Vanity's Travel Blog

Super Fucking Sweet

2012-01-29T23:21:00.003+07:00

Super Fucking Sweet, a set on Flickr.

Last night my friends Noah's Tape opened for Black Lips at Nakarin Theater. It was an amazing show. Noah's Tape get better and better every time I see them. Black Lips had a ton of energy, they are known for putting ona great show but I was worried about the Bangkok curse. I loved them, it was the best concert I've seen in Bangkok.

After the show, I went to Club Culture with "the boys" and danced to down and dirty drum n' bass for like 5 hours. It was a lovely night but now I need to catch up on sleep!

Here are some videos I took of the show last night:

I got to go to the "VIP VIP" area to talk to the Black Lips and they are really nice guys. I'm so glad they played a show here.

So the end of January marks 3 years of my not being in America, not even to visit. It feels nice, especially since the news coming out of there is scary as fuck. The Oakland police brutality is not even the worst of it, I am trying my best to ignore the GOP primaries, only receiving bits and pieces of the batshit things these assholes are saying...it's like do you realize that the whole world is watching you say stupid shit?

I'm very happy I am not living in America and I still love Bangkok. Having amazing friends here helps me feel at home and happy. They make a big difference and I am so grateful to have them.

I also have my kitties and work at a job that pays shit but I enjoy much more than the soul-sucking desk jobs back in Los Angeles...I also have a really good tutoring gig 3 days a week that is adding a big chunk of income for me. I am really happy about that. It means I'll have more money to be able to save and travel.

I really want to go to Burma and Bali with year and that's close enough that it should be very easy to accomplish that but I also have a whole month off in July so I want a trip somewhere further, maybe go back to visit friends in Los Angeles for a few days and take a trip around Latin America or go to Europe and visit some sexy friends in Paris and Spain or go for something more nature-oriented and chill in the Galapagos Islands. Anything can happen. The year of the dragon has been really good to me so far...

Year of the Dragon

2012-01-23T23:55:00.001+07:00

Year of the Dragon, a set on Flickr.

Happy Chinese New Year! New Year #2, 2 more to go!

New Year's Eve in Kanchaniburi

2012-01-07T07:53:00.002+07:00

New Year's Even in Kanchaniburi, a set on Flickr.

Had to get the fuck out of Bangkok for New Year’s Eve and see some nature. Decided on Kanchaniburi which is on the River Kwai. Saw a Chinese cemetery, bats, cave Buddhas and robot police men. Happy 2555!

Flooding in Thailand

2011-11-20T15:12:00.004+07:00

Bang Bau Tong, a set on Flickr.

It's been awhile since I've updated here since there is so much going on. The big news is Todd and I broke up after 4 years of being together so I'm living in a studio apartment on Thong Lor which is a nice area. Mark is with me and he's been having a hard time getting used to a smaller place. So have I but it is nice not having to hand wash laundry anymore, I have my own washer here! My back is happy.

This flood situation has been a problem for a couple months but did not really scare residents of Bangkok until about a month ago which is right when I moved out by myself.

It was a little scary dealing with the fear that your home is going to flood while dealing with a break up and a sick cat. Mark had a urinary tract infection and was pissing everywhere. AND there was no internet, I just finally got it hooked up this past week. It took them forever and the language barrier didn't help. Not having internet was probably the most traumatic.

So the flooding has been one of the most confusing things I've ever had to experience. The government was very vague about what was going on, giving mixed messages of things being ok and and all hell breaking loose. I have yet to really see anything comprehensive on the flooding, it's just bits and pieces here and there but it is really hard to grasp the magnitude of the situation and was made worse by lack of proper communication on the government's part.

People in Bangkok were freaking out and hoarding food and supplies. All 7-11's, Family Marts and market chains were completely out of bottled water and running out of common items from toilet paper to coca cola. Even most gum and candies are out of stock right now. 7-11 just sells condoms and dried fish right now.

The tap water here is drinkable in that it won't get you sick but it tastes like shit. I felt fortunate when I came across some bottles of Evian water in the store but then soon realized it tasted worse than tap water. I have some water dispensers in my area but have not been able to find gallon jugs to fill them up. I just have long water bottle but that has been fine.

Right now it seems as if the flood has gone where it's going to go and there isn't this sense of doom that my area is going to flood anymore. Basically all the outskirts of Bangkok are flooded, central Bangkok, where I am is fine. I had not seen any flooded areas except on television while I was out on errands or pics and footage on the internet. I have a television at my new place but no channels and I am not paying for television, I hate tv anyway.

I did get to do my annual tv watching while dog sitting at a really swank condo for a couple that work for the American embassy. Thai PBS had a lot of footage of flooded communities and it was heartbreaking.

It's been a surreal month and it was made more surreal yesterday when I finally had a chance to visit a flooded community to volunteer. It was an incredible experience and I'm so glad I went. I borrowed Todd's camera and took tons of pics and shot lots of video which I need to edit today.

I had a very rare look at what life is like for victims of the flood. Most Westerners have been going to flood shelters located in unflooded areas, or helping make care package like I did a few weeks ago with friends and it's important work but not the same as actually being in a flooded community and seeing people in waist to neck deep flood water with your own eyes.

The flood shelter was located at a temple in Bang Bau Tong. The only way to get there was by boat. I ended up hearing about this through the owner of a new vegetarian restaurant that opened in my area called May's Veggie Home.

The owner, May, had been cooking every weekend for flood survivors living at a shelter located in the planetarium nearby. Her mother's home was flooded so she was living with her at the restaurant. May had met a motorcycle taxi driver who was able to hook her up with a foundation that would transport her, other volunteers and food to the flooded community of Bang Bau Tong as well as arrange for the boats. May invited me to go along with her and I was so glad I did. Waking up at 5am was easier than I thought it was and the experience was well worth the lack of real rest.

Seeing the flood in person for the first time was surreal. What made it more so were the people who were thrown in such an unexpected situation. The water flooded the town within minute in the middle of the day so cars and even taxis were still parked on the street and were now destroyed. People living on one story buildings lost everything while those living in two story homes lost mostly everything.

Riawfang, one of the volunteers that sat next to me on the boat, while handing out food to people living in flooded homes, had a home in that town that was flooded. She was lucky because she worked at a hotel which allowed her and her family to stay for free so she didn't have to live on the 2nd story of her flooded house or the temple but she wanted to come back and volunteer to help her community. She had not been back to her village in a month.

While her mother chatted up their flooded neighbors, Riawfang looked at her community and sighed. Her English was perfect since she worked at a hotel so she was great at explaining the situation to me and her feelings about it. She was sad but still grateful with what she had because she said others had it much worse. Her job at the hotel got her out of what could have been a much worse situation.

The monks, volunteers and flood survivors at the temple shelter were amazing people. Some were very nice, others kept to themselves while others were friendly but did some horrifying shit like beat dogs with sticks. It was a totally different world and I did my best to adapt and help out.

Seeing all those stranded dogs was tough. Temples in Thailand are typically their own little community with several separate buildings used for different things. The main area was used to shelter the flood victims, the monks slept in another building but would come by boat for ceremonies and to receive food. There other buildings were temporary homes for dozens of dogs.

Having so many dogs at the temple is common since people tend to dump unwanted animals there knowing they will be cared for by the monks. It's the closest thing Thailand has to an animal shelter besides small foreign operated organizations like SCAD which do not have the capacity to care for all the unwanted animals in Thailand. So when the flood happened, of course all the dogs living at the temple and surrounding areas were affected as well. The locals have been doing their best to feed and care for them but a lot of the dogs have mange and other diseases and really need medical attention.

Thus the 100 dog temple, located at a building not far from the main flood shelter but still only reachable by boat. This building houses about 100 dogs and 4 buffalo. The monks and shelter residents feed the animals every day. Many of the dogs have collars and are used to being around people and receiving affection. when I went to visit the 100 dog temple, they were smiling and surrounding me since I was armed with fresh food and water but not nearly enough of it for all of them. I wish I had known that there would be so many dogs, I would have bought dog food but I had no idea what to expect before going to this area.

After visiting the dogs at the temple and not going too near the buffalo which looked a bit agitated at my presence, I went back to the main shelter area to help cook and pack food and supplies.

The dogs followed the boat as we left, some even swam behind the boat. There was another building which had a ledge for the dogs to walk around so some of the dogs would swim back and forth between their main area and the ledge. A dog on the ledge was howling and I could hear other stranded dogs barking in the distance. I wonder what they were saying to each other.

That plus the interesting characters back at the shelter made me feel like I was in a Werner Herzog film. I would not have been surprised if a chicken started dancing.

The monk that steered our boat to get to the temple shelter was one of my favorite characters on that journey. He was a smiley man that cracked a lot of jokes and had a Buddhist prayer tattooed on his head. Right as we were leaving to go back to Bangkok, he dove head first into the flood water for a swim while wearing his orange monk robe. He jumped out and rubbed his head as if he had just come out of a pristine refreshing lake instead of shit water.

The spirits of the people were pretty positive. People were laughing and joking just like they would if things weren't flooded. Watching them cook together, pray together and help their neighbors made it seem like a normal Thai village which it was, it's just that these villagers had lost practically everything and had no idea what was in store for them.

The Thai government has promised 5,000 baht ($162.55) to each flooded family but as one resident pointed out, that wasn't even enough to replace a door. A farang and Thai couple were telling me how they had just bought brand new furniture at their home from Index Living which is an expensive Ikea-like furniture store. All they were able to salvage was a now moldy couch but everything else was gone. David, from England was teaching in Ayutthaya but his wife owned a home in Bang Bau Tong. She missed her home but could not go back until the water went down.

There were only a few families living at the temple, There had been more but they moved with family outside of the flooded area while others still lived in the second floor of their home while the first floor remained flooded. I asked why they were living there and people said the families wanted to watch their stuff and they wanted the comfort and privacy of their own home.

