bimmelbimmel (one of my fave lj tags, by the way) asks: a bit cheesy this one: what are your memories of australia?
Not cheesy at all! I went to A in ’94 to participate in a show at the National Gallery about International responses to AIDS. I stayed first in Sydney and then in Canberra. All in all, my memories were fantastic. Because I was there as part of a cultural exchange, a chunk of my expences were covered by the US Information Agency. So I got to spend American tax dollars on investigating gay bars on Oxford Street, and poking around dinky tattoo parlors in Canberra. I rememebr the food portions as huge, and that no body had heard of alchohol free beer; every time I requested it people gave me the fisheye. The bear thing was still pretty new, so the few bears I met were still excited by it. It was one of my periods of looking the least Bear-y however.
Everyone I met was gracious. I felt like the climate of Sydney was close to that of SF’s for some reason. In checking out the local drag acts I realized how different Aussie/Brit drag sensibility was from American, and suddenly understood the work of Doris Fish and the Sluts A-Go-Go in a wholle new way. Mostly, I wanted to come back, and it saddens me that I haven’t been able to make that happen since.
Hey: Question month y’all! Go here and ask.
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