Thursday, January 29, 2004: Bird Dance Flu Shots
NO... I am not going to get the Bird Flu.
If you want to worry about me I suggest you worry about the most immediant danger. Getting run over by the number 16 Bus as it turns off on to New Pechaburi road and twice the speed limit.
Motorcycle taxis are also a danger. Both riding on one, and walking down the sidewalk and being hit by one.
If I was a Buddhist Monk in the south I'd have reason to worry. 3 of them have been murdered recently by the Islamaholics. Two students also were attacked with machettes, but they survived their wounds and the culprits were detained.
The other real danger I face now is being trampled to death by the legions of fat euro-trash tourists who are taking advantage of their currencies increased value.
Other than that...
It is sunny and about 32 C. And its lunch time, so I'll go get some food now.
Monday, January 26, 2004: St. Elmo's Fire
Last night I had a dream about my Father. We were driving and he asked me what I was doing. I made up some nonsense about an import export business and he looked at me in that "don't lie to me" way and laughed...
When I woke up I thought of a song off of Brian Eno's LP "Another Green World".
Brown eyes and I was tired
We had walked and we had scrambled
Through the moors and through the briars
Through the endless blue meanders.
In the blue august moon
In the cool august moon
Over the nights and through the fires
We went surging down the wires
Through the towns and on the highways
Through the storms in all their thundering.
In the blue august moon
In the cool august moon
Then we rested in a desert
Where the bones were white as teeth sir
And we saw st elmo’s fire
Splitting ions in the ether.
In the blue august moon
In the cool august moon
- Brian Eno
Thursday, January 22, 2004: George Harrison’s Moog Blasphemy
I have always felt the Beatles were dying in order of talent, and that meant Ringo Star would live forever. Of the Fab Four I have always liked George Harrison the best for a variety of reasons. Most people would tag John Lennon with the badge of favorite but I’ve always had difficulty understanding how someone everyone insisted was such a genius would allow Yoko Ono to sing on his albums. Love must be deaf as well as blind. That might sound like heresy to many of you born after John Lennon was shot. The truth of the matter is though “Double Fantasy” wasn’t selling like hotcakes when it was released, and the critics were dumping all over it, calling the singles “fluff”. After that fateful day in December 1980 though all was forgiven and John Lennon was made some kind of Pop Music Saint.
Back to George though…
I found George Harrison’s 1969 album “Electronic Sound”. Since I like George and I like old analog synthesizers I picked it up. I expected something dreamy with an Eastern mystical flavor. Instead it was A2D2’s worst gastronomical afflictions.
43.45 minutes of bllleeeeep braaappppppa bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz zzzaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa brraaaappppppaaaaaa SMASH SMASH… neepp nep nep nep nep nep nep nep nep nep neppssssshsssssssshhhhhhhhhhhhh
What is most remarkable is that it was remastered in digital.
“Wow, I thought it was just my vinyl copy, but now with this definitive remastered version I know with digital certainty that this album really sucks.”
Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for experimental music. But as my old conductor from the TMYC, Bob Cooper once said, “Avant Garde music always seems to lack a beginning, middle and an ending”. He was referring to some awful monstrosity we had been commissioned to sing. It was complex for its own purposes and had that clever self-satisfied air I learned to be suspicious of. You could almost hear the composer saying “Oh it’s so deep the audience just doesn’t get it…” No Buster, it’s annoying and they don’t want to listen to it.
Speaking of annoying…
Sandy, who was trying to do some homework, thought I was having some difficulty with my newly loaded Reaktor 4 virtual synth.
“What you do!!??”
Translation; “Is that racket really necessary?”
Hooah.
“It’s not me, baby…”
The second track which would have been side 2 on the vinyl version was possibly even more annoying than “side one”. It would seem that George Harrison rigged up the white noise oscillator and was unable to disable it. Yes, more flatulence and warbling but with this finger-nail on the chalkboard white and pink noise treatment added to the maelstrom.
Imagine electronic music so bad that I am not even interested in sampling it.
Baaaaaahhhhhh zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzziiiigggggggg pisssssshhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh rrraazzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzbbbbaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaalllaaaappppp…
The first track is titled “Under the Mersey Wall” which is no doubt some cryptic Liverpool reference to the location George bought the LSD used during the composition of this album. The second track is called “No Time No Space” which sums up the whole experience… No meter, not rhythm, no melody, no definable structure… No time should be wasted listening to this and no space should be taken up in your CD holder with this purchase…
If a chimpanzee had a Moog Modular V it would probably do no worse. Maybe it would do better…
Thank God for the stop button, and for used CD shops.
Wednesday, January 21, 2004: Hooah or Ralph?
I re-watched Black Hawk Down on video. Brengun sent me the hard-cover version of the book WAAAAAY back in the spring of 2001. I was in the Czech Republic when the movie came out, and then Samui when it hit the theatres here so I never saw it on the big screen.
