hal kanter

Referred to this memoir by US tv producer-director-writer Hal Kanter the other day for a book I'm writing. Kanter gets so many things wrong on one page it's hilarious, but that usage of 'indigenous' to mean local is the bit that has worn least well, isn't it. He mentions three cast members of Last of the Australians and misspells each of their names. The weirdest bit is he is claiming credit for direction. I wonder if he did direct it, but they weren't permitted to say so? Seems unlikely that the union would allow that, or that Crawfords would be that deceptive. Well, in the scheme of things it's not important really. 

flook as published in the perth daily news january 1952

 

unexpected herge

29 December 2020

ten years ago on fb

 

late december 2020

Laura pointing to a cat. Or offering a finger to sniff as prelude to something more intimate, I'm not sure. 

Nancy just hanging out. 

On Christmas afternoon I went to Laura's place and we watched a ridiculous Swiss film about the trials and tribulations of a young jewish boy from a fairly traditional if not stereotypical family in I guess Berne or perhaps Zurich who was attracted to a shiksa called Laura. I guess it engaged us but to be fair, it was also fairly crummy. The next day we went to the NGV for the Triennial which was actually pretty amazing but I found it overwhelming after a while and then had to sit down. Later we went to see a film I was very keen to view, Promising Young Woman, and I have to say I was deeply disappointed by the fact that she died in the end. That is not my idea of revenge, 'black comedy' or otherwise: part of vengeance is you don't get killed, and the people you seek vengeance on punished not for the original crime but for the crime of killing you. 

uninteresting walk

On Boxing day (today) around 6 Perry and I walked to Kensington station and took a train to Glenbervie station. 

This used to be a retirement village at the corner of Pascoe Vale and Moreland Roads. It's been vacant forever. I know I walked around there and took photographs, maybe I blogged it, do you remember? From there, we walked haphazardly to Moonee Ponds creek and went south (in the meandering way that the creek does). You can follow the creek for a while, then you are compelled to go onto the road for a while. This was something I saw on the way. 

This block of flats which was OK I guess. 

Once we got back to the creek, Perry decided he wanted to walk in the middle of the creek. 

We went past these flats in Flemington Road which have intrigued me for a while. I see they are called Braemar. 

That's it. It was a longish walk but very little happened. 

 

flook 22 dec 1951

 

I thought you'd like to see where Flook was placed in the Daily News when they ran it in 1951, it was at the top of the page directly above a strip called Daily Doctor. Daily Doctor is completely awful, almost salacious. Certainly undoctorly. 

What matters I guess is the emergence of Flook into the real world. Once again, that's not the Rufus I know. Compare! 

Don't think too much about Rufus washing himself in water from out of Flook's nose. Just think about it the right amount. 

More soon.