fitzroyalty

Ink seafood restaurant (single page site only, no menus Update 24 July 2008 - Ink now have a beautiful looking website with menus) is located on the corner of Alexandra Parade and Rae St in the southern border of North Fitzroy. Alexandra Parade divides Fitzroy and North Fitzroy and is not the greatest location for a restaurant - several lanes of constant traffic, no other entertainment venues on the same block and little passing foot traffic compared to Brunswick St or St George’s Rd.

This is probably why I’ve looked at it from across the road many times and made a mental note to eat there, but then gone somewhere else based on a spontaneous decision that does not include walking along the north side of Alexandra Parade.

This is the issue Ink faces, and it is a shame because once I tried it last Wednesday night, I realised that Ink is one of the secret dining treasures of the Fitzroy area, and one that should be much better known and appreciated. I can’t find a single web or blog review of Ink, and that too is sad, but also good for me in that I can be the first to rave about how good it is!

Read the rest of this entry »

Lake Wendouree in Ballarat is completely dry, and has been for over two years. It’s surreal to see signs warning you not to swim when there is no water to swim in!

In a fantastic community initiative, Safeway Fitzroy and the City of Yarra are promoting art work by young people created with the support of the Napier Studio. Read the brochure at the bottom for details. Now Safeway has an art isle!

The Brunswick St Gallery’s small works show earlier this month was a triumph, and Mark and the gallery team should be congratulated on one of the Fitzroy art highlights of the year. It was fantastic to see the show and also to see how popular it was. Instead of the usually busy stairwell the white walls were bare, but once you got to the top floor the crammed walls exploded in colour.

Read the rest of this entry »

On Friday 20 June I attended the launch party at Dante’s of the Gertrude Association’s digital media street festival. The launch was a great success with about 200 people attending. I then went for a walk to look at the projection sites. The video below is a short collection of the projections showing the sites and how people interacted with the images. Friday night is the closing party - check the Gertrude Association site for details.

I was walking up Napier St on Monday night heading south from Johnston St and saw a film or television shoot in progress. There were women in leopard print miniskirts and faux fur jackets. Must have been the obligatory junkie hooker scene. A new crime or cop drama, I thought to myself.

I then found out from a friend who lives on Napier St that she had recieved notification in the letterbox about the blocked roads resulting from the shoot.

UPDATE: Based on reader feedback, I’ve removed ‘Rush’ from the title of this post. A new police show called Rush was filming in Fitzroy (and Collingwood) at this time, but according to other locals another well known crime show that we are not allowed to watch here in Victoria was also filming in Fitzroy.

I don’t know for sure whether the shoot I saw on Monday night was for the same show as the one I saw setting up on Tuesday morning or the one I photographed on Tuesday night (though it did all seem connected by location and equipment (from Unit One). Perhaps the paranoia of the crew (see below) is more understandable if it was something Victorians are not supposed to see.

Read the rest of this entry »