WARNING: This page is M-rated (Maximum naughtiness, Minimum sleaze)
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WALKA WATERWORKS - PART ONE. Walka Waterworks was a fun picnic spot out from Maitland, near Newcastle NSW. We had a pleasurable visit there once and I took many photos. There were paddleboats with the big yellow wheels and yellow canoes and a cute little steamboat which left from a wharf and motored around the extensive waterway. |
WALKA WATERWORKS - PART TWO. A year or so later I had some relatives visiting from Victoria. Great idea - we'd have an outing to Walka Waterworks. The children would love the paddleboats! Alas - it had all gone. No water, no boats. I asked around but couldn't find anyone with an explanation. Had all that expanse of water accidentally drained away or did some bureaucrat decide people were having too much fun on the waterway? I've tried to find out since but without success. Sad ending to a great picnic spot. If anyone can enlighten me I'd appreciate it - and publish an update here. |
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WARNINGS AGAINST VICE. An illustration from a book published in 1930, titled Safe Counsel (Napeville, Illinois, Nichols and Co,). This work was written by B.G. Jefferis and J.L. Nicholls and bore the subtitle Practical Eugenics. This was an era when the growing exercise of sexual freedom clashed with the old morality of Puritan America. (The clash continues in our time.) It was a quintessentially American book of practical and moral advice. Doubtless it contained much useful information but some of its views were tainted by that religious temperament ever manifest in the country founded by godfearers. The sketch here accompanies a warning about the 'evils' of the cinema, with emphasis on passions. This was the era when Busby Berkeley was emerging from obscurity and devising his stunning dance numbers and it wasn't long before Berkeley's creative genius ran slap-bang into the censor. Berkeley sailed close to the wind in the matter of nudity and his production for Roman Scandals not only displayed a bevy of scantily-clad Roman slave girls but they were chained as well. In fact, some of the girls were actually nude but had only agreed to appear without clothes if given some protective cover via those long blonde wigs. Movies like this (which came later than the book) would surely have triggered a fit of apoplexy in these authors. |
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THREE YOUNG IRISH-AUSTRALIAN COLLEENS. Photo taken by me at the annual St Patrick's Day procession in Sydney city. March 1991. Three friendly young dancers in their beautiful outfits. I wonder where they are now. They are probably married with children of their own. |
NIPPERS NIPPING THROUGH THE SURF. Your Australian surf lifesavers in training, known as Nippers, racing through the surf at North Bondi, a Sydney beach. |
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THE PLEASURES OF GOING BAREFOOT. The book illustrated here is not now in stock but I as I recently sold my only copy. The writer promotes the pleasures of going barefoot for recreation. There are some odd reactions to people who are barefoot. Some, like me, appreciate bare feet, at least female bare feet, but some people seem to react in the same way they do to female breasts. Through the years my daughter often went barefoot; she'd even attend university classes barefoot. One day we went into a restaurant, one we'd gone to before several times. They seemed to be taking an inordinate amount of time to serve us; finally the owner sidled up to our table and explained that they couldn't serve us because my daughter was barefoot! At the time we assumed there was some stupid law but (too late) we discovered there was no such law and, in fact, the restaurant was in breach of law by turfing us out. I have also read that at least in some US states people are not allowed to drive cars barefoot. Who knows why? And I was highly amused some time back when NW Magazine (20 September 2004) carried an article complaining about Britney Spears going barefoot everywhere. Reporters had spotted her shopping in various stores barefoot. Shock! Horror! Takes one back in history. There was a time when a Spanish lady would never allow a man other than her own husband to see her feet naked. Like many people the Spanish have come a long way - the stunning Penelope Cruz has certainly let us see her beautiful feet (and breasts for that matter!). And one of my favourite movies, Pedro Almodovar's Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! (1990) gives us many views of the bare feet (and more) of the beautiful star, Victoria Abril. Her captor lovingly tied and untied and retied ropes around her wrists and ankles. |
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REMEMBERING ALICE. News of yet another movie on the theme of Alice in Wonderland, reminds me of the curious life of the Victorian clergyman, Charles Dogson, aka Lewis Carroll, who created this intriguing tale. The new movie, from the Disney studio, is written as a sequel to Carroll's original story. Alice (played by 19-year-old Australian Mia Wasikowska), is now aged 17. She is enjoying a party when she finds she is being proposed to in front of all the people. She runs off, following an inevitable white rabbit down a hole, finding herself in the Wonderland she visited 10 years before (although she doesn't remember). Welcoming the girl back is the Mad Hatter, played by (and who else could do the part?), Johnny Depp. Tim Burton is doing the film so you know what to expect; not always one of my favourites! Helena Bonham Carter is the bloodthirsty Red Queen whose moat is filled with severed heads. It is due for release in Australia on 4 March 2010 and hasn't been rated yet but doubtless it will probably fetch a higher rating than PG! This is an engraving from an old book depicting Alice. |
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AND HERE'S THE ORIGINAL ALICE. When Lewis Carroll wrote his immortal story he drew on the name of one of his young photographic models - Alice Liddell - as the name for his central character. Carroll was not only an imaginative writer but also a great photographer. He took many photographs of Alice, and other children, boys and girls, but chiefly girls. This, however, is surely the most beautiful one of young Alice - enigmatic, haunting, and stunningly beautiful. See more about Lewis Carroll and Alice Liddell here: |
