righting wrongs

Today was a shitfully hot day (actually, it still is shitfully hot out there) and in the early morning i.e. before 9am Perry and I went out to find somewhere to walk, we drove, or rather I did, which I quickly realised was stupid, particularly as there was no real endpoint established, so I pulled over at Kensington and we walked around there. I thought I'd taken a few pictures but apparently nah there were none, aside from the one above, which is from the extent of our walk, at the end of the bridge over the Maribyrnong looking into what used to be a holding paddock for the hapless animals and is now a nature reserve of sorts, but it (and Kensington Banks or whatever it's called these days) will always have a sinister, if not tragic, vibe for me. Well, that's what we did and we were back by 9:30 so all good. 

Over the last couple of days when normal work has overwrought me I have set about fixing one of the worst wikipedia crimes of all time, the ridiculous treatment accorded the Daryl and Ossie Show broadcast on Channel 0 in September-October 1978. The wikipedia entry for Daryl Somers completely ignored the fact that there was no Hey Hey It's Saturday at all in 1978, and that instead Daryl and Ernie Carroll made one night-time show for Channel 9 and then, I'm guessing because 9 only wanted them to continue doing the show for kids in the mornings, they left 9 for 0. They made forty episodes of The Daryl and Ossie Show at 0, a half-hour daily program (apparently never broadcast in any other city), and then although there was talk about restructures etc the ratings were bad and they went back to 9 in 1979, now cohosting with Jacki McDonald and I'm not entirely sure when John Blackman came on board but I'm guessing around then. 

I'm pretty pleased with my work on those pages. As I mentioned, the Daryl Somers wikipedia page ignored the 1978 hiccup altogether, instead assuming a seamless continuation between 1971-1999 with the biggest change being the move to evenings in 1984. There was also, however, a Daryl and Ossie Show wikipedia page acknowledging the show, but framing it as though going to Channel 0 was a bit of a holiday for Daryl and Ossie and then they went home (to 9). Silly. Television doesn't work like that. I think I got it sorted out - at least, as much as I could from the Age and the Sydney Morning Herald. 

I mean, I have possibly never done more pointless research, but it was pretty satisfying. I see there are nine eps of The Daryl and Ossie Show in the NFSA, I don't know how excruciating they are, but my pain threshold might be too low. 

hot west footscray

Perry and I went for a walk in West Footscray this afternoon, it went for a long time and was very interesting. It was only supposed to be 22 degrees but it was quite hot. I was looking for the legacy of Anders Hansen (1880-1953) and found a lot of examples of it but these are just a few pictures of other places and houses we saw. 

'Yeah!'

todd rundgren last night

 

I've never seen a bad TR show, and last night was incredible although this was the second TR show where I think he was having trouble with his voice. Well, he got through it. A few known classics; he said there'd be some 'deep cuts' but I didn't get the deep cuts I wanted to hear, which is fine, I have them on a record. Anyway, a great night. I'm not going to write a review or anything that's for the pros. 

the future will be captioned automatically, hopefully then interpreted by AI

 

more honore bowlby-gledhill

You will no doubt recall my fascination with this historical figure who seemed to do a lot of amazing things around the world from a young age but about whom there seems to be little remaining evidence. 

I was pleased to get a message from reader Kim who told me about a book by Fernando Salamanca called Diez crímenes sorprendentes de la historia de Colombia, published in 2019. Obviously I am going to have to track this book down and get to the bottom of this side of Honore's (I'll call her that from now on as her last names are a revolving list of strip-in strip-out married names and reversions to maiden names that just confuses me) biography. Kim says:

Apparently, when she left for South America, (with two detectives on her trail), she ended up in Brazil. There, after enjoying herself immensely, she was charged with prostitution and drug use. After the justice system found no evidence to support the charges, and dismissed them, the women of the area (the driving force of the witch hunt) turned instead to the church for help in removing her from the company of their men (she was drinking and gambling with the men at the clubs - maybe had an affair or two). This action resulted in her being ousted from South America and back to England. 

Kim also tells me/us that Honore died in Thailand on 19 March 1970. I'm obviously going to have to look into that further too. Thanks Kim for your help with adding more to the story. 

Meanwhile I found an interesting (?) Australian angle, I suppose a slightly tenuous one. Honore's parents met in Newfoundland. Her father, Admiral Alfred Paget (b. 1852) was not much younger than his wife, Viti McGregor's father, William McGregor (b.1846), who was the governor of Newfoundland then. Alfred and Viti married in 1906, and three years later William McGregor was the Governor of Queensland and also the first Chancellor of the University of Queensland (he'd previously been Administrator of British New Guinea). So he had a formative role late in his life in Australia. 

