SYD NYE08

The Sydney Harbour Fireworks... something you hear about when you are down here. I had wanted to see them for the last 3 years but opted to stay up north with my family. This year Ashley and I went to them over in Milsons Point, just across from the bridge. Naturally, we had a random night where we met these British guys with an apartment. We went with them and hung out, watching the fireworks from an unobstructed parking garage roof. So amazing. Here are some of my favorite shots.

Cheers,
CAE

Sydney Wanderings

After a day of wandering around Sydney.

Africa

Here are some photos unearthed from my 2007 travels. I took so many photos some of my favorites fell by the wayside. Enjoy, CAE

Tropfest Film Shoot

Snoop Dogg in Sydney

It's pretty poorly edited on my iMovie, but here's a bit of the adventure that happened last night.

Flowers on the Walk Home from Supacentre

My New Look

Since I haven't been blogging consistently, I would like to take this time to change the focus. Now any funny stories or comedic moments will find their way into the blog.

I'll try to be more regular. I also will keep putting up my favorite photos I've taken along the way.

Tonight's agenda: a certain flatmate is having the Album launch party for Hotel Costes, this hot french hotel. It should be an amazing party of which I've bought a fabulous dress and shoes. Cannot wait. Let the games begin!

Olympic Musings Part 2: Gymnasts

Let me preface this post with the comment that I completely respect women's gymnastics. I think they are incredibly dedicated athletes and I feel sorry for their lot in life. I have never done the splits, nor completed a decent cart wheel. I am simply commenting on their style.

This is the 2008 Olympic games. The LZR Speedo swimsuit is tearing up the pool. The Chinese have spent billions of dollars making state of the art facilities to house the record setters.

Yet, why do the gymnasts continue to cement their hair to their head? The battle doesn't end there. For some reason, nobody has bothered to mention to them that blue eye shadow and really red rouge went out of style approximately 20 years ago, and for good reason.

It wasn't flattering.

I don't even know if I need to comment on the 30-or so odd clips in each of their cemented buns and pony tails.

And just what the hell is up with the glitter?

In total, the chronically sad looking, 13 year old, hair spray plastered, 80's makeup encrusted, SCRUNCHY WEARING Gymnasts in the leotards straight out of Jane Fonda's 1981 hit aerobics video make me more than a little frustrated that women's sports don't seem to have evolved at the same rate as men.

Judges?

Olympic Musings

Since the Summer Olympics 2008 have commenced, I will be periodically updating my blog with the news of our Storyhead Music Video piece featuring the Olympic Swim Team, and also random thoughts about China.

Here is the first:

According to Yahoo News:

Meteorologists fired 1104 "rain dispersal rockets" into clouds over Beijing on Friday night in China's biggest operation of its kind to help prevent showers ruining the Olympic Games opening ceremony.

The rockets were fired from 21 sites to blow away clouds forming over the Games opening ceremony, the state-controlled Xinhua news agency reported.

"It was the largest rain dispersal operation in China, and the first time that such technology has been used to ensure the weather conditions for the Olympic opening," said Xinhua, citing Chinese meteorologists.

China has long dabbled in rain dispersal and rain-making technology, using a vast array of chemicals to either induce or prevent rainfall.

Scientists have viewed the technology as promising, but acknowledge that no method has been developed to objectively prove that such techniques work.

Well, this makes me feel better about the world.
What if you were an Olympian, waiting for your event, and you realized you were now radioactive because of Rocket-Dispersal-Rain-Clouds dumping their toxic waste on you.

Even better, what if you were in a region, chronically plagued by drought and you suddenly found a miracle answer to making rain appear. You just spend I don't know what the average rocket costs, but I'm assuming somewhere in the... millions? So, you spend that money on the rocket instead of the more sensible option of I don't know...irrigation? a dam? Another river for heaven's sake?!

Anyway, you send the rockets up and they produce the rain. The farmers can grow their crop. People are fed. A nice solution, right?

Right. Until... you have farmers growing extra limbs, corn cobs that resemble the Incredible Hulk, and even better, a cycle of toxic waste that continues to pollute your country as well as the globe. But it's ok. Because... you made it rain when it didn't want to.

And you kept the opening ceremonies dry.

Wow, China, Wow.

A Funny Thing Happened One Night at Soccer...

Since I am no longer traveling extensively, and simply now manage a daily commute of about an hour from Manly to Ultimo for work (think Ferry, Train, walk, arrive!) I would like to take this opportunity to shift the focus of Carlagoespostal from travel stories to simply stories from the bizarre, dramatic and sometimes serendipitous life I am leading here in Sydney.

So now I submit, The Referee.

