Retrosexual - the reading matter on our table at the pub tonight
It’s been a bloody busy week at work,
I actually left a little bit early today – about 4.30 – because I needed to clear my head a little.
That’s one of the things about working with sound. Sometimes you just need a little quiet.
So I wandered around the city for a while not thinking about work, looking in shop windows, and generally chilling out a bit.
But even though I was totally bloody exhausted after and could have easily gone straight home to bed, I sent Graeme a text, asking if he felt like catching up for a drink. I’d seen him on Wednesday when he related some tales about his time in Sweden which was great. He told me a few other things also.
Oddly enough, we ran into a few people who joined us for a chat along the way, including The Other Andrew, and a bloke who used to be a barman at the pub we frequent. It was a lovely night of chatting and watching the world go by.
On arriving home, Sue and I chatted about our forthcoming holiday to NZ. We’re thinking South Island is probably the far more interesting option for this trip.
I suspect if there was anywhere else I would be happy to live in Sydney, aside from Surry Hills, it would be nearby Chippendale. It’s a suburb with a lot of cultural diversity, with an active arts scene (there are lots of great galleries in the area), and even with a lot of history, it’s also an area undergoing dramatic change (the Central Park complex is located on the suburb’s fringe).
I guess that’s why I really like the Beams Festival: it seems that it’s very much a product of the environment and the community in which it takes place. There’s edgy street art, there’s music and dance, and there’s even something for the kids. As we wandered around last night, it was great to take in and really enjoy all of the elements. Hey, we even watched and enjoyed the teenage hip-hop dancers.
This was only the third year of the Beams Festival in Chippendale, and only the second time I’ve attended, but there’s something really fantastic about the festival which already makes me anticipate next year.
Live Art at Beams Festival, Chippendale, Sydney
As you held the cardboard box to your face, you saw a 3-d screen image of the neighbourhood.
We never really understood what this performance was about.
Opera singer in a golden structure.
Launched from a terrace balcony atop an artwork made from recycled goods. Who else but Clover Moore?
“You booked this four months ago. You must be very organised…”, Tomo (one of the tour guides) said to me as I walked into the office of the “Tokyo Great Cycling Tour” earlier today. “No”, I told him, “I’ve just been planning this holiday for quite a while”.
When I first read about the cycling tour a few months ago, I thought it sounded like an excellent way to see Tokyo. Over the years I’ve been on many, many bus and walking tours, and I figured a cycling tour might encompass the best of both worlds: a chance to see a fair bit of the city, but still able to get out and about which you often can’t do on a bus.
Tokyo Cycle Tour
Then about a month ago, I started to get nervous when I looked at the finer detail, and read the tour was actually 26km long. Although I have a bike, and I ride every couple of weekends, I wasn’t sure my almost 50 year old body would be up to that level of endurance. Talking about it with friends, I was reminded when you’re on holiday you often walk long distances anyway, and that Tokyo was far more flat than Surry Hills.
I was further reassured when a few people older than me, and a few people obviously less fit arrived this morning. I had already prepared a “I’m Sorry, I’ll be the slowest” speech, anticipating almost everyone on the tour would be a slim 20 year old.
That said, the cycling was tough for a few people. A family of four announced just after lunch they had “hit the wall” and were planning to go back to the office. I also started to “feel my age” around three-quarters of the way through the tour. Then, as I chatted to others, I realised it wasn’t only my age, it was the fact it was 34 degrees today. Our other tour guide also told us she was finding it hard going in the heat and humidity. So I reckon if you have reasonable fitness, and you’re not planning to do it in the middle of summer, the tour would be good to do.
Drivers in Tokyo
Although we visited quite a few spots along the way, including The Imperial Palace, The Meiji Shrine, and some other less important historic locations (oh, and a confectionery store, and a restaurant at a capsule hotel for lunch), I’d estimate cycling still made up most of the tour. As I checked my “Google Fit” a few minutes ago, it revealed I walked for 127 minutes and rode for 169 minutes today, well and truly exceeding my daily goal.
My other goal today was to try to understand the Tokyo Metro. Though I gave up trying this morning (I needed to be there early), I made it back to the hotel (with a track change), and so I felt doubly proud.
Tokyo Waterlillies
After arriving home, I had a bath (with salts) which was well and truly needed. And then later I went for a walk around the nearby gay area. As I looked in some of the bars, it seemed most were full of much younger guys which is not really my thing, and I didn’t really want to be the old guy in the corner with no friends.
Tokyo
Tomorrow I’m planning to visit a few museums and galleries. After today’s efforts in the sun, I think I need a bit of indoor activity. Meanwhile tonight, I’m back in my hotel room with the air-conditioning on, and not doing any favours for climate change.
“I think I’ve fallen in love with the DJ”, I said to a few people earlier today. We were seated (and dancing) at Sydney’s “Stonewall Hotel”, hours after participating in the Sydney WorldPride walk across the Harbour Bridge.
With everything from New Order’s “Blue Monday” to Man2Man’s “Male Stripper” and Dead Or Alive’s “You Spin Me Round”, the DJ was playing tracks from the 1980s that took me back to the much-loved, Brisbane gay bar, “The Terminus”. Not long after, the songs he played took me back to my time living in Bourke, as Midnight Oil’s “Beds Are Burning” came over the speakers. And then we got into 1980s power rock songs like “The Final Countdown” and “Poison”.
