Above from left: 1st Runner-up Leigh Buchanan, 2nd Runner-up Petrova Hammond, Host Kristy Hinze and Winner Juli Grbac. Inset Winning designs from Juli Grbac. Image from Brisbane Times

Wait don’t answer that, ‘coz the first winner of Project Runway Australia, Queenslander Julie Grbac played it safe the entire season and won the competition based on the strength of her beautiful but nothing ‘out of the box’ women’s wear.

Monday night’s season finale left a bitter taste in my mouth. Granted, Melbourne representative Petrova was voted out earlier in the show and threw a high dice roll to return to the show. Fate smiled on her and I thought it was down to Petrova or the very stylish Lui Hon (who I thought brought minimalistic style to a whole new level) to win the competition. Had the judges any sense of what a reality fashion show-cum-competition is, our cute-enough-to-eat Petrova should have won by a mile. Why give these designers a chance to show off what they can really do i.e avant-garde, risky and leftfield when all you’re really doing is finding the safest choice?

But kudos to the three finalists. I was an avid (even rabid) fan of the show and did not dispute the credibility of the final three. After putting all the ‘passion in your fashion’, multiple plot twists and ridiculous deadlines, you’d have to applaud them for getting that far.

Petrova Hammond’s boutique Lady is located at Shop 3, 237 Flinders Lane Melbourne 3000. Drop in to say hi, congratulate or even tell her what you really thought of Mark Antonio’s hairdo. Or visit the MySpace website here.

Melbourne has been called a lot of things. It was part of Guelphia (Victoria) and was almost named Batmania. The latter would have been great. This Tolkien-ised map of Australia lists Melbourne and Sydney as Morborn and Sidnarin and realistically, the Northern Territory is labeled The Northern Waste. As I haven’t seen (or read) Lord of the Rings nor Harry Potter, I can’t really comment much on this map but I can appreciate the imagination of this map. This also reminds me that I must try that chip place, “Lord of the Fries” on Elizabeth and Flinders St.

One Ring to Rule Them All, Mate
Map by James Hutchings

Technorati Tags: Melbourne, Australia, Morborn, Lord of the Rings

Event: T-SWAP A(Wear)ness
Location: Bowen Street, RMIT
Date: 19 September 2007
Time: 11am onwards (while t-shirts last)
Website: http://tswap.blogspot.com/

A team of student from the Applied Communication school have come up with this ingenious idea of swapping old tee shirts for brand new tee shirts. Each brand new tee shirt is printed with a charitable organization, and you get to pick one of your choice. Pretty nifty I must say.

The organizations involved are:
- Amnesty International
- Australian Conservation Foundation
- Leukaemia Foundation
- Make Poverty History
- Red Cross
- RSPCA
- The Big Issue
- The National Heart Foundation
- The Wilderness Society
- Variety The Childrens Charity

I know I’ll be there tomorrow. I’m from the Applied Communication school meself. Gota support your communication friends! Cya there!

Not quite, I’ve been working hard at putting a little birthday party together!

It’s going to be huge……have a look at the program.

There’s an Interfaith Prayer Ceremony at 1pm on Saturday 19th, a Baby Blessing Ceremony at 2pm on Saturday 19th, a huge World Peace Blessing Ceremony at 10am on Sunday 20th at a special Buddha’s Stage in the centre of the Square.

Vegetarian delights on the River Terrace and a free program of events in BMW Edge called The Ch’an of Tea, Flower and Music.

Check out the participative art installation The Bodhi Tree – Field of Enlightenment and the kids Ch’an Tea Ceremony and art exhibition Friends from afar at ArtPlay.

phew!

Where else but in Melbourne…………….
2007 Buddha’s Day and Multicultural Festival

A particular story has been, in the last two weeks, heavily discussed among several Metroblogging cities with great enthusiasm. I have been following it with a keen amount of interest, as some of the cities involved (and uninvolved) are places I’ve actually visited and lived in. Melbourne has not gotten wind of it – perhaps with good reason – but I’ll like to bring this conversation down to the Antipodes. Besides, Melbourne is too big a city to be left out of this conversation!

Virgin Vacations has, rather audaciously, ranked the world’s top 11 (strange number, but a ranking nonetheless) train systems with their own set of unpublished guidelines.

Almost everyone in the Melbourne team has had at least a post on how Melbourne’s CONNEX stacks up in against a population of four million people, so I won’t get into rhetoric. But my resentment for CONNEX is affectionate and strong, so here I go.

