Posts by 81stcolumn
Last ←Newer Page 1 2 3 4 5 Older→ First
-
I thought a company was doing walking tours under/on the bridge? Having done the actual walk one summer when I was working for the police, it's nowhere near appropriate for unguided access - to get right across is actually quite tricky - the north end services about 3/4 of the bridge, but from memory there's no good walkway that goes right across.
I think the license for guided walks is owned by AJ Hackett. Enquiries revealed that you can pay to walk but can only buy "official" pictures.
-
John - were it the case that this was $40m here or $40m somewhere else I might have some sympathy. But it is clear that the decision appears to have been driven by a yet unpublished report(suspcious to my mind) and one of the suggested alternatives is to tar seal the road on Great Barrier Island. Place this next to lobbying for a largely decorative $50m bridge across the viaduct which will benefit businesses and tourists, then what alternatives are there. Dogmatic belligerence may well prove the last resort against blunt ignorance of some historical standing.
-
__You make planes like fine ladies' watch: drop watch, watch break. We make watch like alarm clock - knock it off the table and it still wakes you up__
heh....The difference between solving a problem and creating an industry around it....
-
See the planes
Shiny cars enjoy roads
Rail gone by lunch time -
When looking at the obesity graph you might wish to consider the cost to the community of what will amount to a great deal of early onset ill-health. It irks me somewhat that we have very accurate statistics for the community health cost of smoking; we have nothing like the same data for driving. When considering what it costs to facilitate active transport (peds/bikes/blades whatever) there is an urgent need to look at the bigger picture. How about cycling lanes and paths as a health investment ?
-
However instead of building the cycleway they offered a bus/van service which picked up the cyclists on one side and deposited them on the other.
So the cyclist who has picked an __autonomous __and intrinsicly rewarding form or transport gets to wait for a van.
I'm sure had they wanted to catch a quaxing bus they would have.
These people really really don't get it.
-
I'd like to be a bit like Billy Hunt
-
<blush>
-
I’m probably taking this waaaay to seriously however…..
Depends on whether Art is solely in the eye of the beholder, or the intent of the performer counts for something.
I can get with that and I would qualify it with this misquote from someone whom I can’t fully recall.
Art is what exists in the dialogue between the art-moment and the individual exposed to it. As such, each exposure is a unique art product. Unconstrained by specific intentions the artist may stimulate the process without necessarily defining it. Viewing with artistic intent is as important as viewing a de facto artwork or artist; this sees art as only requiring the intent of one or other of the involved parties. Hence art is what we experience where artistic intent exists on one or both sides of the dialogue; in this way the question is not who the artist is, but where the art is to be found or experienced.
I like this idea as it allows for art to be incidental and for distinctions between art, sport and craft to be largely irrelevant.
Randomness
For example it makes no sense to me at least, to draw an artificial line between the absorbed, involved manipulation of chaos demonstrated by Jackson Pollock and the absorbed liberation of action from apparent chaos demonstrated by Ronaldinho. There is a clear dyad between these artists and the complex changing forms that surround them, both of whom seem to be able to capture something sublime from apparent randomness.
Culture
Compare Picasso’s Guernica with Jesse Owens performances at the 1936 Olympics, you cannot separate these actions from the politics and complexity that surrounded them. Each in its own way was beautiful, profound, historical and dare I say it misunderstood at times.
Theatre
I challenge you to say the Valerie Villi’s actions in Beijing were not pure theatre; creating a micro-climate around her in order to elevate performance and its eventual outcome. She manipulated those around her as effectively and indeed beautifully as she propelled the shot, keenly interacting with the act, the audience and the occasion. So too does Damien Hirst appreciate his role as art creator, manipulator and marketing man. Not only does he create the work but he deliberately manipulates media around him to create a context for his work; performance and theatre as a subtext for an artistic act.
Perfection
Here’s the one that clinches it for me. Look carefully at the deliberate, determined perfectionism of Yves Kline in his creation of IKB and that of a sprinter, thrower or diver. They seek perfection in clearly identifiable form through deliberate repetitive search only then to explore those forms in different contexts. More compellingly Klein wrote quite early in his career on “le Vide” (the void) an ethereal sense created by an artistic act. Compare this with accounts of “being in the zone” or “flow” and you get the sense that our artists and sportsfolk can and sometimes do occupy the same intellectual space in pursuit of particular goals.
So to be quite contrary Art is because I say so and that is what really matters.
-
Well I guess in keeping with the nature of the post, here I am….
I went chronic at quite an early age. At boarding school it proved to be quite an advantage I would be awake when others slept and they would be terrified that I would smother them in their sleep……brooohahahhaha ! It also got me into quite a lot of trouble having micro sleeps in lessons.
As far as childcare is concerned it proved a real bonus, the wee man was born four months ago. The beautiful one is an early bird and finally she realised that having only 2 hours in the day when we were both asleep was quite an asset. Four months in and she finally understands that different, really can mean good.
I can function on four to five hours a night it’s only when I get below this that my world seems lined with soiled velvet. Sticky, slow and somehow scratchy those days pass until I crash out. I’ve learned not to drive cars in the mid afternoon but can drive at night. I do believe I get more from life but then wouldn’t know any better. Yeah…I love the dawn in a very different way, like I’ve earned it, creeping up on me in my silent hours. The smell of flowers on a dew drawn morning, I get that.
Being an academic means I still get to steal the odd morning in bed, though a little less so these days. My only real regret is that It has ruined any real sporting aspirations that I held. The lack of sleep means my body really doesn’t tolerate hard training for long periods. My immune system gets kind of spooky and I just don’t recover properly.
I also hope my wee man isn’t the same - it took a bit of getting used to, for me at least.
Any ways it's time I took off to do the washing up……..