This hospital used to be huge. By the time Andrew and I got to it, the majority of it had been demolished, with only the one beautiful building remaining.
It took awhile to get out to this hospital, as we didn’t have a car and had to take public transport and then go for a looong walk. But I got to see cows lounging behind a suburban bus stop, which was pretty neat.
x Kitten of Doom
The Savoy Tavern, a once iconic pub opposite Spencer Street Station Southern Cross Station, is set to undergo renovations to bring it back to it’s original glory, no money-making high-rise apartment blocks included. Apparently.
Some Age readers seem a little skeptical of Mark Rowthorn’s vow to refurbish the old tavern to look like it’s former self. And I don’t blame them. Good ol’ pubs aren’t really big business in the city nowadays; you want to be a hip nightclub attracting all the rich young’uns. A backpackers or mid-priced hotel does seem the logical option, given the proximity to Spencer Street Station Southern Cross Station. I definitely think the idea of a “nice” park is out – I mean, it’s a great idea for the homeless needing benches to sleep on, but I don’t think the middle/upper class is going to like that outcome. Probably also a good spot for dealers/buyers who come from different areas of Melbourne to meet up.
But I digress. Do you think the building should be retained for historical value? We could go with the current trend of sticking a tall glass extension on top of it. Make it into student accommodation or a backpackers? Or do you think it would be viable again as a pub? I would love to think the latter. But in this age of (re)development I am doubtful.
Photo: Luis Enrique Ascui, theage.com.au
x Kitten of Doom
Exactly one year ago today, I flew from Berlin to Kyiv to meet Andrew and Shane for adventures in Chernobyl as well as general sightseeing in Kyiv.
Central Kyiv is a colourful and vibrant city. Perhaps it was more vibrant whilst we were there because they were two weeks out from the opening of the Euro Cup, which they were hosting last year, and as with most European countries, were very excited about. There was a massive queue in the cbd for people to have their picture taken with the Euro Cup ahead of the competition. There were militsia everywhere (in addition to regular police).
We didn’t find our lack of Ukrainian to be a problem (I speak basic Russian… Andrew and Shane know “thankyou”). Most people who work in hospitality/tourism know enough broken English to communicate. The hotel front desk staff speak very good English. Nobody seems to have change for anything higher than a 20, so try not to carry big notes around (the ATMs give you denominations of 200 Hrivna… yikes).
Everyone drives like maniacs, cutting off others whilst changing lanes at high speed is quite common. Also nobody wears seatbelts. Yet nobody seems to have accidents. Parking is very difficult to come by, so everyone parks on the nature strips. Taxis don’t have meters, they just make up the fare upon your arrival at your destination, so make sure you negotiate a cheap price before you get in. One of our taxis didn’t have a back windscreen. No biggie.
One highlight was definitely the Museum of the Great Patriotic War, a memorial to the soldiers and civilians who died during the Nazis invasion of Kyiv during the Second World War. Kyiv, being the eastern-most city of the Soviet Union, was the first port of call for the Germans, and having not enough soldiers to hold them off on their own, were joined by the peasant civilians. They lost, but not without a fierce battle. They are very proud of their contribution in defending the USSR in WWII, and this is evident in their War Museum. Despite being able to read almost nothing in the museum (all exhibits and artifacts have captions only in Ukrainian; there is a laminated A4 card at the beginning of each room giving you a synopsis of that room’s history in English) it was an extremely moving experience. The museum is topped by a 62m stainless steel statue, Mother Motherland, a symbol of strength and victory which watched over Kyiv. The total height of museum and statue is 102m. I can’t describe how awe-inspiring it is in person. The pictures don’t really convey how huge it actually is.
Go further out from the city centre and Kyiv becomes less colourful, and much more evidently poor. The apartment blocks are exactly how you picture them. Many of them look as though they might collapse with a gust of wind.
The cathedrals are stunning; so many golden domes. Everything is cheap cheap cheap (mmm vodka). Beggars are plentiful, but we didn’t get any trouble from them.
St. Andrew’s church
View from Hotel Ukraina
Kyiv church
Mother Motherland statue
Mother Motherland statue watches over Kyiv
Welcome to sunny Kyiv
Cathedral of the Dormition
Huge carvings depicting peasants helping soldiers fight in WWII at the War Museum
Kyiv city centre
Can’t wait to go back.
x Kitten of Doom
Unfair Lottery sounds a bit different to previous Horrorshow material with the singing on the chorus. It might take a few listens for me to get into it, but kudos to them for doing something a bit different. I also think the track seems to end a bit prematurely; perhaps could have done with one more verse.
Still sounds pretty good in my opinion though, and I can’t wait to hear the rest of the album.
x Kitten of Doom
My friend and I were thinking about making a photography zine of some of the abandoned and obscure places we’re been to around Melbourne, with maybe a little of our own poetry thrown in to accompany the pictures. If we were to sell these for, say, $5 each, would anyone be interested in buying one?
