Author Archives: Ernest Zanatta

Do unto Spain what Elizabeth the First did to the Armada!

Over a decade and a half ago, a friend told me that he had just ordered a new dinner suit as he had joined a yacht club and they regularly held formal dinners he needed to attend. There was no talk of him actually going out in a yacht of course – it was all …

Continue reading “Why The Matildas 2023 Dream Run Is Just Like Winning The Americas Cup In 1983”

In nature, the lionesses of a pride hunt for prey and provide food for the lions. So it is in soccer (a sport I profusely dislike). The Lionesses of the English Women’s team last night provided a goal to feed each of the three Lions on their shirts as they comprehensively thrashed the Matildas. Rollo! …

Continue reading “In Which I Buy An England Scarf”

I was browsing today and saw this display of supposedly trendy clothing featuring Carlton Draught logos. It is by some clothing company called Nina and Pasadena. They use this branding to justify charging $79.95 for a t-shirt. This sort of over charging for becoming a walking advertisement for a beer brand makes me wonder whether …

Continue reading “When Beer Merchandise Becomes Fashionable….”

Few people would have ever heard of the Southern Aurora Hotel. It was demolished in early 1993. It might have been the roughest pub in Greater Melbourne. It was located just next to Dandenong Railway Station. I visited it one Friday evening in May 1992, when I happened to be working in Dandenong. I had …

Continue reading “Welcome To Dandenong: Craft Beer Free Zone!”

A former friend of mine, as he descended deeper into a fantasy world which was either delusional or border personality disorder, once confided to a mutual friend that his intention was to go into space. This is the problem we will find with all those people who sit on the couch watching Star Trek or …

Continue reading “The Poor Man’s Ziggy Stardust – Some Belated Reflections On Babylon Zoo”

I just spotted this fresh graffiti in Footscray this morning. It makes a refreshing change from the illiterate and mostly untalented scribbles which have infested Melbourne in recent years. However, WTF? Whilst as an amateur classist I know that Artemis is a virgin goddess, but no one worships her anymore, thanks to the Emperor Theodosius …

Continue reading “First Articulate Graffiti Sighted In Years!”

‘Do you think that the Faith has conquered the World And that lions no longer need keepers? TS Eliot – “Choruses from the Rock” Around twenty years ago, I got on a crowded city bound train at Footscray Station. Standing close by me were a group of private school kids – I am not so …

Continue reading “A Stage Adaptation of On The Beach – with a subtle difference….”

Like many teen aged boys in the 1980s, I had a thing for Laura Branigan, she of the sequinned body suit and awesome wiggle who sang various hits, including the English language version cover of the Italian hit Gloria (with modified lyrics and addition of a post disco dance sound). Recently, when idly browsing Wikipedia …

Continue reading “Play Gloria! (In Which I Explain Why And Whom I Have Adopted As My NHL Team)”

The Age has written, since the cancellation of the 2026 Regional Commonwealth Games, about the intended Aquatic Centre in Armstrong Creek, a recently built suburb south of Geelong in a marginally held Labor seat. Apparently the plan was to build temporary stadia around two 50 metre racing pools, and one diving pool. After the Games, …

Continue reading “Armstrong Creek Aquatic Centre – Pork Barrelling or Electoral Fraud?”