The JamFactory

 It was a real pleasure to find myself at the bottom of Hindley Street and visiting the JamFactory. Like everything else in Adelaide , this end of town has been reinvented too and it's starting to look and feel really cool. It was great to see how focussed the glass makers were . They have to be. They are dealing with molten glass and their loving care was obvious but paramount to their safety too. The exhibition of shell jewellery was lovely. I have seen a lot of shell jewellery in South Pacific nations and ours was just so delicate. The other display areas housed some beautifully made objects at what were reasonable prices for such carefully conceived pieces. Back up the road from the JamFactory is The Adelaide College of the Arts. I am so glad they have settled on that name! It has been through a number of name changes and they didn't ever quite do the job. This one is simple , straight forward and nails it. I must go and have a closer look at some time because it seems to have lost its industrial look. It is a very well respected art school and always has been. It was interesting to walk down Hindley Street this morning. It gets a bit tacky but not brash like it used to be . During the day it has an interesting rather than unsavoury feel about it. The Woolshed Hotel looks spectacular. They have done a brilliant job on the facade.  

I walked from the Arts College to the JamFactory and wondered why they had massage parlours on that side of the road. Out of place, unseemly looking and away from the feel of what is now becoming a very artistic and creative end of town. The Mercury Theatre fits right in and so it could be further be developed to be a really cool area for artistic innovation and expression. You see the Nove on Luce cafe in all its aesthetic  glory and then a massage parlour which is  a bleak and stark contrast and spoils the feel of the area. The massage parlours and so on can exist elsewhere. Let that area just be developed by our creative spirits. No reason why we could not have the more new age places for relaxation and therapy. 

Go Adelaide!

Oh yes, there is much talk about how we can make Adelaide go and grow. If you look back at Adelaide from high up in Fullarton, it is starting to look like Melbourne. That'll help. Cloning ourselves to somewhere else. Being another version of what people already can have. Much of the talk about sticking up big buildings is about getting us to move with the times. Oh yes? Profit, of course would have nothing to do with it. Big building, more bang for your acreage buck. The big buildings will come because greed predominates in our society and rich people like to get richer. So we are not going to avoid the big buildings but we can avoid the patronising tripe which comes with erecting them and recognise property speculation for what it is. Adelaide was always its own city with its own drive and atmosphere. The critics have got to us and made us feel inadequate so they can do as they please. Time to fix this , I think. Those who want to change Adelaide into Melbourne, Shanghai, New York, wherever  they have come from big cities. We don't actually need another one but we do need something which will help us thrive and grow into this century and create a sense that we are able to offer something and somewhere other places cannot offer. We are very much nautical people and so marinas, nautical sports, swimming centres and wonderful boating and fishing areas are something we can develop. We are good at spawning successful women and politicians so we need to grow that aspect of our city and encourage more participation in a natural way in these areas. We need to be better at offering those who like leadership to have opportunities to develop those skills. We have a strong film, artistic, musical and writing tradition and we have not done enough to inject enthusiasm and development into those areas and yet our Fringe is getting bigger and better and Womadelaide is becoming legendary. We love sport. No need to clash sport and cultural events. We can rethink that. No need to go for the either or , the tut tuts and the confusion. We can resolve those issues because we are both. Then there is our food. We offer a great cafe lifestyle. We offer great fresh food but we keep blocking its growth. Instead of our growers having to beg us to be considered we can incorporate them naturally into our lives. Instead of making us look like our interstate counterparts we need to start inventing areas and initiatives which make us Adelaide. Instead of being the state which people bypass to get to Perth or Sydney we need to recreate the Adelaide which makes people want to come and participate, kick back and relax and go wow, that is so nice in Adelaide. People say we are friendly. When I go away I really miss our good food at good prices and the fact we offer rest facilities. I do not miss our transport. I don't miss our shops all selling the same thing. I do not miss our loss of fashion sense. We used to really dress up and show some flair. We have home grown designers and products. So if redevelopment is just about shoving up big buildings to make a profit, then we are lost.  We have to get rid of the ho hum approach and start harnessing some real enthusiasm and participation. What's wrong with having a real Adelaide that is us?