Chris

three photos of furniture on exhibit in a gallery, plus the name in a horseshoe shape ‘The World’s Smallest Horse’

#OigallProjects #GertrudeSt BMDO ‘The World’s Smallest Horse’. Is it furniture design or installation art?…

in lurid colour a heavily made-up readhaired woman’s face turns to us; another photo of her face is split top and bottom, showing her red eye makeup and lipstick

#SBSOnDemand The Red Shoes, 1948. A logical extension for Powell & Pressburger: colour and drama taken to extremes at the ballet. And how magnificent this strange melodramatic metadrama is!

two photos from a film showing: a woman with dark eyes smouldering in a doorway; white-robed nuns surrounding a near-naked man

#SBSOnDemand Black Narcissus, 1947. Perhaps the strangest Powell & Pressburger: a clash between English sang froid and Himalayan passions that brings doom onto the nuns as - eventually - sexuality runs amok. Sensational.

two colour photos from a film showing earthly activities: chatting in a bower, table tennis

two black and white photos from a film showing heavenly scenes: a high ceiling with circular holes and figures looking down, an infinite escalator with huge statues to one side

two black and white photos from a film showing a woman’s head, one with wings behind her, the other with what looks like a halo

three film posters for ‘A matter of Life and Death’

#SBSOnDemand A Matter of Life and Death (AKA Stairway to Heaven), 1946. Yet another wonderful Powell & Pressburger film, a fantasy romance that is quizzical, curious, and very, very life-affirming. Fantastic in every sense.

three photos from a film showing the same character in youth, middle age and old age, with the woman who is his muse in each era, both played by the same actors

#YouTube The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, 1943. Beautiful restoration of Pressburger & Powell’s wartime film: the old commander is a Blimp full of old-fashioned bluster, but then we flashback to his youth & middle age… An astonishing film, full of humanity & generosity, impeccably acted; I cried

two photos from a film, both showing a woman in unorthodox dress among nuns

#SBSOnDemand Dark Habits (Sp ‘In the Shadows’), 1983. Singer takes refuge from killers amongst nuns in convent, music is an important (hmmm). OTT ‘clash of religion & secularism’ works well and, in only his 3rd film, Almodóvar has already assembled an astonishing collection of female performers.

three photos from a film, each of one of the three sections: a young woman turns from a hanging but not in displeasure; a man puts his hand on the shoulder of another man, a woman looks on; a man drives a car recklessly

two photos from a film: a heavily made-up woman’s face with almond eyes; a girl with long hair holds a large egg

#SBSOnDemand Spirits of the Dead, 1968. 3 chapters based on Poe, typically mixed: a wicked woman gets a horseback comeuppance (Roger Vadim; pretty & boring); a man’s wickedness thwarted by his doppelgänger (Louis Malle; excellent); washed-up actor in Rome loses his head (Fellini; high self-parody).

nine photos of food

nine photos of food

nine photos of food

nine photos of food

Outsourced food highlights while Hilby was away, including my trip to Sydney & #Thailander #QV, #Stalactites, #Archies, #TwoBirds, #SoJo, #WildGeese #SarahSands, #MondoDiPasta, #Oppa, #Brunetti, #Mamak, #Superhiro, #Kakilang, #Monzarella #Williamstown…

two photos showing different eating places covering a well-used window with an advertising screen, seem from behind

I don’t like this recent fad of eating places covering a well-used window with a screen churning out meaningless advertising

photos of old buildings and a view across a marina to a city skyline

photos of seaside buildings

photos from a freeway of a sculptural tunnel entrance, rainbow paintwork on crash barriers, and a fish painting on a building

#RoadTrip to #Williamstown: town sights and a drive to the other side of the peninsula for the beach. Then sights on the trip back 🌈

two men with pizzas and a dog

a man with a dog; an ice cream; the dog

a man in a park; a dog in the park; another man with the dog in the park

#RoadTrip to #Williamstown: lunch then a beach-side ice cream and walkies in the botanic gardens

a green-bottomed bike track is slung under a raised freeway

a new tunnel entry is progressively tiled

a very high road bridge seen from below

an industrial chimney

#RoadTrip to #Williamstown: sights along the way… 🚲🚇🎢🏭

a car’s airbag safety infographic

#RoadTrip to #Williamstown: by car - looks fun! #acrobat

a black and white film still showing two figures silhouetted against a stormy seascape

two black and white film stills showing two wet figures, and a collage of images of the high life

#SBSOnDemand I Know Where I’m Going, 1945. Headstrong woman goes to Scotland to marry a millionaire, but is stranded with the locals & reconsiders her priorities. Another lovely & heartfelt Powell & Pressburger, gorgeous with a whiff of mysticism. Plus a completely hidden amazing special effect!

a painting of Venice by Renoir

two paintings, and details, of racetracks by Degas

two portrait paintings by Degas and one by Mary Cassatt

a painting of country trees by Corot and of woman and child on sunny grass by Renoir