I am currently playing on a women's soccer team. I was playing random pick-up soccer at Moore Park after work when a girl came over and asked me if I wanted to play with their team. I was currently playing on the Sydney University team and so I said I would check it out. I practiced with them that night and then a few days later. It was such a better fit - the girls there were friendly and older (as in they had jobs and weren't Uni students) and the team did less traveling.

And so my love affair with the Dunbar Rovers began. We killed teams in the early going, before the league was split into two separate divisions. Our home field is at Rushcutters Bay, right on the water. You can see Sydney Harbour and sailboats just behind the goal. It is pretty magical. After we had our first few tougher opponents and managed to come out unscathed, I knew our team was bound to do some special things. Alan our coach entered us into a State League competition - playing tougher teams from regions around the city. It was a much better comp and we flew past the first round. We beat one of our central players former teams to advance past the second round. And this weekend we meet the Liverpool Rangers to get to the Final Four.

Here's where the ironic funny story comes in. We had been rained out for a few practices thanks to Sydney's glorious weather. The whole country is in drought except Sydney. So we managed to get a scrimmage invite at UNSW. We rolled up to play under the lights. It was great fun, but the referee was the opposing team's coach. He was of Eastern European descent. He reminded me of my coach growing up who was Polish. After the first 25 minutes of play, we had put a lot of pressure on their goal but hadn't managed to score. The second period started and we put 2 quick goals away. That's when the "creative officiating" began. The coach called 4 fouls in a row for his team. Not even 1 for us. He gave them throw-ins that were clearly ours. It was getting ridiculous. I may or may not have said something like, "Just because you're losing. Ref it fair." The minutes tick by. We enter the third period. They had an offensive chance. Claire, our sweeper for the game, tackled the girl in the box. It was a fair tackle and 50% of the time, if I had been reffing, I would have called it and the other half I wouldn't have.

She gets up and says, "I got all ball!" We all complain a bit.

The referee/coach then blows up. He's like, no no no, everyone is a smart ass. Come on! Come on? That is BULL shit. And walks off the field, taking his confused players with him.

It was the most bizarre and immature series of events I have seen in a very long time. But it made for some entertaining fodder.

So the whole Manly crew is heading up to the Hawkesbury River region to stay at a cabin for the weekend. We are driving up armed with food, booze and plenty of board games. It should prove extremely entertaining, and I hope I can eek out a story or two for the blog.

Baby Got a Job!

Just hours after my last post I got a phone call.

Geoff: "Carla! How's it going?"
Me: "Hey Geoff, yeah, it's going. Still unemployed, which sucks...what's up?"
Geoff: "Well, what's the status of your visa? We would like you to work for us."

And the rest is HISTORY!

I have started working at StoryHead Pty Ltd, as an Associate Producer and I could not be happier. Everything I have wanted out of a job I now get to do. I get to produce, I get to write, I get to liase with clients, I get to shoot... the list goes on. On top of that, I am still working with StreetTV. This weekend we are going to shoot at the Gathering Ground, a community art event in Redfern. Let's just say when God closed a door, he opened a very large window.

Baby Needs a Job

So here I am. I find myself some weeks out of work. After TCO, I went to New Zealand to come back on a different visa to work and travel in Australia.

The time in NZ was great. I went to a horse farm outside of Christchurch and rode for 5 days. The rest of the guests... were 10 year old girls. And they were much better riders than me. But I improved so much! The first day we were going up a huge hill and my stirrup came loose. We started trotting and I wasn't skilled enough to keep my balance and went over. I landed on my side on the high side of the hill, so it wasn't that bad but I still bruised my spine.

I was so sore.

The rest of the week progressed and I can honestly say I am no longer afraid I will get thrown off a horse, again. I can't wait until I get a job here and can start riding Elvis, the amazing horse I began dressage lessons on in Centennial Park. Maybe for my birthday I will indulge in an Elvis lesson.

So, meanwhile, I came back here and have been aching for a purpose. I finally connected with some amazing people who work for StreetTV. They took a chance on me and I got to shoot the Hope Street Markets for them on the Sony Z-1 Camera. It felt amazing to be back out there and getting an active say in what was produced. The only drawback? They can't pay me. So I am literally a starving artist.

I am so thankful for all my friends here in Sydney. They have really been lifesavers! Julie and Mark and Jo are the greatest for letting me stay with them, rent free. I only hope someday I could even come close to repaying them for their kindness and hospitality.

Going to a National Team (Women's AND Men's) game tonight at the Sydney Football Stadium. It should be great fun!

In the meantime, if you know of anybody in the Sydney area who needs a devoted, passionate, motivated individual to work in production give them my name!