The itinerary is finalised. The motels are booked. Other than wait for the road trip to come around, there's just one thing left to be done.
Compile the soundtrack. The perfect Monday afternoon project.
The reality is that we'll be hooking up the iPod and working our way through a whole bunch of albums and playlists. That said, there’s still room for a collection of tracks that symbolise and bring to life the geography, the emotion and the literal act of driving those 1,100km across Victoria and New South Wales.
And, of course, coming home to Kate.
Enough of the preamble. Here's how it's shaping up:
Born to Run - Bruce Springsteen
We gotta get out while we're young
Cause tramps like us, baby we were born to run
Thunder Road - Bruce Springsteen
It's a town full of losers
And I'm pulling out of here to win
I Get Around – The Beach Boys
I’m getting’ bugged driving up and down the same old strip
I gotta find a new place where the kids are hip
Roadrunner - The Modern Lovers
Going faster miles an hour
Gonna drive past the Stop 'n' Shop
With the radio on
The Year of Driving Languorously - The Lucksmiths
I want to feel the northerly down my sleeve
I love a sun burnt elbow pointing to the sea
The Great Dividing Range - The Lucksmiths
I find it strange that these mountains make me miserable
But the Great Dividing Range merely proves we’re indivisible
This Road - James Blundell
I love this road
When I miss my home
I guess I was born to ride that white line
The Road Goes On Forever - Robert Earl Keen
They got a hotel by the water and a quart of Bombay gin
The road goes on forever and the party never ends
Lido Shuffle – Boz Scaggs
He be makin' like a beeline
Headin' for the borderline
Goin' for broke
Along the Road to Gundagai - Peter Dawson
Where the blue gums are growing
And the Murrumbidgee’s flowing
Beneath that sunny sky
Our Don Bradman – Art Leonard
For when he goes in to bat
He knocks ev'ry record flat
For there isn't anything he cannot do
Long Way Round - Stereophonics
Gonna roll up the sidewalk
I'm gonna tear up the ground.
Comin' round to meet you
The long way round.
Return of the Grievous Angel – Gram Parsons
20,000 roads I went down, down, down
And they all led me straight back home to you
Showing posts with label Music. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Music. Show all posts
Monday, July 27
Thursday, July 16
Second Hand Magic
My vinyl collection is a pathetic one-fiftieth of what my brother's was at its peak but it continues to evolve. Heck, a day after Michael Jackson's death I picked up a copy of Off The Wall for $5 at the Rozelle Market.
I love my iPod but you can't replicate that sort of magic in a digital world.
I also love online shopping, a little too much if you ask Kate, but for all its choice and convenience it can't match the real world fun of hunting for great second-hand children's shoes.
I should know.
Austin and I discovered a pre-loved kids clothing shop a few weeks ago on our first venture to the far side of Victoria Road. Always worth a look, I figured, and it was. A Kathmandu fleece for $10 and a pair of London-style white Puma sneakers for just $5.
To put this in perspective, last weekend we bought the lad some Saucony runners for $39, down from $50. And at this age they don't exactly get a chance to break them in.
So yesterday we were back. Nike runners to fit now, Reeboks the next size up. Both $6, both looking like they could be brand new.
The Nikes, being grey, are a particularly fantastic purchase. His other shoes are white, blue and brown, so there was nothing that ideally covered the black and grey elements of his wardrobe.
Standards, please, he is British.
The question now: how soon before we go back? Sure, you have to let the stock rotate, but I'm also worried about being seen to exploit the situation. That said, it's privately owned, not a charity store, and at these prices people must be giving them product for free.
Also, I did give the heads-up to a couple of mums at playgroup. Word really should be getting around.
And I hope it does, because this is the at-home parent version of second hand vinyl. You walk past the store, you have to go in. You idle away half an hour flicking through the bins in the hope of finding something great. And, sometimes, when you do - magic.
We had the same thing in London. Once Austin was born we spent a lot of time in the nappy valley that is Wandsworth. At the southern end of its most famous street, Northcote Road, is a charity shop that stocks only kids clothing and toys. Being Wandsworth - the same is true for Balmain and Rozelle - this is generally top notch stuff.
Kate discovered that shop and thought I'd be miffed to come home and find that she'd dressed our son in pre-loved cords. She didn't get the LP thing, nor did she anticipate my joy at picking up an unworn (i.e. sticker still on) Levis denim jacket for just £5 on my first visit.
It won't fit Austin until he's three but, like Off The Wall, it's one of those things that just had to be bought. Forget the boogie, you can blame this on the magic.
I love my iPod but you can't replicate that sort of magic in a digital world.
I also love online shopping, a little too much if you ask Kate, but for all its choice and convenience it can't match the real world fun of hunting for great second-hand children's shoes.
