This new bus stop chair appeared on Crown Street, Surry Hills, just up from the library.

It was so surprising I did a double take, and then watched everyone walking by do the same – including the man in this picture, who tapped on the arm rest and sat down.

This bizarre object is on a bus stop on Crown Street, Surry Hills. At first I guessed it was this guy.

But I spotted an unmolested version on Devonshire Street, on the other side of Surry Hills, today.

It’s a promo for Richard In Your Mind‘s new record, My Volcano. Look we’re not usually partial to this kind of guerilla advertising. But it is a brilliant record.

There’s a tree halfway up Crown Street, Surry Hills, on the wall of the Salvation Army shop building.

It seems such a metaphor for the stories inside that place. Clutching on for dear life, but reaching out for this glorious sunshine above. It gives me a lift just walking past.

This appeared outside Surry Hills Library on Crown Street, and I couldn’t help thinking guerrilla marketing.

Look closer though. It’s actually nothing of the sort.

Bizarrely enough, it’s a research project. Part of the Visualising Research class at UTS, Poster: More Than A Gaze aims to “examine the potential of the poster as a ‘public and communicative’ medium in a public space.” They’re blogging too.

It’s 12 A4 pages pasted up alongside the typical band and club posters – and, although I used to have a radar for those things, I wonder how many people are tuned in? I’d be interested to see what, if any, reaction it got.

As I was out spotting Mardi Gras carnage this morning, I came across something I had not noticed before.

It’s on Crown Street, at the foot of the “No Stopping” sign outside Urban Uprising, near the corner of Campbell Street.

A cement sculpture of a teddy bear and a mobile phone. They are fixed to the pavement.

Does the bear say “culture?”

Or perhaps “vulture” or “sculpture?”

Intriguing.

We missed the parade last night, but headed out this morning to take a look at the carnage.

Feathers, glow-sticks, flags, head-pieces, goon-bags, discarded shoes, more feathers.

They were all spotted on surrounding streets – Bourke, Crown, Palmer, Burton.

Oxford Street was looking remarkably polished.

More so than those kicking on.

This linocut kid holding a spray can is up on the corner of Jesmond and Crown Streets, next to the Blank Space gallery.

On the other side of Jesmond Street, this sticker covers a Telstra box – a comment on Telstra’s practices, a general comment about telecommunications/electrical infrastructure, or just a random surface to paste something on?

This spaceman is near the corner of Mary Lane and Albion Way, Surry Hills.

Paste ups occupy pretty much the same spot in the hierarchy of street art as tags. Quick to get up on a wall, and often barely sketched out, they rarely rise above their function.

For a while the only creative, really original paste ups we saw were from Jumbo and Zap. They’ve been quiet, so it’s good to see new characters pop up.

You can see this big face on the corner of Arnold Lane and Goulburn Street, in Surry Hills, just behind Crown Street

The old BPM record shop (now Record Store/Machine Musik) wall’s a regular canvas for legal street art – check previous signatures from Anthony Lister and others on the curb.

The current piece is by Brad Eastman – Beastman. He’s part of the design/art scene in Sydney – and as well as founding the online publication We Are The Image Makers, and designing skateboards, he’s shown work at galleries like Oh Really, Stupid Krap and China Heights.

It went up six days ago, according to @recordstoresyd. Watch it go up in this slideshow.

I do love a good stoop.

Stoop is actually a Dutch word, meaning “small porch.”

East Sydney and Surry Hills have many a great example.

These are along Foveaux Street, between Crown and Bourke Streets.

These stoops are on Crown Street, between Stanley and Liverpool Streets.

Our apartment building lacks a stoop. I think I would enjoy sitting on the stoop, if we had one.

A couple of years back, the Pop Shop, on Oxford Street, shut its doors.

I noticed the familiar faces of owners Angelo and Robert in Blueprint, on Macleay Street, earlier this year.

And then today, walking down Crown Street, between Campbell and Albion Streets, I noticed this:

They’re back!