Melbourne Post 9
As the tide of uncertainty and exam related stress washes over me, it seems there's nothing better to do than indulge in my favourite city. It's been a while since I've done one of these posts, was about time...
First up we have a cafe in Richmond, on the corner of Swan and Church Sts, called "Flavour of Lakhoum". This place is run by a bunch of Turkish guys and they do a fantastic "Lebanese" coffee (the one they make here is the typical Arabic Qahwa with Cardamom). In addition, they have some good light meal options, I had a lamb wrap with yoghurt which was superb. They have photos of coffee cup art on the walls which is a bit too spooky to be true and I absolutely *love* their wallpaper. Pictured below with the aforementioned qahwa
Next up we have a bar familiar to any who attended Heidi's party or my own birthday bash last year.
Murmur bar is safely tucked away in Warburton Place, a laneway off Lt. Bourke St between Elizabeth and Queen Sts, around the corner from "Soft Belly". The place is quite cool and they usually a play a nice mix of hip hop/jazzy beats. The place has high ceilings and a great old-school decor, comfy black couches and a reasonably priced and well-chosen selection of beers. Very chilled place, one of my favourites for sure.
As far as restaurants go, above we have Ying Thai 2 (so named because the original Ying Thai is eslewhere), a Thai restaurant in amongst a whole bunch of Italian restaurants on Lygon St. The place is a mainstay, though and very popular, because good quality Thai food in Melbourne is not that common (when compared to HK or Cantonese food which is everywhere). The place comes highly recommended as their dishes are authentically Thai and authentically spicy too!
Finally, if Melbourne was said to have one religion that unites the majority of Melburnians, it would have to be sport. Apart from being a cultural, fashion and culinary capital... Melbourne is also the absolute, uncontested sporting capital of Australia. And if Sport in Australia has a Mecca... it would most definitely be the MCG, "The People's Ground" or just "the G". This 100,000 capacity stadium has seen heroes made and men disgraced, streakers of all kinds and millions upon millions of happy faces. To walk upon the hallowed turf is to be part of history. Above, a ray of light shines down upon the ground as Melburnians gather for an AFL match... Australian Rules football has pride of place at the MCG, along with cricket, and will always have a special place in the hearts of Melburnians. Go Bombers!
Labels: food+drink, melbourne
JD Salinger - Catcher in the Rye
The thing about "Catcher", as it is so affectionately known on many American campuses, is that it's freakin' popular, particularly in America. For a novel that was written in 1951, it still seems to pack quite a pounch for uni students all over the place, particularly in the good ol' US of A. Perhaps it is because there is something endearing about the novel's lovable loser protagonist, Holden Caulfield, who is an adolescent, lost in a world of "phoneys", bumbling his way through life.
The novel begins with Holden being kicked out of Pensey, the 4th college he has been expelled from, and chronicles the subsequent 48 hours or so of him fooling around in New York City (refusing to go home because he doesnt want to break the news of yet another expulsion to his parents.) The novel is less concerned with what Holden actually does and more concerned with what he thinks, as is conveyed by the stream-of-consciousness style employed to write the novel (from the first person, might I add).
Salinger succeeds in getting inside Holden's head very well and, despite my lack of knowledge about adolescent behaviours in 1951, it does seem very authentic... especially on the part of the lingo and the many things that feature on Holden's mind, such as sex, his attitude towards his peers, being cool and independence.
Ultimately, in terms of social commentary, this book is fairly scathing in its depiction of adolescent America in the '50s. It is a hedonistic, "phoney" world of sex, bullying and underage drinking... 3 things that seem tame/normal to us now but were rather taboo at the time. The "phoneyism" in particular is something that Holden/Salinger really hones in on in the book. Generally speaking, the people that Holden refers to as "phoney" are more or less, people that do things just to be cool. The ironic thing about this is, that Holden is completely hypocritical, in the sense that he displays the very same tendencies.