While in Koh Samui I did see the first half on a brutal pirate VCD. It had been shot with a camcorder in some theatre and it featured jerky movements, muffled sound, coughing and silhouetted heads and shoulders. In Samui I only had access to VCD player that was prone to skipping which refused to accept the second disc so I’d never actually seen the end..
Anyways Sandy was curious why the Yank soldiers were always saying “Hooah". Apparently it sounds the same as the Thai slang word for vomit.
Monday, January 19, 2004: Pod People
I have watched two movies on disc as of late and I must ask this unimportant question.
When did aliens stop being scary? Or perhaps better yet, why can’t they make scary aliens anymore?
The two movies that spawned this question are “Signs” and “Dreamcatcher”. In both these movies the Alien invaders are scary right up until you see them. Then they are either cliché or just silly.
“Signs” had some really big potential. It was good nightmare fuel right up until the point where you see the nasty space man... He’s about as scary as The Hamburgler.
“Look it’s a guy in a suit.”
“Quick, hit him with a baseball bat then toss some water on him!”
Not much of an menace...
The “Dreamcatcher” Aliens were scarier but mostly due to their preferred orifice of entrance. Then the sodomite space invaders seem to be a cross between a bunch of other more scary things from other more scary movies. The alien menace was the most scary when "Mr Gray" processed the guy from “Band of Brothers”. It is possible though that hearing him speak with his real English accent was what creeped me out so much.
Anyways both movies had lame endings.
Perhaps the problem isn’t these movies. Maybe it’s me! Some of the people I’ve met here are scarier than anything Hollywood’s special effects wizards can concoct…
Thursday, January 15, 2004: More Rain
The rain was okay for the first few days. However it would be nice if it stopped. I don't think it's normal to have this much rain in January.
Monday, January 12, 2004: Rain
It rained on the weekend. And it’s still raining. Not that I mind that much. It hadn’t rained for over a month. It felt weird today though, as I now associate the rain with what would be “summer” in North America.
Late last week a Police Station in the South was attacked. Apparently the attackers were using the same weapons that had been stolen earlier in the week. Fortunately no one was hurt. Keep in mind that the Police Station would also house the families of the Police.
The Government is now finally admitting that the trouble makers are getting “outside help”.
Thursday, January 8, 2004: Poipet Patrol
Time passes so quickly without a class B visa…
Yesterday morning I headed back to Poipet for the stamp. This time it was just me and Kaboom, as both Sandy and her Sister had to go to University. I was running on less than 3 hours worth of sleep so when my alarm went off at 5:00 am I was not pleased.
On the way over to we were stopped by the Highway Patrol. Kaboom had been going 120 KPH which is a 200 Baht ticket. He got out of it by slipping the Copper a 100 Baht note, a maneuver I watched with interest in the rearview mirror. Minutes later we were back on our way to Poipet at 120 KPH.
As I have mentioned before there are several Army Bases near the boarder. Probably because of recent events one Base had about 30 Armored Personnel Carriers sitting in front of it. There were soldiers and jeeps all over the place as well, fully kitted up and ready to go. We were stopped again at the Army check point and while Kaboom was giving his license and engine block number to the guy at the desk, a column of another 10 tracked APCs rumbled by, all packed full of soldiers. I have never seen anything like this in Thailand before. Another first was the soldier wanting to see my passport.
The crossing was a snap. There was a bus full of Japanese tourists making their way to the Casinos but they were an overly organized bunch so there wasn’t the chaos of my last visit. The longest part of the process was waiting for Kaboom after I got stamped back in to Thailand. He’d wandered off somewhere and his crappy new Siemens phone wasn’t working so I had to wait for him at the Zero.
On our way back we were stopped again at the Army check point, were they searched the trunk (Boot? Bonnet?) of the car then sent us along. We got stopped again by the Cops (140 KPH) but Kaboom managed to whine his way out of that ticket. Then we were stopped at the Toll-way and pulled over to the side. The excuse was that Kaboom wasn’t wearing his “driver’s shirt” which all taxi drivers are required to wear. He went off to the opposite side of the highway to plead his bribe, and I sat and watched them pull over every taxi, mini-van, and large truck that came through. Clearly this was more than traffic enforcement. It was an excuse to check vehicles. Kaboom got out of the 200 Baht dress code ticket by donating 100 baht to the Copper who’d pulled us over.
We got back to Bangkok later than usual due to all the unexpected stops and had a much needed meal at MK. I got back to the Redoubt and promptly fell asleep.
Tuesday, January 6, 2004: How Many Rifles?
The holidays were good. I had my Birthday Dinner at Larry's Dive with Sandy and TG, then went to Sandy's families for New Years. They got me an outstanding chocolate cake. The next few days were very quiet. VERY quiet.
Meanwhile Islamaholics in the South of Thailand started the year off by burning down a dozen schools, raiding an army base and making off with a wack of rifles after killing 4 guards. At first the number of rifles was reported to be around 400, but now the figure has been dropped to 102. The true number may never be known. Now the figure pointing starts as everyone blames everyone else for not paying attention. No one has mentioned that this all took place on the same day the US announced that Thailand was a non-NATO ally.
