52-Week Illustration Challenge, Week 30

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!

Framed in a shadowbox

Who is more futuristic?

Both inspired by the 1960s, who is more "futuristic": NASA Barbie or Sydney Opera House Barbie?

1.1.11

Today, I am told, is the first day of the second decade of the third millennium.

Last night, Sydney celebrated with the traditional anticipated/expected fireworks spectacular over the harbour - and I actually ventured in for the first time since December 31, 1985 (the year the movie "Explorers" premiered, because we filled in our afternoon by going to the cinema to see it.)


Ice cream van in Martin Place.

I had been invited by a friend to attend her rooftop gathering in The Rocks and this sounded like the perfect way to enjoy the event without having to tolerate the crowds!


The view upon arrival, above The Rocks.


Sydney Harbour Bridge.


Sydney Opera House (recently nicknamed the "Oprah House").


Fireworks by Foti Brothers, wavy glow stick by Karen, glowing rings by Chie-Hoon.














Happy New Year!

(By the way, the first photo is a closeup of the battery-operated pendant I wore for the event.)

TMP vs JJ ST?

You know, "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" (TMP) is still my favourite Star Trek movie of all time - my favourite movie of all time - but JJ Abrams' "Star Trek" (2009) is a very close second. I also thoroughly enjoyed ST II, III, IV, and much of VI.

When I joined ST fandom in early 1980, I had diehard TOS people telling me that TMP left them feeling "empty" and "unsatisfied". I spent many months trying to defend a film that all of my new friends thought was a boring piece of crap. I heard the exact same criticism from others re ST II (in fact, there's a whole thread on this over in the ST Movies section). Ditto ST III. Other fans have told me that they felt ST IV was a dumbing down of the franchise for the masses and that it left them feeling "patronised", "empty" and "unsatisfied".

Why is TMP better? Well, it has a certain majesty to the way it was filmed. It was treating TV material to the benefits of a huge motion picture budget, and a three-to-six month principal photography shoot - when the cast were used to filming a one-hour episode in less than ten days. It was reuniting a cast who hadn't worked together in a decade. And the production design and direction put me, a lowly member of the audience, who knew very little about the characters and their previous adventures, onto that ship!

It's hard to describe, and it was made worse in 1980 when I couldn't find many TOS fans who actually liked TMP. For me, who was also lucky enough to have already read the novelization! - it became a film that fully submersed me in the action.

JJ went quite close. While I never felt I was on that ship, I really did relate to the characters, and felt their losses - of lives they would never get to experience due to the changed timeline. Both films certainly rely upon a lot of nostalgia value, both plundering it to make us relate to the material, and rejoicing in it without a hint of self-consciousness, but TMP pips JJ at the post for the way it affected me as an audience member. Mind you, I was a naive 21 yo watching TMP, and a more seasoned, very Trek-knowledgeable 50yo watching ST XI.



You'll never please 100% of fandom with a ST movie, but this one probably went closer to that 100% than any other. Its high rating (currently 95% approval from 273 reviewers!) over on Rotten Tomatoes still staggers me. The backing of Leonard Nimoy was also significant. I also find it ironic that so many people now look back on TMP with a quirky fondness. That film that was scoffed at, as "The Motionless Picture", now has a secret niche in the soft spot of many TOS fans' hearts.

I've actually spoken to quite a few Sydney celebs and society folk who were at the Sydney Opera House world premiere of JJ's ST and they said that the praise for the movie, from the 2000 invited guests (and lucky 200 ST fans who were able to buy tickets to the premiere online), was almost universal. Standing ovations in many sections of the Concert Hall. Those society folk then went forth on Twitter, and their Facebook, MySpace sites and spread positive vibes to the world! Brave JJ and Paramount! Imagine if those 2200 people had hated the movie with a passion. Nobody was paying them to be positive about the film.

JJ promised us a ST movie that would reach beyond existing fandom, and get people talking positively about ST again. He achieved that. I felt it was a successful emotional rollercoaster of a movie; some fans managed to not be affected by it. C'est la vie, I guess! Every time I see the opening scenes I choke up. So do my friends. Nero's attack on Vulcan was unexpected and with amazing consequences. I find it hard not to be emotionally compromised!

If you didn't get anything out of the movie, I can only say you seem to be in a minority. And better luck next time?

Beam me up, SSO!

