Hidden History. The night after Bob Downe i was back up in Sydney again, Saturday the 12th of March. I met up with Marc at Rockdale and we made our way to Paddington, someone needs to remind me that EVERYTIME i go to Sydney the traffic is a nightmare, i guess where i live, i'm pretty lucky that a traffic jam usually only constitutes two cars bumper to bumper, but up there in Sydney travelling 10 klms' can take you 3/4 of an hour. Finding a park up there was another drama altogether, the world is starting to feel a little crowded to me. We met up with Australias answer to the 'Weeping woman' Beryl, making our way to the Chauvel cinema it was nice to be reminded that not all cinemas are monster multiplex's, there are still some lovely and charming independant theatres around, in the lobby we ran into an old friend (mother) Warren, i'm not entirely sure he was totally over Mardi Gras. Walking into the cinema i spotted a huge poster for the movie 'Forty thousand horsemen', this took my eye, as years ago, when he was very young, my dad actually appeared in this film. i remember him telling me how he had to run up one side of a hill dressed as a 'goody', then they would change clothes and run down the other side of the hill as a 'baddie'. The movie we were there to watch tonight was called 'The hidden history of homosexual Australia'. I love history and wish that i'd chosen to study that instead of 'Asian social studies' .. i mean, what IS that!!??, but i digress. This documentary is one that any Queer Aussie should watch, and i' wish they would play this in schools. It was really interesting to see an Aussie slant on our local gay culture, instead of being fed European and American gay history. Some of the moivie was pretty sobering, and a lot of it scarey, just the thought that only twenty
years ago homosexuality was decriminalised in New South Wales. To see the oppresession and fear that the community lived under relatively recently was unnerving, and lets not the forget the cruel and brutal coppers, and twisted politicians. The most sobering part of the movie was when they discussed how some people had been jailed for many years for being gay, and that they had been incarcerated in Darlinghurst Jail, which is now a college, but it struck me that this old Jail was only a couple of hundred metres down the road from where we were watching this movie. After the film we decided to go for a little walk and stomp around Oxford st and Darlinghurst, it would have to be at least three years since i've been for a walk around Oxford st, and it was nice to be back, and feel the tinsel and glitter in the air, especially after watching that movie. For the third weekend in a row Beryl dragged us into the North Indian Diner, i'm SURE he has shares in that place, again we were served our now standard order of 'Korma slops'. A quick bit of shopping was done, and then we had to let Beryl go free, he needed to revisit a bit of his own hidden history i think. Below are a couple of snaps from the night, Paddington at sunset and a 'wall doodle' in Surry Hills. The last pic is a still from 'Forty Thousand Horsemen'

You'll look distinguished. Well, thats what well meaning people say to me when i lament the greying of my scone. I've started to grow back my sideburns, and i've just remembered why i shaved them off in the first place about a year ago, they are GREY!. What to do?, do i get the brown marker out, and colour them in a bit, for a 'Texta touch up'?, do get a bottle of brown dye and colour just them?, what about the rest of the grey on my head?, if i just do the sidey's then it will look bizzare, is a Toni perm the answer?. Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated .. forget it Phillip, i'm NOT shaving it.

Stormy weather On the 3rd of March Adam and i ventured up to Sydney to visit our friend Beryl, we met Beryl in the art gallery, where photographs of parts of him were on display, as part of a Mardi Gras exhibition. At the gallery we caught up with Marc and Greg, we were all distressed and disturbed by the 'art' that confronted us, it was digital (as in photography) manipulation of photographs, of various parts of peoples bodies. We done the gallery 'thing' of nibbling offered food, and scoffing woine, whilst peering over our glasses at the hanging manipulations. So enough it was time to scamper up the road for dinner, but not before we said goodbye to the artist, as we all stod on the street in the sprinkling rain. Seeing we were all there just for Beryl (Scott), the artist asked aloud 'So, have you all been there?', meaning with Scott, a bellowing wail of 'NO!!!!' could be heard echoing up the street, as all within earshot of the artist let it be known, that Beryl had not been sullied by any of us. It was a fantastic night .. all stormy and wild. Just before we got to the North Indian Diner (our favorite and CHEAP restaraunt) i turned and saw the most awesome post storm sky, i whipped out the handy digital, and snapped the pic you can see at the end of this post. After dinner we jumped into the 'Viagra Mobile' (Beryls car), and drove up to the Valhalla cinema in Glebe. We met up with Mariana and Barbs for the last night of the Mardi Gras film festival. All the way home, and down the mountain, the storm and lightning didnt let up for a minute, being an old storm chaser from way back, this was one of the best i'd seen.

iBob, you Bob, we ALL Bob Downe together,
A lovely Friday night was spent in Sydney with Skype scammer Tyson, and blurter artiste' extrordinair Beryl Motion. We went up to Enmore to watch Bob Downe (the prince of Polyester) in his latest show 'iBob', i managed to time the parking so we pulled up right out front of the theatre, soon enough Tyson was recognised on the street by one of his myriad of on line stalkers, we didnt know it at the time tho, as any 'Pro stalker' will tell you, you never walk up to the stalked to make yourself known. Before long we found Beryl entertaining a group of men on the street, charming chaps they were, i've met and partied with some of them in the past, along with Beryl at various dance parties. A desision had to be made, 'where to eat?' we were all fanging, we narrowed the choice down to 'Yak scat kebabs' at some Puruvian diner, or 'Korma slops' from an Indian diner, the slops won out, so we woofed down a $6.00 plate each and scampered across the road to the theatre, each of us secretly concerned that cheap Indian food may not have been the wisest choice to eat, before being stuck in a crowded theatre for three hours .. well, i wasnt that worried, i mean when you're amongst friends .. Bob took to the stage, and soon enough had us hooting with laughter at his take on all things retro and tacky. Bob is one of those performers who you watch, and you see little bits of yourself come out in his act. At the end of the show i looked down to see a recording device secreted between Tysons legs, he has since told me that due to 'imperfect recording conditions', the recording which he was going to use sections of on his net cast, was pretty much unusable. Personally i think the gut full of Indian slops he woofed down before the show, could have had something to do, with making certain sections of the recording 'unbroadcastable'. The final image of the lady in from of us, desperatley trying to clap along in time with everyone else is one i cant shake from my mind, it amazes that people can be that incrediblely uncoordinated, try as she might she just couldnt get into a rythem. After the show Bob appeared in the foyer of the theatre to sign copies of his cd, Beryl decided that this was one he wanted to add to his K-tell cd stacker, so he lined up for the 'meet and greet', Tyson and i were standing about four metres away when we heard above the din of the crowd Bob screech 'Beryl!!??', it wasnt the scream of recognition, more just a cosmic bonding, the sort of thing that happens when two like minds meet. it was time for me to get home, i had to double back and do this all again tomorrow.

New pics,
Howdy pardners, scanned up a couple more pics from Olivia's Aussie visit, these two came from the print version of 'The Australian'. Havent seen this pic of George and Dhani on stage together before, this was taken in Japan during the 1991 tour.