More Alfresco Seating

Feeling relaxed? Don't look up.

Erskineville, Sydney Australia. Saturday 2 May 2009

Why isn't this MY car??

Having always wanted an Aston Martin since I was 15 yrs old (wow, that's a while ago), I came across my dream model up for auction this weekend, well, today actually.
I don't care about it being out of rego and I'm so not looking at that puddle underneath near the rear... THAT CAR SHOULD BE MINE!
Here is (my) the actual car in the auction room this weekend: a 1954 DB2/4 Grand Tourer Mark 1 (not the Spyders or the funky DB3 )




I even got AH excited about it even though she was a little more taken with the 1958 Porche Cabriolet (and it was gorgeous)- there were some really interesting cars and motorcycles in the auction rooms and we spent some time looking in cabins and pretending we were deciding which car we really wanted to buy...
I don't have $100k to 150k to throw around so I may have to resort to a 1960s model like the DB5... that's just downright sexy... vroom (except that's a bloody James Bond car - best I add another $100K!)
Another model of my 1954 DB2/4 sold last year for $165k & in the USA, for $USD200k+ !

gosh.

A cabriolet model was featured prominently in Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds



Quick Tippi! put the roof back on!





Tippi Hedron's character spends a number of scenes being out-starred by my car as she drives to the quaint coastal town in pursuit of the Rod Taylor character. She doesn't get pecked by a bird until she LEAVES the DB2/4 at the docks, roof still down and takes to a dingy. hmmm. Later, driving at twilight, she parks the car and there is only one brake light - but what a star; when they grab the kid from school, surrounded by all those birds, Rod Taylor puts roof on in a flash.

And, of course being the true star of the movie, the car is immaculate, not a scratch, not a tear as they drive away from THE BIRDS!

This must have wonderful car that should belong to me has also starred in some film called Checkpoint (1956)about racing cars, The Saint (ha! show that Volvo a thing or too) and made many appearances in the 1953-57 TV series, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Presents

Even though I haven't driven cars or ridden a motorcycle for 15 years, when you do see me driving... well!!

==
postscript: OMG, OMG, it was passed in at auction. AHHHH.

Watch out serial monogamists - Centrelink gonna getya!

How exciting that the Rudd government has "kept true" to it's promises for same sex couples law reforms.
And what better way to let everyone know by headlining with "Couples are Couples" - if you're on social security and have just done the dyke thing of move in together the day after the night you met, say bye bye to your dole.
That's right, 'equal'(read: almost, sort of close) rights means the Gov wants to cut more people off the dole.
Will this mean that people sharing house who are the same sex will get as harassed as a man and a woman sharing house? I shared house with 2 people who were long time friends and housemates. They were both homosexual and of the opposite sex and Centrelink used to hassle them all the time as defacto (even though the bloke was obviously camp).
That's a thought - I wonder how people will react when Centrelink asks housemates if you girls or guys are just good friends! How do straights answer that one?
Gosh, I can almost taste the strained homophobia.



What other reforms are there? umm, if you're a breeder there's stuff and a bit of immigration, which is good - makes moving to Australia as difficult as straights that don't marry.
I'm not into following the hetero flock (and really find the white wedding and expected expense carryon totally ludicrous) but the Labor Party still won't agree to marriage between people of the same sex. Marriage can only be marriage if it is between a man and a woman.

Damn, what happened to the days when you could get a friend to put your dole form in... No one bothered the unemployed and the unemployed could hang out with other unemployed and do stuff like watch Prisoner on the telly and get really excited when the midday movie was in colour and almost adult & modern while eating baked beans straight out of the can...
Sure people could bludge a bit and winter is a bit cold to get a job and summer, well how about that heatwave, can't work in that... But eventually people get work - the people who want to rip off the system will always find a way to rip off the system but it seems everyone gets punished.
So gee thanks once again mediocre feddies I feel all warm and not too furry knowing that any independence I feel as an individual will always be under scrutiny. See, reforms that don't go all the way really only benefit one way.
Same can be said for the work place relations changes - someone may work for 20 years and get retrenched but if there's less than 15 people working there, they get nothing and dismissal is not unfair. How fair is that?
Arts, what arts?
And
Then
There's
The
Pulp
Mill

Dusty

It would've been Dusty Springfield's 70th birthday last week & it's 10 years since her death.
So happy birthday Dusty.
If I was to step into the tardis and step out around 1967, hell, I'd do more than peel grapes on request!