This shows him to be, ostensibly an outsider, but one who is hopelessly sucked in to the many things he himself criticises. He takes a swipe at a number of social norms in the book. Here are some examples:
Boy, when you're dead, they really fix you up. I hope to hell when I do die somebody has sense enough to just dump me in the river or something. Anything except sticking me in a goddam cemetery. People coming and putting a bunch of flowers on your stomach on Sunday, and all that crap. Who wants flowers when you're dead? Nobody. ~J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye, Chapter 20
Take most people, they're crazy about cars. They worry if they get a little scratch on them, and they're always talking about how many miles they get to a gallon, and if they get a brand-new car already they start thinking about trading it in for one that's even newer. I don't even like old cars. I mean they don't even interest me. I'd rather have a goddam horse. A horse is at least human, for God's sake. ~J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye, Chapter 17
In that sense, this book strongly resembles Camus' The Outsider, in that it depicts a seemingly reasonable person outcast by society based on absurd social norms that he cannot follow. The book also strongly reminded me of Bret Easton Ellis' Less Than Zero, which is similarly themed by an outcast adolescent caught up in a hedonistic world... but updated for the 80s.
Overall though, Catcher is a powerful depiction of the absurdities of American society and some of its more unlikely (ie. white, middle-class) victims.
The reason why we sympathise with Holden is because he see is an underdog, trying to be honest, to get by, he stands up for himself when he's being bullied by a pimp, he loves his sister and wants to do right by her, he spends money selflessly on others and throughout the whole novel, all he wants to do is build connections with people and love them... but whenever he reaches out, he is never satisfied and constantly let down...
I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids, and nobody's around - nobody big, I mean - except me. And I'm standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff - I mean if they're running and they don't look where they're going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That's all I do all day. I'd just be the catcher in the rye and all. I know it's crazy, but that's the only thing I'd really like to be." ~J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye, Chapter 22Labels: literature
Sun Tzu - The Art of War
Another night another loss in poker, dammit. What happened to my winning streak? I lost $20 last nite in two separate games. In the first game, the Top 2 split the pot and I came 3rd... in the second game, the winner took all and I came 2nd! So I was just outside the money both times, dammit! Ah well, thanks to the usual bunch of jokers: Ippei, Daryl, Pete and Kev, for a good night, ya bastards!
Anyway, main topic of this post is the book I recently read,
Sun Tzu's,
The Art of War. This book is widely regarded as an ancient masterpiece, way ahead of its time and a useful + comprehensive manual to warfare and life in general. To those that have seen the film
Wall Street, this book was a favourite of the greedy protagonist, corporate raider Gordon Gecko (who pronounced the name like "Son Zoo"), and underpinned his "greed is good" motto. In addition to Mr. Gecko, a whole host of (questionable?) characters have read this book, the picture below should give an insight into its ubiquity.
I found the book to be interesting in parts. Much of its philosophy seemed to be related to Taoism, plus the particular version I was reading included a bunch of commentaries from Chinese scholars across the ages and a couple of Westerners to boot, that put much of its wisdom into the context of many military endeavours across history. Master Sun's words still cut like a knife through butter though in many parts of the text.
The problem with the text overall though was that it is, after all, like 2500 years old or something. So much of Master Sun's wisdom was relatively basic and now, one might say, serves to be common knowledge. The ideas presented were obviously very sophisticated for their time but now, in parts did come off sounding primitive. This is in parts only, however, because in other parts Master Sun came off sounding wise as his words served to remind us of the poignant importance of basic philosophies in life.
If anything, Master Sun's work is a tacit reminder of the value and differences of Eastern Philosophies. His ideas focus a great deal on inner, inherent strength allowing one to overcome many obstacles, and the concepts of balance, inner energy and correct thought were overriding themes in the text.
One thing I like about
The Art of War is the almost poetic simplicity of the words themselves, not sure if this is because of the translation or simply the simple writing style of Chinese scholars at the time, but it is surely the reason why so many use Master Sun's work as a kind of personal mantra, or include it in quotable quotes (the same can be said of Lao Tzu, the great Taoist scholar).
Because of this, I've decided to include an excerpt from the text:
Master Sun said:
He who advances
Without seeking
Fame,
Who retreats
Without escaping
Blame,
He whose one aim is
To protect the people
And serve his Lord,
This man is
A Jewel of the Realm.
I shall post more quotes in future if I feel them to be fitting.
