Continuing with the early ’90s era musical kick I’m on this week, I’m going back to a less intense song. Partly because I’ve been listening to it over and over the past couple days, but mostly because I’m not really up for a heavier song this morning — apparently consuming large quantities of rum until 0400 a.m. can lead to an absolutely agonizing hangover.

Yeah, who knew, right?

So here’s another tune from the Singles Soundtrack (I don’t care how ‘gimmicky’ and exploitative of the then up-and-coming Seattle-scene that people say the move was, it still had one of the best soundtracks ever produced). Knock yourselves out.

P.S. Please kill me.

Chris Cornell – Seasons

Yesterdays rant about the movie Singles, the truly amazing music produced for that movie and continuing in through the early 1990’s, and the comparative state of the music industry today, such as it is, got me thinking. And then it got me listening. And I noticed that the majority of my ‘favorites’ from my iPod selection were put out between the years of 1989 and 1995.

This, of course, inevitably got me thinking again — cuz that’s what I do (well, sorta). Anyway, that secondary line of thinking, such as we’ll now call it, led me to the decision to put up some of my other favorite videos from that time (which for me, would probably be of all time).

So I’m gonna do that. Over the course of the next several days. So you’ll have something to look forward to.

C’mon, stop yer bitching, it’s a long holiday for you jokers back in the States. And it’ll help with digestion. Well, that and some roughage. So maybe you should eat a salad while watching. Or don’t, what the hell do I care?

Umm … anyway, here’s the video for Pearl Jam’s Evenflow (probably one of the best semi-live remixes I heard).

Bitches.

“These are people who want you to write sanctimonious stories about the genius of rock stars, and they will ruin rock ‘n’ roll and strangle everything we love about it. And then it just becomes an industry of cool.”
– Almost Famous (2000)

I happened to stumble into the gym this evening just as HBO Asia had started Singles, the 1992 film written and directed by Cameron Crowe that’s come to epitomize the entire Seattle grunge movement.

After watching it, I thought back to my own experience during that heady time in the early 1990’s, which itself could have been a blueprint for another tangent of that whole scene — how I left Arizona to work out of Seattle on the fishing and crabbing boats in Alaska for a couple years between college and law school.

At the time, however, nobody really understood just how radical the movement would be, it was just an alternative to the bullshit that Vanilla Ice and Metallica were churning out. There wasn’t yet the inkling of how it would eventually gain a life and momentum and foothold in the mainstream population that would ultimately claim the sanity (and lives) of several of what the music industry would call the movements “founders.”

At first, it was just music — arguably even when Singles was released in ‘92. And this, given Crowe’s repeatedly voiced disdain for the music industry, could be the ultimate irony in that his film itself contributed to the ultimate despoliation of the source (In his semi-autobiographical film, Almost Famous, Crowe describes how corporate interests ‘killed’ Rock & Roll in the early 1970’s, turning it into an “industry of cool” for most of the following two decades).

Indeed, only a couple years later, the whole grunge movement imploded under the extreme pressures of the recording industry, leaving us with the Goo-Goo Dolls, The Verve, Matchbox 20, and the other bullshit “Made For MTV” “grungy-like” musical composites that were far more palatable (and profitable) to mainstream consumption.

Perhaps this is why I take so much pride in being around, and being a direct part of that ‘pre-grunge’ scene at its outset. It was, most likely, the last pure musical renaissance in modern music.

Shit, even when the corporate MTV shills got their grubby claws on the “grunge scene”, at least they and the artists respected (or at least saw how they could capitalize on) the purity of the music itself — which led to the whole ‘acoustic-grunge’ period, itself a musical triumph (just listen to ANY of the tracks from Unplugged In New York if you doubt me).

