<
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2025/may/17/tony-armstrong-the-tone-of-the-world-shifting-the-way-that-im-getting-spoken-to-is-wild>
"For someone so easily recognisable, Tony Armstrong is surprisingly
unaccustomed to being famous. When he opened his front door to find paparazzi
outside his house in Brunswick, his first thought was that they were
birdwatchers. Rather sweetly, he walked up to ask them what bird they’d
spotted: “I was like, ‘Hey, is there something cool in that tree? Oh,
shit!’”
Armstrong may not be used to fame but he does politely endure it. As we walk
around Brunswick more than one person gawps at the 35-year-old, so recognisable
with his curls and that moustache as he strides along a mural-lined laneway
while wearing the most Melbourne of uniforms to boot: a garish Wah-Wah jumper
accessorised with a takeaway coffee cup. “I just need a fixie with a loaf of
sourdough and some pet-nat in the basket,” he jokes.
Brunswick, with its graffitied houses, web of tram lines and concentration of
bougie cafes and wine bars, has been his happy home for almost a decade. He
helpfully points out the “good Coles” and “shitty Coles” but refuses to show me
around the monolithic Barkly Square shopping centre: “I don’t want to have a
panic attack.” Somehow it has survived Brunswick’s gentrification, which now
manifests in peculiar ways: think community radio stickers on $100,000 cars.
“Like, there’s a Porsche,” Armstrong says incredulously, pointing at a car
outside his local pub. The next car is also a Porsche. “Fucking hell, that’s a
Maserati,” he says, pointing at the next, openly appalled.
We meet on the precipice of two bastions of democracy: a week before the
federal election and two weeks before
Eurovision. Armstrong is buzzing about
the latter, as he’s about to fly to Switzerland to cohost the
SBS broadcast
with the drag queen Courtney Act. “
Eurovision is like
The Hunger Games
meets
Rock Eisteddfod but everyone has a bazillion bucks to make the biggest,
campest thing they can,” he says. “It’s
awesome.”"
Many years ago I also lived in Brunswick and shopped at Barkly Square.
Share and enjoy,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
