…so gay, in my lameness I couldn’t resist getting one of these shirts. K07.

Brown and pooey, the anuz-zune.

Its my year! KEVIN 07

Went down to Melbourne for a break over the weekend with Haline. Lots of relaxation and inspiration was had with good friends Hong and Vy and a surprise visit to Tin & Ed in their funky studio space. There was a surprise stay at the Peninsula Hot Springs, a trip through the Ashcombe Maze, some wine tasting at the Red Hill Estates and a bunch of exhibitions that included Pixar at ACMI, Guggenheim at the National Gallery of Victoria and Karin Catt FAMOUS at the State Library of Victoria. There was also a little shopping done too, hehe.

Haline got selected to attend a pre Cut & Paste battle. Play, the Sydney company running the Sydney leg of this event shares the same studio space as Frost* so it was awkward walking in there and disturbing Vince Frost while he was in a meeting haha.

Haline was up against another guy, and being the first ones to go, made it a bit nerve wracking. They were given the theme “childhood” beforehand, so they could prepare. They could bring anything to photograph or stuff to draw with plus and computer related gear but nothing else. Time limit was 15 minutes.

Haline opted to draw first and take a photo of the drawing to get it into the computer, she ran out of time so didn’t quite finish. The other guy did a typographic piece with a floral treatment. It was weird, because everybody who used the iMac drew something first, while the laptop users drew straight into the computer. There were 6 people there for this round.

I wouldn’t mind going to see the finals, I like seeing people create stuff on the fly.

I half expected to see people I know there from the “design community”, but the pre competition is spread over 4 days so not likely, but, we did run into Matt and Morten, Matt is a good friend of Haline’s and Morten is Haline’s brother childhood friend, very freaky. Matt was up against Morten and we stuck around to watch. Both are super talented artists in their own right. It was cool seeing them draw. Matt drew straight onto the computer via his Wacom tablet, Morten sketched then took a photo of his work. We all went out for thai food after.

Some pics here.

Ticket machine tin man.

Universe

The eternal essence of rabbit, via Visual Complexity.

Very cool use of the multi-touch screen technology for the Surface table.

Looking down on you from inside the old car.

James Morrison and the “sydney choir”, the show was so so, James is like an electric eel on stage, often being annoyingly drowned out by the audience singing over his raspy voice.

Hopefully the start of a new photo series, photographing the men and women who risk* their lives to stop cars for children, morning and afternoon, yes, the lollipopeople.

*over dramatic

Janolan caves and the Blue Mountains are spectacular, one sinking below the depths of crust while the other thrusts above it. Last time I was at the Blue Mountains was for an excursion in primary school. Its less scary now.

Everyone is getting married! Maurice and VJ, Leo and Denise. Next will be baby showers.

Haline and I went to see John Mayer last week, supporting him was pint sized rocker Ben Kweller, who we also liked so two for the price of one. I got to go see the early sound check, which was cool, he sang two songs and played his guitar a bit. Some images here. View mytube video here