Hopefully, the music scene is cyclical, and a new pure musical revolution will spring up again some time soon to wipe away the disgrace of the Britney Spears’, and the Adam Lambert’s, and Justin Bieber’s, and all the other beautiful, synthesized, auto-tuned pseudo-rock stars. Given how much money is at stake, however … I doubt it (while there is something to be said for the indie-rock scene of the past several years, it hasn’t produced ANYTHING even remotely matching what was produced in the early 90’s).

So, with all that whinging about the current state of music out of the way, I’m posting one of my favorite songs, from one of my favorite bands, from one of the purest eras of modern rock, performing in quite possibly the purist way possible — acoustically, on the street, in front of a group of fans.

Smashing Pumpkins — Mayonnaise (acoustic version)

Happy Thanksgiving, you fat dumb redneck nation. Good luck on trying to form coherent sentences.

Oh yeah, for anyone interested, it’s this type of idiocy that led to my decision to flee the States.

**

Although I’ve cut down on my publication of posts here over the past 6-8 months, it doesn’t mean I stopped writing entirely. To the contrary, I’ve probably been writing more, albeit more personal works not really suited for mass consumption (and subsequent regurgitation).

However, by both choice and necessity I’m settling down to (what I hope will be) a long term commitment here in Bangkok. I’m also becoming re-acclimated with the concept of living like most everyone else does — getting a job, getting an apartment, going to work, going to the gym, paying bills, hopefully one day accidentally getting shot in the head during a daring daytime robbery attempt — you know, the normal stuff.

That being said, I’ve found myself inside and on the computer much more than I have been in recent memory. Similarly, I’ve worn a suit and shoes probably more during the past 10 days than I have during the last 4 years combined. Honestly, I will always prefer sandals to closed-toe shoes, but I can’t say I don’t like the change more than just a little bit.

The whole “ex-lawyer surfer bum” thing does get old from time to time. And dressing like a grown-up again has also reminded me of just HOW MANY TIMES I’ve reinvented myself during the 5 years alone — which I sorta started writing about last month en route back to the States for 2 weeks. So I thought I’d put it up here (not that anyone’s really still reading this shit anyway).

** Yeah, the picture has absolutely nothing to do with this. I just like the idea of a polar bear taking a piss in a public bathroom.

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I’ve just started reading Sean Wilsey’s autobiography, “Oh The Glory Of It All.” From what I can tell from the first 100 pages or so, it’s not the most compelling of reads, despite the columns of many corporate shills professing otherwise. However, the way I figure it, I’m going to be spending the majority of the next two (2) days in the air (which I am now, en route from Saigon to Hong Kong), so I’ll have some free time on my hands to read.

At the outset, Wilsey goes through great pains to describe his parents and their history. What I find personally remarkable about them is how, although his parents took different paths, joined up briefly, and ultimately wound up in different places, they both seemed to have lived multiple lives. Both Wilsey’s mother and father were each married four (4) times. They each seemed to have separate families dating from different times in their lives. And they were both masters of reinvention.

It’s an issue I’m dealing with right now, actually. I’m leaving Asia, and heading back to the States, for the first time in a couple years. America is the country of my birth. It’s where I was raised. And where I was schooled. And it’s where I lived my entire life, up until just a few years ago. But going back now, it seems like a lifetime ago.

Although I’m still relatively young, I feel like I’ve already lived several lives at this point — Philly, Arizona, Alaska, Oregon, San Diego, California, Florida … geek, student, fisherman, slacker, law student, attorney, surfer, rebel. I’ve changed and altered myself almost every time I’ve moved that I can barely recognize those prior person(s). My latest, and most public, persona is what now lingers.

But I feel it turning. I have been for a while now. A new persona is needed mainly because I need money, and I need full-time work again. But, as I’ve mentioned several times over the course of the past year, it’s also because my current lifestyle is losing the appeal it once held for me. And my desire for change is metastasizing more each day. If things work out the way I hope they do, I can finally see the next reinvention — more than just the amorphous ‘need’ I’ve voiced previously.

