Half-time at the G

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SLAVE GUITARS with members of Melbourne's BLACK BATS (pictured below) in rehearsal for their half-time performance at tomorrow's Collingwood v Geelong AFL Grand Final.

Melbourne is famous for its fluctuating weather. (Four Seasons in One Day - Crowded House) It's not surprising, therefore, that umbratecture has evolved such a distinctive form in this place. No surprise either, given the 30% chance of hail hitting the MCG during tomorrow's game, that these home town favorites should be called on again for their extraordinary crowd-crazer rendition of Chuck Berry's Hail! Hail! Rock 'n' Roll! .

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when one becomes one hundred

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Julia Gillard, Prime Minister of Australia, turns 5o today.
Happy Birthday, we say. Joyeux anniversaire, slightly different.
(Does one still receive a telegram from The Queen when one becomes one hundred?)

1oo is regarded as important, by some. Ten to the power of ten.

Alternative bases to the decimal/base-ten system

Some cultures do, or did, use other numeral systems, most notably pre-Columbian Mesoamerican cultures such as the Maya used a base 20 system (using all twenty fingers and toes) and the Babylonians used base 60.

In addition, it has been suggested that many other cultures developed alternative numeral systems (although the extent is debated):
Many or all of the Chumashan languages originally used a base 4 counting system, in which the names for numbers were structured according to multiples of 4 and 16.
Many languages use quinary number systems, including Gumatj, Nunggubuyu, Kuurn Kopan Noot and Saraveca. Of these, Gumatj is the only true "5-25" language known, in which 25 is the higher group of 5.
Some Nigerians use base 12 systems[citation needed]
The Huli language of Papua New Guinea is reported to have base 15 numerals. Ngui means 15, ngui ki means 15×2 = 30, and ngui ngui means 15×15 = 225.
Umbu-Ungu, also known as Kakoli, is reported to have base-24 numerals. Tokapu means 24, tokapu talu means 24×2 = 48, and tokapu tokapu means 24×24 = 576.
Base 27 is used in two natural languages, the Telefol language and the Oksapmin language of Papua New Guinea.[citation needed]
Ngiti is reported to have a base 32 numeral system with base 4 cycles.

from wikipedia : Decimal

108 is regarded as sacred, by some

64 is the number your correspondent has long imagined as cause for octopus celebration

5772 is the Jewish calendar year. It begins today.

Rosh Hashanah (Hebrew: ראש השנה‎), (literally "head of the year"), is the Jewish New Year. It is the first of the High Holidays or Yamim Noraim ("Days of Awe"), celebrated ten days before Yom Kippur. Rosh Hashanah is observed on the first two days of Tishrei, the seventh month of the Hebrew calendar. It is described in the Torah as יום תרועה (Yom Teru'ah, a day of sounding [the Shofar]).

from wikipedia : Rosh Hashanah

Meantime the boats of Visa seekers continue en mass towards the Australia(n) Processing Facility~Offshore in the Giardini Pubblici, Venice.

The Gillard Government's Venice Solution still has many critics.

Happy Birthday, Prime Minister!

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More Taking A Punt

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In Venice the boats continue to arrive at the Paul Cox designed, redesignated Australia(n) Processing Centre~Offshore.



The banks of the canal are looking worn now and much of the Giardini foliage has been trampled as the boatpeople numbers increase.



Cultural emigres and other desperate persons, each hoping for a Temporary Exhibition Visa to the proposed Australia(n) Pavilion ~Offshore.



The new arrivals quickly assimilate into the watching crowd.



Many are umbratects, or umbrellatects, and all distinctive as such. Theirs is perhaps the keenest interest in the Venice Biennale~ Australia(n) Pavilion~Offshore project.



There are many entire families. Above, parents watch for boats as their children fish.

There are unaccompanied minors, too. And children who are lost or separated. Below, a boy panics.

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White-faced heron family

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The office of bLOGOS/HA HA is in a bush setting shared with a great variety of birds. By size, from silver eyes, pardelottes, robins, fantails, firetails, honey-eaters; blackbirds, thrushes and native pidgeons; many parrots and cockatoos; magpies, crows, currawongs; kookaburras and wattle birds; ducks; owls (usually only heard), hawks and the occasional wedge tailed eagle. (Recently, there was a great bird panic - all alarm calls and fleeing flight - as a wedge-tailed eagle skimmed overhead with a ring-tailed possum in its talons.)

