Documentary Maps (Live in Melbourne: Episode one)
Rainbow Clown News last week conducted our survey of modern Melbourne book shops, and god willing we rambled in and out of some of the strangest alley ways, arcades, lofts and stairwells around that strange big city stretch just now filling its own shoes.
Renford the Clown led the way early on down Swanston Street, shaking his fist at the errant tram drivers for so long Victorian spiders began arching down in big looping arcs, setting up shop in his novelty clown gloves, and generally causing many sturdy helpings of top shelf clown guffaws as Renford expressed his anger in various jugglings and general clown frolicking about. Finally Renford put aside his hate and suggested we ignore the tramings for the rest of the afternoon and ascend a series of stairs up to the best clown shop around.
Melbourne clowns know the shop I mean; Visiting clowns will spot it. Hidden between clothes stores and interesting cooking stops, bird faced shop workers frowning with their clogs set to stun, encasing fine never walked a day in their lives feet smelling of ambrosia, this shop, this music and film and book shop flashed with surprise finds, flickered with good luck discoveries, and had us all feeling awfully proud to be clown scribes in this dandy year of 2008.
Lance Armstrong the Clown went gaga nuts at some of the fine woven book cases and mesh glued CD cases, the LP sleeves smelling of wild tobacco leaf, new mexico harvests of old Syd Barrett vinyl smelling like a million dollar marijuana farmer after a St Matthews day cook out gone wrong. Lance was happy as a hatful of thieves, and I photographed his smile seven or eight times just to be sure it was smiling. Well it was. It was smiling like a prize of cats, polar cold and full of ice.
Later, after we had drained the Rainbow Clown News bank accounts and lumbered free of this dream clown store with our bags of paperbacks, vinyl and acid jazz cigarette addictions, we wandered further down along Swanston Street, stopped, drank milk, moved further along to our next location.
Lucky our milk was fresh…
(To be continued)