Ayesha the Wonder Dog ‘Draw your chair up close to the edge of the precipice and I’ll tell you a story’ Scott Fitzgerald The Crack-Up When I was a kid we had a dog named Ayesha. She was a Corgi with oversized ears, big personality and great intelligence. Ayesha had a male … [Read more…]
Marriage is the tomb of love ‘The company … was far more likely to give pleasure than one made up of persons of quality, where gaiety freezes in the chill of etiquette.’ Casanova describing an evening spent with a group of actors. Having just finished editing my fiction manuscript I’m taking some time … [Read more…]
Freud’s Cigar ‘Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.’ Dr Sigmund Freud 1856 -1939. Freud was a heavy cigar smoker and supposedly said, ‘Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar’. Many of his theories relate to uncontrolled libido and wild sexual impulses. Accordingly, his statement probably means a phallic-shaped object such as a cigar, doesn’t … [Read more…]
Italian Style Italian film directors produce diverse and wonderful films. Paolo Sorrentino is one of my favourite directors. Sometimes I watch the exuberant party scene from La Grande Bellezza (The Great Beauty) when I’m feeling a bit sad and need to recalibrate. Fellini’s, La Dolce Vita is a magnificent film. Released in 1960, set in … [Read more…]
The Addams Family House ‘They’re creepy and they’re kooky Mysterious and spooky They’re all together ooky The Addams family Their house is a museum When people come to see ’em They really are a scream The Addams family…’ The Addams Family theme song I was born in London but raised in Australia by English … [Read more…]
There goes the neighbourhood I often cross the river and sneak back to my old neighbourhood. Fitzroy has become increasingly gentrified; old houses have been tizzied up and sold for exceedingly high prices. Subsequently most of the artists, writers, junkies, musicians, booze hounds, poets and reprobates I once knew have moved on. Some … [Read more…]
The Perils of Modern Life I believe in censorship! If a picture of mine didn’t get an X-rating, I’d be insulted. Don’t forget dear, I invented censorship. Mae West – actress, Hollywood legend and author of Sex (1926). We live in strange times. 2022 has been marred by extreme climate … [Read more…]
A Tale Of Lost Cities I call architecture frozen music. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Even a brick wants to be something. Louis Kahn Last night, I sat on the banks of the Yarra River which runs through the heart of Melbourne. The skyscrapers appeared as cubes of burning lights. And the Casino’s neon lights … [Read more…]
Messing About In Boats As the Water Rat in Wind in the Willows, advises the mole, ‘Believe me, my young friend, there is nothing – absolutely nothing – half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats.’ I messed around in boats when I learned to sail on a lake. … [Read more…]
Love is the Drug … Love is the drug and I need to score Showing out, showing out, hit and run Boy meets girl where the beat goes on Stitched up tight, can’t shake free Love is the drug, got a hook on me … Love is the Drug by Roxy Music. … [Read more…]
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes ‘I overheard Dorothy tell Major Falcon that she liked to become intoxicated once in a dirty while.’ Lorelei Lee from Anita Loos novella, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. One of my favourite books is a hardcover 1926, tenth edition of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. So popular was Anita Loos’ novella that … [Read more…]
The Heart and Soul of Paris Notre-Dame Cathedral is widely perceived to be the heart and soul of Paris. The first time I visited Notre-Dame on the Île de la Cité, it was wasn’t just the cathedral’s sublime beauty that captivated me. It was the fabulous French Gothic architecture, accentuated by the most … [Read more…]
The Festive Season ‘Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse; The stockings were hung by the chimney with care, In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there; The children were nestled all snug in their beds; While visions of sugar-plums … [Read more…]
Deck the Halls ‘The worst gift is a fruitcake. There is only one fruitcake in the entire world, and people keep sending it to each other.’ The late Johnny Carson, comedian & former host of The Tonight Show. My Christmas tree has landed and my apartment is now … [Read more…]
Bond. James Bond. The first 007 movie was released nearly sixty years ago. There have been six James Bond British secret agents: Sean Connery, George Lazenby, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan & Daniel Craig. Much has been made of Daniel Craig’s fifth and final Bond movie, No Time To Die. I won’t … [Read more…]
Enticed by Black Leather ‘You watch the white line and try to lean with it . . . howling through a turn to the right, then to the left and down the long hill to Pacifica . . . letting off now watching for cops, but only until the next dark stretch and … [Read more…]
All Hallows Eve Halloween wasn’t always orange pumpkins, plastic skeletons and job lots of candy. At this time of year Christmas trimmings and Halloween decorations are fighting for shelf space in megastores. And while nobody was paying attention, Halloween surreptitiously crept over most of October and Christmas decided to manifest early. In my … [Read more…]
Venus was her name Goddess on the mountain top Burning like a silver flame The summit of beauty and love And Venus was her name She’s got it Yeah, baby, she’s got it … Venus by Bananarama For centuries artists have been enamoured by the mythological goddess Venus. Sandro Botticelli’s Venus is … [Read more…]
A Dog’s Life During our city’s pandemic Shutdown restrictions, I’ve been getting to know my neighbours. By that I mean the local dogs and their owners. Subsequently, I’ve come to the conclusion that only the dogs are living their best lives. Cats are a different matter. My neighbour’s cat has taken to the … [Read more…]
On being Cary Grant ‘Everyone wants to be Cary Grant. Even I want to be Cary Grant.’ quote from Cary Grant who began life as Archie Leach. I’ve been watching To Catch a Thief again. It’s my favourite Cary Grant film, directed by Alfred Hitchcock. The European locations are to die … [Read more…]
The Perils of Netflix ‘If we humans disappeared overnight, the world would probably be better off.’ Sir David Attenborough – the British Naturalist, after observing beasts of every species for nearly a century. I no longer own a television. It was an elegant piece of equipment with superb clarity and great sound but … [Read more…]
The Zen of Happiness Money can’t buy you happiness, but it can buy you a yacht big enough to pull up right alongside it. David Lee Roth, American rock musician. To be sure there are people who are largely unscathed by our global pandemic and their happiness seems unblemished. … [Read more…]
The Very Rich Are Different ‘Let me tell you about the very rich. They are different from you and me. They possess and enjoy early, and it does something to them, makes them soft where we are hard, and cynical where we are trustful …’ F. Scott Fitzgerald A few days ago, … [Read more…]
Wine Snobbery ‘A man cannot make him laugh – but that’s no marvel: he drinks no wine.’ William Shakespeare Some time ago I was at a dinner party for eight and it was getting late. The hostess had got herself ossified on neat Scotch as she prepared a delectable … [Read more…]
Ritual Madness The Ancient Greeks were enthralled by opposing forces and heavily invested in two of their gods, Apollo and Dionysus. Apollo was the god of reason and wisdom – devoted to logical thinking, patience and duty. Dionysus was significantly more adventurous and dealt in the realms of imagination, play and chaos. Dionysus – … [Read more…]