Gotta love the way the iPhone struggles against its preprogrammed resistance to ever getting the moon in focus…

I thought it was Boomers and Gen-Xers trying to ban the music video for ‘Age of Reason’ once they realised that, when viewed now, the sign in the background, counting through the future years to come, fades out about two decades ago…

A close up photograph of a kewpie doll, wearing a green tulle skirt with Star-shaped sequins and a yellow feather in her hair, with glimpses of other dolls in blue and pink tulle on either side. The sun is shining through the feather. In the left background, part of the booth’s “Kewpie Doll” sign, in white text on a crimson background, can be seen. In the right background a flag is silhouetted behind a grove of trees. During the closing ceremony at the Sydney Olympic Games, a bit more than a quarter of a century ago but only a few hundred metres to the left of this scene, a giant kewpie doll danced across the arena to the rhythm of John Paul Young’s classic song “Love is in the Air”

Kewpie doll display at Sydney’s Royal Easter Show, Wangal Country

On a partly cloudy day, a long bed of red flowers, lined by a low wall of volcanic stones on the left and a grassy slope on the right, divides two roads: Gladstone Road, heading downhill towards a leftwards bend, and a park road, along a plateau heading towards a rightwards bend. Gladstone Road is lined with telegraph poles and wooden fences, with a car park at the bend. The park road turns past a grove of pōhutukawa trees, with late summer blossoms just visible among the dark green leaves. In the background, two freighters are sailing out of Waitematā Harbour, past the Devonport Naval Base on the north shore. At left, a pilot boat is heading towards the city’s waterfront, passing two flying boats moored in Mechanics Bay

Found slide: Looking from a garden bed outside the Parnell Rose Garden towards Waitematā Harbour, Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand, January 1947. Photo by William F Herlikofer

Thirty years ago I travelled from Sydney to Melbourne on a coach without a working toilet… unless the ISS can be quickly repurposed as Albury Viennaworld in space, I can see problems…

I remember a time, about thirty years ago, when I’d watch ‘Network’ every time it played on television… with each screening, the point at which the plot moved from relatable commentary into dystopian fantasy edged closer and closer to the final reel… until it became too uncomfortable to go on…

Looking across the Jolimont rail yards as a blue and yellow Harris set passes a Red and Grey Tait set in the midst of the Jolimont marshalling yards. Most of the trains are the older Taits and ‘Dogboxes’ but another Harris set can be seen glinting among them just left of centre in the background. Further in the background there is traffic on Wellington Parade, passing Fitzroy Gardens and the massive Cliveden mansion in East Melbourne, while the suburb of Jolimont behind the marshalling yards bustles with Italianate townhouses and art deco flats. In the lower left we can see the platforms of Princes Bridge Station, lined with billboards

The Harris set is about to pass under Swanston Street as it approaches Flinders Street Station, whose dome looms on the right side of the image. A pedestrian on Swanston Street is passing below the dome, along a poster-lined parapet. In the background we can see the eastern end of some of Flinders Street Station’s platforms, with some red-painted works cars on the sidings. Strings of light bulbs line the dome: these photos were taken at the same time as the Flinders Street Station clock tower slide I posted a while back, in which a working crew could be seen hanging new lights in anticipation of the imminent Olympic Games. The train’s ultimate destination is illegible but is most likely Broadmeadows

Harris car 504M pulling into Flinders Street Station (I can’t tell which platform… maybe platform six?). Most of the waiting passengers are still seated but some are walking along the platform and a family group at right are standing in front of the seated passengers. A similar, if slightly less busy, tableau appears on the next platform in the background. In the foreground there are some visible signs of the main station building: a parapet at left and what appears to be a pair of Edwardian ventilation shafts at right

Found slides: For the 70th anniversary of Naarm Melbourne’s Harris Trains: Following a seven car Harris set, led by 504M, as it passes through the Jolimont rail yards into Flinders Street Station, June 1956. Photos, taken from the top of the SEC Building, by John W Smith

A pair of posters promoting a season of William Shakespeare’s ‘Julius Caesar’ by Bell Shakespeare. On the left we can see portraits of the cast and creatives, on the right the main promotional image of a lean and hungry Leon Ford as Cassius

“If I told him once, I told him a thousand times, ‘Don’t go, Julie!’ I said, ‘It’s the Ides of March, beware already!’…” 2,060 years on, an appropriate day to see ‘Julius Caesar’ by Bell Shakespeare at the Sydney Opera House [additional dialogue in this post by Wayne and Shuster]

TOBACCO. - The Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser (NSW : 1803 - 1842) - 15 Dec 1805 Having mentioned in the following page the praise worthy efforts now on foot to bring the tobacco plant to perfection, we beg leave to repeat the following instructions, at the ...

It’s 15 December 1805 and the Sydney Gazette’s typesetter unwittingly drops the ‘F bomb’…

“Every week or 10 days during the growth, it puts out suckers…”

trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/ar...

… and you can just make out the site of yesterday’s post as the camera draws back in the final shot…

AC/DC - It's A Long Way To The Top [Official Music Video], Full HD (Remaster, Resync and Upscale) YouTube video by Enhanced Music Videos

AC/DC are passing this spot from about 3:05… “that’s how it goes, playin’ in a band…”

youtu.be/g-qkY2yj4_A?...

