Bad Grace

G'day Possums,

Shane with doll... of sorts

Well, that's been a week to end all weeks....
it seems bad grace, ignorance, lack of regard and plain bad manners are the contemporary social currency.
But Hey-Ho... it's in another direction we go.






One of the least expected but pleasant re-awakenings of the recent trip was to re-discover sculpture again. From walking out of Port Royal and heading to our accommodation and recognising Francois Rude's "Marechal Ney" exhorting his troops, to the delightfully acid caricatures of Honore Daumier (illustrating a couple of posts back) in the Musee d'Orsay as well as the manic vibrancy of Carpeaux's "The Dance" which graces the facade of the Opera Garnier.

Carpeaux, The Dance, M. d'Orsay

Getting up close to this piece in its plaster form at the d'Orsay was quite revelatory of Carpeaux's brilliance of his deft handling and compositional ability.

It showed too, his primary influence on Rodin who we came across in the Montparnasse Cemetery.

Rodin, Cesar Franck, Montparnasse

It was a portrait of the composer Cesar Frank and like the cemetery of Pere Lachaise, Montparnasse has a wealth of sculpture to study and "finds" to discover.

Carpeaux, Observatory Fountain

Just across the road from our apartment was the Luxembourg Gardens where Carpeaux's "Observatory Fountain, The Four Quarters of the Globe" had its energetic horses wildly splashing  about....

Bourdelle's "Pomona"

....and when Visiting the Art Gallery in Rouen I finally understood Bourdelle's "Pomona" in its sinuous sensuousness.

But the real hit was visiting the Marmottan and there purchasing a reproduction of one of Degas' dancers.

Resin cast from the original wax you can feel where Degas' hands and fingers worked the material.. almost a lesson in itself.....

Degas, Spanish Dancer

...all of which means there will be sculpture being made.

And finally some pics of Erin S that were asked for..

Wombat Droppings 

or the demise of Egalitarianism and the rise of fascism in Australia.

Malcolm Farr got it right on "Insiders"calling the costumes of Oz's new "Border Farce" as like something that came from a provincial amateur Light-Opera wardrobe... and I was interested in the re-run of "Roaming Quisling" chief scout of the new Borders Protection Farce in just how much his speech delivery is so similar to the fascist nationalist buffoons wanting to "fight-party" on July 18 ... same mentality?

Prime Miniature, Rabid-the-Hun, sounding increasingly shrill, has switched what mind still functions to permitting his rabble to attend ABC interview programs again. That no-one really cares any more for his asinine attempts to control or destroy everything in his path he just makes it all the more difficuilt to take any of this ruling rabble seriously. And when it comes to interview, particularly on the ABC, one gets the feeling that now, with little to lose, no quarter will be given.  

Leigh "Hissy-Fit" Sales, one of the worst, most consistently "right" biased interviewers on ABC managed to make another mess of another interview. This time Labor's Brendan O Connor who, unfazed by her constant interruptions and obvious seething that he wouldn't answer in the manner she wanted, blithely said, "Leigh, I don't think you can see the woods for the trees!" 

Leigh was not a happy troll!

Similarly, it seems Justice Heydon wanted Bill Shortstuff  to answer questions in a particular way at the latest $80,000,000.00 ShowTrial Circus. Refusing to do so, Shortstuff was deemed an "unreliable witness" in what was not meant to be a pre-emtive verdict before this show trial circus is finished. Latching onto this as solid proof that Shortsuff is in fact "not-quite-nice" Liarbril non-entity Bruce "Blah-Blah" Bilson frothed at the mouth a lot, completely forgetting that his attendance at a number of fund-raisers hosted by alleged Mafia figures is somewhat more important and really needs his clarification.... or at least how many brown paper bags changed hands.

As my part in his eventual downfall I have made this little Rabid-the-Hun doll that you can stick pins in. I guarantee that it will make him as sick as someone sitting near a Wind Turbine

Hoo-roo Petals,

Shane

…Canning the “Age of Entitlement”

 

G'day Petals,

Shane being canned

It's been an interesting few days where the myth of an "Egalitarian Australia" has been well and truly shown to be just that: a myth.

