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Published: December 31st 2007
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G'day again from down under.
We left Noosa the following day to travel further south 2hr, to Brisbane. We arrived at our hostel a short time later and then set out to explore the area we were in, which was just north east of the city center. One of our first stops was at a local cinema to see if No Country for Old Men had arrived yet, and to my excitement it had. I read the book about a year ago and loved it, which led to me reading two more books by McCarthy all being some of my favorite reads. That is just one reason why I have been wanting to see the film. However, I do know that most film adaptations are usually less than perfect when compared to their book counterparts. I was not worried at all though because the film Gods, the Coen Brothers, were helming the project. They have made such greats as Raising Arizona, Fargo, The Big Lebowski (best comedy ever), and O Brother Where Art Thou, just to name a few.
Upon watching he film I had a big grin on my face because of how incredibly faithful it was to
the book and on top of that, it even had the Coen Brothers style peppered throughout. An instant classic in my opinion. It has been a highlight of the trip 😊
Before I was blown away by the awesomeness of the film, Paul and I walked to the local gothic cathedral where we were pleasently surprised to find a nice man that gave us a tour of the building. Hearing about the history of the place, and anything in general, makes it that much more alive. We learned that the construction of the building had started around 1906 and was scheduled to be completed around 1914, but due to a lack of funding the building has not been finished even today. Our guide was very pleased to tell us though, that the building will be finally completed late next year.
The following day we explored downtown Brisbane. First we went up to the top of a clock tower about city hall to get a better view of the cityscape, but even the top of the building was nothing compared to all of the glassed sky scrapers that dominate the city. In city hall there was a small museum
which had a very unique exhibit on the local mental institution. Providing information on the history of the place, and the ever changing history of social thought on people with psychological disorders.
We then walked to the decently sized Brisbane museum where we got the usual info on the animals of the country, the aboriginals, and the minerals. I learned that kangaroos can cover a distance that is 6.8 times their height, in one hop. For a 6 ft tall kangaroo that is about 40ft! The longest recorded single jump by a human is 21 ft, so we have our work cut out for us. Oh yeah and there was an exhibit on how dogs have helped humans over the years which was quite unique. One tidbit of info that I didn't know, was that dogs were used in Vietnam to find enemy.
We then hit a couple art museums, one contemporary, one modern. The modern one was ok. It seems that all of the modern art galleries I have been in have this pretentious air to them. Maybe it is the people that I see there or because I don't really think some of the stuff should
be considered art, but it's official, modern art museums are now dead to me. I enjoyed the contemporary one way more. It even had this super sweet pool of water in the lobby with hundreds of floating silver balls in it. Very cool.
We then saw The Golden Compass, which was so so. Definately not directed at my age group, but if you are between the ages of 6-12, or you think like a 6-12 year old, you will love it.
Today I had my victory! I got to ruff up the hair of a koala 😊 We took a bus out of the city center to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary, which had maybe 50 koalas. Heaven better have koalas in it because they are one of the most adorable creatures I have ever seen. I took 70 pictures in a 3 hr time period while at the sanctuary.
The koala wasn't the only creature there though, we also got to frolic with some kangaroos and wallabees, watch some sheep dogs herd, and checked out the oversized beak of the kookaburra bird. I found out that the reason koalas are always so sleepy is because they
need to conserve their energy due to the only nutrients they get being from eucalyptus leaves that don't really provide much water.
Alright that is all for now. Enjoy the cute pics 😊
Daniel
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Koala energy
So what do they conserve their energy to do? Eat more? I love that the architecture of the mall is artistic. So, that ceiling also is a source of daylight? Form and function? I hope the sheep dog can be made clearer. I love that picture, as I do of all of your compositions. Love.