Today, The Outsider ponders shattered dreams, lemons, speeches by committee and an ailment that we will call ‘flythroughitis’.
Glory days, they’ll pass you by
Local Labor romantics had been sheltering a precious little dream – that on March 15 next year, Jay Weatherill will have led the forces of goodness to a crushing victory, with the result in the bag before the first bounce of the Showdown at the revamped Adelaide Oval.
They have imagined themselves settling back in the Oval’s plush corporate facilities, eying both the vistas of the beautiful ground, and the expanses of four more years in power, spread out like a shining Emerald City before them.
Alas, it has now transpired that the first AFL game at the rebuilt oval will be one week later, with the league deciding on a split first round to begin next year’s fixture.
This means the dream is dead. Worse, it could be Steven Marshall and crew who have the glory of cutting the ribbon on the historic game day.
However, Martin Hamilton-Smith may well have the most satisfying first beer at that first AFL game. It was him, as Opposition Leader, who first had a vision for rejuvenating the Riverbank precinct (derided by Labor as “Disneyland on the Torrens” before they changed course).
Lemon delicious
Everyone has been scrambling over themselves to prove that they – not you – are the biggest supporters of Holden.
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Media, politicians, councils – you name it – everyone’s loving the maker of Australia’s car.
Except for the other car companies, some of whom pour lots of advertising money down the commercial media’s throat.
One high profile Korean car company, we’re reliably informed, did not take kindly to The Advertiser column (quite an entertaining one too) that started out like this: “Tea Tree Gully Mayor Miriam Smith looks like one of those middle-aged women who would sit in front of you in her two-door Korean lemon doing 43 kilometres an hour in a 60 zone before meandering across a couple of lanes and having 20-odd gos at some reverse parallel parking.”
Phone calls flew, and contrite explanations were made.
Flythroughitis
The fly through has become a popular news management tool for politicians.
It provides the TV news and upright online organs such as this one with pretty moving pictures about visions and daydreams yet to be.
There are dangers, however.
The Adelaide City Council suffered from a bout of fly through-induced, unfulfilled expectations this week when people realised the spectacular curved arbours seen in the animation won’t be anything like the structure actually being installed.
The council says the pictured structures will eventually be built – and all of their information about the stage one works point out that the shady structures will have fabric awnings, not the shiny permanent hanging gardens of Babylon pictured in the fly through.
A more interesting fly through, however, was released by the Adelaide Convention Centre and published in this upright online organ on Monday.
Have a look at the video at about 2:27 and you’ll see what looks like a Medieval fairground west of Morphett Street.
Government bods aren’t sure what it is.
Stay informed, daily
Ring a ding ding
InDaily’s report on Monday of Jay Weatherill’s “Once a Jolly Swami” speech at the Adelaide Convention Centre drew many responses from those with a passion for the great speeches of our time.
On a timely note, the Weatherill speech – where he used the words of the Hindu deity Shiva to describe the Riverbank precinct vibe – coincided with the build-up to the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King, Jr’s “I have a dream” speech delivered at the end of the 1963 March on Washington.
Jay’s effort last week was notable for the marked difference between the moments he stuck to his script and those where he ad-libbed.
The scripted part that raised most eyebrows was this quotable quote: “As Swami Vivekananda put it: ‘as different streams having different sources all mingle their waters in the sea; the streams of Adelaide’s academic, cultural, sporting, social and working life will all mingle at the convention centre’.”
As mentioned Monday, the good Swami Vivekananda’s speech in 1893 was actually referring to religious tolerance and universality – not football, casinos, kangaroos and Holden cars.
And, as we discovered, Swami Vivekananda was actually quoting from a centuries’ old verse by the Hindu deity Shiva.
But what’s a little verse borrowing between friends?
Martin Luther King Jr’s speech, as it turned out, was made all the better by departing from the script and finding inspiration in the words of others.
King’s “dream” had been run up the flagpole a few times at lesser events and had its origins in a speech by Pastor Archibald Carey at the 1952 Republican Convention.
“We, Negro-Americans, sing with all loyal Americans: My country, ‘tis of thee, sweet land of liberty; of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the Pilgrims’ pride. From every mountainside, let freedom ring!”
“That’s exactly what we mean,” continued the preacher as he built to a dramatic climax. “From every mountainside, let freedom ring. Not only from the Green Mountains and the White Mountains of Vermont and New Hampshire; not only from the Catskills of New York; but from the Ozarks in Arkansas, from the Stone Mountain in Georgia, from the Great Smokies of Tennessee and from the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia — let it ring.”
Listen to Carey’s speech here. The key part is at the 16.30 mark.
We also learned this week that King only opted to invoke the “dream” refrain after singer Mahalia Jackson urged him to depart from his written speech that had gone on for some 12 minutes with little impact: “Tell about the dream, Martin”.
He did, and so it was that history was made.
We therefore urge our Premier to throw off the shackles of written-by-committee speeches with oddball historical references and be himself.
If he’s got a dream for South Australia, we’d like to hear it.
And the same goes for Steven Marshall. Let it ring lads, let it ring.
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