TET.Life (The Extraordinary Tourist Life)

It's another 'False Lama', the sound of a van pulling into the neighbours driveway. I'm expecting a package in the post so I'm listening for the mail van. False Lamas are frustrating. They laugh in your face. Fooled you again we did! My package will be here soon, I'm sure. I continue to wait. What was that? A vehicle? Was that in our driveway? I hurry to look. Anticipation... but no. Just another false lama. The other neighbour's car. False lama's playing tricks on me.

Some day I'm going to be one of those people who live on the hill. You've seen their houses, crammed together high on the hill side, two stories high, positioned to maximize the view across the valley to the horizon beyond. My home town of Gawler has many of these houses. The town is located in a valley and part way up several hills. It's clear that the people on the hill have money because their two story houses are like mini mansions but without the wide open grounds. They're packed together like tourists on a lookout, all fighting for the best view. Enjoying one of my semi regular walks around the town, it struck me that most of the houses on the hill add very little to the view you see from the valley below. Whilst they may have spectacular views from their balcony, the exteriors of the hill houses look plain and uninspired. Architectural Blah. Before those houses were built there used be trees, wildlife, scrub land and more. The view used to be so much better than ...

The concept of being paid to do online surveys has been around for a while now but lately I've been bombarded by a relative who is trying to convince me that these things are a great way to earn extra cash. About an hour a day is all it takes with some sites paying anywhere between $5-$10 per survey. I have never met anyone that enjoys filling in a form of any kind so completing surveys is not exactly something you do for the pure joy of putting ticks in little boxes. It's more of a 'if I take a bit of time to do something tedious I'll be rewarded' kind of thing. Which is not to say all surveys are dull and boring ...but the majority of online ones are (at least in my experience). Some surveys will pay more based on whether you qualify...i.e. whether you're in the demographic. The results of these are some what questionable when you consider I know people who give false answers in order to qualify and earn the bigger dollars. Not that I care. You see, the questi...

I've been observing the goings on surrounding my partner's teenage son's acquisition of a new (well second hand new) car. At the moment the car is unregistered so it stays parked in the driveway, with the occasional move from one of our driveways to the other. Of course, when a teenage man gets a new car then all his friends must come around for a look. Specifically they come around to sit in the car, look at the engine and watch the engine rev, just to see how it sounds. Second hand cars are nearly always 'fixer uppers' and this one is no exception. Remembering back to when I was about 17 years old, in any one group of young men that age, there is usually, maybe one, who knows something about cars (he's the one who actually wants to be a mechanic). The rest know bits and pieces here and there but have no real clue about how to make a car work. They've just watched someone else fix their cars (perhaps) and maybe paid some attention to what the mechanic did....

Maybe it is just me but if I traveled half way around the world to create a sculpture for a public park - I'd want to make something breath taking. Something that would perhaps inspire. Or at least something that would be as equally impressive as the view. Barossa Sculpture Park was created as part of a Barossa International Sculpture Symposium which was held in 1988. Nine sculptors from Japan, the USA, France and Australia took part, over six weeks, to each create sculptures that "reflect the environment they stand in and draw attention to the different aspects of the hills, its landforms, the valley and its people below." (to quote the plaque). As you may have guessed the park is located on a hill, Mengler Hill near Tanunda in the Barossa, South Australia, to be precise. It sits just below the Mengler lookout area which features spectacular views of the valley below. One can't help but feel that the artists took one look at the fantastic view and decided that there ...

It's always nice to rate a mention in another blog but it's even better to be the headline act. Well headline of a post that is. John Firestone of the Iridescent Art News at Pennlive.com has featured me and my video on minimalist art in an article that also discusses the artwork of Robert Ryman (my regular readers will know the connection between Robert and I). It's an interesting article. John really appreciates Robert's art and can give you some insight as to why minimalist art isn't actually the art world playing a joke on the masses. [ Read John's Article ]

George Bush, in his earlier years, may have once been asked the question, 'What Super Power would you have?' It's entirely debatable as to whether he has the wit or the intelligence to make the connections needed to respond with my speculative answer. However, he is the leader of one of the worlds great Super Powers so perhaps an adviser will take him aside and explain my joke!