tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-59784554387400714072024-03-05T22:01:06.725+11:00Artblog Of Illustrator and Graphic Artist, Pete CorreyArt blog of illustrator and graphic designer Pete Correy – artwork, illustrations, music, writings and more.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger356125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5978455438740071407.post-83412499239071220032024-02-06T19:12:00.001+11:002024-02-06T19:12:57.669+11:00One panel from... Calvin and Hobbes<p>It's been nearly two years since I did one of these — a look at a single standout panel from a comic strip or graphic novel. <br /></p><p><i>Calvin and Hobbes</i> (1985–1995) by Bill Watterson is one of the most successful comic strips of all time. I've read just about every <i>Calvin and Hobbes</i> strip ever drawn, because it was a staple in <i>The West Australian</i> when I was a teenager. It still is, even though the strip ended over 28 years ago. </p><p>How many strips did Bill Watterson draw? Well, the complete three-volume hardcover collection published by Andrews McMeel contains a total of 1,440 pages, so you can work that out in your own time. Let's just say it's a lot, alright?</p><p>The dailies were your standard three- or four-panel gags, but where the strip really stood out was in its Sunday strips, with innovative and unconventional layouts and detailed renderings of things you wouldn't normally see in a typical gag strip: it might be two dinosaurs fighting, or a giant bee, or a speeding plane about to crash. </p><p>The protagonist Calvin is a six year old boy who has no friends and so frequently escapes into flights of fantasy, which allowed Watterson to let loose with his cinematic visuals. Nothing was off limits (within publishing guidelines, that is) and it all made sense in-world.</p><p>So, you're probably thinking that the panel I've singled out is one of those Sunday strip colour panels. Probably one depicting space or a Martian landscape, or even a stately winter scene. Well, it is from a Sunday strip, but it isn't any of those. It is, in fact, this!</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhjeqA8pATO_AnKIs-9zpXkTP21tNsWcyZbaHDNZIfPrOiLT7zSJ61euDY7edN_BktWRwfhVGc0_V20RQTQuEPOnaetAiAG6sxVUv96hs43zEdqvoP5c4vDr8ujBbs-H-a-C18HLZa-PLa8QZQaeZ9uI-0HEp_k04AarUdGhgKMKzXh1p0Ud7AJc2_jdI/s1042/IMG20240205123528.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1042" data-original-width="1000" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhjeqA8pATO_AnKIs-9zpXkTP21tNsWcyZbaHDNZIfPrOiLT7zSJ61euDY7edN_BktWRwfhVGc0_V20RQTQuEPOnaetAiAG6sxVUv96hs43zEdqvoP5c4vDr8ujBbs-H-a-C18HLZa-PLa8QZQaeZ9uI-0HEp_k04AarUdGhgKMKzXh1p0Ud7AJc2_jdI/s320/IMG20240205123528.jpg" width="307" /></a></div><p></p><p>When you see this, you instantly know that Calvin's dad, who is being seen as a slug-like creature with one eye, is talking to Calvin in his regular voice. While his dad sits there reading, Calvin imagines his parents and objects in the room becoming various monsters. Except Hobbes, who is absent from this strip. Would he just stay a tiger? Anyway, this panel sums it up for me — the little kid whose life is usually so dull that he has to literally make something abnormal happen just to stay sane.<br /></p><p>The whole thing is great. I particularly like how the mounted monster head (where a picture frame was before) has a different expression in the next panel, and that the creature the lamp and table has turned into is now holding a little umbrella. The dad's facial expression is perfect. Surreal and bizarre moments like these in newspaper comic strips today are pretty much unheard of. <br /></p><p>Strangely enough, the book of collected strips that this strip comes from...<br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEht_m5eieUm9HTKLwck-BGjhVTZhHI9C-DjLtitSA9CLgJpTlPHCUVAgRP9HLMOUtQzdHLGCTN7zdZQec-Uosv4TmQ7XfULRfSE9W0_XIHVSkSu9pU8YG5VTXL5qFh25dqA6HsHSq3utjCBlFx-LKBmA2H7jsXDAoE-ySSgYy0GNpUMcdPVt-b8y0WVRx0/s1000/IMG20240205123558.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="1000" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEht_m5eieUm9HTKLwck-BGjhVTZhHI9C-DjLtitSA9CLgJpTlPHCUVAgRP9HLMOUtQzdHLGCTN7zdZQec-Uosv4TmQ7XfULRfSE9W0_XIHVSkSu9pU8YG5VTXL5qFh25dqA6HsHSq3utjCBlFx-LKBmA2H7jsXDAoE-ySSgYy0GNpUMcdPVt-b8y0WVRx0/s320/IMG20240205123558.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p></p><p>...is <i>Homicidal Psycho Jungle Cat</i>, published in 1994. <i>Calvin and Hobbe</i>s was on hiatus for most of that year, as Bill Watterson was taking an extended break. <br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjh1g016Ifx-0z2viDv0hwpmy7NyfobELlRXfW8ob9YQAopeRo5An5X7wirTzAbamq7AilygRLGDGpTQWktIZQrbCoy30Frx-bqus4HZGrtKojZ0alI8L3HddFKJXgpWsDxVakz9ilMBf0boph1EHP4srca8ORwS6_sDX73XcA98s1WOrwndHeI3IjY84E/s1000/IMG20240205123629.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="1000" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjh1g016Ifx-0z2viDv0hwpmy7NyfobELlRXfW8ob9YQAopeRo5An5X7wirTzAbamq7AilygRLGDGpTQWktIZQrbCoy30Frx-bqus4HZGrtKojZ0alI8L3HddFKJXgpWsDxVakz9ilMBf0boph1EHP4srca8ORwS6_sDX73XcA98s1WOrwndHeI3IjY84E/s320/IMG20240205123629.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p></p><p>Well, my local library's copy of the book has an unusual label in it:<br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-FdVnE3d2xolRzkXX46xtMlrcOUr00adQfdnav-Mh7DdJ1PKz3N8unXmlRKMgVvzGfV7E4fSYPYqBgcXcmJX9HIFOKs5bo1B1rmfuG-pha9AdDJVznD7Oo8FXv5w7Ft1JWwWErf7TVSvaELskAcIa8ZVyrTPt17ub0tI30KGz3Fiwv3BvfXMDnFgH3ds/s1000/IMG20240205123642.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="1000" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-FdVnE3d2xolRzkXX46xtMlrcOUr00adQfdnav-Mh7DdJ1PKz3N8unXmlRKMgVvzGfV7E4fSYPYqBgcXcmJX9HIFOKs5bo1B1rmfuG-pha9AdDJVznD7Oo8FXv5w7Ft1JWwWErf7TVSvaELskAcIa8ZVyrTPt17ub0tI30KGz3Fiwv3BvfXMDnFgH3ds/s320/IMG20240205123642.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p></p><p>Hmmm. Well isn't that ominous.<br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5978455438740071407.post-60452404184637332482024-01-31T19:30:00.000+11:002024-02-01T00:58:49.312+11:00Book cover designs of the mid-2020s<p>I was walking around my local Dymocks this morning, not looking for anything in particular, and thinking how much goes into book cover design these days. Not just the actual design, but the printing too – spot varnish, holograms, embossing and gold leaf weren't all that common in past decades. Here are a few that stood out to me. Although, will I look back on these in 20 years' time and think, "That looks so mid-2020s!"? <br /></p><p>Let's Find Out.<br /></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixefq_sjxAOtsBSd8gqw_b58AiTfzyZ0YdVFJEctIf22prLBUfFioOZzTAVQ6SafuNc5YFaxL9NUDWz5omBCvkLO0s5uYOW1eRxktgd5qxqoKxSBcegAmxlO50t-10f88f9z2avwhHfcmK5r-P4Kag1xguSR64WvS2J3hGiC3IZLcuWNB4x04v3Jlgjek/s1505/IMG20240131111222.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1505" data-original-width="1000" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixefq_sjxAOtsBSd8gqw_b58AiTfzyZ0YdVFJEctIf22prLBUfFioOZzTAVQ6SafuNc5YFaxL9NUDWz5omBCvkLO0s5uYOW1eRxktgd5qxqoKxSBcegAmxlO50t-10f88f9z2avwhHfcmK5r-P4Kag1xguSR64WvS2J3hGiC3IZLcuWNB4x04v3Jlgjek/s320/IMG20240131111222.jpg" width="213" /></a></div><p></p><p>You would expect a book about the moon to have a picture of the moon on the cover, right? That's No-Brainer Book Design 101. But the moon is just...a nondescript grey ball. Sorry, but it is. Don't get me wrong, the moon is a wonderful thing. In fact my niece always looks for it in the night sky and I've started giving it more attention than I used to. And this vivid colour treatment used here is pretty dynamic, with its high contrast and sense of gentle rotation and motion. Also, it's a good book, from what I read flicking through it.<br /></p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTAaM3qxSDSvip_Yo3GMFcfyd1afPRwCJip4Of-QYuCkozuaHpr61Npj49GTF4IkICc9v6mTHlyp8Xkd7ayih8dtZinJ_-4Xg7_XCG7GKhe-vv6_OHpAebT7ZyG0ZFwkdYv21Tr2z3M4Oaf0v2Or74JYF6xEswWX32unWBFnnp7BOVUcDTwwE8Ef80sOo/s1270/IMG20240131111337.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1270" data-original-width="1000" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTAaM3qxSDSvip_Yo3GMFcfyd1afPRwCJip4Of-QYuCkozuaHpr61Npj49GTF4IkICc9v6mTHlyp8Xkd7ayih8dtZinJ_-4Xg7_XCG7GKhe-vv6_OHpAebT7ZyG0ZFwkdYv21Tr2z3M4Oaf0v2Or74JYF6xEswWX32unWBFnnp7BOVUcDTwwE8Ef80sOo/s320/IMG20240131111337.jpg" width="252" /></a></div><br />A travel book that avoid the usual clichés, instead going for more abstract imagery and vivid colours. Bold typography and spot varnish on this larger-than-A4 hardcover book.<br /><p></p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTHRge-vOdHwHmrReQRZB72a-mnmtpTnrp8x5fWQWZmBDKwBath6Z5e9oomcuNAQuBuNf-oh6oBZag_joqQgnbSSrNHjoSG3sJWecYgNZAOW5akKShGoQUqqxzuJ9jlDTg3-ZREyzyGlzp2V152EXVX8UV2LpRlC1JjB_WIhACh0q-dYlDph7BBrs_yaY/s1316/IMG20240131111450.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1316" data-original-width="1000" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTHRge-vOdHwHmrReQRZB72a-mnmtpTnrp8x5fWQWZmBDKwBath6Z5e9oomcuNAQuBuNf-oh6oBZag_joqQgnbSSrNHjoSG3sJWecYgNZAOW5akKShGoQUqqxzuJ9jlDTg3-ZREyzyGlzp2V152EXVX8UV2LpRlC1JjB_WIhACh0q-dYlDph7BBrs_yaY/s320/IMG20240131111450.jpg" width="243" /></a></div><p></p><p>m i n i m a l i s m</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-JmGsLyfMado6SZVDmXkuwaDwgLQAcf8W_914ysT6uc74xJWh7pLNql-AAi1ThVStLVbGGgoebYZA4NMFoM_zmfl-ozt9QEXEaegLv1wMLd2kWnK0Dzyk9H30jUt_gb6y2sXTX9s2l83wLccNM7vx5RxyR_PxHaT_W1LxtSBBKR-XkIMWxHMXgkJfOB0/s1494/IMG20240131111644.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1494" data-original-width="1000" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-JmGsLyfMado6SZVDmXkuwaDwgLQAcf8W_914ysT6uc74xJWh7pLNql-AAi1ThVStLVbGGgoebYZA4NMFoM_zmfl-ozt9QEXEaegLv1wMLd2kWnK0Dzyk9H30jUt_gb6y2sXTX9s2l83wLccNM7vx5RxyR_PxHaT_W1LxtSBBKR-XkIMWxHMXgkJfOB0/s320/IMG20240131111644.jpg" width="214" /></a></div><p></p><p>I like this one, with its bold orange (or "satsuma" if you will [no]) contrasted by the dark background, with the Eurostile typeface prominent. The only thing I don't like is the extraneous text, and this is far from the only example. Does "The number one bestselling author" really need to be there? Number one where? And when? And which? And also, "A novel" written under the title. Thanks for that, mate. I thought it was a board game, but thanks for setting me straight.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEie9D3E3Hrl9sPCwr9Oq3g7hmvPX6W4Qv0_7j12HuuMtEKIQO8ZOPS1gH_u-hfpk5tcdCytYnfVGcvgI9c-FX4VHnvy3uGn0nd7pYo4JQk-7sFkQHvhM6xQ-y6IJvCz4KANp-SvN4pMjnL6zUqKYaZCXhjYug8Ao4E1BjwxfRpKMsPmCqJrW8wSYLZ4Dtg/s3241/IMG20240131111655.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3241" data-original-width="1872" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEie9D3E3Hrl9sPCwr9Oq3g7hmvPX6W4Qv0_7j12HuuMtEKIQO8ZOPS1gH_u-hfpk5tcdCytYnfVGcvgI9c-FX4VHnvy3uGn0nd7pYo4JQk-7sFkQHvhM6xQ-y6IJvCz4KANp-SvN4pMjnL6zUqKYaZCXhjYug8Ao4E1BjwxfRpKMsPmCqJrW8wSYLZ4Dtg/s320/IMG20240131111655.jpg" width="185" /></a></div><p></p><p>Old-style/vintage typefaces and iconography always score high with me! It's a crappy photo, but you get the idea. For some reason this treatment always works well when there's a character's name in the book's title. "Glorious Revenge" on its own just wouldn't cut it. Don't ask me why. More extraneous text here: I'm also not a fan of pull quotes cluttering up the front cover. No, I'm not particularly interested about what the Sydney Morning Herald had to say about this book. Leave me alone.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2eh788jtwFkIlTgt1nBNfMXxJHkDMP9SQX7bfkRWD_QOIN2CJ4HKN-E2kF6E4tgRkyH-MJNs_GT5dr8zFxU-gKH8y9tCUmpX6wuS1V6C2EvwSvYTJZs35iJaEhgEDWNS7RdtqUGjmClkj6XSiEo0N7px1XZA7jG_f4lOCdfvggWhHXt-LHQk77gIfNBw/s1553/IMG20240131112325.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1553" data-original-width="1000" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2eh788jtwFkIlTgt1nBNfMXxJHkDMP9SQX7bfkRWD_QOIN2CJ4HKN-E2kF6E4tgRkyH-MJNs_GT5dr8zFxU-gKH8y9tCUmpX6wuS1V6C2EvwSvYTJZs35iJaEhgEDWNS7RdtqUGjmClkj6XSiEo0N7px1XZA7jG_f4lOCdfvggWhHXt-LHQk77gIfNBw/s320/IMG20240131112325.jpg" width="206" /></a></div><p>As a fan of The KLF and their bizarre antics in the world of late '80s–early '90s house music, I actually want to get this book! But, you know, times are tough. But the design uses the same Compacta Black typeface used on The KLF's cover art, and the lurid pink and yellow is redolent of <i>Never Mind The Bollocks</i>, so that's a plus point too. And the sheep. And just so you know, yes, they actually did burn a million pounds. More power to them.<br /></p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGYW8WkjvpnDS_aTwDrR3V_W-hw1imDOwNJgoBlhgooTzmwyt0xXk43PsEzrZkgawP078RAH78sGYVsdA0YRh7kUzNpG5OxfpHWGORIb4ObiNphYkaRqdC9VUsavJlWWH63nZlcUj9_aHzaBlwaxDiDTf1aiuE8BQvrqBuDqhlpuZ2i7QGmDyKZ-02zq4/s1247/IMG20240131112508.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1247" data-original-width="1000" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGYW8WkjvpnDS_aTwDrR3V_W-hw1imDOwNJgoBlhgooTzmwyt0xXk43PsEzrZkgawP078RAH78sGYVsdA0YRh7kUzNpG5OxfpHWGORIb4ObiNphYkaRqdC9VUsavJlWWH63nZlcUj9_aHzaBlwaxDiDTf1aiuE8BQvrqBuDqhlpuZ2i7QGmDyKZ-02zq4/s320/IMG20240131112508.jpg" width="257" /></a></div><p></p><p>A simple gold leaf overlay of a dinosaur skull, and simple sans serif typographic layout in a tasteful orang-utan green. The top half isn't actually dark, I just took the photo like that to emphasize the gold lettering. Not that I had much time to set up the shot in a crowded bookstore.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgd6ZvDeemQESSZOvBiM-zeqYdHPc0V30wE_Wo6bPs0iaNhGjGV_8Oo_rre7OM1U6rx0avC_r99qeEiIhrJ4UrvjKb_AP__qDbJrWcoC_1Vgv9Vai694J5EgvWjBygy6XspQ9mjD6970UTd0I6IJGZCt2XlvxRao6UfXN2kNWiO1V3h7kuv11VL-t59jlM/s1383/IMG20240131112601.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1383" data-original-width="1000" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgd6ZvDeemQESSZOvBiM-zeqYdHPc0V30wE_Wo6bPs0iaNhGjGV_8Oo_rre7OM1U6rx0avC_r99qeEiIhrJ4UrvjKb_AP__qDbJrWcoC_1Vgv9Vai694J5EgvWjBygy6XspQ9mjD6970UTd0I6IJGZCt2XlvxRao6UfXN2kNWiO1V3h7kuv11VL-t59jlM/s320/IMG20240131112601.jpg" width="231" /></a></div><p>Not the best photo, but hopefully you can see the hologram effect on the book title and other design elements on the cover. Some designs overdo holograms but this one is understated and quite effective. It actually makes me want to learn more about phosphorescence. Well, no it doesn't. I can take it or leave it. But opposite this was a book called "Taylor Swift and the clothes she wears". Zzz. I know which one I'd rather read.</p><p>Depending on how long these books stay in print, it's fair to say that these cover designs will not be permanent. Unlike record covers that stay the same regardless of how long the album is in print, book designs are regularly updated and re-designed. (Why is this, I wonder? Can anyone tell me? Hello? Planet Earth, can you hear me calling...)<br /></p><p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5978455438740071407.post-15195026266116708532024-01-28T20:38:00.002+11:002024-01-28T20:38:57.883+11:00The SHERRY MONOCLE Tour Part 2<p>Continuing from the last post...here are some photos of the suburb of <b>Northbridge</b> (directly north of the CBD) that were taken too late to be included. But that's okay because it kind of deserves a post on its own. Here are a few neat things I found:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdaxwoKyHKpuHsIX1n2ZpC0kUN05wNHuZhK0ggdphRarfAMJ3-5EEOv4R38w2AljIPkT0ZBfB7RAYyhZ_wt4K1m6BVoQGBRJjQFyHs7immsNeqPJ758tZCVFBXm2Nu2nZL4TNuspQDH2Ud5yIOW79v_1yOgWYIO-Si5U3b76s2JMZOd_0bVSf8AZJDDeA/s1778/Northbridge%2010.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1778" data-original-width="800" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdaxwoKyHKpuHsIX1n2ZpC0kUN05wNHuZhK0ggdphRarfAMJ3-5EEOv4R38w2AljIPkT0ZBfB7RAYyhZ_wt4K1m6BVoQGBRJjQFyHs7immsNeqPJ758tZCVFBXm2Nu2nZL4TNuspQDH2Ud5yIOW79v_1yOgWYIO-Si5U3b76s2JMZOd_0bVSf8AZJDDeA/s320/Northbridge%2010.jpg" width="144" /> </a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Here we have an area that celebrates Egyptian culture and the reign of the Pharaohs. This particular fellow was a well-known king in the 14th century BC. He is honoured by the locals by affixing pink googly eyes on him, meaning he can see all. It also assures a brief period of mirth for all who gaze upon his noble and virtuous features.<br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXpkHxXyCVB2sW8Q53gOl2qwHreIRitCUprhfCUDyKjhblFymvs5u2Ijr1d-yGNhdhglfdfOjQG0Bp4vCPiWrKVxsMEbu7GDBsoT7mPLVXNBrebmkgIJ1ADDPI2iAgwzWA97eHo5ltISmzaK0RRwxouCbVhwb-_t_7R5jgTIZYFfLypULeHjuWZxg7cb4/s800/Northbridge%204.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="528" data-original-width="800" height="211" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXpkHxXyCVB2sW8Q53gOl2qwHreIRitCUprhfCUDyKjhblFymvs5u2Ijr1d-yGNhdhglfdfOjQG0Bp4vCPiWrKVxsMEbu7GDBsoT7mPLVXNBrebmkgIJ1ADDPI2iAgwzWA97eHo5ltISmzaK0RRwxouCbVhwb-_t_7R5jgTIZYFfLypULeHjuWZxg7cb4/s320/Northbridge%204.jpg" width="320" /> </a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">And a Middle Kingdom-era Egyptian frieze depicts his kingly visage in a high relief style, by the stonemason 'Shisha'. This resplendent mural predates Perth itself. I expect it to be behind clear perspex before too long. The mural bears the legend '<i>Post no bills – $150 fine – Littering Act 1979</i>'. This message has puzzled hieroglyphics scholars for centuries. (Posting bills counts as littering? Okay then!)<br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgT5T6tFybG4FJCT4ilQxuaonAz-dFx-7kqNVH2V1wpI09za3dCPpnFSM9jphDN746YNJr5tHJEMZjJMIHSnvaaIb8GGE_LPq_MnPtbFjvAVWAagf7rM9C-RuOX5NzGiYxTfk0aJRl_gx8ISU7HxEhMfBdXkSvD0Fe5J1JWLfoG6vYYAFjdztFxbDziUU/s800/Northbridge%2033.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="539" data-original-width="800" height="216" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgT5T6tFybG4FJCT4ilQxuaonAz-dFx-7kqNVH2V1wpI09za3dCPpnFSM9jphDN746YNJr5tHJEMZjJMIHSnvaaIb8GGE_LPq_MnPtbFjvAVWAagf7rM9C-RuOX5NzGiYxTfk0aJRl_gx8ISU7HxEhMfBdXkSvD0Fe5J1JWLfoG6vYYAFjdztFxbDziUU/s320/Northbridge%2033.jpg" width="320" /> </a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">I've been to all three of these places.<br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi287F5UW446EEdHCKQcdBZcnXtjHZ78HNwLsGm3D1XpAlma9ewLOg-LuILOWARI0SkYXPEzDgZj5NgV50qPgz2ymb69J8KNKIroNqNaX6NNel9stkIQDt9ZQe9ae7UTZI1BpcDRPxEzJhMhI0A09JWplUdFz9j3KXBKMvsozRoatyeK6hyphenhyphen0Y6PaJ7LMVc/s1090/Northbridge%2018.