New South Wales - Tumblr Posts
I have attached pictures of the whole article for more info on the story.
Wentworth Falls in Blue Mountains, New South Wales, Australia
Imagine living in an American suburb. I grew up in the suburbs and it was great, everything was close by, parks and beaches, great trains if you did want to go to the city / far away suburbs.
(I am being a little biased, we still have some stroads / car-centrism and the trains will just stop if something goes wrong so nobody likes Transport NSW, but at least you can plan on then being reliable for everyday commuting / public transportation.)
The suburbs kinda suck, and you should stop moving there when you have kids. Kids being able to go places is actually really good for their development and there are no shops or 3rd places in the Suburbs. Just think, if you had a kid would you rather live in a cool canopied historic streetcar suburb with a corner store down the street and an ice cream place a few blocks away or would you want to live on a hot miserable suburb where you can't walk anywhere but other people's houses
keykodesign
I just love these purple Jacarandas💜💜💜
Grafton, New South Wales, Australia
Miraculous milky way views form the roof of Australia at Charlotte Pass.
BUSH CHRISTMAS (Dir: Ralph Smart, 1947).
Set during the Christmas holidays in the small valley community of Mara Mara, Bush Christmas follows the adventures of five children: brothers John (Morris Unicomb) and Snow (Nicky Yardley), their big sister Helen (Helen Grieve), English evacuee Michael (Michael Yardley) and friend Nesa (Nesa Saunders). After some horses are stolen from their ranch home, the kids decide to take the law into their own hands and set out into the Australian bush in order to track down the thieves and rescue the precious animals.
Bush Christmas was one of the first feature films from Rank Organisation's Children's Entertainment Film unit; a department which would eventually evolve into the Children's Film Foundation (CFF).
Although low budget, it feels significantly more polished than the usual, appealingly amateur, CFF output. Director Ralph Smart keeps the action moving at a steady pace while cinematographer George Heath captures the locations beautifully. Filmed in the Blue Mountains of New South Wales, the location photography is a definite plus and lends an atmosphere unique in family movies of the era.
Chips Rafferty, then Australia's biggest homegrown movie star, hams it up nicely as Long Bill, the leader of the horse thieves. John Fernside and Stan Tolhurst are his cohorts, alternating some broad comedy with the required menace, as they are outwitted every step of the way by the kids.
Performances from the youngsters, none of whom had significant acting careers as adults, are appealing and natural. Nesa, the only indigenous lad, is slightly stereotyped, perhaps to be expected considering the era in which the movie was made. However, I feel the stereotyping is more naive than negative; with his knowledge of bush crafts he is shown to be the most intelligent and resourceful of the gang.
Set during the Australian summer, Bush Christmas is not especially festive for western audiences and is suitable viewing all year round. It is a modest little movie, but an engaging one at that. Perhaps a mite dated, but with enough comedy and action as to make it a worthwhile watch, especially for those looking for an alternative to modern family fare.
For a longer, more in-depth review of BUSH CHRISTMAS visit my blog JINGLE BONES MOVIE TIME! Link below.
Monte Cristo Homestead located in Junee, New South Wales, Australia. It is claimed to be Australia’s most haunted house, with reports of ghostly figures, strange lights, invisible forcefields, phantom...
Wentworth Falls in Blue Mountains, New South Wales, Australia
I went to Sydney for Alphonse Mucha
by: Icie
One thing to know about me, I was an interior design major back in my home country. I absolutely sucked at it, but I fell in love with Art History. In that minor, our professors taught us about different art styles through the ages and bit by bit I saw the progress of art through the ages. I loved the OG Gothic Style, Romanesque, was disillusioned with Baroque and Rococo from the west... It was too Western focused and it didn't interest me as much (because I was an Asian kid) until we got towards the end of the 19th century where the grandparents of weebs (of which I am a part of) hailed from and Japonisme was a thing. Japonisme inspired so much beautiful art and it triggered a domino effect that ultimately led to Art Nouveau where Alphonse Mucha was a main character.
This was it. My favourite art style! I can never go back to loving other art styles after discovering Art Nouveau. It spoke to me about how feminine it was and it awakened something from my mostly masculine soul. I wanted to see more of these beautiful girls surrounded by flowers and stars, wearing kimono-inspired clothes in pretty pastels. The macaroni hair only added to the romanticism of it all. This is what love is like, but in art form!
Fast forward to 2024, The Mucha Foundation collaborated with the Art Gallery of New South Wales to host over 200 of this master's works which was "the most comprehensive exhibition ever seen in Australia of this visionary artist's work". I had to see it. I needed to see it! I am a big fan of Mucha and Art Nouveau, and one of my dreams was to go to Paris, Brussels, and Prague for all of the beautiful swirly-whirlies. Being a Brisbanite, I was exited. Please come to my city! Please, please, please! But AGNSW said "sorry, it's exclusive to Sydney."
