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So I've been telling quite a few people about this little film project I've been working on, and although I already have quite a bit of footage, I'm nowhere near complete. These dudes are natural gasbags so it will take many more visits before I've got all the gold out of them. In the meantime, I've decided to introduce the main characters so you can all get to know them as I have been doing these past few weeks. I'm having such a ball with my posse (they've become just as much part of my Sunday routine as the afternoon nap and the pre-monday blues). I wholeheartedly recommend you come on down if you're free on Sundays, at the very least to see Steve ring his bell and Merko dance away in the sunshine. 2pm til sundown, opposite the Art Gallery in the Domain folks!
Steve is my main buddy and is probably considered the ringleader, having been there the second longest (Helmut aka "The Iconoclast" I've heard has been coming on and off since 1972) and is usually the most visible with his dapper outfits and large bell and cheeky personality. He's a really lovely fellow who patiently waits for me to get my camera ready before doing his spiel and will often restart a piece if I'm not ready to film it. On our first meeting, he gave me a copy of his book that he'd written 10 years ago about the history of the Speakers Corner, which has been incredibly valuable (even more so when he signed it for me). Sitting behind him is Tony, who is quite reserved (I don't think he likes me much) and shares the ladder with Steve. Tony has a soft spot for Smokey.
Warren and Smokey. Warren's quite the gentle soul, despite being an anarchist. His soapbox persona is very different to his non-performing demeanour. Smokey is his dog by default, as Warren started taking care of him after his previous owners gave him some sort of weird dog/human disease out of sheer neglect. Warren and Smokey walk all the way from Rosebery (in South Sydney) to the Domain each Sunday, which is a really really really long walk.
Guy and Clary are not weekly regulars but are there often enough. I had the fortune of meeting them in the week that they decided to do a Wrestlemania special (they normally rant about politics) and perhaps I may even impressed them (or least earnt their respect) when I was able to converse in fluent Wrestlemania with them. I may have unintentionally fired Guy up after I told him he should be on community radio (though in my defence, i said it before I found out that they mostly do political rants, and angry, sweary, defamatory types of rants at that. woops)
Merko prefers to be known as "UFO". Although not a soapbox orator as such, he is down every week and I guess, qualifies as much. He brings with him from Bankstown laminated cards showing the new alphabet he has invented (although not so much an invention as the cutting out of the letters "x" and "z"). He also enjoys dancing around to loud slavic music on his little boombox and generally annoying the others in a jolly fashion. He is seen here dancing.
PS. Vale Kurt Vonnegut. I have been more bummed about this than I thought I would be. So it goes.
 | Currently reading:
Timequake
By Kurt Vonnegut
Release date: 01 August, 1998 |
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12:27 PM
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