Thursday, January 7, 2010

Profit Prevention Tour (Australia) - Oh. Shit.

Just got back from a rowdy couple of days in Canberra, NSW so I'll fill you in on what I've been up to:

Took a 15 hour train ride down, with a stop off in Sydney where I made $1.40 busking in the tunnels (pretty good huh?). On my connecting train I saw a couple in the seat in front of me get into a fist fight (full on face punching and everything), while I sat there wondering if I should get involved. After about 20 seconds they got up and walked off, wondering what could be weirder than that to see on a train ride.*





The next day in Canberra, Josh and I rode bikes out to the botanical gardens, and then eventually hiked all the way up black mountain in some serious dry-heat. We made it to the Telstra antenna at the top but it cost $7.50 just to go up into the revolving restaurant. Instead we walked into a restricted area to take photos of the city (coming soon), and on the way out a womyn with an accent I couldn't place screamed in face about us not being allowed out there. We laughed, said thanks and walked back down the mountain.

Went for a ride around the bacteria and blue-green algae filled man-made lake, and once again my recklessness ended in disaster. Choosing Josh's trike instead of a regular bicycle, I consciously chose comfort over maneuverability. I learned my lesson while coming down a hill on the bike path alongside the water. I approached a soft turn, so I figured I'd be able to take it at the speed I was going... but coming around the bend it became nearly a 90 degree angle and I had to jerk the bars and leaned as hard as I could into it. I wondered at one point why I couldn't steer, and why I was only going in a straight line towards the lake. and then I wondered why the brakes weren't working. and then when I approached the edge I stopped wondering and the only thought that popped into my head was "I'm fucked."
I flew off the 2 ft. wall at a pretty decent speed, clearing a small ledge and landing in the lake face first; backpack and all. I, and the bike were completely submerged at that point, and when I broke the surface choking on the nasty water and scrambling to stop the bike from sinking, all I could hear was Josh's laughter. My phone was ruined, and the verdict is still out on whether my cameras are broken or not - and whether I will have intestinal problems later on, haha. I looked into my backpack and all my items were literally swimming in a couple inches of water. Everyone had a good laugh about it, especially me. One of the funniest parts being that Josh only heard me yell "OH SHIT!" and turned to see me mid flight. Pretty epic indeed.
(p.s. you can make fun of me all you want about this. everyone else has, haha)
(p.p.s. photos coming soon hopefully)

Played a show that night in the living room of the Vegan House, ate some amazing vegan cheesecake and gluten-free vegan corn dogs, and hung out with some of the nicest people I've met in Australia so far.

The next day Josh and I went out on bikes again (this time I chose the beach cruiser, obviously) and rode to the portrait exhibit at the modern art museum. After that we saw some awesome stuff from Cezanne, Monet, Picasso and Munch in the art gallery. Ate some strange mexican food that made me miss San Diego a whole lot, drank a xginger beerx and then played scrabble in the park for a few hours (always awesome).

A show got thrown together last minute by an awesome person named Louise at The Phoenix. I had all I could drink juice and xginger beerx, watched a couple other bands, and then played the sweatiest set of my life. It was incredibly hot in the building, and the stage lights beating down on me didn't help much at all. Also, it's always weird playing through a PA but there were some rad friends there showing there support... so all in all it was a pretty good show.

Had to wake up at 6 am the next morning, except Morgan's clock was wrong and he woke me up at 5 by mistake, haha. I packed my things and realized it was still pitch black outside so I went back to bed for awhile. I was scheduled to transfer in Sydney, and I would have had to wait for 5 hours for my connection, but when I got there I managed to get on a train that left 2o minutes once I arrived so I caught that instead. *It seemed to be a strange train to catch though, for the first 5 hours a bogan with 3 babies sat behind me. Watching them get on in Strathmore I knew right away they were going to be trouble. Not once in that whole 5 hours were any of them quiet; they were either screaming, crying or talking baby nonsense while their dad would mumble inaudible things... except every once in awhile I'd hear "you betta stop that an' fuck off, mate". I woke up at one point to one of the babies pulling my blanket off of me at the height of my frustration. She was lucky. After they left I was quite relieved, but we still had a large, drunk bald man walking around the train harassing everyone. He would walk around the train telling everyone they were "in his seat" even though he wasn't from our car, and then stand in between cars and yell the station stops as they'd come and go. When we got to Wauchope 2 cops got on, and when he saw them he ran and sat in the seat across from me pretending to be doing nothing wrong. They asked him to leave, and he did and I took a photo with my new phone. I kind of missed that guy after he left actually, he was funny.

Sat in a near empty train car for the last hour of my trip. It's always a haunting feeling to be sitting in a brightly lit train-car seemingly by yourself when it's pitch black outside. I heard 2 Americans talking up near the front, the first since I've been in Australia, but I didn't want to talk to them as much as I assumed they didn't want to talk with me either. It's kind of a bummer to run into other people from the states when you're in a different country.

Playing a show in Yamba tonight, then Byron the next day, and then going to Dreamworld (!!!). Hope to see you all soon.

for love and liberation,
Mike XVX

2 comments:

ohfuckgod said...

i don't know what dreamworld is, but i am jealous. also, MAKE ME GLUTEN FREE CORN DOGS. i won't hang out with you if you don't. and if i do, i'll only speak in baby nonsense.
make them really healthy, too.

i can't wait to go to vancouver, dude.

mikexvx said...

p.s. dreamworld is a themepark