melbourne royal show

This morning I paid a brief visit to this year's Melbourne Royal Show (yes, this didn't properly hit me for a while, it's going to be hard for me to think of it as anything but the Royal Melbourne Show, but whatever). I did my own research via a wikipedia link to a short interview by Raf Epstein about the change, the explanation for which didn't quite make sense but it happened in 2022 and they're sticking with it because it gives them an 'opportunity to grow' lol). 

I went on my own, so, I could do what I wanted, and I did. I looked at quite a bit of craft. 

There is a bit of a general overall obsession with these kinds of cows, I can see it's a thing rn. 

So what you are about to see is one of the most truly amazing pictures you have ever seen, and it will haunt you for the rest of your life, so if you don't want to be haunted by a picture... oops too late

I would buy that if I could. I wonder if that is possible. 

And that's that. Will I go again next year? Not alone, I suspect, so possibly not. 

abbotsford st picture

 

river valley

This afternoon Perry and I did what we always said we were going to do and looked at the housing estate on the other side of the Maribyrnong from where we've been walking lately. It's pretty remarkable really. It's called River Valley. It's remarkably steep. 

This wall is something else. Incredible. I don't know what else to say. There seemed to be music coming out of it, which I think might actually in some weird way have been being projected from the apartments on the street above, but not sure. 

I'm pretty sure that the car you see here was barely able to take the steep hill here. It certainly slowed down a lot but didn't quite roll backwards. 

This is the path that mapsonmyphone suggested we take to get back to the river. However, we got distracted by another option...

...which ended up with us in a weird kind of area that had tracks on it from either a previous or future path. 

When we got back to the river we found this island. 

Then essentially we basically as it were went back to the car and drove home. Perry was pleased with how it all went. 

I'd love to go back another time, I wonder if Perry would like to explore more. 

rem the venetian room

Rem the Venetian Room? I say 'rem' because I am still entranced by something I read over a decade ago from a woman I went to school with who wrote about her recollections of schooldays by saying 'I rem...' this and that. Meaning she remembered it. At the time I thought, she's probably using some hot new terminology where people say they 'rem' things instead of that they 'remember' things. But I have never seen it used again. 

Anyway, do you rem the Venetian Room? It was actually a really great venue, and it was in this building. From the newspapers I get the strong sense that it opened on the 2 October 1982. The first few bands that played there were solid indie bands for the time. Dorian Gray, 5:15, New Five, Little Murders. 

There was an article by Rebecca Batties, Matthew Stevens and Matthew Bolton called 'And the people wore blue shirts and the band played on', in the Weekender 24 June 1983. It had this in it:

It lasted about three years, and why did it die? Well, one possible reason is that the Hotel Australia also had a Venetian Room, and while the two coexisted in 1985 apparently unproblematically, perhaps ultimately it got too much for the Hotel Australia. 

fabulous house in coburg

 You can't disagree. 

those roy grounds flats - still very burned

I am sure I have discussed these small, incinerated apartments in Harrison St, Hawthorn, the most northwestern tip of Hawthorn, previously but I can't find the post. It wasn't that long ago. Well, they were set alight one night and nothing has happened much since, certainly there's nothing to be done to save them, I would say. Perry and I visited them/their corpses today.

another visit to the yrnong

This morning Laura and I went to Monstalvat. I can't believe I'd never been! It's pretty extraordinary. Anyway I'll tell you about that properly later on. This afternoon Perry and I had a quick walk between Footscray Road and Kensington Banks on the Maribyrnong in bright sunlight and we didn't really see anyone, it was interesting, though we did see Pam the bird. 

Just want to mention, they had to cut this huge door in this building (below), did the people who made the cut seek any guidance on the fate of making an incision into the building's business name or did they just do it? I guess either way, they just did it. 

We'll still be finding Pams around Melbourne in 50 years.