Signature walls
May 15, 2009
History in action
May 11, 2009
photo: vr
Mirka Mora thought in the 1950s that ‘this city needed to be shaken up’.
Since the times of Mirka’s Cafe, a lot has happened and judging by the response of the local cafe goers, it isn’t very likely we’ll be drinking coffee from global chain stores.
photo: vr
A segment from the Age article looks at it this way: ‘the day Starbucks came to Lygon Street was like Scientologists setting up in Vatican City’.
In the same article Melbourne historian Andrew Brown-May is quoted as saying: ‘We’ve actually got, not just superficially but deep in our culture, a great knowledge and appreciation of coffee and certainly a mythology about it.’
photo: vr
Melbourne citizens have existed in a dynamic relationship with their local cafes for quite a while, creating a distinct landscape.
There are other photos from Brunswick Street here.
Also, I found this interview with Mirka Mora quite interesting.
Bringing generosity back
May 9, 2009
Lucas
Lucas, Lentil as Anything (interview transcript, segment)
Lentil as Anything in my eyes, I see it as a little hub for the community. Basically, all the doors are open, everyone is welcome, there’s no judgment, there’s no preconceived notions about who comes inside our doors, everyone is treated as an equal. It could be the richest man in the world. We’ve had celebrities come in in the last few months and they’ve obviously been recognised, but we sort of get their thing. But on the other hand, we’ve had quite a few homeless people, people who are in need of help come in and basically we try to treat everyone as family when it comes right down to it, and that’s what to me we call it the Lentil community, or the Lentil family, some people call it that anyway.
I’m interested to know why you are called Lentil. Is it sort of looking back to the 60s?
To my knowledge, I’m not too sure. No one’s really explained that to me, to be honest, I haven’t thought to ask. It’s a vegetarian slash vegan restaurant so I sort of assumed that it’s a nice piece of wordplay on the fact that it is a vegetarian slash vegan restaurant in that regard.
Now I’ve just had a blank.
I’m sorry, I’ve interrupted you.
No no, that’s fine.
You were talking about communities and who works here.
That’s right.
Because we get such a wide range of people here, you may have noticed we have people who come from huge number of cultures, who come here and work either as volunteers or as experience or because they love coming here or even for paid work. The thing is, because of the attitude that we walk into this place with, everyone has open eyes, everyone has open minds to absolutely everything, so we get this cross-cultural family, so basically everyone shares a bit of themselves and in that regard we get to know each other very very well. We get to understand each other very very well, we get to learn about other cultures, other experiences where people have come from. People who might have had a high and mighty life at some point and have come back down or the opposite and worked they way up from the absolute bottom of society, which has happened in quite a few cases, and yet regardless of who they are and what they are, they are all here working together. Everyone, like I’ve had everyone, is treated really very well . We’re all seen as equals, there’s a huge amount of respect, as far as I can see. There’s a huge amount of respect with everyone working at Lentil, as long as everyone pulls their share obviously.
Basically what we do, we try to help out the community as much as we can. There are programs. There are visa programs for the people who have come to the country and either wish to stay or need to stay, so we can organise a visa for them, a temporary, or in one or two cases a residency for some of the people who come here and if they are in serious need. We can offer everything from hospitality training to driver’s licence, we can find accommodation for people who are in need. Nothing’s ever asked in return, because of that people offer their services back in return, which is ok, works well for everybody. So in that regard we are here for the community and in that regard to bring generosity back, essentially. There are quite a few businesses out there who are, well just about every business, if you don’t pay in cold hard cash you don’t get anything back , which is ok, fair enough, it’s a business. But for those who can’t do that or can’t afford to there’s no opportunity, that avenue is locked off completely, there’s no two buts about it. In that way we’re trying to open up the doors to everybody. If you need a meal but you can’t afford one, come in, you know, if you’d like to help out because of that, walk into the kitchen help yourself, if you have an opinion on how things should be run, speak to the managers, and so on…
More of this interview can be heard here.
There are some Lentil photos here.
Surprise on a busy road
May 5, 2009
photo: vr
I visited La Terra twice only, and I think I’ll go again.
I’ve been aware of this place for quite a while, as it is positioned on a busy street I used to drive along on my way to work. When the traffic slows down, the eye is drawn to this corner of Campbell and Johnston Streets, it offers a pleasant visual relief from the crowded passage of Johnston Street.
I thought the cafe was photogenic. And this is just looking at it from the outside.
Adelmo spoke to me on both of my visits. He told me about how the cafe is not necessarily targeted at a particular audience, it likes to set its own style. Adelmo was reluctant to be recorded, but was happy to be photographed, and was very generous with his time. He graduated in sculpture from RMIT, and liked the idea of taking part in this project.
