Dead centre of town

[jawnbc]

On Saturday me and da boyz headed off to Waverley Cemetery - on a bluff overlooking the Tasman, between Bronte and Coogee beaches. Here's a photo of Davie and me, taken by Ian:



Two happy lil furballs--Ian too--after a day exploring and gabbing and flirting. We're all flirts. Way fun.

I've wanted to visit Waverley since androkles included some images in his blog months ago. In one part of the grounds is a huge--probably 10m x 10m with a 10m high celtic cross--memorial for those who've died in the struggle for Irish independence. My family is strongly nationalistic, though it's a nationalism rooted in 300 year-old grudges rather than the reality of today. My own beliefs are:

+ The British government/Crown (not the British people) routinely and visciously exploited and oppressed the Irish for 500+ years
+ The "Troubles" of the North came because the Crown thought it clever to important thousands of English and Scottish workers to Ulster
+ In the European Community, as borders between member states become less important, the question of Northern Ireland is shifting to one of sovereignty to that of identity
+ When the rabid, stoopid fooks die on each side of the partisan debate, things may well shift to reconciliation\

Of course, were Pop (my grandfather) to hear my ideas he'd either fall over or give me the boot.

Here's a collage I've messed about with in Photoshop. Dunno where the blue tone came from....



Ireland and Australia are inextricably linked--for a good long read on the particulars of Aussie/Irish intersections famine and post-famine, I heartily recommend Keneally's The Great Shame by Thomas Keneally (the dude who wrote Schindler's Ark upon which the Spielberg movie was based.

Hot date tonite...and it's my turn to cook. Bye, bye, faut que je m'en aille...

Comments

[jawnbc]

thanks to you....yes!

[art-thirst.livejournal.com]

I've been thinking about how to go about working on my cemetery project. I had a dream a couple month ago that I need to get it finished this year. I have a scanner to get my med. format film scanned which has opened or re-opened this project for me. I began working on it back in 1989 at the prompting of Robert F. Thompson, Ph.D. of Yale University. He's on leave from the Univ. this past year to work on one of his many projects.
Face of the Gods: Art and Altars in the African Americas
Robert F. Thompson
Florida Burial Project

[jawnbc]

interesting...

[minimac.livejournal.com]

Very neat. I love old cemeteries...they have so much to say. We have one here in Savannah, that you may have heard of, called Bonaventure. It is hauntingly beautiful.

African American cemeteries

[art-thirst.livejournal.com]

The cemeteries where I documented are segregated to the African American community. In the ways of racial segregation in the U.S. it was just the way it was. For me, as one interested in tracing elements of culture back to some origin, it has worked out to have been something good. Several of the open-to-all cemeteries I checked out had regulations against having anything above the ground other that brass plaques that were horizontally flat. Many have been "cleaned up" and had the "offerings" removed. Anyway, there is a large portion of Florida I have had no chance to see. Funding is very difficult to qualify for although I keep looking. I just have to keep working on the material I have and let the rest take whatever course it flows. Difficult, yes. Impossible, no. Donations? Yes, I will accept donation toward that specific project with a thank you gift offered in return. Updated link to Robert F. Thompson. Yale Univ. seems to change links every year.

Positive change in the cultural arts requires novel means. With the end of most artist funding opportunities many worthy projects have been without needed funding to allow them to be completed. This could include production costs, transportation, per diem, or a variety of issues. [click image for more info on this specific project]

[jawnbc]

yes I think I have...there is a certain romantic melancholy to cemeteries of the South, eh?

[minimac.livejournal.com]

Yes, indeed...and there's something about the way the Spanich moss drips from these huge old Oak trees...