More later in Wombat Droppings.

A new book and some more of the last studio shoot. 

Ballet Theatre Australia's last performance has just been finished and published and a preview can be seen here ...

http://au.blurb.com/books/5067495

Unusually, I had to almost force myself to do the post-process on these shots and was pleasantly surprised at the books outcome.

Book cover

 Alec Bell, an Englishman commented on deviant-art on one of  the "Gille's" studio images with this delightful Hai-ku:  

Standing immobile as the dance whirls around him,

He Dances stillness.

He really caught the intention of the shot.

I hope you who are viewing also enjoy the following.....

Emma

 

Laura

 

Gus and Olivia

 

Gus

 

Olivia

 

Gus 2

Wombat Droppings or Low-Down Politics in Oz

Scott “Drone” Morrison, he of brutal cruelty to refugees, lying and dissimulation to the nation and obnoxious bullying of the press and appalling treatment of Minh Duong made this as his maiden speech in Parliament, 2008: "From my faith I derive the values of loving kindness, justice and righteousness, to act with compassion and kindness, acknowledging our common humanity and to consider the welfare of others; to fight for a fair go for everyone to fulfil their human potential and to remove whatever unjust obstacles stand in their way … Desmond Tutu put it this way: 'We expect Christians … to stand up for the truth, to stand up for justice, to stand on the side of the poor and the hungry, the homeless and the naked, and when that happens, then Christians will be trustworthy believable witnesses.' These are my principles."

Hmmmm... must have walked backward on the road from Damascus. What a hypocrite! 

The lowest levels I expected of this Murdoch mandated rabble has been well and truly exceeded within the first six months of their tenure. "Rabbott the Hun", Joe "Cereal-SPC Killer" Hockey, and Eric"Vichy"Abetz have been proven as liars and have been called such by one of their political colleagues. Whereas the Murdoch dominated media would be frothing at the mouth and maniacally screaming from the rooftops if this had been a Labor gaffe they were utterly quiet, Nine and Ten's News had it briefly as their last items and "The Herald Sun" reported it in a small way on page 2,  two days after the story broke. This is all happening as the ABC is facing a torrent of abuse for its "bias" and... "not supporting the home team...!" 

"Tardis State" ( Where-All-Goes-Backward) pretend Premier Dennis "Inutilus Rusticas" Napthine is bringing in legislation to ban pickets and rallys...which sounds awfully like Fascism to me, whilst the real Premier, the tarnished ex-Liarbril, Geoff"Fiddles" Shaw makes merry with the Liarbrils legislative program.

Do you want to be part of a serious effort to save this planet? Not a serious effort at collective delusion, not a serious effort to feel better, not a serious effort to save you and yours. But an actual strategy to stop the destruction of everything worth loving. If your answer feels as imperative as instinct, then you already know it’s long past time to fight.  www.deepgreenresistance.org

 

..during a severe heat -wave...

Mark Diesendorf: Associate Professor and Deputy Director of the Institute of Environmental Studies at the University of New South Wales, gave this interview  

http:/www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/latenightlive/strategies-for-addressing-climate-change/5239754

In the light of "Rabbott-the-Hun" saying that we are too energy expensive, he and his Non-Environment lackey "Ozone-Hole" Hunt will no doubt not read Diesendorf's book, particularly the part of the research that says Wind and Solar are now cheaper than gas and Coal and that Wind is Britain is half the price of electricity produced by nuclear and that we could have reliable full base load electricity by 2020. This research  makes their position on re-newables utterly stupid and ludicrous.They would prefer the insanity of advice from "The-Coot's-With-Queer-Ideas-from-a-Parallel-Universe" the IPA whose secret backers couldn't care less for the future of the planet, only for their personal profits.

