December's Street Chair

There are a thousand delightful, surprising cameos on our local streets and lanes...everyday.

And abandoned chairs seem to be a part of many of them.

Give something that is not brand new for Christmas

Christmas is upon us and money is being thrown around like water buying new, unnecessary stuff for people who one may or may not love or even like.

But it is about giving that we are told makes us better people.

I reckon what would make us even better people that giving new things, is finding things that already exist and saving them from becoming landfill.

Go to an 'op shop', a fete, a fantastic store like Seasonal Concepts in Redfern or the Flea market in Athens and find that unique thing that has a history and is made to last.
It will be half the price and ten times the quality of today's mass produced objects.

Do it. It is fun going through those places and the satification you feel when you have FOUND IT!

Recycle, upcycle, repurpose. 

Run away and join the world : City Circus Athens

City Circus is a wonderful hostel, literally in the heart of Athens.
It is a ‘ball of style’. 

And it has a beautifully design website to give you all the information you will need to organize your stay there.

The site has a sense of fun and its playful concept and visual communication is consistent with the quality of style and detail that one will find at this refreshingly charming place,

where one can rest their mind, body and soul. Well at least until the next round of adventures and drinks.

People do not get the recognition for the designing and production of good websites, so here are the credits for the website:

Designed by faze.gr

Developed by George Alatzas

Photos by Olga Tzimou

The following text is found on the City Circus site, and it will give you all the information you need to have a WONDERFUL time in one of the great cities of the world.

“The two buildings that house City Circus Hostel and Zampanó restaurant are dated from the late 19th century and have been declared historical monuments.

 Being regarded as the epitome of turn-of-the-century Greek architecture, they are considered a cultural cornerstone of the Psyrri area. The buildings remained largely unused from 1970 until 2011 when the City Circus team discovered them in their search for the ideal location. 

It was a perfect match.

After a whole year of preparations and internal redesign work, City Circus opened its doors in the summer of 2012 and quickly became one of the highest rated hostels in Europe”.

CITY CIRCUS ATHENS

16 Sarri str. Athens 105 53, Greece

CONTACT US

tel. +30 2130 237244

fax. +30 2130 237244

email. info[at]citycircus[dot]gr

skype. city circus

Colour of 2018: Purple

Colour of 2018: Purple

Tokyo Colours No.2: GreenTeaGreen

Tokyo is one of the world’s great megacities.
Full of contemporary and not so contemporary buildings and roads ways and overpasses, and urban railway lines,
and electrical overhead wires, and all the other elements that makes up one of these huge, modernist grey landscapes. 

But there is green too. In the forests, meadows and parks. It is a city full of nature, just hiding behind something man made.

Good design does not have a 'used by' date.

Fake wooden wall panels are usually the worst interior scenario, but not this time.
Parker furniture from the mid sixties and the glass grapes are perfect;
not to mention the orange sheer curtains and ‘mother-in-law tongues in a cement pot.

Most of the beautiful Danish furniture in this home designed and produced in the mid twentieth century, had collected dust in the back of ‘op-shops’ for decades.
Now and for the past decade these wonderful pieces of design are  being grabbed by inner city interior retailers.
Sadly, much of this furniture is has become over priced and over exposed.
But there is still hope for lovers of past design who have a limited budget.

Go out to the small country towns, and you might find treasures untapped, although they will probably need a lot of work.

(These images were created by the wonderful photographer Harold David, who was so supportive in the early days of Shiftazine.)

Beauty Unrecognised: JoyDay

#shiftazine and a street surprise. #lookaroundyou #rubbishthatain’t #beautyunrecognised #Joyday.

Yes its here. That important day of the year where joy is your main consideration.
A piece of plastic from a construction site caught on some barbed wire, shredded and dancing in the wind.
Beautiful.
Joyful.
A street surprise.
It is ever present in out urban lives.

JoyDay: 25th November...every year.

JoyDay is coming: 25th November

JoyDay is coming on the 25th of November, and as always
the key thing to remember for that day, is to celebrate
the tiny or maybe big things that bring you joy.

We focus on the negative too much (I am guilty of that) but
it is the recognised, and sometimes unrecognised, joys that surround us which can 
bring a healthy, happy boost to our lives.

This image is a shadow play I recorded in Melbourne a few years back.
I loved the image but just did not know what it was that delighted me about it.
Then I realised, it was the range of hues and tones within the shadows that
spoke to me.

So have a look into the shadows (a good thing to do from time to time anyway),
and find the surprising colours within.

A small joy but joy is joy.

Wallism_November: Ode to 'old school' design

Package design is an ever-present part of the urban landscape. 

Strangely, cigarette and tobacco packaging, a key to the overall identity of this commodity,
is vilified in many modern cultures.
Although people within those cultures still use the product inside.

In other cultures, usually more ‘old school’, this visual language is still considered an attractive and acceptable part
of the every day advertising and promotion campaigns.

Spinster Bar: Hip Bars of Athens: No.2

Bar No.2: Spinster.

Shiftazine likes this bar very much as it is opened morning, noon and night.
Athens in the past few years has had a renaissance of groovy, user friendly bars that one can go to, sit and drink a great cocktail and
it is not all about loud music and people’s arms being waved in your face while wildly dancing.

These bars are about kicking back and just chatting and relaxing.

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Spinster Bar is a welcoming, relaxing, sophisticated haven, which is perfect to hide from the Athenian noon heat or to start an evening out.

You will find Spinster Bar just behind the Athens Town Hall, around the corner from Fresh Hotel.

A bit of wear and tear makes a thing more interesting

It is such an old fashion surface for every day objects,

but it is a breath of fresh air to see..
Even when its chipped it looks good.

Like most things in life, a bit of wear and tear just makes a thing more interesting.