MELBOURNE BELOW
- Editorials
-
A series of articles offering insights into the Melbourne Below Project.
Current Editorial
Past Editorials
CURRENT EDITORIAL
JUNE 2008 - "What Matters...." by Marie Mantzioros.
Here's a question I asked myself earlier today:
Do I care about the quality of my digital prints more than the ongoing destruction of Victoria's old growth forests?
The answer is of course, no. But strangely, that response would be difficult to gauge if you attempted to glean it from my daily actions. In fact, I have been more vocal about many topics, some of which I barely care about, than my deep concern about the destruction of our heritage in East Gippsland.
Enquiring amongst my friends, it would seem I am not the only one to put deep-seated concerns on the back burner while busying myself with day to day trivia.
Why is this? Is this central to the human condition and emotional survival or a product of information overload and modern lifestyles?
Of course I don't have the answer to that particular question, though I think it does make an interesting discussion. However, considering the pressing nature of the many environmental issues we now face, it is apparent that not only individuals, but our society as a whole finds it easier to address only those issues which are immediate and pressing.
Of course fossil fuels are finite, but do we care until we begin to run out? Spewing toxins into our atmosphere with unknown consequences can't be good, but laws weren't passed until it was proven to be lethal to humans, even the wealthy!
So, here we are, a good 30 years after scientists and other experts warned of the perils of greenhouse gases and habitat destruction. It is apparent to the majority of sane people in the world that action must be taken immediately. I will not even entertain that a reader of this editorial can think otherwise. But what about the issues of the future?
The warnings are here now. There are many spheres in which experts are begging for immediate action: health & welfare in our country and in poorer nations, environmental destruction and habitat loss, diverse cultures and traditions which are at risk, managing future epidemics, endangered species, social alienation, and the list continues...
Here I begin to remember why I wind up talking more about my digital prints; there is so much lacking in plans for the future, I'd probably have a nervous breakdown if I focused on these constantly!
However, there is a place in my life for demanding action on the issues which I believe we should not leave to future generations. I would argue that we all need to remain a little bit vigilant and take up causes which we believe may pose problems now and in the future, even if it means merely talking to others about how we feel. The power of real people talking to real people can never be underestimated!
Furthermore, despite my disappointment at the extent of destruction in East Gippsland, I have to remember that during the time of my involvement with the Rainforest Action Group, we did achieve some major victories, and positive outcomes, such as gaining commitments from major chain hardware stores to switch to renewable timber, just to name one.
Maybe I shouldn't be so hard on myself.
But I also like to remind myself that I only have one life to live, and though I am but one individual, I would like to think that when future generations look back upon our society with disbelief at our complacency, that I will not have been one of those that sat back and let it all happen without speaking out.
PAST EDITORIALS
MAY 2008 - "Community" by John Gibbins.
APRIL 2008 - "The Red Queen's Race" by Michael Green.
MARCH 2008 - "The Essence of 3s" by Gabbriel O'Shae.
FEBRUARY 2008 - "A New Beginning" by John Gibbins.
JANUARY 2008 - "Oh Computer!" by Marie Mantzioros.
DECEMBER 2007 - "Change to Embrace the Strange" by Michael Green.
NOVEMBER 2007 - "Connections" by Marie Mantzioros.
OCTOBER 2007 - "Simulated People" by John Gibbins.
SEPTEMBER 2007 - "Melbourne and the Seasons" by Gabbriel O'Shae.
AUGUST 2007 - "Change and Choices" by John Gibbins.
JULY 2007 - "The Reality of Melbourne Below" by Michael Green.
JUNE 2007 - "Whatever Happened to the 21st Century?" by Marie Mantzioros.
MAY 2007 - "Reality Surfing" by John Gibbins.
APRIL 2007 - "Time...It Was" by Michael Green.
MARCH 2007 - "Remembered...." by Marie Mantzioros.
FEBRUARY 2007 - "Out of the Shadows" by Michael Green.
JANUARY 2007 - "Reflections on a Year Passed, and a Year to Come" by John Gibbins.
DECEMBER 2006 - "Anniversary" by Michael Green.
NOVEMBER 2006 - "Alternatives" by Marie Mantzioros.
OCTOBER 2006 - "As Above, So Below" by Gabbriel O'Shae.
SEPTEMBER 2006 - "Child of Two Worlds" by John Gibbins.
AUGUST 2006 - "Disasters, Delays & Changes" by Michael Green
JULY 2006 - "A Life Less Ordinary" by Michael Green
JUNE 2006 - "Melbourne Below and You!" by John Gibbins
MAY 2006 - "The Way to Melbourne Below" by John Gibbins
APRIL 2006 - "From Where Does Culture Spring?" by Michael Green
MARCH 2006 - "The Geography of Melbourne Below" by Michael Green
FEBRUARY 2006 - "Places to Grow" by John Gibbins
JANUARY 2006 - "Melbourne Below" by John Gibbins
MAY 2008 - "Community" by John Gibbins.
The community we live in has four main spokes and so like a wheel it needs to be kept strong. If we are to have a strong vessel to move into the next decade - the wheel needs to be strong. You need all four strong spokes to make Melbourne Below a sturdy community.
The first is the individual. The group was formed originally to act as a refuge. People who were tired of the Red Queens' race could come for a few weeks or months and have some time out. It used to provide succour and recuperation for people. We can be a community of strong refreshed people. Yet people who gain strength at the expense or family or clan don't go very far.
The second spoke is the family. Whether a nuclear family or a large extended family, it is within a family we grow and build friends. The family offers support and nurture to our children and the family also offers comfort for the elderly. The sharing of a meal with family members is often happy and memorable. Yet the family who gains power at the expense of others can find itself isolated and break the wheel.
The third spoke is organisations and fiefdoms. By uniting and standing together great things can be achieved. We can build and work in teams to help the organisation and the common good. When large groups of people band together, there is little that cannot be accomplished. Yet the organisation that exploits the workers as individuals and their families has lost its soul, and so does not deserve to flourish.
The fourth spoke is the large stage of national and international issues. When politicians ignore topics like the global warming, the carbon footprint, and the hole in the ozone layer - can this fourth spoke be strong? Our community once was a rallying point for people who valued the ecology of our planet. In the last few months there has been the independence movement in Kosovo, the trouble in Tibet and the Olympic torch debacle, etc. Does anyone even care or notice anymore? The large players stumble around acting like toddlers in the playground, so we have problems in Taiwan, the Tamils, the Kashmir, and the US meddling in Afghanistan and Iraq. With the fourth spoke bent and dented, Melbourne Below can act local while thinking global.
The engineers have made the community with four spokes, and seek to assist our Melbourne Below. We need four spokes, strong and well balanced, supporting each other. With a sound community our Melbourne Below can roll on for many decades to come.
--- John Gibbins.
APRIL 2008 - "The Red Queen's Race" by Michael Green.
"Well, in our country," said Alice, still panting a little, "you'd generally get to somewhere else — if you run very fast for a long time, as we've been doing."
"A slow sort of country!" said the Queen. "Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!"
"Through the Looking Glass and what Alice found there" - Lewis
Carroll (1872).
In the last few months I have felt like I have been caught up in a Red Queen's
Race with the updating of Melbourne Below.
I receive the emails about upcoming events, I gather information together about new entries for FIEFDOMS or the MARKETPLACE - but finding the time to carry out this work is difficult.
Which is odd - as I have more free time (theoretically) than I had last year. Maybe it is a case of more things competing for the time I do have.
Plans for the expansion of this website retreat further and further into an uncertain future, and it is a struggle, at times, even to keep the CALENDAR up-to-date.
