April 26th, 2016

Hey there,

Local stuff today.

First off, you may have heard that we had 6.1 shaker here last week.  A lot of folks, me included, felt that it was the most violent one in our time here.  It was at 1pm and was right about when I was waking from my lunchtime nap and the initial jolt swayed the entire building.  It was also the day our cleaning lady comes so as we are shaking, she runs into the bedroom as scared as I was.  We lost some glass and ceramics, and there were a bunch of new cracks in the wall, but otherwise OK. Our Mariner bobble head did fall from the shelf and cracked his neck but is still in one piece.  He is now a wobble head and that seems perfectly apt.

No one died on the island and life went on normally immediately.  They had a slightly bigger one in the Philippines a few days later where a few folks died, but the wildest video I saw of that was the pool on top of a building getting shaken out and thrown to the ground.

Last weekend saw the bi-annual school Fair and for the 5th year/10th Fair in a row, helmed our hot dog booth.  I declared to my volunteers and the organizers that this was gonna be the last time I did it as it was just time to do so.  Did find them a replacement and look forward to him making the booth better.  We sold out our 800 dogs and averaging over this 5 year span, have sold 8000 dogs and made roughly NT$680,000, or about US$22,000, for the PTA.  That is some real scratch.  I felt no pangs of melancholia when it was over although I will miss the time with the team of volunteers that have been with us most of those years.

After getting back from baseball in Bangkok from last time, had a day off and then started in with the Middle School baseball program.  They agreed to kick me a few bucks for doing that so am now a full time baseball coach.  I sorta hoped that winning the coveted Spirit of IASAS award would have secured me a lucrative multi-year deal, but the market is not great for a Western baseball coach with no local language experience so there are few offers out there, and am more than confident and willing to bet on myself season to season.  These Middle School kids are a mixed bag with 3 teams being bad, worse, and abominable.  There are some decent prospects, but a bunch of these kids come out with no baseball experience just for something to do.  I love 'em all, even the kid that wet his pants last night, but it is hard to watch sometimes.  I would not trade a second of it for anything cause you can watch your words make a difference almost immediately in some cases.  And with so many kids, I cannot walk onto that campus without some kid or parent saying "Hi Coach Imbro"  That is such a sweet sound.  One of the other coaches who knows his history has been calling me Buttermaker at times.  Being impervious to reacting to nicknames, let it go but was a bit hurt at first cause Buttermaker was a slobby drunken curmudgeon (guilty) , but came around to it cause while he was those things, he also was a savvy coach and there was no question that he loved the kids.

While we're on pant peeing, you gotta check out this video of a best man fainting during a wedding.  This minute video has it all...bad singing and dresses, fainting dude, and you must wait till the end when they walk him out.

Betty was around town for a couple weeks so we took the opportunity to go out with friends a few times and a topic that came up was how unusual it was to have her around and the things that come up around the house when she is.  Specifically, the kitchen towel rotation.  We typically air our disputes in public as it keeps the dialogue civil and it is nice to have independent parties weigh in on our disagreements so that we can decide who is right or wrong.  The specific issue here is that I have been blessed by being a Virgo whose mother was also a Virgo, so we value order and cleanliness as virtues above most others.  Living in a hot and humid climate, cockroaches are a significant part of the landscape and one must remain vigilant in keeping all foodstuffs in containers/the refrigerator/etc. or they will get the scent and become part of the family.  That means nothing is ever left out and all kitchen surface areas must me kept immaculately clean.  As the main food preparer, I am also the main cleaner and have a system in place to keep things tidy and one of those is a strict towel rotation.  At all times, there are four towels out in the kitchen.  Two of these are inert towels, one for dishes to dry on and such and the other for the coffee makers to dry during the day.  The other two are active.  One is to the left of the sink and it's role is to mop up messes.  Coffee spills, wet counters, etc.  The other is to finish drying off dishes before they go into the cupboard and so is always clean.  Once the mop up towel becomes too dirty, it is sent to the laundry room and the clean dry towel is moved to mop up duty and a clean towel is brought out to do the plate drying.  Pretty simple, the towels are always in the same spots and this rotation has been declared as sacred.  Lemme pull back the curtain with this glimpse of the area in question..

From left to right:
1 - Mop up towel to the left of the sink
2 - Drying towel under the Moka coffee pot
3 - Drying towel on tray where clean dishware sits waiting for their return to the cabinets.
4 - Clean blue towel to finish drying the clean dishes or washed hands.

So why does my clean drying towel always get used to mop up spilled effin' soup?  My only theory is that people are generally right handed so subconsciously reach for the towel on the right.  This theory can also be used when deciding what x-ray line to go through at TSA as people will gravitate to the right, so always go left.  Not fool proof but on average is a sound strategy.  Is my towel rotation regimen anal retentive?  Absolutely, and I even have a rotation system in the drawer so all of these towels are used the same amount and should all wear out simultaneously, but I keep that to myself.  But is the above unreasonable or illogical?  And if I am doing the lion's share of the cleaning, shouldn't my wishes in the kitchen be respected?  I am not looking for any medal from Reader's Digest (although it'd be deserved).  So when we are out and I go into the long form rant about my towel obsession, every single sole agrees with the brilliance of this method but ultimately takes Betty's side and thinks I am overreacting.  "It's just a towel."   Do they love disorder and filth, or are they simply taking the opportunity to push one of my buttons?