Labels: literature, philosophy, social life
The Namesake and Melbourne Post 8
On Monday night,
Heidi and I went to
Cinema Nova to enjoy their $7.50 movie night which happens every Monday. We opted to see a film called "The Namesake" which has been out for a while, thus we were duly bundled into a tiny cinema with a comparatively small screen. It was very comfortable, however, and didn't really diminish viewing pleasure at all. In fact, the movie was rather good.
Based on the novel of the same name by
Jhumpa Lahiri (which I read a while back and enjoyed, but not immensely), the film chronicles a family's migration from India to the US, the birth of a boy who is curiously named "Gogol" after his father's favourite author,
Nikolai Gogol. The main thrust of the film focuses on the boy growing up and coming to terms with both his name, and the cultural/psychological awakenings that come with growing up as a first generation American born into a migrant family. The film is very well made, the performances are quite fantastic, especially by the boy's father. Gogol himself is played by the Indian guy from that "White Castle" movie, a fairly different role here for him with a lot more meat, and he handles it reasonably well. Alltogether a good film, go check out - and read the book.
The other cool thing that happened today was that the Arabic Culture club on campus organised a tent on South Lawn where one could smoke shisha and procure Arabic pastries and sweets, all at the nominally low cost of $2 for membership. So I spent around an hour-ish lazing around in the sun with Simon, Kai Yau and
Heidi, smoking shisha on the grass and watching campus life go by. Awesome. Gonna be a whoooole lot more of that where I'm going!
Further, I am determined to continue chronicling my favourite activities in and around Melbourne, despite the fact that many of you are either sick of this or skip this section alltogether. This is because I want to look back on these posts when I'm overseas, to remind me of home, and when I return home also to make a heady list of things I need to refresh myself on... so here 's another one, number 8 in the series, this one has a very coffee related flavour.
Pictured above is the outdoor seating area of Tiamo. Tiamo, located on Lygon St, opposite Lygon Court, near the corner of Faraday, is an Italian restaurant that has been there for quite some time now. It serves up a decent mix of pastas, salads and sandwiches and the coffees are not too bad. The reason why you go to Tiamo, however, is for the atmosphere. It is the most atmospheric restaurant in Lygon St because of it's history. Tiamo is the embodiment of Carlton's laid-back Italian attitude to life, the place is plastered with posters promoting events and in Tiamo you will find a veritable mix of patrons, from your Italian gangster looking locals, to families of mixed ethnicity, to Africans from the nearby Commission flats, to tightfisted students debating over a latte. A perfect representation of the eclectic mix that is Lygon St, Carlton. See the indoor seating area below:
It should be noted that, this semester, I have quoted Lygon St as my favourite place in Melbourne. When I say this, however, I refer to the area in and around Faraday St and not really beyond that. This area has Cinema Nova, Readings, Borders, Tiamo, Carlton Yacht Club, Lygon Food Store, Carlton Espresso, Country Road and a bunch of second hand bookshops. Ahhh this is the real Carlton... not the Notturno/Papa Ginos infested area further down the strip.
The picture above is of Atomica, surely one of the best places to get a coffee in Melbourne, I would certainly place it in my Top 5. Atomica roasts all its coffee fresh on premises and also supplies a number of cafes (Animal Orchestra at uni for one). Although the staff can sometimes be a little surly, this quaint Brunswick St cafe's coffee and vibe more than makes up for it. They were playing hip hop then blasting heavy metal rock when I was last there... the latter made me rather unhappy but it was all worth it for that espresso. Pictured below, by the way :) with their cool logo on the cup.
And finally, upon introspection, pictured below are a few of my favourite things, taken in Laurent (a French-inspired cafe/boulangerie franchise) in Church St, Brighton, not far from where I live.
And while the cappuccino pictured is not usually my coffee of choice... coffee, the paper and my camera for random snaps, sitting outside a cafe on a sunny afternoon, who could ask for anything more? Well maybe a Cinzano...
Labels: film, food+drink, melbourne
Melbourne Post 7
On Friday night I attended the screening (run by the UNICEF society on campus) of an Oscar-winning film called
"Born into Brothels" which was about an English woman living in the red light district of Kolkata, India and helping some of the kids there. She is a photographer and teaches them her art, helping them learn to do something productive, something they happen to have a knack for too, and also helping them get into schools and find new opportunities to better themselves and get out of the brothels. A strategy that works well for some and not so well for others (who face opposition from their families who want to keep them there). The film was great, provided many great insights into life on Kolkata's mean streets, the woman was quite inspiring and the kids were terribly cute... even for me who usually hates kids.
