Nosey In Newtown

Big cats

2009-03-24T20:19:00.003+11:00

On Camden Street:

On the Macdonaldtown Station sound barrier:

On the window of Champion Textiles:

Here one day...

2009-02-17T19:17:00.008+11:00

It did not take long for the tantalisingly blank canvas of this freshly painted wall on Enmore Road to be adorned:

It was dutifully removed, and dutifully replaced:

That's now also been removed. I await the next installment.

This revolving exhibition has reminded me to document interesting things that appear on walls before they disappear. I was kicking myself a couple of months ago when one half of the Gladstone Street stencil wall was painted over with a massive high-concept anti-Coke stencil, and then that in turn was swiftly replaced with graffiti and I had failed to take any pictures.

Thankfully, someone else with more foresight did it for us, and has pasted pictures of the various incarnations of the wall back onto it for old times' sake:

Mystery public archivist, I salute you!

Smallgoods aisle, Newtown Foodworks

2009-02-01T14:58:00.004+11:00

Heavens. Above.

Like toy soldiers

2009-01-18T20:51:00.005+11:00

Look closely at that hitherto bafflingly pointless sculpture in Camperdown Memorial Rest Park, and you'll see that it has been invaded by awesomeness:

Will Coles is behind the attack, opening up a new front in his campaign to glue stuff to other stuff.

But he's facing a green counter-attack:

A different kind of guerrilla gardening.

On King Street, I'm a King

2009-01-08T14:59:00.002+11:00

Check out this awesome ode to Newtown from John Kennedy's Love Gone Wrong back from 1985. The come-back starts right here, I reckon...

Merry Christmas or Xmas

2008-12-24T10:56:00.009+11:00

'Tis the season to pay another visit to Pleasant Avenue, and once more, the aptly-named street does not disappoint. Even the dogs are festive:

One house has turned their home into a hearth:

Complete with shoes drying by the cellophane fire:

But this year's prize for Turning It Up A Notch goes to the residents who have sacrificed all their natural light to transform their house into a giant silver-wrapped present:

Or this could actually be the world's best disguise for a large-scale hydroponic marijuana operation. And goodness me, on Pleasant Avenue of all places.

I was interested to see what the carbon-neutral house would do this year, but there was not even any environmentally-friendly tinsel on display. Maybe next year they should borrow this sign from the house on Longdown Street:

Other home-made favourites include this understated effort on Alice Street:

And a Halloween-inspired display on Munni Street:

A valiant effort to turn some trellises in a park on George Street into Christmas trees results in them kind of looking like medieval instruments of torture:

And also on George Street, the house next door to this:

Decides to go with this:

Is that the traditional Christmas skull-and-crossbones or the famous Christmas octopus?

On Clara Street, evidence of the start of the traditional Christmas arguing season:

Leaving me feeling a bit like this:

But in the words of Oliver of Pleasant Avenue, Merry Christmas or Xmas to you all. Here's to more noseyness in 2009.

The fattest pub in Newtown

2008-12-10T18:52:00.005+11:00

I don't have the patience for local history. The delight of uncovering an intriguing little tidbit doesn't for me outweigh the tedium of wading through illegible council records and files.

So thank you and mad props to reader and amateur local historian Andy Ryan for having the forbearance to uncover a Newtown fact so charming that it almost endears me to a life spent in the stacks with my little white cotton gloves.

Andy reports that until 1901 the Marlborough Hotel was known as Daniel Lambert Hotel, improbably named after the world's fattest man.

Lambert's "sizable" reputation started in 1806 when he reached the weight of 700 lb (318 kg) and commissioned a special carriage to take him to London, where he charged one shilling a head to look at him. He apparently disliked the attention but needed the money to pay for the cost of having clothes and furniture especially made for him.

When he died three years later in a Stamford public house, his body could only be removed by dismantling a wall of the building. At his death, he weighed 739 lb (336 kg), with a waist measurement of 9 feet 4 inches.

According to Wikipedia, an apocryphal anecdote about Lambert is that he would visit the many pubs in Stamford and challenge visitors to a race, with the one proviso he had a small head start. There are many narrow passageways in Stamford that act as short cuts between the major streets. Once he was ahead, he would use these passageways and, because of his size, prevent his opponent from being able to pass, meaning he would always win.

