Throw back your head in the breeze
Laugh like you were born to hear the joke
You know how to get to me
With a missed opportunity

Stella Donnelly's W.A.L.K, from Love and Fortune

How's your year going, Web Surfer?

For February 2026, I was living in the lovely little suburb of Coburg. It was a brief stay in an office-turned-sharehouse bedroom belonging to my friend's housemate, who was on a holiday. I was staying with my friend, who yes, is also named Ava. Shockingly, despite us living together, there was never a great need for us to disambiguate ourselves. If we did, she would be big Ava and I would be little Ava. Not that I'm that little, she is just very tall.

Coburg is a fascinating little part of Melbourne. In some ways, it feels like the first proper "suburb", in a sense. Heading North from the CBD, there's lots of density and tower blocks in Carlton and Brunswick, so Coburg is the first to feel "sub" urban. If you visit my favourite website, 1945.melbourne, you can see that in 1945, Coburg was the outermost extent of Melbourne's suburban sprawl. It's existence was facilitated by the 19 tram, which probably would have made it feel like a far flung satellite suburb.

It was chosen as the site of Pentridge Prison precisely for its distance. But after the 1940s, the car, not the tram, became the dominant mode of transportation in Melbourne, and the city was able to sprawl much further beyond Coburg. It's interesting that what made Coburg seem so far away, is now what makes it feel like an inner city suburb. Compared to what's around it, there are excellent public transport connections with the aforementioned tram, the Upfield line, and buses along Bell Street.

God— I sound like a property developer. It's kind of easy to walk around Coburg with a property developer's eye. There's a lot of what a developer might call, "opportunity." Adjoining the high street and the station, there are huge expanses of underused car parks. Lots of single family homes and lots more construction waiting to happen.

The area around Coburg Station is one of the state government's new "Activity Centres", with heights as high as sixteen stories. Most of Sydney Road is drafted to be twelve stories. These stats are all pretty contentious however, as stakeholders bicker for their particular vision for their suburb. There are two schools of thought in the Melbourne planning. There are the NIMBYs, the Not In My Backyards who oppose generous new height restrictions; and there are the YIMBYs, the Yes In My Backyards, whose ideology feels self-explanatory.

I go back and forth on which camp I see myself in more. I like urban living and tower blocks, but most of the tower blocks we built in Melbourne are beyond hideous and unliveable. Coburg is greenie heartland, and therefore skews YIMBY. You know, I consider myself to be pretty woke, but I was walking around Coburg respectfully disagreeing with some of those political posters. I guess I'm not Coburg-woke.

Whatever happens to Coburg, I wouldn't want it lose what it has now. The prison was shut down in 1997, and I can only speculate that the process of gentrification has been going on for longer than that. In some ways, the switch from the Brunswick side of Sydney Road to the Coburg side of Sydney Road feels like a little time machine to 20 years ago.

If I haven't outed myself as an Eastsider already, I am. And something about the inner East of Melbourne is that you don't really see young people out. You don't really see gay or trans people in public either. But in Coburg there are just young and gay and trans people out and about. They are just going about their day, emptying bins or going grocery shopping. It's been really nice to feel normal, which is not something I often feel.

It was also really nice living with my friend. Ava, as it turns out, is an excellent housemate. She is funny and generous and exciting to be around. We spent many mornings on her ridiculously comfortable couch. Here's a picture of her showing me a picture of a cat.

MUSIC – LANEWAY 2026

I had one of the worst experiences I've ever had at Laneway 2025. But I was in the mood to be fooled twice. Instead, I had a magical time watching some of my favourite acts at Laneway 2026. Here's a non-exhaustive review of some of the acts I saw, as well as Cameron Winter's solo show at The Forum.

Bladee and Yung Lean

Bladee and Yung Lean's performance felt something like the show they would do in 30 years at their Las Vegas residency. Two hustlers from Nowhere, Sweden who came to define the sound of a whole genre. They still sound great, they still get their fans riled up to Hocus Pocus, and they finish their show with a long and well-earned bow. It's so awesome to see two men who love each other so much keep doing the thing they love doing. I only became a fan of them after Bladee became a femboy circa 2020, so some of their older tracks I was a little unfamiliar with, but I still had a great time.

Bel Air Lip Bombs

I think they might have had tech issues. They spent a lot of time looking disapprovingly into the middle distance, although they also kind of just do that. The Bel Air Lip Bombs' lead singer is not exactly an electric presence on stage. She is very good at one she does, but what she does is mostly just mean-mug and sing. I'd really recommend seeing them if you get the chance, although I'm not yet convinced I'll see them again.

Geese

I only became a fan of Geese after Cameron Winter's debut solo album. I am a Geese-poser. My friends however, are huge Geese-heads. For some of them, Geese – on a side stage and at the same time as Pinkpantheress – were the main draw at Laneway.

