Do people really have fun at fun fairs these days?
Maybe they're a great night out for rural folks deprived of outings most of the year round but living in an over-stimulated metropolis, I can tell you our famous Luna Park, despite it's utterly spectacular setting right by the Sydney Harbour Bridge, is decidedly bedraggled these days and there are no queues for any of the rides. It is only open a couple of nights a week and that is because of two things -- noise complaints from the yuppies who moved in to expensive high-rises nearby built since its heyday, and the fact that the amusements can't advertise something new each week the way cinemas can, or provide the illusion of freshness the way, say, shops can by cunningly rearranging their wares.
The promise of something new is rather crucial to a night out these days, and you've been on all these rides before.
Mum and Dad took you when you were a kid, and that WAS fun (ie, a new experience). You visit again with friends when you're a teenager just for a daft night out; and you do it again on a date . . . but you don't go back again till you've got kids old enough to go on a few rides, do you.
And then you might take your nieces, nephews or grandchildren as a favour to the family.
That's a total of five times over about 80 years -- and Luna Park can't run a business on that.
But there's one kind of adult who is still a big kid at a fair at any age, and that's the photographer.
Photography nuts alone probably sustain fairs now, with their pictures of magically-lit whirls and wheels always a hit in shows and websites. They become magicians and illusionists themselves playing with light and long exposures, creating haloes, trails and shadows and selling us back that idea of fun.
While you couldn't drag me on to a rollercoaster these days, you can certainly dazzle me with pictures of the fun it's meant to be.
Fairs are an ideal subject for HDR processing too, because there's no such thing as too over the top where fantasies and nostalgia are concerned.
A specialist in the magic of the night and things that whirl and swirl is Notley Hawkins of Columbia, Missouri, who has posted nearly 800 photos of fairs on his Flickr site.
I have used his images here so click on any to explore more.
Curmudgeon's corner
Back to the subject of not having fun at fairs, because eg one is not a photographer or an American, also see David Hughes -- aka Strobelit Goldfish here.
New to Posterous but not to blogging, he has featured as one of his first items a muttering about "worst theme parks" -- and recommended driving on by when feeling tempted to go to even a good one.
That's David though. He's a friend. He's also a fun guy in his own way but just not inclined to get over-excited about anything ;=)
(Seriously, I love him and am one of his biggest fans. I also happen to agree -- but I can't resist the bright lights when it comes to colour photography.)
Paris London Paris
"Vanvos" (Giammario someone; no name supplied) is at this address and is or was in Florence, Italy, which he has photographed extensively. Then there are other well-known cities -- those I've featured were taken in Paris, London and Paris.
Hello? Anyone?
Hello. I am new here and not entirely sure where I am heading, so I thought I'd start with where I've been.
Most people who know me at all in the land of shared and recommended websites know me as Judefa from a relatively tiny network called Stumbleupon.
But while I still use SU -- every day, in fact -- I spend more time and get more from Facebook these days, and simply send my recommendations on to SU; and post the occasional rant or review.
Social networking and bookmarking has changed so much over the four years I've been involved that I find myself constantly re-evaluating and discovering something new. So what I said last month may not be what I will say next, but what I will say this month is:
1) Facebook rules for ease of use, interactive discussion on news and politics and finding links via public pages and searches.
2) I try to keep up with a few hundred blogs, news sources, Flickr members and Facebookers via RSS but there are never enough hours in the day. That irritates the shit out of me actually, because I am greedy, a voracious reader and so very eager to impress everyone who comes to my pages. ;=)
Click avs and icons for links to . . . Facebook and Tumblr
Flickr galleries, Flickr favourites, Delicious, Stumbleupon, Twitter
3) When I need my spirits lifting or just a break from words, facts and opinions, I often immerse myself in Flickr or Tumblr. Flickr offers the perfect respite from words and from grief about world affairs -- I save favourite images there and look at some of them again and again. I have been collecting them under themes as well, which is rather fun.
4) Tumblr has turned out to be another good source of arts, and so I trade findings there with other Tumblr members when I just want to consume or display what pleases the eye and imagination.
Please connect with me in Facebook if you're interested in news and world affairs; we can share so much more that way. And if it's arts and photography you're after, look at my favourites in Flickr; I am excited about so much going on there.
My blog here consists mostly of imported posts so far but will likely be a new home.
~ ~ ~
PS I am on Twitter as well but I don't do anything the slightest bit interesting there. I mostly go there to see who's been writing and what they're on about. Ideally I'd follow more trusted news sources and commentators, and get more out of it that way, but I do find it short on more than just words. There are too many hash marks, @ signs, codes and telegramese . . . I couldn't get addicted to it any more than I could to a teleprinter.
Now how to sign off? I'm not even sure who I'm talking to here -- possibly just the six subscribers; possibly not even them. I knew so many people in Stumbleupon but we've all scattered to the winds, let down by changes and lured to scores of new networks, each offering something we didn't have before. -- Jude
Dog-whistle politics (for a white Australia)
Greg Barns, a lawyer and refugee advocate, writes here about new Australian PM Julia Gillard, who took over the country's leadership in an astonishing coup less than two weeks ago, and her position -- announced today --- on asylum-seekers (a subject that always raises its ugly head when an election is looming):
Her policy position on asylum seekers announced today, a key feature of which is that Australia palms off its responsibilities to one of the poorest countries in the world, East Timor, and a smaller neighbour that we treat with contempt because we are the big boys in the schoolyard, New Zealand, is as immoral and cruel as the nonsense being peddled by a desperate Opposition.
And my own 2c worth . . .
The previous waves of boatpeople arriving on Austraiian shores were fleeing the communists in Vietnam, so that was all right. Or, Aussies hadn't been taught to "hate" asylum-seekers yet. Stories were often told of what those people had endured, and how they succeeded, given the chance of a new life in Australia.
I would readily concede there is a problem if it could be proven that Asians are exploiting a weakness here to arrive as free immigrants, instead of paying the very large sums required to come here through normal channels. But I haven't seen a shred of such evidence, and you can bet if there was any it would be waved in front of us by those who play the "border security" card. When investigations are done genuine displacement and trauma is always found in cases I've heard of.
Also, in processing through the detention centres something like 95% of those who arrive are eventually accepted as genuine refugees -- although there is an alarming new tendency to send them back if they come from certain countries. eg Afghanistan (believe it or not) and Sri Lanka, cos the government here has done deals with governments with those countries, with mutual benefits.
Master of photography and exploring
The Belgium-based photographer who calls himself Suspiciousminds takes urban exploring seriously, which means he takes risks. His results are exquisite and have been shown in solo exhibitions.
Go here for his own website, complete with atmospheric sound and details about the places he's explored, and to Flickr to see a vast collection of photos taken in forbidden and forlorn buildings. By vast we're talking more than 300 sets of photos. At least some, such as a visit to a disused psychiatric hospital, are accompanied by stories which add a certain tension.
Australia's new PM is a fervent Zionist
Poster found on Antony Loewenstein's blog, essential reading on the lobby and Zionist tendencies in Australia. The Palestinian viewpoint is seldom heard in this country but Loewenstein is a tireless and fearless agitator and in spite of all the flak he gets I have never seen him dejected.
This made me shiver ...
Ziggy Marley -- so much like his father -- performing with the Chieftains. The sound of those pipes too is pure soul (to me).
THE VICTORIANS DID LOVE A GOOD FREAK SHOW...
… but is a little-known fact that giants walked among us in Victorian times, too, and snatched perfectly normal people right off the street. “Little people” were so cute and irresistible to them, you see, and made perfect pets and toys for their wealthy.





