I am not happy with this - and somewhere my subconscious is working on a solution to this problem.
In the meantime someone should buy the Red Queen a pair of roller-skates, whilst I await my own solution.
All the best,
---- Michael Green.
MARCH 2008 - "The Essence of 3s" by Gabbriel O'Shae.
The third month of Melbourne Below's third year! An important milestone,
because as more people are drawn to the site the more of a harvest that comes.
As for harvest, I'm harvesting my hair's wealth to give to the community
for the World's Greatest Shave. My hair, nearly three feet long - another
three - releasing power into the universe with the strength a healer can
bring.
It's strange, so many people have begged me not to use March - the month of
the Harvest Equinox - to shave off my hair, to raise the money for research
for a cure for cancer and leukaemia. I have to wonder; what's more selfish?
Being determined to raise this money losing my hair, or giving in to those
who are begging me not to do to this? The healing power of Three begins this
month - on the weekend of the World's Greatest Shave. So mote it be, Melbourne!
---- Gabbriel O'Shae.
FEBRUARY 2008 - "A New Beginning" by John Gibbins.
February is usually the hottest month for Melbourne. Just when children go back to school the heat comes along. The summer continues until Easter heralds in the beginning of autumn. It is that time of year again.
There are a few remaining festivals held in Melbourne this month. People are mainly back at work and the holiday resorts are quietening down. Mind you the campers along the Port Phillip Bay will be there to Rosebud, until the very end at Easter. They are hardy souls and quite dedicated.
This is a year of change for Melbourne Below. The management committee has been holding some meetings and discussing incorporation. This will be a rite of passage in many ways. It will take Melbourne Below from being a small minor site into being a main player. This will bring greater security of the assets and greater room to expand. For the people viewing the site it will allow you to become actively involved. There will be scope for our staff to expand and many more people brought on board to bring you the best alternate site for Melbourne.
With all these rights and perks comes responsibility. It will mean that we will have to step up to the mark and perform. It will mean that we have to give our best for the company. It will mean that if you ever wanted to join a team that is going places, now is the time to put your hand up and be counted. We will need a good team with you to take up the challenge.
There are many ways you can contribute. If you find any shop you like, let us know! Shout out! Tell us if you go to a movie and just thought it was the best! Yell! And let us know of any events going down, good places to get gear, cool places to visit. We need to have your input so that it becomes the site you like to visit; once a week and every week. So tell us! Rave on! Yak yak yak and so let us know. We are here to listen.
This has never been a site about me or any one vision. It is a site that attempts to welcome people who are different, and follow the beat of a different drum. It is for people that take the road less travelled. So give us a go, find out how you can contribute and join in. Next year it could be you helping to run the organisation! We need good people on our team; and now is a great time to join.
So this is a turning point in the year. The days are going to get shorter,
and the leaves start to turn brown. It is a turning point for our Melbourne
and a turning point for us all. Be ready and be part of the change. I see
a great future ahead!
---- John Gibbins.
JANUARY 2008 - "Oh Computer!" by Marie Mantzioros.
The virus checker has expired. Got to do something about that soon. Why does this computer take half an hour to start up? What is this crap! Oh yeah. Shouldn't have sat here for so long. I could have been washing the dishes. And the baby's bottles. May have even got the sterilizing done, and poured out the water .....<snigger> Never. They never leave me boiled water in the jug! I keep on topping it up with water, flicking the on switch... when I get back, there's half a cup of boiled water left. I suppose I just have to learn to treat it like a commodity, and act accordingly.
When you think about it, what isn't a commodity?
...
No seriously, I have been here for ages now, staring blankly. Please inform me of some wonderful expression of humanity that isn't a commodity... I'm sure there's a few out there, just can't think of them right now.
Oh well. I've got to go and empty the car and the bags.
Damn! Left a bunch of quarter-full bottles in here. They've been fermenting well. It's amazing really. <sigh> Life... so insidious.
I must get on with these finances. Tax returns are one of the ugliest indicators of modern humans. Just like an albatross's effluent. But I must to do it soon to avoid those late fees. Perhaps the next time I take holidays. This holiday I've been completely booked out. I thought I'd have time to wipe glass and mirrors free of "greasy handmarks" and drool, and organize the plasticware cupboard so that it would no longer be known as the 'cupboard of death'. Oh well. What did I expect? It's all Christmas and family. As if I was going to get my tax done, fix the back fence, weed the garden and as well as the above... All I did was wrap, eat, drink, complain and socialize, along with the traveling that it all incurs. No time for serious stuff.
Oh damn! I'm really behind on the New Scientist. I'm lagging around 8 issues or so behind. Must catch up.
I read last night that El Nino causes the earth to experience extra drag and thus slows down our days. It says "the effect is slight" and causes a slowdown of one millisecond per day. Hang on! This has alarmed me. Here is what I thought: For every day that we experience El Nino, which could theoretically be all the time, we slow down a millisecond a day. So in 1000 years, we would slow down an entire second. 60000 years, and it's a minute. 3.6 million years and it's an hour. 86,400,000 years and it's an entire day. Can this be right? That's not long, geologically speaking. There are other effects that are slowing us down too. I wonder what they add up to? I'd love to look it up on the web. That's what the web excels at. But I can't... I've really got to do all of my online chores and check the inbox.
I remember when your kind were "fun", and at the mercy of batch files. Nobody told me what to do with my computer then, except for XTree Gold... he he it was fun!
All I want to do is make a 6 gig folder of music for my MP4! This darn computer! It's slower that any of my "slow" machines ever were. And anyway, they weren't machines then, they were pals.
Yes. <laughs> As the saying goes, the bulletin boards and crazy tricks that amused us so thoroughly... that’s all another story.
<rambling complaints heard fading into the distance>
---- Marie Mantzioros.
DECEMBER 2007 - "Change to Embrace the Strange" by Michael Green.
On October 26th my job in Werribee finished. They had offered me a month or three's extension - but a series of three terrifying dreams told me this was a very bad idea.
I had realised that my job had been destroying me! It was not only the long commute each way each day, the early mornings and the fatigue - I had had to set aside everything that gave my life value.
My stories remained moth-balled in disregarded drawers and dusty folders; my diary of thoughts, dreams, and imaginings whithered and died; my fanzines became dull litanies of days and ways.
I was too tired even to seek new inspirations in the citadels of Melbourne Below. The highlight of days was the TV shows I watched, or the minutes spent before crashing for the night in another writer's world.
For the sake of a fistfull of dollars each fortnight I had chained my muse and locked her away.
It took three nightmares to show me in no uncertain terms what damage I was doing to myself.
So I said goodbye to Werribee - and re-entered the uncertain world. Glad to be here. Able to take up the things set aside for too long and run with them. Even taking a chance to do a course I had long wanted to do, but had not had time or energy for.
My muse lies sleeping still, but I am quite sure she is not dead.
When she wakes - oh, what dreams we shall spin then!
---- Michael Green.
NOVEMBER 2007 - "Connections" by Marie Mantzioros.
Recently I had a conversation with a work colleague where he complained to me that there is nothing to do in Melbourne. I mentioned theatre, galleries, etc. but he stated he wanted things to "do" rather than "watch". He went on to explain to me that the website which lists a lot of great parties to go to is actually London based (which is where he resided before Melbourne) and rarely do Melbourne activities come up.
To my dismay, I had no real response to this. I know I personally get invited to many parties, but these are generally smallish private events. Does Melbourne really suffer a dearth of large public parties? I don't have the evidence to refute it, so it just could be true. However, there must be something out there to amuse and occupy my colleague on the weekends!
Furthermore, last night I met a Canadian tourist who had 4 days left in Melbourne and wanted something exciting before departing. He also had had his fix of "cultural" attractions and was wanting something more hands on. Sadly, I could think of none in the next four days.
I like to think of both examples above as more of a lack of knowledge on my part than a lack of suitable events in Melbourne (but perhaps it is a combination of both?). The websites I checked had been dormant for a while, and I didn't know where else to check. 'What if we listed these on Melbourne Below?' I thought to myself. So now I have another chore to add to my endless list: make connections with the street party and dance party scene and add them to the 'Melbourne Below' community, as well as investigate other sociable communities…
I suppose if they were more apparent and easy for me to find, they would really belong to 'Melbourne Above' rather than 'Melbourne Below', so I don't really have cause to complain about the work this may involve.
There are many people out there trying to connect to the kinds of events which give their lives meaning, and I would love to see Melbourne Below fill that niche. Whether large or small gatherings or creations, there are many events of all sorts whose creators struggle for an audience, while individuals languish in front of their tv sets, unable to find the connections which stimulate their unique personas.
I am pleased that Melbourne Below is still building momentum, and as it continues to grow in both visitor numbers and advertisers, that more people will see it as a place where they can find the very connection for which they pine.
--- Marie Mantzioros.
OCTOBER 2007 - "Simulated People" by John Gibbins.
It seems that most months are a celebration and remembrance of something. This month in October we remember the Sputnik launch 50 years ago – going overhead and introducing us to the space age. Thirty-nine years ago a book was written by Philip K. Dick which became a major movie 25 years ago. A movie classic which has stood the test of time; and so again we remember the first screening of Blade Runner.
The movie Blade Runner dealt with many threads and plots. One of these was the issue of replicants, or manufactured (cloned) people. These days you might call them androids or living-dolls. They appeared like people except they were manufactured to the design wishes of the factory. Like widgets they could be bought, sold, or recalled by the factory. If you questioned these replicants closely; they would repeat learnt slogans and jingles, and you could find flaws like holes in their memory – thus you can distinguish them from biological humans. If you walked through Bourke Street Mall, it would be difficult to distinguish the replicants from the humans!
Not that this is a new thread. Back in the 1950’s there was a movie called The Man in the Grey Flannel Suit, which had parallel themes. What has happened is that instead of building android replicants in a factory; we have trained our populations so that they resemble the automaton replicants despite being biologically human. The sweat shop innovation to business has produced generations of people doing process work. The various sweat shops have given way to modern examples in the form of call centres, or data entry pools, or outsourced sewing, or temping firms and cheap labour hire companies. Instead of the system being built around free thinking people, people are being trained to fit the current system. Despite having a few tertiary qualifications, any job that I apply for, requires me to NOT think and so obey blindly.
Likewise a few years back there was a small social movement called colour the grey. This social movement tried to alert people that you did not have to stay grey in a colourless dull life, that you could get out and live a bit and be colourful. The movement tried to wake up the human-automaton sleepers and allow them to live again. This was very reminiscent of the earlier work by Gurdjieff. For those of us involved in the 'waking up' and rehabilitation, it was a challenging task.
In Melbourne Below we reject the grey – and we embrace the colours of the rainbow. We build a space called Melbourne Below where the humans of Blade Runner could live, while leaving the replicants of Blade Runner in Melbourne Above. What Melbourne Below provides is a conscious separation. The people who are staying grey could go about there daily lives in Melbourne Above, quite safe and in their ignorance. Those who would think and have some colour and cognition in their lives could stay happy in Melbourne Below, unhindered and unchained to enjoy life as they create it.
There are heaps of colours in Melbourne Below! We celebrate with a wide and varied Calendar! We have lots of groups and Fiefdoms in which people can participate. There are lots of merchants and people plying there wares; living, performing, creating and building. We have people from all walks of life, both young and old, and from all suburbs of this great city. In many ways we are the life and vitality in Melbourne that keeps the rest of the city going.
We offer sanctuary and succour for those who wake up and become human again. So wake up and fully live in Melbourne Below.
--- John Gibbins.
SEPTEMBER 2007 - "Melbourne and the Seasons" by Gabbriel O'Shae.
Spring has reappeared, with flowers opening up after the cold time of winter. In the underworld the goddess has been released from her time there, and renews the world, and everybody's spirits with hope and joy. Almost the way I feel, actually.
At the beginning of winter, my two year relationship died - how appropriate the timing - metaphorically speaking. And through the winter, I've spent my time keeping to myself, working and attempting to resurrect my social life, and myself.
At the end of winter, and now the beginning of the most fertile parts and seasons of the year, my life begins a new chapter, knowing that between work, my friends and my life, I also have time to spend for Melbourne Below - clearly, since this is the first editorial I've had the energy to write for over a year.
It may seem cruel to say that I am relieved to exit the current winter of my life, but I know it was something I had to do. I couldn't stay energetic in all the things I love, including the Melbourne Below project, and it's wonderful to be a part of it again.
Just like Persephone returning from the Underworld. As a Modern Goddess, it's good to be back among the living!
* Blessed be, everyone!
AUGUST 2007 - "Change and Choices" by John Gibbins.
A lot has happened recently to anchor this moment in time. We have had Kevin Sheedy retire from coaching the Essendon Football Club. We have had Steve Bracks resign as Premier of Victoria. It has been 10 years since the start of South Park on our TV screens. It is one year to go, until the Chinese Olympics in Beijing.
So whichever way you look at it, this is a great time to be alive. The diversity of views of the now reflects the diversity in Melbourne Below. Some folk are interested in Living History, and so think back to previous centuries. Others are interested in SF and so look to the stars and our future. Some have artistic talents and provide a mirror to reflect the world around us. It is this great diverstiy that makes Melbourne Below.
The only way we can appreciate this is to take a step back, slow down, and step outside the Melbourne Above. It is only from Melbourne Below that we can choose which view to take. It is from Melbourne Below that the city draws its strength. Under the surface lie numerous undercurrents: who will replace Sheedy? How will they decide to replace Bracks? How will they prevent the athletes in Beijing from asphyxiating in the smog? Most people only see what is presented by the media, without lifting the veil to peer underneath.
So at this moment in time - what will you wake up to in the morning? We have the gilded cage of Melbourne Above where people make their existence. Or there is the Melbourne Below where people can choose and people can live. (And what a range of choices there is!)
As a father I have to make choices, so that my new family has a future to inherit. We leave this world for our children, and initially we choose for them. When I look around at the diversity that Melbourne Below provides, it is hard to know how to prepare for that, that is my responsibility.
Bracks is gone. The world under Mr Brumby and Mr John Howard is all provided to us. In Melbourne Below we each have some responisibility, for the world we wake up to is chosen by us. We are responsible for the world we see around us as we have made this choice. No one else has made it for us in the world Below. As a Dad the choices I make are both for me and my family. It is tough balancing life and family and work, as there are only 168 hours a week.
Melbourne Below allows me to make informed choices, and to do the right things in life.
--- John Gibbins.
JULY 2007 - "The Reality of Melbourne Below" by Michael Green.
Mister Gibbins sent me an email the other day about the documentary series Gamer Revolution shown on the ABC. He wondered, and I quote: "how it differs from our virtual world of Melbourne Below."
My immediate response was to reply that there was nothing 'virtual' about Melbourne Below!
How to explain? Melbourne Below is real, dead real, but it is often overlooked by people because of the perceptual filters people slip over their minds as they zombie through the rituals of a mundane life.
