flook in the second half of september 1954

 

scrounge lizard

 

I wanted to tell you about this shop (which isn't a shop anymore) in Preston. The internet doesn't say much about it except that it was a recycled furniture store between 1994-2005. I was told, or perhaps I got confused or am misremembering, that the shop's logo is an early piece of Philip Brophy design from the 1970s. I will look into that further perhaps as I recall who told me and I can ask them again. Ok talk then. 

definitely not in the mood

Laura's book is now officially out, and she sold a bunch of them at a comics fair in South Melbourne today - very impressive. More about this anon. In the meantime I went to (amongst other errands and Perry walks) a record fair being held at Northcote Theatre. 

Firstly, it was basically a secret record fair. I don't know how I found about it (facebook advertising I think) but there was absolutely no signage in the street or even once inside the doors - I just followed the sound of people prognosticating about surface wear and making jokes about Michael Jackson. Once inside, I just didn't feel it, one bit. Everything was highly priced (of course in some instances this is essentially justified - I don't mean in terms of 'collectability' but just in terms of - good records should cost more) aside from the David Dundas album I bought which was a sensible $5 and in the scheme of things not a bad purchase though it is a bit scratchy, but I can't be angry about that. 

I guess ultimately I'm just pissed off that there is a collector world.

You know, about five years ago I sold off a large swathe of my record collection to make money to record a record with my friend Art Rush and to be clear I have precisely no regrets about that. I am so glad I did it, because Art is no longer with us (if you don't know the story, well, it's a long story, but he didn't die) and we captured his real genius right at the appropriate moment. The point is, making art/music is more important - to the degree that it's about a thousand times more important, even if it's bad art which this wasn't - than fucking collecting. I mean it's nice to curate, and it's nice to own books and records and even art and there's no shame in it, but collecting with a view to acquiring something monetarily valuable, should be a crime. Maybe I should simmer down a bit because there's obviously something I'm not remembering about the real world. 

PS I bought: David Dundas Jeans On; Slapp Happy and Henry Cow; ELP; The Ritz A Diamond as Big as the Ritz; a Bikini Kill album as I am reading Kathleen Hanna's book; a Bryan Ferry solo album I can't remember which one and I'm too lazy to get up and check, sorry, but who cares really? and a compilation of Mouse and the Traps.  I really wanted to find some Captain Beefheart albums or Supremes records but yeah nah. 

finland final thoughts (two weeks ago)

So I have been back from Finland for basically a day (more like 22 hours) now and have spent a Friday in a limbo state which films can sometimes represent so well, you know, delayed responses, standing outside myself, sitting there not saying or really doing or thinking anything for a long time. Jetlag is possibly worse than you think it is because you don't entirely realise what state you're in while you're in it. I note that two weeks ago I was enduring airport hell waiting for a flight and I said that was a first world problem and so is this so... fine. I am not even totally complaining. What's the point? It just is.

Perry is two years old today, and like me he's been awake since 2am and he is now acting like it's time to get into the day but the joke's on him because it's actually time to go back to bed for a few hours. We have been out for a walk and he's also had two weetbix, which is certainly a food I've never given him before but maybe they gave it to him at the Pet's Hotel? Or maybe at Doggy day care. They are good for dogs I gather. 

So I bored Laura, when I was actually able to talk, with my boring thoughts about various Finnish things, because of course it's not just the experience of being there, it's a culture and a language that fascinates me and the difficulties inherent in engaging with it also fascinates me. I have to say that there is something special about looking through Finnish records or books or even some other things that remind me of trying to come to grips with the world as a child or teenager. So much to remember and interpret. This is not special to Finnish things, it's just any culture where there's a huge amount of internal connections that don't necessary have a context ready to hand. 

OK I said 'final thoughts' above but I will probably have others, if I do I'll let you know. 

samuel hatty what a dick

You may recall in late 2021 I relayed the story of Samuel Hatty getting put in jail for a month for ripping up a flag. Well I don't know much about Samuel Hatty but I know he got in the news periodically and usually for doing worse things than that. In September 1924 Hatty was charged with robbing John Anderson, an elderly engineer from Yallourn, of £10 and having used 'personal violence'. Hatty was living in Roden st, West Melbourne at this time (Melbourne Herald 12 September 1924 p. 7) So apparently John Anderson turned up at the Waterside Hotel with a lot of money and shouted the bar twice but then refused to do so the third time. Hatty, who was otherwise just a drinker in the bar, struck Anderson on the side of the face and he fell to the floor. Hatty then put his hand in Anderson’s trouser pocket, then stood on his stomach. He stole two £5 notes. Barman Ivan Mitchell didn't tell the court that he saw Hatty steal the money but he did say that Anderson was half drunk and Hatty was very drunk. Hatty told the court (I guess this was his excuse - ?!) that he was a married man with two children* and he had spent most of his wages at the hotel that day. ‘The police gave Hatty a good character’. He was fined £5 and £1 costs.   

