Sydney Opera House

I have never been one to be impressed with something simply because others are.

The Sydney Opera House falls into this description. I must admit, I was disappointed.



There were certainly inspiring aspects, most notably the superior and advanced engineering involved in a structure of such an unconventional shape.




As a visual array of lines, I think it must be mesmerizing in two dimensions.

But in three, well it just looks messy.





The glorious white shell is tiles, which destroy the shape’s smooth lines with an inconsistent lattice work.



It certainly has optimal viewing distances. Looking at it up close, and seeing all the tiles has a certain visual appeal. Seeing it from afar, where the tiles are smoothed out to a perfect shell, is also appealing. But the distance where you see the structure and the tiles, well, made me want to caulk around the tiles to smooth it out.

And I am sorry, but I just can’t help but think it looks like a broken dinosaur egg.

I don’t think it is as awe inspiring today as it was when it was built. If instead, you look at it as a period piece of the 60’s, it is ground-breaking.

I want to revitalize it by using colors to accentuate its more dramatic contours.

Don’t get me wrong, I feel privileged to have seen it, right out side my bedroom window no less. But it is certainly not on my list of things to return to.



Stupid: When real life falls so short of expectation.


Cool: Adventurous architecture of the 60’s, even if I personally don’t think it stood the test of time.



Cool: Anything that melds engineering and art for the common goal of aesthetic pleasure.

New Zealand Fjords

Fjords are something that growing up in California, I had never heard of. I don’t think I even heard of them until I was in my late twenties and five days away from the Norwegian Fjords.

Fjords are extraordinary. If you are an outdoor enthusiast or a nature lover, fjords should be your Mecca; you should make a trip at least once in your life.

Technically they are salt water inlets carved by glaciers between mountains. (How blah.)

In reality they a stunning green or icy gray granite vertical contrasts hugging placid richly colored water. (Not so blah.)

I love the Norwegian Fjords. The air is amazingly clear and everything has a surreal crisp quality. The mountains are dauntingly high, many capped with snow and many with hard granite faces. The Norwegian Fjords, in my experience (which also includes the Chilean Fjords) are the most spectacular, but they are COLD even on the hottest summer day.

New Zealand’s Fjords have rounder lower mountains and are extraordinarily lush. Not nearly as extreme as Norway’s, New Zealand’s Fjords have one thing I think is a deal breaker. It gets warm in the summer. This changes it from a sight to be seen into a place to be experienced. It is alive with birds and pods of dolphins and kayakers were constantly passing the ship. (Kayaking the New Zealand Fjords has now found a spot on my list of things I want to go back and do.) It made me want to go out and climb a fjord.


Pictures:

Norwegian Fjords:


New Zealand’s Milford Sound



Kayakers in New Zealand’s Fjords (see little orange dot in water, that is a two person kayak)



Boat in New Zealand’s Fjord (That white dot toward the bottom is a boat that seats something like 250 people. That gives you an idea of the size of the fjords.)



Stupid: That California doesn’t have any Fjords.
Cool: Fjords… just generally.