2 September, 2014: i'm leaving north melbourne

'Won't miss it that much' was the only thing I wrote on this post in 2014, but hilariously I was of course back with a vengeance seven years later, in 2021. God what a bizarre time that was (2014 I mean). Hard to believe I survived it, but I suppose, what else can you do. 

barry and charlie ten years ago

 

Barry and Charlie 8 August 2013

 

unsent letter to the age, july 2013

When it comes to politics I readily admit I am partisan: to vote conservative would be to fly in the face of lifelong convictions. However, perhaps naively, I do not expect a high-end newspaper would be anywhere near as biased as I am. I can’t understand why The Age has not drilled down into the question of Tony Abbott’s expenses scandal (one more in the list of Abbott-related scandals only mentioned in passing, which also includes ‘Ashbygate’ and the One Nation court case).

Abbott is an experienced politician, so I assume the false claim for over $9 000 during a book tour was an error made by him or on his behalf. But that doesn’t mean Abbott shouldn’t be held to account on the same standards by which he judges others. If I was a Liberal voter, I would not want the papers to turn a blind eye to this issue: it goes to the heart of the man’s credibility, such as it is. Political careers have been scuttled on a lot less.

Of course, I never want to see Abbott as PM. But – forgetting all political allegiances – who amongst us does want to see a PM with so many blots on his track record? 

death car (from 11 Feb 2013)

Last Saturday (9th of February, 2013) we went to a picnic for Catherine McCarthy - a birthday/farewell I'm going to Japan kind of picnic - in the Carlton Gardens, and while we were there a dead person was discovered in a little black car very close to where we were. The paramedics came, then the fire brigade, then an ambulance, then the police. We were there for some time and the police also hung around a long time, I don't know why. It was amazing how many gawkers there were - kids in party hats for instance, though they probably can be excused insofar as they were headed for the car parked immediately behind. Also a long haired man in green who just wanted to hang there looking at the action until he was moved on. Clearly the person (apparently, a woman) was totally dead in the back seat of the car - at least, there was no attempt to revive her or even get her out. I don't know what the police were waiting for. 

the beginning of the end?

While walking the dogs on the morning of 12 November 2012 I stepped in a hole and fell completely over. I mentioned this to Ann Maudsley this afternoon in the context of a discussion mainly about her great grandmother who just died aged 102. When I fell over I imagined that to anyone who saw me it would have looked like I'd been shot. I thought at the time 'is this the beginning of the end?' I thought it would be a good idea to make a record of this just in case it is the beginning of the end, and I had not made a proper notation of when the end started beginning.

Ann Maudsley said she hoped to live into her 90s, since I think she is currently in her mid-20s this would put her impending death at around 2075 or thereabouts. I actually anticipate living to around 2050 myself but not if I start falling over all the time. 

ten years ago - launch of brendan lee's one of the blokes

So (this is being written on 7 September 2012) last night I opened Brendan Lee's retrospective exhibition called One of the Blokes at the gallery at Latrobe University. I was asked because of the bogan book, which I guess still had some currency - it was referenced in the catalogue (Michael Brennan, who wrote the catalogue essay, told me that he'd only read the first chapter but that's OK). 

The exhibition, which I had a look at on the 5th, is a collection of artefacts, films/installations, photographs dealing with the Australian masculine culture of the 70s/80s.

I wasn't sure what to do for the opener but I felt inspired by Spalding Grey and by things I'd heard on podcasts like This American Life and I decided I'd try to work up a little talk by talking it, i.e. not on paper or on screen, which I gather is what Spalding Grey (Gray?) did. I was driving a bit yesterday so I went through what I wanted to say four or five times. It was quite good, though I should have spent a few more days on it (but then it might have lost its freshness... who knows). I decided I would firstly acknowledge Genevieve Blackmore, who had died the previous day from breast cancer - there was some relevance because as a member of Your Wedding Night she had done that genre busting cover of Gimme Head. I then thought I would talk through the story of meeting Steve Sullings in an alleyway in Hawthorn and fearing he would beat me up but in fact he just said hi. Then two stories about the Choirboys - one, the singer saying he liked playing the Choirboys' music but when he was at home he liked to listen to Nick Cave, the other, the time Mia and I went to see Lorraine Cres for the first time and someone played 'Run to Paradise' really loud down the road. 

So I felt weird not having anything written down but I went through my four bits in my head and out loud quite a few times and it seemed to work OK. I was made nervous by a couple of things - firstly, in the late afternoon I went out to the printer and I saw Peter Raisbeck had printed out a speech which was very fine-tuned and considered, and I thought - I should have done that! But it's too late. Then when Vincent, who was going to introduce me, got up to the podium he had a lot of printed stuff which he read, and I thought 'wow, I am just going to fall flat, completely here'. But I fought that feeling.

