervous system was strung through an intricate spiderweb of overhead and underground cables. Light. Power. Information. Mechanical support.
After the Fall the aerial wires failed first. Kept taught by tensioners they thrummed once too often in the forever winds and collapsed into disorganised tangles as their mounting brackets snapped, connectors corroded and woven strands parted.
Stolid buildings anchored the cables but in turn the activities that gave purpose to once thronging halls were only made possible by the more fragile wires.
The last handful of cables fell long before the empty, silently enduring buildings.
The City was unstrung.
Undone.
After the Fall.
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I took this picture one afternoon and was quite surprised at how much the sky washed out. It's almost as if it's been turned off and limbo is showing through! Which is, fine of course for the Aussimandius photoset!
I like the complex 'pile-on-pile' structure of the building; so much embellished masonry! Imposing ruffles and flourishes play a whimsical counternote against the bureaucratic self-importance of it being a Very Grand Public Institution.
Still, against the clean sky it's the cables that draw my eye as they arrow neatly into the building.
Without them and their subterranean like this mighty edifice would revert to its 19th Century utility, if that.
The building technically serves as the Melbourne City Centre from which all directions are measured. It's the old GPO (General Post Office), though it stopped filling that role in 1992 and is now a renovated shopping mall.
This picture was taken from the pavement at the corner of Bourke and Elizabeth Streets (right next to the pedestrian crossing) and portrays the main clock tower without confusing the issue by showing the actual clock face.
Construction started on the GPO in 1859 and was designed by A. E Johnson in the Renaissance Revival style with later additions being made in the Second Empire style.
Ironically, in a 'Post-holocaust' context, the GPO served as Admiralty Headquarters in the Stanley Kramer directed 1959 movie "On The Beach" (based on Nevil Shute's superb novel), where Australia is one of the last bastions of fading civilization as the radiation from a nuclear war that's already killed the Northern hemisphere inevitably creeps southwards.....
And just look at the way the sunlight picks out just the top floors of the tower!
FROM THE DESK OF LORD HIGH ADMIRAL GUNARHK MOIRAI,
IMPERIAL KLINGON MILITARY GOVERNOR,
OCCUPIED EARTH.
SOL SECTOR.
After the embarassing debacle last Easter (crucifying the molten chocolate coated bunny was an honest mistake; let it go, already!) the Inspirational Media department* in the Klingon Embassy has happily identified a more suitable Earth holiday to celebrate.
I must admit we were initially surprised to find that you humans commemorated the 1929 Chicago machine gun massacre at the Northside S-M-C Cartage Garage
with an annual exchange of diabolical battle-poetry (normally reserved , we would expect, for interrogation purposes) and blood-drawing thorned flower giving.
It only goes to show that we Klingons have more in common with you Earthers than is generally (and I might add, seditiously) thought.
But, where are my manners?
I'll detain you no longer from your festivities. (Just remember to be indoors by curfew.)
Romance, and indeed, primitive chemical explosive driven projectiles, are in the air!
Have a nice day humans. (You just never know when it may be your last!)
Infectiously Warm Regards,
Gunarhk Moirai
Etc;
*1st Rgt, 2nd Batt. Combat Public Relations- Greeting Cards
(BEST SEEN LARGE)
While on patrol in the microverse the Incredible Shrinking Iron Man rescued a lizard from certain death by drowning in a water recycling tub.
The grateful reptile gasped its thanks and asked how it might reward the gallant red and gold Avenger.
"No need," Shellhead insisted, "Just doing my job."
The lizard looked disappointed so Tony Stark thought for a moment then kindly added, "Well, there is one thing you might do....if you ever run into Fin Fang Foom you could put in a good word for me."
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Actually, that's pretty much the way this picture came about, just as Iron Man said. We spotted the lizard floating in the water tub, scooped him out, and as he was recovering (the cold water had made him torpid so he had a lie down in the sun for a while) quickly set up and snapped this picture. I've done very little to alter it.
Sometimes you just get lucky; certainly true in the lizard's case! It scampered away later.
I think this little bloke is a Marbled Gecko (Christinus marmoratus)....
(Best Viewed Globally)
HAIKU FOR ATLAS
I held up the sky
'Til Men forgot my burden
So I let it Fall
After the Fall, when the Last Man had passed, uncounted statues fashioned in the likeness of humanity were reflections without admirers.
