Date: Mon, 24 Sep 2001 00:29:25 -0400 
Subject: Adventures in Oz, Report 2: more Sydney and more


Hello again,

I am writing this from a backpacker's hostel in
Newcastle.  They have 3 aging PCs hooked up to
something faster than a modem but slower than a
good dsl line and they charge AUS$4 an hour to
use them.  So here I am.

I have been busy the last couple of days. Too
busy, in fact, because this morningI woke up with
sniffles and a sore throat. Pushing myself too
hard, and not getting enough sleep (because of
jetlag).  Hopefully I will figure out how to
relax and not try to do too much in too short a
time.  It's difficult though because there has
been so much to see and do in such short time.

I will try to detail the last few days now, since
before I didn't say much that was specific. 
First of all, on Friday, when I arrived, Shannon
drove me to Isabel's apartment, where I was
staying.  Then the 3 us went to lunch in a
section of Sydney called "Newtown".  It's sort of
hipster area that is becoming gentrified. but we
had good fish and chips there.  We wandered
around looking at the new age shops and clothing
stores and other establishments.  Then I was
feeling a bit overwhelmed, what with jetlag
creeping on and all these new sights.  Sydney, or
australia in general, is like a collage, a
collage of the almost familiar and the strange.
This goes for architecture, plants, animals, and
people.  Anyway, I was getting sensory overload.I
decided i needed a more relaxed environment, and
Shannon and Isabel both had work to do on the
festival anyway.  So we went back to her place
and I went for a walk. Just a quarter mile or so
down the street from her place is this wonderful
12 acre wilderness area on the tip of a pennisula
that sticks out into the Sydney Harbor. It's
called "Balls Head Reserve". It was beautiful
hiking through the trails out to the cliff that
overhung the water, and looking across at
downtown Sydney.  

On the walk I also stopped at a nice cafe called
Witham's Coffee and had a latte.  Australian
lattes are about like ours.  But for regular
coffee they have all these funny names for
things.  Actually if you order coffee, at least
in Sydney where things are urbane, you get
espresso, like in Europe.  but they have "short",
"tall" "white", "black", and "flat" and "double"
as modifiers. So you canorder a short white flat
coffe. Or a tall black double coffee.  you can
probably guess what all these mean except "flat".
i think that means no sugar. but i might be
wrong.  Oh, and "iced coffee" actually means
chilled espresso with a huge heap of whipped
cream and chocalate powder on top. I just found
that out a little while ago here in Newcastle.

Anyway, later on that night, Shannon and Isabel
and I went to this cool movie night at an
underground film space called the "Mu-Meson
Archives".  It was quite fun, though I was
falling asleep toward the end.  The theme of the
evening happened to be "the underbelly of
american culture", hosted by a guest from England
named Jack Sargent.  Jack is sort of like a
British Craig Baldwin, for those of you who know
about Craig.  Jack is a filmmaker and cultural
"analyst" who is funny and erudite and apparently
has an obsession with kitsch and pop culture and
the like.  He was doing a 3-week residency at the
Mu-Meson Archives, and this was the final film
screening of 3.  He showed a crazy and warped
video about Steven Spielberg being stalked by a
fan, and then the complete works of Jeff Krulik,
who is the american filmmaker who did the
infamous "Heavy Metal Parking Lot". I had seen
Parking Lot before, but it was fun seeing the
aussie audience's reaction to it.  and there were
many other Krulik projects i had not seen, like
the Ernest Borgnine bus tour film, and "Neil
Diamond Parking Lot."

It was another strange moment of being slightly
uncomfortable seeing residents of a different
country get a not-so-flattering view of Americans
and America.  I also found that Jack's off-hand
humor regarding September 11, though
well-intentioned, was almost reflexively
disturbing to me.  But then I did a double take
and realized that Americans act that way all the
time about disasters far from them. It's a
natural behaviour. you don't quite GET it, till
it gets close to you, do you?

But one nice thing about the evening was when
Shannon introduced me to Jack and to the people
who ran the space, they were very nice and
welcoming, treating me like an honored
international guest.  Which I guess I am.  It was
very heartwarming. They all thanked me afterwards
for sitting through the long program despite my
jetlag. Some of them were going to be at the
festival, too, so they bid farewell with a "see
you up in Newcastle."

I'm itching to get out of this room and back into
the sunshine again, So i will stop for now. I'll
pick up again with the story of Saturday. But, I
may not be logging in again for a couple of days.
I caught the train up to Newcastle this morning,
and rented a car, and I'm going to be driving it
3 hours north up to Port Macquarie (I was
embarrassed to find that prouncing it
"MACK-errr-eee" is wrong. it is really
"mick-ARE-eee").  Anyway, Idont know if there
will be internet opportunities up there, so it
might be not till wednesday before I can write
again.  

Driving here is not too bad. I got the hang of it
pretty quick.  Must stay alert though. Can't
allow instinct to turn me into oncoming traffic.
I'm sure I'll be fine.

until the next time,


steev