Here are some more Melbourne pics and places to check out for all y'all.
Cocoro is a pottery cafe on Smith St. This is truly a great place, "cocoro" which means "heart" in Japanese, is very much a warm, loving and cosy place to be in. The serving staff provide not only excellent service, but warm, friendly and obliging demeanor 100% of the time. The menu, which consists of small dishes to be shared, is not pricey and you can get away with dinner here for around $20 per person. They have some very original desserts and their drinks take on a bit of a Japanese green-tea feel. You can try the "
macha latte" or "macha ice cream" or other green tea flavoured drinks/desserts. Alternatively, their regular lattes are quite alright... and served, like everything else, in Cocoro's own innovative pottery range... which you can buy!
This is a pic, taken by
Heidi, of some terrace houses in Sth Melbourne. Victorian era terrace houses, typified by their 2-story+balcony facade, shared walls and long floor plan, are very popular in Melbourne and can fetch very high prices because of their historical value and how cool they look! There are many other suburbs with rows of terrace houses, mostly in the inner-city, including Carlton and Fitzroy. I've also seen them in parts of Sydney, like Paddington.
Multi-coloured Gelati in many flavours.
Gelato, Italian-style ice cream, is very popular in Melbourne and common to find in the city, St. Kilda and especially Lygon St. This particular picture was taken in a gelati-chain called "Trampoline" which is quite good and pretty popular. They have stores in many places including Lonsdale St and Glenferrie Rd. Their Lychee flavour is recommended.
A barista, hard at work, as
a pretty girl is caught in the reflection of his shiny bar/coffee machine. This is -orange-, a bar/cafe on the Windsor-end of Chapel St. This place has Gravity coffee, one of the better major roasters, and although the quality of the coffee is temperamental, it is one of the better places to drink coffee on Chapel St. The place is in a very old style, and local celebrities and fashionistas alike can be seen lounging around on its outdoor seating area. Here's another pic of it:
And finally, another pic of the State Library of Victoria, one I've posted about before. Here is a different angle, during dusk. Note the couple having a chat on one of the benches in the foreground... and the engagement of the heavily utilised phone boxes. The state library is truly one of Melbourne's great places for meeting and socialising. A symbol of our great historic + intellectual city.
Labels: architecture, film, food+drink, melbourne
Albert Camus - The Outsider
Camus' classic novel is called "L'estranger" in French and, depending on the translation which you pick up, is either translated into "The Outsider" or "The Stranger" in English. The one I picked up, translated by Joseph Laredo, was the Penguin Books version called "The Outsider".
Although generally regarded as an
existentialist piece of work, Camus never liked to subscribe to any particular "ism" and regarded this work as closer to
absurdism than existentialism, however the two are closely linked and there is no denying the existentialist undertones.
The book is about a peculiar man, Meursault, who leads a relatively ordinary bachelor life in Algeirs until he commits an act of violence. His response to the incident during his subsequent trial puts his peculiarities on display and makes the reader question whether it is the man who is peculiar... or whether it is the society within which he is living that is, in fact, absurd.
Meursault does not believe that there is a God, nor does he believe that our lives have any purpose or meaning beyond the daily goings on and their related sensory experiences. He does not believe in fabricating emotion or remorse just because it is expected by society and refuses to be dishonest about how he truly feels in relation to anything.
The opening line of the novel, quite possibly the most commonly dissected opening line in literature: "Mother died today. Or maybe yesterday, I don't know" says it all. Meursault no longer lived with his Mother, he put her in a home because he couldnt afford to look after her and because "they'd run out of things to say to each other". Meursault was unsure when she died because, after all, does it really matter which particular day a person dies on? Meursault did not cry at Mother's funeral, nor did he show any emotion really. Does this make him a bad person?
Camus stated that the book sprung from the idea he had, the notion that a man can be condemned to death for not crying at his mother's funeral, the absurd reality of how much pressure society puts on us to behave, react, think and feel in a certain way, and the ostracision and destruction of "outsiders", people that act differently... This notion turns Meursault into a hero of sorts. A man that is courageously defending a cause, in the face of a justice system that is not particularly just...