As well as the diversity in 1980s music, there was also diversity in the crowd. Though there was a slight dominance of gay men, there was diversity within the diversity of the group.
What united us was participation in the bridge walk.
Crossing the Sydney Harbour Bridge with the incomparable Manda Hatter
We were in the first group to cross the bridge, which meant we were there for the opening speeches and the acknowledgement of what this was all about: human rights.
“The first time I had sex I was breaking the law, and I could have gone to gaol”, I said to a friend, a lesbian, who is just a couple of years younger. We then reminisced about someone we both knew who was one of the known many men who were killed during the hate crimes era of the 80s and 90s. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-04-16/nsw-inquiry-into-sydney-gay-hate-deaths/100995158 We both agreed we really hoped the younger members of the LGBTQIA+ community recognise the rights they enjoy today came from the activism of people in previous generations.
And for those who think it’s “all done, settled, nothing to worry about, it’s time to move on”, I’m hoping they’ll think beyond their personal circles, and recognise there is still a long way to go. In Australia, the latest campaign concerns the rights of trans people. In other parts of the world, people are still being sentenced to death over their gender and sexuality.
So it’s five o’clock in the afternoon. It’s dark. It’s wet. It’s gloomy. No, I’m not in Stockholm… I’m in Sydney. I can’t wait for my “year without winter”.
The half time act in Eurovision can often be quite boring. Riverdance from Ireland set the standard, prompting a global phenomenon. When Norway came to host Eurovision in 2010, they were already behind the curve with “flashmobs”, but they did an awesome job “uniting Europe”. I wanted to be there with them.
As part of these “moments”, I’m sharing in the lead-up to Eurovision, I’ll be highlighting two other exemplary interval acts. Both of them are from Sweden. When it comes to half-time acts, the Scandis do it well!!
It’s the twentieth anniversary today of the fall of the Berlin Wall. I doubt there’ll be television specials except perhaps on the ABC or SBS, but I note there is a Beck’s Beer advertising campaign appearing on bus shelters around Sydney.
1983
I’m not sure why, but I’ve always felt a bit of an affinity with Germany. I guess it has something to do with those childhood memories and learning German in high school. As I recalled about twelve months ago on this blog…
Twenty-six years ago, aged seventeen, I travelled to Germany (well, West Germany as it was then), with a group of school-mates and our teacher. I was in Year 12 and I’d been learning German for a number of years. Sometime a couple of years early, one of us had the idea of fund-raising for a trip to Germany, and so that’s just what we did. As well as the fund-raising, I also had a part-time job, and after two or three years, we had enough money to actually do it in May 1983. The memories of that trip remain incredibly vivid for most of my adult life. But particularly today, as I’ve walked around Berlin, many of those memories have come flooding back.
I remember the incredibly long overnight train trip from Frankfurt, being woken in the middle of the night for passport check (I couldn’t find mine for a moment), and then arriving in Berlin itself. I remember our day trip to East Berlin, and in particular, I remember going through one of the border points in Berlin (I remember it WASN’T Checkpoint Charlie), and going on a brief tour of East Berlin with an emphasis on galleries, museums and things like that. The East German tour guide was very proper, as I recall.
Later during our time in Berlin, I have an incredibly vivid memory of standing in the Tiergarten near Brandenberg Gate, where there were two guards goose-stepping their way around. Along with my two school-mates, Louise and Amanda, we waved at them, hoping for some response. Nothing. Nothing. And then finally, a very brief raised hand in response.
Travelling back to West Germany in the daylight hours, I also have a very vivid memory of seeing a school outside the train window, which declared with a huge sign that “The sun always shines in East Germany”.
Last year, I returned to Berlin and made the following observations…
A lot has changed in twenty five years, obviously. For a start, I’m staying in what was East Berlin. And so far, I’ve yet to wander over the border into what was West Berlin. From my perspective, it’s like visiting a whole new city, because in some ways it is. However, there are a few buildings I’ve recognised from that brief day-trip to East Germany. There’s been a wonderful sense of dejavu.
For a while the memories were a little overwhelming and I found myself a little overcome. “This is a total mindfuck”, I thought to myself at one point, reflecting on how different was the experience now. Not only because Berlin has changed dramatically, but also because I’m now seeing it through the eyes of a forty-two year old.
Interestingly enough, November 9 is an important day in German history. There’s a terrific article which discusses the significance of November 9 in German history, which I’d recommend.
Die Mauer
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Personally, I’d think about the North Island. It depends what you want to do and see. The South Island is spectacular, true. But the centre of the North Island is very unusual and also spectacular in a different way. You can see lots of historical Maori sites, which you won’t see in the South Island,, and geothermal stuff, ditto. Lake Taupo is beautiful (even better if you like trout fishing!), and the mountains are also lovely. There isn’t the lake/mountain wow factor, but it’s a lot smaller, so you can see more stuff in less time.
It’s your choice, of course, but email me if you want to talk about it more.
Personally, I’d think about the North Island. It depends what you want to do and see. The South Island is spectacular, true. But the centre of the North Island is very unusual and also spectacular in a different way. You can see lots of historical Maori sites, which you won’t see in the South Island,, and geothermal stuff, ditto. Lake Taupo is beautiful (even better if you like trout fishing!), and the mountains are also lovely. There isn’t the lake/mountain wow factor, but it’s a lot smaller, so you can see more stuff in less time.
It’s your choice, of course, but email me if you want to talk about it more.
MH – thanks for the tips.