I also have two sponges in the sink and if you are interested in hearing what specific uses each one is for, please send $5 and a self addressed stamped envelope for a copy of Kitchen (and Life) Etiquette.

A follow-up to a post from a month or two back about the obese American passenger that made the flight attendants wipe his ass on an EVA flight...he died.  That article doesn't go into specifics other than he died in Thailand (natch) of "an illness".  Shudder to think of the crap he made the desperate Thai people do to him.  See ya on the other side buddy.

Finally for today, but it'll be a constant thread till at least October, is that it got hot here this week.  Last four days have hit 107 and while we are supposed to get a break this weekend, am not holding out hope.  Three showers a day, loads of perspiration soaked clothes and sweaty .  The paper described this snap as 'sizzling', but I use the term 'soul sucking'.  I was gonna transition this 'hot take' into a screed on global warming and cognitive dissonance, but was talking to Mom today and she volunteered to talk Orange 45 and that she feels 'sorry for him'.  My heart sunk.  Was not hard to tell she is sickened by what he says and just refuses to admit she was wrong to ever support him and is looking for anything to justify it in her mind.  I read a lot about cognitive dissonance but no where can I find a useful suggestion on how to get people to open their minds to the fact they might be wrong.  I look at this stuff cause I want to change some of my behaviors too, but the solutions all seem to be bullshit.  Work in progress.  Comments welcome.

April 19th, 2019

Hey there,

A busy week for the clan.  First up was The Boy's school winning the NCAA title.  He's in his second year at UVA and last year they were ranked number 1, but lost in the first round to a #16 in the undisputed worst lost in tournament history.  He was into it last year and went to a ton of games and while they were still a highly ranked team this season, enthusiasm was understandably muted and he didn't go to any..  That changed after they got through the first weekend and each subsequent victory was more thrilling than the last.  Going to a school that had little in the way of athletic teams, the Boss and I were also hopping on the bandwagon and adopted the Hoos.

We were happy they won and know that it was one of those experiences for the Boy that will last a lifetime.  We didn't hear from him much post game except for a drunken text at around 2:30am his time about how much he 'loves this place right now'.  Talked to him briefly the next day and he told us about one of his frat buddies named Jack's interaction with the Dean.  Texas Tech cancelled classes the day of and day after the game, but a message from the UVA Dean to the student body said in typically erudite professor speak that UVA classes were on both days regardless of outcome.  Frat boy responded to that message, in reply all, with college kid language using many of the long words he learned in English class with an impassioned plea about how he understood the university's position, but lobbed in some Delta House vernacular at the end that if the school won and he still had to go to class on Tuesday, the Dean could 'respectfully lick my ass'.  The Dean politely responded with, "We'll talk about this tomorrow Jack."

The other thing about the post game celebrations that the Boy related was that they were out running around town and campus until at least 4am.  We have all our phones linked on the Life 360 app so can see where each of us are at any given moment, and we watched him go from the arena, where he watched the game with 20.000 other fans, to the downtown, frat and all over campus.  One of UVA's most famous traditions that I have related in the past is for Freshman to streak the 108 yard lawn down and back in their first year, but it is not limited to that as the Boy said they streaked the lawn a 'few' times at 3ish that night/morning.  What I wouldn't give to Freaky Friday with that kid for a weekend or two.

Mentioned that I was traveling for baseball last weekend, which meant that I missed Babydoll's year end arts performances.  In the past, would be secretly happy to miss out on a couple hours of "art" I do not understand, but have become a bit of a fan of dance and while I am not to the point of paying to see it, hate to miss out on her stuff.  I did catch their rehearsals earlier in the week as pollution canceled one of our baseball practices, but missing seeing it in full production mode made me sad.  Her 5th grade teacher is an avid shutterbug and took some amazing snaps, a few of which will now share here.  The last one is classic.

As for yours truly, I got to travel with the Boys baseball and Girls softball teams to Bangkok for their end of season IASAS tournament.  IASAS stands for Interscholastic Association of Southeast Asian Schools and consist of Taipei American School (TAS), Jakarta International School (JIS), International School of Manila (ISM), International School of Kuala Lumpur (ISKL), Singapore American School (SAS), and the host International School of Bangkok (ISB).  At the end of each season, all the schools meet at one of them to compete against each other.  Simultaneous events were held in other cities for golf, badminton and track and field.   These are not limited to sports as there are events for forensics and arts as well as others I probably am not aware.

This was my first trip to IASAS in any capacity.  The Boy went on a couple that I could not make and we missed out on his senior year trip due to a school decision that still boils my blood and do not wish to rehash at this time.  Each team consisted of 12 players and there were 7 coaches/administrators total in our group.  The kids stay at host families places near campus while the coaches had rooms at the nearby Best Western.  All of the coaches that go are full time faculty and this was the first time in their memory that a person in my position was allowed to travel.  I took this to be an honor and vowed to be on my best behavior throughout.

There is no story to tell of being in Bangkok per se as we were taken to the hotel directly after arrival and spent the rest of the time at the hotel or the school.  The AM bus would leave at 6:30am and we did not return from there until 9pm earliest. I guess a Bangkok story would be that our bus ride from the airport  took 2.5 hours that normally would take 40 minutes without the all day long traffic but that is just typical Bangkok.

