mad full-wall bollywood street art in randwick

how good is this for an idea – in rando of all places! nice to see street art creeping into some unsuspecting neighbourhoods.

a whole wall paying homage to crazy bollywood films. i love the green lady with the blood and eyes rolling back in her head.

let’s just hope that more dull walls in the city and suburbs get some kind of makeover like this.

here is a little bollywood magic for your enjoyment (x 2):

this next one comes from a crucial period in bollywood history. i reckon this film was one which really sat on the fence between indian and western music/dance styles.

it had a huge budget and was shot in some pretty awesome locations around the world, but when indians start to rap and try to be western gangsta homies, it just bombs and is embarrassing to watch.

perhaps bollywood should stick to what it knows – and what no one else in the world can do – singing and dancing extravaganzas – indian style.

Edited: June 30th, 2011

lichtenstein pop-art off alice street, newtown

i remember when i was living in this very neighbourhood back in the mid 1990′s and there was quite a bit of this roy lichtenstein pop art inspired style of street art about. i had pretty much forgotten about it until i came across this one today.

i just wonder if it is the same person refreshing their old art, or if someone new has taken the baton.

great to see some refreshed and vibrant colours back on the wall again.

Edited: June 29th, 2011

driving into the sun -> aghh! my retinas are on fire! (oh and a rant on fake compo claims)

i kid you not.

i have deliberately not retouched this photo at all. what you see is exactly what i saw.

for anyone who has driven from south to north along the bradfield highway in the late afternoon, you understand this photo completely. that is the sun blazing into my eyes underneath that bridge. hell, i reckon i captured solar flares in that shot.

since we australians live in a complete nanny state and seem to not take on any personal responsibility, i propose that we build enormous retractible sunshades made of some kind of polarising material. they can be suspended by zeppelins hovering over the city in the afternoon when the westerly sun is so strong.

though we are not (yet) as letigious as our friends over in the usa, maybe we need to find some ways to wrap our population in cottonwool better. spoonfeed them with transfats and provide a rudd/gillard economic stimulous package – one that provides anyone who has a kid with free headrest lcd dvd/gaming console in every family car on the australian road – just to keep the kids entertained for the 20 minute drive home from school.

furthermore, the state should provide commuters with rubber bumpers all around their vehicles so in case of collision, cars simply bounce off eachother – like dodgem cars.

if my pinky finger should get strained in such a collission, i should automatically be entilted to a modest compensation payment of 11 million dollars.

you think i am joking? read this story of .telstra worker dale hargreaves and her compo payout.

next time you can’t work from home, next time you see your insurance premium goes up, next time that you suddenly see there is more legislation and red tape in between you and getting your job done, you can thank the likes of dale hargreaves (who may well have been on the sauce when her accidents happened). fuck you dale hargreaves and everyone like you – you have just fucked it all up and made it that little bit harder for all the rest of us. may a real accident find you soon.

Edited: June 25th, 2011

street art in fitzroy – wall of faces

today, photoaday has sticky-taped four photos together into one.

this one is just off brunswick street, fitzroy.

to see it in full size, click here.

Edited: June 21st, 2011

abandoned fun park – luna park melbourne

does anyone know if melbournes luna park is still open for business?

i’m not entirely sure if i would feel safe on that rollercoaster.

Edited: June 20th, 2011

public housing in fitzroy

what do you say about this? cheap housing, social disaster, slum, what else?

i was last around here about 5 years ago and i can tell you that i have noticed a hell of a lot more africans and muslims in the area. i have also noticed a significant decline in the amount of junkies hovering about the place.

i am not saying that this is actually how it is, i am just saying that this is what i noticed.

gentrification of the area is also noticable, but i do not connect the two.

as far as these souless buildings go, my attitude has changed a little since posting on the redfern suicide towers.

i believe that the aim of the government is correct – to provide low income earners with a home for minimal rent in a place that is close to the services and job opportunities of the city. i see this public housing (which is on prime real estate – in sydney many come with privacy and harbour views) as a springboard. for people down on their luck or for recent immigrants to get their shit together, become employable, to understand, respect and become part of the general community, get a job and then move out into their own home.

the piss is being taken though. many would think – ‘why should i get a job when the govt pays me money, i do cash work on the side and get an apartment for next to nothing in a funky part of town with a fuck-off good view’?

Edited: June 19th, 2011

street art in elwood

i really like this little piece of wall.

it is tucked in a laneway by a pretty uininspiring cafe off glenhuntly road in elwood.

there is nothing in this photo that i don’t like.

play,play,play!

