for some reason...

everybody in Melbourne, and the tourists, were all at QVM today. They couldn't go yesterday I suppose so they were borek deprived. It was insane and I'm amazeballed that I was able to get to the nut shop. 
 

foodies april 2021

Five years ago today Laura and I walked past the old Foodies on Nicholson St and, seeing that part of the fence had fallen/been pushed down I went on a quick detour to see what it looked like inside. I half expected a commune in there but no just a clean-ish empty space. That's OK. The pages taped to the outside are all council saying you have to make this property safe and secure, etc, dated September 2020. I can't remember when Foodies closed down but I am strongly of the opinion that when this post appears on my blog the Foodies building will not be here anymore.

Here's something else though. A few doors down from what became Foodies was The Bluebird, a 24-hour establishment that I remember in the early 80s as notable for its old cheap plastic toys and this unreplicable smell that I equated with old ice cream. When I came to know Mick Turner in, I guess, the late 80s he told me the hilarious story of the owner of The Bluebird trying to blow up the new 24-hour place up the road and the wires from the dynamite he'd deposited there going all the way back to The Bluebird. I'm not saying I didn't believe Mick's story, but I am surprised how 100% accurate his relay of the story was! This is from the Age 13 July 1987, p. 5:

I won't put the shop owner's name in text here, he seems to have a career in real estate now and he doesn't need the notoriety I suppose. He was sentenced to five and a half years in prison with a minimum of three and a half ('Man jailed for trying to blow up food store', Age 19 August 1987 p. 16). If he is the same person who currently works in real estate, he says on his facebook page: 'Riddle me this: When all is taken away and you have nothing left in your life. what are you left with?'

this is my city

 

filmcast

Have I ever mentioned this show is a major part of my life, one of those 'major part' styled components of a life that I barely ever really think about except when I'm listening to it and even then not that much? 

I don't remember how or why I started listening to it, but I do know it was when Adam Quigley was still part of the program, so that is before 2013 - I was bonded enough with the show that I was mildly perturbed/disturbed when he left. 

The show is usually three men: David Chen, Devindra Hardawar, and Jeff Cannata (doomed always to be the lastnamed as he is the one who replaced Quigley) talking about film-related news and then, in the main show (as opposed to the 'After Dark', of which I am a patreon listener) review a film. They are Americans and very Americacentric notwithstanding Chen and Hardawar are second generation Americans and Chen is presently living in Portugal. 

The weird thing is that (actually when I come to think of it, like quite a few things I 'subscribe' to) it is totally not in my wheelhouse in terms of content. I could give so little a fuck about Marvel or for that matter DC films, for instance, and other things they see as cornerstones of their film experience, big name action films or films based on games, are just unpleasant to me. I am also occasionally stunned by their lack of knowledge of cinema things I know a lot about: they just got on board at a certain time (I guess the late 80s-early 90s) and didn't really look back too far. But in last week's After Dark Chen described the show as a 'hang' - or rather, he described it as having developed into a 'hang' - and that is totally true. I enjoy these men's company, and their takes and their interaction. Three people with quirks and specialisations in a conversation where two might ally against the third, or all three disagree, or of course all three agree, is just compelling when you're a human I suspect. They could be talking about spark plugs or Judy Nunn novels, really. It doesn't matter what the core topic is, it's how they react to the subject and each other. Of course, they make it much more user-friendly for me because sometimes they talk about something I'm interested in. 

I actually thought about this more today and was moved to briefly spend ten minutes writing about it because Jeff Cannata, who in general I enjoy, went off on a spiel about wrestling and why he enjoys it (as a spectator) and I felt cheated (even though all I really had to do was fast forward for what seemed like twenty minutes of egregious bullshit, I assume it was, because wrestling... christ... could you bore me more? The mere thought of thinking about it is wearying). I have to remind myself that, firstly, I am not forced to listen to this (and I didn't) and secondly, different people have different interests (ouch). 

With The Little Dum Dum Club, I stuck with it for all episodes but it was diminishing returns (though I definitely learned a lot) and while I was a bit irritated when it finished, I haven't thought about it too much since. I wonder how long I will stick with The Filmcast? I still get a lot out of it I suppose. I see it's coming up to a big 20th anniversary in two years. Maybe like TLDDC they'll take advantage of that auspicious milestone to make the decision for me - ? 

flook in the perth daily news april 1952

So... Tuesday 1 April is missing, I can't explain it. 

This was 11 April - issue missing here. However, it doesn't seem to make any difference to the numbering/narrative. 

All in all a pretty satisfying narrative, though it's hard to get into the mindset of a strip a day. So readers would be able to remember where they were up to as the story inched slowly forwards? It takes about 5 minutes to read all 24 strips, a month's worth.

Fawkes is absolutely top of his game with these drawings - it's extraordinary to think of how much work he must have put into this. It's a shame that with Trove (which is where I'm sourcing these) you can only screenshot (screenshoot?) the images which I think makes them a little less crisp, but of course you can still appreciate how good the work is...

More in a month.

Union House 30 March 2016

Union House at the University of Melbourne was where I saw my first ever live music show (Serious Young Insects, Kids in the Kitchen and International Exiles supported Snakefinger the night he had a heart attack). That's not why I took these pictures, but I assume by the time they're visible on the blog, the building will be long gone.*

*Update March 2026: not at all, it's still there, empty, unused and completely undemolished.