After a lot of cooking of food I couldn't eat (May was kind enough to pack some mushroom burgers for me) and putting together bags of food and drinks for families living in their flooded home, the monks arrived for lunch time. There were over 20 monks of varying ages from 70 to 10 years of age. It was some sort of special Buddhist holiday or weekly ceremony, it was hard to get a clear answer as to what it was for but David the Englishman said they did it about once or twice a week.

Food was laid out in on front of the long row of monks and the head monk began a prayer and began chanting and passing down a roll of white string so that all the monks were connected by the string.

After the monks chanted, the residents and volunteers chanted and this went back and forth for about 20 minutes. I love monk chanting.

After the ceremony, the monks ate. A lot of them were sporting some really nice ink, one had a huge dragon on his arm and part of his chest and many had Buddhist prayers tattooed on their arms and backs.

Then it was time for everyone else to eat. May explained that monks eat first for good luck. I ate my mushroom burger which was really good and spoke to David and his wife about their situation. They had been living at the temple for 3 weeks and David was the one who spoke to Channel 3 a week ago about getting a toilet.

News stations and volunteer organizations were showing up regularly at the shelter to help. Before the floating toilet was installed, people were using personal boxes out in the open to go to the bathroom, there was no privacy at all.

I had to use the floating toilet a couple times even though I tried really hard not to drink too much water. Aside from the smell, it wasn't bad, just like a porta-potty that moved around too much. And you had to flush with extra dirty flood water.

After everyone ate and we packed more food, it was time to deliver it to the community. I went with the chief of the town who knew everyone who was living in their home and was making sure they were getting enough food and water. Also on my boat was Riawfang, her mother and either her aunt or a close family friend. They all lived together in the house that flooded but were staying at the hotel.

Riawfang's mother and aunt were chatting up their neighbors and cracking jokes. The neighbors smiled and chatted back. A few were a bit stone faced for obvious reasons but most were living up to the "Land of Smiles" slogan.

When May asked me later what I thought about my experience, I said it didn't feel real and it was amazing how people were still positive and thankful even thought they were in such a tough situation. Riawfang responded by asking "What choice do we have?"

Thais are an amazing people. Their culture of not showing any negative emotions can be helpful in certain situations and hurtful in others. With the case of the flood, the government not telling people that something bad was about to happen and not giving them fair warning to prepare and evacuate cost a lot of lives and devastated many families. But after losing everything and seeing so much devastation, the Thai attitude of staying positive and continuing on as usual does help a lot to keep spirits high.

When you're in a fucked situation your choices are to despair or pick yourself up and keep going. Thais are really really good at moving on no matter what happens to them and make it look easy even though they are dealing with some really trying obstacles. I think Buddhism has a lot to do with them being able to pull that off. I admire that.

As of this post, 602 deaths have been reported, 19 provinces in Thailand are flooded and 1,921,263 households have been affected.

No one knows what will happen next.

Gods & Flames: The Cleansing

2011-10-08T01:29:00.001+07:00

TracyVanity's photostream on Flickr.

The last night of the vegetarian was one of the most intense nights I've ever experienced. Way more so than last year. The photos don't really capture the primal energy that vibrated throughout my neighborhood but I hope it gives you some idea. Walking down my street was like tripping on mushrooms. Video coming soon.

Gods & Flames

2011-09-30T01:30:00.000+07:00

Daily Bang: Monsoon Season

2011-09-29T22:40:00.001+07:00

Daily Bang: Monsoon Season, a set on Flickr.

I know I don't update this blog as much as I should, I've been photodumping recently but given the 10+ various internet mediums I communicate use, I tend to only regularly update 1\4 of them.

I'm used to flickr now and like that I can post my albums on pretty much every blog/social network and add tags...there are still some things I don't like about it but it seems to be the best place to upload pics.

My "Daily Bang" series started on Facebook when I first moved to Bangkok. Every season, I make a new album. It's the tail end of monsoon season here and facebook sucks more cock than the nominees for the AVN awards. I unfortunately still use that stupid site since most of my friends are still on it but I'm trying to wean myself off of it, hence using flickr instead of facebook photos.

I update flickr at least once a week since I'm always taking pictures so if you enjoy my eye then please add me on there if you have an account.

Enjoy!

1st day of the 9 Emperor Gods Festival in BKK

2011-09-29T22:28:00.001+07:00

1st day of the 9 Emperor Gods Festival in BKK, a set on Flickr.

Fire, trances and elephant gods. This past Monday marked the beginning of the Thai Vegetarian Festival which means a massive parade and street celebration on my Hindu street for the beginning of this 10-day festival. It also means cheap vegan street food for 10 days!

Ayutthaya

2011-09-03T11:47:00.006+07:00

Ayutthaya , a set on Flickr.

Pics from an impromptu road trip to the old capital of Thailand. I had no idea there was a Buddhist space cult!

Excellent Ladyboy documentary

2011-09-03T11:10:00.000+07:00

Two talented photo journalist friends of mine produced this documentary for Sky News. I thought they did an amazing job not only showing a good diversity of ladyboys here in Thailand but also by comparing it to two Western experiences, you can see the difference of how society views transgendered people and how even though Thais do tolerate ladyboys, it is not accepted enough that they can change their gender legally like they can in America and other Western countries.

I love seeing Thailand and Bangkok portrayed accurately in the Western media without sensationalizing it. There is no need to, the reality is fascinating enough and this video does a great job describing how go-go bars operate here.

After reading dozens of books on gender, prostitution and ladyboys and also going to many go-go bars and working on a ladyboy documentary myself, I enjoyed this documentary a lot.

I was able to catch the Miss Tiffany event when they came to Bangkok to narrow down the contestants but missed the final show in Pattaya, I'm definitely making it next year. The women are stunning and the show looks amazing!

Speaking of ladyboys, I'm still working on editing the latest footage from The Katoey Project. I have a lot to do this weekend but it's all fun creative stuff.

New SCAD Centers

2011-08-21T17:13:00.001+07:00

I finally visited SCAD this past week. I hadn't visited since they moved to two new centers further away from me. It was a day-long excursion. I have so much video to edit but I managed to edit video of my latest visit:

The centers are nice, the dogs have a lot of room and I'm glad there they have two new staff members that really love animals and are dedicated to keep the place going. I was really happy to see Herbie again, I love that dog.

I also want baby Woodstock!

You can view more pics here. I don't know about flickr, I like how easy it is to organize my pics but I can't hotlink pictures even though I should be able to, it's annoying.

Tomorrow I go back to work. I wish I had one more week off, just one more. The month went by too fast.

'Nam

2011-08-21T16:56:00.001+07:00

During my first week of my month-long summer break, Todd and I finally went to Vietnam. It was my first time there and Todd's 3rd or 4th. We went to Saigon/Ho Chi Minh City and Can Tho.

Since we only had 4 days and 3 nights in 'Nam, we spent most of it waking up early and rushing from place to place. Todd pointed out that it was my first time on an airplane since moving to Thailand 2 years ago. I can't believe it's already been two years! We moved here in August of 2009...time is such a funny thing. I keep writing dates wrong, it takes me a few seconds to remember what year is it and how old I am (28). Time becomes more and more inconsequential to me.

Vietnam was fun. I love going to a new country. The first things I noticed about Ho Chi Minh City were the communist flags and the millions of motorbikes.

I thought Bangkok had a lot of motorbikes, the ratio of motorbikes to cars in Saigon was like 50:1. There was also a lot of constant honking, it reminded me of Marrakech. Thais rarely honk but Vietnamese people are not reserved like Thais and have no problems being loud.

Straw hats are common all over Asia and even Los Angeles since there are a ton of AZNs but Vietnamese people seemed to rock them more often than I'd seen in other parts. I liked it and kept taking pictures of people wearing straw hats and even bought one for a good friend of mine who had to come to Vietnam with me since that is his birthplace. More on that later...

Another common thing in Vietnam that was also fucking awesome were the BAGUETTES! OMG I ate like 20 of those in the 4 days I was there. I LOVE bread and Thailand was never colonized by any Euros so the bread here sucks. You can get decent bread at the high-so gourmet farang markets but it's not the same as a freshly-baked 20-cent street baguette in Vietnam.

Cheap avocados! Why don't they have these in Thailand? The avocados here are imported from Australia and cost $2 on a good day...I'm not addicted to pills but I sure as hell am addicted to avocados. I made avocado sandwiches every day with those fresh baguettes and was very happy.

My first meal in Vietnam was a simple noodle stir fry with tofu that was delicious. Vietnamese people use soy sauce to flavor their food so finding local vegan food is much easier than it is in Thailand. Thais use fish sauce for everything. Vietnamese food is also less oily. Thai food is great but it's not healthy, between all the meat they put in everything, the oil and the coconut milk...it's no surprise that heart disease is so rampant here.

For dinner the first night we ate at this amazing vegetarian restaurant that the owner of the nice guest house we stayed out recommended. The place had a huge menu of totally original dishes that were a fusion of everything SE Asia had to offer as well as vegetarian versions of traditional Vietnamese dishes, including vegetarian snake...

There was no way I was going to try the veggie snake so we stuck to some lotus seed fried rice, tofu and mushrooms in some amazing sauce and vegan chicken. The food was amazing! I need to find the business card I picked up from that place because I really want to steal some of those recipes and make a cookbook or start a chain of restaurants. I've never had food like that in my life and this is coming from someone who cooks really well and is very picky about food. Shitty food pisses me off.

Todd says this shirt sums up Vietnam. It's a communist country but loves capitalism, pretty much how all communism turns out.

Seeing a whole family packed in one motorbike was also very common. Thailand is supposed to be the "Land of Smiles" but I thought Vietnamese people were much friendlier.

In terms of nightlife, there really wasn't much of one in Saigon. Since Todd had been there several times, he knew that one night in Saigon would be enough and suggested we go to Can Tho the following morning. He was correct, after a day and night there you get the picture, it's not a very big city and after you see the main events like the War Remnants Museum and water puppet show, you can move on to without feeling like you are missing out on something.

