The Null Device
2005/9/23
Melbourne's Astor Theatre, the splendid, anachronistically grand art deco cinema in St. Kilda, is being sold. The Astor is famous for its decor, 70mm projector and combination of recent films, vintage classics and arthouse/cult movies, and its calendars are a fixture on the toilet doors of inner Melbourne. The owner hopes that the new owner will keep him on as a consultant to run it; though it may well go the way of the Valhalla in Westgarth, a former cult/arthouse cinema which now runs populist schmaltz like disnannies and romcoms, or else be turned into boutique lifestyle apartments or a designer shopping complex. If so, it will be a great loss for Melbourne.
I'm currently listening to a time-delayed copy of this week's Local and or General. Mick Harvey's Demon Alcohol sounds just like like Nick Cave's Loverman, only without the smouldering Old Testament wrath of Cave's vocal. Not that that's a great surprise, mind you.