This intellectually lazy and imagination bereft rabble  were well and truly "King-Hit" when the satirists Clarke and Dawe  in one of their 5 minute works, used solely only what "Rabbott-the Hun" had said publicly to make a hysterically funny (but sad) piece of satire. I have never seen anything as pointed. Needless to say the MSM didn't notice as they were busily repeating that "The Age of Entitlement" is over and we have entered "The Age of Personal Responsibility". Read: Code for reverse Robin Hood tactics.

Leigh Sales once again allowed an interview with "Rabbott-the-Hun" into a Liarbril slogan fest... she's turned 7:30 Report into a light-weight puff-piece and is a disgrace.

cheers Possums

Shane.

PS., copies of "The Horst Wessell" song will be available soon... get your orders in quickly as they're sure to go off with a bang...

Fair dinkum ...It's On...

 

Wombat Droppings: Fair Dinkum.. It’s On and Murdoch is off.

Shane with a mate.

Liarbril candidate for Greenway Jaymes Diaz has his 5 minutes of embarrassment and showcases the levels of talent the Liarbrils are blessed with.

And this is what the Ugly American, “Phone Hack” Murdoch wants to see in Parliament?

Julie “Death Stare” Bishop opines that Rudd is fantasizing about the campaign being waged by the Murdoch press. 
She neglected to say which parallel universe she was speaking from.

Will Taylor riposte to Murdoch merde.

Laborite Far North Ex-Premier Peter Beattie has called his wife’s bluff about killing him if he returns to politics and is standing for the Federal seat of Forde… dumped candidate Des Hardman may be planning to revise wife’s idea and implement it himself.

Scottt “The Drone” Morrisson sees no conflict of interest in taking a trip to Nauru funded by Toll Holdings who supply tents and equipment for asylum seeker habitation. Nah, no conflict of interest there…..just good-ol backscratching.

And as one wag reminded us, it was “The Drone” who thought up the “Where-The-Hell-Are-You” ad campaign (when he was allegedly assaulting his fellow workers) at Tourism Australia so it’s a bit hard to understand his vehemence about the boat arrivals when the indications are it was a very successful campaign.

Oohh.. they’re not tourists …they want to stay?  That’s different.

Tony “Rabbott” says, “Me too, Sir, me too!” and supports Labor’s plans for the Gonski education funding reforms. Opposition Education Minister Chris “The Whyne” Pyne, without batting an eyelid, agrees. 24 hours earlier he thought it was awful and dumb which just goes to show that there is no such thing as a certainty, knowledge, trustworthiness or commitment. "Rabbott" and Joe "Oh-What-a-Feeling" Hockey can't agree on whether they will trust Treasury to project budget figures. But this is not an indication that they're a rabble wanting a brawl.No..... this is the next government

Both “Rabbott” and “The Whyne” also neglected to say which parallel universe they were communicating from.

“The Whyne’s “ mouth is a study in itself ….I’ve noticed that the lower part of the lips and jaw operate in a vertical fashion very much like a ventriloquist’s dummy.

Prototype Cyberman perhaps? 

A rogues Gallery

 These are very scary people, they will build nothing.

Another Far North candidate for One Nation (read.. little notion) had this to say …

.....with that level of competence we can understand that she really didn’t even know what parallel universe she was still in!

McDonald’s, allegedly purveyors of  “food” have called in a favour from Vic (Tardis State, Where-All-Goes-Backward) Police to remove a protester from the roof of a proposed site for the diabetes inducing clinic. 14 Divvy Vans and 50 Rozza’s for one woman. 
That’s a lot of burgers and fries there, fellows!

Residents of Tecoma don’t want the diabetes inducing clinic opposite a Kindergarten and after Council knocked back the development the Greasy Arches took it off to VCAAT and got their way. 
Another wag has said, ”You have two possible decisions from VCAAT. Pro development and Ultra Pro-Development”!

Who set up VCAAT in this form?  Why our old mate, the Dorian Gray of Tardis State politics Jeff “Bully-Boy” Kennett of course!   
Another Kennett cock-up where the residents of Tecoma are the ones being “Jeffed”

after being served writs and could possibly lose their homes...... all over junk food!

