This artistic drawing is crap. It's obviously NOT TO SCALE in regard to the space available, to the traffic running through the place and totally bizoidly kaput in regard to the colours. Sure the artist is Japanese and he will pen down (electronically) something that is pastel, tasteless and shadeless. SYDNEY IS A COLOURFUL CITY with LOTS OF SHADOWS... See image at top. Throw this idea OUT. OUT!. Aus!  AUS!

Illustration at top from Gus Leonisky... Use it to debunk that horrible project. and to expose the dorks, the philistines and the idiots who give themselves titles to run the place — I mean the Town Hall and the NSW government that pissed on all the Council of the Sydney villages, in order to get a 1950s solution to the City's transport problems... Yes! go ahead Alan (Jones) use the drawing at top on all your shows around town to throw this idea out....

The city got rid of the Monorail... At least the Monorail as annoying and as ugly as it was, was performing a service. Looking like a bent monorail track, this "sculpture", if one really wish to indulge with an artistic moniker to this ugly project, is providing nothing except a perch for pigeons and seagulls, possibly monkeys, and gawking distracting lunacy to tourists and annoyed pedestrians who could be run-over by oncoming traffic. Idiotic.

"More than ungracious," said judge Ben Quilty. "Unnecessary, careless and lacking in generosity," said previous winner Del Kathryn Barton. "Disappointing," said Sam Leach. "Sour grapes," said Euan Macleod. "Ungracious," echoed Guy Maestri​.

"I felt really sorry for Mitch," continued Quilty in a pearl of criticism etiquette. "He's a very quiet young man, never courts controversy, a really diligent, hard-working painter with a two-year-old and a wife." As though a quiet guy with a toddler (And a wife! Heavens!) is automatically above critique.

read more:

http://www.smh.com.au/comment/stop-the-namecalling-and-lets-talk-art-clo...

"... its gravitational defiance, and its dance like thrown ribbon in the sky, will excite Sydney's municipal heart, a lasso to the heavens????" RUBBISH. The seagul perch looks like an old track from the now-defunct monorail gone bad... The "ethereal" images used to show this contraption in the best light are totally misleading and deceptive. The image at top is more evocative of the disaster that it could become. Sydney! Spend the money on the homeless and in the protection of the inhabitants of Waterloo, for crissake! Defend the poor! There will be more glory in saving Waterloo than in a twisted metal vertical rubbish for pigeons, seagulls and climbing thrill-seekers... On that last one, I can see fences around the two bottoms, with spikes and grills like at the entrance of the ladders to the Harbour Bridge. Go away...

And in regard to the Archibald Prize, the old bereted John Olsen was correct... Mind you he could have said the same thing of his own winning entry a few years ago...

After almost two years of speculation and rumour, the Victorian government this week released official plans and images of a new Apple “flagship store” to be built right in the middle of Melbourne’s Federation square.

The timing of the release, just days before Christmas, is an obvious clue to the nervousness on the part of the government for the impending public backlash – and follows a well worn trend of governments using the cloak of Christmas madness to put out their trash.

While it’s true that Federation Square has always divided public opinion between those that love and others that hate its iconic design, most Melburnians have come to appreciate its place as a diverse and open public meeting point playing a vital role in the city’s cultural life.

For those of us who regularly visit Federation Square – to see international films, for free exhibitions at the NGV, to gather at protests, or to visit the Koorie Heritage Trust – this decision is staggering in that it will turn one of Melbourne’s most significant and loved public cultural spaces into something more akin to a generic shopping mall.

Read more:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/dec/21/we-must-stop-the-i...

Unlike Sydney's stupid proposal (read from top), no "art" is involve in this dumping on Melbourne public space... Even the "proposed" building is so ugly, it looks like a squared big Mac with no lettuce. Is this the joke?

“Much of the new open space will cover the Western Distributor, turning dead space above the freeway into new public and green space,” said the spokesman for GPT Wholesale Office Fund, AMP Capital Wholesale Office Fund and Brookfield.

But the project, which is expected to cost more than $1 billion, has met opposition from the City of Sydney, the state MP, residents and the National Trust of Australia.

Alex Greenwich, the independent member for Sydney, said the project represented “very poor planning”.

Read more:

https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/no-planning-merit-cockle-bay-redevel...

What else can these morons think of to destroy Sydney?... I know. More buildings, more crap. Ah yes... And destroying a perfectly good Sydney museum to fill a hole in Parramatta's cultural vacuum.

