Azaleas and threatening sky

Mid winter azaleas at Centennial Plaza in Surry Hills

Is Felix Australian??

On another wall in Surry Hills, a Very Big Felix (and look at that bizarre small sticker in the bottom right hand corner. What's THAT about???)

Some claim that Felix was first by New Jersey cartoonist Otto Messmer. Others say that Felix was the brainchild of Australian cartoonist and film entrepreneur, Pat Sullivan.

Wikipedia says:

"...evidence seems to back up both claims. However, many historians, such as John Canemaker argue that Messmer ghosted for Sullivan. Other historians disagree. What is certain is that the cat emerged from Sullivan's studio. "

Here's a post I made about Felix in 2006

Felix the Cat 3

There must be a Felix fan spreading the joy around Sydney! Is it a concerted campaign? Yet more tomorrow....when we ask the question "Is Felix Australian?"

Here the Felix song by clicking here.

Felix the Cat, the wonderful, wonderful cat
Whenever he gets in a fix, he reaches into his bag of tricks

You'll laugh so much your sides will ache
Your heart will go pitter pat
Watching Felix, the wonderful cat.

Felix The Cat 2

Felix is wedged in the corner between former warehouses, now renovated as apartments in inner city Surry Hills.

Felix The Cat

Where did I encounter this metal Felix? I'll show you tomorrow.

Scorched

Back to one of my favourite places in Sydney yesterday - Belvoir Theatre. This is a section of a series of panels showing the names of some of the theatre sponsors. There's some fairly famous names amongst this lot.

The play we saw was called Scorched. The playwright is Lebanese born Wajdi Mouawad , who moved to Paris and then Quebec. He writes in French. The play was extraordinarily powerful. It was based on ideas of love and hate, breaking cycles of revenge, set during the Lebanese Civil War (though the conflict was unstated - it is relevant to many such conflicts).

There is a review here and another here if you are interested in knowing more.

Spice I Am

Thai restaurant in Elizabeth St, Surry Hills. Say "Spice I Am" fast to understand the pun.

Later: There are many, many Thai restaurants in Sydney, and they are mostly very, very good. Some use the word "Thai" in their name to make a sort of pun: examples include Thai Foon, Thai Tanic, Thai the Knot. Thailand used to be called Siam. So "Spice I Am" becomes Spice Siam if you run the words together....