This first week has certainly been busy; and good ol' Mother Nature has given us the chilly breezes to go with it. Winter is most certainly here in the South East Corner of Queensland and I don't think it's going to go anywhere fast.
But today, seeing the sun was out and lovely and there was a cool breeze to make us pull on a warm jacket and a beanie, I thought an excursion into the CBD wouldn't hurt me. In fact, I had been planning this one for a while because a great exhibition had come to town
and I was looking forward to it. Ron Mueck was at the GoMA and I wanted to see his work that had been traveling around the country. So, with about $80 in my pocket, I ventured into the city with the plan to see his exhibition, photograph some of the Yarn Bombing that had been going
on (and see if it's any good) and then go through the second-hand bookstore on Charlotte Street for more beginner's music to get my hands into more piano music. The more I work on my left hand better it'll get into doing jazz.
So, off I went via two buses into Brisbane City. The one thing I promised myself was that I wasn't going to rush or hurry anywhere today. And I didn't. I just took my time and strolled from one place to the next. I took a good slow look through the exhibition of Ron Mueck's and took all the photos I wanted. But on exiting the GoMA, I found that some of my photos were blurry, so in I went again (how fortunate I had gotten a pass-out stamp on the way out!). so, I walked through again and got some more photos of the exhibits that had turned out blurry, and I even got some of the others from a different perspective. At $10 Concession, it's a good price to pay to see such a great artist and his work.
I had heard about an exhibition about hats in the old Queensland Art Gallery not far from the GoMA. So, I walked there and poked my head in there. It was a comprehensive look at what passed as hats throughout time; and who would wear them! And some of these things looked absolutely ridiculous ... while others were gorgeous but were only worn on special occasions. It also showed the inside of an old hat-maker's workroom in the center of the exhibition; which was poorly lit if you ask me. The fortunate thing is that the hats on display are all behind glass so nobody can touch them - or photograph them either.
After this exhibit, I couldn't find my way out of the Queensland Art Gallery. Now, it's not that I'm dumb; I never have been able to. It's such a rabbit warren of a place. So, I just looked for those green and white lit signs that said:
Exit and followed those until I found a lift and asked the lady who sat in there all day where I'd need to go to get out. She happily told me. And each time I find my way out, I nearly kiss the ground with relief.
Once I walked out the doors, I found the Victoria Bridge and walked across it where the Yarn Bombing began. Most of the light poles had been partially wrapped in knitting. However, I found that some of them had been destroyed by the elements already. It's unfortunate that the people hadn't thought of this before; that the wind the comes buffeting along the Brisbane River would do this to their work. But the work I found in the city centre was better
pinned down and more fun and organised. I found three of the five round metal balls wrapped in 'wool' and they had 'knitting needles' attached to them. They were the most impressive of the outsider art I found. The other stuff was more beginners stuff - I hate to say this about how it was done, but really it was. As I walked along George Street, I found green hearts attached to camera poles and trees that would have taken three months to make. And in the park on the other side of the Treasury Casino, there's a
statue of a man in a cloak who is covered in a shawl and has a handbag hanging off one arm! Oh, my God! Whoever did that one couldn't put it one Queen Victoria (whose statue wasn't too far away from him in the middle of the park facing the casino? The shawl looks great! But that handbag is going a little too far!).
Once I had finished photographing that poor statue, my stomach ordered me to feed it. And so I did at the Pancake Manor on Charlotte Street. Before all of that, though, I had gone to Allan's Music on the Queen Street Mall and bought a beginner's book on piano music. The piano man there, Rick, was so good about it all. He asked if I read music and after I told him that I was originally a flautist, he said that it was a good book start with; and he'd be ready for me to come back and buy jazz'n'blues music when I was ready. Then, Rick asked me who my tuner was and I told him it was Martin; and he knew him well! He said that Marty was a good tuner and would take good care of my piano; to let him know that Rick said hello the next time I saw him. I'm definitely going back to Allan's to get my piano music again... they are wonderful people.
After The Pancake Manor, where I devoured a short stack called 'Blueberry Heaven'... yummo... I ventured next door to the Archives bookstore and went through their piano section of music books. While sitting on their stairs, I found two that would help me immensely. One would be a good beginners book (kind of like the Schefe book) and the other concentrates on getting both hands to work together in synchronicity; so there's no overlapping of notes from one hand or the other.
On the way to the bus stop, I bought two pairs of 8-hole laces of my Doc Martens (as the ones I have are wearing out and I don't get to 'Shoe City' very much to purchase laces). Then, I ran into an old neighbour's cousin I used to talk to years ago; and we chatted all the way home.
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