----------------------------------------------------
This is one of the gaudy Greco-Roman fantasy details decorating The Forum Theatre, Austrian born American architect "Papa" John Eberson's playfully embellished Moorish Revival picture palace that has whimsically graced the corner of Flinders and Russell Street in Melbourne (Victoria, Australia) since 1929. The Forum started out as a cinema and has morphed into a live entertainment venue and a revivalist centre in its time.
Eberson designed over 100 picture palaces the world over, a great many of which no longer exist or have been stripped of their interior decoration so the Forum is a priceless heritage piece.
I took two pictures of this alcove, one without flash and this one with. The dark one looks equally interesting, but I like this one because it brings out the chipped plaster and faded Bordello paint job.
I was at the Forum to see a performance of Charles Ross's exhuberant One Man Star Wars gig for the 2007 Melbourne International Comedy Festival. A hilarious piece, by the way, and I was pleased to interview him the week before for my show, Zero-G: Science Fiction, Fantasy * Historical Radio.
Popular belief has it that Atlas was supporting the Earth on his shoulders, but the older legends has it that he is carrying a celestial globe, that is to say, the sky. I like that in the Aussiemandias Post-Holocaust context.
Ayn Rand provided the picture title, of course.
(BEST VIEWED LARGE)
Before the Fall twenty million containers made 200 million journeys every year.
Logistics by Lego.
Afterwards, millions of the metal boxes were washed overboard from the thousands of drifting, crewless ships. Countless more floated off the decks of the vessels that sank. Depending on their loads and how well they were sealed they floated awash or submerged. A vast, drifting armada that followed the tides and great ocean currents.
No longer a hazard to navigation, for there was no one left to navigate.
The flotsam of a global civilization. Still mobile, still transporting the world's goods.
Storm and tide washed many ashore.
Where they would wait forever for the cranes, trains and trucks that would never come.
Contained.
After the Fall.
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Containers lost overboard do constitute a growing pollution and navigation problem.
On land they rust away until loaded again, scrapped or co-opted for other purposes. This big 'ol brute is used for storage in a local park in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Some clever clogs have designed fit-outs for them so they can be used as portable housing for emergency disaster relief and longer term humanitarian aid, as well as for commercial residences where mobile workforces cluster around construction or mining projects.
The picture, taken on a bright, sunny day, was all about light, shadows, colour and texture. No surprises there!
(BEST VIEWED LARGE)
Bolt.
This the bolt.
This is the bolt that fastened the tower.
This is the bolt that fastened the tower onto its base.
This is the bolt that fastened the tower onto its base until the day.
This is the bolt that fastened the tower onto its base until the day long after the Fall.
This is the bolt that fastened the tower onto its base until the day long after the Fall when it rusted away.
And the tower fell.
Long after the Fall.
Bolt.
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The whole Moorabbin Football Ground light tower seen elsewhere in the Aussiemandias photoset is just as corroded, including the base. Not too much of a worry, there's stilI heaps of 'guts' left in the metal and it doesn't look like there's really a problem yet with the structural integrity of the tower. I liked the contrasting degrees and strata of corrosion, and the shadows added a bit of drama, as well as doubling the textural range and contrasts.
(BEST VIEWED LARGE)
Civilization was held together with staples, bolts, screws, mortar, cords, straps, bands, rivets, nuts, glue, welds, dovetails, studs, buttons, cables, joints, pegs, dowel, nails, clamps, wires, ropes, pins, tape, plugs, connectors, and strings.
Even the Fall did not undo what was done up.
At first.
Time too is a tool.
Rot, rust, decomposition, slippage, fracture, failure, vibration, flex and fatigue were its versatile tool heads.
In short.
After the Fall.
Everything fell apart.
Eventually.
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Another detail from my favourite Abandon, Moorabbin's Linton Street Football Oval, which continues to moulder away as the local council and St. Kilda Football Club continue their prolonged wrangling over what to do with the site.
I'm the last person who should have any say in the dispute but my cheeky vote is for the picturesque ruin!
I love the way that the wooden cross beams that this metal plate held fastened together with coach (or carriage) bolts has entirely dropped away. Leaving the nuts grasping thin air. The textures are fascinating!
WHEN ROME WAS THE LIGHT DID THEY PONDER THE FALL?
DID THEY TOO LOOK TO BROKEN WALLS AND CITIES GONE TO DUST
AND WONDER ?
