Hair and Movies
Without prejudice
I must be the only person in the world who has not seen the naked scene in Hair, well maybe african people with no TV's, but I missed it and it was all beacuse of vanity, damn vanity. We had gone to Sydney Bob and I , taking Alan, The effete Artist that lived in the same boarding house as we did in Caulfield, when Bob and I were first sniffing around each other, not sure if we liked each other or not. But we went to Sydney together, I think Bob thought it might make me "grow up" a little quicker seeing people naked. Who knows? So we sallied off to Sydney in the FP Station wagon of Bobs, with its JFM number plate, (Janette For Me) and blue and white curtains his aunty Oll had made for him. he would have been 22 and me 16, Alan was older and urbane and loved a good laugh, he was an incredible artist, living in a studio on the top floor, flooded with light and nude paintings, charcoal drawings, sketches, oil paints everywhere.
His Father was a Supermarket owner, wealthy, and was ashamed of his son the artist wanting him to be a Grocer instead. He wore natty scarves tied at the front but he also would come to the farm with us and strip off to the waist and work as hard as the other men, so he was no slacker as a Man, but he was just the tiniest bit delicate, tall but elegant in a way, not dandyish, just so bony. But he was sharply intelligent and educated and mannered and could be just as crude as the others, laughing, chortling at dirty jokes, of which Bob had many. Bob always called pants tweeds in those day, as in
"Do as I say or I will off take your "tweeds" and smack your bare bum"
He said that to me a lot and I ignored him, my tweeds weren't going anywhere, thank you.
Alan nearly died. literally from something I said then as we drove up the Hume to Sydney, we had stopped in at a Truckie Road House for breakfast and Alan had just taken a big bite of his bacon and egg roll when I announced I was off to the Bog. I had brought that word with me from Yorkshire as every one at school called it that, the Bog. Alan spluttered with laughter at my crudity and choked, oh my God how he choked, turning purple till Bob grabbed him in a bear hug, almost lifting him off the ground and squeezed his ribs and the piece of bun shot out onto the floor. And we were so relieved he was Ok, and we headed off again, laughing now at Alan's close brush with death.
So we were a pretty happy group when we at last reached Sydney, staying with Ian and Merrilyn and heading off to Kings Cross immediately for the Theatre, I had glasses in those day but would not, could not wear then in Bob or Alans company. So we went into the Theatre, lots of wine coloured velver curtains a huge baroque style stair case and the show began and it was mad, mad, with its songs of protest and love and rebellion and hatred for the Vietnam War, and I was spellbound, moved and there was a slight hush, silence at the end if the first Act.I wondered about that and as we went outside to have a cigarette on the stairs I piped up, (Bright Spark!)
"Oh I wonder when the naked scene is coming on?". Bob had gone somewhere and Alan, alone, looked at me and said nothing, too shy to say anything. I had missed it in my stupid vanity, not wearing the glasses, and I had never seen a naked man's appendage before, (What girl is not curious?) And it dawned on me then, the silence, the hush had been people silenced as they watched for the first time public nakedness. And I had missed it. Stupid vanity! But the show was about hair, long hair, pubic hair, underarm hair and it glows in my memory as major rebellion, students protesting the War, and it went all over the world, this protest and people listened to its call. Stop the War and it was stopped, the war, and it was a time of love and happiness spread through the reviled "Hippies", who had the right idea but messed it up with drugs.
We chanted the Fish Cheer and wanted change, NOW, I worked in Myers Chaddy, helping out Stationery over the Christmas Rush from my usual position, ( I had been promoted from Children's Books To Adult ones) and I saw Albert Langer the famous student Activist from Monash U. My boss pointing him out to me. A huge scruffy bear of a man, with books under one arm, messy and untidy but followed by many. He was a London born Jew with a powerful presence. I gazed at him and saw power, power to protest, power of rebellion and it was a time that people thought they could kick over the traces of the old and embrace the new.
