This will hurt me...

Dead crab. Or maybe it's sleeping. Little Howrah Beach. January 2012. Theme Thursday again and our minds are firmly fixed on the concept of STORM. Well, I should really say that my little mind is actually geared towards STURM ( und Drang ). Typically, people have translated STURM und Drang as "STORM and Stress" and use it to describe the proto-Romantic movement in German literature and music that occurred in the late-eighteenth century. Ever the dissenter, I prefer the less frequent translation of "STORM and Urge ". The implications of the difference is not a minor one. STURM und Drang was characterised by the liberation of individual subjectivity and the embrace of spectacular extremes of emotion – i.e. ladies fainting, men challenging each other to duels/ love affairs/ adventures. This free expression emerged largely in reaction to the perceived constraints of rationalism imposed by the Enlightenment and its associated aesthetic movements. An example, previ...

Here’s Henry enjoying the view of the seals at play. Lest you feel that I’m denying my beautiful boy his rightful place in the sun with such a dark photograph, here’s one taken of him in the sun , mounted atop a seal like Jim Pike on Phar Lap. Incidentally, if you’re a fan on similarly geographically-specific and incredibly dated analogies, I do a fine line in Napoleonic-era glassblowers set against 1980s Essendon footballers…

Brown bear, brown bear what do you see? Melbourne Zoo, April 2011. The brown bear can weigh from 300 to 780 kilograms – that’s more than eight times me – and at its largest rivals the polar bear as the largest land-based predator in the world! I see Henry and Ezra and some bloke with a camera. Melbourne Zoo, April 2011. This one is a handsome beast that particularly caught Ezra’s eye. While Ez marvelled at its bulk and dexterity on those rocks, Henry was more taken by the fact that it was eating carrots and lettuce! Ursus arctos, Ursus arctos quis operor vos animadverto? Melbourne Zoo, April 2011.

Chucksomeletterstogetherandyougetsomewordseventually. Federation Square, Melbourne. April 2011 Words are letters.Lots of letters. Sometime not so many letters. You can't have words without letters.You can make letters from lettuce to make words, but cabbage is better. I like cabbage. Yum. Sowhatdoesitsay? Federation Square, Melbourne. April 2011

Rock on. Little Howrah Beach, Howrah. April 2011. Last time it went something like: Hobart → Sydney → Bangkok → London → Bath → London → Paris → Grenoble → Milan → Rome → Venice → Vienna → Prague → Berlin → Nuremberg → Frankfurt → London → Singapore → Sydney → Hobart Next time I’d like it to look a little more like: Hobart → Sydney → Bangkok → Munich → Nuremberg → Dresden → Berlin → Hamburg → Warsaw → Krakow → Budapest → Bratislava → Vienna → Prague → Kutna Hora → Berlin Singapore → Sydney → Hobart