Monday, June 30, 2003: 4 Feet Off The Ground

I had a dream once about my Father in which he was walking four feet off of the ground. How do you do that? I don’t mean literally of course. How do you walk above the little petty silly things? How do you carrying yourself in a way that, while all the others crash held long in to the in being older, you walk across the bridge with dignity and hopefully some kind of wisdom.

I never knew my Father as a young man, so I never saw the transition. Some how he did it, but I have no idea how. Today I wish I could ask him.

Wednesday, June 25, 2003: Sunny With Some Possibility of Elephants and Ghosts

The clouds parted and behold it was sunny. Sunny and not too hot, thanks to the rain we’ve had. Why it is down right pleasant out.

Sometimes, walking around here I forget that I am so far away from home. Then suddenly I’ll turn a corner and along the street comes some guy riding an elephant. It is then I remember that I am not at Spadina and College…

I am still not comfortable with the sight of elephants. For me they always look to be on the verge of some mad bone crushing rampage. All it would take is ONE MORE JAB from the handler and all hell would break lose.

Ling Lek finds my fear of elephants amusing. That’s okay because I find this entire country’s fear of ghosts equally amusing. Even if I were inclined to believe in ghosts I am forever doomed to associate the word “ghost” with 3 things.

1) Gilligan’s Island… The episode where the Soviet sounding spy tries to scare the castaways off the island by running around in a sheet.

2) Scooby Doo… A cartoon Dick Van Dick will rip the ghost mask off to reveal…

3) A Christmas Carol… “There is more of gravy than grave to you… If I were to swallow this tooth pick I would be plagued by a legion of hobgoblins…”

Apparently since I don’t remember pulling on Ling’s toes the other morning at 6:00 am, it might have been a ghost. I said it was more likely to be the gold fish. However I now have the excuse to take on an effeminate British accent and claim to be “The Ghost of Christmas Toes” while proceeding to attack them.

Monday, June 23, 2003: Rainy Rain

Well dust off the Vangelis “Blade Runner” sound track, rainy season would appear to be with us once again. The road to Redoubt of course floods to the point you need Moses or hip-waders to get to and from, but that’s all part of the fun. I headed out to Noodleville at about 9:30 pm in the midst of it and was some what soaked by the time I arrived.

Last night’s big rain managed to bring the temperature down considerably. This morning it had stopped but it was Vancouver cool and I was forced to wear my MEC mac… That is of course until 11:00ish when the humidity and heat increased enough to make you hope/expect more rain.

I got a call from The Pirate which was a pleasant surprise. Haven’t heard an “ahoy” from those quarters as of late.

Yesterday had munch with Tarzan at Larry’s Dive. Sean’s diet is still a hot topic. Well… For Sean it is. But that’s okay.

I had a dream that Snowy Brady and Moxy were living in Iceland or Finland or some such place. Perhaps it has a hidden meaning… or perhaps I had too many sa-pies.

Sunday, June 22, 2003: Moog Mania

For the last 5 weeks I have been making regular stops at a certain book store in the Emporium… Why? Not because of some swim suit issue. No… Something FAR more interesting than that… I have been waiting for the arrival of the May 2003 issue of Keyboard Magazine… Because of course it has not only a review of the new Moog Voyager keyboard but because it has an interview/article on the man himself! Robert Moog, founder creator of all that is aurally important.

Today (oh joy) it arrived. The Moog Mania issue! And bless my Larry Fast and praise be Isao Tomita it was a joy to read… cover to cover…

I want one. 3000 bucks USD or not I want one! And I will have one. Maybe not this year… or next but I WILL HAVE ONE. And I will rule the subsonic bass tone universe.

After picking up the magazine I headed to MBK for a much needed hair cut. This is an increasingly frightening experience as I no longer see me staring back I see Fred.

Then it was on Asian Spice and a chance to read…

Sleepy was there with Braces so there was a great deal of goofing about and high-fiving between Ling Lek and the gang. I just drank my sa-pie and read and reread and read and dreamed and prayed…

I WILL HAVE ONE. I WILL OWN ONE.

Why would ANYONE spend 5000 bucks on a WATCH??? Why oh why when you could buy a Moog Voyager Minimoog??? It just doesn’t make sense. So don’t try and impress me with your Rolex. I’m only impressed by 3 Analog VCOs and the proper filters. And when I own a Moog I will not care what time it is…

Saturday, June 21, 2003: The Incredible Shrek

Last night's post Asian Spice treat was getting Noodle and going over to Siam Discovery to see HULK. I wasn't expecting a whole lot as I am not impressed by CGI at all, and think it looks really fake. We managed to get there just at show time, so after buying the popcorn we arrived at our seats just as the onslaught of Thai adverts had started.