(If there is one thing the human mind is very good at - it is in automating stuff. Our conscious minds are disengaged as our unconscious minds are allowed to take over the running of our lives.)
Ironically we may seek stimulation inside a grey life by playing online games in virtual worlds - and then in a second ironic twist letting our game reflexes become automated as this is the key to obtaining those high scores.
But Melbourne Below is the waking dream - you can touch it, no machine-interface required! To enter Melbourne Below you disengage the zombie, unplug your robot - to find you are experiencing the world again as the rich and magical place it has always been.
The Melbourne Below website is a collection of magic keys freely offered to you. Each key unlocks a door to an alternative way of living in the world; each key unlocks doors to adventures and experiences in this most Magical City.
Don't be a zombie shuffling through life - reawaken your human mystery, bravely step into the unknown, use the many portals of Melbourne Below.
---- Michael.
JUNE 2007 - "Whatever Happened to the 21st Century?" by Marie Mantzioros.
Whatever happened to the 21st Century? This question has been pondered by many a science fiction fan, daydreamer and optimist. In the latter part of the 20th Century, there were many predictions made about how we would be living today. However, our history has diverged from the path the idealists had envisaged. Much of this is not surprising, since all predictions are merely guesses. However, there are some advances, promised or not, that humans could have enjoyed but didn't. These aren't so much about transport tubes to the moon, or instant dinners in a coloured pill. There are more basic advances we were promised with the burgeoning of new technologies which have never come to fruition.
One of my particular disappointments is the perpetually promised shorter working day, and the corresponding increase in leisure time, neither of which have eventuated. Technology has certainly decreased the time we labour in the home and increased commercial and industrial productivity. Automatic washing machines, central heating, computers, email; on goes the list of labour saving devices. So where has all the time gone? And what are we doing with our labour in instead?
I’m sure some of this time has been lost to sitting in traffic jams, waiting in phone queues, and standing around with tickets anxious for our number to be called, but these annoyances aren't the entire story. I find a striking difference in 21st Century life is the dramatic increase in our number of possessions. Ironically, many of these items can be described as either "labour saving" or "leisure enhancing". So it would seem part of our time must be spent earning money to buy all these items. Advertising, and indeed capitalism, has somehow convinced a vast number of us that we need designer clothing, novel mobile ringtones, piles of DVDs and computer games, updated homewares, bling for our pets, larger houses, etc. Given modern society, it would be unfair to ourselves (and unpleasant) to go without some of life's treats while watching others have all the pleasures in life we also long for. To have these, however, we must work and hence earn more.
But this is not the whole story. Part of the problem is the "decreased labour" line was a myth, a form of advertising in itself. This has not merely sold us the gadgets that fill our ever bulging homes, but has also sold us a positive spin on our changing society. We are gaining "better lifestyles" and "more choice". Of course, the reality is that a truly better lifestyle is one where people are able to spend more quality time with friends, loved ones, and on healthy and relaxing pastimes; where people are given the opportunity to make genuine choices about their lives. Technology doesn't change where we really are as a society. Are we truly happier than our grandparents because we have mobile phones and plasma TVs? Our governments have often sold us the line of decreased working hours in "the future", but what government has ever agreed the practical implementation of this? I doubt any ever will. The 8 hour day was a hard fought battle that didn't come easily. Those that work short weeks now, and there are many, do not enjoy a blissful utopia either, as they often earn too little to function comfortably in our society, and end up below the poverty line.
So it appears that this particular utopia has gone pear shaped, and we barely remember how it all occurred. Workchoices, pay TV packed with advertising, shoddy electronics that pack up after a year or so; all examples of how we are accepting less.
Naturally we can't change what has happened in the past but we can alter the future. The more people come to realise what is actually important, and refuse to swallow all the spin from the consumerist lobby such as advertisers, the more we will be able to see through the hype and judge "advancements" on their true merits. For all the technological advancements we have, an outdoor performance, a sing along or a glass of wine with friends, or a cuddle with a loved one, are just some examples of simple, ageless pleasures that we still enjoy. Rather than dominated by new and exciting gadgets, genuine future 'advancement' would mean we improve our social structures and fundamental humanity. This would give human dignity, the environment and nature, genuine culture and expression, and true freedom, the respect and reverence they deserve.
Martin Luther King Jr put it more eloquently and succinctly than I ever could with the following statement:
"We must rapidly begin the shift from a "thing-oriented" society to a "person-oriented" society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered."
----Marie.
MAY 2007 - "Reality Surfing" by John Gibbins.
This month has seen quite a bit of activity. In April Melbourne hosts the International Comedy Festival and in May the International Jazz festival. Each month Melbourne hosts something special. We live in such a wonderful city!
This is the world of Melbourne Above, merely the tip of the iceberg, and Melbourne Below has so much more.
Perhaps the biggest issue of this month has been dealing with people who see the world as fixed. What a mistake to make! Instead of seeing the depth and diversity of life, these people blame the world they see as they can't alter it. Maybe we should all get out the flags and banners and start a revolution!
Or not. For the rest of us in Melbourne Below, the world around us is variable. The ability to have choice in the world gives us many options. We have in Melbourne Below the choice of what I call 'fiefdoms'. This word was chosen as it designates a 'space'; and not just a geographic territory; fiefdom includes social and political and head spaces. In Melbourne Below we can choose to perceive and experience our world in different ways. In each of the fiefdoms or versions of Melbourne CBD the terrain varies: e.g.: the school girl experiences a different Melbourne to the business man, the mother and child experiences a different Melbourne to the Asian tourist. Each perceives and experiences a different Melbourne due to many factors in who they are and their background. You could say that their realities differ. The expression "getting real," means different things to different people.
The joy of Melbourne Below is that one fiefdom may be as good or bad as any other. If you find that one is bad you are able to keep moving through different alternatives till you find one you like. On another day you might go back and find that some of the fiefdoms you discarded; are great for the moment, and then you move on. You don't have to feel trapped into any single role, identity or reality. This browsing of different cultural spaces is sometimes called 'reality surfing'. If you change your fiefdom and travel around Melbourne, you will discover a myriad of worlds to choose from: Chapel Street shopping is different to Brunswick Street; Frankston Mall is different to Highpoint; Werribee is different to Dandenong. Likewise a change of headspace can make the CBD experience change in dramatic ways. In Melbourne Below we acknowledge and practise this choice.
Some people are trapped trying to destroy the main fiefdom of Melbourne under Mr Bracks and Mr Howard. Instead of seeing the diversity of culture and life in Melbourne, they only see a dominant one. Being able to see only the main society and the main opposition does limit you to a range of two choices. It would be like visiting Africa and only seeing a lion and an elephant. It would be like visiting the USA and only seeing theme-parks and airports. Once you take off your blinkers and start perceiving the richness and breadth of choice – you will realise that other options exist. If you move into Melbourne Below you find many hundreds of possible choices.
So the practical use is to know that we need never feel stuck in a city without friends or options. The choice is always there to leave and walk into a different fiefdom. If you can't find happiness in this reality, it is so easy to shift to another.
The practise in changing from one space to another allows you many options and many futures to choose from. Shifting from one to another can be as easy as jumping on a tram and seeing where it takes you. All we have in Melbourne Below is choice and responsibility, so that no one is trapped.
----John Gibbins.
APRIL 2007 - "Time...It Was" by Michael Green.
Most days I get emails in my in-box telling me about exciting Melbourne Belowish events. Most of them end up listed in our CALENDAR and those that arrive with short notice get forwarded to our mailing list.
