The last laugh

Jim Anderson's collage Last Laugh 

 

"such infamous scoundrels have the last laugh, and are safely on their way to France." Raffles, Further Adventures Of The Amateur Cracksman by Hornung, E. W.

 

Martin Sharp, smiling in the photo, larger than life reminiscent of his Luna Park entrance art was laid to rest at this church in Sydney. The funeral, and this collage by Jim, were and are rife with artistic imagery - the sunflowers that we associate with Van Gogh and the Eternity that we Aussie's associate with Martin Sharp and Arthur Stace.

 

Stace was a reformed alcohol who spread the gospel by writing his tag, ETERNITY, all over Sydney in the 30's, 40's, 50's and 60's. His chalk message was written in a beautiful copperplate script.

 

Sharp created an Eternity screenprint in 1977 from multiple stencils that was titled Eternity Haymarket! It is now in the National Gallery of Australia, in Canberra.  This is what links him to the powerful word Eternity.

 

While I did not know Martin Sharp he is inextricably linked to my, and many others, lives. I imagine him wandering the streets of Sydney near Kings Cross, walking to his beloved Yellow House, sharing whatever he drank and his ideas with artists and poets. At one point he lived with Eric Clapton, Germaine Greer, and Philippe Mora. I know he stood publicly against censorship with the two Richards from Oz magazine.   He, and they, gave me hope at a formative part of my live when I yearned to know that the stifling nature of suburbia was not the only reality. They awakened artists in everyone and they did it with an irreverent laugh.

PHOTO: Jim Anderson was inspired to continue with his artworks by Martin Sharp. See his art and read his story at his site.

     


Manly Beach BOMB

Braille on Manly Beach (BOMB) was a happening scheduled for January 2010 to celebrate Louis Braille's Birthday. I would love more information about this amazing sounding event.

The blurb read:

"Braille on Manly Beach is an innovative community celebration of braille that involves making a braille message in the form of large dots in the sand. Each sand-dot will be .5 metres high and 1 metre in diameter. This sand-sculpted braille message will be made in the inter-tidal zone (the area between high and low tides) along a 50-metre stretch on one of Manly's beaches. The message will take several hours to make, and then it will gradually be carried away by the incoming tide, merging with the sea in a blend of poetry, metaphor, and spray.

Braille on Manly Beach has been conceived by Anne Walton and Bruce Maguire (with assistance from sand sculptor Dennis Massoud and financial support from the Australia Council) as a unique celebration of the 200th anniversary of the birth of Louis Braille" From e- bility.com

Our New Year's Eve Celebrations

Fireworks over the Sydney Opera House

Happy New Year

Reflections

Sydney Harbour


More photos of Sydney Harbour


From the giraffes house

What a great view of Sydney from the giraffes' house at Taronga Zoo.

Every time we visit the zoo I think that the giraffes have one of the best views of Sydney. This photo captures it but you really need to experience it for yourself.
Don't forget to look at these amazing awkward animals too! Their scientific name - Giraffa camelopardalis - refers to the pattern on their coat. Their irregular coat pattern provides camouflage under the mottled sunlight of the trees that they feed upon.

I wonder if the giraffes enjoy their splendid Sydney view.

Visitors to Sydney always come here.

Tourists, backpackers, sunbakers and surfers in that order.

YEATS AT BONDI a haiku by John Tranter  

Bondi Beach—

that drongo-thronged,

that nong-tormented sea.

"Bondi"  is an Aboriginal for water breaking over rocks or noise of water breaking over rocks.^[2] The Australian Museum records that Bondi means place where a flight of nullas took place.

Growing up in Bondi
On grass-clipping streets and median strips
and cracked concrete that baked in heat and
bitumen on roads that bubbled under feet,
you hurled water bombs at the kids
from around the street and
went to the beach 'cos that's
just what you did.

Excerpt from Adam Gibson's poem

Other poems mentioning Bondi:

Salt by Luke Davies

The View from The Roof (Tipping, Richard) Bondi Pavilion blonde serve of beach bald green headlands stretching away Waverley Cemetery jutting...
 

Elegy in a research laboratory or ode to geophagy (Brown, Pam) (scum of the earth) becomes the subject. With ease, we scorn Bondi Garden Kitten BBQ & eat in....
 

The Taxi (Page, Geoff) which is to shift her from a last tall Bondi morning to backroom afternoons in Ryde, pulls up...
 

Chess (Skovron, Alex) On Tuesday nights you sat the School of Arts in Bondi Road — blackjumper nights of chess across a...
 

Morning of the wreckers (Page, Geoff) My grandmother's house in Bondi Junction the morning of the wreckers … A grey light fills the...
 

From the Centre to the Edge (Marshall-Stoneking, Billy) over like a boomerang. Later, at Bondi, we pulled him by the arms until he looked over the wall along...

Citified

here in the city
the wind is colder
than memory.
people rush by...
why won't they stop and finish this poem?

Rain

ants run around

rain threatens their routine

Sydneysiders contemplate purchasing umbrellas

Spring has sprung

Resplendent in a burst of yellow, Francis Street in Naremburn displays Australia’s floral emblem, the wattle. This photo is from Walk Sydney Streets Photos by Alan Waddell and that is him in the photograph.

Alan's walking discoveries book (including 100 c o l o u r photos) has now been published. It has over 2,400 unusual photos taken as Alan, 94, walked every street in the 287 suburbs of Sydney. It's available here

"Spring has sprung,
The Grass has riz,
I wonder where the birdies is?"
Frederic Ogden Nash