Showing posts with label Townsville. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Townsville. Show all posts

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Day Seven, Townsville: Suicide Stairs

Overheard on Castle Hill in Townsville:

Middle-aged Lady: [Apprehensively.] Are these the bugger stairs?

Mean Middle-aged Lady: This is the beginning of the bugger stairs. The suicide stairs are over there. [Cackles.]

Yes, friends, Day 7 had me slappin' on some socks for the first time in a week, pretending my everyday shoes were hiking shoes (Well, any of my shoes could transform into hiking shoes in a pinch.) and tackling Townsville's Castle Hill. Here's what it looks like from afar:



Pretty imposing, huh? And this, more or less, is what it looks like from the top:



So there you have it. If you'd like to save yourself the steep 30 minute climb, sweaty brow, and niggling worries about your ever-declining level of physical fitness ("I mean, come on, Body, we used to RUN, gosh darn it! Don't you remember those days? See that 8-year-old with a dog? They just flew past you! Step it up!"), consider yourself to have done it. All you're missing is athletic people fully decked out in nylon shorts complimenting you on your comedy while you wheeze your way up the hill, red-faced and dripping with sweat. Oh, and the fear that if you don't get into shape, you'll be in a sip-and-puff operated wheelchair by age 52. Oh, and maybe the shameful experience of breaking into sentimental tears in front of "Got to Dance" back at the hotel while eating takeaway Indian food. Other than that, if you've seen these pictures, you've climbed Castle Hill. Congratulations!

Sunday, May 16, 2010

Day Six, Townsville: "Interesting? Fuck off!"

First off, the main thing you need to know about Townsville is that there ain't much happening in Townsville. Word on the street is that the best things to do are check out us, or some dude named Luke Pickler, who seems both saddened and mystified by the fact that he has two heads.



The other thing going down in the Towns (as I affectionately refer to it) is some incredibly bad cafe art. I snapped these pics for you, mustering all my acting strength as I pretended to admire them.



"That's not so bad," you may be saying to yourself. "Why do you have to be so judgmental? Clearly, the artist has developed his or her own personal style. Rustic, yes, but who says women's arms need to be of natural length or that their proportionally enormous breasts should inhabit the same spacial plane or flop in a manner that respects the known laws of physics? Who says women need to have noses, for that matter? It's a painting, DeAnne! A representation! So what if the subject holds a wine glass directly under one of her nipples so that it appears as if the monstrous nipple is draining liquid into the glass? That's an artist's prerogative! Why shouldn't there be a somewhat detailed and realistic-looking cat standing to the left of a bird so crudely smudged onto the canvas that the background ocean is visible through his body? It's art, man! And if the evil-looking cat has more facial expression than the woman, all the better! It's probably some kind of statement! As if there's some painting rule book that claims that a representation of Castle Hill should not loom large and distractingly in the background, dotted with indistinguishable white blocks and what appears to be a cave-style drawing of a freakishly gigantic person ascending the hill! You're not the Judge of Art, DeAnne Smith! Why don't you stick to what you know? Yeah, go back to your occasionally insightful and quite often surprisingly dirty jokes, you joke-teller! That right there is a good painting and I like it! I like its colors and its abnormal and irregular shadowing pattern, so you know what? Go screw yourself!"

Okay. Geez. No need to get aggressive. Fair enough. But would you feel the same way about that painting if I showed you this one?



It's basically another crack at the first one, but with a different color scheme, more prominently placed breasts, and a smaller and more deformed cat. And what if I showed you another in the series?



Mmm hmm. I rest my case.

What else does the Ville of Towns hold? Violently fun Mexican-themed restaurants with menus designed for drunks with ADD? Check!



Young white men taking part in impromptu strangling sessions? Check!



How about middle-aged men sitting on benches near Woolworths in full daylight who hold their dicks in their hands and pee directly onto the sidewalk, missing your foot by mere centimeters? Check, check and check!

While I was tempted to snap a photo of that last one for you, I thought better of it. Instead, what I did was have a very honest (if somewhat subdued) reaction while staring this gentleman dead in the face.

"Interesting," I said.

"What? Interesting?!" he spat back.

Reflecting upon my initial response, I decided that yes, this was indeed a situation of interest. With that in mind, I replied, "Yup."

To which he, still urinating into the foot path, responded, "FUCK OFF!"

And that, my friends, is a day in the life of Townsville.

Saturday, May 15, 2010

Day Five, Townsville: Haikus

Greetings from historic Townsville. Actually, I have no idea if Townsville is historic or not but somehow "lovely" Townsville doesn't quite cut it. Don't get me wrong. Townsville's not a bad place. It's, um, definitely a...place. It has houses and water and bridges and palm trees. It also seems to have an extraordinary amount of closed and/or under-construction shops. It's kind of tricky for me to put my finger on the pulse of Townsville, but I'm starting to suspect that the non-pulse IS the pulse.

At this exact moment, I am in an internet cafe with 7 other people while Bruce Springsteen plays on the radio. Despite walking around Townsville for about 40 minutes, and stopping to eat in a cafe, this is the greatest number of people I've seen assembled in one place all day. Townsville. "You can't start a fire without a spark..."

Here are some Townsville-inspired haikus for your blog-readin' enjoyment.

Luxury
The hotel is sweet.
Glass wall in the bathroom means
T.V. from the loo.

Dinner
Benny's Hot Wok is
not a bad restaurant but
the logo's racist.



(See? Jesus.)

Honest Answer
At the gig, heckling.
Me: "I don't want to engage.
Now back to my stuff."

Backstage
Smart Casual's Ben
taught me a strumming pattern.
Damn, I love the uke.

Fundamental Beliefs Shaken While Watching a Panel Show
Jennifer Lopez,
despite everything I thought,
is not an air head.

Movie Channel
About to watch Doubt.
Catholic pedophilia.
Really? That happens?!!