Viti, who appears to have spent much of her time after giving birth to Honore in continental Europe engaged in war work, was also quite a personality. She 'established a name for doing things that are eccentric' according to the Akron Beacon Journal for 10 August 1911 (p. 6). This was a report of a party she held 'at which her man-milliner was the guest of honor. When she was criticised for introducing a tradesman into society, she replied that he was not a tradesman, but a great artist.’

You will recall (or not) from earlier posts that Honore was orphaned at a young age (11) when both her parents died within a few months of each other. I suppose Alfred was not exactly a young man in 1918 - 66 I think - but Viti was surely quite young but there doesn't seem to be an official record of when she was born. Apparently she had worked unceasingly during the war, but I am yet to establish what she died from. 

More soon! 

From the Sydney World's News 28 May 1910 p. 12. Even with the deterioration through printing and then digitisation from microfilm, I can't imagine anyone thinking this is a good way to be photographed, can you? 

This is from the Sandusky Star-Journal for 9 August 1911 p. 5 and it's a bit better

Exeter Western Times 27 May 1916 p. 4

two journeys

On the weekend, there were two journeys made. One was Saturday when Laura, Perry and me to the very fringes of Gippsland. Essentially the trip had two stops: Tynong and Blind Bight (and some disappointing op shops made more disappointing by how freakin' promising they were). We went to Blind Bight first but for some reason the pictures have uploaded backwards so to speak but who cares, let's just whip through them...

Does the perspective on that bottle make you nauseous? Or just the thought of them mixing the syrups in the water and carbonating them.*

So these two signs, above, are nothing. They are attached to a corrugated iron depot that looks like the front of a building that still has a lived-in house behind it. In Tynong. There would have been some great pictures of excellent dogs at the Granite Cafe, most notably a little dog called Douglas, but he kept getting behind something whenever I wanted to photograph him. 

Above, is this even worth recording, in Koo Wee Rup a closed business with really shitty punctuation. That's all. 

Above Blind Bight at low tide, or the lowest tide we saw it at, when we got there there were some loud men, irritatingly loud, loading a boat, a fishing boat probably, onto a trailer from the water, and they apparently did it more or less just in time, because soon it was this, with billions of tiny crab holes in it and the sound of crabs, like a Slade's fizzy drink (Kola, Pyne, you name it) going flat. 

There are some ponds before you get to the nature which had these black swans in them, pretending to be I don't know what, something other than swans. 

The nature. There are 17 million ants in this picture. 

What more could anyone want but to be recognised by a bench? 

OK journey two - not Saturday but Sunday. This was a much, much less interesting journey, so adjust your expectations accordingly. 

Perry and I needed to go somewhere so we went west. This below is the radio broadcasting building supposedly in the spanish mission style I mentioned here and here. At least, it's as much of it as I could see from the gate. Big deal I hear you say, but you seem to have forgotten I told you to adjust your expectations. 

After this we kind of meandered in the car trying to find something that wasn't impossibly boring. Did we do it? Well, we got to this part of the world, Edgewater is what it calls itself though actually I think it's officially just Maribyrnong. 

Would like to come back and do a tour of Jack's Magazine sometime. I had a student a few years ago who did a really good masters thesis about it as a heritage 'problem' (hope that's not a misrepresentation) and I had long been interested in it. The surrounding high-rise is pretty interesting too. 

* I didn't notice when I took this picture but the word 'favourites' has almost completely faded out on that Slades sign. I didn't read it properly when I photographed it anyway but I guess I sort of thought it was a strange way of saying, 'the Slades family' (of flavours), but no, family favourites. 

the simpsons episode 21 season 24, 'the saga of carl'

Not just, but mainly, because of their Australia episode, I hate it when the Simpsons go to other countries. In this case, it was only Homer (and Lenny and Moe) who went to Iceland in pursuit of Carl, who stole $200 000 they jointly won in the Springfield Lottery. These images are primarily the fight they had when they found him. 

Yes, I am still watching it with Finnish subtitles. Makes me feel like I'm being educated. 

Below the caption reads 'Start talking, or you'll get a mouthful of shark fermented in urine'. 

I like this one below in particular. Lol. Jokes like 'Yukki's Grossfud' are... obvious though (apparently 'food' in Icelandic is 'mat', anyway). 

Something like 'my eyes!' 'my eyes!'

'Let it go, Lenny. We've got the money'. 

'The last page of the saga. I used the winnings on [i.e. to buy] it'. 

