the ’sham

——BASIC SHAM INFO——

Beginning Bilateral Petersham - Early April 2006 - this post tells you why, how, how long, and what happens as it all begins…
SHAM FAQs: what I can and cannot do…
Podcasting the Sham one year after. A bit of an experiment…
A summary of media coverage of the Sham project here.

——A FEW LOCAL PLACES——

Annotated Itineraries: Walking the Boundaries of Petersham:
The Western Boundary - between Petersham and Lewisham (with Lisa and Wolfie)
The Southern Boundary - between Petersham and Marrickville (with the Cake Lady)
The Eastern Boundary - between Petersham and Stanmore
And finally, the Northern Border, with Sue.
bonus walk: a Situationist Flan in Petersham with Reuben Keehan.
another bonus walk: Having an experience walking around with Caroline

The Crystal St Community Op Shop:
First Visit (meeting Caroline and serendipitously finding books and talking about art, diarising and personality types), Second Visit (in which I meet Bruce). And a discussion about Op Shops with Barbara Campbell here.

The Majestic Roller Rink:
One Line Only No Screaming - the amazing account of getting inside the Majestic Rollerskating Rink. The comments section of this blog entry turned into a nice memorial with contributions from folks about their experiences at the Majestic, and yearning for it to be re-opened again… And here is Sunanda Creagh’s article about it in the Sydney Morning Herald.

The Metropolitan Community Church:
Going to mass at a gay-friendly church in the Sham with Vanessa. This blog entry is written as a letter to my mum.
Metropolitan Church and the Mastertouch Pianola Roll Company

Jelly Wrestling at the Oxford Tavern:
The First Visit, in which my glasses are smeared with Jelly from a wrestler’s bosom.
The Second Visit, in which the Wrestling Turns Ugly!

Petersham Bowling Club:
The Petersham Bowling Club - my first visit to the club, which reminds me of an idyllic 1950s utopia. Some reflections here on aesthetics and value, real estate property and community open space.

The folks at the Bowling club enlist my help in the bid to be featured on ABC radio.

Callout for Local Talent to be featured on the Bowlo’s bid to host an ABC Radio show.
The Bowlo wins the right to host the ABC radio show!
The Bowlo calls a crisis meeting to stop itself going under.
The club votes NOT to sell off some of its land. Cheers from all corners. But now for the hard part.

History, Heritage, and Local Politics:
Attending the Local Heritage Awards Ceremony at Petersham Town Hall.
My visit to the Local Archives at the Petersham Town Hall.
Going for a bike ride with Sam, the Mayor of Petersham. And Sam comes along to cut the ribbon at my exhibition opening.
Meeting Mr Gaspar who knows a lot about the Portuguese history of the Sham.

Breaking the Rules and Leaving the Sham
An Easterly Dilemma - in which I ask my readership to help me decide how to break my own rules and leave Petersham, and The Great Escape - in which I tell the story of breaching the boundaries of the Sham for a day.
See also here, where I am given permission by Uncle Lester, an Aboriginal Elder, to leave the Sham briefly, and here, where I breach the boundaries to find out about the Sham’s Aboriginal History
By the end of May 2006, the Sham has well and truly sprung a leak… and the power of the borders is beginning to fade

——A FEW LOCAL CHARACTERS——

Wolfie the Dog
Negotiating with my neighbour Rachelle to borrow Wolfie for walks.
My first walk with Wolfie - not very eventful.
Walking the Western Border of the Sham with Wolfie and Lisa.
Rollerskating with Wolfie.

“Auntie” Lucy:
Meeting “Auntie” Lucy for the first time. Our second encounter, I go visit Lucy on my own. Our third encounter: Luciana and I visit Lucy for tea and cake.
Luciana and I take Lucy out to lunch at the Petersham Bowlo

Tully and Heather:
Meeting Tully and Heather for the first time.

Richard Blackie:
For many years Richard ran the vintage toy store on Stanmore Road. He died shortly after I finished Bilateral Petersham. Here is a page devoted to Richard.
Mike Stone and I go to Richard’s Funeral - I wrote a small report here and some very moving memories from his friends and loved ones were posted in response. A few more dedications to Richard here.

Vanessa Berry:
Meeting Vanessa Berry for the first time at Darron Hanlon’s Backyard Music Gig.
Vanessa leaves some Snail Mail in my letterbox: hints and riddles about Petersham…
Vanessa takes me on a time-travel tour of Parramatta Road, Petersham, 1976. Later, we open the tour up to the general public: here is a podcast and photos of the event.
Vanessa and I go to see “A Joker and His Gun” at the Battle of the Bands at the Fort Street School Fete. A scandal ensues.

Alex Broun, local playwright and rugby Journalist
Some of Alex’s comments on the blog: introducing himself,
Almost going to watch the boxing with Alex
Alex and I go watch the rugby together at the Livingstone Hotel.

My neighbour Rohan
Rohan tells me he has started to make his own smoked meats
Pigeons: Rohan tells me about his job exterminating Pigeons.

——NOTABLE MINUTIAE——

Small moments:
Autumn Leaves: as Vanessa says, “Sometimes it is good to say obvious things: autumn leaves can be very beautiful.”
Monday Morning, Ten Past Ten
Putting fires out at the Petersham train station.

Amusing miscellaneous things:
My Psychiatrist asked my Yoga Teacher - a letter from Chris Fleming
UFOs sighted over Petersham skies!
Games night at Janine’s place
The Pudim Mystery: readers help us decipher this strange Portuguese treat…
Bert Newton Loses his wig at the Petersham RSL…
Some ladies show up exactly one year late to my exhibition.
I get roughed up in the comments by some local territory gangs: SHAM MASSIVE and the MVC.

