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. 

d4 the battle of waterloo st

It becomes particularly obvious what a high quality series D4 is when you hit the rare dud. This one, from 11 March 1974, has all the ingredients - great cast (Keith Eden, Sheila Florance, Norman Kaye, Jon Finlayson, David Jon, and others) possibly even on paper a decent storyline, almost. But the way the whole is played for comedy (why? why?!) and the type of hamfisted comedy... jeepers. When you consider how many incredibly good, tightly scripted, brilliantly acted episodes they made in '73-'74, well, obviously, there have to be winners and losers. But a flour fight under a hose? Thanks but no thanks.

Possibly the D4 world just wasn't sure how it felt about hot shot property developers and/or the inner city, still in this episode the habitat of old battlers and eccentrics. In this episode some heavies are employed at arm's length by an effete developer who won't actually have the money he needs to buy all the land he's bought for his new high-rise towers until he scores one holdout house, The Briars, owned (sort of) by an elderly lady called Miss Bobby. (I say elderly and perhaps the character is but Sheila Florance was... gulp... younger than I am now, when this show was made). 

The final moment of the show depicts a model of the Briars next to the extensive property development* and we are told that 'Miss Bobby is still living in her house which is now in the centre of a shopping complex,' no doubt a reference to the poor lady in real life who held out against the sale of her home in Camberwell Junction and had people looking into her backyard for years as they went into Target. The model we are shown while hearing these words does not match the description of a house in a shopping centre but oh well. That's the least of anyone's worries with this silly farce. Such a waste.  

* Which btw implies that the developer actually got his way, which is odd, as he went to prison in the story.