A Bowl of Stupid

Just last week, I was lamenting the general decline in American education with respect to the most recent embracement of Sarah Palin-esque ideals by many Americans. In all honesty, however, that kind of stuff is made in jest (for the most part).

Where the rubber really meets the road is the fact that, while Americans have been busy invading other countries, arguing over which is the true nonexistent God, and debating whether or not Lady Gaga is a man or not, other peoples around the globe have been making some truly INCREDIBLE technological advances.

The following is one of the most inspired, and inspiring, demonstrations of technological prowess that I’ve seen in a long time. Watch Pranav Mistry talk about the thrilling potential of SixthSense technology. It’s absolute genius.

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.

With an area of just over 5,600 square kilometers (just over 2,170 square miles), the island of Bali is fairly large — nearly 10 times as large as Manhattan. And three decades ago, the Balinese economy was largely agriculture-based.

But now, tourism is the largest single industry. And tourist season is in full swing.

So, in addition to the 3.1 million or so natives, the 1 million or so other domestic workers (from Java and other islands), there are about 2 gazillion tourists roaming the streets, clogging the roadways, and otherwise kooking up the surf. And while it’s good for the locals (they need the tourism money) and it’s nice to see the new faces (sorta), it’s also still getting just a bit much for me.

After one of my good friends broke her leg in 2 places this week when she got hit by some kook on a motorbike, and after I went surfing out at Uluwatu’s a couple days ago with about 100 (no joke) of my closest ‘friends and family’, I remembered my initial plan when first moving to Bali — I wanted to use this island ONLY as a supply point and a ‘stepping stone’ to those other spots in Indonesia I TRULY love.

So I’m going someplace a bit calmer for a while.

First, I’m heading to Dili (East Timur) for a visa run, then I’m going back to Pulau Rote — about 1200 square kilometers, with an estimated total population of 100,000.

The village where I’m going (pictured above), there’s no internet, no running water, and the electricity is turned on for about 6-8 hours per day. The tourist population is limited to other silly foreigners looking for surf and quiet. And there’s not much to do besides surfing, sleeping, and the occasional jalan-jalan to the next village.

Hold all my calls, I’m gonna be off the grid for a while.

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.

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!!

I was off the grid traveling for a couple days. I’m back home in Bali now. The following was written in yet another airport departure lounge … this time in the Melbourne airport.

Well, I’m leaving Australia. After less than 2 weeks total.

I know, I know … I had initially planned on staying in Australia and/or New Zealand for at least a month, and possibly more. But a variety of factors took hold that have made returning to Asia much more appealing to me right now.

First, it was just really too expensive in Australia in comparison to Asia. I mean REALLY expensive. I think I spent more money in Oz in 10 days that I’ve spent in Asia in the past six (6) months … TOTAL. So there’s that.

Second, and more importantly, I may not be physically able to be ‘reintroduced into the world. ‘I’ve had so many ‘pseudo-anxiety attacks’ since I first got here that it’s not comical, even on a self-depricating one (which is saying something since I typically love making fun of myself as much as anyone). Honestly however, the sensory overload, even when I’ve been traveling by myself, has been simply overwhelming.

For example, my friends here (thanks to Nicole, Jenna and Thress for showing me such a great time in Melbourne) took me out, showed me around, and introduced me to some really great people.Yet after 10 days here, when I took the train for lunch in downtown Melbourne today (which isn’t nearly as pretentious as Sydney), I was still sufficiently freaked out by the whole experience. Now I know how it must feel for small-towners to visit New York for the first time.

Indeed, I felt much much better when I got back to the smaller, artsy beach area of St. Kilda, where I’ve been staying for the past couple of days. The trip downtown kinda reaffirmed my beleif in the concept of a collective consciousness — I just felt the stressful pace of all those people working and shopping and going to school in hustle of Melbourne’s downtown, which in turn stressed me out since I’m not on that same level.

I’m heading back to Bali for at least a week or two. We’ll see how the waves are, and then I’m heading onward again to see one of my best friends in Hong Kong for a bit. We’ll see how it unfolds.

Ever since I was in university, I’ve had glorious plans on visiting, or even moving to, the ‘Commonwealth of Australia.’

Indeed, one of my friends in Uni (actually a girlfriend of a friend) went to high school in ‘Oz’ and her stories about the place always evoked the grandest (albeit absurdly typical) visions in my head — the vast outback, long white beaches, and the great barrier reef.

It was always one of my primary goals to visit Oz when I first left the States for Asia. Hell, up until just a few weeks ago, that intent was still stated in the sidebar of this blog.

But somehow I just never got around to it — after reaching Asia I could never quite leave, and there are so many great Ozzies I’m friends with who either live or keep returning to Indonesia and Thailand that I never really needed to visit them on their home turf.

But finally.

Finally. Tonight I booked a ticket to Oz — I leave from Bali on the 6th of March, 2009.

My plan is to meet up with friends in Byron Bay, then down to Sydney, then back up to the Gold Coast, and then hopefully to visit a friend down in Melbourne.

I honestly don’t know if that schedule will hold up, nor do I really care at this point.

I understand it’s pretty expensive down there in comparison to Asia. And that the summer season is actually winding down a bit. And that, in many ways, it is very similar to the States.

But I really don’t care about those things right now.

I am truly excited again. Excited to be visiting friends. Excited to be going to some outstanding world-class surf spots. And overall, just excited to fulfill a dream that has been pending … left on hold … for so long now.

I’m finally going to Australia. Hell yeah!

I posted a picture taken by some friends from our dive in Sipidan, Borneo the other day, in which we we swimming along with a shoal of barracuda numbering in what seemed like the thousands.

Over the next couple days, I’ll be uploaded several of the videos taken by our friends from that (and other) amazing dives during our trip — including video clips featuring reef sharks, giant sea turtles, and a huge mackerel ‘swarm.’

The entire experience was a bit surreal, and I’m still in awe. Perspective, my friends … perspective.

Here’s the first one — a brief clip of the biggest barracuda shoal I’ve ever seen, let alone swam through:

Here’s the second one — a clip of just two (2) of the dozens of white-tip reef sharks that were also swimming about while we were out there:

Additional clips will follow.

Nothing is over until we decide it is!

Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?

Hell no!

Now then, may I have ten thousand marbles and an airplane ticket, please?

First off, Akismet has caught 119,277 spammer comments for me since I installed it on this site about a year ago. I’d like to thank all you spammer ass-munches for keeping the good people at Akismet in business … and educating me all about the wonderful world of Russian porn.

Second, I’m heading out to Vietnam today for a couple weeks. I’ll be making my way overland from Bangkok — first, by train through the eastern part of central Thailand to Ubon Ratchathani, then by bus to Mukdahan, where I can cross over into Savannakhet, Laos.

Then, I’ll then make my way across central-southern Laos to the Laos/Vietnam border at Lao Bao, Vietnam. From there, I plan on making my way to Khe Sanh, then over to Hue, and finishing up in Da Nang (from where I’ll probably fly back to Bangkok).

I should have internet access intermittently, and may be updating from the road about the trip. Hope everyone stays well.

And now, a word from our sponsor:

Aesop Rock – None Shall Pass

Before heading to Vietnam in January, I’m going to the place pictured above — Koh Lipe, Satun Province, Thailand.

Since I may be out of pocket for the next week or so diving, climbing and taking a break from my strenuous schedule, I’ll wish everyone a happy and healthy new year.

Peace and Namaskar.