==

meanwhile on another planet...

outdoor seating looking good, having a chat... Surry Hills NSW

Australiana

Paddington, NSW Australia - where the fashion is

Bus Stalking

Nonchalantly holding a camera, I spent an afternoon in March taking photographs as I walked from town to Paddington to meet AH for a gallery cruise. There was quite a bit to photograph, which I will work on as I go along and so far the bus ride home came up with a couple of gems:



Both images show people unaware at the moment I pressed the shutter button that they were being photographed. I like the candid nature of these.

Audio Tape #2 for Meggs

ly 2 weeks after making a tape for Meggs - to torment, tease and delight her on her old Sony Walkman, I got the bug. After a fun evening & a little wine, AH & I got dancing & giggling with my humble vinyl collection to make another "tape for Meggs"
How could I surpass the greatness of Shocking Blue's Venus... the additively cuteness of Lynsey dePaul and the total coolness of Nancy Sinatra singing Bang Bang...and damn, how fab & fun is Cher's Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves...

A different mood was needed altogether... but it was the arrival of my Blue Mink 45 in the post that insisted there be another Tape for Meggs.

And once again, I set the rule of only playing music I have on vinyl.

Side A:

1. Can The Can - Suzi Quatro (LP 1973)



My brother was the bigger Suzi fan when I was a teenie. To me her band was really ugly to look at (aesthetics in pop mean a lot to a teenager) but she was pretty cool even though it looked a bit silly having that big bass guitar so low when she was so little.
I saw her on the telly recently in an English whodunit where she played a has-been type rock star, still on the booze. She was excellent and funny.
In the early 1970s her biggest record hits were in Australia (followed closely by Europe / UK).
Born in Detroit USA, she's lived in the UK for many years, was the voice of Rio in the Bob the Builder film and turns 60 in 2010.

2. Melting Pot by Blue Mink (45 1969) - an all time favourite

3. Love Shack by The B52's (LP 1989)

4. Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll by Ian Dury (LP 1977)





The LP cover this comes from includes Ian Dury's son, Baxter at the age of six.

5. Shivers by Marie Hoy and Friends (LP 1986)

Also sung by The Boys Next Door (Nick Cave), this is from the Dogs In Space movie soundtrack - to me, hers is the coolest version - one of my very favourite songs from the 1980s.
AH doesn't like hearing this song because an old boyfriend a lifetime ago used to sing it, badly.


6. Tubular Bells by Mike Oldfield (45 1974)

Unlike the long-winded LP where he announces all the instruments about to be played (gee, isn't Mike a clever lad), this is the single - the compact version, an excellent tune and was released as single from the soundtrack from the The Exorcist. A friend of mine can't even hear the title of that film; it frightened her so much as a kid...

7. O Caritas by Cat Stevens (LP 1972)

Excellent guitar, wonderful macho voice with a splash of high drama. Love the Cat.

8. Penny Lane by The Beatles (EP 1968)


Can't even remember when I got this EP record it's fun to play & this particular piece of vinyl has the romantic, nostalgic addition of quite a bit of surface noise... but no distortion

9. Eleanor Rigby by The Beatles (EP 1968)
Got lazy & let it play from the last song.

10. Billy Don't Be A Hero by Paper Lace (45 1974)


As said in a previous blog - they're a bit like topiary & cement garden animals - 4 men often in matching suits with spangles and with the same flower in each lapel. In this song, they also whistle and the 5th member, the drummer, is the singer... fabulous.
I still regret the day I didn't buy that how-to book on indoor topiary from a sale table... At least I have Paper Lace on 45 (I would never regret not buying their LP - that would be like actually having a topiary garden)

11. The Corrupt Ones by Dusty Springfield (LP 1967 - soundtrack)

Crappy B grade James Bond wanna be film starring Robert Stack & Elke Sommer (need I say more...) BUT! - with a fabulous theme song


12. I Feel Free by Cream (LP 1972)

13. Elephant Talk by King Crimson (LP 1981)



SIDE B.

1. Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen (LP 1985) a hits LP - the song was released in 1975

I don't need to link this one as everyone has heard and can probably still sing it most the way through, making up that other language operatic bit.
AH learnt English at school singing songs including this one - funny, hey?

To my horror, I cut off the first word of this song underestimating the leader tape and apologised to Meggs. She replied that it’s fine but her face tightened as she told me about the guy who'd been stalking her and was a nutter Queen fan as well so she's not too fussed about listening to Queen.
I may have to redo the tape.

2. Young Blood by Rickie Lee Jones (LP 1979)

From her first album with the hit, Chuckie's in Love on it that really was overplayed in its day and I'm still not in the mood to hear it. Young Blood is cooler and less self conscious.


3. Games Without Frontiers by Peter Gabriel (LP 1979)



Not the original video to this song but all I could find after looking for, oh 3 minutes...

4. One More Cup of Coffee by Bob Dylan (LP 1975)

With accompaniment from Emmylou Harris & good fun to sing along with providing one does a nasal roberty bob impersonation.


5. In The Wilderness by Genesis (LP 1976)

one of those "Rock Roots" series. Original recording was 1969 & it shows - a little corny but it has a good pop feel


6. Dancing Barefoot by Patti Smith (LP 1979)



Poet, patriot, artist, messenger. I saw her in concert last year (2008) at the Sydney Opera House - I think none of us, the audience and her, Patti Smith, could really believe it. She loved opera at a young age and said on stage, I may not be able to sing opera but I'm singing in the Opera House!
The last time I'd been in the same room as she, it was the local Enmore Theatre in 1997. Ushers kept making us in the audience stay in our seats. Patti got down, off the stage and danced with people until we all got up and stayed up. This latest concert was full of subdued people and I was asked to sit down during Gloria (I knew the playlist and it was the 3rd last song for f*&ks sake) - hey mister, this is rock, this is Patti Smith and I WILL NOT BEHAVE!! some sweet girl in retro clothes suggested I dance over there, in the side aisle... ... where do these people come from?
At the age of 62, Patti Smith is dancing through the audience, motioning people to get up and dance. They get up as she passes, clambering arms with hands out to touch her, only to sit again when she passes. What a lame lot of well fed people...behaving... She was talking politics - Bush was still in but Obama was on the campaign trail.. Here, Howard was gone, even humiliated and Rudd is in - quiet, mediocre and not John Howard.

Patti Smith lives in the Chelsea Hotel in New York. She was there when those people flew planes into the twin towers. In the book of her exhibition, Strange Messenger (2002 Andy Warhol Museum) she writes; "They (the twin towers) are gone. And all those people. I keep sitting on my stoop looking towards the night, to where they were, thinking they will reappear. A dazed businessman impeccably dressed, save for the white dust covering his shoes, passes..."


7. Starman by David Bowie (LP 1972)


Check out the boy in the audience with the horizontal striped vest who spots himself on the monitor about 2 third through - What an effing dork. As a just made it to wet dreams youngster, would he ever envisioned being seen more than 2 million times 35 years later - heh heh.

This song has been covered by more than 25 other artists. This song was not a first choice for Bowie's album, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars but replaced a cover of Chuck Berry's Round and Round, reportedly on the insistence of Bowie's record company lawyer/executive, Dennis Katz.

8. Universal Radio by Nina Hagen (45 1985)

go Nina. Nina for president

9. Dancing In The Street by Martha and The Vandellas (LP from original recording 1964)


10. Too Nice To Talk To by The Beat (LP 1983)

(see! and you thought I couldn't remember the 80s...)

