A Bowl of Stupid

Continuing with the trend towards turning this blog into little more than a soundtrack to my daily life in the islands (and pilfering the best of the songs posted on KEXP’s Song Of The Day), here’s the latest tune I can’t stop listening to — it makes for great driving music, great surfing music and, right now, great just-about-everything-else music.

It’s pretty brand new-ish, Gui Boratto‘s “No Turning Back”, from the 2009 album Take My Breath Away. It’s been a while since I’ve heard something new from the electronic music front — it’s good to know there are still some people producing great new electronic music.

In honor of the newly baptized ‘Swine Flu’ pandemic emanating from the great State of Mexico (the 51st, I believe), I thought the following tune from one of the most unappreciated bands from the late 1980′s — Big Pig, may be appropriate.

The song is Breakaway, and for those of you under the age of 25, the video is from the opening credits to one of THE best movies of all time — 1989′s Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure (ironically, the clip is from a Spanish dubbed version of the movie).

Enjoy … and keep the hell away from me, you infected bastards.

I pulled a muscle in my shoulder/neck really bad the other day surfing and it’s gotten to the point where I’ve resorted to taking muscle relaxers and Panadol in an attempt to get the muscle to stop spasming. So, needless to say, I don’t feel much like doing anything right now, let alone writing a post.

With that being said, I’m also getting bored just surfing the web, searching for a nice NGO gig, and laying around being high on muscle relaxers. So, in times like these — we compromise. Here’s a music video of Hallelujah The Hills’ 2007 single, Wave Goodbye To Massachusetts.

The video looks like a fan-authored version and kinda sucks, but the song is awesome.

Today epitomizes one of the many ways Asia is so different to the States.

Today — or rather, this evening — the electricity in the entire towns of Legion and Seminyak — two of the biggest tourist and/or expat locales here on Bali — lost electricity for most of the afternoon and evening. Indeed, it is now about 8:30 at night, I’m at at a coffee shop working off a generator, and the electricity is still not on back in my house.

Chances are, nobody in a position of power (no pun intended) has even been alerted yet to the fact the electricity is, in fact, not working. Granted, the electricity goes out here on a fairly regular basis, but only for 15-20 minutes at a time — most likely due to overloads in the power grid. But the last time something like this happened for an extended period of time (a power pole went down on my street), it took most of 1.5 days for anyone to even START working on repairing the problem (and another 2 days for the power to eventually return — by which time, I was already gone to Bangkok).

Yes, California is also now prone to ‘revolving power outages’. But the outpouring of righteous indignation and immediate demands for assistance I’ve witness there whenever THAT happens is absolutely ridiculous — even by California standards.

In contrast, here in Bali, nobody even seems to notice. Or care all that much … besides us Westerners. To wit, while the local family from whom I rent my villa took the outage as a call to make it an early evening, I simply had to get to a coffee shop and the internet, lest I be bored to death by the presence of candles and silence.

Sure, I like to play Asian, and I may raise my voice in defiance every once in a while, but as soon as the electricity goes down, my true colours come out. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’d like to get back to my iced late and the latest episode of The Daily Show — who knows if I’ll have my HBO back on when I get back home.

Life here in Indonesia during the dry season can get pretty redundant. As I’ve mentioned previously, while it does seem (and, for the most part, IS) the idyllic situation to be based in a tropical paradise and the surf capital of the world, the concept sometimes loses its appeal even after only several weeks of nothing more than ‘surf, yoga, sleep, read, rinse and repeat’.

I’ve not reached that point … yet. But I have reached the point where I’ve taken to driving anywhere from 1-2 hours each morning to the more preeminent surf spots on the island. Yes, because now, when the season starts up, there are very few other places in the entire world that can match the perfection of these surf spots (including “Impossibles”, pictured above and where I’ve been going out for the past few days when the latest swell hit). But also because it’s simply SOMETHING TO DO besides read or watch TV.

Yes, my plan is to hunker down in Indonesia for the summer (i.e., until October) in order to save a few bucks. And yes, I’ve had some really fantastic surf sessions in the past week or so. Yet, despite all that, if I don’t get off this island in the next couple weeks for at least a few days, there’s a distinct possibility that I’ll take up skeet shooting or veterinary school just to liven things up a bit.

Crap, I think I really need to get a job again. Sigh.

It’s been widely reported that X-Men Origins: Wolverine, the blockbuster that was supposed to start the wave of 2009 summer movies, is really bad. This, after the unfinished movie was leaked online a month before its world premiere.

The authorized movie trailers do nothing to dispel the buzz that the film is nothing more than a celebrity-packed “B movie.”

And just last night, I saw something locally here in Asia that just adds more fuel to the fire.

Out here in Asia, we’re understandably limited in the number of English speaking television networks, with HBO, Star World and XPN being three (3) of the most ubiquitous. Both HBO and Star have sister networks, with Star Movies being the most popular of the Star networks.

