cjackmanson

Arkady Renko, Boosh, Alan Rickman, Granada Holmes and recently Sherlock fan. @djackmanson on Twitter.

[caspiajackmanson]

We are next to a grassy patch of ground near some urban bushland on the edge of a creek. On the grass are ten straw-necked ibises, black birds perhaps a foot high and a bit longer with white necks, narrow legs and long, curved beaks, excellent for grubbing out food from holes and puddles. Most of the birds have their backs turned to us, choosing to ignore the intrusive human.

Darebin Creek Trail, probably in Bundoora, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Land of the Wurundjeri-willam clan of the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung tribe in the Kulin nation.

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Wurundjeri - Wikipedia

[caspiajackmanson]

A woman sits on a mobility scooter in front of a red-brick house. She wears a pale yellow polo shirt, a dark blue scarf knotted like a bib around her throat, and a black and white woven Breton-style hat of coarse synthetic fibre.

Had to pop down to the chemist, a five-minute trip. Turned it into an hour and a quarter by going to Pier Street and Coles and then up and down the actual pier and along the Esplanade and back home.

I love the beach. The sea makes me feel happy; I'm so glad to be near it. It's full of possibility.

[caspiajackmanson]

[food]

A white woman is bathed in golden light. She has a mischievous, quizzical look in her eyes, and in her mouth is the end of a half-inch wide, nine-inch long strip of mango skin from which she is sucking every last bit of sweet flesh. The skin is curved and curled, like a fruit strap or sort of like a piece of ribboned sugar candy.

[caspiajackmanson]

Behind a steel and concrete fence, a cream-brick hall stands on a suburban street corner. It has a triangular verandah with two square pillars of the same cream brick, and above the verandah a pale blue sign with stonework in yellow letters reads, roughly transliterated into English, "Ukrainskyy Narodnyy Dim". Directly under, in stonework of the same typeface but a smaller font, is the translation "Ukrainian Hall". There is also the tryzub, or trident, from the Ukranian coat of arms on the vernadah, but it is painted the same colour as its background. There are two flagpoles just to the left and right of the bottom of the verandah roof; the one to our left flies the Australian flag and the one to our right has the Ukrainian flag on it, mostly obscured by the roof.

Instead of being finished in the shape of a rectangular hall, there is extra brickwork on the facade of the front wall. It means the edge of the building on each side juts out diagonally from a spot on the side level with the bottom of the verandah's roof, then heads back in diagonally. After it has headed in it is horizontal, briefly, then forms the roof in a shallower diagonal rise which stops, rises very briefly directly upwards, then meets the other side of the front wall in a level cap on the roof.

Suspension Street at Lawrence Street, Ardeer, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Land of the Mayonne-bulluk clan of the Wurundjeri Woi-Wurrung tribe in the Kulin nation

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Home - Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung Cultural Heritage Aboriginal Corporation

Wurundjeri - Wikipedia

[caspiajackmanson]

On the wall of an obscure city alleyway are four pieces of graffiti, all apparently by different hands. The first, in a style like a simplified black-letter or Old English reads "you told us the future would be better than This". It is written in black with turquoise-blue highlights along the edges of the letters.

Secondly, in classic graffiti tag style, is the question in response, "Who Told You?" in a thicker black pen. To the right of that is elegantly-written black felt pen words reading "Lay the blame where it belongs - B.H.P. - governments making stupid choices".

Finally, above that in red, is the Extinction Rebellion logo of two triangles making a shape like a numeral 8.

Cocker Alley, Melbourne CBD, Victoria, Australia

Land of the Wurundjeri-willam clan of the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung tribe in the Kulin nation

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[caspiajackmanson]

We are looking down a wide pathway, covered in a green plasticky material with a slightly rough texture to provide grip. It is divided by paint markings into two lanes, and heads off into the distance, passing under a concrete expressway bridge that is decorated with orange spikes. The sky is overcast and mostly grey, with some clouds near us still looking white.

The pathway is the start of the brand new Dixon Veloway that opened three days ago in Melbourne, connecting the city fringe of Docklands with the inner-western suburb (or neighbourhood) of Footscray. It mostly hangs below the new road built from Docklands as part of the West Gate Tunnel project, and passes through a heavily industrialised area near the Port of Melbourne, logistics depots and a twisty maze of expressways.

