Oriental Pearl Tower, Shanghai, and some Chinese movie star.

Shanghai Grand Theatre designed by Jean-Marie Charpentier.

Ningpo Museum designed by Wang Shu.

Hangzhou Grand Theatre designed by Carlos Ott.

International Convention Centre, Hangzhou, designed by Xia Bangjie.

Brick mountain sculpture, Hangzhou.

Dragon boat, West Lake, Hangzhou.

A hardware shop in Jinxi.

The Grand Canal, Jinxi.

Fishing with cormorants in Jinxi.

Curing pork in Hongcun.

Traditional brickwork, Hongcun.

Xuzhou Concert Hall designed by the Architectural Design & Research Institute of Tsinghua University.

Wuxi Grand Theatre designed by PES-Architects.

Suzhou Museum designed by I.M. Pei.

Instructions on how to find your room at the hotel we stayed at in Suzhou.

Suzhou Grand Theatre designed by Paul Andreu.

Tianjin Grand Theatre designed by gmp Architeckten.

The Porcelain China House, Tianjin.

The abandoned “Disneyland” at Nan Kou.

Beijing Shijingshan Amusement Park.

CCTV Building designed by Rem Koolhaas.

The National Centre for the Performing Arts, Beijing, designed by Paul Andreu.

Beijing National Stadium designed by Herzog & de Meuron.

The Architect

The Detective

The Cowboy

The Mouseketeer

The Urban Planner

The Art Critic

The Pirate

The Iranian

The Stowaway

The star of William Boyd/Hopalong Cassidy on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

The grave of Topper, Hoppy’s beautiful white horse, in the Los Angeles Pet Cemetery.

The grave of Andy Clyde, Hoppy’s loveable sidekick, California Carlson, at Forest Lawn Cemetery.

The Colburn School designed by architects Hardy Holzman Pfeiffer Associates (opposite the Walt Disney Concert Hall designed by architect Frank Gehry; makes a nice contrast).

The Getty Museum designed by architect Richard Meier.

The Marriott Hotel near Los Angeles airport — who designed this building? It looks quite John Portman-ish to me, but I don’t think he designed it.

The quirky Museum of Jurassic Technology at Culver City — a modern-day cabinet of curiosities. David Wilson is a genius.

Laramie, Wyoming

The Gothic, mountain-like, American Heritage Center designed by architect Antoine Predock.

Playing cowboy with Hoppy’s pearl-handle six-shooters at the American Heritage Center.

Minneapolis, Minnesota

The McNamara Alumni Center, University of Minnesota — a giant carbuncle on a big brown box — designed by architect Antoine Predock.

The Regis Art Center, University of Minnesota, designed by local architects MSR — a very impressive example of corbelling.

The Weisman Museum of Art, University of Minnesota, designed by architect Frank Gehry. (Did he forget that it snows in Minneapolis when he designed that canopy?)

The surprising rear of the Weisman Art Center — not just a brick box.

Stripped noticeboard, University of Minnesota — accidental collage.

Newspaper cartoon showing the actor William Gillette in the play, Sherlock Holmes, from Gillette’s own scrapbook, which is part of the Sherlock Holmes collection at the University of Minnesota.

The Guthrie Theater designed by architect Jean Nouvel. It’s all about the views.

The fabulous Metrodome Transit Station designed by local artist (and old buddy) Andrew Leicester.

Andrew’s cute French bulldog, Buster.

The quirky gas station in Cloquet, Minnesota, designed by architect Frank Lloyd Wright.

Driving down to Stockholm, Wisconsin, to sample pie with buddy Craig Hinrichs.

Delicious cherry and berry pie from the Stockholm Pie Company.

Columbus, Ohio

The Wexner Center for the Arts, Ohio State University, designed by architect Peter Eisenman.

With Laura Bates, Hoppy’s number one fan, at the Hopalong Cassidy Museum, Cambridge, Ohio. It was a cold day!

Hopalong Cassidy mural (detail), Cambridge, Ohio, painted by local artist Sue Dodd.

Washington D.C.

The Summerhouse (a.k.a. the Grotto) designed by landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted.

Bricks from the brick collection at the National Building Museum.

National Gallery of Art designed by architect I.M. Pei. Impressive spaces, but a “user-unfriendly” building.

An escalator in the Washington D.C. Metro — like a scene from 1984.

Rochester, New York

The First Unitarian Church of Rochester designed by architect Louis Kahn. I think these Unitarians may be onto something!

Our little mud hut, which we’ve owned since 2007.

