The Birds of Reyjavík

In the key of Nürmberg Durnk

Free wifi is awesome, but generally not made for heavy use. The wifi at the Rothenberg hostel freaked out at any sort of uploading, and the wifi here in Nürnberg bitchslapped me hard when I tried to upload another video bloq. Hopefully the hostel in Berlin is a bit more forgiving, otherwise you'll just have to be patient.

At any rate, when I left the hostel this morning it was to discover that a lovely dusting of snow had stopped by over night, making a ridiculously pretty town even prettier. I cursed it a mean streak while schlepping my stuff to the station.

No snow in Nürnberg, still cold enough to warrant my rabbit hat and scarf. (The downside to wearing a real fur hat, I have discovered, is that should you wander about in the rain, it will begin to smell exactly like wet animal. Gross.) I made an effort to go to Albrecht Dürer's Haus, as there is only one guided tour in English per week, which happened to be today. I was initially somewhat wary to discover it was a costumed guided tour, being led by Aqnes Dürer, Albrecht's wife, but those doubts proved entirely unfounded. "Aqnes" was exceptionally interesting and informative, without ever being twee.

Because I forgot to eat for 12 hours (THIS IS WHY I SHOULD NOT TRAVEL ALONE) I didn't have presence of mind to do any filming in the house. Poot. Managed some okay photos though.



This is a reconstruction of Albrecht's printing press, a reconstruction made possible as he had made a drawing of the press with such detail that it was practically a plan with measurements and instructions. The press is capable of exerting a ton of pressure. Which is alarming, to be honest.



One ton of pressure makes a pretty crisp print.



LETTERS. See that font? I can hear all the hipster designers of the world turning their pity and condescension on. HE'S THE MASTER, NOT YOU.



There was also a copper etching press set up, which was being used to create prints. They'd done up copies of Albrecht's more renowned images, which you could purchase signed by the printer if you so desired. A copy of a copy? I eyeballed the rhino - I have a great fondness for that rhino, but passed.



Albrecht is well known as being the first to do a sort of realist study of nature. This cabinet was full of bits and pieces from the wild; here a deer, beneath deer antlers.



Jars of pigment powders. The process necessary for obtaining some of these colours was staggering. To be a painter was a luxury, I must say. 8,000 sea snail shells from around India for a gram of puce-like pigment powder to be bought in Nürmberg.









There was a massive print of a medieval map on display, to show where the various ingredients for pigment powder were obtained. Australia did not exist as an idea at this point, and the Americas were only a vague line down the left. China did not appear to be well known, but I was surprised to see "Thebet" present.

Afterward I wandered around in a haze of low blood sugar. Nürmberg is a farçe of both the old and the modern.

This Wall Fucks With Birds

This is one of the exhibitions currently on display in the subway at Flinders Street Station, care of Platform Artists Inc, created by Ace Wagstaff (which is a fantastic name).

The exhibitions explore the idea of 'apocalypse', what it does mean, has meant, and has come to mean.

However, I looked at those birds and thought of the hole in Blue Base. /end geek

My comrade also discovered this piece of anonymous typewriter poetry, which I quite love. Things like this make me hatch mad ideas to make sticky things or ribbon things or hanging things with one sentence mindfucks to leave on the trains and around town. To litter pieces of artistic wank like a leper dropping fingers. To set them all free and never know what becomes of my creative spores, and never know what is thought of them.

Note to self: While on the subject, Sir Testicle, don't forget you want to go see the Dali Exhibition on at NGV. Okay? Okay.

fucki'mcold

You want to click this. Yeah, you do. You may not want to admit it. You're probably fighting against it, because there's some fzzzt in human nature that sees us turn away from that which we know is good for us. This will make you go 'ahhh!' and smile, huge smile, half way across a summer blue sky. You'll feel the sun melting in your mouth and content in your belly.

knit me to the bottom of the sea

Steve's morning trawl pulled up a knitted nudibranch, and in his infinite wisdom he passed it on to me, and my head exploded. It was very messy.

Further investigations revealed the existence of not just patterns for a knitted nudibranch, but for an angler fish and hermit crab also.





Which caused more head explosions.

Further patterns are available at hansigurumi's etsy shop, including and not limited to, puffer fish, cuttlefish, squid, octopus, praying mantis and the Loch Ness Monster.

(I love the idea of having a making a whole bunch of cuttlefish and then hanging them from the ceiling. Or covering the couch entirely with hermit crabs.)

If you'll excuse me, I must go make puppy-dog eyes at my dear darling knitastic mother.

bare bear

Herr Bear
Can hardly bear
Being without Hair

Picture & Poem by Matt Staggs

Synchronicity or people looking at the same plug and thinking "Sir Tessa needs skeletons in her inbox" saw Andrew sending me a deer. Moar beautiful skeletons here.

99 life-sized wolves stream up an invisible hill and faceplant into a glass wall.
Visual metaphor.
Cai Guo-Qiang's site for more photos and other art. Found on haha.nu