“Oh my goodness, have you seen the sign?”, my friend asked me as we made our way to have a drink at a nearby bar. It was a sign declaring the imminent closure of the flower stall on the corner of Devonshire & Chalmers, to make way for a new cycle-way.
Even though I know there are some passionately held views about the City of Sydney’s foray into cycleways, I don’t actually have any strong opinions on the matter myself. I live close to Bourke Street, which has been the major focus for the debate so far. Those who support cycleways say they’re long overdue. Those who are opposed to them say they’re under-utilised.As someone who mostly gets around by public transport and by foot, I’m certainly sympathetic to the idea of cycle-ways, and I would dearly love to see more cycleways in Sydney. It’s all about the implementation, I think, and I’ll leave it to those with greater knowledge of all of the issues involved to come to conclusion.
That said, I was a little sad to see the sign about the closure of the flower stall. Even though I don’t actually buy flowers from the shop – mostly I buy them from my local shopping village – I’ve always thought the stall it was a lovely addition to the area. The nearby Devonshire Street tunnel is already pretty grim, and so for me, the flower shop always added a little “humanity” to my walk to and from work to home.
After the heavy rain and winds of the last few days, it was still overcast in Sydney today, though there were patches of sunlight shining through. But not much.
So, after taking a few work-related phone calls (hey guys, I’m on h-o-l-i-d-a-y) I spent a few hours at the State Library doing some family history research.
The night has been spent watching “Big Brother” which may have found itself back on track, with the public overwhelmingly evicting Emma (one of those bitches from Porpoise Spit if you ask me) and Rebecca (Muriel). The new intruders look like fun.
As I begin to reflect back on 2017, one of the most fantastic things I’ve been involved in this year has been a story-telling project called Surry Hills & Valleys. As I wrote previously…
A few months ago a friend and I got together over dinner at a restaurant in Surry Hills. Compared with many, I’m a long-term local, whereas she is a reasonably new arrival, but with a passion for the suburb in which we live. And a common concern, that as Surry Hills goes through the latest transformation, some sense of “community” may be lost along the way.
As we spoke, we became consciously aware that many of the “stories” of Surry Hills go back to the days of Ruth Park novels, and 1930s gangsters. What about life now??
We discussed the idea of story-telling as a way to unite the community in a modern way. There are so many interesting people living here today, and we thought it would be great to capture their stories. Along the way, we’ve enlisted some others with a similar passion.
We “launched” at the end of August, and largely due to the very hard work of Karina and Tim, we now have close to thirty profiles of people who live locally. (I have contributed a couple of ideas, but mostly I’m the web guy). I love reading the stories, and hope you might also check them out also.
Since launching, a few of our profiles have also appeared in Urban Village, our local newspaper. We’ve also discussed ways in which these stories might also be more widely shared. Stay tuned!
For the last few weeks, Carol has been revealing the Hottest 100 of all time list for herself and her family. With her inspiration in mind, I thought I’d see if I could do something similar.
It should be as simple as going to my Last.fm account, or even checking out what were my top songs on Rhythmbox (no, I don’t use Itunes), but they’re both skewed a little bit Swedish at the moment.
Or maybe I could check out my CD collection, but that ignores all the vinyl.
Sitting down and compiling a list would take too long, so I decided to go through the Hottest 100’s of the last twenty years and choose songs from there.
So strictly speaking, this is not actually my Hottest 100 of all time, it’s just the songs I like from the last twenty years of Hot 100s. And even though there was about 2,000 songs to choose from I only ended up with 62. Sure, I like lots of others, but these are the ones I REALLY LIKE.