My friend James later told me that as we were all waiting for the show, someone had vomited on the back of someone else in the crowd. It was in that moment that James thought that "this might not be the best show ever." I missed the vomit debacle, so it was pretty close to the best show ever. James also, had an amazing time. He said the only thing holding it back from being the best show ever was the genuine fear he felt. I suppose I should have expected things to get a little uncomfortably hectic when Cameron Winter sings, "There's a bomb in my car", fifteen times over. The anticipation did make my stomach do strange things. I empathise with vomit-guy.

It was an amazing set all around, Geese are the real deal. They just sound so good.

Chappell Roan

Chappell Roan started at 9:25 and closed the festival at 10:55, meaning she needed to play for 90 minutes. She has one 49 minute long album. If you include all her singles, it comes out to 60 minutes and 12 seconds. I hope the problem with this arrangement is obvious.

I don't want to claim her set was padded, more that she was never in a hurry. Her set included a costume change, an inexplicable – if faithful – cover of Barracuda by Heart, a section where she sat on a giant throne to pet a muppet-y frog thing, and some light stand-up.

It's just such a strange issue for an artist to have. Most artists large enough to headline a festival like Laneway have an equally large discography, but the rapid nature in which Chappell Roan came to prominence means she only has The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess.

To be clear, Midwest Princess..., is a very very very good album. And she does have other music, but the issue is it's just not that very very very good. I've never been a fan of any of the slower songs on Midwest Princess either. She blissfully skipped California and Kaleidoscope, but still, when she played Coffee and Picture You, momentum ground to an almost complete halt.

But then she played the hits. I was feeling a little tired and indifferent from the day, and I was a little reluctant to see Chappell Roan. But then, from across Flemington Racecourse, I heard the intro to Super Graphic Ultra Modern Girl. I realised I knew all the words, including the line about the fugly jeans. And then she played Femininomenon, and I realised I knew all the words. It took me too long, but I realised I am a huge fan of Chappell Roan.

For such a tiny discography, there are so many hits. HOT TO GO!, Pink Pony Club, Casual, Red Wine Supernova. It confirmed what I always knew, the best part of The Subway is when she goes, Fuck this city, I'm moving to Saskatchewan! Chappell Roan was born for this.

Cameron Winter Solo Show

Before I get into this review, it's important that you know I'm Greek. And my friend Zara, who I went to the show with, is Greek. Her dad is Greek, and something about Greek men is that they will do anything for another Greek man. I'm slightly fuzzy on the details, but that's how she got three tickets for free, one of which was my ticket.

The somewhat exclusive nature of Cameron Winter at the Forum made it a bit of Melbourne microcelebrity Deuxmoi. In the audience I spotted the lead singer of the Bel Air Lip Bombs, as well as two of the three of the Folk Bitch Trio (very helpfully, they are colour coordinated like the Powerpuff Girls, and if you're wondering it was Bubbles and Buttercup).

Cameron Winter had a young pianist named Jingtao open for him. When I say young, he was maybe 13. Local folk artist Sunny Morris, who unsuccessfully campaigned to open for Cameron, shared via a rejection email that management wanted something a little outside of the box. Jingtao was certainly unexpected. He played a few solo piano concertos. The crowd went absolutely insane when he played the opening notes to Gynopedie No. 1. My friends were less impressed, as apparently they have seen better 13 year old pianists. They both went to an extremely over-acheiving high school. I thought he was quite good.

More than usual, the crowd was not there for the opener. And they were completely ravenous. I got the sense that multiple people shaved everything in preparation for the night, especially since there was reportedly a cadre hanging outside the artist exit after the show. I was told they only spotted the piano mover.

My enjoyment was severely hampered by The Forum being a standing venue. My legs were sore and my tummy hurted. Even the handful of songs on that album that are a little more upbeat were left naked. Just Cameron's voice and a piano. Listening to the album, you sometimes feel that he is a brilliant mind with a strange singing voice he uses as a crutch—but live and unadorned, you can feel there is an immense power in his voice.

The crowd was blessed with a few new songs, one of which illicited genuine laughs from the audience as he sung, "It's a shame what happened to Jesus". There was something really special about it. There's something about the Cameron Winter moment that feels very old fashioned. It's rare that a group of people can sit (or stand) in a room together and experience something new—because it feels like the internet has taken away the ability to surprise. Of course, I was able to find a bootleg of the song on reddit. I'm told it's called Emperor XIII In Shades, but even the diehard Geese-heads in the front didn't seem to know it, and I certainly didn't.

I don't like what happened to Jesus

But I sure do like Saturday morning

When he sang that God was real, the house lights came on and bathed us in a white godly presence. For a brief moment, he made an atheist doubt.

COOL THINGS

Rapmonster (Luigi) vs Zain (Marth) at Genesis

I don't really follow competitive Melee very closely, but I follow it closely enough to recognise this is hilarious. Basically, the best player in the world is getting styled on by a Luigi main wearing a backpack. The sequence from 7:10 explains everything.

These really cool playing cards

I've always wanted to design a set of playing cards. I hope when I do, they look as cool as these.