We however were just kids having fun, bought Peace badges and wore Ban the Bomb Tops and went to the Cinema in Town and watched Yoko Ono's film on bums and her screaming and it went on for # hours. Alan had taken us with some arty types, Carl and Jackie, and I was convinced they were stoned, you would have had to been to put up with that film for 3 hours, Bob and I just fidgeted and sighed, longing to get out and in the end that's what we did running out with Alan and escaping, gasping laughing when we did.
"What was that shit", Bob said
Alan was convulsed too and so was I.
And we went to nightclubs in town and hotels with him, his taste, and his taste was elegant and
cultured and Bob's was more lets go look at the Peep shoes or XXX film and I would not have been allowed in, but I was quite happy for him to go. He loved all that, one of his favourite shows The Long Swift Sword Of Seigfreid", and one where a man in the jungle ate warm monkey brains out of a monkey, eeeeuuuuurrrgh, we saw that twice me turning away at that bit. Bob and Nev both say I can't watch the tinies bit of horror or violence, leaving the room when the bad bits are on and they would call me back when the bad bit was over. Nev said I would not even be able to watch Bambi without crying or leaving the room and I guess he's right. (Refer back to cowering girl,under the seat in Adelaide when I was 4 or 5 and the slaves were getting whipped in that blasted ten Commandments"
I left the room at Pulp Fiction when the Gimp came out and Nev gave me a blow by blow account from the other room, calling me to come back, then,
"Oops you better not, now he's buggering "Your man"
It was payback time when we went to The Trak and saw Priest, his pick, and it was about a gay Catholic Priest, and Nev spent the whole Movie slumped down in the the seat and wouldn't watch any of it, muttering ,
"This would NEVER be shown in Ireland" and all around us cultured wealthy people gazed dispassionately at the screen, but not my little Irish boy, oh No, and he tried to make me leave with him and I stayed to the end, meeting him outside, later,
"Babe, it was your pick?"
"I know but it was disgusting",
No kidding, I find violence disgusting and he finds gayness not understandable and religion sacrosanct. But we went to so many others, probably once a week for ten years, our first date to see Forrest Gump, him hiding 6 stubbies on him and clinking them through the movie, I cried and he was glad, that was the reaction he had too. And any De Niro Movie, Johnny Depp, same, Marlon Brando. "Man In The Moon, which he "got" and I didn't. Any irish movie and art house movie, French comedies with Sub Titles, one about the power of being "witty" in France's Aritostocracy, He laughed when I didn't and I did when he didn't, and sometimes we both laughed together, he was fabulously wickedly witty and did really bad impersonations of people, Sean Connery, Michael Caine, Taggart,
We saw The Cider House Rules, one of his favourite books and his favourite of all time, The Ginger Man" by J.P Dunleavy and its hero or antihero Sebastian Dangerfield. he worshipped that book and "Ullyses", by James Joyce, which he read easily, most people not being able to get past page 6.
he took me to the Astor in St Kilda for my birthday to see a Clint Eastwood movie festival and i was in Heaven because my Dad loved the western movies, especially A fistful of Dollars and the Good the Bad and The Ugly and For a few dollars More, and Clint Eastwood was so finely handsome when young, unkempt and tough, not saying much but always came out on top. And in honour of My Mum he took me again to see "Lawrence Of Arabia" with it's mad protagonist "Lawrence" with his adoring bum boys and the most handsome man at that time Omar Sharif, he was beyond handsome, almost beautiful if you can say that about a Man. Mum told me Lawrence was homosexual years before and I could see Nev was shocked.
