happy fiftieth anniversary boronia mall

 

Laura and I spent a while there on 27 May and noticed it was soon to have a significant birthday. 

It was much less rundown and drab than we had been led to believe, though it's true some shops were empty. Nevertheless - it's a really amazing place and needs more care and appreciation. May it live on.

Oh, and I (who titled a post on this blog with a reference to a 'right-off' about fifteen years ago and only noticed last week) always like to poke fun at others' typos/poor English/ whatever you want to call it: 

This isn't even an example of that, it's just, I don't know, funny emphasis I suppose. 

It was a Buchan, Laird and Buchan design (they've been featuring a lot in my research lately, though conversely I wouldn't know any of them if they stood up in my cornflakes). The building apparently once had a large sculpture in the foyer which I don't think it does anymore. No mention in the advertising material of who made the tiles or how. I will contact Sunny Bear and see what he has to say and/or whether he has any more of those free giveaways. Btw I didn't know, or had forgotten, Rosemary Morgan had died, shame, she seemed nice. 

11 September 1973 p. 17 passim

sydney #3

Note weird writing on the tram roof. 

sydney trip (three days ago)

The main reason I left Sydney (in '95) is that I saw it changing, and felt it becoming immensely unaffordable, and now, while I still recall some of the key features on a very essential level (ouch, that morning sun) I can barely find my way around - at least not from looking at landmarks.

More insanely I'm wandering around here between Balmain and Pyrmont trying to get my usual public transport app to help me out and it seems to be predicting incredibly long times for short (much of it over water, so not a traffic thing) distances. Sometimes it decided to refine these radically, but in the main I wasn't keeping records of what it was telling me, so I don't really know what was going on. I know I am basically in the right place now and hopefully in two hours will have discharged my duties re: conference paper and I can move on to the next thing.

sydney trip ( three days ago) - 1

5 September 2023 5:52 pm

What a fuckin' day (and it's not over yet). I am at The Airport (see images for proof) and it is boring and also, after I dashed to get here, here I am with a delayed boarding time of something close to a friggin' hour. I mean, my life is important to me and I suppose I should at least be grateful I get to spend it right now communing with you.

Today I gave a lecture in the morning, and a lecture in the afternoon, and in-between had a staff meeting, and also took Perry to the Pets Hotel, which had the double discomfort of (1) feeling really guilty about parting from him for a few days, because we have a bond and he is really precious to me and (2) him just having absolutely no freakin' qualms about dashing away into the depths of the Pets Hotel (he was in fact really excited about it as soon as we got there and saw where we were). I suppose I'd rather feel guilt than him feeling guilt. Still. 

Sydney trip is really only 48 hours long (actually I suppose 50 hours) but it does seem like a hell of an intrusion on a nice life we've been having. I'll be glad when it's over and I can think about it instead of imagining all the shizzle that could go wrong in major or minor ways. Stick with me and I'll fill you in. 

leunig's weekend father's day sunday observer 6 September 1970

This cartoon is exceptionally rude about Bolte (foot in the chamber pot in particular). Thought you might like the whole page for context. 
 

who is erin carter, etc

 

Did you ever see the 2005 film A History of Violence starring Viggo Mortensen? Oh well I won't spoil anything in particular but I want to tell you that the beginning of that film has an extremely strong similarity to this Netflix series starring Evin Ahmad. What amazes me is that this is Ahmad's first English-speaking role (only because her English is clearly excellent, no obvious Swedish or any other non-English accent, and she is clearly a star in the making). What also amazes me is that even bog-standard backyard Barcelona is sumptuous. The series is light plotwise but everyone and everything looks good even when they are splattered with tastefully arranged blood. 

Have you seen the chronically shit 1975 film Scobie Malone? Almost everyone in this film (from Jack Thompson onwards) had appeared in Homicide at some point or another. It has classy moments like Shane Porteous wishing of a middle-aged woman that he could 'nail her tits to a wall' because she 'fries my snags'. Well, anyway, I'm watching it now and it's horrendous, not because it's Australian obvs in fact because I suspect it has the extensive overarching influence of Casey Robinson, who was producer and cowriter on the film and was trying to push it into the US market. Robinson was a US screenwriter (way back to even pre-talkies) who had retired to Australia (according to Wikipedia) but unfortunately not properly retired as he bounced back to ruin this movie. Robinson was one of the writers of Casablanca. This is a sad last hurrah for him. I'm going to suggest everyone else had the chance to redeem themselves in other films thereafter.

Admittedly I'm only 40 minutes in. Maybe it gets incredible later. 

flook september 1953

 

For some reason, there is a newspaper missing here - apologies

Just in case anyone ever tells you that Wally Fawkes couldn't draw - refer them to the above strip. I mean no-one ever would say that. But it's good to be prepared. 

Do you think someone got their knuckles rapped in September 1953 for deciding that half the strips in the Vancouver Province should have their titles running underneath rather than above? I wonder.