luck in the streets of little india

Last night, while wandering about the streets of Georgetown (on the island of Penang at the NW corner of peninsular Malaysia), somewhere in the vicinity of Little India, a smiling, scraggly bearded dude stops me mid-step and says: “You are a lucky man!”

“Really?!” I replied.
“You are a lucky man,” he repeated. “Do you know why?”

(Oh shit! This is exactly the way it went down with Christine on Khao San when she ran into that random Sikh guy who turned out to be a “fortune teller” asking for large sums of money. Except this guy is not wearing a turban and my name is not Christine.)

“Yes! I know.” I said as I smiled back.

Confused with my response, the scraggly bearded dude blankly stared in my direction. And had nothing else to say.

Still smiling, I walked away.

pomplamoose

This reminds me of those kutiman videos.

microblogging

Among the things you might have missed on this blog the past week: Bangkok went to hell and back in the blink of an eye. One day people are shooting each other dead, the next they’re shooting each other wet. The change felt sudden, much like my twitter updates.

1. from bangkok with love http://quinceminutos.wordpress.com/2010/04/09/from-bangkok-with-love/ #BKK #thaksin #redshirts #protests 1:45 AM Apr 10th via Seesmic
2. shit’s getn serious in #BKK! BTS closed, dead reporter, bullets flying, stay safe peops! #redshirts #thaksin (FYI I’m not near any of this) 8:27 AM Apr 10th via Seesmic
3. http://www.nationmultimedia.com/home/5-reportedly-killed-so-far-30126959.html #BKK #redshirts #thaksin 8:32 AM Apr 10th via Seesmic
4. whoa, 19 dead http://bit.ly/dnqqUq #BKK #Thaksin #protests 9:22 PM Apr 10th via Seesmic
5. it’s a sad day in Thailand http://bit.ly/cDDnP3 #BKK #Thaksin #redshirts #protests 9:34 PM Apr 10th via Seesmic
6. Happy Thai New Year 2553!!! 5:37 AM Apr 12th via Seesmic
7. Time to get WET!!! Sawasdee Pee Mai Thai!! 1:23 AM Apr 13th via Seesmic
8. Thai New Year is off the chain!!! Every new year celebration should be done this way. #offthechain #estonopasaencuba about 22 hours ago via Seesmic
9. tonight #ijuswannachill 10:00 PM April 15th via Seesmic

I spent a good part of the 11th at the Weekend Market, way on the other side of town. Bangkok seemed like London in the movie 28 Days Later: utterly devoid life. Luckily, this meant no traffic and an hour-long bus trip took less than 30 minutes. Even Jatujak was not its normal overcrowded self.

Hopefully things won’t descend back into madness just as quick.

from bangkok with love

Sorry I missed your call. Everything is alright here. The protests, the state of emergency and all that jazz, basically these are your standard annual political demonstrations in Bangkok. Sometimes things get a little more intense, like when they had to close off the airport two years ago-but that was due to the protests of the yellow-shirts who happen to be the main rivals of the red-shirts who are behind this and last year’s protests. (And I’m not even going to get into other groups and their shirt colors.)

Luckily, I happen stay just out of the reach of these protests. However, whenever I wanna do anything, I have to wade through the mess as I make my way into the city (like I’ll be doing tonight). Although with Thai New Year festivities coming up (April 13-15th), you never know.

Thanks for your concern, I promise I’ll keep you posted.

rest in peace Malcolm McLaren

Buffalo Gals by Malcolm McLaren & The World Famous Supreme Team.

on breaking the mold in the nickname department

Today I learned that Bangkok is nicknamed ‘The Big Mango’ and I can’ t help but to think this has something to do with New York’s world famous moniker.

Uh, okay… but wait, there are others…

the day miami took over bangkok

Last month, Freegums and Jen Stark and Juan Angel Chavez and P7 were brought together by Logan Bay to collaborate on Free-Size. The idea was to bring in a few artists from all over (Miami, Chicago, Bangkok) to spend some time laboring at the Sinudom Silk Screen Factory in Bang Khun Thian, a suburb of Bangkok, and deliver the world a product after one week.

After six arduous days of cross town driving, silk screening, paint mixing, fabric tearing, fabric cutting, wood chopping, t-shirt designing, interview giving, beer drinking and curry eating madness, the crew shared their creations with the part of the world that happened to be in and around BKK. The catch is that you had to bring yourself to the far flung outskirts of the city to see it. This turned out to be a very good thing since it kept the action far away from the meddlesome protests (still!) taking place in the heart of town.

For those who made it to the show, Free-Size had lots to offer: highly suggestive stuffed animals and grotesquely dope wall pieces courtesy of P7, fabrics in 3-D from Juan, snakes on a fabric by Freegums, what might be the last time Jen Stark works with fabric, 500THB tote bags, freshly screened tees, delicious Thai curry, traditional fermented Thai water (also known as Singha beer) and dancing giraffes. All courtesy of Apexart, the people who funded the show (and not to mention a helluva nice pre-party).

That all went down on March 13th, the day Freegums and Jen Stark (and Juan Angel Chavez and P7) took over (the outskirts of) Bangkok.

LINK.

neon lights

Last weekend I was showing a couple of friends around town and towards the end of the day, already well into the evening, I decided to take them to Chinatown.

I’ve only been to Chinatown once before, for the Chinese New Year celebrations when they close down the main street (Th Yaowarat) and all sorts of mayhem goes down: food stalls stack along the sides of the road, the smell of food and the sounds of chatter smother you from every direction, a day where Chinatown basically drowns in bodies, thousands of them. This was just a regular night though. It was close to 9pm and I really did not know what to expect.

We hopped on the MRT from Chatuchak Park (after a few hours at JJ) to the Hua Lamphong station. From there we walked in the same direction I remembered from before and although I wasn’t expecting to find a closed off road with a parade and fireworks signaling our arrival, I was hoping for something.

I got nothing.

We kept walking right through one of those garden variety unlit and deserted blocks, the ones you speed through hoping not to get mugged, and eventually caught a glimpse of heavy traffic, food stalls, people and neon lights.

LINK.