This list is chronological, not in terms of preferences…
1 Joy Division – Love Will Tear Us Apart
2 Hunters & Collectors – Throw Your Arms Around Me
3 The Jam – That’s Entertainment
4 New Order – Blue Monday
5 This Mortal Coil – Song To The Siren
6 John Lennon – Imagine
7 Prince – Kiss
8 Kate Bush – Wuthering Heights
9 Enya – Orinoco Flow
10 Womack & Womack – Teardrops
11 Sakamoto & Sylvian – Forbidden Colours
12 Neneh Cherry – Buffalo Stance
13 New Order – Bizarre Love Triangle
14 Lou Reed – Walk On The Wild Side
15 The Stranglers – Golden Brown
16 Grandmaster Flash – The Message
17 Laurie Anderson – O Superman
18 The Church – Under The Milky Way
19 Black Box – Ride On Time
20 ABBA – Dancing Queen
21 Madonna – Into The Groove
22 Billy Bragg – Levi Stubbs Tears
23 Nirvana – Smells Like Teen Spirit
24 Billy Bragg – Sexuality
25 Queen – Bohemian Rhapsody
26 Massive – Unfinished Sympathy
27 Yothu Yindi – Treaty
28 Pet Shop Boys – Go West
29 Bjork – Human Behaviour
30 KD Lang – Constant Craving
31 Veruca Salt – Seether
32 Underground Lovers – Losin’ It
33 Kylie Minogue – Confide In Me
34 Pet Shop Boys – Absolutely Fabulous
35 Oasis – Wonderwall
36 Portishead – Glory Box
37 Christine Anu – My Island Home
38 Bjork – Hyperballad
39 Tori Amos – Professional Widow
40 The Whitlams – No Aphrodisiac
41 Blur – Song 2
42 Silverchair – Freak
43 Josh Abrahams & Amiel Daemion – Addicted To Bass
44 Propellerheads & Shirley Bassey – History Repeating
45 Fatboy Slim – Praise You
46 Madison Avenue – Don’t Call Me Baby
47 Fatboy Slim – Right Here Right Now
48 Bob Marley & Funkstar De Luxe – Sun Is Shining
49 Moloko – Sing It Back
50 Red Hot Chili Peppers – Californication
51 Bomfunk MCs – Freestyler
52 Moloko – The Time Is Now
53 Groove Armada – I See You Baby
54 alien ant farm – smooth criminal
55 dido – thank you
56 eminem – cleaning out my closet
57 Michael Franti/Spearhead – Everyone Deserves Music
58 Lior – This Old Love
59 Gorillaz – Feel Good Inc.
60 Bernard Fanning – Songbird
61 Scissor Sisters – Filthy Gorgeous
62 Peter Bjorn & John – Young Folks
A bit of a 90s guy, aren’t I?
None of this list is terribly cool, and none of it would gain me much cred amongst “serious music fans” of my age. “ABBA poof”, I hear them say. But frankly, I don’t care.
I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised when I saw the Christmas Decorations in the David Jones window, when I walked past there ealier tonight.
Even though I live close to the city, I don’t often go past there, as I’m not a particularly good “shopper”. Wandering around shops is not my idea of a good time. And so when I saw the DJs windows tonight I was genuinely surprised. I know I shouldn’t be, as it’s only a few weeks to Christmas, but I was nonetheless.
Unlike Yani who has already been Christmas shopping, and Tom who has been dealing with overseas postage issues, I’m pathetic when it comes to Christmas.
I was on my way to see James Valentine perform at The Basement. The place was packed and everyone seemed to have a good night. There was even a group of people having their “work” Christmas Party. Ours is next week.
Another reminder of the impending year’s end came at my Swedish class tonight when Marianne announced “We have just two more weeks”. “Oh yeah”, we all realised, wondering what had happened to the last few weeks.
It was an interesting class tonight, if not only for the reason we had to call the police. There was a drunk and disorderly bloke causing a bit of nearby distress, breaking windows of the next door shop. Thank goodness, we had a bloke who works in security in the class who knew exactly what to do.
And in another odd co-incidence, as I walked towards David Jones, I overheard a couple speaking in Swedish. “How many bloody Swedes are there in Sydney?”, I thought to myself.
David Jones window for Christmas, Sydney, Australia
All of which leads me to a new resolution. Along with blogging every day, and making sure I go out for lunch, and making sure the house remains tidy, I’ve decided to write something in Swedish every day. I figure if I’m going to crack this language thing I need discipline. And so I figured if I wrote something every day, even just a few lines, it would help me… So here goes…
This is a real dialogue I had last Friday night at the September Concert…
H: Hej, hej. Kommar du från sverige?
J: Nej, jag kommar från sydney.
H: Men, du har en svensk t-shirt. Varför?
J: Jag var i sverige i juli och augusti.
H: Jaha. Jag också. Jag heter Hannah. Vad heter du?
J: Hej Hannah. Jag heter James. Hur mor du?
H: Mycket bra! Varför talar du svenska?
J: Jag lyssnar på svensk pop-musik och tittar på svensk film. Jag var i sverige i juli och augusti, och jag såg många konserter: Magnus Carlsson, Peter Jöback, Eva Dahlgren, Hep Stars, ocha många andra artister. Varför talar du svenska?
H: Jag var född i sverige, och min gudmor ar svensk.
J: Ar du svensk eller australier?
H: Jag ar australier…
If you’re Swedish, please feel free to correct mistakes, as I embark on this new, interesting part of my blog.
And if you’re not Swedish, maybe you would like to attempt some translations? This could be fun…
I met the owner of the recently reopened Mecca Cafe in Lismore and shared my family’s connection to the place. “My granny was a cook here, and my dad used to play in bands here,” I told him, recalling how it was a staple of the 1930s and 40s.
Even though those days were before my time, I still have fond memories of the cafe.
The Mecca had been closed for four years, and the devastating flood that hit Lismore a couple of years ago had caused significant damage, leaving the building empty. Many people wondered what would become of the space, but now, it’s finally back.
The Mecca has a rich history that stretches back to the heart of Lismore’s cafe culture. Established in 1933 by James Forrester and Cliff Gray, it quickly became a local landmark, celebrated for its unique “Art Moderne” style.
The cafe was a hub of activity and a true social institution, famous for its booths with individual jukeboxes—a detail that sparked a shared memory with another customer who came to see the reopening.
The owner and I had a great chat and discovered a serendipitous connection: he used to live in the same suburb as I do, at The Kirk, with Gretel aka “Madam Lash”, just around the corner from my house.
He also shared his own story of resilience, describing how he rebuilt his life after the flood. It was clear this cafe was a new, meaningful step for him.
While we spoke, other people were also coming in to see the revived institution, including memories of the jukeboxes!
The Mecca holds a special place in the hearts of Lismore residents, and it was heartening to see the smiles on everyone’s faces.
As I was talking with the owner, a thought crossed my mind: this would make a great story for the local ABC station, ABC North Coast. It turns out I wasn’t the only one who thought so. I later found out that Bridie from the ABC had left a note under their door, expressing interest in doing a story. It gave me a great feeling to know that there’s so much community interest in seeing a beloved part of our town brought back to life.
