What do you collect: a Queensland Museum project

‘What do you collect?’ is a project started by the Queensland Museum as part of their 150^th birthday celebrations. The idea is to ‘collect collections’ from people all over Queensland and work with community to co-curate the results into an exhibition.

The Museum will then be delivering a series of pop-up Museum events in different parts of the state, I believe, working at halls and museums and with local communities who hopefully have one or two people featured in the project themselves.

 If you want to become involved you can submit a video, a photo or a story online. Or you can just check out what other people have submitted. Collections range from the more predictable – old cameras, hats and surfboards - to the unexpected – butter wrappers, taps and My Little Pony tattoos (you wouldn’t believe you collects those).

Personally, I collect stamps. Not avidly and not for any reasons other than ‘I like stamps’. But I’m thinking that maybe I should submit my collection. After all, there isn’t a stamp collector mentioned as yet …

The May Day long weekend

I love long weekends. So much better than ordinary ones because there is extra time to do all the things you want to do: one day for having fun, one day to relax and one day to catch up on life's jobs.

This long weekend, however, I had plans to do very little to make up for a recent hectic run of fabulous weekends. For instance, Saturday, all I have to show for Saturday was this photo of a cake I made. It doesn't look very exciting but it's a German recipe by ex-boss gave me, it was simple and it's delicious. As usual I got too impatient to eat it to bother with icing.

On Sunday Chuck and I headed out to Cleveland to enjoy the sunshine on Moreton Bay. There were markets on, a mix of farmers and craft and it was an absolutely perfect day to be by the sea.

 At the street markets.

 

 Looking out over Moreton Bay to Stradbroke.

Brunch under the lighthouse. 

After Cleveland we headed a little way north to the mouth of the Brisbane River to visit Fort Lytton. I had never heard of Fort Lytton until a couple of weeks ago when Chuck mentioned it.

Fort Lytton is a small collection of installations, guns and museums that looks out over the mouth of the river towards the airport. Built in 1881, during WWI and WWII it was a key defensive base for both sea and air attacks on Brisbane, a major training facility and played a significant part in the South Pacific Campaigns as a signal relay station.

The site is more extensive then you might imagine and you are free to walk around the museums and guns as much as you wish. Only open on Sundays, it is looked after by ex-military men who greet you, take you on tours around the site and are very happy to chat about the Fort and its role in Queensland's military history. You can bring a picnic and fire up one of the BBQs. Even if you're not into military history, it's a lovely spot to spend a beautiful Queensland Sunday.

Even as far back as the 1890s Brisbane residents would travel to Lytton to see the spectacular military parades and ceremonies performed for the public. Even today, on special occasions Fort Lytton puts on its ceremonial garb and the public are invited to watch re-enactments, including the firing of the large 64-pounder guns out into the mouth of the Brisbane River. On the upcoming Queen's Jubilee long weekend, on both Saturday and Sunday there will be re-enactments of military battles, starting with the Romans and culminating in the firing of the guns. We were told it's a great family day out.

 The 'disappearing gun'. The recoil would make it disappear into it's undercover shelter.

 

 Navigation for the disappearing gun.

Sunday night was of course the start of MasterChef 2012, a near sacred night in our house. I'm almost more excited that I one of my favourite blogs, It Lacks Acidity, is now up and running again, with it's daily dose of MasterChef sarcasm and vitriol.

A novel approach to font

Llama Font - say it in llama. You can type in whatever you want and it will be 'translated' into llama.

So here is our blog title.

This font reminds me of years past when my friends and I played trivia every Monday night and our standard team name was 'The Imperial Llamas'.

Mercedes Benz Fashion Week 2012

This 5 day festival of Australian fashion ends today – so I may be re-blogging any updates over the weekend. Held in Sydney, hosted by Mercedes Benz and all over twitter – provided you follow the right people. In fact, you can check out what people are saying about the festival on twitter.

I intended to really look through all the runway photos but my internet is so depressingly slow, it forces me to compromise. Needless to say I loved every look at Alice McCall. Images courtesy of Stylehunter.

I gave my internet a heart attack trying to load Zimmerman - courtesy of Harpers Bazaar Australia.

 

Twitter was going nuts for the 'Marvel Comics influence' beind the opening salvo from Romance Was Born. Photos from Vogue and Marie Claire.

AJE, thanks to Vogue.

 

I didn't think models were supposed to smile?  At Kooey.

Jayson Brunsdon's Boudoir Chic, from Vogue Australia.

Local designer Gail Sorronda. Love the colours, hate the shoes.

 

Lace at Collette Dinnigan.

And I fell a little in love with the entire Lisa Ho collection as well.

 

Check out the official MBFWA website, or to be honest I find Vogue, Harpers and Marie Claire a bit more up-to-date, though when the photo galleries get uploaded to the official site they're great! 

You can also appreciate a bit of street style thanks to Vogue and well-known street photographer Candice Lake, or else Style.com are hosting street style snapped by Tommy Ton and they've titled it 'Down Under Divas'.

 Photo taken by Candice Lake for Vogue Australia.

Earworm time!

Oh my god, does anyone else have this song stuck in their head on a loop?? Or is it just me...

Five for Friday no.17

14 couples who got married at NYC City Hall. What I love about this is the diversity of couple but of course, they all look so very happy.

Later note: this slideshow gets updated every so often with new couples. All of them are beautiful and happy. If I were to get married - this would be the way!

Ok, here's a random one: Austrian Alpacas shaved for the spring. Cute and amusing!

Undress Brisbane have launched their new website. Undress Brisbane is all about sustainable fashion and building awareness amongst designers and consumers.

The Design Museum in London opened a Christian Louboutin 20 year retrospective on Tuesday. One of those times I REALLY wish I still lived in London so I could go!

Ty-pug-raphy. Yeah. Full alphabet here.

Movie reviews: The King of Devil's Island and The Avengers

So far this week I've gone to the local cinema twice. First for a preview screening of The King of Devil's Island, a gritty Norwegian film and second for The Avengers, which we all know is the latest Marvel comics installment. The two films could not have been more different, but I highly recommend going to see both.

First off, The King of Devil's Island. This film, released in Norway far back in 2010, is set in 1915 and tells the true story of events on the island of Bastoy which housed a centre for 'mal-adjusted boys'. Boys and housemasters alike are trapped on this gods-forsaken place as the boys aged between 5 and 19 receive 'treatment' as an alternative to prison. The Governor, played to righteous stoic perfection by Stellen Saarsgard, seems to really believe that what is done on Bastoy can bring out the 'honourable, noble, useful Christian' inside each supposed delinquent.



The simmering tensions between boys and housemasters provides most of the dramatic tension as the harsh treatment and abuses pile up. Reviews I have read about this film present it as 'dour', 'grim' and 'bleak', but having watched the trailer before the film that was just what I expected, so I had the luxury of sitting back and just enjoying what is really an excellent film.

So - The Avengers! I won't waste too much finger-energy on this one. Chances are you've seen it or are going to anyway. Point is: Marvel comic action movie with hot super-heroes defeating less-attractive evil guys and destroying large amounts of city in the mean time. Big CGI, big evil guys, big green man whose pants seem to stretch even if his shirt doesn't (does this plot-hole bother no-one else?) and a whole lot of entertainment. Oh, yeah, and Robert Downey Jnr get 90% of the good lines. But that was also expected. Go see it with a group of friends, it's a fun night out.