Monday, May 31, 2004: And Then There Were Three

The FISH BLIGHT seemed to have levelled off by Saturday... At that point we were down to five fish. Then Saturday another one went which sort of surprised us since they all looked normal again. Now only two of the original fish remain, and none of the ones from last summer are alive. Yesterday afternoon another new one died, leaving us with 3 fish.

The Islamaholics hacked the head off some old Buddhist guy on the weekend. There justification was that it was in retaliation for the arrests of "innocent" people. The arrests of course have been in response to 3 months of daily attacks. Attacks which apparently, according to some half-wit Mr. Know-it-all in Vancouver B.C. (the self-rightousness capital of North America) that Brengun knows "Never Happened" because if they had happened he would have seen it on the news. Of course I know that killing Buddhist monks is nothing new. But to Mr. Know-it-all such things can't exist because it might shake his little romper-room world of make-believe.

Friday, May 28, 2004: Fish Talk

We have removed all the plants, shells, rocks, and decorative items from the Aqua-Zone in case the recent FISH BLIGHT has been caused by some sort of poisoning or contamination. Five fishies still remain with us but they don’t look very good. I may do a run to the weekend market tomorrow in order to pick up more fish supplies. Sandy has another Exam so I’ll have to battle my way through alone.

I tried to watch this guy Claude Hankes-Drielsma who is one of the people investigating Saddam pocketing cash from the UN Food for Oil program on BBC’s Hard Talk. I have never been much of a fan of Hard Talk as I find Tim Sebastian’s confrontational style unpleasant, but this was unwatchable. Questioning what proof old Claude has is one thing but Tim just wouldn’t let him talk. I wanted to hear what the guy had to say but clearly Tim didn’t. Why even have him on? I had been Mr. Hankes-Drielsma I would have either punched Tim Sebastian in the nose or just walked off.

Increasingly I am getting my TV news from either Thai TV or the ABC (Australian) Asia Pacific Channel.

What ever storms have been throwing rain our ways recently seem to have backed off. It is noticeably cooler. A mere 30 degrees or there abouts. Sandy thinks its funny how I read the temperatures for the Canadian cities off of the news out loud…

“Toronto, 12 degrees… ha ha…”

I don’t think she gets The Simpson’s reference in the “ha ha” part though.

Thursday, May 27, 2004: Sick Fish Cover Up!!

If Michael Moore was hanging around the Redoubt I’m sure he’d bring into question why I have been suppressing the truth about the FISH BLIGHT that has recently decimated (or is it devastated? Ask Bonhomme) the fish population. Well in an effort to beat him to the punch, before he has a chance to edit unrelated bits of what I’ve said together in order to prove whatever point he’s trying to make, I will reveal all.

Yes. The fish are dying. And at this point I suspect only one or two to survive by the weekend.

This began a few weeks back when one of Sandy’s originals got ill. A three year old fish is an old fish so we weren’t all that surprised. Then… more fell ill. On the weekend she picked up some fish supplies and potions to help drive away the fish SARS and also picked up four new fish. On Monday night I came how to find her upset because the old fish had died. Tuesday two more fish died including a new one. Yesterday another three died. Now there are only five left; two old, one from last summer and two new.

What is the cause? We’ve tried everything. Potions, lotions, a little salt, changing the water, cleaning the tank, laying on of hands, and even prayer, but nothing has worked. We aren’t sure if their little hearts are beating too fast or too slow, or if is from a low level electrical charge running through the water. Yes we are stumped.

I’ve always thought fish were the stupidest pets around, but now I understand better. The fish are cool. They do their little fishy things in their little fishy world and to see them sitting glum at the bottom of the tank gasping for their last breath is really sad. Sandy is not pleased. Exams, rain and sick fish don’t make for a good week.

Monday, May 24, 2004: Rain Stops Sun Starts

There was some big storm somewhere which is why we had all that rain. It continued most of Saturday but Sunday was absolutely beautiful. Sunny sunny sunny and nice. Hot, but not humid. Very nice.

