the fun never ends

I woke up yesterday after a long night on the town Saturday night; rain was pounding on the metal warehouse roof, sounding like a torrential downpour. A little bit fucking around on the interwebs, then I decided to call some of the people I had met the night before at the house party. I shot a call to one of the squatters and he invited me over for a bit.

I found a bike, and searched high and low for a lock. Eventually, I was pointed to a 30foot chain and a padlock... perfect. I donned my raincoat and took of into the world. The bike ride in the rain was nice, it wasn't coming down as hard as it had sounded from inside and as I rode I took in the street art. There isn't much graffiti cleanup here and the walls around town are completely saturated with spray paint, a breathing masterpiece commemorating countless artists and styles.

I got to the squat, about a 10 minute ride away, and was greeted like an old friend. The place was great, a two floor 'yuppie apartment' with nice design, incredibly clean, all the furnishings were working, clean and looked paid for. In fact, everything looked payed for, I'd have no idea the place was squatted if I hadn't been told. It looked like the cleanest punk house I've ever seen. Upstairs there were four people cuddled under blankets on the couch watching Star Trek on a laptop, Downstairs two more were asleep, and one watching a hilarious local TV show on DVD. The walls had a few art posters on them, no graffiti or damage anywhere. I was given a tour, multiple bedrooms, 2 kitchens a few bathrooms and a very well stocked fridge - thanks to local dumpsters. A freegan paradise. The bar/game room were a highlight, complete with fooseball and ping pong. There was also a decent zine library which pulled me in for a half hour or so.

I hungout with the inhabitants for a while, talking about the squatting scenes in AUS, the US and Europe. We talked about Food Not Bombs and other food redistribution programs. I was offered free range on the kitchen and made myself a quick dinner. veggieburger with avocado. One of the squatters was baking some home made gluten-free bread. "I have the allergy, but I find it hard to stay away from gluten" he explained. The bread turned out delicious and 'rustic', I asked for the recipe for my mom and he laughed, "Oh, I just made it up... threw a few things together".

From here we went down the street to a punk show- a few grindcore and power-metal bands from New Zealand were playing at a warehouse venue. The venue was great, covered in spray paint art, with a large hangout/game room in the front and the backroom where the bands played. I ran into a number of people I'd met at the house party the night before, and felt like I'm quickly integrating into this city.



After the show was over, I was invited out to dinner with some of the folks, but decided I'd had a long day and didn't have any more Australian money (I spent my last bits at the party the night before and as it was Sunday, no bank or currency exchange place had been open) so I went back to the warehouse.

It turned out I was just in time for movie night. They had setup a large projector, turned the couches to face and put out some beanbags. Pizza was delivered and we put on a pirated copy of Public Enemies. The video wasn't perfect quality and a short in the audio cords kept letting out periodic blast of static and feedback, but I still thoroughly enjoyed the movie - being a fan of both Johnny Depp and John Dillinger.

The night was winding down, I didn't have much interest in seeing second feature, the new Harry Potter, so I retired to bed and did a bit of reading, all the while thinking that I live like a pauper king.