fitzroyalty

In August 2007 I wrote a post about the impending arrival of a bar and restaurant on Brunswick St called Little Creatures, a Melbourne version of the hugely successful micro-brewery from WA. Their Fremantle premises is a fantastic place to spend a Sunday afternoon. Now the Brunswick St site is advertising for staff although the inside is still a mess being prepared to become a construction site. No construction has occurred yet, so opening day must still be months away.

Update 8 February 2010: more mainstream media attention on the ANCP bullies.

Update 10 October 2008: The Herald Sun reports that Consumer Affairs Victoria has issued an alert about fraudulent fines issued by criminal car park operators.

Update 14 August 2008: The Consumer Action Law Centre are to take ANCP to VCAT over this ongoing issue of fines being issued for free parking. I hope ANCP gets kicked to the curb and covered in shit in the gutter where it belongs. I hope they go out of business. The local councils also need to resume responibility for the carparks.

Earlier this month I wrote about being the victim of attempted corporate extortion by Australian National Car Parks Pty Ltd (ANCP). Today I have received a letter from them backing down and withdrawing their illegal threats. Justice has been done. I called the bully’s bluff and the bully crawled back into the gutter it came from.

ANCP try to ‘fine’ people who forget to get a ticket for ‘free’ parking. They have no authority to issue real fines so they claim to have been commercially damaged and threaten to take people to court to recover alleged ‘damages’ unless they make a ‘payment’. I sent them a fax explaining that I had forgotten to get a ticket and had no intention of breaking their rules, then another using legal advice and form letter provided the Consumer Action Law Centre. They responded by demanding payment again.

I faxed them again stating that I refused to pay and explained that it seemed they had no legal grounds to claim damages from me. They offered free parking and that is what I received. They lost nothing but my respect. I basically called their bluff and invited them to take me to court. They lost the debate and withdrew their threats. I posted my story to the forum so hopefully other people will also find the courage to resist.

I never give in to bullies. Their threats scare most people, but most people are scared of the law and are fearful of conflict. 30 minutes reading convinced me that the law was on my side, and my capacity for conflict is greater than that of most bullies, who cannot cope with assertive responses. They expect meek submission from frightened sheep. In the face of righteous indignation and malignant fury they collapse under the weight of their own stupidity. My boycott of Barkly Square will continue until they cancel ANCP’s contract. This is the price of their betrayal of their customers.

Having finished reading Hanif Kureishi’s new novel Something To Tell You earlier this week, I am now ready to explode with admiration and fury. It is a shambolic novel that has none of the structural elegance or coherent exposition of his early fiction, particularly The Black Album, which I enjoy reading over and over again. Apart from his last novel The Body (a strange though fascinating J.G. Ballard lite story), Kureishi seems to becoming more infuriating. I was pleased though troubled by Gabriel’s Gift and with Something To Tell You Kureishi (wikipedia and very out of date official site) has moved further in the direction of intuitive (some could say self indulgent) narrative.

Image from thetelegraph.co.uk

You can listen to Kureishi reading from Something To Tell You, and read more here. I’ve never been to London, yet it is Kureishi’s work that is what makes London seem so exciting a place to become lost in. His writing is elegant and engaging and his form of dialogue is something that I find engrossing, although some say it is irritating. I also enjoy the dialogue of authors like Tim O’Brien, which also seems to be an acquired taste.

Kureishi’s characters are magical pastiches of eccentric behaviours and unfocused desires. He writes frankly about sex, drugs and disappointments. In this latest novel the biggest tease is the tense build-up to the discovery of the protagonist’s chivalrous but tragic youthful behaviour in relation to the life of his first love, and the effect this will have on their future and perhaps on his career. Kureishi’s ability to make this the focus of the story yet to have it fade into insignificence by the end of the novel’s events is powerful and infuriating. I feel cheated and at the same time enamoured of the potential for redemption this implies.

Another facet I am still trying to come to terms with is the appearance of characters from his earlier novels and films in this novel, and how they interact. There’s even a coy reference to the fact that actor Naveen Andrews plays Sayid in Lost. Andrews played Karim in the TV adaptation (finally available on DVD) of Kureishi’s debut novel The Buddha of Suburbia in the early 1990s, long before his Lost fame.

I will start reading it again almost immediately. I am sure there is far more in this book than one reading can reveal.

I stayed up on Saturday night to catch the F1 qualifying session on TV. The 10 HD channel was promising the 1 hour show much earlier than the SD channel. It did not come on as 10 continued IPL cricket coverage on HD, and more cricket was on SD. Poor service to those of us who did not want to watch cricket, but there seemed little loss. I set my MacBook Pro to record the qualifying on the 10 SD channel at 5am and went to sleep.

On waking I went to watch the qualifying to find… more fucking cricket, which had gone 1 hour over schedule on the SD channel. I had 5 minutes of F1 at the end of the recording before it finished. Channel 10, your coverage of F1 is now as bad as that of Channel 9 years ago, which caused them to lose it. And you have broken your promise to broadcast F1 in HD. The race tonight is only on SD.

The only solution is bittorrent to the rescue, which enables me to take revenge on Channel 10 in Australia and ITV in Britain at the same time. Chanel 10, you have lost me. I am no longer exposed to your advertising. I will no longer tolerate your pathetic coverage of F1. I downloaded the full 2 hour ITV F1 qualifying program within hours of it being broadcast live. Hundreds of people are seeding the files, and it is infinitely better than anything we see about F1 in Australia.

Australian F1 fans, forget Channel 10’s crap coverage and constant interruptions (retarded ignorant Australian commentators, interrupting Martin Brundle for no reason, cutting off the driver press conference after the Australian F1 GP, etc) and use torrent files instead. Our fellow F1 fans around the world provide far better service than the network broadcasters ever will. Consumers have the power. Broadcasters, get used to it. You need us more than we need you. If you want us to watch your stupid channels, start delivering the service we deserve.