ta met er

Peace, peace! he is not dead, he doth not sleep -
He hath awakened from the dream of life -
'Tis we, who lost in stormy visions, keep
With phantoms an unprofitable strife,
And in mad trance, strike with our spirit's knife
Invulnerable nothings. -We decay
Like corpses in a charnel; fear and grief
Convulse us and consume us day by day,
And cold hopes swarm like worms within our living clay.

--From Adonais by Percy Bysshe Shelley

 Tomorrow I start the second LEG of my journey.  I'm using Bangkok as a hub.  I began my journey 7 days ago,  leaving Korea on Wednesday the 23rd at 5:30 pm and arriving in Bangkok at 11pm their time.  It was funny cuz I met a New Yorker who lived in China as a sound engineer/DJ, he was a young guy, reallycool, and we chatted a bunch in the airport and on the plane and shortly before landing we were sitting around on the Airplane drinking -- he beer, me red wine and talking.  He had taught in Korea for a 4 week program just prior to this trip.  It was like he LIVED in China and worked as a dj and sound engineer for Indy bands in Beijing, and  then decided to make a quick buck and teach at a 4 week camp in Korea before going on vacation.  So I tell him where I plan on staying -- the Miami Hotel cuz it's in a good area of Bangkok and it's got a swimming pool and its cheap.  He's like, can I tag along and then this guy

붕어빵 is here.  And not a moment too soon.

Inquiring minds want to know -- what is 붕어빵?
 
Boong au Bbang is a fish shaped pastry, cooked on the street in a kind of waffle iron apparatus (whose
iron casings are the shape of a fish).  It's like a little bread fish whose texture is not unlike a crispy waffle and
is filled with a sweet bean filling.

There's not much to them, it's just a pastry shaped like a fish, except that every winter, people sell them on the street and it's a ubiquitous part of  winter street scenes in urban South Korea, where street venders are a plenty.
They don't taste anything like fish, they just look like a fish, hence the 어 which means fish.  And when it is cold
out and they are freshly baked in front of you, they are pretty tasty.

It's been a while since I've posted anything that would be besmirching to Koreans.  So here goes.

I'm not sure which is more annoying, hearing a cell phone go off at maximum volume (and it's never a ring, it's
always some inane melody) or hearing the grunts that is essentially a Korean phone conversation.  It goes like
this -- someone's phone rings.  They let it ring for a long time and then answer "Yoboseyo." Pause.  "Uhn."
 You can't hear, but you assume somebody's talking on the other end. 
Meanwhile the only sound uttered by the answerer is "Uhn"

"Uhn"  Pause to hear more then again "Uhn."  But is not really an uh, it's a gutteral grunt, 'Ouhn."  Difficult to 
fully capture using the English alphabet.   The grunt, 'Uhn' is a positive response like yes, or okay.  

When I get drunk, which is usually nightly, I generally listen to what can be called

COMFORT MUSIC

I usually play the rolling stones Exile on Main Street or my favorite, Wings - Band on the Run.  By favorite, I mean,
music I like to hear while toasted.

I could honestly say that my favorite living musicians are Beck, Paul McCartney, Lenny Kravitz, and Prince because they on their albums play every instrument.  Oh sure, there is the saxaphohist or the extra but for the most part on
thieir albums, it is them playing all the instruments,.  I'd like to include Pete Townsend into this group but since he
had the greatest rock drummer and bass player combo of all time I'll have to pass on him.  I think any body
whocan play all instruments and make a great album is a step above the rest.  So I have said what I said, and
that's all that I said.  

"Capoeira, the Brazil martial art of dance."  That's what Robert DeNiro called it in the movie, Meet the Fockers. 
Mr. Focker, Dustin Hoffman, Ben Stiller's Dad was an enthusiast of it.   That was the scene when DH commented
on DeNiro's physique and he said, "Well I do some calistenics, some medicine ball workout and I play a little
football."

To which DH replied, "Oh, footy footy ball."

Twas a laugh riot.

Well, tonight, I broke a glass, which is not an anamoly since I break dishes so often that my friend/neighbor from
Hamilton (Canada) said to me recently, 'you break so many dishes, you must be part Greek!"  It's true.  I do break
a lot of dishes

Not out of anger
Or joy but just carelessness, negligence, stupidity.  Tonight, I was washing dishes and stacking the dry dish bay

  So I was sitting and pondering and I came across this book of quotes.  Made me laugh so hard I thought I'd share of few of them.  They are all basically insults about being ugly or being stupid.  Neither of which I am so I got that going for me.  Lazy, lecherous, dishonest -- perhaps.  But hey, nobody's perfect.  Enjoy.

Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former.
- Albert Einstein

He may talk like an idiot and act like an idiot, but make no mistake, he is an idiot.
 Groucho Marx

I never forget a face, but in your case I'll make an exception.

as an american i just hate the use of the word soccer.  it's so demeaning.

 

here you have the most interntational widely played sport in the world played equally
by men and women, boys and girls with the most minimal of equipment and the sport
is called football by everybody in the world.  Which is exactly what it is.  Foot ball.