Melbourne’s revolutionary Veloway open to riders

Excited riders are making their first trips through the elevated bike path that links central Melbourne to the western suburbs.

Taken near Footscray Road, Docklands, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Land of the Wurundjeri-willam clan of the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung tribe in the Kulin nation

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[caspiajackmanson]

We are behind a glass barrier, protecting us from a very old computer on display in a museum. The computer consists of three double-wide and three single-wide sets of racks, each about six feet high, placed next to each other. Most of the racks are full of connections joined by wires. There are flashing lights or dials on the front of most of the racks. In front of them is a metal desk with buttons, display dials and various printers or paper type input devices.

This is the actual machine CSIRAC, Australia's first ever computer and the world's oldest surviving fully-electronic stored-program computer. It was built between 1947-1951 It no longer works, but is on public display. Even though it is in my city, I only heard about it by listening to the Advent of Computers podcast:

Paper by CSIRAC's developers:

https://sci-hub.se/10.1109/MAHC.1984.10014

Scienceworks, Booker Street, Spotswood, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.

NB: Entry to Scienceworks is FREE if you have an Australian concession card.

Scienceworks

Land of the Yalukit-willam clan of the Boon Wurrung tribe in the Kulin nation.

https://alhs.com.au/local-history/indigenous-peoples/

[caspiajackmanson]

[food] [meat]

We are looking at a refrigerated glass display of smallgoods behind a glass case. The main things we can see are nine different types of exotic salami, chorizo and saucission. They are in sample packs for $12 each, and are made with wild boar, kangaroo, squid ink and truffle, duck, wagyu beef, venison and fennel. Behind the display of meats we can see the torso of a shop assistant totting up the purchase of another customer.

Big Vic Deli, Queen Victoria Markets Dairy Produce Hall, Elizabeth Street, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

https://qvm.com.au/store/big-vic-deli/?page=1

Land of the Wurundjeri-willam clan of the Wurundjeri Woi Worrung tribe in the Kulin nation

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[caspiajackmanson]

We are looking at a refrigerated display in a glass case, in a market selling gourmet food. This selection is from The French Shop, and it includes over a dozen wedges of expensive imported mostly soft cheeses. They include Brebirousse d'Argental, Port Salut, Manchego truffle, Vacherousse d'Argental, various Bries, and two types of D'Affinois, including a goat one. The prices marked on the cheeses are high, from a minimum of sixty dollars a kilogramme to over a hundred.

The French Shop, Queen Victoria Market, Elizabeth Street, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

https://qvm.com.au/shops-stalls/the-french-shop/

Land of the Wurundjeri-willam clan of the Wurundjeri Woi-Worrung tribe in the Kulin nation

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[caspiajackmanson]

We are on the intersection of some inner urban streets, which mix residential and commercial buildings. We are looking at what obviously used to be a corner shop, made out of red brick which was built in the 1890s. The building is two storeys high, and almost hidden from us as we look at the front door of the shop is the small house attached to the shop, for the owners to live in. What used to be display windows can no longer be seen through, as venetian blinds providing privacy block them off, but at the top of one of them blue signs are painted with golden lettering, reading "Prime Pickled Pork" and "Prime Ox Tongue".Buckingham Street at Victoria Street, Footscray, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Land of the Marin-bulluk clan of the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung tribe in the Kulin Nation

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[caspiajackmanson]

[food]

On the photographer's kitchen bench rests a white crockery plate with red and black decorations. On the plate are two wedge-shaped pieces of rye crispbread with butter and slices of boiled egg on top. There is also a cloth placemat shaped like a coffee cup, on which sits a heavy hand-blown glass tumbler with a yellow rim. The tumbler is full of blue fizzy drink, which is actually healthy because it is Pepsi Max Electric Blue flavour, which is sugar free.