The War Remnants Museum was cool, it had American army weapons and helicopters, a lot of pictures taken by photo journalists from both sides of the war, most of whom were killed while trying to document the horrible shit going on. There were recreations of prison cells, a whole wing devoted to the devastation caused by Agent Orange and art inspired by the war. I had "The End" by the Doors stuck in my head the entire time. I still think about that song when I think about 'Nam, not because there is anything dire about the place, but because I have watched Apocalypse Now too many times, there is no way not to have that association.

Todd said that over the years, the tone of the museum has begun to lean more towards an attempt at
neutrality and unbias instead of outright anti-American propaganda. Considering what the U.S. did over there, I don't mind some biased America-bashing.

After checking out the museum we saw a Vietnamese water puppet show, not having any idea what to expect.

It was awesome.

I took video that I will upload soon. I love puppetry so much and this was very unique. There is an international puppet festival and this troupe won some awards. It was a lot of fun.

The next day we woke up early and took the bus to Can Tho, which is the largest Vietnamese city along the Mekong River. Todd did not want to buy some tour package so we got a more realistic experience of Vietnam and were the only foreigners at the bus stop.

Our guesthouse in Can Tho was right across from a giant statue of Uncle Ho Chi Minh and was a popular hangout for local families during the evening.

The highlight of the trip was the 8 hour boat ride down the Mekong. Our fixer at the guesthouse spoke perfect English and understood that we did not want the typical tourist package which include checking out some floating markets. We've been living in Thailand 2 years and have avoided floating markets because they are total tourist traps. Thais eat street food and the ones who do cook pick up their stuff at land markets but white people like floating markets.

We asked to see as much jungle as possible and to skip the floating market if possible. She understood and totally delivered.

Our boat driver was a very friendly man that welcome us inside the boat with a hand-weaved a bouquet of jungle flowers for me. He also crafted a grasshopper mobile as well as a bunch of jungle bling that included necklaces, bracelets, rings and even earrings and a crown for me and Todd during the 8 hour boat ride.

The ride was 98% jungle with just a bit of floating market that ended up not being a tourist trap, locals actually do use them, it wasn't just for white people.

Each boat had a sample of their wares hanging on top of a pole to advertise what they are selling. It was a good system. All the boats had eyes too.

It's monsoon seasons here in SE Asia so it rained during our ride. The boat had a cover and the boat driver handed us rain ponchos so the rain was enjoyable.

It was such a beautiful, relaxing ride, I was sad when it was over.

I missed the jungle as soon as we stepped back onto land. I recommend that trip to anyone. We definitely took the road less traveled because we kept running over floating shrubs and passing by locals who looked puzzled at seeing foreigners in that part of the river. All the kids said "hello" in English when we passed by them. They were very friendly, even when armed with machetes.

After two nights in Can Tho we went back to Saigon where I found a Vietnamese straw hat to fit my best friend Mr. Scruffles.

I met Mr. Scruffles at a Rite-Aid pharmacy back in Los Angeles some years back and noticed that his tag said he was "hand-crafted in Vietnam":

So of course he came on the trip with us. Mr. Scruffles was very happy to return to his roots and I was happy to find a hat that fit him.

I really would like to go back to Vietnam again and have more time to check things out. Todd said he rode a motorbike from Saigon to Hanoi during one of his trips and really enjoyed that. I would like to do that but I can't drive a car or motorbike. I would crash every minute which happened to a friend of his when he tried to ride one for the first time.

You can view the rest of the photos here, I took hundreds!

from the jungles of the Mekong in Vietnam to a Kowloon Dream party in Bangkok's Chinatown

2011-08-01T15:13:00.000+07:00

The past week was spent running around exploring Saigon and Can Tho in Vietnam. It was my first time in 'Nam so I was really excited. I had been wanting to visit since we moved so SE Asia. Todd had the week off but still needed to do some grading at the university so we didn't have much vacation time.

Our friend Hood was also having a huge Wong Kar Wei party on Saturday and we couldn't miss it. So overall we spent 4 days, 3 nights in Vietnam and literally had to rush home from the airport on Saturday night to get ready for the party.

It was worth not having an extra day in Vietnam, the party was amazing. I loved seeing my friends looking all snazzy. It was like an adult prom but awesome and with people you like being around.

I've been trying to find a site to upload all my pictures too. I didn't like flickr because it wouldn't let you hotlink images but I see the recently changed that so I might stick with it.

More on Vietnam on my next entry since I'm still editing the pictures. Here are the pics from the Kowloon Dream party.

www.flickr.com

TracyVanity's Kowloon Dream photoset

Monks teach maleness to Thai 'ladyboys'

2011-07-16T14:58:00.000+07:00

AFP - The 15-year-old aspiring "ladyboy" delicately applied a puff of talcum powder to his nose -- an act of rebellion at the Thai Buddhist temple where he is learning to "be a man".

"They have rules here that novice monks cannot use powder, make-up, or perfume, cannot run around and be girlish," said Pipop Thanajindawong, who was sent to Wat Kreung Tai Wittaya, in Chiang Khong on the Thai-Laos border, to tame his more feminine traits.

But the monks running the temple's programme to teach masculinity to boys who are "katoeys", the Thai term for transsexuals or ladyboys, have their controversial work cut out.

"Sometimes we give them money to buy snacks but he saved it up to buy mascara," headteacher Phra Pitsanu Witcharato said of Pipop.

Novice monks' days pass as in any other temple -- waking before dawn, collecting alms and studying Buddhism -- but every Friday attention turns to the katoeys at the attached school.

"Were you born as a man or a woman or can you not specify your gender - not man or woman?" asked Phra Pitsanu at a recent assembly. "You cannot be anything else but your true gender, which is a man. As a novice you can only be a man."

The temple has a stricter interpretation than others of rules governing behaviour during Buddhist training that is a key childhood experience for many Thai boys.

Pupils are banned from using perfume and make-up and prohibited from singing, playing music and running.
"We cannot change all of them but what we can do is to control their behavior to make them understand that they were born as a man... and cannot act like a woman," said Phra Pitsanu.

The Kreung Tai temple has run the course for boys aged between 11 and 18 since 2008, after former principle Phra Maha Vuthichai Vachiramethi devised the programme because he thought reports of katoeys in the monkhood had "affected the stability of Thai Buddhism".

He told AFP that he hopes the teaching methods will be rolled out to other temple schools to "solve the deviant behavior in novices".

It is an attitude that enrages gay rights and diversity campaigner Natee Teerarojanapong, who said trying to alter the boys' sense of gender and sexuality was "extremely dangerous".

"These kids will become self-hating because they have been taught by respected monks that being gay is bad. That is terrible for them. They will never live happily," he told AFP.

Gay and katoey culture is visible and widely tolerated in Thailand, which has one of the largest transsexual populations in the world, and Natee said the temple's programme is "very out of date".

But Phra Atcha Apiwanno, 28, disputed the idea that society accepted ladyboys and said he joined the monkhood because of social stigma about his sexual identity.

"The reason I became a monk is to train my habits, to control my expression... I didn't want to be like this," he told AFP.

Monks have had limited success in their project -- three of the six ladyboys to have graduated from the school are said to have embraced their masculinity, but the remaining three went on to have sex changes.
Pipop said he has struggled with his sexuality at the temple.

At home in Bangkok he dressed like a girl, putting on make-up and taking hormones until he developed breasts, but he has since stopped the treatment and wears only a surreptitious dab of powder at the temple.
He does not believe he will live up to his family's hopes that he will become more manly.

"I can make them proud even I'm not a man," the teenager said, adding he had given up his ambition to be an airhostess and now aspires to work in a bank.

He thinks he will have a sex change after graduation. "Once I leave the monkhood the first thing I want to do is to shout, to scream out loud saying: 'I can go back to being the same again!'"

Source

My latest project:

2011-07-09T00:17:00.002+07:00

Email update

2011-07-08T02:24:00.002+07:00

I tend to take forever to respond to friend's emails since I write a lot and put at least an hour into my responses since there's a lot to say. Seemingly simple questions like "how are you?" could take up to 1,000 words to accurately respond to.

Since a lot of my emails responses to friends reflect what I've been up to here in Bangkok and what's been going on with me, I'm going to start copying parts of my emails here.

I have altered the emails to leave out personal info about my friends. Even though I'm open about my life, I don't think some of my friends are the same way about theirs. Also, I've expanded on a few things and fixed grammar errors of which you will still see some even after heavy editing. I'm hesitant about writing TOO much in my emails because I feel like I'm just talking about myself too much which I tend to do anyway. But for the blog, I have no problems writing too much since that's why I have a blog about me in the first place. Vanity and all that...

Did you do anything for the 4th of July? I haven't really celebrated the 4th since living in Morocco. At the time, we were invited by the American embassy to have a bbq with games and swimming but no alcohol since it's a Muslim country. That was pretty funny. We really wanted alcohol. I'm sure the embassy had a better party with alcohol in Bangkok but it was on a Monday so I just stayed in and watched True Blood with a friend. I am not into tv shows but my friends insisted I watch and I was addicted to it from the start.Guilty pleasure.

There was an election here this week. Basically, Thaskin, the millionaire who manipulated the poor people for his own benefit and fled Thailand so he wouldn't be jailed by the yellow shirt party, had his sister run on his behalf. She won by promising that things would be better and because she's attractive and carries herself well, especially on T.V. Giving a good show is more important than having any sort of substance, this is more true in Thailand than Hollywood.

The election was a joke (the above was a real campaign poster btw), in the end nothing has changed but as long as there is this illusion of change, the poor people will not protest, especially if they get a bit of money and material crap thrown at them. There is a small super rich elite that are still getting 95% of the wealth while most people here make $7 a day which is the minimum wage here. That's daily not hourly! Similar things happen in all countries through, America has their share of small-elite-group-getting-everything but the poverty level here is much worse.

Not the Nation (Thai version of the Onion) ran a parody piece about the election that wasn't subtle at all or even a parody, it just came across as accurate reporting, much more than the non-parody papers like the Bangkok Post or the Nation which do seem like parody papers most of the time.