I should know.
Austin and I discovered a pre-loved kids clothing shop a few weeks ago on our first venture to the far side of Victoria Road. Always worth a look, I figured, and it was. A Kathmandu fleece for $10 and a pair of London-style white Puma sneakers for just $5.
To put this in perspective, last weekend we bought the lad some Saucony runners for $39, down from $50. And at this age they don't exactly get a chance to break them in.
So yesterday we were back. Nike runners to fit now, Reeboks the next size up. Both $6, both looking like they could be brand new.
The Nikes, being grey, are a particularly fantastic purchase. His other shoes are white, blue and brown, so there was nothing that ideally covered the black and grey elements of his wardrobe.
Standards, please, he is British.
The question now: how soon before we go back? Sure, you have to let the stock rotate, but I'm also worried about being seen to exploit the situation. That said, it's privately owned, not a charity store, and at these prices people must be giving them product for free.
Also, I did give the heads-up to a couple of mums at playgroup. Word really should be getting around.
And I hope it does, because this is the at-home parent version of second hand vinyl. You walk past the store, you have to go in. You idle away half an hour flicking through the bins in the hope of finding something great. And, sometimes, when you do - magic.
We had the same thing in London. Once Austin was born we spent a lot of time in the nappy valley that is Wandsworth. At the southern end of its most famous street, Northcote Road, is a charity shop that stocks only kids clothing and toys. Being Wandsworth - the same is true for Balmain and Rozelle - this is generally top notch stuff.
Kate discovered that shop and thought I'd be miffed to come home and find that she'd dressed our son in pre-loved cords. She didn't get the LP thing, nor did she anticipate my joy at picking up an unworn (i.e. sticker still on) Levis denim jacket for just £5 on my first visit.
It won't fit Austin until he's three but, like Off The Wall, it's one of those things that just had to be bought. Forget the boogie, you can blame this on the magic.
Saturday, June 20
The Art of the Weekend Post
This isn't a rant about mail. There is no weekend post in Australia.
The issue is that weekend blog posts can be difficult. Sure I have more time, but with Kate at home I'm not in full stay-at-home dad mode and that, after all, is what this blog is supposed to be about. And was, until the rain came.
Bloody rain. Bloody Australia Post.
In the interests of momentum I thought I return you to a posting past - ironically from a Saturday back in March, a week before Austin's birthday and that Texas cake. It about a theme song that remains perfect, if long since listened to.
It also give the marketer in me a chance to push the Mrs C Recommends link in the 'Confessions by Topic' menu on the right hand side of the page. This is Kate's idea of the blog's greatest hits. That may seem premature, and too many artists these days use the greatest hits play where studio album numer three should go, but without this genre a generation of Neil Diamond fans would still think his career began with E.T.
So here it is. Call me lazy, but it is the weekend. It's also not raining, so my time is better spent outside.
Old CD, New Theme Song
SATURDAY 28 MARCH
One thing I was really looking forward to upon returning to Sydney was a chicken schnitzel at Una’s in Darlinghurst. Another was reacquainting myself with my CD collection.
It kinda went to London with me, stripped of its physical presence and loaded to my iPod, but there’s nothing like slipping a disc into a stereo and leafing through the sleeve notes.
Such is the pleasure this gives me that I now have piles of CDs next to each of our stereos, and every now and then I indulge myself with a fossick through the cupboard to find some more to top these up.
Today’s indulgence led me to a long-forgotten sampler CD from now-defunct Melbourne label Candle Records. It kicks off with a gem of a tune, Stepford Husband by Tim Oxley, which I instantly selected as my new theme song.
It wasn’t that I was looking for a theme song - nor have I recently been watching Ally McBeal - but once it leapt out of the speakers it was obvious that it had to be. It starts thus:
Washing up is fun
Unless you do it five times in one day
Then it’s not
I follow my kids around
Picking up their things and putting them back down
Then I pick them up again
Stepford Husband style
You walk a lot of miles
Around the house
Another gem I was delighted to rediscover is a DVD of Candle Records' 10th birthday concert tour from 2004, which Kate and I saw the Sydney leg of at the Metro. Alas, Tim does not feature. He does, however, have a MySpace page, streaming on which is a new song call House Husband.
Not as good its Stepford cousin though, so I’m sticking with the theme song I’ve got.
The issue is that weekend blog posts can be difficult. Sure I have more time, but with Kate at home I'm not in full stay-at-home dad mode and that, after all, is what this blog is supposed to be about. And was, until the rain came.
Bloody rain. Bloody Australia Post.
In the interests of momentum I thought I return you to a posting past - ironically from a Saturday back in March, a week before Austin's birthday and that Texas cake. It about a theme song that remains perfect, if long since listened to.