I can’t stop watching this. By Melbourne duo Killbot Kindergarten, the beats are rad, Youka’s voice is beautiful and the video is awesome in a unsettling, creepy, menacing kind of way.
Write a poem about a recent world-news-worthy tragedy and post it on your blog, to gain attention. When the huge response still isn’t enough to satisfy your ego, write a blog entry about the poem you posted on your blog, just to make sure everyone has noticed you. Who are these bombers stealing the limelight, anyway?
Post a link to the poem. Don’t re-post the poem itself. The poem isn’t the focus, your thoughts on it are.
Before posting a single thought, mention exactly how many negative comments you’ve received (exact numbers now, don’t round up or down to the nearest 100, 10 or even 5) to make sure everyone knows you’re controversial. You’re nothing if you’re not controversial.
In the same sentence, state that the poem only took you – no exaggeration – 9 minutes! to write. This is so if you receive thousands of comments telling you how shit your writing is, you can pull the “well if I had more than 9 minutes to work on it, it would be a masterpiece, wouldnt it moron?” card.
Don’t decide on a title until the very end, so you can use the very latest headline grabbing tragedy to promote yourself.
This pretty much sums it up: “i could have titled “a poem for dzhokhar” a million things. i could have called it “the past 48 hours”. or “everything in my brain right now”. You probably shouldn’t include this, because it just tells everyone that you’re only talking about yourself. But then again, if you’re really bored, including a statement like this can lead to an amusing experiment on how many moronic loyal followers you can gain/retain by being an obvious fucktard.
“this is the best thing that art can do – any art, good art, bad art, 9-minute art and 9-year art….reveal things.”
Shit, give this woman an honorary degree. This is the most profound analysis of art I have ever heard.
“it tells you a lot about how people work, how they think things should work.
it tells you what they hold dear, and what they are afraid of.
it can be a very good litmus test for which way the wind is blowing.”
In this paragraph, Palmer blows away every professor of Psychology and Behavioural Science, ever. Fuck the honorary degree, give her a fucking PhD!
Then we get to the dot points (well they’re hyphen points, but you know what I mean). Picking her fingers, going to New York, feeling her legs in yoga class… notice the similarities between the blog and her poem? Which is supposedly about Dzokhar… but sounds weirdly a bit like herself..?
“…(note: “sympathy” is defined as “feelings of pity and sorrow for someone else’s misfortune.” and “empathy” is defined as “the action of understanding, being aware of, being sensitive to, and vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts, and experience of another of either the past or present without having the feelings”. know the difference. it’s subtle…but important.)
so….people are afraid to say, in public, that they feel empathy?
this scared me so much.”
Here, Palmer looks up the definitions of “empathy” and “sympathy” in a dictionary for the benefit of her readers who are presumedly too stupid to know the difference, then proceeds to use the wrong one in her following question.
And THEN:
“and may you find a way to feel empathy towards everyone.
EVERYONE?
yes, everyone.”
Yep, no understanding of the meaning of the word. You don’t feel empathy toward someone. You feel empathy with someone. If you understand the meaning of the word, you will understand what I am saying here.
(I’d like to point out here I am not picking on single words in Palmer’s sentences for the sake of picking on her. What I’m getting at is that there is nothing substantial behind her words. She has no idea what she is talking about).
Sympathy: acknowledging anothers feelings. Yes, I can see that the guys accused of the Boston bombings had an interesting upbringing and way of thinking, and I acknowledge that.
Empathy: understanding through experience another’s thought process: no I can’t empathise with the guys accused of the Boston bombing because, even though I have been through some very black periods in my life, I have never been through those sorts of experiences or expressing my rage in such a way.
You don’t “choose” to feel empathy, as Amanda purports.
Anyway, I’m getting off track… this is supposed to be all about Amanda…
So dribble on for a bit longer (I did read her entire poem AND blog entry, although I did run out of sedatives three-quarters of the way through). BUT, make sure you end your blog post with something super-profound. Such as:
“when you cannot make art about the chaos, that’s when the chaos takes over.”
It’s all about the art. If you are an artist, then you know that, in the words of Metallica (amazing artists), “nothing else matters”. What is human suffering, if great art cannot be made from it? If no amazing art is made from it, did the suffering even happen at all??
To end your blog post make sure you remind people that what they just read/skimmed wasn’t about some loser bombers or some shit but about YOU, an ARTIST, with a casual throwaway line like “happy national poetry month”, and then a webcam selfie where you’re doing the peace sign thing.
Put your donate button directly underneath with a full-length explanation of why it i$ there $o that people don’t reali$e you’re ju$t after their money. They won’t think you’re being defen$ive or anything.
And… that’s it! Make note, you’re going to have to be super-edgy to pull this off, considering you can’t actually sing or write for shit.
❤ Luv u all xxxxxxxxx
Love this song, and the video is beautiful too!
I was bored this afternoon so made these on my iphone…
x Kitten of Doom
I have found that Instagram is really useful for discovering new artists, photographers and graphic designers.
Some of my favourites are:
x Kitten of Doom
Kitten of Doom 