Rant about avocados [edit: compared with mangos]

WTF is with the price of avocados? I swear I will never buy another again unless it's $2 or less. They are the whiniest, reverse Frog Princesses of the fruit world! How do you keep them happy? Why are they so pricey? They promise beautiful green butteriness but forget to add them into your salad as intended and leave them on their own for a few days and they turn nasty - into a revolting, squishy, grey-brown mess.

[edit]
Replies on FB:
KP: WA avocados have been affected by disease and east coast (qld) ones not ready yet, might explain price
JO: Also most of the east coast is under metres of the old water...
JJ: I agree I haven't bought one for ages.
Me: Well that is an explanation for the current price thank you KP and JO... but even those factors notwithstanding they are expensive for what you get. Mangoes get cheaper as the season progresses but are grown in a similar climates have a better shelf life and each one - if chosen by gently cradled scent - is a handful of pure bliss and sunshine! A reliable, nutted fruity thing, the best thing about Summer. They are good value and I am all about value. Have you ever thrown out a bad mango? Hell no. But an avocado? Many a time.
JO: Deeply true.


After some research the truth is revealed about the current avocado prices in Australia : NZ are out of the game this year and - no thanks to the flooding in QLD - WA farmers will turn a very tidy profit this year.

Penne with salmon, mushrooms and bocconcini

I intended to revisit my mushroom and salmon dish but the bocconcini turned up and there were fresh herbs in the garden - including some dill going to seed - so I ended up with this. I think it's better! You can use bigger bocconcini but you will need to cut them up smaller.



Penne with salmon, mushrooms and bocconcini

Ingredients
1/2 cup bambini/baby bocconcini, halved
500g penne
1 clove garlic, crushed
100g smoked salmon, sliced
250g button mushrooms, sliced
3 sprigs dill
3 sprigs oregano
5 basil leaves
olive oil
canola oil
ground pepper
chicken salt


Method

• Cook pasta. Drizzle with olive oil and set aside.
• Finely chop herbs.
• Fry garlic in a little olive oil.
• Add more oil and button mushrooms.
• When mushrooms are almost cooked, add salmon and herbs. Stir occasionally until salmon is cooked.
• Add cooked mixture and bocconcini to warm pasta. Season and stir through.
• Serve warm immediately or refrigerate and serve cold.

Toy to the World

The Toy to the World biennal features customised vinyl bears from both Australian and International artists. Entries from almost 100 artists will go up for auction to help fund Victorian HIV research.

This is my contribution to the Toy to the World project, and my first customised vinyl bear:

Le Fils de l'ours : The Son of Bears, after Magritte.

More images here.

Toy to the World

In association with the Midsumma festival
Under the umbrella of Queer City's 2013 show, Play-Full

Spring Street Convention Centre

Art @ 1Spring Street

1 Spring Street, Melbourne

Victoria

Australia 3001

Enter via Flinders Lane

Opening night: Tuesday, 15th January 2013, 6pm

Exhibition/Silent Auction Runs: 15ths Jan - 1st Feb

Mon - Fri: 9am - 5:00pm

Register to bid at the venue and bid on Item 74!
In the next few days you will also be able to bid online at the Toy to the World Facebook page.

Amicable Green Grocer Cicada

Walking through the front garden I heard a buzzing, whirring sound like clockwork. I turned back to find a cicada struggling to right itself on the concrete. Naturally I picked it up gently and it made itself very comfortable indeed - so much so that I went inside with him to get my camera and out again to take these shots.


First we sat down and I marvelled at the three reflective dots on his head. They seemed a lot like eyes but they are clearly quite different from the prominent compound eyes on this Green Grocer Cicada.

Some later research revealed that they are dorsal ocelli (oh-sell-ee). They are a 'simple' - as opposed to compound - eye on the top of the head. These ocelli are very light sensitive and quick, and it is theorised that they allow flying insects to maintain stability in flight.


He reminded me of a frog - the way he clung to my hand, his green compact body and his bulgy buggy eyes. Cute...

...But I couldn't sit there all afternoon holding him so I tried to convince to get on to the magnolia tree...
 
...but he wouldn't have it.

After attempting to move him to my left hand I noticed he preferred to move backward rather than be prodded forward thus - success!

Such an amicable chap was he.


"This is LaTegra. It's a little bit softer - I use this one for catolog shots a lot." *

I hope he fares alright. His rumpled wing edges might be why he struggled a bit.


*Zoolander quote C/O my BF, J.

Vintage Aero knitting needles: Note the points!

Some vintage knitting needles I gave my housemate for Christmas.


You don't find wording like this on packaging anymore:
'...PRODUCED TO MEET AN INSISTENT DEMAND...' 
'...WILL NOT INJURE THE FINGERS'
'CAN NOT SOIL LIGHT WOOLS'
'NOTE THE POINTS'

The first year of Fonzie the Corgi

Fonzie is a Cardigan Welsh Corgi.


He has remarkable ears - everyone remarks on them.


Like others corgis, he does the 'chicken legs' ...


... and has fabulous, 'tocks / floofy pantaloons.


Apparently he isn't cute enough to get onto Cute Overload. Whisky Tango Foxtrot to that.


Like other corgis he gets into some strange and amusing sleeping positions ...


... providing a neverending source of distraction and amusement.


Which ever way you look at him...


...he is a charismatic chap.

Street art: hippotamus, Fitzroy

Fitzroy,October 2012.

Cole's Funny Picture Book Paper Butterflies

I have two framed paper butterflies in a book art show at Hand Held Gallery.
They are made using paper from Cole's Funny Picture Book.

