Monday, August 29, 2005: Green Day Sucks
How many awards does MTV have? It seems they have one show a month. I can't keep track. I don't care to.
Green Day SUCKS by the way. Punk? That's not punk. And why do they sing with those stupid fake british/irish accents? Pah. No wonder the music industry is going broke. Good Charolette? All the mascara in the world can't make these guys punk.
Spare me. Pass The Prodigy.
Saturday, August 27, 2005: Tom-Yum-Goong
This afternoon Sandy and I went over to her Sister's to pick up her Nephew Pet and took him to see the new Tony Jaa movie "Tom-Yum-Goong". Sandy had promised to take him to it, and by doing that had put into his head that she would do it THIS WEEKEND and no other.
We took a taxi over to the theatre in his area which is a multiplex in a big mall and is in an area I'm completely unfamiliar with. We bought our tickets then had a quick bite before the movie started. I bought some rather unfortunate popcorn that seemed to have been popped during the original run of "Corvette Summer", and then we took our seats.
"Tom-Yum-Goong" is really a standard plot martial arts movie. Hero has something or someone of value taken/injured (Elephants), goes to rescue and or get revenge. Meets comic side-kick (Petchthai Wongkamlao) and or love interest. Here come the big boss, let’s get it on. Kick, Punch, repeat until movie ends. One of the most amazing fight bits is this long fight scene where Tony Jaa fights his way from the ground floor to the top floor of this building in one long shot that appears to have no cuts or edits.
That being said this is a real Thai style punch-fest. Petchthai Wongkamlao (comic side-kick) would seem like an odd character out in Farangia but if you live here for more than a week you will know who he is... The Thai Bill Murray. Tony Jaa is (or could be if he learns to speak English and makes better films) the next Jackie Chan (who makes a cameo in the film). The reason to see this or any movie he is in is not the plot or the acting it is the unbelievable fight scenes. Imagine Steven Segal with road rage. All the same bone cracking and butt kicking without any of the pseudo-Buddhist thoughtfulness and tofu talk. I guess since Tony Jaa was born a Buddhist he doesn't need to "act" like one. He just wants to get his Elephants back (in his last movie it was a stolen Buddha) and if that means beating up EVERYONE who tries to stop him then so be it. And he does. Pet of course loved it, and I'm sure he and his pals and school will be jibbering on about it enthusiastically at recess on Monday.
After the movie we went to MK for a meal. Then we took Pet home and after a short visit (Sandy has to see Pluk/Plik) we took a taxi back to the Redoubt.
Friday, August 26, 2005: Devils, Tatter Tots & Ants
I knew the movie "Constantine" would suck but I had no idea by how much. Exactly what drug would people take to alter their perception to the point where they'd knowingly put their names up in the credits of this film? It must be a new one. There's no mystery why theatre ticket sales are down though. With the exception of "Napoleon Dynamite" every "new release" we see is a stinker. What is going on? "Napoleon Dynamite" is brilliant though.
The ant insurgency continues. They tried to re-establish a route to our tooth-paste and soap on the opposite site of the window in the bathroom but that was a short lived project. Then Sandy discovered them coming in through the light switch above the fish tank and convoying it up the wall to the roof. That was a tricky place to spray because of the fish tank. We covered the top of the tank with some newspaper and I gassed the switch area. Then we had to wipe the switch after a while to avoid contaminating our hands if we turned on or off the lights.
I discovered there is a Thai rock band with the unfortunate name of "Blackhead". Being here you get used to the improper or confusing use of English but that made me laugh.
Thursday, August 25, 2005: Bug Spray
We found the place in the bathroom where the ants were coming in. It was way over by the window and by the massive Ho Chi Min trail parade of ants coming from the entry point I would say the previous four or five ants on the tooth paste tube were just recon ants. This was the main force. But... Sandy gave me the big bug spray bomb and I hosed them down with it.
And that was that. This morning no ants.
Wednesday, August 24, 2005: Hair, Music, Video
There's not much to tell you really.
Sandy got her hair done. That's different. She didn't cut it, or get the Vulcan/Romulan hairdo again though. She had it permed lightly so it is all wavey and looks quite nice.
