Hey all, Rob here. Just a short post today: back in late November Tara and I took the bike out one morning to the Blue Mountains. You can read all about our first trip to the blue mountains to get an idea of their history and beauty. A colleague at work mentioned this beautiful place to visit in the mountains with an incredible view. Well fair enough, he wasn't joking!
First up, shoutout to the NSW Police: 10AM on the weekend and they do roadside breath tests - it was the first time I ever had one, but as a motorcycle rider, I'm totally in favour of them checking drivers to make sure they aren't drunk! Riding up to the mountains they had a little inspection set up, you pull off the road, talk into a device for a few seconds, and then the officer sends you on your way (sorry no pictures of this!)
So, to get to this rock we drive west about an hour, then turn down a little road (Hat Hill Road for the record) in the town of Blackheath. That road fairly quickly turns into a dirt road, without many signs or people.... And then you turn down an even less used dirt road and keep going for a bit, practicing your dirt riding skills, until you get to what you think is the parking to go to the lookout. A note here: Australia has some beautiful views, and often they do a great job with signage to get to the lookout, bathrooms, benches, picnic tables, etc. at the lookout. This one? Almost nothing! Which meant there wasn't anyone there (good for us!)
So, we get to the lookout named Pulpit Rock, jump off the bike, and start the 5 minute walk down to get to the lookout. Basically, you walk along a ridge, out to the centre of a deep valley. When you get to the end, almost a 360 degree view around you is valley, covered in trees and with streams running at the bottom. It's a absolutely fantastic view.
Now, this story would be complete right there, but of course, it didn't end. I was walking along on the top of the rock, about to take my next step, and Tara puts her arm across my chest and just says "Stop!" Sure enough, right in front, a snake had curled up right in front of us, and I was 1 or 2 steps away. It wasn't a very big snake, didn't look very scary or anything, but it sure was a good thing we stopped. He waited just a second, and then slithered away to the other side of the path. We didn't stop to take a picture, but here's one for reference:
Upon our return home, did a bit of googling, and found that what we saw was the infamous Australian Brown Snake - you know, the one that's super venomous and is the one that kills the most people every year in the country! From the wikipedia page: "This snake is considered the world's second most venomous land snake based." Good thing Tara was looking at the pathway, while I was enjoying the views! We can't be 100% sure that's what we saw, but after doing research on snake species in NSW, it's the closest one we can match to the one we saw.
Anyways, that's it from here. Coming up soon: blog posts on our trip to Auckland, our 12 day Christmas Cruise, and most recently, our first Australia Day in Canberra! One other point, while uploading the images I'd like to point out these were taken with an iPhone 5s - no DSLR, no expensive camera, just my telephone.... isn't technology incredible!!!
After Rob's post yesterday, he inspired me to try and keep the ball rolling with more footage from our 4 day trip to Melbourne. After PAX was finished and we were all geeked out, we decided to get some more variety of culture. The obvious choice was to visit the National Gallery of Victoria. We walked along the Southbank Promenade from our hotel to the gallery, stopping for a coffee out of the back of a VW van. I can honestly say I have never done that before. This is definitely a Melbourne thing; they have a huge coffee reputation.We'd been told the NGoV was a fantastic gallery to visit and there happened to be a special exhibit on that I was particularly interested in. I will admit that it was probably more my thing than Rob's, but in the end even he found a few things in the exhibition that interested him.
Coffee from a converted van
The special exhibit was the Jean Paul Gaultier retrospective. Not only have I always had a particular love of his work, but the exhibition also made really great use of multimedia, movement, and dramatics. The curators' approach to the exhibition worked so well with Gaultiers' fashion philosophy; that clothes are designed for and come to life with the personality of a model. So rather than just have a bunch of outfits hanging on mannequins, the curator worked with Gaultiers' inspiration of movement. They used face-mapped mannequins that looked to be living, breathing, talking, smiling people, rotating mannequins, even a catwalk fashion show, and a vibrant variety of exhibition spaces that really pushed the concepts of his defferent collections and themes.
