Mt Direction through the Tasman Bridge

Social media watershed

I don't actually know what a watershed is, I realise. Apart from the literal meaning of "a shed full of water" and the not-made-up real literal meaning of "rain catchment area of a river or creek".

1. watershed

   ˈwɔːtəʃɛd/

   noun

   1. 1.

      an area or ridge of land that separates waters flowing to different rivers, basins, or seas.
   2. 2.

      an event or period marking a turning point in a situation.

      "these works were a watershed in the history of music"

   
   

Ah, the second one - I am at a watershed in my social media use. Twitter is a terrifically fun time-drain and echo chamber. Facebook is sort of like flipping through a magazine about dogs, cats, holidays and progressive activism while you wait for the doctor, except all the articles are written by your friends and family. Instagram is; well its really for people with smartphones.

I have spent a week or so trying to be an Instagrammer but the camera on my iPad is no good, and you can't upload images from a desktop computer without crappy workarounds.  Yesterday I used my iPad to video stuff off the computer screen to put on Instagram, which had a pleasingly punk production value but you get sick of that pretty quick. On here I can do it this way which is reasonable quality.

My scruffy drawings do not gain any more charm from being lo-res and blurry. And not blurry in that arty Instagram filter way, just badly photographed with a telephone from 2009. I broke all sorts of Instagram etiquette rules by posting my paintings from the 1990s.

So, I will continue to put my non-commercial imagey stuff here on the blog. My criteria for inclusion is not that it's 'good' but more that it is useful for me to have as a reference and you might also find it interesting.

Chucking things over the back fence

I love chucking things over our back fence. We have no neighbour there, it's a council reserve where people walk dogs. Along our fence is a grassy gully of invisibility and I have on occasions flipped very small dead things over there to go back to dust in privacy. (Anything bigger than a mouse or sparrow is treated to a dug grave within the boundary). I often say to Elf about anything that is done and dusted, spent, no good, broken, not up to snuff; "chuck it over the back fence".

I am very keen to hurl a whole lot of stuff over the back fence right now but finding it quite difficult. I have become a Twitter addict over the last year and I am taking a break from it now, but I would quite like the break to be permanent, ie chuck Twitter over the back fence.

I have made a lot of genuine and meaningful friendships on Twitter, and I have since met many of those people in real life (or at least in Melbourne which is similar) and am in touch with them in various other ways. I don't want to chuck the people over the back fence but I am enjoying a rest from reading and writing 'hot takes' on every single scurrilous thing.

However I have taken up Instagram, and since I don't have a Smartphone, and my iPad never leaves the house, I am not really up for the usual Instagram stream of documenting my existence. I do take pics on my Nokia 208 but then have to come home and Bluetooth them over - its quite different and not very Insta. Sally calls hers Latergrams.

Now I am taking the Not Insta even further by posting pics of drawings I have done, in some instances last century. It will hopefully be bait to keep me drawing more, and the ratio of new to old stuff will increase, especially when I run out of old stuff.

It feels strangely easier to put creative work out on Instagram to an online-friend audience than on Facebook, to an old-friends-and-family audience. In fact I had never posted a drawing on FB before I did so semi-accidentally today, and I actually don't think other people I follow do either, usually. It's just not the place for it somehow.

Also I will post drawings and source material here too, as I always have on and off.

Lamb hearts ©® 2007

A few recent drawings

Michael's economic theories

It's a non-traditional way to spend the summer holidays.

More paddle therapy

A super morning at the Collegiate boat ramp. So calm!

I have been keen to paddle under the Tasman Bridge. On Thursday I tried out a new launch point; the Collegiate rowing club between the bridge and Cornelian Bay. It was an absolutely perfect morning (I generally only go on perfect mornings so if that comes up every time I am really not making it up). I chatted to a retired couple from Perth who park their camper there to walk into town. They come to Tasmanian to get away from the hot summer and are staying deeper into the year each time.

I set out at about ten. Launching from the wide rowers boat ramp was very easy, and then I paddled around towards a big concrete block in the water. I believe this was one of the anchor points of the floating bridge that crossed the river before the Tasman was built in 1964. I was a fair way out into the stream and the current was surprisingly gentle.

Looking back through the modern bridge at the anchor point of the old bridge. Cold in the shade.

