5 nights in bangkok and the world's your oyster...

Its 40 degrees, sunny, steamy, and the street markets are filled with flower and fruit offerings for the buddhas, fruits and veg that look like food from another planet, tuk, tuk drivers that will take you for a ride both literally and figuratively, and people so friendly its a shame I can't talk to them in their own tongue. I am a giant here, its easy to spot me as I tower above the locals so I will never be lost for long.
The sights here range from the sacred to the profane, from the glory of the palace of the King to the Pat Pong market, Bangkok has it all. I  can't write much more today as I am jammed in a small internet cafe with mosquitoes buzzing me like kamakaze bombers so  I will write more when I return in a couple of days.
What a trip. Its a really big world...
looking forward to seeing the guys again...

The Short Strokes - Stereo Bang Bang

Last night Andrew was slaving over the details, details of the Cd design...it is painstaking work for a graphics designer. They inhabit a reality of their own, their own concepts, their own language...but it looks like he's done! The final track listing has been added and a few other tweaks here and corrections there...the artwork files will be sent to DMA today and they will begin the setup for printing. Spencer is still working on the Master disk in Vancouver...we should have it in the next 2-3 days. The COCs are playing tonight at a favourite local haunt ~ The Spiral Cafe ~ we are filling in for a performer who had to cancel at the last minute. Mike Reg will play bass in Kevin's absence while Kevin "This One's for the Buick" Paetz continues his southeast Asian journey in Bangkok! All the guys in the band are really excited about receiving their presents from Kevin when he arrives home in a few days!!! Anyway, after dealing with the mix down, the graphics design, the admin and paperwork associated with the final stage of the recording...it will be good to hang out tonight and get back to playing and performing some songs. We're down to the short strokes...on the Cd.

Hanoi farewell

All things must pass. As we near the end of our visit to Vietnam these are some of the things I will miss...excersizing with thousands of Hanoians each sunrise at Huan Kiem Lake, custard apples, a knobby pale green apple that tastes like vanilla custard, the tart taste of warm passion fruit, the early morning  public service announcements of the 'party' that blare through the streets, the music of the dan bao, singing harmony in vietnamese in the karaoke bar, the villagers who, despite often desperate conditions,  laugh and smile broadly given the flimsiest provocation, the little kids practising their english with us, air filled with incense, burning temple money, motorcycle traffic that rivals the tour de france, cafe sau da, a deep, rich coffee sweetened with condensed milk best enjoyed at the 'secret' cafe, hanoi taxi drivers who have proved the expanding theory of the universe as each cab ride to the same destination becomes longer and consequently more expensive, the scent of flowers in the air in the evening, the joyous chaos of the farmers market, chillis so hot they make you rethink the value of tastebuds, the eeriness of the unlit streets late at night, the eel and fish mongers at sunrise, baguette sellers offering bread as light and warm as your first kiss, the old ladies haunched on the sidewalk tending to their cooking pots, (its amazing how cheaply you can get pig intestines here) the sound of the paddle piercing the south China Sea as we kayaked at dusk, and the people, mostly the people, like Diep and Hai and Hien and Mr T and so many others who, simply by their warmth and manner, give you a reason to find your way back.
Vietnam, she is beautiful, frustrating, unexpected, intense, she can stir your heart and kick you in the head, often at the same time. She can be demanding, she is sweet, and she is changing fast.
I hope we will still recognise each other when I come back.

Country and Eastern

TWANG

The rains didn't come

Just this blistering sun

Paddy fields are dry

You can hear the farmer cry

Is there any pain worse

Is it the Gods bringin' a curse

I'm staring at hollow eyes

I'm starin' at simple lives

The earth sweats from the heat

There ain't much to eat

Each day ticks like a clock

Each step heavy like a rock

"we have both kinds of music... country and western"

That's the famous line from the Blues Brothers movie when the boys pull up to the roadhouse and steal a gig. As we are travelling through the countryside in Vietnam, I started to think about the difference between city life and countrylife and began to wonder,

is there country and eastern music?

Apparently there is. But from what I can make out of the language, no dogs die, no train whistles blow in a lonely night, the wife doesn't leave you  and you aren't broke. You are likely to find that your fishing net breaks, the water buffalo gets sick, the rice crop has a drought and you have lost your inner harmony.
Go figure...

Heading out to the countryside today. If I come across a roadside karaoke bar I will stop in and have a tea for the boys...

Final Mix Down ~ Stereo Bang Bang

And so it goes...the final mix down of Stereo Bang Bang is underway. Long hours in the studio, attention to detail. Spencer arrived from Vancouver on Friday the process began ~ listening carefully to each track, segment by segment...adjusting the levels, addressing the placement of the vocals in the mix, treating the "sound" to get it where we want it, bouncing the completed mix to Wave files...then more mixing, EQ to come. Lots of fixes made - those annoying pops and hisses edited out of the mix - with the benefit of a fresh ear on the tracks. Mike added his train whistle to "Let the Train Blow the Whistle" and Reg is finishing up his fiddle solo on "It's A Beautiful Thing"...and so it goes...today is another day of listening, adjusting, listening, fixing, listening...

Raymer and Egan and the South China Sea

Just got back from two days of sailing on a Vietnamese Junk through Ha Long Bay in the South China Sea. Couldn't help but think of the two other guys in the band,  Raymer and  Egan, who have also been here and have seen what I am seeing. Its hard to put into words really, sitting in a Kayak in Ha Long bay paddling among the limestone formations as a giant orange ball descends through the haze to bring on a twilight that calms and stirs the heart simultaneously.
At the time, Mike and Rob were younger men, impetuous surely, full of crap probably, and I bet hardly a nerve was ever frayed. Its a little different for me. While I am seeing this world through rose coloured  bifocals, its clear to me that I am older now, I am stranger in a strange land, and at times it makes me feel  fragile.
We passed an accident on the way back from Ha Long Bay. A motorcyclist was killed in what looked like either a head on or a T-bone accident. Passing motorists slowed to drop money by the body, a sign of  sympathy and solidarity with the family, perhaps. The whole village seemed to wear the same shocked face. They lined the side of the road while police tried to keep traffic moving and sort out what happened. Reality check. This is why I am here. Life fleets.
I am going to the temple early tomorrow morning to burn some incense for him and his family. And to be grateful for the fact that my heart can still break for someone I don't know.