Riverfire 08'

Yesterday was the start of the week-long River Festival in Brisbane, a celebration of the Brisbane River that the city is named for and runs through the down town area. It is the defining geographical element of the area.

The first night of the festival and the biggest is the River Fire event. Basically it is a small air show and huge fire works display that encompasses the entire city. They were expecting half a million people for the show so Mariana and I walked down to the Botanical Gardens a few hours before to get good seats right on the river. We invited some friends from Pandemic and made a large picnic out of it.

We all sat around, ate, talked, popped open some beer and wine and waited for the 7:00 start of the event scheduled for just after sundown. The area was filling up fast and the river was choked full of sail, motor, and large party boats. Amongst the large office buildings that line the river there are quite a few apartment towers that were full of people partying and enjoying the festival, waiting for the show to begin.

The event is kicked off by an Australian Air Force F-111 making a low level "dump and burn" where it screams in at a couple of hundred feet off the river and dumps fuel out the back while firing the afterburner which makes a giant fire trail out the end of the jet that lights up the sky like daylight and is incredibly loud.

I can't even imagine how much it must cost to run as there are about ten or so fireworks bases in the city that are shot off in coordination with each other. I heard today that the whole show uses 300 tons of fireworks. There were fireworks firing off multiple barges on the river, on the bridges, they were even firing them off of the top of the sky scrapers in CBD. I was in awe of the size of the show, there were fireworks going off in front, to the sides, behind, and above us. It was the most amazing pyrotechnical display I have ever seen. The buidlings were full of people and camera flashes were sparkling along the skyline which added to the moment. After almost a year here, the good times and the bad, it was one of those nights that makes it all worth it and reminds you why you are here.

New Building and Close Calls...

Dark days at Pandemic Studios. Sadly, our project got cancelled this week. There were a few reasons going around as to why, and you might be able to pick up the info on the rumor mill from Kotaku but, as an NDA'd employee I am not going to discuss the project or the reasons. All I know is having a project ripped out from under you sucks.

Pandemic was actually very cool about it all. They have spent alot of money, and taken a lot of time to build their team and they have done just about everything they can to keep it in tact. Some team members are being moved to another, smaller team in-house, some are being flown to Los Angeles to help out on other projects that need extra hands for the next four months. Sadly, some were deemed redundant and had to be let go and yesterday was dark Thursday.

I had a meeting with the producers on Monday afternoon and was told that I would be moved to the team in house and that I was pretty much safe. I got really lucky. I will be working on a smaller team that seems to be very organized and I am excited about the project and working with some of the new and familiar faces. Thanks to Steve for requesting me by name.

I have never been on a team that has been broken up and it was an unpleasant experience. Yestrday, I was working away and a producer came over and grabbed the guy sitting next to me. "Can I talk to you for a minute"? I thought nothing of it until about five minutes later someone from HR came up and grabbed his backpack and cigarettes. I never saw him again. Even though I knew I was safe I started to panic a bit and shuddered everytime I saw the producer or HR girl walk by. All in all, they kept the lay offs to a minimum and I am thankful for that. It is just sad to see a good team broken up but it was totally out of Pandemics control and I thank them for handling it as well as they did. Good company.

So, with that out of the way. We are moving into our new, modernized building on Tuesday. We are packing up our desks today and will be off Monday. By Tuesday it will be a new team and new domain. The nice thing is that it is right around the corner of our current location which is in a great neighborhood.

The new building is pictured above and the other shot is just a magnificent colored sky from the other night. Sometime I will do a post strictly on the evening sky here which always seems to be a different color and spectacular none the less...

Still kicking.

More Day 2 Pictures

Sydney Day 2

The weather was clear and cold as we bounded out of the hotel for what was going to be a marathon of a day.

We had a great breakfast at a hip, little, cafe on Elizabeth Street. From there we headed up Pitt Street. We didn't really have a big itinerary, just a rough axis of attack for the exploration of Sydney. We wanted to explore the CBD, China Town, and then to Darling Harbor but no real plans, just get lost in between and see as much as we could.

Along the way we passed The Strand Arcade, one of the last Victorian malls in Sydney built in 1891. This along with the Queen Victoria Building are great examples of the Victorian history of Sydney. There is a lot of Victorian Architecture in the city which was perhaps my favorite aspect of Sydney.

