Monday, March 03, 2008

Boiler

One week ago:

I visited the ‘Laughing in a Foreign Language’ exhibition at the Hayward Gallery, London. The work of David Shrigley, I liked a lot. The work of Roi Vaara made me grin like an idiot (I couldn't find any good links, so this will have to do). The rest, well, they tried.

Friday:

[Morning]

Emma: (sighs) I’m gonna have to call the boiler man (plumber) – there’s a small leak below the boiler, the pressure gauge has gone right down and there’s hardly any flow out of the hot tap.
Shane: Ok.

[Afternoon]

Boiler man comes, boiler man glues something that he should have glued previously, boiler man fiddles with knob, boiler man – appropriately - does not have audacity to charge, boiler man exits.

[Evening]

Alex: (singing) Boiler man, Boiler man, Does whatever a boiler man does, Can he swing from a… (breaks off from singing) What would a boiler man swing from?
Shane: A pipe?
Alex: (singing) …Can he swing from a pipe?, No he can’t, He’s a boiler man, Look ouuuuuuuuut - it’s boiler man!

Quietly, I pondered the absurd, effortless and really quite pleasing humour of young Alex.

And if you missed the pop’ cultural reference, this will make it clear.

4 comments:

LB said...

the irony being that the boiler man clearly didn't "do whatever a boiler man does" first time around.

polite. said...

If you like David Shrigley, you may enjoy this:

http://shop.politecards.com

OldHorsetailSnake said...

Drinking blood, and stealing babies: This is art. ? Okay, if you say so....

Zinnia Cyclamen said...

I think Alex has learned a lot from you.