His favourite Movie Of all time was "Educating Rita", made in Dublin at Trinity College, so magnificent it is almost beyond belief, and I am sure he saw himself in Frank played by Michael Caine. the dishevelled brainy drunk, not wanting to think he can be saved from his alcohol. And Rita so uneducated and so fierce to learn. I loved it when she said for Frank to tell her when her writing was crap, screwing up the paper, fag in her mouth, dangling, and she twists her work up and rips it,
"See with me you have to be firm"
And we saw Willy Wonka with Jonny Depp and I liked the original and he loved the new and anything Sherlock Holmes, English, Irish Scottish, the list goes on and on
"
I must be the only person in the world who has not seen the naked scene in Hair, well maybe african people with no TV's, but I missed it and it was all beacuse of vanity, damn vanity. We had gone to Sydney Bob and I , taking Alan, The effete Artist that lived in the same boarding house as we did in Caulfield, when Bob and I were first sniffing around each other, not sure if we liked each other or not. But we went to Sydney together, I think Bob thought it might make me "grow up" a little quicker seeing people naked. Who knows? So we sallied off to Sydney in the FP Station wagon of Bobs, with its JFM number plate, (Janette For Me) and blue and white curtains his aunty Oll had made for him. he would have been 22 and me 16, Alan was older and urbane and loved a good laugh, he was an incredible artist, living in a studio on the top floor, flooded with light and nude paintings, charcoal drawings, sketches, oil paints everywhere.
His Father was a Supermarket owner, wealthy, and was ashamed of his son the artist wanting him to be a Grocer instead. He wore natty scarves tied at the front but he also would come to the farm with us and strip off to the waist and work as hard as the other men, so he was no slacker as a Man, but he was just the tiniest bit delicate, tall but elegant in a way, not dandyish, just so bony. But he was sharply intelligent and educated and mannered and could be just as crude as the others, laughing, chortling at dirty jokes, of which Bob had many. Bob always called pants tweeds in those day, as in
"Do as I say or I will off take your "tweeds" and smack your bare bum"
He said that to me a lot and I ignored him, my tweeds weren't going anywhere, thank you.
Alan nearly died. literally from something I said then as we drove up the Hume to Sydney, we had stopped in at a Truckie Road House for breakfast and Alan had just taken a big bite of his bacon and egg roll when I announced I was off to the Bog. I had brought that word with me from Yorkshire as every one at school called it that, the Bog. Alan spluttered with laughter at my crudity and choked, oh my God how he choked, turning purple till Bob grabbed him in a bear hug, almost lifting him off the ground and squeezed his ribs and the piece of bun shot out onto the floor. And we were so relieved he was Ok, and we headed off again, laughing now at Alan's close brush with death.
So we were a pretty happy group when we at last reached Sydney, staying with Ian and Merrilyn and heading off to Kings Cross immediately for the Theatre, I had glasses in those day but would not, could not wear then in Bob or Alans company. So we went into the Theatre, lots of wine coloured velver curtains a huge baroque style stair case and the show began and it was mad, mad, with its songs of protest and love and rebellion and hatred for the Vietnam War, and I was spellbound, moved and there was a slight hush, silence at the end if the first Act.I wondered about that and as we went outside to have a cigarette on the stairs I piped up, (Bright Spark!)
"Oh I wonder when the naked scene is coming on?". Bob had gone somewhere and Alan, alone, looked at me and said nothing, too shy to say anything. I had missed it in my stupid vanity, not wearing the glasses, and I had never seen a naked man's appendage before, (What girl is not curious?) And it dawned on me then, the silence, the hush had been people silenced as they watched for the first time public nakedness. And I had missed it. Stupid vanity! But the show was about hair, long hair, pubic hair, underarm hair and it glows in my memory as major rebellion, students protesting the War, and it went all over the world, this protest and people listened to its call. Stop the War and it was stopped, the war, and it was a time of love and happiness spread through the reviled "Hippies", who had the right idea but messed it up with drugs.
We chanted the Fish Cheer and wanted change, NOW, I worked in Myers Chaddy, helping out Stationery over the Christmas Rush from my usual position, ( I had been promoted from Children's Books To Adult ones) and I saw Albert Langer the famous student Activist from Monash U. My boss pointing him out to me. A huge scruffy bear of a man, with books under one arm, messy and untidy but followed by many. He was a London born Jew with a powerful presence. I gazed at him and saw power, power to protest, power of rebellion and it was a time that people thought they could kick over the traces of the old and embrace the new.