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1090" data-original-width="800" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi287F5UW446EEdHCKQcdBZcnXtjHZ78HNwLsGm3D1XpAlma9ewLOg-LuILOWARI0SkYXPEzDgZj5NgV50qPgz2ymb69J8KNKIroNqNaX6NNel9stkIQDt9ZQe9ae7UTZI1BpcDRPxEzJhMhI0A09JWplUdFz9j3KXBKMvsozRoatyeK6hyphenhyphen0Y6PaJ7LMVc/s320/Northbridge%2018.jpg" width="235" /></a></div><br /> Nothing says solitude</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Like</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">A rare box of Fortune Cookies</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Basking in the</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Thursday morning</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Raspberry sun<br /></div><br /></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5978455438740071407.post-39231434681949207602024-01-24T20:00:00.001+11:002024-01-27T21:06:23.074+11:00The SHERRY MONOCLE Tour of Perth's suburbs with a train station<p>Welcome back to my blog for 2024, friends. It's the blog's 15th year, so I promise to make more than three posts to celebrate this 'landmark' year.<br /></p><p>The folks at Transperth decided to make public transport – buses, trains and ferries – free for SmartRider holders from Christmas Eve to most of January. Their spokesperson said it was because they get less customers this time of year, but yours truly reckons it's because they're about to 'transition' to a new credit-card-based payment system and will probably 'roll' it out when the free travel time is over. So I thought I'd <strike>milk it</strike> make best use of this generous offer to see certain suburbs that people have been crowing about. Do they measure up to the hype?</p><p>First up is <b>Hillarys</b>, which I visited on New Year's Day. I used to occasionally come to the boardwalk here as a teenager. The boardwalk is still there, but it has been redeveloped a bit, prompted by a fire that destroyed six of the shops (and apparently part of the boardwalk as well) in June 2003. There's now a water play park there. It's meant to be for kids, but was soon taken over by smarmy teenagers. Luckily, one of them spontaneously combusted while underwater and I managed to catch the moment on camera.<br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAndqUzQmWGgh3HHSFm6GS8S5D2etde_xDiH8ziTYhfg42qMjdMWpFe6t-N3LUNNEcZBKdnOpd_iuiCsjfKEQXmobN9lyagzDCQGqU_y5wxHWkMuotC30JaCR6j99CEdtZLWit7BlzFKvRtN9iz7XPYQj2iqPlykqvsh7ESa0a7q9SCH2jgzxK-ScivmE/s800/Hillarys%2010.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="533" data-original-width="800" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAndqUzQmWGgh3HHSFm6GS8S5D2etde_xDiH8ziTYhfg42qMjdMWpFe6t-N3LUNNEcZBKdnOpd_iuiCsjfKEQXmobN9lyagzDCQGqU_y5wxHWkMuotC30JaCR6j99CEdtZLWit7BlzFKvRtN9iz7XPYQj2iqPlykqvsh7ESa0a7q9SCH2jgzxK-ScivmE/s320/Hillarys%2010.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><p>Next up is <b>Fremantle</b>. Freo is a great place. I used to hang out there when I was doing work experience at the Maritime Museum. Lots of historical buildings, but the historical signage is just as interesting. Here's an old painted advertisement for MacRobertson's Freddo Chocolate Frogs, at the entrance to the markets.<br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYc6SdQrAHBR3jxvfmrhwmBk0diIvtIDn78CzlCLTGBKFXXr8UokJnyN2OJ9q3sXDJw5aZZE2nZMkJbJ6tqro7t2SPYhKkTpYVAHPZD5IHjwyCV6mdlsIE6Z-qkB-j2Ii019p3Zh3ltJBkrCvO8tpcKLp-9BszI4tzLfeiNaIo3XqE4SrpLPmLF95mvIg/s1966/Fremantle%2020.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1966" data-original-width="800" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYc6SdQrAHBR3jxvfmrhwmBk0diIvtIDn78CzlCLTGBKFXXr8UokJnyN2OJ9q3sXDJw5aZZE2nZMkJbJ6tqro7t2SPYhKkTpYVAHPZD5IHjwyCV6mdlsIE6Z-qkB-j2Ii019p3Zh3ltJBkrCvO8tpcKLp-9BszI4tzLfeiNaIo3XqE4SrpLPmLF95mvIg/s320/Fremantle%2020.jpg" width="130" /></a></div><p>And one that was most likely painted in 1983 – the boxing kangaroo emblem holding a can of Swan Lager. "It's a symbol of fascism", quoth one passer-by. Well I never.<br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEio7OUoA4L6QfZuHwyoRBiNb4jmmrZRtZEpSSISqihDn4QS8B9XcKpXk2YFPCH0ZZuBFZlKSYanI4Pyl8HGf4tW81IjxXJHDcvIooP5egk5NqxXfLYtDGej38M-ik3V1OCIYNUIn_uVdFkOMANS60hYZo9KMfjSTJI4F7rN4dmy52pJ2YKqEhjtu6e5fVo/s898/Fremantle%209.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="898" data-original-width="800" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEio7OUoA4L6QfZuHwyoRBiNb4jmmrZRtZEpSSISqihDn4QS8B9XcKpXk2YFPCH0ZZuBFZlKSYanI4Pyl8HGf4tW81IjxXJHDcvIooP5egk5NqxXfLYtDGej38M-ik3V1OCIYNUIn_uVdFkOMANS60hYZo9KMfjSTJI4F7rN4dmy52pJ2YKqEhjtu6e5fVo/s320/Fremantle%209.jpg" width="285" /></a></div><p>Right, next on my travels I hit up the bohemian enclave of <b>Maylands</b>, next stop but one from both 'Baysie' (Bayswater) and 'Basso' (Bassendean) on the Midland line. Despite having no dumb shortened name, it can hold its own in the hipster stakes, although if you're not out to pose on the coffee strip you had better go peddle your Matt Damon aspirations elsewhere, matey. </p><p>Hey, I found this ancient knocker on someone's door that's shaped like a hand. This alone makes the trip to Maylands worth it (although the riverside area is meant to be nice, too. I didn't see it though, it was 40 degrees that day).<br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7v87yFIq81MSUlgFf9njdEZk-T03k4flTHQgekY2KcBSDhH5xniP1-fMrihYtg44OLC6yLbEhzJ5Ss2aap1nBi41dPilIJArPOw4OxR3Nm1vjNlgzNqA4W0V9_wqXwRmC8Ta3ABQLu1kdO2Sn4_5XPiqWNjygG3eo8qJeJ2E6_e13gLXZpuEkBCZLTMM/s1136/Maylands%203.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1136" data-original-width="800" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7v87yFIq81MSUlgFf9njdEZk-T03k4flTHQgekY2KcBSDhH5xniP1-fMrihYtg44OLC6yLbEhzJ5Ss2aap1nBi41dPilIJArPOw4OxR3Nm1vjNlgzNqA4W0V9_wqXwRmC8Ta3ABQLu1kdO2Sn4_5XPiqWNjygG3eo8qJeJ2E6_e13gLXZpuEkBCZLTMM/s320/Maylands%203.jpg" width="225" /> </a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Why is there no one in this coffee shop?<br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhD1X9SzhPr6SeAaDOwDig0I_KZwKfy6AKgi9zdJqYhFmXuaycJvHOs94_zsNGvhiyGoX-Z6gUYTi0sMSmI07S87X4808pUO15B3-A1a88cOh4a8GLpiLNxtW-CFwBPc9L6f1zVXWu_3emVfS61YY3XL0kNuxZ3HxnjBCpxXUTWMRswru6iSlYCrsqPVXs/s1567/Maylands%20at%20night%2010.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1567" data-original-width="800" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhD1X9SzhPr6SeAaDOwDig0I_KZwKfy6AKgi9zdJqYhFmXuaycJvHOs94_zsNGvhiyGoX-Z6gUYTi0sMSmI07S87X4808pUO15B3-A1a88cOh4a8GLpiLNxtW-CFwBPc9L6f1zVXWu_3emVfS61YY3XL0kNuxZ3HxnjBCpxXUTWMRswru6iSlYCrsqPVXs/s320/Maylands%20at%20night%2010.jpg" width="163" /></a></div></div><p></p><p>Weary from my other pursuits, I now arrive in <b>Bayswater</b>, home of no bay and no water. The best thing here was a hand-painted message outside someone's house:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMCiFDpOh2ctfx8nKVX3yYLTcnPmgjMfrWz7FP2PD86AtJPDd_TczH_dHcqbr55WCd2xC34ZDjRwC4he-OZd_dKLw5eE2HGNq63moxxmGmVbCd21VMVmm6W0-q-y1j4uQ1_UpA_PqbDHsIZG2NXyrhELNEsK19v-gIXs_h7QnxTyCQ0cr5FtkC8UHFGKA/s800/Bayswater%208.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="557" data-original-width="800" height="223" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMCiFDpOh2ctfx8nKVX3yYLTcnPmgjMfrWz7FP2PD86AtJPDd_TczH_dHcqbr55WCd2xC34ZDjRwC4he-OZd_dKLw5eE2HGNq63moxxmGmVbCd21VMVmm6W0-q-y1j4uQ1_UpA_PqbDHsIZG2NXyrhELNEsK19v-gIXs_h7QnxTyCQ0cr5FtkC8UHFGKA/s320/Bayswater%208.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Brilliant. NO FRIVOLITY is going to be my motto for 2024. Also, is that the Ukrainian flag?<br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">There are some interesting patterns and designs on shop-front ceramic tiles if you make the effort to look. I found another one but you'll just make crude references to genitalia so I'm not posting it.<br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <br /></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkDBIOQ48TrPlrQiyKnfgiOFGf8XWtJDn-LaQi7O2EZcFrF4sxS0-dZ7Hka3jHiDSZpxWtytZM72DBbRhgMpS5GX8moruAOvXrmFujoy-z8KHnki8_Ney37YG4IyFKHJUYQY5ksXr76IcJ-Tw4XJaMaG0mQHi-U7E-MifPXbJ_QcgTztnHT1la3sLFIoU/s1406/Bayswater%2012.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1406" data-original-width="800" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkDBIOQ48TrPlrQiyKnfgiOFGf8XWtJDn-LaQi7O2EZcFrF4sxS0-dZ7Hka3jHiDSZpxWtytZM72DBbRhgMpS5GX8moruAOvXrmFujoy-z8KHnki8_Ney37YG4IyFKHJUYQY5ksXr76IcJ-Tw4XJaMaG0mQHi-U7E-MifPXbJ_QcgTztnHT1la3sLFIoU/s320/Bayswater%2012.jpg" width="182" /></a></div><p>Remember Rolf Harris? Up until ten years ago he was a Perth icon, one of the few people to emerge from this city that people could, and did, brag about. Then he was convicted of being an old perv, and his career was over. His TV shows will never again be rebroadcast and his albums line the record bins of op shops. His death in May 2023 at the age of 93 went largely unnoticed by the media. But most people in Perth know that the suburb of <b>Bassendean</b> was where he grew up. Perhaps you'd see him on occasion heading to the Bassendean pharmacy with his wobble board or whatever. There are a few dodgy shop fronts there but I'm afraid that's about it.<br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiojx-dCu937KkyZG4kpyDdIXjh67shpvPn7qYb0M3XWNzuyXSTbNfQ4lVdNxiomJBZkmMH_17T0WG1AMfMkt2MydlSaU2-vVRVsTOA0bptq-0RjTcTHHQA4mezb6QU8XO92_TWuOa9cMs6QsKSmWFviVm3OrHmKB_FuLrLI3ev2fWYy_NHvHxh-T2QW1U/s800/Bassendean%203.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="402" data-original-width="800" height="161" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiojx-dCu937KkyZG4kpyDdIXjh67shpvPn7qYb0M3XWNzuyXSTbNfQ4lVdNxiomJBZkmMH_17T0WG1AMfMkt2MydlSaU2-vVRVsTOA0bptq-0RjTcTHHQA4mezb6QU8XO92_TWuOa9cMs6QsKSmWFviVm3OrHmKB_FuLrLI3ev2fWYy_NHvHxh-T2QW1U/s320/Bassendean%203.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p></p><p>And this, whatever this is.<br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmVMYC308MxhhQqoMpf1d1d1jifoeLypuG0W_IjJbTZohA9RWSW9KgjwAWMl0qjZvxV6dLNaNKYmpcJltf8j7BWd-ldeeSdhyphenhyphenfyIUcGAZe4fHY27nJZ4BIfNSA7X-QHV40Eo8tykgfKkSFBuZbHa6oaWRBKfdkFwnpjPzIKnDl8t4BHs3FrecYtAJE9dQ/s1778/Bassendean%204.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1778" data-original-width="800" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmVMYC308MxhhQqoMpf1d1d1jifoeLypuG0W_IjJbTZohA9RWSW9KgjwAWMl0qjZvxV6dLNaNKYmpcJltf8j7BWd-ldeeSdhyphenhyphenfyIUcGAZe4fHY27nJZ4BIfNSA7X-QHV40Eo8tykgfKkSFBuZbHa6oaWRBKfdkFwnpjPzIKnDl8t4BHs3FrecYtAJE9dQ/s320/Bassendean%204.jpg" width="144" /></a></div><p></p><p><b>Rockingham</b> next. Here's that print shop I posted last time. No extraneous text, just PRINT. If you're ever in Rockingham just stroll in there and say "One PRINT please". Then get ready to book it as they'll probably come after you with a 12-bore. I also like the idea of that blank space on the wall with nothing in it. Because nothing says "Come to my print shop" like a big white circle.<br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEim_PbbaaGPjtzhB2BEu8z29bsb_ltHkUonMpisuFh5yNoIFX3HegGcqbJvbt9wsWu66RHJWzxPa7AJpYFzBfjf-VPMy_8KRW-EfxAySd6LlqWM4BM-k9n3Yp3NoShKQ0IxNGal9rFo3_LEY6O0xafZxRBeMK_w6A9xrMoZT2gdmoC09NNHwRhi4KPdevY/s800/Rockingham%20print%20shop.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="531" data-original-width="800" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEim_PbbaaGPjtzhB2BEu8z29bsb_ltHkUonMpisuFh5yNoIFX3HegGcqbJvbt9wsWu66RHJWzxPa7AJpYFzBfjf-VPMy_8KRW-EfxAySd6LlqWM4BM-k9n3Yp3NoShKQ0IxNGal9rFo3_LEY6O0xafZxRBeMK_w6A9xrMoZT2gdmoC09NNHwRhi4KPdevY/s320/Rockingham%20print%20shop.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p>To the far north of the metro area we go, <b>Joondalup</b> to be precise. To be honest, I didn't see any of it other than the Lakeside shopping centre there, which the train takes you directly to. I did walk around the outside a bit, but the only photo worth posting here was of this big orange ball outside the centre. Ain't it lovely.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPOg9_m0EhX7SJunbAexuoTHQsLP4gfpbqxhGKcTjhGB04YUQmUuUnJs9Ukh4-_AaR-u4Pwid2Le7WTE-QdYCV0H8ncn4XFmHGn26KRVekfBgnJpa0FUY_s8FOfbzIeNYkhsesoCHrvxtH_5SzzLeeRDcbSS2eujCeRMdW5JIn59MmhWjoF-J5xpFkHzM/s800/Joondalup%201.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="632" data-original-width="800" height="253" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPOg9_m0EhX7SJunbAexuoTHQsLP4gfpbqxhGKcTjhGB04YUQmUuUnJs9Ukh4-_AaR-u4Pwid2Le7WTE-QdYCV0H8ncn4XFmHGn26KRVekfBgnJpa0FUY_s8FOfbzIeNYkhsesoCHrvxtH_5SzzLeeRDcbSS2eujCeRMdW5JIn59MmhWjoF-J5xpFkHzM/s320/Joondalup%201.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p></p><p>And finally we come to <b>Claremont</b>. This was a thriving nightlife area until it got a really bad reputation in 1996 when the Claremont serial killer came to light. One of the women who disappeared was seen in an infamous bit of grainy CCTV footage right outside the Claremont Hotel, shown here. Although at that time, the place was called Club Bay View. Another misnomer. My first high school reunion was held there in 2005. The area is well covered by CCTV now, don't you worry about that.<br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBdGsONXLk4cOJum-wNym51D6MtGf32ZYuiRhLJbx36-yns01n-OVjihU3VRusdRWSltXcVZ5Piv2_PS_OWU4xzPacdq6Brc15h9nHv31NsZcAzeJISZAq9oA3gAutVA1xW-ER7IY3n7zbXsW1F0ZZA5aoc1es67kt7oZfyP7OO345zLW_LyjMrjKlhI8/s800/Claremont%202.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="472" data-original-width="800" height="189" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBdGsONXLk4cOJum-wNym51D6MtGf32ZYuiRhLJbx36-yns01n-OVjihU3VRusdRWSltXcVZ5Piv2_PS_OWU4xzPacdq6Brc15h9nHv31NsZcAzeJISZAq9oA3gAutVA1xW-ER7IY3n7zbXsW1F0ZZA5aoc1es67kt7oZfyP7OO345zLW_LyjMrjKlhI8/s320/Claremont%202.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p></p><p>But hunting grounds of serial killers aside, here's the most interesting thing I discovered about Claremont. Take a look at this building. What would you say it is? A church, perhaps?<br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrnrsTgbqLVxVg3sKKJ44fN0lSf3gVL0vIRpsaHyCf9MsUnf37scy1mzvPHAC-h-BmaQK7qO__GA1eX0a9XlSWU4SavcS3wG8x-_paNgs2ivpTt6WfkUsYTrlsP3E9RxnqSV1_fCOk9eVl3zz_7waOYEzDQ5lyEOAC62fTUCfZB8KnM_VoH84JL3py0d4/s800/Claremont%2021.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="445" data-original-width="800" height="178" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrnrsTgbqLVxVg3sKKJ44fN0lSf3gVL0vIRpsaHyCf9MsUnf37scy1mzvPHAC-h-BmaQK7qO__GA1eX0a9XlSWU4SavcS3wG8x-_paNgs2ivpTt6WfkUsYTrlsP3E9RxnqSV1_fCOk9eVl3zz_7waOYEzDQ5lyEOAC62fTUCfZB8KnM_VoH84JL3py0d4/s320/Claremont%2021.jpg" width="320" /> </a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Nope – it's a library! To be fair, it was originally a Methodist church, built in 1922. But after the infamous 'Night of the Long Tinnies' which preceded the bloody and brutal Methodist purges of 1978, the building reopened as a library in January 1979. And they vowed never to speak of the purges again. In fact just forget I just mentioned them.<br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> </div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYGnXqfDHXvDTI71n_O0TEpCbx9JbC6CY4CqNJK_INm_8dCqWs3Z2kc4obOFZJqe1Tc1UwpZb2C4SLjeIe_x9zrH0n6qeobM5K-ZcNEGkTwpiK92rbyusa1xAhYc16JtFOZRqfO2pFISb-RnJl19sQYwNnYUTdMu8Kdzei5uQ3_eGEKC_NgLZCVxHnijw/s800/Claremont%206.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="360" data-original-width="800" height="144" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYGnXqfDHXvDTI71n_O0TEpCbx9JbC6CY4CqNJK_INm_8dCqWs3Z2kc4obOFZJqe1Tc1UwpZb2C4SLjeIe_x9zrH0n6qeobM5K-ZcNEGkTwpiK92rbyusa1xAhYc16JtFOZRqfO2pFISb-RnJl19sQYwNnYUTdMu8Kdzei5uQ3_eGEKC_NgLZCVxHnijw/s320/Claremont%206.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p></p><p>The choir loft at the back, or is it the pulpit, or where the organist used to sit? Church nomenclature is not my strong point. Note the stained glass windows with memorials on them. They are all to people with the same surname. One for a boy who died a hundred years ago aged nearly 2, the other for two men who went to fight in the Great War and never came back.<br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhd3vHElLRJnzQe2-ALNg44Hr-tpqrc-qUecHWuYhT_nbuEfEkLRhF0cVXZso8Irjuym14Z-g553Dv4s4ivEvJuLICbAojHUCqJu4dsaQVQ3ruAjs1KHvpUJTJqtns48RdkidCH9kTFXB_KtN8wPRQWG2S09ivtlg2obIhyphenhyphen7tDSSoLdd5rIEl1eu9GZFaw/s800/Claremont%208.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="360" data-original-width="800" height="144" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhd3vHElLRJnzQe2-ALNg44Hr-tpqrc-qUecHWuYhT_nbuEfEkLRhF0cVXZso8Irjuym14Z-g553Dv4s4ivEvJuLICbAojHUCqJu4dsaQVQ3ruAjs1KHvpUJTJqtns48RdkidCH9kTFXB_KtN8wPRQWG2S09ivtlg2obIhyphenhyphen7tDSSoLdd5rIEl1eu9GZFaw/s320/Claremont%208.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p></p><p></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b>BONUS ROUND</b><br /></p><p>One last surprise for you. Here's a photo of the so-called Shark Rock, in McDougall Park in <b>Manning</b>, where I used to play as a kid, and is still within walking distance of where I live now. See that rock? It kind of looks like a shark's head. Personally I think it looks more like a dog's head. But whatever. You project whatever you want onto it. I'm not gonna tell you one way or the other. But for all the years I went to this park, I never knew about Shark Rock until last Friday. And apparently people have written reviews of it online. So take the family down to see Shark Rock of an evening. Top night out.<br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiXcfOq11tRaMhaFd8fAjn675R6_g9kt9FIWfgqKJRRN1rKktkmcdiTR8RXxCITanFmtAUIn3C-jG-i1Ozhf6n8XgT9x8CEeBvZnJsqfJRuQgH0dc2ebLAYTr4NZmpb_SV8zNwB6lzmOxaoDW8DLWw6ZrpEGvCyalcxbVqhFf98BIc3JnoZJMWnmmfbec/s800/Shark%20Rock%20in%20McDougall%20Park%202.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="706" data-original-width="800" height="282" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiXcfOq11tRaMhaFd8fAjn675R6_g9kt9FIWfgqKJRRN1rKktkmcdiTR8RXxCITanFmtAUIn3C-jG-i1Ozhf6n8XgT9x8CEeBvZnJsqfJRuQgH0dc2ebLAYTr4NZmpb_SV8zNwB6lzmOxaoDW8DLWw6ZrpEGvCyalcxbVqhFf98BIc3JnoZJMWnmmfbec/s320/Shark%20Rock%20in%20McDougall%20Park%202.jpg" width="320" /> </a></div><p style="text-align: center;"><i>All photos are ©2024 by me, in conjunction with the SHERRY MONOCLE Corporation, in association with Dunderheaded Velocipede Seats and the Utterly Inanely Named Crew.