Southern Hemisphere Burning Couch Festival

We're going to have a bonfire and burn a couch and another cut from a log.

Dates are 21-22 June 2008, So far about 50 CS’ers are coming. This has been a topic of intense discussion in the Melbourne Group, including the need for an organic couch.

The event will be held on CS member Redgum's property 'Pepper Leaf Creek,' 10 kilometers out of Mansfield, in North East Victoria. If you're arriving by BUS, please, let us know, so we can organise rides out to the bonfire.

If you start arriving from, say 11am-ish, then we're happy. Remember, it's winter, and you're very near Mt Buller, so it'll be chilly. There's no power or drinkable water on the property. If you're camping/sleeping in cars - IT WILL BE COLD. YOU WILL DIE. You need, need, need blankets and doonas, and maybe thermal underwear to sleep in.

If you come, you'll be in the country. There's animals and insects and stuff, as well as neighbours on either side of the land. Please respect the fence lines - if you climb through onto someone else's land, they might shoot you.

There's a dam on the property. It's inside a fence, and you can't swim in there or drink from it.

Bring guitars, drums or battery powered radios, and we can have music. Alcohol is fine, as long as you remember you're near a fire and a deep dam.

There's room for cars, but access might be limited if haven't got a 4WD. Erin will provide a 4wd ferry service over the dry creek bed - or the wet one, if it rains.




BURNING COUCH MANIFESTO (Like the Boston Tea Party but for Southern Hemisphere CS’ers)

At the winter’s solstice, which this year in the Southern Hemisphere is again on the shortest day, we will burn a couch. This is to celebrate lots of things but mainly that we have a tradition of festivals as good as if not better than those of the Northern Hemisphere.

So we need (1) a couch (2) somewhere to burn it (3) matches (4) some we, err...I think I mean people (4) a calendar, as I have no idea when solstice is (5) maybe a jersey. And that, err...is paragraph two.

Burning Couch is also because throughout history, pre-history and even the little bit before that, ancient Hosts burned unworthy couches to encourage contact with benign spirits and their good references surfing the ether seeking a temporary shelter or home (three day stay max, no pets).

Burning Couch is uniquely antipodean and all those other fun parts of the world in the Southern Hemisphere. Indeed the word itself is derived from an early type of ancient wooden couch. ‘Hemi’, meaning half, and ‘Sphere’ referring the circular aspect of a log, and ‘Southern’ meaning to lie on or with the bottom part (rather than with the very heavy and possibly fatal top part).

So Southern Hemisphere literally means ‘to lie on the bottom half of a log,’

Also in the Northern Hemisphere it’s the height of summer and so total fire bans. And as the term ‘Northern Hemisphere’ itself indicates they sleep under the wrong bit of log, ha ha ha. And that’s the real reason why all those Euro’s and Americans come here – how many times have you heard ‘Travel in Australia is so easy?’ Also why, when you go to London and all those other northern places, when you wake up in the morning you usually have a sore head.

But back to those days, when couches were called logs and surfers, often tired, exhausted and unwashed lay on uneven wood with only rough woven wool or cotton for warmth. So no change there.

More recently, unearthed archeological evidence indicates the importance of ceremony, ritual and alcohol in these seemingly primitive burnings. In fact it is now known that Burning Couch was a highly organized and even ornate affair - see paragraph two.

Burning Couch does not have a single focus or even yet a single couch. Burning Couch will be subject to participants involvement and include community, artwork, absurdity, decommodification, revelry and similar words downloaded from the net. Participation is encouraged, and being a spectator discouraged [42].

Burning Couch will be governed by about 10 principles and 17 slabs (that’s beer for the rest of you). These include gifting, decommodification, radical self-reliance, communal effort, civic responsibility, participation, and immediacy. Which were pretty easy seeing money had yet to be invented.

However, money has now been invented although not always evenly distributed. So Melbourne Hosts and Couch Surfers, are adding to collective Couch Surfing wisdom by creating Burning Couch.

The one rule is; this is not a Northern Hemisphere thing. Now BURN your own COUCH!


Cheers, Craig1 and some others.
Couch Burning without Boarders(TM)


42 = meaning of life. Just thought I’d add that.

Posted June 14th, 2008 - 6:53 am by CRAIG1 from Melbourne, Australia

WOULD YOU TAKE THE RISK???..THIS YEAR COULD BE THE BEST FOR IT…AND YOUR LAST CHANCE IN LIFE?

