Posts from June 2004
June 30, 2004
Greasy chicken gravy
I've been so lazy. Never let myself get so out of shape. For a while there, I was doing 2K in the pool every couple days, playing tennis on weekends, and looking pretty fit. Now. I feel like a bowl of greasy chicken gravy.
I promise myself every day to get on with it, but this late night club owner stuff kills me.
Where is the motivation? Where is the effort? Why does it feel like Taipei is sucking away evergy from my body?
I need a nap.
June 27, 2004
Quote of the week
Girl: "I just love a man with a big saxophone..."
Me: "!!!"
Bill had a big saxophone too.
June 21, 2004
Goodnight sweet Monday
Very sad day here at the Wall residence. Monday, our family cat member, loyal and loving colleague, who has been with us for over 11 years, died of kidney complications.
I knew something was wrong when I stepped into the kitchen to say hi to the cats, and she immediately called out to tell me, "I don't feel well. Come and help." If you've lived with animals for many years, you know they can communicate very clearly.
I found her soiled in wetness, and had seen the same thing with sick elderly people. She was very embarassed and uncomfortable, so I took her out into the sun to sponge her off, and let her dry. She couldn't walk very well, but labored to walk away. She hates the outside. Terrified of it. So I knew she had her mind set on finding a place to go and die. Cats want to be in a quiet place away from people and other animals when their time comes. She knew it was coming.
I called Irene down to comfort her, and we decided to try to find a vet anyway. As Irene was getting ready, calling around to find a vet open on Sunday, I sat with her on the porch talking to her, and petting her. Her eyes were still very bright and green, and I could she that she wasn't in pain. With considerable effort, she raised her head high to reach my nose, touched it, and with her unique cat language told me in that touch that she was not scared, just very tired. She tucked her head firmly under her arm, and I was sure that was it. Just then, Irene stepped out the front door, and Monday immediately sparkled for a few minutes. We put her on our lap, and drove down the mountain while she curiously enjoyed the ride, watching the trees and the blue sky. She normally hates the car, and is terrified of going anywhere. This time she was just calm, quiet, and curious.
We found a vet, and he confirmed that it was kidney problems. She spent the night for observation, but didn't make it through the night. Last night we closed the restaurant, picked up her body, and held a little ceremony in our backyard with the whole family, Tiff, Irene, me, Cho Cho, and Chaplin. Irene wanted her buried in something pretty and white, not just a towel, so we wrapped her in one of Irene's cute white dresses, so she could feel pretty. The touching and sad part was that before we placed her in the ground, her pretty green eyes opened a bit and shed a tear. I closed her eyes, gave her one last scratch behind the ears, and placed her food and water bowl with her so she wouldn't be hungry. We placed some flowers on her, buried her, and lit a candle to show her the way.
Goodnight sweet Monday. You came to us on a Monday, and left us on a Monday. Sweet dreams.
June 20, 2004
MS is BS if you ask me
This is actually for real.
Windows Media Player Error Message Help
"You've encountered error message C00D11CD while using Windows Media Player. You might be able to find a solution for this error by using one of the following support resources:
Ask other Windows Media Player users for assistance by posting your question to the Windows Media Player Newsgroup. In your message, be sure to include the following information:
- Error message ID number (for example, "C00D11CD")
- Error message text (for example, "Windows Media Player has encountered an unknown error.")"
The karma is working
... Tom Waits. Rick Wakeman. T-Bone Walker. Joe Louis Walker. Junior Walker & The All-Stars. Corbett Wall. Bennie Wallace. The Wallflowers. George Wallington. Robert Walter. ...
I must be doing something right. A friend sent me this Google link. I guess they wanted to know what I've been doing lately. I thought it was cool being right smack between Jr. Walker and Bennie Wallace, because that's exactly what I've been playing lately.
PS: If you need a login, it's "music," and the password is "forfree."
June 16, 2004
Sounds like Scott might be in the crossfire...
Here's a letter that popped into my mail box via Nicole Darcy re: Scott Ezell's predicament in Taitung.
This kind of stuff used to happen all the time 16 years ago, and then occasionally since then, and was usually spurred by a local musican who lost a gig to a foreigner, or was jealous/upset when a foreign musician had a hottie on his arm, then called the cops or worse, the local musician's union, or when one club was terrorizing another club who was doing better business, and called the cops to hassle the club owner because he had foreigners onstage. A couple of times it was a politician who needed some face time on TV (there was this one time when all these TV cameras and a legislator walked into the Hyatt to arrest the criminal jazz players playing Misty on the second floor lounge) to get elected to office or prove some point about protecting local labor laws. The point is: the reason for these things are never what they usually seem.
After reading Scott's situation, sounds like his police nemesis has a personal gripe -- $$, face, spurned love, or some version of a CCSR (Complex Chinese Social Relationship) issue with the cafe Scott is playing at. It could even be that someone's brother-in-law makes a good cappuccino and wants to get into the cafe business in the exact same spot where this cafe happens to be, but the lady owner doesn't want to move...
This sounds like a situation that can only be solved with a few bottles of Gaoliang and some face time arranged through some local big boys who are related to Mr. Nemesis.
The letter:
On June 3, my employer, Taiwan Colors Music, received notification from the Labor Bureau that my work permit had been cancelled and that I had to leave Taiwan within 14 days. This was unanticipated and shocking. But it was also the culmination of a program of systematic harassment carried out against me by the Taitung police, despite the facts that I have been a legal working resident since 1999 and that I have not been charged with any crime.