The ants have invaded again. Those little red bastards bite too. For some reason this year (they always seem to invade during rainy season) they have tried to take over the bathroom. They seem to like our choice of soap, toothpaste and one of my contact lense containers. Unfortunately for them they can't swim and don't have any scuba gear.
Currahee has been good. Aches and pains but the good kind.
I have been listening to Portishead "Dummy" and the first Tricky CD "Maxiquane" or what ever it's called and I am really struck by how sparce they are. Which makes some sense since sampling wasn't as easy as painting wave forms on a track. The beauty of those CDs is largely due to them coming up with really amazing parts. That stuff is ten years old now. Wow.
I had the final Hi-8 video transfered to disc and watched it. It is the last Indigo gig which would have been in March or something of 1998. At the end of it there is a segment of us (the usual suspects) sitting on the patio of what was then the Victory Cafe (now the Grape Fruit Moon). April was waiting on us and who walks up after but Arielle's Brother Drew. Wow...
Sunday, August 21, 2005: Robert Moog Dies
One of my greatest heroes has passed away. A sad day on Regent Island...
Dr Robert Moog, the inventor of the electronic synthesiser, has died of brain cancer aged 71.
His synthesiser, which bears his name, revolutionised music from the 1960s onwards, and was used by bands like the Beatles and the Doors.
Today, the electronic manipulation of sound is a ubiquitous feature of popular music. This was not always the case, and Moog was one of the pivotal pioneers of synthesised sound.
Saturday, August 20, 2005: Some Site Thoughts
Thanks to Justin M aka The Webinator for making the image page work once again. Go take a look if you haven't already. Also if the titles of the CDs doesn't match the image (over in media diet to the left of this bit) the problem is you not me. I suggest clearing your temp internet files or refreshing this page.
The reason I don't update the links page is that no one seems to send me worthwhile links. It's like there is nothing left to go see or something. Has the internet become that boring? Or was it before and we just didn't notice?...
I have about 75 minutes worth of music recorded. I haven't posted it because at this point it is all sans vocals. I could post some of my experiments but somehow I feel I'm ripping you off if I give you free music without any vocals.
Those who wish to comment or contribute to any of these thoughts feel free to email me. I have shut off the comments in the music room due to high-weirdness by email.
In other news... Rainy season continues and I dislike it.
Thursday, August 18, 2005: Inventory
Big rain. That and Colin Newman on the Walkman. Little else. Very tired.
Sunday, August 14, 2005: Arielle Leaves Asia
Arielle came in an hour late due to a storm over Macau where she flew from. Sandy and I got to the Airport at around 10:50 pm to find it packed like I've never seen. I think the reason was the recent strike in London that shut down Heathrow Airport. In any event she came in just after midnight and we took her back into the city.
Today we went to breakfast at that Kappa place on Soi 16. It was quite good. Afterwards we turned Arielle loose at MBK where she wanted to do some last minute gift buying. We met her later on and went to dinner at Ole near Asia Hotel for some good Pad Thai. Afterwards she collected her stuff and we took her out to the Airport and said good-bye. I was sad to see her go.
Saturday, August 13, 2005: Hair Cut
Sandy went off to the Weekend Market this afternoon. I didn't. I went over to Fresh Milk for a meal, then walked over to Lucky Music to inspect the Electro-Hamonix toys then went for a hair cut.
One thing I truly enjoy about where I get my hair cut is the awful dated photos they have up. These aren't just photos, but titled pictures of awful early 80's hair-don'ts. "Silhouette" which is a strange girl-mullet, "Pixie" the hair-style of choice for 1982 brunette porn stars, one which I forget the name of that should be called "The Lady Di" and my all time favorite... THE QUIFF. Which is another girl-mullet but the name would have certainly amused my Army Cadet pals in 1977.
Another thought... Is it a bad sign that the place sells baseball caps for 180 baht each?
Arielle arrives tonight so Sandy and I have to meet her at 11:00 pm...
Friday, August 12, 2005: Thai Mother's Day
Today was a public holiday; the Queen's Birthday - or Thai "Mother's Day". I spent it by doing nothing. Absolutely nothing. Sandy didn't go anywhere either. She did light a candle and sing a song at 6:00 pm when they showed some ceremonies on TV. Other than that...
NOTHING...