11. Dear Prudence by Siouxsie and the Banshees (45 1983)

12. Doodlin' by Dusty Springfield (LP 1965)
Have to go now & play some records...

Vinyl that will never come to our house

This record cover is doing the rounds and too damn irresistible to ignore - imagine finding this under the Christmas tree!
Damn, imagine finding one of these girls in ya bed! How's the therapy coming along?




and what exactly DO they mean by Jesus Use Me - not what Bill Withers meant when he sang "Use Me"

Another 45 comes home with me

I had to get my glasses adjusted at the optometrist, which happens to be next door to Baz at Egg Records. Cleverly, he had a box of singles & EPs on his counter. I said, Hi and what in here. I found an EP from 1993 from the Frumpies: "Babies and Bunnies" - lots of fun and thanks to the always entertaining Youtube, there's even some clips of the songs from this EP.



An extra on this vinyl is around the inner part where there's usually a serial number etched in - something a person doesn't often look at. There was no date on the record itself so i held it to the light to see if it was etched in. It wasn't but "SKANK AND CHILL" is beautifully engraved there. On the b-side is engraved: "UNFOCUSED HATRED SEEKS A VICTIM"


what a treat.




Killrockstars site

now I'm off to meet my good friend, Sylvia for a beer and no doubt a chat about her lovely fella & my fabulous gel... as well as, you know, stuff including this little treat of a record

Slide show promotion - Anne goes international

that's my scribble on the flyer - wot a dork! (if you click on the picture, it will come up bigger & readable)


==
Siouxzi Mernagh has just finished her fellowship with Berlin ici (Institute for Cultural Inquiry) - an institution that organizes fellowships for people to work on projects that require lots of brains. Stuff like: Death Drive, Repetition Automatism and Seriality in the Intersections between Psychoanalysis, Cybernetics and Popular Culture
With thanks to Siouxzi up to 20 of my images (from the series I have posted online on my website (some other shots SM chose from here)will be shown as 3x4 metre slides during the course of a "Sydney" evening in Berlin she is putting on to celebrate the completion of her fellowship film. She wanted to show Sydney different to the usual Opera House & kangaroo look by presenting a quirky, inner west view - more like the Sydney she knows.
I share the Unseen Sydney part of the show with Megan Yeo - we are both rapt.
Lucky Megan leaves for Europe on Monday, just in time to catch the show - I'm looking forward to hearing all about it.

==

Was it murder or was it suicide?

Or maybe just an accident...

A glaringly sunny morning and there's dozen policemen & big vans in our street before nine on Sunday.

Our house was door-knocked - I was lying in bed vaguely waking up listening to the news on Radio National.

Two pleasant policemen waited at the door while I got decent - ish.
The main fellow asking questions was very interested in those annoying noises I heard sometime between 5 and 6 AM.. I think that was the time.
"Are you sure it was two male voices"
"Yes"
"Could you hear what they were saying"
"No but I tried to listen to what they were saying - I thought it would be better than telly but I couldn't hear anything"

Rats!
In the early hours of the morning I was annoyed by the noises & talking but just as I thought I would do some, "bloody stop it with the cars doors will you!" yelling out the window but suddenly they either stopped or I went back to catatonic land.
The other thing is it may have been the media opening and closing car doors a dozen times & trying to talk quietly in our little street with all those trees and warehouses now made into apartments - sounds bounce all over the place.

Later, resisting the urge to gawk (a fine art in need of practice), AH went for a little walk & met other neighbours also not gawking. from what they heard from someone who heard - who probably heard something, it was a balcony fall... jumped or maybe he/she was pushed...

In-house events or "serious incidents" (as the nice policeman called it) are less frightening than say, the robbery outside our front gate or the aggravated rape just up the road in the park at 9PM one night...


One thing I do know - I'll be gawking at the news tonight.

That's just being honest.

==

Grave Business

Camperdown cemetery Friday 13th March 2009.


