PIG CITY - Then and Now…

I just wanted to jot a few quick responses to the seminar event that was held @ UQ on the 13th of July 2007.

Overall the seminar was a good historical kind of event. It certainly continued the vibe of, and set up some more of the context for, the gig that was held the day after. I hear that gig was also quite good as well.

The last session degenerated a little bit into a meta-discussion about getting people into a good position to move into the future, I suppose, partly driven by the fact that the panelists spoke to audience questions rather than people explicitly talking towards a larger theme.

I am glad that there wasn’t very much open declaration of the “nostalgia just ain’t what it used to be” sentiment. I sensed an undercurrent of “The Brisbane Music Scene is nothing compared to the good old days”, but maybe that is to be expected when the event was a celebration of the past.

I wanted to point out that we are living in the good old days now! The brisbane music scene is very healthy at the moment, you just need to know where to look. Venues close, and new ones pop up. That’s part of the normal cycle.

Some non-seminar audience highlights of the day for me included:

* a class of high school girls descending on the rows of seats around me… and leaving a boys-germs- buffer of one free seat on either side of me! :D Even the ones sitting two spaces away from me looked uncomfortable. Heh.. :)

* Full points go to the lady who, on a day of non-academic presentations, pwnd at least 80% of the audience by using the word “Milieu” (complete with faux-french pronounciation). She asked “a question” of Lindy Morrison and Kiley Gaffney in super-academic jargon which, when simplified, was simply the observation that it’s ironic that people ignored the punk scene in the 80s and now celebrate it as the golden days of brisbane music. Kiley tried to mediate the question for Lindy, but it wasn’t a question so it was hard to answer it. Cuuuurve ball. argh! :)

Kudos to Ian On and Dr Mel for organising a rad day! and to all the participants for contributing to it! Viva original music scene!