The boys team did not fare well losing all 5 of their games.  This is just the third year of baseball at IASAS (it was softball for the previous 35 years) and our program is still in development.  Our fellas were not embarrassed in any of the games and played sound throughout, it is simply that the other teams have established local programs and therefore have more experienced baseball players.  I have to think our guys were disappointed but I personally felt they performed better than expected and have nothing to hang their heads over.  I am the third coach so tried to develop a role for myself.  The other two coaches have been with these kids since elementary school in various capacities so I just tried to blend in naturally.  You can argue that all sports, or whatever activity you choose, offer life lessons but as a baseball lifer feel that baseball is unique in the metaphors for life it provides as there is simply more down time to shoot the shit.  I have a million of them and they mostly lean towards the movies Major League and Bad News Bears variety.  For example, our skipper is also a baseball junkie and he is quite well versed in all aspects of fundamentals and baseball lore, but as a teacher he keeps things rated PG at worst.  He was telling kids about breathing in tense moments at the plate and a way to help focus your mind is to visualize where the ball is going to go...seeing in your mind the ball go off the bat on a line into the gap and such.  That is effective for some, but not all players are created equal.  In an off moment after the coaches words above, I had a chance to offer another way to relax at the plate that I learned a long time ago from an interview with Jeremy Giambi and always incorporated when I played.  Jeremy said that he and his other bash brothers would make sure their pants were tight so that when they were walking up to bat, they knew the girls would be looking at their butts and that feeling sexy helped with their confidence and made them not think about failing or thinking about anything too much cause when you are performing, it has to be on instinct.  Told the boys that I am fully aware that my physique is not typically considered one that is desirable, but I know that some/many chicks, perhaps even their moms, groove to my rap cause I feel sexy and exude that confidence.  That might not be R rated, but pushing PG-13?

The organizers of the event had people there taking photos and there are literally hundreds of them and most are really cool.  This was my favorite of our fellas team.

We are the blue team and looks like we made a great play, but if you notice, the ball is still coming in and the dude was safe.  Still a great shot.

I was sent by the school not only to be a coach, cause that wasn't really needed, but to assist with the tournament as a scorekeeper for other games.  I had one for the boys, but had several games scheduled for girls softball and was on that field almost all day other than when I was in the boys team dugout.  That gave me the opportunity to watch our schools girls team up close and from their first game saw they were something special.  They are only three years into fast pitch but are further along than the boys as the girls have two accomplished pitchers.  By the rules, boys can only throw so many pitches per day/tournament so you need a bunch of them, and we didn't have any that were mechanically sound.  For softball, there is no pitch count so if you have one great one, you can dominate.  Our girls went 4-1 and lost in the gold medal game to Singapore, who had a flame thrower that was the definition of domination.

What made the girls special to me was not that they won, but how they did it.  In most of their games, they were close or down early, but would have these great runs and comebacks.  And some of the girls were as tough a player as I have ever seen in any sport.  They were sliding and diving for stuff that made my body hurt just watching.  The catcher is a long time friend of Babydoll and while I have always liked her joie de vie, I fell in love with her tenacity and focus on the field.  I ended up scoring all of their games which put me at the communications table that was about 10-15 feet from home plate.  I watched her all weekend strap on the gear and catch every pitch in heat that was debilitating to all of us.  It was so hot that the locals were saying that this is as hot as it had ever been in town. In the championship game, she took a foul tip right off he face mask and she immediately got out of her crouch and was hurt.  She had the look that she wanted to cry but after a couple minutes with the coach and medical staff, waved them off, grabbed the mask and went back to work.  I've seen a lot of sports in my day and that girl was a bad ass in that moment.  Her technique behind the plate could use some work as she left herself exposed to balls hitting her legs.  This is a snap from day two where she is on the shoulders of one of her teammates..

It got worse as the weekend went on, but this girl is such a nut that not only didn't she complain that it hurt, but gave a name to each of her bruises.  Like I said, bad ass.  I'm standing there on the first day and she takes a foul ball to the gut.  She bends over for a while and takes an ice bag, then gets back down and plays the rest of the game.  I figure she got the wind knocked out of her.  After the tournament is all over and the coaches are boozing in the hotel lounge recounting the weekends anecdotes, one of them brings up when this catcher took one in the hoo-haw.  "What?" says I and realize it was this incident.  This coach then describes how she didn't get hit in the belly but in her vagina.  She has been asking for a lady cup all season says the coach and when she got hit today and they brought the ice, she stuffed it down her pants to soothe the pain. Were all laughing at this point and then she relates that when she was done with the ice bag, she took it out and handed it to the very big, very Thai and very male umpire.  That team and especially that girl walk on water in my book (she is front row, second from the right).