Gaultier has had (and still has) a prestigious career that's spanned so many eras of fashion, and something striking about his work is that it seems both current and yet timeless. He's done couture work, ready-wear fashion, film and everything in between. Remember "The Fifth Element", and all those iconic costumes? Gaultier! Outfits for Madonna, Beyonce and Lady Gaga? Gaultier! His fashion is structural, textural, and so full of beautiful, refined detail. I really enjoyed the series of pieces that were inspired by body tissue (skeleton, muscles, circulatory system), and this one dress that looked like a leopard skin until you noticed that the whole skin was actually a mosaic made out of beads. Oh, and the corsets were all amazing, made out of a very wide variety of materials, shapes and sizes. I really enjoyed the exhibit, and my respect for Gaultier's bold approach to thoughtful, exploratory design has grown so much as a result.
Blood, Muscle, Bones
I have no idea how many beads this took.... but I'll guess it was too many
Punk-inspired
I loved the texture of the knit on this one
While the photos are great, the video below shows just how much the movement really added life to the exhibition.
After making our way through the Gaultier exhibition, we moved on to the rest of the National Gallery's permanent collection. One nice thing about the National Gallery is that admission is completely free (aside from the special exhibits) and Rob and I agreed that free admission is key. If I lived in Melbourne, I would visit the gallery often. Also, their main collection was expansive, ranging from impressionist to aboriginal, classical to modern, industrial design to video installations. They had a little bit of everything, something for everyone to enjoy and be struck by. There were definitely a few stand-outs for Rob and I.
For Rob, there was a piece by his favourite artist of all time, Alfred Sisley, called Haystacks at Moret - Morning Light. I'm not a huge impressionism fan, but I did like this one. Rob ends up spending so much time sitting and looking at the colours and pointalist-style brush strokes, and I'm usually the one breezing by a bit.
I, however, spent more than a few minutes looking at this piece called October by an artist I had never heard of before, Jules Bastien-Lepage. Painted at the artist's native village of Damvillers (northeast of Paris), the painting represents the annual potato harvest in a bleak autumn landscape. Inspired by the examples of the better known Millet and Courbet (two of my favourite artists from this period), he set out to paint rural life as he knew it, celebrating the dignity of the peasants but also its hardships. For me, I was struck by how this huge painting felt so cinematic. The focus of the "camera", the contrast in colour... I was absolutely spellbound
The piece that took the cake, however, was called Anguish by August Friedrich Albrecht Schenck (what a mouthful!). Schenck spent most of his career in France, specialising in painting landscapes and animal subjects, and it really shows in his attention to anatomical detail in this piece. For over 30 years he was a regular exhibitor at the Paric Salons, where Anguish was first shown in 1878. In Anguish, Schenck has given the sheep clearly recongisable human characteristics, such as determination and sorrow, so that the viewer immediately identifies with its predicament and emotions. Rob and I spent quite some time with this painting, loving at the little details, and the story being told through them.
Here are a few more images of pieces we liked, and also a video of our time in the gallery.
After the Gallery, Rob and I walked back to our hotel, stopping for lunch at one of the many restaurants along the Southbank Promenade. We got some lovely views of the city, ate our lunch, then hopped a cab to the airport to head back home to Sydney. Epic weekend, folks! And it was all topped off by a fantastic flight back to Sydney, landing with the sunset.
Hey all, Rob here. First off, some apologies; we’ve been pretty behind on
updating the blog – not that there haven’t been enough adventures, we just
haven’t taken the time to sit down and write about them.Now, being home all weekend with a
respiratory infection, what a better time to catch up on the past few months
‘down under’.
If you know me, you know I’m a nerd.... or geek.... or whatever
you want to call it.So is Tara
(admittedly to a lesser extent).But
that means I do love video games, board games, and most things related.What’s the best place to go to nerd out with
others?PAX!In case you haven’t heard of it, the Penny
Arcade Expo (PAX) was created about 10 years ago by some guys who make
comics...about video games.
No really,
check them out over at Penny Arcade.Anyways, I’ve been a fan for years, made it to PAX East in Boston in
2013, and decided that this would be a perfect year to go to PAX Australia,
down in Melbourne.So one Thursday
(October 29th to be precise), we jumped on a plane after work, and flew down
to Melbourne (which I quickly discovered is pronounced Mel-bun.... odd).
