My story about my trip to Tallinn “When in Tallinn-Eat Cake,” was also published in the great new online magazine Charlie. Check Charlie out at

www.charliemagazine.com. You can read the article here.

This is another of my travel strories that was published last year in In Travel Magazine. Lithuania is the most southern of the Baltic counties and in parts is very mysterious. Vilnius its capital is beautiful and I got lost roaming its narrow cobbled stones streets. Lots of history in this town and of course worth a visit. I went in winter, which I highly recommend too. But I love Europe in winter!

I interviewed miniaturist and sculptor Lorraine Robinson who also owns here own business. This article was published in Australian Dolls Bears and Collectables Magazine. You can read it here

This is an article that I wrote firstly for the wonderful and informative on line, U.S based magazine, In Travel Magazine. Latvia is a magnificant country. Riga its capital is different to its other Batlic capital cousins in Estonia and Lithuania. Riga’s architecture is what makes this city stand out. It’s art deco buildings made me awe struck and most a world heritage listed. Riga I can highly recommend for a visit. You can read the article here Riga Paris of the North

This has been a long time coming-an update of my work. Stories to follow. You can also now find me on Twitter (Belinda Hogan) and Facebook (Belinda Hogan-journalist/writer).

As you will read I have had a couple more of my travel stories published in on line magazines- In Travel Magazine and the new Charlie Magazine. A couple more stories about artists and I interviewed John Doyle (aka Roy Slaven) for the IEUA Magazine. I am currently still completing my Masters of Journalism and in the midst of developing, writing, designing and eventually publishing a magazine in the new year-watch this space!

I interviewed a really creative doll artist from Adelaide, Sandy Pine, who started to make dolls to fill in time. Now it’s her business and her dolls represent the magical mystical world.

You can read the story, published in Australian Dolls Bears and Collectables in June, here. “Sandy’s Seventh Heaven.”

Road sign in beautiful Tallinn-Estonia

inTravel Magazine has to be the best on line travel magazine out there. 

http://intravelmag.com/index.php

Started by Christine Bolton an avid traveller who could not find the right travel magazine to suit her independent style of seeing the world. 

I have a story of mine called “When In Tallinn-Eat Cake,” about my adventures in the Estonian capital. You can also register to vote for my story by following the links.

Two more of my stories about Latvia and Lithuania will be published over the next few months.

Johnny and June

Don’t forget Mel and I will be singing and swinging the tunes on the DeanMartiniHour tomorrow morning from 8am until 9am.

This week we are having a duets hour-Ike and Tina, Johnny and June, perhaps even a bit of Nick and Kylie-you will just have to see.

Make sure to tune in to 4ZZZ FM-from anywhere in the world on www.4zzzfm.org.au

Those of you OS you will have to work out the time difference.

Click here also to find out what tunes we have been playing week to week.

The 4ZZZ FM BananaMan

Australian Glass Art

Two months ago I interviewed Sandra Black a Sydney lady who collects perfume bottles.

Now most of us would see a perfume bottle as something practical. Not Sandra-she has spent a great deal of her life dedicated to her collection and after speaking with her, you understand the fascination-indeed they are lovely.

Sandra has some fabulous art deco pieces and she has had a number made by Australian glass artists. Actually she has bottles made of a large variety of materials. I thought it funny her husband said he would divorce her if she brought anymore home-but I think she sneaks them in!

Actually the history of perfume bottles is interesting and you can find out about that and Sandra here from Australian Dolls Bears and Collectables (April 2009).

Art Deco Piece

Monty's on Wickham Street

Last year I took a unit in photojournalism as part of my Masters degree. Keen to reconnect with the camera and also to learn about the technology I seemed to have missed out on-for example digital camera and photoshop, I thought this would be a great thing to do-and I was right.

One of my assessments was to give a talk on a photographer. A few months prior, my husband and I were talking again about Brisbane being a city that does not preserve its past. We got talking about the number of fading ads on the side of buildings that are preserved in Melbourne-a city that does want its past to live on! And we got to thinking about trying to track down old fading signs in Brisbane-if we could find them. The two photos here were taken in Fortitude Valley.

A few weeks later we came across the amazing website of photographer/teacher/activist Frank. H. Jump from Brooklyn New York. He has spent years taking photos of fading ads, not just in New York, but around the States and other countries. His photographs are fabulous and his story is too. The link to his site is under the links section of this website.

So Frank became the photographer I gave my seminar on for my assessment. For this I contacted him and asked whether I could interview him about his work, which I did. You can read about his fading ad philosophy on his site.

I then completed a folio of fading ads for assessment. I photo shopped them, making them black and white and I had them printed in matte on really rough paper. I wanted to give a brick like texture to them.

I sent many of my original photos to Frank and you can see them here

Old Sign in The Valley