i love perth malls (2) london court

 

There's a lot of weird things about London Court but one thing in particular is the surrounding passageways and malls which lead into it. 

I think I might have gone there three times on this most recent trip and on the first time I heard a child tell his parents 'This is like Harry Potter!'

embassy vacuum flask

Who thought 'Embassy' was a good brand name for things? 

* This was in a Fremantle op shop last week

i love perth malls (1) carillon city

I don't actually know what's going on with Carillon City but it looks like it might be on the way out.

 

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.

flook for september 1952

 

Note the 9/9 strip has the insertion of the words 'pick-me-up' for North American audiences. I wonder what it originally said. Ditto 'patronage' on the 12/9. The 14/9 'dollars' is a no-brainer. Wonder what the 20/9 (passim) original for 'George Washington' was.

As far as I can tell, the 19 September strip is the last appearance of Flook in the Calgary Herald. What was going on?! Such a peculiar way to end... I guess no-one cared. Hey, I guess no-one cares now either!