Melbourne is arguable the best city in Australia, an
argument that has raged for over a hundred years, and continues to this
day.Although it doesn’t have the
beautiful beaches of Sydney, and is generally a little bit colder, it does have
a bit more of a European flair with cool cafes, restaurants, and bars, all
hidden down back alleys.We discovered
this while on our first night, after checking in, and randomly finding some
cool bar in the CBD area, and then wandering upstairs to a ‘pop-up’ bar, influenced
by a snowboarding base in Japan.This
place was decorated with photos of people, but with taxidermied animal heads
instead of people heads.And one of the
drinks on the menu was the ‘red-cup special’, with a concoction that was so
secret nobody could know.It was all a
bit hipster, but pretty cool.
First thing Friday morning, wanted to hit the floor nice and
early.PAX is always crowded with
people, and this was no exception, but there’s always tons to do.Since it’s been a few months since returning,
i’ve forgotten some of the events we attended, but here’s a rundown of the key
things that I remember from the three days;
1)Mike and
Jerry Q and A – the guys who write penny arcade do a Q and A session to answer
burning questions from fans.It’s always
funny, and a good way to get a better feel for them and how they work.We went to both of them! Yes, there were a lot of people there, and seats weren't always great, but still a lot of fun.
2)Live
drawing – this was a 90 minute panel where the penny arcade guys try a live
coming on stage, while answering even more questions.I think Tara liked watching the process of
creating the comic strip more than the jokes, but it was also super fun!
3)The
Omegathon! – now this was the first time that I had seen the omegathon live,
and it didn’t disappoint.Basically,
it’s like the Olympic games of geeks – a group of random people are selected from
those who buy tickets to the event, and then a number of tournaments are held
for different games to see who is the best!We saw round 4 (playing the classic board game Operation), and the final
game, Combat on Atari!
4)Exhibition
area – this was generally overcrowded, with huge lineups for games and
demos.I don’t ever understand this –
just wait for the games to come out eventually and give them a try...One thing that was huge, was League of
Legends – they had teams competing live on stage, with huge screens and
commentators.They’ve really made it
feel like a sports game, watching people play video games.I’ve missed out completely on the MOBA type
games (League, DOTA, etc.), but I could see myself really getting into it if I
invested the time.
5)Indie
Games – this on the other hand was super cool.There were a ton of playable indie games, mainly from local
developers.Tara spent a bunch of time
talking to the developers, which must be cool to talk from one game designer to
another.Some of the standout games
included
a.Expand -
http://expandgame.com/ - Tara especially liked this one, there was a strong
emphasis on simple gameplay but a music score that matched the mood on the
screen.
b.Merchants
& Mercenaries (https://www.facebook.com/merchantsandmercenaries) – this was
a really fun game (for me anyways) – it was a bit like settlers of catan, but
more complex.The cool thing was that
you could play on almost any device, and immediately had me thinking about
complex strategies.I gave some feedback
to the developer – it’s a really small group of people working on it, and the
game isn’t actually out yet, but hopefully they can continue to polish and
release it some day!
c.Lost Sea
(http://www.lostseagame.com/) – this one was also fun – you’re shipwrecked on
an island, and you need to collect resources, crew members, equipment, etc. To
build back a boat and escape.It was
enjoyable, and the graphics were simple and fun – reminded me of Kingdom of
Keflings.It’s scheduled to come out on
PS4 in 2015, and I plan to pick it up when it comes out!
d.Armed
& Gelatinous (http://playinfluent.com/2014/08/armed-and-gelatinous/) – so
this was my favourite – it’s super fast paced, tons of stuff happening on-screen,
and perfect for playing with lots of friends.Apparently the guys made it in a few days as a coding competition, but
it was just brilliant.Hopefully it gets
made into a full game!
e.Freedom
Fall (http://www.freedomfall.com/) – I don’t know much about this, but Tara
liked it – maybe she’ll edit the blog with what she really enjoyed about the
game!