It also give the marketer in me a chance to push the Mrs C Recommends link in the 'Confessions by Topic' menu on the right hand side of the page. This is Kate's idea of the blog's greatest hits. That may seem premature, and too many artists these days use the greatest hits play where studio album numer three should go, but without this genre a generation of Neil Diamond fans would still think his career began with E.T.
So here it is. Call me lazy, but it is the weekend. It's also not raining, so my time is better spent outside.
Old CD, New Theme Song
SATURDAY 28 MARCH
One thing I was really looking forward to upon returning to Sydney was a chicken schnitzel at Una’s in Darlinghurst. Another was reacquainting myself with my CD collection.
It kinda went to London with me, stripped of its physical presence and loaded to my iPod, but there’s nothing like slipping a disc into a stereo and leafing through the sleeve notes.
Such is the pleasure this gives me that I now have piles of CDs next to each of our stereos, and every now and then I indulge myself with a fossick through the cupboard to find some more to top these up.
Today’s indulgence led me to a long-forgotten sampler CD from now-defunct Melbourne label Candle Records. It kicks off with a gem of a tune, Stepford Husband by Tim Oxley, which I instantly selected as my new theme song.
It wasn’t that I was looking for a theme song - nor have I recently been watching Ally McBeal - but once it leapt out of the speakers it was obvious that it had to be. It starts thus:
Washing up is fun
Unless you do it five times in one day
Then it’s not
I follow my kids around
Picking up their things and putting them back down
Then I pick them up again
Stepford Husband style
You walk a lot of miles
Around the house
Another gem I was delighted to rediscover is a DVD of Candle Records' 10th birthday concert tour from 2004, which Kate and I saw the Sydney leg of at the Metro. Alas, Tim does not feature. He does, however, have a MySpace page, streaming on which is a new song call House Husband.
Not as good its Stepford cousin though, so I’m sticking with the theme song I’ve got.
Wednesday, May 20
Tramps Like Us
It may not be Springsteen’s Highway 9, but the Great Western Highway is a lovely piece of road.
A five minute drive from our home in Rozelle gets you to its starting point where the City West Link meets Parramatta Road. Under the initial guises of the Western Motorway it moves you quickly through the expanses of Sydney’s western suburbs before crossing the Blue Mountains, climbing over the Great Dividing Range and dropping into the Macquarie Valley to its end point at Bathurst.
That’s some 210km and, from there, the state’s west opens up before you.
One day I’ll show Austin the road in its entirety, most likely en route to Parkes and its famous radio telescope, but today was just a grey day excursion. An excuse to get out of the house. A way of making sure he stays still long enough to finish his bottle.
And he did, pretty quickly in fact.
Of course, a roadtrip is nothing if short, so we stayed on the Great Western all the way to Minchinbury and stopped for lunch and a play at Mount Druitt before heading back home.
Around 80km in total and, yes, there are parks just around the corner. But we are boys after all. And I know The Boss would approve.
A five minute drive from our home in Rozelle gets you to its starting point where the City West Link meets Parramatta Road. Under the initial guises of the Western Motorway it moves you quickly through the expanses of Sydney’s western suburbs before crossing the Blue Mountains, climbing over the Great Dividing Range and dropping into the Macquarie Valley to its end point at Bathurst.
That’s some 210km and, from there, the state’s west opens up before you.
One day I’ll show Austin the road in its entirety, most likely en route to Parkes and its famous radio telescope, but today was just a grey day excursion. An excuse to get out of the house. A way of making sure he stays still long enough to finish his bottle.
And he did, pretty quickly in fact.
Of course, a roadtrip is nothing if short, so we stayed on the Great Western all the way to Minchinbury and stopped for lunch and a play at Mount Druitt before heading back home.
Around 80km in total and, yes, there are parks just around the corner. But we are boys after all. And I know The Boss would approve.
Wednesday, April 22
Rock n’ Roll and the Dances of the Clouds
Right now the sun is shining brightly over Sydney’s inner west. Half an hour ago it was raining.
It’s sure to again; partly because I’ve just put the washing outside for the second time, and partly because tonight is football practice.
The clouds are mocking me and, after a few consecutive days of these laundry shenanigans, it’s starting to get bloody annoying. Perhaps I should burn my Al Gore book and shove a load in the dryer.
Perhaps I should save defeat for the winter.
Austin is not a cloud but he too has a new annoying habit. As his mobility improves and he gets ever closer to those first steps he has come to hate being on his back. He can sleep in whatever position he likes, but when it comes to changing nappies this is a real pain in the ass.
