Pictures on the Move

So, despite being awake for nearly 24 hours... it appears that I still cannot sleep beyond 6. Today I was able to force myself back to sleep for an hour, but then succumbed to the sunshine and got up. Our current hostel, The Nunnery, kindly provides free breakfast, so I had myself a toasted roll with jelly and some coffee. I also found some freely provided Vegemite... which I felt obligated to try during my stay in Australia. So, I toasted some bread and spread on a thin layer. I would describe my opinion as... every other bite was awful, while the remaining bites were... not as bad. Though, i've heard its an acquired taste and I can see it one day being tasty. I however, have now tried it thus do not feel obliged to again.

Around 10:15 we met up with Martha and headed by tram into the heart of Melbourne. Where we ended up is referred commonly as "the city" or the "CBD". From there we walked up into the center square where the ACME, Australian Centre for the Moving Image" is located. It is in short a museum about movies, and their current special exhibit is about Disney.

The top floor was fun. We walked through the evolution of television and films, from black and white with no sound to modern day special effects. Similarly we saw various tools of the trade and could see how they changed over time. While im not sure how they fit into the greater scheme, we watched some random Aussie commercials and they were very funny. At the end of the progression of film they had another (similar but smaller) section for the evolution of video games. It showed everything ranging from the original Pong system, to the modern motion sensing Wii, to a brief prediction of gaming interactions of the future. One of the systems displayed was the light sensing projector I mentioned was in the museum yesterday.

After this we headed downstairs to the matured Disney exhibit. The main sections were dedicated to Snow White, Cinderella, The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast. Following these were two brief sections for Disney's new films, The Frog Princess and Tangled. Before I talk about the exhibits I do wish Aladdin was on display instead of Cinderella. I think that the selection of 4 would I think be a bit more diverse (before anyone claims I believe this solely because I'm a male and want a guy protagonist... but this point was mentioned by Martha before I said anything at all).

Anyway, through the exhibits we were able to see some original sketches of different ways certain characters were drawn, and it was interesting to see how sometimes multiple ideas were combined to form the final product. I also enjoyed reading a bit more in depth on the history of Walt Disney, as well as the stories that so many of the classics were based on. One of my favorite observations was that in discussing these different portrayals of characters (and talking about some not shown), it became very clear some of the features that describe certain character types. For example... villains tend to be tall, with sharp features and narrow pointy eyebrows. Now, those seem obvious, but where this all started was when I observed the hands. Villains all tend to have excessively long and honey hands. Martha and I noted Ursala as an exception, but we noted this as true for the Gillian in The Frog Princess, Jamar from Aladdin, the witch from Sleeping Beauty, the witch from Snow White and others. It was very fun to see and discuss these features that described characters. It was a great exhibit and now I really want to sit down and just watch like all of them in a row!

We left the museum and spent some time walking the city. Now, when Intent to Belgium my dad told me that I should walk around looking up, because certain beauties were just carved into random buildings. The city center had a similar effect. There are an astounding number of street corners with spectacular buildings on them. Some elegant but clearly modern brick, and some seem to be converted cathedrals. Others I have no ideal what they were but they were decorated with elegant arches and towers. It was really quite a site.

Anyway, we walked through a series of alleyways, where shops and restraints just crowd the narrow streets until we found our way to a mall, where there would be a burger place, Grilled, that we intended to eat at. The mall as build around a giant brick tower! It was an old pipe and shot factory, and rather than knock it down for the mall they just build around it. I thought that was awesome!

Since the weather was nice we headed back, changed and walked to the local pool. Unexciting but relaxing. On our way back we stopped by Django Django, the cafe where Martha works and had some "iced chocolate" which is a delicious sorta milkshake like things... afterwards she stayed to work and we headed back to the Hostel. We seem to be in for dinner soon and a quiet evening, but for now I'm sitting on the grass, in a park, in the sun, across from our hostel writing to all my loyal fans and readers!

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