</i><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5978455438740071407.post-67583206671036078702024-01-06T19:12:00.004+11:002024-01-06T19:12:49.813+11:00It does what it says and it says what it does<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJgC5yYWGZAD4-dC-QKUAI59Vk3VUPg2eVQXh58wYvNoA7Q_2iytXWow11VeB3n5Qc6n0oDL1ZNPCmOg_rSWB10S1flq-YNwz-YDLcfCRNSx9P5ZwSDtT-6o1ABJbmHFNtlxMyqd6HRAWnoJgB9b_ffDLx8WYQsy1-DXf2zrk2wBHy99Vn084lXvPic5A/s900/Rockingham%20print%20shop%20copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="602" data-original-width="900" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJgC5yYWGZAD4-dC-QKUAI59Vk3VUPg2eVQXh58wYvNoA7Q_2iytXWow11VeB3n5Qc6n0oDL1ZNPCmOg_rSWB10S1flq-YNwz-YDLcfCRNSx9P5ZwSDtT-6o1ABJbmHFNtlxMyqd6HRAWnoJgB9b_ffDLx8WYQsy1-DXf2zrk2wBHy99Vn084lXvPic5A/s320/Rockingham%20print%20shop%20copy.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>PRINT. A print shop in Rockingham, Western Australia.<br /><p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5978455438740071407.post-914772559379402622023-12-31T20:43:00.000+11:002023-12-31T20:43:04.451+11:00So, what did I draw in 2023?<p>I'm back! I'm sure you expected more than three measly blog posts from me in 2023. What can I say, drawing, colouring and printing a 128-page colour graphic novel took up a good chunk of my time. Here's what the front cover looks like:</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiromxi-DAea28CyPGMQOfk3avzlVTe0R_AoQOD99Hg9pxVpFcHgEquCNezLkkVjIPmV81atATWNqznag3VwuLSE4A2AJFDr7sjpEJd5XQvUDgwXuJUHyel3navZXqJqfrsqC5Jf25BynN8GapbaeU8MyxBjwC9PjmvaZRKObeMWqGl8DbS6oboMn5NigI/s1123/COVER.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1123" data-original-width="800" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiromxi-DAea28CyPGMQOfk3avzlVTe0R_AoQOD99Hg9pxVpFcHgEquCNezLkkVjIPmV81atATWNqznag3VwuLSE4A2AJFDr7sjpEJd5XQvUDgwXuJUHyel3navZXqJqfrsqC5Jf25BynN8GapbaeU8MyxBjwC9PjmvaZRKObeMWqGl8DbS6oboMn5NigI/s320/COVER.jpg" width="228" /></a></div><p></p><p>And in this artistic yearly wrap-up, here are some of my other drawings from 2023, in chronological order. </p><p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaKJ_Z8PfJi3hqJtHjfujtnMgseZlI_d7j2_F-320vHZuhxqSDzHMz66s7dDKU_BjNjSIrAZ43N9Bsom3HVNdNFjxX61hzzdLnTGSMyE56JJglfKauyrE3ZJEdGO8D7j7a66Mk_J7-2wyncSP3cyg8UgVCdzvcvAVipxQMaiQW4aJsYpgGS-_PJQdpMWE/s800/2023-04%20Violet%20on%20bicycle.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="800" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaKJ_Z8PfJi3hqJtHjfujtnMgseZlI_d7j2_F-320vHZuhxqSDzHMz66s7dDKU_BjNjSIrAZ43N9Bsom3HVNdNFjxX61hzzdLnTGSMyE56JJglfKauyrE3ZJEdGO8D7j7a66Mk_J7-2wyncSP3cyg8UgVCdzvcvAVipxQMaiQW4aJsYpgGS-_PJQdpMWE/s320/2023-04%20Violet%20on%20bicycle.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p></p><p style="text-align: center;">Violet, a character from my 2020 graphic novel <i>The Snarley</i>, riding a bike in a rural setting. Exercise in drawing characters not seen in their usual environments.<br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiG1IEltQcnC7TNCijocSZTDin8koUNXHw0MPS1VXnKVrikkzkjjrndYVIO4yfgjw8W6p3nLKIOHwj9kEpGuaDcbvWSHd38jFvE6SRQYavqup12QBIHwOgDydN5qxu8U-44eFiSGaP1BE9z14TItCtjgd5UpwMHtuzElhHuWUBjAEiSsfxbZsTri-KebqE/s800/2023-04-25%20Frog%20Craftsman.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="800" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiG1IEltQcnC7TNCijocSZTDin8koUNXHw0MPS1VXnKVrikkzkjjrndYVIO4yfgjw8W6p3nLKIOHwj9kEpGuaDcbvWSHd38jFvE6SRQYavqup12QBIHwOgDydN5qxu8U-44eFiSGaP1BE9z14TItCtjgd5UpwMHtuzElhHuWUBjAEiSsfxbZsTri-KebqE/s320/2023-04-25%20Frog%20Craftsman.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p></p><p style="text-align: center;">A frog craftsman in his workshop.<br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZOAYgngMosvSOOyd0kd0nIw6cG5rWWwDvT-h8k5qsbqWDWOx_Z9IQjXzxoHaECDMxtMVrTmOo403_-ihavGswVh6yfmMpbCj0oWJHmbCKPVmTiPwnDBlPFRfzI5sueV7E2Vbos5rqxOgB2sU8xTtWozYMwBOMX2UaI9E4zS8Ciw8eNFRO7uJYKK9cRZA/s967/2023-05%20Mona%20Lisa.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="967" data-original-width="800" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZOAYgngMosvSOOyd0kd0nIw6cG5rWWwDvT-h8k5qsbqWDWOx_Z9IQjXzxoHaECDMxtMVrTmOo403_-ihavGswVh6yfmMpbCj0oWJHmbCKPVmTiPwnDBlPFRfzI5sueV7E2Vbos5rqxOgB2sU8xTtWozYMwBOMX2UaI9E4zS8Ciw8eNFRO7uJYKK9cRZA/s320/2023-05%20Mona%20Lisa.jpg" width="265" /></a></div><p></p><p style="text-align: center;">Mona Lisa, an Indian film actress. She appears in my unreleased graphic novel <i>Limelight</i> from 2021.<br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsu8NcTNMAVRP5B9XiWaQDXjubXxQpp-sTYyoltvaf7J1UIAEJIJt5YMk-gIL9wZ6t-fEiOXhxd56F-0uKW47DKeKzbep1XCiRT4zqfJVw5S4jOq4NoIKMrEo9a_DHzr9_t34oVFZjZ4nnX0TkSONGwvvbcJ0vCMT1CoRLUO-A_ZuYoZTIqHI8OuHzZ8s/s800/2023-05-09%20Picasso%20Wonka.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="800" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsu8NcTNMAVRP5B9XiWaQDXjubXxQpp-sTYyoltvaf7J1UIAEJIJt5YMk-gIL9wZ6t-fEiOXhxd56F-0uKW47DKeKzbep1XCiRT4zqfJVw5S4jOq4NoIKMrEo9a_DHzr9_t34oVFZjZ4nnX0TkSONGwvvbcJ0vCMT1CoRLUO-A_ZuYoZTIqHI8OuHzZ8s/s320/2023-05-09%20Picasso%20Wonka.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p style="text-align: center;"></p><p style="text-align: center;">Wonka in Picasso style.<br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2ydAddA1VS3NXM1Nb6QQZJ75rBVgtxUcp9vjLvrI1jgY5yuQ2fU0V7Kn-EzFt6wnN7lR9MkjSrXJq75uueGGp7CajvOuU8KcUnOusLkarMunG7-dqCGhCdIl_hd8phpgt465LKKpUw3g0kSwsYK0_FW2zaq8bcqUPLu9uK1QKcA0QEutb9sA8GlrHHso/s800/2023-05-23%20Metal%20detector.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="800" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2ydAddA1VS3NXM1Nb6QQZJ75rBVgtxUcp9vjLvrI1jgY5yuQ2fU0V7Kn-EzFt6wnN7lR9MkjSrXJq75uueGGp7CajvOuU8KcUnOusLkarMunG7-dqCGhCdIl_hd8phpgt465LKKpUw3g0kSwsYK0_FW2zaq8bcqUPLu9uK1QKcA0QEutb9sA8GlrHHso/s320/2023-05-23%20Metal%20detector.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p style="text-align: center;"></p><p style="text-align: center;">A Roman emperor with a metal detector.<br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiS6hdjhSofkdH_LvZA_sLcw5wcbTPAJAceoB8aefCLXZdQwyze9RavBrvVd4rjgxEB1G9jjW7tlDjADusNzqC8QyNoolyJQ62BA1W55S8mra7bdTAoyqkfMj8xxPkyKtgcXl-OBRsIgT3YVko1qUUhCLu2ROirG54TVAyGA3mGQBnUntXYWtr9VBFK8jQ/s800/2023-08-01%20Train.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="800" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiS6hdjhSofkdH_LvZA_sLcw5wcbTPAJAceoB8aefCLXZdQwyze9RavBrvVd4rjgxEB1G9jjW7tlDjADusNzqC8QyNoolyJQ62BA1W55S8mra7bdTAoyqkfMj8xxPkyKtgcXl-OBRsIgT3YVko1qUUhCLu2ROirG54TVAyGA3mGQBnUntXYWtr9VBFK8jQ/s320/2023-08-01%20Train.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p style="text-align: center;"></p><p style="text-align: center;">Steam locomotive.<br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1y5PGK3qkdyiX8eF5Kz_nYuEbqfCZD51FgIa0-wkYkq7wogBG_SOuYcCpRg7Ga3d0bEWaLta9oyKOqlNH_RXW9nMZ-3ErncqaJCIucwU-BZ5i9rRgJHCHP3_dYe563UGdFIfvl1yYeSmULJokwTwkETeZ9dPqC0DD3wjLPKls3OgkMznKxH2F8WNl2Mc/s1232/2023-08-06%20Feather%20with%20bread.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1232" data-original-width="800" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1y5PGK3qkdyiX8eF5Kz_nYuEbqfCZD51FgIa0-wkYkq7wogBG_SOuYcCpRg7Ga3d0bEWaLta9oyKOqlNH_RXW9nMZ-3ErncqaJCIucwU-BZ5i9rRgJHCHP3_dYe563UGdFIfvl1yYeSmULJokwTwkETeZ9dPqC0DD3wjLPKls3OgkMznKxH2F8WNl2Mc/s320/2023-08-06%20Feather%20with%20bread.jpg" width="208" /></a></div><p style="text-align: center;"></p><p style="text-align: center;">Feather, a character who appeared in <i>Airbury Academy</i> and <i>Limelight</i>, among other things.<br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjju14vY3oIbZgaCfLaPqe-Qs48fq-BYCZvRGH4HIJ46CSYISOoDK0X4ydCRyB6IrbMdk9Dg2hGe1Hm0Idywg99GHomvyVbeoJxRjzYK5vrgTQUhsUrFXnvZiU3OJPXqz6ssuKPNbXujojtXpBt8eeEg9xmrCdH0ajRW4zyqj1tD4kagnr2oSi8ZMs0Tt0/s800/2023-08-20%20Sheds.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="800" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjju14vY3oIbZgaCfLaPqe-Qs48fq-BYCZvRGH4HIJ46CSYISOoDK0X4ydCRyB6IrbMdk9Dg2hGe1Hm0Idywg99GHomvyVbeoJxRjzYK5vrgTQUhsUrFXnvZiU3OJPXqz6ssuKPNbXujojtXpBt8eeEg9xmrCdH0ajRW4zyqj1tD4kagnr2oSi8ZMs0Tt0/s320/2023-08-20%20Sheds.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p style="text-align: center;"></p><p style="text-align: center;">Fremantle sheds.<br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEha-X1I08D8bucjNRsT_p0_eO0Kf9tNlEvLdV3JPEzHcF6SRakG8g-Jq1sK24c_zSK8Wtkm71YD9zim_-topMx-Jl-pmrkCNhhA0GpPmzAXqihBsQwz9InlmNWHBstfzCZ_2uhXA0EbntYvu88IX5C4ybGzYeaMVz4tDVIemi2SbHjB6aIF0QG4ADkHMnQ/s1138/2023-10-14%20Frog%20toadstool.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1138" data-original-width="800" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEha-X1I08D8bucjNRsT_p0_eO0Kf9tNlEvLdV3JPEzHcF6SRakG8g-Jq1sK24c_zSK8Wtkm71YD9zim_-topMx-Jl-pmrkCNhhA0GpPmzAXqihBsQwz9InlmNWHBstfzCZ_2uhXA0EbntYvu88IX5C4ybGzYeaMVz4tDVIemi2SbHjB6aIF0QG4ADkHMnQ/s320/2023-10-14%20Frog%20toadstool.jpeg" width="225" /></a></div><p style="text-align: center;"></p><p style="text-align: center;">Watercolour drawing of a frog. That's a bowl of nachos in his hand, if you can't tell.<br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2WmtjWb_cH87Ur4dcHdMZNHU_yid8cB8-yq5p63ZmYxk6bqWudvd9iLJsZBTWGTZHBugeqoolBSJKgTAc8a_7gB3HOk-ZdD1nJv6PIhb76vMzxmeZD6oaWOOpe6txPbIOrqvi3Q3SzLdeqRHbBIXS23HvF1n6qr8wQ1Ijoeo5TgisvnbnD_-ZbYeinWA/s800/2023-10-15%20Reiwa%20Tanuki%20Gassen%20Ponpoko.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="574" data-original-width="800" height="230" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2WmtjWb_cH87Ur4dcHdMZNHU_yid8cB8-yq5p63ZmYxk6bqWudvd9iLJsZBTWGTZHBugeqoolBSJKgTAc8a_7gB3HOk-ZdD1nJv6PIhb76vMzxmeZD6oaWOOpe6txPbIOrqvi3Q3SzLdeqRHbBIXS23HvF1n6qr8wQ1Ijoeo5TgisvnbnD_-ZbYeinWA/s320/2023-10-15%20Reiwa%20Tanuki%20Gassen%20Ponpoko.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><p style="text-align: center;"></p><p style="text-align: center;">Watercolour tanuki, inspired by Studio Ghibli's <i>Heisei Tanuki Gassen Ponpoko</i>. This is, of course, the 'Reiwa' version.<br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2MgNk5UpIoH5NJbibH0fE9BF114PGtJUxF_tiqTgVmjaW0-gjQtbGnzmRAmkH3KazR6nvm7ZvqU5YERCH2oW_IRKeMvdloGxeRwpEH74Tjo0OiEekqJaxgiceOJHZ58YLltBoCgbrnJWO_gOOdxPR_SlX2zBcZNNu9DU78d8uX2fuRgaoUCf7WxujvYM/s821/2023-11-14%20Tintin%20and%20Juliet%20II.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="821" data-original-width="800" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2MgNk5UpIoH5NJbibH0fE9BF114PGtJUxF_tiqTgVmjaW0-gjQtbGnzmRAmkH3KazR6nvm7ZvqU5YERCH2oW_IRKeMvdloGxeRwpEH74Tjo0OiEekqJaxgiceOJHZ58YLltBoCgbrnJWO_gOOdxPR_SlX2zBcZNNu9DU78d8uX2fuRgaoUCf7WxujvYM/s320/2023-11-14%20Tintin%20and%20Juliet%20II.jpg" width="312" /></a></div><p style="text-align: center;"></p><p style="text-align: center;">Tintin and Juliet Prime investigate the 'poison of madness'. This year was 40 years since the death of Hergé.<br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghHC3MiVTRYZStR7W4xxttHXtQc7mDWLVWObg8rd8JsOO32TDvN5djnOpZ0q-hi9yKbbTqRPvxNo-rjqJqxl0lJNSdokojee4QLj2wPRuSUxstoWVylESU6VXO5aN4reVmeY3WjTiIxwGkbgxFZ-YqpZo94rS2YwMmpYr7PAA90SJuFIeMCdIeKVWQMMk/s1003/2023-12-24%20Rockwell%20parody.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1003" data-original-width="800" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghHC3MiVTRYZStR7W4xxttHXtQc7mDWLVWObg8rd8JsOO32TDvN5djnOpZ0q-hi9yKbbTqRPvxNo-rjqJqxl0lJNSdokojee4QLj2wPRuSUxstoWVylESU6VXO5aN4reVmeY3WjTiIxwGkbgxFZ-YqpZo94rS2YwMmpYr7PAA90SJuFIeMCdIeKVWQMMk/s320/2023-12-24%20Rockwell%20parody.jpg" width="255" /></a></div><p style="text-align: center;"></p><p style="text-align: center;">Spike and Violet in a Norman Rockwell parody.<br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_O6ZoletKP2JvA6nqLnonyn_39nY2wL2_BvSqxaCLWfyjIVJHiuwsYi4DxRrq6jE_o2c8HtV4YcTKUdqYyco34-kwY5_6xWKAvzu6LwDAbKxUKz4_PFYyKA8uPHUzAQemwLCJpASx_Fhr_sYtxRtgbuIfmNpqUQnl7a48FhGkFVq76Ai2fMGuRAzhk9k/s800/2023-12-25%20Carolling.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="800" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_O6ZoletKP2JvA6nqLnonyn_39nY2wL2_BvSqxaCLWfyjIVJHiuwsYi4DxRrq6jE_o2c8HtV4YcTKUdqYyco34-kwY5_6xWKAvzu6LwDAbKxUKz4_PFYyKA8uPHUzAQemwLCJpASx_Fhr_sYtxRtgbuIfmNpqUQnl7a48FhGkFVq76Ai2fMGuRAzhk9k/s320/2023-12-25%20Carolling.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p style="text-align: center;">Juliet and friends going carolling. I was going to write some lyrics above Seymour's head, but I couldn't be bothered. Now, get lost!<br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5978455438740071407.post-69115712884047376012023-09-02T21:47:00.003+10:002023-09-02T21:56:56.820+10:00My top ten favourite album covers<p>Everyone else seems to be doing this at the moment (on Facebook mostly), so here I am to chip in with my 2 guilders' worth. In this boneheaded era of music streaming, album cover art probably seems fairly inconsequential or extraneous. But rest assured, there was a time when it was an all-powerful tool of music marketing (see the satirical cover of XTC's album <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Go_2" target="_blank">Go 2</a></i> for further details on this), and not just a nicely-posed photo of the artist to make the record look good in-store. </p><p>As such, there are certain album covers whose imagery stays with you, and cements itself with the musical content of the album in your mind, so that visual and audio become one. Much like that famous cover photo of four drugged-out hippie twits crossing a road in London, it is the first thing your brain provides to you when the album title or any of its songs are mentioned. <br /></p><p>Here are ten such album covers that stand out for me. They were all released between 1988 and 1994. (Draw your own conclusions. If that conclusion is "No decent album covers were made after 1994", well, I won't argue with you).<br /><br /></p><p><b><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Number 10</span><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><i>Throwing Copper</i></span><br /><span style="font-size: medium;">LIVE</span><br />1994</span></b></p><p><b><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0GDr4Eb86VIUqCLAXRyhjnEtrj0zagIHCnV0A7kHc-rvOFi-OtSEjHMD2x9qzE855uP_iZNw0TNdAJ77mb2HIgG74DDmqsCuaEoh85lResvuMy2WMy0Jk6Dlolixdu0wDfxFs9hgFYA5h32Tu6Ms-EwvXVEP65StxuLgrppxBLg4p8jnGNCkbHWdT2Q8/s342/Livecopper.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="342" data-original-width="342" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0GDr4Eb86VIUqCLAXRyhjnEtrj0zagIHCnV0A7kHc-rvOFi-OtSEjHMD2x9qzE855uP_iZNw0TNdAJ77mb2HIgG74DDmqsCuaEoh85lResvuMy2WMy0Jk6Dlolixdu0wDfxFs9hgFYA5h32Tu6Ms-EwvXVEP65StxuLgrppxBLg4p8jnGNCkbHWdT2Q8/s320/Livecopper.jpg" width="320" /></a></b></div>My enduring memory of this album is listening to it on the bus on the way to uni in my first year, when I didn't have a car. I didn't have the cover art on my taped copy, but I was familiar with it anyway; how it incorporates a gloomy painting titled <i>Sisters Of Mercy</i> by <b>Peter Howson</b>. The painting, depicting four glum 'working girls' walking a proselytizer off a cliff, was auctioned off in 2005 for 186 grand and now is part of some millionaire's trophy cabinet. Whatever. Like many bands who use a painting by a third party as their album cover, I am not sure what prompted the decision to use it, but despite the attire of the figures in it, it seems to evoke a bygone era and oddly seems to fit with the anthemic and powerful rock sounds and mystical lyrics as well. The significance of the album title eludes me though, as that phrase does not appear in the lyrics of any song.<br /><p></p><p><b><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Number 9</span><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><i>Hot Dogma</i></span><br /><span style="font-size: medium;">TISM</span><br />1990</span></b></p><p><b><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiC12s--yvm6pVuuUDrmNQbm1j8C_n-ycMkv9tBZdFslEskW_GPQ2CsMsjeebfgMQyhD6I3gnwislWFlDCQL47FktIwLFxeDwEl86inHd_A8hOrRfg4eN9nzV-l9ktnkZWdbR26e5oVVuAs0LtmNUMsxar-3lUlhCeyLmX-j8t-OUuD-hIMVMFDlJgTSEM/s360/hot_dogma.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="360" data-original-width="360" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiC12s--yvm6pVuuUDrmNQbm1j8C_n-ycMkv9tBZdFslEskW_GPQ2CsMsjeebfgMQyhD6I3gnwislWFlDCQL47FktIwLFxeDwEl86inHd_A8hOrRfg4eN9nzV-l9ktnkZWdbR26e5oVVuAs0LtmNUMsxar-3lUlhCeyLmX-j8t-OUuD-hIMVMFDlJgTSEM/s320/hot_dogma.jpg" width="320" /></a></b></div>For their second album, This Is Serious Mum commissioned an illustration of Chinese Red Guards in propaganda poster style. All the song titles on the back are written in Chinese, right to left of course, and the Chinese text on the cover translates as "The unification of the proletariat under the banner of TISM". You'd think TISM wouldn't list the proper titles in English at all anywhere on the package — like they did later with the <i>Machiavelli And The Four Seasons</i> album — but they do actually give you the titles here. There is <b>no credited artist</b> for the album cover, but knowing TISM, the artist's name probably is there and listed under something else. You never know with these guys. The liner notes are credited to 'E.J. Whitten', after all. I like the overall treatment here — much like the way the Butthole Surfers' album <i>Hairway To Steven</i> used weird cartoons to represent each song instead of actual song titles.<p></p><p><b><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Number 8</span><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><i>Nonsvch</i></span><br /><span style="font-size: medium;">XTC</span><br />1992</span></b></p><p><b><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEis7KhQcmWWB-0j4FlRYSg0WbfyRBwxTjbEyT27JYqH0mKXw87MrTT-NglXEQFtJeNU5CdfrPpxApZV46Lz4NDepN7SYW5G5o_ma-IN11Oft__4a-okjhFH8M_D1SsM1rDFicDY7YBAHMSGJrlJ3g9kpaxoL8BUkUMVaBtwYO9rVuHXXndpGUOeUUllH4Y/s500/nonsuch.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="500" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEis7KhQcmWWB-0j4FlRYSg0WbfyRBwxTjbEyT27JYqH0mKXw87MrTT-NglXEQFtJeNU5CdfrPpxApZV46Lz4NDepN7SYW5G5o_ma-IN11Oft__4a-okjhFH8M_D1SsM1rDFicDY7YBAHMSGJrlJ3g9kpaxoL8BUkUMVaBtwYO9rVuHXXndpGUOeUUllH4Y/s320/nonsuch.jpg" width="320" /></a></b></div><p>Andy Partridge selected the title for his band's 12th album after seeing a drawing of the former Nonsuch Palace in Surrey, which was drawn in 1610 by cartographer <b>John Speed</b> (see the full map <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Speed%27s_Map_of_Surrey_1610_colour_full.jpg" target="_blank">here</a> – look in the top right corner). "(Non[e]such) is a very beautiful word," Partridge said. "It was the most marvellous castle ever, covered with
gold, sculptures and paints.