"AYE, AS IT WAS THEN, SO MIGHT IT BE AGAIN?"
"celsae graviore casu decidunt turres"
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The answer to that is "Yes", Classical Romans were quite aware of the transitory nature of things, having far too many painfully spectacular events in their own history to
draw conclusions from.
As Horace neatly summed up, "The bigger they come, the harder they fall."
This beaut wall plaque and chandelier combination can be found in the stairwell of Club Abruzzo in Lygon Street, East Brunswick, near the corner of Blythe Street. Founded in 1967 by nostalgic immigrants from the Abruzzo region of Italy, the club has a very snug upstairs ballroom where well catered functions are held. In this case, I was there for the 2008 Belly Dance Kismet End-Of-Year Christmas Party.
In spite of the generally apocalyptic trend of my Aussiemandius Photoset I do sometimes include still powered lights, as I have a working theory that electricity after the notional "Fall" might still be available for a time due to emergency generators or solar, wind or hydro sources.
The bulk of the grid would go down, of course, since in Victoria we get a substantial proportion of our power from coal fired stations, which would stop as soon as the fuel ran out. In fact, the widespread outages might take the hydro out of the loop as well.
On the other hand, if "The Fall" happened, perhaps, in the middle of the night, when not much power was being tapped generally, who can say?
Some of this gloomy speculation, incidentally, is very well explored in Alan Weisman's splendidly matter-of-fact book "The World After Us."
(BEST VIEWED ON A COLOSSAL SCALE..)
There are degrees of silence.
After the Fall the great stadia and arenas of the world stood vastly, achingly empty.
The amplifying bowls and tiered stands that had shouted the team spirit of millions of fans to the sky echoed only to the forlorn cry of passing seagulls.
Mourning the food that the thronging crowds had born as their natural bounty.
Drained of life when the World unplugged the gathering places gathered dust
and silence until they were full of emptyness.
And the gulls abandoned them for the seas....
After the Fall.
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The Melbourne Cricket Ground in Yarra Park in Victoria, Australia, can hold a capacity crowd of just under 100,000. Like all such big, mass gathering places when it's closed and empty it's VERY empty....
The MCG is affectionately known to Melbournians as "The G". So: "Zero 'G'". And no, my avatar is named after my Science Fiction radio show, not after the MCG.... ;)
This is a view of the exterior of the Southern Stands...I hardly had to desaturate the colour at all it was such a grey old day.
Very Nevil Shute's "On The Beach", the film and mini-series versions of which were shot in Melbourne.
THE RENOVATIONS ARE DRIVING ME ROUND THE TWIST....
I'll never know if these two webs are a single spider's work (the wee beastie just barely visible in the centre of the spiral web) or several.
But I love the contrast between the two structures!
Discovered one damp foggy morning at 7.00 am in a local park.
(BEST VIEWED UNWAVERINGLY)
HAIKU FOR AFTER THE FALL
Where thousands walked
Only shadows tread there now
Stairing vacantly
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I didn't do much to this picture, even left some untidy bits in the crop. Seemed appropriate somehow. Black and white seemed best, just a touch of Italian neo-realism cued off the the scatter of rubble on the well worn stairs crosses those jagged shadows.
It was one of the main exterior stairs for the grandstands at the old Moorabbin Football Oval in Melbourne, Australia.
Demolished 13.1.2009
Fashion design sketxh front view #kids #girls #womens #pubicinspiredcollection #dragqueen #cosplay #crossdresser #allsizesavailable #allcolors #allprintsshownpostedinthispage #sellingonline #lamoniquestylezllc #custommade #handpainted #homemadeprint #designer #onsale
"Yello!
I'm a bug.
This is my story arc....
So I go."
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We've had a couple of days of much needed rain. Found this wee beasty sitting on the rim of one of the rainwater buckets. Have no idea what it is! But, I kinda got into the colours and composition.
"You talkin' to me? You talkin' to me? You talkin' to me? Then who the hell else are you talkin' to? You talkin' to me?"
"Well, no...actually, I'm talking to the bloke next to you...behind the branch...y'know?"
"Oh. Dat's ooright den! Carry on."
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I took this last year before we moved house and have just located it again while sorting out my files. Rainbow Lorrikeet of course, such clowns! But this one, had ATTITUDE!
And a beak full of the neighbours figs.....