Sometimes, but only sometimes, I am able to make it to these special events. I have been to art shows and plays and concerts. I wish I could go to many more, but often time is my enemy.
I have a busy life, and a job at the other side of Melbourne from where I live. Sometimes - I get so tired.
But amongst this busy life, amongst the repetition of mundane essentials, I am able to make some time to experience something of what Melbourne Below offers.
I have seen New Breed Mischief and Jessica Paige on stage.
I went with friends to see the Frankston Theatre Group's performance of "Move Over Mrs. Markham."
I saw the three pagan bands at the Spanish Club in Brunswick - Dandelion Wine, Wendy Rule, and Spiral Dance.
These have added colour to a life sometimes threatened with mundanity.
There have been many things I would have liked to have done, but time or commitments prevented. But each month brings new opportunities to explore the exciting and the new in the streets and buildings of Melbourne Below.
I will walk those streets when I can - and I hope you will too!
---Michael.
MARCH 2007 - "Remembered...." by Marie Mantzioros.
The antipodean autumn is upon us again, heralding a change in the city's mood. What does this mean to Melburnians? In terms of theatre, there is the Comedy Festival which kicks off autumn. This is lots of fun, but only the beginning of Melbourne's love of culture, which endures through the cooler months. Melburnians love the night and live theatre and music and there are many options and tastes to choose from. Taking a glance at the Melbourne Below Calendar reveals many interesting and surprisingly affordable options. It is thrilling to think there is so much on offer for us.
I'd love to get out more, but circumstances prevent me getting to evening events more than once a millennium or so. Somehow parenthood is now becoming easier and more testing. How does that work?! I am glad I enjoyed so much theatre and live music when I had the chance, and I urge anyone with the opportunity to take advantage of the time you have and see some live performances, whatever they may be. It may be a pleasant change to take a chance; see something you may not have considered. Be brave and you will rarely regret it. If the worst happens and the show is bad, you can have fun with your friends laughing at it afterwards over coffee. Some of the most brilliant performances I have seen have been entirely unexpected.
Hopefully, I will see more of you out and about when fate allows me to have my evenings back. Until then, enjoy, and don't opt for the movies every time; the world is too large and exciting to be stuck in a lifeless cinema!
On a more personal note, I would like to say bon voyage to my beloved dog, Pluto: December 1991 to February 20th 2007. He brought us joy and unconditional love every day of his life and I'm thankful I took a whim to visit the Lost Dog's Home the fateful day I found him. May he be perpetually running while chasing sticks and eating chocolate wherever he is right now. We were blessed to have been a family and to have been given such a long time together. I will always remember his big smile which was larger than life, and as such endures in our hearts. Bye bye little Pluto! I will love you forever.
Marie, Pluto and John
FEBRUARY 2007 - "Out of the Shadows" by Michael Green.
Many moons ago on one of my nocturnal perambulations I passed by a school hall, one I had passed by many times before. But this time I noticed a lot of people streaming out of the hall.
I asked a woman what was happening. She told me there'd just been a performance of "Godspell" by the students.
I asked why I hadn't been told.
"It was just for the students and parents," she'd said.
I felt cheated. It is one of my quirks of taste that I think "Godspell" is pretty cool, and I was annoyed that it was being performed in my suburb and I hadn't even known!
I'd learnt there was cool stuff going on in my local community which I didn't know about, and as a result I began to take a lot more interest in the content of my local free newspaper.
In its pages you can find out about all kinds of local artistic and creative events - including, of course, what your local theatre companies are up to.
It was one of these almost serendipitous discoveries, for example, that lead me in 1996 to see a most intriguing play called "The Golden Age" (by Louis Nowra) performed by the VCE Theatre Studies students of Caulfield Grammar School. (The play has so many deep themes.)
But I also reflected that we do not receive all the free community newspapers - and I was kept ignorant of what was going on in the other communities of Melbourne.
The whole history of the Melbourne Below project is one of discovery and display!
It was in going to see my friend Sean's band Eden play many years ago, that I first came across the enchanting Wendy Rule. It was in going to a compilation-CD launch in Armadale a few years back (to support my friend Corinna's band Liminal) that I first got to hear the beautiful voice of Jessica page.
I have been to see displays of art by people I know to, in the process, discover the works of people I did not know.
By careful reading of local newspapers, newsgroups, and by observing the places that I walk through I am always discovering new entries for Melbourne Below.
Much that is wonderful in this life and this city is hidden, but with the Melbourne Below project these precious things are brought out-of-the-shadows and placed where they may be found.
There are 165 treasures gathered together in Melbourne Below, but these are just a tiny portion of those waiting to be found.
Explore, share, enjoy!
----Michael.
JANUARY 2007 - "Reflections on a Year Passed, and a Year to Come" by John Gibbins.
2006 has gone and we start a new year in 2007.
With all that is happening 2006 brought me three hats. Already a long time staff member of Melbourne Below, in August I became the proud father of a bonny boy. Then again there was my own fiefdom to watch over.
At this stage of the year many people look back and remember the year just gone. It saddens me that so few people remember or respond. How long ago was the tsunami disaster in Indonesia, Ceylon, and the other countries bordering the Indian Ocean? There was a large campaign for funds for restoration. The reports I heard are that very little of money actually reached the people for which it was intended. Much of the money went to the administration of the funds. Sometimes I wonder that the saying for Melbourne Below is to think local and act global.
At the beginning of the year there was trouble in Sydney with the riots around the beaches and streets of Cronulla. Is it that surprising that it happened in Sydney? I feel that Melbourne is partially protected against similar incidents due to there being a Melbourne Below - a place where people are comfortable with differences. If there wasn't a Melbourne Below then the citizens of Melbourne would have to create it! A challenge for 2007 may be to see if there can be a Sydney Below or an Adelaide Below.
We have had several lows in 2006. There was the ongoing civil war in Iraq - which is disturbing. There was also the war in Lebanon that caught many people off-guard. So many Australians were caught in Beruit and Lebannon and had to be evacuated. If it wasn't for my wife, Marie, being pregant we would have been in Tyre in Lebanon at the height of the battle. Haggling and negotiating a safe passage for my family through the crisis to safety.
The main highpoint in Melbourne for 2006 was the Commonwealth Games. It was a large event and catered for both the masses of people in Melbourne Above, and those of us in Melbourne Below with the cultural events in the G-spot. During the games I spent a few days wandering with my family and enjoying the events there. The best events cater for the mix of people in Melbournes Above and Below.
Last year we also had people waking up to global warming. Some of us have been concerned about global warming for 30 years! Melbourne is now in the grip of Level 3 water restrictions while the rest of the state has been on this level or higher for some time. Every household needs to take action and start to think about reusing water and installing rainwater tanks. Every household needs to begin to think and plan on the next issue - reducing electricity use. The installation of solar panels and reselling excess power back to the utility companies is not yet supported by the State Government.
It is worrying when there were more voters for American Idol in 2006 than in the U.S. half term election. Perhaps that is an indication of people's priorities. The state election in Victoria left much unchanged, and thankfully brought in a few of the minor parties. Unfortunately Melbourne Above was seen to hold sway with a huge proportion voting with it. (Liberal and ALP votes combined totalled over 80%.)
In every day of the last year there was action and things to do. Sometimes it was assisting the Melbourne Below team, sometimes working with the fiefdom, sometimes at work and sometimes with my family. Each day the challenge is there to be awake and alive in the city, somehow. So what is on the go for 2007 - do we have 31 million seconds of opportunity to live; or do we have another insignificant 2% of our life gone? How do we see the year ahead: will it be a year of opportunity to LIVE every minute, or have another year wasted?