Edited: June 18th, 2011

a bong shop next door to a hydroponics shop. class. all the way.

chapel street, windsor (melbourne).

bring it on, where else can you pop by your local hydroponic supplier for some chemicals. lights or vermiculite and then drop in next door to buy a fancy bong or hookah?

they should really knock a doorway between the two shops, but hey, that would be too obvious, wouldn’t it?

umm, hello!

i realley have not spent enough time in melbourne for the last few years and things have changed.

windsor has changed significantly in the last 8 or so years. it seems that the cool is moving from prahan to windsor and the tacky is moving from south yarra to prahan.

st kilda yet bothers me now. has it become THAT cool now? i went to the espy last night and they were charging $4.90 a pot of VB and $5.50 for a pot of Fat Yak. are you fucking joking me? what a rip off!

i don’t care that the espy is an institution – especially since they developed their carpark into a multi-million dollar housing development. i am certain the owners are not hard of cash.

i love st kilda with all my heart and lived there full-time for enough to know the feeling. i hate to be an old man, but yes, fitzroy street Has cleaned up, but st kilda is just what it used to be.

same old places as 10 years ago – greasy joes, la porchetta, veludo, big mouth, dogs bar, vineyard (tho that has changed for the better) and that cafe on the corner of barkly and acland – opposite bigmouth.

nice to see that the daltoun bar has not changed much.

a few new places seem to have opened up. i’ve not yet seen that chocolateria before, but after a few days in melbourne, i have realised that it is just another franchise.

i think st kilda may have lost itself a bit. it got too expensive and as such, became all the bit ‘the same’.

Edited: June 17th, 2011

street art near melbourne university

i think this is an absolute cracker and i think that it was posted on an excellent wall.

why it was posted so high and not on street-level, i will never know.

i’d like to see it all the way down on the ground, but hey, that’s just me, i’m not into this levitation thing.

whoever put this one up, thanks. i really like it and am sure that others who see it on this blog will like it too. keep up the top-shelf work!

Edited: June 16th, 2011

st kilda rd, melbourne – through a tram-stop sign

i took this pic through the cut-out section of the signs at the tram stops in melbourne. this is on st kilda road, just near elwood. nice blue sky, no traffic on the road.

i love how i can get from elwood to fitzroy in less than 30 mins. to cover the same distance would take me an hour in sydney – and that is if my bus or train came on time.

if i miss a tram in melbourne, it’s no big deal, i may have to wait 5 to 10 mins for the next to arrive. if i miss my bus in sydney, i can be looking at about 1/2 an hour. what a disgrace.

sydney, like los angeles, once had a sprawling network of light rail that was cheap, efficient and popular.

mostly in the post-war years, when there was a greater standard of living and higher disposable income, peopel started to buy cars. the roads were soon full of cars and most of the drivers on the road were pretty incopetent through lack of experience.

lots of cars in sydney were crashing into trams, eachother and pedestrians. the government of the time and the nrma decided that trams were dangerous, not cars! So with the support of the nrma, oil companies and rubber companies, all of the tram tracks were torn up.

to just get a little idea of how established and comprehensive the tram network in sydney used to be, just google ‘wiki trams in sydney’ and see for yourself.

if you are a sydneysider, just try to imagine how convenient and awesome that tram network would be if we still had it today.

Edited: June 15th, 2011

we made it to melbourne – and what a day!

well qantas decided it was safe to fly through volcanic ash clouds again, so we got on a late flight last night and checked into our hotel at 10pm, as opposed to 10.30 am. oh well, at lest we made it and managed to grab a great turkish feed out in auburn.

apparently the weather has been pretty shitty here in melbourne for the last few days and we awoke to this! check it out – not a cloud in sight. bring it on – especially when it’s raining cats n dogs in sydney now.

this is ‘the big store’ on chapel street in prahan.

Edited: June 14th, 2011

turkish food at auburn

we were meant to be on a 6am flight to melbourne this morning, but owing to that pesky little volcano in chile, qantas grounded their flights into and out of melbourne.

so with a day to kill, we drove out to auburn to explore the area a little bit.

while there, we feasted on a great turkish lunch, picked up a few bargains at the local salvos store and did a bit of fruit, veg, meat shopping (i was particularly pleased to pick up a kilo of goat meat for my next curry).

though not quite melbourne, it was a brilliant day out in a place that is outside of my bubble. highly reccommended for all.