It's sad seeing stuff like that but it's reality. I still enjoy living here and am actually scared of going back to the U.S, even to visit, since it would be way too much culture shock. I'm very comfortable here. It's weird to say that considering the things I've seen here that most people would flee from but for some reason it doesn't make me want to go back home.

I've been thinking a lot about what to do with myself. Bangkok is a limbo city, it's so easy to piss away years just partying, vacationing and really doing nothing. So many people get stuck here. If you just want an easy, relaxing life, it's the perfect place to be. I don't get why more old people don't retire here, especially if they don't have that much retirement money since they could live very well here and have excellent cheap medical care.

Since I want to do something with my life, I do get depressed about not doing more with myself artistically and for animal rights causes. I've been doing little things but I really want to do a lot more.

I have been doing a lot of research on animal trafficking, human trafficking and Thai culture. Right now I'm working with Todd and some friends on a book about Thai ladyboys. I'm filming the making of the book and will use it towards my own katoey documentary and possibly Satang.

Katoey culture here is fascinating. It's not the same as the transgendered culture in the West, here there is a deep cultural tradition of men who strongly feel they are women and it dates back thousands of years, even before Thais officially became a Buddhist nation. There was even a time when ladyboys had status here but because of Westernization, even though there are so many ladyboys and it's a big part of their culture, there is a shame about it now since men acting like women is not acceptable in the West. So katoeys, even if they are well-educated, only have 3 choices of jobs: prostitution, cabaret shows for tourist or really horrible paying menial jobs working long hours at a store or bank and dealing with constant harassment and discrimination. And that's their work life, their love life is a bigger drama!

The project with my friend is a photo book that will reflect their lives but also focus on the beauty aspect of being a ladyboy. Their ultimate goal, besides having money is to be very beautiful. Pretty much every woman wants that but it's much more exaggerated with ladyboys since they have to have surgery to look like women and become addicted to the surgery and looking beautiful and perfect. It's super fascinating and I've been reading a lot of books about it and talking to ladyboys....I have a female video journalist friend who just shot an expose about Thai ladyboys and even got to visit a clinic that specializes in sex change operations. She was allowed to go inside the room while they were conducting the surgery!

There is a "tomboy" culture here of women who act like men and date women and this is not only much more acceptable but a lot of parents prefer their daughters have girlfriends so they remain virgins. Of course once their daughters reach the age where they should get married and have kids, they are expected to "grow out of it."

I have been wanting to do more to stop animal trafficking and help end the working elephant business. Animal trafficking is insane here but the small good news is there is a special branch of Thai police force dedicated to stop trafficking. They do undercover work and following suspected traffickers to the airport and arrest them once
they are caught trying to illegally smuggle animals. Anti-trafficking organizations/police catch about 26,700 trafficked animals in SE Asia a year and that's not even 5% of the animals that are trafficked and
not caught, especially since you can bribe police/airport officials easily and trafficking is very profitable, especially for people making $6 a day or less.

I just saw a huge sign in a very popular tourist area a few days ago from "Emirate Animal Shop" that offers to help import and export exotic animals. The pictures on the sign show cats and dogs and "legal" animals but it is obviously a front for the illegal animal trade especially since there is Arabic translation on the sign and the name of the company is Emirate. The Emirates are notorious for smuggling animals from Thailand because it is seen as status to have a caged up endangered animal in your mansion. The more endangered the animal, the higher the demand. It's pretty messed up. There aren't going to be any wild animals left at this rate so I really want to do something to stop this. I've been following organizations like Freeland and TRAFFIC and reported Emirate Animal Shop to them.

I don't want children but if I were a different person that did want kids I'd adopt either in SE Asia or Africa since the kids are cuter, the adoption process is easier and the kids are more in need of a chance at a better life. I have a really cute 5-year-old in my class whose mother is a prostitute and whose dad owns a go-go bar. Her mother fought with her dad a lot so her mother abandoned her and went back to her village and left her two daughters with the owner of a brothel. I have both girls in my class since it's summer school right now and today they were talking about how their dad gets angry at them a lot. The younger is always talking about not having a mother but she's really smart and calculating and purposely keeps herself from being emotional about it. She's 5 and can do that! These girls are going to be really screwed up when they're older. I wish I could adopt them.

There is a lot I want to do and I feel overwhelmed by it. I won't be happy until most of my time is spent on art and helping animals. Right now only a small part of my time is going towards that. I know what I want to do with myself, I just need to do everything I can to get to that point. I've been stopping and getting distracted a lot which happens to most people here but in the end I do end up applying these distractions to my art. Living life gives me something to write about.

My First Paying Photo Assignment

2011-06-28T21:38:00.001+07:00

I received my first paying photo assignment a few months back. The job was to take pictures of 25 locations around Bangkok in the span of a few weeks. I was excited about it and did not realize how much of a toll it would take on me, especially given that the weather started getting insanely hot and humid, the traffic is atrocious and I had started my new full-time teaching job after not having had steady worked for several months.

It was still a fun assignment, it opened my eyes to Bangkok again. Even though I still appreciate that I live in a colorful, busy, foreign city and still take pictures frequently, I had not had my "sightseeing" eyes in quite awhile and this assignment opened them back up again.

There are still a lot of places here I haven't been to that I should and this assignment was interesting because there were a variety of locations that were extreme experiences of the city, from a busy seafood restaurant in Chinatown to an outdoor amulet market that sells reproductions of old relics and amulets including fertility statues and fake dead babies.

I am happy to see all that sweating and sitting through shitty BKK traffic produced some decent photographs and I can now say I'm a paid photographer (although I've yet to actually be paid).

My pictures can be seen at Austrian Airlines Red Guide to Bangkok. Not all the pics on their Bangkok guide are mine, just the nicer ones ;) If you click on the little copyright logo on the picture you can see who took the pics although I already found one I wasn't credited for. Oh well.

Not all the pics I submitted were used since I submitted a couple pics for each location. I'm really happy with the way some of them turned out but some are pretty meh. The Soi Cowboy pic is probably my favorite even though I really hate that place. It's the worst go-go street in Bangkok and the most popular among tourists. And yes, there is a direct correlation between the shittiness of an area and the amount of tourists that go there.

When I started this assignment I spent hours at each location trying to get the "money shot" but towards the end, I was depressed and dying of heat and just trying to get 'er done. Some places also wouldn't let me take pictures so I had to do some sneaky drive-by's.

Regardless of all the shit I had to go through to get these shots, the only thing that matters is the final product. Here is what I submitted for my first paid photo gig, does this make me a real photographer now?

Tha Prachan Amulet Market

Located across from a big monastery, many of the customers at Tha Prachan are monks on the lookout for rare Buddhist amulets. There are also tons of amimist amulets that I'd never seen before. I took tons of photos at this amulet market and will be making a separate post about it since there is so much more so be said about it. I love photographing monks. My dream is to get a pic of a monk smoking a cigarette. I've seen a couple but have been too intimidated to take a picture of them. They tend to have a "don't fuck with me" expression on their face, which is partially why I want to photograph it.

T& K Seafood

I seriously almost threw up while taking pics at this location. Located in the heart of busy-ass Chinatown on a street filled with shark fin restaurants, this popular seafood eatery has an outdoor kitchen where piles upon piles of live prawns are cooked alive on an open flame and dozens of live crabs are piled onto each other and stabbed to death before being thrown on the grill. Really gross shit. I learned to never accept a photo job at a non-vegan friendly restaurant again. Since I was overwhelmed by a long list of locations to shoot, I did not think about the moral issues I would have until I got there and by then it was too late to turn back.

Nadimos

This Lebanese restaurant is about a block away from my apartment. It is seriously the shittiest Lebanese food I've ever had in my life. Todd, some friends and I went to eat there last year and were disgusted with everything we ordered and ended up spending like way too much money for crap. The hummus looked and tasted like mayo according to those who ventured to try. My vegan senses noticed there was milk on that shit a mile away so I didn't have an "accident" and consume any of it. There are some hookahs but it literally took two hours for someone to come light it for us even though there was barely anyone there. Fuck that place.

Spring Summer

A huge over-priced restaurant with mediocre food decorated with a "seasonal theme" in different buildings. This is the "Summer" lawn. Relaxing on giant pillows outdoors by candlelight seems like it would be a chill way to pass the time but I found the atmosphere of the entire place rather frigid and all the online reviews of the food was bad.

Nana Entertainment Plaza

The note I received when asked to take pictures at Nana was to capture the atmosphere but "nothing too sexy." Given that this is a prostitute shopping mall, that was a tough one so I settled on a picture of a Thai spirit house which I had no idea existed here since I always go straight to Spanky's or Cascade. I'm probably one of the few people who have noticed it.

Soi Cowboy

Old Las Vegas meets Enter the Void moment as two sexpats soak in the many splendored lights at Soi Cowboy.

A young American tourist hesitates before sampling some fried insects. She ends up eating a grasshopper and thought it tasted fine.

Khao Sarn Road

This extremely popular backpacker tourist area is full of hippies and assholes. Despite trying to keep a strict "no KSR" policy, I always end up there once a month and wanting to punch a stupid tourist in the face.

Patpong

You can't tell by this pic since I was asked to take a picture of the night market, but framing the endless rows of knockoff watches and purses are really really terrible go-go bars full of really pissed off or bored prostitutes and dirty ya ba addicts trying to lure you to a ping pong show.

DO NOT GO! The ping pong shows at Patpong are dire places with sex worker harpies who are way past the point of being able to make a baht bouncing on a poll and must instead wait in a dark corner of a grimy bar and pounce on unsuspecting tourists. They will eat your soul and your wallet if you don't run for your life as soon as you see one.

This go-go street is close to where I live, next to it is the gay street which is one of my favorite hangouts. Patpong sucks but it's colorful. I was too limited and ended up not taking a take a picture that really captures the place but someone at CNNGO did a great job by taking pics of that Patpong during the day I do have pics I've taken there before that I need to dig up.