[caspiajackmanson]

We are on the footpath of a leafy inner-urban street; on the far side of the street is a church with yellow walls, red doors and an roof with orange-red tiles. Above the front door is an arched window, and there is lettering around the arch in Macedonian. Above the door is the name of the church in English, Macedonian Orthodox Church of St Prophet Iljia. The Macedonian lettering transliterates into English approximately as "Makedonska Pravolslava Chrkva Sveti Prorok Ilija"

This church is in Victoria Street, Seddon, a suburb adjacent to Footscray in Melbourne, Australia's inner western suburbs, in which large amounts of migrants from then-Yugoslavia settled after World War 2. Conflict between different ethnic groups from there ensued; in fact an official Yugoslav travel agency on this same street was bombed by fascist Croatian nationalists in 1975. You can learn more about this terrorist attack at the Underfoot podcast transcript - scroll down to the "Footscray Fascists" section at

Underfoot – Track 1

From the train, you see a goddess. She’s not who you think she is. Here’s a meandering story of faith, fear, diaspora, and solidarity in Foo

Land of the Marin-bulluk clan of the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung tribe in the Kulin nation

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[caspiajackmanson]

We are on train tracks passing a disused oil refinery which is slowly being decommissioned. We can see the complex around the cracker, or catalytic converter, and a tall nearby chimney. Electric wires to power the train are strung high up near the tracks, and a black steel barrier has a graffito of a question mark painted in yellow.

The photo has been edited so it has the colour palette of the Thompson computer from the 1980s. The dark shades of the cracker are in blues and blacks, with a warm section appearing red. The grassy verge between the train line and the refinery fence is in a garish green, with splotches of red and yellow.

Mobil Altona Refinery, Kororoit Creek Road, seen from the Altona Loop tracks, Altona North, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.

Land of the Yalukit-willam clan of the Boon Wurrung tribe in the Kulin Nation

https://alhs.com.au/local-history/indigenous-peoples/

[caspiajackmanson]

We are on the footpath of a road bridge that crosses over a double-tracked train line, on a bright, sunny day. On the curved track below us we see a diesel-powered locomotive hauling a goods train towards the Tottenham junction in Melbourne. The locomotive is painted in yellow and blue livery and a big number 8122 on its nose, indicating it is Pacific National's locomotive 8122.

Melbourne Road bridge, Spotswood, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Land of the Yalukit-willam clan of the Boon Wurrung tribe in the Kulin nation.

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[caspiajackmanson]

"He Came To Represent The Modal-Cathartic Slipweight" We stand before a shop front in an inner-urban street. It has a yellow and black sign hanging from a wide verandah; the sign reads "d'Honk Scooters". In the window we can see a white scooter with a sidecar attached, and a the front wheel of a motorbike is visible to our right. The shop front has a low tiled wall rising up to tall glass windows rising up to the ceiling, to show off the stock easily

d'Honk Scooters, Victoria Street, West Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Land of the Wurundjeri-willam clan of the Wurundjeri Woi-Wurrung tribe of the Kulin Nation

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[caspiajackmanson]

On a window of a disused shop are some A4 sized paper paste-ups. Three of them feature a similar hand-drawn model with simple features and slightly different makeup; each model is a white femme with shoulder-length blonde hair and side-swept bangs. Each paste-up has a different caption; they read "Police Everywhere Justice No Where", "I Have The Feminine Urge 2 Screenshot Everything" and "My Ass Jiggles Enough 4 Me 2 Act Like This". A fourth paste-up shows the bottom of the model's face, but no caption. They are all signed "Bimb0draws". Stickers on the window by other artists include a frog sitting on a red and white toadstool, and an exhortation to "Be Kind, Do Nice Things".

Artist:

art prints and zines

Irving Street, Footscray, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Land of the Marin-bulluk clan of the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung tribe in the Kulin nation

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[caspiajackmanson]

[food]

On the photographer's kitchen bench, a wide, flat bowl rests on a cloth placemat. In the bowl is a breakfast salad made of baby spinach, chopped avocado, chopped tomato, crumbled feta cheese and toasted walnut pieces. On top of all of that are eight quarters of soft-boiled egg. Four quarters are arranged into a cross shape in the middle, and the other four are on the edge of the bowl, each in its own quadrant between the arms of the cross.