It was built by that tyrant, Henry VIII, who razed a village for it." John Speed's drawing — the title 'Nonsvch' in his own lettering is retained on the cover — is complemented nicely by the medieval-style lettering on the back cover, where each song on the album has its own illustration, chapbook-style. The whole visual design evokes 17th century art and typography: too bad it has been consistently ruined by mediocre reissues. It deserves much better.</p><p> </p><p><b><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Number 7</span><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><i>Zooropa</i></span><br /><span style="font-size: medium;">U2</span><br />1993</span></b></p><p><b><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3PmWJ7I85XWg2LhjjSD3dfkQyjc5GSXmgifM-ajN7MzOqkDhxgogjPfVylU49XERbYSPskI-bfVR34bYyxLsv-NeFLhzMqSuCyY-jHwj59_bfTEBnF1nOLuGUW3CxpBX1beUCmiZcPQUcDkhmRcTbsSSXeXUtshubeGhi_kmSpncYzGthE7VvG1RUxhw/s450/zooropa.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="440" data-original-width="450" height="313" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3PmWJ7I85XWg2LhjjSD3dfkQyjc5GSXmgifM-ajN7MzOqkDhxgogjPfVylU49XERbYSPskI-bfVR34bYyxLsv-NeFLhzMqSuCyY-jHwj59_bfTEBnF1nOLuGUW3CxpBX1beUCmiZcPQUcDkhmRcTbsSSXeXUtshubeGhi_kmSpncYzGthE7VvG1RUxhw/s320/zooropa.jpg" width="320" /></a></b></div>I don't know what to say about this cover for U2's 8th album. But just look at it! You can tell it was made at the time when rad computer graphics were becoming more prevalent (and hitting critical mass in 1995-96). The disjointed, experimental pop muzak on the record needed a similarly tech-heavy visual treatment (done by <b>Brian Williams</b>). So here we have nine images in a 3x3 grid of TV images, including one of Lenin and one of Mussolini, overlaid with distorted purple text, showing the partial song titles "Wake Up Dead Man", "Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me", and "If You Wear That Velvet Dress", all ultimately withheld from <i>Zooropa</i>. On top of all that are twelve digitally drawn yellow stars from the European flag, with an 'astro-baby' in the centre. The whole thing was meant to depict a Soviet cosmonaut floating in orbit after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Did 15 year old me think of any of this when I bought the album? Nah. Although I do remember thinking "Hey, the CD tray is see-through" (they had always been black up until that point. Also, the CD booklet is notoriously difficult to slide into the jewel case, such is the volume of oversaturated images it contains.<br /><p></p><p><b><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Number 6</span><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><i>Apollo 18</i></span><br /><span style="font-size: medium;">THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS</span><br />1992</span></b></p><p><b><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeX98TGzkkiicw6fxmhWwkOoHEx6fk__uUjXGB0m8otmnvR8DEdxPP-4JrCWBTGdf2vkl1FyiU8ZDtvd2n6sxflJGKjZ868ROH-dHLR9tU5roD_-t0WIlgs6HBoP64H6uye4Jbh84HFf_rB1SAu9wmP8r3aTmmGzSmFmMMQ5p2F3xsYW3EMy8YvqKyFBc/s800/Apollo18.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="800" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeX98TGzkkiicw6fxmhWwkOoHEx6fk__uUjXGB0m8otmnvR8DEdxPP-4JrCWBTGdf2vkl1FyiU8ZDtvd2n6sxflJGKjZ868ROH-dHLR9tU5roD_-t0WIlgs6HBoP64H6uye4Jbh84HFf_rB1SAu9wmP8r3aTmmGzSmFmMMQ5p2F3xsYW3EMy8YvqKyFBc/s320/Apollo18.png" width="320" /></a></b></div><p>The provenance of this cover art was until recently a mystery to me. As a graphic design student I once wrote an analysis of this image, and was unable to cite the credited artist as anything other than <b>Rolf Conant</b>, which is a pseudonym for band member John Flansburgh. As you may have worked out from the album title, <i>Apollo 18</i> has several songs with a space theme, and as it turns out, while the band were searching the NASA archives for graphics, they were selected by NASA as Musical Ambassadors for International Space Year. Flansburgh didn't paint the sperm whale and squid himself though. He nicked it from an issue of <i>Fate</i>, a pulp magazine dedicated to the paranormal, from August 1958.</p><p><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0nbIKqDi4PFZhtPIriG5TL3GYQjUt5bfONERHWk8KzPYtXovhHyN5VE5V6zKSsXr88X7OkKyC0RdvAPX070xsGFOxQri9ze0hXECoe0vsS5FHyipKr1iTSjFjQFYO-kxkTxH4PEb0Na3S-_FqHe8joK6jl00Bq9_-IfYTxfgGm9ktYGr_uLxRWt6Los4/s1024/Fate_Magazine_August_1958.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="767" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0nbIKqDi4PFZhtPIriG5TL3GYQjUt5bfONERHWk8KzPYtXovhHyN5VE5V6zKSsXr88X7OkKyC0RdvAPX070xsGFOxQri9ze0hXECoe0vsS5FHyipKr1iTSjFjQFYO-kxkTxH4PEb0Na3S-_FqHe8joK6jl00Bq9_-IfYTxfgGm9ktYGr_uLxRWt6Los4/s320/Fate_Magazine_August_1958.jpg" width="240" /></a></b></p><p></p><p><b><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Number 5</span><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><i>Pump</i></span><br /><span style="font-size: medium;">AEROSMITH</span><br />1989</span></b></p><p><b><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3YhZIMv7JA5_W3HIsECiMDcms7zlgMzkhCiVotMhPndQPn-PbmPzBLdt2HsX-E6C9kpJwd2xrSzafjUEUSjnMmRZfUDAYJWRfhoape6vE05b4K-ZO7AdbKJj0tvJrLT-CclKkElMpSMqaToQQZxkCJ4K_PFcJBzx-ksICV6o8YprRKe0AiqMXE0El7bE/s455/pump.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="455" data-original-width="455" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3YhZIMv7JA5_W3HIsECiMDcms7zlgMzkhCiVotMhPndQPn-PbmPzBLdt2HsX-E6C9kpJwd2xrSzafjUEUSjnMmRZfUDAYJWRfhoape6vE05b4K-ZO7AdbKJj0tvJrLT-CclKkElMpSMqaToQQZxkCJ4K_PFcJBzx-ksICV6o8YprRKe0AiqMXE0El7bE/s320/pump.jpg" width="320" /></a></b></div>This was the first album I owned. I received it on cassette for my 12th birthday. Ten tracks of headbangin' late '80s hard rock as served up by Boston's most enduring hell-raisers. So what's with this cover photo (by that famous artist, <b>American Stock Photography</b>) of an old International Harvester truck, with a smaller identical truck rear-mounting it? Is this some bizarre sexual reference? How did they happen on a stock photo in that 'pose'? And if you look closely you can see "F.I.N.E.", the title of one of the songs, on the side of both trucks in chrome. And then the album is called <i>Pump</i>. What's that all about? I can only assume that someone in the band thought it would be funny. As a result, the entire album feels like it is soaked in petrol.<p></p><p><br /></p><p><b><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Number 4</span><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><i>Parklife</i></span><br /><span style="font-size: medium;">BLUR</span><br />1994</span></b></p><p><b><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiitEuBsZLQn3u6PjA1ixkb2PSIZuRx5821lyxD06GvJomE61ifKX0t-NQtpjHdu2ypwKvC-xCReeD3BJiReh9o8tEbQ5U20HVBvyR1RvMH3CXIMsBWKOp_JAUbJC1GOltLEfE047KFRkxn8-rEdG8M0AG7kiAL6ZxtxvhwN7iI6Jy_mwT-h4oFvh7AL74/s1403/parklife.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1400" data-original-width="1403" height="319" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiitEuBsZLQn3u6PjA1ixkb2PSIZuRx5821lyxD06GvJomE61ifKX0t-NQtpjHdu2ypwKvC-xCReeD3BJiReh9o8tEbQ5U20HVBvyR1RvMH3CXIMsBWKOp_JAUbJC1GOltLEfE047KFRkxn8-rEdG8M0AG7kiAL6ZxtxvhwN7iI6Jy_mwT-h4oFvh7AL74/s320/parklife.jpg" width="320" /></a></b></div><b></b><p></p><p>The archetypal Britpop album detailing, as frontman Damon Albarn put it "The travels of the mystical lager-eater", needed a similarly typically British image as its cover. Food Records boss David Balfe thought that image should be a fruit and vegetable cart, with the album title <i>London</i>. 'Cause art can only get better when the suits get involved, right? The enduring shot of two greyhounds racing (the uncropped photo in the CD booklet shows a third dog, out of focus and cropped out) was the one chosen to embody the lager-and-betting shop lifestyle, taken by sports photographer <b>Bob Thomas</b> (who couldn't believe a band wanted it for an album cover) in 1988. One glance at those greyhounds and you know which album you're dealing with. "Southern England personified", as Oasis' Noel Gallagher put it, and that's right on the money.<br /></p><p><b><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Number 3</span><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><i>Nevermind</i></span><br /><span style="font-size: medium;">NIRVANA</span><br />1991</span></b></p><p><b><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhn39fIMVlgV1bKPxPS2yvccBQ8CFyG2lxf9vxZX__UKkHcWsOw0cRUGUh1f6CiAYnwJAlxgzJs_hI-pEgyTJycQ0DY0K2_10FvOFImGHNB6cLzMQDcIvjz8g-qiRj2Zr3d42s442PGAbTXvqYso5C9HN-3sQsjU6BbdHpQZ98dDGFrq3W1SEfUkpa94Tw/s500/nevermind.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="500" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhn39fIMVlgV1bKPxPS2yvccBQ8CFyG2lxf9vxZX__UKkHcWsOw0cRUGUh1f6CiAYnwJAlxgzJs_hI-pEgyTJycQ0DY0K2_10FvOFImGHNB6cLzMQDcIvjz8g-qiRj2Zr3d42s442PGAbTXvqYso5C9HN-3sQsjU6BbdHpQZ98dDGFrq3W1SEfUkpa94Tw/s320/nevermind.jpg" width="320" /></a></b></div>This must be a mistake, right? My favourite album of all time, the most iconic album cover of the 1990s, was not number 1 in this list? Well, yes actually. The story of how this cover image came to be is well documented. Kurt Cobain wanted an image that would represent his naive young indie band making their major-label debut and chasing the big bucks that record deal would entail. Except that's a lie, and what really happened is when Kurt shared an apartment with drummer Dave Grohl, they were sitting up one night watching a documentary about underwater births and they thought it would make, as Kurt put it, "a really neat image". He had by then scrapped his idea of calling the album <i>Sheep</i> and decided to use the baby photo as the album cover, adding the fish hook and dollar bill. A stock photo sourced by the label proved too expensive to use, so photographer <b>Kirk Weddle</b> took the photo at a kids' swimming pool. There is a snippet of footage in the video for "Come As You Are" that replicates the cover image, and that song's opening guitar riff echoes the watery theme of the cover art.<br /><p></p><p><b><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Number 2</span><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><i>Lincoln</i></span><br /><span style="font-size: medium;">THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS</span><br />1988</span></b></p><p><b><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzh-_IdK14MFtTGOse2iyWLsjqo7vw9B4jkuc5CzAbAOXBjpj9r6CSoBPt7Wjl4VAQyhY4gC3-boP1ey9UIx4HNgQDkyrevvdDSRivL1bkD9elDYNSGwkkmbH9rFjbjYE5S2Eb47moYYok5UkEh2oUaSXkvKtchab4XdwrWEVLNZMNHS3LDLfv75oI7uw/s800/Lincoln.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="800" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzh-_IdK14MFtTGOse2iyWLsjqo7vw9B4jkuc5CzAbAOXBjpj9r6CSoBPt7Wjl4VAQyhY4gC3-boP1ey9UIx4HNgQDkyrevvdDSRivL1bkD9elDYNSGwkkmbH9rFjbjYE5S2Eb47moYYok5UkEh2oUaSXkvKtchab4XdwrWEVLNZMNHS3LDLfv75oI7uw/s320/Lincoln.png" width="320" /></a></b></div>The cover of the band's second album, named after John Linnell and John Flansburgh's hometown in Massachusetts (<i>Lincoln Calling</i> was the original title), depicts a secular whimsical shrine built by <b>Brian Dewan</b>. He wanted to have Flansburgh and Linnell themselves in the framed portraits behind the podiums, but according to Flansburgh, "The general on the right side of the cover is my grandfather, and the
man with the beard is John Linnell's great-grandfather. We felt funny putting our faces on it, so instead we put the faces of
our ancestors on it. It's got this churchlike quality
to it, so there's something reverent about it, and then something very
twisted about it." <br />Twisted indeed. The closer you look, the more questions you have. What are the clocks for? Why do they have thirteen hour markers on them? Why are the mics wired up? Is there going to be a press conference? Why is there no band name or album title on the cover? What is this thing just sitting in a field? Good art always provokes more questions than it answers.<br /><p></p><p><b><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Number 1</span><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><i>The Real Thing</i></span><br /><span style="font-size: medium;">FAITH NO MORE</span><br />1989</span></b></p><p><b><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEsbfU1X0scQxt2z1V8vw_FcbUKhaN0xvB77oL6rw4hiPNIggJJVnZxCJK3SCaiOKr02_bRJKImu4X9Y76GcHm-yvJVlCgmChPTGaFshEyhrkhHpLuauyu3atdruLS3EDJ8B5CsFJYtByu_awNPTkkfiufsbMIKbAGZ1knRkro-ZFIzw0xzGxsfRWLZ_o/s500/the_real_thing.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="500" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEsbfU1X0scQxt2z1V8vw_FcbUKhaN0xvB77oL6rw4hiPNIggJJVnZxCJK3SCaiOKr02_bRJKImu4X9Y76GcHm-yvJVlCgmChPTGaFshEyhrkhHpLuauyu3atdruLS3EDJ8B5CsFJYtByu_awNPTkkfiufsbMIKbAGZ1knRkro-ZFIzw0xzGxsfRWLZ_o/s320/the_real_thing.jpg" width="320" /></a></b></div>You might be looking at this thinking: really? This is his top choice? Well, let me explain. This was one of the very first albums I owned (third actually, after <i>Pump</i> and Technotronic's <i>Pump Up The Jam</i>). I still have the cassette. I know every song, every lyric, every funk-metal riff, every drum thrash, every wailing vocal on here, and all of it, every single bit of it, I associate with this image — which I can only describe as an upside-down shot of a cracked riverbed and a blood red sky, sun emerging from the clouds and three flames inside a splashing droplet of milk. As to what it symbolizes, you'll have to work that out yourself. I can't help you there. <p></p><p>There is <b>no credited artist</b> on this album cover because it was designed by someone at Slash Records and assigned to the album without the band's creative input. It does however feature Harold Edgerton's famous milk droplet photo from 1937, titled 'Milk Drop Coronet'. <br /></p><p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5978455438740071407.post-66437598085779954432023-05-15T20:44:00.002+10:002023-05-15T20:57:27.161+10:00Eurovision 2023 Wrap-up<p>The 67th Eurovision Song Contest has wrapped up and as usual, left us with memories of new artists, new songs, and the obligatory controversies. And as always, my annual stats map. Take a look. Go on, click on it why don't ya.<br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOanIdDtMJiWROV1-t5u6oHA0g7A6RB_e35GbVVVeOTg51esupqhPcIhdWsV8yh1u06hljJqtaOO6CywBMuK-11YQQ45nW_hSQir_1OQDRQ2YlAIiwLHvPGV45bZHA1JtKTIWtUvmb0XQi_XaaB2sIZTfbyY63mH_MgwYHPbuV9zHiw7Gw0r68B2Vs/s1855/ESC2023%20copy.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">s<img border="0" data-original-height="1546" data-original-width="1855" height="267" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOanIdDtMJiWROV1-t5u6oHA0g7A6RB_e35GbVVVeOTg51esupqhPcIhdWsV8yh1u06hljJqtaOO6CywBMuK-11YQQ45nW_hSQir_1OQDRQ2YlAIiwLHvPGV45bZHA1JtKTIWtUvmb0XQi_XaaB2sIZTfbyY63mH_MgwYHPbuV9zHiw7Gw0r68B2Vs/s320/ESC2023%20copy.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p>Some items of note for the show as a whole:</p><p>Sweden was the runaway winner, right from the start of the announcement of the jury votes.</p><p>Because of the war, 2022 winners Ukraine were unable to host the contest this year, so the United Kingdom, who were runners-up, stepped in. Hosting duties were given to the city of Liverpool. Ah yes, home of that foursome who hit number one with their first three singles. Remember them? Those guys who were managed by Brian Epstein? What were those guys called again? It'll come to me...</p><p>The last time the previous year's winner did not host the contest was in 1980.</p><p>No-shows: Russia and Belarus are still banned. Bulgaria, Montenegro and North Macedonia are still out due to lack of finances. </p><p>But guess what — Luxembourg, former Eurovision powerhouse, will be back next year! Their last appearance was in 1993, and they were relegated the following year and haven't showed up since. They've notched up 5 wins from 37 appearances, and they gave us Baccara, Vicky Leandros, France Gall, Plastic Bertrand and Nana Mouskouri for God's sake — they deserve to be back! (Okay, so none of those five were actually from Luxembourg, but my point still stands.)<br /></p><p>No country improved on their previous best showing, but this was Sweden's 7th win which means they tie with Ireland's record for most Eurovision wins. </p><p>Australia came 9th with Perth band Voyager, who were really good! They placed 6th at the end of the jury vote points tally (earning two 12-points) and didn't do well in the televote. It turned out that they won semifinal 2, although the semifinal scores are never announced during the show.<br /></p><p>For the first time, the Czech Republic competed under the name Czechia, so I have adjusted my map accordingly. </p><p>Every year there's a bonkers entry that appears to make no sense (even if you come from that country). Performance punks Let 3 from Croatia filled that spot nicely this year, with their song containing veiled allusions to the "vile psychopaths" that are the presidents of Russia and Belarus. Overt politics are banned at Eurovision (except in the voting, of course).<br /></p><p>So great to see Iceland's <span aria-level="1" class="yKMVIe" role="heading">Daði Freyr performing a cover of "Whole Again" during the interval of the final, as part of the 'Liverpool Songbook'. He finally got to appear on a Eurovision stage (2020, cancelled; 2021, one of his group had COVID and performed via video link).</span></p><p><span aria-level="1" class="yKMVIe" role="heading">Also great was seeing Catherine Tate read out the UK's jury vote results. She was absolutely sloshed, mind you. I was hoping she would say "Am I bovvered", but she instead said "<i>Allons y</i>", which is some Doctor Who thing. Who cares. </span></p><p><span aria-level="1" class="yKMVIe" role="heading">The best jury vote announcer, probably the best one of all time, was Einar Stefánsson from Iceland announcing his country's 12-point recipient. He didn't thank the hosts, or the host city, or go on about how everyone was brought together as one under the banner of music. No. Dressed in a black BDSM costume he slowly took off his mask to reveal another one, took that off to reveal another one, and just said one word in a robotic monotone: "Au-stra-li-a".</span></p><p><span aria-level="1" class="yKMVIe" role="heading">Host Graham Norton called him "the slowest stripper ever". I'm surprised they let that guy back on the air after the Palestinian flag incident at the 2019 contest, but I'm glad they did. <br /></span></p><p><span aria-level="1" class="yKMVIe" role="heading">Speaking of the voting, something happened this year that cheered up my shrivelled joyless soul. Nearly every single miserable year, and this is the 26th Eurovision I have watched, Cyprus' jury gives its 12 points to Greece, and Greece's jury duly gives its max points back to Cyprus. But this year, Greece didn't qualify, so Cyprus had to give their 12 to someone else! And Greece only gave 4 points to Cyprus. I know, right? The crowd was as stunned as I was. Flippin' bally 'eck lad.</span> </p><p>If anyone saw a member of the Ukrainian entry, Tvorchi, in the green room holding up a sign reading 'Ternopil" and wondering what that was all about:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8JSpGwPfUbZDEYv9VQHK7koaRGFpzECBZC-otT7_ncroi0SGktd0zrjUNux5vo2NtBCSy-x2d9irBsQlrwozFWpdSq0-InBCTNwCJKXhbpLWv9wY0JPWQytPwlZHriy-NPtMn2Oa3tiCPKhNpeUMyoDmjJbgkskB0vxv-pma3kEZz219tVpnnW960/s1526/Screenshot%202023-05-15%20at%205.05.47%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1074" data-original-width="1526" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8JSpGwPfUbZDEYv9VQHK7koaRGFpzECBZC-otT7_ncroi0SGktd0zrjUNux5vo2NtBCSy-x2d9irBsQlrwozFWpdSq0-InBCTNwCJKXhbpLWv9wY0JPWQytPwlZHriy-NPtMn2Oa3tiCPKhNpeUMyoDmjJbgkskB0vxv-pma3kEZz219tVpnnW960/s320/Screenshot%202023-05-15%20at%205.05.47%20PM.png" width="320" /></a></div><p>— this was in reference to the fact that Tvorchi's hometown of Ternopil was fired upon by Russian missiles during the show. Apparently they only found this out ten minutes before they went on stage. Ternopil is nowhere near the frontline, in fact it is not far from the border with Poland, so this was a targeted attack.</p><p>The various post-show threads on Reddit's Eurovision board certainly had a high sodium content. LOTS of people are enraged at Loreen winning again for Sweden (she also won it in 2012), this time with a song called "Tattoo". Personally I was ambivalent to the winning song, it was just your typical bland Nordic pop track with lyrics about nothing in particular. It didn't really excite me. She can really belt out the high notes for sure, but it was no "Euphoria".</p><p>The theories started thick and fast. People were suggesting the results were rigged so that Sweden would win and thus get to host next year, which is the 50th anniversary of ABBA winning with "Waterloo". Until Graham Norton mentioned this anniversary right at the end, I hadn't even thought about it. The fans wanted Finland, who eventually came in second, to win. Even during the vote announcements people were screaming Käärijä's name, and his song title, "Cha Cha Cha". This made the presenters uncomfortable.<br /></p><p>Every second person was calling for the jury vote to be abolished. Loreen collected a ton of 12s in the jury votes, but not one in the televotes. </p><p>The so-called 'evidence' of Sweden's win being rigged was that Loreen was the only artist in the green room to keep her microphone during the results (anticipating the reprise of the winning song at end of show).<br /></p><p>A lot of fans are of the opinion that previous winners should not be allowed to compete (only one other person, Ireland's Johnny Logan, has won Eurovision twice. Three times if you count songwriter of another winning song). Someone said words to the effect of "I just think it's rude to participate in a competition you have already won before." A counter-argument to this was "Eurovision is not a charity event, or a platform to 'give someone else a chance'." So, what say you? Heaven, Hell, or I dunno, Heck?</p><p>As for me, I won't be getting on the Sweden hate train. I'll be back next year, doing what I've done for years, and that is checking out some cool new European bands and singers that Eurovision exposed me to. See ya!</p><p>***</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>...ah yes, now I remember who that band was. Gerry and the Pacemakers!<br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5978455438740071407.post-3734684442276556022022-07-07T18:11:00.002+10:002022-07-07T18:11:26.902+10:00Compilation Album Review: "Can't Beat The Music Volume 3"<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhq1AwFEd_l4efU2WzwqNT2e-7pd5BaiZCjXMsScTcY8-HbY75n5oxP2-5M-UoisN9u8uqyQgxJl3hFIHZdEt-G-4SaldDBwnAbRYYw34v0U--jiNov0mnbuy3BZRj2QLBTBR5O7fd_0oOswQMSiGXMtIwnTpO4QY4vBxlCxuYHHsJGq9vIpxi1etXG/s1200/IMG_3958.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="973" data-original-width="1200" height="259" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhq1AwFEd_l4efU2WzwqNT2e-7pd5BaiZCjXMsScTcY8-HbY75n5oxP2-5M-UoisN9u8uqyQgxJl3hFIHZdEt-G-4SaldDBwnAbRYYw34v0U--jiNov0mnbuy3BZRj2QLBTBR5O7fd_0oOswQMSiGXMtIwnTpO4QY4vBxlCxuYHHsJGq9vIpxi1etXG/s320/IMG_3958.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><b><br />Compilation:</b> <i>Can't Beat The Music Volume 3</i><br />
<b>Released:</b> 1992 – BMG<br />
<b>Number of tracks:</b> 18<br />
<b>Number one singles:</b> 1 – "Jump" by Kris Kross<b><br />Top ten singles:</b> 4<br />
<b>Best track:</b> "Rhythm Is A Dancer" by Snap<br />
<b>Hidden gem:</b> "Gonna Get High" by The Dukes<br /><p></p><p>It's been a while since I did one of these, isn't it? Seven months, to be precise. It's taken until July 6, but I finally got my first retro compilation CD for 2022, unearthed in the Bairnsdale Emporium in Victoria's Gippsland region, which you really should visit if you haven't already.</p><p>It's the third and final volume of the <i>Can't Beat the Music</i> series from 1992, and it's taken me nearly five years to the day to get all three. I got <i>Volume 2</i> in July 2017 and <i>Volume 1</i> in December 2020. So the trilogy is complete – let me fill in the stats section above and let it spin. Hmmm, the tracklisting ain't exactly setting the charts on fire, is it? After all chart music is why we're here. Maybe that was why there was no 4th volume of this. Anyway, no need to be poncy about it, let's go back in time 30 years to that magical year of 1992, when pop stars actually had personalities and IQs above negative 10. Join me, won't you?</p><p>This collection of tracks kicks off with "Please Don't Go" by K.W.S., which I learned from listening to Take 40 Australia (Saturday nights, 6:30pm, 6PM-FM Western Australia) was a cover of some hokey song from the '70s. In attempting to update it for the '90s they have managed to make it sound even more hokey with their stupid ad-libs. It comes off as sounding like a demo rather than the finished studio version of a song. The buying public sent it to number 2, so go figure.</p><p>"Take A Chance On Me" by Erasure is an ABBA cover. Personally I think the world would be better off without ABBA covers, but these guys saw fit to record an EP full of them. It got them their first and only number 1 in their native UK, so what do I know. I've heard Erasure's <i>ABBA-esque</i> EP cited as responsible for the ABBA revival in 1992 (there was a re-release of "Dancing Queen" charting around this time), but I can't say I'm on board with this theory. Actually, not too many people know this, but in Australia if you don't like ABBA you get deported to Stockholm for mental reprogramming, a process that usually takes ten years. Re-admittance is only granted on a successful performance of "Mamma Mia", complete with dorky actions.<br /></p><p>Speaking of UK acts that got their first and only number 1, it's those inane bozos Right Said Fred with "Deeply Dippy". As Todd In The Shadows pointed out, which I wasn't aware of, it wasn't "I'm Too Sexy" that got them a number 1, it was this. The song everyone knows them for didn't get to number 1 in the UK, but this one did. In Australia it was different, where "I'm Too Sexy" got to number 1 but "Deeply Dippy" only managed number 38. Music arrangement-wise, it's a much better song. Gone are the tinny dance beats and amateurish recording – not that I can talk (I remember reading in <i>Smash Hits</i> that "I'm Too Sexy" was recorded in a gym...is this true?) – we can actually hear real instruments being played here. And what does he say right at the end? "I'm takin' a hike to Tahiti?" Is that some bizarre sexual innuendo?<br /></p><p>"Jump" is still a great track, mind. I thought it was strange two kids the same age as me had a charting single!</p><p>"Workaholic" is next, my least favourite single by Eurodance duo 2 Unlimited (that is a very unflattering photo of them on the cover, isn't it?). He rhymes "workaholic" with "alcoholic", which is the only thing worth noting about the lyrics. It only got to number 35 in Australia, and quite rightly – it's too much of a mishmash of styles. "Get Ready For This", their debut and best single, had a clear agenda. It had elements that synced up and no part of it was superfluous. The same cannot be said about "Workaholic". It's all over the place like a lunatic's dung. However, there is one country where this bizarre cacophony got to number 1. If you can guess it right, I'll buy you a beer at the Breakfast Creek. Answer at the end of this post.</p><p>"Rhythm Is A Dancer" is one of the best dance tracks of the '90s! What a 'banger', as the 'youth of today' tend to say. Things are picking up here. Oh and then comes Faith No More with "Midlife Crisis" – written by Mike Patton when he was 24 – a great song, and deserved to get higher than number 31. I've heard this live, and it blew the roof off the joint!<br /></p><p>After that it's the all-female rock band L7 with "Pretend We're Dead"! How edgy. Don't cut yourself on that edge, edgelords. Just kidding, it's actually a good song. Not as good as their track "Shove", but still good. I wrote a parody of it in 1992 called "Pretend We're Pink". No, I can't provide a sample of the lyrics. I used to write heaps of songs but only wrote the lyrics down if I wanted someone else to see them. <br /></p><p>Sadly, after this point the songs get a bit obscure. I hadn't heard of, or heard, most of the remaining ten tracks. There's a song by Girl Overboard, the first song I've heard by them since 1990. They actually rock out a bit on it! Well I never. Sophie B Hawkins and Annie Lennox are in there and it's pretty forgettable. Ditto Rick Price and his off-key warbling. You will get a sugar high from all the saccharine he serves up, and your sleep patterns will be interrupted by intermittent bawling. </p><p>"Gonna Get High" by The Dukes is pretty good, just for this line: <i>"I'm gonna get high once/I'm gonna get high twice/I'm gonna get high thrice"</i>. Yeah, I know, Bruce Springsteen has nothing to worry about. But for CENTURIES now I've been waiting for the word 'thrice' to show up in a pop song, and here it is! Hidden gem for this alone.<br /></p><p><b>Rating:</b> 5/10</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p><i>Answer:</i> Zimbabwe <br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5978455438740071407.post-72745822862818460202022-06-04T16:29:00.003+10:002022-06-08T12:30:12.034+10:00One panel from... Dork<p>Welcome back, action wizards and sexy robots, to my latest look at a single panel from a remarkable body of work. This time, I'm looking at the comics of one Evan Dorkin, from New York.</p><p>Dorkin's comic <i>Dork</i> ran sporadically throughout the 1990s and lasted 11 issues. It was built around what he called 'inventory material': one-off gag strips as well as lengthier stories, and other work done for various comics anthologies and magazines.