Mansion 7

This unique "thriller" mall and beer garden is reminiscent of Disneyland's Haunted Mansion. Everything from the clothing shops to the ice cream cow nipple carts have a "spooky theme." The haunted house, although rather pricey at $10 a pop, was really well done. Most of the people who hang out there are Thai.

Some Thai teens play a "time machine" game. There are a bunch of spooky carnival games to play but they're really expensive. These are definitely upper middle class Thais.

This spooky restaurant is modeled after a popular Thai horror film. Thais love being frightened almost as much as they love spicy food and hookers.

Train Market

An antique retro market set up along the train tracks, this place is only open on weekends in the evening but I was only able to get there during the day. Thankfully, Rod's Antiques was open so I could take some pictures of some awesome cars and furniture.

I loved the antique lobby look of this section of Rod's. There was also a claw foot bathtub. I hadn't seen Western antiques in a long time. Los Angeles people love retro shit so many bars and clubs and stores have this kind of furniture but finding that in Bangkok is rare. At night, this train market is bumping with antique car buffs and rockabilly Thais. I would like to go back to see it at night but it is really fucking far.

A statue of the Thai King, one of the longest reigning monarchs, stands before the train tracks. (Todd totally wrote that caption)

Klong Tom Night market/Flashlight Market

If you haven't noticed by now, Thais love them some outdoor markets. There's an outdoor market for everything. This electronics market is called the "flashlight market" because it's open until nightfall when it gets so dark you cannot shop without a flashlight.

Since the time constraints of my assignment kept me from being able to check this place out at night, I managed with some daylight pics. Thankfully, the place is always crowded with people sorting through old electronics and tools during the day.

Pantip Plaza

This huge electronics mall was an oasis after living in Morocco where you had to travel 10 hours to find a hard drive.

Jatujak or Chatuchak (even the market has signs spelling it both ways) = the biggest fucking open market on the planet!

Jatujak is filled with many colorful vendors with eye-catching performances to draw in customers. Reminds me of the vendors and performers at Venice Beach or 3rd Street promenade.

As you get lost in this labyrinthian market, you will see bubble gun vendors every few meters, testing their wares on the crowd. I love bubble guns.

Deck by the River

Hard-to-find restaurant by the river that is small and reservation only. The view is nice but the atmosphere is boring and I'm sure the food sucks. Most places that are all about being "exclusive" tend to have shitty food.

Lumpini Park

Many people show up for the free aerobics in one of the cleanest and most scenic sections of Bangkok. The aerobics is rather mellow though. Not much of a workout unless you're a senior citizen or a really overweight person.

Lumpini Boxing Stadium

Prices for checking out a Muay Thai fight at Lumpini for foriegners are ridiculous at $64 versus $6 for Thais so I just took a pic of the ugly, unphotogenic outside of the stadium and a nearby store selling regulation boxing shorts.

I have been to a Muay Thai fight at a nicer boxing stadium with free ringside seating because a friend of mine had a hookup but I left my camera at home since Todd was running software to recover some important pics I accidentally deleted.

Muay Thai fights are incredible, I hope to go to one again although a friend of mine said it was a shady business with kids being forced to become fighters. Total mafia stuff but that's not surprising, it is boxing after all. Even Western boxing is shady but probably nearly not as shady as here.

Platinum Fashion Mall

Known for selling bulk clothing at wholesale prices, clothing retailers at Platinum mall stock up on huge quantities of merchandise.

As soon as you walk through the entrance of Platinum, you're bombarded with a sea of bright clothing and the coolest t-shirts on the planet.

Little India

Pahurat Market in Little India is a long street filled with vendors selling everything from yards of fabric to traditional Thai dance costumes. Vendors were also not keen on having pictures taken of their shops and stalls. I don't get why so many seem to have a problem with it.

Even though Bangkok is a modern city with Western comforts, many couples still stick to traditional Thai wedding outfits for their big day.

Narai Phand Government Handicrafts

Overpriced hand-made Thai crafts store next to an expensive shopping mall that would not allow pics so I had to sneak this one. Everything was pretty crap in there, you could get the same shit at MBK or Chiang Mai for 1/100th of the price. Total tourist trap.

That's not even all the locations! I left out the really shit ones. These aren't too shit. Some are much better than others. I would love to have more photo gigs. I hope my friend thinks of me again when she needs some pics taken in BKK or maybe if she knows someone who does. I'm definitely not a pro and don't aspire to be, it's just a fun hobby for me and if it goes anywhere great. I'm happy to have my pics used for something other than personal vanity and to get paid for it! (hopefully that check will come soon, I need it.)

long due update

2011-06-26T20:36:00.002+07:00

I haven't updated this blog in awhile. It's not because I've been too busy, I've been working but I don't think many people read this blog and I haven't been that motivated to update it. I have a twitter and tumblr that I update daily.

I'm also posting at Bizarro Central now which is a community centered around the Bizarro genre of books. Bizarro is like a literary version of a Troma or other B-movie/splatter films. With books that have titles like "The Haunted Vagina" and "The Baby Jesus Buttplug", anything goes and it seems like a fitting community for someone like me to blog for.

I've posted two articles there so far with a 3rd pending:

Bizarro Bangkok: A Traditional Thai Carnival

Nazi Bangkok

I won't just be posting things about Bangkok, the pending article is an interview with Almighty Opp which I wrote a week ago and should be posted since they were having a show Saturday. At least they have shows every month. I'm hoping it gets posted because Almighty Opp are amazing. They are this puppet cult band from Los Angeles that put on free shows on the street corner in Koreatown. I love them.

As far as what I've been up to lately...for the past two months I've been working at a small international preschool/kindergarten. I teach 4-5 year-olds. I actually enjoy the job.

The pay is awful but the job is very relaxed, my boss is Malaysian so she's chill, very cheap in regards to paying for teaching resources but much better than a Thai boss. I replaced a teacher who had been fired for not doing that great a job so I took her class for the last term, the kids were adorable and I only started with 10 students and ended up with only 6 when the term ended last week.

Tomorrow, I teach summer school so I get to do more arts and crafts than I've been allowed to do. During the regular school year, there is a lot of pressure to push academics on the children even though they're only 4-5.

I've never printed out so many worksheets in my life! I hate worksheets but the kids are so used to them and they like them and it keeps them busy when I just want to relax for a bit. 5-year-olds are very demanding and since these are international kids as opposed to shy Thai students, they articulate very well and literally do not stop talking for the 5 hours they're with me.

In other news, I shot a new video of a massive boat party some Thai friends of mine threw. It was their first big party and so many people came that they had to be turned down!

All the performers in the video are friends of mine. I am lucky to have some talented friend.

Despite my lack of regular updates here, I'm still going to continue to post since there is still a lot to say about traveling and living in Bangkok. This seems like the best forum for it. Twitter is good for snippets of stuff that is only relevant for 4 seconds, tumblr is better for random pictures and video and Facebook just sucks.

There has been tons of negative press about privacy and security . Basically, Facebook just wants to make a shitload of money and are selling all their users to the highest bidder without giving a shit about the billions of people who use their service to stay in contact with their friends. Fuck them.

We're all just products. I am trying to wean myself off of it but still post there often like the social networking whore that I am. I wish more of my friends would use other social networking sites. Thankfully, more people are deleting their accounts and moving on to twitter and other places that aren't totally fucking corrupt...yet.

3rd New Year of the Year

2011-04-26T21:55:00.005+07:00

Still trying to recover from a week of straight partying for Songkran in Kohn Kaen. It was another magical road trip:

This still remains the best holiday ever. Kohn Kaen is the best place to celebrate because the people really go all out and emanate good vibes.

I've been working weekends at the language school that pays really well. My kids are cute. I start a new job at a school that pays shit next week and will be working 7 days a week for a few months but there are a lot of holidays coming up.

I like my boss since she isn't Thai, she's Malaysian and not uptight. It's not a Christian school, I have a lot of freedom and there are only 8 kids in my class, so even though it's a full 40 hours a week, given how much work typical teaching jobs here demand of you for the same salary, I'm ok with it. I have a much better feeling about that job than I did at the first school I was at for a year and I think getting back into a routine of working will motivate me to finish "Satang" and get shit going for "Clown Goes Mad". I had a lot of creative energy when I first quit the drama teaching gig but lost momentum these past few months. I need the routine of a bullshit job to wake my brain up again.

It's not like I've not done anything though. Even with the shitty editing program I'm using right now, I'm posting movies regularly, however silly they are it's still practice and I have fun making them. I love editing video. I have tons of pics and video and people have been suggesting I make some photo books.

Another thing to add on my list of shit I need to get done.

Of course career-wise, I wish I was making some money off of my creative endeavors right now but even though I'm not, I don't feel like I've been wasting my time. I've been living. Whatever "Satang" ends up becoming will be a reflection of my life here in Bangkok and however CGM develops will reflect what I've learned in my years abroad which is when I really started working on the script.

Art is a great thing to have in your life. I feel lucky that I have all these projects to work on and I am happy with where I am at with them because they are getting done, however slowly. It's been quite a ride and now that it is a new Thai year and almost 2 years of living here in Bangkok, it's good to reflect on things and be happy with where I'm at and how I've spent those years.

Todd and I have made some great friends and keep having sanook. Of course, given our ability to be extremely hard on ourselves, we aren't always all joie de vivre. Last night I was popping Valium and feeling like shit because of PMS, but any negativity I feel is really all in my head and it's annoying that I create negativity when there is nothing to feel negative about. I wish I could keep these rare moments of optimism, editing this latest video did a lot to improve my mood. I need to edit more so I can be reminded that my life is fucking fun and I'm doing exactly what I want to be doing. The party hasn't stopped and it never will. Now I just need to make money off my fun! ;)

Happy Songkran! It's now the year 2554!

teaser trailer for Satang (สตางค์)

2011-04-11T15:38:00.000+07:00

Leaving for Kohn Kaen tonight in a party van with about 10 other friends. We'll be going there for a few days and visiting a new province I'd never heard of or been to before called Korat. Should be a good time. There were tons of people at the supermarket, scrambling to buy stuff for their trip. Hundreds of thousands of Bangokians will be leaving town for the best holiday ever.

