Sydney Architecture

Why rugby is the best sport on the planet:

I hate violence, especially stupid sports related violence. But, in this case, there's something really hot about seeing big beefy rugby guys beating the shit out of each other...

Hyde Park

Official Google Blog: Panoramio Groups: Join a photo community to match your interests

Official Google Blog: Panoramio Groups: Join a photo community to match your interests

Official Google Blog: Doing more with the +1 button, more than 4 billion times a day

Official Google Blog: Doing more with the +1 button, more than 4 billion times a day

Third Year Anniversary

So, today is our third year anniversary of being in Australia. I know this last year will fly by – the last year of anything always seems to. It’s bitter sweet. On the one hand I want to get this coming year over with as soon as possible knowing we are going to be moving back to San Francisco, and on the other I want it to stretch out forever because there’s still so much I want to see and do. We’ve done almost no traveling around Australia, which is embarrassing. We had always thought we would wait until friends or family came to visit, but that window of opportunity is quickly closing and we can no longer use them as an excuse. I think I need to start planning a trip…

Australian Collar Bomb Suspect Apprehended in KY: NFW

For anyone who isn't familiar, there was a teenage girl in Sydney who was found in the middle of the street of her suburb with a bomb strapped around her neck on 3 August. The bomb ended up not being real. Authorities have been searching for the culprit. The story has been all over the news, with good reason of course. This morning it was announced they had caught a suspect in Louisville, KY. I was like, huh?!? I orginally misunderstood, I thought the suspect was American, but he is actually Australian. The story is already weird enough, this just happens to hurl it into the 'no fucking way' category.

Here's one of the earliest reports this morning from channel 7 in Sydney: 

And a report from channel 11 in Louisville:

It's disgusting.

I've felt like shit all week, I've had some type of cold/sinus infection thingy. But, it's finally on the wane. Wow, the London riots. I've intended to write some thoughts down, but keep coming back to this quote by Virginia Postrel on Google+:

I'm decidedly put off by the way people of every political persuasion seem to be positively relishing the riots in the U.K. and spinning them to advance their personal political agendas. It's disgusting.

Emphasis mine. When I read those words, a light went off - she had expressed exactly what I had been thinking, but for whatever reason had been unable to say. I've been flabbergasted by the way that so many people have taken an apologists approach to this thing. I've pretty much had to bite my tongue all week on social networking sites...

...and now this report on the topic from 10 NEWS in Australia:

Bears, Cowboys, Minotaurs, and Republicans

A series that humorously explores certain aspects of gay culture and a select group of American conservative politicians. Check it out!

Context for Nine and Forty-Two

I shot the above video this past weekend on our train ride to visit some friends. It's made with the iPhone 4 and edited with the apps CinemaFXV and ReelDirector. There are no scene changes, just one continuous tracking shot. After I converted the video to black and white and increased the exposure levels, I thought this needs a track by Philip Glass to complete it. I know, not very original. I mean, Glass's music set to motion is a no-brainer, but hey, it works every fucking time. So, I went into the iTunes store and starting searching. Between the years 1987 - 1997, I listened to Glass's music almost exclusively on a daily basis. I drove my friends either away or insane. Looking back, it's funny that had to go searching for a piece of music by him. I looked for tracks first by length, then by style (I wanted something playful, but with a full orchestra sound). I settled on a piece called Religion from the Naqoyqatsi soundtrack. I haven't seen the film, but have seen the other two movies in the trilogy. The length of the track is about 9 mins and 01 secs, but my original video was over 12 mins. So, I decided to cut the video instead of boring the viewer with another 3-4 mins of video in silence - and I didn't want to use a second track. Using a piece of music that focuses on rhythm really allows for some amazing fortuitous moments; rather, some very satisfying and unintentional match ups between the music and what is taking place on film. I've always thought my work functions best when the intentional elements are tempered by chance (I know, very art school speak). Twenty years ago I fantasied about collaborating with Philip Glass. And even though he has no idea, I guess I can check that one off of my list now.