Who is Emily George?

There is a little street off Lygon Street in East Brunswick and off this street there is a little lane. A little dilapidated sign indicates it is called Emily George Lane. It is a picturesque laneway, not that I have walked down to the end yet. The sign is affixed to an old Victorian terrace house, painted a bright yellow. On the other side of the laneway entrance is a brick wall with a large array of street art.

Autumn in Brunswick

 Yin and Yang. The black bluestone blocks of the kerb and the paperthin leaves coming to rest, piling up in ever shifting mounds on the streetside. The blocks hewn once and for all from deep gorges in the ground along the banks of Merri Creek, the leaves only one season old and already cast adrift.

This afternoon the radio played “Autumn Leaves” sung by Nat King Cole. As I drove home I thought of songs and poetry inspired by autumn. Although yesterday was the first of May , when spring explodes in Europe (Karel Hynek Macha’s famous lines always linger in my mind when this day comes along or when I hear the date said: Byl prvni Maj, byl lasky cas –the first of May, the time of love… ), here in the southern hemisphere it is the time of the shortening days, the oblique rays, the melancholy shadows and timid light.

Even my students, compelled to learn poems about the heavy fruits, the dying leaves and the clattering of the flags, must have got an insight... perhaps.

Blak Dot Gallery

A few months ago I was showing Olga some of my favourite places on Lygon Street East Brunswick.  We had not seen each other for some time and were talking non-stop, catching up with news of our families. Olga was telling me about her daughter in law who was considering doing post-graduate work on the relationship between members of the indigenous community in Melbourne and very recently arrived immigrants. And then a strange thing happened....

Rear Window

I recently watched this Alfred Hitchcock movie on afternoon television. Of course the highlight was Grace Kelly’s dresses, including her very 1950s negligee (who remembers the crucial line in adult movies when the lady says to the male visitor “let me just slip into something more comfortable”), but what amazed me even more was the very idea of apartment windows opening onto an interior courtyard.

The Brunswick Trugo Club

The sign on the gate says it all: Elderly Citizens. A recent article in the Age Good Weekend described Trugo as “Seniors Game on”, however it seems a great game for children. Certainly on the fine Sunday afternoon when I attended a social event at the Brunswick Trugo Club, the children were revelling in the lush green grass of the pitch and enjoying hitting the rubber wheel and generally making up their own rules. 

Retail Therapy

Yesterday I was feeling quite blue so I went for a walk around my usual circuit: Lygon Street to Glenlyon or further and then through the back streets. However, I was prompted to take not only my camera but also my entire purse, including credit card. Walking staunchly past the icecream shop without stopping for consolation, I headed for Paul’s bookshop. Resisting the urge to buy a $10 copy of “The German Spirit” by Watson, I headed further north past the bright lights of Mirabella showrooms.

Graffiti and signage

Where to start? In this densely built-up environment, there is visual communication, in the form of writing or pictures, everywhere. Recently I read the book: “Characters: Cultural stories revealed through typography” by Stephen Banham, who I believe is also a Brunswick resident. (There is a great article on the book and part of an interview at this link to TheDesign Files blog.) Reading Banham’s book and admiring the photographs reinforced my view that it is not only what is written, but how it is written, that is fascinating and revelatory.

Often, the revelations are just in the eye of the beholder. Where one finds a scribble, a sign. What one has been thinking about, what one is looking for. Here are some examples:

Bohemian Brunswick: of course it did not take me long to discover this piece of commissioned graffiti art in a laneway along Sydney Road.