Ways to stand out in a crowd:
1. Drive a car dressed in a silver lame ballet dress. (Interesting sentence that; imperative, and leaves you guessing who's wearing the tutu, the car or the driver. Unless you read the last post, you would of course assume the driver, and correct F's punctuation. And then you would wonder why that would make any car driver particularly stand out in a crowd.)
2. Drive a car covered in artificial grass, or painted all over with a mural of sealife (as did a friend of F's when she - the friend - was in the marine zoology department of Otago University. The friend was in most respects relatively 'normal', it was simply that she was a student and drove a very old car which her friends decided to 'decorate' one day). That was all a long time ago - back to today.
3. Walk to work pushing a cat on a hand-cart.
4. Dye your hair purple and cut it into a mohawk. (Optional extra: body piercing saftey pins)
5. Take your knitting to a football match.
There are lots of ways to stand out in a crowd if that's what you want out of life. Interestingly some of the ways are simply viewed as eccentric, while some ways are viewed as a threat to other people, or by other people, and some ways are not actually stand-out-of-the-crowd so much as they are conformity to some other crowd and being in the wrong one - like wearing a blue scarf in a crowd of Southampton supporters. (If you are not from Hampshire, England you might have to look that one up.)
Or in the case of the driver of the silver holdall on wheels mentioned yesterday, being shirtless and barefoot, wearing only ripped black(ish) jeans, having interesting tattoo art and multiple piercings decorating all that exposed skin, and finding himself surrounded by uniformed police.
Leaving aside the pimping job on his car, this young man conformed to a certain stereotypical appearance that was not confined to his own eccentricity, and one which is almost certain to attract the attention of the 'constabulary' in any country we have been in; a situation only compounded by driving such an eye-catching buggy. He may have been a model citizen and we saw nothing to suggest he wasn't. He may have been experiencing unwarranted persecution by the police - or not. We didn't hang around to find out.
The point that occurred to us (and we discussed it the rest of the way home) was: if you feel the need to make yourself stand out, turn heads, or just want to be different, (and you have a choice in the matter) why pick conformity to a stereotyped appearance that is going to make you a target of suspicion (particularly by Mr Plod), or make the general populace feel a bit threatened by the way you present yourself?
Surely that's just inviting trouble isn't it?
Or maybe that's the objective and we're missing the whole point.
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And can anyone explain to us 'Gate 7' ? - it goes with all the football graffiti over here irrespective of the Club.
(F wouldn't get her knitting into a football match would she? Their security is probably tougher than airports.)
Hari OM
ReplyDelete...maybe look up The Karaiskakis Stadium disaster... (many deaths at Gate 7)
Carrying needles into a stadium would, one might think, constitute high risk, so no F, don't try it!!!
As for standing out - sometimes it just happens even when one is not trying. When one IS trying, it might as well have impact and there are those who think negative impact is 'kool'. We were all young once...
Did you fancy being pushed around in a cat buggy, Tigger??? Hugs and whiskeries, YAM-aunty xxx
We did our research on Gate 7 thanks for pointing in the right direction. As for cat buggy - that was definitely Tiggers choice it would never have occurred to his humans. It started with the wheelbarrow (which was referred to as the hgv - head gardeners van and used for trips to the allotment). The furrari with the red soft top came later was reserved for 'cruising'.
DeletePossibly something like the old Bay 13 in the Southern Stand at the MCG. That's where all the action took place- lull in the cricket.....out would come the big bouncy beach balls.....Mexican waves usually started there.
ReplyDeleteWith gate 7 being associated with soccer ( my least favourite sport) Im not sure I want to know the answer to your question:)
I'm with you on the least fav sport think. The sport itself is very skilled and i can appreciate the beauty of that, but the culture around it (not least the amounts of money involved) is unattractive to me
DeleteI had a friend who was once on her way to a fancy-dress party and had to stop for petrol. Passing police stopped and asked why she was wearing an old-fashioned ball gown and wig!
ReplyDeleteSome friends of Mr B have a tale like that in 'old' Sth Africa. On their way to fancy dress party they got stopped by police and got themselves in all kinds of bother for having the names James Bond and Robin Batman (what were their parents thinking?) I guess the bother was only until they established they were not taking the michael out of the police.
ReplyDeleteI suppose some people would consider me to be eccentric but I don't care. I have taken knitting to all sorts of places, it was the done thing years ago, now knitting is only for the few that can afford the over priced yarn.
ReplyDeleteTalking of cars. Our old car had car seat covers with large pink cats on, it looked as though they were sitting in the seats.
I don't think I'm eccentric I just like a bit of fun and a lot of people have no sense of humour i find. lol
Briony
x
Well Dickens had 'em knitting at the guillotinings, that's not unlike taking your knitting to the football is it? F likes the little Yorkie on the top of your blog btw- first flash she thought is was real! (Her eyes aren't what they used to be - I can still tell the difference).
ReplyDeleteI contribute as much fur as possible to extend the knitting yarn supply. She had to tell her nephew his new jersey was only 95% wool (5% cat fur). He said at least it would be warm, she warned him it would bristle if he got close to a dog.