I saw all their games and scored a few more with teams that weren't from our school so saw a lot of softball and came away wildly impressed.  The first day I scored games, everything was very organized and there was an announcer and person running the sound system.  As I was stuck at the field until the end of the day as our boys had the late game each night, I offered to do the games of one of our girls coaches was assigned so she could go back to the hotel and relax as they were players in this tournament and thought they could use the down time more than me.  By the second day, volunteers started to get bored and was asked/offered to do more games.  Not only that, but the announcers and DJ's stopped showing up so got to grab the reins of the between game/inning music and feel that I turned it into a party atmosphere.  There was a playlist in the iPad that was fine, but a bit on the nose if you catch my drift.  All the crap you hear at every ballpark like AC/DC and Gary Glitter.  I would ask for requests from each team or the parents and added a bunch of deep gut gems.  Ladies Night by Kool and the Gang prior to a girls softball game for example is an inspired choice.  By day three, I was there from 7am to 4p using my own newly created playlist and in addition to the requests, the fans got things like Molly Hatchet, INXS and a ton of funky disco.  Watching baseball and playing music of my choice to a few hundred people is pretty much a perfect scenario and had I was in hog heaven.

The gold medal softball game was tense but our ladies went down as the opposing pitcher was a force of nature.  Our school represented well as we had a ton of great parents along with us from both teams and they were loud and fun supporters.  Our boys team shook off their losses and were amazing cheerleaders too.  When our girls were up to bat, they spread our along the outfield wall and did dance steps in unison to help motivate the girls.  Inspiring in their goofiness they were.  I mentioned last week that it was Songkran this day.  Songkran is Thai New Years and they celebrate by having water fights throughout the country.  As we didn't get off campus once, did not experience any of the local traditions, but after the last girls game our two teams had an all out water war together.  We had some squirt guns and the kids would take empty coolers and fill them up with icy water, then go and hold another player down and pour the water all over them.  They got all of us coaches too and I gave it back a little myself.   One casualty were my shoes.  Don't think I am alone in having this experience, but have you ever had a pair of shoes for a long time, and they are holding up well and still don't smell, but you get caught in a downpour or in this case, doused during Songkran, and whatever stink is hiding in them activates and produces an unholy smell rendering them toxic waste?  I didn't notice it until we got on the bus at the end of the night and just as I do, a mom walks by and says she smells beer and have to tell her that smell is similar to the bar floor after a frat party and it happens to be coming from me.  Anyhoo, we were the only group that paid tribute to the local customs by having a water fight and while we might not have won the gold, or even a game in the boys case, we absolutely won the tournament.

After our water fight and the final of the boys baseball, it was time for the closing ceremonies.  They thank all the people that put it together, give out the team and individual medals and then the Spirit of IASAS award.  They emphasize this Spirit all over before you travel and at the event and  as this is a school thing and these kids are our next leaders, highlighting all the schools values makes a ton of sense. As a person who has carefully crafted a curmudgeonly demeanor for years, making fun of this kind of rah-rah spirit is natural and most people feel cheated when I don't give it to them.

So we're sitting there and they are describing a winner and it becomes clear that I am getting this thing.  Am probably not alone but don't think it is common, but am immensely uncomfortable with awards or any public show of appreciation.  I love when people I know get things, but shudder when it is me.  Is that weird?  It goes as far as ignoring my birthday as any attention is loathed.  The way this thing works is that one is nominated and based on those submissions, they pick three people to acknowledge.  The girls softball coaches appreciated the stuff I did for them apparently and wrote up a thing that had the sentiment that I was a "cornucopia of positivity."  You know that doesn't sound anything like me and cornucopia of positivity has become a running gag that is gonna be hard to live down.  I really appreciated their appreciation of things that I loved doing anyway.  All our crew had a good laugh cause I had to limp down a long series of steps and then hobble up some more to the stage.  One of them took a video on their phone  that they shared and laughed at my poor fat crippled body.  I just saw the video and you can hear them laughing way too hard.  A bit cruel but loved every minute of that ribbing.  At first, thought they nominated me to make me uncomfortable, but it seems to be a big deal at the school as I've been getting congratulatory comments (and many of appropriate disbelief) from all quarters and need to shut up and just be honored.  To be honest, I was honored that I was invited at all and to be charged in some way with working with a group of great coaches and really nice and fun kid, and truly hope I did a good enough job to be invited back next year cause baseball is so great.

One note on the ride home.  All the teams and coaches flew back on the same plane but I was invited late and there were no more seats on their plane so had to take a later flight back, which was cool with me cause they had to roll out at 7am and wait at the airport for 4 hours while I could chill poolside and catch up on Aussie Rules games till noon.  I arranged for a car to take me then and the taxi/go-cart driver was this insane dude that puts the nutty Taipei taxi drivers to shame.  His English was limited and my Thai non-existent, but he was asking me questions and several were about  how I found the Thai women to be.  Not wanting to insult his country folk, I told them how lovely they were.  I am probably wrong, but he pulled over at one point and am convinced he was offering to have me meet one of the local girls for some shenanigans.  I politely declined.

Good times.

April 6th, 2019

Hiya,

I have been really weak with regards to this space lately.  Am still nowhere near done curating Myanmar photos and it feels overwhelming.  Have been busy busy (for me) so getting time to sit down and spit stuff out has been elusive.  Also have been negligent in writing stuff down and I forget the  amusing stuff to relate.  If I don't write it down, it vanishes.   I sat in on a talk at the school yesterday about concussions and was feeling a bit uncomfortable cause while I make gags about forgetting stuff due to a lot of blows to the head, it is abundantly clear that their is truth in that line of humor.

