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.