Thursday, July 13, 2006

my homework

My homework was to write the words to a song about Rundle Mall. It was self-set homework but no-one in Ashtray Boy will take me seriously anymore if I don't do it. I have not got past a line about 'daddy of the mall' - which is lame, but true (aren't the best puns?) because it was the first Mall in Australia, I think, although I more than anyone should be well aware that one should never call anything the first anything. Let's say it was the first of its kind in Australia - a section of hitherto busy main street, turned into pedestrian-only walk.

I like Rundle Mall, what little experience I have had of it. It's particularly good after 9pm. When I was in Adelaide for a conference in, I think, 2001, I led a band of conference attendees to a place called something like the Coffee Pot. I wonder if it is still there. The coffee was ghastly but I loved the 60s folkhouse ambience. I also wish I had stronger memories of it. Well, it was five years ago.

8 comments:

lucy tartan said...

Rundle Mall, first mall, my arse. It's from the Dunstan era isn't it? Bell st mall in Heidelberg is from the Olympics.

David Nichols said...

OK my other qualifier was, 'in the CBD'.

David Nichols said...

And it's my guess the Bell St Mall was always a Mall, never a street. True?

lucy tartan said...

Yes.

But still. You may as well say Rundle Mall was the first Mall ever created in Rundle Street.

Bell St Mall is sensational. It has four op-shops, a Sudanese restaurant, three African dry-goods shops, a Sara Lee factory outlet and a taekwondo club. They also play Magic 1278 over the loudspeakers and have a rodent infestation problem. That's all of life, right there.

Gilmore said...

my homework was trying to write a limerick about Zinedine Zidane--I'm not sure it makes sense:

there once was a footballer named Zidane
endowed muchly with nimble-footed elan
but a man insulted his sister
which caused his temper to blister
and he headbutted his way to Chirac's divan

David Nichols said...
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David Nichols said...

Gilmore, this is a way cool limerick. I wish I had the slightest idea who it was about.

Lucy, I know Bell St Mall very, very well. Very, very well, and I agree with you it is top stuff. I got a K-Tel album with a Wendy Saddington song on it in an op shop there only a few weeks ago and was very chuffed. Also saw one of my own records in there, which was odd indeed. Anyway, I love Bell St Mall, don't get me wrong. I'm taking about the mallisation of a section of a CBD shopping st. And Rundle Mall was the first of those, and it has been replicated throughout all Australian capitals. I can remember them all but I can't remember all the names. Is it Hay st in Perth? Elizabeth St in Hobart? We've all got one you know to quote Kath Day-Knight

Anonymous said...

There is also a Bell Street Mall in Toowoomba.

the early 70s was all juxtaposition

October 1970, everyone had their arms out in the air, from Barbra to, um, whoever that is on the left, to Thumbelina. This is from the Sprin...