Hearts were aflutter and the paparazzi were nowhere to be seen as Jen McCulloch married middle aged sweetheart Ken “Troppo Armodillo” Parish in a deliberately low key ceremony in Fitzroy Saturday. Naturally your Troppo correspondent was there and enjoyed the proceedings immensely – with Nabakov on keyboard and vocals and some other weird electronic instrument named after its Russian inventor that he can no doubt fill you in on.
The whole thing was very enjoyable. A highlight for me was the parents welcoming their new son and daughter in law respectively into their families. Very touching.
Paul McCulloch, the bride’s father gave a low key but masterful performance and, Troppo requested the text from which he delivered his speech. It is below the fold.
Speech by the father of the bride, at Ken-Jen’s wedding on 20th October, 2007.
Firstly, I would like to say that Pat and I are very pleased to be here enjoying this celebration of a partnership and union which has now been formalised so thoughtfully.
I can recall Jen telling me in one of our earnest telephone conversations, long after she and Dave had separated, (most of our telephone conversations seem to take on that earnest nature) that this man she had met was becoming something of a soul mate, and that she felt she might be falling in love with him.
My immediate thought was for this man. Whilst being well aware of the many qualities our daughter possesses, I was also cognisant of her idiosyncrasies (some people call them faults), mostly inherited, I might say, from her mother and paternal grandmother.
My heart skipped a beat.
In a place as small as Darwin, demographically speaking, could there be a man capable of coping with these idiosyncrasies?
Well, to our great delight Pat and I have discovered that there is. From our observation, experienced both in our own home and their Darwin home, Ken appears to have the patience of Job, whilst exuding a quiet forthrightness.
My wife, Pat, has personally canonised him; in our household he is known as St.Ken. Jen, I might add, is also a very forthright person, but not always so quiet.
With most second marriages, there is inevitably some attending upset within the family circle. It cannot be avoided, but hopefully it can be minimised, and all those involved can create a positive future for themselves and those around them.
I can only speak for our side of the family, and would like to say in respect of Dave,
Jessica’s dad, that we maintain a firm friendship with him, as well as contact with his parents.
We look forward to meeting with him each time we visit Darwin, and I think he knows that he is still regarded as one of the family.
To Ken’s family, we have welcomed the opportunity to meet you all, and trust that you have enjoyed this celebration as much as we have.
Thanks to cousin Don for officiating, it has been a pleasure to see him and his wife, Sally, again. Might I say he is one of my mother’s favourites.
I wish that Ethel, mother, (in law), aunt, grandmother, great grandmother and friend could have been physically present to witness this occasion. However what really counts is that she is here in spirit, and really savouring the moment.
Finally, our family’s thanks go to Jen and Ken for the consideration they have shown, and the consequent effort they have made, in enabling most of our family to join in the celebration of their marriage.
We wish you a long and fulfilling life together, and may God bless you and your two children, Rebecca and Jessica.
Thanks for the pen picture, Nicholas. And congratulations to Jen and Ken.
Congrats. And I trust that Ken is not really a ‘former’ blogging sensation.
Theremin? Ooooh.
Congratulations, Ken & Jen.
Cheers and best wishes to you both :-)
Congratulations, Ken and Jen.
Bingo! A great instrument to pose with, if not actually play well. But there were real musos there too as well.
Jen looked like a glamourous firework in her swirly red dress, Ken looked very dapper in a tux, the bridesmaids and ring bearers looked like an a bunch of exotic flowers, Nick Gruen let the side down a bit by appearing in broadshorts, thongs, red foam reindeer antlers and one of those t-shirts printed with a tux and the Marriage Celebrant had the line of the night.
Me: “I saw some of the women dabbing their eyes during the vows.”
Marriage Celebrant: “Ah yes, an important KPI (Key Performance Indicator).”
And yes, Jen’s father’s speech quoted above really nailed it about the nature of formalising and blessing unions involving the nature of nuclear families these days.
It was a lovely night. Except when we completely screwed up our first version of “A Perfect Day.”
Yes, I was a bit disappointed when others weren’t wearing reindeer antlers. I thought I read that on the invite. My mistake!
Actually ladies, Nick looked quite well turned out in a summer cloud gray singlebreasted fine wool suit that emphasised his slim figure and a multi-striped silk tie that artfully showed off his shapely neck.
Bride and Groom:
Congratulations …. and much happiness!
Nicholas Gruen:
Excellent.
Tnere is nothing like a good union.
Congrats Ken and Jen. Solidarity forever!
Congratulations to the newly weds. I was best man at a wedding on the weekend and it is always great to see to the joy on the faces of newly weds.
Ah, you don’t often get to hear a good theremin solo these days. My understanding is that Lenin was a patron of the theremin in post-Revolutionary Russia. He wanted one in every home, seeing it as a modern, industrial artefact, untainted by the past, capable of replacing the bourgeois upright piano as the front parlour instrument of choice for the new socialist man and his family. Alas, I think that after Lenin, Theremin himself was got rid of in the purges and the great hopes for his invention went unrealised – except for the Beach Boys ‘Good Vibrations’ (where it is featured) and now Ken and Jen’s wedding! Remarkable how the remnants of leninism can be discerned in the unlikeliest places.
