Alternative Australia
Sample from this book:
Rainbow Dreaming
Subject: Rave Olympics
Date: Tue, 20 June, 2011 17:43:34 +1000 (EST)
From: Rak Razam <shazaman@netspace.net.au>
To: It's a Wild Wild Wild Wild Wild Wild World<W6W@piratenet.com>
We were about 50k's past Maree when we saw the first convoy of
phreaks heading out to the Earthdream party, a motley, rainbow
caravan of dust encrusted buses and camper vans, VW's and Bedfords,
ferals, travellers and urban hedonists pirating the airwaves with
digital mantras, blanketing the quiet earth along the Oodnadatta
Track and generally funking shit up. The big vans and buses were
crowned with giant inflatable objects like bananas and mangoes
and blazoned with anti-uranium logos and activist stickers. We'd
been getting reports on the CB radio for days, up and down the
coast from every direction - these Psy-Trance Cowboys had been
rustling the forgotten monuments of the 20th Century from quiet
country towns and tying them to the rooves of their vehicles like
scalps, plastic totems cannibalised from the Giant Ram, the Giant
Koala, the Giant Pineapple, the Giant Homogenised Icons of White
Middle Class Prosperity.
 Now
here they were, all in a row like floats in a post-Apocalyptic
pagan love parade, cruising through the desert at high speed and
kicking up a storm. Yessir, they were riding their groove boxes
onto the high frontier, layered in bass and in search of a WAY
COOL PLACE where everybody can DO Their Own Thing.
"Fuck me gently with ze chainsaw," Bridges said from
the back of the van as we were overtaken by a double decker schoolbus
with an inflatable Godzilla on the roof and a gaggle of stoned
Germans hanging out the windows waving. "Now there's something
you don't see every day." She was right. I'd never seen Germans
so friendly before. Something was definitely up. "See if
you can get a shot of them on the handy-cam," I shouted over
the rattle of the van as we went over a pothole and everything
lurched up into the air. We had a cache of the latest Ultra-Tech
in the back to film the party - and the Gamez - and provide a
continuous internet uplink for the rest of the world. This was
the thirteenth Earthdream Desert Dreaming Festival and the prelude
to next year's global chakra cleansing ritual. Phine phreaks and
klued in people of every shape and hue were gathering together,
nomad tekno adventurers from all the 12 Trybes flowing into a
rainbow mix snaking its way through the red earth. We'd bought
the latest Mitsubishi micro-camera contact lenses but the dust
and the bumps along the Oonandatta Track wouldn't let me use either.
The idea was to provide digital downloads over sensechips to the
viewers at home - you would see, hear, smell, touch, and taste
whatever the live reporter is sensing. At the moment it was some
A-grade skunk we'd picked up 800k's back in Adelaide and a mild
case of sunstroke from the glare .
"Got 'zem," Bridges pronounced in her singsong Israeli-American
accent. "Lovely establishing shot with ze buses elongating
across ze horizon at dusk." I suppose you want to know what
she looks like. I would, and since we haven't got the equipment
working properly yet, I'll have to describe everything for you.
My assistant, Bridges, is like somebody's sassy little sister
gone the way of the urban disco feral. Enough piercings on her
face to set off an airport metal detector. Dredds wax perfect,
dyed blue and red and black. Big brown eyes layered in cheap Killer
Loop imitation sunglasses. Handmade firestick and a bottle of
Kerosene and Citronella by her side. Indian pants from Chakra
or Ishkar. Black puffy jacket with a Chinese Dragon feng-shuing
its way across the back. Dusty Monster Boots with six inch moulded
plastic heels. She's also the best damn camera woman this side
of the Nullarbor and can roll perfect joints while driving the
van and mixing MP3's on the Diamondback decks at the same time.
Not only that, but she's the only one who knows how to pilot the
ultralight glider. I'm all legs when it comes to flying.
"Start narration, take one - Earthdream 2011." I'm
recording on my built in throat mike that sends data pulses to
our Apple Mac G12 laptop, auto remixes credits and soundtrack
over the footage Bridges is shooting and transmits the final package
via our satellite dish on the roof. We broadcast pirate transmissions
into the world datasphere and get a nice little pay per view package
from inphomation junkies all over the place.
Other samples from Alternative Australia:
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