outside toilet in Parkville

I suppose some people don't mind having an outside toilet, or should I say, want one. Perry and I were walking down a laneway in Parkville yesterday when I spied what seemed pretty obviously to me to be an outside toilet rebuilt in, I'm going to guess by the bricks, the 1960s to the footprint of a much older one. I'm sure that's what it is (certainly it's post-nightsoil). 

I mean Picasso yeah nah but that 1960s outside toilet is a much more intriguing piece of art. 
 

death of a soldier (1985)

Philippe Mora's Death of a Soldier stars James Coburn, Bill Hunter, Maurie Fields with Reb Brown as Eddie Leonski. I watched it this afternoon because I was doing this Parkville research and of course Leonski was at Camp Pell in Royal Park (according to the film he also committed one of his murders in Royal Park, I don't know if this so). It's on YouTube if you want to spend the time but I wouldn't advise it. 

I put this film in the same bag as Gross Misconduct, a very shitty reading of the Orr case directed by George T. Miller. I hope you saw the 'T'. They're both based on true stories and in both cases the film attempts to create sympathy for the central criminal. Since Gross Misconduct is a fictionalised version of the story to the degree that everyone's names are changed etc, perhaps I shouldn't be making the comparison.

Anyway, Death of a Soldier tries to make the case that Leonski had a specific condition that meant he was not responsible for his actions, and that his execution by the US army was politically motivated. Whatever, that may be true, but in making a big deal out of this possibility - particularly via the title - the film really wants us to forget that three women died as well as Leonski. Curiously, the film also makes no attempt to turn Leonski into any kind of an appealing character - I mean, sure, hollering and screaming and grabbing women in the street is not per se a hanging offence, but he's basically a jerk. We get precisely no back story on the man at all except at the end where there's some kind of eugenicist explanation for why he likes to kill. 

Frank Thring plays 'Religious Speaker'. He has about one line, but it's always a pleasure to see him. 
 

Quite a few Homicide peeps in this too, like Ron Pinnell and er, um... well, Bill Hunter, obvs. Oh, and Maurie Fields. 

prov today

I'm doing a paper primarily on West Parkville (ostensibly on the parts of Parkville that aren't South Parkville). Here are a few glimpses of stuff I've gleaned this afternoon:

I'm sorry but to be honest, I just have no freakin' idea what this (above) means.

This (above) is from a petition given to local government asking that the 'Model Farm' in Parkville not be sold for housing. I just like that phrasing that's all. 

This (above) is from another file where people were trying to stop things changing at Royal Park/West Parkville, in this case the building of a road (which was built: it's called Oak Road). the streets aren't labelled but it might help you to know that where the Swamp is (love that lettering) is now the part of Moonee Ponds Creek where the big red sticks project, and the 'Bridge' is basically where the Tullamarine Freeway exit to Flemington Road is. 

Here it is again. Slightly different alignment for the Oak Road connection where you see how it's happened that you don't even realise you're on a fork in the road when you travel from Manningham into Oak Road. Cannon St is, oddly, now Lennon St, and it basically aligns with the freeway these days. Don't know what happened to that church, also, don't know why I never wondered why Church Street was called that when there's actually no church around.  

This is just a really nice looking little sketch plan of the other sliver of Parkville - in the east. 

Above is just one of those things you come across that doesn't tell you much but raises one question. There was a hospital at Coode Island? No way! 

Always more to discover.

grudging respect

 

The story so far: I have had Nancy since 2013, probably the year she was born. Like any good hollywood heartwarmer she was an obligation who burrowed her way into my affections (heartwormer, I suppose) and we have been solid since, I guess, around the time in either late 2013 or early 2014 when she disappeared for a week and then came back for good. It really was a modern day folk tale. As idiotic as it sounds (possibly even to some cat owners/lovers) I feel like she is not an animal presence but just someone I live with. We have our routines, we hang out, we don't always communicate but I suppose I project onto her a kind of cohabitant personality. When I write it down it looks stupid but that's how it feels. She does hassle me for food at certain times of the day but in her defence I bet she wouldn't if she could open the sachets of cat food herself. Also I mean she does grovel to me for affection at times, mainly when other people are here or on zoom (!) which gives a weird impression of things in the outside world but trust me most times she's nearby but not demanding.

So Nancy and I lived a full life at Clifton Hole, then we moved to Albion and for some (the beginning) of that time we had Joni and her cat living with us while Joni got on her feet or whatever the phrase is, found her feet, in Melbourne. I had never seen Nancy with another cat up till that point except her uncle Monty (who she hated and feared, and the feeling was mutual). But in this instance Nancy seemed to have found a genuine friend. Joni was of the opinion beforehand that this would work because her cat was low-status and would just hide, and I thought at the time 'what on earth does Joni know about cats, they don't work like that' but she was completely correct. That didn't last long but it was a good arrangement for the cats, they got on really well - they would play a lot (sometimes it looked like fighting but no-one got upset) and even just sit together. 

So in um I can't remember, I guess it was 2020, we were living in Parkville and I decided Nancy needed a friend (particularly because she would not be able to go outside anymore) and like a fool I decided to force it and find a timid, small, pushover friend. I got Helmi just in time for the pandemic (I specifically remember that the Cat People of Melbourne person Gina insisted we not shake hands but bump elbows - I am pretty sure this was the first time that had actually been enforced on me, though I knew of the concept). Helmi has slowly come round to me and we are very close, I find her completely ridiculous but I adore her and I admire her loyalty. But she and Nancy, nuh-uh. They have tended to attack each other whenever they are near each other, which is usually only when I'm there too (so there is a bit of 'girls, girls, don't fight over me' which of course is flattering) but they also sometimes I just hear them do it in another room. 

In the last let's say month, though, there has been a slight thaw. This is Nancy's doing primarily because she is refusing to retreat (though it is also me taking Laura's wise counsel that the cats should eat in the same place, which they now do, Helmi creeping downstairs in the middle of the night to eat whatever scraps there are left the kitchen). So almost every morning, I wake up with both of them on the bed, not near each other exactly and never in vulnerable positions. You know what it's like being a cat. You have to sometimes look like you're asleep so it's clear you're not in a panic. But a cat is always a hair trigger away from leaping into action. 

So I think the ball is basically in Helmi's court now. I probably told  you about the insane video I saw of Helmi when she had kittens, washing herself blithely in a room of people while her kittens played with a dog, which is just like - I would never have believed it possible but I saw it (writing it down now I am not sure I believe it still). The only connection between that cat in that video and the cat I now know is that it's the same cat. So of course I know that whatever ails Helmi, well, it might be permanent now, but this is not the cat she's always been. 

They did play together once, in my memory, when they briefly investigated a battery-operated toy together. That was a communing moment (at Parkville). I guess maybe I should invest in more things like that but it does seem like an expense because Nancy only ever plays with a toy once. 

It doesn't obsess me or anything, I am fine with it all, I am just watching what happens and observing change and hoping it goes the way I want it to. 

?

Very weird use of graffiti on this billboard in Parkville. I thought maybe it was just that they couldn't graffit on the well-lit room but perhaps it was more - a vestigial longing for home and comfort as represented by that delightful rear addition? Really makes you ponder.