Sandy went to the weekend market and bought some fish supplies as well as 3 or 4 new fish. I ran around little but spent most of my time messing with sounds.

Last night while she was studying, I was channel hopping and I came across August Schellenberg carrying somebody out of a fire on the Disney Channel. I am sort of used to seeing places I know (filmed in Toronto, filmed in Vancouver) but I still find it weird to see someone I know even though I know its what they do.

Friday, May 21, 2004: Rain

Rain.

LOTS OF RAIN.

Someone suggested to me that it must be REALLY HOT here in Bangers. But its not. It’s RAINING and that means yucky and cool. It’s just like being in Vancouver only without the vagrants, bums, muggers and drug addicts.

It’s grey (or is it gray?) outside. The street to the redoubt was flooded this morning. When it rains like this the thin film of soot and smog that normally covers everything here gets washed off and turned into this slippery layer of grease. I wear my sunglasses anyways to protect my eyes from the legions of folk carrying umbrellas. They are all just short enough that their umbrellas will hit me at eye level. I have enough eye problems without that added to the cart.

Rain, like anti-M pills make me grumpy like Oscar the Grouch. I don’t mind short storms but extended periods of this perpetual stuff really gets to me. It is the reason I was so happy not to live in Vancouver.

All I want to do when it rains is sleep. I want to sleep and wake up someday when it’s not raining. I want sleep, blankets and cuddles and sleep. Maybe a hot tea at some point.

Thursday, May 20, 2004: The REAL Gangs of New York

If you were a North American teenager at a party between 1979 and 1987 chances are someone (perhaps even you) would inevitably put beer empty beer bottles on their thumb and two finger, start klinking them together and chanting “Warriors… come out to play-yaaaay…. Warriors…. Come out to plaaaaayyy-yaaaaayyyyy…” If you fall within a specific demographic you will know EXACTLY what I am talking about. If not you will not understand my pure joy at discovering “The Warriors” was on TV last night. Sandy certainly didn’t understand my excitement. Then she was trying to study.

“The Warriors” was a huge huge hit when I was in my early teens. HUGE. In Canada it was restricted which only made it more desirable to try and see and the controversy about the movie was an also a big part of the hype. It was far too “violent” and had all the church folk and do-gooders wringing in their hands in collective distress at the decline of Western Civilization. Now it is utterly laughable. Only a 12 year old boy in 1979 would think ANY of this was cool, or remotely believable. The tag line for this movie was “They are 100,000 strong” but should also say “and they all look ridiculous”.

I stumbled across it about half way through so I missed the opening sequence where Cyrus, the leader of the Gramercy Riffs (a pseudo-black panthers outfit made up of karate experts) gets killed and The Warriors get blamed. The premise of the movie is that they have to battle their way back to their Turf in Coney Island. The gang gets separated and adventure and fashion atrocities ensue.

When I tuned in one of the Warriors named Ajax was trying to pick up some woman sitting on a park bench. She of turns out to be a cop, handcuffs him to the bench and utters the unforgettable line “You days in the park are over”. Meanwhile a few other Warriors have met up with “The Lizzies” a lesbian gang who take them back to their pad to party. One guy who looks like Epstein from “Welcome Back Kotter” figures out that it’s a trap and shouts “The chicks are packed” before they battle their way out.

Packed? Oh yes. It would seem that in 1979 gangs were packing some deadly heat. Switchblades, baseball bats and starters pistols which of course would kill you just fine but considering the firepower displayed by gangs today (both fictional and real) the Lizzies firing off what look like pop guns is just hilarious. The “gangs” themselves are hilarious too. There is one gang who dress up like baseball playing mimes, one that sport overalls and roller skates, and one gang that look like a bunch of pimps. The bad-guys “The Rogues” sort of look like they’re aping some 1950’s bikers with little leather caps to match their jackets. Heavy metal meets the Fonze meets the Village people. That is scary.

