On the (garagesale)trail

I AM VERY INTERESTED IN THE WHOLE OLD FASHION IDEA OF A GARAGE SALE. THE NOTION OF RECYCLING HAS BEEN AROUND FOR EVER AND NOW WE HAVE THANKFULLY SHRUGGED OFF THE LAST RESIDUE OF THE 80S AND ALL THINGS BIGGER, AND NEWER AND MOST EXPENSIVE. ON APRIL 10TH 2010, SYDNEY CITY COUNCIL ALONG WITH OTHER SYDNEY COUNCILS PROMOTED AND
ENCOURAGED A SATURDAY WHICH FOCUSED ON THE GARAGAESALETRAIL. PEOPLE HIT THE STREETS MANNED WITH A MAP AND LOCATIONS OF ALL THE REGISTERED GARAGE SALES. IT WAS A HEAP OF FUN AND EVERYONE CHATTED TO EACH OTHER REGARDLESS BEING A FRIEND OR STRANGER.
LOVE THAT! I LOOKED UP WWW.GARAGESALETRAIL.COM.AU AND FOUND A GREAT PROFILE AND EXPLANATION OF THE IDEA.

Colour me Joy

A short b(l)ack and sides

Redfern Street in inner Sydney was always a little on the thin side for a place to take a coffee and have a chat with friends or locals, until now that is. 

 In the past six months there has been an explosion of cafes, restaurants, and wonderful new stores full of beautiful pre loved things.

The cafe COFFEE, TEA & ME opened just a month or so ago, and it has changed the sense of the hood for the good, better, best. 

Now one finds a strip of Redfern Street full of the most interesting people taking their coffees, sitting on the most charming pre loved, pre used objects 
that work very well as cafe furniture_An old wooden ironing board serves as a table for four, bicycle seats that have been placed on top of stools, 
kindergarten tables and chairs all offer you a place to sit and watch the hustle and bustle of the street.

93B Redfern Street, Redfern Sydney. www.coffeeteaandme.com.au t: 02 9008 7121

Find JOY wherever you can

I know I bang on about the notion of JOY, but really it is a very important thing in our lives. 
It does not take much to generate it, and the effect of it can last a life time. 
It is both a concrete and abstract notion at the same time. 
It can occur accidentally, or through the conscious act of a person, or just by observing one's surrounds.

Remember to celebrate what brings you JOY on the 25th November. 
It will honor my dear boy Jack, who brought us all so much joy and who inspired JOYDAY in the first place.

We shift...

Boats come and go,from ancient places – to lands of myths. Surrounded by blue of the waters and the skies, we slide through these elements sometimes fluid, sometimes blown by the winds of fate.

Always we bob to the surface.

Reinvigorate, Reprocess, Renew

It seems to me that people have embraced the whole notion of recycling, and reinventing with a great sense of creativity.

Emerging from what only a few years ago would have been considered rubbish are beautiful, quirky, and truly desirable objects.

All the lights featured in this article are from Seasonal Concepts 122 Redfern NSW 2016

URBAN STATION_The office of the future

“Dear Michael
Just found an article about this really interesting cafe in Buenos Aires. Go check it out and let me know if it is any good. 
Its called URBAN STATION. Location: El Salvador 4588 Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1414.
Thanks Jack”

“Dear Jack
Really really smart idea.... The office of the future perhaps? I can see lots of these being part of all major cities. 
In New York 3/4 of people in Starbucks were only there for the free WiFi just sitting on their laptops, this place is much more professional and very quiet, so no doubt you could actually get work done... 
Was expecting it really just to be like any other cafe but it was more like an open office, everyone was there to work. 
Really nicely fitted out interior too, but most stores and cafes in this part of Buenos Aires have quite interesting interior design.

[One trendy clothes store was set up in an old bar, but instead of refitting everything, they left all the bottles and bar setup and just improvised the store around it]...
Also there are 2 conference rooms upstairs but I couldn't take pics of the main one as people were having a meeting in there. 

 Talk later.

Michael”

Scratch, Scribble, Spray

Graffiti can be such a hassle, if it does not possess some creative intent.

 If it’s nothing more than some random, and meaningless scribble, 
it can be so disappointing to find on your wall.

Where I live you can see a wide but sadly not varied range of these pointless scribbles and scratchings.
 You can also see how people have tried to paint away these scribbles with whatever paint 
they have lying around in the shed.

One day I was struck by how beautiful these patched walls were as they reminded me strongly of
 Rothko and his adventures in fields of colour and simple, graphic shapes.

All it took was a shift in how I looked at a thing.

GAB FAB

There are a lot of great, exciting streets around the world. 
Streets full of fabulous bars and cafes where one can drink and nibble on yummy tit bits.
Streets full of shops that offer many opportunities to spend our money on things big and small, which we did not know existed, 
let alone desperately need to possess until confronted with them for the first things.

