Floor 7 1/2

… and Trenna’s Voice, Recording Kitchen Tape No. 8

By Greg, and then Trenna’s own voice

The popular-culturally literate among you will immediately be thinking “Being John Malkovich“.

What’s this got to do with Trenna?

Well….

I have decided that in most cases I’m NOT going to put the original sound recordings on this website – at least for now.

However, I thought I should put up at least one, to provide an idea of what the original recordings were like.

I decided that Kitchen Tape 8 was to be that recording. So, I thought I’ll call it Kitchen Tapes #8 1/2. I may have been thinking of the the Fellini movie?

But that got me thinking, and of course, there’s a story….

John Malkovich

In our early years together, like many couples we would hire a few VHS video tapes most weekends. Thank goodness Trenna owned a video tape recorder when I met her, because I didn’t.

A quick aside. When Trenna moved into my place my Mum and Dad visited. Up to that point my Mum was a bit ambivalent about Trenna. However, after she visited, Trenna got the parental tick of approval. My Mum was impressed that Trenna had such good furniture! Us Mahneys are very practical!

We chose a fairly wide variety of movies, but thought we were on sound ground by picking movies which starred any of the following, Clint Eastwood, Charles Bronson, Bruce Willis, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Gene Hackman or John Malkovich.

“Do yourself a favour”

So when we stumbled upon “Being John Malkovich” we thought we would give it a try.

Trenna and I both loved it, and it cemented our appreciation of the titled actor (who ISN’T the lead).

If you still aren’t with me, you haven’t seen this film. “Do yourself a favour”. Watch it.

Anyway, for those few who are still lost, there is a very famous scene in it when John Cusack has an appointment on floor 7 1/2. Trenna and I laughed and laughed when we saw it. (I’m told that it comes exactly 7 1/2 minutes into the movie).

So that is why this post is called Floor 7 1/2.

Here is a link to the famous Floor 7 1/2 scene. Bloody brilliant!

But There is More

In 2009 Trenna and I were on holidays in London. It was night time and we were on the Tube. It wasn’t crowded and we were sitting on seats that faced the opposite side of the carriage.

In walked John Malkovich and sat directly opposite us, pulled out a paperback and started reading.

Even with Trenna’s bad eye sight she immediately could see who it was just 2 metres away.

We each got sore ribs from the other person poking us so hard.

He looked up, and it was obvious that he knew that we knew.

And….

We didn’t say anything or do anything!

When we got back to our accommodation, I checked and he was definitely in London at the time. We hadn’t doubted it anyway.

The Point of These Stories

The stories are true (of course) and it is just a way to pad out a post which otherwise would just be a link to a recording.

So, if your interested, click on the player below for about 32 minutes of unedited Trenna, recording the Kitchen Tape Number 8. (At one point you will hear me turning the page on my notebook. The other muffled noises are me chuckling away at Trenna’s stories.)

Trenna’s Previous Recordings in the South Perth Library

[GM: Trenna did 2, one hour oral history recordings about Craig House for the South Perth City Council.  In them she talks more about Matron and her interactions with her charges.

You can find them on the South Perth Library website, here. On the same page there is also a downloadable PDF that has a timed summary of the recordings so you can skip to particular stories. ]

For the next instalment of the Kitchen Tapes, No. 8 click here.

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