characters

I have just walked through my door after a marathon drive (13 hours over 2 days). During said drive I had a few moments to contemplate things and this got me thinking to writing about characters. The ones you will want to tell stories about. The ones that you can think back to something they did or told you and you laugh out loud at the memory.

Now I collect characters. I love to meet new people with the offchance of meeting a true character. Outrageous antics are one of my favourite drawcards. Sexual debauchary combined with a big mouth is another of my faves. Im also very fond of someone who has a great druggy/rocknroll past, is now a parent, and is slightly puzzled by some of the stuff that goes on in middleclass Australia.

As I previously mentioned, I have just returned from the big drive. I was in Adelaide (Radelaide as some say) to photograph a friends wedding. Adelaide is my home turf and I managed to catch up with a bunch of my old homies on a cool autumn night out.

One of the lasses I caught up with is a true character with all of the abovementioned top 3 character traits plus some. Outrageous antic: So we were at a pub called The Gov, bit of an institute in Adelaide. Sadie is pretty pissed by the time we arrive at 7.15pm. We were sitting down to order dinner and happened to have a piano nearby. She walks past, pretends to sit down sticking her ass out, starts banging on the keys and does a rendition of "Eels up inside ya" Mighy Boosh style. Quite hilarious; the whole tables laughed, goaded her on and applauded gratefully when the rendition was finished..

Now Sadie is quite a newy to me. We bonded over a love of shoplifting and loads of white wine at a New Years Eve party 2 years ago. Sadie is also a vintage clothing fiend, an alcoholic, someone who has sex and then tells everyone everything that happend, a middle class mother, previous rocknroller and a professional. Summing up an amazing character probably my current favourite.

My favourite movie character would have to be "the dude" from the Big Lebowski. I think if I were truly left to my own devices completely and utterly, I could be the dudes twin sister. Now when I was younger I was pretty happy being stoned, walking to the supermarket, walking back, listening to music in my room, eating. That "phase" possibly did last a little bit longer than it should have, but, if I really was left to it, I could be the dude.

I loved how he wore out of fashion clothes designed for sheer comfort. How he had this simple existence bowling, white russians, smoking dope, making excuses to his landlord for not paying the rent. A classic character. Most of us have known, or know (I can tick both boxes) the dude. He is currently being played by one of my family members.

This member announced his "year off to do nothing" in January. No coaxing from his mother or father or aunty of grandparents can stop his course of nothing. No job, no responsibilities whatsoever. He watches metal videos on You Tube. He stays up all night with his friends driving and giggling. He watches The Simpsons. He is definitely smoking Adelaide's finest. He writes witty updates on facebook. Basically, he is the dude.

Maybe its some kind of genetic predisposition? Like I said, left to my own devices....

Summing up, characters are the best. Its worth all the effort it takes to get to know someone to meet a great new character. Best of all, even if they turn out to be someone quite annoying or socially retarded, you can atleast talk about them to the other characters in your life. So to all the characters out there, thumbs up from me. True characters are the best.

R.I.P Disey (pronounced dyezee, short for Dianne)

One of the most outrageous fucking characters ever. Always some type of shenanigans going on with her and her sort of oblivious to how outrageous a character she was. A classic character missed by all that loved her.