Kookaburra Sits On My Balcony

I went looking for a book today in my hallway cupboard that contains, quite frankly, nothing more than a lot of junk. There are various bits of seemingly important paper, there are vinyl records, there’s a can of soup (WTF?), there are books that aren’t interesting enough to have on the shelves, and there are lots of old magazines.

In the end, I couldn’t find the book I was after, but I did spend an hour or so going through the magazines. There were classic 1980s magazines like “The Face” (which I collected religiously from its inception until almost the end), classic 1990s magazines like “Attitude” and more recently “Delicious Magazine”.

In some ways it was a brief journey through my life, reflecting on how interesting and important magazines once were to me, in contrast to now. The only time I ever read a magazine now is in a take-away or at the hair-dresser. And then I never read anything of substance. The crappier the better.

But back in the 1980s, buying and reading magazines like “The Face” was really important to me. Each month I’d anxiously await the latest copy, devouring it over several hours. With news about fashion, club culture, etc from the United Kingdom, it was a “guilty pleasure” for me, allowing me an insight into a world I couldn’t experience when I lived in Brisbane, Bourke, Renmark or Wagga. For a young lad from the bush, it was pretty bloody exotic.

And I loved it! And for years I would keep “The Face”, ordered month-by-month on my bookcase, as if it was an encyclopedia of style and taste.

In its time it was a great magazine. But then I lost interest in fashion (that shouldn’t surprise you), and the music and the artists they spoke about became less and less interesting, and I had other things in my life, so I stopped buying it. And then sometime in the last few years, it just folded. I don’t remember when.

I’m not sure how many people read “The Face” in Australia. I think the only time it ever really got much press here was when it was sued by Jason Donovan when it was suggested by the magazine he was not entirely heterosexual.

I noticed at work the other day Jason has a new CD featuring cover versions of a range of classic 60s songs, including a reworked version of his hit “Sealed With A Kiss”. With Jason on the comeback trail, maybe it’s time for “The Face” to re-emerge?

“How long have you been back?”, I was asked the other night by a colleague about my trip to Spain. “Only a week”, I told her, though I had to think about it for a moment, because so much has happened in the last seven days.

Normally, I don’t have much luck getting through customs. Even though I have one of those electronic passports which is supposed to recognise you and allow you through quickly, I’ve never had much luck with it. “You’ve lost quite a bit of weight since your passport photograph was taken” was the excuse offered to me a couple of years ago to explain why it always takes so long. But on this trip, I made it through in record time, even though my passport photograph was somewhat damaged, due to a collision with a water bottle, thanks to the short queue. I was also lucky with the public transport connections. We landed at 8 minutes past 7, and I was literally sitting on my couch at home by 10 minutes past 8.

Oddly enough, only metres from my home, I ran into a colleague, who lives close-by. He was on his way to work, and we exchanged “headlines” about my holiday, and what had been happening at work while I was away.

As we’re going through lots of planning for next year, work has been extremely busy in the last few days. Though I still found time to go out for lunch twice – once with friends, and once with colleagues – which is more than I normally manage. Usually, it’s lunch from the downstairs cafe, consumed in front of my computer. Though I’ve returned to work from this holiday with renewed vigour to go out for lunch as much as possible. The weather’s beautiful in Sydney right now, and I DON’T NEED to work through my lunch-break. I also had dinner with my friend Kate at the awesome BBQ King.

And on Friday night, I attended the annual Andrew Olle Media Lecture. Though I’ve been wearing the same suit and tie for the last fifteen years (probably longer) I went out and bought something new this year. “At least I’ll remember what year it was from”, I told my aforementioned colleague, as you’ll see from the topicality of the bow-tie.

Other events from the last week, include attending the launch of Media Diversity Australia, the marriage equality rally last weekend, and then today attending the People with Cameras photo event, centred around Central Park. Catching up with a mate I’ve met through Google+ was also awesome.

Did I miss anything?