Thursday, August 11, 2005: Bonhomme's Birthday
Today was Bonhomme's Birthday so I joined up with him at his at the fancy farang style restaurant Kruppa or Krappa or Kuppra or whatever it's called over on Soi 18. The food was good but the portions were small in that typical "expensive" restaurant style. There were lots of high society Thais and some Farang.
We had the pleasure of sitting near a couple who felt it necessary to have continuous public displays of affection which were made even more unwatchable by the unfortunate nature of her outfit. It was a tremendously ugly and rather revealing dress. It might have worked on a 20 year old super-model but even then it would have still been an ugly dress. In this case it was a revealing dress that revealed things that should never be revealed except on Discovery Channel. Bonhomme's only comment was "what a lucky guy..."
After our meal we went back to Chez Bonhomme for some really good and extravagant Birthday cake. Very rich, very chocolaty and included cherries...
Wednesday, August 10, 2005: More '98 Memories
I picked up the transfer of the second 98 video this evening. I watched it while Dexa and Sandy messed about on the internet. The first part was a March '98 gig at the Indigo with Chris and Richard F in the post-Rich-Brown-pre-Snowmelter arrangement. It is basically the same as the first gig with a few more songs and slightly more confidence in the execution of them. I remember beginning to grow tired of the songs we were doing at this point and I understand why. Looking back now I see why Snowmelter came next.
The second part of the two discs contained several short 4 or less song sets at some place on Queen Street called the Golash Party Haus... The shift from what we were doing at the Indigo towards what ended up happening with Snowmelter is even more obvious. The big shocker on the first of these gigs was my hair... Very long. I had forgotten that I'd actually grown it out that long. Sandy and Dexa found it highly amusing. The last gig on the second disc is the best of all featuring very tight playing by Chris and Richard F and some unashamed Bass Station work by me. Plus my hair had been cut to the proper length.
A nice bonus on the videos is of course the after gig fun at Insomina featuring the usual suspects including Andrew Roth.
Monday, August 8, 2005: Jarre in China
There is a little video shop on the walkway leading to BTS at Emporium that I always check. They will often have a sale on VCDs or DVDs but usually it will be unwatchable dreck like "Clash of the Titans" or something. Today I found the DVD of Jean Michel Jarre's recent concerts in China on sale.
Now if you are an old enough you will roll your eyes in distain... Jarre can be hated as much as if not more than "Yes"... But I love his music and have from the first time I heard "Oxygen 4". I saw bits of the China concert on CCTV when it was broadcast live a year or so ago, but this was interesting for a variety of reasons. The DVD came with 2 discs and an audio CD of the concerts. What was interesting for me to learn from the audio commentary was that Jarre managed to get three "banned" musicians as featured guests including the widow of the leader of the '89 Tian'anmen Student Protest. This on top of the concert being broadcast live with only a 4 minute 'delay' which is unheard of in a place as politically controlled as China.
If you a youngster you may not know Jarre, but he one of the people who shaped electronic music in it's beginnings. I clearly remember where I was the first time I heard "Oxygen 4" and how much it thrilled me at the time... I was 14; it was in the TV room of 51 Linelle Street during a TV Ontario show documenting "Electronic Music"... For what ever reason I got the same thrill watching him perform it on DVD in the Forbidden City. I took a lot of flak growing up for my synthesizer enthusiasm. Oddly my parents endured me listening to Isao Tomita and Tangerine Dream where "rock music" was NOT allowed. At school however my synth devotion (which took the form of "Moog" being scrawled on my notebooks and my locker being full of clippings from Keyboard magazine of what ever synth I dreamed of at that time) was under constant attack. Everyone else worshipped the guitarist. It was the time of Rock. "Song Remains the Same" was cool and Jean Michel Jarre certainly was not. But that was then. Now no one cares about Robert Plant's hair and Jimmy Pages' feedback but Jarre gets to play in the Forbidden City.
Ha. Take that rockers.
Anyways...
His main axe seemed to be a Novation Supernova II, which I am unsure if Novation still makes. He also used one of those Roland V-drum things to trigger sequences off of a MC-505 Groove box and one of those Space Station Groove Boxes. As far as older kit went he had a Prophet 5 and a VCS3 although I'm not sure how the VCS3 was controlled. It is possible he has a control voltage to midi set up. I was pleased to see he also had a Micro-Korg and his back up keyboardist had amongst his rig a Novation Bass Station. Some very nice kit...
