The pond knew it had to go there, especially after the reptiles went there to keep up the hits on a lazy Sunday afternoon …
If there happens to be a stray young reader passing - the pond skews old in its demographics - they'll be pleased to discover that the bromancer provided a classic example of identity politics, 1950s style ...
The good old days of good old identity politics - virginity, Madonnas and whores, domestic violence, six o'clock closing, immaculate conception, cannibalism of wafer and wine…
They don't do identity politics that way anymore, which explains why the pond just had to go there with the bromancer ...
Now the pond doesn't want to rain on the bromancer's parade or remind him of Walter Chiari being busted for drugs (along with composer-conductor Walter Luttazzi) or recall that other terrible Chiari movie down under Squeeze a Flower, but the pond would like to recall that luddites - you know, the sort that litter the lizard Oz - hated the movie …cue the Fairfaxians reporting on 6th September 1966...
Indulging in crudities …
You've got to love it, but to be fair, the reviews weren't all bad, even that sublime ponce Craig McGregor had a kind, if condescending, word …
But back to the bromancer ...
O'Grady of course discovered a goldmine, and made out like a bandit, as with this ad in the AWW on 5th April 1961 ...
Would the pond want to go back to that time?
Is the hagiography in They're a Weird Mob remotely credible, up against the much more convincing portrait of Australian mores to be found in that genuine classic of film-making, Wake in Fright, which was a total flop? Just asking for a friend, but Wake in Fright made the pond Wake in Tamworth
Ah, but all that would get in the way of a deep, rich nostalgia for identity politics ...
Just a note on the plot of the movie. The immigrant, at first down on his luck in the lucky country, gets lucky and gets hitched to the boss's daughter … so much for your classless society …and clueless types of the bromancer kind … while all the dinkum workers go on getting right royally pissed ...
Meanwhile, speaking of foreigners, today is Caterist day ...
The pond has wasted so much time on the bromancer, it will just have keep remarks short, though surely there's time to observe another irony … a bloody Pom, who probably didn't even spend ten pounds to get here, rabbiting on about foreigners trying to invade the country like a pack of rabbits ...
Goulburn! The big merino in peril … (and just why did they get rid of those sheep on the wall in the services club?)
But it could hardly be because the Caterist is worried about the cost to the taxpayer, or he'd be rushing back to the Department of Finance, with old-fashioned cheque refund in hand …
More likely he's worried about foreigners applying to Finance for a grant in aid … too much unfair competition.
That's the thing about democracy, as opposed to dictatorial fiat, it's cumbersome and slow, and gives opportunities for justice, and sometimes people game the system, and sometimes pesky foreigners put their paw in the till … and then feign indignation … and quite possibly would prefer the way matters are sorted in Russia or Saudi Arabia ...
Remember the old days when conservatives grandly talked of union with New Zealand, and even condescended to considering union with the sheep lovers …
Pardon the formatting, because who would want to miss a word …and remarkably this wasn't so long ago, in the SMH on 28th December 2000:
Good old Padraic and men wearing black and shades of Malware himself, an ozemail address, no less …
Oh the pond is full of history and wankers this day, and so to the final Caterist gobbet, or wank if you will, even if the autocorrect insists on "sank" …which might be summarised as "damn you poofters, damn you all to hell," and what about the white farmers of Rhodesia?
Sadly not a word about bloody furriners coming in and bludging on the Department of Finance, but the pond lives in hope …
And now it's completely unfair, but the pond insists on also doing the Oreo, who went full Trumpian this morning ...
The pond is already way past its bedtime, and has probably pushed the astonishing news that the Oreo was once a feminist a few too many times, but still, here's a challenge … try to make sense of this opening flourish ...
So we're in for unrepentant leaden alienation?
Or some such thing. It takes considerable chutzpah to attempt to turn the Donald into a great thinker, and especially a great writer, but the Oreo gives it a go …but first a note …you see this Donald outing was actually just a re-brand …
And the Donald didn't write it, but after his Tony Schwartz burn, he became more canny, and made sure the ghostwriter stayed uncredited …
Greg Hunters can go here, but there's also a funny review here …and how did it become a hit? Well the Donald helped by spending $50,000 in campaign contributions on it … LA Times' readers can go here.
Sad desperadoes such as the pond must stick with the delusional Oreo, trying to weave a silk purse out of the Donald's golden hair ...
Hysteria, paranoia and fear-mongering … well it's the Oreo channelling the Donald, so naturally the pond resorted to a few cartoons …
Will feminism ever recover from the news that Oreo was once a feminist? Just asking for a friend …
Of course the attacks on the EU and the UN fit a pattern …
Is the Oreo a Ruski mole? Does she confuse and conflate western civilisation with Vlad's vision of the world? What's she got against Europe? Why does she love the Donald? Is she in on the private conversations the Donald had in an off-the-record way with Vlad? Just asking for a friend ...