Looking forward to it. I expect that it will be very sanook and I'll have tons more footage for Satang!

Happy Songkran!

SCAD update

2011-04-06T02:11:00.002+07:00

SCAD will be beginning their move to a new location in April. They will have a cat center closer to central Bangkok and a dog center on the outskirts of town. Considering all the obstacles they've had to overcome, SCAD is continuing to help homeless cats and dogs and raising much needed funds to keep their organization going.

I hope they'll be able to recreate the amazing "catio" they have at the current center.

The cats really love being able to walk along the "catwalk" to the outdoor and indoor enclosures.

The good thing about this move is that the dogs will have a lot more space to run around. even though they are exercised daily, the dogs are always itching to get out of their kennels. Baked Beans even jumped the fence today, he wanted out so bad.

I shot some video today of the center to give people a glimpse of the animals and the important work SCAD does:

Also uploaded a video of Mark:

More SCAD pics:

Also, I finally made a new banner! What do you think?

Upsetting Letter from SCAD Today...

2011-03-24T16:53:00.001+07:00

Dear All,

Please find below some updated information from Wendy about SCAD’s move and new developments about the issues with the neighbors:

Due to the extremely heavy workload the move project places on our small team of staff and volunteers, effective immediately, SCAD is closed for all activities other than local cat and dog adoptions. Those will continue on an appointment-only basis. Long-term, regular volunteers are still very welcome to help out with their usual duties during this time.

Be extra careful when exercising dogs, and avoid walking in Yeak 7 at all times. Two volunteers have been verbally abused recently, and they both also had rocks hurled at them. A report will be made to the police tomorrow. Let Wendy know if any further incidents are experienced, and ask for a written statement detailing the events.

All references to foreign volunteers and staff are being removed from the website (excluding Wendy). A neighbor has threatened to report SCAD to the Department of Immigration as having possible illegal labour working here. If anyone you don’t know approaches you at SCAD and asks what you are doing here or who you are, just say you are here to adopt a dog or cat/make a donation/buy a t-shirt/you have a meeting with the General Manager/whatever your story will be. All other queries should be directed to Mot or GM Wendy. Please don’t wear anything with a SCAD logo on it when you visit SCAD at these premises.

Please also note that SCAD will now only open on Monday to Friday, and be closed on Saturdays.

***

Words cannot express how upset I am over this. SCAD has a hard enough time trying to help treat the enormous stray cat and dog problem here in Bangkok. Their efforts to help homeless animals have been seriously disrupted by these horrible, inhumane neighbors who have been constantly harassing SCAD. These people obviously hate animals and are miserable human beings if they are attacking an animal rescue that has devoted so much time and effort into saving Bangkok's street cats and dogs.

Without SCAD, my cat, Mark, would be on the street, diseased, malnourished and probably dead since he was orphaned as a kitten along with his sister who became too sick and had to be put down.

When I adopted Mark, he had tested positive for feline leukemia and is prone to allergies that sometimes turn into a bad cold and eye infection. But he recently tested negative for FELV and receives instant veterinary care when he's sick.

He is a healthy and happy cat but even after living in a stable home for 6 months, he still sometimes exhibits post-traumatic stress disorder from his kitten-hood on the streets and has little fits of anxiety and depression no matter how much love and attention he gets. Whatever he went through as a baby has stuck with him but he is lucky because he has a loving home in a comfortable apartment with two parents who understand his special needs. He is as happy and as comfortable as he can be and he is loved very much. I can't imagine my life without him.

SCAD is doing vital work in Bangkok. There aren't any government funded shelters so non-profits organizations like SCAD are the only ones helping strays here. Not only have they taken in and rehabilitated hundreds of homeless dogs and cats, but they have visited many communities throughout Bangkok, raising awareness on the importance of spaying and neutering and teaching people how to properly care for animals. In poorer communities that cannot afford veterinary care, SCAD has taken in animals with seriously advanced diseases and given them the medical attention they deserve with astounding results:

There is no doubt of the necessity of SCAD when you walk down the streets on Bangkok and see hundreds of homeless animals in dire condition. This crowded city is not a good place for street animals. The insane traffic causes many accidents and the humid climate makes animals more prone to disease.

This issue with the neighbors complaining has been a giant obstacles for SCAD's already difficult efforts to help animals here. At the same time that these few, horrible people complain about barking, there are other people dropping off dozens of puppies and kittens at SCAD's doorstep even though SCAD is not an animal shelter and does not have the means to care for so many animals, especially when they must send as many animals as possible to foster homes in order to keep the noise level down.

The police have been called numerous times due to noise complaints. SCAD has had to close its doors to volunteers and potentials adopters several times. Even with all the precautions SCAD has taken to comply with the complaining neighbors and promising to move soon, the actions of these individuals are becoming more malicious.

Who would hurl rocks at a volunteer walking a shelter dog? Who would threaten to call immigration for "illegal labor" when these are volunteers devoting their time to help animals FOR FREE? What kind of people would do such a thing? I would seriously love to meet these people face to face and tell them exactly what kind of human beings they are. They lack any humanity and should be held accountable for their heinous actions against such an important organization that has done nothing but good for Bangkok's stray animals and community.

SCAD will be moving out of that center and to two new locations in the next few months. They are always in need donations. If you would like to donate, adopt, sponsor an animal or learn more about SCAD's vital work, please visit SCAD's website.

I will keep you updated...

"A Taste of Curry": Life is Food

2011-03-21T23:37:00.007+07:00

Last night I attended a performance from the B-floor theater troupe that did the "Starman" show I saw a few months back:

Most of the same actors were in this latest performance called "A Taste of Curry". It was written by one of the performers who had gone to a funeral and witnessed all the goings-on in the kitchen as the women were preparing food and talking about their lives. "A Taste of Curry" was written as a response to the parallels she witnessed between life and food. This epiphany taking place during a funeral added a surreal element that was well-reflected in the performance.

The "stage" was set up to look like a kitchen with dining tables arranged around it. The audience was asked to pour different condiments from the condiment dispensers into a little bowl based on how they felt during the shows. There was chili powder, sugar, salt and tamarind sauce like you would see at any Thai restaurant, except instead of tamarind it's always fish sauce. There was even a cute waiter and maid to help serve beverages and food.

The speaking parts were ad-libbed. I was told by my friend Anton, who had attended several showings of "A Taste of Curry", both to support the arts and also because, aside from the male waiter, it was an all female cast of really beautiful women...that each performance was different and the actresses even switched roles with each other.

Just like in "Starman" the performances were very physical and experimental. The dialogue was in 4 different languages: Thai, English, French and Spanish. I'm fluent in English and Spanish and can understand a bit of French but a lot of the dialogue was in Thai. Even so, the actors movements and expressions made it easy to tell what was happening. It was less a story told through dialogue with a beginning, middle and end and more of an expression of different emotions that were expressed through cooking, dancing and singing.

I really appreciated how much these girls let themselves go. It's very hard for Thais to do that. Their culture is based on keeping emotions hidden and not drawing attention to yourself, so to see Thai women express themselves without reservation was great. I enjoyed how much they were willing to experiment with theater. It was interesting to have the audience pour different condiments into the bowl based on how they felt. I put a lot of chili powder into my bowl. I guess that means I'm spicy and felt a lot of spice in the show.

At the end of the performance, one of the actors came by each table and poured all the contents from everyone's bowl into her bowl and then tossed the audience's collective seasonings into a steaming pot of soup. Each actor then poured themselves a small bowl of this soup and drank some, each reacting to the strong seasonings from the audience. Once each actor had their soup, the maid and waiter passed out samples of the soup for the audience to drink. I was scared to taste it only because I wasn't sure if the soup was vegan but my friends said the taste was...interesting. I think that sums up "Taste of Curry" perfectly.

Here are some scenes I shot during the final performance of "Taste of Curry" last night:

I look forward to future performances from the B-floor theatre troupe. They have several different shows coming up, one of them is called "Fuck" and explores fetishes. Can't wait to see that one! ;)

If you're in Bangkok, you should definitely catch one of their shows. You can see their upcoming shows and get more info on this talented troupe via their website.

Support the arts wherever you live!

Tour Through the Bangkok Corrections Museum

2011-03-21T20:02:00.001+07:00

I finally edited the footage I shot when I went to the Bangkok Corrections Museum. It's an old prison located in a public park not too far from where I live. It has recreation of old school prison torture methods that look medieval but weren't used that long ago. Entering the museum is free but it's locked most of the time since people rarely visit. When Todd and I went, we thought it was closed and were disappointed since we had been wanting to go since coming to Bangkok and finally got around to it. After walking around the fort we found the guard who lead us to the cells and on to the old school prison torture:

It was a fun outing and definitely worth checking out if you're in Bangkok. There is some other part that the guard was too lazy to show up which is a recreation of prisoners getting killed by a firing squad but the cells were the main event.

I have 2 more "Weird Bangkok" posts to make. Next one will be about the traditional Thai carnival I went to last year with the freak show tent. I also need to go back to the Forensics Museum and take pictures. That place looks like the basement of a serial killer doctor with body parts and fetuses in jars and drippy, poorly mummified prisoners. I love that place!

Glad to finally work on some minimal editing but I really need to make a real movie and get my G5 up and running, it's still not up so I'm using some shitty editing software on Todd's PC. I miss Final Cut! I don't know why I've been so fucking lazy about making a goddamn movie but the good thing is that I'm going back to Khon Kaen with my friends for Songkran and I will definitely be filming that. Last year was pretty nuts and I have a feeling this year will be even better. We'll definitely be going back to Harem...

We'll also be going to a new province called Korat. I have no idea what the hell is in Korat but if the last road trips are any indication, it will be a wild ride. I'll be using real footage in "Satang" so this Songkran trip is perfect.