Dammit. It's off to Sydney I go. I donned my Sailor Moon dress, packed my bag for a 3 day trip with my partner just so I could see this legend's works and boy, I was not disappointed. I learned to love Mucha and his works even more. We landed in Sydney, didn't check in our hotel, and went straight to the main quest:
Outside, they had this big banner of Mucha's name. Inside was this glorious area that showcased Summer (left) and Rose (right). Oh wait, the exhibit is next door. So we went to the more modern building, down two floors, bought tickets, and enjoyed the art.
In the newer building next door, I was treated to pre-art nouveau Mucha. We learned about what his life was like before his popularity. He designed some clothes for a theatre, hung out with everyone's buddy Paul Gaugin, Ludek Marold and Annah the Javanese. The tour guide said, "if he wasn't a painter, he would've been a great photographer".
Then we were treated to the meat of the exhibit: the Sarah Bernhardt stuff, his lithographs, his sketches, but what struck me most were his concept art to reality. (Excuse my phone's shadow. For some reason, AGNSW decided to put these works on a 45° angle under bright lights. The girl beside me even said "fucking glare!" and I wholeheartedly agreed.)
We were treated to so many wonderful works and I cried when I saw parts of Le Pater. I'm an atheist but this made me think that maybe there is a god. Maybe. But still, beautiful artwork that left me speechless.
I got to stand next to my favourite work of his: White Star. Joy!
At the end of the exhibit, the tour guide talked about how Mucha who was somewhat influenced by Japan, now influenced Japan. Now we come full circle with anime and manga characters depicted in art nouveau styled paintings and posters. Oh boy, we had our Lord Yoshitaka Amano's works in the gallery as well. I was so lucky to see works of my two favourite artists in one day!
It was almost 2PM by the time we finished the tour. We spent at least 4 hours in the gallery after landing just because I fangirled and was willing to spend money on Mucha. Yeah, I bought stuff. A reproduction of Alphonse Mucha's original "Documents Decoratifs" which focused more on his industrial design work (jewellery, cutlery, furniture etc) which I rarely see on the internet, a set of badges and make-up from Japanese brand MilleFée.
I went to Sydney for Alphonse Mucha and it was worth it. I end this rabid fangirling with the parting words of the Art Gallery of New South Wales' tour guide: Mucha's style has never been as well loved and as well represented as it is in Japan.
Sydney is GOTH
Especially the buildings.
by: Icie
Namaste wonderful souls and dear readers,
There were may wonderful things about Sydney that I liked when I visited there for 3 days. And boy, do I love that city! It truly is a global city worth going to and I love how it has embraced art.
Oh yes, I will still talk about art, but this time it's going to be about the living, highly functional art, which is called architecture. Specifically, about the gorgeous 100-200 year old buildings in Sydney.
We begin on one cold day as my partner and I walked down Hyde Park to reach AGNSW. I saw something grand that caught my eye. I can spot a Gothic tower anywhere and that right there are gothic cathedral-like twin spires trying to reach the sky.
AND IT'S GOLD.
I told my partner, "let's take a look at that cathedral for a spur of the moment side-quest before heading to AGNSW". He agreed and lo and behold: St. Mary's Cathedral.
Great! it was 8:30 AM on a Saturday, meaning there's no church service. So we went close to the steps and saw other tourists taking pictures of this beauty that was made by inmates back in the 1800s. I couldn't resist taking pictures! I love the Gothic style as much as I love Art Nouveau. The people who created this marvel didn't skip on the details. There was beauty in the fences, the doors, the columns, and the windows.
It was so amazingly beautiful.
The best part of this whole cathedral is, we could go inside to take pictures!
It was far more golden inside the building than it was outside.
Later in the day, I found another Gothic offshoot building. When I spotted the Registrar General's Building, I hoped that there would be more Gothic beauties around the city.
Surprise!
The hotel we stayed at was a quirky Federation Gothic building peppered with Art Deco and 1980's elements making it an eclectic haven for people who looked for something out of the ordinary. It was next to a small theatre that showed kitsch things as well, but damn, were they beautiful! We definitely enjoyed our stay. Alright, I wanna move to Sydney now just because of the buildings. And that was just day 1 of our trip.
On the last day of our trip, I saw more Gothic inspired buildings. I wondered why that was the case? I looked up the time when Sydney was founded and I connected the dots to my Art History lessons.
Ah.
Yep.
Victorian People loved reviving old styles and anything Gothic. Their love moved from England to Australia because it was the style of the time mostly because the old timey governor Lachlan Macquarie who, as a Victorian Scot, loved Gothic stuff. But this type of architecture in Australia had some twists. Australian Gothic is so gold and compact, not as tall as the ones in Europe (I assume. Feel free to correct me), a little simpler, and somewhat lighter.
Then I started seeing those small Gothic monuments and details everywhere.
I didn't complain. I love this style! I wanna move to Sydney and see more Gothic Revival buildings every day. Gosh, Brisbane only wishes we had buildings like these.
As per Somaly,
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