"Throughout the world, most people live in cities or urban communities and don't feel a strong connection with the land on which they live. Often people think they own the land - that it belongs to them as a thing, a possession. But at the same time, we depend completely on the land to feed us and support us and inspire us. And so we can see that it is the other way around: we belong to the land. If we keep it healthy then it will sustain the web of life on which we depend." J. Baker
DECEMBER 2006 - "Anniversary" by Michael Green.
The "Melbourne Below Project" in its current incarnation is approaching the end of its first year.
It is an organic project and it is impossible for it to ever be considered complete. The site must continue to evolve as the city it serves and sketches continues to evolve.
The site now has almost twice the entries it had when it was officially launched on the BLACK MOON of December 31st 2005! Many new entries are also receiving their final polish before they get published here. This makes the "Melbourne Below" site an increasingly valuable resource for the many subcultures it aims to serve.
In the last couple of months the "Melbourne Below Community" mailing list has also began to take off. The list is open for anyone to read, not just subscribers, and is often used to announce upcoming cultural events (sometimes at short notice). Any subscriber may post items to the list and we welcome opinions, reviews, announcements and invitations.
The "Melbourne Below" website has recently had a change of server. We anticipate this will provide greater reliability and speed for the website. Hopefully the days of the occasional "site not found" messages will be behind us.
We hope to formally launch our CLASSIFIEDS section in the near future. (It has been part of the "Melbourne Below" website since the beginning but hasn't received the attention it deserves.) We are now getting over 70,000 hits a month - so anyone placing a classified advertisement is guaranteed an audience.
So thank you for visiting "Melbourne Below", and remember we always welcome your feedback.
"Have a cool Yule!" - Michael.
NOVEMBER 2006 - "Alternatives" by Marie Mantzioros.
Where is Melbourne Below? The term "Melbourne Below" may conjure some interesting images for visitors to our site. Sometimes I think of the "dole army" who lived in the drains ... or the various subcultures I've had the pleasure to experience, or the political activism I've been involved with, or the many wee hours spent in basement jazz dives ... the list goes on. Melbourne Below is probably all of those things, but it is more. That Melbourne Below isn't a place but an idea doesn't quite describe it either.
Melbourne Below is many ideas; it is any idea which doesn't come from advertising, or isn't dictated to us. It is anything that comes from within, that is creative. It is any idea which comes from a subculture. Melbourne Below doesn't value judge these ideas and subcultures, but accepts them as equal. It is essentially the value that diversity, creativity and alternative views are essential in a real society, and a full life.
Unfortunately, in Melbourne "above", we hear only of so called creative ventures when they are produced by corporations large enough to pay for advertising. The main views we hear are the streamlined conservative views of the mainstream media. Talentless celebrities make millions for the major record labels, but there are plenty of great musicians, actors, thinkers, etc. Where do we find these people?
We can all get out and about and stumble across great things. When we find something fantastic it seems tragic that we can't share it with more people. Melbourne Below aims to showcase these alternatives, and to share information between anyone who is interested in finding or publicizing non-mainstream events, activities and products.
For instance, through my stepfather's part-time career as a jazz drummer, I have met many great jazz musicians. They have wowed me with their brilliance yet they will never be commercial entities or get recording contracts. Their art lives in the realm of small venues and the correspondingly small but enthusiastic audience. Many of the greats I remember from my childhood such as the Tortoise and other legends have passed, but there are always talented musicians, young and old, still out there. These are just one of the many types of artist the Melbourne Below website has the opportunity to showcase.
I would like to encourage anyone interested to join the Melbourne Below email list and partake in discussion, thereby going a step further than just visiting the website. We don't subscribe to any particular view. Perhaps you can also make your mark on "Melbourne Below" ....
On a more personal note, I am currently staying at home with my newborn. It is a long way from the excitement of the outreach work I normally do in Melbourne's west. I now rely more than ever on resources such as Melbourne Below to keep me in touch with reality. Being stuck in the suburbs with only TV could be quite soul destroying, but I am endeavoring to make more of my life than a suburban mum is supposed to. The key is to always involve networks of friends and family and think outside the square when looking for baby-friendly activities. Fresh air can never be underestimated. I am looking forward to the future as it unfolds, as I am looking forward to seeing, hearing, experiencing new things and meeting new people. It is a bonus that I can share this world, "Melbourne Below", with my new son.
OCTOBER 2006 - "As Above, So Below" by Gabbriel O'Shae.
As part of the Melbourne Below network, I've often wondered about what I would put in the Editorial. The guys have been very generous, knowing that I have been studying fulltime, but that time, for this year at least, is drawing to a close. For those who celebrate Hallowe'en in October, it is indeed the Above becoming Below, and Below preparing for the Above.
What will Melbourne Below be like, now that we have, as a community, recognised that it exists? Although the question really to ask is, are we ready for what it may bring? This is the 10th month that Melbourne Below has had its own website, and so the Circle is almost complete, before we start again.
However, we have our regular people to thank, for letting us know that all our planning and gradual processes haven't been wasted. For us, as a team, this says a lot! It has told us, there is a need for those who are NOT mainstream people with mutual desire to see a website dedicated to them and that they use it. For us, this is not just good, it is GREAT!
As Hallowe'en draws closer, the veils between all worlds - the mystic to the mundane, Melbourne Below to Melbourne Above - will thin, and those who seek the Below will find it... Just make sure you don't miss the 'last train' or you may be stuck there for awhile, wandering around, with only those who know the way to find you.
Take care...
Gabbriel
SEPTEMBER 2006 - "Child of Two Worlds" by John Gibbins.
September is not usually seen as the beginning. For me however I must say that September will always be special. With September there is the new beginning after winter. Spring comes on the 22nd of September and we look forward to much spring rain. (Most of the gardens and dams could do with constant rain between now and Christmas.) We have just had a new baby born to my extended family. As we look forward through the months and year ahead there is so much to do.
What sort of world will we welcome this new child to? There are two Melbourne's now, and we will have to see that he can survive in Melbourne Above. There is always the everyday work, and stuff to deal with. There is also another Melbourne to introduce him to.
Each culture has its own internal rules and values. There are values we are told to follow in Melbourne Above, and those of Melbourne Below. We hope that you people of Melbourne Below follow the good ethics and values that set us apart. We left Melbourne Above for Melbourne Below for good reason. Part of that was the quality of the Merchants, the quality of People and events on the Calendar. We would hope that you respect the community and people in it. Respect and honour are two cornerstones of Melbourne Below.
Within Melbourne Above, most people only speak English. Within Melbourne Below people speak other languages. There are many languages around the globe, and lots of people who come from overseas speak them. To communicate amongst them in Melbourne Above they use English. So to appreciate the fullness of Melbourne Below, teaching a second or third language might be required. Any suggestions of suitable second or third languages would be worthwhile.
Within Melbourne Below we also have various different trading schemes. Some merchants use regular money and cash; while other people use barter and LET$ trading. Likewise within Melbourne Below we cater for many differences amongst people. Some people choose traditional western medicine while others choose traditional Chinese medicine. With our merchants we have different types of restaurants, different types of bookshops, and different forms of lifestyle. Having only one system to choose from would leave the child limited with fewer options. At Melbourne Below we cater for people from all walks of life.
This child will have choices and alternatives now that were not there before. We have a large extended family here with Melbourne Below, with over 50,000 people accessing our site, each month. There are two worlds of opportunity to explore, instead of one. There is a warmth of community in Melbourne Below that is not there in Melbourne Above. So when people grow old and die, as old age and death takes us all, there is more support and sympathy in the time of trouble. There is more that can be done to assist with the process of grieving.