Edited: June 13th, 2011

the free market – an ‘art exhibition’ sells nothing – take what you want for free – awesome!

i drop into the cofa kudos gallery, paddington quite regularly, but am spewing that i missed out on the opening night of this one.

this exhibition – ‘the free market’ – differs from any that i have seen – in large part because nothing is for sale, everything is given away – for free – and that exactly is the point. the art is not hanging on the wall, the art is in the idea.

i chatted with the artist – lauren carroll harris – and i really love and support her idea. i think there is the possibility of a worldwide movement for this type of thing.

she has been collecting stuff that people don’t want for a while – in our throw-away society, i don’t imagine that it would take too long either.

the gallery space was laid out a bit like a share-house – with a kitchen, living room, lots of furniture, bookshelves filled with books, a ton of cds donated by fbi radio, and triple j radio.

every day, the crew from bourke st bakery and sonoma bakery would deliver bread, sandwiches, pies, sausage rolls and bread rolls that would otherwise be thrown into the bin.

the idea was pretty much a free for all – what ever you see that you like, you are welcome to just take. lauren provided plenty of used plastic shopping bags to haul your loot of with.

ALL this stuff would have ended up in landfill if it was not for this project. Instead, people ate for free, took home free cd’s, got free furniture, books, pots, pans, toys, appliances, posters, you name it, it was there for the taking.

my photo does not do it justice, as the exhibition opened a week ago – attracting over 300 people. not bad for a neighboorhood gallery. The place was wiped out of the best stuff on the first night, but i at least managed to pick up a few good books and two pieces of absolute shit – one of which i will photograph in a week or so and have a big menacing rant about. stay posted.

great work! i just hope that most of the people who walked away with your free stuff also walked away understanding your message.

i was a ditz and left your email behind, shoot me a message if you want me to post blog or contact details for you on here.

Edited: June 7th, 2011

does that say ‘booby’?

i took this from the 6th floor of a surry hills warehouse looking down towards central starion. i am guessing this is put up on the 4th floor level. whoever did this would have had to scramble across a few rooftops to reach the wall.

3 pairs of tits and two cocks? why not….. like heiroglyphs, throw in a scarab or two and you’re away!

i wonder if it is the same person with the same tit fascination as the one who did: boobies in petersham

Edited: June 5th, 2011

ein jilted lover, you don’t need lisa

que cosa?
i found this little picture glued to the bottom of a wall in a nondescript lane in dalinghurst. it’s obviously by the same person who made the jilted lover in stamore sign.

what’s the story? does lisa live in stanmore and work the back lanes of darlinghurst or is someone following me trying to tell me something? maybe they are trying to tell my recent-ex something? it boggles the mind – i shall let it go.

this one is right around the corner from a cafe called ten buck alley that makes a great coffee, massive sambos/soups through the week and a pretty bloody good saturday all-day breakfast. go pay them a visit – the owner, jp, is a friendly nutter -  but cares about what your name is, how you like your coffees, how you like your food and always up for a bit of a chat/banter.bring it.

oh lisa, will you break free form your jilted lover.

if anyone know the story, or has found more lisa jilted lover signs around, please let me know!

Edited: June 4th, 2011

lamp post in the moore park/sfs/scg parking lot

what an absolute stunner of a day.

Edited: June 3rd, 2011

important! if you care about animal welfare, please read this and distribute

ok, so this is a fairly crude shot i threw together in the studio this evening and it is of a cow not a steer, but anyhow, it is my interpretation of the halal killing of cattle in indonesia.

each year over 500,000 cattle are shipped live from australia to indonesia. it seems most of the animals are beaten and tortured before they actually die.

the abbotoir workers in indonesia do not have even the slightest bit of respect for the animals, use blunt knives and on average, it takes 11 cuts to the throat to kill the beast.

australia makes a lot of money out of the live export of animals, so it is good business and brings cash into our country. if this is the way that these animals are slaughtered, i would prefer to live in a poorer country.

let it be known that i am not a vegetarian and that i love to eat meat. however, these are individual creatures, each with unique emotion and personality. they feel pain, they make friends, feel fear, can communicate and are intelligent. they should be treated with respect – even if they are to be killed and consumed.

until indonesia (and every other country) can not respect the rights of animals, we should not be shipping live animals to them for slaughter.

if halal meat is so important, perhaps it is best to set up abbotoirs here in australia that kill according rules of islam, but do it in a way that respects the welfare of the animals. the meat then can be shipped. it would also create more jobs for australians.

the footage below was shot by animals australia , who are capaigning alongside the rspca and getup.

an excellent documentary on the fate of live animal exports was put together by the ABC TV show four corners.

this is Not an issue for only australians, this is an issue for ANYONE that cares about the welfare of animals no matter where you live in the world.

Please, if you read this blog and give a shit about these creatures, sign the petition to the prime minister of australia, julia gillard.
thanks.

Edited: June 2nd, 2011