This week, Star Movies is advertising that it will be showing X-Men Origins: Wolverine on PAY PER VIEW on it’s Asian release date next week, rather than going to movie theatres. Let me say that again, THE summer blockbuster has been reduced to essentially a ‘straight to DVD’ production.

Great news, as I can look forward to seeing a pirated DVD version I can buy for .50 cents (US) in the next few days!

For the uninitiated, Thailand has been engulfed by political turmoil in the form of “colored shirt” protests which have been taking place, on and off, for the better part of three (3) years.

The protests took an ugly turn this week when Thai military troops cracked down on rioting protesters from the anti-government “red shirt” group. Now, in the latest news, the leader of the rival ‘yellow shirt’ faction was gunned down yesterday:

BANGKOK (AP) — The founder of Thailand’s “yellow shirt” protest movement that shut down Bangkok airports last year was shot and wounded in an assassination attempt Friday, just days after troops cracked down on rioting protesters from the rival, anti-government “red shirt” group. Sondhi Limthongkul was in stable condition after surgery that removed a bullet from his skull.

Thai authorities have just released the following photo of a suspect in the shooting.

Despite the mask, police have tentatively identified the gunman as one John “Ham” Burglar. Mr. Burglar has a long criminal history — mostly limited to petty theft of various fast food items — and is presumed to be armed and dangerous.

We will keep you apprised of the situation as events unfold.

P.S. This is the maid speaking.

This Op-Ed Column in the New York Times, entitled “When Nature Calls”, which details the bizarre case of an air traveler who was refused use of a business-class lavatory on a Delta Air Lines flight, offers a morality tale for our age:

I can hear the snippy reply from the flight attendants, mostly middle-aged themselves, all of whom think the fun of flying disappeared some decades back — about the same time as their job security and sense of humor — and would rather be sipping mojitos in Sanibel than talking up seven-dollar “wraps.”

“You’ll have to wait, Sir. We’re doing the drinks and tiny pack of peanuts service.”

The intonation of that “Sir” will be familiar to many of you, a tone peculiar to American airline companies, one in which resentment, superiority, fear, contempt and impatience are coiled into a venomous parody of politeness — a three-letter expletive really — that stands the notion of service on its head and tells the whole dismal story of U.S. carriers in recent years.

My apologies to any waitresses … err, stewardesses … err, flight attendants who may be reading, but this type of shit (no pun intended) is why I don’t fly American-based airlines anymore. And why I hate flight attendants in general … except the ones on Air Asia — they do it old school, hiring only the hottest women regardless of their skill level.

So surf season here in Bali is lurching forward, one minor swell at a time. The winds have changed, the rains have stopped, the surf is picking up, and the entire island seems to be buzzing with a renewed energy.

Yet something else seems amiss.

Oh yeah, the start of surf season here in Bali also hearkens the onset of the annual Australian migration.

The rainy season here generally coincides with the Australian summer. So all of the Aussies are back home, drinking shitty beer, eating copious amounts of beef, feeling up livestock, and doing whatever the fuck else those people do on their own time.

But now that winter’s coming there, they’re coming here.

It’s not bad, really. It’s just a bit disconcerting to see so many of the same, nondescript, vapid, blond haired, blue eyed, Bintang shirt wearing surf-drones descending onto the island like swarms of locust.

I’ve not been here long enough to complain in paradise (altho I will … cuz that’s just what I do), but it really is a mixed blessing. It’s great to be rid of the rain and gloom and trash. And it’s awesome that we’re having consistently good surf again. And yes, it’s even really nice to have new blood in the mix again.

But Aussies? Do they all have to be Aussies?

Really? Sigh. Oh well, I suppose one’s gotta take the good with the bad.

Well then, we’d better amp up production of shitty beer, silly t-shirts, and ‘availible’ livestock — cuz they’re all gonna go fast!

P.S. This is the maid speaking.

So I’m back home in Bali. And the surf season is just starting to get into gear. A minor swell came in yesterday afternoon, and I’ve been out in the water surfing — about 3.5 hours yesterday and another 2.5 hours again this morning.

My shoulders ache, my ribs are sore, and I remember why I moved to Bali. I saw a friend of mine yesterday evening visiting from Thailand and she said I looked happier than she’s ever seen me (we’ve only ever hung out in Bangkok).

I may not be the best surfer in the world. And I may be a dick sometimes in the water (and out) when I don’t surf as well as I’d like to. But good lord do I feel like a different person walking out of the surf from the one I am when I first walk in.

I feel liberated. And pleasantly exhausted. And just plain happy.

I got home last night, turned on the tube, and the first thing on was the following video — Bjork’s ‘Big Time Sensuality.’

