But that was it for the entire weekend as a variety of
activities kept me out of the house and away from the CD player. The Bulldogs signed off their 2013 season
with a reasonable win over Melbourne leaving supporters with plenty of hope for
2014 and beyond. Among the activities I
did undertake whilst at home was adding a couple of items to my Music Little
Room Of Fame.
The little room in question is a toilet and I’ve taken
every step to ensure that its décor fits in with the rest of the
house. Essentially every house or major
space in our house has unifying wall colours utilising one of three colours –
separate ones for feature walls, “water rooms” (i.e laundry, toilet, bathroom,
etc) and the remainder. The walls of
each room or space are kept either vacant or are decorated with items on a
particular theme. These items are things
that have meaning to either “M” or myself (and usually both of us) being
objects, photos, posters, maps, etc we’ve collected or created during our
lives, usually together. The one
exception are the frames containing photos of myself from my world travels in
the pre “M” era; she’s still to select
equivalent photos from her pre “otis”
travel period.
The o.yMLRHoF draws from my collection of music related memorabilia
I’ve gathered over the years, mostly from gigs, a shelving unit that houses
part of my music library and some other stuff.
“M” doesn’t have a say in what’s selected other than vetoing display of
set lists from certain gigs I've managed to snaffle.
Her reasoning is solely on aesthetic grounds, arguing that these detract
from the overall scheme, and I must say she’s probably correct. She’s even contributed to it; a couple of
years ago she gave me a reproduction poster of The Beatles Abbey Road poster
which sits immediately behind the toilet unit itself.
For most people, the room is dominated by the signed reproduction
lithographic print of the entire gatefold image of The Rolling Stones Black And
Blue album which I purchased at one of their gigs here. The image is dominated by Jagger’s face and lips which is usually
what first time visitors to the house are confronted with when they pay a
visit to this room. (I always keep door shut when
first timers visit to magnify the effect.)
Immediately above it is a marvellous poster for Neil Young’s Myer Music
Bowl Show of about 5 years ago; this is a print of a painting showing him
seated in his LincVolt car. To the left
of these, is a Pearl Jam poster for a Rod Laver Area gig over 10 years ago that is
a painting of pearl fisherman in scuba suits.
It was never my intention for this poster to go there but the poster
made such a brilliant fit with a white IKEA display board I bought that it
demanded to go there.
Below the Stones poster sits a signed poster for The Church’s
2002 Australian tour, signed by all 4 current members. Next to it are the weekend’s two additions, a
Hamer Hall playbill for a Randy Newman/Melbourne Symphony Orchestra about three
years ago and a poster for a show by local blues legend Chris Wilson that I
removed from the wall of the venue after the gig. Also on that wall is a marvellous portrait poster
for P.J Harvey’s 2004 Australian tour and the poster for The Saints’ 2009 show
at The Forum. Sitting underneath this
wall is a small IKA shelving unit that holds many of the smaller paperback
items from my music library. On top of
this lies the last copy or two of the latest issues of Mojo or Uncut along with
my spare set of reading glasses and two standing photo frames. One of these contains the ticket images from this
year’s Neil Young and Springsteen shows and the other features a postcard sent to me from Washington DC by a friend that
portrays Elvis Presley and Richard Nixon when the former dropped by The White
House.
Position yourself on the toilet and you can gaze at the wall
facing you and its delights as well as the hand basin. At the top of this wall is another white IKEA display board in which I’ve placed 4 black and white A2 sized
handbills for memorable gigs I’ve attended; these include a 1980’s Billy Bragg
show, R.E.M’s first Melbourne show in 1989, a 1993 Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds
performance and one of Iggy Pop’s Festival Hall gig on his Instinct tour. Underneath this are three colourful prints;
for Gillian Welch’s 2004 shows at the Prince Of Wales Hotel, a superb Mark
Lanegan Band print from a show around that time and a signed one advertising
the Australian tour by the remnants of the MC5 about 8 years ago. On this wall is also another Hamer Hall playbill
for a Patti Smith show in 2008, a postcard for a Kraftwerk gig I stumbled
across during my travels in Europe and the elaborate colourful ticket for the
wonderful Prince performance I saw in Nice, France in 1998.
Look to my right whilst sitting on the toilet and three
large colourful posters fill the space between the door and the back wall. On
top is just about my favourite item, a poster for the 2002 Australian Tour by
the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion which is a wonderfully treated portrait shot of
the man himself, Underneath this is the poster for Springsteen’s 2003 Telstra
Dome gig which I peeled off the outer boards of a construction site in inner suburban
Melbourne, and underneath that the poster for Radio Birdman’s reunion tour.
Sufficient space still exists to add more items. Certainly there are some acts I’d love to see
represented including Sonic Youth, Mudhoney, Husker Du and Pink Floyd. I’m
mulling over placing some album covers to represent some of these acts; I’ve
got the cover to Dylan’s Highway 61 Revisited album framed but think the frame
it’s in occupies too much space to justify its placement at the moment. But my
mind is also thinking about what to do there, especially when I do things
there, and will eventually know when something appropriate comes along.
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