the numbers by the numbers #2

So my British copy of The Numbers showed up today, pretty swift. I am unreasonably pleased with it. Two things bear discussing. One is, the song 'I Don't Know'. I've been listening to Numerology which is the 15-year-old CD compilation of Numbers material, which mooshes both albums and the entirety of their first EP. 'I Don't Know' isn't on that CD, and I had kind of forgotten it,* except now I hear it again on this record I have to admit I absolutely had not forgotten one note of it - it is completely ingrained, it must have been playing on RRR when my portal was at its most receptive. Weirdly if anything it's been mashed in my brain with Blondie's 'I Know But I Don't Know' which is a more complicated but less pleasing song. 'I Don't Know' is classic teen angst of the kind of thing The Undertones excelled at (though it's not as rock). Two is the song 'Jericho' which is sitting at the end of side one of this English LP whereas it's not on the original version. It's a different version, and pretty special. A bit muddier than the version that was released as a single/appears on the second album, I guess it's kind of more primitive but/and still very enjoyable. 

I might spend some time comparing or I might not, but I suspect the whole album sounds a bit tougher and fuller than the original. It also has a lyric sheet, which my copy of the Australian version doesn't, but I don't know whether it did once. 

*I do have the Aust version of the album, so I've got two copies now - decadent! - but I hadn't played it for a while, I think because I had just assumed the CD was the entirety of the first album and about half of the second. Wrong.

railway canal

On the weekend Perry and I did a little wander down Moonee Ponds Creek almost to Docklands to check out whether there's any material evidence left of the loading dock for coal from the Railway Canal to the Spencer St railyards. We found this. I mean, really I just don't know. It seems weird to imagine that no-one had ever taken away this jumble of stone from what seems likely to have been the site of the dock, in the century plus since it was decreed redundant. But on the other hand, did they have any reason to take it away, and did anyone really need or want this little bit of the creek bank for anything else? 

The Railway Canal was a big project of the late 19th century which doesn't really seem to have been used at all much after about 1910. It's essentially one of the few canal projects in Melbourne to aid industry/infrastructure, curious that it was implemented to assist railways which had essentially supplanted canals long before this time. But the logistics made a certain amount of sense. But clearly it was pretty quickly revealed as a folly, and contributed to the ruination of the creek. 

To reiterate - I understand this amateur urban archaeology could well be way off. Way off. 

mound

Perry and I went to the dog wash place earlier today and we thought we'd just drop in behind these flats on Macaulay Road to check out the mound. I am interested in the mound and I don't really know what it 'means'. I could probably go in harder on the research but I lazily just went to that invaluable resource the Melbourne 1945 site. God bless that site but it just raised more questions. 

So I guess to the degree I thought about it, I thought that the gasometer on the site was probably set back a bit from the road and the mound in some way remediated the ground underneath it which probably couldn't be built on because, you know, a century of gas-related residue in the earth. But I see that the gasometer was at the road on the far southeast of the site and this is part that definitely has residential space atop it now. 

I am sure there's an answer to the question of the mound but today is not the day. I will say this: my reearcher tells me it is tasty. 

stories from the golf

Cliff Ellen and Monica Maughan in Stories from the Golf. In the service of one of my forthcoming books I am forced, forced to watch a lot of Australian comedy DVDs and this is one of them, from 2003. It's the first Robyn Butler/Wayne Hope series - 5 minute stories all revolving around one hire car (the Golf). Butler and Hope are the usual stars but sometimes there's some real surprises and this was one of them. A really simple and dare I say touching story with some funny things thrown in. Good series! 

nuttelex milk

Well I hae nothing against almond milk exactly though usually I go for Oat Milk, I am not entirely sure why since I like them all. I was fond of that one, I now can't remember the brand, which claimed to be made from pea protein. It was probably the closest in flavour-consistency to real milk although tbh I haven't drunk a glass of cow's milk for over forty years so do I really remember. Anyway, I am a fan of the Nuttelex brand, when it comes to both margarine and now their milks, and I like the no-nonsense packaging too, which essentially says the lie of, 'we've been making this kind of stuff for almost a century, haven't you noticed? Well until recently it was only medical.' I noted that the Nuttelex brand was in 'clearance' mode at woolworths this week and I hope it's not going out of production (of the milks. I'm sure the margarine line is solid, there are so many options). 

coburg wander yesterday

 First, houshops:

Second, just things/buildings that are sort of interesting: