261st email

From: Stacey Marchenkova
To: dom borax
Sent: Tuesday October 13th , 1999 9:12AM
Subject: RE Hey where are you?


Okay I refuse to be worried – this is normal…you are busy…I’m busy too…see I’ve been trying to fall in love…

…with the city again…

my city…

Brisbane…

but it’s failing…the more I wander it…the more I hate it…it seems in stasis...not sure it’s because the empty-nesters are flocking to the hub and the hub responds by becoming a large suburb…not sure…

… all I know is the independent coffee houses are going…the cult retro cinemas are closing…small bars once filled with long term drunks are closing…and the tiny squares where the anarchic youth used to chat about changing the world are bursting with the new youth crimping and posing…

There is a sense of Asian influence however…the Asian students are flocking to the city and holding up in apartments overlooking the casino…Korean flags wave from the balconies while below gaggles of kogal girls strut the streets in cream sloppy socks…

Even the buildings are changing a little, I guess…brighter multi coloured lights shine in various patterns from the office blocks at night…and contrasting shapes creep into the skyline silhouette via the younger architects who threaten to take the floor…

And in the streets…the boys open mobile phone stores and the girls open trinket-thingy stores…side by side they marry a new sense of culture while small arcades now burst with mummyless children eating katsu curry and reading their books backward…

So this I love…I guess…but is it enough, I wonder…I don’t think so…for I don’t think it will win…which is a shame…because Brisbane could become a true Asian city…and this would give our river town a sense of identity in this country…but I don't hold much hope… the old school country mentality won’t allow it, I suspect…the anti daylight saving brigade will enforce their august exhibition ham sandwiches down our throats until we gag and smell so much of pig and fuck off that even the strongest willed tourist will find it hard to make it past customs…

So there you have it…that’s me…seeing hope across the shores but held back by tradition…longing for the colour and the different tastes but left with cold Sunday drippings…trying to fall in love with my city again…but failing…ever so…failing…


Love ya

Stacey