Though not rare in Australia, the white-faced heron or blue crane is not common in this place. The arrival of a pair, then the building of their nest almost immediately above us is like having very special guests.

In recent weeks they have sat through gale-force winds (115 km at Ballarat) and nights down to zero. Our awareness and admiration grows. Currawongs and wattlebirds, regular raiders for blackbird and other chicks, have checked close and attempted to intimidate, but without success.

Three chicks are now being fed by their dutiful parents.

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Rhinoceros! Rhinoceros!

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Today is World Rhinoceros Day. It's true - we heard it on the radio this morning.

read article here:
WWF Calls for End to Rhino Poaching on World Rhino Day

Which is quite a coincidence because, following a tip-off by the Black Bats, we've been researching the history of one of our favorite plays, Rhinoceros (1959) by Eugène Ionesco.

As part of that research, we talked with members of a local Theatre of the Actors of Regard tableaux troupe. Ionesco's Rhinoceros was well known to them also. Discussion about that lead us on to Pietro Longhi's Clara the rhinoceros (1751).

click here to enlarge

Many of his paintings show Venetians at play, such as the depiction of the crowd of genteel citizens awkwardly gawking at a freakish Indian rhinoceros (see image). This painting, on display at the National Gallery in London, chronicles Clara the rhinoceros brought to Europe in 1741 by a Dutch sea captain and impresario from Leyden, Douvemont van der Meer. This rhinoceros was exhibited in Venice in 1751.[2] There are two versions of this painting, nearly identical except for the unmasked portraits of two men in Ca' Rezzonico version.[3] Ultimately, there may be a punning joke to the painting, since the young man on the left holds aloft the sawed off horn (metaphor for cuckoldry) of the animal. Perhaps this explains the difference between the unchaperoned women.

from Wikipedia : Pietro Longhi

Apparently, this painthing was one of the key inspirations for the founding of Theatre of the Actors of Regard.

As is stated in the Wikipedia extract, Pietro Longhi was a Venetian and the scene above is Venetian too. Thus link-by-link we return to our ongoing consideration of Australia's Venice Solution: the proposed AUSTRALIA(N) PAVILION~OFFSHORE

The tip-off mentioned earlier is that Melbourne's mischievous Black Bats have organised with a group of Venetian umbratects (UV) to present today, among the crowd who increasingly gather around the AUSTRALIA PROCESSING FACILITY in the Giardini Pubblici, an umbratecture performance after Ionesco' Rhinoceros.

AUSTRALIA : Doors Closed _ file photo

While that is happening in Venice, in the Australia(n) Parliament the Gillard/Labor Party government will attempt to amend the law that the High Court recently ruled illegal, the sending of asylum seekers to places Offshore for Processing.

Asylum bill due for vote today
Michelle Grattan
THE AGE, September 22, 2011

Black Bats/UV poster : black hide/silver horns

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WEST SPACE 2011 FUNDRAISER

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Opening tonight at the new WEST SPACE premises, in central Melbourne, the annual fundraiser.



As always a mighty list of supporting artists :

Adam Cruickshank | Alasdair McLuckie | Alesh Macak | Alex Martinis Roe | Alex Vivian | Andy Hutson | Ash Keating | Azlan McLennan | Ben Sheppard | Benedict Ernst | Betra Fraval | Bianca Hester | Bill Sampson | Black Bats | Brad Haylock | Brett Jones | Brie Trenerry | Brodie Ellis | Bryan Spier | Camilla Tadich | Carmen Reid | Caroline Williams | Carolyn Eskdale | Charles O'Loughlin | Christopher Koller | Concettina Inserra | Dane Lovett | David Mutch | David van Royen | Dell Stewart | Dominic Redfern | Drew Pettifer | Emily Ferretti | Fleur Summers | Glenn Walls | Greg Woods | Hannah Raisin | Helen Johnson | Ieuan Weinman | Irene Hanenbergh | James Kenyon | Jan Murray | Jane Korman | Jelena Telecki | Jennifer Mills | Jessie Scott | John R.Neeson | John Wolseley | Jordan Wood | Julian Smith | Justin Andrews | Kat Clarke | Kate Daw | Kate Matthews | Kay Abude | Kellie Wells | Kez Hughes | Kiera Brew Kurec | Kieran Stewart | Kiron Robinson | Kit Wise | Laith McGregor | Liang Xia Luscombe | Lillian O'Neil | Lou Hubbard | Marika Nilsen | Martine Corompt | Masato Takasaka | Matthew Shannon | Meredith Turnbull | Mia Salsjo | Michael Graeve | Michael Vale | Mila Faranov | Nat Thomas | Natalie Ryan | Nicholas Jones | Nick Waddell | Olivia Pintos-Lopez | Patrick Pound | Penelope Aitken | Peter Tyndall | Philip Samartzis | Pip Ryan | Polly Stanton | Prue Crome | Quenton Miller | Raafat Ishak | Ross Coulter | Rowan McNaught | Rozalind Drummond | Sally Smart | Sangeeta Sandrasegar | Sanne Mestrom | Sarah CrowEST | Sarah Stubbs | Scott Mitchell | Sean Peoples | Sharon Billinge | Sherry McLane Alejos | Simon MacEwan | Simon Pericich | Siri Hayes | Skye Kennewell | Sophia Hewson | Spiros Panigirakis | Steven Rendall | Sue Dodd | Tai Snaith | Taree Mackenzie | Tim Hillier | Tony Garifalakis | Torie Nimmervoll | Utako Shindo | Veronica Kent | Viv Miller | Vivian Cooper Smith + more