The fight scenes are absolutely awful. When the over-alls wearing roller skate bandits go head to head with the Warriors in the subway men’s room I was amazed at how far the whole notion of “fight scene” has evolved. I suppose in reality the Warriors fight scenes are far more real looking than today’s computer assisted fly wire kung fu Matrix nonsense, but I can’t get out of my mind how much stink was made about the degree of violence in this movie. The bathroom rumble is just dopey looking and Keystone Coppish. All it needs is banjo music.

One thing is certain. Viewing this movie would lead you to believe that in the late 1970s everyone in New York was ugly. The entire cast is ugly. They have ugly hair, ugly clothes, ugly ugly ugly everything. It’s difficult to imagine some teenage girls discussing how they thought the guy who played Swan was “so hot” because he’s so… ugly.

There is a “statement” scene where some of the Warriors are riding the subway and some graduation couples get on the same train. They sit across from each other, the “Rich” (as if ANYONE rich would ride the New York Subway after midnight back in 1978) kids look embarrassed and uncomfortable as they watch the scruffed up “poor” kids. As bad the gangs were dressed the graduation couples were wearing some truly frightening examples of how awful fashion was in the late 70s.

The “exciting” climax when the head Rogue guy with the beer bottles on his fingers gets his come-uppance is sort of limp. He sports the only real firearm in the movie but is disarmed when Swam throws his switchblade and gets him in the wrist. (Maybe this is why they didn’t use guns, they knew they were unreliable compared to knifes and pieces of wood with nails poking through) Then the Kung Fu Panthers show up armed with a surprising huge number of hockey sticks and serve out that special kind of street justice that only scowling fictional bad-asses can rightfully deliver. Fade to a shot of the beach and Coney Island surf while the Theme song (which was more inescapable in 1979 am Rock radio than the Warriors plight) is cued up by the DJ and that’s it…

That’s it??

What a bad movie. I love bad movies. More than good ones in a way. And this movie tells you the truth about the 1970’s. The truth they don’t want you to know. It was an ugly time, with ugly clothes and popular music sucked and it was just as violent as any other time. Wait… this could be said of the 1980’s… and 1990’s… and… now…

Wednesday, May 19, 2004: Blog Schmog

yeah yeah blog blog blog blog.

Who cares. I don't. Not about blogging anyways. More and more blogging looks like some sort of thing that will be made cruel sport of on "The Simpsons" in 2014. People will laugh at the word BLOG the same way we now laugh at Y2K. In the 90's we laughed at Mood Rings, Pet Rocks and praised Quintane Tarintino, so I think you get my idea here.

Already this decade is shaping up. Blogs, low-carb diets, and other meanless crap that is so NOW that it will remain now. As for me keeping journal on line, I may or may not be doing that. I don't know. Maybe I'll have a webcam implanted in my mark of the beast microchip by then.

In any event I feel the same way about the Blog thing as I do about Star Trek conventions. Yeah I like Star Trek, and I might even go to a convention just to see what its like... But I am not about to learn to speak Klingon or dress up in a Halloween Costume. Too damn dorky. Even for me.

So instead of blogging I will do what I've always done here. Which is write what I can about what I can, and talk about what I do when I can and throw in a few SECRET MESSAGES (SIN SIN SIN SINNER...) to CERTAIN PEOPLE who know the SECRET MEANING (THIS ONES GOT A BAD MOTIVATOR) and so on.

and of course I'll tell you when it rains.

So NO... I am NOT a blogger and this is not a blog. I'm a grocery clerk delivering the check. Or is that check-bin-cap?

Tuesday, May 18, 2004: Let's Get Blogging

Last night on one of the Thai TV news programmes they had coverage of a Police Major General inspecting the damaged Temples in the South. At one point he looked like he was about to cry. He had teary eyes, and to see that kind of public display of emotion by a Thai, let alone some Police big wig is strange thing.

Reuter's gives the story an odd spin, and makes some errors, which I am more than happy to point out.

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Bomb blasts rocked three Buddhist temples in Thailand's troubled Muslim south Sunday, wounding at least one person in the latest violence to hit the restive region, police said.

The temples, located in three separate districts of Narathiwat province, were hit by bombs within minutes of each other. One temple suffered damage to its roof and pillars.

