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Melbourne

January 3, 2009 by Natsu Power

Floating above a body of concrete, overlooking an imaginary channel of buoyant transport, it feels that with an Olympic hop, skip and jump I could land flat-footed on the roof of the Telstra Dome1. Though, maximum effort and a clean bill of health would need to be mustered for such a feat so I suppose the final triumph is unlikely in an entranced hallucinogenic state. Gripping the ferris wheel chair with white knuckles I decide the jump is sure-fire suicide as my mind bounces eagerly to the next adventure. This landscape was happily snapped at a Two Tribes mid-March 2001 dance party in early daylight hours.

Through years of clarity I appreciate dearly an unchanged physical image in an ever-changing landscape. The solid foreground is now juxtaposed against a post-modern developmental zoo, designed hideously, and especially, for inner-city dwellers and investment makers. Developers bring the suburbs to the city with mass, rushed expansion and fail to create a space with style and aesthetic longevity. The Melbourne ghetto is devoid of vibe, crashing with emptiness and reverberating soulless ambience.

The sky scrapers in the background steal light from above and diffuse the morning rays into the Eastern facing offices. That particular day was a public holiday and I thought it unfair that I should have to make my way clumsily across the CBD to my basement apartment via city laneways and disproportional avenues only to discover shimmers of light. The sunlight that beams through the empty office windows is dreadfully wasted while a scantily dressed raver shivers to the bone. I imagine that it must be quite difficult to locate highlighted asphalt in mammoth cities such as New York or Tokyo.

I love this city as my home. The sun rises purposefully with hardly a cloud to distract it, but this sad, poignant image of pre-developed greed weighs heavily on my heart.

Melbourne

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