Categories
Culture transport

New sculpture: W-class tram

Speaking of sculpture, there’s a rather splendid new one at the corner of Spencer and Flinders Streets — a full-size replica of a W-class tram. Officially titled “Raising the Rattler Pole – The Last of the Connies”, it was installed last week, and when I went by a day or two later, appeared to be  ... [More]

Categories
Sport Travel

Nagambie’s new life-size statue of Black Caviar

On the way up to Rutherglen for the wedding, we detoured past Nagambie on family business and to stop for lunch. Nagambie’s bypass opened earlier this year. Traffic between Melbourne and Shepparton therefore no longer goes via the town, and it’s obvious that they’ve been trying to work out how to ensure some people still  ... [More]

Categories
Culture

Sunday art: Dog poetry / Street art

Dog poetry I wandered, lonely as a dog With my peeps to Footscray Hill, Amongst the grass, dirt and city views, And just the occasional golden daffodil. Street art Probably overlooked by most, this is inside a road sign on Centre Road.

Categories
transport TV

Yes, that was a Melbourne train in a US sitcom… but can anybody name the station?

Half the gunzels in Melbourne are chattering about this: through the wonders of green screen and stock footage, the most recent episode of How I Met Your Mother (which aired last weekend in the USA, and on Thursday night in Australia) featured a Melbourne Comeng suburban train in Connex colours. Update Tuesday 2/10/2013 7:30am —  ... [More]

Categories
Film

The Hobbit part 1

Finally got around to watching The Hobbit part 1. I thought being the first of three films, and at 2 hours 45 minutes, it would drag a bit, but it really didn’t. Nicely done. Cumberbatch really nailed Smaug, didn’t he. I can just see him going into a studio to record his voice for part  ... [More]

Categories
Doctor Who

I am not the new Doctor Who

Despite how it may look, I am not the next Doctor Who. We went along to the Astor Theatre on Saturday to watch the two 60’s Dalek movies — back from that curious time in British TV and film when they often seemed to remake television shows as big screen movies — in this case  ... [More]

Categories
music

Music: best derivatives and best angry songs

Some best ofs in my current favourite lists. Best derivatives While most of the music on my favourites list are original compositions, here are some cover versions and songs that sample others that I currently like a lot: Something For Kate — Born To Run — I almost like this more than Springsteen’s original. P  ... [More]

Categories
transport Video games

PAX Australia – overall a success, but the public transport arrangements let it down

An article in The Age today notes that while there were a few issues, last weekend’s inaugural PAX Australia video game festival went well. We went along on the Sunday, and had a good time. We avoided the sessions with long queues, and instead saw an XBox launch event, played some games in the retro  ... [More]

Categories
Melbourne Sport

Marking the Games

I hadn’t noticed these before — these poles at the western end of the Bourke Street Mall commemorate the 1956 Olympics and 2006 Commonwealth Games. 2006: Delays expected – Blame the games

Categories
music

Another old obscure music video clip: Jellyfish “New Mistake” (1993) – and a new one

An obscure music video from 1993, twenty years ago. I caught this video on Rage one night, and got into the band Jellyfish from there. I’m not even sure quite why I like it. The quirky music video (it was never clear enough on VHS, but it is here — all the band’s shots are  ... [More]

Categories
News and events Sport

Last night’s AFL match result – nowhere to be found in The Age paper edition?

I get The Age delivered on weekends. On Saturdays in particular it’s good to lazily read its numerous sections in the morning. So I picked it up wanting to know who won the football last night: Richmond or Fremantle? I just want to know if I tipped it right. Sometimes they have the score on  ... [More]

Categories
TV

Mad As Hell episode synopses getting pretty weird (here’s all of them for this year so far)

Those who have been paying attention might have noticed that the episode synopses for Shaun Micallef’s Mad As Hell (seen for instance in the Electronic Programme Guide on most TVs) have been getting weirder and weirder. Courtesy of the ABC TV web site, here’s a summary of them this year so far (including the next  ... [More]