The Tenderhooks in rehearsal... well a facsimile of them at least, whatever their name is. The boys got together again briefly for a weekend to knock over a couple of tunes and fun was had by all.

A quick snap of the back-end of the Queen Elizabeth 2 at Circular Quay today (8 March 2012)... they say it's the largest ship ever to have docked at that terminal and about 10 meters too tall to make it under the Harbour Bridge.

The cafe used to be at 175 Campbell Street in Surry Hills, Sydney, Australia. It's been knocked down now. A shame, it was a great old building and the Cafe had a good feel about it. I had an art exhibition there and it was quite an event at the time... The cafe was setup by Herman who had an architecture business up stairs and the cafe below. All things must pass, as Mr Harrison said. It was great while it lasted...

In the '80s, before The Palace Hotel was renovated, you could get a $1.50 beef and mustard roll to have with your beer. This was lunch for many City Art students walking between buildings. It used to be a routine after finishing painting sessions at the Flinders Street campus to walk back to the Paddington campus through the Palace Hotel, grab a beef and mustard roll from the hole-in-the-wall type kitchen. That and a quick beer set us up for an afternoon of Myth, Archetype and The Sublime.

L'otel used to be a small French provincial style hotel, bar and dining room in Darlinghurst, Sydney, Australia. Years ago it was run by Yvonne and Eli' and a friend and I held the first art exhibition they had there. It was a good space back then and I had a few other exhibitions there over the years. The place changed hands and style a few times after Yvonne and Eli' left and now and the wall space doesn't work for exhibitions.

Invitation to the opening of the DADO art exhibition held at L'otel

Kite Oil painting exhibited at DADO

The Bagel House was a great Sydney cafe, near Taylor square, I played some jazz there in the '80s with some friends. I wonder what became of the Portelli family? Lovely people, think we played at their house for a birthday some time too.

Baby Enzo - Cafe - Bar - Dining Room - it was in Oxford Street, Paddington, Sydney. Years earlier it was just called Enzo, it had strong art exhibitions in the '80s and was one of the early gay bars in Sydney. It lapsed for some while before Kiran Moraryie set up Baby Enzo. We held he first art exhibition Baby Enzo had and called it Naked. After the exhibition I took a room upstairs as an art studio for a while. It was a great space with French doors looking out over the back of Paddington. Baby Enzo shut down after a while and Kiran headed off overseas on a mission. The building is now back to being a hair salon.

I caught this by chance the other day heading over the Sydney Harbour Bridge into the city. It's the cover image of Queen of Dreams by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni aligned with a train passenger. It has a dream like quality fitting for the book with the umbrella adding another Magritte-type layer.

She came to stay for a weekend-break from the pet shop...

They had lovingly pumped her full of so much food, she spent the next twenty-four hours pissing and shitting everywhere. She was the shape of a small hippo' at first but looked more like a staffy-shaped puppy on the last day. Tears of course upon having to return the beast to the shop. She stayed elsewhere on another occasion and caught ring-worm. It knocked her about a bit. Eventually she went to live with someone who sounded like they would take good care of her. Note the puppy spit in the image, she did a bit of that.

Salivary Glands... okay, so I know you need to know, a dog (or cat) has four salivary glands, Mandibular, Parotid, Sublingual and Zygomatic. Got that?

• Mandibular - the mandible, the jaw.
• Parotid - in front of and below the ears.
• Sublingual - under the toung.
• Zygomatic - of the zygomatic bones, the cheek bones, Malars or Jugals.

An undated - clipping from a New Zealand newspaper, some time in the early '80s reads... 

Rock band really did

Brussells [sic] A concert on October 28 by the Irish new wave band U2 in Brussels rocked not only their fans but also seismic equipment at the Belgian Meteorological Institute, scientists said today. Martine Debecker of the Royal Meteorological Institute said its equipment measured unknown vibrations on October 28. The culptit has since been found: U2 which gave an ear-shattering concert in a music hall 5km away that critics have termed frightening and possessed.

New Wave?