Sunday 25 October 2009

Thermopylae on Sydney Road

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As everyone knows, Brunswick is the sister city of Sparta. I happen to live in the Spartan centre of Brunswick, nestled between various Spartan homes who have found a new land in which to make dolmadis and amigtholata.

We have the Sparta Club, where the elders congregate under the portraits of Spartan heroes to play backgammon. And we have Sparta Place, which has recently become an epicentre for neo-Brunswick, the second wave of gentrifiers (I was in the first wave).

As the Spartans have risen in power locally, they have clearly found the ear of local government and now their great hero King Leonidas is going to be honoured with a bronze bust. According to a recent Age report, Neo-Brunswick is not amused:

I suggest that we try to restage the original battle between Spartans and Persians in Brunswick. We should pit the military discipline of Leonidas against the seductive Persian poetry of Rumi:

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Rumi is the name of the restaurant in Lygon Street Brunswick that became the Mecca for neo-Brunswick, combining the Levantine heritage of the suburb with its new generation of connoisseurs.

Souvlaki versus Biranyi – history awakes in Brunswick!