Sunday, August 7, 2005: No Power Day
I woke up at 6:00 am today. Why oh why on a Sunday? It wasn't like I woke up and then could roll over and go back to sleep. When I say I woke up... I mean I was fully awake. So I got up, had a shower, made a tea and did all the stuff I normally would do at 6:00 am except I didn't have to go anywhere. Instead I played Command & Conquer while Sandy slept.
Then abruptly at around 10:00 am the power went off. I vaguely remembered some notice about the power being off from 10:00 am until 6:00 pm so I fell back to sleep. Sandy was up at around 11:00 am. The Redoubt quickly became too hot for sleeping or anything else. Sandy was concerned that the goldfish were about to die because the bubble machine was not functioning. Even the water wasn't working. So it was decided to go to Pet's house for the day. We got ourselves together and off we went.
I had thought the power out was related to some new generator being installed or something but it wasn't just the Redoubt. It was the entire area. When we got out to the main road from Soi Redoubt there was a fleet of municipal works vehicals and an army of workers replacing the power-lines along the road. We got a taxi and headed off to Pet's.
The first order of business was food. Sandy and I walked over to the Khlong side restaurant for some rice and so forth. That never seems like a proper brunch to me. We were later joined by Sandy's nephew Pet who arrived just in time to eat some of my breaded shrimps. The weather was threatening so we walked back over to Pet's house and hung out there. I had brought Lappy which is loaded with Acid Pro 5 now, and the machine of choice for mousing any new ideas. I spent most of the afternoon remixing (or more accurately - remousing) several tracks including the one I did last night.
I took a break when it finally rained. It was SO HOT yesterday and the thunder storm was more than welcome. I sat out by the front garden in the front porch and watched it come down in that typically tropical way. It occured to me how amazing a thing it is to be able to have what amounts to a recording studio loaded onto a little book sized machine that you can carry around with you. I still tend to approach the process from the point of view of someone who grew up using a cassette 4 track portastudio... But I can imagine there will be a generation of musicians in the next few years who will have grown up using PC or computer based systems for making their music. I'm sure they will have a whole different take on it and maybe something interesting will be heard.
We took a very scary taxi ride back to Bangkok at around 8:00 pm. Sandy's sister Pooh came along with us. The taxi driver seemed like he'd never actually driven before. He was all over the place and would make these bizarre turns. The combination of this guy's bad driving and everyone else's excessive speeds made a frightening ride back to the Redoubt. I was glad to get out of that cab.
Pooh went to her place and Sandy and I went back to the Redoubt to find that the fridge had actually defrosted enough to make a mess. The power was back though, and the fish were all still alive.
Saturday, August 6, 2005: Saturday Shermanations
I actually stayed in the whole day. Unbelievable. Sandy went to her Old Sister's Watch Shop in the afternoon, and then went to some duty-free shopping place out by the Airport with Dexa in the afternoon. In her absence I fired up the machines and made some noise.
I haven't messed with the Korg ER-1 in a while so I thought it best I use it. I programmed some beats on it, recorded them to the Zoom MRS4 and then recorded some variations of the same but through the Sherman Filter Bank. I still haven't really got my head around the Sherman. But it is truly cool. I also got some Nash the Slasheque arpeggios going with the Micro-Korg and ran those through the Sherman. I think that's the first time I've combined the Sherman with the Micro-Korg.
One thing I must say after uncrating the 1974 Mini-Korg... As good as the Micro-Korg is as an analog emulation... There is no comparison as far as the pure thickness of the 74 Korg's sound goes. It makes everything, even the bass station sound like a kazoo. If only it could remember patches and would stay in tune for more than 10 minutes at a time. However... the new Micro-Korg through the Sherman... That is another matter. The Micro-Korg adds to it's beefiness by having effects built in as well as having stereo patches. As the Sherman only takes mono signals in (although it can run two signal paths out) what ever the Micro-Korg might lose by being in mono it gains a ton of weight by the uncontrollable freakatude of the Sherman.
Everything sounds better through the Sherman. The guitar/ebow combo sounds outstanding, any keyboard I have sounds better, especially the digitally inclined ones, and the only danger is that by running everything through the Sherman the end result is more than a digital recorder can truly deal with. I think that big thick 2 inch audio tape is called for in such a sonic onslaught.
