Love a bit of cultural satire. Via Nathan I found the article Stuff Melbourne white people like. Some funny stuff, and since I’m a bit light-on for writing my own blog content this week, here are some excerpts: The Monthly: Buying a subscription to The Monthly for the object of your affections is tantamount to ... [More]
Category: Melbourne
Melbourne stuff
Solar Equation, by Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, part of Federation Square’s The Light In Winter, is a simulation of the sun, “100 million times smaller than the real thing”. Here’s how it looks in daytime, when inactive: At dusk it fires up:
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The Mail Exchange
I don’t know who or what “Whitehouse” is, but they’ve done a splendid job of restoring the Mail Exchange building — somehow I’ve never noticed it before, possibly because most of the time I walk down Bourke Street near Spencer Street, I’m facing the other way.
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Lonsdale House
Lonsdale House, pictured in early February. Check the tower. Isn’t that great? Here’s how the site looks now it’s gone. Okay, it wasn’t real art deco, it was just an art deco facade on a Victorian building. See comments But it does seem a shame that at least the facade couldn’t have been kept with ... [More]
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People are such damn slobs
City of Melbourne have announced a change to the fines for littering smokers, with the fine going up to $234 for throwing away a lit cigarette. Smokers or non-smokers, it just staggers me that some people are such slobs. Regularly, I see footy-goers at the Parkside Edgewater oval (Maribyrnong) rock up to watch a local ... [More]
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Through others’ eyes
If you think with the traffic, sprawl, crime and the crowding the city’s going down the toilet, just check this almost hopelessly optimistic, positive report on Melbourne from 2005 for the Johannesburg Star. After spending five days in Melbourne and the state of Victoria, it’s easy to see why Australia so appeals to South Africans ... [More]
I lived in Elsternwick once, and since then have always envied residents there. Everything’s there: supermarket, lots of shops, restauraunts, train or tram to city, bus to the beach. And a cinema: The Classic, which originated in 1913, and thanks to investment and renovations in the 90s, survives (and thrives) today. Bentleigh, where I now ... [More]
It’s time for a cleanout of links and half-written/baked posts. Fascinating for MSM watchers A former Fairfax staffer is starting his own free magazine in collaboration with real estate agents and is expected to win millions in advertising revenue away from Fairfax. Webber’s nanny state During the recent furore over Mark Webber’s claims Victoria was ... [More]
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Sorry in Little Bourke Street
…between King Street and Spencer Street, way up above eye level. You can see the same spot in Google Streetview, from before the signs went up.
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What was yesterday?
Yesterday was the 5th of April. It was Easter Monday, a public holiday in Victoria. Most businesses were closed. When it comes to the shops, it looked like a Sunday: most smaller ones closed, most bigger ones open. (Not like Good Friday and Easter Sunday when everything’s closed.) Schools were all closed, but they’re in ... [More]
The Age: Melbourne trains fail world ‘metro’ test Based on this study: PTUA: Melbourne Metro by name, but not by nature, which looks at the biggest thirty cities in the developed world by population, and which of them have a metro — that is, a high capacity, high frequency (every 10 minutes all day, every ... [More]
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Sign, sign, everywhere a sign
Kinda funny. Why just write “Garage sale” in your poster, when you can instead have an image of another “Garage sale” sign? To really spin people out, they could print this picture and stick it up around the place. The Royal Mint, Melbourne. Established 1872. Producer of all Australian coins between 1927 and 1967. Noted ... [More]