Some interesting links

I have been bad about updating this Blog lately. Sorry for that! This holiday season has been a hectic one for me.
So on that note Happy Holidays to all and a safe New Year.
The above pic was taken in Northern Laos, Feb 04. Laos is a great place to visit for budget travelers. Lots to see, nice people, ancient temples and ruins, Beautiful rivers and limestone mountains and best of all great food found cheap.
Below are some links you may want to check out. Some disturbing some informative and some just plain stupid
Phnom Penh Police Blotter
TV Torrents...Closed
Free MIT online classes
Lenore Cartoons
Salad Fingers cartoons

Amazing Race 6 to Begin

Nov 16 Amazing Race 6 begins!!!!!

Where is the Scene Gone?

So i went to see The Chinese Stars play a show last night at the Cotton Club of all places. They are touring with Kill Me Tomorrow and Moving Units. Moving Units is supposed to be getting quite a buzz right now. I thought they were good at what they did but t was nothing new and different. The Chinese Stars played first to a dismal crowd of about 25 people. Granted it was a tough night as Blonde Redhead & The Cramps were both in town that night. Also, it was a Tuesday night. I thought the fact that it was an 8pm show might bring more people out for it. I was way wrong. There was hardly anyone there. They crowd did enjoy the bands and stood up close to the stage at least.
Chinese Stars sounded really good. To bad there was no one there to see it. No wonder bands skip Atlanta so often when they tour. As a whole I think our fair city doesn't support touring up and coming bands that well. Especially when the said bands are a bit out of the norm. Kill Me tomorrow was pretty cool. Bass, guitar/effects and stand up drummer/effects. I felt the sound got muddy at times but that is to be expected with a sound like that and sound men who have never heard you. Again Moving Units i felt was good but nothing new and exciting.
Anyway the crew all crashed at my place for the night. We ended up at the Majestic for a quick bite then 3/4 of Chinese Stars headed to the Clermont Lounge and the other 1/4 came back to my place for the night. The others came over after their Clermont encounter. The usual, sleep in till almost 2pm. Down some bitter coffee then grab another bite at The Earl before they hit the road for Winston Salem. They are really sweet guys who i have kept in touch with for probably 6 years now.
Craig and Eric from Chinese Stars used to be in Arab on Radar. Jeff from Arab on Radar is in a new project called Made in Mexico.Steve plays in Athletic Automation.
They headed to Winston Salem and I headed home to crawl back into bed cause I was beat. Back to work in the am. Later

Mount St Helens Cam
The Chinese Stars
Made in Mexico

October Already

Wow I can't believe it is already October. The year is just flying by as usual. Seems like only a few months ago I was in Laos but that was in Jan. Lately I have been getting the travel itch bad. I find myself browsing the stories of other backpackers and travelers to Asia. I am so ready to head back for a month or so.
Not to much has been going on this week. Work was fine as usual. We are preparing to start out big catalog project. Every 2 years we produce a 250pg color catalog of all our product. Some pages have 50 items on it so it is a big task! I think I need a trip before we get started full steam to get my head in the right place.
Tues brings on some friends of mine from Providence RI. They play in a band called The Chinese Stars. Pretty cool stuff. I planned ahead this time and took the day after off of work. They are crashing here and don't have another show till Thurs in Roanoke VA. Should be a good time.

Old School Rock

So last Saturday I went to see Siouxsie Sioux with Budgie doing a Creatures and Banshees set. I was really excited for this show. I had seen them 4 times previously since 1987. They are really good live for the most part and pull the music off seamlessly. This time was VERY different.

First off Siouxsie has been having throat problems so I heard it was her decision not to have the air on until they came out on stage. Well of course by the middle of the show everyone was sweating sheets of water. It was hot as hell in there! They started off the set well with a great percussive piece from the Creatures catalog. Along with them was a Koto drummer from Japan which added to the incredible beats going on. Off to a good start I thought.

As the show continued it went down hill from there. Siouxsie's voice just wasn't up to par. She had 2 back up singers with her and was having trouble hitting some of the notes. It seemed like a struggle at certain points of the show. With the absence of Steve Severin the guitar dept was definitely lacking. Knox Chandler, a well respected musician in his own right, had double duty of bass and guitar. He did well but I felt he was missing from the mix at integral times. Could be the fault of the sound engineers or could be, that it was Siouxsie and Budgie rearranging the songs. Who knows but I wasn't thrilled. I felt Happy House was a disaster although everyone around me seemed to love it.
So we left right before the final encore and didn't say much. Again this is only my opinion and a lot of others at the show seemed to enjoy it. I will add that from what I was hearing this was the first Siouxsie performance for a lot of people.

I saw the Bauhaus reunion in NYC and that was amazing. I was 150% satisfied with that show and was fully expecting Siouxsie to do the same. Oh well, at least she still looks good on stage and Budgie still has what it takes in the percussion dept!

Next show review should be The Chinese Stars @ Cotton Club. Atl GA. Oct 5 2004
Chinese Stars are Eric and Craig from Arab on Radar. An ex member of Six Finger Satellite and one other guy. Sorry I forgot their names. I do feel bad but just to lazy to go look them uo right now.
Until later...

Cool New Toy

So I did an interesting online survery last evening. Usually I find the surveys boring for the most part. Rarely do I get an interesting one sent my way. This one was different and I knew it right from the first question.
They wanted the person who had last traveled to Japan to do the survey. I have never been there except to the airport in Tokyo. I have been all over SE Asia so I felt qualified for the survey. Anyway it turned out to be a cool gadget for travelers. Essentially you point the thing at a road sign, menu, flyer, magazine or whatever. It translates it all for you. Some extra features allow for current maps of where you are when you enter cross streets. Lots of other neat extras as well. It never gave a price or a hint of who was making it. Great tool for people traveling especially for Japan! I will have to get one when they come out and give it a good testing.

First ever post

What to say, what to say. I thought I would give this blog thing a try. So it's Saturday afternoon Labor Day weekend. I planned ahead and had yesterday off as well. Slept till 1, hit the grocery store, mowed the back yard then did a few small cleanups around the house. Real Exciting! There is the Drive-In Explosion going on at the Starlight Drive-In on Moreland Ave. Could be fun although so much rockabilly music would drive me crazy. Maybe just relax all weekend.

So far my new temp roommate is working out well. He pretty much keeps to himself. Trying to talk him into finding an apt near East Atl or Little 5 Points but he is still undecided.

I can't stop looking up travel crap on SE Asia. I have taken a total of 4 trips to the region and can't stop thinking about when I can get back again. I have visited Laos, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand 3 times now. I love the people, the food, the cultures, the excitement, the history and so much more.

Lately I have been getting the itch to play in a band again. I did it for 8 years from 92-2000. Lots of fun and met a lot of great people along the way. Not sure if I will scratch the itch or ignore it until the feeling passes.
All for Now...