Tagged by Rae: Seven songs I am listening to right now and a lyric or two that sounds good

New Mistake, by Jellyfish — I have no idea what this song is about, but I like it. Got hooked on this band after seeing the music video for it (which is just as confusing) on Rage, years ago. As a marketing tool, sometimes music videos work.

So Father Mason, clutching his crucifix
Baptised the baby in whisky and liquorice
What a lovely way
Drowning sins and tooth decay

The Circle, Ocean Colour Scene — about a circle of friends. I got hooked on this band after one of their songs was used on a TV show. That works as a marketing tool too.

Saturday afternoon
The sunshine falls like wine
Through your window

Good Day Ray, Powderfinger — after all these years, the whole Internationalist album is still a favourite. Now the kids have got hooked on this particular song, as have I. It’s been played something like 25 times on the iPod that Jeremy’s had only four weeks.

You, you’ve fallen down the stairs again
You might have to take it easy

Love Letter, Professor Ratbaggy — the most accessible of PR songs (it’s Paul Kelly in disguise) and probably the only one to get a guernsey at a PK gig. I snuck it onto a CD of music for my sister’s wedding, years ago. (I also tried to get on The Proclaimers’ Let’s Get Married, but with all the classical music they’d ask for, it wouldn’t fit.)

You’re every rich man’s prayer
You’re every poor boy’s dream
I wanna make a deep connection
Between you and me

Second Class Citizen, Area 7 — your standard call of justice for youth. Maybe I’m a bit old for it, but it’s something I try to recall when seeing the yoof out and about. And when I see yet another profile of Barry Humphries in the paper.

Well I don’t know what they think we do with our time
Try to tell them that being young’s not a crime
We try to tell them but they just don’t care,
This f—ed-up system’s so unfair

Song 2, Blur — it’s pure enjoyable unadulterated noise.

Woo hoo!

Boy with the Arab strap, Belle and Sebastian — theme from Teachers, but highly enjoyable in its own right.

Everyone suffers in silence a burden
The man who drives minicabs down in Old Compton
The Asian man
With his love hate affair
With his racist clientele

I’m not going to specifically tag anybody, but if you want to have a go, leave a comment or trackback.

We lived in a number of places when I was growing up, but this block of flats at 62 Hotham Street, East St Kilda, was where we were the longest — seven years, for me from the age of about 4 to 11, covering most of primary school.

The place doesn’t seem to have changed much at all since we lived there, except that it has shrunk — the various kids of the block (and surrounds) used to have football matches in the front garden. On hot days in summer we’d set a sprinkler up on the grass and run through it, and marvel at how hot the pavement (then made of tarmac) was.

At the side is a laneway, which goes up to the next street, where our friends Stuart, Lisa and Tracey lived. We walked to school with them. Across the lane was another block of flats, where the neighbourhood kids used to play hide and seek.

At the back of the block is the carpark, still with the ancient garages, with wooden doors that now seem to be rotting. Under the fire escape is a little alcove, which us kids wanted to use as headquarters for our club… whatever that was. The alcove is still there, boarded up.

A painted wicket no longer features on the carpark wall. Woe betide anyone who hit a tennis ball over the garages; the neighbour at the back was rumoured to be pretty grumpy.

Some of the first floor residents would try to convince the kids to move from the front to the back and vice-versa, depending on where their nightshift-working relatives were trying to sleep.

I’m struck now by the architecture, which looks to be thirties art-deco, and much more appealing than the other, 70s-style blocks that litter the area. It almost has the air of colonial outpost about it, as if it should be somewhere in the tropics, surrounded by palm trees. Either that or a kind of melting pot for local artists, a creative St Kilda hideaway — like The Secret Life Of Us, but more bohemian.

It was a fun few years, living there as a kid. Lots of happy memories.

Okay I got tagged by Kathy.

What were you doing 10 years ago?

Working in St Kilda Road, dealing with a toddler at home, preparing for a trip to the USA. I was on crutches for some of January 1996.

What were you doing 1 year ago?

Much the same as I’m doing now, except in a crappier house.

Five snacks you enjoy:

Chocolate, chocolate, fresh bread and butter, chips, chocolate.

Five songs to which you know all the lyrics:

Billy Bragg — Waiting for the great leap forward.
Ocean Colour Scene — North Atlantic drift.
Paul Kelly — How to make gravy.
Virtually anything by the Beatles. When I was a kid I’d listen to nothing else.
And any number of really annoying songs that I’d have surgically removed from my head if I got the chance.

Five things you would do if you were a millionaire:

Pay off the house, consider upgrading to a slightly bigger house closer to the city. Give 10% to my favourite causes. By some really nice stuff for my family. Round the world trip, ho yes. The rest into some kind of investment thingy that kept the moula rolling in.