Purple wildflowers.

My trusty 1987 Subaru “Brumby,” the second one I’ve driven.

Barbequed sausages for dinner.

The bush next to our mud hut

While I didn’t win the election, I was pretty happy with the result. 1300-odd votes in only a 2-month campaign from a zero base and no political party brand or backing was very respectable in my view.

When you come to think about it, there is the equivalent of a small country town out there supporting me. Now all I have to do is find out which country town! (A colleague of mine suggested that it might be Mirboo North, population 1300!)

My wife Ping did a fantastic job of campaigning on my behalf and I saw her in a new light after 34 years of marriage, which is truly something.

Despite having to endure some dirty tricks by one odd ball in particular, running for Moreland Council was a worthwhile experience. Indeed, I’d like to write a George Plimton-style journal article from the point of view of a truly independent candidate (which is a badge of honour in my opinion), albeit an unsuccessful truly independent candidate.

I say “truly independent” because the Labor Party disingenuously refused to endorse its candidates, which then enabled them to claim to be “independent,” something that wasn’t really true — a clear case of having your cake and eating it too.

Sincere thanks to those Moreland residents and ratepayers who voted for me. Your votes profoundly influenced the outcome of the election. Let me explain.

The preference voting system basically works like this: the candidate with the lowest number of votes is “eliminated” and his/her votes are then distributed to the candidate he/she has nominated second on his/her how to vote card. Then this process is repeated again and again until, in the case of the South Ward, three candidates have gained the required number of votes to be elected.

It was always extremely likely that Labor’s Lambros Tapinos and the Greens’ Samantha Ratnam would be elected, which is exactly what happened. However, the third spot on council was up for grabs. I was eliminated from the contest following the Greens’ candidates Narelle Graefe and Liam Farrelly. Where my 1300 votes went ultimately determined who would be the South Ward’s third councillor.

I first proposed swapping preferences with independent Martin Forster. An obvious strategy for the two genuine independents in the race; a real “no brainer.” But he declined and put me number eight. Wrong decision Martin. If you had accepted my offer you would have been the third councillor from the South Ward.

It is a pity that at least one independent candidate was not elected in the South Ward. Now you know why this did not happen. Unfortunately there is no accounting for people who foolishly won’t listen.

I next proposed putting Labor’s Michael Carmody number two in return for putting me number four. (Labor Party rules meant that number four was the best I could get from any of the three Labor candidates running.) He also refused and put me number eight as well. Bad decision Michael. (In fact, one of your closest Labor colleagues described it as “very stupid.”) If you had accepted my offer you would have been the third councillor from the South Ward.

Finally, I proposed putting Labor’s Meghan Hopper number two in return for putting me number four. She accepted my offer and became the third councillor from the South Ward. Congratulations Meghan! Good decision. Something for both Martin and Michael to think about over the next four years until the 2016 council elections.

My thanks to Francesco Timpano and Charles Car, my two independent “running mates” in the North East and North West wards respectively; and many thanks to everyone who helped me hand out how to vote cards on election day, I really appreciated it.

Following are some of the things that I’ll be donating to the Political Ephemera Collection at the State Library of Victoria:

11 9 12 Dr Derham Groves Glenn Ridge MyMp

Listen to Derham speaking to Glen Ridge on mymp.

WARNING. We are now known and formally registered as “The Moreland Ratepayers Action Group.” Sadly, our former name, “The Moreland Residents and Ratepayers Action Group,” has been “stolen” by a candidate for the North East Ward (and perhaps others) who is now sending out bizarre and mischievous emails under that banner. We have nothing whatsoever to do with these grubby emails.

Welcome to local government politics in Moreland! Surely, obviously, it is time for a change!

Last year (2011) the students who did my Popular Architecture and Design course at the University of Melbourne examined kebab shops in Melbourne. This year they looked at another similarly “invisible” and seemingly banal building type — launderettes (the English term) or Laundromats (the American term) in Melbourne.

Kebab shops and launderettes represent “third places” (in contrast to first and second places — home and work respectively) as described by the American urban sociologist Ray Oldenburg in his book The Great Good Place. He argues that, despite being taken for granted, they are central to urban vitality.

Working in pairs, the architecture students were asked to document a launderette in Melbourne, which included the following basic information:

• The name and address of the launderette.

 • A plan of the launderette, including fittings and furniture.

 • A photograph of the front of the launderette during the day.

 • A photograph of the front of the launderette at night.

 • A photograph of the launderette showing it in relation to the other shops in the street.