A vertically oriented streetscape of early to mid twentieth century office buildings on a sunny day. A white-helmeted traffic police officer moves aside as traffic passes by, while a W2 class tram, heading for East Brighton, waits in the background. A sign on a yellow-painted traffic light pole indicates that we are looking at Swanston Street

On 23 February 1976, AC/DC, the Rats of Tobruk Pipe band and an Australian Broadcasting Commission film crew set off down Swanston Street… we salute you… Found slide: Swanston Street, Naarm Melbourne, looking north from Collins Street, circa March 1976 (photographer unknown)

On a sunny summer’s day, looking down a wide road with two avenues of trees dividing the main central section from the side access lanes. The traffic is light, mainly contemporary cars and trucks, with a much older car coming into the frame from the side road at left. In the left background, between the old car and a Brunswick green lamppost, a woman dressed in black is walking in the direction of the Shrine of Remembrance, hidden behind the trees and statue immediately in front of the photographer

Found slide: St Kilda Road, Naarm Melbourne, looking south from from the Linlithgow Avenue intersection, January 1947. Photo by William F Herlikofer

Looking down at an ornamental pool in a city park, with the reflections of trees and a cloudy sky distorted by the ripples on the surface and the low light slowing the camera’s speed

Early morning reflections on a cloudy day, Cook + Phillip Park, Warrane Sydney

[citation needed: The Masters Apprentices on the same bill as The Templars? Has to be one of the Masters’ first gigs outside Tarndanya Adelaide, in 1966]

Looking up at an Edwardian arcade roof, where a group of torn posters; advertising gigs by mid nineteen-sixties Australian rock and pop acts, including The Masters Apprentices, The Templars, Normie Rowe and the Playboys and Tony Worsley, the latter two playing at the Balwyn Youth Centre; have recently been uncovered by the removal of a billboard

Looking back at my February 1996 visit to Naarm Melbourne and I just realised that these 1966-era posters I saw, outside Glenferrie Station on Valentine’s Day, were about the same age as my photo is now…

An outdoors table tennis table standing on a concrete-tiled quadrangle. The table is painted black with the outlines of flowers with yellow seed heads and white petals, signed ‘M’. There are racquets at each end, the nearest racquet is accompanied by a ball and a cardboard sign saying where to get a new ball if required

Table tennis table by Popp at UNSW Art & Design

Pigeon in the City Extra restaurant at Circular Quay

(Advice offered by someone who found himself in a vaguely similar situation a decade ago and deeply regrets deciding to be “mister minds his own business” about it)

Ease the topic gently into the conversation… “say, have you listened to Lily Allen’s ‘West End Girl’ album yet? I think you’ll get a lot out of it…”

February 2 is World wetlands Day.
So, I'm posting this photo I took of a black swan at a local wetland area.
(One of my all time favourite photos, btw.)
#worldwetlandsday

… and here we are. The moment that the Bee Gees’ lyric “and we can try to understand the New York Times’ effect on man” went from being a space-filling rhyme which made it into the final cut to being a poignant comment on global politics

Looking through the downward angled safety fence of a ramp leading to a footbridge, brightly lit on a dark pre-dawn morning, towards a level safety fence along a railway platform, with an orange sign in the background indicating that this is West Ryde station

On another dark, pre-dawn morning, the glare from a pair of red railway signal lights flares into the camera. In the lower left background, several more red lights indicate a nearby set of railway points

Early morning West Ryde vibes, Wallumedegal Country, Western Sydney, January 2026

Alt text: The sunlight through a train window lights up a corner of the mauve vinyl seat opposite the photographer. The view outside the slightly scratched window is limited to shadowy plants on the rocky face of a cutting in the sandstone

A quiet moment during my last ever ride on the V sets in the Blue Mountains, Gundungurra and Dharug Country, a few weeks ago

Ruby Fields - 92 Purebred YouTube video by Ruby Fields

Triple J Hottest 200 2025: 128: R Fields, 92 Purebred

youtu.be/0iyNknj5LN4

Bawuypawuy - Drifting Clouds (Single) YouTube video by Drifting Clouds

Triple J Hottest 200 2025 158: Drifting Clouds, Bawuypawuy

youtu.be/XeB6uUFDVyA

A screenshot of the artwork for Keli Holiday’s ‘Dancing2’ above its second place in the Triple J Hottest One Hundred Twenty-Twenty-Five

Triple J Hottest 100 2025: 2 Keli Holiday, ‘Dancing2’

youtu.be/HUdb0OecLqg

A screen cap showing the artwork for Ball Park Music’s ‘Please Don’t Move To Melbourne’ above its place at number ten on the Triple J Hottest One Hundred Twenty-Twenty-Five

Triple J Hottest 100 2025: 10: Ball Park Music, ‘Please Don’t Move To Melbourne’

youtu.be/24tCRxpsTpg

Looking across a river estuary on a clear day. There are two small paddle boats on the water, under a narrow concrete bridge, carrying cars; both about twenty years old at the time; and pedestrians between the town centre of Southport; out of frame to the left; and its Main Beach; also out of frame, to the right. The bushland and sand dunes of South Stradbroke Island are just visible along the horizon

Found slide: Hand operated paddle boats on the Nerang River, near Jubilee Bridge, Main Beach, Kombumerri Country, Gold Coast, 1955. Photo by a member of the Down or Tyler families

A view from the window of a sandstone building (the window ledge is just visible at lower left), towards a busy city intersection. The traffic is dominated by buses and taxis, including a rather oddly shaped experimental bus, known as “Mr Whippy” because it reminded Sydneysiders of that company’s ice cream trucks of the time, waiting at the lights. At lower right, a brightly coloured van, decorated with musical notes and the slogan “2 Double Jay: 1540”, promotes the then Australian Broadcasting Commission’s recently launched youth radio station

Happy 51st anniversary @triple_j ! Found slide: Looking towards the intersection of outside the Sydney Town Hall, Gadigal Country, circa September 1976. At lower right the radio 2 Double Jay (later Triple J) van is turning from George Street into Druitt Street [photographer unknown]