lens-artists – Twenty Four

Ok, I don’t do this often but this week, despite Tina’s great prompt, I’m getting on my soap box.

Let me explain, I live in Adelaide. Adelaide is a capital city in Australia and not really known for anything. I love Adelaide.

This week a journalist decided to bag my hometown and that made me mad. You can read about it here if you’re interested.

Anyway that got me thinking about this prompt, pick a place which holds special memories for you. Well, whose hometown doesn’t?

One of my favorite groups, The Hilltop Hoods, who come from Adelaide even wrote a song about it inspired by the following incident:

The inspiration came when Lambert and his wife went to see comedian Dylan Moran who opened the show saying he’d always wanted to come to Adelaide because he wanted to know what it was like in 1955.

“That cracked me up. I love Adelaide — I’ve lived there my whole life, but yeah it is sort of like that and when you’re from a small town it is almost like you’re stuck in a different era of time — which is just fine with me while there’s bombs over Damascus. I’m grateful to live somewhere beautiful and safe,” Lambert said.

So I’ve decided to pick my favorite place for this week’s challenge and I fully encourage everyone to be a tourist in their hometown. We travel around the world but we never look out our back window.

So to finish off this rant, if you’ve never been to Adelaide catch a glimpse of it in the lyrics from the Hilltop Hoods 1955. You can even listen to it here.

[Interlude 1: Tom Thum]
“If you’re feeling low, then give it a go! Try Lambert’s Sniffing Salts today”

[Intro: Suffa]
You know when you’re doing a song about a small town
You gotta start it with a cliché, you know what I’m sayin’?
Like…

[Verse 1: Suffa]
Time moves a little slower here
The paint peels, ’cause the summers here are so severe
And we’re nowhere near nowhere you would know of
Locals here ride, they show up just to show off
Old men take a load off, just to watch the day go by
Philosophising with their friends like they’re Plato
They prophecise on the bench by the main road, right
They got advice; I’m like ‘Ayo, if you say so guys’
But what do they know, Fox News got ’em lit
They’re shook, ’cause fundamentalist the new communist
Old girl with her shopping list clutch her handbag close
I’m like ‘Damn, ma’am; Dan, this old bag has jokes’
‘Cause I’m a gentleman, but then again most of us are
First name basis in the bank, the post-office, the bar
The grocer, the park, so lady, I ain’t tryna grab your pension
The old men on the bench hum

[Interlude 2: Tom Thum]
“Direct from the transistor radio in your lounge room; It’s the entertainment that the whole family can enjoy.”
“Well, I say looking slick will do the trick, so try Barry’s Brylcreem today!”

[Chorus: Montaigne & Suffa]
Well, let’s go, let’s go
We’re living in the days when everybody sayin’
“What a time to be alive”
But I’m feeling out of place like I live in outer space
‘Cause it seems I’m stuck in time
It’s like we ride through life
Right in the shadow of the cold war
It gets so quiet at night
Like martial law took a hold y’all, ’55

[Verse 2: Suffa]
Time moves a little slower here
A day feels like a week, a week it feels like it could go a year
And we’re nowhere near nothing, man it’s so true
I don’t tell ’em where I’m from, I tell ’em where I’m close to
And I can go through an atlas and show you on a map but
You’d still look at me sideways and treat me like I’m backwards
But that’s just fine, it so happens I’m
Happy living in a city that is trapped in time
While you’re lined up in traffic I’m
Not panicked ’bout transit, I’m back in time
For a TV dinner and an early night
‘Cause we get dressed to travel, got an early flight
Been doing laps of the earth while doing laps of the sun
Tryna put where I’m at on the map cause where I’m from
We never get a mention, but all that and then some
Once again, the old men on the bench hum

[Interlude 3: Tom Thum]
And across the country, they came in waves. Thousands upon thousands of flying discs descending from the planet Mars.”
“For the closest shave, try a Wilson’s razor today.”

[Chorus: Montaigne & Suffa]
Well, let’s go, let’s go
We’re living in the days when everybody sayin’
“What a time to be alive”
But I’m feeling out of place like I live in outer space
‘Cause it seems I’m stuck in time
It’s like we ride through life
Right in the shadow of the cold war
It gets so quiet at night
Like martial law took a hold y’all, ’55

[Bridge: Montaigne]
Where I go, where I go
This will always be home, no matter
Where I go, where I go
This will always be home, no matter
Where I go, where I go
This will always be home, no matter
Where I go, where I go
This will always be home

[Interlude 4: Tom Thum]
“If you can’t beat the summer heat, then what you need is a Wordell’s. Wordell Refrigerators – the cooler choice.”
“The dieting revolution taking the world by storm.”

Lens-Artists Challenge #65 – Pick a Place