Police Commissioner Lay assures that the 7 month investigation into Liarbril, Geoff Shaw and the alleged rorting of  Shaw's government car allowance is near final. 
Hmmm.... he must have provided lots and lots and lots of burgers and fries.

Pretend Premier, Dennis “Inutilus Rusticus” Napthine is getting all “hairy-chested” over the fate of his $8,000,000, 000.00 tunnel of faint hopes. 
But says “Rabbott” will support his rail proposal. “Rabbott” says, “Bullshit!”

Transurban doesn’t even want to know about it. There is no business case. There are no solid projections on traffic movement. 

Leigh Sales (ABC, 7:30) interviewing technique with Rudd was more like “Push-Polling” with poor manners. Oh, dear……oh dear.

Cheers Possums,… you want fries with that?

Shane

 Something nice to finish

Art Nouveau water jug and roses

Bec R.

The Australian Index

...seeing the cat belled.

 G'day Petals

Shane in the mix

We've been working on a new book of the last performance photographed... it was also meant to be entered into a competition as part of the Ballarat International Foto Biennale (17-8-13 to 15-9-13) but I have decided that as the end result was probably not really worth the effort....I'll give the comp a miss.... but here are a couple of shots from what should be at the printers tomorrow

Visually, this book is I think, one of the nicest I've put my name to and it will have the intermission video included as well.

I have presented some of the shots, like this one of Bec R, according to the idea that all theatre is a "conceit" that our willingness to participate in the conceit is where we derive our pleasure in  performance.

Bec Reeves, Triptych

Bec Reeves.

 It is interesting to note too, how the performance predicates the presentation of a book and its layout according to shot selection and story.

The rhythm of the performance is similar to the dynamic of the class and what you shoot to a great degree is informed by this.

It can often become more than the mere recording of an event. 

Olivia and Gus

 And there are some other things that have happened as a result of taking some people for classes in "Looking at Photographs"....

Cup and Egg

Light

Cafe Table

Wombat Droppings

Well, that’s been a week!

Starting off with Judith Sloane’s blog troll-ism ( re: degrees for child-care workers being only for “….dim-wits from second or third rate university’s”) being queried in public and her inability to effectively defend herself and further credibility as the “Q and A” audience groaned with disbelief at her assertion that ex PM “Little Johnny” Howard had suffered vilification equivalent to Julia Gillard!

View the compilation below to see how low the “right” have sunk in this country and do a “compare and contrast” Sloane’s oft repeated assertion.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tsECK-gRCGc

I searched for the site to read the article ..something called Catalepsy …or something… and was astounded by the comments supporting the honoury profs’ troll-isms. It was full of the most bilious malevolent, vitriolic and noxious rantings. And woe-be-tide any who dared disagree or criticize in this troll kingdom; they were immediately attacked and vilified. I could only visualise it all as a Hieronymus Bosch painting with the “…weeping and gnashing of teeth” of the damned and forgotten.  A very nasty place.

Then “Big Red”Gillard gets rolled and Kev’s back as PM!

Oi!

An immediate 16% jump in the for Labor only goes to show that it’s all about personality, not policy and how politically sophisticated the electorate isn’t.

But Kev did a couple of things: first he makes a joke of the Tow-back-the-Boats idea forcing the Liarbrils to attempt explaining their policy (they can’t) and secondly: he invites “Rabbott” Abbott to a series of policy debates that has the Liarbrils all running for cover in fright at having to publicly explain anything in more than a three word slogan.

Labor has finally “Belled the Cat” and the Liarbrils smell of funk!

Julie “Death-Stare” Bishop spits that Kev’s joke on the Boats is the most dreadful thing since the crucifixion which oddly enough is exactly the line played in Rupert “The Ugly American” ( He-Who–Lies-to-British-Parliamentary-Enquiries) Murdoch’s rag, The Australian… but this ‘aint news, they’ve been writing the script for three years!

Joe “Oh- What-a- Feeling” Hockey (opposition treasurer) ties himself up in knots again and looks suitably and unimaginatively Liarbril-ly stupid in interview, opining that Oz doesn’t have the population to support a “Very Fast Rail” system, which, being said immediately after a French fellow involved in this infrastructure in Europe thinks that Oz is ideally placed right now to benefit from this development, indicates where this country will head under the Liarbrils.

