Wednesday, part II
Dec. 3rd, 2013 09:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
xenithI am avoiding my trip report writing :(
Waiting for Centenary bus, to start afternoon visiting.
A bus that goes around all the touristy places is a wonderful thing. Otherwise, if you want to visit something, you have to find it on the map, work out which buses go that way, work out where those buses leave from and make sure it's the right direction, find that place, work out which stop to get off at and then afterward, work out where the bus in the other direction stops and what time it is expected to go past. Repeat for any other places.
With a bus that loops the touristy places, you get on, at the same place every time, and the driver tells you the best place to get off, and you know the bus will be back about the same time every half an hour so it's easy to work out when to leave.
One way is simple and fun. One way is difficult and stressful.
Anyway, I'm waiting for the bus. I go into a local cafe thing and get something for lunch. A bacon and egg roll thing as it turns out. I have a few bites, but not hungry so I'll leave it for later. Also buy a drink at a corner shop but that doesn't last long.
Didn't take many photos on the bus this loop. This is the Treasury building.
But I'm headed across the road, to the National Library
to see Mapping Our World exhibition, which is an exhibition of maps, looking at how European explorers worked out what that southern land looked like.
Foyer, and bookshop to the left.
The exhibition was interesting enough. It starts with Medieval maps, and facing you as you walk in is a full wall map that is very blue and you look at it for a while and the bit down the bottom right looks a bit like Europe and then a lot like Europe and that bit seems to be Russia and, oh it has south as the top, and there is Africa and there is.... It is a cool map and required much looking at.
Then there was a room with 17 century Dutch maps, being as the 17th Dutch guys did most of the early mapping of the southern land. And some objects as well, that I didn't bother to look at. I did find the island bit where I used to live on one of these maps. Well, I still live there, obviously, but not in a bit that appears on 17th century Dutch maps.
Then there was another room, with some more maps and objects, and I can't even remember what they were. Get an idea of the outline of the continent, and filling in some details. Then a last room with early 19th century maps, like Flinders', which gradually filled in the remaining details, including a map with the northern part of my island. Some other object too, that looked like clocks, but I didn't bother with.
I did pick up some of the promotional postcards & poster. Of course, that meant I had to carry the map around with me, but it was late in the day.
The bookshop was interesting. Although it was mostly books, but I didn't look at them, because they are expensive and heavy books. They didn't have much in the way of postcards, or interesting merchandise from the mapping exhibition (a book that I already had and some fridge magnets with tiny pictures). They did have some things that were sold as wrapping paper but I think would work well as small posters. And they rolled up and fitted inside the poster, which worked well. Then went into my bag of stuff once I retrieved it from the cloak room (I start the day with nothing but some maps in my pocket. Now I have maps, and brochures, and postcards, and hand cream, and fridge magnet notepad, and a half eaten bacon & egg roll, and band-aids, and rolled up posters, and more postcards. I attract stuff.
I retreated to the cafe to get something to eat, I thought, but I ended up just getting a bottle of Coke that I drank some from. That's one of the cafe windows in the photo. Well, the lower windows around the Library are like that, but that particular one is in the cafe. The half-full bottle of Coke goes into the bag as well.
It was about 3.30 pm then, so I had time to go along the road and look at something else. Probably the National Gallery.
Although I didn't go along the road, but this path along the back of the buildings that has all these sculptures.
This is the road, in the middle of the city, of course.
This is the National Portrait Gallery.
This is the High Court.
This is the National Gallery, with its odd sculptures out the front.
And to the side.
This is another place where you can't take photos, so I put my camera (and bag of stuff) in at the cloak room. The guy holds the camera carefully in the palm of his hands as he puts it away. The poor thing has probably never been treated so reverently.
I wandered about somewhat aimlessly, as you might expect by this point. Oh, I did go into the Sidney Nolan room, which had his Kelly series in there. There was just me and another person when I went in, and suddenly, all these school kids turned up. Filled the room, even they were sitting down. Then a lady who I assumed worked for the gallery came in and started talking to them in a loud voice (and said things that were wrong, of course). I kept walking around the room, looking at the paintings, and then I got to corner just before the last two, which were behind the women and the ones she was talking about. I wondered what she'd do if I moved onto looking at them, but she announced to the kids that their teacher wanted them now. Which I thought was funny.
