The Penguin Cafe Orchestra “Perpetuum Mobile”
Something very different this week. The Penguin Cafe Orchestra is a band from the 1980/90’s with their own very different Avant-Pop style led by English guitarist Simon Jeffes and cellist Helen Liebmann.
I first came across this band watching the Australian stop animation movie “Mary and Max”. The “based on fact” story is about an unlikely pen-pal friendship between a young Australian girl and a morbidly obese 44-year-old Jewish atheist from New York. It is at times wonderfully funny and a desperately sad film. It is beautifully rendered and well worth a watch. You can see a trailer by clicking here
One of the issues the film deals with is the fact that Max is on the Autistic Spectrum. Mary sees that as a disability and Max sees it as an integral part of his personality and not a disability that needs to be cured. It made me think a lot about difference and how we perceive it in a increasingly segmented society.
We all are individuals with our own distinctive personalities, quirks and idiosyncrasies that makes us who we are. For most it makes little difference to our day to day lives, for others it creates huge problems that can make life almost impossibly difficult.
Making a Spectacle of Yourself
As a child his fat spectacles would frequently slip from his pustulated face
Picked last at school sports with a reputation as the world’s worst goalkeeper
The cock eyed pictures on the pub wall distract him to the point of anger
He makes a mental note to bring a spirit level to the next boys night out
He would prefer a world where beauty was literal and people were honest
Deviousness can catch his ankles and send him crashing to the ground
He takes an eternity to be spontaneous and can quickly prevaricate
He can feel awkward and unsure in the company that he so often craves
Words dance on book pages and the order of their letters often eludes him
But he loves them with a passion it took him years to acknowledge
His world is a one man play were he has many parts, none of them suit him
Yet he is the sum of all of them and an eager apprentice at each one in turn
©Jeff Price December 2017
I realy like this poem – haven’t heard of the film or the musicians.
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