I haven’t seen the video or heard the some in years, but it was absolutely great timing. The song is infectiously upbeat and perfectly matched my state of mind at that moment. I sat, and listened, and just was. Man, it’s the little moments like those I hold on to when the bad shit happens.

Yes, Bjork hovers in the netherworld between eccentric and crazy (admittedly, leaning more towards the crazy), but she produces some great music. Take a listen while I head back out for another surf.

I usually try to avoid trashing people, either overtly or inadvertently, except for comedic purposes. I particularly try to avoid doing so when the trashees are my friends, or have at least been kind to me. And while this post may not, in the most technical of terms, constitute ‘trashing’, I’m not sure it’s something I’d particularly like to read if it were about me.

Regardless, for several years now, I’ve been a fan of, and am actually listed as a commentator on, the internet movie-review website ‘Pajiba.’

I first became involved with Pajiba when I was still living back in the States and most of my time at work was spent surfing the internet looking for cool and interesting things to read. Moreover, I understood Pajiba to have been started by a guy from similar circumstances as mine — law school trained, not satisfied with legal work, and looked elsewhere, starting an internet movie review site which, as he described it, provided ‘Scathing Reviews For Bitchy People.’

For those reasons alone, I became an almost instant fan of the site. And because the clever, witty, and indeed scathing reviews initially provided by Dustin and his partners to dissect Hollywood and the trash it has been producing in recent years, I stayed with Pajiba over the last several years … and the more than several thousands of miles.

For this, I was rewarded with several great new online (and in one case, personal) friendships. I also received, from time to time, an amazing amount of referral traffic to THIS site. And, until recently, I also enjoyed reading how the crew at Pajiba — who mostly have similar tastes in movies and music as I do — viewed (and vilified) the latest movies and music being released back in the States.

But, to be honest, the site no longer holds the same interest for me as it once did. And I’m not sure if I’ve simply strayed that far away from the pack in terms of the whole ‘online culture’, or if it’s a case of ‘The Emperor Has No Clothes’.

I think perhaps it may be a little of both.

I haven’t the inclination to describe in full just how I may no longer be ‘connected’, or why Pajiba may have strayed, except to say that I’ve got Indonesian language homework that now takes priority, and that most Pajiba posts these days are nonsensical, used simply as filler to maintain its online traffic and/or to otherwise provoke commentary from its readers. In this regard, the site, once professional and with lofty aspirations, has devolved into simply another blog site — one of trillions.

The straw that broke the camels back for me was a post yesterday reviewing the new Seth Rogan movie Observe and Report. And while the review itself was informative and entertaining, the comment section devolved into something straight out of The Lord Of The Flies.

I know it takes a lot to say that something has left a bad enough taste in my mouth to keep ME from going back … but this may have been it (something similar happened over at the DailyKos several years ago, I haven’t been back there since, and I’ve no idea whether it has emerged from all the infighting and backbiting and rudeness to become a better online journal).

Whereas most professional sites would close off commenting when it got even CLOSE to the point it did yesterday, Pajiba just let it keep rolling, prompting more and more, and worse and worse, commentary. Yet who can blame the commentators, really? Most of the recent posting was about the drunken escapades of the Pajiba writers at the 2009 SXSW Conference more than the movies they ostensibly went to review.

Sure, I want to know how my friends are fairing during their working-vacation, but that’s the stuff of blog posts, not an ostensibly professional entertainment website. When the inmates are allowed run of the asylum, you know it’s time to open the ward room window and climb on out, before they give you a pre-frontal lobotomy and Chief Bromden has to smother you with a pillow.

Pajiba is a great concept. It’s run by some really nice people. And it was initially executed well enough to draw me and thousands of other faithful. Yet, while I’m not one to lecture (just ramble), I’d suggest that Dustin and the crew may want to review what they initially wanted to accomplish with Pajiba.

If this is it, that’s fine, so be it … I’ve strayed too far into the offline world for the site to still fulfill my admittedly shitty tastes. But if this ain’t exactly what they had in mind, it’s not too late to go back to writing something the general public considers worth reading.

They’ve got the skills, all they need is the determination.

As I mentioned in previous posts, I’ve become somewhat addicted to the KEXP ‘Song of the Day’ blogcast. It’s essentially become my only way to keep up on new and independent artists back in the States, as I roam thru Southeast Asia.

I was just in Saigon for a few days helping out a friend. And during the various car, boat and airplane trips I took along the way, I wound up listening to the same song almost the entire time — a song entitled “Ciew Mawele (Adham Shaikh’s Dusty Foot Remix)” by Issa Bagayogo from the 2007 compilation, Global Dancefloor on Six Degrees.

Here’s the MP3 of Ciew Mawele, available for immediate download through the KEXP website.