Having lived extensively in both Bangkok (BTS and Skytrain) and Singapore (SMRT), I can genuinely attest to the truly world class standards of both systems. They’re extremely clean, easy to use, hassle-free, fast and always on time.

Melbourne’s CONNEX has just done away with the Zone 3 areas and are about to implement the Myki card that might just be the answer the Melbourne’s rampant problem of fare-evasion. Melbourne’s ticketing system is relatively easy to master – all you need is an abundance of coins and you’re set to go. CONNEX’s train lines are easy to read, and nowhere as extensive as New York’s or London’s. Some of her stations, particularly the ones in the inner city and CBD, are extremely old and are historical monuments and a testament to Melbourne’s enduring train system.

However, what CONNEX doesn’t have going for her is her extremely dirty and often smelly train carriages. Benches are often stained with something unpleasant and there’re often used newspapers everywhere. Graffiti, though not common, are still a mainstay in the carriages.

Melbourne’s train stations are also famously unsafe. Melburnians would be lying if they have not noticed that 90% of the CONNEX stations are prime targets for terrorism by now. Dim lights, no camera [sic] and unattended stations are the least of CONNEX’s problems should a murder or rape occur.

Trains may run on a schedule, but many times they do not stop at a designated stop as depicted on the flickering station screen. It’s extremely frustrating when you’ve to wait 40 minutes for your express train in the middle of winter, ride in it for 20 minutes, only to find that it would not stop at your station as the station system had displayed the wrong schedule. You alight at the first available station, and you now find yourself in a dangerous, dark and smelly train station. (see above)

I could go on, but it’s clear that Melbourne does not figure anywhere in the Top 30 systems. I reckon it may even have difficulties pushing the Top 40.

But what do you guys think about the ranking?

Here’s a list (there may be more) of other cities with their own ideas about the ranking – Bangkok, Berlin, Los Angeles, Manila, New York City, Pittsburgh, Tokyo and Singapore.

As the only open entry award exhibition left in Australia, the show derives its name from the tradition of selecting six works from each show to be reproduced and sold as Linden postcards. Linden’s collection of 109 cards is currently on sale in the gallery.

Part of my magazine work involves researching and getting ideas from images and pictures. I have an off day today. Guess where I’m heading to this afternoon? :O

Linden – Centre for Contemporary Arts

Ok, we get it. Monsieur Steve Jobs plans on world domination. First it was the iPod. Now the iPhone. Very soon everyone will be looking for an electronic counterpart to marry, make love to, have babies with and grow old with.

Yes, the iWife is de rigeur for all men out there. And likewise, the iHusband.

There’s an ominous foreboding in all this i tell ya.

Actually, is there anyway to invent iRain? That would solve a lot of problems.

Image from http://appleiphone.blogspot.com

Any fans of Japanese Manga should not miss this great opportunity to check out a pretty extensive list of manga-associated programs going on at the National Gallery of Victoria. Running till 28 January, exciting events include Manga Drawing Demonstration, Introduction to Tezuka (reference to Osamu Tezuka, the Father of Anime), Anime Mini Film Festival and Retro-Anime Smorgasbord. Click on this link for more information.

I’ll definitely be heading down to the NGV sometime in the next 2 weeks. Killing two birds with one stone, i’ll also be checking out Sneakers: Classics to Customs, an event that was highlighted by Zara a week ago.

Image taken off http://www.ngv.vic.gov.au

I picked up the Melbourne Design Guide while I was there. It’s chocka block full of local design info, the Melways of design! Check it out, inside you will find maps, background and facts of all things design in Melbourne.

To the left is a design by Joel, a member of the Melbourne Metroblogging community. He has just had one of his designs from dirtflake listed for consideration on Threadless.
Vote for his design here!

On the back it said things to give that will always be remembered – beautiful jewellery does have that effect.

e.g.etal was founded by two jewellers from RMIT in 1998, to promote and support Australia’s thriving jewellery design movement.

Eight years later, they exhibit works of over 80 Australian and New Zealand contemporary jewellers at two intimate galleries in the city’s laneways.

Handcrafted, the works are inspired by the natural and the man made. The artists explore materials beyond the tradition of metals – silver, gold and platinum – and precious gems to resin, found objects, Perspex, paper and materials found in nature such as stone and sticks.

For this festive season, e.g.etal will be opened every day.

No excuses not to give a gift that will always be remembered.

e.g.etal