Date: Sat, 22 Sep 2001 03:56:45 -0400 
Subject: Adventures in Oz, Report 1: Arrival, etc


Hi All, I am writing this at the Dong Dian Internet Cafe
on Darlinghurst Road, in King's Cross, Syndey, New South
Wales, Australia.  King's Cross is sort of the sordid
skid row area of Sydney, and this is a pretty sordid
internet "cafe" as well, but i just happened to be in
the neighborhood hoping to get some good field
recordings of pimps and smack addicts and whatnot, which
I succeeded at somewhat, but i might have to come back
later at night to really get the good sound bytes.  

Anyway, this is a brief report to let you all know I
made it.  For those of you on this list who have not
previously been briefed on this mission, I'm in this
far-off land for an art festival called Electrofringe. 
electrofringe.org will fill in some details.  Note that
I've included you on this list because I felt you'd be
interested in my travels.  If that's not the case just
let me know and i will omit you from future reports.

Ok back to events of the last 48 hours or so. Actually I
can't figure out how many hours it's been, but anyway, I
left San Francisco the night of the 19th.  SFO was
almost deserted. It was rather spooky.  Security was
tighter, but not as tight as I had thought it would be. 
For instance, they added a question to the 3 questions
they've always asked (about your bags being with
strangers, etc). The new question is: "do you have any
sharp implements?"  But, they don't actually check They
take your word for it.  Kind of disturbing.  Also, I was
amazed that they didnt want to x-ray my flight case full
of music gear, since it looks sort of omnious, like a
case that would hold a small nuclear device in a movie
starring Jean-Claude Van Damme.

Anyway, after getting to the gate everything went fine.
The flight was long, almost 14 hours, but not as long as
some other artists I know who are also coming to the
festival.  So I count myself lucky.  I actually got
about 7 hours of sleep out of that 14, so when I arrived
at Kingsford-Smith Airport in Sydney I was feeling
pretty normal.  I got through customs unscathed, tho it
was a long wait, and then wandered around trying to find
Shannon, a festival organizer who was supposed to pick
me up.  Finally a tall australian with a sign that said
"Steev" stepped up.  I was saved.

I'm running out of time and patience here at Dong Dian
Internet "Cafe" (there's a cooler full of bottled water
and soft drinks, I guess that makes it a cafe), so I
will just skim over things, and perhaps fill things in
later.  A short list of observations:

1. The sun seems to be even brighter here than in
California. 
2. Australians are mostly pretty nice,
though usually so calm and "unintense" in their speech
that it can at first be confusing.  I feel like sort of
a spaz most of the time, because, well, if you know me
you know i'm not very calm or unintense when i speak. 
3.Sydney is an amazingly beautiful city.  At least as
beautiful as San Francisco. 
4. It is springtime here. The air often smells wonderful, of flowers, but alien
flowers that I don't recognize. 
5. 9 out of 10 birds I've seen here, I have no idea what they are. 
6. I had expected the Pacific Ocean to be warmer here than on the
west coast of the U.S.  It is, but not by much. Maybe
this will change as spring turns to summer.  I went to
the beach today and I actually swam, but only for a
little while.  It was swimmable, but the currents and
rip tides are really really strong. Which I had read
about but it is amazing to feel it. 
7. Tonite I'm going to a radio station to do an improvised session with
Shannon's group, Wake Up and Listen.  The station is
2MBS. All stations in New South Wales start with a 2 in
their call letters.

That's all for now. aformentioned session is in about an
hour, so I have to go catch a train back to where I'm
staying and wash the beach off before that. 

More details and news later.

best wishes,


steev