Bong Su

Here’s another photo taken at the Melbourne Zoo of the bull elephant Bong Su.

Larry Latrobe

This statue dog, called Larry Latrobe, is at the City Square in Melbourne. This is not the original Larry but a replacement for the one that was stolen in 1995. Larry was created by artist Pamela Irving and first appeared in the City Square in 1992. As I said earlier he was stolen in 1995 but the above replacement was unveilled a year later in 1996.

Guinness

I am a very visual person and have very peculiar tastes in the way in which certain things look. I thought I would have a look at some very famous poster advertising campaigns that these days would be considered ‘old fashioned’. My personal view is that a lot of advertising posters (and advertising in general) has these days become very ‘safe’, clichéd and tacky.

Here is a campaign by Guinness which was successful for many years. These Guinness posters by John Gilroy are world famous and reproductions of them have become very collectible.

Notice that these posters use very simple slogans such as…

“Guinness Is Good For You”

“My Goodness My Guinness”

“Lovely Day For A Guinness”

“Guinness Time”

Donald Duck: Murderer

I came across this a while ago and I think it’s quite funny.
Not sure who it’s by though.

Rugby League vs AFL

I noticed yesterday that the CEO of the Parramatta Eels rugby league team, Paul Osborne, dismissed the new Western Sydney AFL team as being a threat by saying,

‘I am not particularly worried by it… It’s a pretty ordinary game and we’ve got a much better product.’

He went on to say,

‘I am not too concerned as I am sure they will come back when they see how boring it is. They are quite intelligent in Western Sydney.’

Ha ha ha. Don’t make me laugh. Rugby league is only strong in NSW and Queensland whilst Aussie rules is strong not just in Melbourne but in Adelaide and Perth, both the Swans and Brisbane Lions are very strong, whilst Tasmania have been begging the AFL to grant them a franchise for a dozen years or more. The NRL has just two non-NSW or QLD teams, one from New Zealand and the Melbourne Storm. (I know technically Canberra is in the ACT but in reality it is part of NSW) The Adelaide Rams rugby league team lasted just two seasons, and although they had attendance figures that put most Sydney rugby league clubs to shame, Rupert Murdoch decided that they could not compete with the AFL’s Adelaide Crows and Port Adelaide Power.

The Storm have been a roaring success in Melbourne but it is still just a handful of regular supporters who attend every match. An average of 12,474 spectators to their home games in 2008, whilst the Parramatta Eels attracted 16,478 spectators to their home games in 2005 (the latest figure I could find). An average of 16,466 people attended NRL games in 2009. In contrast 37,776 people attended each AFL game, with Port Adelaide having the lowest average attendances every week at 25,589. The Sydney Swans attracted an average crowd of 30,857 spectators to their games in 2009, with 2008 seeing an average crowd of 31,821 at Swans games. In 2005 an average of 37,000 people attended Swans games. In 2008 AFL had 1,784,000 MORE free-to-air TV viewers in the capital cities each week than the NRL. If Aussie rules was such a boring game and rugby league so superior wouldn’t it make sense that more people would go to or watch the games and that it would have penetrated into more states of Australia? Since around twice as many people attend Swans AFL games than those of these two NRL teams I reckon there should be a lot of concern. If Paul Osborne isn’t worried now he should be.

Sesame Street 40th Anniversary

Just thought I’d post a link to an earlier post that I made, regarding the 40th Anniversary of Sesame Street. This is where it all began back in October/November 1969.

Sydney Dust Storm Exclusive Pic

I was given this pic a month or so when Sydney had that big dust storm. It was probably funny back then.

Balloon Boy Pooh

Here’s something I should have posted a month ago when Balloon Boy was still relevant.

Emo Mickey

I have had this pic for years but only now have decided to post it. It’s from the Mickey Mouse daily comic strip from the 1930s, by Floyd Gottfredson.

Melbourne Zoo Brown Bear Pic

Here’s a pic I took when I visited Melbourne Zoo back last year.