10 May 2012

for the birds

One of the reliable themes at the farm is the pre-dusk chaos of the local flock of cockatoos going through their (extremely loud) bedtime ritual of arguing over who gets which branch of the rivergum for the evening.  They like to spend about 15 minutes sorting out who will sleep where, and nobody gets to relax until the issue is settled.
This week, they have had to deal with a confronting development ...
A pair of goofy ibis-type waterbirds have decided to hang with the flock ... and since they speak a different dialect, the cockies feel the need to argue a little louder to get things sorted ... reminded us of that great little Pixar short 'For the Birds' - the big guys just want to get along, but nobody seems too happy about it.
They seem pretty harmless, but nobody want to share that branch!

07 May 2012

oh, and ...

We also got very lucky on a set of Fler SC55 dining chairs ... had never seen them in the flesh before so we had to get them ... what a shape!
Good motivation, as we have a 1955 Fler maple dining table that has been sitting in the shed waiting for restoration for years - will post pics once everyone's had the treatment!

We also need to get on to fixing up our old LC chair - same timber, slightly earlier - lordy but there is a lot of re-finishing to do when we look at the collection.  Here's a pic of Mr Fred Lowen himself discussing the finer points with one of the original Fler team ...

Another score ...

In our continuing challenge to see if there is actually such a thing as 'too many chairs' we scored another Bruno Mathsson chair on ebay a few weeks back ...

She had fallen victim to a pretty rough re-stretching of her canvas, so was kind of wonky and skewed, but still all original.  We dismantled and re-aligned everything, and she's now ready to join her cousins the sofa and beautiful webbed chair in the bedroom at the farm.
Sure there are worse habits to have ... and while the good people of Melbourne are still not 'getting' the brilliance of Bruno's designs, we have to make hay!
 


06 May 2012

RIP MCA

So sad to hear that Adam Yauch (a.k.a MCA, a.k.a Nathaniel Hornblower) - Beastie Boys rapper and bass player - passed away Friday ... at only 47 years old.

I have been a fan since Licence To Ill came out in '86 - they were definitely a revelation - white boys making hiphop ... and FUN too.  MCA always came across as the thoughtful/serious member of the trio, and his later work for the Free Tibet movement and foundation of the Milarepa Foundation backed that up.
 
Here's one of his finer moments of video directing ... and (of course) starring.

And a blast from the distant and hilarious past ...


Anyway - sad that we've lost him ... thanks MCA.