(And I went into look at the collection because I had seen them at TMAG in Hobart many years ago, but the two I most remembered from there weren't in this collection. I haven't been able to find them online, which almost make me think I imagined/misremembered them. One had a policeman's head sticking up from the bottom corner, and the artist's note (it's the artist's notes that makes these) said something about it being a silly addition to a serious scene, that one I might misremember. But the other was a women sewing and the caption said something about sewing protection for a much loved head, and it was that one that made me think I should check out this story one day, and I'm not likely to be imagining THAT one. But I can't find it any trace of its existence. *sniff*)
I wandered around the galleries, and somehow managed to walk around twice in a different direction. Like a sort of mobius-strip gallery visit. I was so very tired and sick of looking at things. But I realised why I don't care for art galleries in general!
The point of a piece of artwork is to look at it. At a gallery, you look at something and them move on. And it's gone. Whereas in a museum, it's not the object as such that matters, but the story behind it and how it adds to your knowledge of the world. So you can look, read and move on, but still retain something.
It's not always the case. With art that is so familiar you get tired of seeing it, it's great to see the original. And some art work has an impact so you can look at it and get something from it other than just the looking (if that makes sense, I did give an example above (grin)). This is probably another reason I don't care for "shock" art either. You look at it, and that's all there is to it.
Obviously not everyone feels this way or there wouldn't be public art galleries.
So that is what I learnt from visiting the National Gallery, as well, that I should go back sometime when I'm not tired.
Their gift shop is rather cool. There are a lot of cards with reproduction paintings on them, and some post cards too. Not many that wanted to go home with me unfortunately, although I bought half a dozen cards and three postcards. They were sort of set but the third one didn't have a border so it didn't fit, so it's gone off to a new home.
Then I retrieved my bag and camera from the careful handling guy, and added more stuff to the bag. And went out to wait for the bus.
I took some more photos on the bus. Unfortunately, the window beside me had the "Disabled Seating" stick on it, just where the best camera position was. So not very good photos (except this one, because bus was stopped). That's the treasury building again. Treasury buildings are supposed to be large stone structures with columns and other ornamentation.
This puzzles me. I seem to recall material about this place when I was working through the museum's manuscript collection, and its development in the early years, but that would mean it was called Hyatt back in the 1920s, which seems not be the case.
We've been here before today.
I like that reflection effect.
I have one more thing to do today, before buying tea and heading off to bed. And that's to catch up with Jo. I was playing phone tag with her all day. I had phone on silent for long times (if I was using the nav app or in an exhibitions) so I missed her texts. Then when I turned the volume up, the stupid phone stayed on vibrate so I again missed her calls. So I held the damned thing in my hand and THEN I was able to catch up with her and arrange to meet. (Which was funny. She sent me a txt saying she was outside Canberra Central and wearing a red dress, so I called her and just as I did, I saw a young lady wearing a red dress on the other side of the road, and when my phone started to ring, she picked up her hers. That was easy.)
Anyway, we went for a drink at a cafe (artic fire tea I had, rather overrated) and we talked, about things seen from planes and Canberra and stuff for an hour. (And she probably thinks I'm rather weird now, but then she probably won't read this anyway :) But she is very nice and I'm glad we managed to meet up.)
I posted the postcard I'd bought at the museum that morning, and got some Asian takeaway stuff for tea. I walked back to the YHA via a less direct route and took some photos of sculpture things on the way.
Magpies are the dominant bird in the city. (Although I seem to recall last time there were also a lot of ravens and another black bird with white (pied currawong?) that I saw about, but didn't see either of those this time.)
Not sure what this one is about. Lots of little pictures and quotes set in a sort of checkerboard. I suppose if I'd taken the time to look over it properly, it might have made sense.
The fountain has lights, but I had to odd things with camera to get them to show up. It wasn't really that dark.
Although the sun was setting.
Back at the YHA, I couldn't sleep. On the way up, I'd asked to have the air condition turned on, but that didn't help. There was something that kept making a vibrating rattling noises on and off all through the night (possibly the A/C). And the others in the room didn't seem to have some across the idea that the last person into bed turns off the light. I finally got up at 11.30 pm to turn it off. Sort of got to sleep then. Until 1.40 am when this bloody siren started up with a record voice saying evacuate the building by the nearest fire escape. So I did, down about a million flights of stairs. How can there be dozens of flights when you're only on the third floor and waited outside while fire engines turned up and firemen went in and out (and there was a group of school kids waiting too) and finally told us it was OK to go back in.
*sigh*
Waiting for Centenary bus, to start afternoon visiting.
A bus that goes around all the touristy places is a wonderful thing. Otherwise, if you want to visit something, you have to find it on the map, work out which buses go that way, work out where those buses leave from and make sure it's the right direction, find that place, work out which stop to get off at and then afterward, work out where the bus in the other direction stops and what time it is expected to go past. Repeat for any other places.
