Simpler Times

“I don’t remember us wearing our pants THAT high in the 80s”, I said to my friends as the “glass boy” walked past us at the Bob Hawke Beer & Leisure Centre (aka the Bob Hawke Brewery at Marrickville). 

The bar is themed around the former Prime Minister, with lots of memorabilia, including signed photographs, the pair of broken glasses he was wearing when a cricket ball famously hit him, the Australia-themed jacket he wore for the 1983 America’s Cup victory, and even the Bob Hawke wine cask holder.… Read the rest “Simpler Times”

He was not “Saint Bob”

The first funeral for a former Prime Minister I remember, was the funeral of Sir Robert Menzies. It was many years since he had been the Prime Minister, and I was only a young child. Since then, in adulthood, I’ve remembered the deaths of Malcolm Fraser and Gough Whitlam. I’m sure there have been others along the way, but Hawke was a “giant” in that he was the longest serving Labor PM, and, in the words of the current Prime Minister, he was a “father of modern Australia”.… Read the rest “He was not “Saint Bob””

Penny Arcade

I was a little surprised to see Bob and Blanche in the audience last night at “Giant Dwarf”. Though, I’ve seen them at heaps of theatre events around Sydney, it’s often been at the “top end of town”, whereas “Giant Dwarf” is a little more down-market, and it’s a little more “alternative”.

Last night’s show was by Penny Arcade, the New York-based performance artist with ties to Warhol / The Factory etc back in the 1960s.… Read the rest “Penny Arcade”

The New Long March

In a mid-afternoon text message, a friend, currently researching a documentary, asked me if I had any contact details for Bob Hawke. Laughing out loud, I rang her back and said, “Yes, I do, he’s standing right next to me”. I resisted the urge to hand the phone over to the former Prime Minister, as my friend and I kept laughing about the oddness of the co-incidence.

Bob was one of a number of special guests at today’s China-Australia Business Lunch at Sydney’s Museum of Contemporary Art.… Read the rest “The New Long March”