nothing

Just going through old images of nothing. 

I don't have a clue what the above is. I think I saw it in Wangerooge. 

That's a detail of Burnham Beeches. 

still

So even though every day I tell myself I'm feeling a bit better, I still have to concede that I have a disgusting cough and a whole lot of nauseated feelings that I am really troubled by. I mean I am ultimately going to recover I'm sure but fuckin' hell. Ironically the problem I've had with my left foot for the last, I don't know how long, six months? Possibly more, has actually almost completely rectified as I always knew it would. But that, along with the inflamed nerve in my right leg which was a massive nuisance (and quite disturbing and often very painful with no apparent trigger at all, or remedy) and other illnesses over the past year has meant that 2025 will go down in my memory (or at least in my blog because let's be reasonable when I'm not feeling sick I don't dwell on it) as a year in which I suffered a lot of very minor and irritating aches and pains that never really stopped me doing what I wanted to do (with the possible exception of walking long distances) but did stop me enjoying it as much as I might have. I mean, sure, you don't care and why would you. I mean an ancestor of mine from even a hundred years ago, let alone five hundred, would no doubt say that I should never complain about anything because I've lived a very carefree life compared to almost everyone who's come before, and that is true. But also, those ancestors were surely as ignorant and unpleasant as anyone else, I don't need to care what they would hypothetically think, as if I owed them something. 

Last week I went to see the Taylor Project show about their house in Elmore, and being 'haunted'. It's a good very, very, very local history production. I said to Elizabeth later I think it should be a film and I still think that - it's the kind of thing the ABC could put together for no money (like the ABC ever puts anything together for no money!) and would be a diverting hour on TV better than Spicks and Specks or whatever other rubbish they usually show. 

Here's something else that happened last week, there was major track work on the 57 route which meant that trams stopped for most of October between Peel and Victoria streets, and there was this weird little reverse-your-tram track built for a few weeks. What about that! It's gone now. They've built a new stop between Peel and Victoria which is further away from Peel than it used to be, not sure why but not inherently bothered about it. You can be if you want. 

Here's something else you might enjoy, a couple of graphics from a 1963 (I think) brochure regarding the development of Westernport Bay as an industrial hub. 

Do you get it? 

I bet this mermaid got a lot of stick from the other merms re: allowing them to use her likeness in promotion for a project that was really going to make life in Westernport Bay difficult for a lot of the cohort. 

OK, I'm into the day of feeling marginally sick all day and marking essays, etc. Nothing changes, including, I'm STILL SICK. 

then i remained sick for way too long

It might be coming to a close now, that stupid illness was a bane for almost two weeks now, what a waste of time. 

It's been oddly cold and rainy the last few days, not impacting on my sickness or anything (as far as I can tell) in fact probably on balance a more pleasant situation than if it had been too warm.

A possum as you can see came to the tree above our courtyard a few days ago. I love possums but I do wonder if they're thick, as the presence of this possum caused a lot of barking from one family member. Does the possum like the sound of barking? Does it just not care? Does it not connect its presence with the barking response? 

then I got sick

Shortly after posting the previous, I came down with something, a minor thing. You have to take these things seriously of course but it's still a stupid, unimaginative, boring, dull, irritating, minor illness which will soon die and not be missed. Meanwhile, I have found that as is so often the case, pets (and a really perfect girlfriend not pictured) are a comfort. 
 

the last of the australians

As I write to you I have watched 11 episodes of The Last of the Australians, and am on to my 12th. In between watching the show I am reading of Alan Seymour's 1967 novel of his play The One Day of the Year on which The Last of the Australians is ostensibly, ostensibly mind you, based. To be honest I'm not 100% sure how this worked i.e. was Terry Stapleton - who played the character of Hughie in the original play when it opened in 1958 - actually inspired by these characters to adapt them into a sitcom (albeit with different names - Hughie became Gary and Alf* became Ted)? Or was this some kind of sleight of hand whereby he and Crawfords could say that the Last of the Australians was no way an imitation of Till Death Us Do Part (1968+) because it was based on something from 1958?