 • Photographs of the sides of the launderette (if they were accessible).

 • Photographs of the interior of the launderette.

 • Photographs of any advertising, signs, etc.

 • A brief description of the launderette.

 • Comments by the owner/manager and any customers.

Launderettes in Melbourne: An Architectural Survey contains the above information exactly as the students gave it to me — errors and all. To a large extent, the value of this work is being able to compare 37 different launderettes in Melbourne at a glance and seeing their similarities and differences.

Hopefully Launderettes In Melbourne, along with Kebab Shops in Melbourne before it, will encourage a greater appreciation and understanding of these “third places” locally.

The book’s blurb by Andrew Chrystall:

Out of the Ordinary is one part unembellished documentation and one part verbi-visual equivalent of a Pro Hart work made with nineteenth-century, paint-loaded canons. It is a cultural history, resource for contemporary designers, imaginarium and luminous almanac of an explorer of the stranger species of creativity — from brick art to letterboxes, junk mail, mail art, television, fashion, food, model trains, Disney’s imagineering, amusement parks, feng-shui, Postmodern architecture, human-scale craftsman­ship, forgotten Australian architects in China, famous architects (that, perhaps, should be forgotten save for their bow ties), collectors of Sherlock Holmes memorabilia, outsider artists and clients — and none of these things exactly.

Everywhere Derham Groves attends to and finds significance in the minutiae of everyday life, inter-association, and those things that affect us so profoundly but remain just outside the purview of the “normal.” And in these things — objects, art, architecture, environment(s) — he finds stories and teaches his reader how to do the same. Out of the Ordinary is also a motivational text. It begins with bricks, perhaps the most standardized and repeatable units of construction, and reveals how they can be used as vehicles for unfettered creativity and not merely for the creation of containers. Groves shows how art and architecture can emerge and receive nourishment from the garbage of the everyday and creative collisions. Groves also calls, albeit subtly, for a turn away from homogeneity, the standard­ized, and unimaginative or “lazy” design informed by principles of economy, efficiency, utility and function conceived in abstraction. Rather, Groves celebrates the reanimation and/or rejuvenation of place by the makers of anything out of the ordinary (who don’t necessarily pray to the demiurge of good taste) who have created spaces and things through which the creative imagination shines.

Dr. Andrew Chrystall, School of Communication, Journalism and Marketing, Massey University.

A review of the book by Michael Jørgensen:

Derham Groves is a unique thinker and one might say that he himself is “Out of the Ordinary.” An extraordinary range of phenomena fascinates him, which he investigates with an unusual tenacity, skill and erudition. In each case these topics and issues — at first glance deceptively diverse and unrelated — is meticulously dissected, illustrated and described with clear, unpreten­tious and very readable prose, which puts much other so-called academic writ­ing to shame. Consider just some of the things he covers, taken at random here from the contents page of his latest book, Out of the Ordinary: Deceptively “mundane” things such as bricks and brick­work; do-it-yourself letterboxes; and (who would even think of this?) junk e-mail or spam. Then there is television and its manifesta­tions in the days of its introduction in Derham’s home country, Australia; Disneyland and the feng-shui of Hong Kong Disney­land; the shop-houses of Vietnam and elsewhere; Sherlock Holmes and other crime fiction, one of Derham’s longstand­ing interests; a little-known Australian architect and a better known one; and an eccentric naïve Australian painter, the late Pro Hart. But that is not all! Dr. Groves has written elsewhere of the 1939 tour of Australia by Anna May Wong, the celebrated Chinese-American actress, and since the publication of his book about her in 2011, he has become intrigued by another tour “Down Under” by an American, William Boyd, a.k.a. Hopalong Cassidy, in 1954. Der­ham has also become interested in the crime novels of a little-known Australian writer, the late June Wright, whose crime novels were published in the 1940s through to the 1960s. He has also traced the overseas travels in North America of a group of young Australian men in 1959 using an old diary written by one of them. Where did he obtain the diary? On eBay would you believe it, just one of Derham’s research tools and so like this most unusual person — archi­tect, aca­demic and cultural historian. I cannot recommend this book more highly. Derham Groves’ many-facetted interests and the manner in which he so skilfully draws you into them will fascinate you.

 Michael Jørgensen, Architect, author and publisher.

A book review by Zoe Nikakis in the September 2012 edition of Voice:

In Out of the Ordinary: Popular Art, Architecture and Design, Derham Groves explores his academic and personal passions. Zoe Nikakis dives into his world.