The city of Melbourne is such a wonderful place to live in. It is great to live in Melbourne Above, and doubly blessed to be part of Melbourne Below.
AUGUST 2006 - "Disasters, Delays & Changes" by Michael Green.
On May 19th my computer died - an endless pathetic cycle of booting, waiting, rebooting.
Unable to download email, upload digital photographs, or work on webpages including those of Melbourne Below.
Stressville. I hadn't realised how much of my life I had entrusted to its magnetic domains - years of emails, hundreds of photographs, dozens of projects, years of fanzines. Wondered how much the PC-wunderkind would be able to recover. I lived with the nightmare of what I had imagined I had lost.
The wunderkind was indeed wonderful - and found out my harddisk had died & Norton Ghosted the files to a new drive. A little tweeking & it was better than before.
But I had lost weeks of Melbourne Below updating time.
And a further change and disruption was approaching.
I was moving house, and my whole life was being packed into boxes. It took weeks and my normal routine was interrupted.
Moving Day came and boxes and furniture made the trip from Malvern to Springvale.
Then there was the cleaning-up of the old place & the unpacking and setting-up of the new place.
The move is completed now, but I am still unsettled. Only minor changes have been made to the Melbourne Below site. I have information on new entries to be added, but my deepest regret is all the events I have missed out on adding to the Calendar.
Oh well, best of luck everyone - and may your life be chaotic in a good way!
-- Michael Green.
JULY 2006 - "A Life Less Ordinary" by Michael Green.
There is an Anarchist graffito I have always found disturbing:
Eat - Consume - Die
It disturbs me because of its savage reductionism of modern human life to these three stark actions.
It disturbs and unsettles as it makes me ponder (if only for a moment) - "Is that all there is?"
I have struggled all my life with the Darkness and the Light. I have strived to find meaning and purpose in even the lowest, most-horrible parts of my life - and I fear that in three thousand years time all the historians will have to say about me is that I worked, I consumed, and then I died. No other mark on this world except the bare bland economic and biological.
Melbourne Below, amongst other things, is a raging against this bleak view of human existence.
This site is a conduit to "a life less ordinary" - enabling you to set side (at least for a moment) the Anarchist's angry despair and explore something rich and new.
The CALENDAR is included in Melbourne Below for a reason. Every entry is a chance we offer you for adventure; to go out and explore the creative, the beautiful, the blissful, and the mind-expanding.
Do not allow yourselves to *ever* be reduced to consumers or animals! Human beings are so much more than that. A life of repetitive mechanised rituals is not a life worth living. Go out there: seize the day, life a "life less ordinary," and you will be less ordinary yourself and happier.
And all of us here at Melbourne Below will honour you for it.
JUNE 2006 - "Melbourne Below and You!" by John Gibbins.
June has arrived and the weather is getting colder. The fogs roll in most mornings and blankets Melbourne in mist. The last days of autumn are getting colder, until winter begins on June 22nd. We will have to wait until late September for the beginning of spring.
I enjoy the foggy mornings! The mists blur the distinctions and boundaries between Melbourne Above and Melbourne Below. After the damp mornings, come the clear warm afternoons, until evening falls again. The 'hounds of Tindalos' will have to wait and catch someone else today.
The storms of autumn bring the howling winds and cold. As people huddle together more against the cold, often the tribal boundaries will become more clear cut: those west of Sydney Road and those east. Those who prefer Lygon Street to Chapel Street. Those who prefer the Queen Victoria Market to those who like Chadstone. Those who prefer to live on the fringe in zones 2 and 3 to those inner dwellers in zone 1. Some of you will use Melbourne as a base to travel and frolic in the snow, while others will move to escape the cold. Some will revel in the World Cup frenzy and others will staunchly follow the AFL season.
This website Melbourne Below is for all of you, to bring some warmth and cheer for you in the winter months.
Our site continues to be the place to promote your activities and your events in Melbourne. We have a CALENDAR with events and activities for almost every day of the month. We bring you updates regularly and keep you informed of what is happening. Our merchants in the MARKETPLACE get many responses and good customers.
We could still be better though.
Instead of a forum on our site we have an e-list where you can tell us what you think.
We are waiting to hear about what you would like on this site. Have we left
out some part of Melbourne Below that you feel is vital and fascinating?
Let us know!
Have we forgotten to list your business or your shop? Tell us and we will add
you to the MARKETPLACE.
Would you like us to host your music downloads or pictures? We can do that too!
Have you been to any raves or parties that were so awesome you want to tell everyone about them? Let us all know.
Just use the link and put your words up on our site. This is your site, as it is people like you who are the citizens of Melbourne Below.
MAY 2006 - "The Way to Melbourne Below" by John Gibbins.
May has arrived and so have the colds and sniffles. If there is any reason for this editorial running a bit late then you can blame it on the flu. Our site has grown over the months with over 140 clients listed. Our site and our Calendar obtain over 30,000 hits per month. How do you communicate what it is like, to live in this most liveable city of Melbourne?
When I was travelling around Europe and the UK people would often ask me what Melbourne was like. How to answer such a question? What I would ask them is, "Have you watched Neighbours?"
***
Melbourne has seen a lot of activity over the last couple of months. First there was the Commonwealth Games, alongside the Melbourne 2006 Festival. That was followed by the motor sports and the Grand Prix around Albert Park lake. Following that we have had firstly the Roman Easter followed by the Orthodox Easter. (I wonder how many got two lots of easter eggs!?)
Looking ahead we have winter. In August there is a Commonwealth Census and later in the year we have a state government election. All the time there are major events in this global and cosmopolitan city.
We can look at another level and find many galleries and art exhibitions happening in Melbourne. In the warmer months there are many all day outside music festivals, whether held on the coast, or at the music bowl, or near to Melbourne. In winter there are more indoor events. We have various comedy and movie festivals held around town finding a permanent spot on Melbourne's calendar. Many of these remain in sight and form the main texture of Melbourne.
And yet looking closer again there are so many small theatre productions; so many small gigs; small time performances; which happen all the time. Every neighbourhood house and community centre has a solid program of activities which they offer. Every small Sunday flea market has almost more spruikers and banter - impromptu stand up performance - than at a comedy festival! As well as the major bookshops selling the hardbacks and discount remainders, Melbourne has a large number of smaller and secondhand bookshops which can stock those obscure texts, which are far more interesting. Smaller still are the numerous zine publishers and writers with their works. There could be a thousand things happening any weekend.
The rich tapestry of Melbourne is composed of more than the underlying canvas. It is all the small fine threads and detail that makes the richness and vitality. It is all those little events which stand out larger than life. If you were to sum up the visible Melbourne in a word, you would say spectators. To sum up our Melbourne Below you have participants.
So the most interesting parts of Melbourne are hidden. They lie below the attention of the media. They lie below the reach of meddling party politics, and outside the normal sight of people.
***
So yes, I would ask about the classic soap opera Neighbours. Then I would ask if they had seen the equivalent; either Eastenders & The Bill for London, or Coronation Street for Manchester, etc. It was then easy to explain how these in no way portray the real cities! In no way does my Melbourne resemble that of the soap opera.
Of course, in our travels we can meet people who actually believe in that portrayal of Melbourne. Some have the soap opera as a model for the institution they are part of; and so it makes a cosy cage. For the rest who have the choice of leaving the cage and entering a bigger world - we have a greater Melbourne. For there exists a Melbourne above, and then for us there is Melbourne Below.
APRIL 2006 - "From Where Does Culture Spring?" by Michael Green.
