Overview
Spring has sprung: the flowers are blooming, the birds are singing and mating right outside your office window when you're trying to concentrate on a spreadsheet. It's time to fling off the knitwear and thermals and explore Sydney in the sun. Concrete Playground has collaborated with some of Sydney's favourite bloggers to bring you the best picks of what our city has to offer in music, art, food, film and fashion this spring, as they describe their ideal spring weekend in Sydney.
This is Sydney By The Blog: Spring Fever.
Part Five: Kent Johnson from Street Fashion Sydney
I must say I was completely chuffed when Concrete Playground approached me and asked if I could write a guest blog about my Ideal Spring Weekend in Sydney. “Of course I would love to” I thought, but then I noticed there was one slightly disturbing problem. I had to write about this perfect weekend before it had happened. I had to write about the future. Now, I imagine that this is not a problem for most writers. However, my blog, Street Fashion Sydney, tends to revolve around outings to events camera-in-hand with the pictures and the memories driving the written content and stories. In other words, my blog is about the past. What was I to do...
It took a little while to work it out but once the idea had taken root the solution seemed obvious: quite simply I had to transport myself to the future, to the weekend of my guest blog, and report back. And that’s exactly what I have done.
Friday, 22nd October.
5.30PM
Meet Nyk at the Hollywood Hotel for pre-China Heights drinks. I love the Hollywood, perhaps the only in-tact art deco bar in Sydney. Of course it does have a disco ball in the main bar (which is obviously a later addition). Things seem pretty much the same as last week, though someone is perhaps having some sort of get together there tonight. And, of course, the House Rules in a frame by the entrance are still there: “Respect the House, Respect yourself, Leave your attitude at the door”. I like that.
6.00PM
China Heights, 'Vita' by Jacqueline Hill, fab photographic show. Something different about the crowd. Can't quite put my finger on it. Plenty of free beer & Red Bull (smelly stuff), caught the train home to bed.
Saturday, 23rd October.
Ah, working all day, not sure if this is a good idea on a trip-to-the-future as it means I will do the same work twice. Note to self: check bank account, might get paid twice too! A tiring day, head down to the Australian Youth Hotel in Bay St Glebe for a $5 Happy Hour Pint of Little Creatures hair-of-the-dog, though the Little Creatures is a decidedly more pedigree beer than the dog that bit me last night. Everyone in the bar is wearing tin foil hats/caps. I put it down to a Uni Pub Crawl and head on back to Marrickville and dinner with friends.
Sunday, 24th October.
Missed the last opening at SNO so I head on down Marrickville Rd to check out the current show SNO 64. SNO stand for Sydney Non Objective; love the work here, these are rad dudes, it's a great show and it's nice to catch up with some of the artists keeping 'shop' on the day.
After SNO I cross the road for a coffee at the Marrickville Road Cafe. I really like this cafe because they have great coffee, you can smoke outside & the waitress looks like Lee Miller, the ex-model who used to hang with Man Ray and the original Surrealist crowd (and who was a great photographer in her own right). I notice she too is wearing a tinfoil hat like I saw the day before. In fact, I now notice everyone seems to be wearing one. Start to wonder what’s going on...
Late afternoon, I shoot some portraits against my favorite wall (which just happens to be in my backyard) & thank god that their tinfoil hats don't blow-out with over-exposure. The shots look great & I notice Friday night’s snaps have people wearing tinfoil hats too! Curiouser and curiouser. Continue into the evening drinking yet more beer, talking crap with friends and listening to music on the vintage Sansui sound system. A nice end to a near perfect weekend!
Monday, 18th October.
Wake up worrying if I am in the future or back in the past. ABC FM News tells me it is the day it’s supposed to be. Boot computer to check the pictures I took in the future and for the blog I have written for Concrete Playground. Everything is gone! Check camera's memory card, plenty of pictures but no tinfoil hats at all!! I write up my blog from memory alone (going way over the recommended word count) wondering if the perfect Sydney Spring Weekend is just a dream after all? Oh I hope not, I really do hope it’s not just a dream. But keep your eyes peeled, if you see people wearing tinfoil hats in Sydney, you might just find the future is not only perfect, it’s a little strange too.