With a bus that loops the touristy places, you get on, at the same place every time, and the driver tells you the best place to get off, and you know the bus will be back about the same time every half an hour so it's easy to work out when to leave.
One way is simple and fun. One way is difficult and stressful.
Anyway, I'm waiting for the bus. I go into a local cafe thing and get something for lunch. A bacon and egg roll thing as it turns out. I have a few bites, but not hungry so I'll leave it for later. Also buy a drink at a corner shop but that doesn't last long.
Didn't take many photos on the bus this loop. This is the Treasury building.
But I'm headed across the road, to the National Library
to see Mapping Our World exhibition, which is an exhibition of maps, looking at how European explorers worked out what that southern land looked like.
Foyer, and bookshop to the left.
The exhibition was interesting enough. It starts with Medieval maps, and facing you as you walk in is a full wall map that is very blue and you look at it for a while and the bit down the bottom right looks a bit like Europe and then a lot like Europe and that bit seems to be Russia and, oh it has south as the top, and there is Africa and there is.... It is a cool map and required much looking at.
Then there was a room with 17 century Dutch maps, being as the 17th Dutch guys did most of the early mapping of the southern land. And some objects as well, that I didn't bother to look at. I did find the island bit where I used to live on one of these maps. Well, I still live there, obviously, but not in a bit that appears on 17th century Dutch maps.
Then there was another room, with some more maps and objects, and I can't even remember what they were. Get an idea of the outline of the continent, and filling in some details. Then a last room with early 19th century maps, like Flinders', which gradually filled in the remaining details, including a map with the northern part of my island. Some other object too, that looked like clocks, but I didn't bother with.
I did pick up some of the promotional postcards & poster. Of course, that meant I had to carry the map around with me, but it was late in the day.
The bookshop was interesting. Although it was mostly books, but I didn't look at them, because they are expensive and heavy books. They didn't have much in the way of postcards, or interesting merchandise from the mapping exhibition (a book that I already had and some fridge magnets with tiny pictures). They did have some things that were sold as wrapping paper but I think would work well as small posters. And they rolled up and fitted inside the poster, which worked well. Then went into my bag of stuff once I retrieved it from the cloak room (I start the day with nothing but some maps in my pocket. Now I have maps, and brochures, and postcards, and hand cream, and fridge magnet notepad, and a half eaten bacon & egg roll, and band-aids, and rolled up posters, and more postcards. I attract stuff.
I retreated to the cafe to get something to eat, I thought, but I ended up just getting a bottle of Coke that I drank some from. That's one of the cafe windows in the photo. Well, the lower windows around the Library are like that, but that particular one is in the cafe. The half-full bottle of Coke goes into the bag as well.
It was about 3.30 pm then, so I had time to go along the road and look at something else. Probably the National Gallery.
Although I didn't go along the road, but this path along the back of the buildings that has all these sculptures.
This is the road, in the middle of the city, of course.
This is the National Portrait Gallery.
This is the High Court.
This is the National Gallery, with its odd sculptures out the front.
And to the side.
This is another place where you can't take photos, so I put my camera (and bag of stuff) in at the cloak room. The guy holds the camera carefully in the palm of his hands as he puts it away. The poor thing has probably never been treated so reverently.
I wandered about somewhat aimlessly, as you might expect by this point. Oh, I did go into the Sidney Nolan room, which had his Kelly series in there. There was just me and another person when I went in, and suddenly, all these school kids turned up. Filled the room, even they were sitting down. Then a lady who I assumed worked for the gallery came in and started talking to them in a loud voice (and said things that were wrong, of course). I kept walking around the room, looking at the paintings, and then I got to corner just before the last two, which were behind the women and the ones she was talking about. I wondered what she'd do if I moved onto looking at them, but she announced to the kids that their teacher wanted them now. Which I thought was funny.
(And I went into look at the collection because I had seen them at TMAG in Hobart many years ago, but the two I most remembered from there weren't in this collection. I haven't been able to find them online, which almost make me think I imagined/misremembered them. One had a policeman's head sticking up from the bottom corner, and the artist's note (it's the artist's notes that makes these) said something about it being a silly addition to a serious scene, that one I might misremember. But the other was a women sewing and the caption said something about sewing protection for a much loved head, and it was that one that made me think I should check out this story one day, and I'm not likely to be imagining THAT one. But I can't find it any trace of its existence. *sniff*)
I wandered around the galleries, and somehow managed to walk around twice in a different direction. Like a sort of mobius-strip gallery visit. I was so very tired and sick of looking at things. But I realised why I don't care for art galleries in general!
