Hey! for the Ovens! (Oven Boy Shanty)

Okay, a second shot at the Oven boy shanty. This time, it's actually in a shanty format:

Hey! for the Ovens

When I was still a shy young lad
Hey! for the ovens! Ho! for the bread!
I left my home and Mum and Dad.
I’d rather be back home in bed!

A woman in a bakery
Hey! for the ovens! Ho! for the bread!
Said she might have a job for me
I’d rather be back home in bed!

Oh the oven boy works at the crack of dawn
Hey! for the ovens! Ho! for the bread!
With the heat of the ovens in the early morn
I’d rather be back home in bed!

I lift the bread and cakes and pies
Hey! for the ovens! Ho! for the bread!
While the sweat gets in my eyes
I’d rather be back home in bed!

The trays are heavy in my arms
Hey! for the ovens! Ho! for the bread!
Why did I ever leave the farm?
I’d rather be back home in bed!

Oh the oven boy works at the crack of dawn
Hey! for the ovens! Ho! for the bread!
With the heat of the ovens in the early morn
I’d rather be back home in bed!

I get a pie or cake each day
Hey! for the ovens! Ho! for the bread!
And cash to keep the bills at bay
I’d rather be back home in bed!

But still, I miss my little bed
Hey! for the ovens! Ho! for the bread!
And, surely, I am sick of bread.
I’d rather be back home in bed!

Oh the oven boy works at the crack of dawn
Hey! for the ovens! Ho! for the bread!
With the heat of the ovens in the early morn
I’d rather be back home in bed!

"But I believe there will still be pages"

I love the poem at the end of this page:

http://www.otago.ac.nz/alumni/graduation/7december2005/address.html

I particularly love the line:

There will be no more screens or screen-savers
but I believe there will still be pages.

Of ballads and shanties, alive alive-o

One of my co-workers has a son who has recently started work as an oven boy.

For some reason, the term "oven boy" reminded me so much of "cabin boy" that I felt compelled to write a sea-shanty about bakeries.

It didn't work. For some reason I came up with a ballad while trying to write a shanty.

I think I've just read way too much Australian poetry and Scottish and Irish folk songs. My brain is too predisposed to ballads (well, I did win an award for one when I was a teenager).

I'll have to have a think about it and try again later.

The Oven Boy (Not a Shanty)

This is all Helen's fault:

The Oven Boy

When I was just a young lad
My fortunes I did seek
And left my home and family
To see what I would meet.
I traveled many long miles
Until I reached the sea
And there I found a busy town
Which had a bakery.

And it's hey! Ho! High! For the ovens
It's hey! Ho! High! For the bread.
For the cakes and pies are made by the baker
And the sweat on the oven boy's head.

I tried to find a good job
To keep me off the streets
The bakery could offer me
Some work to earn my keep.
The work was hard but simple
With early morning starts
And I worked as an oven boy
With music in my heart.

And it's hey! Ho! High! For the ovens
It's hey! Ho! High! For the bread.
For the cakes and pies are made by the baker
And the sweat on the oven boy's head.

The ovens made me swelter
The bread it broke my back
The early mornings made me tired
From all the sleep I lacked.
But now I am the baker
And baking gives me joy
And now I'm grateful for the days
I was an oven boy.

And it's hey! Ho! High! For the ovens
It's hey! Ho! High! For the bread.
For the cakes and pies are made by the baker
And the sweat on the oven boy's head.

Tapir

I was looking up pudus, which lead me to dik-diks, which lead me to ungulates in general, which lead me to Tapirs...



I've gotta say, every now and then you just look at the world around you and think "God has the weirdest ideas."

It's good, though. Even though I didn't even know what a pudu or a dik-dik was a year ago (and had never seen a photograph of a tapir), I can't help but think it would be incredibly sad to live in a world where pudus and dik-diks never existed.

I love living in a world of wonders.

The Supremes

Strangely, The Supremes really were at their best after Diana Ross left.

Oh, sure, the early years with Mary and Flo and "Stop in the Name of Love" and all that were just magic, but The Supremes as a group slowly faded into almost nothing while Diana was in the lead. Diana Ross and the Supremes was, quite frankly, not that good.

The later years, though, with Jean Terrell and Sherrie Payne? That was a good group. You actually felt like there was more than just a front-woman and a couple of backing singers.

Plus, "Up the Ladder to the Roof" and "Driving Wheel" rock. So does their cover of "Love Train". I feel like the "best of" stuff I have for the Diana era is more than enough, but I want more of the 70s Supremes...

That's It

I'm done. I have finally seen the light, and come to the realisation that this society is for the birds.

Actually, I think birds would probably be a more logical option than this society.

Does anyone know where I can check out/get off/join a strange cult living in the mountains behind no-where-in-particular?

I'm happy to go mainstream - as long as mainstream is Amish or Mennonite.

I was sent a new credit card today. It came with a "new feature" - Pay Pass. Apparently, as a society, we have progressed beyond being too lazy to lather our own soap. Now, it's too much to even expect us to sign our own name.

This is supposed to make life better: instead of signing for a credit card transaction under $35, you just tap your card against a reader and walk out with whatever you've bought.

I find this problematic and disturbing for a number of reasons. For one thing, some clever bunny is going to invent a reader that can pick up the information on your card by "accidentally" bumping into you in the street. I don't care how secure the bank says it is, this will happen. For another thing, if someone manages to get their hands on your card, they can just fritter away your money in small transactions and no one is going to check if it's actually their card (yes, I know, most shop attendants don't check any way - that's not the point).

I'm also concerned with the fact that this will make credit far too convenient - at least when you paid for the "small stuff" with cash, you could see how much you were spending and make value judgments one what to buy as a result.

Mostly, though, I think this whole idea stinks because it's yet another step towards oblivion. Why is our supreme goal "nothing"? Why are we striving so hard to get to a place in our lives where we don't do anything at all? Why is everyone around us telling us it's a great idea when everything is done for us and we don't have to lift a finger - and why do we believe them? Our quality of life is supposedly "improving", and yet we are fatter and more miserable than ever - and like muscles that are never used, our life-skills are atrophying.

We need to keep ourselves busy with the business of living. When we don't need to do anything for ourselves any more, we loose something of what makes living worth doing. Whether we like it or not, we do have to do "something" (rather than "nothing") with our time or we rot.

Of course, the same people who are "kindly" taking away that nasty "living" stuff for our convenience are also "kindly" providing us with something else to devote our attention to: to-of-the-charts music, blockbuster movies, fashionable clothes and other ethereal, slippery things we need to spend money to have (in small payments of less that $35 that can now simply be tapped away) until we get bored in five-minutes time and need something new.

Aldous Huxley's Brave New World seems closer every day (I even got a spam email the other day trying to sell me Soma), and I can't help but feel we've all missed the point. This isn't a better world we are forging.

Let me lather my own soap, sign my own name and live my own life. It's not like I've got anything more important to do.