Here are a couple things I learned at the concussion seminar.  The three sports with the highest rates of concussion are: 1 - Martial Arts, 2 - Rugby, 3 - Women's soccer.  I wanted to ask the dude in front of the assembled school brass what he thought about them offering rugby as a sport, but we were cut short.  My personal opinion is that rugby is all kinds of stupid and if you tell me you're into it, I know all I need to know about you.  This guy was well a well credentialed scientist in the field and he said the high rates of girls getting concussed is partially due to the fact that they develop earlier than boys physically with a result of that being their heads are bigger than their necks can support so they "wobble" more.  Also, that blood flows to their brains at a higher rate than their male counterparts.  I nudge a female friend sitting next to me and say 'duh, boys blood obviously is rushing somewhere else."  She nodded knowingly.

As part of his talk on overall health consciousness, he was going on about how much screen time our kids are getting and how turning down the blue light feature on our devices can help combat affects on the brain.  I did ask if going grey scale emitted less blue light than just turning it down (knowing it to be true) and he downplayed it.  Why don't people advocate more for greyscale?  Combats addiction to screens and saves brain cells, and no one says a freakin' peep.

There will be no post next week as I get to travel to Bangkok with the baseball team for the year end tournament.  It is a six team round robin with us and international schools from Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Manila, Jakarta and Singapore.  Handicappers are saying we'd be prohibitive longshots for the title but have an outside shot at the Bronze medal and we'd be very happy with that.  There are a couple of schools with a number of quality baseball players where our team offers a bunch of decent athletes that sometimes play baseball.  The buzz is that Taipei is the smart kid school, Singapore is the athletic school and Jakarta is the druggy school.  Will endeavor to learn what KL, Manila and Bangkok's "thing" is and let you know next time. We also travel with the girls softball team and get to watch/cheer them on.  Great kids on both those squads and it should be a hoot.

The other neat thing about going next week is that it is Songkran, which is the Thai New Year.  Am unclear on all the rituals and such but do know that one of the features is that there is a multi day country wide water fight.  Per that Wikipedia entry. "The holiday is known for its water festival. Major streets are closed to traffic, and are used as arenas for water fights.^[25] Celebrants, young and old, participate in this tradition by splashing water on each other.

Oh baby.  I know we're there to work but really hope to get out and throw down with the locals and packed a couple of water guns in case we do.  Who doesn't love a good water fight?

One of my favorite photos from an all time great day.

In the 'beggar's can't be choosers when seeing live music in Taiwan' file, went to see a band this week called The Soft Moon.  I would call them Goth Industrial.  It had its moments as it had a driving beat, but was a bit too metronomic for my taste.  Good and loud and the crowd was great for people watching as the entire population of Goth chicks and their poseur dudes of Taipei were out for this.  That population numbers between 25 to 30.  All in all, a good night, but the thing that was supremely annoying is that the band did that thing where they backlight themselves.  Drives me (and my sensitive light absorbing green eyes) insane.  Whenever an artist pulls this stunt, they typically don't do it for the entire show, but The Soft Moon did.  The reds and blues weren't too bad.

But a good 50% of the show it was klieg lights and half of that time they were on strobe effect.

Finally for today...Hoos your daddy?

March 29th, 2019

Hey there,

We're back from Myanmar but am gonna hold off writing it up this week for two reasons.  First, Betty is out of control with her camera and have north of 1400 snaps to go through.  Second, something about the trip affected my soul in a way that I'm still processing and need to spend more time reflecting.

Some quick hits for this week.  This news story must have dominated your feed this week.  Reese's Peanut Butter Cups now come in two new flavors!  One with extra chocolate and one with EXTRA PEANUT BUTTER.  They don't offer any Reese's products here and my first stop upon hitting the States in June will be to get my lips around one of those.

One more news story from the local rag to share.  Fight between drinking buddies leaves one man dead.  This is your garden variety drunken altercation, but why I am sharing it is that in the man's confession, he shared that 'as the fight escalated, Hou began to choke Chang with a belt before grabbing a Tim Horton's coffee mug and bashing it into the old man's skull.".  Where can I get a Timmy Ho mug in this dump?

Baseball season (for the school team) is heading into the home stretch and am out there with them 5-6 days a week.  It must be weighing on my mind cause I am dreaming a lot about it.  When I dream about sports, am always playing and never coaching, and my knees work and are pain free.  Had one the other day where I am playing third with the boys that I'm currently coaching, and get called on to pitch.  Somehow get into an altercation with the umpire and we're jawing pretty hard, but he hasn't thrown me out.  I get with the catcher and tell him that I'm gonna burn one right at the umpire's grill and to let it go past him.  He does and I do.  Dream over.

Told you that a new band that I have been obsessed with was playing this week and mustered a good group to check them out.  Korea's Say Sue Me.  The opener was a local band called DSPS and they did a nice job in the role of Taiwanese Blake Babies.

 Disappointingly, the show was poorly attended.  Good that we had a ton of space and could wade right up to our preferred spots, but this town does not embrace guitar rock in any way.  Waiting between sets for Say Sue Me to take the stager, our group of Gen X Westerners were amused at the locals penchant for sitting on the floor and ALL looking at their phones.  We stand out.