I usually try to avoid quoting directly from other sites, but this is just great music all around — the underlying melody and the integration of the techno remix. So for those of you who are just too lazy to head over to the KEXP site itself, the background on Issa Bagayogo follows:

Although he got his start playing traditional Malian instruments like the six-stringed kamele n’goni, Issa Bagayogo eventually became known as Techno Issa after he met French engineer Yves Wernert and began mixing traditional music with electronic beats. The resulting “Afro-techno” showed Malian musicians a new way, but despite frequent imitation, Techno Issa remains unique on his three albums released on Six Degrees, including the most recent Tassoumakan.

Unlike typical remix treatments of traditional music, which tend to overpower the source, Issa Bagayogo and Yves Wernert, along with a host of respected Mali musicians, effortlessly blend African and Western styles, creating a contemporary sound that remains purely West African. Adham Shaikh’s reworking ups the dance quotient a bit more, adding a deeper groove but still maintaining the integrity of the song.

Additionally, here’s a video for Issa Bagayogo’s “Dambalou”:

BREAKING NEWS

AP – Crew retakes US ship from Somali pirates

“NAIROBI, Kenya – In a riveting high-seas drama, an unarmed American crew wrested control of their U.S.-flagged cargo ship from Somali pirates Wednesday and sent them fleeing to a lifeboat with the captain as hostage.

A sailor who spoke to The Associated Press said the entire 20-member crew had been taken hostage but managed to seize one pirate and then successfully negotiated their own release.”

Pirates? You got a problem with pirates, you say?

You want to know how to deal with pirates? Here’s how — they pull a rifle, you pull a RPG laucher. They send one of yours to the hospital, you send one of theirs to the morgue.

That’s the Chicago way, and that’s how you get a pirate, muthafucka!!

(‘Hey Mista’, Hey Mista’! You need transport? You need Moto? You want girlfriend? You want marijuana? … Hey Mista’!!”)

So I’m in Saigon .. trying not to get run over by a motorbike, avoiding all the locals hawking anything and everything they can, and otherwise trying not to inadvertently wind up buying a new Vietnamese wife (they apparently comes free with the purchase of a cup of coffee on Thursdays — I kid, I kid).

It’s kind of an unexpected stop here, since my plan was only to visit my buddy in Hong Kong and then head back to Indonesia for surf season — which is starting as I write. However, my old flat-mate from Singapore is in the shipping business and he needed someone to check on a new fruit supplier in Southern Vietnam. As I’m in the area, I have extra time on my hands, and I have experience in the shipping industry, I offered to help.

If it wasn’t for that kid, I don’t think I’d have experienced HALF of what I have in Southeast Asia.

During this trip to Saigon, I toured what seemed like half of Southern Vietnam (most of which is off the beaten tourist track), I met a guy who fought for the North Vietnamese Army in the American War (he’s just regular old guy living back up near Hanoi, but he came down with his nephew who was giving me the tour). And through my tour guide / translator I was able to interact with locals on secondary level not always otherwise available in foreign countries.

The shipment went out yesterday and I head back to Bali tomorrow.

I’ve been walking around Ho Chi Mihn City today, just being a tourist. The city is a thriving swarm of motorbikes and people. The energy is palpable, and on some level it reminds me of how my dad has spoken about Philly at the turn of the last century (except for the ubiquitous cellphones here) — vendors selling fruit on the street, kids swimming in the polluted river, and a city divided by neighborhoods not freeways.

Coming from the chilly, hectic, yet controlled atmosphere of Hong Kong, it’s nice to be able to surrender myself to the heat and chaos of Southeast Asia. That being said, HCMC, like Hong Kong, is still too hectic for me — it’ll be nice to get back to my island again.

As for Hong Kong itself, it’s very, VERY much like Manhattan — a great place to visit if you’ve the cash for it, but to live and enjoy it properly, you’ve got to be very well financed. Granted, I had a nice time. But I also kinda forgot what it was like hanging out with my mate (who’s now living in Hong Kong) after I stopped working in Miami.

In Miami, he always wanted to go out and party, which was fine while I was working because I had money to burn (sorta). But when I stopped working, he still wanted to go out yet he had no full concept of how much it was costing me and how I needed to save money.

It was a bit like that again last week, and I wound up staying in most of the time, while he would still go out with his co-workers. I went there to see him, yet I spent much of my time alone hanging out in his apartment simple because it was too expensive to leave the house! Don’t get me wrong, he tried to oblige by offering to pay for dinner and drinks several times just to get me out, but I felt guilty about doing that too. Regardless, the whole Hong Kong region — Hong Kong island, Kow Loon, Macau, Lantou island — is absolutely stunning. And it is one of the several places I’ve been to out here that I would put on my ‘Must See’ list.

Like I said, it’ll be good to go home tomorrow and heading back out into the surf. When I get settled in back there, we’ll get back to our regularly scheduled nonsensical ramblings.