The NSW government has ordered the Sydney Opera House to display a racing trophy with the word Everest on it and jockey numbers and colours on its sails in contravention of a policy to prevent the commercialisation of the building.

The decision by premier Gladys Berejiklian came late on Friday afternoon after intense pressure from the Daily Telegraph and 2GB’s Alan Jones to accept a plan by Racing NSW to promote the Everest Cup on the iconic landmark.

Racing NSW applied to the Opera House to use it as a venue to promote a horse race on Saturday 13 October, but Sydney Opera House chief executive Louise Herron drew the line at projecting horses’ names, the name of the race and the numbers of the barriers onto the Opera House sails.

Jones then called for Herron to be sacked, in an extraordinarily aggressive interview after she refused to use the building’s sails as a billboard for Racing NSW, and said only the colours of the jockeys would be acceptable.

The Sydney shock jock harangued Herron on his top-rating show on Friday morning, refusing to listen to her answers. He threatened to tell Berejiklian to sack her.

Berejiklian did not sack Herron but she did use her powers to overturn her decision, in what is seen as a major victory for Jones.

“People reading the Daily Telegraph this morning would be thinking ‘who the hell do you think you are, you don’t own the Opera House, we own it ... you manage it,” Jones said.

“You don’t have a right to fence it off.

Read more:

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2018/oct/05/alan-jones-demands-sacking...

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What is this rot? JONES DEMANDS AND GLADYS OBEYS?  The opera house is not a fucking billboard... Nor is it Jones fucking tool to advertise his pooping horses. Next time, tell Jones to light his own farts. Jones and Gladys whatsername should be placed in a shaff bag and dropped in the middle of the Pacific Ocean... Remember? They're idiots!... And don't forget to place Uncle Rupe tied up as ballast for the bag to sink to the bottom at 40,000 fathoms.

May the fucking heavy rain falling on Sydney at the moment foul the track of this "horsey race" so that the whole ugly thing be cancelled.

Read from top.

The New South Wales government is facing a growing backlash over a decision to display an advertisement for a coming horse race on the sails of the Sydney Opera House.

As the United Nations body that declares world heritage sites said it was “looking into” the move to project a racing trophy, jockey numbers and colours on the iconic building, the lord mayor of Sydney, Clover Moore, joined the chorus of criticism on Saturday.

“I am appalled that the state government has instructed the Sydney Opera House to ignore its own policies to let Racing NSW use our iconic sails to advertise a $13m horse race,” she said in a statement to Guardian Australia.

“This is blatant commercialisation of Australia’s world heritage-listed Opera House for an industry notorious for damaging gambling and animal cruelty.”

People should write to the state’s Liberal premier, Gladys Berejiklian, expressing their disgust, Moore said.

Read more:

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/oct/06/its-not-a-billboa...

Anyway, read from top.

Is this the tipping point? Will we one day look back and thank Alan Jones for drawing attention to the disgrace that is Sydney’s capture by the gambling industry with his nasty hectoring of Opera House CEO Louise Herron?

The Jones performance shocked many for its sheer brutality but it should not come as any surprise. He has long been a promoter of the gambling industry and also has commercial interests in racing.

No jurisdiction anywhere in the world inflicts as much gambling harm and losses on its community as New South Wales and the Opera House advertising stoush just highlights how the industry uses its power and connections to stand over government and get whatever it wants, irrespective of the harm caused.

I’ve spent 25 years trying to wind back Australia’s world record levels of gambling harm and didn’t generally take issue with the racing industry until the foreign bookmakers such as Sportsbet, Ladbrokes and now Beteasy invaded Australia and turned us into the world’s second biggest regulated sports betting market with an endless deluge of advertising.

Read more:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/oct/07/alan-jones-opera-h...

Well Tim, when you know that many poker machines in Australia are run by a supermarket chain, that free-to-air and cable TV survive often on advertising gambling and showing horses races (I've got a good tip at ten-to-one on the third) — and that our State governments rely on punters to fill Tattslotto and Tab betting slips, that an unsolicited submission approved by the NSW government (using Fred Nile as collateral) could be the tallest casino in the world while the said government is sued by the said submission for lacking more views of the Sydney Harbour considering it is located on the other side of the city — there is a need to bet that this is not good, yet we demand people to believe in the almighty when it's provable He (god is a male) doesn't exist.