#NGVI French Impressionism from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. A chocolate box of delights, as always slightly exhausting, but buoyed by the quality and tempered by no-nonsense excellence among the prettiness. 2/2

a painting by Monet of a field of poppies surrounded by green fields

paintings by Monet of a lily pond and a haystack, and by Eugène Louis Boudin of a beach

paintings by Henri Fantin-Latour of flowers and by Gustave Caillebotte of a fruiterer’s stand

paintings of country scenes by Vincent van Gogh, Paul Signac and Frits Thaulow

#NGVI French Impressionism from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. A spectacular final room of Monets proceeded by a chocolate box of delights, as always slightly exhausting, but buoyed by the quality and tempered by no-nonsense excellence among the prettiness. 1/2

three photos of a series of elaborately decorated temporary galleries

five photos of a series of elaborately decorated temporary galleries

two photos of a series of elaborately decorated temporary galleries

two photos of a series of elaborately decorated temporary galleries

#NGVI French Impressionism from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. To display the absolute treasure trove of C19th paintings the NGV had created an impressive series of ‘French’ interiors, though fortunately they couldn’t upstage the art!

The party that promised "free speech on campus" has made sure there can be no free speech on campuses.

four black and white stills from a film showing mysterious people in dark places, with a roll of negatives showing similar suggestive scenes

#YouTube Savageland, 2015. No-budget mockumentary: on the US-Mexican border something terrible happens; an illegal worker survives & is arrested for mass murder, but his photos imply something ghastly & unbelievable. Very well done balancing of racial satire with horror but outstays its first 40mins

four views of a small brown pot with lighter scraped decoration of everyday objects like a mobile phone, taped-up notice, tooth, etc

Extremely cute pot at the #RMIT Ceramics Club Market Day - sorry but I didn’t record the maker - but it’s a bit like Seamus Mullen’s works in Sydney.

a young man in a singlet in darkness with sparks flying in the air

#mubi Atlantiques, 2009. Later made into a mysterious, atmospheric feature film, this short has some striking images and an oblique, implied tale of ocean escape, death and return.

six high-contrast black and white still photos from a film showing people in a field, a half-ruined town, a dark bedroom, etc

#SBSOnDemand A Canterbury Tale, 1944. Enchanting Powell & Pressburger fable: 3 troubled wartime travellers arrive in a town unusually attuned to history, where the past is alive in the present; as they travel to Canterbury, minor miracles occur. A jump-cut at the beginning predates 2001 by 24 yrs

a coffee machine and a notice beside it saying, “Please note that the coffee machine is for adult use only. We kindly ask that children do not operate it for safety reasons. Thank you for your understanding and cooperation”

Adulting at work.

white flowers on a plant

yellow daffodils in a park

pink flowers on a tree

#melbournelife signs of spring: flowers on the balcony zombie plant; daffodils in the #FitzroyGardens; flowering tree in the #TreasuryGardens.

graphics showing coloured areas on a graph of ‘hot’ against ‘crazy’ and an explanation of the ‘fun zone’ where a black dot sits: “People in the Fun Zone are cool, above average in attractiveness, and great to hang out with. Everyone should spend some time in the fun zone, to find out what they like and dislike in a partner and to get the awkwardness out of their system so that they will eventually be ready for marriage or a serious relationship. While fun is a good thing, the Fun Zone also has its risks. Since the zone is wedged right between the No-Go and Crazy zones, it is possible to mistake crazies and no-goers as fun. Inexperienced daters should seek a second opinion if they are unsure whether their potential partner is really in the Fun Zone.”

The hot/crazy scale: “Real & Actually Backed By Science” (says Boss Hunting Magazine in 2021). Other citations include a 2021 paper in the Personality and Individual Differences journal, and ‘How I Met Your Mother’ Season 3, Episode 15.

two paintings, one showing ominous birds in a dark sky over cornfields, the other showing twisted, gnarled roots

a light and airy landscape painting showing white clouds billowing over fields

three paintings, a calm green garden but painted in agitated brushstrokes, golden wheat sheaves, an little cottages tucked under a green hill

Vincent’s last painting? Traditional fave ‘Wheatfield with Crows’ was probably completed 19 days earlier; unfinished ‘Tree Roots & Trunks’ may be mentioned in a relative’s letter: “The morning before his death he had painted an ‘undergrowth’, full of sun and life.” Other contenders also shown.

a phone notice over an empty phone plug; it reads “Australian Government COMCAR National Reservations courtesy phone and driver pickup area”

Saw the legendary COMCAR phone point in Melbourne Airport #Tullamarine! Unfortunately I’m not a parliamentarian, Governor-General, member of the federal judiciary nor an international guest of government, so I caught an Uber.

How Dare You Embarrass My Esteemed Guest, Jason Voorhees “President Trump assailed an American journalist in the Oval Office on Tuesday for asking Saudi Arabia’s crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, about t...

How Dare You Embarrass My Esteemed Guest, Jason Voorhees www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/how...

Elon Musk Could 'Drink Piss Better Than Any Human in History,' Grok Says Grok has been reprogrammed to say Musk is better than everyone at everything, including blowjobs, piss drinking, playing quarterback, conquering Europe, etc.

Incredible headline.

The Pope vs. the Algorithm In his speech to filmmakers last weekend, Pope Leo XIV showed he’s been paying serious attention to the issues facing cinema as an art form.

Felt compelled to write about Pope Leo and his remarkable recent speech about cinema: www.vulture.com/article/the-...