Yes.
I like the location, all right, but those paintings re not necessarily what I’d like to go to bed under…
Doug
> On Jul 20, 2016, at 3:57 AM, Bill Wootton <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> Fair enough, Max. Blackman's stuff is creepy enough at a glance but to be
> surrounded by it .... Particularly like your final five lines.
>
> Bill
>
> On Wednesday, 20 July 2016, Max Richards <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
>> Haunted At The Blackman
>>
>> http://www.artserieshotels.com.au/blackman/
>>
>> Some smart hotel developers
>> confected a chain of ever-
>> so-smart city hotels for
>> Melbourne Sydney and elsewhere.
>>
>> We’re at The Blackman, better
>> situated than The Olson, though
>> both are decorated, every floor,
>> with big blow-ups of their
>>
>> more or less famous paintings.
>> Fancy meeting Blackman repros
>> everywhere you turn, elevators,
>> lobby, hallways, all rooms?
>>
>> No avoiding them once you’re
>> in. Close up, some are pained
>> and haunting, spectres
>> of a sad person’s mind.
>>
>> Not what a hotel needs.
>> Others are fey, nostalgic,
>> the old tea name, Bushells,
>> flakes off bright walls.
>>
>> Who stays long enough
>> to learn to ignore them?
>> Blackman’s Alice pictures -
>> well-known in Australia
>>
>> as Tenniel’s, I rather
>> think - carry some Carroll
>> haunted fancies well.
>> And white rabbits abound.
>>
>> Parked out front, their
>> midget rental cars bear
>> Alice blow-ups larger
>> than their vehicle.
>>
>> Or ride an Alice bike.
>> Not me, I sidle through
>> the winter side-street
>> to the wind-torn tram stop,
>>
>> eager for town, its cheery
>> ignorance of the themed,
>> the calculated, the forlorn
>> Blackman girls skipping.
>>
>> I’ve stayed far too long.
Douglas Barbour
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