My problem is not with gambling, but with the destruction of aesthetics as decided by idiots, philistines and dorks who grab this city as if it was their private pissoir.

The Cloud Arch, the wisp of inspiration to have framed Sydney’s George Street pedestrian and light rail boulevard, is for the chop: a victim of cost over-runs and the bogged-down process of building the tram line.

City of Sydney councillors will next week vote to cancel the proposed tender for the Junya Ishigami-designed steel swirl in the sky and to defer consideration of the project until after the light rail is finished, sometime in 2020 perhaps.

Read more:

https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/sydney-s-22m-cloud-arch-sculpture-an...

Read from top.

A stupid project from the start will not be started... good!

See also: 

http://yourdemocracy.net.au/drupal/node/35571

The design for the Cloud Arch, a 50-metre high metallic loop intended to look like a ribbon thrown into the air, is certainly bold, especially because it will contrast with the Victorian architecture of the Sydney Town Hall and the Queen Victoria Building. Some will not like it.

But the Herald has no time for philistine critics of modern public art. Good public art involves taking risks but the reward is that it can put a city on the map and define it. Travel to Bilbao in Spain or indeed the MONA in Tasmania.

It is certainly true that at $22 million the Cloud Arch over George Street is more expensive than another statue of a portly dignitary on a horse. On the other hand, it is cheaper than the Opera House or knocking down ANZ Stadium and rebuilding it. NSW is spending $40 million extending the Pools of Remembrance at the War Memorial in Hyde Park.

Read more:

https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/mayor-must-not-compromise-on-cloud-a...

The SMH is totally deluded with this rabid opinionated editorial. Possibly, it has been involved in the project up to the eyeballs from day one, like the little trams which have fucked up commerce in the very centre of this place... and forgets to see that this crappy arch is in the wrong place. Fuck "the contrast". We need contrast like enemas! Talk about CHAOS! The centre of Sydney is not where to place this lovely excretion for seagulls to commit suicide from. Philistines? Us? Me? "Modern art"? Calder did better stuff in the 1950s. McDonald's golden arches, delicately gold leafed, would look better on top of town hall, though a bit more traditional, like advertising this crass mayor with hair like police spikes to stop cars.  The councillors did well to delay the building of this verticalising horror loop badly planned to yet again stuff up the vista of this city. Easy! Find another spot to place it, like a couple of hundred miles off the coast, either above or below water! Comparing this wiry loopy white box to the Opera House shows how the SMH has lost its sense of smell!

Well, I don't mind being called a "philistine" for vehemently opposing this twisted perch for lost loony cockatoos and self-inflated mayors. One day this contraption will end up being dismantled, cut-up with oxyacetylene, like that "what-was-the-name-of-that-little- train-on-stilts", which for whatever ugliness it brought to the city served a function: annoyed the city philistines, yet carried passengers. 

Read from top.

Sydney’s lord mayor, Clover Moore, has called ticketed New Year’s Eve events around the city’s harbour an “outrageous” money-making exercise by the state government.

Of the 51 official harbourside events on the City of Sydney’s website, 19 are ticketed, including at prices as high as $335 – not including alcohol – to watch the fireworks from the Royal Botanic Gardens.

A number of ticketed locations – including Hickson Road reserve in The Rocks and Pirrama Park wharf at Pyrmont – were previously free. 

On Monday, Moore said all the ticketed events were on land held by state government agencies.

“I frankly think that is outrageous that they are trying to make money out of something that we are putting on to bring the community together harmoniously and to celebrate the beauty of our city and our creators,” she said.

“It is about commercialisation and human nature, but I just want to keep stressing, this is meant to be a free event and it is meant to be about bringing the community together.

“We have this amazing multicultural, harmonious community here in the city and all these overseas visitors who for many of them say it is once-in-a-lifetime and others who say they come back again and again, but we don’t think Property New South Wales or the Royal Botanic Gardens should be making money out of a community event on New Year’s Eve.”

The city’s deputy lord mayor, Linda Scott, has criticised the state government for not allowing BYO alcohol at any of the non-ticketed vantage points.

“Our public spaces should be for the public good, and should not be ticketed and restricted for New Year’s Eve,” Scott said.

“Sydney is a magnificent global city, and should have public spaces on New Year’s Eve for people to enjoy a drink and watch the public fireworks for free.

“For Sydney to be a genuinely equitable city for all, access to an affordable and fun night out on New Year’s Eve should be possible. Sadly, under the current Liberal state government, even fun has been privatised.”

