Some Things I Have Seen

Some things I have seen in the last week:

1. I saw the Drones on Saturday night at the Corner. They rock. They shriek. They’re savage. They rage in an early Birthday Party kind of way.
2. I saw a lot of drunk people there.
3. I saw the last ever episode of the Sopranos on Tuesday night and went to bed disappointed and cheated. On reflection the next day I realised I had actually really liked it. It was beautifully shot. The colours were muted and autumnal.
It had a dream-like quality to it. The delivery of lines, looks , gestures and the camera seemed to linger and hang in the air. Maybe this is because of the despair I felt at this being the last episode. It’s like that eerie feeling I used to get as a child when the sun would just start to creep down on a Sunday and I would look out at the horizon and the soft colours of fading light filled me with a sense of dread and doom and finally resignation that the weekend was coming to a close. Every child’s cry would echo around me and I was already nostalgic for the passing of the best weekend ever.
And I would think that this was what old age is going to be like. Such gravitas. Someone should have told me to lighten up.
Anyway who cares if Tony got whacked or not. It was the best series ever.
And all those people with so much time on their hands posting conspiracy theories on the "Cut to Black" final scene should just lighten up.
3. I was walking to the tram stop early in the morning and saw a junky toss his coke can over his shoulder. A middle-aged lady in a suit wearing white joggers on her feet, and carrying a second bag to house her other shoes, was walking or rather striding, behind. (I know you’ve all seen a lady like this.It’s a type that is often spotted on the corner of Brunswick and Victoria Streets near my house. Oh, and the junky was wearing a baggy tracksuit – I swear).
She saw the discarded can, bent down, picked it up and put it in the rubbish bin without a pause in her step. I know she didn’t do it so people would see and think what a good citizen she was, but I wanted her to know that I DID see it and it impressed me. She was so… efficient.
4. I got off the tram in the evening outside Atherton Gardens near my house and saw a junky making a beeline for me as I have that special invisible sign on my head.She was slurping on a Split icecream that she had obviously just bought from the Vietnamese deli a few metres down (that’s where they all go to get their fags and choc milk). She asked me for about $2 saying that’s all she needed to make up the money to buy a packet of fags. Can you imagine the raging debate she was having in her head when she went to the deli the first time to buy that packet of fags and her eyes spied the icecream chest? Fags? Icecream? Fags? Icecream?
5. I was at my favourite shop on Smith Street today. It’s a small fruit & veg & nuts & other stuff shop owned and run by a man and his brother and assorted cousins and nephews and nieces who have migrated from Turkey. We simply refer to it as “The Turk”. We thought we had christened it that, but we have since found out that other people refer to it as “The Turk” – there’s some kind of synchronicity going on in this ‘hood. Anyhoo, I was at the Turk and saw a large Somalian woman draped head to toe in black. Her mobile rang, she answered it, then placed it in her hajib so it nestled over her ear. Then she continued to talk while with her two free hands she could pick over the best vegetables. One cool customer.
6. I didn’t and don’t want to see SAW XXV or whatever number it’s up to.