samuel hatty again

 

Melbourne Age 27 June 1924. 

devil

This young man has been particularly demonic tonight, yapping for me to play with him and doing that weird thing I've known other dogs to do, going into the kitchen and barking at/for something but then refusing to say what. 

He's also been doing that thing of, I swear, rolling his ball under the big cupboard where it's virtually impossible to get it out, certainly he'd never get it out in a million years so I have to get it out, then a couple of minutes later it's under there again. 

I know that at any moment he'll fall asleep - he's still a puppy like that - so I don't want to embark on any major enterprises with him. But in the meantime, a lot of nonsense and carry on. 

I have to say though I enjoy it as well as much as it annoys me. It's cheeky. And of course I enjoy being the centre of attention of someone with such a fluffy head. 

saw a fox

 

Yeah a few days ago Perry and I saw a fox. At Aberfeldie, the Afton St Conservation Reserve we often like to go to. Perry saw it first, I didn't have a clue what he was excited about, but then it sauntered into view. Above is it turning around to retreat. Below is it thinking no-one could see it when it was partially hidden behind a bough. It was a fox. That's all. 

north melbourne football ground forest

 

So Perry and I went for a little wander through this clump of trees adjoining the oval at North Melbourne football ground which, if you're reading this from Hong Kong or Canada (the two places where most of my readers reside atm) is a kind of legacy football ground that used to be a full-on legit enclosed arena-style (don't know the terminology) ground with, you know, gates and entrances and stuff but is now more to the form of an ancient ruin where only the earth forms tell you what it might once have been used for (that and the fact that the North Melbourne football club has a huge building on one side). 

I was thinking about that tradition people sometimes adhere to of putting ashes on the ground and I wondered whether this little forest might be a tacit invitation to put your dad's ashes on a hill overlooking the ground so he can watch the training or whatever happens here, for eternity, rather than putting them actually on the ground itself. I don't think you could put a sign up suggesting that (because it's illegal I think?) but it might be seen as the lesser of two or more evils. 

Well, I didn't see any ashes but you never know. 

writing about music is like dancing about architecture

Detroit Free Press 18 February 1979 p. 47

Garth Kriewall, 'Honk, drip, sniffle, snort: Lecturer impresses group' Port Huron Times-Herald 8 February 1983 'Local' section p. 3A

Ralph Seeley 'Happy Birthday, Bach - from the world' Bremerton Kitsap Sun 25 January 1985 'Sunwatch' section p. 2

Jeff McLaughlin, 'It's Cajun Time - bon temps rouler!' Boston Globe 26 August 1985 p. 26

Laurie Anderson quoted in Michael Dare, 'Laurie Anderson - Dancing about Architecture' LA Weekly 10 July 1986 'LA Extra' section p. 9

Peter Smith, 'Books dig deep into the history of rock 'n' roll' Tampa Bay Times 8 April 1987 'Floridian' section p. 3D.

Phil Martin, 'Testing th' water: The Bluebirds go full-time' Shreveport Journal 3 July 1987 'Shreveport Journal Magazine' section p. 9-D

Ralph Seeley 'Don't give stuff - instead, give something memorable' Puget Sound News Tribune 14 December 1987 'Local' section p. B1

Art Delano, letter, Cleveland Plain Dealer 18 March 1988 p. 20

Ralph Seeley, 'Tip your hat to makers of music - they've earned it' Puget Sound News Tribune 13 April 1988 'Local' section p. B1

Michael Heaton 'The Beatles, beat by beat' Cleveland Plain Dealer 5 June 1988 'Arts' Section, p. H10

Wales Daily Post 4 August 1988 p. 20

Elmer Ploetz 'Rock critics - from Bangs to Baboon' Buffalo News 13 November 1988 'Entertainment' section p. G6

- Would you like more? Vote now yes no

new order's shell-shock

Like so many similar things* I am very interested (not obsessed) in/with New Order but I actually think they only ever really reached about 10% of their potential. I mean, yeah, 'Blue Monday' was pretty good, 'Temptation' was OK, I always had a soft spot for 'Procession' which was I have to say only heightened when I read in one of Peter Hook's memoirs that Bernard Sumner once had an angry outburst (did it get physical?) insisting that the single didn't exist. I'd like to get another copy of 'Procession' as I think I have mislaid the one I bought when it came out. 

Yeah, I know I'm talking about records of 40 years ago as if that's all NO ever did and of course they have made thousands of records since many all of them not as good, and as I have already pointed out, the good ones could have been better. If I'd made them they would have been much better, lol. Anyway the only reason I bring this up is I bought a 12" of 'Shell-shock' in Ballina (alongside the Cure's Pornography) and it's you know, really just OK isn't it. The A-side seems to just get tinnier and tinnier and the b-side tracks - a dub version of the A and I guess a kind of similarly dub version of 'Thieves Like Us' is a better side but I will never forget that, yes, when I saw them play the Palais in St Kilda in fuckknowswhen - um - 1983? they left the stage and the instruments carried on playing and at the time I thought that was amazing, I mean, it was amazing but now when I play their records I feel the way I feel when I read student work that's been flagged for AI - I'm reading this, did the person who submitted it read it? Did NO hang around for the whole recording or did they just set it to go in the studio and wait to get a call when it was done? It's kind of OK if they did, but it's kind of annoying as well. I guess the end of the 'Shell-shock' dub does have some funny rock out guitar so presumably a person did that. 

