Favourite pics #1

snoopycydgrant96
Originally uploaded by mrlederhosen.

Holy polonium poop!

I just realised that this ol' photo was taken 11 years ago this January. 11 years! For the first time in my life I think I know how long the passing of 11 years feels. I still remember this pic like it was taken yesterday.

The story of this dog eared old photo.

After my first year of living in Sydney I returned to Perth to see my friends and family. My first year in Sydney was a tough year, but lots of new and exciting things happened to me that year. It was a time full of intense experiences. I started my first proper job - I worked on 'Wonderwold' for its final season (hence the matching t-shirts in the pic). It was my first time living totally free and in a new land, and a time when I met many of my new friends, whom I met in weird and wonderful places. Julie, who is in my links under 'Julie's Blog', talks in her latest entry about when we met at Mr Goodbar (or was that Dr Goodbar?) nightclub in Paddington. It was a time of new things, of total freedom, where no one knew who I was and I could create my own universe. It was that enjoyable wide eyed naiveity that I have always loved to feel.

I remember that throughout my following years in Sydney, until I started university in Perth in 2002, I carried this photo of Cydne, Snoopy and myself in my wallet. That's why it's so crumpled and trashed - it went everywhere with me. I considered it a kind of personal mantra to look at it whenever things were going bad for me or if I was having a hard time. Cydne, my god daughter, was a little whipper snapper of about 6 who thought the world of me, and Snoopy was my best buddy throughout my childhood. Even now, this photo has a special memory for me.

Optimism, security, warmth, home and love. That's what makes this photo so special.

Yay! It's a 35 degree day out there! I'm off to the beach right now for some:

1) Swimming
2) Cocktails
3) Watching the sunset on the beach with a combination of the above two factors..

2006 Red Bull Air Race

Originally uploaded by mrlederhosen.

One of the many planes flying over Perth on the weekend. If you want to see any funky hi-res pics type 'red bull air race' into flickr or google and you will see some great ones. I only had a mini-zoom happy snapper camera, so all my pics are little and fuzzy!

No it's not gonna hit

No it's not gonna hit
Originally uploaded by mrlederhosen.

Pics from the 2006 Red Bull Air Race

The Red Bull Air Race

Originally uploaded by mrlederhosen.

Yesterday was the first time Australia has hosted the Red Bull Air Race, an event that is pretty much a rally racing event but with planes instead of cars, and with flying around big markers above a river instead of driving cars through a forest! The Perth race was the grand final event, with the previous rounds being held in Istanbul, Budapest and a couple of other places around the world. It was pretty cool, the planes were scooting about everywhere and the coverage was pretty slick with cameras in the cockpit and from helicopters flying around the course. The Hungarian guy won, he was way better than everyone else competing and did the fancypants spin around pretend-plane-freefalling stuff everytime he finished a round.
I went down to the South Perth foreshore with a bunch of my mates and we had a birds eye view (if a bird was sitting on the ground) of the course. We were right on the Swan River in front of the control tower and we had the best view of the show! It was a stinky hot day, and after a few slushy orange vodkas we were feeling the hefty sun rays on our winter-protected skin. My trusty little digi camera couldn't really get a decent zoomed photo, so the ones i've got to show here are pretty lame.
Perth is hosting the race for another two years, so hopefully they are going to be even more awesome!

Solaris

Solaris Poster
Originally uploaded by mrlederhosen.

A Russian promotional poster for Tarkovsky's mind-bending 1972 film Solaris. I did enjoy the Steven Soderbergh version of the film, but it hardly compares to this metaphysical masterpiece!
..yes you will notice I kiss this guy's butt. He only made a handful of films, but they are all brilliant. Each frame looks like a painting, the sound is subtle, and he often edits large sections of his films so that they are set in real time. These are the films he made, I am trying to get a copy of them but they are not available to buy in Australia (darn licensing laws!).

Filmography:
The Steamroller and the Violin (1960)
My Name is Ivan / Ivan's Childhood (1962)
Andrei Rublev (1966)
Solaris (1972)
Mirror (1975)
Stalker (1979)
Voyage in Time (1982) - documentary
Nostalghia (1983)
The Sacrifice (1986)

Favourite movie moments #1

Originally uploaded by mrlederhosen.

This is a still from what I believe to be one of the best films ever made. The film is 'Andrei Roublev', based on the life of a 15th Century Russian icon painter, and directed by Andrei Tarkovsky.
The photo is from the opening scene, when a villager discovers a way to fly using a homemade balloon. The scene is wide, the mood is exciting and nervous, and you feel like you are immediately immersed in medieval Russia. If you can ever get the chance to see this at a movie fest, it will amaze you! Of course, being Tarkovsky, it is very slow and ponderous.
I first saw this film at the Encore Cinema in Surry Hills in Sydney on a rainy winter's Sunday afternoon. I didn't know what to expect, yet still today I remember being blown away by the power of this movie as I staggered out of the cinema to rejoin the outside world.
I think this would be a perfect IFC film for Dublin. Emma, write to them now and get them to screen it!

From the archives..

newtownfestival98
Originally uploaded by mrlederhosen.

This photo was taken soooo long ago in a world far far away, at the Newtown Festival in Sydney. Everyone in the inner city couldn't wait for this, the best festival in the area. Everyone knew everyone, there were dog shows, lots of ferals with dreadlocks (at least until rent increases sent them off to the Blue Mountains), food, cool bands and heaps of colourful clothes! I recall seeing Frenzal Rhomb and all the local Newtown bands and even the Whitlams just as they were starting to get popular (way before they became an elevator music band). I'm sure even the mighty P. Harness played there one year..

Vince (one the right) and Kitty (in orange) were my bestest buddies, along with Tom and Rachel Button. This pic is of Vince's housemates, they lived in the ultimate party house on Linthorpe Street, I think it was number 4. I remember I was wearing my cool Smurf pants, and just before I took this pic I got a ring stuck on my finger, and I had to go to the St John Ambulance tent to get petroleum jelly to to lube it off! Hehe, everyone laughed at me for weeks about that.

I sometimes wonder if the Newtown Festival still has that awesome vibe it used to have in the late 90s. By the time I left Sydney to go travelling in 2001, the forces of gentrification had already changed the spirit of most of Newtown. Although South of King Street it was still charging along. I will have to write a long entry about life in Newtown, I have heaps of rolls of Super 8 film of just hanging around town that I would love to put online here for everyone to watch. I filmed the two famous Reclaim the Streets closed street parties on Super 8, when they closed King Street - a major arterial road for Sydney! It's gotta have some historical significance now!