Brodie Milne and Sean Keenan - A Long friendship.
Put simply Brodie William Brian Milne is the greatest friend I have ever had, and quite possibly ever will have. The aura that this man exhumes is phenomonal. The following article gives a brief insight into the pair and is written in a third party perspective.
Debate has raged for some time over when the Keenan/Milne friendship started. Keenan initially said 1994 was when it all began but that has been refuted by both Milne and Milne's mother, stating it all began "before Ariel was born" which puts the date circa 1991. Keenan says he has breif flashbacks of this time but nothing substantual. What IS known that it was in 1994 when it really took off, a time when these two 'kids' were just approximatley 9 and 8. Keenan likes to tell the story this way: It all began with Keenan and Jarron White being inseperable friends at the time; both sitting next to one another in the year 3 classroom. Michael Harvey, the school stink bomb was acting up again and the class teacher, Miss Henry decided to move the bastard away. She looked to see who should be moved to replace Harveys chair. She looked at White, which alarmed Keenan and Keenan made some sort of moaning gesture. Henry then chose Keenan instead. Of course it should be noted that Keenan was sitting directly across the table from Milne at this time and with this move was situated well away from him. So how exactly did this benifett Milne you ask? The Keenan/White friendship slowly died away because of the seating arrangments and Milne became White successor. Something as simple as moving away from White killed the friendship and White is no longer considered anything by Keenan - he doesn't even make the all time top 50 best friends. Around this time Keenan noted the weird patch of hair on the side of Milne's head, which he proclaimed "Brosmania". Um... Brodie claimed it that is.
From these humble beginnings came a great link. Predominatley Aliens was the boys forte when it came to playing games and having fun; memories of the house at 626 Lane Lane run rampant in Keenan's mind. Milne won that years 'Friend Of The Year' award and sadly departed for Perth at years end. It was truley believed at this point that this was probably the end for them. Perth from Broken Hill was a 4 day drive and both rarely wrote letters let alone used the phone. Milne and Keenan lost contact and both continued their lives with other people, Milne in Perth, Keenan at Broken Hill North School.
It wasn't until a rather untimley and sad divorce proceedure occured in 1996 that Milne and his mother Sandy returned to Broken Hill. Keenan claims he didn't know how he heard of Milne's return, but eagerly anticipated it. The two did collaberate again, albeit briefly, in the summer of 96. Milne had however found other friends in Wade Nielson and Mark Hayman, and Keenan had found a best friend in Matthew Robson. A 'break-up' ensued and it would be 3 further years before a comeback was made. During 1997 and 1998, Milne was seen sporadically, especially since both went to the same High School - Willyama.
It is interesting to understand that the 'golden period' of Keenan and Milne's friendship actually owed it's inception to Grahem Semmens and Robin Davis - and the fact I was friends with Grahem's son, Jarvis. Robin's son Ty rekindled his friendship with Jarvis in Year 7 and with some time, Ty became friends with Brodie. Both were slight underachievers at school (which makes the Davis/Semmens friendship seem incompatable considering Semmens was bright). With revolution hitting Keenan after a terrible year in 1998, he ditched goodie two shoes Semmens and became exclusive friends with Ty Davis. Davis became the 'next big thing' and won the much coverted 'Friend Of The Year' in 1998. Whilst the revolution was indeed underway, Ty Davis' uprising was a false dawn. Hands up here anyone who takes Ty Cater Davis seriously? There was no way possible Ty could ever have any credability... in fact, if Keenan and Davis had remained close buddies, would it be possible everyone would look at Keenan as a delirious moron? Maybe he'd push everyone away if he had remained mates with Davis. By early 1999 the cracks had begun to show in the mighty Davis juggernaught and with Matthew McCoy returning from Wagga Wagga after a 4 year hiatus (he left the following year after Milne did in 1994), Ty Davis was regulated to 'second best' friend status. He was the back up guy. Although to be fair for the next 2 years Ty Davis was seen as massivley funny and remained a Keenan favourite until the inevitable happened and he was just TOO different from Keenan and his small group of friends. In either case, Ty Davis legacy was giving me my best friend, Brodie Milne, for it was in Year 8 of 1999 that Milne became a friend again. The pair both had an English class together and during this class they endlessly spoke about sex (the new big topic) and little else. In fact it wasn't really until the year 2000 that they finally became best friends. 1999 was a great year but surprisingly Milne didn't have a massive influence. He was a minor friend that year. In 2000 McCoy had seemingly reached his peak. He was an annoying prick from time to time but basically after winning the 1999 'Friend of the Year" he was a big favourite to take it out again in 2000, quite possibly the 2nd person to win it back to back and the first person to get to 3 Friend of the Year's (FOTY). It didn't get past the first quarter. After the final sleepever at McCoy's house, Milne somehow or another became the next big thing... even bigger then Keenan's cool cousin Brent McLaughlin. The rest of the year dealt with the boys humor and love of cricket and computer games. And sex of course....chatting about it anyway. Milne's persistance paid off, and I'll always appreciate this till the end of my days. We've just gone through too much together. After all this time, they had become good friends... but Milne had not yet quite reached the level of superstardom on the Keenan hitlist at this point.
It is beyond the scope of this article to discuss the massive "Khan Emipre" - a 6 month period in which Milne became 2nd best to first Mark Khan and then Darren Khan. Suffice to say however that Milne was at this point considered a good, but not great friend. As late as April 2001 when Darren Khan was all the rage, Brodie Milne lingered as has-been. A man who was considered the back up man. The fall out guy.
My oh my how things were about to change...
