Banality #16 amidst Todd's birthday and a rant on Rio.

It's my nephew's birthday. He is also my godson. He is very very special to me. It's a particularly special birthday for him because he is now 21 and for those out of the cultural loop, it's the traditionally significant day that one is a complete adult and is set loose in (or on) the world. Todd has been on the loose for some time now, but it's still a special occasion and all my family will be coming together to celebrate with him and his friends.

So, crap. I feel very much like I should be there. I've written a speech, a poem that gives him curry, and tells him how much he's like his brilliant uncle. I hope to deliver it over the phone, or via an MP3 or something...

And so a spate of homesickness sets in (is this another spate, or the same one?!). NOT at all assisted (that is, very much assisted) by my overindulgence of downloading not just one, but two versions of "I still call Australia home"... Quick! A toucan! A Boa! A Jaguar! SOMEthing to slam me with how lucky I am to be here!

But I just want to point out, as perhaps a banality (or IS it?) that the original version of said song, by Peter Allen, states, as we all know "I've been to cities that never close down, from New York to Rio and old London town..."

The other version, as beautifully and angelically sung as it is by The Australian Children's Choir, states this: "I've been to cities that never close down, from New York to Rome and old London town..."

Now I'm pretty upset about having my host continent left out of the whole feeling of longing that that song is meant to invoke in Australians abroad, but I reckon the change is due to the decision by some poncy suit that Rio is not a child's city. Well, on the contrary the city is bloody full of them, easily seen, if not heard, because so many of them are living on the street.

Who wants to go to Rome anyway?

Here's a link from the BBC on a photo exhibition project by Rio's street kids (similar to the one created by participants at the North Carlton Railway Station Neighbourhood House not long ago) that proves that Rio is indeed a child's city.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/06/in_pictures_shooting_rio/html/1.stm

Happy 21st Todd. I miss you, particularly today. Have a very special night. I love you.