Daniel85

Sorry I haven’t posted at all since I left. Laura’s mom passed away the day after I got to Seattle, so things have been pretty chaotic and unsettled here for the past few weeks.

I can’t believe the timing… I got into SeaTac airport on the afternoon of the 9th, and went straight to the hospital with Laura and her dad. It was scary and shocking to see Cheryl lying unresponsive on a hospital bed, considering the last time I’d seen her, just two months ago, she was still active.

We spent a few hours at the hospital that night, then went home. Laura’s uncle Mark stayed all night. The next morning Laura and I just stayed at home, spending some time together, but we got a call from Mark saying we should probably get ourselves to the hospital. We went straight away. Things seemed pretty stable when we got there. There was a bunch of people in Cheryl’s room, telling stories and reminiscing. It was very calm and peaceful. A couple of hours later, surrounded by a cluster of friends and family, she passed away with a gasp. It was the first time I’ve ever seen someone die, and I don’t think I’ll ever forget it.

Laura’s coping pretty well. I’m trying to help as much as I can. It’s hard to see someone you love going through something like this and not be able to make everything better. It hurts. I think we’re both doing okay, though. We’re trying to keep things normal, trying to keep busy. We saw Spamalot last week (it’s great, by the way- you guys should see it when it comes to Melbourne), and we’re going to to see Into The Woods on Halloween (my first Sondheim show! Joy!) It’s pretty crazy to see a proper American Halloween. Lots and lots of candy and pumpkins. We’re gonna dress up as a 50s couple. I’ll be sure to post pics. We’re also pretty excited for Jersey Boys, which is coming to Seattle in December.

My flights went fine. I definitely prefer the straight jaunt to LA, followed by a domestic flight to Seattle (which only takes about 2 hours) to the two 10-hour hops that I did last time, lilypadding Tokyo. It was nice to go through Customs and Immigration in LA so that I could step right off the plane and see Laura when I got to Seattle.

Oh, oh, I also ran into a bunch of Cats players at Tullamarine. It was awesome. I was waiting in line at Passport Control, bored and restless, and my wandering eyes alit on the fiery tresses of Cameron Ling. It took me a couple of minutes to work up the courage to say g’day, but I eventually did, telling him how I’ve been a Cats fan since I was a kid, and how much the win meant to me and my family (I could’ve also said that the Cats’ success this year has provided me with more of a relationship with my stepdad than I’ve had in years, but I refrained). Ling was friendly and easy to talk to, despite the fact that I was bugging him on his holiday. He ended up at the Passport Control booth next to mine, and I heard the officer say ‘Oh, athlete? What sport do you play?’ He’s the vice captain of the premiership team, and we’re in Melbourne. Ignorance.

It didn’t occur to me that it was end-of-season trip time until later on, when milling about the gates I saw a cavalcade of Cats. Kelly, Stokesey, Nablett, “Bloody” Byrnes, Mark Blake, Selwood, Tenace, Corey Enright, and Matty Egan (hobbling terribly). I felt like a little kid at VicKick Pie Night.

Well, I’m off to the States again tomorrow. I’ll be gone til February. I’ll try to be less sporadic with blog entries this time.

Also, please watch this.

And you thought it couldn’t get any weirder than David Byrne…

Love this song. Love ‘the Crawl’.

It’s one of those half-forgotten ballads you always hear on Gold 104, sandwiched between Crowded House and Human League.

The lyrics (and the video, which I’d never seen before I sought it out recently) deal somewhat with a topic I’ve been halfheartedly interested in lately, the new Orientalism (new compared to Romantic Orientalism, I mean) that permeated Australian culture after WWII and Vietnam. It’s a subject close to my heart, considering that my grandad fought in Vietnam and he (and my grandma) lived in Malaysia for several years of his Air Force career. My mum was born there; the housekeeper’s Chinese was her first language.

Anyway, the song is brilliant. Australian music was really something back then. Doesn’t it just make you wanna rock up to your Year 10 formal in Dunlop Volleys, catch a green/silver V-Line train to go see a Hawks/Cats game, then head down to Lorne on the weekend?

I suppose that in a post that has centred around Orientalism and Australian music and Australian military involvement in the Pacific I should be talking about ‘Khe Sanh’, but I’ve always dismissed that song. Cold Chisel to me is just so much posturing, over-compensated masculine bathos. And not in a good way, like say in Australian Crawl’s later hit, ‘Errol’. Parenthetically (not really, considering I didn’t put it in parentheses), my grandad’s name is Errol, named after Errol Flynn, whom the Australian Crawl song is of course about. Everything is connected.

Oh yeah, whenever Australian Crawl comes up I like to mention that I’m (extremely distantly) related to James Reyne. My mum shares a great-great-great grandmother with him, on her Dutch side. And no, there’s not a straw in the world I won’t grasp at.

So, to summarise… love ‘the Crawl’. Don’t love ‘the Chisel’. Fat middle aged dudes in Hawaiian shirts getting drunk and dancing with Asian girls is hilarious and depressing.