Category Archives: cultural

Amsterdam

ARTS & CULTURE, books & readings, cultural
Review: Book
Amsterdam: A History of the World’s Most Liberal City, Russell Shorto, published 2013

Amstersdam-250x378If you have any interest in liberal thinking, tolerance and the enlightenment, then this is a book you must read.

Given the threats to these values almost daily by the current Australian government, it is a must to take time out and do a reality check on just how far backwards these elected clowns are trying to take us.

While obviously about the city, this book is really a celebration of the people and their influence on the whole western world.

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Brisbane Ugly part Two

cultural, urban development, URBANITY, ,
Urbanity: Following up on comments by Alain de Botton, Part Two

That parts of Brisbane are ugly and the local government has allowed this to happen

Beauty in urban development is something we should insist on!

Part Two – arriving from the airport

Links to all:  Part One – Part Two – Part Three – Part Four – Part Five – Part Six

tunnel_729-620x349 Continue reading Brisbane Ugly part Two →

Brisbane Ugly Part One

cultural, urban development, URBANITY, ,
Urbanity:
Following up on comments by Alain de Botton, Part One of Six

That parts of Brisbane are ugly and the local government has allowed this to happen

Beauty in urban development is something we should insist on!

Part One – commenting on the News and its response to Alain

Links to all:  Part One – Part Two – Part Three – Part Four – Part Five – Part Six

botton-bris

A mild storm recently broke in the media around comments made by Alain de Botton. To view one Brisbane local news piece on this and see Alain respond – click here. I was alerted to there being something wrong here when certain commentators responded. Oh the media just did not read his new book on the media!

Continue reading Brisbane Ugly Part One →

Australian War Memorial Landscapes

ARTS & CULTURE, CANBERRA, cultural,
Review: Landscapes at the Australian War Memorial, Canberra

These comments not are about the exhibitions of the War Memorial. These are comments about the building and recent additions.

AWM-P1040313

Many times the expression is used when an architect is talking about a building, about how their architecture fits into the landscape. In most cases this proves to be just false architectural spin. However there is one building here in Canberra that does sit beautifully with the landscape. That building is the Australian War Memorial in Canberra

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North Canberra Greenway

A DICKSON RESIDENT, art outside, ARTS & CULTURE, CANBERRA, canberra tourism, cultural, green infrastructure, parks, trees, URBANITY, , ,
A brief concept proposal:
The North Canberra Greenway and Artwalk.

This is a proposal to enhance some present green infrastructure within inner north Canberra.

Drain-Walk-01

The North Canberra Greenway could be formed by linking and then enhancing the present green infrastructure elements throughout inner north Canberra.

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Equity and Parks

cultural, parks, urban development, URBANITY, ,
Urbanity: Parks for everyone

glebe-P1000979There’s many a piece of research and publication about the links between access to parks and people’s health and wellbeing. Any urban area that includes ample public green spaces will always be sought after and the benefits are evident in the community attitudes towards their residential areas. Parks enhance the sense of community.

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status of women

cultural, politics, women,
Opinion: Girls can do everything, just not all at once

Canberra Times Article, by Marie Coleman

article200_quentin-bryce1-200x0With the first female Governor General now having departed the scene, it was indeed timely for a local writer to sum up the messy situation that occurred thanks to our infamous Prime Minister.

That is, The Rabbott took this opportunity of the departure of this well-loved person from this high office, to confuse any celebration by announcing that he was bringing back the out of date honours of Knighthoods and Dames. To rub it in fully, The Rabbott announced that Quentin Bryce was to be the first to be honoured.

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Happy City

ARTS & CULTURE, cultural, health & well being, urban development, URBANITY, , ,
Reviews: Book

Happy City, Charles Montgomery, 2013

From the blurb online:

“A brilliant, entertaining and vital book. Montgomery deftly leads us from our misplaced focus on money, cars and stuff to consider what makes us truly happy. Then everything changes – the way we live, work and play in humanity’s major habitat, the city.” – David Suzuki

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Tent Embassy

ARTS & CULTURE, canberra tourism, cultural,
A new future for the Aboriginal Tent Embassy in Canberra

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The tent embassy has had a mixed history since the first one was established in January 1972 in Canberra right in front of the former Parliament House. There is a reasonably full history on wikipedia – click here. It is worth reading.

Presently the number of tents varies as does the level of activity. Over the years I am aware that the government as well as the National Capital Authority have had discussions about its future. Nothing has changed except for the comings and goings of the residents.

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Adelaide

ARTS & CULTURE, books & readings, cultural, travel,
Review: Book
Adelaide, Kerryn Goldsworthy, 2011

9781742232621.jpg.400x0_q20This is another of those smallish book  published about Australia’s capital cities. I have already reviewed Hobart, by Peter Timms.

