Agent Palmer

On Tuesday, March 18, 2025, at 6:18pm the world lost legendary musicmaker Andrew Belling.

Belling was a stranger to me until I was first introduced to Ralph Bakshi’s seminal work Wizards, for which he composed the entire electronic score. From then on, I was a fan of his work.

My first real job was at a little place called Arthur Treacher’s Fish & Chips.

This is one of the many brands from the previous century that didn’t venture too far into this one before calling it a day. While there are still a few Arthur Treacher’s around, they are usually in split locations sharing a building space with A&W, another brand that is a shadow of its former self.

I love this blog. It has been a constant pleasure to write and share all of these posts. It’s not going anywhere, but it will probably change in some ways, as have I.

Last year I got married. And while I spoke about it with my wife Stefanie on two consecutive episodes of The Palmer Files podcast retracing our relationship from meeting to wedding, I haven’t mentioned it here. Why not?

I spent a lot of the last two months of this year listening to an album from 2020 by Tim Minchin, whose art I not only appreciate but am inspired by. Here’s the catch… I didn’t even know about the album until late October. In fact, I first listened to it the same day I finally listened to The Rolling Stones 2023 studio album Hackney Diamonds.

How did it come to this?

In October 2023, the iconic Sydney Opera House had a birthday festival to celebrate the 50 years since it opened its doors to the world.

The Sydney Opera House website, under “Our Story,” explains why this building should be a little more celebrated than most in their short three paragraph history, which is honestly one of the more accurate and succinct art building histories I have ever read.