When I was in high school I happened to chance upon a documentary on the ABC on a saturday afternoon about an author who wrote a series of articles in a newspaper that was essentially a thinly veiled gossip column about people living in San Francisco in the 70s. A gay guy, a middle american girl leaving home for the first time, an old woman and a single guy who was a player with the ladies were the main characters – joined by the fact that they all lived in the same complex (think Melrose Place but with peace and drugs). The newspaper series was later turned in to a book and then a book series and they were all written by Armistead Maupin (I won’t discuss the tv series – it was lame even though it had several big stars in it). To me it began a great fascination of San Francisco and sections of the books kept jumping in to my memory as I walked around the city 5 years ago when I visited it.
I never thought the book would also jump in to my mind while I was shopping in Fairfield in Brisbane, Australia. In the book the player guy (Brian) spent a lot of time in supermarkets attempting to pick up women. He’d discovered that it was the best place to chat them up since they weren’t expecting it. As I selected my chicken for tonight’s dinner my gaydar went off at a woman nearby and I realised that if there were any single gay women in Brisbane then they really should be applying Brian’s method here. Every single time I’ve visited Coles Fairfield I’ve seen a lesbian, which is a pretty good hitting average. I’m not sure why there is a high percentage of the gays there but I’ve never seen anything like it. As a lesbian myself I can’t really say what it is that causes us all to congregate in the same shopping centre – it’s just a shame I’m taken otherwise I’d consider using my lame pickup moves there as an ode to Brian and Armistead Maupin. 😛