I'm old enough to know that I don't have any answers, but that won't stop me talking
At the risk of sounding paternalistic, and possibly imperialistic, where I live in Avondale Heights was, for a brief moment in time, the very edge of the known world. In early February 1803, the naval officer James Fleming and the surveyor Charlies Grimes left their ship in the bay, and rowed up the Yarra mouth. …
Continue reading “The West Melbourne Swamp and other reflections on local history”
iam pridem, ex quo suffragia nulli / uendimus, effudit curas; nam qui dabat olim / imperium, fasces, legiones, omnia, nunc se / continet atque duas tantum res anxius optat, / panem et circenses. Writing at the time the Roman Empire was reaching its greatest extent, in his Satire X, the Roman poet Juvenal denounced the apathy …
Continue reading “Uber Eats and Netflix: Bread and Circuses, 21st Century Style”
It is now mid-winter and I am in a state of semi-hibernation, which is strange because winter is usually one of the most academically and professionally active times of the year. I do my job on my laptop, and go into the office twice a week, but I see no point in taking holidays, and …
How does a bastard, orphan, son of a whore And a Scotsman, dropped in the middle of a forgotten spotIn the Caribbean by providence impoverishedIn squalor, grow up to be a hero and a scholar? The ten-dollar founding father without a fatherGot a lot farther by working a lot harderBy being a lot smarter By being …
Because it is in a more remote pocket of Avondale Heights, about 500 metres on the other side of Military Road, where the streets are all named after places in France, I rarely get along to the Cannoli Bar in Riviera Road. It opened about 2 years ago, in a former milk bar and is …
Continue reading “All Roads Lead To The Avondale Heights Cannoli Bar”
I like a glass of decent red wine or seven. The older I get, the more I realise that this is not a good way of managing my health, regardless of what wine writers say about the various natural chemicals in wine preventing or curing all sorts of illnesses. I do know, given that we …
Continue reading “In Which Coles Online Inadvertently Helps Me To Observe Dry July….”
As a small child, I have very fond memories of quality time spent with my father (I was the first born child and therefore had lots of privileged access). Visits to the zoo, or to the Royal Melbourne Show, or to see the Moomba Parade. Moomba was always a constant. You had the parade each …
At the time of the South Sea Bubble in the 18th Century, Dr Brian May lookalike Sir Isaac Newton is quoted as saying: “I can calculate the movement of the stars, but not the madness of men”. Sir Isaac was also a shareholder in the South Sea company, but I am not sure whether he …
Continue reading “Observations on the madness of men and markets…”
When I was browsing Wikipedia just before, I saw a featured article on the title page which was just too bizarre for me to pass up: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Asakai Yes, if you have clicked on that link and read it, this is an account of a virtual battle in cyberspace, not about alleged Communist Chinese hackers trying …
Continue reading “Ready Player One Million: The Ultimate First World Problem?”
A few months ago (and where has the year gone?) I wrote something about how countries like the USA are able to inspire their musicians to write songs about their cities and homes which are clearly linked to their geography, but which are un-self-conscious about it, New York City being a prime example. Australia is …
Continue reading “Unselfconscious Songs about the Australian Way of Life”
Lost For Words!