From Knickers the steer to Turnbull's 'delicious wife': the 2018 Australian news quiz Read more

On Saturday the New South Wales environment minister, Gabrielle Upton, denied the government was engaged in “privatisation by stealth”.

“There is no privatisation by stealth when there are so many public places that are free for everyone to go and watch the fireworks,” she said.

“We know some families want to ring in the new year in alcohol-free areas and there are many locations around the harbour where that will be the case.”

The $5.78m Sydney New Year’s Eve event will include 8.5 tonnes of fireworks, more than 100,000 individual pyrotechnic effects and 35,000 shooting comets.

The theme is the Pulse of Sydney with the display featuring gold, silver and purple pyrotechnics to the music of (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman, made famous by Aretha Franklin, who died in August.

Melbourne’s New Year’s Eve fireworks display will this year include 14 tonnes of fireworks, but the city’s lord mayor, Sally Capp, stopped short of saying her city would put on a better show.

“Oh, it is the perennial question. Can I say it will be different? We take a very different approach to Sydney,” she said.

“Firstly, we have about 14 tonnes of fireworks going off this evening, they have 8.5 tonnes, so just in terms of magnitude, ours will be different.

“But we take a very different focus. They take a central point on the bridge which is fantastic, and I think it looks fantastic when you see it on TV, but we take a different approach and that is sharing our fireworks across a much larger area so that more people can see it from a distance, and I think … we’ve made sure that a lot more people can enjoy the fireworks.”

Read more:

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/dec/31/new-years-eve-syd...

Read from top

Read also:

http://yourdemocracy.net.au/drupal/node/35625

http://www.yourdemocracy.net.au/drupal/node/35600

Placing designed containers piled up on top of existing buildings is the pit of architectural vandalism. Say NO to this proposal, akin to adding more stories to the Eiffel tower or to the leaning Tower of Pisa. Adding more "rooftop bars" is like encouraging alcoholism (Gus! who's talking!) in a city already sinking in cocktails, wines and beers... NOTE: THERE IS "NO NEED FOR higher DEVELOPMENT". Just spruce it up, clean it up, especially the awnings, unify the signage with classy lettering — and improve the looks of the shops below.

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The council estimates the proposed changes to Oxford Street’s planning rules will unlock more than 42,500 square metres of employment floor space and 11,000 square metres of new creative and cultural space.

Lord mayor Clover Moore said the draft changes, which councillors unanimously endorsed for public exhibition this week, aimed to balance the street’s heritage with the need for development.

“We’re breathing new life into the fabulous strip with innovative controls to support growth and diversity, protect heritage and character and promote both day and night-time economies – all while ensuring the development of cultural space, such as new basement bars and space for creatives,” Cr Moore said.

The proposal to rezone the site will be decided by the Department of Planning, Industry and Environment.

Read more:

https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/it-will-be-returned-to-its-heyday-taller-buildings-and-rooftop-bars-to-transform-oxford-street-20210520-p57tnt.html

Stop this rubbish.

Read from top.

FREE JULIAN ASSANGE NOW, PLEASE $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

The future of a multimillion-dollar public art program at the Hyde Park Barracks is under a cloud after the controversial axing of a major commission that was to have turned the landmark historic building into a symbolic island.

The abrupt cancellation shocked the Sydney artist who had been approached by the Museums of History only 18 months ago to develop his artistic concept.

The decision has been criticised by the peak body representing visual artists, which said the project had been one of the most significant opportunities for visual artists in Sydney to present ambitious work of scale.

https://www.smh.com.au/culture/art-and-design/major-art-commission-axed-at-world-heritage-listed-hyde-park-barracks-20230622-p5dine.html

THIS IS ANOTHER STUPID ARTISTIC WORK OF SCALE THAT IS DESIGNED TO DESTROY WHAT IS... I COULD PRESENT A MILLION SUCH "ARTISTIC" PROJECTS TO THE WORLD — BUT I WOULD NOT HAVE THE DELUSION TO BELIEVE IN MY BELLY-NAVEL-BUTTON TO IMPOSE SUCH ON THE PUBLIC... ALREADY, THERE ARE TOO MANY PUBLIC SPACES THAT HAVE BEEN INVADED BY SILLY ART — EVEN IF TEMPORARY... GO AWAY.

Stop this rubbish.

Read from top.

FREE JULIAN ASSANGE NOW, PLEASE $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$