watch out tokyo & american cities

cause i’m coming to visit!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

booked flights yesterday to LA via tokyo (how EXCITED am i about tokyo???!!!!!!!!???????????!!!!!) and will be roaming around the united states from mid september to mid october. haven’t made any internal flight arrangements yet so more detail to come.

sorry london, i wanted to visit. you know i miss you. you know i still adore you. but tokyo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

australia is really ohio

bizarre map that maps various countries’ GDPs to usa states.

according to this, california would be the 8th largest country in the world – if it were a country. wow. didn’t realise that.

the article says australia has the 16th largest GDP ($645 billion) which is equal to ohio. even more bizarre, brazil is at 17 with $621 billion and equals NY. really? ohio is bigger than ny? i’m not the only one who’s surprised comment #26 on the article asks about the sources & suggests the numbers might not be right. comment #124 suggests australia is florida and russia is ny.

population wise, ohio is a little over 11 million, florida is approaching 18 million, ny is a little over 19 (all via factmonster) while australia is 20 million.

interesting map even if the numbers aren’t really right.

excitement in melbourne this morning

there was a shooting in melbourne this morning (the age, abc, cnn/AP, ny times).

this is a big thing in australia. a big thing in melbourne. the latest seems to be the guy with a gun is a bad guy with a history who was assulting a woman he might have met at a bar or knew. at about 830a she tried to get into a cab to get away from him, 2 people going past saw something was going down & went to assist her. all 3 of them got shot and one of the good samaritans is dead. after the bad guy shot them, he ran. he’s still on the run actually. this is bad. and sad. obviously.

the shooting was in the city. not that far from where i work (about 6 short blocks & 1 long block away). in fact, it happened right on the path of the tram i take (yes, i had to detour).

but most bizarre thing was people’s reactions. it seems the radio was telling people not to come into the city. huh? don’t come to the entire city? can u imagine a shooting in nyc & 1010 wins tells u not to come to the city? shortly after i got to work (about an hour-2 hrs after the shooting occured & i’m sure the guy was probably long gone by then), 2 emails went out telling us to cancel external appointments and not leave the building.

ok, i’m sure these were for legal reasons but please. don’t leave the building? how will we get coffee? what about lunch? and no mention of standing near windows. or mention of the glass doors that people sit next to (especially the receiptionist) that probably aren’t the best spots to be in with a gunman running around. or even reminders to make sure u close the door behind you or not to let people into the building you don’t know. i just found the unplanned ’stay in ur homes!’ approach to be bizarre & funny.

ual to au

united has some good deals to au for our winter.

from LA (one way … since WHEN have american airlines been quoting one way instead of r/t)
12Jun – 23Jul $753
24Jul – 1Aug $603
1Sep – 21Sep (this is hopefully when i’m headed over so u mite want to do this early in sept) $553

flight of the conchords on hbo

about 4 years ago i saw these guys at the melbourne comedy festival and now they have a tv show on hbo! they were funny then. flight of the conchords are a new zealand group that sings funny songs. not sure what the tv show is going to consist of but off to download the podcast.

more on bjork’s crochet

have been checking out the bjork podcasts and there’s one that talks a little bit about the crochet stuff she’s wearing on the cover. check it out on youtube (kinda crappy quality) to see the entire outfit. amazing. there’s also some great shots of the crochet in other podcasts (like #1).

also, the blue & green kimono type thing she’s wearing in the podcasts is fantastic (hint for anyone who might be shopping early for my bday).

helen lempriere sculpture award

about an hour away from melb is werribee. werribee is the brunt of many jokes because it’s very suburban and it’s where melbourne’s sewage plant is.

but it’s also the home of the werribee mansion and the open range zoo so it’s worth checking out.

every year the grounds of the mansion hosts the helen lempriere sculpture awards. it’s become a bit of a fall tradition for me (like apple picking). clare, lou & i went last saturday but once there i realised my camera battery was dead. ;(

my fav this year was called ‘domestic disturbance’ (1st column, 5 down if you click the link above). it was probably 30 sheets of heavy acrylic stacked up in a row about 2 inches from each other. each piece had holes drilled in… seemingly random. until you started walking around the thing & getting on different angles. that’s when you could see the outline of a couch, a table & even a cat.

the big wooden balls (row 3, 5 down) were exceptionally cool from a construction point of view. there was a bit pole in the middle of the ball & then pieces of firewood were tied to the pole with wire to create the ball. must have taken ages!

i also liked ‘happy ending’ (row 1, down4) – the smiling gravestone – and herbaceous(row 1, 3 down) which was pieces of rusty steel that looked sort of like dandelions. you could walk thru them & make them sway. the winning sculpture was meniscii (4th row, top pix) which were big rounded mirrored domes sitting on the ground. not all that exciting until you looked in & watched the sky, clouds & tree branches above you.