Among the offerings is a special limited release of application forms for the TEMPORARY EXHIBITION VISA to the proposed AUSTRALIA(N) PAVILION~OFFSHORE : Australia's Venice Solution.

click here to contact WEST SPACE

This as the Australian Government and the Opposition squabble over their competing visions for Asylum Seeker Offshore Processing Legislation.

Gillard, Abbott asylum meeting lasts just 15 minutes
THE AGE, September 19, 2011
read article here

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Hendrix Live at FIAPCE

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Our senior member of staff informs us that today is the 40th anniversary of Jimi Hendrix Xit

He's brought in his LP of ARE YOU EXPERIENCED to show us. No question mark, he points out about the caption, and like a pair of Buddha eyes. On the back in biro, Dec 1967.



Reckons a year after Jimi died he reformed as FIAPCE !?

click to enlarge

Reckons those eyes on ARE YOU EXPERIENCED must have haunted him for this one too, along with his EP of Voodoo Child, Hey Joe and All Along the Watchtower

Not necessarily stoned, but beautiful...

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Lama Lhundrup

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News arrives. Lama Lhundrup, the much loved Abbot of Kopan Monastery, Nepal, has died.

Photos and an account here :
The Last Days on Earth
by Venerable Roger Kunsang

In 1988 your correspondent had the good fortune to be at Kopan Monastery over several months. Lama Lhundrup registered deeply. From that time, here he is with Lama Osel at his side making offering prayers at the 12th century ruins of the great monastic university Nalanda, India.

At our door here, we've a tulip also in its last days of radiance. Petals wider each day, soon they will fall away. Projection-space of the Dutch mania. Projection-space colours of that great monk's robes.

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9/11

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Oddly, perhaps; subconsciously, intuitively... the first image that comes to mind is by El Greco. In the beginning was the Word (LOGOS)

The Adoration of the Name of Jesus

The subject is based on a text in the gospel of St Paul, but it can also be read as an allegory of the victory of the Holy League over the Ottoman fleet at Lepanto in 1571. The figure dressed in black in the foreground is identifiable as King Philip; the man in the yellow robe as a doge of Venice; the old man opposite him as the pope; and the figure on the left as Don John of Austria, the commander of the Christian fleet at the battle. In the heavens is a monogram formed from IHS–the first three letters of the name Jesus in Greek, also In Hoc Signo and Jesus Hominum Salvator.

from Wikipedia

The Third of May, 1808
by Goya (1814)

26 April 1937
Guernica (1937) by Pablo Picasso.

It was created in response to the bombing of Guernica, Basque Country, by German and Italian warplanes at the behest of the Spanish Nationalist forces, on 26 April 1937, during the Spanish Civil War. (Wikipedia)

a detail of Guernica :

20-2-1919
Date of a postcard correspondence, send from St Philbert, France,
addressed to Chere petite Marie et Luciess
L' Aéroplane (1909)
The postcard image

To end this anniversary sequence

Crawl or fly out (1973)

by Colin McCahon, from his Jet out series

see them all here

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Temporary Exhibition Visas : Unofficial Processing Process

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In Australia, the Government and Opposition continue to argue the merits and possibilities of establishing an Australia(n) Offshore Facility.

