Sydney Opera House - AND - Festival of Dangerous Ideas.

Today, in 1973, the Sydney Opera House opened.

This building is one of the most famous and easily recognisable buildings in the world and when you are there you are constantly amazed at its design. How many times have you seen pictures of it?

 

If you Google Sydney Opera House and click on 'images' you will find some fabulous pictures, especailly when it has been lit up at night in many different ways.

http://digital-photo.com.au/gallery3/index.php/Landscapes/Sydney/Brian-Eno-77-Million-Paintings-Sydney-Opera-House_MG_2591-Edit

 

“It stands by itself as one of the indisputable masterpieces of human creativity, nhttp://www.sydneyoperahouse.com/About/The_Architect.aspxot only in the 20th century but in the history of humankind."

The architect was a Dane from Copenhagen, obviously a wonderfully creative man.

When I visited it some time ago I was stunned at the efforts to get the acoustics right. In one of the theatres we saw, absolutely everything in that huge theatre was designed so the performers could give the best performances possible and preferably without microphones. Even things like the fabric covering on the chairs, and the kind of wood used for the chair frames, (I think they used a Canadian tree in this theatre) were studied in minute detail to get it right.

 I was very interested to find that there is a blog on their official website, so of course, I checked it out. One of the interesting topics was this.

 

Festival ofdangerous ideas. Sept 28-30.

 “Over the weekend we asked the deceptively simple question – ‘What idea has brought you trouble?’ What ensued was a fascinating insight into the groundings of what a dangerous idea is, how they manifest themselves and the potential repercussions for the speaker." They have questioned some famous people who answered this question.

Interestingly, this post was put up on October 3^rd, and not one person had left a comment, so I added one.

So my question for all bloggers in this group is…..what idea did you have that got you into some sort of trouble?

I’ll start the ball rolling. When I was about 10 years old, my friend who lived over the road was given some money to spend by her mother. All excited she came and got me and we went up town to spend it. We found this little fan she wanted to buy, it only cost just over a shilling in the old New Zealand money, but she didn’t have quite enough, so I put in a little bit of my own money towards it. My friend and I were delighted with this fan, and as I had put in some money we arranged that we would share the fan, sometimes I would have it and sometimes she would have it. She said for me to have it for a few days first, then give it back and it would be her turn.

Of course, at ten years of age, this mutually agreed and innocent plan was perfect. But her mother didn’t think so. The girl got home minus the money and minus the fan. She was furious and stormed over to my place accusing me of stealing the thing. No amount of explaining by me or my friend placated her. I handed over the fan after a thorough dressing down by her mother and my mother. The lessons learned?

1.     Think before you do things.

2.     When your children make innocent mistakes, don’t over react.

Have you had a similar experience?

Leave a comment, I'd be delighted to hear from you.