Sophie “Pit-Bull” Mirabella is verbally and conceptually mauled on “Q and A” by Tanya Plibersek, particularly after her “…total solution” to the refugee problem; Tony Windsor awarding “Pit-Bull” The-Most-Unpopular-Woman-in-Parliament prize was very funny; and given a straw poll Mrs Wombat and I held yesterday at lunch with 8 men and women, we did, too.  I wonder if she goes to a lonely home to cry herself to sleep.

And then there was this….  
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/video/2013/jul/01/michaelia-cash-labor-sisterhood-penny-wong

Oi, These coarse women….!!

Leigh Sales (7:30 Report, ABC), was positively ugly again, salivating over tragedy, confusing being a player with being a reporter. In feeding the parents of a young man who died installing Pink Insulation batts in a Government sponsored work scheme, prompting them every opportunity to swipe at Rudd, “Do you want to say more?” ….”What would you like to say to PM Rudd?” etc , Sales’ crass tabloid techniques again dilute the quality of ABC journalism.

A coroner’s report three years after the event? Timed to co-incide with an election?

Where the management and work practices of the business owners and the OH and S in Queensland barely rate a mention in reporting? Give us a break!

Sales’ puerile question: “Do you think you get better at acting with experience?” to Russell Crowe, “belled” that cat, too.

New minister in Rudd government, Ed Husic takes Oath of Office on the Koran: which releases a tsunami of mis-spelled Bogan vitriol on FB which not only shows a frightening lack of knowledge of the country’s constitution; the embarrassing level of cultural sensitivity and awareness current in Australia but also how the conservative’s attitude have legitimised these morons’ comments. 

Below is a pic of local federal member Catherine King (Minister, Regional Development) officially opening the local landmark, The Half Church with the owners Kathy and Marlene.

Catherine King opening local landmark

Cheers Possums…. and to finish with a feline metaphor… I hope the poll results are not a “Dead-Cat’s-Bounce”.

Shane.

The Australian Index

...seeing five minutes to midnight

G’day Possums,

Shane at the G

Mrs Wombat and I went to the “footy”at the “G”.

It was the Melbourne vs. St.Kilda game and we attended because A/ these are our respective childhood teams and B/ we hadn’t been to a game in a long while .... and not because we’re closet aficionados of sado-masochism.  

Melbourne ran around in circles a lot, picking out St.Kilda defense players in the Melbourne forward line to kick to with monotonous regularity. St.Kilda on the other hand, made three or four elegantly flowing forays forward to win by six goals which really seemed more like four points given their inability to “finish off’ in their own forward line.

Die-hard Melbourne supporters around us seemed pleased that their team had not “given up” and St.Kilda fans were philosophic: “Oh, well …it’s a win”. Which actually makes me wonder a little about the sado-masochistic bit!

Last century, when a child, going to the footy was a weekly family event always appearing as if we were about to embark on an extensive expedition with blankets for all, coats, beanies, scarves, gloves and baskets of food, fruit, cake and thermos’ of soup, coffee and tea all allocated for sustenance during the quarter, half and ¾ time breaks.

We always sat in the “stand” in generally the same place at “home” matches (there was no seat allocation) so there would be a coterie of acquaintances to cheer or commiserate with, mostly in my memory, to commiserate about the teams’ fortunes; and you always brought a footy so you could dash down to the oval and have a “kick-to-kick” with six to ten of never-met-before-but-like-minded boys of the two or three hundred littering the oval, who registered assent to your upraised footy at ½ time and after the match.

The footy, by-the-way was never, ever, stolen.

You sat in your seat, conversed with your neighbours, looked at the match and depending on how early you attended, saw the frost-bitten “thirds’ then “seconds” games preceding the main event at 1:30pm, ate, screamed, moaned, laughed and cried, stood up to stretch your legs and only went “walkies” to go the lavatory or the kick-to-kick and went home at dusky, misty 5:00pm for dinner or tea.