This is what you get when you search for 'New Order Shellshock Fan Art' on Etsy. 

*I hope to win an award for these five words, in the Most Fatuous Sentence category please

kensington street library this morning

Perry and I frequently visit the Kensington Street Library but we don't often tell you when we do. This morning I took about six books there - mainly things I had doubles of, from my office - and unfortunately took about three things away, on various pretexts.  

(Not sure what the 'we can hear you' on the right side means). Anyway, on the way back from there I was provoked to wonder about the extreme heightening at the railway line in these parts. The line is low, the suburban streets of Kensington in the west are much, much higher. 

This was obviously done a long time ago and very purposefully because the street behind this wall (its ground level somewhere midway to the trees) is all late 19th century. 

At some point in the last 12 months Laura and I had a benign argument (maybe that's just a conversation) about whether it would be good to live on the top of this building. I think it would. But I am also prepared to entertain the possibility that this is not, as I had long assumed, a house on top of an office building, but maybe just an open area. Anyway either way, I realised this morning that while on one side you could probably see as far as the sea, on the other, all you'd see is this: 

ballina

So a couple of days ago my mother and I flew to Ballina to visit her cousin to get some materials for a book I will one day write. But not for a while because I have other projects on the boil before then. Two planes to Ballina. That was actually fairly painless, particularly because we were fully prepped to have problems with inclement weather etc, etc, etc. 

The important grounding exercise on arrival was to visit op shops and this we did immediately. They weren't that amazing but it had to be done. In both the op shops we visited on the first day, hilariously, there were intensely drawn-out conversations between the woman behind the counter and the woman buying stuff. In both cases the women buying things were retired middle class people with a lot to say. In both cases they fussed over the money - the form of it, not the amount, so that in one instance thirty something dollars was paid in $1 coins. It was madness. 

I am sure (am I?) that not all of Ballina is an architectural letdown but I didn't see anything that exciting. 

Really, it could have been any country(-ish) town anywhere in Australia - actually as I said to my mother, it could be Greensborough. 

Nice bird outside the airbnb we stayed in. 

Can you believe this. 

Beach thing. Beach-ish. Actually I think this is a cove or perhaps an inlet. 

Nothing need be said. 

The next day it was back to the op shops. There are many of them. They all had something going for them. 

I really enjoyed this tea towel. All these kids are no doubt approaching 30 and complaining about how they are getting old. 

I can't even remember why I took this photograph (though it includes one of the op shops, a great one) but I do remember why I put it in this post - because it existed. 

I am just non-plussed about what stands in for print media these days. I mean I bet Australians are reading more now - probably 3 or 4 times more - than they were in (say) 2002. But they're not reading magazines. So what nonplusses me is the kinds of things that still do make it into print. Rolling Stone is the one that foxes me the most. 

This is flying out of Sydney. I mean, whatever. 

Very quickly - I don't think we were even out of metropolitan Sydney - it got very cloudy and stayed that way till we got to Melbourne. 

So ultimate feelings about northern NSW? Well, firstly, the trip was very successful I would say, and I think I got what I needed. Secondly, I am sure Ballina has secret pleasures and treasures (aside from the op shops) but these didn't necessarily reveal themselves straight away. Thirdly, my mother is an entirely agreeable travelling companion, though I guess I knew that already. Fourthly, travelling is a palaver and the older I get the more of a hassle it becomes. Yes, yes there are compensations and there are much worse ways to spend your time/money but I'm completely rooted today. But I almost always am on Friday. 

small walk

I'm not quite sure what the place we went today is called. Is it Westmeadows or Broadmeadows or does it have another name? I have been there before, definitely, in what might almost have been another life. Then, the public housing component was called Barnsley Mews but now I believe the estate that replaced it is called Valley Park and I don't think it's public housing anymore. 

Here's Ferdie and Perry, completely loving the environment and their time together (they get on very well). 

I think I've marvelled about this before but this green slope (it is more severe in real life than it looks here) was surveyed as a street, to be called Lyons St. I suppose it is possible that it was made more severe later on after the Lyons St idea was abandoned. 

Anyway, here it is in the Melways 1966.

More of the land alongside the creek. 

A little way north some gem has erected this sign which I'd like to say is ineffectual (I mean I'm sure it is for most people, but chickens like me don't dare cross into land labeled thus...)

A couple of houses of Gwilt St. Like the slope, they're more impressive in real life. 

So this is looking out across what google maps seems to want to call the Otway Crescent Drain (though there does not seem to be an Otway Crescent) we came across this campsite. I can think of plenty of worse places to live. 

And thus ends our trip for Monday. Happy 'king's birthday' (sigh).