</p><p>Most of what appeared in the first ten issues of <i>Dork</i> were collected in two volumes, <i>Who's Laughing Now?</i> and <i>Circling The Drain</i>, which I bought from Quality Comics in Perth in 2005, on the strength of the back cover gag of <i>Dork</i> issue #6. They wrapped all their books in plastic, but from what I saw in that one issue, Dorkin's style and sense of humour appealed to me.<br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgA1bkqqOwfkYMr2GLnWxLO1Mk7rgFvwwiGlHHgYbvbwQldQGAhZgrdcEh_MTpiZpL29L3ilRUbhkS7uU7nECZuE6XjHlNpAT6h6CybFAP_pG4IvzEihSVm8eDRk2DdowybgCtaSQza2st3ryAEERuJM-cEN_6PXXYoBiYZTUA7ac8KzL_IcNUAAEuK/s3264/IMG_3881.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2448" data-original-width="3264" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgA1bkqqOwfkYMr2GLnWxLO1Mk7rgFvwwiGlHHgYbvbwQldQGAhZgrdcEh_MTpiZpL29L3ilRUbhkS7uU7nECZuE6XjHlNpAT6h6CybFAP_pG4IvzEihSVm8eDRk2DdowybgCtaSQza2st3ryAEERuJM-cEN_6PXXYoBiYZTUA7ac8KzL_IcNUAAEuK/s320/IMG_3881.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br />Because I liked issue #6, it was disappointing that nothing from that issue appears in either of these two volumes. However, I only had to wait a mere sixteen years before I got the bumper <i>Dork </i>compendium seen below. Oddly enough, nothing from issue #6 appears in here either, except its contents page. There are colour reproductions of all the front covers too, except #6. So what gives? Was it omitted for legal reasons or because the publisher didn't like it or what?<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOqED-ZgjtQype8jKu7TJKuyTeCXP9qBZ2SAoZoQlEIIL_KfTc7Oyqt37I0U5U2TFO9EZab6puH9QhN74lb0pYUae9EgGTD3IcTqAyd753wzL0JtG59GGPC3ML0FR8-ccrhXd3RpXPecPGImgst9q9087pGWYczsRog9pBQ7Zh9NLRoBRJhIfTote1/s3264/IMG_3883.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3264" data-original-width="2448" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOqED-ZgjtQype8jKu7TJKuyTeCXP9qBZ2SAoZoQlEIIL_KfTc7Oyqt37I0U5U2TFO9EZab6puH9QhN74lb0pYUae9EgGTD3IcTqAyd753wzL0JtG59GGPC3ML0FR8-ccrhXd3RpXPecPGImgst9q9087pGWYczsRog9pBQ7Zh9NLRoBRJhIfTote1/s320/IMG_3883.JPG" width="240" /></a></div><p></p><p>Anyway, there's just about everything else <i>Dork</i>-related in here apart from <i>Milk And Cheese – Dairy Products Gone Bad</i> and <i>The Eltingville Club</i>, which are collected in other volumes. There's the three-panel comic strip <i>Fun! </i>wherein we meet such characters as Phil the Disco Skinhead, Myron the Living Voodoo Doll (seen on the cover of <i>Who's Laughing Now?</i>) and Seiji Nakimushi, World's Worst Kamikaze Pilot.</p><p>My favourite bits though are <i>The Invisible College of Secret Knowledge</i>, in which a character known as the Devil Puppet (that's him on the cover of <i>Circling the Drain</i>) nestles itself on someone's hand and begins to tell tall tales of how certain historical things came to be, such as the KISS Navy and Wertham's comics code. In one memorable story, he talks about how in 1928 the department store Macy's started releasing the inflatables at the end of their Thanksgiving Day parade, offering cash rewards for their return, the amount determined by the size of the balloon.</p><p>At the parade in 1932, everyone wanted that year's largest balloon, the comic strip character Fritz Katzenjammer. After one man dies falling from the balloon's ropes, scores of balloon-hunters chase the drifting balloon into New Jersey, and then, this happens:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEUodkje7BZ2SwyXDhnTXeU28ic6FgXEf7J0z-a4jlY1JqfWv381kOGzafVaZbsx3S9yI-3oyFBPWGhIRukgqH1PvIAGWiyOZ4ir5TedmT2H-t-nAJ4JzJCk3XL9SS237gjGvE-Wx4eH7bzv8BHqvXCTjlvPV70t6Av_oX-okr_w5ays4_NGhQEQqg/s1978/IMG_3882.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1478" data-original-width="1978" height="299" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEUodkje7BZ2SwyXDhnTXeU28ic6FgXEf7J0z-a4jlY1JqfWv381kOGzafVaZbsx3S9yI-3oyFBPWGhIRukgqH1PvIAGWiyOZ4ir5TedmT2H-t-nAJ4JzJCk3XL9SS237gjGvE-Wx4eH7bzv8BHqvXCTjlvPV70t6Av_oX-okr_w5ays4_NGhQEQqg/w400-h299/IMG_3882.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><p></p><p>There are a few of Evan Dorkin's trademarks on show here: smarmy New York City dialogue, plenty of detail on the characters (some great facial expressions), and jibes at comics fandom (although rather subtle here — chasing one of the Katzenjammer Kids for big bucks seems like a precursor to the nebbishy practice of buying first-issue comics just to make money off them later, eh?).</p><p>So that's that. Oh, and apparently the German word <i>'katzenjammer'</i> (literally, 'cat's misery'), is their word for 'hangover'. So that's another piece of useless trivia for you.<br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5978455438740071407.post-59371688925413995102022-06-02T17:08:00.000+10:002022-06-02T17:08:57.082+10:00China 5's 20th Anniversary!<p>It was 20 years ago today that I started China 5, my alternative/electronica music project. I was living in Japan at the time, and had to find an outlet for all the bleep-pop Fruityloops stuff I was doing on my little Fujitsu Biblo laptop. China 5 was only intended to exist for one album (a soundtrack to a video game that didn't exist), however it lasted ten whole albums (<i>Paradise, Battery, Hypnotist, Republic, Quarantine, Safari, Widdershins, Tigerbear, Confusion</i> and <i>Anarchy</i>) and a few collaborators before I decided to retire it in 2020. Goodbye, we are gone, see you later, see you never...</p><p>Here's a video I made for a song called "Brain" which appears on the final album, <i>Anarchy</i>. It was created back in 2020 using the <a href="https://musiclab.chromeexperiments.com" target="_blank">Chrome Music Lab</a>, a website that lets you experiment with making songs and whatnot. That's where I nicked the graphics from, as you can probably tell. As it turned out, "Brain" was the very last China 5 song to be recorded! It's only 35 seconds long, so as the concluding entry in the canon, it's quite satisfying.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="383" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/7_U3xShk_4E" width="461" youtube-src-id="7_U3xShk_4E"></iframe></div><br /><p>I was about to add that "Brain" is also the last China 5 video too, but that's not quite true – I was working on another video after that, and had most of the footage for it, but never finished editing it. Oh well. If I ever get round to finishing it, you'll see it right here.<br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5978455438740071407.post-57730072693225232502022-05-28T14:46:00.007+10:002022-06-08T12:26:48.133+10:00One panel from... Punk Rock And Trailer Parks<p>Welcome back to "One panel from..." where I examine single panels from comics I hold dear. This time, it's My Favourite Graphic Novel Which Was Not Written By Hergé Or Larry Gonick. I had never heard of this book, or its author, when I found it in an anarchists' bookstore in Seattle in 2011 (where it had been remaindered from the Seattle Public Library). I hadn't intentionally sought out an anarchists' bookstore. They had lots of second hand graphic novels, that's all. I was a tourist and had to rescue some good gimcrack. Look, just never <i>mind</i>, okay?!?</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmcRvHmqQEU-jP7rotSLIreu26ZNXLSAmIDB1H889hvpqwIBnyKGgjZbz2jdFXqoHkl4Lz-Cu4ToZHf7ikjU0bAY_-cUn35MwnlFjvAbSy43WEPVaWcFD0jv2WiRJtW4aoTS7i_00EjGfqzLniUbz-kGDE7UfkOGr1IQOQZdm6EyomCmoseTZMDQp_/s1769/IMG_3862.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1769" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmcRvHmqQEU-jP7rotSLIreu26ZNXLSAmIDB1H889hvpqwIBnyKGgjZbz2jdFXqoHkl4Lz-Cu4ToZHf7ikjU0bAY_-cUn35MwnlFjvAbSy43WEPVaWcFD0jv2WiRJtW4aoTS7i_00EjGfqzLniUbz-kGDE7UfkOGr1IQOQZdm6EyomCmoseTZMDQp_/s320/IMG_3862.jpg" width="217" /></a></div><p></p><p><i>Punk Rock And Trailer Parks</i> by Derf, released in 2008, is the story of the long-limbed fellow on the cover above: 19 year old Otto Pizcok, a shy trombone-playing dork who is passing his last waning days of high school by going to punk rock shows, watching lame beach party movies and peeping on certain well-endowed female classmates through binoculars. He eventually becomes a hero in the local punk scene, even fronting a band for a while, and meeting such luminaries as Joe Strummer, Wendy O. Williams, and The Ramones.</p><p>The story is set in 1979 in a deadbeat Ohio town called Richford, and as it happens, this is the same place the author Derf (real name John Backderf) comes from, and around the time he finished high school, too. But it's not autobiographical – his next, momentous, follow-up graphic novel would see to that. This book deals with the burgeoning Rubber City punk scene and the promise of escape it signified for small-town kids like Otto and his mates Pete and Wes.</p><p>This is the only graphic novel I know whose author has supplied a 'soundtrack' to read along to, with a playlist containing 43 songs. Artists in this list include The Clash, Talking Heads, The Pretenders, and of course Ohio's own new wave heroes Devo.</p><p>Now let's check out the panel I chose:<br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVmIIZI0A42GxOG8dmuFB7PzNRTRO0sTucxAiovxL7m0PJuWvsCGrqp_6jkKCLJ2EZZmXSQEJbNPzMOCIz0wOVY82DoFzlAYaXEbKKzr9xRza-16JsxBarmluP5s323Mdva4199R5ZZjh2TKt5RCzTvvrUbaF3yJPhYmUDs6joBL7KXN62UmBk55hv/s1227/IMG_3863.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1227" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVmIIZI0A42GxOG8dmuFB7PzNRTRO0sTucxAiovxL7m0PJuWvsCGrqp_6jkKCLJ2EZZmXSQEJbNPzMOCIz0wOVY82DoFzlAYaXEbKKzr9xRza-16JsxBarmluP5s323Mdva4199R5ZZjh2TKt5RCzTvvrUbaF3yJPhYmUDs6joBL7KXN62UmBk55hv/s320/IMG_3863.jpg" width="313" /></a></div><p><br />I think this sums up a lot of what the book is about, actually. Apart from one tragic incident towards the end, Otto remains upbeat throughout. This despite the fact that he looks to be about two metres tall and still gets insulted and pushed around by various thugs around the school, because he openly hates their football team and is a band geek (though he disavows the term 'nerd'). Speaking of hating the school team, Otto has a line that I quote often: "The worse a beating they receive, the happier I am!"<br /></p><p>He also, as you might infer from the dialogue here, has a propensity to quote Tolkien. I like Derf's hand-lettering a lot. He puts a lot of words in bold, and his speech bubbles have wiggly stems that often seem to grow out of characters' faces. </p><p>This panel also shows Otto, who calls himself The Baron – his extroverted, after-hours persona – driving Pete and Wes to a gig in his '68 Cougar and making them sit in the back seat. His reasoning? Because The Baron likes to chauffeur, and only the chauffeur sits in front. I wish I'd known about that when <i>I</i> was at uni. </p><p>There's one more thing in this panel that figures prominently in the storyline. Look close. See it yet? Yes, it's the cassette recorder and microphone on the front seat. Otto is documenting his entire final school year in farts. Whenever the urge for flatulence strikes, he hits the record button and lets rip into the microphone. And, spoiler alert, he gives Pete the tape at the end as a keepsake. Well, it's nice to keep a journal, I suppose.<br /></p><p>So there you have it. Being in a band, living in a town of inbred hicks, and losing oneself in indie music. That was pretty much my high school experience, too. Except my car didn't have a really small steering wheel. And also, I didn't have a car. And I didn't go to a concert until I was 22. And there were no girls at my high school. And all the— <i>(Continues to ramble incoherently as reader closes browser window)</i><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5978455438740071407.post-35049764154140183852022-05-21T15:26:00.007+10:002022-06-08T12:27:26.680+10:00One panel from... The Cartoon History Of The Universe<p>Have you ever been drawn to a single panel in a comic or graphic novel? It could be a splash panel or an inconsequential small panel, but for some reason it stands out to you. Perhaps it's because of a particular action pose, character design, rendering of some object or another, the way it's coloured or shaded, or indicative of a particular skill on the artist's part.<br /></p><p>What I'll be looking at here are single panels from comics I admire that I keep coming back to. In this case it's for none of the above reasons: it's a single human hair. I know, right? It sounds stupid. But bear with me here. Once you see the context of said hair, you'll know what I mean.</p><p>Here's the book I'll be looking at.<br /></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggaNgiUB_gT99DFtmkaLek12bmSRf_3h7T3yObNQdmFs_k7AnxY92otPYcODhBsF5j-K7-U_kn--dFjjnPBC087Qn-XUg-Ls3fdSa_Em78R2emFQhFqOyxJVNLkF8t_RtUz4393ew69QhVHTlpx8wxM5R1hrGGFYcGtw4grkToLmEnhn4T40natsCo/s1637/IMG_3838.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1637" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggaNgiUB_gT99DFtmkaLek12bmSRf_3h7T3yObNQdmFs_k7AnxY92otPYcODhBsF5j-K7-U_kn--dFjjnPBC087Qn-XUg-Ls3fdSa_Em78R2emFQhFqOyxJVNLkF8t_RtUz4393ew69QhVHTlpx8wxM5R1hrGGFYcGtw4grkToLmEnhn4T40natsCo/s320/IMG_3838.JPG" width="235" /></a></div><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>It's called <i>The Cartoon History Of The Universe, Book 1</i> by Larry Gonick. This was a series that he did that was published between 1978 and 2008, comprising some 1,460 pages across five volumes – a mammoth project detailing the history of the world from the Big Bang onwards.</p><p>The above volume isn't one of those five volumes. It's a separate edition from 1982 containing the first four comic book installments that were published by Rip Off Press between 1978 and 1980. (Quite a bit of it was altered for the first <i>Cartoon History</i> volume proper.) Anyway, my mum gave me this book sometime in the late '90s. Her school's library was going to chuck it out and she rescued it and gave it to me. </p><p>The 'Date Due' slip inside the cover, where the librarian had to stamp the due dates in the olden days, is completely blank, suggesting that no one ever borrowed it. But the book itself is creased and obviously well-thumbed. So evidently it was read by plenty of people – though perhaps not by any of the kids at the Beehive Montessori School.</p><p>Incredibly, given that this is one of my favourite comics of all time, and Larry Gonick one of the cartoonists I most admire, I let the book sit in my cupboard for about two years before I got around to reading it. I probably gave it a cursory flip-through when I was given it, but once I read it, I read it so many times that it was even more dog-eared than an actual dog. The whole book is full of amazing and funny drawings of humans, animals, dinosaurs, single-celled life forms, and even strands of DNA.</p><p>Anyway I'd better stop waffling and show you the panel in question.<br /><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiY51mJzp7RMGYYroT7L_29u6FCu1OfyJaFR66az4RHWpKRq3bQCu-QUrpIhS2-02sCjkq7YnP6fN6iqZDs6qTHU0bNqEjPTuGlF2RW_j8TuS88tIPnSKpGxx8NYiOiisTmLn9eJcKzsOKRV6UhA5tKN9lDrBB0IAI643HUZkafFS-wmVIpG0nhbMH/s1740/IMG_3839.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1740" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiY51mJzp7RMGYYroT7L_29u6FCu1OfyJaFR66az4RHWpKRq3bQCu-QUrpIhS2-02sCjkq7YnP6fN6iqZDs6qTHU0bNqEjPTuGlF2RW_j8TuS88tIPnSKpGxx8NYiOiisTmLn9eJcKzsOKRV6UhA5tKN9lDrBB0IAI643HUZkafFS-wmVIpG0nhbMH/s320/IMG_3839.JPG" width="221" /></a></div><br />It comes towards the end of the book, as part of a story about King Solomon (of Old Testament fame). Now it must be said that I don't think this little panel is the best drawing in the book. Far from it. It's just a dude in a chair. But look at the detail there. The whole book was drawn with a brush and Winsor & Newton drawing ink (I know this because I emailed Larry Gonick in 2006 and asked him.)<p></p><p>Gonick's human figures are, while cartoony, expertly rendered with few solid blacks and many fine parallel brushstrokes for shading, something I have always tried to do and failed every single time. Looking at the panel, you see tiny yet important details: notice the eyelid and eyelashes as a simple L-shape, the thicker line on the back of the crown, the fold lines on the sleeve, and the stroke forming the top of the nose terminating instead of joining up with the crown.</p><p>And then there's that hair. Just a wiggly line, but look at the uniformity of the curves in it, and how it thins out at both ends. That's the kind of effect you really only get with brush and ink, and he nailed it there.</p><p>So that's one panel from one book I like. There will be more in future posts, so look out for those. <i>Tintin</i> included. Although trying to single out just one panel from <i>Tintin</i> would take me longer than it took Larry Gonick to draw five volumes of <i>Cartoon History</i>. I might save him until last.<br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5978455438740071407.post-30028028561222484502022-05-15T17:24:00.002+10:002022-05-15T17:24:25.681+10:00Eurovision 2022 Wrap-up<p><i>Ciao, ragazzi</i>! It's that Eurovision time of year again! Three days of blinding stage lights, long-haired rocker dudes, singers in weird masks, and 2020s sad girls. This year's Eurovision Song Contest comes to you from the city of Torino, or Turin if you're a bit of a bore. Italy previously hosted the event in Napoli in 1965, and Rome in 1991. This time, the city of Fiat, <i>The Italian Job</i>, and burial shrouds of dubious provenance got its turn to play host.<br /></p><p>Like last year I got up at idiot o'clock to see the final live, after watching semifinal 1 on streaming (dodgy) and semifinal 2 on TV the preceding two nights. It's a punishing schedule of Euro-viewing but someone's got to do it.</p><p>The first semifinal was somewhat disappointing. After the grandiose 2021 contest, the abstemiousness was evident in several understated entries – someone unkinder than I might say 'flaccid' – getting through to the final, while superior entries did not. Perhaps this is yet another side effect of the dreaded COVID. The second semifinal continued in a similar vein. I know, I'm hardly in a minority here. Everyone wants to see their favourite entries progress to the final. But come on. When Georgia and Denmark are overhauled by morose rubbish from The Netherlands and (particularly) Greece, how can you not get just a tad sceptical.</p><p>You see, when you reach the point in life when you start to become a jaded old cynic – which typically happens when your age begins with the number 4 (and boy, are those 400 year olds as cynical as they come) – you really couldn't give a toss when some singer half your age wants to vent their feelings about how tough life is (Greece and The Netherlands again). You just want to yank them off stage from behind the curtain with a hooked stick.<br /></p><p>It wasn't all bad news though – my favourite entries from each semifinal, Moldova and Serbia, made it through. Both of these were unconventional songs, Serbia's being just plain weird. But you should know by now that 'weird' always ranks very highly in my book, especially at Eurovision. It was titled "In Corpore Sano" and was kind of a spiritual successor to the almighty "Shum", Go_A's 2021 entry from Ukraine (stylistically, if not thematically).<br /></p><p>On to the final. And yes, I have to mention it.<br /></p><p>Now of course, there has been a pall of unease hanging over Eurovision proceedings for nearly three months. The atrocities taking place in Ukraine could not go unacknowledged. Following the Russian invasion several broadcasters called for Russia to be removed from participation, which it was, as well as from the European Broadcasting Union itself. This means Russia has lost broadcasting and participation rights for the foreseeable future (as far as I know).<br /></p><p>In a similar vein Belarus was out, too. They received a three-year ban from the EBU for their broadcaster being used as a propaganda tool. The other no-shows were for the same reasons as in previous years: Liechtenstein (not enough money), Bosnia-Herzegovina (ditto), Andorra (stuffing around), Turkey (still fiddle-faddling) and Luxembourg (who the hell knows).</p><p>In one sense I'd like to think of this situation as the Eurovision family banding together when one of its brothers is being bullied and attacked, but of course it's infinitely more complicated than that. </p><p>If you read my <a href="http://nonesuch-pete.blogspot.com/2021/05/eurovision-2021-wrap-up.html" target="_blank">wrap-up of the 2021 Eurovision</a> you'll note that one thing stands out in my list of observations and that's Russia and Ukraine conspicuously not awarding any points to each other during the final jury vote. We will never know how many points the Russian jury would have awarded Ukraine had they been able to participate. As it was, Ukraine's entry, a folk-rap group called Kalush Orchestra were able to perform their upbeat but melancholy song "Stefania" with Russia absent. And so the big question was, would they receive enough sympathy votes to win the contest?</p><p>Well, of course they would!</p><p>I was pleased to see the United Kingdom come 2nd after a seemingly interminable run of lousy results. They also came 2nd in 1998, the year I started watching Eurovision, but since then it's been nearly always a disappointing result. They came last in 2003, 2008, 2010, 2019 and 2021, and the bottom five another six times since then. Needless to say (but I will anyway) this was a bloody long time coming. In fact, Sam Ryder and his song "Space Man" was on top of the voting tally after the jury vote phase, but was knocked off the top spot by Ukraine who got 439 votes in the televoting phase (which incidentally is the highest number of televotes ever given out).</p><p>I'm not sure if this number of votes was a collective "up yours" to Putin, a show of support for Ukraine, a genuine love of "Stefania", or a love of furry pink bucket hats. But as I suspect – maybe all of the above. <br /></p><p>But kudos to Sam Ryder! Makes yer proud to be British, it do.</p><p>Special mention must also go to Spain, the country with the longest winning drought, who came 3rd. That's their best result since I started watching in 1998, and they've come last twice and placed in the bottom five 10 (!) times since then. Needless to say (but I will anyway) this was a bloody long time coming. Makes yer proud to be a Spaniard, it do. Not that I am. But I would be if I was.</p><p><br /></p><p>Well, there's not much else to say except to wheel out my ESC stats map once again, and since just like last year no country improved on its best result, there wasn't a whole lot to amend – so I changed the typeface which hopefully improves its legibility.</p><p>Any trivia? Well apart from the UK and Spain getting their best results since the '90s, it was the first time none of the songs were in French. Belgium and Switzerland didn't use it, and the French themselves sung their song in Breton. I think it's also the first time Latin has been used as well. Take that, antiquated linguistic hegemony!!<br /></p><p>Oh yeah, and I'm glad I got up at 5am to see it live for another reason: you don't get all those unfunny tweets and Tiktok videos between the songs. (See previous remark about age starting with 4)<br /></p><p><i>Arrivederci!</i></p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuyRh4RAq6c3Seh3Wk5wnQNh7dvaXPSVzCzP7o5euVUkhFWxjUyHrjSfFHAZ_HaHzgmt6l4C_M3MAIQQutyVOXiu9HxWpFPn4brkjuHdA6Lg28xSopSAFvSj1PSciDa4E2hYa-VStnAUI7MO9lTQAgz21iAttjW7O9oJLFy0pDsh204tjqcXrtUi5E/s1855/ESC2021%20copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1546" data-original-width="1855" height="267" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuyRh4RAq6c3Seh3Wk5wnQNh7dvaXPSVzCzP7o5euVUkhFWxjUyHrjSfFHAZ_HaHzgmt6l4C_M3MAIQQutyVOXiu9HxWpFPn4brkjuHdA6Lg28xSopSAFvSj1PSciDa4E2hYa-VStnAUI7MO9lTQAgz21iAttjW7O9oJLFy0pDsh204tjqcXrtUi5E/s320/ESC2021%20copy.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5978455438740071407.post-60358418600718203272022-05-06T22:06:00.002+10:002022-05-06T22:06:39.384+10:00Five things that happened 100 years ago<p>1922. Remember it? No, I don't expect you do. It was 100 years ago, after all. What comes to mind when you think of those days? Well? Can't think of anything, eh? Allow me to fill you in, then, on five things that took place exactly one century ago. In no particular order. Let's go.<br /><br /></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Branston Pickle is invented</span></span></p><p></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgFE6nnaPFFXPKMw76v4R1hkG6mhaXX7s0N-ZFI240lGSE6Xp48xnd-1pg11oxRor-hDD9y5JdyZwkMZFhIow1L39_3vNFOgM5ZAOawXibxfVuT2R6F3j1krA303MOHcCgwGYYf-6-iwip8ClEAHgGy4534kSda6HNOjMP5OlsFrgbLAMmGYimeRR1/s1200/100-branston.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgFE6nnaPFFXPKMw76v4R1hkG6mhaXX7s0N-ZFI240lGSE6Xp48xnd-1pg11oxRor-hDD9y5JdyZwkMZFhIow1L39_3vNFOgM5ZAOawXibxfVuT2R6F3j1krA303MOHcCgwGYYf-6-iwip8ClEAHgGy4534kSda6HNOjMP5OlsFrgbLAMmGYimeRR1/s320/100-branston.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>This pickled chutney was named after the village where it was first made, and not only am I a devotee of this product, I used to live in the town of Burton-on-Trent in Staffordshire which is right next to Branston. There's not a lot I can add to this, except you either like it or you don't. Oh, and happy 100th birthday. I salute you!<br /><p></p><p> </p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><i>Nosferatu</i> is released<br /></span></span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYMuoZ5NRg7Sb2tHAoH3ExSKcWAZ1E259KDffdarS5uEZ1B1KAy7vn7rA2DwceZ__LY6dquFs3m6Rl4-tkDyzQX3RicWrQ8-KrrMD4C5hnyYBk4hzPkayZYHvvKJ-vAdeaGR-qG-yuAdF9QNgQiZypbnZl7PW8kAuD6J54d8KVo6RShjojudxGSe6P/s560/100-nosferatu.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="420" data-original-width="560" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYMuoZ5NRg7Sb2tHAoH3ExSKcWAZ1E259KDffdarS5uEZ1B1KAy7vn7rA2DwceZ__LY6dquFs3m6Rl4-tkDyzQX3RicWrQ8-KrrMD4C5hnyYBk4hzPkayZYHvvKJ-vAdeaGR-qG-yuAdF9QNgQiZypbnZl7PW8kAuD6J54d8KVo6RShjojudxGSe6P/s320/100-nosferatu.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>F.W. Murnau's German Expressionist vampire horror film <i>Nosferatu – Eine Symphonie des Grauens</i> was released in March 1922. Perhaps you've seen the above iconic scene showing Count Orlok (he's not named Dracula for some reason), played by Max Schreck, entering a room as the door opens by itself. A clip of this scene appears in the video for <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWkIY7-FFTY" target="_blank">"Under Pressure" by Queen & David Bowie</a>. That's actually where I first saw it.<p></p><p>The whole film, silent and in black and white, has an air of unremitting menace, although you never actually see any blood or explicit violence. As Drac—I mean 'Orlok', Schreck does look extremely corpse-like with his frail-looking build and hollow eyes. The film established many vampire film tropes, such as sunlight being able to kill vampires. It was also the first German expressionist film to be shot on location rather than a set.</p><p>Murnau died in somewhat bizarre circumstances in California in 1931. His skull was stolen from his grave in 2015. Of his 21 films, only 12 survive in their entirety.<br /></p><p> </p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">William Desmond Taylor is murdered<br /></span></span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicK1KfQdufzA2JB3Ojhu0rwaD8ut67pvHhLDQjG7WzFO87QSDyU0X3w7zXdf7shM2T6LcHoGq73FSdoGjrGZO1lJ2mSG7JXIB5_7Q43D9w8Ix8LaMzDMeOZpg1ltYOCobHYXBg5a8PqrF6pT9qu0--4GTuO5vN1REX0KGM6qh2AxOFbLHvRF-Nxxm0/s500/100-taylor.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="391" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicK1KfQdufzA2JB3Ojhu0rwaD8ut67pvHhLDQjG7WzFO87QSDyU0X3w7zXdf7shM2T6LcHoGq73FSdoGjrGZO1lJ2mSG7JXIB5_7Q43D9w8Ix8LaMzDMeOZpg1ltYOCobHYXBg5a8PqrF6pT9qu0--4GTuO5vN1REX0KGM6qh2AxOFbLHvRF-Nxxm0/s320/100-taylor.jpg" width="250" /></a></div>Taylor was a prominent figure in the early days of Hollywood, acting in 27 films and directing 59. He was murdered in February 1922, a crime that is still unsolved; one of the oldest cold cases. His murder sold more newspapers in the United States than any news item before.<p></p><p>When the police saw Taylor dead in his apartment, he was lying on the floor with a bullet hole in his back, while two studio execs were burning papers in the fireplace and a comedy actress was rummaging through drawers. The servant was washing dishes in the kitchen while various randoms rushed in and out of the place. The police discovered a bunch of pornographic photos, featuring Taylor, and the director's closet was full of womens' lingerie. The murder weapon was never found. There's a lot more to it than I can summarize here, so you can read more about it on your own time – but consider yourself warned!</p><p><br /></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Vegemite is invented</span></span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcSw-XClYs6LwrfPzz6lYRlrnJpy-3OnvKKV7X7Xml3AJi5D6ibxKQOu1ijhB1i75nh0sVFIkDeCoNtDqZj92N3ejiwkhabzAnNcx21yhXqP7n7Qlz5CjyTAd1aohtE88TLzUB51elMSwaWZt8EaUORbEE3_SzZ49JfM_cDxVtC5t8suVUixNQQT9B/s710/100-vegemite.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="710" data-original-width="572" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcSw-XClYs6LwrfPzz6lYRlrnJpy-3OnvKKV7X7Xml3AJi5D6ibxKQOu1ijhB1i75nh0sVFIkDeCoNtDqZj92N3ejiwkhabzAnNcx21yhXqP7n7Qlz5CjyTAd1aohtE88TLzUB51elMSwaWZt8EaUORbEE3_SzZ49JfM_cDxVtC5t8suVUixNQQT9B/s320/100-vegemite.png" width="258" /></a></div>Okay,
I'm cheating a bit by including two popular condiments instead of one.