Organ pipes and unique ceiling design of the Concert Hall,
Sydney Opera House, for the Sydney Symphony Orchestra "Star Trek" event.

This was a great event!

Because I'd made an unsuccessful attempt to secure seats for that big World Premiere of JJ Abrams' "Star Trek" movie earlier in the year, I now receive regular emails from the Sydney Opera House for its other events. It was with great interest that I was notified of the chance to pre-order tickets for the Sydney Symphony Orchestra's concert playing selections from the soundtracks of all eleven "Star Trek" movies, plus "2001: A Space Odyssey", "Transformers" and Holst's "Mars, the Bringer of War" from "The Planets" Suite.

Footage from "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" (the trip through Vejur), "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan" (the starship battle in the nebula), "Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country", and images from the Hubble Space Telescope "StarGaze" DVD, accompanied "2001" and "Mars".

A big screen showed appropriate Trek movie scenes (compiled by Daniel Saw of Active Media) to accompany each piece, and very humorous, snappy introductions from the conductor, Guy Noble. The ST material was after the intermission, and that's when Noble came out on stage in his command gold Starfleet shirt - the design from the new movie!

When acknowledging the capacity crowd, he said he suspected there were some "Star Trek" fans in the audience. Well, I did shout "Yay!" at that point, and I was in the front row (only because the choir was sitting in my originally booked box seats), but Mr Noble then pointed at me and said, "Ladies and gentlemen, there's a man down here wearing pointed rubber Spock ears..."

I fully anticipated his next line: "Oh no, they're his own ears."

Well, I was considering wearing the full Andorian get-up...



The "Star Trek" movie themes, the main part of the program, included: "The Enterprise" from ST:TMP; "Main Title" of "ST II: The Wrath of Khan"; "Stealing the Enterprise" from "ST III: The Search for Spock"; "End Credits" from "ST IV: The Voyage Home", "ST V: The Final Frontier" and "ST VI: The Undiscovered Country"; "Overture" from "Generations"; "End Credits" from "First Contact" and "Insurrection"; "A New Ending" from "Nemesis" and "End Titles" from the 2009 "Star Trek" movie.

Remember that little, quirky/shimmery, musical sound in the ST II soundtrack, as the opening credits make way for the "In the 23rd century..." caption? The SSO included this sound at the beginning of their "ST II Main Title" section. At the next break, the conductor asked the audience if they'd noticed what instrument was used. No one reacted much (and my vision had been obscured by my proximity to the raised stage. They asked the musician to demonstrate... his piece of flexible, white, plastic pipe, which had been bought from a local hardware store! (I have plenty of it in my swimming pool, running the air through to my automatic pool cleaner.)



There was also a handsome collectible program, featuring synopses of each ST movie and some great photographs and trivia. Then, as we were leaving, a friend noticed these in the Opera House gift shop:


Collectible coins struck to celebrate the World Premiere
of JJ Abrams "Star Trek" movie at the Sydney Opera House.
(7th April 2009)

On the tiles

Yep, good guessing. It's not a NASA space shuttle's heat tiles in close-up, it's... the Sydney Opera House!

It’s Trek, Jim, but not as we know it…

This September, highlights from all eleven Star Trek films will be featured – on a giant movie screen - with the music played by a full orchestra at the Sydney Opera House, venue of the recent "Star Trek" movie premiere!

The Sydney Symphony will take the audience on a journey back to 1979, where the "Star Trek" motion picture series began, with "Star Trek: The Motion Picture". The session concludes with scenes and music from the smash hit movie of 2009: JJ Abrams' "Star Trek". The first half of the program also includes the music and imagery from "2001: A Space Odyssey" and "Transformers".

I understand this world premiere concert is not to be missed – resistance is futile!

Live from Sydney

Australia's TV current affairs show "Today Tonight" showed most of the ST XI trailer footage tonight, and excerpts from TOS and TMP, plus all-new studio interviews with Pine, Quinto, Cho and Abrams, and an interview with Eric Bana in a live (or just-delayed) cross to the red carpet leading up to the Sydney Opera House.

The front cover of Saturday's The Sydney Morning Herald's "Spectrum" arts & entertainment lift-out had a great full page pic of Zachary Quinto doing the Vulcan salute, and the interview with him (and pre-publicity on the premiere), is a double page feature spread on pages 4 and 5.

Let the reviews begin...