I have heard that the currents are tricky and I know on the Montagu Bay side there is an extremely deep section, where the Lake Illawarra sank after it hit the bridge in 1974. So I am generally taking it very easy, and keeping within swimming distance of the bank. I paddled under the 3rd span into the shade, and the temperature dropped. It is a very beautiful bridge and being under it, on land or sea, is always a profound feeling. The view back through upriver was terrific. I took some pics on my phone which I hope I can get off it again. I thought I would head for the regatta grounds, just to stickybeak around the boatyards there. There is a Naval Reserves clubhouse or depot or headquarters, called TS Huon. It looks very lovely indeed and I have heard it muttered that the whole deal is just a bit of federally funded fun for Tasmanian political dynasty the Hodgmans and their pals.

It was so calm that I was able to actually get my tiny sketchbook out and draw this on the water.

Mt Wellington and Government House through the bridge

From a lovely spot in the sun, on a bench above the boat ramp

Drawing done at the same spot, Cornelian Bay cemetery on the left, and smoke rising from the zincworks

A few drawings I did from memory, in which Mt Direction is a lot steeper than strictly accurate 

It was so nice out there. I turned around after I got down to TS Huon and came back under the bridge again, and decided to just keep going upriver while the going was easy. I was on a heading for Lindisfarne Bay on the other bank, and felt then like I could have made it over in reasonable time if I kept on. 

But again I got to a point were I felt I was going nowhere, so I turned and pointed my nose at St Johns church steeple in New Town. Paddling quite hard that way and drifting with the current got me back to my start point.

I was glad I reached land when I did as something quite big went past and created a wake that might have spelled trouble if it had caught me unawares. I dried off a bit, sat in the sun on a bench and drew the cemetery hill, zincworks and Mt Direction.

I think I will work on more drawings of this scene and try to get the elements to gel together better. I am really happy with the cheap phone's camera though, and now I have deduced I can bluetooth the pics straight to my computer I might be doing this a lot from now on.

Amnesia

I asked Michael today what this meant, and where he got it from. He said it was joke, but nobody got it. And he had just made it up. It’s got a translated-from-ancient-Greek-ness about it. I’ve said it before and I’ll doubtless say it again - he’s unique, that one. But having said that, as his cousin Arthur grows up some very interesting parallels are apparent.

A stirring tale in pictures by Michael Rees (9)

This has got the feel of the Bayeaux Tapestry about it, but Michael tells me that his inspiration was actually the Royal Standard of Ur.

The arms

Michael, inspired by his grandmother Felicity, put together this beautiful coat of arms. He asked us for a motto this morning. I suggested "Do Your Best" but we went for the more motto-ey "Dare to Strive", and Michael Google Translate-d it. The supporters are our noble mammal associates Winston and Hattie.

Top left are the Jackson arms, three blue eagle heads, and a chevron with three golden clover. Top right are the Fullagar coat of arms, a bend rouge with three plates on a field of ermine fur.

Bottom left are the arms of Ware - two blue lions on gold, with a border of gold scallops on blue.

And bottom right are the Rees arms, a black chevron with three black choughs (pronounced chuffs I think) on a silver field.

Recent work by Michael

The space shuttle may have retired but Michael has a few ideas for a reboot. 

Mr Birley introduced the class to perspective and Michael embraced it.

Dug out of the 2008 sketchbook

A sketch of our house from across the street.

Skyline drawing by Michael

Oh no – a grown-up looking drawing from Michael. I have been fearing for some time that this would happen. We might not have long left to enjoy the uber-detailed  weapon-encrusted super-villain submarines and the cuddly-looking maps of the world. I thought the buildings were reflecting in a lake but those are the shadows cast by the rising sun, quoth Michael.

Critter by Marcus

Marcus's drawings are less frequent, and consequently don't get a run in the blog much. I love this one.

Fluffy Winston Book of Communication by MJR

It is suffering a little from chocolate cake stains, but this is Michael's latest unfinished project.

Giant mechanical person-operated robot, by MJR

A history of planes, by Michael

This is well worth a close-up look. It starts with "early planes" and comes right up to a prediction of "future planes" and even "exo-future planes" I had to ask what "exo-future" means. Apparently it's after the future.

Mugshots by ©®

This is a bloke named Frank Soda, from a 1946 mug shot found online at Small Town Noir. I am redrawing some of them to pass the time while I listen to the cricket from South Africa.

Steamboat by Michael

"Diagram of how to make a steam boat move around. Electric fans push air down through tube which spins the turbine of the boat engine. Hot air from the coal fire rises, which also turns turbine, then goes out funnel. Hot air also turns a turbine making electricity to drive the fans."

Perfect two-frame cartoon by Michael

Squiddy

This is our stuffed prehistoric giant squid, Squiddy.

And this is Squiddy, re-imagined by Michael as a guard at Buckingham Palace. Note rifle.