But I would be ostracized from Melbourne and deported from Australia if I
didn't mention Vegemite, the Vitamin B spread which was developed here
in Melbourne in 1922 and went on sale the following year. Its invention
came out of a need to find a use for the yeast extract left over after
brewing beer.<p></p>It was the first product in Australia to be
electronically scanned at a supermarket checkout. In a torturous bit of
advertising sloganeering it was known as Parwill from 1928 to 1935, all
so the ads could proclaim "Marmite, but Parwill". Because renaming your
product in order to make lame puns in reference to its competitor is <i>sooooo </i>worth it.<p></p><p> </p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Tutankhamun's tomb is discovered<br /></span></span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFwGxmwCsxxzR41DcBS_6g99qDpq0M2M50BfxSJVd63K3KqUBQ8p7vP93j_i0nh5BBrKNTWmPZ6Qcz3E-W1iyjavgJ1kiNzfsDW_1OTQlgn_O_Xe2fBjAfvlxoeQIx2HEk0ly-kAhIlkOgbYBRcTHf5SnWwfS5dJbKJSpXH8FOFgNgYVTjq4QYHqQv/s599/100-tutankhamun.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="599" data-original-width="452" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFwGxmwCsxxzR41DcBS_6g99qDpq0M2M50BfxSJVd63K3KqUBQ8p7vP93j_i0nh5BBrKNTWmPZ6Qcz3E-W1iyjavgJ1kiNzfsDW_1OTQlgn_O_Xe2fBjAfvlxoeQIx2HEk0ly-kAhIlkOgbYBRcTHf5SnWwfS5dJbKJSpXH8FOFgNgYVTjq4QYHqQv/s320/100-tutankhamun.jpeg" width="241" /></a></div><p>Led by Egyptologist Howard Carter, the tomb of the legendary pharaoh was discovered in November 1922 as part of an effort to clear the Valley of the Kings down to the bedrock. Found nearly intact, the tomb established the length of Tutakhamun's reign, showed what a complete royal burial entailed, and sparked a surge of interest in ancient Egypt.</p><p>Tutankhamun himself became pharaoh at the age of 8 or 9, and died around 1323 BC aged 18 or 19. It is possible that his death was unexpected and his mummy was therefore buried in a tomb intended for someone else. The 5,398 items found in the tomb took Carter ten years to catalogue: it had taken him seven years to find the tomb. Among these items were the famous gold face mask and a solid gold coffin.</p><p>For the pharaohs of ancient Egypt, to be remembered was to live forever – hence all those grand monuments. But after young king Tutankamun died there was a concerted effort to remove all traces of him, so he would not achieve immortality. One of the least esteemed pharaohs in life, Carter's discovery of his tomb made him the most famous – where he had lain some 3,300 years, unremembered and unremarkable. But when that tomb was finally found in 1922, Tutankhamun returned to the minds of the living and took his place among the gods once again.<br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5978455438740071407.post-18497550543099947202022-04-14T19:25:00.008+10:002022-04-16T12:53:50.309+10:00Every marker pen in the existence of mankind<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGDESIpmnZe7_RTuPfFJOzep4ojtcbjNrZWviZB5DIn6F775cAmnJ5X-R2WtFokokolnzAg2bhu3h1HwBDJ9Y637LF2Z2hq9HVh2Rg5XiKfj9tQF_UXh4rRJzrW8DB1xzjsLBRrCE8lRMJsRdA8iR-lZMOEi8C6zvHRS2AKRZSdLVFK51gb08MrA_n/s1200/IMG_3791.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="708" data-original-width="1200" height="189" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGDESIpmnZe7_RTuPfFJOzep4ojtcbjNrZWviZB5DIn6F775cAmnJ5X-R2WtFokokolnzAg2bhu3h1HwBDJ9Y637LF2Z2hq9HVh2Rg5XiKfj9tQF_UXh4rRJzrW8DB1xzjsLBRrCE8lRMJsRdA8iR-lZMOEi8C6zvHRS2AKRZSdLVFK51gb08MrA_n/s320/IMG_3791.JPG" width="320" /></a></div> <br />Marker pens! Good golly do I ever love markers. And I've used all of them. Every single one. This is not an exaggeration. Every brand, every colour, every tip width – from the top Japanese pen manufacturers to the generic cheapo ones you get from Crazy Clark's in the crime-ridden Home Town centre (is that still there?).<br /><p></p><p>My love for markers started in the mid-'80s as a little kid in London, when my uncle gave me one to draw with. I still remember sitting at the top of the stairs, drawing on paper that the ink soaked straight through. The pen was painted black with 'PENTEL PEN' in silver lettering, as you see below <i>(Vintage 1970s Pentel Pen, 9G model, taken from <a href="http://blackisbeautiful.ca">blackisbeautiful.ca</a>)</i>. The empire, long divided, must unite; long united, it must divide. Thus has it ever been. PENTEL PEN is law. PENTEL PEN is sacrosanct.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8M5PWqu72LjLgBJsVEPH7CGjcyVt_zcSIezL49QhT6CWOtG4T8PEn_GF9PJ5I8TkcO5LRP7fXiTim-pECxK0r9O_oDi7DZYg2zKzeJEz4ikI2y5ZXUzHcw7ul6FiIAai7uX2zdAZItrkgtmzbkNKvTm4B0SPWJ5cg3E8gbiqyFYy96EccRcirkZAs/s1200/Screen%20Shot%202022-04-16%20at%2012.40.21%20PM.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="565" data-original-width="1200" height="151" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8M5PWqu72LjLgBJsVEPH7CGjcyVt_zcSIezL49QhT6CWOtG4T8PEn_GF9PJ5I8TkcO5LRP7fXiTim-pECxK0r9O_oDi7DZYg2zKzeJEz4ikI2y5ZXUzHcw7ul6FiIAai7uX2zdAZItrkgtmzbkNKvTm4B0SPWJ5cg3E8gbiqyFYy96EccRcirkZAs/s320/Screen%20Shot%202022-04-16%20at%2012.40.21%20PM.png" width="320" /></a></div><p></p><p></p><p>Whenever I draw with one of those black beauties (which admittedly hasn't been too often between 1984 and now), I feel like I am flying high above the clouds on the back of a condor made of marshmallow and bees. Or maybe that's just the effect of the xylene fumes.</p><p>But where I really am is sitting at the top of the steps in 65A Temple Road, Cricklewood. <br /></p><p></p><p>When I started drawing black-and-white comics in the '90s on – old fart alert – <i>actual pen and paper</i>, I used markers all the time, because several of my characters had black hair and whatnot. So, each page was an inky mess as you might imagine. And over the years I built up quite a collection of permanent markers. Anyway, as you can see, I've rounded up no less than fourteen examples for your perusal. Some of them are quite old and probably no longer in production, but at least they're now xylene free! <br /></p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuT26XrWrEeVYOA_tPvN26WMfdJUXHL4DXGrCmfsJsGzW-9vqSbdkNQzQzafUPqHKeWi3Oi7uvOzQyUnK_Qt8a4Cb7ANP7p684nvGfO7u-bBJfRlMaRzFZSrklK-jK9fbvT1Ix5fd-wP8z1WXG5VtCTSNYYXXnKI7EHBSqo-LBX54HXP8obr4gRpCP/s1213/IMG_3792.JPG" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1213" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuT26XrWrEeVYOA_tPvN26WMfdJUXHL4DXGrCmfsJsGzW-9vqSbdkNQzQzafUPqHKeWi3Oi7uvOzQyUnK_Qt8a4Cb7ANP7p684nvGfO7u-bBJfRlMaRzFZSrklK-jK9fbvT1Ix5fd-wP8z1WXG5VtCTSNYYXXnKI7EHBSqo-LBX54HXP8obr4gRpCP/s320/IMG_3792.JPG" width="317" /></a></div><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Looking at the photo at left, I'll start with the one at the top, which is the Zebra Mckee [sic], made in Japan. I didn't actually buy this one. Not too many people know this, but if you go to Japan to teach English, you get several of these for free. They materialize out of nowhere, usually in the vicinity of your school's staffroom. It is double-ended, with both a fineliner and slightly broader tip. Hard-working and useful, much like the J—no! Must resist the temptation to make broad generalizations.</p><p>Next is the Sanford Sharpie, American made. What more can I say? Its very name is used as a generic term for marker pen by Americans, and therefore, everyone else in the world. It's pretty good, I s'pose.<br /></p><p>Next we have the Artline 700, made by Shakuhachi, sorry, Shachihata of Giappon. A neat little fineline permanent marker. Below that is the Artline 70 with bullet tip. It's a benchmark marker. A benchmarker, if you will. I'm not sure why they made the barrel yellow. But it is 'HIGH PERFORMANCE' as it says, with a solid black that doesn't fade. I've still got comics I drew in 1998 that I used this on, and while most of the drawings have become ghosts, the Artline ink remains. Shachihata-<i>sama-tachi</i>, I bow respectfully in your general direction. <br /></p><p>The one with the yellow cap is the Pilot Super Color Marker (Japan uses American spelling, otherwise I'd have put a 'u' in there sharpish). B for Broad, with a chisel tip. This pen is around 25 years old yet I used it in a drawing only two days ago, so that speaks to its longevity. Although yellow markers don't get a lot of use around here.</p><p>Next is the Sakura Pen-Touch. I don't know much about the Honourable Sakura Pen Manufacturing Concern of Ibaraki and Gunma Prefectures (not their real name), but this is the only pen by them I used. It has a fine tip (as in not broad), and can't really match the Artline 70 in robustness, I fear. Its ink is also not as indelible. It's rather delible, actually. It can be delibbed.<br /></p><p>The Big Wally at the bottom is the bullet-pointed Bic Permament Marker, which as you might guess is made in France. Unlike the Sakura, it is low odour. A design feature unique to it is the little plastic protuberance at the end of the barrel which prevents it rolling around on the table. Very handy if you take it with you on the high seas.<br /></p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitAFtksmjKrnSqVjgQPV3qB6j27eHUTDTXadwP3GwuhcTFPkhz_28onqUFGpU7d308jHE0WGmcNpqurUVOwif2OyYh_H4DCeHXETty15MtISh9OHndIb9jNv7h0SjSu_lU_I66S6qa9AzBbzmISMs7j2Zj4aFBE1V6gPFsw1sdMKMw4DUymDAxlrAQ/s1285/IMG_3793.JPG" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1285" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitAFtksmjKrnSqVjgQPV3qB6j27eHUTDTXadwP3GwuhcTFPkhz_28onqUFGpU7d308jHE0WGmcNpqurUVOwif2OyYh_H4DCeHXETty15MtISh9OHndIb9jNv7h0SjSu_lU_I66S6qa9AzBbzmISMs7j2Zj4aFBE1V6gPFsw1sdMKMw4DUymDAxlrAQ/s320/IMG_3793.JPG" width="299" /></a></div><p></p><p>Clearly coming from the POCKY and CRUNKY school of Japanese nomenclature is the chisel-tipped Uni PROCKEY from the Mitsubishi Pencil Co. They make cars, they make televisions, and they make some fine stationery as well! I don't know what ink they use but it soaks through the paper, through the desk you're writing on, through to the floor and under the carpet as well. </p><p>The Artline 170, like the other Artlines, is made in Malaysia. Here we have a substantially chunkier barrel, good for solid blacks, shadowing and bold pen strokes. It's an all-rounder and packs a punch. Apparently it can be left with the cap off for two weeks and not dry out. I've never tried this – I always put the caps back on. What do you take me for, a savage?</p><p>Remember the Zebra Mckee? Well here we have its beefed-up upgraded model, the Hi-Mckee. This time we have a medium bullet tip at one end and a chisel tip at the other. Serves all your double-ended marking needs. English teachers in Japan must ascend to the rank of <i>ichi-dan no eigo no sensei</i> before the Prefectural Board will even <i>entertain</i> supplying them with one of these. (Don't ask where I got this one.)<br /></p><p>The remaining four pens are whiteboard markers in red and blue ink, so your mileage will vary if you choose to use them for drawing on paper. Incidentally, the ones pictured above were all salvaged by me in December 1993, just before going home on the last day of Year 10, where I found them on the lawn after they were turfed out the door by some teacher doing an end-of-year cleanup.</p><p>Mitsubishi's Uni Easyrase was probably the widest-used by the teachers at my school – there were usually at least two of them in every classroom. The Artline 500 was used very infrequently, surprising given the success of the 70 model; and then second-most popular was the uncouthly-titled Pilot Wytebord Marker. Finally, showing that they knew how to spell, the Pentel White Board Marker with its chunky octagonal barrel, was mainly used by my classmates to draw 'swirls' on the rotating hubs of the ceiling fans.</p><p>Well, thanks for taking this long and pointless ramble with me down amnesia lane. Now go do some drawing and remember: the marker pen is mightier than the pen!<br /> </p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5978455438740071407.post-91717237258141468632022-01-31T14:24:00.003+11:002022-01-31T14:31:01.147+11:00Old Ads and Car Colours<p>Do you remember when cars were painted bright, unusual colours? I sure do. As a little kid in England in the early 1980s, the bleak climate and greyish urbanized infrastructure was contrasted nicely by the warm tones and hues of the cars that trundled along the roads. Not that I made this observation at the time, of course. What, you expected me to draw mental parallels between the climate, car colours and the national mood when I'd barely started school? Are you crazy or something? But I digress. It was almost as if car manufacturers decided to brighten dull landscapes by making their cars stand out against them, rather than just metal boxes you sat in to get from 'A' to the dole office.<br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEitKtCDo9j3AjuvALrV434DQGWN5WOOtx89jnu5q6GVTIQ6baeLcBCrIt0DwfcGUXHkF8Yn6fc1dF7koBbuYdmPofrYY-bsYTMQh_6HxY2LMbqrj9jFCIr2fXURCdWCop7ltDRywpZpek-UtCg3JAoklsb5SU56XVsS2R5Vqn-1bxMLNr56PYxwgZ1p=s2599" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2599" data-original-width="1864" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEitKtCDo9j3AjuvALrV434DQGWN5WOOtx89jnu5q6GVTIQ6baeLcBCrIt0DwfcGUXHkF8Yn6fc1dF7koBbuYdmPofrYY-bsYTMQh_6HxY2LMbqrj9jFCIr2fXURCdWCop7ltDRywpZpek-UtCg3JAoklsb5SU56XVsS2R5Vqn-1bxMLNr56PYxwgZ1p=s320" width="230" /></a></div><p></p><p>Take a look at this British motoring magazine, rather unambiguously titled <i>Motor,</i> from June 1976. Now I hadn't been born at that time, but the cars you see above were typical of what was being driven around England when I was a kid.<br /></p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjxIo3yyLY7xmUsAtu6FM3IMITeEi2JRtaUBZvbvo04h6VZ1ZvI6bxgK1_VRsQfd5Pky2V-PbpZC09cuA5LbVDMYSXSOXG0gSR-fOGnutjDjVadII8woPRpH9w-Wj0TSdd5KYyy-ylJWN3ZNzQaH0hD5oQtudfzHNdAi4jQ9fumNG2RErVztTHlev1J=s1853" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1429" data-original-width="1853" height="247" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjxIo3yyLY7xmUsAtu6FM3IMITeEi2JRtaUBZvbvo04h6VZ1ZvI6bxgK1_VRsQfd5Pky2V-PbpZC09cuA5LbVDMYSXSOXG0gSR-fOGnutjDjVadII8woPRpH9w-Wj0TSdd5KYyy-ylJWN3ZNzQaH0hD5oQtudfzHNdAi4jQ9fumNG2RErVztTHlev1J=s320" width="320" /></a></div><p></p><p>Phwooarr, get a load o' that son. That's what I'd probably call an autumn palette (June isn't exactly autumn, but whatever): moss green, olive green, a sort of sunburnt orange...those were great colours! Nice and vibrant. Now, you're probably thinking if <i>all</i> car colours stood out then <i>none</i> of them did, right? Well, colours like these were contrasted by the older cars in subtle pastel shades. In the '80s it was still common to see 1950s cars (and older) still pressed into service and still in use.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg7ws7tOp2MoKhjgiYOBa6cKH_v8n569NJ4ZFneoeVgWmwxPExms_TXhGa-Al1d2Qit_E6z4Efa122qXf6E_9eJxxCp073NZXtPjFfx3_blGLs3iNslFW3FGQyytRnEMFUc0OBMNvq2db1yhlzAvjA_sWdXKtuwf4ovRt5-0r2v_M4eOqc3cizs60RH=s2623" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2623" data-original-width="1864" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg7ws7tOp2MoKhjgiYOBa6cKH_v8n569NJ4ZFneoeVgWmwxPExms_TXhGa-Al1d2Qit_E6z4Efa122qXf6E_9eJxxCp073NZXtPjFfx3_blGLs3iNslFW3FGQyytRnEMFUc0OBMNvq2db1yhlzAvjA_sWdXKtuwf4ovRt5-0r2v_M4eOqc3cizs60RH=s320" width="227" /></a></div><p></p><p>The cover stars of this February 1972 issue of <i>Auto Car</i> feature in burgundy and metallic blue, two very popular colours at one time. You could expect to see cars in just about every colour in England, but it was said that the least popular colour was brown. (Hey, what's wrong with brown, eh?) You would supposedly have more trouble trying to sell a brown car than any other colour, because it was seen as an old man's car colour. Brown is also the least popular car colour in Australia. And yet my dad's first car in England was a chocolate-brown Ford Cortina, and his first car in Australia was a tan brown Ford Cortina. So there you go.</p><p>Fast forward four decades, now to Melbourne. Here is the view from the food court — sorry, the food <i>gallery</i> — of The Glen shopping centre in Glen Waverley.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhD_9PsciaMDstH3wfBtYrWS_UCgsqxV81p6QVvqvhUzQ02TfVuXipR1V3QcqXWSgrnH1o7uGnhk0K44Pma1bnXpwWzL3wKyQmBsw0S-_O_7qX45t--VYJ5LyWc4oS5s6kU8wnGHXNMmyzjfpi3h6DIpZtCgEY_hIz4XvfyhCPtR9YG9hqoSirKramT=s3362" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1165" data-original-width="3362" height="111" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhD_9PsciaMDstH3wfBtYrWS_UCgsqxV81p6QVvqvhUzQ02TfVuXipR1V3QcqXWSgrnH1o7uGnhk0K44Pma1bnXpwWzL3wKyQmBsw0S-_O_7qX45t--VYJ5LyWc4oS5s6kU8wnGHXNMmyzjfpi3h6DIpZtCgEY_hIz4XvfyhCPtR9YG9hqoSirKramT=s320" width="320" /></a></div></div><p></p><p>Rather uninspiring, isn't it? No, not Springvale Road, though that certainly has its critics. I'm talking about the uninspiring array of car colours you see there. It seems that these days, cars and vans come in nothing other than black, white, grey, red and blue. The bog-standard basics. Boring. Dull. Listless. Apathetic. There's nothing wrong with these colours, but the palette surely couldn't be limited and constrained more than this. 2020s Melbourne has several similarities with 1980s England, but I wish they'd copied their car colours as well. If you lament the demise of variety in car colours too, let me know in the comments.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiqKCo7HeCMAxdhsTc8j4LqDz031BKn7_bqflJg3cOxS4sLa4hVwpO4YJxJNrVyMtFfobVcdXdjKPSnVx_ziEph_zQpuCwQ2DPap75Jbo37occ5vtf08Z1z0e6COJOg4aWFM6p9NSi47zebkXvvQ_hB4xfDIMUcc3qAXhFfET1tcj_J9gJHaQmVe1B3=s2781" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2781" data-original-width="1871" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiqKCo7HeCMAxdhsTc8j4LqDz031BKn7_bqflJg3cOxS4sLa4hVwpO4YJxJNrVyMtFfobVcdXdjKPSnVx_ziEph_zQpuCwQ2DPap75Jbo37occ5vtf08Z1z0e6COJOg4aWFM6p9NSi47zebkXvvQ_hB4xfDIMUcc3qAXhFfET1tcj_J9gJHaQmVe1B3=s320" width="215" /></a></div>Oh, and I promised you old ads, so here's one out of the above issue of <i>Auto Car</i>. It follows the usual 1980s trend of paragraphs of text to read through, but it also features this product shot of ye olde smug Triumph owner pulling into a service station to collect his petrol stamps. Though I think he's collecting more than just stamps here if you know what I mean, and I think you do. If you can figure out what transaction is taking place in this picture, put your answer on a postcard and send it to me at the address given in the ad, no later than March 1972.<br /><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5978455438740071407.post-7901762478492042832021-11-30T10:39:00.138+11:002022-01-18T11:50:41.852+11:00Compilation Album Review: "Smash Hits '90"<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh6Ue_2fbFfoXKkDFgS2iF84OQ2JwOuOqB1wiHxJ1ZLNQ1F8I4QYZ_7iXcgvsa7b_RO50G0sHQAEzc5qwLlT4h9d3MX_y_o4p2phFxeDuVLCrZRZa2y9DMXoJOg8anpjZtZKq4lrgH4gVVWRTuByBA5jjTT_Tzhm52a-ilWAN8VNnty00_l4gLoWuuO=s800" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="788" data-original-width="800" height="315" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh6Ue_2fbFfoXKkDFgS2iF84OQ2JwOuOqB1wiHxJ1ZLNQ1F8I4QYZ_7iXcgvsa7b_RO50G0sHQAEzc5qwLlT4h9d3MX_y_o4p2phFxeDuVLCrZRZa2y9DMXoJOg8anpjZtZKq4lrgH4gVVWRTuByBA5jjTT_Tzhm52a-ilWAN8VNnty00_l4gLoWuuO=s320" width="320" /></a><b> <br /></b></div><p></p><p><b>Compilation:</b> <i>Smash Hits '90</i><br />
<b>Released:</b> 1990 – CBS<br />
<b>Number of tracks:</b> 17<br />
<b>Number one singles:</b> 1 – "Epic" by Faith No More<b><br />Other top ten singles:</b> 10<br />
<b>Best track:</b> "Epic" by Faith No More<br />
