NAKED CITY: A SAD GOODBYE TO THE NEWSPAPER HAT
Way back before personal computers, mobile phones and Game Boys, kids and parents alike often amused themselves by making paper sailors hats out of yesterday’s edition of the daily broadsheet. The simple two-minute exercise in origami always produced a round of chuckles as the family paraded in their snappy newsprint headgear.
You could make a paper hat out of a tabloid but for the full floppy effect a broadsheet was almost essential. Now it seems not only are the days of the beloved broadsheet, like SMH, numbered (scheduled to go tabloid next year), but newsprint itself could become a rarity within the next decade or so. It’s good news for trees around the world but the end of an era that many remember with both great affection and practicality.
Flashback to the pre-computer days of the 60s, 70s and 80s when Sydney boasted four daily newspapers, the SMH, The Telegraph, The Daily Mirror and The Sun. The Mirror and Sun were afternoon tabloids, first hitting the streets in the late morning with their screaming banner headlines and updating with several editions during the day.
Newspaper vendors were on every corner in the CBD, braving all weather conditions as they clutched an enormous bunch of papers under one arm and dispensed change with another. In the suburbs paper boys collected their quota at the local newsagent, flogging them outside factories, pubs, sporting events and wherever there was the sniff of a sale.
Newsprint was omnipresent. Your fish and chips came wrapped in it and your garbage was often disposed with it, snuggly encased in yesterday’s headlines. If you were moving house you needed at least three or four copies of the Saturday SMH to safely pack your crockery and other breakables and if you were lighting a fire or barbeque it was almost essential for a speedy ignition. Newspaper was the most recyclable household item whether it was lining the kitty litter tray or providing an emergency supply of dunny paper in the backyard loo.
The question now arises: what will we do when newspapers are finally consumed by the ravenous online giant? Try making a paper hat out of bubble wrap or wiping your bum with a Wettex. In the meantime there is also the ideological consideration. If Gina Rinehart does acquire the tabloid version of the Sydney Morning Herald and appoints Andrew Bolt as CEO, would you really want to be seen wearing a paper hat made from a four-page editorial by Lord Monckton?
THE HOT LIST: Two outstanding jazz gigs next week that should not be missed. Firstly on Tuesday 10th Brisbane’s Trichotomy join forces with Sydney’s DVA for a night of real musical adventure at Venue 505 in Surry Hills. Secondly the Daimon Brunton Quintet from Melbourne relive the excitement of the great trumpeter Freddie Hubbard’s fiery 70s recordings when they launch their brand new album at the Basement on Wednesday 11. Get along to both!
