Saturday, August 25, 2018

'The fucking train is fucking late...' Sydney is Chickentown

'...you fucking wait and fucking wait.'
Another Saturday, another meltdown of the train system, which is amazing really, the fact they actually made it a whole week before the system melted down again, sending it all into total chaos.

It can't be that hard, I mean the very fact it keeps getting worse indicates it can be better, as it was better.

Other countries manage it, somehow, Last Saturday, when I couldn't go anywhere due to the last total meltdown of the train system, I tortured myself by watching a documentary all about how brilliant'y efficient Japan's trains were, always on time to the very second and almost never malfunctioning, despite, in Tokyo, dealing with many millions more people than Sydney.

Then there is the ever-worsening "nanny state" killing any life at all in this city, with the pokie-ridden pubs already almost killing love music before "noise complaints" by people living near venues known for playing live music... and the lock out laws, that somehow managed to entirely exclude the Star Casino, killing the precincts like King's Cross and sending their patrons to invade other precincts like Newtown, so what was once a gay-and-alternative-friendly area is increasingly ridden with violence.

And the whole thing, on top of rising rents and a housing shortage... it all adds up to make Sydney more and more like Chickentown of "Evidently Chickentown" by John Cooper Clarke, the punk poet from Salford just out of Manchester in England. It was presumably Salford, which was also the inspiration for Ewan McColl's folk standard "Dirty Old Town", that Clarke had in mind, but the words of his most famous poem fit a little too well in this fucking shithole.



The fucking cops are fucking keen
To fucking keep it fucking clean
The fucking chief’s a fucking swine
Who fucking draws a fucking line
At fucking fun and fucking games
The fucking kids he fucking blames
Are nowehere to be fucking found
Anywhere in Chickentown

The fucking scene is fucking sad
The fucking news is fucking bad
The fucking weed is fucking turf
The fucking speed is fucking surf
The fucking folks are fucking daft
Don’t make me fucking laugh
It fucking hurts to look around
Everywhere in Chickentown

The fucking train is fucking late
You fucking wait you fucking wait
You’re fucking lost and fucking found
Stuck in fucking Chickentown

The fucking view is fucking vile
For fucking miles and fucking miles
The fucking babies fucking cry
The fucking flowers fucking die
The fucking food is fucking muck
The fucking drains are fucking fucked
The colour scheme is fucking brown
Everywhere in Chickentown

The fucking pubs are fucking dull
The fucking clubs are fucking full
Of fucking girls and fucking guys
With fucking murder in Their eyes
A fucking bloke is fucking stabbed
Waiting for a fucking cab
You fucking stay at fucking home
The fucking neighbors fucking moan
Keep The fucking racket down
This is fucking Chickentown

The fucking train is fucking late
You fucking wait you fucking wait
You’re fucking lost and fucking found
Stuck in fucking Chickentown

The fucking pies are fucking old
The fucking chips are fucking cold
The fucking beer is fucking flat
The fucking flats have fucking rats
The fucking clocks are fucking wrong
The fucking days are fucking long
It fucking gets you fucking down
Evidently Chickentown


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