hardtack

On 26/11/2025 at 21:50, Macca said:

Also, 'Pluribus' is superb and well worth a look, especially so (or more so) if you like the genre (Dystopian Sci-fi, Dark Comedy, Psychological Drama)

I started watching Pluribus the other day and am loving it, so thanks for that recommendation Macca! I know it’s nothing like it, but it has a kind of Truman Story feel to it.

Another that I’m reminded of when watching Pluribus, is Fallout…and I’m so pleased to see that Season 2 drops on Apple TV this Friday… can’t wait!! It’s one of the most enjoyable sci-fi series I’ve seen for a while; right up there with The Last Of Us and Silo.

Entirely different to the aforementioned, but just as engaging, is an Irish series called Bodkin…it’s on Netflix. I won’t give anything away, just watch it.

Also on Netflix, and I may have mentioned this one before, but the Japanese series, Sanctuary, about a sumo wrestler who refuses to play by the rules and bow to tradition, is flat out brilliant. A MUST watch, in my opinion.

The Xmas Lane Party I mentioned a couple of posts back, happened last weekend and was a roaring success. Not a large number of people, but enough to make it work, so I’m really happy for my former neighbour (I relocated about 12 years back 🤣), who organised the whole shebang!

Most of the musicians that I invited to sit in with my band attended, and we had Richard Burgman (former Sunny Boy and Saint), Bob Spencer (former Angel and Skyhook), Terry Serio (former Elk, portrayer of JO’K in the TV mini series, and juvenile delinquent in the film, Running On Empty), and Peter Head (former keyboardist way way back with Headband and with Wendy Saddington among numerous others and now author of his own incredible memoir, Headonism).

You absolutely MUST look out for Peter’s book (it’s on Kindle as well as in bookshops)… it’s a fantastic well written read, and his musical life simply defies belief… partying with the Stones and writing songs with Bon Scott, being just a couple of his many exploits. He was still a whizz on the keyboard, and the old [censored]er is about to turn 80!! There’s just no stopping him. I only wished he’d brought his daughter Lo Carmen along to do some vocals with us…she’s brilliant!

I’m afraid I’m pretty much unable to contribute to this topic as the only gigs I’ve been to in the last year, have been my own band’s 🤣

And it’s been so long since I’ve been to any real gigs of note…

Ryuichi Sakamoto & Alva Noto at the Sydney Opera House 2018

Nick Lowe & the Straitjackets at the Enmore Theatre (Sydney) 2020

Jenny Don’t & the Spurs at the Duke Hotel in Enmore (Sydney) can’t recall year, but maybe 2023

On 05/12/2025 at 11:53, Neil Crompton said:

L, interesting thoughts. Yes Suno is my AI friend. For me it is just an interest - to finally be able to put some music to my lyrics. The bigger issues I hadn't even thought about to be honest, I'm just having some fun. But I'm sure it's a contentious issue with musicians.

Here are a couple more:

Nice… I’ve just installed the app and have tried a couple of things, the results of which are interesting (my lyrics tend not to follow simple rhyming patterns). I’d upload them here, but I think I’ve used up all of my space allowance in my cancer thread 🤣

Did you subscribe, and if so, to which plan (Pro or Premier)… if Premier, I’m wondering what the Suno Studio is like… looking at the comparison, it seems that it is only available to Premier and only on the web, not app.

14 hours ago, pitmaster said:

Hush your mouth. The second verse of GOF, which references the 1926 and 1939 premierships, was included in the first history of the MFC which was published in 1957, so even without consulting the book itself it is clear that the club theme song long pre-dates 1972. In fact I think the second verse was added before the end of WW2.

Collingwood's been banging on about a cakewalk for a similar period. Only Hawthorn, which adopted Yankee Doodle Dandy in the early 1960s even comes close to your claim.

How do you come up with this nonsense?