And? All three temples suffered damage. Quite a bit of damage I'd say. I'd hate to have that much damage done to my apartment. And why no mention of the Buddhas that were destroyed?

Three temples were attacked with explosives," said Police Major General Kathane Kochapalayuk. A bystander was slightly wounded outside one temple.

Authorities declined to speculate on the motive for the attacks, the first major incident in the region since security forces killed 108 Muslim militants who attacked police outposts across three southern provinces on April 28.

FIRST major attack? What about the bombs that went off a few days ago and wounded two Police? Or that rocket grenade attack on May 4th?

Many within the predominantly Muslim local community were outraged at what they said was an excessive use of force.

Here they go with the "excessive use of force" thing. If you were one of 4 or 5 cops standing at a check point and 10 guys came charging at you armed with knifes and guns yelling "Allah Akbar" how would you respond? If 130 or so guys do this starting at 4:30 am and continue until mid afternoon how many do you think will end up shot dead?

The bloodiest fighting of that day occurred when soldiers and police stormed a historic mosque in the southern town of Pattani and killed 32 militants hiding inside.

No mention that the militants stormed the historic mosque at 5:30 am in the morning during prayers, held three people hostage, demanded the locals rise up and join them over the load speakers, and used the same mosque through out the day as a rally point and head quarters.

More than 20 schools were torched and an army camp raided for weapons in Narathiwat in January, triggering four months of violence in which scores of police and government employees have been killed in bombings, drive-by shootings and machete attacks.

Scores? How many is that? Last I heard the number was 74 but its hard to keep track. No mention of the monks who have been killed.

The unrest has fueled fears of a resurgent separatist movement in the deep south, where rebels fought a low-key, anti-Bangkok rebellion in the 1970s and 1980s, and where most of the population are Muslim ethnic Malays.
The violence has tarnished Thailand's carefully crafted "Land of Smiles" image as a safe tourist destination attracting more than 10 million visitors each year.

Which is probably the whole idea.

Low key rebellion? Oh you mean they didn't have as much financing as they do now? Or back in those days the communists got all the financing?

The former military commander in the south, General Pallop Pinmanee, told Reuters in a March 31 interview that many of the insurgents were inspired by Muslim anger over the U.S. invasion of Iraq and East Timor's long and eventually successful fight for independence from Muslim Indonesia.

Yeah those naughty East Timorese not wanting to get torched alive in their churches...

And please explain to me how blowing up temples, hacking Buddhists to death, burning down non-islamic schools and killing Thai cops will force the Americans out of Iraq? How does it even justify doing those things? Or will any old excuse will do?

Something also missing from any news piece I've seen or read is how this is affecting the monks. Normally Buddhist monks go out at dawn and receive donations of food and other items from locals. In the south they can no longer do this because they are at risk of getting whacked in the head with a machette. Now the locals have to covertly go to the temples and leave their donations there. They do this covertly because they have to fear being attacked for helping the monks.

Oh but the West doesn't care. It didn't care in 2000, nobody cared when I was back in 2002 and nobody cares now. What's really important in the West is the same thing that was important there ten years ago. That is the same old political divide and endless finger pointed and name calling. As long as it's not westerners being killed (the right) or westerners doing the killing (the left) nobody in the first world seems to give a damn.

And that is what irks me about the Farang the most.

By the way it didn't rain today.

Yet.

Monday, May 17, 2004: Temple Bombings and the Weather

I doubt the international press gives a damn so I'll tell you about it. Three Buddhist temples in the south of Thailand were bombed last night. Sandy and I watched a report on it that showed the damage. No one was killed thankfully. I was surprised by the degree of anger in Sandy's reaction. I think that if the Sharia-Law types want to really piss off the average Thai they are going about it the right way. They might be surprised at the reaction they get though. This isn't Java or East Timor. I personally think that this year's endless troubles have been due to outside influence.

