Sensational-Adelaide.com

Compose yourself, Adelaide

SO we put on an internationally renowned film composer's concert while a car race hummed in the background somewhere. Big deal, writes Lainie Anderson.

CAN you hear it? The laughter. Guffaws from Perth, chortles from Melbourne, hoots from Sydney. Even giggles from those devils in Darwin.

That's right. Adelaide is once again the butt of the nation's jokes; a laughing stock.

Why? Because we have the audacity to simultaneously stage a car race and an outdoor music concert. And you simply don't mix car engines with violin strings. It's an embarrassment of interstate proportions.

Oh, come on.

When I first heard of Ennio Morricone last year, he could well have been a race car driver for all I knew. But my husband Max requested tickets for Christmas, so along we strolled to Elder Park to hear the composer and his brilliant film scores.

It was Adelaide at its finest: Beautiful sunset, sweet skyline, friendly people.

And frankly I thought the occasional hum of motor racing from the East End was kind of cool - a sign of Adelaide's "multicultural" dynamism.

Admittedly, the crash of bottles being thrown into a recycling bin by some peanut at the Adelaide Festival Centre was not so cool; but it doesn't warrant statewide flagellation.

When a woman behind us at the concert muttered, "ONLY ADELAIDE would ruin an international concert with a car race" I just knew we'd be reaching for our favourite whipping stick.

Nothing can go wrong - nothing can be even remotely different or divisive - in South Australia without an outpouring of parochial angst.

When the Port River rail bridge didn't automatically open for the recent arrival of the replica ship Endeavour, Adelaide was a national laughing stock.

When the State Government proposed a 4am curfew on pubs and clubs, to curb booze-fuelled assaults and provide a buffer between late-night bingeing and morning business, Adelaide was a national laughing stock.

When the opening of Adelaide Airport was delayed, we were a national laughing stock. And the move to open city shops every day of the year except on Christmas Day and Good Friday? Well, that's aimed at putting a stop to all those jokes about Adelaide's being closed for business.

Get some perspective, people.

No one is laughing at us. They're too busy dealing with their own issues, like counting their mining cash in Queensland and WA, or sandbagging rising floodwaters in Victoria and NSW.

SA certainly has its problems, not least an economy that refuses to spark despite talk of a mining boom that's not quite here yet.

And I'm all for campaigning (loudly) if you have a bee in your bonnet.

But the Morricone/Clipsal/wine bottle clash was not a faux pas of national significance. It was nothing more than a lack of communication among event and Festival Centre chiefs who get paid enough to know better.

As someone who lived away from SA for 15 years before returning to settle down and raise a family, I just don't understand the need to constantly talk ourselves down.

Maybe it's a hangover from the State Bank disaster, though younger SA adults don't even remember it.

Perhaps it's our heritage as the smaller state sibling - but surely this works in our favour at event times such as this (small enough to feel boutique but big enough to attract strong crowds).

Often, I think people are just being lazy when they trot out the old "national laughing stock" throwaway line. At other times, as with the Hindley St debate, I think it's a bullying tactic.

("I know better and anyone who disagrees is 'small-town'.")

Whatever the reason, it does us all a disservice because it perpetuates the ridiculous misconception that we're not quite good enough.

So I propose a swear jar of sorts: Anyone who is quoted in the media as saying "Adelaide is a laughing stock" should donate $500 to a charity like the Hutt St Centre for the homeless (I'm sure no one there was mortified by the Morricone mix-up.)

To the lovely and highly respected Natasha Stott Despoja, who pulled out the whipping stick for her Advertiser column this week, perhaps you'd like to go first.

phenom wrote:Mmm, so true.

I know we say it often on here, but take a look at AdelaideNow comments on, well, pretty much *anything*.

Water mains burst? Only in Adelaide (apparently). Traffic jams or inadequate public transport? Only in Adelaide (apparently). Expensive utilities? Only in Adelaide (apparently). Politicians telling fibs? Only in Adelaide (apparently).

Recently I've seen complaints along the lines of 'all road works interstate are done at off-peak times... except for here in SA'... which is clearly untrue to anyone who has actually been interstate. Moreover, it's surprising how often roadworks are actually done (where possible) at night and on weekends here in Adelaide given the imperative to do so is often less strong than in much bigger cities.

I travel interstate relatively frequently for work so maybe I just get a perspective that a lot of people who live in their own little bubble might not be able to get, but it's amazing how many people (are AdelaideNow actually a very small but vocal demographic?) seem to think problems of Adelaide are unique in any way shape or form. Some things are worse, some things are better - but mostly it's just a matter of degrees of difference on any issue you care to name.

Almost without exception they are common (at least) to every major Australian city. It's still kind of upsetting to read the comments (quite possibly self-justifying, of course) of people 'heading to Victoria' or 'heading to Queensland' because they think they will be escaping 'doomed' Adelaide. Usually it's based on something factually incorrect - for example, they feel they are being 'overpoliced' on our roads so they are going to move to... wait for it... Victoria. LOL.

The positive thing I think is that articles such as this - and tangible changes like a skyline full of cranes, far more interstate car plates on our roads (at a non-holiday time) than I've ever seen before, SA doing relatively better on a sustained basis in national comparisons (ie more middle ground rather than the perennial 'worst mainland State')- suggest maybe, just maybe, we are turning the corner on our endless self-flagellation.

One can only hope!

Hooligan wrote:The anti clipsal sentiment is just stupid.

Hooligan wrote:What does everyone on this website have against clipsal?

Hooligan wrote:The anti clipsal sentiment is just stupid.

crawf wrote:

Hooligan wrote:The anti clipsal sentiment is just stupid.

Same with the anti festival/fringe sentiment.

Hooligan wrote:

crawf wrote:

Hooligan wrote:The anti clipsal sentiment is just stupid.

Same with the anti festival/fringe sentiment.

Who's been saying that?