Adelmo said that although things may look ‘messy’ to some people, and not many understood this sort of aesthetic, every single object is carefully selected, positioned and rotated. He has a lot of his own art there, and a lot of objects that he has made and put together himself.
The cafe has played an important part in the formation of the local acoustic music festival, La Terra Music Festival as it was called, and this was due to a friendship between Adelmo and one of the regular visitors of the cafe at that time, Peter Uhlenbruch.
Speaking to Adelmo about this, he has fond memories of the festival, and simply says that he enjoyed being with the artists. He says that it was wonderful having all the musicians play there. People played over several days, they milled outside, congregated in the cafe for hours, the music was great… He also says that such a project was possible only because of a sense of mutual understanding and easy collaboration between him and Peter. Once the festival got bigger and changed hands, it naturally evolved into a different sort of event, and the name as well as the venue changed (the festival, now known as Melodica festival, is internationally recognised).
Adelmo is not resting, though. He mentioned another friend who comes to the cafe, a writer and a jazz singer, and there may be other events. He said I should keep an eye on the developments and drop in if they organise something. I think I might …
A whole lot of pictures from the cafe are included in this flickr set.
Extract from The Rolling Stone, Germany, mentioning the importance of La Terra in supporting the local independent music scene. The Rejkavik Grapevine also mentions La Terra and the origins of the festival.
More than just tea and coffee
May 1, 2009
Photo: Courtesy Philip Tan
Fitzroy is immortalised as the centre of coffee culture. Mario’s coffee shop has entered history, Brunswick Street is on all tourist maps.
Despite this notoriety, the place continues to do its own thing.
I met with Phil, and was interested to know more about his thoughts on what sense of community exists at the everyday street level of experience.
I’ve been to Phil’s cafe many times, but apart from nodding, exchanging a smile and a few words, I never had a chance to engage in a conversation with Phil until I approached him for an interview. After that, the conversation just kept flowing.
Phil had many interesting things to say about life, about how we place ourselves within this large globalised world, as he put it, and derive meaning and sustenance from the neighbourhood around us, from small things that make us feel grounded. In his words, opportunities for human contact are always present, there’s more than just tea and coffee.
Phil told me of one interesting detail: winning a photo competition just before taking over the cafe in 2006 increased his sense of belonging to Fitzroy, the suburb he likes very much.
Phil sees lots of people congregating in his cafe every day, he has kept up with several of his former regulars who have left the neighbourhood or gone overseas, and continues to support new opportunities for human connection.
Phil’s photograph from the Provincial Hotel competition ‘Love or Hate Fitzroy’ can be seen here.
A segment from Phil’s interview is here.
Knitting group
April 27, 2009
photo: vr
This would have been interesting to see, but unfortunately the meetings of the group were on Wednesday evenings when we had our classes.
I asked one of the cafe staff about the group, I was curious about who they were, and was told that they are a group of women, probably in their 30s or 40s.
The way it appears to me, the photo possibly suggests something a bit beyond practical sock making. It’s hard to know exactly without meeting the members of the group.
I’m reminded of the international stich ‘n bitch movement, reclaiming knitting as ‘the new yoga’.
Here is another version of a Melbourne knitting group I found on yahoo: ‘The Melbourne based groups meet once a month at various Cafes Bars to share projects, skills, knit/stitch and philosophize about whatever comes up.’
When the sun floods in
April 25, 2009
Escaping the messy house
April 21, 2009
photo: vr
I met a group of mothers and one father with their babies. The babies were of a similar age and the parents are all on maternity/paternity leave. I joined them for coffee. I was interested to know why they meet here.
‘Really nice way of escaping a messy house and having an outing with our friends who know what it’s like to have a baby’, was one response. ‘I don’t think we’d meet as often otherwise, we’d have to clean up at home, buy snacks, prepare for it. We spend so much time at home, it’s really important to get out.’
‘You catch up, tell the others what’s been happening, and the best thing is that the baby goes to sleep when you come home, so you get double time to do something other than child care.’
I wondered what they thought about the idea of cafes and community.
‘This place is part of our local community, it’s really enriched the neighbourhood. We didn’t know each other before we had our children, but now we ring each other up if we want a chat, we don’t go into each other’s houses, but we meet here. We know quite a lot about each other’s lives, about what our children are up to. We live in the same area so we’ll probably keep up with each other as the children are growing up.’
There are more photos here.
Caring together
April 15, 2009
Ouzman
Ouzman, Lentil As Anything (interview transcript)
My name is Ouzman Ngom. I’m from West Africa sponsored by Lentil As Anything to come to do here some mentoring and some culture programs like African night every Wednesday, and Saturday, Sunday drumming for the people, to make the people happy and welcome the people, and show my culture and what I’m doing and my music here in Australia.