Dreaming in Petersham
Dreaming in Petersham (Dreams by Vanessa and Lucas)
Another Dream: Rummaging through the clothes at the opshop with the local barber

——ANALYTICAL AND REFLECTIVE STUFF——

A Poll - on where in the world readers of the Sham live. And here is a Statistical Analysis of the poll results…

Some reflections on blogging as a method of anecdotal research in my discussions with Russell from the Metropolitan Community Church.

Posts in which I reflect on my own struggle within the project:
Hold yer Horses: “The very task I set myself - to see if I could experience that freshness in my own neighbourhood - is proving more difficult than I expected.”
Good Grief: “It aint easy to clear space in my mind when I’m still surrounded by all my shit [...] But I need to acknowledge that this IS the scenario I find myself in. This is the territory of ‘home.’ ”
A Short Note on Method: “You get the picture. The epitome of inefficiency.”
The D Word “if I leave too much time between “the having” of an experience, and getting to the computer to hammer it out [...] the events fade a little in my memory”.
Then what? - by the end of the project, things are running more smoothly…

But is it Art?
Tully: “to be blunt - your project has started a shit-storm in our house. half the house thinks you’re an artist, half the house thinks you aren’t.”
Heather asks whether, in my opinion, we really are friends…or am I just pretending for the sake of the art experiment?
Tully: “We instigated a moment of culture, so there’s a relation to art… but how were we imitating, supplementing, altering or counteracting nature? Were we “being” in the second person singular present indicative? If this is all some kind of elaborate performance, why aren’t I being paid?”
“Nobody” weighs in to the art debate.
The punters don’t think there’s enough sex in this particular kitchen sink drama. Well, good luck to em!
Announcement about Chrissie Cotter show and talk at the Petersham Bowlo with the Aquilizans
Reflections on turning the blog into an exhibition and a book. Some more here.

Artists and artworks mentioned in the blog:
Lisa del Nord (artist from the North Side. Lisa is very involved in my project - Petersham is her home suburb too - so she pops up throughout. In this episode we walk the Western Boundary together. Her website is here).
Barbara Campbell (performance artist and writer: her online project 1001 nights cast. I interact with Barbara extensively throughout the blog, but here’s one entry I like with Babs about op-shopping…)
Vanessa Berry (zinester and writer from the North Side of Petersham: her zine “Laughter and the Sound of Teacups”. Here’s the blog entry where we meet.)
Darren Hanlon (musician, holds backyard gigs in Petersham. One particular gig featured bands Caxton and the Triangles. Here’s Darren’s own website.)
Mike Stone (photographer from the north side of Petersham. Here is his own website.)
Vito Acconci (famous American conceptual artist, performance artist, poet, and now architect. I find one of his artworks: Step Piece (1970) in a book, Conceptual Art which I buy from the Crystal St Community Op Shop. I also refer to Acconci’s Room Piece here.)
Lone Twin, a fantastic performance duo from the UK rate a mention here.
Allan Kaprow (known as the father of “Happenings”, who died just as this project began. I mention him here.)
Sam Hsieh (the artist in NYC who did “one year projects”. I mention him here.)
Chris Burden (who lived on a shelf in a gallery for a few weeks) gets a mention here.
A Joker and His Gun (youthful musicians we saw at this gig. Here is their myspace page).
Nobody (my good friend and collaborator, who visits the Sham several times, and chimes in occasionally with great wisdom).

The effects of Blogging in the “real” world:
Tully tells me he knows more about his flatmates through reading the blog than by interacting with them himself.
“Heather told me that after reading the blog, her brother had called her up. They’ve now arranged to spend some time hanging out. So there you go. Bilateral Petersham: bringing families together.”

Feedback:
Sunanda Creagh: “I have just spent about 2 hours reading the blog and feel like I’ve woken up out of a nice dream!”
Benedict: “I am struck with bittersweetness. On the one hand I am delighted to have discovered this lovely project of yours; on the other I am disappointed to learn that it will draw to a close so soon.”
Fiona: “Thanks for letting me get in touch with my past!!!”
Marnie: “I’ve been reading ‘the sham’ obsessively all the way from Dubai to wile away the occasional slow hour or so at work because i fell in love with the way you wrote and the lovely australianess of it all.”
Anne: “i urge you to scan his ‘petersham story’ blog [...]. it’s riddled with references to local people we’ll never meet and to profoundly banal events, but its attempt to make something beautiful and meaningful out of the quotidian makes me want to laugh and cry.”
David: “It’s almost sad to think this is all coming to an end (what am I supposed to read now?) … it came along at just the right time, as I was finishing up with the festival and actually had time to read and enjoy it, and it has also got me thinking about new projects as well as ideas of community and connection.”
Sarah:The Ham really seems like the centre of the universe. You oughta be proud of yourself Lucas, I love your blog, I’m ready to move there~!”
Alison: “I feel like I know you I have been following your blog it takes me on a journey every afternoon.”
Melissa: “I read about your project in the paper and have been following your blog avidly since. I think it is a fantastic project and you write really well about your experiences connecting with community and art in the ‘Sham.”
BF: “You are a beautiful writer. I just stumbled upon the Story of Petersham and I was amazed to read such a lovely story.”
Keyna: “Word of your social conceptual art that defies expectations has come to me through one of your messengers - Tully. It certainly is conceptual and it certainly defies expectations - so it succeeds. ”

Reflections from a few readers on experiencing the “hard copy physical book” version of the blog.