"The Rotor, Luna Park Sydney." Red and gold Quill Metallique and black card, cut freehand, and collaged onto Ingres paper. Human characters detailed in black and white Sharpie and watercolours.
Update:
Week 3: Theme Park II
In memory of the late S John Ross, silhouette artist at Luna Park and theme parks and agricultural shows all over Australia. Collage and silhouettes using natural shadows.
Week 3: Theme Park III
"Mr Minotaur's A-mazing Theme Park". Black Sharpies, white opaque Signo and watercolour on Quill "marbletone" cream paper. Details in watercolour pencils and some yellow Puffy paint.
Luna Park Sydney's "Crazy Crooner" carnival sideshow heads. Cut from white Quill linenbond card, and collaged onto a background of mounted "scratch paper", with watercolour and marker highlights.
Update:
Week 40: Carnival II
Watercolours over masking fluid, with collaged masks and a horizon of carnival buildings. Accents in black finepoint Sharpie, white Puffy paint and various highlighter pens.
"Luna Park, St Kilda". Sketched in black finepoint Sharpie (no pencil, no eraser) on A4 gold Quill Metallique card, with highlights in white opaque marker and black watercolour. Based on my own photograph.
I am always in awe watching pro cartoonists and carnival silhouette artists creating art without pencils and erasers, so I think I (almost) enjoy the danger. I learned in "Dance Week", with my Batgirl collage, that you can't really erase anything on the gorgeous Quill Metallique card without causing damage anyway, so... I had to be brave.
Update:
Week 39: Melbourne II
"Cole's 'Little Men', Cole's Book Arcade". Mechanised advertising amusement, now permanently located in Museum Victoria. Sketch in black fineline Sharpie, highlights in watercolour, and gold and white opaque markers. Based on several photos found in a Google Image search, plus the rainbow logo of the former book arcade.
Symmetrical whale and fish templates freehand-cut and fringed from folded watercolour paper, mounted onto textured black card. Decorated in watercolours, black Sharpie ink and white Puffy paint.
Update:
Week 19: Eat II
Luna Park - Just for Indigestion. I know people who refuse to walk through the Luna Park Sydney entrance because they imagine this might happen! Outlined in thick black Sharpie, coloured with watercolour, silver Sharpie and white opaque Signo ink, and collaged onto word-processed card.
My US holiday continues! Ironically, this Sydneysider is still reporting live from Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA, as my US holiday continues. This week, I spent about four extended sessions (sketching, outlining, painting, final touches) on a project that bounced into my head the moment I saw an ArtiCrafti brand moulded "koala canvas mask" in a Dollar King bargain store - for just $2.50 - a few months ago. I had to carefully pack and bring it OS with me, much to my penpal host's delight, who enjoyed watching the artwork emerge from my brain! The mask is decorated with images of Sydney in black ball-point ink and watercolour.
Week 30: Sydney
The mask is decorated with 3D detail, which includes yellow pompons for wattle flowers, white Tulip brand "puffy dimensional fabric paint" for seagulls and wave crests, and a toothpick flag.
Update:
Above: As modelled by my Ann Arbor penpal, Olivia!
Feeling nostalgic in Milson's Point today (I went off to Luna Park to pick up some anniversary goodies!), I realised that the Youtube footage of the "Number 96" characters' 1976 visit to Luna Park Sydney is actually missing its fleeting glimpse of the familiar face! In this, Luna Park's 75th Anniversary week, I believe it's about time to dig out the ol' pics!
Luna Park in "Number 96" in '76
Dorrie, Herb, Flo and Junior on the Big Dipper
Topsy Turvy Flo
Refreshments? Now?
Junior feasts on hot chips and heads for the Tumble Bug
Dorrie staggers
Fairy floss - and a touch of Marilyn with an air vent, Coney Island
Sydney Harbour Bridge backdrop
Back on the Big Dipper!
One more pie before home!
(Airdate of "And They Said It Wouldn't Last": 24/06/76, Network Ten.)
As for today:
Yes, it's 75th Anniversary Luna Park Sydney Monopoly! Limited to 2500 copies, available only from their souvenir shop or the website!
I got to thinking, though: this game needed some Aussie icons as tokens, not the traditional car, shoe, thimble, hat, etc. Racing past three George Street souvenir shops, on my way to the railway station, I quickly found a miniature Sydney Harbour Bridge and Opera House in painted resin, a Kombi van with surfboard on top (pencil topper), a silver and enamelled thong (flip flop) with road signs on the inner sole (mobile phone charm), fuzzy kangaroo and koala (keyrings) and two thimbles, illustrating a boomerang and Sydney Tower. Clever, eh?