I have to confess that I did not take to the book on Adelaide and at times seriously considered giving up. In the end I had a move quickly through whole sections in order to see where the author was going.

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Leadership in Design

architecture, ARTS & CULTURE, climate change, cultural, landscape architecture, urban development, URBANITY, ,
Leadership in design of the built environment

watson-House-P1030003 I was attending a meeting of combined community council two years ago, when to members of the public who were in attendance made very similar appeals. Both were very upset with the quality of the redevelopments that had appeared within their street, despite the local communities objections about key aspects of the developments.

As far as I could ascertain, they were not necessarily opposed to the infill of their suburb. It was more about the nature of the apartments being built.

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Angel of the North

art outside, ARTS & CULTURE, CANBERRA, canberra tourism, cultural, visual arts, ,
Review: Visual Art
Angel of the North at the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra

Angel-P1030341

It was just this week that I managed to get myself down the wonderful National Gallery of Australia’s sculpture garden to have a look at the Angel of the North. The piece has been on location for several years. This was the fist time I have seen this piece. Of course, this is the life-size marquette of the original Angel of the North, being about one tenth the size of the original.

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Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid

ARTS & CULTURE, cultural, opinions, politics, ,
Opinion: Political Stupidity Reigns Again

The Latest from our Rabbott Government

rabbott01Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid: The national edukashon minister announced that after years of development, years of consultations and a bloody huge amount of work, that he considers he needs to appoint two close political associates to look into getting ‘balance’ back into the curriculum. They state that they will be independent. That probably means their report will be independent of facts and of intellect.

It is obvious that this is more about getting the old ‘culture’ wars started again and to drive particular ideological points into the headlines while loads of other disastrous changes are being put through by the Rabbott.

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Art Gallery Exhibitions

ARTS & CULTURE, cultural, photography, travel, visual arts, , , , , ,
Review: Visual Arts

An overview of accessing Australia’s major visual art gallery exhibition programs though their websites. Date: Christmas 2013.

stairs-Wei-P1010762

This is an overview of what visual arts major art galleries are telling us is available around the country this Christmas. Our major art galleries endeavour to have their local audiences come through the doors. The challenge is to convince someone interested in all manner of visual arts, including photography, to spend some of our discretionary leisure time and dollars to travel (pay airfares and accommodation) to see the collections and special exhibitions.

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Monash Gallery of Art

ARTS & CULTURE, cultural, visual arts, ,
Review: Visual Arts

Claudia Terstappen: In the shadow of change, Monash Gallery of Art

There’s a must see exhibition of landscape photography on at Monash Gallery of Art (Melbourne). This gallery is the Home of Australian Photography.

This body of work is an example of an artist expanding the great traditions of photographing our planet. It is obvious from the photographs that Claudia Terstappen has a romantic view of our landscapes and wants us to be positive about appreciating the world around us.

You are urged to set off for the Monash Gallery of Art and allow time to sit and enjoy.

The exhibition closes 26th January 2014 – check the website here.   and ..

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The Fiction Gallery: Patrick Henderson

Fiction Gallery: Patrick Henderson: On being not here

Do you now a Patrick Henderson?

Patrick-Henderson

Patrick Henderson attends meetings called to carry out the business of the gallery for which he is a company director.

When Patrick sits at the table he remains very alert to the presence of his mobile and aware that there may be emails, text messages and tweets that require his attention.

Patrick’s commitment to these distractions is such that he cannot ignore them. Because of his lack of control of the technology, poor Patrick has become one of the many who are physically present somewhere but are rarely mentally completely there.

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Cultural Writing

architecture, ARTS & CULTURE, cultural, journalism, the media, URBANITY, visual arts, , ,
Opinion: Cultural Criticism

The current state of Cultural Reviews and Critical Comment

amstrdm-40018

Recently the Guardian ran an opinion piece on the Barangaroo development on the eastern edge of Sydney’s CBD. The author pointed out that she had been involved in the project.

I suggest that the author failed to declare that they had been more than just simply ‘involved’. In fact they had been a leading professional on the team that had won the design competition, that had then seen their designs criticised publicly by people such as Paul Keating, then had their wining design rejected by the client and a new design developed and the contracts awarded to other teams.

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Halloween

cultural, opinions, random, ,
Why do we do this?

I do not get this one. The supermarkets and other retailers  have again attempted to convince us that Australia celebrates Halloween and we should be encouraging children and teenagers to wander around and knock on doors to demand sweets. I do not think so!

I’ll migrate that appropriate saying from that other not so relevant event: Bah Humbug.

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