Wednesday, July 4, 2007

Overheard in Adelaide

True, you don't seem to hear quite as many juicy tidbits of hilarity in Adelaide as you do in New York, but in the spirit of cultural research (eavesdropping) here is a conversation I was privy to at the latest meeting of The Gun Club.

Power-lifter #1: Hey, I brought my muscle-shirt along today!
Power-lifter #2: Yeah?
(Power-lifter #1 removes jumper to reveal baggy white Everlast wife-beater and flexes considerably large muscles for Power-lifter #2)
Power-lifter #2: Oh, I thought it was going to be the one that made you look gay.
Power-lifter #1: Eh?
Power-lifter #2: You know - that tight, red one. It makes you look gay.
Power-lifter #1: Nah - I wore that yesterday.

Such are the wonderful things one overhears (eavesdrops upon) in the company of muscular young man. It was a wonderful day for listening in, because after my own gun-related workshopping, I overheard this little ditty:

Gunshy* undergrad (talking to friends next to sit-up machine): So she's like "I've got stomach cramps and I've missed my period".
Friend: Oh man!
Gunshy* undergrad: I know! And he's like "I'm not worried, whatever". That's bullshit, man. I don't care how tough you are, any man hears "stomach cramps, missed period" is going to be worried.

There were then various speculations about the virtuousness of the lady that I won't get into here because they were rude.

I don't think anyone has noticed, but I'm instituting a new theme to celebrate both the embracing of Blogger and the Having a Talk with tBlog. The theme is basically, for every new post I post, I will change the background image of the title header. Last post it contained a genuine Yorke Peninsula alpaca, for this post it is an attractive Yorke Peninsula-caught-and-killed Blue Swimmer (see video below). Every time I write a new post, I will put up a new header so that those without RSS know-how who check back every day and sometimes twice a day just to see if I've written some new self-centred polemic on popular-culture or posted another mildly embarrassing episode from my childhood will get that extra thrill of excitement when they see the new photo strip in the header.
But wait - there's more!
I will also be holding a little competition - guess where the header is from! Points are given for creativity and geographic proximity. Google Maps locations will be richly rewarded. With what? With kudos. Nothing more than net-related kudos. I have already ruined this post's by giving it away, so the (minimal) fun begins next time. Thematic clues will be hidden within the post. And so, here is the crab, getting the way we see it above:


Speaking of themes: here is an artsy photo I took last weekend in Yorke Peninsula.

It's part of an old amenities block for an industrial thingy that we've only ever seen from the road when we whiz past and think 'I wonder why that shed is on the top of that pole? I really must stop and take a look'. This time we did stop and take a look and were none the wiser. It appeared to be some kind of smelter or heat-based apparatus. Anyone who could enlighten me as to its function will be greatly appreciated. It might even post a few more photos of various bits of it if that would help.
























You can't really see the bottom from the road, so it does look a bit strange. Bear in mind that it's the only thing taller than a tree for kilometres in every direction.



































*Gunshy - one who wears a long-sleeved t-shirt to Gun Club
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3 comments:

  1. AnonymousSunday, July 8, 2007 at 6:50:00 AM PDT

    Ah, who would guess that this is actually a left-over bit of set design tht didn't make the final cut for inclusion in the Myst games series? Who could?

    ReplyDelete
  2. franzySunday, July 8, 2007 at 7:47:00 PM PDT

    Will - you win the prize! I always imagined that it was someone who liked sheds, but hated visitors...

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousWednesday, November 4, 2009 at 1:41:00 AM PST

    This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete

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An explanation of The Joy Division Litmus Test

Although it may now be lost in the mysts of thyme, the poll below is still relevant to this blog. In the winter of 2008, Mele and I went to live in Queensland. In order to survive, I bluffed my way into a job at a Coffee Club.
It was quite a reasonable place to work: the hours were regular, the staff were quite nice, it wasn't particularly taxing on my brain.
There were a few downsides: In the six weeks or so that I worked there, there was about a 90% staff turnover (contributed to by my leaving). This wasn't seen as a result of the low pay, the laughability of staff prices or the practice of not distributing tips to staff, rather it was blamed on the lack of work ethic among Bribie Island's youth.
However, one of the stranger aspects of the cultural isolation that touched our lives during our time "up there" was the fact that nobody at my work had heard of the band Joy Division.
The full explanation is available here.
But please, interact a little further and vote in my ongoing poll. The results are slowly mounting up, proving one thing: people read this blog are more well-informed about Joy Division than anyone who works at the Coffee Club on Bribie Island.

Have you heard of the band Joy Division?

Chinese food, not Chinese Internet!

Champions of Guess The Header

  • What is Guess The Header about? Let’s ask regular “Writing” reader, Shippy: "Anyway, after Franzy's stunning September, and having a crack at 'Guess The Header' for the first time - without truly knowing what I was doing mind you - I think I finally understand what 'GTH' is all about. At first I thought you needed to actually know what it was. Don't get me wrong — if you know what it is, it may help you. I now realise that it's more Franzy's way of invoking thought around an image or, more often than not, part of an image. If you dissect slightly the GTH explanatory sentence at the bottom of his blog you come up with this: “The photo is always taken by me and always connects in some way to the topic of the blog entry it heads up.” When the header is put up, the blog below it will in some obscure way have something to do with it. “Interesting comments are judged and scored arbitrarily and the process is open to corruption and bribery with all correspondence being entered into after the fact and on into eternity, ad infinitum amen.” Franzy judges it, but it's not always the GTH that describes the place perfectly that gets it. “The frequent commenters, the wits, the wags and the outright smartarses who, each entry, engage to both guess the origin and relevance of the strip of photo at the top (or “head”) of each new blog and also who leave what I deem the most interesting comment.” It generally helps if you're a complete smartarse and can twist things to mean whatever you feel they should mean - exactly the way Franzy would like things to be twisted." - Shippy Blogger and GTH point scorer.
  • Nai - 1
  • Lion Kinsman - 2
  • Will - 2
  • Brocky - 2
  • Andy Pants - 2
  • The 327th Male - 3
  • Mad Cat Lady - 3
  • Miles McClagen - 4
  • Myninjacockle - 4
  • Asheligh - 5
  • Neil - 5
  • Third Cat - 5
  • Adam Y - 6
  • Squib - 6
  • Mele - 6
  • Moifey - 7
  • Jono - 8
  • The Other, other Sam - 14
  • Kath Lockett - 15
  • Shippy - 19
  • River - 32