1971 Griffith Lions Club time capsule

One disappointment during the celebrations for the centenary of Griffith last year was the discovery that contents of the 1971 Lions Club time capsule had been damaged by water and mould. 

A selection of items from the time capsule are currently on display in the Griffith Pioneer Park Museum shop. It includes a variety of media, like slides as well as audio and visual tape reels, which make me wonder how future generations will access media included within time capsules.

I was interested to see that a vintage car rally in 1971 included a 1906 Tarrant as, by coincidence, I'd been reading how these were the first Australian-made automobile. Tarrant went on to build Ford's Model T cars from 1909.

It also interested me that in 1971 Griffith was serviced by three newspapers. Only The Area News remains today. Shown here is their story on the time capsule from then and you can find a story from 2016 here.

Also liked this story about a district farmer and a woman driver in distress. Who'd try to thank someone with a pack of cigarettes today?

It pays to shop around

Australian supermarkets are largely run by Coles and Woolworths.

In my shopping I find myself comparing prices between the two and it's interesting to see where they vary.

For example, house brand items seem to be consistently about 10% more expensive at Coles but other items, like the moth traps shown, can be significantly cheaper.

Spirit of Willandra

'Spirit of Willandra -- Amongst The Black Box Trees' by Melanie Baulch.

Bought this charcoal today from the Willandra exhibition.

Hero

webcomicname.com

The Ian Todd Collection

Ian Todd was a long-time volunteer at Griffith Pioneer Park Museum with a passion for horses.

For many years he would be seen at the annual ‘Action Day’ event each Good Friday working on the wheelwright outside the blacksmith display to construct wheels for his many carriages.

These carriages are now part of the Museum’s collection and there are plans to build a permanent home for them during 2017.

Mr Todd lived for almost his entire life at Lake Wyangan, where his father Keith Todd purchased the first block of land and also the first irrigated water available in that district.

When Ian Todd died on 20 February 2010 his bequest to Griffith City Council directed they erect “a water trough with a plaque suitably inscribed to the memory of the horses used to develop the town of Griffith and the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area”. This sits outside Council’s chambers.

Furthermore, Mr Todd donated a number of horse vehicles and vintage automobiles to Griffith Pioneer Park Museum with funds to be used to construct a shed to house these donated items.

It is anticipated that “Todd’s Shed” will be constructed during 2017.

Early 20th Century vehicles

Horse-drawn vehicles were a common sight on public roads throughout Australia from European settlement up until the 1930s.

The company Tarrant began manufacturing cars in Australia in 1901, before acquiring rights to locally produce the T-model Ford from 1909.

Between 1911 and 1916 the number of motor vehicles in New South Wales quadrupled, from 3978 to 14,973.

A survey of Sydney traffic in 1923 found:

• 39.2% horse driven
• 33.8% car
• 27% motor van

Sydney Sulky

These single-seater carriages were designed to be fast vehicles. 

Contemporary harness-racing carts can be seen as a modern evolution of their design.

The bulk of the surviving “gigs” and “sulkies” were produced between 1890-1930. The Sydney Sulky is recognised as the most popular style of vehicle.

The Sydney Sulky design was influenced by the American “Putnam” sulky, which was first registered as a design around 1884.

At the 1893 Sydney Show a sulky of this style with mudguards and dashboard was exhibited and the example shown here reflects these features.

Other features to note:

Rubber tyres — these first became available in the early 1900s.

Lamp holders — located on this sulky out of the line of sight of the driver.

Three-spring suspension — reduces bumps while travelling and an improvement on the elliptical suspension of earlier carriages.

Foot-operated bell — manufactured in New York but locally installed and would have been used to alert pedestrians and other road users.

Drop Front Phaeton

Phaeton carriages were drawn by one or two horses.

The name Phaeton comes from Greek mythology as the name of the son of Helios, who drove the Chariot of the Sun so recklessly that Zeus struck him down with a lightning bolt to prevent him from destroying the Earth with fire. 

Phaeton was first used to identify a carriage in 1735 by the French during a period when it was fashionable to use classical pseudonyms. The name was applied to large and small owner-driven carriages, which usually included some sort of top that would shelter at least the driver.

Drop Front Phaetons were popular from 1850s up until the 1920s. The lowered front made these carriages easier for women wearing long dresses.

Other features to note:

Lamp holders — placement suggests illumination was to be seen by other road users.

Hand-operated brake — effective in conjunction with horses stopping and primarily used for parking.

Elliptical suspension — popular on 19th Century carriages and effective for rough terrain.

Iron-rimmed wheels —durable and commonly used up until the availability of rubber and then pneumatic tyres.

Sculptor Ron Clarke

Ron Clarke was a sculptor whose works can be found throughout the Riverina.

Mr Clarke’s studio was located at Waddi on the Sturt Highway near Darlington Point.

His work can be seen in the Henry Lawson statue outside the poet’s former residence in Leeton, and also a Caterpillar tractor sculpture that hangs in Sydney outside Gough & Gilmour’s offices.

Shown here is one of Mr Clarke's sculptors at Griffith Pioneer Park Museum.