Many years after Lambert's death, publican David Woodhams named what is now the Marly after him, probably to promote an all-you-can-eat buffet (okay, I made that bit up, but no-one knows what Woodhams' motivation was). There was even a mural of poor Fatty Lambert on the pub's exterior wall.

And thanks to another unlikely local connection, you can actually see a genuine pair of Lambert's roomy stockings on display this weekend at the Vanity Fair Christmas Vintage Fashion Market in Leichhardt.

Well, I never.

Stop >> Play

2008-12-03T13:37:00.008+11:00

I have been pondering the new garden, grass "bean bags" and bandstand on Australia Street for a week or so. It has a professional shine and polish to it, but appeared seemingly overnight, and with no official self-congratulatory Council signs or plaques.

It does have a Guerrilla Gardeners sign, so I was preparing to file it under "mystery" (a completely awesome mystery):

But then I asked myself, since when have Guerrilla Gardeners had the facilities or resources to produce an beautifully manufactured "Play" stop sign?

The answer: Since Guerrilla Gardeners became a Channel Ten TV show.

Sigh.

I would have preferred it to be a community initiative, but whatever motivated its appearance, we've still ended up with an ornamental border of succulents and a shady spot to play some chess this Summer. Maybe it should be known as Gift Horse Green.

Pole lotta lovin'

2008-11-12T22:34:00.008+11:00

Staying toasty on Missenden Road:

On King Street:

And ribbons and bibbons on Wilford Street:

For the diary

2008-10-29T12:38:00.004+11:00

Make sure to keep an eye on the BikeSydney site for details on November events like the King Street Bike Love Parade and the Bikes Rock party in Sydney Park.

Horsing around

2008-10-26T12:12:00.006+11:00

Thanks to Tara for pointing me in the direction of the "Stables" Art & About project which has been going on in Erskineville for the past couple of weeks and which celebrates the apparently rich history of horses in the area.

It could possibly be the most awesome community art project ever. In August, almost eight hundred residents of Erskineville discovered in their letterboxes and on their doorsteps a ball of clay and instructions on how to make a small model horse. The horses were then collected, fired and put on display in the shop windows on Erskineville.

These photos represent a mere smidgen of what is there:

Needless to say, I am extremely jealous that I didn't get to make a horse, and extremely impressed by the execution of the logistics of it all. And it looks like there was only one horse-napping:

Advice that sticks

2008-10-16T21:15:00.000+11:00

Art On The Street: Week two

2008-10-12T20:37:00.001+11:00

Better late than never, more of my favourites from 2042: Art On The Street.

I had walked past the video installation in the window of Fantasy Futon a few times without paying it much attention (I have an undoubtedly unfair prejudice against this art form). It turned out to be amazing: a musical composition inspired by King Street traffic, with each colour car representing a different note, and each lane a musical instrument.

The result was a spooky kind of ethereal soundtrack to visuals of a dreary trip through Newtown, seen from behind windscreen wipers.

Other artworks tried to escape from their confines:

Or tried to hide:

Or changed the streetscape:

There was art that wasn't supposed to be there, but which seemed to want to join in on the fun:

But I think my favourite was the art contributed by passers by to the Lost and Found tree:

Best four-legged flamingo ever.

Peter Norman Day Street Party

2008-10-07T20:02:00.005+11:00

Image and text taken from here.

"A few local Newtown residents recently inspired by the film "Salute" have decided that Peter Norman Day which has a special day in the U.S. needs to be marked here in Australia. So come and celebrate the life of Peter Norman and remember the 1968 Mexico Olympics action that gave hope to a generation.

Please gather for fun at a good old community street party at the side laneway of MacDonaldtown Station, Leamington Lane to Pine St at the site of the 'Three Proud Men' famous mural. Forget late night shopping and come on down on Thursday October 9th, 5 till 9pm.

Sign the petition to lobby RailCorp to replace the current sound barrier with a see-through panel so the mural can be seen from the trains once again.

Performers, MCs, DJs, soapbox, kids' face-painting etc."

