Category Archives: Society

A Plague of Icons

Pretty well everybody from the past is an Icon nowadays. It’s real easy: all you need is to be old and boring enough. Being Dead used to be a big help; in the early years of Iconhood, Deadness was virtually a sine qua non to Iconic sanctification but nowadays it’s a luxury. Being a member of the Living Dead, as so many past musicians have mutated into, is quite enough, thank you very much. The appetite for Icons has expanded to the point that anybody who has survived the years in some vaguely recognizable shape or form and who hasn’t made a complete arse of themselves is verging on Iconhood. Continue reading A Plague of Icons

Curiosity or catastrophe – it’s all in the timing

Braithwaite Park, Mount Hawthorn would have to be one of the most well patronised community parks in Perth. Leading up to Christmas it was full all day, every day – kids playing ball games, picnickers, mummies chatting over wine, birthday parties with the usual add-ons – bouncy castles, pony rides, fenced farm animals, adult fairies and clowns (not always in clown gear and make-up) bullying passive kids into having “fun”…

Glory be, my partner and I were even over there one afternoon at our annual street Christmas getogether, sitting around a table having a beer with neighbours beneath the shade of one of the ancient, massive trees – this one: Continue reading Curiosity or catastrophe – it’s all in the timing