Friday night, running through the turnstiles at Central, 3 minutes to catch the 10.15 to Newcastle. Carrying my life in a backpack, an overarm bag and a small suitcase on wheels, holding my big black hat, long red scarf tangling with my luggage. Two trains to the same destination on adjacent platforms face me. Is that the train to Newcastle? I ask a group of blue uniformed, muscular and tall Transit Officers with their backs to me. No, that one, he says. Just in time. The carriage next to the guard’s van is crowded. Find the last double seat and slink in, for the three hour journey home.
This is the Sydney to Newcastle service, stopping at Strathfield, Eastwood, Epping, Hornsby, Berowra, Cowan, Hawkesbury River, Woy Woy, Koolewong, Tascott, Point Clare, Gosford, Narara, Niagara Park and then all stations to Newcastle...the rhythmic chant crackles over the PA system, a female voice, singing the country.
Ssssshhhhh ker-lunk ker-lunk kerlunksssshhh The train pulls out of Central, swishing along at a regular pace...At night I travel next to the guard’s van, the famous blue light of safety in the darkest hour. The carriage hums with passengers’ ambient chatter... male and female transit officers patrol the aisles, I’m glad they’re here. The long distance train journey from Central to Adamstown reminds me of the film Dr Zhivago (long ago in Northern Ireland), with a few subtle differences that make it uniquely Australian...
C: only subtle differences?!
Koolewong. "Would the person who's boarding the train with alcohol please get rid of it!" the voice of the female guard crackles over the PA. There was a female guard last Friday night too. But the biggest difference is no snow.
B: is it still the ghosty green-grey interior?
B: who gets off at Woy Woy?
I am trying to chat on FaceBook but the utter inadequacy of the connection only adds to the surreal montage that has become the familiar mode of my prepaid ‘communication’...
@B the green and cream interior blends a certain utilitarian aesthetic with symbolic hint of bushland vistas... The fluoro flicker and the surround-sounds...long slow hissssss and rocking motion, the repetition of certain phrases "doors closing please stand clear' sssssssssssssss has a soothing quality and we're off again 'next stop Warnervale'... de-de-da; de-de-da; du-du-da dededa..whirrrrrrrrrrrrururu
distorting audial perspective of figure-ground-field like a futurist-industrial sound poem, luigi russolo’s art of noises hissing, roaring, pounding through the night, but we’re heading now into the post-Industrial future of Newcastle. What will we do now?
'Doors closing please stand clear' 'next stop Wyee' da-da-deDA dada
'Doors closing please stand clear' 'next stop Wyee' da-da-deDA I can hear Dr Zhivago’s theme song in the rolling wheels
'Doors closing please stand clear' 'next stop Wyee' da-da-deDA Dr Zhivago is a spectral figure rocking the tracks
Trying to chat on FaceBook:::: a surreal montage of missed cues and repetitions.
Hard to post these notes/green light- blue light- no light on/the mobile broadband stick/flickering semaphore of desire/anxiety/frustration/we all want Ecstasy of connection (Baudrilllard 1869) all the way up the coast drops in and out/ roll on the ‘national broadband rollout’/ Save Our Souls//www.????/ no one wants to miss connections like Dr Zhivago/ the undelivered letter/ chance sighting after many years/from afar he catches sight of Her boarding a crowded bus/and again she disappears/
SSSSSSsssssssssssszzzzzzzzzzxxxxxxxxXXXXXXZ
vvvvvvvvvVVVVVVVVVVVVV[[[[[[[++++=========================
========================
===========================
----------------
------------------------
=====================
===========
=========================================
HUSHAHushaHUSHAHushaHUSHAHusha WHO OOOOOOOOHHHHHHH<<<<<<<///////////>>>>>>//^^^~~~~~~====OOO
0 0 0 0000000000000000000000000
uuuuuoooooooouooooooooooooooo
uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuOOOOOOUUUUuuuuuu
and on it goes on
for TOOLONG
- SoS ... drops out
- watch out
random FX
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