Melbourne Done

Been there, done that.

Had a great time, but spent way too much time doing photography stuff and nowhere near enough time on music stuff. Such is life.

A couple of interesting observations from the trip: Melbourne taxi drivers are worse than Sydney’s! I managed to find one who didn’t even know where the Exhibition Centre was.

Melbourne cops are not really interested in law enforcement, but more interested in revenue raising: at the Skybus terminal, my cab from the hotel pulled up into a disabled person’s parking spot. Ok … wrong move, Mr Taxi Driver … but he was then approached by one of TWO of Melbourne’s finest, dressed almost in drag (it certainly wasn’t a police uniform, and they looked more like homies who had lost their rap party) who were to book him for parking ijn a disabled zone.

Well, for one, he wasn’t parked.

Second point … the police tried to make the point that he was taking up the space that a disabled person might use. Fair enough … except that they kept him there for a long time, booking him. If their real concern was for the parking space to be kept clear, then surely just asking him to “move along” wpould have surely been the more appropriate action. Instead, they kept him there, writing him up, and … oh yes … raising revenue.

What a load of crap!

Then there was one venue that I went to … as a person with media credentials, I was entitled to one free admission, provided of course that the venue was not full. Fair enough.

This particular venue, upon presenting myself at the door with my credentials, told me that the room was fully booked and that there was no room for me.

Unless I wished to pay …

Er, no, that’s not quite how it works, guys.

They were still ketting walk-ups pay and enter, but they didn’t want to honour their media obligations? That’s living somewhat precariously, isn’t it?