Friday, May 29, 2026

closer to long service leave every day

My LSL starts on 1 July, and it's about two years overdue, in terms of burnout. No need to go into the machinations of that now. I'm looking forward to it though with some trepidation. I seriously suspect I won't get much actual relaxation but also that I don't really need any, just a reset. 

Thursday, May 28, 2026

mentalist captions


I don't have a lot to say about The Mentalist, it is what it is, occasional moments of amusingly self-referential brilliance in a big sea of bumpf, but I am interested in the captions in the show, which often include things that aren't actually said, or which differ in minor ways from what is said, in unnecessary ways. That's all. 

Update: that's not all. In the above, the actual words spoken were '...like when your mom died'. 

Tuesday, May 26, 2026

meandering, meaningless research


I've noticed this taijitu a few times, on a building on the corner of Haines and Macaulay in North Melbourne, and I have wondered whether this indicates that the place itself had some particularly interesting inhabitant at one stage but it looks from my meandering, meaningless research that this is probably unlikely, Or at least... 

This snippet from the Age 12 March 1997 p. 49 relates to the company that used to occupy that building, and they sold the building the following year for a figure that surprised everyone. 


The real surprise if you ask me is that the building hasn't been used for anything (as far as I'm aware) in the last thirty years. 

Well, anyway I'm not going to go into this any further and nor am I going to go into the details of Stokoe Motors though here's their first available advertisement when they were at a different premises and classy. 


Melbourne Argus 1 November 1929 p. 11

Saturday, May 23, 2026

'let the world know that you hate disco' - 2


I did a search on this blog for 'disco' and I find that I have made many, many references to disco over time. I was moved to thinking about it because I got a great LP recently called French Disco Boogie Sounds 1975-1984 which I highly recommend. It reminded me that really, when it comes down to it, a lot of the music I really like is, if not disco per se, than disco-adjacent and that is probably because I grew up at exactly the right time for it. I can't remember when I actually got on board with disco or came to understand it as a genre but I suppose I was about 10. It might have been 'Rock the Boat' by The Hues Corporation or something like that. I am not sure if I conceptualised this as a type of music, to be honest, and it was always a bit flexible round the edges. 

I don't have time to reflect further, it's a very busy time. Talk later. 


''let the world know that you hate disco' - 1

 

Santa Barbara Independent 18 October 1979 p. 24

Thursday, May 21, 2026

all i want is some vintage philip brown knitwear as worn on the box

...and then I go searching on facebook marketplace* and things like this come up. What is the world coming to? 

 * to be precise, searching on the phrase 'Philip Brown knitwear'. 

closer to long service leave every day

My LSL starts on 1 July, and it's about two years overdue, in terms of burnout. No need to go into the machinations of that now. I'm...