Posts from December 2003
December 31, 2003
Jerry's birthday
A few of us got together to celebrate Jerry's birthday. He cooked some up decent curry for us. Irene and I got him an antique table. This will be a good year for him. His place is finished, he's figuring out what he wants to do, and his career is blossoming. He just finished a big movie where Andy Lau co-stars, which may propel him into another level of stardom. We'll see. Either way, he's still Jerry, and kept complaining about the way I manhandled him on the basketball courts. He said I played like a gangster [liu mang]. I told him he was a wimpy wuss. I grew up with Mexican and black kids, and basketball was always considered a contact sport. You were always jostling for position, bumping into people. leaning in with a shoulder.
Anyway, I was happy to see his new place finally finished. A very cool bachelor pad. Obviously AV is a the most important thing to him. His place is essentially a private screening studio with a place to sleep and a place to eat. We're talking Mark Levinson amps, Meridian CD, JBL K2 monitors, a 60+" flat panel TV built into the wall, satellite TV, and the final touch, a 10 foot pull down movie screen with one of those awesome JVC DLA projectors.
We all cramped onto the oversized white sheepskin couch and watched "Pirates of the Caribbean" on DVD which was as good as going to the movies. I'm sold. I want a bachelor pad too after my next movie.
December 30, 2003
Protein breakfast!
Actually no. This big guy was in my driveway, and didn't want to get out of the way. I had to stop the car, talk to him, nudge him over, and get back in the car. Irene thought he was "sad" because one of his kids had been squashed next to him. Maybe he was guarding it. Who knows.
Some people say...
...that blogging creates a virtual community. A veritable festival of interpersonal relationships in cyberspace. I'm not so sure about that. It is sort of like a community in the sense of living in a tall apartment building in HK, seeing the lady dancing around naked again in her kitchen, knowing the 14th floor is having a party again, and wondering what happened to the guy on the 18th floor, who's lights have been out for weeks. It is kind of Rear Window-esque. And people can leave little notes to your window pane. You can even start up little tit for tats by messaging back and forth, or being involved in silly contests.
I think it's more like an extension of what we already have going on in our material lives -- like seeing the same bus driver, saying hi to the bakery girl, ordering a cup of coffee from the same person for months. Sam Beckett says something about people "orbits." Some people are regularly orbiting around you, or you around them. Some are on long elliptical orbits. Some are like comets [BTW, that's one reason I bought a 1963 Mercury Comet, and also since Charles Bukowski drove one]. Still, if we don't really form relationships with these people we actually bump into on our orbits, why would we take the time to build relationships with people who live in all corners of the world and peep on us through IPs?
Yet a lot of people do. And their communities are quite similar to the way lunchroom politics work. Certain people sit at certain tables. the cool people over there, the jocks over there, the hot chicks over there, and the geeks over there. So we've managed to etch-a-sketch our cultural policies onto the internet. So what? Am I contributing to their lives in any way? Are they benefitting mine? Is there any guanxi going on in cyberspace?
Hmmm...
What if I hang a material door step on this blog community thing? Then at least I can have a beer face to face with someone who reads my blog, or I theirs. I'll have to really think about this. Could be interesting...
December 29, 2003
Ouch, I just got my credit card bill
When I gave my true love her gifts this year, I charged them, but I wasn't expecting this. This is highway robbery. It was an overall 18% increase in what I had to pay last year to keep my true love happy.
One Partridge In a Pear Tree: $77.50, down 24.4 percent from last year's $102.50.