<b>Hidden gem:</b> "All I Want To Do" by Scott Carne<br /></p><p>Ah, it's another <i>Smash Hits </i>compilation for my compilation shelf. Good-o. Not only was 1990 the year I started following the charts – as I've said 16 thousand times on this blog – but it was also the year I started reading <i>Smash Hits</i>. It only cost $1.98 at the time (which left me a grand total of two cents left over from my weekly pocket money), and although they put the price up to $2.25 soon after, it was still a bargain. Top 50 chart listings! Song lyrics! Posters! Amusing readers' letters! Pre-internet pop trivia like Craig McLachlan's dog's name (it was 'Bottom', the dirty sod!) Witty and sometimes absurd commentary on pop stars' shenanigans! This mag had it all. </p><p>The songs on this album all bring back vivid memories of Year 7, my last year of primary school. And I was one of the few kids in my class who read it. So naturally I could recite up-to-the-minute chart info that made me seem like a guru to the other kids. Such as: "Black Betty" was an old song from the '70s, and M.C. Hammer was once in a Honda motorbike commercial, and stuff like that.<br /></p><p>I paid $11.50 for this, which believe it or not, makes it the second-most expensive compilation CD out of the 63 I've collected so far! (<i>Summer '89</i> tops that list at a wallet-busting $20.50.) But, you see, being the devotee of <i>Smash Hits</i>' compilations that I am, I had to have it. </p><p>I should point out that a compilation of the same name was also released in the UK, so if you're searching for it online, don't get the two mixed up. Considering the rubbish that was in the UK charts in 1990, this is critical. <br /></p><p>Unfortunately the CD booklet doesn't have the chart stats and facts that <i>Smash Hits '89</i> had or the lyrics that <i>Smash Hits '91</i> has. It just has photos of all the 17 artists featured. It's a bit disappointing there was no commentary from the mag itself, and as I recall it was advertised in every issue on release. My copy is stamped "Promotion Only – Not For Sale" though, so maybe they changed that.<br /></p><p>The compilers have chosen to start with three rock tracks in "Lay Down Your Guns" by Jiminy Barnes, "Dogs Are Talking" by The Angels and Faith No More's epic, "Epic". This choice is rather unusual when you consider that <i>Smash Hits '89</i> started with Indecent Obsession, Sinitta and Bros, and <i>Smash Hits '91</i> with C+C Music Factory, Yothu Yindi and De La Soul. But hey, I'm not complaining. Rock on.<br /></p><p>Barnesy is the one to kick-start this compilation with the usual throat-shredding you'd expect from him, then it kicks into a higher gear with "Dogs Are Talking", one of the first hard rock songs I heard (and which fell one place short of the top 10). I still like it, although I have no idea what "Dogs are talking" might mean. I thought it could be about gossiping! But the verses and the slightly naff spoken-word bit at the beginning makes it clear that the song is about some dude wanting to get his rocks off with a girl – that most unconventional subject matter for popular music.</p><p>"Epic" is still one of the best songs ever recorded. And it's also the only number 1 single on here. If they were going to pick one number 1 single to be on here, they could have picked "Vogue", or "Opposites Attract", or even "Nothing Compares 2 U", 1990's year-end chart-topper, but they went with "Epic". Top marks.</p><p>"Show No Mercy" by Mark Williams isn't a song I've really listened to in the intervening 31 years but it doesn't sound too bad. Ditto Belinda Carlisle and "Summer Rain", and The Chimes' cover of U2's "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For". They're not bad, they just didn't really grab me in 1990. I heard them many a time from watching Rage, though. I didn't like "Love Will Lead You Back" by Taylor Dayne, I preferred the follow-up single "I'll Be Your Shelter" – and <i>Smash Hits</i> slammed it in their single reviews! It actually outcharted "Love Will Lead You Back" by 7 places, reaching number 4.</p><p>I don't mind "Blame It On The Rain" by Milli Vanilli, with its lyrical theme of how you'd rather blame anyone else but yourself for your own mistakes. As for the not performing on the record thing, that isn't something I really think about, as sad as a story as it was, with the untimely death of one of the members. It does sound a bit tinny for a 1990 dance single, but that's part of its charm.</p><p>Boy, New Kids On The Block were bloody awful, weren't they? Every song of theirs had the same clunky drum machine and "Huh!" vocals with tons of echo applied. Absolute ham-fisted junk. But given their readership, they had to put a single by these idiots on. Following this is Craig McLachlan and Check 1-2's "Mona". One of the readers accused the magazine of being on his payroll because there was a poster of Craig in every issue. There was, though. Apart from maybe NKOTB, there were probably more posters of him than any other pop star in the mag in 1990.</p><p>The sadly departed Guru Josh and his ace rave-trance anthem "Infinity" is sandwiched between the two Minogue sisters. And what an absolute banger it still is. I never got to hear it in its proper nightclub context, but it's one of the highlights of 1990 music for me. The piano break, the sax, the synth chords – what a song.</p><p>As for Dannii and Kylie Minogue – absolute pap! "Love And Kisses" was one of the worst songs I'd ever heard. It still is. Dannii can't hold a tune at all, and as for her attempts to sound "black and funky" – and that's her own description of the song as quoted in <i>Smash Hits</i> – well let's just say Janet Jackson has nothing to worry about (come to think of it, she should be on here instead). As for Kylie, "Better The Devil You Know" is marginally better – listening to it through headphones as I type this, I can hear house piano chords in there – but it's standard Stock Aitken Waterman fare. </p><p>So, how about some chart stats trivia? Which song got higher on the charts, "Love And Kisses" or "Better The Devil You Know"? Give up? Well as it happens, they both reached the same position, number 4. But I regret to say that Kylie only held that position for one week, while Dannii managed three weeks there, as well as a longer chart run. Rats.</p><p>Oh man, I can't even listen to Concrete Blonde's "Joey", it's so turgid and depressing, and just plain crap. Sorry, but it is. I didn't think it was possible for a performer to have absolutely zero charisma but there you go.</p><p>Three songs from the end now and it's the only song on here I haven't heard, "All I Want To Do" by Scott Carne. Hey, I thought you know every song that charted in 1990, you big wazzock, you must be thinking. And I do! But this song didn't chart at all. I can't even remember Scott Carne being covered much in the pages of <i>Smash Hits</i>. I looked him up and he was the singer from '80s Melbourne band Kids In The Kitchen, so maybe teenagers older than me would know who he was. His song was about 'makin' lurve' and othersuch frivolous pursuits, which was of total disinterest to me at the age of 12. Next.</p><p>The slow ballad "Southern Sky" by Paul Norton is the penultimate track, and I read its lyrics printed in the mag before I heard the song itself. I'm not into ballads or anything patriotic either, but the opening lines kinda got my attention. They are <i>"It was Australia Day 1985 / Nothin' much was going on then / Sittin' in the same old dives"</i>. I wasn't in Australia in 1985 but I'd say that rings true. Bored senseless by your own country's national day – I can relate to that!</p><p>"Escaping" by Margaret Urlich finishes the album. Again, not a song that really grabbed me in 1990. Perhaps listening to it through headphones as an adult might change my opinion. Let's see, I can hear what sounds like a cricket chirping. That's not a joke by the way, I can actually hear it in the mix, although it's probably synth-generated. It's an okay song I s'pose, with nice enough instrumentation. Musically it's much more layered and varied than the rubbish Dannii Minogue or NKOTB serve up. I guess it was too mid-tempo for most people, although it was her highest-charting single.</p><p>And now I'm 'escaping' this blog post – see ya!<br /></p><p><b>Rating:</b> 6/10</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5978455438740071407.post-45404407469957824902021-11-26T11:57:00.125+11:002022-01-18T12:50:34.009+11:00Compilation Album Review: "100% Hits Volume 13"<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh7QstVqYSH8N68bVgY98Zb9P4qZkNMiC5hPlQUEH7a5Eh8Zcd1x5m7YXYyBvpwNBCgNVorOkdx043McdwofMTC1d5iYpkhI56C_C3v8JDFtQq3C4tNM5zAmXaV5YAjC-tfyGpDsFno8sAlSiwRwfH3Krb5rdnHsuBe6gNVQDWv1tBj_6WJBI5p9WbA=s800" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="717" data-original-width="800" height="287" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh7QstVqYSH8N68bVgY98Zb9P4qZkNMiC5hPlQUEH7a5Eh8Zcd1x5m7YXYyBvpwNBCgNVorOkdx043McdwofMTC1d5iYpkhI56C_C3v8JDFtQq3C4tNM5zAmXaV5YAjC-tfyGpDsFno8sAlSiwRwfH3Krb5rdnHsuBe6gNVQDWv1tBj_6WJBI5p9WbA=s320" width="320" /></a></div><p></p><p><b>Compilation:</b> <i>100% Hits Volume 13</i><br />
<b>Released:</b> 1994 – EMI<br />
<b>Number of tracks:</b> 18<br />
<b>Number one singles:</b> None<b><br />Top ten singles:</b> 6<br />
<b>Best track:</b> "Black Hole Sun" by Soundgarden<br />
<b>Hidden gem:</b> "4-Letter Word" by Chocolate Starfish<br /></p><p>It's happened, friends. My quest to collect the first 18 volumes of the <i>100% Hits</i> series has concluded. It's Volume Lucky 13. Or is it? There aren't really many songs that troubled the upper reaches of the charts on here. Still, low chart positions don't mean low quality. So let's take this one for a spin.</p><p>It starts with one of the worst novelty songs ever, "Absolutely Fabulous". It's credited to Absolutely Fabulous, that naff UK sitcom from the '90s, but it's ostensibly the Pet Shop Boys. Who cares. It sucks. I even listened to the whole thing to remind me of its irrevocable suckitude. Next.</p><p>"Son Of A Gun" by JX was a dance track I thought was really stupid when I first heard it – I couldn't believe a banger like "You Belong To Me" the following year was by the same 'group'! However it has grown on me. It's got this weird melancholy bit in the middle which jars with the upbeat hook of the song, which I can see taking out, to be honest.</p><p>Oh boy, 1994 was a big year for 'gangsta rap'. Which I'm not really into, but no matter. We've got Kulcha here with their usual schtick about some girl who "got it goin' awn". Whatever. Then Salt N' Pepa, who also get on my nerves, but "Heaven N' Hell" does have a couple of funny lines. Too bad whoever rapped the third voice will shred your eardrums. I'm not too interested in songs about life in the ghetto and how the "youth" will be "enlightened". I don't really care. What's next?</p><p>Oh, it's "Take Me Away", by D:Ream. It never charted, so I'd never heard this before. It's got a male and female vocalist, so that's a point in its favour. I like that in my '90s dance singles. It does sound a bit too much like M People for my liking, as in, the type of music you hear in clothing shops and whatnot. But it's got that house music wail in there, which was in a lot of '90s house tracks.</p><p>Apparently Joshua Kadison's soppy ballad "Jessie" is written about his break-up with 'actress' Sarah Jessica Parker. Oh lawd. Marcia Hines is next, with "Rain". This is years before she was a judge on some crappy music talent show so I had no idea who she was. The song's alright. Then we've got some enduring geriatrics in The Rolling Stones. "Love Is Strong" sounds like a blues bar ballad. Another song that didn't crack the top 40, so I never heard it. Thankfully The Sharp can rock it up after this with "Alone Like Me", although it's not my fave song by them (but it was the highest-charting).</p><p>Chocolate Starfish. Ergh. What a horrible band name. "4-Letter Word" is pretty rockin' though, even though it's yet another song about a girl who got it goin' awn. And for those of you who are wondering if they say the 4-letter word in question, they don't.</p><p>Collective Soul's "Shine" is okay but I wish they'd taken quicker to get to the increased tempo part. Many a bong must have been smoked to this, probably in the very studio where it was recorded. "American Life (In The Summertime)" by Francis Dunnery. It got to number 18, but I don't recall hearing it all that much. The guitar solo is pretty great, though. I'd forgotten about "I Believe" by Marcella Detroit, even though it reached number 10. Pretty good chorus, you'd think I would have remembered this.</p><p>"Black Hole Sun" is still Soundgarden's finest moment and I
still can't forget their weird distorted suburbia video for the song.
Brilliant! I've also seen the black doughnut-like sculpture in Seattle that
inspired the song. I can't believe Rage aired the video with a scene showing a
woman clearly enjoying a massive vibrator. The '90s were like that,
kids. Slacker anthems abounded. Speaking of which, it's followed by another alternative rock classic in
Green Day's "Longview", the first song of theirs to chart. I'm surprised they didn't censor the swearing here!</p><p>"Tunnel" by The Screaming Jets is another song I'd never heard. It's got a brass section on it, which is pretty cool. Then it's some bloke called Jon Secada. It's alright. "I'll Stand By You" by The Pretenders is the final song. I remember it was being used (in full) in a three-minute ad for an animal protection society, I forget which – and that's all I can think of now when I hear this tear-jerker. Be nice to animals, folks.<br /></p><p><b>Rating:</b> 5/10</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5978455438740071407.post-37344772549828580152021-11-24T17:14:00.084+11:002022-01-18T10:38:59.407+11:00Compilation Album Review: "Nothing Compares...To The Hits Of 1990"<p><b></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisGGoVEzAx5e8KJxGMRdCfGH6qCXjE5Xpll47ku9SPzUTvD-rfUeb328qPEKNlVz7O1EoRnDmuXJh7UhWJ1nlxpceIDiziVXDdGX5q47e_TnMQL71vYRdRjb2G7njcgkWh7sTuCJcqTK8/s800/IMG_3561.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="679" data-original-width="800" height="272" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisGGoVEzAx5e8KJxGMRdCfGH6qCXjE5Xpll47ku9SPzUTvD-rfUeb328qPEKNlVz7O1EoRnDmuXJh7UhWJ1nlxpceIDiziVXDdGX5q47e_TnMQL71vYRdRjb2G7njcgkWh7sTuCJcqTK8/s320/IMG_3561.JPG" width="320" /></a></b></div><b> <br />Compilation:</b> <i>Nothing Compares...To The Hits Of 1990</i><br />
<b>Released:</b> 1990 – EMI<br />
<b>Number of tracks:</b> 18<br />
<b>Number one singles:</b> 7 – "Opposites Attract" by Paula Abdul, "U Can't Touch This By M.C. Hammer, "Epic" by Faith No More, "All I Wanna Do Is Make Love To You" by Heart, "Nothing Compares 2 U" by Sinéad O'Connor, "Bust A Move" by Young M.C., "It Must Have Been Love" by Roxette<b><br />Other top ten singles:</b> 11<br />
<b>Best track:</b> "Epic" by Faith No More<br />
<b>Hidden gem:</b> None because I know all these songs like the back o' m'hand, young whippersnapper.<br /><p></p><p>I remember when this compilation came out. I saw it being advertised on TV. But I didn't get it, probably because I already had <i>Let's Do It 2</i>. I should have though. This is as close to the best collection of the hits of 1990 as you'll ever get. It is <i>very</i> difficult to separate it from <i>LDI2</i> however, as that wasn't a year-end retrospective, but it doesn't get much better than this.<br /></p><p>The back cover very handily gives the chart stats for each track – each song's highest chart position and the date it got there, and how many weeks it spent in the charts (as at October 29, 1990). So if you read my little stats at the top there, you'll have worked out that every song on here either reached number 1 or made the top 10. The lowest chart position reached by <i>any</i> of these singles was number 5. Get the picture, sunshine?</p><p>These 18 songs are burned into my brain. I've mentioned this before, and if you've read a few of these reviews you're probably sick of reading about it, but 1990 was the year I started following the charts weekly and as such, I recall everything about them when I saw them on <i>Rage</i>. Now that doesn't mean I like all these songs. I like most of them, sure, but not all. "Joey" by Concrete Blonde for example is a painful dirge that should not have charted anywhere near the coveted number 2 position it reached, the track by Heart is ham-fisted dreck, and Absent Friends' "I Don't Want To Be With Nobody But You" (how many times have I told these people <u><i><b>NOT</b></i></u> to use double negatives in song titles) is a ballad and you know how I feel about those.</p><p>But buying compilations – and I've got a few – means that you also have to hear songs you don't like. And that's okay, because they were still part of the musical landscape for that era and they bring back memories just as your favourite songs do. You might not want to listen to them more than once but don't tell me you can't remember the lyrics.</p><p>The actual CD is imprinted with the name <i>Nothing Compares To The</i> Best <i>Of 1990</i>, which makes me wonder if that was the original title. Or it could just be a misprint by a lackadaisical pressing plant employee. It could be one or the other. Maybe both. It's also too bad that the artist who did the detective comic-style cover is uncredited – in fact there are no liner notes whatsoever.</p><p>I'm not going to give my usual remarks on selected songs because you should know these songs by now. What, do I look like Wikipedia to you?? But seriously, if you haven't heard of any of the seven chart-toppers listed above then you are either born after 2000 or dead from the ankles up. Maybe both.<br /></p><p>Never has a compilation album title been truer. And "Epic" is still one of the best things ever recorded.<br /></p><p>Thus endeth the lesson.<br /></p><p><b>Rating:</b> 9/10</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5978455438740071407.post-76740675737320098752021-10-26T21:59:00.006+11:002021-10-26T22:07:00.954+11:00Compilation Album Review: "Hitz Blitz"<p><b></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg34GxHyRqOE0nknVvGFbLYp7Vcn7GQwEIGh2wOMVE4zFkq-_lS0yqAfdLDsPZzO1tB94uruxnqZIO0-8Xp95W53WtK5i-XdFEUd_I9AUk_FNbNILTn98fGVf5fzrYkMNJssse7s22lmGk/s838/IMG_3521.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="838" data-original-width="800" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg34GxHyRqOE0nknVvGFbLYp7Vcn7GQwEIGh2wOMVE4zFkq-_lS0yqAfdLDsPZzO1tB94uruxnqZIO0-8Xp95W53WtK5i-XdFEUd_I9AUk_FNbNILTn98fGVf5fzrYkMNJssse7s22lmGk/s320/IMG_3521.jpg" width="305" /></a></b></div><b><br /> Compilation:</b> <i>Hitz Blitz</i><br />
<b>Released:</b> 1990 – Possum<br />
<b>Number of tracks:</b> 16<br />
<b>Number one singles:</b> 1 – "Swing the Mood" by Jive Bunny and the Mastermixers<b><br />Other top ten singles:</b> 1<br />
<b>Best track:</b> "Get Up (Before The Night Is Over)" by Technotronic<br />
<b>Hidden gem:</b> "Back To My Roots" by FPI Project featuring Sharon Dee Clarke <p></p><p>First up, I think this is the 60th compilation CD in my collection! Considering I only expected to collect about 20 of these, it's quite surprising. Of course, a couple of those 60 are not your typical chart compilation but a genre compilation, and this is one of them. It's a collection of dance and house music tracks, all but two of them from 1989. As such, only a handful of these songs actually charted. The abovementioned Jive Bunny track is the only number 1 song on here.</p><p>Let's look at some of those phrases on the cover. "No slow songs", says one. Well, that suits me fine, CD cover art. No room for slow jamz™ on a dance comp. If you want to slow dance, go act out your 1980s teen rom-com fantasies elsewhere. Another such phrase that caught my eye was "No breaks between the hitz". At first I thought they did crossfades between each track — a technique used to great effect on XTC's 1982 album <i>English Settlement</i>, which I highly recommend you listen to — but no, it just means there is no two-second gap between tracks. </p><p>Right, let's begin. The album kicks off with "Italo House Mix", a medley by Rococo which actually charted in Australia at an impressive number 13, making it the third highest-charting song on here. It's not bad (although a few songs in the medley aren't strictly 'Italo'). When they get to the portion of "Pump Up The Jam" by Technotronic, the unnamed members of Rococo sing "Shake your booty on the floor tonight" when the actual lyric is "<i>Get</i> your booty on the floor tonight". That has always bothered me for some reason. Not that I can talk. I frequently record other people's songs and stuff the lyrics up.</p><p>Next it's "Baby Don't Forget My Number" by Milli Vanilli, also a hit here. It had a 38-week run on the charts, which was very impressive in 1990, but despite that it never got any higher than number 17. Just another random chart fact for you. It's also one of those songs where I hear the Weird Al parody lyrics when I listen to it, instead of the real lyrics. </p><p>Next is "Warning" by Adeva which sounds like the vocals were rehearsed maybe once or twice before they were recorded, then it's two songs I'd never heard by two singers I'd never heard of. Dina Carroll and Johnnie O, anyone? They're alright. Then it's "Get Up". Before the night is over. And you should. Ya Kid K is the one. I actually like this song a whole lot more than I did in 1990, and I loved this song in 1990. It was the first song I ever put on my CD player and turned the volume up full bore.</p><p>"Blame It On The Boogie" is a song I have to listen to somewhat regularly at work, and it's not a song I'm particularly fond of, either in the original Michael Jackson version, or this one by three grinning wallies in yellow jackets, Big Fun. They aren't. Next. "With Every Beat Of My Heart" by Taylor Dayne. Hey, didn't she do big rock power ballads and whatnot? I guess not.</p><p>Next is "Numero Uno" by Starlight, another solid slice of Italo house, which reached number 23 on the Australian charts. It's better than the Rococo single which outcharted it by 10 positions. After this is sadfish muzak maestro Lisa Stansfield with "This Is The Right Time", another one of those inoffensive pop tracks from the late '80s. I'd never heard of Jam Machine, but their track "Everyday" fits right in here. It seems to be another one of those Italo tracks where they cobbled together the entire vocal line from samples.</p><p>I'd never been particularly interested in Soul II Soul and their generic late '80s dance pop which used to have the same beat on every track, not to mention the singer's stupid-looking hairstyle. Still, they were a big influence on Yuzo Koshiro who did the <i>Bare Knuckle/Streets Of Rage</i> video games soundtracks. This song of theirs, "Jazzy's Groove", is him doing a spoken word bit over one of their typical backing tracks. It's all very Bri'ish, guv', kno' wha' I mean, you wazzock?</p><p>"Messages" by Go 101 — I'm pretty sure they were a Melbourne band. How many times have Melbourne bands come up on these compilations — zero? They're not bad; the sax sound makes this track stand out a bit. Then there's something called "Back To My Roots" by FPI Project featuring Sharon Dee Clarke. Heard of them? Me neither. But they do use that "Wooh!"/"Yeah!" sample over some house piano chords that sound identical to "Mary Had A Little Boy" by Snap! which came out a year later. I picked it for my hidden gem, as you may have noticed.</p><p>Girl Overboard? They're not a dance act, are they? Well, in any case, "I Can't Believe", a mid-tempo pop-rock tune, is on here. It definitely stands out as it's from a totally different genre. Not to say it's a bad song, but what gives? This song did chart, peaking at number 43, if you care to know. Which you don't. That's okay. We can't all be interested in Girl Overboard chart stats, can we?</p><p>The sole number 1 single is the last track on here: the aforementioned "Swing The Mood". If you don't like medleys of 1950s rock n' roll hits, you won't like this, or the two follow-up singles Jive Bunny put out, all of which went to number 1 in the UK. You can definitely dance to it, if you're so inclined. Probably not in the same way you'd dance to Technotronic, but there you go, old bean. Perhaps they put it as the last track as a nice 'comedown' to all the house music workouts that have been assaulting your ears for the previous 56 minutes. I wish there had been more vocals in it though. That goes double for you, Rococo.<br /></p><p><b>Rating:</b> 5/10</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5978455438740071407.post-77240037212627070212021-10-18T10:08:00.184+11:002021-10-23T11:22:01.240+11:00Compilation Album Review: "Take 40 Australia #1"<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdEa5Ca6Hlacz1kmArsePtWAW6kN8NgbTwSj2rYAStGBgCGok3w0tX7S9-HRfjHN005_EtXwMIxX9ATrmCUNVOKCwZ_GwryrirE6hnz78F_-myg8fF2jIBj7tf4Ef16hFzSYIAbggzBhc/s800/IMG_3514.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="685" data-original-width="800" height="274" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdEa5Ca6Hlacz1kmArsePtWAW6kN8NgbTwSj2rYAStGBgCGok3w0tX7S9-HRfjHN005_EtXwMIxX9ATrmCUNVOKCwZ_GwryrirE6hnz78F_-myg8fF2jIBj7tf4Ef16hFzSYIAbggzBhc/s320/IMG_3514.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><p></p><b><br />Compilation:</b> <i>Take 40 Australia #1</i><br />
<b>Released:</b> 1991 – Mushroom<br />
<b>Number of tracks:</b> 18<br />
<b>Number one singles:</b> None<br />
<b>Top ten singles:</b> 7<br />
<b>Best track:</b> "Last Train To Trancentral" by The K.L.F.<br />