(‘Country visitor in town’ Melbourne Age 16 September 1924 p. 13)

*This was a mistake on the part of the reporter or Hatty was lying or something else because his (and his wife Honora's) grave at Fawkner cemetery only claims one child - a daughter, Dorothy. 

The picture above, by Graeme Butler, is of the Waterside Hotel (obvs) in 1985, from here

leaving finland (two weeks ago)

 

So the flight is due to leave in around fifty minutes. 

As mentioned, I was not dying to make this trip, and it came at an inconvenient time (long story short and very very third world problem - it was a work obligation). Of course, I love visiting Finland - I am going to say this has been something like my seventh, maybe even eighth trip? It never lets me down, and it always gives me more to think about. 

Before you think I'm obsessive, I just want to say I may be, in this case, but really I am not the obsessive type, at least, I'm pretty sure I'm not. It's definitely a society that's familiar in a lot of ways but just different enough to keep me on my toes, and it's very civilised and the climate absolutely agrees with me (even when it's warm, which it was these last two weeks). 

Oh we're boarding... ! 

tapiola uimahallia (two weeks ago)

I think I already mentioned the swimming pool and its current degraded situation. Not sure what that's about. Clearly in its heyday it was the pride and joy of the town.

What amazed me about it, is I thought it was an 80s building. Nope. 

tapiola (two weeks ago) cont again

People at the lake which the Tapiola Park hotel looks out over. 

Here are a few vintage pics of the lake from the Raportti book.

tapiola (two weeks ago) cont

 These horses are ubiquitous in Tapiola and in fact... 

Here they are in a picture from Heiki von Hertz's Raportti, a book published in 1984 but the picture I think is much older, though unfortunately it's undated. 

Yes I bought this LP. of course I did. 

I would have liked this plate but it was very expensive and what would I do with it? 

All of this fun is happening at Heikintori, Finland's first shopping centre I gather, but sadly even I, who like to avoid all evidence of my own eyes whenever I can, have to admit it's seen better days. But maybe it'll see even better days one day - ? Anyway, it's not exactly buzzing these days, though it has decent op shops and some restaurants. That the escalator doesn't go upstairs anymore is kind of... telling. 

I actually didn't think there was anything upstairs, but there is. I'll tell you how I found out - I really wanted to experience this glass walled staircase at the adjoining car park:

So I did, and it was kind of a downer but an interesting downer. 

The car park: there were little kids running around so I didn't want to spend time there. 

So, this gives you entree into the upstairs. 

And then when you come down the stairs, there's this restaurant and someone noisily banging their spoon on their bowl as they scoop up the last bits of whatever they're eating.

Elsewhere in the shopping complex i.e. I'm not 100% certain whether this is Heikintori or something else, there was this which filled me with not rage but weary irritation when I first saw it because I thought it was pro-meat. But no. It's a meat substitute business although I can't really tell in what way, if any, it's interfacing with the public here. 

Back in what used to be, and probably isn't anymore, the main city centre area:

This building, designed by Aarne Ervi, is iconic locally and clearly had a huge impact worldwide when it was erected. I actually thought it was empty now but late at night I noticed quite a few levels had lights on, so... whatever that tells us. 

Here it is in a Readers Digest article on Tapiola from February 1966. 

And here it is in a weird facsimile version with other mini-sized Tapiola buildings. 

It gets to watch over this little version of itself every day. 

tapiola (two weeks ago) megamix

This is my last full day in Finland, this time around, and I think I have kind of dropped the ball in terms of tallying my activities the last couple of days so... get ready for a picture dump... I'll split it into two. Or maybe three posts, or four, just so I don't end up with such a huge post it won't load or something.

So this is Tapiola on a Sunday evening, it's remarkable how much of the original town still exists even if things are basically shut up and probably falling apart (while it's also clearly a lived in city as well). I think this building below was the information centre or something. 

Below - the corridor of my hotel. I bet if I made a joke about The Shining I'd only be about the ten thousandth person to do so. Forgot my tricycle! 

View from my room (this was before I noticed that there was a door to the balcony...)

So that building out there is the swimming pool, it's completely closed up and empty. 

This statue, by the way, is meant to be like this. 

'Häikäistynyt' means 'dazzled'. 

I think a keskustorni is a town square. 

More soon