YOUNG ETHNIC DANCERS IN SAILOR-SUITS. The girls are wearing very cute sailor suit outfits. They were participating in a festival gathering of Greek-Australians in Sydney. The photos were taken in March 1991. The sun was strong so the contrast is high which spoils it a bit and even Photoshop couldn't do a lot to help. |
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ANOTHER BEAUTIFUL OLD POSTCARD. Produced as a gift card, and dating from about 1910. This one is finished in sepia tone, a common style in the days before colour was widespread. |
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I HOPE ANODES AREN'T HUMAN. Came across this peculiar sign one day. I guess the electrical trade has its share of trade talk, like most trades. Or are these people involved in some weird and horrid cult? |
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A HAUNTINGLY DISTURBING PHOTO. Who remembers this disturbing photo? Many will. It is 20 years since it first made its appearance, establishing a mystery that has not been solved to this day. I happened to see mention of the story recently so dug up my notes - and this photo. The story (more fully detailed HERE) centres around a shopper finding a Polaroid photo on the ground near her car. The woman had been shopping and had noticed a white van parked nearby. When she returned to her car the van was gone but she found this photo on the ground, and passed it over to police. Eventually the parents of two missing children came to believe - with perhaps some degree of uncertainty - they were the bound and gagged captives in the photo - Tara Calico, 19, who had gone missing while riding her bike, and Michael Henley, 9, who went missing while picnicking with his family. See reference above for more of the story. |
SHE'S A CLOWN - FROM THE TOP OF HER HEAD TO THE TIPS OF HER TOES. A clown at a festival in Speers Point Park, Newcastle, around the year 1991. The young lady had decorated her toenails with a variety of colours. See book below for some ideas. |
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TOENAIL DECORATION BOOK |
  Available from Felicity
Books (new not secondhand)
- TOENAIL DECORATION BOOK From Japan, mini-book with high-gloss paper and full colour photos - heaps of ideas - 128 pages. Catalog nr 5174 - $10 - including shipping within Australia (rest of world $A15). |
WHEN THE ROD WASN'T SPARED. An old engraving, drawn from an original wall frieze, showing harsh punishment being meted out by a teacher on a boy's bared back and buttocks. Corporal punishment has been the lot of schoolboys (and at times schoolgirls too) over the centuries, often fearsome and cruel in its nature. In our own time the cane and strap have largely disappeared, at least in Western nations. There are, however, a handful of religious schools who are anxious to obey the Biblical injunction - 'spare the rod and spoil the child.' Their efforts have resulted in conflicts between state and church authorities from time to time. |
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IT WAS JUST A TRIFLE WINDY! No, she's not someone snapped on the set of a horror movie. Poor girl happened to be in a school playground with a 'bracing' wind whipping up all manner of things, including her hair! It was during a school fete at Newcastle Grammar School and I couldn't resist the opportunity to catch this rather bizarre image. Not sure of the date but probably around 1991. Hope if she ever sees this and recognizes herself she'll forgive me. |
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TREE OF KNOWLEDGE OF GOOD AND EVIL. An engraving from a travel book, Unexplored Baluchistan (1882). The original sketch was done at a place called Gurna, which, according to locals is the reputed site of the Garden of Eden. It is said that this is the only known example of the species of tree. The locals may claim Eden as their own but nobody really knows where the garden was located for one simple reason - Eden is an imaginary realm, a myth that emerged from the dreamtime of the peoples of the Middle East. Even the description of its location in the Jewish-Christian biblical writings is of little use. People have tried to discover some historical reality in the location as given in the scriptures (see Genesis 2: 10-14 if you are interested) but failed. Like I say, though, it is all a waste of effort. And as for the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil this, too, is part of the mythology, a simplistic attempt, coupled to the appearance of Satan, by believers to explain the existence of evil in the world. |
LIFE ON THE LAKE. A scene on Lake Macquarie, in the Newcastle (NSW) region with two girls enjoying a bit of fun on a surfboard. What a life! I took this in April 1995. I guess by now the girls will not have a lot of time to laze around on the lake - possibly by now they are married with children of their own! |
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SHE DOESN'T LOOK SHY! This is a photo of one of my young friends from the days when I had a bookshop in Newtown, an inner-Sydney suburb. Sofie's mum was a school-teacher who patronized my shop from time to time and I persuaded Sofie (with her mum's permission, of course) to let me take some photos of her. Sofie was terribly shy but a bit of coaxing worked wonders and produced a number of nice shots of a very sweet young girl and I just had to include one photo of Sofie in this section. The photo was taken around the year 1987. |
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1909 SCHOOL PHOTO. Yes, school photos go a long way back and provide an interesting record of people. Unfortunately in many cases the photos turn up in auction houses and other places lacking any details. This one, however, bears the information (on the blackboard) that it was the Scholarship Class at Linton (England) and the photo was taken for Empire Day 1909. Thus it is just 100 years old. Interesting to see eight girls and four boys. One assumes the teacher is the man on the right side of the photo. I wonder if one or two of the boys ended short lives in the Great War that was soon to come. |
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