I’m back in Bangkok. Again. And I’m just really glad to be here right now. The trip back to the States, while allowing me to see some great friends and family that I’ve not seen for a while (or, in couple cases, at all in person), was more of a shock to my system than I thought it’d be.

I felt nervous and anxious for most of the trip back, although I’m not quite sure why. Regardless, now that I’m back in Asia, I feel comfortable, more at ease again. Relaxed. I just really can’t explain how nice it feels being back here, with the beautiful weather, the great (and cheap) Thai food, and my other “family” and friends.

I still need a job (REALLY need a job). And I don’t want to jinx things, or else this entire life may come to a screeching halt. But suffice to say, I’m having one of those weeks that you’d hope to recreate over and over for the rest of you life.

Which brings me to my next thought — music. There’s a reason the Beatles were “The Beatles” — while some of their music is admittedly dated, other songs are fairly timeless. The following is one of the latter. It’s probably one of my favorite Beatles songs and it’s WAY before it’s time (indeed, there’s a Chemical Brothers remix/mashup that sounds like it could be released now). Plus, it just suits how I’m feeling this week.

Now listen, turn off your mind, relax and float downstream …

One of the not entirely displeasing aspects of returning to where I grew up is seeing friends and relatives I haven’t seen in years, or even decades. Under normal circumstances, such visits would probably consist of nothing more than a discussion of who married whom, where whom is working, and other such general blather. However, given where I have been traveling and living for the past few years, such blather usually turns to questions of where I’ve been, where my favorite place is, what it’s like, how did I make the decision to leave my career and the States, and the like.

At times, I wish I could just gather up everyone I know in one room and take their questions all at once, so I wouldn’t have to answer the same questions over and over. At other times, I find myself enjoying the attention far too much, and falling into a self-righteous ex-pat characterture — regaling my audience with grand tales of adventure and daring and just how great things are in Asia.

Almost necessarily included in my description is just how much better things are outside the United States in terms of quality of life, inexpensive cost of living, cheap and plentiful health care, and lacking corporate overlords.

To be sure, most of the time, I’m just telling people what I want them to hear, and probably what we both wish is true. At times, it’s extremely easy to get caught up in one owns bullshit. Plus, I’m still a petty and petulant child in many respects, in that I want to prove how much better things are for me, and how much it sucks for everyone else too “weak” to have done what I did.

Those underlying issues notwithstanding, there are times when I’m reminded of just how true my comments regarding the state of affairs here in America really are. And just how bad things really have become, although most people here either can not see it, refuse to acknowledge it, or simply ignore it.

Chez just wrote a post, “Swine At The Trough”, as did Matt Tabibbi, “Goldman One-Ups Gordon Gekko, Says Jesus Embraced Greed” discussing just these issues — the absolute corporate ownership of the entire U.S. economy, its health care system (and associated benefits), and its absolute dismissal of the welfare of America’s general populous.

This is not to say that such things don’t take place in other countries. To be sure, a characteristic of the powerful has always been to hold down those without power, since the beginning of time. But this isn’t the issue.

The real issue, which is absolutely bewildering to me, is how the American public, cattle-like, have been brainwashed and stupefied to such a point that they don’t even realize how poorly they’re being treated. While at the same time, STILL giving their money and power willingly to the very people who have bewildered them into their current predicament. As Chez states, the mass of the American public is expendable. They just don’t realize it.

Once again, I haven’t lived abroad long enough to say this with absolute conviction, but I cannot see this happening in any other developed country in the world. They value their liberty far too much.

Perhaps it’s because Americans have been telling themselves that they are the best country in the world for far too long, that they can’t even begin to fathom just how far they have fallen. Perhaps I’m just a self-righteous asshole, determined to prove my way of thinking is the best. Who’s to say.

All I know is that, while the changing leaves and the brisk weather here in the Northeast are truly beautiful change of pace, I’m looking forward to returning to Asia. True, bribery and corruption may be a way of life over there as well, but at least the people there see those things for what they are, instead of desperately clinging to a perceived reality that no longer exists.