Wednesday, November 7, 2007

Independence

Tonight I went to my local independent bookstore's drinks to celebrate it's expansion. Better Read than Dead has been there for 12 years and its growing. I have bought the majority of my book collection from that single store over the years. I live in a wonderful suburb in Sydney called Newtown. It's old and quirky, full of wonderful shops, fashion, design, music, books but mostly cafe's. Old and new. Lots of Thai, a wonderful genuine healthy Mexican cafe,Guzman Y Gomez, a Tea shop, T2, with every type of Tea you can imagine. The one MacDonalds eventually was kicked out. We have no Starbucks. The only 'chain' existing is a rather bland coffee shop called Gloria Jeans. It's the perfect place for artists to hang out alongside all other walks of life. It's always going, morning noon and night - and I believe unique in Sydney. It has a wonderful venue called The Vanguard - which does feature a lot of Jazz gigs, plus another The Sound Lounge - the Jazz venue/night run by SIMA every Friday and Saturday at the Seymore Centre in Newtown. It's a true genuine community, that has grown and morphed and morphed again over many years, always changing, always adapting. Tiny tiny streets, none of them one way, surround the suburb, where you are constantly backing up to let a car through. There is a very ancient historical graveyard - Camperdown Graveyard. it's hauntingly beautiful with tumbled down, chipped and rotten tombstones, telling stories of young women and men, dying at an early age from another time.

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