april 27-28 debrief pt 3

So here are a few bits and pieces from what I got. The Red Onions album (top) was my most expensive purchase, $25 which didn't seem absurd and though I only played two or three tracks before Mia wanted to watch the news I think it was a good buy. Pretty sure that's Geoff from the Crayon Fields' dad in front of the washboard thar. Dave Warner's last album for Mushroom, Correct Weight, much better than I expected for what the $1 price tag suggested. Air Supply I am not yet sure about. The 3 Little Pigs record pretty much one of those artefacts that seems worth the 20c asked for its status as a curio. The cover claims it is a 'Sambo' record, the label that it is a 'Kiddidisc' product. It would appear that this release captures the company in transition. Early to mid 70s I would say. From NZ.

april 27-28 debrief pt 2

On Sunday morning we had breakfast with Jane at Kin, the new place in Lygon St near her home. Our host was very attentive and insisted (we needed no argument) we try their brioche with granita for dipping. I was inept at actually dipping, had to use a spoon, but the result was exceptional. The granitas were coffee, strawberry, and almond, and the first two had cream. I have to admit some primal kneejerk response came forth in my mind when this idea was first suggested (whoah! I wasn't ready for this!) but I adapted and was glad. I wish I had some now.

After this I went to the Essendon record fair. Made many purchases, largely in the interests of research. A lot of $1 and $2 LPs, a few 20c singles, etc. I scored a copy of Clive Dunn's 'Grandad' for my sister (who was grateful).

The Essendon record fair takes place in the Ukrainian Hall, which was obviously once a theatre, or maybe just a hall, though the balconies look theatrey. The difference in estimated value between certain artefacts is great, presumably due to intangibles (how 'good' a record is), tangibles (condition) and the mood of the vendor while pricing (yeah, some suckah will pay $100 for thissss!!!). Highly priced items include first Bee Gees LP; 1st Sunbury album on which half an LP side features SCRA doing 'Roly Poly' (of course I was tempted); Ariel's Rock n Roll Scars which I actually went back for but it appeared to have been purchased.

april 28-29 debrief part 1

Last night there was a party in Richmond. These pictures are a social documentary of it. New Estate played at it. It rained. Aftwerwards, The Tranquilizers at the Old Bar.

Judy died

Or rather, she was put to death, which is the realistic way of saying put to sleep, but it would seem (I wasn't there: it was an emergency act) that she was pretty close to dying anyway, as she'd suffered kidney failure and hadn't eaten for days.

Judy was a fairly impulse purchase: I had been aiming to get a dog for some time, as part of rewriting my life script (read the four to six words before the parentheses as though they were in Lucida Handwriting font) and wanted a small one for the sake of the smallness of housing in Newtown, where I was living. I was working in Broadway (for some reason, there are about six blocks to the north of Broadway called 'Broadway') and she was in the Grace Brothers pet department, on Broadway; the whole of Grace Brothers on Broadway was about to close down, so that dates the moment pretty well, if only I knew when the date was (Wikipedia says 1992). I thought Judy showed interesting character by the way she was gnawing at the bars of her small cage. This should have been a warning.

I acknowledge I had no idea how to bring up a dog, having never owned one and being unaware anyway that there was a process. At the time I felt that everything was haywire shortly after Judy anyway because we were given a new boss at work, after not having one at all, and this person was a ridiculous arse with many useless demands. So Judy spent a lot of time on her own.

From the outset she was a very needy and vocal dog. Silky terriers look much sweeter than they are, in my experience. She was admittedly extremely loyal, which is delightful, but she was also likely to erupt in a fit of uncontrollable barking at any moment, which was excruciating. Worse than that, in the first ten years of her life, she was prone to fits. Early on these could come on at any time - as though she was having a vision - later they were just night time problems (a vet surmised perhaps epilepsy, but if so, she grew out of it). She would growl menacingly and it took a lot to snap out of it (after which time she was her usual happy, demanding self). This was a worry, but typically for me, I did nothing about it (I found that vets, as much as anyone, were disbelieving that such a ball of fluff could be so scarey at times; I remember that one vet wrote in some notes I read upside down over a desk that the recommendation of giving Judy bones to gnaw on was ignored because 'owner believes these make dog aggressive'). She was very particular about who she did and didn't like. For instance, she really liked my brother for some reason (I mean, he didn't care much for her); he was about the third or fourth person I introduced her to.

I lived alone when I first got Judy but when I returned to tertiary education I had to move into share houses. She came with me to Erskineville, Annandale, then to Sandy Bay (Hobart), then to Carlton and Richmond and then for reasons that escape me but for which I am very grateful, she elected to go and live with my mother, Jane. Jane and Judy were a formidable pair and the ten years that Judy lived with Jane were surely her most successful. Though she continued to lash out on occasion, a combination of the wisdom of age and some late but not too late training made a big difference to her behaviour. She was a very clever dog, and knew which side her bread was buttered on, though for the record, she had no time for bread itself, or butter, or for raw meat or water, for most of her life. She wasn't that into eating except, curiously, towards the end of her life when she appeared to have become pretty much completely blind and deaf - perhaps this opened her up to other sensory experiences. She also didn't like other dogs (who, as far as she was concerned, simply didn't exist), or children, generally, or vets. If she was walking off the lead in any street where she had either had a bad experience with a dog, or if she had to walk past the vet's, she would simply walk out into the middle of the road and continue in the same general direction but with a ten metre berth. She also didn't like baths or having her hair cut.

We knew the end was coming and in the last week or so, I am glad to say, I did get to spend some quality time with Judy, including having her sleep in my lap for short periods (she mainly just slept, in the last couple of years).

She never seemed to hold it against me that I came to own other dogs, and never accused me of farming her out to grandma like Jack Nicholson's mother did. But certainly kudos must go to Jane for taking on the heavy responsibility of Judy and her grim outlook on the world. Also, a heads up (I don't really know what that means but it's positive) to everyone who put up with Judy in various ways in various periods of their probably otherwise contented lives: too many names to list. Pics may follow.

(PS If I seem flippant, it's probably because I see Judy's life as a dream run, for her. She lived a long and interested existence getting her way most of the time and was very comfortable and content generally speaking. I was fond of Judy and we had many good times together, though a lot of those were anxious times for me because I was never sure who she was going to snarl and snap at next, i.e. every dog that sniffed her apparently interesting bottom, and she also hated people who walked funny eg a man in Newtown with one leg who said 'yes, some dogs hate the way I walk... some don't mind it though...'. Thank you for your understandingness, sir.)

getting away for a while

I am embarrassed to say that work, as of NOW, is getting me down and I really need a break. I am looking at dog friendly accommodation in either west or east victoria and it's going to be great. Expensive but great. I can write my book and Mia can do plein air paintings.

Meanwhile tonight we are going to see the Monks film. Maybe see you there.

waiting for the tram tuesday morning

next fumetti

Any requests? I keep thinking Bohemian Rhapsody would be ideal but I don't want to, you know, just act it out.