John Robinson on Pioneer Park Museum

A haiku a day

This year I've resolved to write even more haiku.

Last year I challenged myself to write a 17-syllable poem each week and this year I'm aiming for one each day.

Mostly I like the challenge of phrasing an observation within the syllable constraint. It's a kind of journal, although it seems the small audience for my haiku are more interested in my grog reviews.

Last week I mentioned this haiku project in one of the online communities that I frequent and got this reply from Dennis Flax.

You can find my haiku here.

Dipping into the surf at Valla

Last weekend I played with a few recordings made at Valla Beach last year, adding resonators to create a submersive effect.

The Witness Statement

It’d been our wedding anniversary and we’d been to dinner and a show in the city.

He’d drunk a little but thought we were alright to drive home. The car seemed to know though, and the long drive had been limited to 80 even though we rarely turn off the autopilot. I never learned to drive.

We weren’t too far out of town when Stan first heard the sound. He commented that the car needed maintenance, saying it could be the aircon or an engine fan. Usually our electric car is quiet but the sound continued to grow louder. A little later he said “I hope they’re not bikes.”

Then we could hear it was bikes. I suggested we make a report but Stan said it’s probably only drones and we’re too far from help anyway.

We knew the stories of bushrangers but they hadn’t been reported in our district before. We thought local farmers were too poor to be of interest to criminals.

Stan turned off the autopilot, trying to get our car to go faster. It was no good. The safety system would not allow us to speed up.

Their bikes were still getting louder but we weren’t too far from home now. We thought if we could get past the gate then they’d leave us alone.

Then we saw their lights behind us. There were nearly a dozen. Still the car wouldn’t change speed.

The bushrangers shot at our tyres and the car stopped. Stan tried to override the safety but the autopilot kept responding that maintenance was required. It shutdown.

They surrounded us. The lights on the motorbikes blinding us. I could see reflections off metal. They had weapons and armour. The smell of brewed fuel and dust came through our aircon.

After a little while they smashed the windscreen. I screamed.

Stan yelled that he’d give them whatever they wanted. They smashed his window and he fell forward.

I cried for help but still they revved their bikes. Stan wouldn’t move and I could see he was bleeding.

Then the back window was smashed and I heard them yell for my jewellery.

A hand came through Stan’s window and grabbed at my necklace. I threw out my bag and my earrings and brooch. They took Stan’s watch then rode away.

I bandaged Stan and called for help. It seemed to take over an hour for the medical drone to deliver supplies and the whole time I was afraid the bushrangers might return.

Toasted sandwich with barbecued vegetables

I'm not very good at it

Via Twitter

Em and en

One of things I enjoy about working in a museum is getting a sense of context for bits of otherwise trivial information that I've accumulated.

An example is the difference between an em and an en. Shown here is a bronze en ruler that is in the collection at Griffith Pioneer Park Museum.

During other work editing documents and learning graphic design software, I was introduced to the differences between a hyphen, an en dash and an em dash.

A hyphen is like a minus sign except it adds words together to create a concept, like air-conditioner.

An en dash is the same size but shows a range, like 9-5 in Dolly Parton's song 'Nine to five' as shorthand for 9am to 5pm business hours.

An em dash is a longer dash and is used as a kind of dynamic in writing, like:

“Familiarity breeds contempt — and children,” Mark Twain once said.

Because I usually can't remember where to find the — on a keyboard, I'll write -- instead.

(On another matter, one thing that frustrates me is seeing people use an ellipsis instead of an em dash, as these should signify something is missing from a quotation. So, when I see an advertising slogan like "for the best prices in town... come to our shop," I assume they're saying there's a proviso like "for the best prices in town except the cheaper places that we won't mention...")

Anyway, the difference between en and em dashes these days is less important because digital design software has made a role like typesetter largely redundant. It's one of those professions that computers replaced a long time ago.

Typesetters existed back in the day when printing plates were pieced together with individual letters. These days the process is mostly automated, so it's less important to know that an em represents the width of m, the widest letter; which is twice the width on n — although both and en and em are useful to know as two-letter words in Scrabble.

However, if you look in the settings of graphic design programs, you can still find evidence of ems as a measurement.

Shown here is an instance in the preferences of Adobe's InDesign software.

No Surprises

Reminds me how much I enjoyed watching HBO's Westworld over the Christmas break.

That show prompted many thoughts about the nature of being human and how we're going to struggle with artificial intelligence. I'm tempted to watch it again.

Louise Bourgeois

One of the main reasons I still log in to Twitter is Womens Art, which provides a steady stream of work by female artists.

One of their perennial favourites is Louise Bourgeois, whose art I hadn't seen before and have been inspired to look for more.

I like the variety of art Bourgeois produced, including sculpture and installations, as well as the wry observation.

I also like how progressive she seems to have been. This might be a generalisation but it does seem like many male artists grow more conservative as they age, whereas there are many female artists that grow increasingly bold.

Bourgeois battled against gender inequality in the arts and, at the age of 98 in 2010,  donated an edition of 300 prints to raise money for marriage equality.

It seems interesting that this remains a battle in Australia, which has yet to satisfactorily resolve the debates and narrowly avoided going to an expensive plebiscite that was planned for next month.