I finished off some old slide film I had in my op-shop bought 1975 Ricoh Rangefinder and had it processed as print film (cross-processed)- it took a few goes to get the negative to scan ok.

Today as I post this, I'm feeling a little Gothic... and it's raining outside.


==

Let that be a lesson

Marijuana grows wild in Missouri but eerily drawn eyebrows and 3 toned permed hair takes true mastery

===
if you click on the image, you will get a better view - Dorothy Peterson: Trend Setter! And I know what else she thinks about when she's slipping on that uniform: shoulder pads would be nice.
(I told you she's ahead of her time!)
+++

visiting an art studio

A week ago I visited Meggs Yeo in her shared studio space in Petersham with the purpose of taking some photos of her and her work.
an enjoyable time was had.

==

Saving Possum

Friday 6 March
AH and I potter into Sydney town & check out the Hyde Park Barracks, which is now a museum.
By 3PM I really need some lunch and the cafe there closes at 3. I suggest we go to the little place opposite the NSW Art Gallery - get a coffee & salad roll. On the way down Art Gallery Road, AH says, "what's that?" and spotted next to a large Ficus Hillii (fig) what we thought to be a rat but realised it was a very, very young ring-tailed possum, the size of a little guinea pig.
It was just sitting there, unafraid, enjoying a forage and munch on the fig fruits...

Fortunately there was gardener nearby and I brought him over & asked him to call a ranger to take care of the little one. The ranger was there in under 10 minutes. The gardener asked for us to stay with the possum, which was a good thing as I had to ask 2 people who stopped to see to please not use their camera flashes.
Then it occurred to me that I had a camera in my bag that would not need a flash to get a record of a really cute little creature.

Finally to the little snack bar for very good coffee and a salad roll.
Other native animals we saw or heard that afternoon were; Kookaburras, Sacred Ibis, Rainbow Lorikeets, Little Corellas, Sulphur Crested Cockatoos, Little Cormorant...

We popped into the the NSW Art Gallery and had a look at the 1600-1800s Korean paintings (Joseon Dynasty) - fabulous - there's some amazing surrealist looking pieces, 200 year older than the Surrealists we all know about (not quite the images I saw but the only samples I could find):




===
(possum image copyright Anne Bentley)

End of an era - Bonds goes to China

There's been a bit of protest from people mostly the workers about to lose their jobs - fair enough.
There has, I suspect been a lot of shrugging of shoulders with an "oh well, that was bound to happen" and "what can we do?" etc etc
Bonds, home of Chesty Bond in his famous singlet (that has a minor celebrity spike in the late 1990s when gay men visiting from the USA reckoned the singlets and Tasmania's Blunstone boots were the thing to wear).
Now the lot (not blunnies yet though.. I think) are moving off to China, home of questionable work practices and pollution.
I wonder what will happen when Chinese workers get unionised to help stop the exploitation and punishment.

==
(image copyright Anne Bentley)

Addison Road - Bathrooms on the outside

Addison Road, Marrickville, Sydney Australia - a crazy mixed up street.
Partially paved with bitumen, partially with cement.
It has a feeling of Carnie people sometimes (Carnival types) rather than the edgy, could be protection racket people on say, Marrickville Road...


A mix of residential, commercial (mostly scruffy secondhand DIY) and industrial buildings.





some of the buildings look like bathrooms.





And just to prove it girls serve beer in their underwear in the pub on the corner: "Lingerie Waitress" (just the one then?)

But it is the Ming On Trading Company that's my favourite building on the street.

bring it on, Ming On.

==
(All images copyright Anne Bentley)
==

Just when I'm contemplating future employment I see a Dumb Monkey Person

so what does one do on a Sunday when I was gunna then gunna and then some. I went for a walk around Enmore and Newtown.
On King Street Newtown, where Alice Street intersects there's a car wash. The owner of the car wash is frequently in the local paper due to council breaches and neighbour complaints.
To get customers on a Sunday (or any other day, I wonder?) he's employed someone to wear a monkey suit & wave at passing motorists. It could actually be the owner in there.
It was rather humid today and I wondered how the weather was in the suit and then I actually thought about how I could do that job - provided it was for no longer than, say once a week for say, no more than 2 hours.... just a thought.