The secret is to keep his hips flat and still. Alas, like a ’57 Elvis the boy has got them rockin’ n’ rollin’ and obstructing every step of the process. Depending on where you’re up to this can be pretty hard on most of the senses. On a bad day this includes touch.
Come time to put on the fresh nappy things are far more pleasant but the frustration is even greater. Nappies are not designed to be fitted to a infant when they're on all fours. Nor when then they Jailhouse Rock.
Can he not think like a Formula One driver at pit stop? Can he not figure out that it’s a win-win?
I guess if he could he’d be walking already. Potty trained too. Like his first penalty save, these will have to wait for another day. And, remarkably, like the weather outside, that is just fine.
It’s sure to again; partly because I’ve just put the washing outside for the second time, and partly because tonight is football practice.
The clouds are mocking me and, after a few consecutive days of these laundry shenanigans, it’s starting to get bloody annoying. Perhaps I should burn my Al Gore book and shove a load in the dryer.
Perhaps I should save defeat for the winter.
Austin is not a cloud but he too has a new annoying habit. As his mobility improves and he gets ever closer to those first steps he has come to hate being on his back. He can sleep in whatever position he likes, but when it comes to changing nappies this is a real pain in the ass.
The secret is to keep his hips flat and still. Alas, like a ’57 Elvis the boy has got them rockin’ n’ rollin’ and obstructing every step of the process. Depending on where you’re up to this can be pretty hard on most of the senses. On a bad day this includes touch.Come time to put on the fresh nappy things are far more pleasant but the frustration is even greater. Nappies are not designed to be fitted to a infant when they're on all fours. Nor when then they Jailhouse Rock.
Can he not think like a Formula One driver at pit stop? Can he not figure out that it’s a win-win?
I guess if he could he’d be walking already. Potty trained too. Like his first penalty save, these will have to wait for another day. And, remarkably, like the weather outside, that is just fine.
Saturday, March 28
Old CD, New Theme Song
One thing I was really looking forward to upon returning to Sydney was a chicken schnitzel at Una’s in Darlinghurst. Another was reacquainting myself with my CD collection.
It kinda went to London with me, stripped of its physical presence and loaded to my iPod, but there’s nothing like slipping a disc into a stereo and leafing through the sleeve notes.
Such is the pleasure this gives me that I now have piles of CDs next to each of our stereos, and every now and then I indulge myself with a fossick through the cupboard to find some more to top these up.
Today’s indulgence led me to a long-forgotten sampler CD from now-defunct Melbourne label Candle Records. It kicks off with a gem of a tune, Stepford Husband by Tim Oxley, which I instantly selected as my new theme song.
It wasn’t that I was looking for a theme song - nor have I recently been watching Ally McBeal - but once it leapt out of the speakers it was obvious that it had to be. It starts thus:
Washing up is fun
Unless you do it five times in one day
Then it’s not
I follow my kids around
Picking up their things and putting them back down
Then I pick them up again
Stepford Husband style
You walk a lot of miles
Around the house
Another gem I was delighted to rediscover is a DVD of Candle Records' 10th birthday concert tour from 2004, which Kate and I saw the Sydney leg of at the Metro. Alas, Tim does not feature. He does, however, have a MySpace page, streaming on which is a new song call House Husband.
Not as good its Stepford cousin though, so I’m sticking with the theme song I’ve got.
Stepford Husband is the opening track on the 2005 album Kitchen Songs. You can sample (and buy) at the iTunes Store.
It kinda went to London with me, stripped of its physical presence and loaded to my iPod, but there’s nothing like slipping a disc into a stereo and leafing through the sleeve notes.
Such is the pleasure this gives me that I now have piles of CDs next to each of our stereos, and every now and then I indulge myself with a fossick through the cupboard to find some more to top these up.
Today’s indulgence led me to a long-forgotten sampler CD from now-defunct Melbourne label Candle Records. It kicks off with a gem of a tune, Stepford Husband by Tim Oxley, which I instantly selected as my new theme song.
It wasn’t that I was looking for a theme song - nor have I recently been watching Ally McBeal - but once it leapt out of the speakers it was obvious that it had to be. It starts thus:
Washing up is fun
Unless you do it five times in one day
Then it’s not
I follow my kids around
Picking up their things and putting them back down
Then I pick them up again
Stepford Husband style
You walk a lot of miles
Around the house
Another gem I was delighted to rediscover is a DVD of Candle Records' 10th birthday concert tour from 2004, which Kate and I saw the Sydney leg of at the Metro. Alas, Tim does not feature. He does, however, have a MySpace page, streaming on which is a new song call House Husband.
Not as good its Stepford cousin though, so I’m sticking with the theme song I’ve got.
Stepford Husband is the opening track on the 2005 album Kitchen Songs. You can sample (and buy) at the iTunes Store.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