The print "I do" symbolised Bourgeois' view of this issue:

"Everyone should have the right to marry," Bourgeois said in a release by Freedom to Marry. "To make a commitment to love someone forever is a beautiful thing."

 I also like this from the Wikipedia information on Bourgeois:

Bourgeois aligned herself with activists and became a member of the Fight Censorship Group, a feminist anti-censorship collective founded by fellow artist Anita Steckel. In the 1970s, the group defended the use of sexual imagery in artwork. Steckel argued, “If the erect penis is not wholesome enough to go into museums, it should not be considered wholesome enough to go into women.”

Thanks Womens Art for introducing me to Louise Bourgeois' artwork.

Making political art

Via Hyperallergic.com

Got a nice sunset pic?

If you've taken a nice photograph of a sunset, why not email it to Kate Morell?

I was moved to send a few of my pics to Kate after reading of her wish to see more than 14,000 sunsets before she loses her eyesight to Ushers syndrome.

Projection again

Returned to Wagga Wagga tonight to photograph my projection again, as it's now at something approaching the full size Council is capable of reproducing.

Two years ago

Facebook tells me this was in The Irrigator two years ago.

Hey you kids

Projected in Wagga

See my projection for Wagga Wagga City Council  this month on the side of their Chambers, opposite Wollundry Lagoon.

Here's a short video of how it looks:

Women's rights symbolised with male

The Washington Post Express admit “We made a mistake on our cover this morning and we’re very embarrassed. We erroneously used a male symbol instead of a female symbol.”

Give money to low-income people

For fox sake

Scavengers

I've watched this three times now while showing it to various family members.

Without wanting to give anything away, I think the story is about our escapist tendencies. You've got two characters on an alien world performing strange feats, just so they can escape their reality for a moment. Reminds me of many activities.

Surprisingly tasty sandwich

Pine Trees against a Red Sky with Setting Sun

Hadn't seen this Vincent Van Gogh painting before today.

'Pine Trees against a Red Sky with Setting Sun' was painted in November 1889, which surprises me as the colour looks like summer. It could even be a local setting with cypress pines on a dusty day during harvest, when the sky gets a bright yellow quality.

For many years I didn't understand the popularity of Van Gogh's art. Then I visited Chicago and stood in front of a few of his paintings at the Art Institute. Then I went back and stood there again. And then again, thanks to Grandma's membership. It's quite easy to get lost in those hypnotising brushstrokes.

There's something like a Japanese woodcut about this image too.

Devices versus people

A lot of people are sharing variations of this video where Simon Sinek discusses "Millenials."

One version of the video literally frames the discussion with the text "THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT'S WRONG WITH THIS GENERATION !!"

Talking in generations, like "Millenials," always feels like a generalisation to me. So Sinek seems to make generalisations about generalisations. Or at least, that's how he's being represented.

I think there's merit in his identification of the addictive nature of digital devices and social media but wish it was framed in another conversation as it's relevant to a wider audience.

One friend has been delighting in responding with images of people with their heads buried in newspapers, demonstrating that social media and its distracting nature has been with us for centuries.

My response has been that a newspaper doesn't usually interrupt my conversation with a friend. I still find it rude to be talking with someone and have them answer a call without acknowledging that they're doing so.

I've written and spoken about 'digital capacity' but maybe it's time to think in terms of 'digital incapacity'?

Another friend recently returned to social media after taking a fortnight break over Christmas. He wrote about the experience as a "reset," which seems like a good approach to dealing with a potentially addictive behaviour.

Not in my library

Crumby outcome seen on Twitter

Ada Cummings

Around 100 years ago this woman became a pioneer of business and fashion in the western Riverina.

Ada Cummings arrived at Bagtown with two children in 1916. Her son Stan would later recall he had his first ride in a motor car that day, when Micky Cush drove them in his Model T Ford from the train stop in Willbriggie.

The family had not seen Mr William Cummings for a year, since he found work with the Water Conservation and Irrigation Commission in 1915.

The photograph shown was taken in Rutherglen circa 1915 and prior to her move to Bagtown.

Stan recalled that his mother Ada saw the front window of the house they were to live in and thought it would make a little shop. Fifty pounds worth of stock was ordered from Melbourne, taking three weeks to arrive via Cootamundra and Temora.

The opening of the Bagtown store saw the building packed with customers, as women had previously relied on the two general stores for their requirements.

A former Bagtown resident commented of the shop, “It was unexpected to find it contained such nice things.”

Around a century later it is difficult to imagine how few women ran their own business.

William Cummings would build the shop that was located in Griffith's Banna Avenue in 1920. This shop was enlarged in 1922 to accommodate fitting and dressmaking rooms. Mrs Cummings sold about 90% of the wedding dresses worn at ceremonies.

Ada Cummings sold her store in 1935 after William had a heart attack and she retired to look after him. She died in 1963 and is buried at Griffith Cemetery.

The photograph shown was taken in 1947.

You can visit a replica of Mrs Cummings' Bagtown store at Pioneer Park Museum, which was built based on Stan's recollection.