The point of a piece of artwork is to look at it. At a gallery, you look at something and them move on. And it's gone. Whereas in a museum, it's not the object as such that matters, but the story behind it and how it adds to your knowledge of the world. So you can look, read and move on, but still retain something.
It's not always the case. With art that is so familiar you get tired of seeing it, it's great to see the original. And some art work has an impact so you can look at it and get something from it other than just the looking (if that makes sense, I did give an example above (grin)). This is probably another reason I don't care for "shock" art either. You look at it, and that's all there is to it.
Obviously not everyone feels this way or there wouldn't be public art galleries.
So that is what I learnt from visiting the National Gallery, as well, that I should go back sometime when I'm not tired.
Their gift shop is rather cool. There are a lot of cards with reproduction paintings on them, and some post cards too. Not many that wanted to go home with me unfortunately, although I bought half a dozen cards and three postcards. They were sort of set but the third one didn't have a border so it didn't fit, so it's gone off to a new home.
Then I retrieved my bag and camera from the careful handling guy, and added more stuff to the bag. And went out to wait for the bus.
I took some more photos on the bus. Unfortunately, the window beside me had the "Disabled Seating" stick on it, just where the best camera position was. So not very good photos (except this one, because bus was stopped). That's the treasury building again. Treasury buildings are supposed to be large stone structures with columns and other ornamentation.
This puzzles me. I seem to recall material about this place when I was working through the museum's manuscript collection, and its development in the early years, but that would mean it was called Hyatt back in the 1920s, which seems not be the case.
We've been here before today.
I like that reflection effect.
I have one more thing to do today, before buying tea and heading off to bed. And that's to catch up with Jo. I was playing phone tag with her all day. I had phone on silent for long times (if I was using the nav app or in an exhibitions) so I missed her texts. Then when I turned the volume up, the stupid phone stayed on vibrate so I again missed her calls. So I held the damned thing in my hand and THEN I was able to catch up with her and arrange to meet. (Which was funny. She sent me a txt saying she was outside Canberra Central and wearing a red dress, so I called her and just as I did, I saw a young lady wearing a red dress on the other side of the road, and when my phone started to ring, she picked up her hers. That was easy.)
Anyway, we went for a drink at a cafe (artic fire tea I had, rather overrated) and we talked, about things seen from planes and Canberra and stuff for an hour. (And she probably thinks I'm rather weird now, but then she probably won't read this anyway :) But she is very nice and I'm glad we managed to meet up.)
I posted the postcard I'd bought at the museum that morning, and got some Asian takeaway stuff for tea. I walked back to the YHA via a less direct route and took some photos of sculpture things on the way.
Magpies are the dominant bird in the city. (Although I seem to recall last time there were also a lot of ravens and another black bird with white (pied currawong?) that I saw about, but didn't see either of those this time.)
Not sure what this one is about. Lots of little pictures and quotes set in a sort of checkerboard. I suppose if I'd taken the time to look over it properly, it might have made sense.
The fountain has lights, but I had to odd things with camera to get them to show up. It wasn't really that dark.
Although the sun was setting.
Back at the YHA, I couldn't sleep. On the way up, I'd asked to have the air condition turned on, but that didn't help. There was something that kept making a vibrating rattling noises on and off all through the night (possibly the A/C). And the others in the room didn't seem to have some across the idea that the last person into bed turns off the light. I finally got up at 11.30 pm to turn it off. Sort of got to sleep then. Until 1.40 am when this bloody siren started up with a record voice saying evacuate the building by the nearest fire escape. So I did, down about a million flights of stairs. How can there be dozens of flights when you're only on the third floor and waited outside while fire engines turned up and firemen went in and out (and there was a group of school kids waiting too) and finally told us it was OK to go back in.
*sigh*
no subject
Date: 2013-12-04 07:40 am (UTC)I've diligently read all your cations, but my download is impossibly slow and so i might have to skip the pictures. This is a shame - I was curious to see how you saw Canberra!
The Hyatt is the set of low cream buildings on one side of Commonwealth Avenue: Treasury is the big grey stack on the other, behind a carpark. If you get back here, we need to met up and have morning tea or brunch at the Hyatt. I've never done it and would like to - it's very old-fashioned and apparently great fun.
no subject
Date: 2013-12-07 09:52 am (UTC)I do want to go back and take my time revisiting some of the places that I got to (and morning tea at the Hyatt sounds great) but then I think, there's no particular reason to go back soon but then I think there's this Conflux thing that's on from time to time.
no subject
Date: 2013-12-12 03:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-12-12 11:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-12-13 04:51 pm (UTC)