6)Bioware
panel – we spent an hour listening to the team behind Dragon Age Inquisition
talk about the game, the process behind making it, what influenced them,
etc.Before the panel, I wasn’t too
excited about the game.After, I thought
it would be pretty cool to give it a shot.Now (January), i’ve put 90+ hours into the game, finished it once, and
can’t wait for some DLC to come out to have an excuse to play it again... it’s
just that good.
7)Gearbox
panel – I’m not a huge gearbox fan – I loved Homeworld back in the day, and it
was interesting to see more about the HD remake they are doing.I never got into borderlands, but I know
people who really enjoy it.I’ve moved
on from my FPS days, but the art style is cool, and the RPG elements seem to
make it more interesting.They gave away
copies of tales from the borderlands which was cool, and they introduced their
new free to play game, Battleborn, which looks pretty cool (and you can’t beat
free right!)
8)Live
RPG++ - this was pretty cool as well – I’ve never really been one to play role
playing games – tried it a couple times in high school but never got into
it.Probably why I was never a fan of
RPG video games.This was cool though –
4 guys on stage playing an RPG game with 200+ people in the room, laughing
along with the story – it was about half standup comedy and half role playing,
since the characters were a bit silly, but it was quite fun.
9)Classic
Gaming – this was a place we stopped at least once per day.They had soooo many consoles here – from your
common ones (NES, SNES, Sega Master, Sega Genesis), to the add-ons(Sega CD and 32X notably), handhelds
(including the Sega Game Gear and Nomads) to the less common ones that Tara had
never even heard of (Panasonic 3DO, Atari Jaguar), and really obscure ones that
even I knew little about (Amstrad GX4000 or ZX Spectrum anyone?)It was great to try out these old consoles
for the first time, or for a returning time – Road Rash was an absolute
favourite on the 3DO and really took me back!
10) Concerts –
Friday evening, there was a concert by Paul and Storm, and Tripod and the
Melbourne Symphone Orchestra – while they don’t play video game music, most of
the songs were inspired by geek culture and were really funny.Great concerts.Saturday we saw 7 Bit Hero (and they were
ok), and Freezepop (and I was underwhelmed).We were exhausted at this point and just called it a night before MC
Frontalot came on.
11)D&D –
so this was a big step for me – i’ve never played Dungeons and Dragons – was
always told it was evil and super dangerous.And i’m sure there are lots of people who get way obsessed by it and
take it too far.But for my first game,
it was really fun.Wizards of the Coast
had set up an area where you live played – with toy swords and actors who
played the minotaur and goblin that you were trying to beat.There was even a treasure chest and giant
inflatable d20 dice.Tara and I and two
other people gave it a try, and it was fun.After about 10 minutes, we sat down at a table, and continued to play –
learning about rolling for initiative, looking for traps, moving our
characters, and role playing.It was
fun!At the end we killed all the bad
guys, saved the person who had been captured, and were victorious!I’ve purchased the D&D 5th edition
starter set, and am going to try and set up a game in the coming weeks/months
to try it out more!
12)Other
tabletop games – there’s an enormous section where you can sign out board games
and play them – new games, old games, whatever.The nice thing is that there are signs you can put up when you’re
looking for people to join you and play, or if you need someone to help teach
you the game.We played a game called
Wok Star – like most of our
favourite games it was co-operative, as a family working together to complete
dishes in a restaurant.You do that by
using dice rolled to add ingredients to a wok, whenever they’re close to
running out.You can share your dice
with others, to help them out, or you can be greedy and keep them for yourself
(but then the whole team does worse).... We played it with two strangers, which
was really fun, and kind of shows the culture of PAX – most everyone is super
friendly, and it’s a great place to meet new people!
The other fun thing about the location of PAX was that it
was right on the south bank, so it was close to lots of interesting
restaurants.Over the weekend we tried out
most of them, including lunch where we shared a whole grilled fish (and Tara
tried eating the eye!).The Bavarian
Bier Cafe is always great, and we had a couple beers there one day.But the first day dinner was at the Meat
Market (http://www.meatmarketsouthwharf.com.au/) which was pretty tasty before
going back for the concerts.
I’ll do a separate entry for the evening of the last day of
PAX (where we went to a local gaming place that lent out board games, and was
super fun), and our last day in Melbourne (where we explored the art gallery
and a special exhibit there).