Wrapped in plastic

2008-10-01T21:07:00.003+10:00

This question has been appearing around the traps lately:

I think the answer can be found on Alice Street:

Art On The Street: Week one

2008-09-26T14:45:00.000+10:00

I've been enjoying the fruits of 2042: Art of the Street very much indeed.

It's up in the sky:

It's right down low:

It's silly:

And beautiful:

And where you least expect it:

There is so much of it that I'm even beginning to see art where it isn't. Like in the window of Newtown Variety:

Or I will see something out of the corner of my eye, and excitedly rush over to investigate. Only to find that it's some melted gelato:

Melted gelato art.

But if you head down to Alice Lane, you can see some real art on the street any time of the year:

And it holds up the fence too.

Tickled Pink

2008-09-25T22:27:00.004+10:00

From the window of Lucky's pizzeria:

For anyone who missed it, the story of the death of a Newtown identity is here.

Back in the saddle

2008-09-19T16:10:00.007+10:00

I promise there will be a lot more noseying in the coming weeks thanks to 2042: Art on the Street. Looks fantastic. There's also a free walking tour showcasing Newtown street art.

I feel particularly sheepish about the lack of updates following this charming little endorsement in The Glebe:

Thanks Bunyip.

So, the sun is shining, the streets are filled with art and I'm back on board. Now all I need is a sex change.

Little noticings, unrelated

2008-08-20T21:42:00.006+10:00

Like me at the moment, an inscriber in Camperdown Memorial Rest Park is having trouble finishing what they started:

Cat-suits protect against the cold on Weeks Lane...

... on the advice of a little birdy:

Six other cats have their thirst quenched in a house in Erskineville:

And after walking past for ten years, I see for the first time that there are public chess boards tiled outside the Newtown Neighbourhood Centre...

...reassuring me there will always be many more little noticings to come.

I need never leave the house again

2008-08-10T22:09:00.006+10:00

The colder months are not very conducive to being nosey. The icy winds don't lend themselves to lingering or ambling. So I've been enjoying noseyness from the comfort of my own home, thanks to Google Maps Street View.

You can glide down almost every street in Newtown, getting a funny little thrill from seeing on the screen all the stuff that you can walk outside and see for yourself. And the stuff you wouldn't see unless you were there at that precise moment:

It's an amazing snapshot of time. I'm always struck by how, when a shop or cafe changes hands on King Street, I can never remember what was there before, so I will appreciate the aide-memoire. It's also a handy historical record. Behold the second Mad Max truck, now gone, but immortalised:

And while I appreciate being able to explore the neighbourhood while perched in front of the heater, the sunny skies and be-shorted pedestrians have only made me yearn more for Summer.

Marks the spot

2008-07-31T12:32:00.006+10:00

I really, really love these signs which have appeared around the traps:

Newtown Square

Near W. N. Bull on King Street

Near Istanbul on King

Victoria Park

I wish I could find more.

Every single square inch of King Street could be plastered with these, with everyone's personal significant moments memorialised.

Amongst mine would be the little patch of footpath on Gladstone Street, where the courage for a goodnight kiss was scuppered by an unexpected, and ill-timed fart. Or the perilous stretch near our old house on Simmons Street populated by verandah-sitting neighbours either alcoholic, long-winded or abusive, which, unless stealthily avoided, always resulted in a memorable earful of some description. And that wide gravelly verge on Wilford Street where we ran hand-in-hand and with arms flung wide, just for being so happy.

Lost toys

2008-07-18T12:11:00.003+10:00

These signs are popping up all over King Street:

What's that all about then, eh?

Road rage

2008-07-06T17:21:00.004+10:00

On Bailey Street, they're perfectly reasonable, asking for just one day of driveway use:

But on Alton Lane, they take being reasonable to new heights:

While on Mary Street, they take a firmer stand:

Free Tibet

2008-07-02T16:24:00.005+10:00

Or:

Or:

Seen on Lennox Street.

Toothless Nell

2008-06-29T20:19:00.003+10:00

Thanks to Andra for alerting me to this brilliant addition to the Newtown Public School vegie garden:

The inscription reads:

TOOTHLESS NELL
KILLED 1808 IN A TRIVIA NIGHT BRAWL
HER LAST WORDS: "MAN HATH NOT 32 TEETH"

Just like everything else in Newtown of late, it seems to have now disappeared.