Modern Pet flyer run. I don’t mind dropping flyers into mailboxes, not sure about handing them out dressed in a dog suit at the dog park though.
Spagbol at Cosmo.
Pretty freaky day yesterday. Started out with a Modern Pet flyer run in Bellevue Hill, then we dropped in to Cosmopolitan in Double Bay for lunch. Turns out we were there this time last year. I was wearing the same jumper too!
Reg Mombassa – what a guy. I love the man, his work and his great dry (and sharp!) sense of humour. I’d love an original, please, because after his talk, the prints I’ve got of his work just don’t cut the mustard.
This huge original Brett Whiteley was hanging just outside the conference theatre. I had a chance to admire it for a few minutes. It blows me away that an artwork of such huge value can be on display in a public venue, and no-one thinks to deface it. Gives me a little faith in this world, day and age for sure.
Ex-BWM staff drinks at The Rose. Some of the guys got pretty lose, always fun to see haha.
Semi Day 2. I snuck a snap in with long time design buddy Andrew Johnstone who founded DiK and runs the conference.
Laurence Ng and I. We’ve crossed paths many times over the years. He’s the publisher of IdN Magazine and it’s always great to see him. I’m hoping I can somehow work with him again sometime in the future.
I’ve been at Semi-Permanent the past couple of days at Darling Harbour. I’ve not been to one in a very long time, and the time before that I spoke at one. It’s still held at the same place, and there’s still 3,000 or so people (mostly design students) in attendance.
As the conference started (on Friday) I instantly realised how much hard work it is to pay full attention to someone speaking for one hour in a dark room. It reminded me of uni days. I could either A) fall asleep, or B) try to extract something out of their presentation. I chose path “B” and I managed to get something out of pretty much every speaker on day 1.
The standout speaker for me was Reg Mombassa who pretty much made a success of Dare Jenning’s “Mambo” fashion surf brand which was huge when I was growing up in high school. I wore a lot of Mambo gear back then and lots of my fave mambo gear had Reg’s work on it.
Later that night (after Semi) we hit The Rose for ex-BWM staff drinks as Christina used to work for BWM. I was the designated driver so I got kinda frustrated at the end of the night when people were starting to get pretty lose. I ended up being the designated Taxi driver too (great!).
Day 2 of the conference was today. It was harder work than yesterday but I’ve walked away with a little inspiration, which is what I was looking for. I want to get back into skateboarding, just a little. At least I want to start by designing my own deck.
Through the conference I’ve realised I’m missing ART, a lot. I used to have to make art. I think design killed this. I need to make art again, but without having to smoke weed. It’s not going to be easy, but I’m pretty hungry for it. I can only try. I’ve got nothing to lose!
PS: If you’re keen on getting a bit of a lowdown on the speakers and what they spoke about at Semi-Conference. Visit INfront where Damien has amazingly tried to document as many speakers as he could over the 2 days. Visit: www.australianinfront.com.au
1975 260Z 2+2
It’s been one of my aims for some time now to find a car that was made in the year I was born. The project would entail a lot of research, time, space, blood, sweat and tears…all that stuff that makes me feel alive!
Out of curiosity I’ve started up a thread on JDMST to see what cars that other people, of different ages, would choose from the year they were born. Click here to enter the discussion
Hooked up with Nads yesterday for a catch-up (always good). He wanted to meet up at PappaRoti in Kingsford. I’d seen the place before, wondered what it was and now I know.
EasyWay, 85 Degrees Bakery, and now this, it seems like there’s always some ‘new’ Asian concept food store opening up in Kingsford, competition seems fierce, locals seem to love and expect new food businesses, it’s almost akin to a fashion trend.
So this place serves up these warm buns with a crunchy coffee flavoured crust on the outside and a creamy buttery inside. I had one with icecream on top. Can’t say it blew me away, but I wouldn’t be surprised if I develop a craving for it in a few days from out of nowhere!
Why the hell am I driving a Golf for?! Always have loved the R34 GT-R, still very much do.
After seeing Jing I was drunk on reflections. It’s events like these that make you wake up, re-think and re-look at your life. I needed a cigarette or two so I dropped in to see my good mate/mechanic Indy who’s workshop is pretty much a stone throw from the hospital. Can’t say the smoke made me feel any better, but it was good to catch up with Indy in any case as it’s been a very long time.
Last night on my way out the door to go to Mothers Day dinner I saw a huge stream of email messages in my inbox from the BMU members. I was cc’ed in a little late and couldn’t quite make out what they were talking about except I read the words: Jing, accident, hospital.
