Roads. Not necessarily wide open roads, but definitely nostalgic ones.
It’s early afternoon. The warmest day in weeks. Maybe months. Some weird music is playing over at the Buddhist temple - there are loud noodling guitars, but no back-beat. It must be Indian or something. Except I’ve got Joanna Newsom on and it’s just about the best thing for this kind of afternoon.
Actually, I wanted to write something else about music. I downloaded the video of Wide Open Road by The Triffids, which is just unspeakably awesome and features some film shot out the side of a car travelling down Stock Road in… what the hell is that suburb? Naval Base? Anyway, it’s between Rockingham, where I grew up, and Fremantle. It’s the 1980s in the video, so the car yard and the bikie pub aren’t there yet, but you can tell it’s the place because of the old smoke stacks and the giant hopper. They must have been driving along that road with someone holding a camera in the back seat of the car. I have driven down the same road hundreds of times. Maybe thousands if you include bus rides. I know the curves and the gradients and points where someone might try to cut you off if they’re in a hurry. I don’t even look at the speed signs. Stock Road connected me to uni, to the bars and poetry readings and shopping in Fremantle, to band rehearsals, and to my friends when they started to move up there. Eventually, it was the road that took me back to my mum’s house when I moved up there with them.
I don’t quite know why this is interesting. I guess we think of roads just as spaces in between places we go to. Really, though, we know them. Know them very well, in some cases. We zoom down their hills and curse their red lights. We fear their tricky parts. We see the new buildings that go up beside them and think of how everything is changing. They are the key to our desires because they’re the only way to get anywhere. It’s funny really.
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I thought this was interesting. It brought to mind a couple of my favorite roads. Last year I went up to my family’s place on the lake. We used to go all the time when I was a kid, but I hadn’t had a chance to go in ten years. And I’d never actually drove on a trip up there, but I still remembered all the roads, and looked for all the familiar landmarks. You know how it is, some things seem timeless, some roads get paved.
Comment by Becky — Saturday August 11 2007 @ 5:48 pm
Yeah :)
Comment by Mark — Saturday August 11 2007 @ 5:51 pm
It’s not my favourite road but your story reminded my of the street my parents live in. I could be blindfolded and still stop right outside their house.
I was thinking about it the other day in relation to taxis and the exact moment when we all say ‘next streetlight on the left’ to get the driver to stop. It’s quite funny when we’ve all been out and had a few drinks and all do it.
Comment by nailpolishblues — Saturday August 11 2007 @ 7:08 pm
I just turned on sbs and found The Triffids staring back at me. Freaky.
Comment by nailpolishblues — Saturday August 11 2007 @ 8:42 pm
What a great post! It’s so true about seeing new things go up beside the roads and thinking how everything is changing. It’s weird really. I’m always sad to note how all the trees are gone, replaced by superwalmarts, holiday inns, and banks.
Comment by Julia — Saturday August 11 2007 @ 11:54 pm
Trees getting cut down for strip malls and other dumb shit really pisses me off. I get used to them being there. Like the faces of old, familiar friends. Or when people ‘just didn’t want it there anymore’. It’s a tree, it’s alive! It’s a living thing, you shouldn’t be able to just kill it because it’s messing up the landscaping plan you cooked up with the kid who works at Home Depot and probably couldn’t pick out the business end of a chainsaw.
Sorry to rant. Hope you don’t think I’m weird now.
Comment by Becky — Sunday August 12 2007 @ 4:35 am
Nails - Yeah, I got to thinking about that video after I saw the promo for the Triffids great Australian albums TV special.
Julia - I know what you mean. It totally sucks. At least with the collapse of the US economy it might slow down some, hey? :)
Becky - Trees have to be cut down for safety reasons sometimes, so don’t be too judgmental. But yeah, it creeps me out to see a construction site on what used to be just bush. Like, you have to wonder where it’s going to stop. When we’re going to spend money on improving the urban areas we already have rather than building sprawling new public-transport-unfriendly suburban death zones.
Comment by Mark — Sunday August 12 2007 @ 1:32 pm
Funny anecdote about trees, actually: when I was working for the Botanic Gardens and Parks Authority in Perth we were told that, if we damaged or crushed a plant while working, we should tear it out completely. Even if it was still going to keep growing perfectly well. They were so concerned with keeping complaints down and covering their arses that they didn’t want any conspicuous broken foliage anywhere. I’m not one to lose sleep over trodden-on wattle bush, but it was still a pathetically self-serving policy.
Comment by Mark — Sunday August 12 2007 @ 1:42 pm
I do understand if it’s for safety reasons. I’m not an unreasonable person. I just hate when people go on a chainsawing spree because something “inconveniences” them.
Comment by Becky — Sunday August 12 2007 @ 4:13 pm
Dear Mark, greetings from Sunny Hobart. I reckon roads are fascinating. They start and finish, they take you on a journey. Your Triffids discussion made me think of a road tape (actually, it’s a road CD) I made a few years ago, cobbling together (mostly) Australian songs and designed for driving long distances in western NSW (I was living in the country at the time). I called it “The Wide Open Road” and of course featured the Triffids song. All the songs were about distance: distance between one place and another, between then and now, between two people…
Comment by Miss Andrea — Tuesday August 14 2007 @ 9:43 am
Beck - Trees are people too, dammit!
Miss A - What were the other songs? I don’t know many songs about distance. The only one I can think of really is Tomorrow is a Long Time by Bob Dylan. :|
Comment by Mark — Tuesday August 14 2007 @ 3:01 pm
Okay… distance is figurative as well as literal, remember. And the comp was intended specifically for driving, an activity which includes singing along to well-known lyrics to stay awake, so forgive the mainstream nature of it. At least all songs but one are Australian. It sounds better than it looks - trust me.
My main thoughts (after distance) were: did they sound well together, and, would they make a soundtrack if I looked out the windscreen while driving out over the flatlands?
I’ve Got A Plan - My Friend The Chocolate Cake
Down Under - Colin Hay (the version from The Craic soundtrack - no flutes, lots of melancholy digeridoo)
Dead Heart - Midnight Oil
Miss You (remix) - Everything But The Girl
My Way Home (remix) - Alex Lloyd
Wide Open Road - The Triffids
All Downhill From Here - Paul Kelly
One More Roll Of The Dice - Spot The Dog
If I Had A Ticket - Ed Kuepper
The Metre - Powderfinger
Everybody Moves - Died Pretty
One Perfect Day - (cover by) Sarah Storer
London Still - The Waifs
Maybe the Suburban Horror compilation would suit you better…? :)
Comment by Miss Andrea — Thursday August 16 2007 @ 5:34 pm
Hey that sounds okay. I’ll have to have a listen to a couple of them, especially the midnight oil one.
Comment by Mark — Thursday August 16 2007 @ 7:41 pm
Oh, btw, can you enable non-blogger comments on your site?
Comment by Mark — Thursday August 16 2007 @ 8:25 pm
Done. Come over anytime.
Comment by Miss Andrea — Friday August 17 2007 @ 9:43 am