Another really cool Sydney sight was the elevated monorail. It snakes it's way through the CBD and Darling Harbour with many stops in between. It's path takes it above the streets and through the second and third stories of buildings. I think they just built it after the fact and created stops in some older buildings that it passes through. It looks like an efficient and green way to travel.

From there we headed to China Town. It was not as good as San Francisco's China Town so I will not write much about it other than to say there is a really good market nearby to buy any odd junk you want and to haggle if you like that. One high point was the Chinese Gardens, very pretty and an quiet oasis in the middle of the busy city.

On to Darling Harbour. This was jaw dropping point number two on our trip. When we rounded the corner and caught our first glimpse of the Harbour, we both stood and stared in amazement for about five minutes. It was honestly one of the most beautiful examples of natural beauty meets modern skyline that I have ever seen. It is a giant U-shaped harbour with massive buildings lining three sides, monorails crossings, ferry's and water taxis, posh restaurants, naval ships, and so much more. You really have to sit and take it in as there is so much sensory overload here.

We sat and enjoyed it, then walked around a bit and headed for lunch at Bungalow Eight. A swanky harbour side seafood bar where we had a meal of mussels, tiger prawns, and calamari.

That night we had reservations for an Italian place, Alfredo that was recommended by the concierge at our hotel. I only name the restaurant as I hope that anyone that reads this blog will avoid it like the plague. It was by all appearances a charming little restaurant but with bad fare served in a prison like manner by a non-smiling or humane wait staff. One hundred and forty bucks later we felt slightly ill, raped and riped off. We were on our way. One notable appearance, at the table next to us was Peter Garrett of Midnight Oil and now a member of the Australian House of Representatives.

From there we headed out for some drinks on the town. We walked through a pretty area called The Rocks, then as we walked we went for a ceremonial stop to use the restrooms at The Four Seasons, then on to a bar to end the night.

Slightly tipsy, footsore, and tired we put a close to day two in Sydney.

More Pics of Day 2 in next post...

Sydney Day 1

Mariana and I took our maiden voyage to Sydney this weekend. I am no Magellan but have been lucky enough to have visited some world class cities in my time; Mexico City, Paris, Amsterdam, San Francisco, amongst others, and now can add Sydney to the list. I have to mention as well that from what I have seen, Sydney can hang with the best of them. No kidding, it was that good.

Thursday got off to a shaky start when we got to the airport a few minutes late and "missed" our flight. "Missed" being a loose term when at an Australian airport. We got there a bit late for us but had about thirty minutes before the flight was scheduled to leave. Sadly, according to Qantas, we had missed our flight. Funny, as the plane was still at the gate and was not scheduled to leave for thirty more minutes but we are not to argue. We were issued new tickets for the next flight that was to arrive in Sydney thirty minutes later than we had planned.

The flight was uneventful except for my splitting headache. I have just gotten over a nasty cold and my sinuses were still a problem with the altitude. After twenty minutes of preparing to catch my eyeballs if they shot out of their sockets, the plane descended, my head equalized, and I could bear to see again.

We got into Sydney, found the bags, got the train, and headed for the hotel. We stayed at the Raddison right in CBD, about a ten minute walk to Circular Quay, The Opera House and The Bridge. Kudos to Mariana for picking such a well located hotel.

We had tickets to a play that night, that left us with a couple of hours to kill so we decided to walk around and saw some sights and had a bite to eat and a drink. We walked down Pitt Street to Circular Quay and as we rounded the corner our jaws dropped open. I found that my jaw would drop many times on this trip as Sydney boasts some of the most dramatic scenery I have ever seen.

That night we went and saw the stage play of Alfred Hitchcock's The 39 Steps at the Sydney Opera House. It was a small production with four cast members in total but playing about 110 roles. It was well acted and funny and we had a really nice time.

After the show we looked for a bite to eat. Apparently in Sydney on a Thursday night, every eatery closes at ten. Being ten thirty, we walked the streets desperately trying to find something open with food, saw tons of bars packed with people but eventually had to settle on a 24 hour slop joint. Yuck...

We ate something that resembled food and headed back to the hotel to get some rest for the next day.