Oi! How things have changed!

For a start, there’s a $7,000 fine for going onto the oval.

This game started at 4:30pm and although a Saturday match it could have been Friday or Sunday, sometimes Monday and occasionally Thursday and at 7:50pm, 1:45pm, 2:10pm, or 1:10pm.

Misty winter dusk and night didn’t appear because the artificial lighting was so seamless as to make you think it was still the daylight of 2:00pm in autumn.

There was noise.

Not all of it that particular footy-crowd noise but a multiplicity of noises from television sets touting some sort of competition, another showing past matches and the “Big-Screen Scoreboard” flashing ads and the advertising on the fence rotating through its promiscuous promotions repertoire…. and there’s something happening on the ground but it’s not the match and there are people moving, not to seats, but back and forward with drinks (mostly alcoholic) and chips and ‘burgers and things and then the game starts.

And the people keep moving back and forward with their drinks and things and stop momentarily in the walkway to observe the play but obstruct your vision of it and the big screen lights up with a replay and as many football staff as players run onto the ground  like spokes to the hub with drinks for the players who mostly refuse their ministrations. At ½ time the ground is a spectacle of 150 (?) little boys playing twenty homogenised and pasteurised little games of football in cheek-by-jowl miniature fields whilst the advertising rotates and the televisions spruik and the people are still moving with back and forward with drinks (mostly alcoholic) and chips and ‘burgers and things and the game resumes.

Then it is over and the “The Saints Had Gone Marching In” and we leave in the dark, somewhat shell-shocked by the sensory overload and at the synthetic distractions deliberately offered and decide that the next match might just be sitting in the car parked at the fence watching the Buninyong “Snails” slide around the mud against the Daylesford “Dodos” on the Anzac Oval at 2:30pm with a thermos of soup and “bipping” the car-horn for every goal.

We later had dinner at a local pub and observed an extended family, possibly celebrating a grandparents’ anniversary, whose 4 children spent the night after the meal, disengaged, playing on their individual phones.

And some more rehearsal shots 

Ballet Theatre Australia where engagement is the order of the day.

Everyone's a photographer....!

Wombat Droppings

  

Leigh Sales (ABC 7:30 report interview w/ Craig Emerson) seems to think that uncouth interruption of an interviewee is forceful investigative journalism.

Nah.  Leigh, it’s just bad manners!

If your only continuing technique in interviewing is interruption, cutting off, ignoring the answer and being “Hissy-Fit” bullying because you’re not having them play your game I reckon you should pack it in or go and join Alan (Bondi) Jones at 2GB or become a “researcher” for the IPA!

If Sales is the best journo ABC has to offer at 7:30 then it’s in a very serious talent drought.

Sales then had the temerity, no, stupidity to ask Emerson why Labor couldn’t get its message out?

But then, it has been a week like that… “the Age” calling on Prime Minister Gillard to resign because we need a serious debate about policy…. ???  

I don’t know what’s stopping them except themselves!

Paul Kelly from Murdoch’s OZ pretending that they had nothing to do with trivial bullshit they report and that they would love to do some serious journalism on policy

Perhaps they could try phone-hacking the pollies mobiles for leads?

At least that’s a practice for which the Murdoch press is renowned.

Then there were these utter gems from Nicolle (where’s–my–brain) Flint, “If Rudd and Prime Minister Julia Gillard wish to continue to fight this election playing the man not the ball, by tackling the person not the policy, then let's assess Abbott on this basis. Let's ask ourselves what sort of person we want to govern our nation”?

 and the doughty Amanda (deport-em-all) Vanstone, “Mums and dads have seen this government pour public money into programs and then grossly mismanage them. Think pink batts and covered learning areas at schools - a program that went under the risible title of an ''education revolution''.

In Flint’s case black becomes white and “Rabbott’s" history of legislative and written misogyny are to be praised as virtues and recent policy is so thin on the ground there is nought to talk about.....