It's an interesting show to watch but not always enjoyable. Or even often enjoyable. It does have all the classic Crawfords people in it, not just Keith Eden and Maurie Fields and Terry Norris but also Noni Hazlehurst, Jacki Weaver and Vanessa Leigh. Of the main cast, of course Alwyn Kurts, who no-one had ever imagined could possibly be a comic actor, and Rosie Sturgess who was famous for her time with Graham Kennedy in particular so she had form as a comedian. Richard Hibberd was Gary in the first season, Stephen Thomas in the second (Hibberd quit the biz to join the Hare Krishnas). 

Anyway, I'm plouging on because this is my job now. I'll let you know if anything nice happens. 

*Clearly they couldn't have kept the name Alf for the father character because of Alf Garnett. I suppose 'Hughie' became 'Gary' just in the general update to the 1970s. 

city heights

Crackajack is such a fun movie, with so many great people in it. I have no special reason for showing you this list of addresses of bowling club members, although I guess I'm 0.1% interested that all of the places are fake (most of them are 'City Heights' except for 'Cityside Heights' - oh yeah) except 'Richmond' which is, you know, real. But I wonder about the phone numbers. Can you call them and find out for me? Ask if they often get calls from people who gigglingly want to talk to Alfred Barnes or whoever. 

it's not about the bike

 

I love how op shops are the one place where Lance Armstrong can still appear to be a highly popular author. In fact, honestly it's almost certainly that all the plebs who were once highly inspired by Lance Armstrong are now embarrassed to have his books on their shelves at home but they assume that there's some fool out there who would just love to have this book. 

I could be wrong but I assume he hasn't published a book since his fall from grace. I dunno, I will never open any of his books not because I am disgusted with people who cheat at sports but because I couldn't care less about sports. 

broadway end of the summer

 I don't know if I ever showed you this, I am very pleased with my drumming on it and I think (I might be wrong) I also wrote the music (not the words, which are incredible). So pleased with it, it kind of sunk without a trace like all the best songs. 

This is the holy grail of Top of the Pops LPs, mainly because it has - you guessed it - PiL's 'Death Disco' on it. It's my holy grail anyway. I think some other people's holy grail might be the one with 'Anarchy in the UK' or 'God Save the Queen' or whatever, on it. I don't know. The holy grails are always John Lydon-related, anyway. The fascinatingness of the intersection between Lydon, ostensibly so anti-normality, with the uber-commercialism of soundalikes. So in this case, the version of 'Death Disco' is a fairly credible remake of the original, hideous whining vocal and everything. It's a lot more like the original than the version of 'Breakfast in America' is like its original, although tbh the people who put the Top of the Pops albums together were a pretty skilled bunch of artisans and 99% of the time it's only the fact that you know you're listening to a Top of the Pops album that makes you listen out for the differences, otherwise you might not notice them at all. 

I don't know or care about the background to the Top of the Pops records though I gather that it was (a little like Countdown magazine) the case of a private company being smart and sneaky enough to get in either with a pitch to license the name which the main TV program might later have cause to regret and/or copyrighting the name independently of the program but getting by for a long time with a perceived association. Countdown magazine was licensed, by the way. Also, it didn't necessarily let the side down that often. The Top of the Pops albums, all hundred and shit of them, were as I said a very skilfully created soundalike series. I hope that the people who made them knew the importance of what they could do and they weren't always cavilling and wishing they could do the music version of 'write that sitcom about the sassy robot' or if they did they were satisfied with mixing some of their own songs in with some Simon and Garfunkel and Cat Stevens at the pub on a Sunday night. 

it was twenty years ago today

Not this picture. This was about a week ago. Ferdinand and Perry. 

I don't know why but I was moved for a second to examine my blog from twenty years ago, in the year I began it. I was writing a lot in that first year and I was really convinced I was very interesting and leading a fascinating life (so in that regard not much has changed). I was also writing a lot like everything I was into or had just read/watched/listened to was completely coherently obvious and natural, in a way that at the time probably made sense to me but now when I look at it, not remembering the ins and outs of various stupid films I borrowed from Video Ezy or whatever, or tv shows (I seemed to watch massive amounts of tv back then), I can't make head or tail of what I was talking about. Isn't that mad!

So I guess when I started my blog I had just turned 40, and all was possibility in a manner of speaking. I was surprised to see that we went to the Royal Show in 2005 only because I am pretty sure that I have been to the Show every year since I started going as an adult, which would mean I've been at least twenty times in twenty years (actually not, now I think of it, because firstly pandemic lockdown, also there was at least one time relatively recently when I was overseas and couldn't go). You have already seen the nice pictures of my visit to the Show yesterday morning. 

