The whole of America was partying last night and this morning it's me who's seeing elephants.
I was a good boy and didn't drink last night (much), so it seems a little unfair.
Like Terry Pratchett's unfortunate deity, the "Oh God" Of Hangovers, who suffers for other people I feel like I am hallucinating for all you boozy Colonials after your Fourth of July knees-up.
Anyhoo … I took photos of some of the elephants. There were loads of them, dotted all over the city this morning.
Trumpety
Trumpety
TrumpI'm now heading back into the city for lunch with Joy and Thom at the Japanese restaurant and then I'll watch the Lord Mayor's Parade in the rain.
While I'm gone, here's today's track by an artist I love and who you may not be familiar with.
Today it's the lovely Neko Case, with a sweet little song about getting murdered on the interstate: Deep Red Bells.
She's the one who came up with my favourite ever opening line to a song:
"Fluorescent lights engage
Like birds
Frying on a wire …"
That's from "Things That Scare Me"
This one has some fine lyrics in it, too:
"A handprint on the driver's side.
It looks a lot like engine oil and tastes like being poor and small
and popsicles in summer"
and
"Now speckled fronds raise round your bones
Who took the time to fold your clothes
and shook the valley of the shadow?"
Both tracks are from her wonderful album "Blacklisted". Go buy.
16 comments:
Absolutely adore those elephants Dive. Hope you enjoy your Japanese lunch. Yum.
I do like that singer's voice but watching the video almost made me car sick.
Those are some pretty funky elephants, hangover or no. Very fun. I'll stop by later to listen to the song.
Oh, and I went to a nice party last night, but there were no hangovers afterwards.
There are more, Mme. I'll post a couple tomorrow.
Neko's voice is gorgeous. Sorry about the video but there wasn't an official one so that's all we've got.
I'm glad your party went well, Robyn. And just as glad that you had no hangover. I was quite happy to see the elephants for you.
i think i'm awake, sugar. back later to listen to the song.
xooxoox
Sounds like a great party, Savannah. Good for you!
xoxox
It reminds me of Cincinnati, where we have painted pigs.
Why the elephants? There is usually a reason behind a cities "animal" choice. In Los Angeles, we had angels. They were gawd awful. I ran into one last night (not literally) and fear they don't improve with age.
The comparison of the romance of flourescent lighting with fried song birds does have a ouchy kind of charm.
T: We have lots of painted cows about the place but the elephants were new to me.
What is it about humans that makes us want to make painted effigies of animals? We are truly weird creatures.
Palm: I can only assume that the artist was looking for an animal that has absolutely no connection with the city. It probably says "something" about "something" in a tedious way, but I just like the bright colours and the casual stupidity of it all.
That line about the birds frying is pretty cool. Check out the album; she has a spooky way with words. Plus she's not too hard on the eyes. Hey ho.
At least none of the elephants were pink with tutus or had clothes painted on them. Well actually I liked Babar as a kid, and those were dressed elephants. Looking forward to seeing more photos. And a run-down of what you had for lunch!
Hee hee. I remember Babar, Katie. That was a truly disturbing cartoon with its undercurrent of French colonialism. And those clothes! Even as a kid I found it slightly creepy.
More photos and a lunch report tomorrow.
It's some kind of Civic Bull Sh$%#@t thing. Speaking of bulls, Chicago was the first with fiberglass cows. Every city does it now. Pigs in Cincinnati, Buffalo in Billings, camels in Dubai and so on. The artist are brought in afterwards and the work is later auctioned off.
My guess with the elephants is that it's got something to do with the colonial past linked to India. Do you think I'm in the ballpark? Anyhow, I'm o.k. with the effigies thing. I'm thinking the Sphynx or Totem Poles. Sometimes we humans do it rather well (despite civic intervention).
I'm actually sort of surprised that the Brits do this. It seems like the kind of thing the Brits would laugh at the Yanks for doing.
Shows what I know. Maybe, when I come to visit (I was invited, right?), we could spend a whole day admiring things a Yank would never think the Brits would do.
Elephants always look so frackin' shy to me. No idea why.
And I did not have a hangover, although I think that Tinton and Liv had food poisoning from eating ball park franks.
We don't do the "civic" thing over here, Palm; our local government isn't run that way.
This is something from the kids at the art school. they're not old enough to hold any valid political ideas, let alone know a damned thing about history (you should know that I consider anyone under 37 a child, together with anyone older than that who gets a little excitable).
We had the cows at Milton Keynes in 1978 so I'm afraid Chicago came in second there (hee hee … one up for the mother country in the casual stupidity stakes).
They were installed as a leaving present from the Milton Keynes Development Corporation (Milton Keynes was one of the post war New Towns to house people from the bombed-out cities) to make the place look a little more rural.
We're a weird people.
T: We are supposed to be "eccentric" and so have to keep up appearances.
Besides (see above) we did it first.
Maria: If you weighed that much and had to wander around naked you'd be pretty shy, too!
Ball park franks? Ew! Grody to the max!
You and I have a different concept of "civic" and "37". I do think my digging about has revealed the answer to why elephants.
Hee hee. Yes indeedy, Palm. We have a lot of mammoth bits around here. My walks on the beach over the years have procured me three wonderful mammoth teeth (currently on my dresser, not in my mouth).
As for the 37; it has proved fairly accurate over the decades, though of course (as it would seem present company dictates) there is always the exception who proves the rule.
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