Another year is under way, floods have taken thier toll and whether we like it or not we are dragged kicking and screaming through its months. I don't know about you, but I am distinctly feeling an effect I once read about called the "Quickening". Everything seems to speed up and some of us become overwhelmed with an intense feeling that time is going faster than the pace needed for us to interact with it comfortably. Anyway this maybe my active imagination working overtime, but I am sure that I am not an island in regard to time loss sensations.Talking about time, I was looking through some pics on face book of yesterdays club scene here in Brisvegas and it occurred to me just how much has changed around here. Admittedly I was looking at photographs of over 15 years ago and I would have to be an idiot to expect anything less than radical change in that time frame. Along with great innovations and upgrades to most of life that surrounds us, I have found some of these changes a little sad to say the least. I miss the excitement of Tuesday nights (Industry night) at the original "Terminus" in the valley, and even though I am happy our community has gone fairly mainstream, I wish we still had a more underground feel to our scene. God knows my desire to go out these days has somewhat waned, and the last time I ventured out, I realized why. Apart from the night dissolving into an unfortunate situation with a very drunk and out of control fool I became tangled up with, the overall feel of the night was baron of the fun we used to have before we became so fashionable. One barman even outed me to a male that found me attractive and then had the hide to justify his actions by saying he was trying to protect the other patrons! We would not want the Tranimals to bite the vulnerable straight boys visiting the zoo now would we? that would indeed be a travesty! You see it is one thing to commercialize our pink experience and send it into the mainstream stratosphere, but at what cost I ask you. Being around us and being a part of our party is where it is at for a lot of people who have embraced our community’s mantra of acceptance of difference and love in the LGBT degree.
Please don't think I am at all regretting any of the positive virtues gained by the changes in the law or the gloss that has been applied in bucket loads to some of our venues. It is just the outcry from a recently pricked memory of a time when we were a lot less polished and OK with a venue that was less about selling our experiential product and more about a fun safe haven for our kind. There is only one venue left in my opinion, still offering an old world LGBT experience and gender bending explosive vibe, devoid of the self conscious desire to change things too dramatically. To this day it feels like it did when all of our behaviour was supposedly very naughty and illegal. To my knowledge it has only been given mild renovations to update certain areas of its hallowed walls on the hill, and even though I do still occasionally enjoy my time at the others, I give top marks to them for perseverance with an old theme. Every thing comes around again and sometimes we yearn for things and experiences that remind us of times gone by. Innocence is a wonderful thing and with maturity comes many exciting new experiences and opportunities. I just hope we see the opportunities that looking back can bring to those looking ahead, sometimes in our quest to evolve with those around us we loose some of what made us so attractive in the first place.
Copyright © Robyn Whittaker. 2011.
