Well, it's official. Come December, we're heading off to Reservoir!
I don't want to leave Richmond yet because I love it so much. It's all about the location really. It's so close to so many things. I also don't want to move because I feel like after two and a half years I'm finally just settling in! After living in Templestowe (the Great) for 28 years I tend to like my stability and my familiar surroundings. I've only ever really had one home, and Richmond was just starting to feel like another. Though I know its back streets well, I'm only just discovering those things that only locals know about, those things hidden just beneath the surface of the everyday. I'm only just finding those spots that are mine, that I return to. And now, Richmond will once again be a place that I sometimes go to. It'll be a special-effort suburb, not a fall-out-the-door one.
But all that said, I'm still excited about making my second-ever move. The time I've lived here has been time well lived. It's burnt fast and furious, but it's burnt brightly. And now, with lil' tine-eh bear-bee on the way, the time is right to move on. It's a nicer house for less rent, still in Zone 1, near a station, and it's more baby-friendly with more natural light, actual heating, and a lack of rough-rendered, thumb tack-like, walls of death. Shuffling to the facilities through the black of night without the fear of a false step leaving you impaled on the wall will be pleasant.
Actually, the worst thing about moving to Reservoir is that I'm copping abuse for how I pronounce the suburb's name. My default setting was "reser-VWAH" but I've been told in no uncertain terms to put down my Devonshire tea, loosen my cravat, and say "reser-VOR" instead. La de da. Although, interestingly enough, I've found that most people who use the latter pronunciation actually use the former when saying Reservoir Dogs. Maybe Tarantino's cred is enough to overcome the stigma?
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Exodus 1 was the epic departure from Templestowe (the Great) and the arduous journey to Richmond.
ReplyDeleteI note with amusement the use of a Biblical reference as the title of a post which contains no text from the appropriate Biblical verse, but does mention Quentin Tarantino.
ReplyDeleteA couple of notes on pronounciation of "Reservoir".
ReplyDelete1) I would imagine that the suburb was originally named because there is a nearby reservoir, but once named, the place name becomes a seperate word, and there is no reason to expect that the pronounciations will remain consistent.
Even when named after other places, the pronounciation of place names seems to be subject to drift: "Mell-Bin", Australia vs "Mel-Bawn", Florida; "Noo Orlins" Louisiana, named after "Or-Lee-On", France; "Donk-Aster", Melbourne, named after "Don-Caster", England. Let us not speak of the linguistic annoyance that is the place name "El Alemain".
2) To the best of my knowledge, the pronounciation of "reservoir" (the liquid storage container) is consistently the 'posh' way. It's a loan word from French...
The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that English is about as pure as a cribhouse whore. We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.
--James D.Nicoll
3) The title of the film Reservoir Dogs is actually a corruption of Au Revoir Les Enfants combined with Straw Dogs. (This is according to Tarantino, according to Wikipedia - so I suppose it actually has negative credibility.)
Oh, and another thing... Since when does Tarantino have any cred?
ReplyDeleteLet's face it: the man made a marginally entertaining if pretentious gangster flick and then remade it three times. OK, the stories are different - big deal. Everything else is the same.
By the time "Kill Bill Volume 2" limps into view, the phrase "one trick pony" starts to form in the back of one's head.
I love that Nicoll quote. Gold.
ReplyDeleteIrrespective of whether Tarantino’s films are any good, I think he is perceived as having an aura of cool, of edginess, and of being, ahem, a ‘bad-ass’. His films might all be the same, but Monster-In-Law they are not. Perhaps I should have said “Maybe Tarantino's cool is enough to overcome the stigma?” I could even put ‘cool’ in inverted commas, if you’d like? To show I’m being tongue-in-cheek. :-)
Do you say, ‘Donk-Aster’? I certainly say ‘Don-caster’... when I’m not saying “Donnymate”, that is.
ReplyDeleteAnd please do speak of ‘El Alemain’. Do you mean ‘El Alamein’? Or is that the point?
Irrespective of whether Tarantino’s films are any good, I think he is perceived as having an aura of cool, of edginess, and of being, ahem, a ‘bad-ass’.
ReplyDeleteI think if you were to plot a graph of the perception of Tarantino's bad-ass-ness, you would find that it starts off strong with "Reservoir Dogs", spikes in 1995 with "Pulp Fiction", and steadily declines over the next ten years.
The rate of decline accelerates around about the time of him guest directing an Itchy & Scratchy, although that cartoon is more likely a symptom than a cause.
Do you say, ‘Donk-Aster’? I certainly say ‘Don-caster’... when I’m not saying “Donnymate”, that is.
ReplyDeleteSorry, that was not the best illustration of the difference. Let me try this:
England: don-CAS-ter
Donnymate: DON-caster
And please do speak of ‘El Alemain’. Do you mean ‘El Alamein’? Or is that the point?
ReplyDeleteSome place names in that part of the world contain the prefix 'Al', meaning 'The'. My belief is that these place names date from the first wave of Muslim expansion, under Mohammed and his successors.
Other place names, from (I believe) the later expansion of Islam by the Ottomans, are prefixed by 'El', also meaning 'The'.
The place name 'El Alamain' (thanks for the correction) thus contains an irritating redundancy. (more apparent, I believe, in Arabic where 'El' and 'Al' are the same character(s).)
This redundancy begins to border on the farcical when historians refer to 'The El Alamain battles.'
Something I might not have made clear enough...
ReplyDeleteNothing I have said above in any way changes my opinion that the films Quentin Tarantino makes - while bereft of originality - are nonetheless highly entertaining.
However - to paraphrase the man himself from the Pulp Fiction Soundtrack Interview Disc - one should appreciate them for what they are.
What they are of course is - to quote another dramatist with a penchant for taking hoary old stories and putting a hip contemporary spin on them -
A tale, told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.
-- William Shakespeare, Macbeth
Hot potato, orchestra stalls, pluck to make amends.
ReplyDeleteI saw a Simpsons ad yesterday where the latest guest star inevitably playing his- or herself said that saying 'Macbeth' was bad luck, so the regulars kept saying it. I know nothing's original anymore, but if the same joke was done before Blackadder did it 18 years ago, I doubt it was done better.
ReplyDeleteJust another reminder of how the mighty have fallen. I think of Groundskeeper Willy battling the walking dead. What a nice metaphor for the (current state of the) show from within the show.
The place name 'El Alamain' (thanks for the correction) thus contains an irritating redundancy.
ReplyDeleteI obviously didn't correct you well enough because it's "El Alamein". You forgot the "of fish".
PS: Interesting story there. Nice. Does LL Cool J irritate you as well? Doubtless, although for different reasons, I'm sure. :-)
His music might, but nothing about his name does.
ReplyDeleteNow, as for the Arfur Dunger hat...