Julia Gillard enlists Tony Abbott on offshore processing of asylum-seekers
by Matthew Franklin / The Australian

Meanwhile, in Venice the queues continue to grow at the proposed Visa Processing Facility, the previous Australia(n) Pavilion in the giardini of the Venice Biennale. New Arrivals desperate to gain a Temporary Exhibition Visa to the still-hypothetical Offshore Australia(n) Pavilion have been pressuring Australian Officials for some form of status documentation .

Although it has no legal validity, to mollify the visa seekers Officials have begun rubber-stamping the various proffered identity documents.

Venice portrait studios are said to be exceptionally busy.
What backdrop would you prefer, Signora?
Something 'offshore'?
Something to show off your umbrella?
Certainly...

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WoManStyling LaFrance

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Our previous post was ManStyling Marvellous Mebourne (here) - lots of history, language and ideas in those three words.

Today we regard the arrangement of stamps on an envelope recently received from Dreux, France : WomanStyling LaFrance, lots of history, language and ideas here too.

click image to enlarge

Alongside the six Yves Beaujard-signed "definitive" stamps of the 2008 Marianne et l'Europe series...

Marianne is a national emblem of France and an allegory of Liberty and Reason. She represents the state and values of France, differently from another French cultural symbol, the "Coq Gaulois" ("Gallic rooster") which represents France as a nation and its history, land, culture, and variety of sport disciplines in their combative forms.

...are two tag-signed stamps that re-present the street art of MISS.TIC

Miss.Tic est une artiste plasticienne et poète d'art urbain née le 20 février 1956 à Paris. Ses œuvres apparaissent dans le paysage pictural et urbain en 1985.

Marianne and MISS.TIC : equally and indifferently over-stamped cancelled obliterated

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ManStyling Marvellous Melbourne

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Melbourne Spring Fashion Week begins today.

We Who Are Men at bLOGOS/HA HA are looking forward to

In conversation : ManStyling
( event information here )



It's always a joy to behold any (dis)play of Richard Nylon (above), a participant in the ManStyling discussion; as it is to follow the adventures in vêtements of bLOGOS/HA HA's favorite French fashion correspondent, Louis Marchon.

This is Louis in tableau vivant as the Actor of Looking (Fashion)

Theatre of the Actors of Regard

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Offshore Pavilion Solution : The Response

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Since word got out about the Offshore Australia(n) Pavilion option for Australia's participation in the Venice Biennale the response has been extraordinary.

As reported on ABC.TV : Debate over Australia's cultural stage in Venice

Although the Offshore Solution is yet to get the official nod, umbratects internationale, under their distinctive club-colours umbrellas, along with the zippier zealots of the Art Cult are already arriving en masse at the former Australia Pavilion in the Venice giardini.

Insisting this will soon be confirmed as the Processing Facility for the Offshore Australia(n) Pavilion - despite the denials of puzzled Australian Officials - the New Arrivals are forming orderly queues in anticipation of being among the first to be issued Temporary Exhibition Visas.

Even a Black Bat, from Melbourne...

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Offshore Australia(n) Pavilion for Venice Biennale

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Yesterday, the High Court of Australia ruled 6:1 against the legality of the Australian Government's proposed offshore asylum-seekers swap-deal, the so-called Malaysia Solution.

☂ ☂ ☂ ☂

Several months ago we suggested here "in line with Australia's current immigration self-portrait, the next Australian Pavilion for the Venice Biennale could be sited offshore".

Since then we've been contacted by an umbratect (of Melbourne's Black Bats) who has already done just that.

bLOGOS/HA HA understands that the Australian Government and the Australia Council are aware of this development. And that their support for it is under active consideration.

The proposal is :

☂ that International Travelers (IT) to the Venice Biennale who wish to enter the Offshore Australia(n) Pavilion (OAP) be required to meet strict Eligibility Criteria (EC) [yet to be determined]
☂ that the present, Philip Cox designed, Australia(n) Pavilion in the Giardini be retained, but not for the purpose of staging exhibitions
☂ rather, that it serve as an orderly, regional, application and assessment Processing Facility (PF) re. eligibility to access the offshore site
☂ that those determined as Eligible (E) be required to fully fund own visitation costs : i.e. at no cost to Australian Tax Payers (ATP)
☂ that those determined as Eligible (E) agree to travel blindfolded to and from Exhibition Australia (EA)
☂ that those determined as Eligible (E) be issued Temporary Exhibition Visas (TEV)
☂ finally, that the location of the Offshore Australia(n) Pavilion remain known only to Australia(n) Officials (AO)

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