Also I note Donald Horne has now been dead for twenty years, a little more than. I still see that as a bit of a shame, but I don't suppose he'd be having much fun if he was alive.* Also that twenty years ago we saw Electrelane live, though I was a bit down on them for some reason, but I bet they were actually great. I would like to get (I suppose I mean, re-get) some of their records.* I wonder what happened to that band.*** 

* He'd be 104 

* Wow I just saw the prices on discogs and no, I wouldn't. 

* They went on hiatus a couple of years after they played in Australia - around 2007 - then threatened to return in the early 2020s then didn't. 

the show yesterday - ii

 

Maker's Pavilion. Or maybe just 'Makers', I don't know. Or Makers', look I really don't know.

at the show yesterday - i

Papillons

Lowchens

Papillons

So as mentioned I went to the Show yesterday with my mother - she was primarily interested in the papillons and we saw all the papillons in competition, going through their paces. They did well. 

Below = not papillons.

a house i really liked the look of in richmond last week

 ...mainly because like what's with that upstairs window? But also just generally it's cool. I might steal it.

 As Perry gets older and more comfortable in his/any environment, and as Nancy continues to be Nancy, the two of them are finding it much easier to coexist. Here they are on my bed yesterday (please excuse my clean washing). They don't seek each other out necessarily but they are not at all bothered by each other's presence. 

Yesterday Perry gave Nancy a big lick right down her face, which she also took in her stride, with a bit more 'chill' than I think I would have if I was her. LOL

bricolage

To a certain extent I'm only blogging about it to lock myself in to continued dedication but I have done around 15-20 (certainly no more than 20) pages of my second graphic novel, Bricolage. I am finding it a lot harder to work on than Persiflage notwithstanding I have written (and rewritten and rewritten) the entire script many times over. I am still not completely good with the very end - the denouement - but I figure after many, many evenings poring over the execution of the 180 or so pages leading up to that point, I will probably be in a position to hit the right note. 

It's almost certain that Persiflage was easier because it was my lockdown project, or at least most of it was, mostly. I more or less made Persiflage up as I went along, whereas Bricolage is, as I just said, written to within an inch of its life. The only thing that's stopping me continuing to rewrite it comprehensively is that I've numbered the 'script' up to this point and so it would be a big hassle to reorder it or add more bits although this might actually ultimately mean that I kind of explode at some point and do a real reworking. The more I draw the better then because I'm finding the drawing much more difficult than I did for Persiflage and so I'm unlikely to be inspired to redo it (though, well, I have redrawn quite a bit up to this point and also, I have redrawn some panels as per the above). (In that case, I had to redraw because I foolishly used a US car as a model so the drivers seat was on the wrong side). As you can see I am using rigid panel sizes as created for me by a computer, so I can easily strip in new panels if I make a mistake or change my mind about something. 

I don't hate what I've done so far, so that's good. There are a lot of bits of the story I'm looking forward to committing to the page. But I am also coming up to a really long party scene, which will take a lot of thinking, and thinking is hard. Butbut once I've completed that I think I will really be fully committed. 

 

200 years of railways

From Theodor Herzl, Old New Land (Altneuland) 1902, trans. Lotta Levensohn 1960, Markus Wehner/Herzl Press 1960 (1987 edition). Herzl was dead by 1904, only two years after he published this utopia which provided a blueprint, of sorts, for 20th century Israel. My real point, if I have one, is nothing about Herzl or Altneuland but about the fact that today marks 200 years of railway services. In fact what it appears happened was they picked a nicer time of year (the account below is from page 11 of the 4 July 1925 issue of the San Bernadino County Sun) and did a facile re-enactment using the actual engine.

Here's another news item from the 12 July 1925 edition of the Kansas City Star with a picture. 

There was also a celebration on the 27th but according to the Guardian 28 September 1925 p. 11 most of the festivities took place in Manchester because that was where Stephenson et al really made their mark and it was more important. There was also a big exhibition in London. 

I'm writing this in 2020 so I have no idea how the bicentenary of railways will be commemorated, for all I know by World-President-for-Life Trump declaring all railways be concreted for highways and aeroplane runways.