All weekend the city was battered by storms. Trees fell over and you
could hear sirens wailing in the distance. A tree in my sister's back garden
came crashing down, destroying the fence running the length of the property
line.
I went to the writers group in Redfern. After working for an hour, I handed out a few of my letters. Most people were very receptive. One or two people were definitely not interested. I didn't mind this. The staff at the Bearded Tit, a bar down on Botany road, were also receptive. Go ahead, said the manager, leave your letters around. This bar has an amazing collection of furniture and bric-a-brac. Barber chairs from the 1920s, paintings, cash registers....
After this I went to the MCA to meet up with Tanya. Emboldened by a few cans of Tecate, I decided just to walk up to people in the cafe and hand the letters directly to them. This was perhaps a bit too confrontational. Some people took the letters but it was obvious that they had no intention of reading them. Which is fine. As I said in previous posts, this is part of the process. Part of the dialogue I need to have with the city of Sydney. While I was handing out the letters and drinking beer, it was getting dark outside and we had a clear view of the Opera house and Circular Quay. We did not intend to stay there for the Vivid light show. After handing a letter to a frosty middle aged couple, I handed one to a pair of lesbians from Melbourne who were only too happy to take them. Their gay male friends (a couple) didn't seem impressed with the interruption. A Canadian sitting right behind me at the window excepted two letters and assured me that he would 'make sure they travelled'. He told me he was flying back to Canada the following day so the letters would end up floating around Montreal.
After this, I went back to the Bitter Phew again and the staff were friendly, maybe a little bit bemused by the fact that I was back with my little letters. And yes there was a little bit of embarrassment. I had a few pale ales and left a few letters lying around and before I left, a few people picked them up. I was also pretty pleased with the way two of the letters I was currently working on were turning out. One deals with a professional letter writer in Mexico city, a con man, and the other a couple subletting apartment in Potts point. The sublet letter-story has a supernatural element to it.
I wrote the following message to a friend in Melbourne:
Thanks for the encouragement. I've been doing it for 5 weeks now. Most people like the idea. It has a meta level which I enjoy as well-writing about the interactions with people I meet. I plan to do it for a year, amass however many letters and then reassess the situation.
I went to the writers group in Redfern. After working for an hour, I handed out a few of my letters. Most people were very receptive. One or two people were definitely not interested. I didn't mind this. The staff at the Bearded Tit, a bar down on Botany road, were also receptive. Go ahead, said the manager, leave your letters around. This bar has an amazing collection of furniture and bric-a-brac. Barber chairs from the 1920s, paintings, cash registers....
After this I went to the MCA to meet up with Tanya. Emboldened by a few cans of Tecate, I decided just to walk up to people in the cafe and hand the letters directly to them. This was perhaps a bit too confrontational. Some people took the letters but it was obvious that they had no intention of reading them. Which is fine. As I said in previous posts, this is part of the process. Part of the dialogue I need to have with the city of Sydney. While I was handing out the letters and drinking beer, it was getting dark outside and we had a clear view of the Opera house and Circular Quay. We did not intend to stay there for the Vivid light show. After handing a letter to a frosty middle aged couple, I handed one to a pair of lesbians from Melbourne who were only too happy to take them. Their gay male friends (a couple) didn't seem impressed with the interruption. A Canadian sitting right behind me at the window excepted two letters and assured me that he would 'make sure they travelled'. He told me he was flying back to Canada the following day so the letters would end up floating around Montreal.
After this, I went back to the Bitter Phew again and the staff were friendly, maybe a little bit bemused by the fact that I was back with my little letters. And yes there was a little bit of embarrassment. I had a few pale ales and left a few letters lying around and before I left, a few people picked them up. I was also pretty pleased with the way two of the letters I was currently working on were turning out. One deals with a professional letter writer in Mexico city, a con man, and the other a couple subletting apartment in Potts point. The sublet letter-story has a supernatural element to it.
I wrote the following message to a friend in Melbourne:
Thanks for the encouragement. I've been doing it for 5 weeks now. Most people like the idea. It has a meta level which I enjoy as well-writing about the interactions with people I meet. I plan to do it for a year, amass however many letters and then reassess the situation.
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