We however were just kids having fun, bought Peace badges and wore Ban the Bomb Tops and went to the Cinema in Town and watched Yoko Ono's film on bums and her screaming and it went on for # hours. Alan had taken us with some arty types, Carl and Jackie, and I was convinced they were stoned, you would have had to been to put up with that film for 3 hours, Bob and I just fidgeted and sighed, longing to get out and in the end that's what we did running out with Alan and escaping, gasping laughing when we did.
"What was that shit", Bob said
Alan was convulsed too and so was I.
And we went to nightclubs in town and hotels with him, his taste, and his taste was elegant and
cultured and Bob's was more lets go look at the Peep shoes or XXX film and I would not have been allowed in, but I was quite happy for him to go. He loved all that, one of his favourite shows The Long Swift Sword Of Seigfreid", and one where a man in the jungle ate warm monkey brains out of a monkey, eeeeuuuuurrrgh, we saw that twice me turning away at that bit. Bob and Nev both say I can't watch the tinies bit of horror or violence, leaving the room when the bad bits are on and they would call me back when the bad bit was over. Nev said I would not even be able to watch Bambi without crying or leaving the room and I guess he's right. (Refer back to cowering girl,under the seat in Adelaide when I was 4 or 5 and the slaves were getting whipped in that blasted ten Commandments"
I left the room at Pulp Fiction when the Gimp came out and Nev gave me a blow by blow account from the other room, calling me to come back, then,
"Oops you better not, now he's buggering "Your man"
It was payback time when we went to The Trak and saw Priest, his pick, and it was about a gay Catholic Priest, and Nev spent the whole Movie slumped down in the the seat and wouldn't watch any of it, muttering ,
"This would NEVER be shown in Ireland" and all around us cultured wealthy people gazed dispassionately at the screen, but not my little Irish boy, oh No, and he tried to make me leave with him and I stayed to the end, meeting him outside, later,
"Babe, it was your pick?"
"I know but it was disgusting",
No kidding, I find violence disgusting and he finds gayness not understandable and religion sacrosanct. But we went to so many others, probably once a week for ten years, our first date to see Forrest Gump, him hiding 6 stubbies on him and clinking them through the movie, I cried and he was glad, that was the reaction he had too. And any De Niro Movie, Johnny Depp, same, Marlon Brando. "Man In The Moon, which he "got" and I didn't. Any irish movie and art house movie, French comedies with Sub Titles, one about the power of being "witty" in France's Aritostocracy, He laughed when I didn't and I did when he didn't, and sometimes we both laughed together, he was fabulously wickedly witty and did really bad impersonations of people, Sean Connery, Michael Caine, Taggart,
We saw The Cider House Rules, one of his favourite books and his favourite of all time, The Ginger Man" by J.P Dunleavy and its hero or antihero Sebastian Dangerfield. he worshipped that book and "Ullyses", by James Joyce, which he read easily, most people not being able to get past page 6.
he took me to the Astor in St Kilda for my birthday to see a Clint Eastwood movie festival and i was in Heaven because my Dad loved the western movies, especially A fistful of Dollars and the Good the Bad and The Ugly and For a few dollars More, and Clint Eastwood was so finely handsome when young, unkempt and tough, not saying much but always came out on top. And in honour of My Mum he took me again to see "Lawrence Of Arabia" with it's mad protagonist "Lawrence" with his adoring bum boys and the most handsome man at that time Omar Sharif, he was beyond handsome, almost beautiful if you can say that about a Man. Mum told me Lawrence was homosexual years before and I could see Nev was shocked.
His favourite Movie Of all time was "Educating Rita", made in Dublin at Trinity College, so magnificent it is almost beyond belief, and I am sure he saw himself in Frank played by Michael Caine. the dishevelled brainy drunk, not wanting to think he can be saved from his alcohol. And Rita so uneducated and so fierce to learn. I loved it when she said for Frank to tell her when her writing was crap, screwing up the paper, fag in her mouth, dangling, and she twists her work up and rips it,
"See with me you have to be firm"
And we saw Willy Wonka with Jonny Depp and I liked the original and he loved the new and anything Sherlock Holmes, English, Irish Scottish, the list goes on and on
"