My weekend job is going well. I'm teaching 7-9 year-olds and the school is well-resourced and most of the teachers are British men that talk about cocks, football and politics and tell dirty jokes about pedophilia so it's a real step up from the Christian school and much more relaxed than the drama school since I'm working for Westerners, no Thai bosses. This makes a HUGE difference and makes for a much more relaxed and efficient workplace.

Working for Thais sucks. I'm going to ask for more hours at this job and try to find some odd jobs that relate to writing, filmmaking or editing, even if it pays shit, just for motivation. I've been so bad at doing simple shit like updating my blogs weekly and I haven't touched my novel or script in weeks...there's no excuse for that. I really need to stop being lazy and get shit done. Updating this blog and uploading some new videos is a small step, at least it gets me writing and thinking about how badly I want to make a feature.

End of Hiatus

2011-02-26T11:37:00.002+07:00

I start a new job today. Of course I had to drink too much last night while hanging out with my "bitch club" friends. Thankfully I started drinking early so the hangover is wearing off. I never get those headache hangovers, it's always my stomach that gets pissed off the next day. Drinking $3 Thai whiskey (Sangsom) and mixing it with cheap red wine and Valium doesn't help either. I've been running to the bathroom all morning but I think I'm ok now...

The job is actually not bad as far as teaching jobs go. The pay is more hourly than I made in LA, about $23 dollars an hour versus the $17 I made working an office job in Los Angeles, versus the $8.16 an hour I made at my full-time teaching job at the Christian pre-school here in Bangkok versus the unstable, random money I made teaching drama at that performing arts school that has yet to take off.

Considering most teaching jobs in Bangkok want to work you to death for shit pay, I lucked out. The only downside is I only work Saturdays and Sundays since it's a weekend school for kids but I only have to work 3 hours each day so it's not like it takes up my whole weekend. I just can't go on weekend getaways unless there's a public holiday which the school thankfully acknowledges.

I'm not sure how old the kids are and what exactly I'm teaching them so I am leaving soon to prepare. It shouldn't be too hard, this is why I prefer teaching kids. If I were teaching adults, not only would I be scared of being in front of a bunch of adults but I would also be shitting myself at any grammar questions. Grammar is really difficult to teach. I can tell if a sentence is correct or incorrect but I can't explain WHY.

That was my biggest problem when I taught adults in Morocco, I would freeze up at grammar questions and look like an idiot because I couldn't explain the rules even though I tried my best to look up every possible grammar question before class. Someone would always throw a question at me I was not expecting and I would be fucked.

The director at the school I was going to work at in January, but quit due to a lot of bullshit on their part, mentioned that Americans are not good at teaching grammar and I agreed with her. We generally suck at such things and destroy all grammar rules when speaking and writing. Even Todd, who is an amazing writer and always uses proper grammar unless he's joking, has had a few bad moments when teaching advanced grammar to his university students.

So no adults, no advanced grammar. I'm sticking to kids and basic verbs, adjectives and nouns. That I can do.

I can't believe I haven't worked in 4 months. No wonder I was beginning to feel like shit. Todd has been really great in being both emotionally and financially supportive during this "hiatus" but I prefer to be financially independent. I would be more comfortable with supporting Todd than the other way around. I really wish he could quit his job and go on hiatus while I work for a bit but I'll need to be working more than twice a week in order to do that and even then, there's no way I can make the money he does, teaching English.

I have a job interview at a non-Christian preschool on Tuesday. It's only 4 hours a day, 5 days a week, or so I gather. I have gotten every job I interview for so I really don't doubt I will get it. It's only $10 an hour teaching nursery school which is really tough since those are babies, but it's a steady paycheck and combined with this weekend teaching gig, would amount to my making a little bit more than I made at the Christian pre-school without having to work as many hours.

Going back to teaching is not my dream and I was hoping to avoid doing it but it really isn't that bad. I do like teaching kids more than working a bullshit desk job, that's for sure. Until I can figure out a way to make money writing and making movies, I'll have to stick to this for awhile.

I'm still working on my script and novel for "Clown Goes Mad" but it's coming slowly and most days it doesn't come at all. Someone last night asked me how I planned to market my work and I told her it really isn't marketable, especially when I have to explain what it is I'm doing in a way that will "sell" the idea. I can't do that. I just know the art I want to make and am doing it for myself and have a hard time explaining it in any way that makes sense to someone who isn't me.

Of course I want to be able to devote all my time and energy into a project that people besides myself and immediate friends will enjoy and get some financial backing for it but it's really hard when you're not someone who sees their art as a business venture.

The book and movie industry are a business first and foremost and that's why most of those mediums that make the best seller and high grossing list are shit. I was trying to make the point to this same woman who asked me about my marketing strategy, that things made for mass consumption are watered down and the movies I want to make will kick you in the balls even if you don't have any.

"Clown Goes Mad" has rape, lesbian incest, murder, prostitution, torture, gratuitous sex, drug use, a gay Mexican Christ and children being sold as sex slaves to clergymen and politicians...it's not something that I expect to be shown on prime time television or even be able to get the R rating necessary to be able to show in major movie theaters and that is definitely not my intention. I'll be happy if my shit gets shown in a grimy porn theater in Bakersfield and 100 people see it.

If you look at the directors I'm influenced by who do have a big following even though they aren't blockbuster directors, there is an audience for non-mainstream movies that kick you in the nuts: Werner Herzog, John Waters, David Lynch, Alejandro Jodorowsky, Harmony Korine, Crispin Glover, Gaspar Noe, Jan Svankmajer...all men of course.

So no Virginia, I don't have a marketing strategy, I just want to make movies that entertain me. Given that all the directors I just named did the same thing and ended up being able to make a career out of it, I do think I stand a chance to get a big enough audience who is willing to have their balls kicked.

Off to work...

May Kaidee’s Thai Vegan Cooking Class

2011-02-10T21:53:00.024+07:00

After over a year of putting it off, I finally took the cooking class at May Kaidee’s yesterday.

May Kaidee’s is the best vegetarian Thai restaurant I’ve ever been to. Given that I grew up in Los Angeles where there are as many Thai restaurants there as there are 7-11’s here, I’ve had my share of authentic Thai food, sometimes almost daily, before moving to Thailand. I just looked at this wiki entry and learned that LA has the largest population of Thais outside of Thailand…no wonder I feel so at home here!

So not being a stranger to amazing Thai food made by real Thais, when I say May Kaidee’s is the best vegetarian Thai restaurant ever, I mean it!

The cooking class is every morning from 9-12pm, and you learn how to make 12 different vegetarian Thai dishes. The cooking class includes a little cookbook pamphlet of the dishes prepared in class. All the dishes in the course are already vegan except the Pad Thai, which calls for egg but is easy to leave out.

I was lucky to be the only person that showed up for class yesterday so I got my own private Thai cooking lesson by the amazing Miss On, who was very charming and helpful. I never realized how easy it is to make Thai food from scratch, without using store-bought curry paste like I’ve been doing for the past year.

Yes it’s easy to look up a recipe online and just do it, but I’m a visual learner and prefer seeing something prepared with my own eyes. I won’t even look at cookbooks that don’t have pictures of every dish…which is unfortunate since most vegan cookbooks are just a bunch of words with maybe a drawing of a food item somewhere hidden in there like a vegan food version of “Where’s Waldo” (or Wally if you’re British)…not for me at all.

It took 3 hours and 1,200 baht ($39) for me to finally be able to open my eyes to the wonderful world of making curry paste from scratch without buying ready-made packs at the market. And what a wonderful world it is!

Making shit from scratch always tastes better than whatever ready-made stuff you get at the market. I do cut corners a bit with my cooking, especially when it comes to beans which take hours of soaking and draining to cook.

I also refuse to make my own tofu because that’s just insane, I bow down to whoever can accomplish that amazing feat of figuring out where to even buy calcium sulphate…but curry paste literally takes about a minute to prepare so there’s no excuse for me not to make it myself from now on…except for the fact that I don’t own a mortar and pestle or food processor but I will buy one immediately!

The first thing Miss On taught me was how to make green or red chili paste. If you want to make green curry, use green chilis, red curry use red chillies.

Here is the May Kaidee recipe taken from her cooking school pamphlet…all the recipes posted in the entry will be taken from the book with some adjustments for grammar/clarification and are for one serving so multiply each amount depending on how many servings you would like to make:

MAY KAIDEE’S RED/GREEN CHILI PASTE RECIPE

Blend the following with a mortar and pestle or blender:
2 tablespoons of green or red chili
1 tablespoon of each of the following-

Kaffir lime leaf
Galangal (Thai ginger)
Lemon Grass
Onion
Garlic
Cumin Powder

1/2 tablespoon of soy bean paste or miso
Blend until all ingredients are completely crushed and a smooth paste has been created.
Now that you’ve made your chili paste, you are ready to make some curry. For cooking class I made green curry:

GREEN THAI CURRY
In the wok put:

1 tablespoon of oil
1 teaspoon of green chili paste (or more if you like it spicy)
1 crushed kaffir lime leaf
1 slice of crushed galangal
1 inch of cut lemon grass
1 tablespoon of coconut milk
1 handful of mixed veggies (you can use any vegetable you’d like, we used eggplant, green beans, squash, kale, carrots and onions)
3 tablespoons of coconut milk

Cook until texture of curry is thick then add:

6 tablespoons of water
1 tablespoon of mixed light and dark soy sauce
1 teaspoon of unrefined sugar

Stir and cook for roughly 3 minutes on medium heat then add:

3-4 tablespoons of coconut milk
3-4 chopped mint or Thai basil leaves

Before serving, add 1 tablespoon of coconut milk.
Miss On was happy that I loved my food really spicy and happily threw in extra chili and garlic on everything we made. Here is Miss On with the completed extra spicy green curry:

I found her youtube video which shows you how to make a perfect green curry in 6 minutes. The audio is a bit rough so just refer to the recipe I posted for the complete list of ingredients and watch Miss On work her magic in the kitchen.

I won’t post all 12 recipes here just because some are basic like Pad Thai, mango sticky rice and spring rolls but I will post some highlights from the class that should be added to your cooking repertoire.

