homicide 'rampage'

So I finally lost it with the DVD company in Qld which claimed to have a copy of Homicide volume 18 because, like, they didn't. All they wanted was to borrow a hundred dollars from me for a month (it was unavailable on the Crawfords website - presumably this company's modus operandi when it came to Crawfords material was/is to advertise it on their website and then, when people ordered it, to buy it from Crawfords and onsell it adding a big percentage. I suppose that's a thing that happens). 

So here we are at volume 19. The first episode is called Rampage and it's interesting on a couple of fronts. One is the use of George Spartels playing a man who is not Greek, Italian or in any way 'other' (aside from the fact he's a nutty murderer). His character's name is Simon, and he defs has a thing for Cornelia Frances, who's his psychologist. He kills three strangers for unexplained reasons which appear somehow to be related to his thing for Corny, though it's not spelled out (alright I wasn't paying attention 100% of the time maybe there was something). (You watch it and tell me). 

The other interesting thing to me is a lot of imagery of the roof of Princes Bridge station, which in my memory was always this kind of a desert. In fact three people using it was probably a bit of a crowd. 

(Also, the Gas and Fuel towers - whatever). 

I know it's mean to say this and not my place either but I am alway surprised when Cornelia Frances is cast as a glamorous hottie. Perhaps I am just more used to her cast, as she often was, as an older woman, stern and severe.

Anyway this was a decent enough episode I guess. There was a weird, somehow inappropriate, song played a couple of times - a ballad which seemed to be sung from the pov of a man let down by a woman. Which might have been Simon's mindset in some sense but in another, he was an insane murderer. 

three yesterday's heroes

I was happy to come across this in aimless youtubing this morning. As it happens I don't remember the clip at all, and I have a good memory for unconvincing assemblages intended to suggest mass hysteria in visual media. Though I still love the song (and Peter Hogg's version from the same epoch, 'Yesterday's Breakfast') I was also interested to see the scenes from Melbourne in the mid-seventies, starting with Bourke Street before it became a mall. There is a continuity error in the 0:20s where JPY is walking south past the town hall then, suddenly, on the other side of the street northwards (where you see the town hall a second time, on the right). Then he's walking past the town hall (clock) again, going south once more. I don't know if the people responsible want to recall all copies and redo this. But perhaps it's supposed to represent his inner turmoil.

At 1:30ish, you see JPY hanging out at the very unconvincing public space above Princes Bridge Station, where Federation Square is now. It was a most unloved space, presumably because (if I recall rightly) it was not a thoroughfare to anything or anywhere, just a platform you had to ascend to and eat your sandwiches and watch those two women go past. Even seagulls weren't that into it (the one you see to the left at 1:37 is animatronic).

As mentioned previously, I am reading Les McKeown's not that exciting (but then, I was only ever a fan of 'Rock 'n' Roll Love Letter') autobiography, and I was reminded while checking out this JPY one that the Rollers did a 'Yesterday's Hero' too (though I haven't got to that bit in the book yet)* but on listening to it I discover it's a most unusual construction in which it's sung in the plural (except as far as the title is concerned). Odd song for the Rollers to be singing anyway, and the dance they do in the clip** is very peculiar too, considering the song's content. Quite a good version but basically a copy of the original. 

 *Later. I got to that bit. He says he liked singing the song but felt uncomfortable with the sentiment.  

**Update 29 June 2024: Fifteen years ago I posted a clip of BCR here but it's now been taken off youtube and I can't find it. But cheer up, there are LOADS of clips of BCR doing 'Yesterday's Hero' on youtube, you have just got to find the one you love the most.