It’s Osamu Tezuka’s original manga character Astro Boy. And he’s on the wall of Orson & Blake. Who knows what he’s doing?

Stopping for coffee at one of no less than five coffee spots, down on Llankelly Place earlier this week, I noticed a new bakery had moved in just down from the Bamboo dumpling place. It is simply called The Italian Bakery, and opened just over a week ago.

Just opposite is a little Greek patisserie-cum-coffee shop.

And the space that was vacated after “Elk” bar fizzled some time ago, has signage adorning the outer walls that Luneburger German Bakery is about to open.

With the abundance of French cafes and patisseries dotted through the area, it seems European bakeries are what we want.

Now how about a Bosnian Burek bar fitting in somewhere too?

Pat Armstrong, who spotted the single sock covered bollard, said: “Well, that’s one way to get rid of an old sock.”

It’s clearly seen better days. Is a sock restretching service? The sock afterlife? Hiding something?

Alex Wain spotted it yesterday (see more of his gorgeous photos here).

What better way to start Jan 1st 2011, than with some photos from my ‘hood.

Even photographed a burglary taking place.

It’s not often we get such witty street art in the neighbourhood at the moment. Anyone know who’s responsible?

A lot of glue has been spilled on walls since we last walked through.

It’s been quiet on the street art front lately. But there’s a wild amount of development happening on Llankelly Place at the moment, it seems like every second shop is a new cafe. End result, a heightened graffiti scene?

These paste ups by Loom have a heavy sea shanty vibe. Ink fading and dog-eared, despite being new, which seems appropriate to the subject. A bearded old man of the sea, a kindly Neptune?

And a lean pirate, twitchy for his next target.

On the other hand, here’s a robot and another wise old man.

It’s really interesting on Llankelly Place at the moment. A lot of development, but still a lot of empty retail space. We were impressed when it first reappeared, but it’s taken a while to pick up.

That’s a collaboration between Houl and Scribla – possibly called ‘Chopper Kurt De Niro: It hurts…’

We’ve seen great work around the corner on Arnold Street in the past. Beastman’s gone now, though. Now it’s another piece: ‘Chasing Love’. This time by a couple of Melbourne artists, MaxCat (aka Justin Feuerring) and Miss Riz.

On the other side of Goulburn Street, Cafe Lounge has a beautifully abstract wall, signed ‘S.H.’ I don’t know any more about that one.

With the Record Store on one side of the street and Cafe Lounge on the other, it makes for a bright, regularly changing street. Obviously it’s good marketing. But it makes a real addition to the streetscape, too. You get the sense they’re part of the neighbourhood, and that’s a good thing.

It looks like a sad old sun to us. There’s something Duchamp about it, too, with the assemblage of mirror and coat hanger. It was spotted by one of our readers.

The stencils are a little blurry at first, you might miss just one, but they keep coming. One after the other. You get an insight into the proposer: cute, into street art, fairly persistent.

Do you know Laura? Was the proposal a success?

It’s obviously a take on the chalked signs Arthur Stace used to scribble out saying ‘Eternity’ – but why and who remain a mystery. Reference to the state government’s electoral hopes? New band? Buckminster Fuller graffiti?

We even had an email from Barry Divola, asking if we knew who was behind it.

I thought it might be a pessimistic 21st century response to Arthur Stace’s “Eternity”. I’m hoping that it is, anyway, and not just some guerilla marketing campaign for some new product or fashion company.

We thought it might be another bit of guerrilla advertising, but so far we’re none the wiser. Any ideas?

We thought they were some kind of guerrilla advertising for the tobacco industry – all the ones we’d seen had cigarettes.

Turns out this one doesn’t. Thanks for noticing, @poisontofu.