A floor at a show in the States would be covered in booze, but suspect the phone usage would be similar.

I loved Say Sue Me.  Tight, great pacing, cute as buttons and rocked us.  Not a discouraging word post game from my buddies and even Betty approved.

Here is a picture of the setlist and suggest you create a Spotify playlist off of it.

 I bought a t-shirt and poster and they all signed it.

A great night with a great band.  I am smitten.  Here is a short set from the American language Korean channel of theirs.  Having everything with subtitles and listening to their lyrics and banter makes me love them even more.  

Finally for today, please enjoy the trailer from Japanese B-movie RoboGeisha.  If you do not laugh at least three times, what it the matter with you?

March 16th, 2019

Hey there,

No post next week as we're heading out of town for a week in Myanmar.  I was reluctant to going there for two reasons: it is gonna be roasting hot and the whole genocide thing.  Betty really wanted this one and whatever the boss wants.

Music has been good lately.  A new Meat Puppets album came out recently and more Meat is always a good thing.  It's called Susty Notes an is worth a spin.

Was coaxed out last Tuesday to see Masego.

 I say coaxed as hip hop is not in my wheelhouse.  I listened to a bunch of his stuff and found it to lean towards funk.  Since you can't be choosey when you live in a place that doesn't have a lot of options for live music, and the venue is a good one with good sightlines and a loud and clear sound system, off we went.

 It was good...having a live band is always beneficial and they were solid.  Hesitate saying this cause I fear it is a sign of cranky old guy, but simply do not understand the appeal of seeing hip hop live..  The songs rarely deviate from the beat or take interesting turns.  I know it is supposed to be lyrically challenging, but I rarely find it so and am not a dude that gets a lot out of poetry anyway.  And poetry about booties...really?  I always forget but it doesn't take long after the show starts to remember what bugs me the most about every hip hop show I have ever attended.  I am a religious skeptic and these performers have a move that reminds me of church that they fall back on all night where they tell you to sing this, jump now and the most heinous of tropes, put your hands in the air and wave them like you are a mindless idiot.     

Please stop telling me what to do all gawdamn night long.  You perform and if I enjoy what you've done, I will clap loudly and scream 'woo-hoo'.  This is not an aerobics class nor am I being paid to perform.

Last night was another appearance by local star Yufu Chen and a bunch of us went down for it.  Here are the photos...

There are none cause we all missed it.  All the info showed that Yufu was the headliner, there were two bands and the show was from 8 - 10:30.  Experience tells all of us that our act would go on a bit after 9p so we meet up for drink and head over only to see the man himself walk out of the club all sweaty and he tells us they are done.  I've missed bands a couple times before due to being late (most famously to the Ramones twice in the same summer as their set was 30 minutes long and the folks I went with were slow ass bitches), but have been to hundreds/thousands of shows and cannot recall a miscalculation like this.  Can't even blame a language barrier as there were fluent speakers in our midst and as we are breaking it down after, they are still unsure what happened.  The other band was Taiwan reggae...including the sad Chinese violin.  Gag me.

Coming up the Tuesday after we get home from Myanmar is a band I have been in love with making their first appearance in Taiwan.  Busan, Korea's Say Sue Me.  Can count on one had the acts I love that have been to Taiwan since we've been here: Dinosaur Jr., Kraftwerk and Yo La Tengo.  Say Sue Me will be the fourth (in 7 years!) and have high hopes for that night.  I have been diving deep on them and in reading some interviews, have been turned onto some other cool  Korean bands like Dabda, The March Kings, 3Volt and Genius.  The sound of most of those is 90's indie throwback and if they are 25 years behind the times, that fits me just right. One of my favorite Say Sue Me songs turns out to be a cover of Genius' 'One Question'.  The Say Sue Me version is poppier while this original version is as dark as night.  Love it.

It is also a great time of year as the sports wasteland after the Super Bowl ends next week with both the Opening Day of baseball and Opening Bounce of Australian Rules Football.  Good times for yours truly.

In my continuing efforts to be a supportive parent and trying to appreciate the art of dance, went to a showcase at the school of the IB programs seniors dance pieces.  The IB students choreograph dances for their senior project and recruit dancers to perfrom them with Babdydoll being one.  I watched about 10 dances and before each, the choreographer will talk about the piece and give their inspiration for the movements.  Words, a book, some experience in a desert...things like that, but when they were being performed I just cannot understand how the movemnts relate to the inspiration.  You could tell me that they were inspired by The War of 1812, watching paint dry, or seeing their cat have an epileptic fit and I'd believe it.  B-doll was quite good but am not comfortable with how the dudes put their hands on her.

Finally for this week, have to address the college admission scandal.  We all know this crap goes on but the extent that this group of adults went to get their kids in schools is stomach turning.  Is funny how this story resonated with everyone on some level.  I'm at the kids school a lot and interact with a bunch of the staff.  I've mentioned how that school is posh and position themselves within that world as an elite prep school.  Most of the teachers hate it, but there is a not insignificant section of the community that sends their kids to tutors from early elementary school and to college facilitators and SAT prep boot camps as they approach High School.  Learned a new term for an old scheme from this whole thing...when a parent donates a ton of dough to a school and gets their kid in based on that, the school justifies it by calling it "Institutional Advancement"  Not gonna debate the ethics of any of that cause while I find it ugly, it is legal.  In talking to many at our school everyone suspects that some families  may be going further than simply pushing/torturing their kids.  As for the kids themselves, their view of the scandal was "you can do that?" and view the revelations as a road map.