We foreigners
Sunday afternoon, Breeze Center:
I'm walking towards a set of glass doors next to Starbucks. An older lady pushes up behind me, and as I open the door for her as a courtesy, she shoves past me to the opposite side door, and as she does, my door opening gives her a good crack on the back. She wheels around and huffs at me, "What do you think you are doing?! You hit me!" I tell her, "Hey, I'm holding open the door for you lady! At least we foreigners have some manners..."
Hehe...
June 13, 2004
Next career move
I didn't get the job for the male gogo dancer, even though I bought a new leopard spot G for the audition.
So now I'm honing up on my hip hop skillz so I can DJ at TU and be kewl and join a krew. This is me scratching over my favorite Paul Anka vinyl.
"P-p-p-put your head [wicky wicky] on m-m-m-m-my shoulder
Hold me in your arms, arms, arms, arms, arms, baby
Squeeze me oh so tight [ribb ribb ribb]
Show me that you, Show me that you, Show me that you love me too...
June 12, 2004
But we knew...
Stefano and I were having a pizza and some Belgium beer at Cosi Cosi tonight when these two young women sat down next to us. One was standard issue Taiwanese girl all dolled up with make up and nice clothes, while the other was wearing baggy fatigues and no makeup, sort of butch, but very pretty au naturel. I leaned over and told Stefano, "So the hottest girl in the whole place has no idea she's the one." And S says, "Yeah, all the Chinese guys would go for the dolled up one, but the winner is definitely fatigues, and she doesn't even know she's got it." Then it occurred to me that fatigue chick was probably taking dolly out on a date, but it wasn't really a date since fatigues didn't really know she was a lesbian yet. She had a suspicion, but they were just friendly at this point. But we knew. Us two old guys sitting there drinking a beer who were in Taiwan too long knew.
June 11, 2004
The 2 hour flu
It was the weirdest thing. Got into the office a little earlier to actually try do get through the pile of obnoxipous work on my desk. Walked out through the main area to the bathroom, suddenly felt really woozy and dizzy, spotted the couch, dove for it, and passed out for 2 hours. Woke up, and then it was sort of over.
Maybe it was stress induced work comatose.
June 09, 2004
Bring it on
B is back from NYC, and we were talking about the reality of starting up a China venture fund. I told him the money raising is the easy part. It's the ROI that's tough. I think it'd be cool, but a pain in the ass. So he poured me a triple vodka lime with no sugary stuff to make it smooth, so it kind of ate away the enamel from my molars, but I got through it. Still, my stance remained, "China will eat you up. How do we provide a return?" [burp]
Either way, I've got 885 pages of geek licensing paperwork to wade through, and a summer to start and fund the next venture. Should be interesting if I can maintain focus and not wander away on erroneous side projects and Taiwanese cul-de-sacs. Meanwhile I've got beers to sell, bands to book, and bills to pay.
Bring it on.
June 08, 2004
Bar Beer
Near perfect day off. 12 hrs sleep, something good to eat, play ball with the dog, an episode of The Sopranos, and a walk up to the 7-11 for a beer, a cigar, and a newspaper, watching all the college kids act dumb.
Kirin has a new beer out, Bar Beer. On the can it says, "Work for fun, study for fun, live for fun, challenge for fun, think for fun, strive for fun...Whichever life you choose, don't forget Bar. Everytime you have a Bar, the world will be full of fun."
So I drink the Bar Beer, and the world is OK for the time I sit there smoking my cigar, reading the newspaper, drinking Bar. Whether my world is "full of fun" is hard to say. All I know is tomorrow is not a day off and I'm back into the Taipei two-step all over again. What can you do about that Bar Beer?
June 06, 2004
If you got it flaunt it...
I was alerted of this interesting career move by The Taipei Kid.
This was me getting with it at a recent all girls private party. I'll have to get a new G for the audition!
"Popular disco in Taipei seeks 3 caucasian males for go go dancing on weekend nights(could start immediately this Friday night 06/04)
The dancers would be required to wear revealing male attire or experienced female impersonaters are allowed to perform in female attire. Dancers with little or no experience could also apply, but knowing what this job entails, openmindedness, a sense of humor, and an utmost willingness to entertain our customers are required.
The management team is young but serious at creating a top-notch clubbing experience. The pay will be generous. Serious replies only.
Please email your personal info(name, age, height, weight, description of experience, contact information..etc) to jinkaoyao@yahoo.com
We could schedule immediate informal interviews. Those who would like to save time for both parties is encouraged to include a photo of himself in his email. Perhaps that would speed the decision making process up for some applicants."
June 01, 2004
Floating away
This is one of those weird floating days. I woke up and floated out of bed, and got some nagging things done about 3 hrs before I normally wake up. Then I floated around and drove my wife around town. Then I floated through some boring admin stuff, and then floated through a band rehearsal. Now I'm still floating through this blog. I'll eventually float back home.
It's like a dulled sense of detachment. I'm usually so wrapped up in the urgency of things and the hustling panic which is life in Taiwan, that I forgot that I had other things I wanted to do. Now I'm starting to feel like I'm remembering those things I wanted to do. The path usually goes like this: You remember, then you think about it more, then you bury it, then it resurfaces, then you take another look at it, then you assess, then you panic because time is moving so fast, then you chill because you rationalize that you've done a lot of other stuff you didn't think you were going to do, then you relax, and then you detach, and then you start floating around. Weird.
I wonder how long this floating stuff will last?
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 