I had to duck out so I didn’t have time to make sense of any of it. I grabbed my phone and saw a message from Clifton which explained that Jing was riding his road bike out at the royal national park and had a bad accident. Both his arms were broken, internal bleeding and he was in hospital. I called Shirley, Jing’s fiancee, and she filled me in on everything whilst I was in the back seat of Mum’s car on the way out to the restaurant (I was meant to be driving!).
Today I thought I’d visit Jing at St George hospital. Hospitals are scary haunted places. Getting past the entrance is hard enough for me, getting into a lift even worse. I tracked down Jing’s room, saw a bed with his name on it, but he wasn’t there (freaky!). I then found out he had been moved. After going into another room full of strangers (I went into the wrong room) I was directed into the right room by a nurse but again, Jing wasn’t in there! The nurse said he could be getting an assessment, but it turns out he was in the bathroom.
It was amazing to see Jing up on his feet. Both his arms were in casts and his face was pale and sweaty from the drugs (he’s been loaded up on morphine and other pain killers). He told me how the accident took place, that he wasn’t even doing anything but rolling down a straight bit of road, he was riding one handed, hit a bump and flew into a metal guard rail stomach first. When he got up he realised his arm made an “S” shape, then a pain like he’d never felt before came over him and he soon found himself screaming.
His surgery went for over 6 hours. He has broken both arms, one in 3 places. He has broken some of his pelvis, fractured his hip. He’s got internal bleeding and initially the doctors were afraid he had a hole in his bowel, but whilst I was visiting a young doctor surrounded by his junior minions explained to Jing that the impact was so hard that his lungs ‘popped’ and that created the pocket of air in his back (which they previously thought was an intestinal gas pocket of air). So surreal.
The poor guy has had a lot of time to think everything through, the incident, his future of riding and his doubts about the later. If you know Jing, you’ll know he thinks a LOT (his blog is even called Thoughts…), and with this accident being so fresh its only natural for him to go through mental wars right now.
On my way out I ran into Timmy, who was on his way up to see Jing. He’s got a lot of support and I’m sure with a bit of time and healing he’ll be feeling more alive than ever.
Tony’s tank is still a WIP. He’s chucked some green plants in there, they’re not quite right for his desert landscape concept. A bit too green, but hey, trial and error is the best way to go. He took delivery of a whole lot of purple plants I ordered from QLD. They look great I think, not how he’s planted them, but I’ll try to make some time to get over there and re-plant ASAP.
Mothers Day lunch was at the Locks. Tony was cooking up wonton noodles, which you could have had 3 different ways!
Spotted this rad drawing by Jess who’s studying Landscape Architecture at UNSW. Looks like she’s taken to drawing trees (very hard) just fine!
Later that night we had a Mothers Day dinner with my mum at Kensington Peking. She’s been kinda seeing this guy Wally, who unfortunately lives overseas. This pressie from her younger sister Helen is just hilarious!
Crispy peking duck! I don’t think I’ve ever seen Peter’s restaurant so busy, food came out fast though, not as great as a quiet night but it was still yum.
Christina and I dropped in to see Val’s work which was in an exhibition as part of the head on festival
We were outside, the door was shut. We were just about to head off, but in that instant my mate Ben came up to the car. Was a surprise to see him there (he knew another photographer displaying work in the show).
Remember those cool rulers you had as a kid, when you tilted them the image would animate? This artwork did just that, very cool. Can’t wait to do my own interactive/animating artwork!
Slammed Merc in Newtown.
We ended buying the Mothers some lovely and very detailed Turkish homewares from Farah. The details on this bowl are all raised, very nice.
Hell on Wheels was next door so I dropped in to say G’day to Tom. Check the crazy good artwork on the walls.
All stickered up. Toms’s man cave had so much rad stuff in it my eyes failed to settle on any one thing!
Spotted this sex spec VW showcar outside.
We dropped into the Maltese cafe for some food. Still as great as I remembered it back in the day (on Crown St.). The pastizzi’s were 40cents back then (they’re $2 now).
Christina and I spent the day in Newtown yesterday to do a spot of Mothers Day shopping. I figure that if we get something from the mall, the Mothers are going to know exactly where we got the goodies from, but the Mothers are very rarely (if ever) in Newtown. Newtown is still full of lovely crafty things too (IE: less commercial goods).
After many years of do-nothingness we finally got around to installing a screen door to allow for nice airflow through the house. Having the cats has ramped up the need for it. We got Gaymoir to do the installation for us. Mario’s a nice guy (cat lover which was cool) and we went for the pet proof screen which is a little darker (as it’s thicker) but it’s turned out really nice.