In Vanstone’s case she is as accurate in her information here as she was in her migration assessment of a Mr. Madafferi some years ago “…. it is alleged that relatives and associates of Madafferi donated up to $100,000 to the Liberal Party, and that four Liberal party politicians had discussed the visa case with Madafferi's supporters or Vanstone's office. In August 2008, Madafferi was arrested and charged, along with several of Australia's other suspected crime bosses (including Australian 'Ndrangheta boss Pasquale "Pat" Barbero) after Australian Federal Police made the world's biggest ecstasy haul, seizing drugs with a street value of $440 million.

During 2005 Vanstone became involved in some major controversies, one of them involving a defecting Chinese diplomat, Chen Yonglin, whilst others involved the deportation of Australian citizens and permanent residents who her department considered undesirable – the Cornelia Rau, Vivian Alvarez Solon, Stefan Nystrom and Robert Jovicic cases. An inquiry by the former Australian Federal Police commissioner Mick Palmer was severely critical of the Immigration Department's treatment of Cornelia Rau… poor Amanda… can’t take a trick and p.s…. is in my humble opinion an interviewer only slightly less talented than Leigh Sales.

 

Rabbott

And last but not least, from the prime suspect…."But as I said our focus is not on parliamentary games, our focus isn't on Canberra insider gossip. Our focus is on providing a strong alternative government."

Did “Rabbott” run that one past Peter Slipper or Craig Thompson or by running out of "the House" or the bullying tactics employed or only having "motherhood statements" not policy?

It’s five minutes to mid-night.

Cheers Petals,

Shane

and...Takes a Bow.

G’day Possums, 

....here we are at “Take a Bow” an interim exhibition of the Ballarat International Foto Biennale and a competition themed about performance photography.

It was held in the “Minerva Hall” a refurbished Victorian space in the Mechanics Institute in Sturt St, Ballarat.
Apart from the thirty finalists there were works by Ponch Hawkes, Ben Searcy and Jeff Busby.
These were interesting in their diversity of approach. Searcy's Rock and Roll images showed an intensity of a shared experience, whilst Busby's images from the MTC had a cool, almost disinterested observational distance to them. Ponch Hawkes' Circus Oz performers, on the other hand, as with Searcy, showed "the shared experience" not as an observer but "as one" with the performers. Particularly moving were the dense images of cuts, abrasions and rope burn marks on the performers' limbs. It was the humble "seeing", which gave these a gravitas, I felt, that in the hands of many photographers, would have only yelled, ".... look at what I've seen... look at my photographs of pain"!
I liked these pictures' sensibilite'. 

Eric making the place presentable.

Aldona cleaning and hanging works

Jeff with "Courier" 'tog.... (winning work on far right.)

Opening night

Opening night was a successful event and being a photographic one, a "Bus-men's Picnic"

some of the 'togs at the opening.....and the opening..

There were good performances from an actor, a dancer and a singer which gave the photography on the walls a deal more relevance because, I think, you tended to view the performances in a more visually aware mannner which then flowed through to responses about the exhibited images.
I found the finalists stuff a mixed bunch as it ranged from some very imaginative and skillful advertising type work right through to some pretty plain, and well, ordinary work.
Which in its own way is all to the good, as it did make you think about the subject, performance... and what it is. And how and why you photograph it.

I understand that some-one was interested in buying one of my images.... must chase that up, at least, to thank them for their interest......

Performers and comp winner Patrick Boland with judge Jeff Busby

Laura and Mariah sashaying around the Minerva

And on the weekends, yours truly, presented demos of performance photography to interested audience members with assistance from Aldona, Kristen David and Eric;
and hard work from Laura, Mariah, Jana and Rachel.
We couldn't link our camera to the "big screen", so when there were some interesting questions we would perambulate around the exhibits to clarify a point apropos the demo or a technical question; which was a good way to de-construct some of the finalists works and re-inforce the the point of the exhibition.

L and M

L and M

 The stage area of the Minerva is still being renovated but it had a really nice ambience in its old peeling painted brickwork.
 Lighting was from three 500W tungsten work lamps ( one rear OP, two DS,P) which gave pretty adequate light, albiet with a lot of blur in the images and due to the high ISO's used (3200 - 4000), plenty of noise.

