Date: Tue, 25 Sep 2001 06:10:08 -0400 
Subject: Adventures in Oz, Report 3: catching up - Saturday


I was wrong about being out of touch for 2 days. Port
Macquarie seems to be as wired as Newcastle, if not
more.  In fact I've heard that Australia is very very
well appointed with internet connectivity.  Right now
I happen to be at a place called "VideoNet" in the
town centre of Port Macquarie, a video rental place
that also has internet terminals.  AU$5 per hour.

Speaking of Macquarie, I have an update on the
pronunication of that word.  I was not quite correct
in my last report, but having heard it spoken many
times on the radio during the drive up here, I am now
well acquainted with it.  It is in fact not
"mick-ARE-ee", but is more like "mick-WAAR-ee". 
Think of the word "quarry", as in a place you dig for
rocks or whatever.  Many things in Australia are
named after this guy, who was an early governor of
the colony and the first to start governing it as if
it might be more than just a place to dump convicts.

Okay, now then - I was up to Saturday. Now 3 days
ago. whew.  Well, let's see if I can remember. It
seems like I've been here weeks rather than just a
few days.  Anyway, on Saturday I had a big day. I
took the train downtown, and first wandered around
the area called "The Rocks", which was the first
place where ships unloaded and commerce happened in
early Sydney. There are big bluffs with rocks on top
there, hence the name.  Now it's sort of a touristic
area, and that day there was a street fair market
sort of thing going on, with booths set up selling
jewelry and clothing and stuff. kind of a fun busy
atmosphere.  The Rocks are also right under the
Harbor Bridge, so the acoustics are interesting.

Next to the Rocks is the Circular Quay, which is
where all the ferries depart from and arrive at. 
There are 6 wharfs with ferries coming and going all
the time.  I wandered around a bit, watching the
various street performers that had set up there to
get donations.  Everything from an aboriginal playing
digeridoo to a scottish bagpiper to some little girls
dressed up in little german outfits doing little
dance routines.  Oh and the best was a woman done up
as the statue of libery, with silver paint all over
her, standing perfectly still.  If you put money in
her jar she would bend over and hand you a couple
pieces of candy. Butterscotch.  I don't know if there
was symbolism in that or what, but it made me
chuckle.

I found out the schedule for the ferry to Manly,
because I had decided to go to there that afternoon. 
Manly is a town situated on the northeast corner of
Sydney Harbor, right where the Harbor meets the sea. 
Lonely Planet says that the ferry to there is one of
the best ways to see the harbor, and plus Manly
itself sounded cool, so I decided to go.  It turned
out to be a really cool trip.  You get to see all of
Sydney and the North Shore sliding by, and all the
other boats zipping around the harbor, mostly
sailboats.  On the way back it was actually so
crowded with sailboats that the ferry driver had to
blow the tremendously loud horn at the ones that got
in his way.  Anyway, it's a really fun scene on the
ferry, people hanging out on the deck enjoying the
view and the sun.  We watched a skywriter writing
"froggy.com.au" above the harbor.  Some aussie
teenagers were critiquing his writing ability.

In a half hour we were in Manly. Named after the
"manly" aborigines that Admiral Philip found there,
the town is a bit like Santa Cruz crossed with Tampa,
or something. What I mean by that is it has a little
bit of the freakish hipness of a place like Santa
Cruz, but it's much warmer,sunnier, and easier to get
to by the city folk. Hence there were tons of people
there, surfers, shoppers, and everyone else.  It was
very warm and I was looking forward to trying out the
water.  I walked down the Corso, which is a
pedestrian mall that leads from the ferry dock to the
beach (the ferry docks on the harbor side, but the
good beaches are on the ocean side). People were
walking around in swimsuits, some of them still
glistening with seawater, some walking barefoot, even
into restaurants.  In general its just a very
relaxed, laid back, tropical feel there. I stopped
into a surf shop and bought a swimsuit and a towel. 
Then I grabbed lunch at this great vegetarian salad
and sandwich place.  Then I walked the rest of the
way to the beach. It was pretty crowded, but I walked
down a ways to where there was more room and laid out
my towel.  I sat there for a moment watching the
surfers and the swimmers and the volleyball players
and the sunbathers. I noticed that the surfers were
wearing wetsuits.  hmm, maybe it's not that warm in
there after all.  well, i decided to find out.  I
walked out into the water and discovered it actually
is not as warm as I had thought.  But it is warmer
than in San Francisco.  I think I mentioned this
earler.  Anyway, they tell me that it gets warmer
later in the year- afterall, it is just the beginning
of Spring here.  Also, I noticed today, 600 miles
further north, that the ocean is perhaps a bit
warmer. Or maybe that's just a wishful illusion.

Anyway, it was fun in Manly.  But believe it or not I
had even more plans back in the city.  When I got
back on the ferry, I had a plan: to cut through the
Royal Botanical Gardens and The Domain in order to
get to King's Cross. I told you about King's Cross
before.  What I didn't mention is that it was quite
an adventure trying to get there.  The Domain is a
huge park basically. A big expanse of greenery that
also includes various things like art museums, a
church, and the botanical gardens.  But my little
Lonely Planet map did not warn me that the Domain is
full of walls and bisected by a major highway, so you
can't just "cut across it". I ended up getting
hopelessly lost.  But I was glad I did it anyway,
mainly because I got to see these amazing  bats. I
stumbled upon this part of the botanical gardens
where these HUGE fruit bats had decided to settle.
The signs explained that they were ruining the trees
they were roosting in, but I thought they were cool.
They made a hell of a lot of noise, screeching
constantly, and they circled around in the air
whenever they weren't hanging from the palm trees. 
They were the biggest bats i'd ever seen, probably a
yard wingspan - tho i'm not sure since they were
pretty high up.

Eventually I made it to King's Cross. walked around
recording the street characters there, and then had
some coffee, sent my earlier email report, and then
caught the train back to Isabel's.

That night, I went to 2MBS, a radio station where
Shannon and his friend Adrian have a show called
"Furthermore". Except for them and a few other DJs,
the station is a very very nerdy, low-quality
classical station run by elderly ladies.  It boggles
the mind how Shannon and Adrian got involved there. 
Anyway, they are also a band, called 'Wake up and
Listen'. We did a little pre-taped session where they
interviewed me and then we did an improvised
collaboration then and there.  It was lucky it was
pre-taped, actually, because I rambled on a bit too
long during the interview. Hopefully they will edit
it cleverly to make me sound good.  At the end I
recorded some station ids, which felt weird, like I
wasn't famous enough to do that, but it was fun. 
"This is Steev Hise, and whenever I'm in Sydney, I
listen to 2MBS, your Find Music Station".  (That last
clause is the station's little slogan, which they
asked me to say.)

Afterwards we went back to Isabel's. She had ordered
Thai food, so we ate that while watching a weird and
gory anime film. She is programming an anime night
for the festival so this was one of the ones she was
thinking of including. I forget the name, but it was
very... anatomical.  My long day and jet lag overtook
me, and I fell asleep in the middle.  I woke to find
Shannon and Adrian gone, and Isabel doing the
dishes.  I went to bed.

I have had a quite different but similarly exhausting
day today, and it's 8pm, so I should stop.  More
later....

best,

smh