I have been asked if I am "a blogger". I guess this is better than being asked if I am a booger. To be quite honest I can't really be sure if I am or not. I have been keeping a diary/journal since 1977. Only since 2000 has that journal been on line, and only since last spring has the on-line journal been using true "blog" software. Before that I believe web-mystic Justinio had to carve my entries in the html with some sort of Flinstonian method which involved a prehistoric bird and a hunk of rock.

So am I now a blogger?

Well, as far as I can tell bloggers tend to write about the current war and their support or opposition to it as well as the politics surrounding it. They write about Kerry and Bush why they love one and hate the other, they write about the media being controlled by which ever group they disagree with. It is for the most part really boring to read as far as I'm concerned.

I however write about the weather. Whether it is currently rainy season or not. I also write about music or entertainment. Of course that includes my own or how I'm entertaining myself. So I don't really think of myself as a blogger.

By the way it was sunny this morning. Then at around noon it started to rain. Then it cleared up.

Friday, May 14, 2004: The King and I and Us

The musical “The King And I” is banned in Thailand. The reason is that the Thai feel it is offensive and disrespects the Throne. Someone however failed to figure on satellite dishes and the Disney Channel beaming it in. I stumbled across it last night while channel hopping so Sandy and I watched a bit of it. As much as we could stand. She was curious as having heard of it and I was interested in it only because I had seen it in 2000 before I had any idea that I would end up in Thailand.

Sandy is annoyed beyond words by the singing in Western musicals. I am annoyed beyond words by the singing in THIS musical. The most amusing thing initially for her was the “Siamese” characters speaking Thai. Apparently their Thai equals mine. I found it odd that I could actually understand what they were saying, which would confirm their Thai being really bad. The other thing that irked her was that the actors portraying Thai looked Indian. Most were clearly white done up as “Asian” and none of them spoke English with a Thai accent. They all had that weird Hollywood non-accent accent usually found on episodes of the original Star Trek series. The sets had a similar Star Trek look to them and I half expected Kirk, Spoke and McCoy to materialize and confound the King during one of his numbers. Sadly they didn’t.

Yul Brynner as Rama 4 is without a doubt one of the reasons this movie was banned. Aside from his ridiculous Star Trek disco top that made him look like a katoy, he talks in this irritating Jar Jar Binks accent. “Meesa think you very scientific” Yeah right, West World Boy. He struts around like some kind of mask-less Strongbad and is all befuddled by these new scientific ways. Yikes. It’s hardly a tribute to the real King. In any event we barely managed to watch a more than 20 minutes of it. We’d pop back to it now and then rather than watch Nick Berg get his head sawed off yet again, but our visits would last about a minute and we would quickly flee once someone decided to break into song.

Maybe I’m missing the point. I guess I’m supposed to just sing along with the musical and remember its all entertainment. Except its not. As a musician the music offends me, as a lover of history the disregard for historical fact offends me, and as someone who's been in Thailand for 3 years the depiction of the Thai people as bumbling simpletons bothers me.

Thursday, May 13, 2004: Sigma Uncorked

I have finally uncrated the Korg Sigma (aka “Slurp Machine”) and put it to use after nearly a year. The Roland I bought at the same time has been used a lot, but I’ve never got around to the Sigma. This might be due to its incredible weight and size. Or it might be the time required in retuning it. Anyways it was whizzing rain and I thought perhaps that was a good enough reason to pull it out.

I have used a Sigma before, the original Slurp Sigma back in the wonderful summer of ’94, so I sort of knew what I was up against. Somewhere in a box I have a note book with all the Slurp “settings” for the Sigma, but since that box is in Canada I had to sort of wing it.

Tuning the “Sythne” section to the “Instrument” section (put in the fuzz guitar… No no it sounds like participaction”) was annoying; for some reason the ring modulator throws the two so out of wack with each other it sounds like some kind of dying robot. That took a while to sort out. Eventually I got a nice fat worble that I could use. I had sort of intended to just record some sounds then slice them up for looping. I ended up recording 4 tracks of worblings. These ended up going through Sound Forge and ending up in Acid Pro.