This book is an inspiration to anyone of us who has ever felt like an "outsider".
Labels: literature, philosophy
Update + Melbourne Blog 6
It's been an up + down week as usual. The results of 3 out of 4 of my assessments have come back and they are all more or less favourable... haven't received the one I'm most worried about though, the essay about Chinese Peasants... that was a toughie, so we'll see how I go. I expect 60 at the most so I don't have very high hopes and will be happy with a pass... well not happy but sort of... not surprised.
Finals are coming! Argh! 3 weeks time! Seriously! And I'm still looking at quotes for my flight to Bahrain (which might turn out to be a flight to NYC, long story)... and trying to find a way to wrangle the Dept of Acctg to let me take my exam earlier...
A more-or-less party weekend (including V's party, Lammo's drinks, Isaac's potluck and Thomas' drinks) it culminated in a great night with the boys on Monday night at my place. Despite not winning their money for the first time since we started our poker nights (I won 3 in a row) and actually dropping out first, I had a great time. As usual... the shit talk and general good times were well worth it, especially the fact that I could drink without constraint since I wasnt driving home. The 3am (or whatever it was) drive to Maccas was a good call though. We polished off a good amount of Maccas + antipasto. Plus I drank a whole bottle of wine (never done that before, dont drink wine that much),
Pete polished off half a bottle of vodka and
Ippei+
Daryl finished a bottle of Jack Daniels between them. Reasonable effort given that we werent particularly drunk. One caveat... that room still smells of cigars!
I've finished reading
Zen + The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance... I'll put up my thoughts on it one of these days. I've also just read Camus'
The Outsider. A novel that impressed me a great deal and gave me a lot to think about, especially in relation to the theories of absurdism and existentialism. More on this later.
I've recently discovered a new love. Melbourne Supper Club, an excellent bar that is the epitomy of Melbourne laid back class... more info and pics to come in future posts but I do have some other Melbourne things I'd like to showcase...
Today, we have some grand old buildings...
This one is South Melbourne Town Hall. Photo credit goes to
Heidi here, snapped out of a car window too... there was a wedding going on here at the time when we passed by but I love the grand style of the building and its massive columns. Only a few of the inner city town halls around Melbourne are in this grand old style and they reflect the history of Melbourne's older suburbs. This particular hall was built in 1879-80 and is one of the best, most grand examples of this kind of Victorian style architecture in Australia. The building is actually much longer than this photo shows... here is a small pic from wikipedia
Another grand building is Melbourne's GPO or former General Post Office building:
Towering commandingly between the corners of Elizabeth/Bourke and Elizabeth/Lt. Bourke... this grand building is a wonder to walk through. It was built in 1859 in the Renaissance Revival style, GPO ceased operating as a post office in 1992. It was gutted by fire in 2004 and was then restored to be a major shopping and entertainment precinct and a hub for high end labels such as Akira + Comme des Garcon. It also contains a variety of restaurants (including Kenzan which serves reportedly awesome sushi) and some bars (including the Library, mentioned in previous posts and Lexington, ever popular with the after work crowd). It also has Fat, Mimco, Roy and Ben Sherman... some of my favourite labels.
Here we have a picture of Readings bookstore in Port Melbourne, taken trough a rain splatter car window by
the lovely Heidi. Readings is a great chain of community bookstores, with stores in Malvern, Hawthorn and Carlton, in addition to the above one. Its bookstores tend to become focal points for the community with important arts and literary events being conducted in store and bulletin boards advertising all manners of things by residents being heavily utilised. The Pt. Melbourne one also contains a quaint little cafe, pictured below with a man enjoying a book + a coffee, two favourite pastimes I also share.
The below photo which I'll finish with was also taken by
the dear Heidi (she's taken 3 of the 6 photos I've posted today... she does have an eye for great pics.) Taken out the window of Bimbo's, it's a photo of a street corner on Brunswick St.