Tonight, on my way to a course at the Sydney Writers' Centre, Milson's Point, I had a little time to kill and decided to wander off in the opposite direction towards Luna Park. With the light fading quickly, I snapped an unusual angle of the lit pylons that hold up the famous face (below left) and arrived at the bottom of the stairs just as the dusk bathed the face in the most extraordinarily blue cast (above). I was thrilled with the result, immediately uploaded the photo to Facebook, where it received many positive comments. The dumb luck involved in what often makes a really great photo - sometimes so much more important than skill - continues to amaze me.
Above right:The ever-popular Coney Island giant slides.
The spectacular view from the new location of the Writers' Centre.
The course I am enrolled in, Build Your Online Profile, runs for five weeks. Our tutor is Tristan Bancks, a Web 2.0 savvy author of books for young people - and a familiar face from his days as Tug on the long-running Aussie soap opera, "Home and Away". Session #1 was excellent. Now I have to tackle my homework: buying a domain name for my web presence.
A shadow box of memorabilia from Luna Park. Centre: large clown sticker from the day of the 1981 auction at Milson's Point, Sydney; metal ride token from 1935-1981, other metal tokens and rubber badge are from 2000s; the lower right wooden face is of Luna Park, Melbourne.
Here are some b/w photographs of mine, taken during a day at Luna Park in 1973:
Tumblebug Davy Jones' Locker Mirror Maze
Ghost Train
Brother Keith and cousin Alison on the Cha Cha Entrance to Coney Island
On my desk: Andorian bear and Andorian monkey with Robby the Robot clock and Fantastic Four figurine puzzle plastic packing crate.3 February 2010.
Torrential rain from the staffroom window, on the day of our annual swimming carnival.4 February 2010.
Luna Park memorabilia shadowbox. The large clown sticker from the day of the 1981 auction at Luna Park Sydney; the lower right wooden face is of Luna Park Melbourne.5 February 2010.
About eighteen months ago, I noticed that the Luna Park, Sydney entry on Wikipedia had a section called Appearances in film and television that was lacking a favourite sequence of mine from 70's soap opera, "Number 96".
It had already been noted on the web page that Sydney's Luna Park had been a filming location for 1959's "Summer of the Seventeenth Doll", plus TV episodes of "Six O'Clock Rock" and even "Skippy the Bush Kangaroo". In more recent years, the movie "Our Lips Are Sealed" (starring Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen), an episode of "Farscape" ("Infinite Possibilities, Part I: Daedalus Demands") and parts of "JAG" ("Boomerang"), not to mention the excellent documentary, "Spirits of the Carnival: The Quest for Fun", were filmed at the location. The Rotor attraction was also featured in the 2006 film, "Candy".
But... in 1976, several Number 96 residents visited Luna Park. Dorrie and Herb Evans (Pat McDonald and Ron Shand), their old pal Flo Patterson (Bunney Brooke) and a naive man-child named "Junior" Winthrop (Curt Jansen), who believed that he was Herb's secret, long lost son, ended up on the opposite side of Sydney Harbour to the Sydney Opera House. You see, Junior's planned date with opera buff girlfriend, Isobel Mainwaring (Jill McKay) - turned out to be decidedly underwhelming. So he treats his pensioner friends to a trip to Luna Park instead. Scenes of them all in Coney Island, eating fairy floss, and riding on the original wooden Big Dipper and the dizzying Topsy-Turvy House, are featured in the episode.
Luna Park in "Number 96" in '76
This footage has been preserved in the first version of a documentary, "Number 96: And They Said It Wouldn't Last", which aired on Network Ten a short while after the episode to celebrate the 1000th episode of the soap opera. Repeats of the special have always omitted this footage. (Thirty years later, all three variations of that documentary have been combined for posterity as a bonus feature on the DVD release, "Number 96: 2 disc Collector's Edition" (Umbrella Entertainment, 2006 - black cover!). The original closing segments, which included the Luna Park footage, was almost lost to the DVD when it was discovered that the original ending was not part of the National Film & Sound Archive's collection - they only had versions #2 and #3!)
(Update: Someone had marked my Wikipedia updates about the sequence with the ominous "Citation needed" warnings but I now realise that blog entries, and websites that do not undergo "independent editorial reviews", are not acceptable as citations for Wikipedia. My attempted revisions have been removed; my original contribution to Wikipedia is destined to remain unproven, I guess... I have been contacted about how to footnote the DVD, though. Now I have to go and learn how to do so.)
Enjoy the Youtube clip! Unfortunately, the person who uploaded it misses the group's arrival, with a fleeting glimpse of them going through the famous face of Luna Park (above). (Don't forget, at the end of this month, another "Number 96" DVD boxed set is due: "The Pantyhose Murders" story arc - pink cover!)
Dorrie, Herb, Flo and "Junior" go to Luna Park (1976).
Otherwise known as "Therin of Andor", Ian McLean has had an active association with "Star Trek" and science fiction media fandom in Australia since 1980. Before then he was an avid fan of the "Batman" TV series (60s) and the Australian TV classic, "Number 96" (70s).
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