At last, duty done …
It takes a fairly think chunk of enormous stupidity to stay solid with the Donald and Vlad the impaler by this point in the cycle in world politics, but please, never underestimate the enormous ability, the innate capacity of the Oreo to be stupid. Will feminism ever recover?
Is the Oreo aware they only do pirate rip-offs of her favourite brand in Russia?
Just wondering for a friend …
Is the Oreo aware they only do pirate rip-offs of her favourite brand in Russia?
Just wondering for a friend …
And so to a couple more cartoons, because the pond learned early that you always smile nicely at policemen and far right wing delusional extremists howling at the moon …
In the books "Nino" was from the North of Italy and tall, big and blonde, thus rendering him instantly acceptable. He despised the Southerners (Meridionali) and gave derogatory physical descriptions of them. He was also given to rendering people unconscious with a punch to the top of the head.
ReplyDeleteChatting about God in the workplace is more an Irish thing. About the only Italian culture in the books is a blatantly not first hand account of the making of a spaghetti sauce and the attempt at an Italian sounding name. Very on brand cherry picking and obfuscation from Greg O'Sirideáin.
Yair, well I think Nino was supposed to be a Lombardian descendant, mate - all the tall, blonde, blue-eyed Scandinavian appearance versus the look of greasy Latinos from the South.
DeleteBut of course one should not recall that the Lombardians (et al) were just a bunch of illegal immigrants forcing their way into what is now Italy. Personally, I would have thought that Greg O'Sirideáin would have objected to that on the grounds of maintaining secure borders. After all, look what happened to the Irish when they couldn't maintain their borders against the marauding Normans.
But then, the southern 'latinos' couldn't hold their borders against the marauding Normans either, resulting in the Kingdom of Sicily.
Re weird mobs: "Would the pond want to go back to that time? "
ReplyDeleteWell you could always join me, DP. I never experienced anything of that time back in suburban Melbourne, despite that my father was indeed a bricklayer (and neither he, nor any of his builder mates, spoke at all like O'Grady's Nino, though they did happily introduce me to Richmond Pilsner at the grand old age of 12). I didn't read 'Weird Mob" and I didn't go to see the movie and I was a bit relieved when it all just fairly quickly faded away, never - except for the Bromancer - to return.
But I do remember from back in those times, how the legendary Women's Weekly was credited with teaching a whole generation of immigrant mums (Italian, Greek and European in general) how to be aspiring middle-class Australians. I rather suspect that Women's Weekly was a whole lot more influential than ever Weird Mob was, or could have been.
By the way, Oreo, the Donald didn't have a "winning election campaign", it was in fact - by at least 3 million votes - a losing campaign. And now he wants to hold America to ransom to build a gummy "barrier" (NOT a wall !) that the majority of Americans voted against.
And as to this: "The southern border wall ... will be designed to deter people-smugglers and traffickers."
Oh yeah, sure. Do you have even the faintest idea of middle American geography, Oreo ? Do you know just how close the Gulf of Mexico is to Mexico ? Do you know how much of America has sea front onto the Gulf ? Do you know how many Cubans made it to America by sailing via the Gulf to the Florida shore ? Does Trump have any plans to continue the "wall" along the seafront of at least those states with Gulf of Mexico shorelines ? And will Mexico pay for that too ?
Wake up and sniff the dung, Oreo, there's a lot of it issuing from the White House.
"At last, duty done…"
That's duty, DP ? It seemed more like grievous penance to me. Swingeing, even.
Re the Golden Golem of Greatness and his fabled wall there is an interesting essay on Tomdispatch featuring Greg Grandin the author of From the Frontier to the Border Wall In The Mind of America.
ReplyDeleteThe USA is of course founded on the myth of the ever expanding frontier and the cannibalization of everything and everyone who gets in the way.
With no more mythical frontiers to conquer it is now in the process of cannibalizing itself.
You prompted me to do a little research on They're a Weird Mob:
ReplyDelete..."Weird Mob" Production supervisor Lee Robinson had the original idea for the Skippy TV series. Skippy stars Ed Devereaux and Tony Bonner have speaking parts in Weird Mob while cast members Ken James appeared as a bellboy and Liza Goddard appeared for 3 seconds in the ferry scene, kissing another teen while a drunk is ranting. John Meillon,Chips Rafferty, Jack Allen and Jeanie Dryan also appeared in both productions"...
I hope this doesn't mean your going after Skip's Mob next, O' Ponderer. I'd rather not know if it was a fiercely rabid right wing Skippy who during pillow talk prevailed upon Murdoch into going into television 'news'.