Two Turtle Doves: $58, the same price as last year
Three French Hens: $15, the same price as last year
Four Calling Birds: $400, up 26.6 percent from last year's $316
Five Gold Rings: $361.25, down 5.6% from last year's 382.50
Six Geese-a-Laying: $150, the same price as last year
Seven Swans a-Swimming: $3,500, up 66.7 percent from last year's $2,100
Eight Maids-a-Milking: $41.20, the same price as last year
Nine Ladies Dancing: $4,230.89, up 3 percent from last year's $4107.66
Ten Lords-a-Leaping: $3,921.44, the same price as last year
Eleven Pipers Piping: $1,982.40, up 22.8 percent from last year's $1,614.60
Twelve Drummers Drumming: $2,147.60, up 22.8 percent from last year's $1,749.15
True cost of Christmas for my true love: $65,264.28, up 18 percent from last year's $54,951.31.
[Thanks to PNC Advisors]
[Did you know that "The 12 Days of Christmas" was a code song for Catholic symbolism after Henry VIII's ban of the Catholic faith in 1558? Cool. 16th century music hackers... ]
December 28, 2003
Lonely Planet
I met an interesting guy last night. A guy named Andrew Bender walked into the Living Room and asked to speak to me. It turns out that Lonely Planet is finally completely revamping it's old Robert Storey version of travelling in Taiwan. That dated version was a bible for most first time foreigners coming to Taiwan. Now they are completely rewriting it, and Andrew Bender is in Taipei for a month cruising around and eating and partying and looking and visiting and travelling and shopping and meeting and all those other things that travel writers do. What a great job. Working for Lonely Planet. Apparently he also researched the Seoul, Tokyo, and Amsterdam guides as well. Anyway, Lonely Planet decides what it wants to put into it's book, and the Living Room was recommended by enough people that Andrew stopped by, took a look around, got the vibe, and scribbled some notes in a well worn notebook. Apparently you can't buy your way into their guides, but we will be in there when the edition comes out in August 2004. Cool.
December 26, 2003
Nice Christmas
We're not big Christmas people. Some gifts, usually a dinner, but without all the frustrations most families go through this time of year. That's because for the past 15 years every Christmas but one was always occupied with concerts, promotion, gigs, driving/flying around trying to get to a performance on time. The one year that was different was the year we got married. The record company called at 9pm and asked if I could make it to a midnight show. I told them I was in the middle of getting married. They blinked, then upped the price. I told them they were crazy, absolutely no way. They doubled the price. I blinked, then looked at my new wife, then blinked again, and said forget it. But that gig would've paid the whole wedding. Oh well.
This year was nice. No more gigging around. No more shows. I just bartended at the Living Room, trying to ease the load on Irene who had to make sure the kitchen could get out meals on time. I helped the staff figure out how to handle a lot of people in a short time, do one thing at a time, and not get freaked out by lots of Christmas diners. (I forgot I had had these skills from all those years of part-time restaurant work during high school and college.)
The extended family showed up for some hot pot. Everyone had presents under the tree. Greg played two wonderful sets of Spanish guitar music. Then some of our regular crew of jam session guys showed up later. Music is such a cool thing. It is a pure social art form, bringing together all kinds of different people. For example, last night's musician's were made up of an English teacher, a business consultant, a train repairman, a cop, and a bartender [me].
Maoman and his wife stopped by for the first time, after reading about the Living Room on Forumosa.com, a very cool and informative online network of foreigners in Taiwan. Maoman is the Administrator of Forumosa, and it was nice chatting with another old timer in Taipei.
After finally getting back home at 5am, dead tired and too sore to move, I realized that God had given me the best Christmas gift ever, someone wonderful to share my Christmas with, my wife Irene.
December 23, 2003
Practicing for Matrix 4?
This guy is out of his mind.
Blackbird
After 30 years of playing the saxophone, I finally decided to dive into another instrument - the guitar. I've been playing and working with guitar players since I was 14. From the time in junior high when Neil and I would work on Pat Metheney and David Sanborn tunes, to high school when I was playing folk and Irish with Bob Turner, to after college when I came to Taiwan, met Rick, and played only jazz, to the years duo-ing with Roberto and his Spanish guitar, to all the pop albums and recording session in LA and NY, then all the bands from the time Wu Bai and I tried to figure out a way back in 1989, to combine his guitar and my sax (years before he became Wu Bai), to the zillions of gigs, to the fusion stuff, to the reggae stuff, to the R&B...and now I'm actually going to sit down and play the damned thing.
