the big house

at first, sydney seems like pretty much every other city in a temperate climate: outdoor cafes, professionals bustling around everywhere, ugly office buildings, cars, noise.

but then all of a sudden you come to the harbor and there are the majestic sails of the opera house, and you realize that sydney isn't just like every other city at all.










from what i can gather, the sydney opera house represents a series of miracles culminating in what is probably one of the most recognizable buildings in the world. (the universe? who can say?) the design was rescued from a pile of rejects, and the construction required feats of engineering previously unattempted. originally scheduled to take three years and cost $7 million, the sydney opera house to 10 years to complete with a total bill of $107 million.

but wasn't it worth it?








i, personally, couldn't stop staring at it (or taking pictures of it). every angle, every view, is captivating.

when the sydney opera house first opened in 1973, one of the downstairs auditoriums was used to show surfing movies on a giant projector screen, which makes me really, really happy for some reason. another one of the opening events was a boxing match, though it was apparently rather quickly decided that that was not such a good fit for the venue. i went the more traditional route and caught an opera there on my last night down under. it was puccini's tosca, so it was heavenly, despite a rather strange modern adaptation with some distinctly quentin tarantino-esque undertones.

even if it had just been a quentin tarantino movie, it would have been a dream come true.