“I hate when Americans tell me they’re Irish. I don’t care where you’re from, I don’t care where I’M fucking from. It’s geographically inevitable you’re gonna be born SOMEPLACE; it does not make that place great by default. Patriotism makes no sense. Everyone thinks the blob of land on which they sleep is better than that of others. If you’re nice, you’re nice. I’ve met lots of lovely Americans, but they’re not lovely ‘cos they’re American. They just are. Same goes for arseholes.”

- Dylan Moran

This is posted because I am going to Dylan Moran’s Yeah Yeah next week. And also because this place needs an update.

This space will be going under scrutiny to see if it is still of use to me. Stay tuned.

Cheers

Nonetheless, the pictures were really cute, and I give my regards to all winners and runnerups, and kudos to whatever the prize was. It just made the stroll past Royal Arcade quite European and pretty…

Templates of a boy pulling on a string appears to be some theme, and artists were encouraged to add onto the image… Anyhoo.

Have a safe, reflective Easter!

I was hoping I’d have more time or motivation this year to be more creative – and not just take pictures all the time, and doing unpaid design work :p. Don’t get me wrong, I am totally grateful for work in general this year; both paid and unpaid.

But trying to do the things I really want to create just don’t happen. I get tired all the time, there’s lots of mental blanks, frustrations, and whining. But in the end, I just have to remember to breathe (or ‘breath’). I will have time for those things. It’s true.

This poster/graffiti resides somewhere in Chinatown. I’m usually not a big fan of tag art – not to be confused with street art! – but I quite like this pretty hidden piece. Notice how distorted the writing becomes as it transgresses down the page.

Heed my words. Bubble Cup Inc. have NOTHING compared to InfoBooth bubble tea (located within Chinatown). I like it best hot, and it doesn’t taste like that syrupy, artificial, sugary rubbish Bubble Cup serve. This cup is either Assam hot milk tea with tapioca pearl or Green hot milk tea with tapioca pearls.

A quaint time away from the daily grind (actually, this place is literally our backyard! #weliveinabeautifulworld), we wanted to revisit this place before it is gone for possibly good; we saw the ‘for sale’ sign about a month ago. So… Who wants to miss out?!

I do not remember what the name of the dish she had, but it had bacon, eggs with pancakes, while I had the so-called ‘Maharaja’s Curry’: curried beef with spiced rice, mango chutney, banana, and pancake. Chips on the side; all in all, a filling lunch.

Good times.

I took my mum, to whom I’ve inherited her greenthumb, to gush along with me to see Better Homes & Gardens’ Jason Hobb’s landscaping creation, innovative gardening methods, and prettyful displays.

Inside the Royal Exhibition building, which sits proudly next to, my favourite work space, the Melbourne Museum.

My favourite garden style is the British garden (think The Secret Garden). And to mix some oriental; with bonsais, blossoms, willows, pebbles, and some succulents, edibles (herbs + fruit trees), evergreens, water plants, and a bird aviary…

You may have heard and seen them in Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill: Volume 1, where they played uber-cool songs: ‘I’m Blue’, ‘I Walk Like Jane Mansfield’, and ‘Woohoo-oo-oo-oo’ barefoot in an izakaya ~ One of the many things that left an impression on me since seeing that film back in my highschool days – (the others impressions are such things as schoolgirls with a mace; or anything else with Asian chicks in school uniform rearing a weapon) Haha!

Recently, Thirdman Records released the 5678′s Blue Series 45 on sale on their online store, record store, and on iTunes, produced by their long-time fan Jack White. Songs include: ‘Sho-Jo-Ji (The Hungry Racoon)’, and ‘Charumera Sobaya (The Soba Song)’. Rah!!! That’s so cool! He’s always produced so many amazing, talented women in his studio! :)

I love the video for ‘Sho Jo Ji’ – Sorry, much info about the video is unknown, but all I can say is that it’s pretty cute, heheh:

A girl aged 12 (I think) made this papier-mache Chain Chomp piñata – that dog-like character which first appeared in Super Mario Bros. 3 – you can’t mistake it for anything else, and it looks fantastic!

The young artist probably didn’t really want to see it go down too easily by making it too darn tough for the littlies to bash the thing to smithereens for the booty inside; at least Chain Chomp puts up a good fight not just in the virtual world!

A rather prominent name in the designing world…

Who is Selby?

Todd Selby is a photographer, blogger and fashion celebrity. His work represents neighborhoods like Brooklyn and Silver Lake in the US, but has also travelled around the globe to other cities. He lives in an apartment in NYC, although he has not featured it on his website.

Selby’s photography featured on his website theselby.com often portrays the environments of prominent indie musicians, artists, designers and actors. The Selby’s mission is to capture interesting people in their creative spaces. He has recently published his photoraphs, and the book is available internationally.

Here are some layouts from the Habitat Fall 2009 ‘This is My Habitat’ ad campaign by Todd in London. I reckon McCann B&T took this personal, intimate approach too for the Melbourne Metro train ad campaign ‘This is Me’, 2011.

Metro is trying to promote the transport system as part of everyday life. The campaign focuses on individuals, personalizing their experiences with the public transport system as life changes and progresses everyday; they’re also trying to say that the system is also evolving, while Todd’s approach for the campaign was to show the Habitat furniture in a “new way, one that was more realistic and felt less polished than your typical furniture ad..”

Now this place, The Paperback Books, is pretty noticable (DeMille is just at the corner from this shop), as it is just along Bourke St just before you reach the Parliament house. Its’ all-too-obvious-vintage façade is the perfect place to get new-classic books… and books.
Don’t get me wrong, I like and admire the place, they stock pretty good stuff, and they’re also independent sellers (assuming) – which is tough nowadays – but the appearance of the store at first lured me into thinking I can find secondhand books here (actually, there’s probably too many secondhand book stores in Swanston St alone), as well as new books, and was also disappointed that there weren’t as many niche collections as I hoped.
Not like I really know what I’m looking for, but I know until I see it; I guess what I’m trying to say is that this store is no different from Reader’s Feast.

But this is a bit of a compliment, you see Reader’s Feast is not struggling unlike Borders and Angus & Robertson. Why? Simply because they don’t try to stock everything under the sun, in fact, one might say that Reader’s Feast is a little more dearer too; but that’s still not why they’re well off. I guess they’re just quiet achievers, {as of August, Reader’s Feast in Swanston is now being leased. It’s future is now unknown} and while I haven’t spoken to the people at The Paperback Books, I’m assuming they’re doing almost the same, and I wish them all the best.

If you’re in a big family, you’re expected to make yourself available for particular events to aid, for moral support, and all that kind of stuff – even if it means it’s not getting commissioned on a commercial basis. Sigh. Ok.

Designing the booklet for local church; design includes booklet cover with page templates and name badge.