<b>Hidden gem:</b> I've heard all of these songs before. I listened to <i>Take 40 Australia</i> every week in 1991!<br /><p>Well yes, I did. 1991, the year this CD came out, was the year I started listening to it. I did this for two reasons: to tape my favourite songs off the radio, and also because for some reason which I have never been able to ascertain, when they did the Top 40 countdown they always did it for the previous week and not the current week. I didn't mind the one week discrepancy because it meant that if I didn't get up early enough to catch the Top 20 on <i>Rage</i>, I could use <i>Take 40</i> to fill in the blank spaces in my Top 20 chart book the following week. What a saddo I was!</p><p>Also: I was in Year 8. What else was I gonna do on a Saturday evening – homework?? Get real, man! <br /></p><p>Anyway, it was essential listening and the host, Barry Bissell, was always entertaining. He'd hosted the Saturday evening show from its inception in 1984 until 2004. The show was eventually cancelled in 2016. But thirty years ago, I'd have my radio tuned to 6PM as it was then, blank cassette tape at the ready.<br /></p><p>I've got a soft spot for the pop music of 1991. It was a good time to follow the charts, and probably the midpoint of a golden age, of sorts. The vast majority of the songs on my Top 100 of All Time list are from the years 1990-1992 alone. I had just started high school and was discovering new cool songs every single week. It was an exciting time!</p><p>I'm not sure why they waited seven years to put out a <i>Take 40</i> compilation, but it's funny that it happened to come out in the year I started listening to the show. They called it <i>Take 40 Australia #1</i> but there aren't any number 1 singles on it. Oh well. There was no <i>Take 40 Australia #2</i>, either, although there were four more <i>Take 40</i> compilations released between 1995 and 2003.<br /></p><p>There's a lot of Australian content on this album – it is a compilation for an Australian radio show after all – and it's Noiseworks that kick things off with their last big hit single "Hot Chilli Woman". I don't mind it, but it was the long-delayed follow-up single to "Freedom", which is my favourite Noiseworks song.</p><p>Then it's "Hey Stoopid", an anti-drug song by Alice Cooper. In 1991, I didn't know who this dude was, and only from reading <i>Smash Hits</i> did I discover that he'd been around since the '70s and did mock-theatrics on stage like getting guillotined and whatnot. Crazy, man. It would be another year before I saw him in <i>Wayne's World</i> and thought "It's the 'Hey Stoopid' guy!" We're not worthy!!</p><p>Who's next? Hmm, it's Transvision Vamp. "If Looks Could Kill" is hardly one of their typical rawk n' rawl numbers. From what I recall they basically disappeared after this single and the parent album wasn't up to scratch. Then comes Kylie Minogue and "Shocked", and no, she still can't sing. She is the second-best vocalist on this track. The featured rapper Jazzy P is best. Isn't it a bit weird how the final chorus fades out so abruptly? Get it together, Stock Aitken Waterman!</p><p>After Kate Ceberano, C+C Music Factory and Yothu Yindi, fine dance/pop singles all, we get to the mighty KLF. Those guys really knew how to put out brilliant and catchy pop music, be it dance bangers, stadium house anthems, synth/trance, or more rock-pop-electro stuff – and their featured rappers were always great, the one here being the late Ricardo Da Force. The synth/string break on this song is one of the best interludes ever. All the elements of a hit pop single are present here: it reached number 2 in their native UK, and number 5 in Australia.</p><p>Now it's time to rock it out Kiwi-style, bro! Push Push was a New Zealand rock band that had moderate success here with "Trippin'", and I really like that crazy high note the singer hits in the second verse, but the video stands out to me because the drummer is wearing a T-shirt with "Nirvana" written on it. I didn't know who Nirvana were in mid-1991, but I soon would. I remember asking this kid before school one day if he'd ever heard of Push Push and he just made this weird double hip-thrust motion and went "Uhh-uhh!" What a degenerate.</p><p>There's more rock for us with Roxus – didja like what I did there – and "Bad Boys" which was given more than its fair share of exposure via the Summer Bay Diner jukebox in several episodes of <i>Home And Away</i>. Then comes Jimmy Barnes with some mid-tempo rock and mandatory throat-shredding high notes. I don't think I've heard this song in 30 years. Eh, s'alright I s'pose. Deborah Conway's "It's Only the Beginning" is quite a nice tune, although I didn't really care for it 30 years ago. Ditto Daryl Braithwaite's "Higher Than Hope". He's got much better songs than "The Horses", which is sappy sentimental rubbish, in my opinion. "Rise" is his best song. This is NOT negotiable.</p><p>"99 Reasons" by Jo Beth Taylor is another song I hadn't heard since its release 30 years ago, and for (99) good reason(s): it's irredeemable donkey twaddle. I remember she copped a fair bit of flak in the Letters page of <i>Smash Hits</i> for slagging off Vanilla Ice and Roxette when she reviewed the singles. That was a bit rich when both of those artists had had number 1 singles when this junk only reached number 31, and that's more than it deserved.</p><p>Let's hit the Skip button and go next to "Unity" by Sound Unlimited Posse, a song I had only heard once until now. It's not as good as "Kickin' To The Undersound" – maybe a recognizable sample might have improved it. After that, down the back end, comes "What Comes Naturally" by Sheena Easton which, in reaching number 4, makes it the equal highest-charting track on this disc. I know, I'm as shocked as you. I thought this song was rather naff in 1991. I was only 13 and had no time for these 'sex kitten' antics.</p><p>The last two songs on here are rap singles that charted in the top 10, and they're both rather good: "Now That We Found Love" by Heavy D & The Boyz, and "Ring Ring Ring" by De La Soul which is the other song that reached number 4. Still a great track. I had the hook as my answering machine message in the late '90s. <br /></p><p>Well, there may have been no number 1s on here but <i>Take 40 #1</i> is still a solid compilation. Plenty of songs that deserve repeat listens, especially if you want to be transported back to 1991. In a metaphorical sense, that is. Otherwise you'll just have to wait for time travel to be invented.<br /></p><p><b>Rating:</b> 7/10</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5978455438740071407.post-13694468675040708662021-10-16T16:50:00.003+11:002021-10-16T16:53:17.126+11:00Making rubber stamps<p>This post is way late, as I started making these nearly a year ago, but here are a couple of rubber stamps I put together. I got some 95 x 79 mm pieces of rubber, each 1mm thick, from one of those art reject stores, where they recycle odds and ends for craft purposes. I got them in the distant past when Melbourne's shops were actually open. Anyway, these floppy pieces of rubber sat around in my house for a long time, until I suddenly thought "Hey, I need a cheese sandwich." And also "Hey, those bits of rubber would be great to make stamps with."</p><p>In January 2014 at the City Library in Melbourne – the same month as my comic artwork was part of an <a href="https://nonesuch-pete.blogspot.com/2014/01/melbourne-city-library-comics-exhibition.html" target="_blank">exhibition</a> there – I joined in a <a href="https://nonesuch-pete.blogspot.com/2014/01/comic-stamping-workshop.html" target="_blank">stamping workshop</a> where the girls running the session made their own stamps out of erasers. I've always liked rubber stamps, date stamps, postage stamps, and the actor Terence Stamp is pretty good as well.<br /></p><p>Well, enough talk, let's carve up some rubber.<br /></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2T0xsomm046qsF80DQnRtfHt6QDssal_pAovoJ3ZMG_PukejUOd6WZidN1MijflsxpU3ztSQUmjlcpAh0GvlYBNpalzicQ2z6EDdLqwhCKJc6FPas1XpKdE12eD-3_BwIfJ3qdNLCKl8/s825/b1.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="825" data-original-width="800" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2T0xsomm046qsF80DQnRtfHt6QDssal_pAovoJ3ZMG_PukejUOd6WZidN1MijflsxpU3ztSQUmjlcpAh0GvlYBNpalzicQ2z6EDdLqwhCKJc6FPas1XpKdE12eD-3_BwIfJ3qdNLCKl8/s320/b1.jpg" width="310" /></a></div><p></p><p></p><p>This photo and the one below were taken on December 22, 2020, which means this so-called spontaneous stamp-making exercise has taken nearly 10 months to see completion! Some things have to take a back seat in the production bus, you know? Anyway, I liked this design of a polar bear, a simple line drawing which used to feature on a badge I used to own. So I drew it on a scrap of paper and then used pencil lead to transfer it in reverse onto the rubber.<br /><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqs7a6rG5RUVpLzsG82xn3wVvalwoyIa3xm7gAOUO-tiUhrAGEbz8drtYNTnI350YVcxH1A7bcKIn2YhiUFJy2cPcT3LeH6xmCBww_VnKRFwQ80ycgc25YHWU18pRzg4CZlmaVizhrKUU/s800/b2.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="690" data-original-width="800" height="276" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqs7a6rG5RUVpLzsG82xn3wVvalwoyIa3xm7gAOUO-tiUhrAGEbz8drtYNTnI350YVcxH1A7bcKIn2YhiUFJy2cPcT3LeH6xmCBww_VnKRFwQ80ycgc25YHWU18pRzg4CZlmaVizhrKUU/s320/b2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p></p><p>Next I used lino-carving tools to carve the image in relief onto the rubber. Don't be a fool and do the carving on top of your graphics tablet as seen above. This photo is for demonstration purposes only.<br /><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZtyCzU1Q6D5I4qUw78Y_MpNqV_jTc4tvmlwP0r3O8pAy8KV8wZWwmWPd23nZVcDhG5U2ifKkF3SCuIZr0zM7hdX3IQHsoragdqhKkKY3rXbjCZPmlrxhr3U9KN3EQ06EQ2R22o1tEfgM/s800/b3.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="580" data-original-width="800" height="232" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZtyCzU1Q6D5I4qUw78Y_MpNqV_jTc4tvmlwP0r3O8pAy8KV8wZWwmWPd23nZVcDhG5U2ifKkF3SCuIZr0zM7hdX3IQHsoragdqhKkKY3rXbjCZPmlrxhr3U9KN3EQ06EQ2R22o1tEfgM/s320/b3.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p></p><p></p><p>Once that's done, get out your scissors and bull glue and cut the designs out. Using the scissors, of course, not the glue. I'm fairly sure glue wouldn't be of much use in cutting tasks. For the second stamp I did a garbage bin. I used to draw them on my folders in high school for some reason. So, let's glue the rubber onto the blocks of wood and see how they stamp up, shall we?<br /> <br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><p></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6Upnil5DvoNN_KOCYBjg7PYEzy96ME_bR1kRJdj14TtnxU9bGhJMEj7PWxo3zOAKeYR0Lx_k_7ddbSp5KrCDC3UaT2aHXRM3Eln5Im46sbFkA8g1dWWOxbp-RIELJsbjLAcwUBhf2vpc/s800/b4.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="559" data-original-width="800" height="224" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6Upnil5DvoNN_KOCYBjg7PYEzy96ME_bR1kRJdj14TtnxU9bGhJMEj7PWxo3zOAKeYR0Lx_k_7ddbSp5KrCDC3UaT2aHXRM3Eln5Im46sbFkA8g1dWWOxbp-RIELJsbjLAcwUBhf2vpc/s320/b4.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />Ver' nice. My polar bear does look a bit sheepish, but I'm pretty happy with the result. Be sure to check this blog in another 10 months to see if I've made any more!<br /><p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5978455438740071407.post-43817115928813057782021-09-25T10:15:00.000+10:002021-09-25T10:15:28.625+10:00My Grand Final prediction from 12 years ago<p>Take a look at this Photoshopped image. I made it way back in September 2009 for a friend's birthday card.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGgoAk1iS5lEiMglVY127e5zmSCvTQYvT68QMiIJGvTzI81Jj-gM9oWHELzTgvrjmitaAloFVCzABbu3l0LsZ4lw7WfyEg31MWgilvCgm6NUTOJtMDHdetTVnNfdNMVV9JK4h2L9cp3no/s800/Chris%2527-Final.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="641" data-original-width="800" height="256" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGgoAk1iS5lEiMglVY127e5zmSCvTQYvT68QMiIJGvTzI81Jj-gM9oWHELzTgvrjmitaAloFVCzABbu3l0LsZ4lw7WfyEg31MWgilvCgm6NUTOJtMDHdetTVnNfdNMVV9JK4h2L9cp3no/s320/Chris%2527-Final.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p> <br />As you can see, he was/is a Richmond Tigers supporter. And as you can also see, it has today's date on it. I was predicting 12 years ago that Richmond would win a Grand Final in the year 2021, which was a pretty long shot as far as predictions go, because Richmond weren't all that good in 2009. </p><p>But! It wasn't all bad, because I managed to get the date of the match correct. And also because Richmond managed to play in, and win, three Grand Finals before 2021, even if they were nowhere to be seen this year.</p><p><i>Bonus points:</i> Can you spot me in the image?<br /></p><p><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5978455438740071407.post-58158362615303533562021-09-05T22:32:00.004+10:002021-09-11T18:47:44.701+10:00The Terrace, Mooroolbark: Frozen in time<p>Mooroolbark is a north-eastern suburb of Melbourne which apparently experienced its biggest growth in the 1980s and '90s. It's most known (to an interloper like me at least) for having this weird setup where three roundabouts are squished together. Just look at this abomination:<br /></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhS0nx8yxXvEusKHuxYc0e-l1bzR7epPtkP0PqL9brvHx3rP-9rDyKj8g7oqTEPsdGcrUJ1h4g1fsuIzof2mrEoVE8qmGD_mCQ2zXW5GLX8kYbZc42hhkTsoLPn1YnPZkPkQ4QL1GQBX3Y/s800/Screen+Shot+2021-09-05+at+5.07.14+PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="648" data-original-width="800" height="324" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhS0nx8yxXvEusKHuxYc0e-l1bzR7epPtkP0PqL9brvHx3rP-9rDyKj8g7oqTEPsdGcrUJ1h4g1fsuIzof2mrEoVE8qmGD_mCQ2zXW5GLX8kYbZc42hhkTsoLPn1YnPZkPkQ4QL1GQBX3Y/w400-h324/Screen+Shot+2021-09-05+at+5.07.14+PM.png" width="400" /></a></div><p>Seriously, how are you even meant to tackle this? <br /></p><p>But that's not the purpose of this post. I came to Mooroolbark to see a shopping centre called The Terrace. Locals all know about it, but I hadn't heard of the place until just over a month ago, when I read on Reddit about it. It's a shopping centre that is not exactly disused or abandoned, but fell out of use years ago, yet continues to keep operating.</p><p>After I read the comments about it on Reddit I came across <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p26NzxQ_WJ8&t=165s" target="_blank">this video by Tim Norman of Stormofilms</a> which was made in May 2019, and which gave me some additional information (and let me see what The Terrace was like in pre-COVID times).<br /></p><p>The Terrace was built in 1981, right across the road from Mooroolbark Village (a small row of shops along Brice Avenue), and adjacent to Hookey Park. It opened in 1982, and housed 24 stores such as Treasurway, Replace-A-Film, Microbee (a shop that sold 8-bit computers), and Bojangles Music — <i>very</i> '80s name there — later known as CD Haven.</p><p>Here's what The Terrace looks like from the outside. It's got a large car park with 900 spaces, to service commuters using Mooroolbark station across the road, but it's pretty much empty. The surroundings at the front look tidy, with no litter or graffiti, and neatly-trimmed hedges.<br /></p><p></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNwFY7hgUi-Cj0ch3-bsahHnStuVVa-wR4zLhi5YrXWQcev4hu40s8y_EZHokAwqlZv_6mUnrEVhCGLqccb6vhyXaagQwcTXSsSiYaZEMB2LpjpHwCqhkgu1S9I8oVAORGSilgvYGzstk/s800/IMG20210905153511.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="360" data-original-width="800" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNwFY7hgUi-Cj0ch3-bsahHnStuVVa-wR4zLhi5YrXWQcev4hu40s8y_EZHokAwqlZv_6mUnrEVhCGLqccb6vhyXaagQwcTXSsSiYaZEMB2LpjpHwCqhkgu1S9I8oVAORGSilgvYGzstk/w400-h180/IMG20210905153511.jpg" width="400" /></a><br /></div><p>That's not to say graffiti has never been a problem at The Terrace — the public toilets inside have been the worst hit over the years. One year they spent $26,000 on cleaning up the toilets alone. Now they keep them locked to keep out vandals and druggies.<br /></p><p>You'll notice from that large archway sign that there is a Bendigo Bank on the premises, formerly a Westpac. That sign has covered up many smaller signs which can be seen in Tim Norman's video, which listed each business found inside. Coming up the ramp, you find yourself at the sliding doors of the main entrance.<br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1DhLuvF7-kS8YphpSAOE0Voi81OOqiafLKvZNSwD50XVw23w4uA-sB9Dp-7qiBfoAf9Xmj4XAJoHRlEgDit4XxhX2FZLbcuB_zLYG4gexHePDrdo1Han8qUFjbRWPbIEynZ03Y8uOI2c/s800/IMG20210905153100.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="360" data-original-width="800" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1DhLuvF7-kS8YphpSAOE0Voi81OOqiafLKvZNSwD50XVw23w4uA-sB9Dp-7qiBfoAf9Xmj4XAJoHRlEgDit4XxhX2FZLbcuB_zLYG4gexHePDrdo1Han8qUFjbRWPbIEynZ03Y8uOI2c/w400-h180/IMG20210905153100.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p></p><p>Unlike most suburban shopping centres, The Terrace has not been refurbished or renovated at all since it was built (with the possible exception of the childcare centre, which seemed tacked-on to the side after the fact). As a result, the interior decor is just as it was back in 1982, with the patterned light-brown lino untouched, as well as the ceilings. The fluorescent-tube lights were on, despite no one being around, and a lot of light actually gets in thanks to the large skylight which you can see above. </p><p>Apparently there are a number of poems written by students stuck to the window of the centre kiosk, which are "post-apocalyptically depressing", according to one Reddit user.<br /></p><p>On the right in the above photo is Stay Tuned Electronics, which still has CRT television sets and record players on its shelves. Most of these shops are shuttered up and only 12 of them are open — in fact <i>none</i> of them are currently open because Melbourne is under lockdown.<br /></p><p>The Terrace was a busy place once. Then-PM Bob Hawke showed up there in 1987 for some event, but apparently its busiest day was when childrens' TV character Humphrey B. Bear appeared live there. (Poor old Bob. Having to settle for being The Terrace's <i>second</i>-biggest guest star to a man in a sweaty costume made of recycled bathmats.) Anyway, in its heyday The Terrace hosted a number of events, footy players giving handballing lessons to kids, and even a food festival in recent years, even with some of the shops empty.<br /></p><p>I am not sure when exactly The Terrace began to decline, but it was probably well on its way by 2017 when its supermarket closed. There was also once a garden centre there. The entrance to it was a large roller door, which you can see on the left in the photo below. Mikayla van Loon reported in the <i>Lilydale Star Mail</i> of July 20, 2021 that Chirnside Park shopping centre, which offered more variety, as well as heating and air-conditioning (which The Terrace apparently doesn't have?), is one of the reasons The Terrace fell behind. A larger shopping centre, Eastland, isn't too far away either.<br /></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbOYTqa0v6TSRo1E5C0rA8egDnwUn2jtQWUfPGMa60QguqsoZGxsgteLzPzce13IQo98Tq3FL8PgPC0TIksZUqepAMg7smkpRPkm5SS-NZS2TgqY-cmX7NmXmCiiA14IEcl7czcXMMCCM/s800/IMG20210905153314.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="360" data-original-width="800" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbOYTqa0v6TSRo1E5C0rA8egDnwUn2jtQWUfPGMa60QguqsoZGxsgteLzPzce13IQo98Tq3FL8PgPC0TIksZUqepAMg7smkpRPkm5SS-NZS2TgqY-cmX7NmXmCiiA14IEcl7czcXMMCCM/w400-h180/IMG20210905153314.jpg" width="400" /></a><br /></div><p>It seems The Terrace's shop owners couldn't compete with the customers heading over to Chirnside Park, so they either relocated there or closed down.<br /></p><p>The next photo is the loading bay for the supermarket, which as you can see was once called KFL. There was a bit of graffiti here, but no more than your typical Melbourne bus stop, really. One tag said "Oops!" which I found rather amusing (though infantile).<br /></p><p></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8j9XlR7t00Y3wPajcXedQRghqPBdJOVLmU-QwEsqAEsrmZbGrFZQSv6nl_E-Z9lIWCTnQKuPCZEv_XrPA4a8I14RIn5WGnH_4pbsrwEL6VR3Egy1XucT5mXcnVSv8VgwFNPz8XOryAtE/s800/IMG20210905153309.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="360" data-original-width="800" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8j9XlR7t00Y3wPajcXedQRghqPBdJOVLmU-QwEsqAEsrmZbGrFZQSv6nl_E-Z9lIWCTnQKuPCZEv_XrPA4a8I14RIn5WGnH_4pbsrwEL6VR3Egy1XucT5mXcnVSv8VgwFNPz8XOryAtE/w400-h180/IMG20210905153309.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />Next you see here Terry's Meats, the butcher on the corner. It closed in May 2019, not long after Tim Norman filmed his video. The only reason I'm mentioning it is because of the "2 Dollar" sign you see here — another relic of the past. This isn't the only piece of old signage still visible: if you look closely you can still make out where the "Treasurway" used to be on the front brickwork. <br /><p></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglwg2WBGJC5VggTaIAlcjqSWpgL5ny2O_TXhihTsVu-YthiHoBcF_92xfsl-h_jj8TL5Cfugr7LnGK2ciPZo8hSfVVCd_TOR6Qf5QpVSYZ5oVNHc-WIcWh85_rzHi8kWmn9_5OJGXxuJE/s800/IMG20210905153411.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="360" data-original-width="800" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglwg2WBGJC5VggTaIAlcjqSWpgL5ny2O_TXhihTsVu-YthiHoBcF_92xfsl-h_jj8TL5Cfugr7LnGK2ciPZo8hSfVVCd_TOR6Qf5QpVSYZ5oVNHc-WIcWh85_rzHi8kWmn9_5OJGXxuJE/w400-h180/IMG20210905153411.jpg" width="400" /></a><br /></div><p>With Melbourne's property market being the way it is, why hasn't this unused retail space been taken over by developers? Why has this shopping centre stood largely untouched since the day it was made? I don't know anything about how strata title works, but from what I understand, Coles supermarkets owns a number of shops in the centre (the <i>Lilydale Star Mail</i> says it is "a couple"), and have prevented any redevelopments from taking place. Otherwise their rivals Woolworths would move in to challenge the supremacy of the Coles across the road from The Terrace. <br /></p><p>After the supermarket there (which at the time was an IGA) closed down in May 2017 — a significant loss for the ailing Terrace, as its major drawcard was no longer there — Woolworths made an $11 million bid to redevelop the site, which was then stymied by a competitor. I wonder who that could have been? </p><p>This wasn't the only bid Woolworths has made; in fact they have made several since 2016. But it has been difficult to get everyone on board, since each shop is individually owned. And apparently every time Woolies makes such a bid, the price goes up, so they seem to have got fed up with the idea.<br /><br />So, as long as Coles holds ownership, no redevelopment can ever take place. And so The Terrace still stands there. And stands there.<br /></p><p></p><p>But who knows? Right at this moment the Mooroolbark train station is being rebuilt as a result of Victoria's level crossing removal project, so when the new station is built, perhaps the topic of redeveloping The Terrace site will be brought up.</p><p>Until then, it will remain frozen in time.<br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6HLtpOU4Z3zDQ7WQZjV9VqNgIbj9VttMi8ZX2ovy1oX6iIdA9Ye-HTmrr0dff7A7-zgXUeIYUCEStOEOXMn_l9cRvJTNtGTTNSMjDegM7UAWdvZI_rHLsq9ssELpo1ucDnwvh2o8rkCA/s800/IMG20210905153443.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="360" data-original-width="800" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6HLtpOU4Z3zDQ7WQZjV9VqNgIbj9VttMi8ZX2ovy1oX6iIdA9Ye-HTmrr0dff7A7-zgXUeIYUCEStOEOXMn_l9cRvJTNtGTTNSMjDegM7UAWdvZI_rHLsq9ssELpo1ucDnwvh2o8rkCA/w400-h180/IMG20210905153443.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0