Cultural Mulch

I just spent the June long weekend on the New South Wales north coast visiting my parents, my nan and an old friend. Everytime I go north I have less of inclination to want to return there. My parents live west of Kempsey—a town on the banks of the Macleay River—in a place called Hickey’s Creek. The floods had just been through so parts of the town were not looking there best—actually Kempsey rarely looks good—but for the most part things were okay. What I did notice this trip was the increasing number of flags on poles outside homes bearing the Australian flag. This seems to be one of Howard’s legacies, a symbol meant to represent pride but one that in many cases would suggest racism, possibly ignorance, and could be seen as another adopted tradition from America.

From a studio angle the trip was not so successful. Some magazines, a single car and a couple of games for a future Midweek Social. Oh, and a tic that I had to have removed from my face…