Five bad habits:

Procrastination — I spend way too much time thinking about things I should be doing.
Easily distracted.
Impatience sometimes.
Not being able to think of five things when I need to.

Five things you like doing:

Blogging.
Geeking out.
Reading the paper in the morning.
Walking through the city streets on a grey day.
Being with those I love.

Five things you would never wear, buy or get new again:

Very short shorts.
Sappy music.
Non-recycled toilet paper.
Video tapes.
Anything made by Sharp.

The meme stuff: Remove the blog in the top spot from the following list and bump everyone up one place. Then add your blog to the bottom slot.
the state of indiana
watching me grow
Ready or Not
Zucchinis in Bikinis
Diary of an Average Australian

Then select five people to tag:
Rae (Whoops, Rae’s done this already on the Albert blog)
Tony
Andrew
Brian
Doug

Here are my shoes (well, most of them)…

I hate buying shoes. There are few activities I hate more. It might be because I’ve had a very hit-and-miss history when buying. Roughly in order of purchase:

MISS — ancient brown semi-casual shoes [1]. Subject to endless gags from lovely girlfriend (aka fashion consultant) and just about everybody else. Comfortable, if nothing else.

HIT — the Birkenstocks [2]. Nuff said.

MISS — very shiny Florsheim work shoes [3]. Look okay, but give me pains in my right foot every time I wear them. They say that everybody has one foot that’s bigger than the other, and for me it’s evidently my right. Despite the shop assistant convincing me they seemed to be the right size, they’re clearly too small, and even the ingenious plan of pottering around in them with a wet sock to stretch the leather inside provided only temporary relief. They’re size 9 ½, and I’m obviously a 10. They’re going in the charity bin shortly.

HIT — a pair of Vans brand sneakers [4] bought several years ago. Have lasted a while, though starting to look a bit ratty now. I still like ‘em. Kind of light grey coloured, with red laces.

MISS — Rockport shoes I bought in near-desperation the night before flying to Canberra. Casual black shoes? What was I thinking? General derision from my local fashion consultant (girlfriend) when I showed them to her, and on reflection, she was right. Alleged casual shoes shouldn’t look like that. Returned them to the shop the next day on the way to the airport.

HIT — Ecco sneakers [5]. Cool. Comfortable. By appointment to the Danish royal family apparently, though I haven’t spotted Princess Mary wearing any.

TBA — black Hush Puppies work shoes [6]. Bought last week to replace the shiny Florsheim shoes. Very comfortable on Saturday at the wedding. Noticeably less comfortable the other day at work, leaving nasty looking sores on the back of my ankles, but maybe I’m now at the stage of properly wearing them in. Perhaps I was wearing thicker socks on Saturday? Or perhaps the alcohol on the night caused me not to notice?

Hopefully my luck is improving.

Do you have some favourite or hated shoes? Leave a comment or link to a picture.

Here is my scarf (a birthday present from Marita).

Now, ten points to the first person who can name that pattern. (If you’ve already been told, keep your trap shut.)

• Post a picture of your scarf… Link in the comments or trackbacks
• Past photos in this series

Here is my wine cellar collection. It sits up in the cupboard. My wine purchasing strategy is as follows:

• Buy the ones with the interesting looking labels (’cos I know stuff-all about wine)
• Because I don’t consume them at a rate of knots, I buy bottles of moderately cheapish wine, keep it for a few years, then drink it (this accounts for the many bottles of Hardy’s Regional Reserve…)
• Wait until the collection’s looking a little depleted, then buy 6 or 12 at once for a discount
• Buy a handful of the more expensive ones… ummm.. just… ‘cos

Move your mouse around over the picture to see descriptions. Post a picture of your wine collection… Link in the Trackbacks or comments.

For a rather more reasoned strategy to budget wine purchases, see Josh’s slightly dated wine guide.

• Firefox may abbreviate text hotspots. You can fix it with this extension — go to Tools / Extensions / Popup Alt Attribute / Options and turn on Show long tooltips in multiline
• Past photos in this series
• Notes on creating the image map/hot spots with text

Here are my oldest and newest items of clothing. (Well, if you don’t count the socks I bought last week.)

The red jumper is an Exacto brand windcheater which dates from probably about 1989 or 1990. It still gets an outing on cold evenings at home, and when painting (note the paint stain, a fairly recent addition).

The coat I bought a couple of weeks ago, and I like it so much that I’m wearing it at every opportunity.

• Post your oldest and newest clothing in the comments or trackback
• Previous entries in this series

Here is my rather nice new (rather expensive) suit, seen over a startlingly bright red shirt I bought recently. (Rather more RED than I saw in the shop, admittedly.)

What clothing have you bought recently? Leave a comment or a trackback.