Derham Groves investigates, “the popular, the ordinary and the odd”.

So writes Dr Groves’ frequent collaborator, the celebrated architect Corbett Lyon, in his introduction to the recently published Out of the Ordinary: Popular Art, Architecture and Design.

“His definition of ‘popular’ is broad and not restricted to the high pop art and architecture of the elite,” Mr Lyon writes, “but embracing and celebrating the popular culture of the masses – do-it-yourself renovators; collectors of kitsch; high street commercial architecture; and the signs and symbols of our suburbs.”

Dr Groves focuses on seemingly unconnected topics and types of Australian ephemera and art – from the use and importance of brickwork as an artistic medium and the place of letterboxes in pop culture – but his passion for the obscure and the overlooked ties these disparate oddities together.

His interest in letterboxes and the everyday as art began when he was completing his PhD in the US during the 1990s.

“My supervisor was a Disney and television scholar, and she spurred my interest in popular culture,” Dr Groves says.

“Australian handmade letterboxes are much more than merely containers for mail. Firstly, they are Australian icons, since perhaps nowhere else in the world do people express themselves through their letterboxes with quite as much fervour as we do in Australia.

“Secondly, letterboxes facilitate links with the outside world. Most people love to receive letters – at least those containing good news. The letterbox is also where neighbours often meet to chew the fat and discuss the weather. Thirdly, letterboxes are symbols of home.”

The book also focuses on Dr Groves’ projects with collaborators and his students, who have created artworks for exhibitions made from bricks.

“I’m also interested in bricks because in some ways, they’re the very bottom line of architecture: you can’t get more basic than a brick,” Dr Groves says.

“Australia produces high-quality bricks in a wide range of colours so there is no reason for boring brickwork in my opinion.

“Often the problem is that architects do not design brickwork, but allow it to happen of its own accord. However the interesting brick buildings that have been designed by Lyons Architecture and others in recent years indicate that things are changing for the better.”

Dr Groves often incorporates his students’ projects into his books.

“Students produce so much work that it gets lost, so it’s important to record it,” he says.

“In the past I have investigated the design of brickwork from several different points of view. I have taught several design courses for architecture students focused on how bricks can be used in innovative and interesting ways.

“Earlier this year, I also spent time in Trivandrum in India doing a brick workshop with a group of first year students looking at a specific style of brickwork, so it all ties together.”

Other essays focus on the ways in which Dr Groves incorporates this research into his teaching.

“It’s all about material culture, and the interactions between art, design, symbolism, and popular culture,” Dr Groves says.

“It’s about pop art as architecture – sometimes buildings are ugly, provocative, edgy – and how important it is never to let good taste get in the way of good design.”

Out of the Ordinary in Amazon’s top 10 “Hot New … Architectural Criticism” list!

Anna May Wong’s ashes and also her sister Mary’s ashes were buried with their mother, Lee Toy Wong, at Rosedale Cemetery in Los Angeles.

It’s a Small World, Disneyland, Anaheim.

Toon Town in Disneyland, Anaheim.

More Disneyland, Anaheim.

Clifton’s Cafeteria has closed for renovation. Thank goodness it hasn’t closed for good!

Gene Autrey statue (top) and costume at the Autrey Museum, Los Angeles.

Frank Gehry’s Walt Disney Concert Hall, Los Angeles. I had a great seat behind the orchestra for only $24!

Walt Disney’s workshop, now in Griffith Park, Los Angeles

Model of Walt Disney’s workshop at Disneyland, Anaheim.

Train at Disneyland based on Walt Disney’s own model train.

Max Payne billboard, Los Angeles.

Bruce Goff’s typically brilliant and quirky Pavilion for Japanese Art (1988) at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). I’m sure that the “temple roofed” cabinets don’t resemble erect penises by accident!

Barbie’s Dream House (1962) made of cardboard by Mattel on display at the LACMA.

“Metropolis II” (2011) by Chris Burden at the LACMA.

Is this Mother Goose’s grave?

Another “shocker” by John Andrews — the Harvard Graduate School of Design (1972).

Architectural design work at the Harvard Graduate School of Design.

Frank Gehry’s Stata Center (2004) at MIT, which later sued the architect because the building leaked.

The Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston (2006) designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro. A cantilever and a half!

The Boston Convention and Exhibition Center (2004) by Rafael Viñoly. A porte-cochere and a half!

The Old State House, Hartford.

Centre Church, Hartford.

William Gillette Castle, East Haddam

Tyke and Teddie Niver.