It is also a story that crosses generations.  I ask Babydoll if she know this Olivia Jade character and of course she does.  She knew her mom was some actress, but she doesn't know Aunt Becky and why would she.  Lori Loghlin is 53 years old., just like me, so ancient history.   Full disclosure...I never watched a single episode of Full House but of course knew of it and absolutely found Lori Loughlin super sexy. Great hair and had a bod that appealed to my senses, but there was something about her eyes that lent an air of crazy.  Always trust the eyes.  Takes a certain kind of monster to raise a certain kind of monster, but who would have thought it would be Aunt Becky?  Anywho, it was a great opportunity to have a conversation about how shitty "people" can be at any age and about how one needs to be careful about the types of celebrities or role models one spends time following.  This little piece of shit off of the steaming pile of crap was a perfect example of how awful the "influencer" culture is.  In the Fyre documentary, they document how they paid that Kendall Jenner 250K to push it on her social media.  You saw the crap that Miss Olivia Jade has spouted I'm sure.  On one hand, sorta feel bad for these kids being outed for the spoiled idiots they are if they weren't aware of the behind the scenes shenanigans, but then you see how ugly their souls are...    I pray that this adds a nail to the coffin of this little influencer cultural detour and hope that this will help B-doll choose her clicking more wisely.

One more 'finally' for this week...I am giving up my crusade against the word 'pride'.  I feel no differently about it and can prove that 95% of the time people are using it to take credit for others accomplishments,  but people seem to get really offended when I call it out.  From now on when I hear it, will just roll my eyes in silent disgust..

March 9th, 2019

Hey there,

Stuff today.

Update on the hair project.  As a brief recap, due to a long bout with a bad case of scalp psoriasis, was not able to have long hair, but it went away for some reason and want to see what it looks like grown out.  Had a bush when I was little and the first nickname I ever had in elementary school was tumbleweed.  As you can see, that moniker was well deserved.

It is longer now than it has ever been and am committed to getting it to ponytail length.  It is drawing attention and receive comments from friends like, 'what's going on?' and even acquaintances like the ladies at the 7-11 are making gestures.  Got to thinking about what it is gonna look like and Weird Al came to mind although his curls are tight.  We met this guy at an Italian restaurant a few years ago and think it might be close.

It was the end of an era last weekend.  We moved to Seattle in 1995 and one of the first things I did was scan the radio dial for sports talk radio.  Soon found the fellas on KJR and listened all day.  While most of those fellas came and went, John Clayton's Saturday football show from 9a to Noon has been a rock.  He moved to 710 many years ago, but the show stayed the same with the weekly rotation of callers rarely changing: Commando Dave, Jet, Irish Menke, Raider Jim, JB in Renton, etc.  The show became easier to listen to in podcast form and have been  able to listen in Taiwan uninterrupted with it being my accompaniment on Sunday morning walks.  Hard to think of a time I missed it in those 24 years and John and his cast of characters have been friends all that time.

Last Sunday he announced the station was cutting the show.  He still does 2 hours daily and has regular spots on other shows on the station, but the Saturday show was all football and delivered in just the right way for me.  John said that the reason the station wanted to change the programming is that they have young voices at the station and they needed a platform,  and his show was the right spot to give them a go.  Doubt I'll listen to it as it is gonna be focused on "all sports" including new ones like e-sports to attract younger ears.  The obvious question is do younger ears even know what a radio is?  If these younger voices are so hot and need a platform, why aren't they doing YouTube or whatever the kids use to intake their information.  Sad and pissed in equal measure.

I try not to give recommendations about shows to watch cause that feels like a cliché.  Everyone has their pet one they recommend, but want to talk about one that I see getting ripped in the media that I really like.  It is The Orville and is Seth Macfarlane's ode to Star Trek.  The reviews I read feel like the person has never watched it cause they all call it a bad Star Trek Next Generation rip off and since it is Seth Macfarlane, gets dismissed as juvenile with Family Guy comparisons.  It is absolutely a rip off but intentionally so.  There are juvenile jokes too, but it isn't a slave to them but rather they are mixed in to show that there is still humor in the future.  The filming and effects are great, but what I like most about is the story lines are weird.  For example, if you know Star Trek's Worf character, he is a tough no nonsense warrior  The Orville has his doppelganger and in one episode, he almost destroys the ship due to an addiction to pornography.  I guess that does sound stupid, but it was done in a really noirish way.  Anyhoo, I say give it a try if you liked The Next Generation or stuff that is just weird. 

I hope to one day recommend a movie (or at least a Netflix series) that I am work shopping and it will star me or will cast someone like me (Weird Al?) to play me.  Got the idea watching the Oscars and reading the fallout from the Best Picture winner the Green Book.  .  Have never seen that film, but envision this movie as a cross between it and Karate Kid.