I distinctly remember saying to the young Darren Khan in about April 2001 that 'Time makes the heart grow stronger'. A particulary gay thing to say. Khan was going to Adeliade for a week, and time definatley did not make the heart grow stronger (in anycase the saying is 'time makes the heart grow fonder'). There's 2 things that absence can do, either make you miss the person, or make you grow up and realise who they really are. For Khan it was the latter. After the final week of Term 1 at school hangin out with Milno came the now legendary school holidays where corny humor and cricket reigned supreme. On April 21, 2001 Keenan had his first ever sleepover with Milne.
By the time school was to go back Keenan made the realisation that hanging around with Darren Khan and his accomplice (Joe Walsh) was a mistake. They were 2 years younger and were at that time too babyish acting for Keenan's taste. Ironic that really.... Keenan usually walked to school stopped at a corner and waited for the 2 boys to come to the corner. I can even still feel the turning point of revolution now. Years later Keenan would write about this saga in an English class to which it got a scathing review by Mr Riley. Riley claimed that Keenan would see much bigger life events and getting married would be a much bigger thing. The implication was Riley didn't think this event was of major significants. He's intitled to his opinion. But he's wrong on several accounts. When I turned around and walked back to my house I was on the road to starting something. Milne's mother would always drive past and drop Brodie off if I was on my way to school. Often Keenan would just 'ditch' Milne and walk to school with Khan and Walsh. I think even one time Keenan told Milno he'd wait for them instead of walking to school with him. To Milno, I, Sean Keenan apologise profusley.
Riley didn't know the implications of that day. With me getting a lift with Brodie I was choosing a life long friend over a stupid little phase I was going through. Indeed neither Khan or Walsh have shown much longevity since then. With this decision, I would always have a 'rock' in my life, assuring me of at least some sort of happiness, and it's a friendship that lasts incredably to this day. I say this is incredable because usually no one can stand Keenan longer then a few years at best. Milne puts up with everything Keenan has to throw at him, and seems to want more. He'll always be the Number one. I say this with no gayness whatsoever that I love this guy dearly. It all changed on that fateful day in early May.
On May 19, 2001 Keenan had his second sleepover over Milno's house. By this time thier lingo was in full flight (brdie, shen) and the humor hit it's peak. That night they played the legendary night cricket without lights on (which lasted one ball), watched the movie Shaft and played a game between Eseendon and Fremantle(?) in which the scoreline was 1149 to 0. They watched and filmed some porn on Milno's TV and that night Keenan spoke to Jess Picken for the first time. Keenan had his first love (awww). It was also the night that Keenan boldly claimed despite the statistics not quite backing up his claim, that Milne was now the all time No.1 best friend. He'd waited in the wings so long and was clearly the 'go to' man now. Milne did get a massive challenge from Picken that year, and even might not have won that years FOTY, but with her dimise that August, Milne took out his 2nd FOTY - his first since 1994. After back-to-back runner up's, he secured the major prize. In the second half of 2001 the 'great depression' struck, caused by the breakdown of the Keenan/Picken relationship, but Milne stood strong, offering brilliant support and being the backbone of keeping me together during those dark days. Milne has gone on to achieve bigger and greater success since then, and of course it's been a whopping 8 years since then, but really, Brodie Milne has remained basically unchanged since then. Everything that he had to prove was proven; it's just that he would continue to consistantly do it for many years to come.
So what exactly makes this guy regarded so highly? Obviously theres common interests, that fact that you know someone a long time, experiences together, liking their personality. All of these things are qualities Keenan found in Milne, but most inportantly, it's Milne's humor that makes Keenan think they're closely intwined. Examples a numerous, but for the sake of this review, unnecessary. Suffice to say this guy comes up with notable classic quotes everytime the 2 carch up.
2002 was vintige Milno and he had his most dominant year yet. One could argie there was a lack of competition and you'd be right, but how many people can remain at Number One throughout an entire YEAR? The competition that year included such big names as Zane Parr, Chris Smith, Helen Beggs, Toby Clifton, Matt Paul, Belinda Matson and Katie Beggs. None of them able to dislodge Milno. This isn't an indictment on them, rather proof of how Milne was during this era.
Despite this, 2002 was mostly a year of misery really. Aside from the 'Oasis' period mid year and the 'alcohol discovery' end of year period, the year was lonely and boring. Again, Milne helped out a lot here and many of jokes and times spoken about nowadays originated in 2002. In fact, speak to these guys now and a lot of the jokes and stories are from 2002 onwards. Only a few jokes and songs have survived from pre 2001. In 2002 Phil Collins became the big artist and the boys listened to him a lot.... and even now good old Phil seeps through on the mp3 player.
Two double O two was weakened by the absence of Jess Picken, and she made her final comeback mid year, around the time I was dating Helen Beggs. Also at this time I was performing the song "I Can't Dance" by Genesis at the local repertory. With such memorable times, Keenan claims this to be the pinnicle of the year. Picken's interest in Keenan latest only a few months before completly dying off. It would never ever return.
Mid year, during this 'oasis' period Keenan and Milne put together a series of sketches which would become 'Next Year'. To this day it remains a cult classic and a favoutite of this pair. More on that in the 'Review On Next Year"
Whenever Keenan felt someonewhat down, Milne would always be there for a laugh. Jess Picken was hit on by Keenan until the end of high school. She was no longer part of his life, but she still did a bit of spice to what Keenan was doing in High School. He was always out to impress her. Indeed 6 years after high school and she still holds a place in my heart even if she doesn't recognise it.
In 2002 they played a shitload of cricket and, with Toby Clifton joining there little group, were enroute to the greatest ever year: 2003
2003 has since been called 'the greatest year of all time', but with Keenan's love of nostalgia, Jess Picken was often mourned and Keenan longed for the return of 626 Lane Lane (the family had moved out in late 2002)