So yes this part of story is that Carl's (adopted) family has been reviled in Reykjavik for a thousand years because they betrayed the rest of Iceland to invaders and enjoyed themselves doing so. He spent the $200 000 on buying the last page of the saga that detailed their crimes in the hope that the missing page would exonerate his (adopted) ancestors and make things better for his parents, who are living on the edge of town in a kind of exile. Well, the final page actually just digs deeper on the family's bad behaviour, but then Moe, Lenny and Homer explain that Carl himself is a good man and so the people of Iceland forgive him, and all the Carlssons, on that basis. 

I've never been to Iceland (would I love to go? Fuck, obviously I would). The episode, which is from I think 2011, looks really good - you can see just from the above, it's colourful and well-designed. But on the whole, the whole Simpsons deal of 'other places are funny because they do things different' is so ridiculously provincial. It doesn't matter that they know it's provincial - they can't get away with it by saying they're making a commentary/satire of provincialness because that's clearly not true, they can't do anything else because their American audience is so provincial and ignorant it will only accept Simpsons stories taking place in other parts of the world if those places are represented as perversely weird and to a certain extent disgusting. 

So you know I see people on social media remarking that the Simpsons jumped the fermented urine-soaked shark in (say) season 10 or 11, that is, close to 25 years ago, and my instant reaction is no I just watched a not-terrible episode, and then I start to describe one to you as per above and then I'm oh yeah actually, in many ways pretty terrible, but to be fair, the things I really object to are things that have always been a problem with the Simpsons and the idea of Carl saving his Icelandic family's reputation by dint of buying the last page of a saga or recommendations from his Springfield friends is not the worst storyline ever. 

By the way though, when Moe etc get ahold of the last page of the saga, which is worth close to $200 000 apparently, Moe's impulse is to destroy it, which Marge I think talks him out of, but no-one says anything like, well, now we've got the result Carl wanted, let's sell the last page of the saga again and we'll all have the money we originally had (less what it cost to fly to Iceland). I know that's not exactly how sitcoms work, but fuck it, it's so fucking obvious that the money need not be lost, and what's Carl left with? A useless final page of a saga? Except it's not useless, it's really valuable. At least donate it to the nation. Why was it ripped out of the, er, saga book in the first place? Tbf that might have been explained and I wasn't paying attention, but to also bf, this aspect of the program is so messy it's not surprising I don't necessarily expect there to be a good reason. 

jacana reserve walk

So just for the heck of it, quick deets on a Jacana Reserve walk this morning. This is Barry these days, he is too old to walk a long way, but he still has a good life, I am told.  

Ibises in the park. There were tons of them, a huge flock, but these were a little further north just a small gathering and closer to the path. I have no idea what they were all eating, but they were all eating. 

I just couldn't figure out what this was. Can you tell? 

I am kind of into this weed island, looks like Perry and Ferdie were too. The shopping trolley reminded me of how once (15+ years ago) I called the supermarket in high dudgeon and told them they had to get the shopping trolleys out of the reserve. The idiot who answered the phone said of course they would because they were worth $1000 each. I'm sure. 

Can you say fox on the isthmus six times quickly? 

fox on the isthmus six times quickly fox on the isthmus six times quickly fox on the isthmus six times quickly fox on the isthmus six times quickly fox on the isthmus six times quickly fox on the isthmus six times quickly gosh you're sly

altercation

 

So yesterday Perry had his first real full-on fight, with a dog bigger than him and of a breed I'm not entirely clear on, whose owner seemed entirely unable to control him, I think his name was Trigger.

Could be that this was a certain kind of irony, because the day before (Friday) Perry and I had a long consult with an obedience trainer who was adamant that Perry was in a power struggle with me to be dominant which was why he was so uncontrollable with other dogs - though mainly verbal. We had been on a chain-and-lead arrangement when outdoors for 24 hours by this time and Perry seemed content to take it as indicating that I was in charge and he had to stay to my left side and not deviate. That said, when we encountered this woman and her large dog in Westgate Park on a Saturday afternoon, Perry did do a bit of whining, but no barking - which is unusually good behaviour for him. But perhaps the other dog took this to mean Perry was a pushover? He certainly did push him over, and had him on his back within seconds, while the owner seemed entirely unable to do anything. She had asked me whether Perry was desexed and how old he was, which seems to me now to suggest there were a few triggers for Trigger but I felt that Perry had passed the test i.e. there wasn't going to be any kind of pissing contest here. Yet there was something somewhat worse. That said, Perry doesn't seem to be hurt and indeed nor does he seem to have decided that after this no dog can ever be trusted to refrain from pinning him down. 

The picture above is Perry taking some water therapy.

The trainer was good, I thought. Sometimes you just need someone to give you a clarifying structure to what you already suspect is true (eg that dog park 'socialising' can be negative, and that positive reinforcement alone is an untextured encouragement to the dog to do whatever s/he wants). I think we are on a better path now, at least, I certainly hope so.