The pitch... I am the driver and my passenger is an old Chinese woman. We drive around and I take her to places like the beauty salon to get her hair permed, ironically in curls like mine, or to the store to buy clothes made from bygone era man-made fabrics in floral patterns where the top and bottoms clash.  We'll have conversations about our clash of cultures too.  She will ask me if I have gained weight on a daily basis (yes, because I eat my feelings) and I will roll my eyes when I see her elbow her way to the front of the produce stand.  We ultimately will find common ground over our mutual mistrust of an ethnic group to be named later. Coming soon

Mentioned before that there is a local Taiwan band that I really like called Crocodelia (they have an EP out on Spotify)  Crocodelia has been on hiatus for a while cause one of the brothers is doing his service time in the military, but the other brother, Yufu Chen, is performing with a cast of characters and we had the opportunity to see them in a tiny basement club.  The sound was absolutely atrocious but the talent of this guy still shined through.  Hope good things come to them and have committed to seeing his stuff whenever.

Went with a couple of buddies who are in a band and we are waiting for the show to start and see the instrument that the lady is playing below.

It has strings and keys and none of us know the name of it, but one of the guys says it is a panini press, which gives us a great idea.  I have been to shows, and saw someone do this on Saturday Night Live recently, where they have a performer paint a picture during the song/show.  It is a cool visual and adds to the overall experience,  We think that an equally cool experience, and one that would activate another sense during a show, would be to have a person on stage making panini's during the set.  They could put some flourishes to their efforts and hand the product to those in the crowd.  Doesn't have to be paninis per se, but who is saying 'no' to that?

While I was typing the above, just got an alert that they are playing next Friday night at a place with an excellent sound system.

A brief follow-up to something that has been bugging me since 2018.  When we were in Ireland, there were a ton of sheep and we saw many of them had paint on their backs.

Seemed like an odd thing as the wool is the product and thought it was a way to identify the owner.  Had a rare window with time to randomly search the Internet and found this blog post that details why they are.  They tie a bag of paint around a ram's neck and after he makes sweet love to a ewe, the farmer sees the paint on her back and knows to move her to another field where she can give birth to the next generation.

One more maybe not so brief follow-up to close festivities for today.  Pride.  Am on the offensive against not only the word but to get people to reevaluate the feelings of personal pride they have in other people's accomplishments for selfish reasons into just being happy for those people.

I don't know what the word for pride is in Chinese, but think it relates to their concept of 'face".  In preparation for this rant, I looked at some articles and think this one does a nice job defining it and comparing to western ideas on the topic....guilt v shame and individual v group based cultures and this even uses 'pride' as one of its definitions of 'face'.  Totally get it and with almost everything  there are positives and negatives to each...whatevs.

Here is why I'm beefed up about face this week.  Warning, when I go on a beef, the swears come out,   The school baseball team that I'm involved with is newish....they played softball for 35 years and only changed to baseball 3 years ago and so do not have a deep history with it and worse, do not have the facilities on campus to play.  We can practice but there's no space for a full field and we'd be knocking windows out in the neighbors apartments if we tried to hit.  That means we have to look off campus at public fields and there are many along the rivers around town.  The school researched and found some available and we reserved them for several nights of the week during our very short season.  We show up for the first one, 30 kids and coaches on a bus that takes 40 minutes to get there as it is rush hour, and there are local teams playing on the fields.  After more than an hour sitting on the bus waiting for the all the coaches and park officials to hash it out, they vacate and we get on the field.  We come out the next night and the exact same thing happens.  We are scheduled there the next few weeks but we decide not to pursue going there any more.

Here is how it gets explained to me.  Yes, we reserved the field, which I must say are free, but these local teams practice there every week.  They don't reserve them for whatever reason but just assume they are theirs cause they are there all the time.  Turns out that in the disputes at the fields those nights, we call the city reservation desk and the clerk that takes the reservations confirms we have the field and tells the locals to vacate, which they do not do.  The clerk then has to call her supervisor who has to get on his scooter and come down to tell the locals that the fields are ours.  Me, very Western/white boy is livid.   Our schools folks explain to me that we have to be sensitive to the local community.  As tax payers, thought we are part of the local community, but they tell me that since we are the rich kids, have to be extra deferential.  They go onto say that in the events of the nights we went out that the clerk lost face, the supervisor lost face and the local coaches lost face.  That's a lot of face.  Are we the rich kid school?  Absolutely positively.  We just want to play some ball, did the right stuff and we have to freaking suffer cause we don't want these folks, who all agreed on the facts, cause we don't want to cause someone to lose face?  Think it is all for the best that I was not part of the negotiations cause I woulda been brutal and it crossed my mind to tell these local folks they should be nice cause some of our kids are in families that own the 7-11's and they will need jobs one day.  Yes, it's no secret that I am a nasty asshole.  Facts are facts and get the fuck off my gawdamn field..  Feels suspicious to me and that we are using this face to protect people from being accountable.  We don't get the fields either way, so either the locals are gonna think the Americans are assholes for calling them out, or they are gonna think that we are pussies for not fighting for them.  You know where I stand on the asshole v pussy debate.    And if the Chinese are so worried about face, then why are there no end to shit on YouTube that shows employers humiliating their workers for poor performance.  Here is one where the staff has to crawl on the street after poor sales.

And while this one is hard to believe, sales people drinking piss for not meeting their targets.

Fuckface.