listen to Paul Kelly’s ‘Adelaide’ as you read this, if you will
[click here] to listen.
Travelling is one thing. Being back in your home city is quite another.
Travelling brings you more stories than you could ever tell, though they are the ones we need to tell around a tall glass of beer or a coffee or two, as I bore you with the photos.
Being back rubs out your senses. It is banal and ordinary. It is full of the modern western trappings. Chemists with chocolates and corner shops with deep fried everything. It has tracks and grooves and ruts. It is the same as it ever was.
It is not perhaps, in itself, a bad place. It is a known place. It suffers from the malaise of non-adventure.
It has places you can reach without even thinking. It requires you not to think.
It has street signs and instructions that need not be understood. It requires no understanding.
It is not special. It is ordinary.
It is not bad.
It just is.
on 3 April, 2009 'mouse said . . .
I was just going to complain that I couldn’t find the song, but the lyrics are here.
Instead I had to content myself (initially) with the Ben Folds version of a different “Adelaide”. Keith, canya link that one for Boot? lyrics here Funny how “we” see your town with different eyes!
on 3 April, 2009 'mouse said . . .
I meant (but said badly) couldyaplease add a link to MY song—the Ben Folds one. KTHXBYE.
on 4 April, 2009 boot said . . .
Of course I don’t mind, Keith. In fact, I sort of hoped that our Mysterious DJ of the Night would help out with the post’s song reference. He never lets you down. What a guy.
I agree with you completely about reflections of perspective. In a way, it was the awareness of that which drove me to write the post. The (almost) extraordinary sameness of everything.
And, ‘mouse? While I would like to offer thanks for pointing me in the direction of the Ben Folds song, I am far too busy wondering what the hell you’ve done with the real ‘mouse.
KTHXBYE, indeed.
“It’s raining
In Adelaide”
Wow. He was here when it rained.
on 2 May, 2009 bakerina said . . .
Oh, ‘mouse. I’m so disappointed.
It’s spelled KTHXBAI.
(ducks, runs, blows kiss to boot along the way)
on 2 May, 2009 boot said . . .
(catches kiss most appreciatively)
Spelling correction in internet/sms speak? Will wonders never cease.
on 3 April, 2009 Keith said . . .
I slipped a link into your entry, thinking you wouldn’t mind.
Don’t forget that adventure and ordinary are just reflections of perception. I, for one, would no doubt find your home city filled to the brim with newness, having never been there. But I understand your point. Home, as much as we love it and find comfort in its familiarity, is a rut. Hopefully a comfortable rut, but a rut, all the same.