I understand that a few folks were upset by the choice of doing Mr Hulk in CGI. This week that seems like a very strange thing to be upset about... In any event I thought it looked okay. It's a comic book character. What do you want? Over all it was worth the 120 baht. Lots of "Hulk Smash" action and so forth. Sandy seemed perplexed by some it, although the whole tank smashing sequence amused her to no end.

I kept thinking of Brengun and her trip to that Comic Convention in L.A. last year where she got a photo of Lou Ferigno, the original 1970's TV Hulk. She didn't want to pay the 20 bucks or what ever it cost to get a photo with Lou, so she had a picture taken with her smiling and him way off in the back ground.

So did I like old Hulk? It was certainly better than that pointless Dare Devil movie. And MUCH more fun than Tron 2: Matrix Retarded. That gave me a headache.

Wednesday, June 18, 2003: Back to Redoubt

Yes the dust had hardly settled and the fuzz hadn't stopped their panting and I made the obvious move... A move as far away as possible from the area in question, which is clearly a questionable area... and back oh my brothers back to the safety and security of the Redoubt itself.

Home sweet ho ho home.

TOD was a star on Sunday and hung with me. Yesterday Kaboom helped me make the move from Luba-ville.

Tommy Hunter who was once a man of the Shield himself was not happy with the tale.

Tonight however it was lots of spicy mango mash, sticky rice and mystery meat washed down with sa-pie and so forth.

9:00 pm, time to go back to the Noodle zone, collect Ling Lek and go to BIG C... Its bargin night!

Sunday, June 15, 2003: Dark Influence Shakedown

Do you remember Luba? If you are Canadian you may recall her. (or maybe you'll be angry that I have made you recall her!) She was a Can Con "New Wave" star that flickered briefly in the late 1980's. I can't remember any of her hits but I do remember this dreadful song she sang in these silly anti-smoking TV adverts that ran back in the early 1990's. The song had the forgettable hook of "Break Free... Break Free" while Luba did some weird interpretive dance. This was supposed to inspire the youth of the time to butt out and put on colourful clothes.

So what oh what would inspire me to remember Luba? What trama would make that annoying Break Free song pop back into my head after 12 years of being repressed?

Read on...

I was heading back to my new digs. It was a beautiful sunny Sunday morning and I'd just got off the Khlong boat at Thong Lo.

I was simply walking along minding my own business when four of the friendly representatives of local law enforcement decided I needed a good shaking down.

First they wanted my passport. Which I had but wasn't willing to surrender to them unless they wanted to walk over to the office at my apartment. They weren't interested in that idea of course. What they were interested in was my money. I kept trying to walk further towards my apartment and eventually managed to get on the other side of all of them so there was no one between me and my building. I had no intention of giving them any money so I said “Sorry, I have to go now…” and started walking away.

“No we police! You give us money, it okay”

No I not give you money, I go apartment.

"No you come with us!" and with that they decided to grab me and restrain me.

Some where or other I read that if local police try to grab you or hold you for “questioning” the best thing to do is to run away yelling “help” as loud as you can. So that’s exactly what I did.

I broke free and ran away yelling “help”.

They were not pleased with this. Two of them tried to chase me but like the fat variety of all third world cops, and weighed down with belts and radios and so forth they didn’t manage to pursue me very far.

The first thing that popped into my head as they were running behind me yelling "stop stop, we police" was this strange Slurp song that features frantic drums banging through a ring modulator while Peter Venuto yells "ieyaayayayayayayayayayyyayayaayayay" incoheriently over top.

Then as I made the turn onto the walkway beside the khlong that leads to my building I remembered Luba and "Break Free"...

"This isn't fully" I told myself.

They guy who owns the building I am now in is an ex-cop high mucky muck. Now he's a judge. I came charging into the office and told him what had happened. He looked at a grab mark on my arm then ran out after the cops. He came back 20 minutes later saying that it was all a "misunderstanding" and that the cops and their captain wanted to say they were sorry. I politely declined this face saving offer.

I hooked up with TOD at Larry's and hung out with him. Sean wasn't overly surprised by what had happened and enjoyed telling me "I told you so" about that area.