Mister Brisbane: Moving blues

Boxing up my life and starting over. And other stories.

I used to have stuff all over the place. All over the world at one stage. Now, I have two lots of stuff. The stuff that lives with me and the stuff that lives in a big yellow box (above). I don’t know quite where that stuff is right now, but I’m sure the good people at Taxi Box are looking after it well (for a fee, of course). The reason it’s all together is that my family and I are preparing my late Mum’s house for sale. Some of the stuff in that box has never left that house (or, to be more correct, the garage behind that house) for decades. Some of it followed me when I got married, and then went back when I got divorced.

The physical moving has been hard — those cartons may not look it, but they sure are heavy — but the emotional moving on is even harder. It’s not the kind of task you’d want to do around Mother’s Day. Or any time at all, really.

Tune in to the Mister Brisbane radio show on Reading Radio at 1296AM and on DAB+ in Brisbane at 6.30pm on Tuesday nights. It’s also available as a podcast. Just search for “Mister Brisbane” on your favourite player or follow this link.

HARD QUESTION

I’m a fan of the Tom Gleeson show Hard Quiz, which continues to be one of the most popular programs on television. I even recently got the chance to see and touch the Big Brass Mug that belongs to Brisbane winner Jennifer Dudley-Nicholson. One thing bugs me, though. A lot of the work that goes into making the show is wasted. Because the writers don’t know which two of the four contestants will go through to the final, they have to write harder questions on each subject. The devil’s advocate in me asks: Is that a valid use of ABC resources?

COVID BE GONE

I’m off to get the AstraZeneca COVID-19 needle this week. I’m not especially looking forward to it. And, yes, blood clots are on my mind — even though common sense and statistics tell me that I have more chance of being in an accident on my way to the clinic than getting a clot from the jab. But it has to be done, for both selfish and altruistic reasons. I want this to be over for everyone’s sake, and especially for my own so I can take the cruises I’ve booked for later this year.

STAR TURN

I’ve just recorded an episode of the Ghosts of Boyfriends Past podcast. I’m not sure when it will drop, but even the episodes not featuring me are well worth listening to! It’s about ex-relationships: how they went wrong and what lessons were learned. If you have twice as much fun listening to it as I had making it, then I’ll be happy. And you will be too, I hope.

FEEDBACK

My item in the last newsletter about Brisbane songwriter Mike Chapman prompted some further discussion. First of all: was Chapman our most successful songwriter, or does that title go to Barry Gibb (if we accept him as a local despite his British roots)? Or even Darren Hayes (yes, we’ll accept Logan as being part of Brisbane for this exercise) or Keith Urban (ditto for Caboolture and Whangārei) or Bernard Fanning or someone else? Second: who are the other “unknown” Brisbaneites? I’m interested in people who’ve achieved something important or interesting but are largely unknown in their home city. Contributions welcome.

Fun fact: The Saints started out as a three-piece band but over the years has had 40 members.

Another fun fact: Famous Queenslander Ron Grainer, who was born in Atherton but educated at Nudgee College and the University of Queensland, is known to Doctor Who fans as the composer of that long-running TV show’s theme tune. They may not realise that he also wrote the theme to Steptoe and Son.

Meanwhile, my joke about Justin Bieber last week prompted a warning from Noel to watch out for the Beliebers. I’m not afraid of them.

R.I.P.

Mister Brisbane salutes the late, great David Bermingham, who played “the Duchess of Brisbane” and many other characters in theatre-restaurant shows at Henry Africa’s and other venues across the city. Here’s a recent photo from his Facebook page:

©2021 Brett Debritz. If I’ve inadvertently used copyrighted material, failed to give credit where it’s due, written or said something you disagree with, or otherwise upset or unexpectedly delighted you, please email brett@misterbrisbane.com, or connect with me at @debritz or @misterbrisbane on Twitter or the Mister Brisbane group on Facebook. You can tune in to the Mister Brisbane show on Reading Radio at 1296AM or DAB+ in Brisbane on Tuesdays at 6.30pm, with repeats through the week. It’s also available on popular podcasting platforms including Apple, Spotify and Google Podcasts. Images: Brett Debritz, ABC, AstraZeneca, BBC, Facebook