That’s very interesting. I’m interested to know what sort of things happen in the cafe.
You know, this cafe is something unique. I never see one cafe like that because you come and order whatever you want, you pay whatever you want. It’s amazing. It’s not easy because it’s big. We now have I think three places in Melbourne here. I think it’s not easy. We just do community. I’m from Africa, Shanaka from Sri Lanka, Hugo from Chile, we have so many different cultures meeting here. Like a community, you know. Living together, working together, caring together and we look after everyone. This place is everyone have to be happy. If you are not happy now, if I’m a little bit sad one person is going to ring Shanaka and tell him, ‘Ouzman is not happy’. He’ll come straight down, ‘Why are you not happy? Just tell me what happened.’ You know.
That’s great.
It’s like your family home.
That’s really wonderful.
Yeah.
So you meet people from your own country but you also meet other communities?
I met with Sudanese community. I’ve never met them before. Sri Lankan community. I’ve never met them before. Indian community. I’ve never met them before. It’s a great experience for me here and an opportunity to learn outside of Africa.
That’s great. And do you interact with people who come to the cafe just as outsiders like myself? Do you get to meet people like that?
Yeah! I meet so many people that like my music here. I never see them. They come, I play one night. Next time they tell me: ‘Oh it’s wonderful’.
What music do you play?
Just a drum, and I sing and dance from my country Africa, and West Africa and Senegal, you know.
Every Wednesday night we have African night. So many different coutry. I cook, Eddie cook, Sudanese cook, Eritrean cook, and just mix it up together to cook African buffet.
I must come one night, it sounds really good.
It’s very good. People enjoy it, we have fun. You come. No worries about him [referring to my son who was present], I’ll give him a drum. He can just come and play with me. People, the kids, everyone is happy.
That’s great. Tell me about the kitchen.
It’s a kitchen just like any kitchen. We have a head chef, and men to do the dishes. We don’t have a boss in the kitchen. I am boss, the head chef is boss, Shanaka is boss. Everything is everyone’s responsibility.
And it’s all working out well?
It works very well.
I’ve seen you there with a very big hot pot. You are preparing for a wedding this afternoon.
Yeah, we are preparing for the wedding. And we are working now one week, I think, talking about the wedding. We have to make good wedding and everything ready for the night. We are doing really well and we are ready for, I think, 250 people. Ready just to make them happy.
That’s wonderful. Are they also members of your community here?
No. I don’t know the people doing the wedding. I just know that we have a wedding and we come all week to try to make everything ready. I don’t know the people doing the wedding, but I just want to give my help for that. And I’m happy to do that. And if they want me to play, well, I’m ready to do that.
Well, I really appreciate your time today, since you’re so busy.
No worries.
And I’m sure I’ll be back to enjoy some more of this place. Thank you very much.
No worries.
Segment from this interview can be heard here.
I’ve included some Lentil photos here.
Is there a story in this?
April 14, 2009
photo: vr
There’s a concept in neuroscience called neuroplasticity that has apparently significantly altered the way scientists think of brain function. I’m not a scientist, but I understand this to mean that the structure and function of our brains does not become immutable after a certain period of development, as previously thought, but is capable of being changed through experience. What is most fascinating is that our brains are continuously changing in response to what we do. (There are studies that show that in the case of injuries our brains have the potential to shift the function to another area of the brain. People’s brains also have the capacity for continuous learning, so it’s not all the way downhill as people age…)
How does this relate to cafes and communities? Well, there may be a link and in my mind it relates to the idea of change via use and experience.
It’s interesting that what was thought to be a (biological) fixed structure is in fact influenced by our experiences of the outside world. Discussions about how individuals interact with their environments happen in other areas of study. Of course, the French have often had an apt answer to philosophical questions, so the idea that individuals operate both in socially determined but also flexible fields is an interesting way to observe urban communities.
People used to talk about their baker, their greengrocer, their post office as their community (my grandmother did anyway). Their neighbourhood with all those human relationships built into them was an important part of their lives.
Whether we have communities in the way people had them in the ‘good old days’ is debatable. But, it seems to me that cafes are in a way similar to this ‘neighbourhood’ concept of community. They are ‘hubs’, as one person I spoke to mentioned.
If the city is a brain that contains lots of functions and structures, then communities formed around cafes are its peripheral mutable spots, its havens.
The totality of these dotted places around Melbourne, for which the city is well known, creates our local urban culture, but at the grassroots level some sort of sense of community seems to be formed in the actual relationships between people who frequent Melbourne cafes.
I’m interested to see how this exchangeable action displays itself on that level of personal experience.
It’s worth looking further …