People could call me that Dumb Monkey Person





Then again, I'm probably not the right height for the suit and I would likely have egg thrown at me or get pushed over...





===
(All images copyright Anne Bentley)

One more day until mundane Monday

Sunday night already! damn. I'm procrastinating again. AH & I pottered down to a rainy, muddy Gay & Lesbian Fair Day today, ate white flour stuff and sunk a can of Coopers Light beer. We signed petitions and smiled at women and walked home in the rain.
AH has gone for a walk to buy a bottle of red to have with dinner. I don't know what I'll make us for dinner. I know if I turn on the television, I probably won't do anymore work tonight and I haven't done anything yet.
Oh, except email an Australian in Berlin who is after some Sydney urban shots to project onto a wall for a thing she's doing (x fingers).

Just now I was reading a friend's blog: http://www.ombites.com.au/ and found a link to the name & shame NSW food authority - all the restaurants and takeaways you so don't want to go to..
A lot of fun to read is the convictions page: http://www.foodauthority.nsw.gov.au/aboutus/offences/prosecutions/

on the penalty notice page
(http://www.foodauthority.nsw.gov.au/penalty-notices/) there was only one place in Newtown that was caught out for dodgy hand towels but the Blue Mountains makes me think twice about a weekend away. Fair enough, there are a lot of food places in the BM but Newtown has heaps of places too.
Ashfield has quite a list... Glebe had none.

I get annoyed when I waiting to be served to get, say, a salad sandwich and I watch the way some people use the same tongs for ham, chicken, cheese and then the tomatoes. Then it all goes on the same bread board, which is wiped with a grotty tea towel... I usually leave. Happens a lot. One time I asked the person serving not to use the same tongs she'd just used to cook bacon with to make my lunch. She replied, oh, you don't like bacon? geez.

meanwhile - I found a photo I took window shopping on Parramatta Road in October last year.
At first glance the model looks like breast surgery gone wrong,
"Oh nurse, what happened to the nipples I had in that dish?"
but I expect it's what women can buy to have that little extra in their cup. Living with breasts that discovered gravity as soon as they began to grow, having a D-cup since probably high school I'd swap with the lesser chesty any day:

Procrastination day as well

noodling about my folders, found a set of shots from 2 or 3 years ago - playing with orchids and cornflour mixed with water. gross, hey...
it wasn't a rainy afternoon when I did this. I was playing around thinking I'd come up with some fantastic art project and be held in awe and all that shit.
I had the idea of placing a dripping orchid in the hands of young men - one youthful beauty with ivory skin could hold it to his chest etc etc...
I saw the project run in my head, was duly entertained and left it at that.
I may watch the re-run one day.

Flat day Saturday

a flat day - it's been raining for 2 days (the rest of last week, just drizzle). there's a radio babbling on in the next room - it's been chattering for hours now... No new old records this week... I even played a CD yesterday... Walked in the rain to pick up some photo orders only to find I'd incorrectly re sized 4 and they are too small so I will have to get them re-done and be out of pocket - again. Think I'm in some mug's game.

But most of all, I think I need toast and honey.

after an inspiring look at the scenery:

Another 45 in the post box

I couldn't help it - a favourite from when I was a kid. We take in a lot when we're kids - like knowing lyrics to a song without consciously learning them.
for years I didn't connect the female singer in Blue Mink was THE Madeline Bell and of course, it's her voice that makes the song

this treat in the mail means there's another tape on the way for Meggs!
I ask myself, why fuck around with accounts and tax when I can play with records!

==

Making a tape for Meggs Side A

I've been having great fun finding some old favourite songs.

at a shop in Erskineville (funny how I seem to make time to pop into some shops when I'm out to meet a friend).

