Thursday 28 February 2013

In the Country, In the Countreeeeeeeee

I like my regular trips to Yass. Apart from the pleasures described so eloquently by Mr C Richard, there is always the excitement of witnessing the latest evidence of the education revolution at work:
I also enjoy the feelings of poignance that advertisements like these evoke in me (and what, I can't help wondering, do the inverted commas around the word 'live' signify in the second picture?):

I am sobered by the way in which notices like this remind me that, while city folk think they're so clever, they actually know nothing - there is a whole other language being spoken in rural Australia that few of us in the urban world even begin to understand:

Best of all, today, in this advertisement for guinea pigs:
I came face to face with my spiritual doppelganger:

While I'd have to admit that the one in the photograph has got her hair under control a bit better than I have, the look on her face, that expression of utter, overwhelming confusion, it's exactly the same one that I see whenever I look in the mirror.

It's comforting, somehow, to think that huddled in a hutch somewhere in Binalong there is a small, furry kindred spirit who is just as unable to make sense of existence - or hair care - as me.

12 comments:

  1. 1. I want to go to the Prade because I want to know more about the HER with NANCY.

    2a. Len Teelow represents the posters of my youth, without the shameless expense of the color photo. The suppers were bloody good, with strong tea and decent sized ham sandwiches plus lammies. Worth going for the supper alone, especially after the lovely first half performance by Len.

    2b. Country crooners do not always perform "live". This is a guarantee for the Seniors audience that they are not seeing a cardboard cutout. The difference sometimes is minimal and fraud is a vague possibility - except that in the country, What You See is generally What You Get.

    3. If you are desperate to know, I can translate the virtues of the beast you just accidentally won when you scratched your nose at the auction. It's worth all you're going to pay for it for joining your neighbour's ewes, and you'll never need another lawn mower. How's your fences?

    4. Grab the compressor. It's a genuine bargain. You'll find a use for it.

    5. The doppelganger simile works for me only if you have a pendant with "GIRL" neatly engraved on it around your neck. Plus photo.

    No. On reflection, I must say that you have changed my imaginary portrait of you with your description. So no photo. I have far too much fun creating and changing my image of you over time. Don't spoil it. But before this I imagined your hair as brown and curly. This hairstyle is magnificent.

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    1. 1. I hope you're getting your Easter bonnet ready
      2. Len Teelow's expression epitomises 'quiet desperation' for me
      3. Is Brian or Nev the star attraction do you think?
      4. My mother says I can get a smaller one
      5. Spiritual doppelganger only (not brown, not curly - look at my brother and imagine a pony tail and you've got it, pretty much)

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    2. Well Brian gets a photograph but Nev gets his own pink twinkly with sixteen points. It's a toss-up.

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    3. I should always prefer a pink twinkly with sixteen points. But that's because of my hair care difficulties.

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    4. So is the poster-maker maybe having a little sotto voce to Nev about his hair? So sotto it's silent? Nev, they're saying, we'd give you a photo, but the hair, mate, the hair, that thing on your head, the old hirsute addition, we don't want to frighten the punters, Nev, mate -- that's what they're saying with the sixteen points -- it looks like a hamster mate, they're saying -- it looks like a guinea pig in a wind tunnel. Can't do it mate, can't do it: more than our job's worth. Will Nev get the message though, that's the question.

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    5. Or possibly it's a complete lack of the old hirsute addition, an utterly bare stretch of possibly freckled, age spotted or even spotty skin?

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    6. After that I had to look him up. He has blackish greyish curly hair and a guitar. It's not bad hair. You could even call it flourishing.

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    7. Now I will have go to and have a look. I never would have thought he'd be actually on the internet.

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    8. Everything is on the net. When I started my blog I made the mistake of using real names and assuming only my family and a few patient friends would read it. Every person whose name I took in vain has contacted me. I see it has just clicked over to the 200,000 hits mark. So much for viewer estimates.

      The answer to No 3 is "No". It's always the sandwiches. No 4 - your Mum is not thinking ahead. No. 5 - Another total revision required. I'll add a Photoshopped ponytail wig to your brother's pic. Is that wise? Your hair's not bright red is it?

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    9. My hair's not bright red. My aunt's was and her grand-daughter's is - supposedly it skips a generation.

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  2. He's even on youtube. It's like the man himself is in the room with you.

    I'm actually inspired to see him now. Though the distance between Las Vegas and Yass is a bit of an issue. The stoned neighbours outside the window are fading wispishly into the background behind "By a Fire of Gidgee Coal" and other Slim Dusty tribute covers.

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    1. I will let you know when he is back in Yass. I'm off to YouTube to have a proper look

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