Hamstaa!

Down the road from our office is a stage props company. Over the last year I've seen some interesting and creative pieces in the loading area but recently, some of it spilled into the street.

The first time I saw the crow sitting on the parking sign, I initially mistook it for the real thing. It was only on second glance that I realised it was one of the props.

I'm a big fan of things that make you not only look twice, but make you stop and think.

In my recent wanderings into the more residential parts of West End I came across a couple of houses with posters entitled "Save West End – West End, Many Stories, not 30 Storeys".

Reading the information about this campaign on the website www.savewestend.org it appears to be a community action to have a say in the draft plan by Brisbane City Council for West End. From what I gather, the plan is to take into account an increase in the number of residents in West End and includes the increase of height restrictions for buildings, in some cases now allowing 30 storeys. It's this increase in height that is identified as one of the key problems by the community campaign.

One of the things I love about West End is the atmosphere of the older homes, the characteristics of the shops and the overall eclectic nature of it. Replacing it with multi-storey residential and business blocks will have a significant impact on all of this.

The problem we face however, is as our population continues to grow, we are also increasing the area our city takes up. This "urban sprawl" eats into our remaining "wild" places, something that I expect many residents in West End would also agree isn't acceptable. If we are to limit our impact on the environment, then we need to consider high density living. In other words, building up, not out.

If we intend to continue our population growth and not impact on the environment, the challenge is how to do it while maintaining the "atmosphere" many of us look for in residential areas like West End.

In a previous post I talked about the "art" of Graffiti so when I came across this piece in my recent wanderings, I had to share it.

The piece is on the side of a small shop and by the looks of it, it's been there for a while. I love the feel of the piece and how it seems to fit within the character of the building and the business within. In fact, this was confirmed when I showed one of the others in our office and they immediately identified the name of the business.

So can good graffiti contribute in a positive way to the character of a space? I believe so and this piece seems to achieve both enhancing it's space along with becoming iconic for the business within.

It's been 3 weeks since the flood that hit Brisbane shutdown the city and affected thousands of people in Australia's third largest city.

While our office in West End wasn't flooded, being on the fourth floor, the buildings underground carpark was. This resulted in our office being closed for a couple of weeks as everything from communications systems, to fire-control and the lift were affected.

I went for a walk along the Brisbane river near our office this week to see what the area that was inundated looked like now. The first thing that hit me was just how quiet the river is. The water traffic that you associate with our city is gone. No ferries, commercial or pleasure boats. In many cases, the pontoons that they would use are gone as well.

As I walked along the path beside the river, the signs of the flood were still in evidence in the trees around me. Rubbish is stuck in the branches a metre or more above my head. That said, the road, the gardens and buildings are mostly clear of the sludge and rubbish the flood waters dumped, testament to the hard work of the local people and businesses.

As I got towards an open section of the river, I came across the first boat I'd seen. A recovery team was next to what, at first appearances was a shipping container caught on the embankment. It wasn't until I was closer that it became clear this was an entire trailer from a semi-trailer. Who knows where it came from, but it highlighted the force of the river at it's peak that it could wash this away and down the river.

Despite the great work of everyone involved in cleaning up, there is still alot to do to return our city to normal.

For many years I've been interested in environmental concerns and the impact our "throw away" culture has.

I've previously talked about going out for coffee and so I felt it was high time I started bringing my own cup and hence reduce the amount of rubbish I was contributing with takeaway cups. I wanted to ensure whatever I bought would be accepted by my favourite barista so I raised it with Gemma at Stove. She immediately pointed me at Keep Cup.

The important thing about these cups is that they come in the standard coffee sizes that will fit under the group head of an expresso machine. This makes it so much easier for the barista and hence reduces the objection some may have to trying to make coffee into any old cup you bring in.

So, if like me, you buy a few coffees a week, consider getting something like the Keep Cup. Oh, and you can customise all the colours on it to make it your own.

It pays to keep your eyes open when walking around as you just never know what you will see.

I noticed a number of small insects near an access plate on the footpath. Upon closer inspection it looks like a Native Bee hive has taken up residence right in the middle of the West End cafe precinct.

When I lived in Melbourne and worked in some of the inner suburbs I often saw some amazing graffiti. Some of it I’d classify as Art. Now I differentiate this type of graffiti from the simplistic "tagging" where the person sprays a basic signature multiple times in an area, sometimes over the top of much better work.

I saw this particular piece of ”art” while walking down Montague Road past some of the more rundown industrial buildings. Upon closer inspection it appears to be a sticker as opposed to sprayed on. Despite this, I love the simplicity of it and the way it brightens up a rather drab bit of construction.

Not far from our offices in West End is a heavy transport recovery company. You know, the sort with really big tow trucks. As such, I was pretty surprised to see this sign near the entrance to their business. I’m guessing they’ve had problems with people parking across the driveway.

It just goes to show that even if it's obvious, you sometimes still have to spell it out.

West End has a long history of multiculturalism and artistic creativity. Post Expo'88, Southbank changed significantly from the industrial part of central Brisbane to a trendy new place to be and be seen. This change has been progressively spreading into West End, with trendy new restaurants/cafe's and apartments taking over however you can still find the "old" West End along with artistic outbursts if you look.

I found this example of a "Can Critter" on a power pole between a shiny apartment complex and one of the older timber homes that were originally in West End. Love the use of an DB15 connector for the mouth.

I was recently watching a great show called "Kevin McCloud: Slumming It". In it, Kevin investigates a slum in India and discovers that while the people are in squalor, they have far more sense of community and use of common space than we in the west do.

While there doesn't appear to be the available common spaces and subsequent community in most cities, I was really happy to see a Community Garden in my recent wanderings around West End.