As we sat in the yard of a pub, I showed off my treats one being one of the most fab songs released at the very end of the 1960s 'Venus' by Dutch band, Shocking Blue:



this clip is so worth it just to watch the wonderful Mariska Veres (1946-2006)

Along with that I picked up a Nancy Sinatra LP for just one song, Bang Bang (damn, I wish that was released on 45 - however I scored an excellent copy the 45 of These Boots Were Made for Walkin' from Phil at Vintage Records - love ya Phil!)



Bang Bang was written by Sonny Bono (go figure, hey.. I couldnt stand him on the Sonny & Cher show. He died 10 years ago when he hit a tree while skiing) and was the biggest 1960s hit for Cher but her rather muffled version is not a good production and not a patch on Nancy's crisp telling.
Cher also didn't do a good version of "Take Me for a Little While" - I've got to ask, knowing Dusty Springfield's version (from her "Where am I Going" album), "Why, Cher, why??"

but Cher did have a couple of gems - the one I like and collected is a fun epic:






and that will do me for Cher but I do admire her acting - Silkwood, Mask (not the comedy), Moonstruck and Mermaids (but before she acted well she did things the film clip to her Half Breed is a cracker! - remember the docile horse she's sitting on ? There's Cher in feathers, spangles and not a lot of clothes - the horse is so docile, I think it's chewing dope, not wheat)...

- where was I? I was showing AH and wonderful friend, Meggs Yeo (http://meggsyeo-art.blogspot.com/) my bargain purchases and we decided then I would make her some tapes of some of my 45s - home later last Sunday and a little wine under the belt saw AH and I having a great time making a fun selection for Meggs (who owns a cassette Sony Walkman - I'm a bit more into my Creative Zen mp3 thanks!)
making tapes was always fun. side A goes like this:


1. Venus by Shocking Blue (45 1969)

2. Gypsies, Tramps and Theives by Cher (45 1971)

3. Only For Sheep by The Bureau (45 1981)

4. Sugar Me by Lynsey dePaul (45 1972)

- AH has just called out, "you're not linking that to your blog are you?"
Of course I am!
Phil at Vintage Records (http://www.thevintagerecord.com) let me have it for nicks when I made my other purchases, it made him cringe so much he simply couldn't not ask me to pay money for it! I had to return the next week to tell him we are still getting a kick out of it!
- everyone who does remember her remembers the mole on her top lip.
a warning, just because one song is fun, doesn't mean the B side will be ok - the B of Sugar Me is truely dreadful and we could only listen 1/3 the way in...
LdP also came 2nd in the Eurovision with some other song I don't want to ever hear again, sang a song for the British conservative party (Tory Tory Tory or something) and made a women's self defence DVD.
It is also reported that she did a tell all interview about Sean Connery after she found out he was violent with Diane Cilento and asked him to donate to a women's refuge - he refused and the money she made from the 'kiss&tell" she donated and it paid for the running costs of a women's refuge in Chiswick UK for a year.


note the floppy had matches the outfit...


5. Let's Spend The Night Together by David Bowie (45 1973)



6. Aquarius / Let The Sun Shine In by The 5th Dimension (45 1969)



7. I Can Never Go Home Anymore by The Shangri-Las (EP 1964): an hilarious piece of teen drama


8. New Toy by Lene Lovich (45 1981)



9. Counting the Beat by The Swingers (45 1980)

10. Hush by Deep Purple (45 1968) - I've had that 45 since I bought it for 5 cents at trash and treasure when I was 15 - a lifetime ago)here they are playing at Hefner's Playboy mansion. One has to ask where Rod Evans got those pants from - not a good look... (Ian Gillan became the lead vocalist in 1969)



11. The Wizard by Black Sabbath (45 1970) - B side of Paranoid another 5cent gem

12. Georgy Girl by The Seekers (45 1966) I have no idea where I got this one!

13. Lola by The Kinks (45 1970)
wish I could get The Raincoats version on vinyl but that first album of theirs sells for big bucks

14. D Days by Hazel O'Connor (45 1981) - yes, Des O'Connors daughter

==

Meggs tape #1 side B

 Days (decadent days) by Hazel O'Connor didn't quite fit so I flipped the tape and put the last part on at the beginning of a much fun side B.