Jana

Rachel

 Apparently Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain), performed on this stage as part of his world speaking tour in the C19th..... which might be a fun thing to replicate if there is a record of his raconteuring and with a costume dinner ( from a C19th menu ) all candelabra lit with tables of white Damask... Ballarat Society as a performance piece... a'la Crewdson
That would all have to be recorded on Full Plate in a hand tinted image.....
.....Oops, off on a tangent.

David shooting with his 17mm shift. Multiple images to be stitched later.

Nice young couple soon to be returning to her home country, America to be wed...Good Luck.

 ...and yours truly working with L and M.

Shot by Kristen Diemer

politics......
seems that "Big Bird" Baillieu (genus: Silvertail Incompetens) and his Liarbrils are "on-the-nose" in the Tardis State (Where All Goes Backwards) and are running 10% behind Labor... one can only speculate as to how much further down they will be after the fraudulent Geoff Shaws' obscene outburst and gesture in Parliament t'other day and Baillieu's pathetic "....it was inconclusive....." response.

Unplanning Minister, Matthew (What's a Green Wedge?) Guy has announced the resurrection of a Brumby Labor plan for the development to the City Square linking to Jolimont. Baillieu (ex architect) was scathing in his criticism of Brumby's plan and stopped it after $1,000,000 had been spent on feasibility, design etc....this sort of partisan-political waste is why pollies are so distrusted.

Under-age Indigenous offender ends up spending quite some time in solitary in a adult prison.... three Baillieu ministers invited to front and report to media, hide!
Another reason trust in our systems is eroded.
Postscript: There are at least three others in similar circumstances... ruling party is "mum" on it all.... 

Mary (Ya-wanna-have-a-go?) Wooldridge can only offer a imperious Canute like, "...we will not tolerate.....etc" as Tardis State Health Dept residential services continue to implode from lack of funding.

Peter (I-Know-Nuffin) Ryan, Police Minister still maintains he knows nuffin about what goes on in his office.... and with the Justice System in this State a shambles why should he?

Federal Labor's coolest head and "best-in-show" parliamentary performer, Penny Wong has been dropped to No2 on the Senate ticket in a backroom deal to promote a right-winger who would probably be rejected by the Liarbrils as being too extreme.... Labor's death-wish knows no end!
Postscript: No 1 has decided he's really a No2 and "for-the-good-of-the-party"  Wong is back-on-top ...though damage has still been done!

Tony (the Rabbit) Abbott is in a dark place ...unable to suffer more excoriating criticism of his stupid sexist asides, comments and rants, has nothing to say...he has no policies, so...nothing to say!
You get the feeling that now when the Liarbrils try to mount an attack " ...oooh look, three months in and there are no taxes from the miners.......failure, failure, failure..doom, doom, doom....", people are giggling and looking away in embarrassment at the lack of substance in their performance and demeanour.
It's almost as if a veil has been lifted and the public's awareness that governing must have substance and that honesty is again belatedly coming to the fore as a prime political quality.

Which leaves Craig T in a un-enviable place.

Which also begs the question .... who organised the Victorian Police to liaiase with their NSW rozzer colleagues and at the same time, "tip-off" the media to document the raid on Craigs place?
All when fraudster, Geoff Shaw is being shielded by Baillieu.
What's Shaw "got" on "Big Bird" apart from a one seat majority?
Hmmmmmm, sniff the Smell of the Tardis State!

...and I've just come away from the most appalling piece of propaganda on ABC 7:30 report. Chris Uhlmann and Leigh Sales delivered a researched set-piece, 15 minute "free-Kick" to the Liarbril Party via Clive (the biggest miner) Palmer. It was the most obvious unpaid propaganda that our "8 cents-a-day" has paid for since the IPA decided that climate change was a myth and that tobacco is good for you.... with standards like that, Sales and Uhlmann would be better suited to work with Alan Jones.

Cheers Petals,
Shane