yep, you know, stuff...

So Bert Costello is dead. He died in an old mineshaft in episode 210. It was a weird death, because so unexpected. There was no meaningful shot of him and no otherwise inexplicable monologue about how he was looking forward to seeing his mother on the weekend or maybe he'd pop the question to his (admittedly he had no real backstory other than that he was Italian and born in Walgett or something like that) girlfriend or anything else to make his death poignant. It was like they decided during the episode that they'd found a good way to get Lionel Long out of the show, 'let's chuck him in the mineshaft and blow it up off-camera' And yes, it all takes place offscreen but we do get to see him dead:

I mean who knows what the circumstances were of LL leaving the show after a reasonably short tenure (fifty or so episodes) but I think he was in some ways an underutilised resource, and he did a pretty decent job all through his time on the program. He could even reel off some credible (to me) sounding Italian which is a talent for someone without an Italian background, he wasn't like Con the Fruiterer or anything. So it was sad. The other characters have not mentioned him since he left, at all, not once. The first episode after he went was based on the Robert Ryan case, so a Pentridge warden is shot, and they are all talking about 'going to the funeral' and I assumed they meant Costello's funeral but no it's the warden's. So, I guess Poochie died on the way back to his home planet. Long (who by the end of the year was hosting an hour-long country and western show on ABC radio, so win/win) is replaced by Norman Yemm, who I have to admit, is spectacular. 

Weirdly Long/Costello only lasted a few episodes after the departure of Inspector Connolly, the last original cast member to leave. Connolly got quite a send-off, with a whole lot of back-and-forth about how he didn't want a party with speeches. A lot was also made of the notion that Connolly wasn't retiring, but going on long service leave for six months. Even the other characters seem confused about whether this is a fake way of saying he's retiring. His replacement is Alwyn Kurts.

I just went looking through IMDB to get clear when Connolly left and Costello died, and it looks like there's a whole disc on my DVD box (8) which I actually haven't watched, lol, or the episodes were so unmemorable I might as well not have watched them. Anyway I think there are probably only about six episodes with this as the opener:

The four men are cleverly in shadow because you know what? I think this might still actually be John Fegan in there not Kurts. When Norman Yemm joins they stripped him into the guys-getting-out-of-the-car opener (perhaps they even shot it on the same day! Looks like the same light) and then did a less in-the-dark ending to the sequence. 

Norman Yemm is already incredible, what a guy. I mean it's chalk and cheese and each was talented but Lionel Long, right, can slip into big international films like The Amorous Adventures of Moll Flanders as 'singer in prison' (apparently, I haven't seen it) and be a functional presence. Norman Yemm couldn't have a bit part in a film, he's just not wallpaper, he's of it. Look at him drawing the charisma away from Leonard Teale here. That takes some doing. 

So that's where I'm at in Homicide. Mid-1969. 

Other things I'm loving right now include the debut album by Maustetytöt, which is called Kaikki Tiet Vievät Peltolaan. The title translates as All Roads Lead to Peltola; obviously this has a local meaning that only locals can understand (Peltola is a small industrial area outside Turku; means nothing to me obviously, I'm surprised it even has an english-language Wikipedia entry).  

According to Finnish wikipedia the duo (sisters guitarist Anna Karjalainen and keyboard player Kaisa Karjalainen) are from Vaala (an hour on the train from Oulu) and live in Kallio, a suburb of Helsinki. Wikipedia (via google translate) continues:

They listen to traditional Finnish iskelmä, and their role model is Leevi and the Leavings. Oskari Onninen says in Helsingin Sanomat that the band is "downright suspiciously 'authentic' and non-commercial". According to Sound's Antti Luukkanen, the songs contain "everyday realism and the glamor of downright misery".

I mean sure, but this is an album that is completely beholden to references to 80s pop and the joke I saw somewhere that they were Finland's Pet Shop Boys is not really a joke (Anna is a complete Chris Lowe in all performances, immobile and deadpan). There is also a song called 'Se Oli SOS' ('It was SOS') which kicks off with a musical reference to that ABBA song. The lyrics are seemingly sardonic depresso slacker stuff that is frankly hard to resist. 

There is another song - I'll find it somewhere - which is basically a translation into Finnish of the general concepts from the Smiths' 'There is a Light That Never Goes Out', which I mean is, no judgment, but lazy songwriting (there's a live clip on youtube where Kaisa says something like, she wasn't glamourising death, just translating Morrissey!). But like I said 'slacker'. Anyway, they're an excellent band and also, considering I am currently in the throes of trying to get some basic Finnish via duolingo, the fact that they almost always include the song title in the chorus is good practice for me. I can already pick out some words. By the way, the name 'Maustetytöt' means 'Spice Girls'. 

So yes I have spent a long time the last couple of weeks absorbing this kind of thing: 

It's actually pretty satisfying to turn your mind off a bit and feel it rather than try to figure it out. Often works, though clearly, duolingo has a hell of a process that reinforces you a lot for what is basically guesswork/deduction. 

So that's been my last couple of weeks. Going back to my earlier point, vale Lionel Long. He was only 59 when he died, that's a shame, he was good. 

homicide sixth season and albion

A milk bar scene in S6E6. They have a new Passiona poster.

