the australians

first there were three. kate, cody and jamie bounded up to me on the sidewalk and asked "is this kaleidoscope? can we listen to the poetry?" the kaleidoscope reading series had just ended and everybody was clearing out.  i informed them regretfully that the show was just over and asked if they were from australia. it seemed fairly obvious but they could have been local now. if they weren't i wanted to find out where they'd heard about poetry at my little arts space here in the mission district, san francisco.
they confirmed they were from sydney and added that somebody named sean had steered them my way. thanks sean.
there was something about these three australians i liked. they seemed merry, eager, intelligent, friendly...
i asked them inside and told them if they wanted to hang out while i closed down i'd take them to the rev, my local hangout. they did and i did and we walked down to the cafe where i introduced them to a swirl of names and faces. we hung on the patio a little while drinking beers and smoking then made our way down to the elbo room for afrolicious. my friend diamond had invited us to come hear him drum. drinks and dancing later we parted for the evening. it was the beginning of a beautiful relationship.
we spent a fair amount of time together for the next ten days or so. kate and jamie photographed and filmed while cody wooed the audience with a sea shanty on diamond dave's show on pirate cat radio (please don't confuse diamond with diamond dave. they are friends though), and at kaleidoscope. i really liked the shoeshine boy song too.
laura and alia, numbers four and five, arrived in just in time to catch umka & bronevik rock the house in an intimate set at porto franco who produced their first u.s. vinyl. australia meets russian in san francisco. they arrived in time for the kaleidoscope shows, too. the five and i sat up late in the closed gallery and shared ideas, wine and laughter. we told stories. when they bought frank from frank i knew they really were leaving soon. frank was a luxurious ride for their u.s. walkabout and even came with fancy rims, bullet holes and a sub-woofer to make any oakland gangsta proud. they ditched the sub-woofer.
we planned a slumber party for their last night. we were gonna watch movies but it didn't work out that way. it had been open mic and people had stayed. they took off the next day for the giant redwoods (that i, regretfully, have yet to see).
then, a few days ago number six showed up. jesse. i saw someone peering at the kaleidoscope sign on the doorbell from halfway down the block. i asked if i could help him. he countered by asking if i was sara. when i admitted to it he confessed to being number six and my australian family extended. jesse and i shared dinner at a diner, jazz at kaleidoscope, the rev--of course--and buxter hoot'n at blue six. (the five saw buxter hoot'n at my place with quinn devaux). it was cool that all six australians got to see buxter hoot'n, even if it wasn't at the same time. and i sent jesse with jessica to specs. jessica had hung out with the five too and is apparently very reminiscent of another jessica who is friends of the five, nay, six, in sydney.
i hear number seven may show up sometime.
if you want to know more about the continuing adventures of the australians they're making it easy to keep up. presshatch.com is their online travel zine. i wrote a short piece for it.
global nomads. global community.