Tuesday, November 07, 2006

The Popular Beer

Last week, at Toowong Village shopping centre for some forgotten reason, I spied Nick Earls (iconic Brisbane author) running a very ordinary domestic errand. And just the week before I had the immense joy of spotting Ranger Stacey (of Agro's Cartoon Connection and Totally Wild fame) in a similarly mundane scenario. These seem to me to be signs that my time in Brisbane is near expired. That I've had every quintessential Brisbane experience there is to be had (a few months back I ran into Bruce Paige [channel 9 news] coming out of the treasury casino around midday - seedy...). I've been immobilised by heat-waves and caught in torrential downpours. I've had my bike stolen by chromers, and been subject to the charity of a drunk. I've been inconvenienced by road closures, and braved countless journeys by bus, train, and citycat. I've wandered hilly streets through foreign suburbs filled with strange houses on stilts. I've seen canetoads, mango trees, and geckos. Shared my back deck with possums and bush turkeys. Drank fourex until I thought better of it (never did get around to the brewery tour). These are the images that fill Nick Earls' books and have made him a champion of Brisbane's public face. I read a couple of his novels when I first moved here (to get a feel for the place), but was disappointed (I'm not going to elaborate my criticism). John Birmingham's felafel book and its sequel give a more accurate (or at least more entertaining) portrayal of the city and its underbelly. At the heart of it, Brisbane is just another patch of Australian high-density housing, becoming evermore homogenous. Nick Earls will tell you different. And of course, like any iconic author should, he has his own website... http://www.nickearls.com