The Breakfast Radio Diaries 054: One too many trumpets

I watched Top Gun Maverick last night, feasted on prawn trumpets, devoured wedges in sour cream and got home late.

And when I was snuggled up under my double doona while the rest of the house slumbered, that's when my body decided it was a fully fueled F-14 Tomcat and refused to switch itself off. So you can just imagine how I felt when the first alarm interrupted the sleepless darkness circa 4:30am and how alive I'm feeling right now typing this update.

Still a bloody great film though.

THANKS FOR COMING TONIGHT!

It's been a while since we had a thumping great client appreciation night here at the radio station. Covid put a halt on of those kind of plans for the last couple of years so you could just imagine how excited people were to not only get back into the swing of things with a free night out, but one that featured a hugely anticipated movie. 
Oh and plenty of food and drink, which is a fantastic way to have me turn up to just about anything, put on a free feed. 

I'd hoped out loud earlier that prawn trumpets would be served and the venue didn't disappoint. And if you're new to them, well you're missing out. It's a bit of a prawn, wrapped in a spring roll wrapper and shaped like a trumpet, then deep fried. Well technically more a long ancient horn but prawn trumpet certainly sounds a lot better than prawn horns..

And it's fair to say, I smashed my way through a lot of prawn trumpets at this client night. And the wedges on offer, the occasional aranchini ball and probably one too many spring rolls. But mostly the trumpets, more than enough to make up for the lack of them over the last couple of years. In fact you may argue that I had too many of the things, based on my own trumpet noises created this morning on the walk to the shower.
But I regret nothing, they were delicious. 

TOP MARKS THERE TOM

I'll admit, I've never seen the first Top Gun in full. I've seen bits of it over the year because for quite some time the free to air channels loved flogging it to death as the Friday or Saturday 8:30 movie but never a complete viewing. Going into this one, I did know the following:

-Tom Cruise was in it

-Anthony Edwards wasn't

-Val Kilmer might be

But even with that bare bones introduction to the original tale of fighter pilots and Geese, I could still get into this 2022 edition as a stand alone. And boy oh boy does this stand up proudly! In a nutshell: 

-The premise of this film reminds me a lot of the incredible work that is Pink Floyd's immortal Dark Side of the Moon album. Namely Time: And then one day you find ten years have got behind you, no one told you where to run, you missed the starters gun and Brain Damage And if the band you're in starts playing different tunes, I'll see you on the dark side of the moon. Because for Tom's Character, he chooses to live up to his own expectations and nobody else's even though it's kept him from rising through the ranks. And suddenly 30 years on he comes to the shock realisation that even though he's just as good, if not better than he ever was at what he does, the world has moved on. There's up and coming hotshots and the technology on the way to make pilots obsolete. People see him as a teacher more than a fighter Ace even though he doesn't want that role. And of course fate won't give him the opportunity to prove that, so he's got to take risks to show the world what he's made of, pushing himself and what he flies well past the edge. 
And while I'll never get to pilot something like he does, there's a lot of relatable parallels I can appreciate at my age (currently 42, mental age half that) that drew me in. Even Lu picked up on them as we chatted about the film this morning behind the scenes, the concept of watching up and comers out of nowhere snap up those roles you worked so hard for, the faith in the loudest cocky upstart or you being put out to pasture once you cross a certain age.
There's a lot more going on here outside of the fighter jets.

-Buuuuut, the fighter jets are equal parts awesome too, the dogfights and training sequences especially. I'm not spoiling anything but even the older planes in action are bloody brilliant, even if you don't know your F-14's from your B52 Bombers. 

-Great scene with Val Kilmer which spoke volumes even though he currently finds it hard to talk in real life.    

-A couple of good chuckles along the way, love it.

-Jennifer Connelly is absolutely gorgeous here and a perfect match for Tom when they could have quite easily cast someone a couple of decades younger than he is (there's only 8 years the difference between the two.) 

-The action is brilliant from whoa to go. 

Go and see it, it's a top flick.

FROM CRUISE TO CAMPING

So the Border Music camp is coming up later this year and today we got talking about our own school camp experiences which for me included tents by the beach at Wilson's Prom, cabins at Pt Lonsdale near Queenscliff, spending time at farmsteads in Mt Best and Avenal and an unforgettable trip to Tasmania via the massive ferry the Spirit of Tasmania.

And while as a group of year 10 students we hated Doo Town (every house has a Doo in it for some reason) I can still remember being able to smell the Cadbury Chocolate factory before even laying eyes on it while on the bus. I almost cried at the dump master full of broken Snack chocolate too. 

Lu recalled one of her first camping trips to Maroon Dam Education Centre in Qld (and the ancient cabins she slept in) while callers and Facebookers shared their memories of Canberra, Expo 88 (Let's make it great in 88!) and even a trip to Japan! (Still high on the list of places I need to visit before I die.)

TOMORROW WE COLLECT THE 80'S

No wait, I've written that incorectly. Tomorrow (Flock of 80's Friday of course) we find out what you collected back in the 80s. What a great time for footy cards and stickers, Star Wars and GI Joe and the adventures of He Man with all the must have toys along the way. Should be fun!

Chat then

-Almigo