Ken,
My congratulations as well.
cs,
You are right – there is nothing like a good union.
Anthony,
I understood the theremin sound on the Good Vibrations track was faked in the actual recording and even in many of the live performances. Quite appropriate really – the Beach Boys using faked communist era spin-offs.
‘There is nothing like a good union’
You can take this too far. I think Sidney and Beatrice Webb actually spent their honeymoon at the Trade Unions Congress.
Then again, they never had any children and bequeathed their house to the LSE
Anthony,
What I liked about that statement is that it can be read both ways.
Nabs – I’d rather like to take the firework image and extravagantly add.
A Spanish firework in petticoats radiating red wine and the warmth of the evening until she (dear thing) could sip only small doses of lemonade inside the glittering bowl of the Blue Diamond Club….. the poetry and indulgence of wedding.
Yes it was a hot night in Melbourne where three generations of two families met with old friends and new, a truckload of goodwill, good music, good food and good drinking.
A perfect day in grand old Melbourne touching so much of the best the city has to offer.
Have work due up to my eyeballs and am barely yet off the plane or out of bed – deadline terror has not set in but a vague urgency is descending and I better start working or I’ll suffocate.
More later.
Photos are on the way.
– and Nabs while we are on dress codes and occasions I remember two musos… bowties akimbo – a good woman could help with those finishing touches. A marriage is just the thing – the format works, we just move the players around.
What Jen said, and thanks for all the good wishes. But what’s this about “former blogging sensation”? Don’t know about the sensation bit, but who said I’d retired? I’m expecting to resume some editing and compilation duties on Missing Link now that the wedding is accomplished, and even write the occasional legal or general interest post when the urge strikes and time allows. It may not be on the current federal election, which I’m currently finding almost as tedious as the Ben Cousins affair, but that doesn’t make me “former”. Does it?
“I understood the theremin sound on the Good Vibrations track was faked in the actual recording and even in many of the live performances.”
Well, a theremin is nothing but an oscillator controlled by two voltages – one for frequency, one for amplitude – so whether those voltages are a function of the capacitance of hands in proximity to two antennae (theremin) or a function of resistance from a metal strip and a volume pot (the thing B Wilson played) is pretty academic. A theremin is more theatrical, and way harder to play, but that’s about it.
[/synthnerd]
Oh, and congratulations.
In using the theremin nabs is just following in the footsteps of his mentor that other great innovative australian musician Percy Grainger.
nabs will refuse to confirm or deny that he has followed Mr Grainger (no not the one from Are You Being Served, you philistines) in other pursuits.
FXH (or Vlad) – do you know if they’ve reopened the Grainger Museum at Melb Uni? He had some WAY cooler electronic instruments than a theremin, and I was writing an assignment on the history of electronic music machines in Australia when they shut it for a re-fit.
Not really. You just move your hands around and wiggle your fingers. Kinda like slo mo air guitar. You can also get some good effects out of rythmically tapping the aerials in different places. For that extra theatrical touch, I sometimes like to wear black gloves and a terrytowelling leisure suit while thereminating.
Speaking of terrytowelling clothes, weird electro-mechanical instruments and black leather, yes the Grainger Museum is still closed. But well worth a visit when it reopens. It does have a remarkable collection including some very unusual musical and sartorial apparatus indeed.
Probably a bit late now FDB but Ollie Olsen would have been worth catching up with. He’s got a magnificent collection of antique synths including some very odd home-grown numbers. No Fairlight though alas. Love to get my hands on one of them. I have a few interesting case modding ideas there.
And some more handy thereminating tips. I like to run mine through a Korg KAOSS Pad and/or an Alessis AirFX so both hands are kept busy. If you’re gonna wank on stage, at least make it clear it’s a job that requires two fists.
I play in a band with one of the lasses from B(if)tek, who has a house full of crazy nonsense – I think some of it may even be Ollie’s. An old system 700 Roland modular, Junos, Jupiters, Korgs ahoy, etc etc. But no Fairlight, alas. I’ve had a play with one that belongs to Poons’ Head Studio in Fremantle, but only for one afternoon – barely enough time to work out how to make a sound at all! What would you mod a Fairlight to do though? I’ve hacked a couple of my old beasts for an audio input, and a few extra CV ins here and there to run with an old step sequencer. I guess a Fairlight could use some more actual knobs on it.
Running late, but congratulations Ken and Jen
“It may not be on the current federal election, which Im currently finding almost as tedious as the Ben Cousins affair, but that doesnt make me former. Does it?”
Craft an incisive post, laden with coruscating wit and exceptionally informed insight and I’ll let you know. References to Percy Grainger’s wardrobe – and/or Nabakov’s while playing the Theremin – are probably best avoided.
