by Ian Cochrane | Jan 11, 2013 | Americas
A small green plaque reads `Ancient Playground’, the entrance a pair of black cast-bronze gates set between tall rectangular pillars of polished pink granite; topped by bears on the left – one upright – three deer on the other. The pillars are engraved in gold...
by Ian Cochrane | Jan 6, 2013 | Americas
It’s New Year’s Day, and Joe Strummer – poet of the streets – looks down from a giant mural facing Tompkins Park. From here I walk west with my girlfriend towards St Marks church-in-the-Bowery, past webs of winding fire escapes; hands deep in our pockets,...
by Ian Cochrane | Jan 2, 2013 | Americas
A guy has fallen on hard times, huddled under gentrified tenement stairs; on one side his clapped-out shopping trolley bound by trash bins and black cast iron pickets. The stairs span from streetside pavement up to an ornate doorway, moulded guardian face glowering...
by Ian Cochrane | Dec 28, 2012 | Americas
We fly from Melbourne to New York, continuing on to Pittsburgh. We’re in this part of the country to see the `best example of American architecture’, the iconic creation of Frank Lloyd Wright. The hire car attendant is astounded anyone would travel this...
by Ian Cochrane | Dec 18, 2012 | Americas, Oceania, Utopia
Sometimes I sit and think, pondering the luxury of an unquestionable faith in something; to know that innocent kids killed in a pre-Christmas tragedy will somehow find a better place. From a cathedral of sticks I gaze across at the towering neo-Gothic spires of St...
by Ian Cochrane | Dec 11, 2012 | Americas, Oceania, Utopia
Upright sleeves of vinyl records – Mayall, Joplin and Bloomfield – sit above a dishevelled shelf of seventy assorted blues CDs, and these days an under-used turntable. I read the CD titles from left to right, tucking in a Broonzy and dusting off a Burnside. I grab...