So I have got a little concerned that I am becoming a bit of a Homicide bore (becoming!). But I also want to make sure I stay on top of the changes in the show. So I just want to mention that by season 6 it's really comfortable in its skin. There are still some weird non sequiturs but essentially the plotting is tight and the actors know why they're there. There are no weird one-scene characters like there were in early years, and there are even some good solid nuanced set pieces. Series 5 ended with a chronically terrible storyline (featuring Lorraine Bailey no less) about a couple who wanted to adopt a little boy (to replace one that died - that's a really weird angle, the script could have just said they couldn't have children, but maybe there were other reasons that couldn't be said, although still it begs questions) and George Mallaby and Lionel Long sang a ghastly song at a children's christmas party that just should never have happened and some little boys dressed as the four detectives sang a song too. That was terrible. But the new season is very solid. It also has different closing titles - I'm not really sure why, since the new closing titles are basically the same idea (shots from the back seat of a car of some unidentifiable detectives driving through some streets). Maybe the film wore out.

In other news today I had to take a photo in Albion so I dropped by the old townhouse where I lived 2017-9 to see what had changed. Answer is, nothing. It's still a dive but (as mentioned a few weeks ago) also there's some new build going on. Pics say it all. 

I had no feelings about the Albion place, it was not a time in my life that really held much meaning in the scheme of things. Nancy had a friend then though so it would have meant something to her. It was probably a mistake to move to Albion when it comes down to it but who knew. 

homicide - the golden thread

This episode of Homicide, 'The Golden Thread', (S5 E26) was first shown on 23 July 1968. 

I'm tired of Homicide stories about women/girls getting murdered. But this is a show from over fifty years ago so not much point in complaining I suppose. You have to look at it as something that happened in the distant past, and only get annoyed about the more recent stuff. A few interesting bits:

This is an artist called Sharp (played by Paul Karo, who got a lot of roles in Homicide over the years) reviewing a line-up. The police line-ups are held in the Homicide offices and the witnesses are face to face with the accused. It's all a bit primitive. 

This was an interesting scene in 'the rubbity' (as Sharp calls the pub) where he was getting friendly with  a 17-year old girl called Becky (Linda Burd) who's drinking in there alone. Bert bundles Becky off and Mack finds this drawing amongst Sharp's sketchbooks: 

Someone went to town on this picture and it's really awful, although I like the spiderweb detail on the bike wheels and the horrendous mad faces behind her. Anyway, I'm tired of Homicides about murdered children/women, although perhaps when someone says that they are tired of Homicide itself. Perhaps I should try doing something else for a while. 

(Of course I say that and instantly the next one comes on and it's got Ken Shorter in it - who did a lot of this kind of thing, I gather, before Stone, though he was only in two Homicides). 

Here's Linda Burd on p. 6 of the Australian Jewish News for 1 July 1960. 

She's in the AJN again on 12 December 1969 p. 12 where they say she left school at around 16 and was quickly asked to audition for Homicide and Division 4 (she did two episodes each) and then she played Concetta in Bellbird in late 1969 after which, nothing. She is listed in IMDB as being a wardrobe supervisor on a 2021 film called 616 Wilford Lane (after 52 years of no activity) but you know what? I doubt it's the same person. My guess is she either got married (so had a different name than 'Burd', which probably caused her a bit of grief in any case), quit acting, or both. If she's still with us she's 72 now. 

Update 24/8 Here she is again in S5E44, 'The Joy Ride'. Here she plays Ina Lehmann, the daughter of a service station owner. Her role is fairly passive but at least she doesn't get killed - her boyfriend (of sorts), seen here, does. The most interesting thing about this episode IMO is that everyone calls her Ina to rhyme with meaner, but the boyfriend - an upstanding, ordinary bloke - calls her Ina to rhyme with diner. 

It didn't even strike me until I saw this screenshot but I now appreciate that the Passiona (?) poster on the wall is arbitrarily cut at the sides, making it meaningless. 

lionel long in homicide, and phoenix

https://m.facebook.com/ThirroulHistoryInPhotos/ 

So I know you mainly tune into my show to hear about where I'm up to in Homicide and I apologise that other important work has got in the way. A few episodes ago (S5 E21) Les Dayman's character Bill Hudson suddenly got all sad and reflective (no mention of the fiancee Tink though, his back story i.e. she has completely disappeared) and when he had to shoot a madman out for revenge, he went on leave. In S5 E22 Lionel Long joins the cast as Bert Costello and in S5 E24 most recent episode seen, there is a very offhand discussion about Bill going back to forensic or something like that.

Lionel Long is not Italian or of Italian heritage, but he can do a decent couple of sentences in Italian, despite constantly insisting he was born in, I can't remember, Gundagai or somewhere. Anyway, I'll miss Bill but so far so great. New opening credits too which are very exciting. 

Long was a singer as well as an actor. Here he is post-Homicide using his Homicide fame to get a gig at the Ainslie Rex Hotel Cabaret. 

Canberra Times 2 May 1970 p. 16

Meanwhile, 

as per Richard's recommendation I'm watching Phoenix which is actually pretty freakin' amazing (there's Paul Sonkkila above, love to know his story). Obviously in one sense or another made in the light of Homicide and similar but 25 years later and by the ABC. A lot of very believable stuff here. Unlike Homicide a lot of glances and asides, no-one's out and out saying what they think for rapid exposition, but then, this is a long series story not 50 minute episodes. Well I don't like being distracted from Homicide which is a distraction in itself, but it's fascinating. 

...and like most of the best shows it has Peter Cummins in it. Can't wait till he shows up in Homicide (S7 E36 apparently).