Sunday, February 28, 2016

Anna Couani #58 days of The Cross

I remember days around The Cross
where the non-alcoholics went
we sat down in coffee shops
and drank coffee
rather than stand up in pubs
drinking piss

but there were wine bars
like Lorenzini’s
also with seating
and we drank stuff like
vermouth

live music occurred
in that basement venue

I remember the big Arts Balls
in Paddington Town Hall
precursors of Mardi Gras

there were art students
us, architecture students
gay people
trans people
bohemians, pre-hippie
Europeans, mostly refugees
when rent was cheap
and rooms were seedy

there was grime

The Push crowd were more conservative
more sexist, more Anglo Aussie
drinking a mile away in the city
being journalists, writers and academics
writing history to paint themselves radical
when it was the Commies in Chinatown
and their offshoots
who promoted the Aboriginal cause
then the anti-Vietnam marches
it was The (bohemian) Cross
that germinated multi-ethnic thinking
and fostered the visual arts
The Cross just a step away from the art school

it was sad to see everything
wrongly appropriated
people mistakenly acknowledged
real achievements ignored
false heroes applauded and
real heroes buried

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