Today, I went for a walk around The Rocks. It was the area first established by the English after they invaded in 1788.
It was a place of skullduggery, cut-throatery, ill-manners and general bad-end-of-townness from then until the 1970s. Then it got gentrified & made polite. Nowadays, it is the place all tourists go to see convict-cut sandstone buildings, and olde timey things.
And walk over the Harbour Bridge.
(And go on ghost tours. If you are lucky enough, your Ghost Host will be my friend JenVu.)
I have had many jobs in The Rocks. I drove hansom cabs there in the early 1980s, wearing a top hat and a tail coat.
(That's not me, but you get the idea)
When the magnificent Maritime Services Board building was being coverted into the Museum of Contemporary Art in 1990, I worked in the memberships programme. After it opened in 1991, I worked on events.
Here is Jeff Koon's Puppy. Love it.
I worked at the bookstore in The Rocks from 1999 to whenever. You may remember my encounter with nudes there.
And here is another workplace of mine. It is said that Australia has the perfect Opera House. The outside is in Sydney, the inside is in Melbourne and the parking is in Adelaide. Having worked in all those Houses (plus Perth's wonderful Her Majesty's, and Brisbane's QPAC) I can concur. Still, there is nothing like walking 'round from Circular Quay towards the House, looking up at Jorn Utzon's glorious sails, and thinking - I work there.
(*Hansom cab and MCA photos not mine)
5 comments:
I loved Puppy. He got bad press. People are very limited in what they class as art, even now. But to them, I say " Did you see the faces of the visitors around Puppy? wasn't that happiness Art in itself?"
Oh yes, watching the flowers grow, and how simple and magnificent it was. And public - it was for everybody.
Nice kicks
More cities should have gigantic, moss-covered dogs.
malach: terrific!
colonel: Oh, Puppy has been all over. Check him out. ( wiki/Jeff_Koons )
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