25 February 2011

The Rock Pub in Bangkok

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I have recently discovered The Rock Pub in downtown Bangkok, and I love it. They specialize in Rock and Roll, and these folks do not compromise – there is absolutely no half-stepping for this rocker culture. One of the terrific Thai rock bands that plays there is Mundee, and they just got a major new fan after I heard them play the other night.
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Hearing Mundee’s covers of ‘70s and ‘80s heavy rock was like a transfusion for me, an elixir, an exile’s redemption. I got there late, at about 00:10 hours. The place was not crowded, so I had a good choice of seats. From then until closing at 02:00, I was not disappointed with a single note. The vocals, lead guitar and rhythm section were all right on.
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The first full song I heard was Immigrant Song from Led Zeppelin: “We come from the land of ice and snow….” Perfect – I could almost feel the wind in the sail. Next was Iron Maiden’s Run to the Hills, which is still in my head and which frequently makes me look back over my shoulder: “Run to the hills; run for your life.” This was followed by a Jimi Hendrix song, and the lead guitarist did an incredible job. Then Zeppelin’s Black Dog: “Didn’t take too long ‘fore I found out/ What people mean by down and out.” Then Hendrix’s Purple Haze: “Excuse me while I kiss the sky.”
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The band took a break, but one of their singers filled it in with solos: Dust in the Wind, Bohemian Rhapsody, etc.
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The rest of the band came back at 01:15 and they gave us a hell of a show until closing time, starting by pounding out AC/DC’s Highway to Hell. This was followed by a great heavy metal song that I cannot ID at this moment. Bon Jovi’s Livin’ on a Prayer was followed by Zeppelin’s The Ocean:
“Singing in the sunshine, laughing in the rain…”
“Used to sing in the mountains but the mountains washed away….”
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The band delighted me when they played Cream’s Sunshine of Your Love, a great favorite of mine when I was 17 and ever since.
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Winding up, they surprised me by performing Black Betty (“bam ba lam”), a great old folk-blues prison work-song covered by Lead Belly, Dave “Snaker” Ray, and Ram Jam’s 1977 radio version. This last version was on the radio during my early rock climbing travels and earliest solo climbs. Years later I sang the lyrics to try to cheer up my young rope-team partners when we were climbing the multi-pitch Old Route on the south face of The Roostercomb in a rain and hailstorm; the narrow traversing ledge was slanting outward at the top of the climb and threatening to dump us over the edge with the hailstones like icy ball-bearings under our feet – my teammates must have thought I was nuts. (It just now dawned on me why I sang that particular song to them there: it had been the radio song-of-the-day when I first soloed that very climb in September 1977; my first multi-pitch solo on-sight lead.)
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Mundee ended the night with Led Zeppelin’s song, Rock and Roll:
“It’s been a long time since I Rock and Rolled…
“Seems so long since we walked in the moonlight…
“It’s been a long time, been a long time,
“Been a long lonely, lonely, lonely, lonely, lonely time."
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Yes it has.
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-Zenwind.
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14 February 2011

The Ides of February

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14 February 2011: Our winter is about over, sadly. It is now getting to be Sweat City again after just a mere couple of months of comfortable weather. It rained a bit the other day and the humidity (dew-point) has finally gone back up into the “oppressive” range. The sun will be a constant source of discomfort for the next four months until the Rainy Season’s clouds cover it.
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I got into the city last Thursday to do some exploring. I saw the movie The Fighter, starring Mark Wahlberg and Christian Bale. Bale should win this year’s Oscar for Best Supporting Actor, he was that good.
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I went into town mainly to hear Peter Driscoll and the Cruisers play old-time Rock n Roll later in the evening. They were playing at a wine bar in an area of town I’d never seen, so I went to the neighborhood early and had the chance to see some places I’d always heard about in the area.
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First I had supper at a Lao restaurant nearby called The Vientiane Kitchen. (Vientiane is, of course, the capital of Laos and just across the Mekong River from Thailand’s Issan, or Northeast, area; the Lao and Thai histories, languages, cultures and cuisine are closely related.) This place has reasonably priced Lao/Northeastern Thai food plus a stage show that features somewhat traditional musicians, dancers and fighters. The mock sword battles are done by comedian/performers. The place is open and non-a/c, with a tree growing up in the hall’s middle and going through the roof.
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Nearing Peter’s showtime, I walked the one klick up the soi to the Wine Bibber Sangria, the venue. It was one of the first really hot/humid nights that I’ve walked in for a while, and I was drenched in sweat by the time I arrived. I glanced at the incomprehensible wine list but then just opted for cold, cold beer.
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Peter’s music was fantastic, as usual. He played early Rock songs and gave brief historical notes on who wrote it and covered it. Songs I had first heard so many decades ago by The Rolling Stones or The Beatles were given a deeper history. Part of my ongoing Rock n Roll education.
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Apart from my exploratory rambles, I’ve been reading a lot. I finished another Dan Simmons novel, Black Hills, where an 11-year-old Sioux boy is on the battlefield at Little Big Horn just as Custer dies, Custer’s ghost entering into him and haunting him for decades after. It is historical fiction with a fantastic twist – excellent.
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I am now finishing the fifth and last novel in Ursula K. Le Guin’s fantasy cycle, the Earthsea saga. I want to read more of her wonderful writings.
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-Zenwind.
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01 February 2011

Groundhog Day

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1 February 2011. Winter continues to be comfortable here, although the mosquitoes seem to be at their worst now.
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Groundhog Day (aka, Imbolc) is tomorrow. It has no significance here, but in the high latitudes of the temperate zone in Celtic Europe it was always one of the “cross-quarter” days related to the marking of the vegetative season’s birth and death. It is not really midway between the winter solstice and the spring equinox, although it is close. But it is rather almost exactly between Halloween (Samhain), when the grasses and leaves have stopped growing, and May Day (Beltane), when the green world is re-born. Thus, Imbolc was the half-way point in the calendar of the ancient herders; if you still have half of the fodder left that you put up in the autumn then your animals will eat well until Beltane. August 1 or 2 (aka, Lughnasadh to the Irish or Lammas to Anglo-Saxons) marks the opposite cross-quarter day when the greening season is half-way through. These holidays were also celebrated elsewhere in temperate Europe.
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In America, this time of year is Groundhog Day, marking sort of a half-way point of the long winter. And then there is the wonderful film “Groundhog Day” (1993) starring Bill Murray, a film which celebrates changing and rebirth, and which is highly praised by many philosophers and religious thinkers.
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“Oh, Wind! If winter comes
Can Spring be far behind?”
-- P.B. Shelley
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-Zenwind.
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