Sandy got in at around 10:00 pm with a few bags of bargins from the duty-free zone. Now it's time for X-Files...
Friday, August 5, 2005: Sleaze Palace Revisted
Along with the Sherman and the Novation Bass Station that I brought back from Canada, I also brought some old cassettes and several Hi-8 digital video tapes from the 97-98 era. This week I had one of these 120 minute tapes duped down to two VCD's for my viewing pleasure. This time of course is DISTANT past. Beyond even 1999 and before the planet was ruled by damned dirty apes. Or robots, depending on which sci-fi movie you like best.
In any event Sandy picked up the VCD's yesterday. I was surprised at how nice they "looked". The place had actually printed on the disc the image of a guitar with 3 boxes of screen captures on top. My first thought was "I hope this doesn't end up at Pantip as a bootleg"... After watching the two discs I think this would be doubtful...
The first disc was the last gig of my band which then featured a drummer, the talented Rich Brown. Our last gig with Rich was at Lee's Palace - one of my least favorite places to play because of the annoying drug-addict scumbag who booked the gigs, the rip-off nature of the door set up (any money brought in the door gets deducted to pay for soundmen, light men, security guards etc) which was so bad that it was better to just hand out free tickets and above all the weird roller-rink place in front of the stage that made it feel like you were playing to an empty room no matter how good the turn out. Wisehammer drummer Mark named the place "Sleaze Palace" in 1989 and the name stuck in my mind.
As for the gig. Oh... my... It was bizarre to watch. Our weakest gig ever perhaps. Or maybe that band just sucked. Sandy asked if watching it made me homesick, to which I could honestly answer "NO"... That was a band that didn't work well despite its various strengths. The next disc featured the far more experimental version of the band which was sans-drummer. The beats being provided by the MC 303 Groove-Box. The low light of this gig made it look like a security cam video but the performance of the songs was head and shoulders above the Lee's gig. Chris C played some mighty nice Chapman Stick and Richard F's guitar tones were better, possibly because he didn't have to compete with the drums.
The best part of the video though is the after show foolishness at Insomnia on Bloor street. Robin is there, and we are joined by my then girlfriend ELB and her friend as well as Marc Lemyre and the artist Andrew Roth. It was weird to see myself 8 years ago. So long ago! Who'd have thought I'd be HERE now...
Not me.
Wednesday, August 3, 2005: Over Cold
Sandy decided I was no longer sick during a tickle attack set to modern day speed-metal version of the classic swamp rock song "Black Betty". For her my being unable to "do crazy" or not indicates if I am sick.
I feel a lot better. It wasn't the dreaded sickness, just a nasty summer cold but I'm glad to be done with it. It has been raining and grey much of the last week, and today we were woken by a big storm. I had to rush out the laundry zone to bring in the clothes that were hanging to dry because the wind was blowing the rain in. It cleared up at around 9:00 am though and it was quite lovely out for most of the day. It clouded over this afternoon so it may rain again tonight.
We are now on Season Seven of the X-Files... and venturing into stuff I never saw. I watched the show regularly from about 1996 to the summer of 1999, but then Kevin Quain took over my Sunday nights and I lost interest in the X-Files ritual.
While sick I watched several of the DVD's I picked up in Cambodia. One that was sort of frightening was "The Song Remains the Same". I listened to a lot of Led Zeppelin in the 1980's as a sort of reaction to all the poufy DX7 pop-paff that was thrust upon me. Watching them in their 70's glory was a bit unnerving though. This was pop culture? Sandy wanted to know why it was so weird and the only explanation I could give was that everyone was on drugs except me in 70's. This would explain why nearly half of the DVD is an extended version of Dazed and Confused that is mostly made up of Robert Plant shrieking "Push Push Push... ah ah ah" while Jimmy Page makes the most annoying sounds possible on this guitar by arrhythmically bashing the strings with a violin bow. The visuals were some Tolkenesque nonsense where Page is climbing a hill and confronted by his “old” self which through some truly bad special effects then “transforms” to a younger self right down to the 2001-like embryo and back again. Far out, man.
All I could think about was how in grade 9 I was surrounded by people who thought this was really cool stuff and how I couldn’t understand why they were so impressed with it. Now I know. They were stoned.