We are told many lies in this society we live in. There are lies of time and of place and of circumstance. One of these lies is about culture.
We are persuaded that culture is something that is presented to you for a price, or something that you can go out and buy.
Like culture is a mystic river in which we float and find shiny pebbles lying in its riverbed.
This is false. To see why imagine that culture is like sport.
In the recent Commonwealth Games we have seen elite athletes do their thing. But there is more to sport than watching others, much more. All over Melbourne there are sporting clubs we can join; where rather than *watching* the athletes we can *be* the athletes.
Culture is just like that. It is not just something we can observe from the outside - it is something we can do for ourselves. We can *create* culture!
*Melbourne Below* has a FIEFDOMS page. On this page you will find descriptions of groups you can join where you can sing or paint or act or write or create or imagine things together.
We in the Collective present this information because we believe that there is tremendous value in engaging with culture, in participating in the creation of something wonderful and new.
Because deep down culture doesn't come from the film studios or the media companies - these corporations are only tools. Fundamentally culture springs forth through the alchemy of the human brain - we create, we invent, we influence and we communicate to others.
Now don't be lied to! Imagining and creating is as natural to us as breathing. By denying and burying these gifts we damage ourselves.
Sure it is okay to take the dreams that others offer to you, but then run with them! Use their keys to open portals to other worlds you will find. Discovery is not just for scientists.
In short - seize the day! Do something new, exciting, and a bit scary - and have fun!
Cheers,
Michael Green.
MARCH 2006 - "The Geography of Melbourne Below" by Michael Green.
In 1992 I was wandering through the London CBD feeling insignificant amongst the ugly grey brutalist architecture when I turned a corner and found a small green square of park and in the midst of the park a small crooked building of whitewashed daube and oaken beams.
I approached this building with awe. Now surrounded by the dull concrete and steel of the new cityscape this little building (the plaque read) had stood here since the 14th century.
Not just London but the world is like that. Amongst the mundane and the ugly we can discover the marvellous.
This is my feel for the Melbourne Below Project. If you walk around this great city with a relaxed and receptive mind and with your eyes open you will find the marvellous, the magical, amongst the dull houses and the towering glass edifices of a century too obsessed with money and the marketplace.
I have a role as a cartographer of the secret places of Melbourne, both physical places and cultural places of the mind. But the role of cartographer of Melbourne Below is not mine alone. You, dear reader (as they say in 19th century books), can contribute to this new map of the city.
Melbourne is vast and sometimes I can feel a despair of being overwhelmed by all that belongs to Melbourne Below. At these times I have to remember that mine is only one journey amongst many. I will only visit some of the places in this magical city with self and computer mouse, but it is better to explore even a little than to stay at home terrified at the bigness of the world.
Here at Melbourne Below we welcome stories of your own discoveries in this marvellous city and descriptions of the magical places you know well.
The map of Melbourne Below can never be completed but we can all point to interesting places found on our travels.
I remain your correspondent,
Michael Green.
FEBRUARY 2006 - "Places to Grow" by John Gibbins.
Have you wondered how the other half lives? Have you sometimes wandered around town, trying to make sense of all the shops, the heaving crowds, the maze of streets and lanes? Melbourne Below can provide assistance. This site can get you through the day, the week and the months ahead.
Welcome again to Melbourne Below, and its range of services. Starting from naught we have grown to 88 entries - a remarkable achievement this month for our small team. Our most popular categories were:
Marketplace > Bookshops
Fiefdoms > Theatrical Societies
Fiefdoms > Journalism and e-Zines
Likewise we are looking for more entries in the
categories. Keep up the good work, keep sending in those reviews and reports!
The classified section might be mistaken for the core of the site. The strength is not there. The strength of our site is you people. We provide a place for people like you to come, share your stories and your vision. It allows people like you to show your wares and trade. It gives space for people like you to have your opinion and to say how the site should be developed. We hope that you come back and visit us often. This is not our site, instead it is your site.
We have a Forum set up for any comments or concerns. This may function instead of a "letters to the editor" type page. It may also be a page where we let you know of any news.
In the next month we plan to include a new section: for first time visitors to Melbourne and for tourists. Whether you are a back-packer freshly arrived from the UK, or a seasoned traveller on a cruise liner, you can find something that proves useful. There will be good basic information to help you settle in, and then get about Melbourne. There will be information about Melbourne and its infrastructure. You can find out the basics.
So stay with us here at Melbourne Below - for we have not gone away or folded
in the first 12 months. We have grown in the past months and learnt from
our mistakes. We can assist you and our merchants by providing you with the
best site for Melbourne. This site is tailored to you and yours.
Visit us often.
Enjoy.
John Gibbins
Also have a look at:
JANUARY 2006- "Melbourne Below" by John Gibbins.
Greetings and Salutations.
This is the first editorial for the new Melbourne Below website. Some of you may have seen the old site which was pretty yes, and it was a bit dysfunctional. So we have started again. Everything from now on is new.
The vision was and remains to be the number one site on the web, the peak body, for alternate and underground community in Melbourne. We have not gone after the entire country, nor have we gone after the conventional world and fashion. At Melbourne Below our vision is to remain the peak body for alternate and underground communities in Melbourne. You simply won't find us or them in the normal walks of life. You will find us in and about Melbourne, searching out the best, searching down the various nooks and crannies.
Our heritage owes a great debt of gratitude to Neil Gaiman, who showed us that the best part of a city and the most interesting lies below the surface. There is some joy and some use in the world above yet the real soul of the city lies below the surface and in the people. Those who want to pursue his interpretation can look to his writings, and in particular Neverwhere for London, and MirrorMask for Brighton, England.
As we are dealing with both location and community our lexicon may be different from what you are familiar with. We sometimes talk of clubs, or organisations, or neighbourhoods. In addition we talk of place and turf and home-base and neighbourhood. Combining both the meme geographic and the meme social, we get the concept of the fiefdom. It combines a rich tapestry of place and people and experience. Musicians play, people banter, there is an exchange of coin and drinks are served, the place warms up and provides a friendly space to gather. It is that cosy social space where we live in Melbourne Below. In many ways the bonds that we have with the city are as deep and ancient as the bonds many indigenous people claim for the countryside. Just as some say that 'they are married to their job' so some say: 'They are married to the land.'
The site also can challenge us. Given the opportunity and safety to be who we are, and the chance to perhaps follow our vocation and calling: what will we be? Who will we be? After taking off the numerous layers of uniform and costume, and then wrapping our selves in garb according to our nature, what will we wear? Some take the opportunity to be themselves.
Catering to this collection of people and organisations are a wide range of merchants, shops and stores, who provide goods and services to our people. Our site provides a focal point where people can come to find those obscure items they have been looking for. Likewise it provides an opportunity, for people to advertise and sell off their stock, their curios, and the many items required by the people of Melbourne Below.
Together we comprise a vast spread out city, over 80km from Pakenham in the SE to Sydenham in the NW. Likewise from Werribee in the SW to Healesville in the NE. Amongst all this expanse are many people who could use the services of Melbourne Below. The city is more than the bricks and mortar, more than the steel and glass. The city is also the people; and also the many relationships and friendships that bind the city together. We hope that you spend some time with us and explore all we have to offer.
I welcome you to get to know each member of our team and the skills and strengths we have to offer. We each contribute different things to this project. I have known them all for many years and have great confidence in their abilities. I know they will do their best to provide you with the best website possible.
You are welcome to come inside and surf. Enjoy.
Disclaimer || Privacy Statement
(ABN 54 586 339 066)