Ok, you got me there (and your guess is as good as mine), not being a club historian, I got myself mixed up by reading too much about the Fable Singers versions - the version that is played at our games. Of course I should have recalled the song from my childhood when we were winning grand finals, but for some reason, my brain disengaged itself from reality.

Apologies if my nonsense in any way negatively affected you 😉

Also, we shouldn’t get too caught up on the so called ‘tradition’ when it comes to the GOF club song… it and pretty much all club songs barring a couple, were introduced only in 1972 when they (all club songs) were recorded by the Fable Singers… I think Carlton had got Smacka Fitzgibbon to do theirs, some time in the 60’s…I’m assuming that’s what influenced all of the others to have that trad jazz style.

So tradition be damned, there is no tradition, it doesn’t even relate to the period of our greatest dominance!!

I’d ideally like to see them have a walk on piece of music (no lyrics), that begins as a deep resonating heartbeat, slowly transforming into a dark foreboding piece of music (think Pink Floyd’s Careful With That Axe Eugene, but using modern instrumentation and beats), that slowly builds in intensity, and eventually bursts into some very uptempo beat driven piece as the players run onto the field. Lyrics are pointless except for the GOF, after a victory has been secured.

Failing that, I’d like to see all players learn an assigned instrument (brass, woodwind, and percussion including even the triangle), and come into the ground, marching band style, led out by King, twirling the baton, and playing a very upbeat version of the GOF. The rest of the coaching crew and office staff could be forming human pyramids and waving red and blue pom-poms and so on and so forth. Are we all on board with that?

With the way we’ve been performing over the past couple of seasons, perhaps these might be worthy nominations:

7 hours ago, rjay said:

Thanks for introducing me to his music 'hardtack', love it.

If you haven’t already, have a listen to some of his earliest music with a prog band called YMO (Yellow Magic Orchestra)… also, other musicians in that band went on to make incredible music.

1 hour ago, demonzz said:

Sorry, 30 seconds was enough. Each to their own.

Understand, but in all fairness, 30 seconds doesn’t really give you the remotest chance of understanding what their music is about; the concert I went to, was not anything like that clip. Ryuichi Sakamoto, until he passed a couple of years ago, was probably one of the greatest living composers…credits including the opening ceremony for the Barcelona Olympics, the soundtrack to The Last Emporer and Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence, collaborations with artists as varied as Iggy Pop and David Sylvian and so much more.

Sorry to go off on such a tangent, but music is my great love! 😉

1 minute ago, Demonland said:

I think you mean Beethoven's Für Elise.

I think you might be right 🤣 Off to edit, I go!

On 24/11/2025 at 15:14, Go Ds said:

This song below is quite different. Then I was surprised that somehow i liked this second "song" too

(Strobe lighting is annoying. Maybe just listen.)

I saw Alva Noto with Ryuichi Sakamoto at the Sydney Opera House a few years ago… so good!!

56 minutes ago, old dee said:

Just on the way home after going to my first training run for the 2026 season.

I hope you pulled up ok.

57 minutes ago, Ghostwriter said:

This is great! It’s from Friday’s session. And ima go ahead and claim credit for the soundtrack. I told Trent our videographer that it’d be wonderful to not always have the generic electric guitar background music. I said (jokingly)… “A classical piece would be nice.” And here we are 😃

Whenever I hear that music (Fleur de Lis…edit: Für Elise), I feel like I’ve been put on hold!

On 06/12/2025 at 13:33, sue said:

But it would be good though to have a nicknames thread as DD36 suggests so we don't have to search for that info when this particular training thread is out of date.

There is a nicknames post somewhere… I started it a year(?) or so ago, but maintenance was difficult, as there is only a very narrow window in which edits can be made; so updates were not straightforward…that, plus I’m a lazy SOB by nature.