No,no, the other way around FDB. You get a Fairlight for its funky chunky late 70s retro charm, hollow out the sucker, load it up with 21st century hard and software and MIDIse the keyboard. For bonus points, you also make the light pen truly touch screen interactive.
So when you’re pouncing about live, knowledgeable members of the audience would say “Damn, that’s a fucking Fairlight up there! I had no idea it was so sonically flexible.”, hopefully unaware you’re basically fooling around with some decent contemporary laptop guts running Sonar, CuBase or whatever.
I’d do it with my ancient discarded Mirage like a shot if I thought anyone would get the joke.
Also, I’m guessing here FDB, but I reckon you’ve been Clan Analoguing in your time.
Well ain’t this a doozy of a thread derailment eh Nabs?
That’s a pretty good idea just using the Fairlight shell. I once put a Realistic (circuits by Moog) MG-1, aka the little monosynth that could, into a handmade hardwood box with the cut-down panel from an old ABC radio broadcast console. From the 60s, with those big curved faders like aircraft controls and huge knobs with “reverb” screened on them. Then some fucker broke into my bandmates studio and it, the system-100 Roland modular referred to above, a, SH-2, a Sequential Circuits Matrix 12, a Roland S-10 sampler, a tape echo, a Paia vocoder I built, a laptop and two bass guitars… gone. We got together with a bottle of scotch, listened to our just-completed album and cried like babies.
Actually I never hooked up much with Clan Analogue – a sticker on my drumkit and one or two mods to show for it – they’re a bit Melb/Syd-centric and I’ve only been over for a few years. Analogue Heaven was my main port of call for nerding.
BTW, if you don’t want your Mirage any more I could take it off your hands. ;)
Well they say weddings do bring people closer.
I’m thinking along very similar lines right now, looking for some old bakelite radio or related retro tech to gut and use to mask my Sony Vaio laptop onstage.
Neither did I. Found ’em mainly too earnest, humourless and twiddely-beep-bonk. Personally I lean more towards the Ash Wednesday circa Crashland school of electronic composition ie: mix up all the instruments, bash the shit of your machine and scare the audience.
Hmm, thinking about that. You never know if 3 1/2 floppies might make a comeback.
3 1/2 – no problems after using an S-10 for about a decade after nobody made “QDs” (quick discs) any more.
My plan (severely on the back burner) is to make a simple USB controller housed in something ultra-cool, that could interface with whatever soulless looking digi-box you like. But you’re right, no real evidence of a computer on stage would be good. What to do about the screen glow though?
Next actually plausible plan – build some new timber end-cheeks to replace the broken ones on my SH-09. The little champ is looking decidedly sorry for himself.
Ooh, now we’re talking electrosmack. Well my original Korg MS-20 is still in fine fettle. Still does nice things in the studio. But only really worth hauling on stage for the visual impact.
This might be a handy tip for you. Wanna remember the settings and cable/peg patches you come across while mucking about on such antique tech? Just take a photo of the layout with your digital camera, photoshop the outcome if need be for additional clarity (eg: circle in red easily overlooked settings) and print out and clip into a ringbinder folder. Looks great on stage too when you flip through the folder with the concerned expression of a Houston mission controller.
Actually FDB, sounds like we should catch eachother’s next gigs. You can contact me on wilberforcepike at hotmail dot com. We can work out the hygiene from there to protect our secret identities.
Good thinking – expect a missive. Unfortunately at the moment all I’m really doing is playing drums and singing backups, unless you count Moderate Rock – a side-project doing power ballads, synth pop and yacht rock from ’78-’85, for a Melbourne Fringe show. A bit of keys there, but mostly drums and lead vocals. Or cokals, as I call them.
Hold the li-i-i-ine…
I used to do patch sheets quite a bit, but I know the SH-09 so well I’ve never needed them for it. Plus it’s pretty simple. An MS-20 would definitely need one though. For the System-100 modular we used to use pre-theft, we had flip-down ones on A3 transparencies with holes cut for the knobs, but then all the cables got in the way and it turned a bit shambolic.
Yo FDB,
Still doing your Tote gig in December?
If so, I’ll be there. Mainly though to check the headline act whose principals’ work I have pretty much admired and scientifically studied over the years.
And to have a drink or too.
Well, the band is doing the gig, but they’re ringing in a drummer cause I’ll be in Frisco. Easy enough to do, as our lovely lead singer’s boyfriend is a skinsman. I don’t think I’ll be playing until ’08, unless my newest band gets its act together pretty smartly.
Talking of theremins and the Percy Grainger museum (I take it derailment has opened the fllodgates for truly out of synch comments) my most transcendent musical memory involved filing past the Museum into to the U. of Melb Conservatorium next door to hear the quartet for the end of time in the presence on Olivier Messiaen and the next night at the concert hall Yvonne Loriod activating the ondes martenot at the concert hall in the Turangalila symphony, also with her husband looking on.
how nice Ken and Jen’s wedding allowed me to relive the memory.