Streets such as Crown Street Surry Hills, Oxford Street in both Sydney & London, or any street in Manhattan, or Paris. 
 But there is an area in Brisbane, known affectionately as the Gabba where a new street experience has emerged, 
where the likes of Canvas bar is found and its gab fab! Enjoy.

All Washed Up_Never

One day I had a revelation when I discovered the photographic work of Bill Eggleston, an American photographer.

He possess an eye and a sensibility which gleams beauty in every corner of one’s ordinary world. His work is truly significant. I thank him.

The Colour of Fairy Floss

Where is magenta on the spectrum?

You can not find magenta in any standard colour spectrum, but you can find it everywhere in life. 
(I wear so much of this colour that I have always said if you cut me I would bleed magenta.) 
There is a considerable amount of unknown information written about it's mysterous existence on the net, such as at en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_psychology. 
Magenta or hot pink, call it what you will, is a colour that constantly makes its presence felt.

Street Finds

One day I came across what appeared to be the front of an old style car garage. No big deal except when I looked in for some reason I found a wonderful shop full of things that should have been seen as old, worn out, past their ‘use by date’.

But I saw, things of beauty things of elegance. I saw clever, witty objects, just like these world globe that had been converted into desk lamp. I was delighted!

I was to find out that this place was called 'Ici La' and you too can visit it as it is just off Devonshire Street, Surry Hills, in Sydney.

Wishes do come true

Rain, Rain, go away

My heart could break from the ironic twist of nature.

Not enough rain brought hand wringing anguish and the tears that were shed were not enough to grow a blade of grass.

Now there is so much rain and there is no where for it to go and this rain is matched only by the tears it triggers from frustration and loss.

Shift your thoughts to our land and all that inhabit it. 
Send it and all its residents hope and love and strength.

There is an Islamic expression that God sends an angel with every rain drop. 
We need an army of angels right now.

Past, Present, Future

GOING TO A LOCAL FLEA MARKET OR ONE OF THOSE DISUSED CINEMAS OR AN OLD WAREHOUSE NOW FULL TO THE BRIM WITH OLD STUFF IS A 

GREAT, CARBON FRIENDLY, FUN IDEA. 
FASHION, WHETHER IT IS THE OBVIOUS CLOTHES WE WEAR, OR THE INTERIOR DESIGN THAT SEEMS TO HAVE BECOME A CONTEMORARY CONSUMER OBSESSION, SHOULD BE YOUR OWN,
 NOT THE VISION OR STYLE OF SOMEONE WHO DOES NOT LIVE YOUR LIFE OR KNOW YOUR QUIRKS AND FANTASIES.

Objects of Delight

Like the saying goes..."I don't know much about art, but I know what I like" 

or one of my favorites, which was expressed to me by a bright young man, 
when we were looking at some of the great master pieces of the 20th century...
"No wonder these are so expensive, looked at those frames!" 

 I love people's responses to art and to imagery that people think is art. 
 If you like it and it brings your pleasure, if it lets your imagination wander to somewhere else, 
then more power to it.

Just a slip of a thing

Great ideas are all around us. Simple in essence. Truly effective design lives in inventive and lateral thinking.

Mo Day

Joy is fleeting so embrace the bringers of it.

Bounce Back

In the 1st world, aka, the developed world, we rail on about recycling and reusing, 
 but the inventive products that are coming out of some of the slums of the 3rd world,
 such as rubber shoulder bags, put us to shame.

Finally we are starting to see some wonderful end results of people taking control of their own circumstances and 
trying to improve them by whatever means available. 
There are stores now that will connect us with these products. 


 The r.e.a.l store in Woolloomooloo is one of them.

Hiding in the open

Street art comes in more than one format_that of paint on walls, it can comes in many guises. Someone, god love them, in Enmore and Newtown has gone to such great care and effort as to cut tiny, beautiful birds out of tin, paint them and then place them in secret places, that are out in the open.

Looking at the bigger picture sometimes mean you miss the tiny stories within. It is in the detail or in the punctuation that the subtle is found.

One year down

A new lease of life

My friend has just moved and she is cleaning out her cupboards. 
She is getting rid of everything they do not use all the time. 
"You can have too much stuff...I just want it gone."

But where does it eventually go? 
And just because you don't want it anymore, has the stuff stopped being useful or even beautiful?

No, it has just grown tried in the eyes of its current owner. 
A lot of my friend's objects will find themselves on the shelves of an opshop. 
There they can make money for some worthy cause, such as animal shetlers, and also avail themselves to a fresh set of eyes, 
who will jump at the opportunity to give this stuff a new home. 
So go out there and recycle, reuse, reinvent_Its FUN.