The neon lights of bars, cafes + retail outlets are still glowing despite a more-or-less empty street, devoid of its usual revellers on a week night. A week night in Brunswick St is an enjoyable event... although many of the best places (Marios, Atomica, Ici) are indeed closed in the late evening, the street is also devoid of many of the yuppie/wanker types that go there to get drunk and create a ruckus. It is populated by more-or-less harmless homeless, poor workless bums from the Housing Commission flats down the road, and bummy student/arty types who have nothing better to do than to sit around in Gypsy Bar/Bimbos and chew the fat with their bohemian compadres. The bike with the basket says it all.
Labels: architecture, melbourne, social life, studies
Update + Photoblogging
It's been a while since I posted last, another bout of blogging laziness. Despite the lack of comments, I've had quite a number of requests for more Melbourne blogging, which is good because it means people do read this and it isn't
just for my benefit (although I'm totally gonna love reading this stuff when I'm overseas... love and hate that is). So included in this post are some more photos I've taken in and around Melbourne. No interesting cafes, restaurants or bars in this post, but will include some more in the next one. :)
In terms of updates, there was, of course, State Conference plus I went on a awesome Great Ocean Road trip with
my loveliest travelling companion and, for anyone wanting more details about the trip - lets just say it was 3 days and we took around 5Gb of photos. Yes. A lot of photos.
I've recently passed through a major mid-semester assessment period where, over a weekend, I had a 40% Financial Accounting exam on Friday, followed by a 20% Accounting for Corporate Entities exam and two major essays (one about Chinese peasants pre and post Communist Revolution and one about the Greater Syrian National Congress after WW1, totalling 3500 words) on the following Monday. That was hellish but I got through it, not sure with what sort of results (we shall see) and have been mostly kicking back work-wise, now realising that I'm hella behind.
I've finished reading
Jung Chang's biography of Mao, which was full of hate, vitriol and loathing for Mao on every single page. Biased indeed, but an interesting read nonetheless. Am now reading "the most widely read philosophy book of the 20th century" which is
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by
Robert M. Pirsig. If anyone's read it, holla at me, but it seems it was more of a baby boomer book.
I've attended two shows as part of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival and they couldn't have been any more different.
Akmal, an Egyptian born comedian was absolutely hilarious... giving audience members a great deal of hell and repeatedly taking the piss out of Sheikh al-Hilaly, Alan Jones and the Cronulla riots at the same time.
Daniel Kitson on the other hand, a tubby, bearded, nerdish looking Briton, delivered more of a philosophy lecture than a comedy act which was funny at times but undeniably witty, interesting and full of magical insights into the way we are. His act won the top award for the festival's best performance so there ya go.
I've also watched some films.
Heavyweights, as part of the German Film Festival at Cinema Como (a lovely cinema, by the way, wish I had my cam). A true story about two rival Bavarian bobsledders having to work together for the benefit of Germany at the 1952 Winter Olympics.
Hostel,
Eli Roth's horror movie about 3 backpackers that get lured to a shady hostel in Slovakia by the premise of partying and hot sex (Americans, surprise surprise) and receive that, plus unspeakable terror. And, the best of the three,
300... (seen with
the glorious one, who detested the gore and is now forcing me to see a chick flick with her, shit) by now you shold know, the film adaptation of a comic about the Battle of Thermopylae where 300 Spartans (and some other random Greeks) made a heroic last stand against King Xerxes' of Persia massive army (of horrible fiends). As a result of the final one, I have been running around yelling "FOR SPARTA!!!" at every opportunity.
So thats about it from me, below are the pics i mentioned earlier, gonna try to blog more often but then again, how often do i say that.
The
Melbourne Trades Hall building on Lygon St, opened in 1859 and the home of the Victorian labour movement. The flags seen atop of this building are the Australian flag, the Eureka flag, the Aboriginal flag and the Red flag (most commonly associated with communism but actually representing the blood of workers worldwide, a symbol that predates communist ideologies).
The Melbourne skyline as seen from Southbank. The tall building in the centre is the Rialto Tower, formerly tallest building in Australia (now Eureka/Q1).
Some random bottles against the backdrop of graffiti art down an alley off Johnston St in Fitzroy, near Brunswick St.
The busy corner of Lt. Lonsdale St and Swanston St at dusk.
Snapshot of the sea, taken in Port Melbourne just near Station Pier.
Labels: film, literature, melbourne, studies