2. Can I Get A Witness by Dusty Springfield (EP 1964) (well, I had to put something of hers on!)





3. Echo Beach by Martha and The Muffins (45 1980)
(see blog: http://artzinephotography.blogspot.com/2009/01/45s-in-mail.html )

4. After Midnight by Eric Clapton (45 1970)

5. Spinning Wheel by Blood, Sweat and Tears (45 1969)

6. These Boots Are Made For Walkin' by Nancy Sinatra (45 1966)

7. Santa Baby by Eartha Kitt (EP song originally recorded in 1953)

8. Too Drunk To Fuck by The Dead Kennedys (45 1981)



9. Turn Up Your Radio by The Masters Apprentices (45 1970)

10. Itchycoo Park by The Small Faces (45 1967) (I know it's one of the least cool songs they released but it's the only record that I have at the moment - Tin Soldier may come home if I find it cheap enough...)



11. Ruby Tuesday by Melanie (45 1970)

12. That Old Black Magic by Dean Norman and Terri Greer (45 - date unknown but it's a heavy piece of vinyl probably late 1950s)

13. Leader Of The Pack by The Shangri-Las (45 1964) more fab teen drama!



14. Silver Threads And Golden Needles by The Springfields (EP 1963)

it was a number 1 hit in Australia when it was first released in 1962 and they were the first British group ever to have a record (this song) in the top 20 of the USA Billboard 100 - 15 months before the Beatles conquered the world...





(while I looked for a clip of The Springfields I found a 60s cover of that song by a Singapore band called the Crescendos but I can't bear to put the link up - it's really awful - you can go to youtube and find it.. if you dare)

15. Bang Bang by Nancy Sinatra (LP 1967)

16. Ghost Town by The Specials (45 1981) viva the specials!




==

Jesus - the true story

I suspect this is the most truthful ending to THAT story of HIM... (oh dear, here comes that lightening bolt!). Javier Prato (the filmmaker) is still alive too - there's something in that...

and isn't it nice to hear Gloria Gaynor's version of this song song NOT lip synced by a drag queen again and again and... again!

45s in the mail

in the post this week: Treats!
in great nick - sometimes records made in the 1980s are in worse condition than ones I find from the 1960s and I reckon I know because as I recall some of the 1980s and the condition I was in... ok, enough - this be about me getting treats in the post

A Canadian band with a big hit: Martha and the Muffins' Echo Beach. damn I love this song!

renovation

(above: a visit to Paddington, Sydney)

renovation madness
People who complain about live music and a handful of people chatting on a footpath after a gig in the inner west are usually the renovators from hell - like the guy 2 doors down who had his large tree removed on a Sunday morning... last Saturday morning, he had a bloody great cement truck that ran it's mixer for over an hour...
it's been almost a year in our street of non-stop renovations and building for 6 days a week - now and then, hey, while I'm complaining, Sundays also include using a bobcat, spray painting and some digging...
At the moment, yes, I know it's a weekday, some guy is banging a large crow bar into cement next door. i wonder if it's the same person who used a silly amount of water to hose out the rubbish bins earlier when it was raining...

==
(image copyright Anne Bentley)

A bit of an exhibition - 5 Years as a Rock Moll

Exhibition is go - despite the heat I got the photos up (123 in total)on time and Madam Squeeze played & then Baby Machine - 3 rock musicians who'd trekked up from Wollongong AND provided a heap of food, played nice an loud.
this weekend has a weather forecast in the hideously hot range so that will be me in the corner, a puddle of my former self, gallery sitting.

A visit to the artists rooms

was allowed in to the top floor where some Sydney artists are currently in residence... snuck a couple of quick photos - I regret my politeness in Sept 2000 when walking through the artist squat with walls covered in murals at Tacheles, Berlin where a sign said not to photograph out of respect - so I didn't and those walls are now gone.

these walls are way different than those in Berlin and will likely be added to and eventually painted over...