I know most of you now could be travelling in Europe or north America.. or just a your couch..even this is not a group for this..but I think you can be losing the last chance in your life…but europe and north america are always the same..they are beautiful..but there is a place that your never imagined..i discovered it 35 years ago..when I was opening my eyes to the life.. and.. I just wanna ask you to stop some secondS and think about this..a..place you never have imagined..a place where it is supposed to be a risk when you visiting it..….Once in your life you gotta be there…or Life will no have sense…if you really have the travelling spirirt ..if you are a real worldwalker and a real backpacker ..You mus take the risk….WANNA TAKE A RISK????..A GREAT AVENTURE NEVER LIVED BEFORE.. A NEVER IMAGINED RISK??... watch this videos and visit this websites….and you will know whatta I mean and will understand me!!!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgW8Y7F8DN8

I’LL WAIT FOR YOU..MY COUCH IS …WAITING
GUSTAVO BOLANO PASTRANA

Posted May 30th, 2008 - 2:16 am by GUSTAVO BOLAÑO PASTRANA from Barranquilla, Colombia

June 12, 2008: Celebrate International CouchSurfing Day!

For more than five years, the CouchSurfing Project has been changing the lives of travelers by helping them make connections with locals, their couches, their friends, and their homes. For many of us, it has revolutionized the way we travel, making it easier to see a place from a local's perspective, or at least with a local's influence, rather than relying on generic tourist information.

On Thursday, 12 June, 2008, join CouchSurfers around the globe in celebrating this member-created holiday. In the spirit in which CouchSurfing was created, we encourage you to do a Couch Search in your city and request a stay on a stranger's couch for that night. If you have to work the following day, a helpful idea is to look for someone in your own neighborhood or near your workplace.

Posted May 21st, 2008 - 1:07 am by Derek Broughten from Seattle, United States

20 % discount on Drinks for CS members

NOTICE TO ALL CS MEMBERS-

if your travel bring you to Angkor civilization-
Phnom Penh, Kingdom of Cambodia
Drop by at the Newly open Bar- Rawmale Celebrity Cafe & Spa-
20 % discount on all Drinks for all CS members. location- No. 35-D- Street 55, Phnom Penh Cambodia.
200 metters- Off Sihanouk Blvd. 3 blocks from MOBITEL- 012
for info: pls call +855 92985940

Posted May 21st, 2008 - 4:27 am by Bienvenido Betonio from Phumi Thmei, Cambodia

Brazil is boiling in it's first national meeting.

Belo Horizonte city is hosting brazilian's firts national meeting. If you're travelling near BH next week, between may 22 and 25th, you are welcome to our meeting. More information in the meeting page: www.couchsurfing.com/meetings.html?mid=7775

Posted May 16th, 2008 - 11:44 pm by Tiago Aquino Fernandes Lopes from Brasilia, Brazil

CouchSurfing Cares - will it happen?

Hey is their anyway couchsurfing.com can offer help for natural disasters such as the 7.9 earthquake in China? Like have some people make note that they will take in people who lost their homes right away or a list for long term couchsurfing for people who had their homes knocked down and then be able to submit that to government aid workers so that people wont be crammed into little gyms? It can be a short term provider till the governments find a better place for the person to live or a new home built. It is just another thought on how to use this website as a tool as I think couchsurfing.com is so grand! Maybe this idea will work maybe not, but I have a couch tonight and I know that there are people who had a house one day and next do not.

www.couchsurfing.com/organization.html?gid=3578

Posted May 15th, 2008 - 4:10 am by Rob Klein from Beihai, China

ITunes for Backpackers

www.playtripper.com is open for business!

It is, in a nutshell, "iTunes For Backpackers". It lets backpackers and independent travellers download music, podcasts, audio tours and travel guides to their iPods from just about any internet cafe, without having to install iTunes. So it is perfect for people who are backpacking/travelling, and want to get some fun new content to help them pass the time on those long flights and bus rides.

It is primarily aimed at the independent traveller/backpacker market, but applies equally to au pairs, ski bums, river rats...basically anyone who is away from home. Nearly all of them carry an iPod or MP3 player, but a common complaint, especially with iPods, is that once you leave home it is very difficult to update the content, because iTunes is primarily synced with your home library. If you are away for any extended period, it is easy to get bored of the same old tunes! Playtripper breaks the dependency on iTunes, letting the user update their iPod from practically any PC, in any internet cafe around the world, whenever they stop to check their emails. They can buy and download songs, then just drag/drop them onto the iPod.

It also has a large directory of free podcasts, in every genre - travel, comedy, sport, music, news, language courses, even yoga! And users who sign up are recommended podcast episodes related to destinations on their route. e.g. if you are in Paris, you might find a walking tour of the city; an audio guide to the Louvre; or an underground music set. It's a great alternative to just reading the same Lonely Planet as everyone else!

Posted May 15th, 2008 - 9:04 am by TRAILLZZ from Bristol, United Kingdom