I'm trading Greg jazz improvisation and phrasing lessons in exchange for Guitar 101. Last night I got the first 8 measures of Blackbird. By Chinese NY I'll have my first finger picking tune down. Greg got a kick out of my struggling with paraplegic fingers. He said, "Man, it's so refreshing to sit here and watch you struggle. You play the sax so effortlessly and now you're having a problem playing an open E chord!"
December 21, 2003
Standing noodles in Hsinmen Ding
Sunday options
What better way to spend a Sunday afternoon, sitting behind the computer, freezing your hands off because it's only 15c in the house, asking all your friends to vote for you on this silly web blog contest?
My options:
1. Go swimming in 14c water, then spend 2 hours thawing out in the sauna.
2. Clean the house.
3. Wash the car.
4. Watch a DVD.
5. Sleep.
Hmmm....#4 and #5 in that order sounds pretty good.
Tiff, and her band, Residual, are playing at a concert with some other Chinese bands tonight. As a dutiful dad, I have charged the camcorder batteries.
December 19, 2003
Xmas cigar
Funky Sax caught live
Hamish has a tiny little tiny voice memo recorder and caught me jamming at a recent Living Room jam session. Pretty funky!
[Thanks Hamish]
December 17, 2003
The Wicked Witch of the East
African crotch grabbing
Steve invited me to go see some African drummers from the Congo at the National Theater. These guys were a very tight ensemble, and were all incredible dancers as well. Having had a chance to take a semester of African dance years ago in college (I was the only guy...snicker snicker...), I knew there was a lot of thrusting required, upper and lower body. The way these guys were thrusting was like Chippendale's though. They were straddling their drums and stroking on them like luscious African booties. The ladies in the audience were giggling in glee. Once guy in particular, the best dancer, did a few flips and gyrations, and ended with a full frontal crotch grabbing solo. Very Michael Jackson, or very African, I don't know which, but I thought it was ironic that now at the National Theater guys can shake their ass and wobble their crotch at the audience without being censored. I remember the time a few years back when I wasn't allowed to play there because we played "jazz music," a vulgar culturally degrading art form apparently. But now, on stage crotch grabbing and ass flopping is acceptable. Taiwan is changing.
December 16, 2003
Weird Morning Rituals
Living on Yangmingshan, which is a mountain area 30min north of Taipei, you have to do weird things when you get up:
1) make sure to put on socks before placing bare feet on freezing floor
2) put on another flannel shirt, a fleece, or a hooded sweatshirt (over the one you already wore to bed) so that you can get up without catching cold
3) always wear your slippers
4) turn the space heater on in the bathroom
5) turn the hot water on for a loooooong time before showering
December 15, 2003
Mobile entertainment?
Alcatel was celebrating their 30th year in Taiwan, and their new offices in Neihu, and JP asked if I could perform an opening song for them as a favor. It was tough getting up in the morning after a 4am close of the Living Room, and treating the staff to some late night ma la huo guo. But I managed to drag myself out into the cold morning, stumble into my car, and arrive at Alcatel in time to see balloons, dancing girls, and horses with Alcatel banners on them. I didn't have a banner on me, but I played a funky little tune called "Mine Tonight" which seemed to fit the happy digital feeling of 3G mobile content.
No, I'm not the guy in the white socks and the French revolution gown! I was huddling between some CHT staff and the free coffee.