By the way, there was also a surprise screening in Austin, TX, with Leonard Nimoy and the writers, before the official one. Fans thought they were attending a retro screening of "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan", plus ten minutes of highlights of the new "Star Trek" (ST XI), but Nimoy walked out on stage to tell them they'd been punked, and were about to see all of ST XI.

I eventually worked that out, but it wasn't obvious here, in Sydney, when I was seeing all these reviews pop up online (on TrekBBS) before the film had even finished running here - and knowing all the Aussie guests' mobile phones, iPhones and Blackberries had been cloaked by Opera House security.


Star Trek poster in Sydney's CBD this week.

Red carpet gamble

AUSTRALIAN PUBLIC GIVEN OPPORTUNITY TO
ATTEND THE WORLD PREMIERE OF
J.J. ABRAMS’ “STAR TREK” AT
SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE SYDNEY


Paramount Pictures Australia will release a strictly limited allocation of special tickets for sale for the World Premiere of J.J. Abrams’ (MISSION IMPOSSIBLE: III, LOST, ALIAS) action adventure STAR TREK at Sydney Opera House on April 7.

Those who succeed in buying tickets will be the first members of the public in the world to see this hotly anticipated film.

They will have the opportunity to walk the red carpet that will also welcome director/producer J.J. Abrams and cast members Eric Bana, Chris Pine (SMOKIN’ ACES), Zachary Quinto (HEROES) and Karl Urban (THE BOURNE SUPREMACY) on their first stop of a world tour to promote the film.

Those who purchase tickets will then join invited guests in the Concert Hall of Sydney Opera House for the first film premiere to be held in this particular performance space of Australia’s most iconic building.

“Although we have a tremendous demand for tickets to this event, we are delighted to be able to make some tickets available to the general public so that they can share in the excitement of this unique World Premiere screening of STAR TREK here in Sydney,” said Mike Selwyn, Managing Director of Paramount Pictures Australia.

The limited allocation of tickets will go on sale from 9.00 a.m. Australian Eastern Daylight Time (AEDT) on Monday, March 30 and will only be available online via www.sydneyoperahouse.com or by phoning Sydney Opera House box office on +61 2 9250 7777.

Tickets will be $100 each plus booking fee and each ticket purchase will entitle the purchaser to a bonus souvenir STAR TREK theatrical poster.

Oh, and there's a new USA television trailer for the movie, with a few new scenes: Here!

Down Under to boldly go down under

Sydney Opera House, as depicted in "The Outsiders" #42, DC Comics.

JJ Abrams' "Star Trek" movie is almost upon us, but it's just been announced that our own Sydney Opera House is the venue for the world premiere/official preview!

Paramount Pictures Australia announced yesterday that Sydney will host the special screening event in front of 1,600 "tastemakers", ah... guests - in the Sydney Opera House Concert Hall on Tuesday, April 7.

The premiere will feature director/producer JJ Abrams and cast members Eric Bana (Nero), Chris Pine (Kirk), Zachary Quinto (Spock) and Karl Urban (McCoy) presenting the movie. They will be supported by Zoe Saldana (Uhura), Simon Pegg (Scott) and presumably Aussie actor, Chris Hemsworth, who's playing Kirk's father, George Kirk Sr. Following this world premiere, an international tour launches: to countries such as Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Japan, Korea, Netherlands and New Zealand.

"Not only are we honored to have JJ Abrams and the cast here in Sydney for the World Premiere of the stunning new STAR TREK," said Mike Selwyn, Managing Director of Paramount Pictures Australia, of the world premiere, "we are also very excited to present this event at one of Australia's - and the world's - most famous locations, Sydney Opera House."

It is slated to open in US cinemas on May 8, but thanks to our differing release schedules and the International Date Line, Australia gets its regular release a considerable number of hours earlier, too.

I've put out a few feelers to see if I actually rank as a "Sydney tastemaker", or even as the "nerdy friend of a Sydney tastemaker", who perhaps has a double pass and no date on the night already.

Have phaser in pocket, am pleased to see you, and will travel.

By the way, notice how Vedek Winn Adami already has a hat for the big occasion?

Outsiders Down Under

The former Boy Wonder, Robin (Dick Grayson), Batman's ex-sidekick now known as Nightwing, and his superhero team called the Outsiders, have been in Sydney:


Outsiders #44, 2007

Funny, I don't remember a thing. Do you? Hmmm, I guess they're right...


Outsiders #42, 2007