b r a v e c r e a t u r e s

The day is coming soon when I will depart these sun burnt shores to follow in the footsteps of some of my countries great cultural exports, Edna Everage, Clive James and Kylie Minogue. That impending departure has had me  thinking about my countries obsession with travel

Like them, and thousands before me, I am leaving this Great Southern Land to seek my fortune in the "mother country", whose green and pleasant shores have long held a fascination for Australians. Steeped in history and rich in cultural significance, two things noticeably lacking from a place only 2200 years old (to us whities), for Anglos (or skips as the Wogs call us) England has an attraction that is hard to define, and impossible to deny.

The land from which (some of) my forbears were exiled, supposedly to the remotest, most unforgiving place on earth, is still called home by some in the, now, incredibly multi-cultural and diverse Australia. While we eventually thrived, how we arrived here and the unforgiving landscape left us with a lingering desire for Another County .

For Australia's in the 50's & 60's there was a sense of pilgrimage about the voyage back to England, partially because of the immense distance, cost and time involved in the voyage but mostly because it was like returning to the house of parents who had cast us out of. We return to Blighty as prodigal sons & daughters, either as a supplicant. Desperately trying to conform, or as the brash, uncultured antipodeans out to gain acceptance by force.

Australians returned to England to rejoin a world they felt cast them out, abandoned them. A world of culture and refinement, the like of which, in the 1950's, was hard to imagine would ever come here.

Nowadays things are very different. It seems the whole world is beating a path to our door ad you can't throw a rock without hitting an enormous, up coming talent.

The galleries, salons, opera houses, recording studios, films & television programs of the old world and the new world are full of the children of the New New World. Children of no revolution - apart from an internal one, that has led us to find a buoyant joy in who we are, and where we have come from.

The old drive to travel is still there, but n0w it is motivated by the desire to explore, to adventure. to learn, to experience - all under pinned by a sense of play that is palpable and With none of perception of smug, entitlement that makes the average American so painful - and unpopular.

So with my long hermitage nearly over I am preparing to pick up the bags my countries past has packed for me and walk the ether way down the yellow brick road.

Sunday morning I got up early having had an early night on Saturday night. Both my closest friends in Melbourne, Barbie and Binky, are out of town so I am living la vida quieta - which is kind of nice.

For some reason Kylie Minogue crossed my mind and I found myself playing early 90's Kylie - What kind of fool, Better the Devil, Put yourself in my place and so forth.

I had forgotten how much FUN they were.

I found myself dancing around the apartment, cleaning, cooking lunch and generally having a good time doing the minutiae of life. I had so much fun that I actually ended up going out on Sunday night. I know its trashy and all, but I have to wonder how much it reflects the period. When I look at what what is big on the dance floors and on the radios today, it seems darker and more cynical.

Looking at Kylie's "equivalents" today - P!nk, Christina Aguilera and the Veronica's - they seem more focused on how bleak life is, how love is a disaster and how hard we have to struggle to succeed. Post 9-11, post teen angst? Reflection of the social tensions generated by the increasing intercultural wars? Or am I just thinking too hard?

Whatever the case, I can tell you this much, I was cheery and upbeat for the rest of my Kylie Sunday.

And just for reference, I think my favourite at the moment is "What kind of fool" - which is an interesting statement on where my head is.