Saturday, May 31, 2025

yarraville to tottenham along stony creek

Perry and I decided to take a walk from Yarraville to Tottenham today. Actually, we decided we would walk to Sunshine but my foot hurt too much (don't ask) and I abbreviated the operation. Perry didn't mind. He was at the stop and sniff everything stage of the walk anyway. 

As so often happens when I uploaded the photos here they all came out in the reverse order I took them, but whatever, doesn't matter does it. Here are a few pictures from the Tott end, a bunch of houses I like to imagine are Anders Hansen homes from the late 20s-early 30s but I don't really know that, except he was the main builder in that area and these houses are all more or less the same dimensions and same age. This boarded-up one is interesting...
I love this brick 'n' weatherboard creation it's rad as:
This 'is what it is'... 



I'm in a guessing mood (after about 3/4 hour of fruitless research) so I'm going to say this could once have been the premises of Riverside Manufacturers. It was apparently a big concern in Paramount Rd, Tottenham, in the middle of last century. 

I like to document Pam the Bird wherever/whenever. 






I have a very soft spot (as Rowena Wallace's character on Cop Shop, Pamela, said to George Mallaby as Glenn in an episode I just watched - 'in the head' - for late period Housing Commission homes, which is what I think these might be, in a dead end street in Yarraville. They're nice.

A-a-a-a-anyway, it was a decent enough walk, Perry was extremely well-behaved, it was too hot and glary, which is just life going forward I suppose, I mentioned the bit about the sore foot, fuck that, 

still watching cop shop

I am continuing to enjoy Cop Shop - I'm on the second volume now, there are 22 of them (gulp). Above see Luigi Villani as 'Patsy' in episode 1.28, in-between Terry Norris and John Orcsik obvs. 

It's a hard rhythm to get used to. There were two episodes a week. Storylines seem to overlap across a few, more than two, sometimes, episodes - but I'm not keeping close tabs on that so maybe I'm wrong, maybe the crime plots are resolved in pairs while the soap storylines are endless or infinite or whatever. It's interesting seeing actors more used to hard TV cop roles wrangle softer plots. Perhaps viewers were having trouble keeping track of things - there's a lot of recap at the beginning of each episode, dare I say way too much. 

Peter Adams has the biggest shoes to fill. JJ is such a child, at the same time, has to do street chase cop things, and not only be pervy with the girls but also a lover (fiance!) to Valerie. Phew! Tough stuff. 

Here's an article from the Age 2 December 1978 p. 22. 




Thursday, May 29, 2025

sometimes when I'm a bit bored...

 

I like to look at real estate listings for incredibly cheap properties in Tasmania and imagine what it would be like to live there, and consider what kind of appalling life changing situations would make me up stumps and go and live in for instance Rosebery where I saw this mural on the wall of a room in a house in a Domain listing. 

Sunday, May 25, 2025

camberwell market, etc

Laura and I went to Camberwell Market this morning, we barely bought anything tbh,* but there was a lot of interesting things to look at. For instance, the art of Lin Van Hek.

I thought I knew all about Lin Van Hek and I was certainly right to think that she was a part of Joe Dolce Music Theatre and I'm pretty sure the second single from the Shaddap You Face album was essentially a song by her. I gather she is also known by the name Lyn Van Hecke and perhaps also other variations. Here is her name in an ad for Ram from 15 April 1983 p. 8. 

It's odd to see Tears for Fears there because oddly enough Laura overheard a lady complain that she was unable to find a copy of Songs from the Big Chair then being assured by a vendor that it was very rare, and with that in mind I specifically spent time at this record stall trying to find a copy, because I was sure it wasn't rare in the least. But it wasn't here because in fact there was no T section at all, I shit you not. 

We also spent a moderate amount of time in Burke Road Camberwell and there is a kind of a retro thrifty place upstairs in Burke Road accessible only from a lane behind, I went in there but got no joy. 
And also for what it's worth I noted that the Chocolate Box Centre, which was such a marvel in its day, no longer exists (probably hasn't for ages), but there's still the signage. 

 

From the Age 15 September 1990 p. 159. I can't find anything in the newspapers about the original launch of the Chocolate Box as a shopping centre/ arcade but I think it must have been in around 1979-80. I'll find out sometime OK. 

*The only thing I bought was a film marked 'Morwell'. Who knows what that will be. I was going to buy a Nigel Olsson album for $8 but the guy running the stall just refused to engage so I put it back and walked away. Rule number one of selling trash: don't let the customer have time to reconsider. 

The same stall had an album by Sprit that I would have bought except I looked at it and it had weird scratches on it. 

75 years ago

What's insane is that I was looking for - and found - something else entirely in the Melbourne Age for 12 October 1951* and I found this...