I added some drums from the Korg ER-1, and then bounced them around the MRS-4 effects so I had 2 tracks of drums and 2 tracks of overly echoed drums. These were then taken through Sound Forge and ended up along side the Sigma Worblings. Then I added 4 more tracks of arpregiated synth sounds from the MC-303 Groovebox. These also got dumped to my PC and ended up in Acid Pro.

All of this of course sounded like… Well I’m not sure. Very Nash the Slash in a way. Sandy felt the echoed drums would be “Ministry of Sound”ish if they were a bit faster. I think THICK is a good word to describe it. I decided that some guitar was in order so I recorded two guitar tracks, one strummy, volume swellish and then put them through the process of conversion. In the end I got something I like. I’m not sure about how to mix it yet. I may shed many of the tracks in order to get something I feel works.

Wednesday, May 12, 2004: Cases

Why do VCDs, which have two discs come in a normal CD case and DVDs, which have just one disc come in HUGE GIANT CASES? Is this so you feel like you're getting your money's worth or something? It's a mystery. I don't like the DVD cases. Too big, and they take up far more room than necessary.

Monday, May 10, 2004: 100 Percent Chance of Rain

The best thing about waking up on a Sunday to the sound of a big storm is the realization that it is Sunday and it doesn't really matter if you go back to sleep. Which is exactly what I did. The rest of the day was spent doing absolutely nothing.

Sandy and I watch the movie "Body Shots" which was er... okay for 59 baht. She found it in the unwanted VCD bin somewhere so she picked it up since Ron Livingston was in it. The movie sort of sucked in a way. The characters where those super rich super good looking types who I've only DJ'd wedding for and other than that never met. I have little empathy for the characters because the men all seemed like dickweeds and the women seemed like snooty bitches. The most annoying character was the guy from "Sliders" as some hot shot jock. Why is the Mullet, Sliders boy? WHY?? Anyways I was glad when it was over.

Today's big exciting event was a trip to the Immigration Office for a 10 day extension on my visa. This used to cost 1200 baht and was a nightmare. It is now 1900 baht and one of the easiest things to do. There still dozens of confused farang and others mulling about not knowing what do or which window to go to, but compared to how it used to be... I must say Mr. Thaskin got this one right.

The chance of a huge cloud burst is greatly increased if I don't have my MEC rain coat in my bag. After the gym I barely made it to the Asok BTS before it started coming down like crazy. Fortunately the rain doesn't usually last that long...

But next month...

Saturday, May 8, 2004: Images Update

The rain has backed off for the time being. Yesterday was a mix of good and bad weather, but it cleared by sunset. This morning there was a big storm but now it's sunny and nice. That doesn't mean that in 2 hours it won't be raining again though.

I have posted up more photos in the image section of the Khmer Rouge S-21 prison. I will be posting up more this week if I have time. The most disturbing photos I took are of some paintings done by a man who survived the nightmare. I will be posting those up probably next weekend. Anyways, check out the current batch.

Thursday, May 6, 2004: Rain Yawn Rain

The rainy season would appear to have come a month early. Or maybe it always starts whizzing down in May and I just can’t remember. I sort of miss the hot hot hot. Rain is okay on a Sunday morning when you can just go back to sleep or after 3 days of 42 degree heat, but that’s about it. The rain here reminds me of B.C., when once it starts raining it doesn’t stop for 3 weeks.

Yawn.

The Thai’s have arrested some guy for being the evil mastermind behind the suicide stampede in the south last month. The international press continues to focus on what they perceive as heavy handedness on the part of the Thai police and army, which is interesting considering how the almost daily attacks on schools, cops, civilians, teachers, and Buddhist monks for 3 months, was somehow not news worthy. The Thai opinions I have come across range from the South being a bunch of perpetual malcontents, to giving the cops medals and more bullets. I haven’t met anyone who is “outraged”. As for my safety, which some folk seem to get all worried about when ever Bangkok is named on the news, I am more in danger here from the traffic than anything else.