December 13, 2003
Great stress relief combo
December 12, 2003
Desk check
- Jack Daniels on the rocks (double)
- Panasonic boom box transferring to digital a lo-fi recording of last night's jam)
- Box of velcro
- Brochures from Eco Quest for a "negative ion/ozone air purification" unit I'm trying out at the club to clear the smoke
- 50 CDRs and some cassettes
- CDs of Don Juan DeMarco, Grant Green, Maceo Parker, Lou Donaldson, Horace Silver, Edith Pilaf, et al
- "Patterns for Jazz", and "Jazz Conception for the Saxophone" (for people who keep asking me how to play jazz)
- Bills bills and more bills
- 2 landlines
- 4 mobile phones
- PC
- Photo of a biplane with me in it
- 2 bags of dry cleaning
- Scattered namecards
- A couple of writing utensils
- Wallet
- Small metal relief of Fu Lu Song (three Chinese gods) found on the beach
December 11, 2003
I'm a Mod?
I took the Indie quiz. I'm a mod. Hmmm.
"You're a Mod. You dig expensive things, like suits and speed. You have a fine appreciation for the Kinks and know that Motown started it all, and you have fabulous style. Hey, nice hair."
You Know Yer Indie. Let's Sub-Categorize.
brought to you by Quizilla
December 10, 2003
Australian wanker warning
[Thanks to J Greenwell, who happens to be an Aussie...hmmm]
December 06, 2003
Why would someone cut a Whopper?
Question: Why would someone cut a Whopper with a knife?
Answer: Because Tiff has a monster blister on her lip and can't open her mouth wide enough!
Map for Jerry
1.6K after McD's. First left.
5.0K after McD's. Parking across the road.
Nice paths that goes up to Chi-san.
Unfortunately, no big trees.
December 05, 2003
5 hours
What a lousy way to spend the entire day. First the tax office boogaloo, then five hours waiting around for a piece of paper in a police station just in order to rush to another police station to pay some money and get a little stamp in Tiff's passport, so that she can leave the country. This is common practice here in Taiwan, a country with no immigration service, which is dumped on the tax bureau and foreign affairs police to deal with. I shouldn't complain because it is a million times better than 15 years ago when we had to fake attendance to some language school which didn't exist, so we could stay here as "students", then take our NT dollars to a dubious guy with a green visor sitting in a cage behind some dimly lit jewelry store front in order to exchange to greenbacks before we left the country.
It was nice chatting with the cops. It turns out that I played at the police academy graduation ceremony for one of them, and the others all liked my music. One of them raises cats, another bakes biscuits and muffins and dabbles in sleight of hand, and another of them is a budding jazz guitarist, and is eager to attend the next week's jam session at the Living Room. I couldn't imagine how long I'd be sitting there if we didn't at least have music, cats, and magic to blab about.
Old
You know you are old when you get home at 4am and still find discipline to get up at 8am...just because you have to.
December 03, 2003
Collecting fruit from a temple
I was walking the dog around a temple near Shi Lin, and saw these folks trying to knock down some oranges from a tree. I would have to calculate the ROI as a negative. 5 people to collect one orange.
December 02, 2003
Mr. Picassohead
I spontaneously drew Christ on Mr. Picassohead. Christmas is coming.
Forever stuck in Dmin7
The other day, Greg asked me where I draw improvisational ideas from. Then another musician friend, Hamish, and I were talking about solo structures, chord concepts, sounds, etc. It occurred to me that even though all this is based on set rules, practice, and theory, in the end you just draw it out from somewhere deep down inside. You take what you got, deal with it, and just play.
So I'm trying to put this jazz experience towards playing through the Joy Spring of life. What a bitch of a tune. Before you get to the end it changes key three times on you, keeps moving moving, doesn't give you one second to ponder or fart around before pounding you with another two-five to the head.
These days, whatever I do just isn't getting me through the changes. Nothing feels right. Nothing swings. Nothing sounds good. I'm unable to draw anything up from inside.
It's like I'm stuck forever in Dmin7 hell.
I've never figured out whether it's pronounced "Moe's (like owned by one of three stooges) or Moss (like that guy out of Bonanza), but the one down the hill from me is open until 2am most days, which means that if I get out of the club early enough, I can catch the best burger in town, the muo si la bao or the Spicy Mos Burger. They have lots of jalapenos and 