Once I started it went really well, far fewer ums and ahs than when I was working it out. Perhaps a couple of sidesteps but on the whole I'm not going back to the old style, it's a hassle. Confidence breeds confidence, I feel good about the whole thing now.

end of the age

Ten years ago: It has just been announced that as of 2013 The Age will become a tabloid, and obviously the whole newspaper is running down into nothing. It is so weird when things that have existed for a century before me, and then through my own half-century, come crashing down. Not that I can think of too many other examples of this. Still. It's crap! Well, I'll be interested if I'm still around in 2022 to see if the term  'newspaper' still means anything at all.
I bitched about The Age constantly, of course, but that doesn't mean I didn't want it to still be around. I'm a subscriber, have been for ages. Though I have to say, Mia reads it daily and I don't.

niamh ten years ago

(17/6/2012) This evening we went to Graham and Tanya's for a small event re: the departure of Philippa to NY for a short time (about 5 weeks, I think). Present were Lina Matt and Sam (who crawls, is not verbal, gets very excited about trying to catch dogs), Tamsin, Alice and Olivia (Alice is about to go overseas), Philippa and Keiran, Graham, Tanya, me, Mia, Shannon, Nicola C., and Niamh. Niamh was incredibly verbal and was bouncing around everyone telling them nonsense facts primarily based on David Attenborough DVDs she had watched (she said, 'I've got all the David Attenborough DVDs in the black boxes') Shannon says she reads everything she can get her hands on, including books without pictures. She said emeralds had 25 million year old oxygen in them, which for all I know is true. Philippa asked her if she knew who Barack Obama was and she said, 'No, but I know who Picasso is'.

barry and charlie, a decade ago

4 June 2012, it was a cold rainy morning and I went out to see Charlie and Barry. Barry often can't take a night of Charlie, so he sleeps in the beanbag up on the studio deck. I wanted to take them for a walk, as Mia and I would both be out all day. So I went up to see him and Charlie followed. He was fast asleep. Charlie found him fascinating, and sniffed him comprehensively, including his eyes. It was very weird seeing him stare straight into her nose, mm away from his open eye, while she breathed it in. 

I imagine Charlie is unlikely to be with us in ten years, but Barry hopefully still will be. He is a golden boy. 

mid to late jan 2011

25 Jan 2011: I am trying to start the habit of blogging into the future. If I keep this up I will NEVER REALLY DIE, at least not in blogworld, except of course my blog posts into the future will eventually run out and then I WILL REALLY DIE. I wonder what blogger actually 'is' and whether it will outlive me.

I am in the final throes (I hope) of finishing my short book currently known as The Bogan Delusion. I am at the point where I am 4/5 finished but feeling a crisis of confidence, now being so immersed in what I have to say that I feel like it's not worth saying and uncertain whether I believe it or not. I am at the point where I have railed against class hatred, but then go on to talk about why I have every reason to feel class hatred if anyone does. I'm glad I wrote that down, it now seems a lot more easy to deal with.

I am also over where I would expect to be word count wise at this point in the book, so I can start pruning and culling a bit, which is a relief and a pleasure. This morning I have taken Barry and Charlie out, put some washing on the line, put some clothes away, thrown some mouldy things out that were in the fridge, and fussed around on the internet putting up pictures of Barry etc - time wasting.

I wonder what it will be like in 10 years' time and whether every second conversation will be about Facebook. Annabel last week said she was fed up with facebook and it was a great relief to not have it in her life and I thought about this for a couple of days and then emailed her saying however much you hate/blame the messenger you are cut out of people's lives if you don't get involved in things like that. Hopefully in 10 years we won't be talking about it constantly however.

body found in litter trap

(written 28/12/2010) Some kids found a decomposed body in the litter trap down at the creek. I heard conversationally when I went down to have a look (creepy? I was interested) that it had no arms or legs and was perforated up the front. The Age online says it is not known whether it's male or female. Being in the litter trap suggests it may have floated downstream but who really knows. As I was leaving the crime scene (4 or 5 police vans, a few onlookers) I think I heard someone shout, 'I have evidence! Evidence!'

* Jan 2010 - the body has been identified as being of Concetta Leone, an elderly woman who went missing in September. The police say there are no suspicious circumstances, which leads me to assume the no arms and legs thing was untrue. As was the 'I have evidence!'