Oz Glot » Photos

Tah-Ron-Gah!

Orin — Tue, 06 Jun 2006 10:08:17 +0000

Wowza! It still rained! And I still went! Despite having no hat, no umbrella, and only a leather coat! How’s that for determination? Still got up at 9:30, walked all the way there to the Circular Quay (which, by the way, isn’t circular) and missed my ferry the first time, had some awful prawn fried rice and a generic muffin… but hey! Zoo! I’m leaving tomorrow, in… what, 17 hours? Good lord. I better stock up on my last meat pies, and start getting used to driving on the right again. Without ado, or much of it about nothing anyways, here’s the spoils of the day:

A Naturewalk in Airlie

Orin — Tue, 30 May 2006 00:54:44 +0000

A naturewalk in Airlie, let me say, takes awhile. You’ve go to get past the houses, first of all. And there seem to be a lot. Just follow that creek, past the construction noises, and eventually you’ll end up in rainforest.

Urbex: Awesome

Orin — Thu, 04 May 2006 09:45:04 +0000

…just as I knew it would be. Yesterday, after I wrote about how I might be leaving soon, I decided to make good on my time left here. I went through some disused railyards near Spencer street where I live, then had to cross the very-used railyards to get across.

I needed to get to a collection of bridges over a small river where I thought there might be drains. No such luck. Moral: don’t trust satellite pictures. But I continued downstream until I found where it met the larger Yarra river. There I found an inexplicably undeveloped wharf, right near the high-rises of Melbourne’s Docklands.

The next day I decided to go a little deeper down the rabbit hole. I went down to the Yarra river specifaically to look for drains. And I found one. Right away. Big one, too, and well visited. Seems the Cave Clan throws its annual award ceremonies down here. The place is called “Cafe le Chambre.” Which of course, means “Chamber Cafe,” in high-school french.

Altogether, a pretty interesting two days. And I’m just gettin’ started.

One Year of Flickr

Orin — Sun, 23 Apr 2006 09:04:42 +0000

Wow! I realized today that I’ve been using Flickr for a whole year now, as of April 18th. I’m established. I’ve got 631 photos. I’ve come a long way since that first photo. That counts for something.

I just got done uploading a new batch from over the Easter weekend. A selection:

Far and Away

Orin — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 13:11:00 +0000

We have pictures. Many, many pictures.



These are all from the road trip. It was one hell of a week, but I didn’t actually make that many sales. It’s a problem… or a learning experience, as I’m starting to say. Hope will hold me for the moment.

DÃ©rive, Melbourne Photos

Orin — Mon, 13 Feb 2006 08:22:14 +0000

One of my favorite concepts to explore, especially while travelling, is dÃ©rive. It’s the idea that you can experience a place better exploring it by whim, impulse, and curiousity. It’s urban zen.Â Â

Sadie Plant, the situationist, wrote:

“to dÃ©rive was to notice the way in which certain areas, streets, or buildings resonate with states of mind, inclinations, and desires, and to seek out reasons for movement other than those for which an environment was designed. It was very much a matter of using an environment for one’s own ends, seeking not only the marvellous beloved by surrealism but bringing an inverted perspective to bear on the entirety of the spectacular world.”

I was taught this fascinating concept by a very personally influential individual: Aaron Ximm. He goes by the alias Quiet American, and his hobby is listening to things. Check the notes of “Circumlocution” on (one of my favorite ambient albums) Vox Americana to understand his unique approach.

My approach, since my beloved bionic microphones are out of service, has been to wander the city armed with a fickle but lucky camera. Now I am not a photographer—but I do watch carefully. And I’ve got a Flickr pro account. That, my experience has been, is enough to compensate.

Sydney Pictures, Melbourne Impressions

Orin — Mon, 06 Feb 2006 09:52:26 +0000

Lord—they’re finally posted. It took me about two hours to get these all prepared, but it was fun re-living the experience. Not that I’d spend this much time again. I think it’d be plenty more coducive to getting a job if I were able to go out and look for one. Believe it or not my first day in Melbourne I did just that… but I didn’t realize that almost everything but for Hungry Jack’s (read: Burger King) and the McCafes (read: McDonalds’, just McDonalds’) were closed.

Melbourne isn’t quite what I expected either. People told me it had a more European feel because of all the Greeks and Italians. While true, it’s more like Edinburgh in Scotland or *ahem* certain parts of Eastern Europe. But it redeemed itself yesterday with a tiny bar in a stinky back alley where there was an exceptionally talented band playing open-air, just right between the buildings. And today it was much more presentable with people actually walking in the streets and businesses being open.

I’ve decided that I’m gonna have to find a more permanent place before I can start posting regularly again. Until then, these will have to do:

Birthday Day!

Orin — Tue, 13 Dec 2005 19:41:39 +0000

Today’s my birthday! Hiphip (hooray!) Most of you already knew that though—either because you’ve known me for years or because you just read the title. I wanted to announce the event (cause I’m pretty pleased about it), and to share these two pictures I took of its events:
	Now this here is a chunk of meat. I enjoy lamb—although discovered that just today. This is a before shot, obviously, to show that it is indeed a proud Australian ovine. Wish I had an after shot to give but it seems the poor thing was just devoured too wholeheartedly. Delicious—with little pepper spices and marinate and… well, no use teasing you. I’ve heard that having a nice Australian leg-o-lamb is practically the law on the national holiday (which shall go unnamed) but I’m sure there’s a meat house or two that’ll sell it whenever I like. Something else to look forward to.
Yes, this is me. Yes, I’m blowing out the candles. No, I’m not trying to prove that it’s my birthday. The picture’s just topical. If you would, note the skillfully drizzled white chocolate showing the numerals 22, the scrumptious choc-a-nutty-poke cake, the beloved orange stripey shirt… If that’s not my favorite shirt in the world, well then I swear I’m Canadian. That’s the shirt I’ll wear on the plane, the shirt I’ll be wearing when I step onto foreign soil for the first time, the shirt I’ll (probably) fall asleep in the first night because of jet-lag. I love that shirt. Where was I? Oh yes…
Hope you’ve enjoyed the birthday pictures. More when I get my passport.

Encouraging Tourism

Orin — Sun, 13 Nov 2005 07:51:12 +0000

The Australian approach: let people take as many pictures as they can of your beautiful country, then show them to other people. Repeat. Now that’s tourism.

There are so many good travel photos on flickr and their associated groups I couldn’t possibly link them all.