David & Yi in a graffiti art lane, Melbourne
David, Wei, Yi, Mun, Albert, & Raymond on the Princess Bridge over the Yarra River
Melbourne has huge shopping malls, and a new one, the Emporium, has a Nespresso store; lucky for us to get a new supply of my favorite "cru", Roma. Oh, and there happened to be a gelateria there too (remember it's summer here!) There are lots of shiny objects in the shopping mall, and I recorded a reflection of Yi and me on a convex surface.
Today (Monday) was another nice day...so this arvo we visited a few new places in Melbourne: the Victoria State Library, and the Melbourne Museum. The library is a neo-classical revival design constructed in the mid-1850s, and houses Captain Cook's folios. We took in an exhibit of Bohemian Melbourne. With Paris as the epicenter of the bohemian genre, it made it's way to Melbourne, and spawned art communities in Melbourne in the 1930s and 1940s. One of the Melbourne bohemians, later to make it on the international entertainment stage, was Barry Humphries, aka Dame Edna.
The reading room of the Victoria State Library
On the way to the Melbourne Museum in Carlton Gardens is the Royal Exhibition Building which housed the Melbourne International Exposition of 1880-1881. The design has some elements of Romanesque revival, but the Dome is said to be designed after the dome of the Florence Duomo. See for yourself.
Finally...the Melbourne Museum, a glass and steel modern design built in 1990 on the old exposition grounds. We spent most of our time at the "First People" exhibit...an exhibit on Australia's aborigines. There were over 500 nations, each with it's own language and customs. But living in a harsh environment that is most of this island continent, the first people had developed sophisticated survival skills and techniques, always honoring the land and elders. Part of the exhibit explored the past struggles, such as the "Lost Generations", where as late as the 1950s, families were separated with kids being sent to foster homes and institutions as parents, displaced from traditional lands, were deemed unfit to care for their children. There are current struggles to regain lands and acknowledgement of their place in Australia's history.
Another exhibit was on Pacific Island boats; most on display were from Papua New Guinea and the Solomons. There was only a model boat from Fiji, not very impressive to see along with a PNG boat that held 40 warriors (pictured below).
The last exhibit was a taxidermied Phar Lap, the best know racehorse in Australian history. Phar Lap (taken from a southern Chinese dialect word meaning lightening) won the most important races in Australia in the late 1920s and early 1930s, including the Melbourne Cup. He did so well in Australia that he was sent to race in big races in North America. Remember, Mexico is in North America. And also note that Tijuana is in Mexico, in North America. Yes, he ran at the Agua Caliente racetrack in Tijuana in 1932, and he won big time. One may wonder just how big a win in TJ (American for Tijuana) could be. But as it turns out, due to the prohibition of drinking and gambling in the USA at the time, the biggest horse racing stakes were at Agua Caliente, which was built by a rich American. Unfortunately, soon after the race, Phar Lap became sick and died; poisoning by arsenic was the likely cause of death. Bits of Phar Lap are shared by Australia (the taxidermied Phar Lap in Melbourne, and the heart in Canberra) and New Zealand, where Phar Lap was foaled (his skeleton is in NZ).
Next stop...Geelong (no, it's not a type of tea...that would be Oolong).
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