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Oregon

A Canadian friend recently asked what I would miss most about Canada when I leave.

I replied “USA”.

Now, I was intentionally trying to wind her up, but there’s an element of truth to it. The proximity to America is a big selling point. My two weeks in the deserts of Utah and Arizona is possibly the greatest experience of my entire time here (I’ll get to that another time).

Now, Canada is very beautiful, but the landscape is pretty homogeneous and the cities are pretty generic. In the United States you can go from beach to forest to snow to desert in the same day, and each state seems to have its own character.

Last August I took a long weekend trip Portland and did a short road trip to the Oregon coast. I wish I’d had more time there. Portland was a lot of fun. It almost felt like Vancouver, but with culture (and much better food). And the drive was absolutely beautiful.

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I was only in Oregon for three days, but I managed to squeeze in so much that it felt like a week. The coast has a peaceful silence to it. The low fog and haze creates a dream-like feeling.

Cannon Beach was teeming with life of all kinds. Volleyball games played out in the sunshine, kids rolled along the sand in recumbent bikes, and when the sun set they were replaced with groups sitting around beach campfires. Haystack Rock and its neighbours were buzzing with crabs, fish, rich green moss, oysters, starfish, puffins and seagulls all playing out the circle of life before my eyes.

I also made a side trip to check out a house built from an old plane in the middle of the forest, which made for some great photo ops, and satisfied my inner LOST nerd.

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Suburbia, Smart and Byrne

The first two decades of my life were spent growing up in the western suburbs of Sydney. Long summers were spent walking or riding my bike in the blazing sun through suburbia. The concrete and bitumen seemed to melt beneath my thongs as I made my way past lone gum trees and street signs casting crisp shadows, sun-bleached billboards advertising products no longer available, deceased sulo bins, and nature strips with rock and roll haircuts.

One of my favourite visual artists when I was in high school was Jeffrey Smart. I remember seeing several of his paintings at the Art Gallery of NSW and being blown away with how unique and refreshing they were. Using subject matter which may have otherwise been considered throwaway, ugly, or mundane and turning it into something beautiful.

Corrugated shipping containers became a perfect study of light and shape. Street signs and kerb-sides reduced the composition down to simple blocks which found beauty in their simplicity.

Jeffrey Smart

George Byrne (also Australian born) found his place in this same world and brought it to the world of Instagram. As such, his medium is photography rather than painting. And rather than capturing the industrial space that much of Smart’s work did, Byrne instead captures the world of suburbia I am all too familiar with.

George Byrne

The subject matter – block colours, kerb-sides, street signs, bollards, road markings, palm trees and random passers-by in the middle of nowhere – puts the focus on light, shadow and composition in the same way that Smart did. It’s abstract, yet familiar.

George Byrne

Byrne lives in California and a lot of his photography has taken place between Los Angeles and Palm Springs. I’ll be in Palm Springs in five weeks and plan to channel (or rip off?) his aesthetic.

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Ear Candy 2020.02 – Sleep

Now I worry our horizon’s been nothing new
‘Cause I get this feeling and maybe you get it too
We’re on a rollercoaster stuck on its loop-de-loop
‘Cause what we did, one day, on a whim
Has slowly become all we do

A few tracks I’ve had on rotation in the last couple of months. Some old favourites and some freshies.

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New York to start a New Year

In New York, boy, money really talks – I’m not kidding

The Catcher in The Rye

When I moved to Vancouver, one of the places high on my list to visit during my time here was New York City. I first saw New York in July 2011 and it was everything everyone had hyped it to be, and more. To top it off, back then the Aussie dollar was worth more than the greenback so I was able to spend a good 5-6 weeks in the US , including 10 in NYC, without burning a hole in my pocket.

But that was an exceptional time. For someone in Australia, New York straddles the inconvenient circumstances of being at least two flights and 20 hours away, as well as enormously expensive. And since it’s so far away you can’t just spend a few days there.

From Vancouver it’s only 5 hours away, and with plans to return to Australia in 2020, as well as a week off over Christmas – it seemed the obvious time to tick ‘Christmas in New York’ off the list. To top it off The Strokes were playing a New Years Eve show.

It didn’t disappoint. Returning to a location 100 months later is a fascinating experience. It highlights the differences of the location as well as the differences within yourself. Last time around I was hitting all the tourist spots, museums, galleries. I was splashing cash at every bar in town until the early hours of the morning (with perhaps a touch too much confidence), meeting all sorts of wonderful people.

The Strokes were incredible

This time around was more about restaurants (including hitting every Aussie cafe in town), areas I hadn’t ventured last time, and finding new and interesting spots to photograph. And I still met a bunch of friendly folks. It really is an incredible place. Bizarrely I still knew my way around as though no time had passed at all.

But Summer in New York still wins easily over Christmas in New York.

The year began in the greatest city on Earth, and it will end in my favourite city of all, Sydney.