That being said I am careful. (Of the traffic that is)

I’ve tried to keep politics out of this blog. I find most blogs tedious to read because of the tendency bloggers seem to have towards jumping up on the information soap box and going on about whatever. I’ve had too many opinions completely altered in the last five years to feel that my current ones are worth posting up here. Some things upset me greatly, which hasn’t changed, other things don’t strike me as strange at all or even surprising after having stepped outside and beyond the insular adolescent Disneyland of the first world.

Tuesday, May 4, 2004: The Thing

Sandy got back yesterday afternoon. I didn’t expect her until much later in the day. We watched John Carpenter’s version of “The Thing”, which is based on a classic 1950’s sci-fi movie. The original “Alien” movie is also loosely based on the 1950’s movie “The Thing from Another World”. I was interested in seeing Sandy’s reaction to this film. We’d watched “Dream Catcher” and “Signs” together and as I have mentioned before I found the Aliens in those movies rather lame and unscary. I was curious as to how the 1982 special effects would hold up and whether or not it the film remained scary after 22 years.

The result was the movie scared the shit out Sandy. The effects are well, not computer generated so although perhaps they don’t look “real” they don’t look computer generated either which makes them by default more real looking. If you follow what I mean. The ending battle with the mega morphing Thing was sort of tame by today’s standards but it was still better than the endings of “Signs” or “Dream Catcher”. I wonder at what point they will remake this movie, because somebody must have the option on it. I’m sure they will CGI it to death, and I’m also sure it won’t frighten Sandy as much.

Of course I can now torment Sandy by doing the "I'm mutating into a Thing" freak out. Perhaps I should work the "Safety Dance" into it.

Monday, May 3, 2004: Weekend Alone

Sandy went back to “Vulcan” for the weekend. I think of her home as Vulcan due to a hair cut she had last year and her Father’s resemblance to Mr. Spock’s Dad. The whole “Vulcan” look must have been loosely based on Siamese culture although the logic part certainly wasn’t.

Anyways, I was alone all weekend which was weird. Saturday I went with Bonhomme and Associates to see Todd Phillip’s new movie “Starsky & Hutch”. We caught an afternoon show and only managed to get tickets for the blinding second row. It was a good laugh; very campy and the sound track seemed to be comprised of the most saccharine top 40 paff of the 70’s. These are songs so gutless that they seemed to have been overlooked in the original bout of 1970’s nostalgia that occurred a few years ago.

A lot of the jokes were lost on the crowd either due to cultural differences or demographic ones. I was continually amused by the absolutely awful clothing. These outfits weren’t that outrageously ugly 70’s crap in the Brady Bunch tradition; they were more subtle in their ugliness, which made them scarier. I don’t remember anyone dressing like Greg Brady but I DO remember people wearing this stuff. I saw at least 4 outfits (3 of which were worn by Ben Stiller) that I remember HATING the look of as a kid. Who ever did the wardrobe for this movie was a genius.

We got some Thai food on 22 after the movie then I went back to the Emporium and picked up the latest issue of Keyboard and bought the DVD of Portishead live in NYC. I went back to the very empty Redoubt and fed the fishies, then watched the DVD. What an amazing show. Who would have ever imagined a full orchestra backing a band that uses a guy on two decks? Portishead had some really vintage gear too. Lots of Roland Chorus Echoes and Space Echoes (tape based echo devices for the 70’s. My Brother had one which I nearly electrocuted myself with when I was 14), an original Mini Moog, A Memory Moog as well as some Fender Rhodes keyboards. Amazing!

Sunday I woke up feeling sickly so I popped some anti-M’s and took care of some things before spending the afternoon working with Acid Pro. It has been a while since I have used Acid Pro by itself. Increasingly I am shuttling stuff from the MRS-4 to the computer, then turning the tracks into WAV files, then messing with them in Sound Forge, then dumping them into Acid Pro and using it as the final mixing device before mastering it out as a final song. I have been playing with the idea of taking things the other direction, that is building the bed tracks or the drums in Acid Pro then converting the WAV file into a MRS-4 V track, and that was my intention but I soon found myself building a little ditty from some samples I’ve put together and mutated in Sound Forge.

Suddenly it was 8:30 pm.