7 May 2009

So what did we build this city on?

| johnboy
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Say what you like about Allawah Court, it seems to generate a better (or at least more lyrical) class of graffiti than the moronic tagging found in more well to do neighbourhoods.

On Ainslie Avenue today I noticed this one proclaiming “We built this city on smack and roll”.

While I’m not one to ever disparage the misquoting of Starship, I feel the assertion lacks evidence (leaving aside the Legislative Assembly).

So if not “smack and roll”, of what was this city built?

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I was referring to your comment, s4anta.

And forgive my ignorance but when I googled the name Hugh Lewis all I got was some ballarat geneology website. Guess I’m no rocket scientician…

astrojax said :

‘politics and soul’ doesn’t scan but, berraboy…

we probably built it on a legless lizard habitat and a sacred site so we’ll be cursed for ever and never get an a-league or afl team here.

Hence the “I was bored, sue me” quote, AJ:) Oh to have a job where i can play with lyrics all day….

In reality I think the answer to JB’s question is ‘a whim’.

‘politics and soul’ doesn’t scan but, berraboy…

we probably built it on a legless lizard habitat and a sacred site so we’ll be cursed for ever and never get an a-league or afl team here.

Clown Killer5:30 pm 07 May 09

I’ve got no idea what they built it on … all I know is I’m glad that they built it when they did. If you tried to do it now some whinging NIMBY butt-wipe would probably come crawling out from under a rock to carry on about non-existant issues that were impacting on non-existent amenity of their meaningless lives.

PURSUTE said :

According to the rest of the country it’s ‘Sex and Fireworks’.

And pot. Don’t forget the pot. Pot pot pot.

Silurian Rugosa?

Well, at least the creek at the airport is…

alluvial sediment, igneous deposits and tectonic plate shifts

with vulcanism thrown in for good measure.

Holden Caulfield4:31 pm 07 May 09

Pommy bastard said :

Sausage rolls of course!

I heard it’s a long way to the shop…

magella said :

S4anta said :

Hugh Lews said :

It was built on ngunnawal country…..all of you are tresspassing.

Sorry if the spelling is wrong, I dont know how those idiots spell it.

It’s not wrong to laugh..

Its not trepassing if you breed them out.

Please be joking…

With a name like Hugh Lewis his intent isnt exactly rocket surgery.

old canberran3:57 pm 07 May 09

The vision of our forefathers, manual labourers and horses and what Hercsie said.

The city was built on the sweat of european Migrants, my dad being one of them – came here in ’51 and worked on the first Cotter dam extension.

S4anta said :

Hugh Lews said :

It was built on ngunnawal country…..all of you are tresspassing.

Sorry if the spelling is wrong, I dont know how those idiots spell it.

It’s not wrong to laugh..

Its not trepassing if you breed them out.

Please be joking…

in wollongong they sing “steel and coal”

but for canberra I would have to go with

we built this city ” on a plan walter stole form his wife” or at least took credit for

Not a history buff, but here goes…

“Syd and Mel’s grudging compromise”

Devonoian era conglomerate – or so my yr 9 science teacher (Speedy Eadie) insisted

According to the rest of the country it’s ‘Sex and Fireworks’.

Easily your best post.

Hugh Lews said :

It was built on ngunnawal country…..all of you are tresspassing.

Sorry if the spelling is wrong, I dont know how those idiots spell it.

It’s not wrong to laugh..

Its not trepassing if you breed them out.

WE built this city,
We built this city on politics and soul(x2)

Say you don’t know me, or recognise my face
I’m anonymous on RiotACT, its that kind of place
but Canberra’s ambience is fading, reality now winning the fight
even here too many runaways – eating up the night

Parton talks to no-one,
who listens to the radio?
Don’t you remember?
We built this city
We built this city on politics and soul
We built this city, we built this city on politics and soul
Built this city, we built this city on politics and soul

Stanhopes always playing, wanky artistic games
Who cares he’s always passing on the blame
I just want to live here, into my old age
you can call me a dreamer, but this is my lifes stage

Scotty and Nige are getting better
I might turn on my radio..
Don’t you remember?
We built this city
We built this city on politics and soul!
We built this city, we built this city on politics and soul
Built this city, we built this city on politics and soul.

It’s just another Sunday, in a tired old town
Police have got the choke hold, or they would if they were around

Who ignores their children, walking down the street
Who cares if they mug you, they used to be so sweet
Don’t tell me I’m happy, ’cause we’re no bunch of fools
Looking for the old Canberra, now threatened by moronic tools.

Don’t you remember …

JBs talking RiotACT,
ev’ry Friday on the radio
Don’t you remember?
We built this city,
We built this city on politics and soul
We built this city, we built this city on politics and soul
Built this city, we built this city on politics and soul
Built this city, we built this city on politics and soul
Built this city, we built this city on politics and soul

Ok I was bored – sue me!

SORRY!

i didnt read enough posts to see that someone already ‘went there’.

It was built on ngunnawal country…..all of you are tresspassing.

Sorry if the spelling is wrong, I dont know how those idiots spell it.

It’s not wrong to laugh..

Bull and Shit

Deadmandrinking12:13 pm 07 May 09

We built this city on a sheep farm, so I guess that’s Baa and roll?

Now we sound terribly New Zealandish.

…from the Stonefaced Literalist songwriting tradition?

and brushed concrete.

Class distinctions, political compromise, utopian sentimentality and the capacity of a significant portion of humanity to get excited by the idea of leaving the comforts of their existence behind with the express purpose of being a small part of building something from nothing.

S4anta said :

lethargy, red tape and government credit cards!

or

white and mission borwn decor schemes.

brushed concrete?

lethargy, red tape and government credit cards!

or

white and mission borwn decor schemes.

Damn! Now the tune’s stuck in my head…

Nambucco Deliria said :

“We built this city on Ngunnawal”

Too true.

Nambucco Deliria10:43 am 07 May 09

“We built this city on Ngunnawal”

neanderthalsis10:43 am 07 May 09

The 4 Ps: Politics, Pot, Porn and Pyrotechnics. Or at least that is how the rest of the country would think…

trevar said :

This city has had a long association with marijuana, so I concur that the city was partially built on ‘roll’, but it certainly wasn’t built on smack.

Skunk and roll then.

Funny I always thought Canberra was “dug” not built !

I grew up in Cabramatta, and Canberra’s reputation was as a source of marijuana-based drugs, not heroin. Heroin was quite heavily produced locally, so I think that graffiti should have been done back home in Cabramatta.

This city has had a long association with marijuana, so I concur that the city was partially built on ‘roll’, but it certainly wasn’t built on smack.

Skidbladnir said :

The illusory voluntary exploitation of the proletariat?
*beats Passy to it*

I thought passy self modded himself and left?

OT, migrants, arguments between sydney and melbourne over national capital, politicians?

The illusory voluntary exploitation of the proletariat?
*beats Passy to it*

Pommy bastard10:20 am 07 May 09

Sausage rolls of course!

johnboy said :

Not the question Peter.

Jb, i know. But it was reference to a time in this town’s past where we had open spaces and sunlight in civic.

This town was built on a plan created by burley griffin, but half of the designs that he had envisaged for canberra were never implemented. Light rail, for one.

We either moved here or were born here, but Canberra seems to have lost the original friendly environment that i remember as a kid. Everyone hibernates in winter, and buggers off in summer to the coast. now we are starting to morph into a quasi sydney / melbourne equivalent.

Expat Victorians and Federal Money.

Volcanics and clay?

Not the question Peter.

still think the most apt graffiti that this town ever had was on the old griffin building – “export fraser, not uranium.”

I love that song

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