In the beginning….

It started as an answer to a question.  As all immensely annoying answers, the question raised in retort, not only posed a new question, but also was completely unrelated to the first.  So it failed to answer the initial question and it annoyed the other party. 

Two birds; one stone.  

Having just moved to Australia from Canada, I met someone in Brisbane who asked if I knew “A mate of his in Toronto named so-and-so.”  My answer was, “Hey, what would Darren Hanlon say?”  The reaction?  A blank look.

Dutifully, I explain that I lived about, as close to Toronto, a city of 5.5 million people, as we currently were to Perth, roughly 1700km, and that it was unlikely that I knew so-and-so, but, as fate would have I, I did in fact know his mate.  “In fact we went and saw Darren Hanlon open for Billy Bragg in Toronto.  You must know Darren; after all he’s from Gympie, just up the road, right?  Boy, what would Darren Hanlon say about this coincidence?” 

Unsurprisingly, my conservation companion didn’t know Darren Hanlon or get the joke. 

Since that time, I’ve made off hand references to Darren Hanlon and been asked, “What’s he like?”  The answer is always the same, “he’s great, but that’s my view, you should find out for yourself.”  And really you should.  His website is at:  

http://www.darrenhanlon.com/ and you can purchase his music online through iTunes, an affiliated site or in better music stores if you like the tangible experience of purchasing music, which incidentally, I used to love. 

However, this blog isn’t about Darren Hanlon, his music, what he would say or anything else really.  The question is a metaphor. 

Ok, then a metaphor for what?  Well, funny you should ask.  A metaphor for whatever you think works.

The back-story is that Darren Hanlon is a guy that makes music who was raised in Queensland, so the tagline is that he sings music about Australian experiences with an Australian accent.  I’ve never see Darren live, but I do own a number of his albums (in non-tangible digital form).  My first introduction was whilst listening to a podcast of a Billy Bragg show from Toronto.  During said podcast, Darren Hanlon opened for Billy Bragg and due to his wildly humorous and entertaining ways, in a few short days I expanded my great predilection for Billy Bragg (who I have seen live a number of time AND own a number of his albums) to an earnest fondness to Darren Hanlon.  Stylistically the two artists are very different, but both produce lyrics that are both clever and profound.  Both explore the human experience, Australian, British or universal, it doesn’t really matter.  That’s the great thing about metaphors.  

So now, what am I doing here?  Well I’ve moved to Oz and am preparing to write about human experiences.  Are these universal experiences?  Canadian experiences, with Canadian words and accents?  Australian experiences seen by a Canadian?  Does it matter? Well, what would Darren Hanlon say?  I don’t know, but I think that he’d say that you can’t “Cheat The Future”, so I suppose that means that you’ll have to read and find out.  Or maybe it means that as the author of this piece, I’m afforded a clever escape route and leave you as the reader to do the heavy lifting to unwind the metaphor.  At any rate, I hope that you enjoy and visit often.  Perhaps you can let me know if you see Darren and tell me what you think of what he might say.

Ironically, I understand that Darren Hanlon has moved from Australia to the USA.  “But I just got here!!” I suppose I’ll just have to stop off somewhere and “spit the dummy”.