At Sea/Brisbane

February 25-26
At Sea/Brisbane

*****Parental Guidance Recommended for following post*****
(I feel so official putting that there – ha. But seriously, younger readers, ask Mom or Dad first)

The sea day was nothing unusual, just hanging around the ship and a show at night. The next day in Brisbane, however, was a little more eventful.
First, we got our new guitarist on the 26th (we did last night’s show without a guitarist). And oddly enough, the new guitarist is not only from Chicago, but is actually an old friend who went to Roosevelt with me! His name is Austin, and though I didn’t play with him much in college, I certainly knew him well enough. Furthermore, he’s originally from Cary, so imagine that, two guys in the same band from practically the same city meeting up totally by chance in Australia. Anyways, he’ll be a great guitarist for the band and I’m excited to have him here.
Next, my day in Brisbane! I got off the ship as soon as I was released from boat drill and had some food, which after a 40 minute bus ride into the city, got me in at about 1:00. I got off the ship with two of the photographers, Janusz (who went rafting with me) and Matthew (a Welsh guy who I can barely understand). The first hour or so was spent walking down to the gardens and through the mangroves, until we crossed the river that the city is built around and continued walking. This eventually brought us to a beach, which was actually just a huge pool with sand brought in to imitate a beach, situated right next to the incredibly dirty river with perfect views of the city. Additionally, there were nice views of the beach goers, 3 out of 4 of which were female (my perfect beach). But seeing as neither my friends or I brought bathing suits, we just sat around for a while enjoying the favorable vantage point.
As we sat at the beach, two friends happened to wonder by and stopped to chat, informing us of an event going on a couple blocks away that we just couldn’t pass up – the Sexpo (and expo about, well, you know…). Janusz, for whatever reason, decided to stay behind while the rest of us made our way to the convention center for what we were sure would be a good time.
We arrived and after paying our $25 entrance fee (about $15 US), we were greeted at the door with a goody bag containing a few magazines, a video, and a couple other fliers all of a nature I’m sure you can guess. We walk in, get on the other side of the black wall, and are found looking a convention hall filled with odd toys, events, rides, services, and strippers. The place was very clean, let me make that much clear, and people weren’t running around topless or anything, but some tried to get as close to it as possible. Anyways, the best part of the story begins with the 2:45 performance on the main stage – a full on poll dance.
The girl performing did a very nice job, and I’ll leave all other details up to your imagination, but I do have pictures if anyone’s dying for more info. Her 10 minute dance was followed by an announcer who asked for volunteers for the next show – volunteering that would include hypnosis. And you know me, so I immediately went into the tent indicated to be prepped for the hypnosis thing, something I’ve yet to experience.
So there I am sitting in this tent with 16 other people listening to some Australian hypnotist talk to us about what’s going to happen and how he won’t make us do anything compromising in the next show, and that this precursor is to determine who can fall into the deepest hypnotic state (certainly preferable for any kind of public showing). I’m sitting on the floor, there are about 6 chairs behind me, and another decent number of people are standing towards the back. So he turns on some sound track that is blaring “relaxing” music out of a speaker way too close to me and I’m immediately bothered by it. He begins talking, telling us to relax, saying how our eyes are getting tired, our arms feel like led, and all the usual stereotypical hypnosis stuff, and all while swinging a watch from a chain – classic. Then, after a count down from ten, we were told to drop our heads and become totally relaxed, I played along. From this “relaxed” state with our head hanging down we were talked deeper into our relaxation and our trance, till the hypnotist felt confident in asking the group to perform simple activities, which is when the fun really starts.
It begins with him asking to put our arms out in front of us, tells us to pretend we’re a typewriter (which confused me because I didn’t know rather to pretend I was the actual machine or the person using it), and changes the music to sounds that resemble typing. He asks us to imagine as vividly as possible, I can tell the people next to me are getting into it, and I’m still not sure if I’m the machine or the user. But that ended and we went to the next pretend situation – we were now pianists. He plays “The Entertainer” and I pretend I’m playing along, but like actually playing along cause I know the notes. Anyways, that finishes a couple minutes later and I’ve totally messed up the first two role playing exercises (mind you, I did go into this trying my best to help him hypnotize me and am still trying, it’s just not going so well). Next I’m on a bicycle, another activity the girl sitting next to me took full advantage of. This was followed by driving in our dream car – I continued to imagine as best I could. Then he lost me again when he asked the group to milk a cow and started playing “Old McDonald” or some weird tune like that. Then we were to imagine the cow only had one “teat”, which lost me completely. I tried, but was just sitting there thinking this was stupid by that point. We continued on, he asked us to return back to the relaxed position with our heads dropped and the guy behind me slumps so far forward he’s actually leaning on me – jerk. Then we’re back to activities that I didn’t care to remember and eventually return to the relaxed phase again.
Now he says “if I tap you on the shoulder, I’m talking to you.” I figure this is it, he’s going to call me out for not buying any of his tricks, and lo and behold, he taps my shoulder. I start listening for further directions with my eyes closed…nothing happens. He taps me again with slightly more vigor and I look up to see him signaling me to stand. I approach him and find him staring at my eyes with way too much intensity when he asks me my name. “Mike” I say, maybe slightly to jovially. This is followed by him snapping his fingers and waving his hand in front of my face (a little too Jedi knight-ish) while saying “you have no name.” He gives it a moment and repeats the question, “what’s your name?” Again, I say “Mike,” totally unaffected. He thanks me, shakes my hand, and I leave while the remainder of the group sits there in some trance oblivious to the fact that I’ve left. And there ended my scientific study of Hypnosis.
I then found my friends, checked out a couple last minute things, picked up a last minute photo with the sexpo girls, and the group made its way back to the ship. And that’s it for my Brisbane experience, one I certainly won’t forget, and one where the pictures are going to be put in a file where they don’t show up unwanted on my screen saver. Thanks for reading!