10 hours ago, Ghostwriter said:

Chin’s baby is due in late March. They’ve decided not to find out the gender until the birth, or as Chin put it… “I’ll know if it’s a boy or a girl when I catch it.” 😅

You’ve just reminded me of that old joke about a woman and her child who were standing at a third floor window, calling for help as fire engulfed the building around them. It looked hopeless as help seemed like it would not arrive any time soon, when all of a sudden, Ron Barrassi appears out of nowhere, shouting:

“Fear not, I’m Ron Barrassi the greatest VFL player of all time!! Just throw your child from the window and I will catch him/her.”

So, after considering his suggestion and unable to think of any viable options, she decided to throw the child in Ron’s direction. Well…Ron runs and launches himself with one knee in the back of a tall bystander, takes an absolute screamer, plays on, bounces twice and shooooooooooooots for goal!!

Yes, an oldie but a Goldie!

9 hours ago, adonski said:

Where were you on the 120 Games of Salo

And the Irish would say, Faith and Gomorrah!, as they disembarked at Epstein Island.

58 minutes ago, Ghostwriter said:

Christian Salem - Salo

I hope he didn’t get that nickname because of his like for a certain film.

1 hour ago, Ghostwriter said:

This particular compilation was written early in his career. It’s quite different from peak Vonnegut. It’s just as good though

I used to have a copy of the movie of Breakfast of Champions starring Bruce Willis, but it went missing. It’s pretty awful…Happy Birthday Wanda June and Slaughterhouse Five translated much better to film.

21 minutes ago, Ghostwriter said:

That’s a good but very basic mnemonic.

If you wanna really get acquainted with amazing mnemonics Kurt Vonnegut wrote a story about them in a short story compilation called Bagombo Snuff Box and titled Mnemonics.

Oh, wow! I’m a big Vonnegut fan, but I’m not familiar with those short stories (off to Gleebooks I go). There’s a super special collection of most of his novels in, from memory, one large volume, but it’s priced way beyond anything I can justify spending, unfortunately.

12 hours ago, Little Goffy said:

Historically, I found a 1-game Demon (Fuschia?) from 1930 who was eligible and I just have to give him a nod because the poor guy kicked two goals in a team thrashed by then powerhouse Richmond, but still didn't get another call up. So raise a glass to;

Geoff Frood.

Now that’s Frood for thought (or should that be Fraught?).

1 minute ago, Go Ds said:

Hmm, a bit like , if i heard correctly, crims in England used rhyming slang as code everyone else wouldnt twig to. Especially once you dropped the second part (such as "tart" in "raspberry tart") it'd be almost impossible for a bystander to guess the original term.

Yes, I’ve heard something similar.

7 hours ago, Demonstone said:

Yep. Nicknames either stick straight away or not at all. You can't force them.

Oh yes you can!! A bit of waterboarding never hurt anyone!! (well, not too many)… (ok, quite a lot really, but let’s not get picky)

7 hours ago, Go Ds said:

If anyone wants to memorise the players' numbers it's a lot easier to do than you might think.

Decades ago I had a book titled ‘The Mind of a Mnemonist’; a true story and a fantastic read.

The subject of the book in one of his methods, would place objects on an imaginary street, and when asked to repeat the objects in their correct order (could be 5 minutes after being read the list, or could be 5 days; it didn’t matter), he would bring up the imaginary street in his mind’s eye and proceed to walk down the footpath (in his mind), calling out each object as he passed it. Fascinating stuff!

So…that’s what Demonlanders could do…have an imaginary street with each player standing next to the letterbox with their number on it. Should work like a charm!!

7 hours ago, Go Ds said:

I reckon we could braindtorm some good ones for every player. But even if the trackwatchers passed them onto the players I doubt it'd change much. I like Orb (or Malone from On my Pat Malone or Bear from synonym barely). But I think mostly that if I want to be casual and mention Gawny, Ghosty ( or even the well-known singer as Swifty or Tay Tay) the audience doesnt ask "who?"

I’m a fan of messing with peoples’ heads… nicknames should be cryptic!