Summer BAZE

Book Arts and Zine Exhibition

From December 20-24, 2012
&
January 16-23, 2013

@

Hand Held Gallery

Suite 18, upstairs

Paramount Arcade

108 Bourke Street

Melbourne, 3000

Entry via Bourke or little Bourke street. Go straight up escalator to top level.

Contact:

(03)9654 4006

Megan at:

littleredfishy@yahoo.com.au

Gallery opening hours:

Tue-Sat 12-5pm

Belfine Chippendale Santa

My BF pointed this one out to me from a Priceline catalogue. I'd like to emphasize that the target market for these treats just sees Santa and that ours is a grown up point of view.

Okay.

Notice how the skin of Santa and Rudolph is the same as their coats even though they could easily have been given red coats - as evidenced by the Santa in the middle. It makes them look topless, and therefore odd. My BF suggested Santa looked gay - what with Rudolph looking like he is wearing a leather chest harness and mittens, and Santa wearing braces and cuffs. However the other night I watched a bit of the Amazing Race with a pair of Chippendales which I think is closer to Santa's look. Here is your basis for comparison:



In conclusion I put forth that the Belfine Belgian chocolate making folk may have been blissfully unaware of these visual similarities
OR
they are a bunch of filthy minded perverts having a laugh because if you can see it you must be filthy too. And now that I've shown you the similarities you're gonna look at polychrome chocolate characters a little differently now aren't you? ;)

Street Art: fox, Fitzroy

Fitzroy, October 2012.

What's that on the roof?!

Walking down Brunswick Street, Fitzroy, young man to young woman
"We've got find out what the fuck is on top of that roof!"
In hindsight I'm not sure if they were approaching that florist with the enormous flower and his sentence ran into a remark of surprise or they actually have a roof with a mystery something on it. At the time I thought the latter and prefer it that way - perhaps it's a hippopotamus eating cake.

image copyright owned by Hazel Edwards, Deborah Niland

Street Art: Banksy in Fitzroy

In Brunswick Street, Fitzroy, October 2012.

Banksy pays homage to Blek Le Rat, the original stencil using street artist with the rat as his icon.

I'm not sure why Banksy's street art is more valued than others, apart from the prices it commands at galleries. I wouldn't say it is better, more sophisticated or particularly original but it is cool and I do like it. Having dabbled in stencil art recently I can confirm  that these monochromatic pieces took little time execute in situ compared with something full coloured or freehand. Matt black auto paint provides coverage very quickly and you only need a brief, feather light spray to crisply capture the shape in your stencil. It's more about the careful preparation of the stencil in the privacy of the studio. The infamy of Banksy seems to be more about the enigmatic quality of an anonymous artist who has succeeded in evading the authorities for a long time - possibly due the brief time it takes to install the art -  rather than the edginess of the art itself.

Street art: complementary balaclavas, Fitzroy

Fitzroy,October 2012
Sculptural street art near the Fitzroy Nursey. The Free Pussy Riot sticker/flyer was a recent addition at the time of this photo. At the time of posting however, it was gone.

Mali in the City: celebrating 150 years of Melbourne Zoo

Mali is the first elephant born at Melbourne Zoo. To celerate 150 years of Melbourne Zoo, lifesize, fibreglass sculptures of the baby elephant Mali were painted by 50 different artists. The sculptures were then dotted around Melbourne's CBD for 6 weeks, and then displayed for another month at the zoo itself. More about it here.

I didn't see all of them up close but these guys did.

Here are my shots:

A Pattern of Orange-bellied Parrot
Vanessa Bong (sponsored by Queen Victoria Market)
at Queen Victoria Market in Melbourne



Ming Vase Elephant
by Brian Cheung (sponsored by ecoFuture)
at Queen Victoria Market

I was chatting with a lady who said she travelled about to see the sculptures and that this was the best one she had seen. I was very impressed by it myself. I didn't endeavour to see more because I suspected that I had seen what I would conclude was the best one too. It's hard to convey the tonal quality of this piece in a photo.




Detail of side facing wall:

Even more Spring blooms.

This time the blooms have been chosen not so much for their beauty - which is still there - but for their unusual structural qualities.

A rose reminiscent of a love heart:


Some rose buds:


Cephalopodlian Aquilegia buds (I think they look like squid, my housemate F thinks the greenish ones look like seamonster heads):



The same bud but a pretty shot:

Oh, holy corn cob.

Don't you hate it when you drop one of your husked corn cobs from Victoria Market
down the back of the bagging bench at Aldi,
and it plops into their Christmas window display,
lying among little bell shaped chocolates and cotton wool
like Jesus in the manger with straw, and the animals, kings and things,
and you can't reach it,
and you won't leave your stuff unattended
but you really want your corn cob back,
so you hope to catch the eye of the cleaner with his broom
then an attentive check out chick comes and asks what's wrong
and she gets the cleaner to help you out
using the handle of his broom to push the corn cob within reach?

Yeah me too...

Interesting car plates

I don't play with Lego as an adult but I can understand this one. Old school Lego is cool! I quite like SpongeBob SquarePants and it really suits this slightly boxy, yellow hatchback. I can not explain this one. Colour me bemused.

Street art: House, Fitzroy North

Fitzroy North near Alexander Parade ,October 2012 This house is covered in art, including the front fence!

Street art: crushed can, Melbourne CBD

Another cast concrete sculpture in the Melbourne CBD (near corner of Bourke and Elizabeth), possibly from the same artist as this burger and fries. I ran a few random words through Google Translator in both Chinese and Japanese to see if any characters resembling it came up.  The character is Chinese meaning 'dead'. If anyone of you can clarify/confirm I'd like to hear from you in the comments.

Nothing but Flowers.

In North Fitzroy on the window of a vacant commercial/industrial building.

For those of you not quite old enough to know what this is in reference to, here's David Byrne from Talking Heads.