The pumpkin hummus was definitely a highlight! There aren’t orange pumpkins here in Thailand…instead there is what I think we just call “winter squash” which looks like this:

Thai pumpkin tastes like a cross between a pumpkin and a squash, the flavor is more subtle which I think works for cooking since it doesn’t overpower the other ingredients. I love making pumpkin soup with this type of pumpkin and it also works great in Thai curries.

Here is the recipe for PUMPKIN HUMMUS:

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon of roasted sesame seeds
2 tablespoon of roasted cashew nuts
3-4 tablespoon of steamed or boiled pumpkin
4-5 cilanto/coriander leaves
1 teaspoon of mixed light and dark soy sauce

Crush the sesame seeds and nuts with a mortar and pestle until they are a fine powder (I’m sure you can also use a food processor)
Mix in the pumpkin, cilantro and soy sauce and smash/process until you have a pasty consistency. Serve and garnish with sesame seeds. You can eat at room temperature or chilled like regular hummus. I thought it tasted better chilled.

Makes one serving.

It was super easy to make and so good! You can use it for dips and sandwiches, my boyfriend ended up spreading it on top of the spring rolls I made. It’s even good as a stand-alone snack.

Speaking of spring rolls, you can see the ones I made during the course. Aside from adding a bit of coconut as well as green leaf lettuce, mint leaves and grated carrots. But what really made it pop was the peanut sauce I had learned to make earlier and the fresh hand-made rice paper from the rice paper lady down the street from the cooking school.

Totally beats store-bought rice paper any day! Now, if only there was a tortilla lady here!

The last recipe I’ll post from from May Kaidee’s kitchen is her easy, yet incredibly amazing...

PEANUT SAUCE RECIPE:

Ingredients:

oil (You can use any kind but I think soy bean or sesame works best)
1/2 of a coarsely chopped tomato
1 teaspoon of red or Tom Yum chili paste (either one works well)
6 tablespoons of coconut milk
1 tablespoon of crushed roasted ground peanuts
2 teaspoons of vegan sugar
1 teaspoon of lime juice (I squeezed 1/2 a lime)
1/2 tablespoon of mixed light and dark soy sauce

Turn the flame on high under your wok and add about a tablespoon of oil. Then add the tomatoes and crush them with your spatula.

Reduce the heat a little and add your red or Tom Yum chili paste and fry until fragrant. Then add 6 tablespoons of coconut milk and crushed peanuts. Add more coconut milk if the sauce becomes too thick.

Once you have the right consistency which should be a creamy texture, add the sugar, lime juice and soy sauce.

You can use this sauce as a dip for pad thai or spring rolls and would even make a great salad dressing.

If you’re ever in Bangkok or Chiang Mai, I recommend taking May Kaidee’s cooking course or at the very least, eating at her restaurant and trying the best veggie Thai food ever. She has several cookbooks out but doesn’t seem to have any available online. I did see a few of her cookbooks available on Amazon from 3rd party sellers.

She is currently working on expanding her empire which includes a restaurant in New York and two cookbook projects with a vegan chef from America and a couple from the UK, so her amazing recipes should be available in the West soon. You can visit her website: maykaidee.com for more info.

Extended Vacationing

2011-02-01T01:30:00.004+07:00

I haven't updated this enough even though there has been a lot to type about. I ended up not taking that teaching job due to some additional bullshit that kept racking up after I had signed the contract already. Thankfully, I backed out before the new term began so I was able to void my contract without any negative repercussions and I ended up being able to obtain a visa that will last until mid-March.

The job hunt is not going very well and really I am not looking forward to teaching. I have been checking ajarn.com consistently for stuff to apply to but all the jobs available are shit.

I do need income, Todd is working a lot and needs to save his money. Now that the holidays are over, I can't use that as an excuse. I've been doing a lot of partying, not enough writing and a lot of procrastinating.

This is the longest I've gone without a paying job, I typically can find one quickly and have had good luck finding the right one at the right time. I think now that I am kicking and screaming during the process...I'm sabotaging myself because in all honesty I really do NOT want another bullshit job. Just the thought of starting that one I just quit before even starting was making me depressed.

Typically if one has the drive to not do bullshit for money and is extremely passionate about a certain craft, they come up with an idea that finally pushes them out of the bullshit job world and into the "fuck yeah I get paid to do something I love" world...I haven't been able to do that yet.

While I figure my shit out I should at least bring this travel blog up to speed.

Out of all the people I know from various parts of the world, I feel it is safe to say I had the best fucking New Years Eve out of any of my friends who did not spend it with me. Here is video proof:

Keep in mind that I mostly took pictorial documentation and whatever video was taken was while not sober but it ended up working and being an accurate representation of my New Years celebration. Especially the jarring tranquility in the middle of the video.

Todd and I went with a group of friends to two random Thai provinces since all the trains to Chiang Mai were completely booked. Chiang Mai is where everyone goes when there is a holiday because it's a beautiful mountain city with a lot to do and it gets you out of Bangkok. I have yet to go there and really want to but not during a big holiday where I'll be crammed with a bunch of stupid, drunk people. I'd rather go during low season and avoid the Spring Break atmosphere.

So when our friend Hood proposed that we go to Chainat and Nakhon Sawan...two provinces only a few hours away from Bangkok that I'd never heard of before...we thought, shit, why not? Hood has never let us down when it comes to last-minute vacation getaway ideas so we were game.

Chainat had nothing to offer aside from one shitty bar/club and the largest aviary in Asia. The whole city is decorated with fake birds to make sure you are aware of their one claim to fame.

Todd and I waited in the gift shop while our friends visited the main attraction since it is safe to assume that ALL animal attractions in Asia that are not an animal rescue organization engage in some form of animal trafficking or welfare abuse.

I don't even go to zoos in America since I don't believe it is ethical to keep animals in cages, so adding the fact that there aren't even any animal welfare laws in SE Asia ensuring the animals kept in cages are obtained legally and are being well-cared for...the only way I'd step foot into a place like that is to help shut it down...legally of course.

The guys ended up saying the aviary sucked and I was happy not to have to see trafficked exotic birds in cages. We only spent one night in Chainat which was more than enough and moved on to Nakhon Sawan which was a lot of fun.

We stayed there two nights and were fucked up the whole time.

NYE was crazy with people running around wasted and rows of souped up trucks down either side of the main strip with all kinds of lights and half-naked Thai chicks dancing on top of the trucks to thumping techno.

Seeing that little girl made me go wtf since there was a lot of prostitution going on but my friends assured me they were just dancing, not being pimped out...

My favorite Thai rocket was the love pad:

There was a fair amount of thriving night life there but Nakhon Sawan also has the largest freshwater swamp in Thailand. Taking an hour-long boat ride around the swamp in between heavy nights of partying was quite surreal.

Just another of Thailand's extremes which I greatly appreciate since I love both crazy partying and natural serene landscapes.

The holidays were a blur of extremes...even more so than normal since there was extra running around and almost daily partying. Todd's brother was in town around Christmas so we showed him around BKK and hit up Koh Chang which was beautiful as always.

Todd and I had been there once before and only had a chance to check out the gorgeous beaches and go kayaking. This last time we got to check out a gorgeous waterfall and go on an island hopping snorkeling expedition which was a lot of fun.

The sad thing about the snorkeling was all the coral were dead but there were still hundreds of beautiful tropical fish that swarmed you as you swam around each of the 4 different islands. The tourists feed the fish bread so they aren't phased by humans and will surround you and nip at your fingers expecting food. I don't like to fuck with wildlife so I didn't feed them but they still surrounded me and it was really trippy, I wish I had an underwater camera for such occasions.

The Thai government is aware of the coral problem and have shut down various popular diving sights all around Thailand to save the coral. Some argue that this will not help but it should at least lessen the damage. It made me think if my snorkeling expedition had any sort of negative impact...there has been a lot of talk of "ecotourism" and a lot of tourist spots around Thailand have picked up on this phrase and will say they have "eco tours" but it's just a phrase to them and no consideration is actually taken on how eco-friendly it is.

Todd mentioned that since I am currently unemployed, I should write some sort of vegan travel guide with recipes and I think it's a good idea but I'm still trying to think of an angle where I would have a lot to write about that would benefit and interest people. I can cook but I don't think I know enough recipes to fill up a cookbook without adding some additional writing in between.

It would be interesting to do since vegan cookbooks/lifestyle guides are doing really well, people are becoming more health and animal-welfare conscious and many assume it is difficult to be a vegan when it really isn't.

Now that the holidays are over and the reality of my unemployed broke-ass looms over me, I need to really motivate myself and think of a way to incorporate my passion of writing, veganism and filmmaking into something that will generate a bit of money so I don't have to have my soul sucked out of me at yet another stupid job. I've certainly had more than enough time to come up with something and will continue to have nothing but time until I do.

While I mull it over I'll leave you with this:

Bubbles

2010-12-11T16:24:00.001+07:00

Sometimes you see some really depressing shit like baby animals dying and people living in dirt poverty and people process this differently: some ignore it, some try to help, some laugh, some cry. It's interesting to see how people process atrocity exhibitions. Americans tend to ignore anything remotely depressing and just focus on the glowing screen that tells them stupidily sweet lies and mundane stories about a life that isn't even fucking real or remotely interesting. No matter how horrible the realities of life may be, I'd rather see it for what it is and know that these things exist rather than live my life with my stupid luxuries pretending everyone has it this fucking easy and good because most of the world doesn't even have a fraction of the luxuries I do.

I want to shoot a mockumentary about the differences between rich and poor and how people deal with their status or lack thereof. The movie will be called "Satang" which is a half-baht coin that is kind of useless like the American penny.

My friend Julia Chinook took that photo, all credit goes to her. I can't believe I forgot my camera this morning! I was half-asleep and rushing out the door so it totally slipped my mind. A friend of mine had a birthday yesterday and we had dinner and went to a fancy ass bowling alley at Siam Paragon which is a posh mall in Bangkok that I end up going to frequently despite all this bullshit I have against capitalism.

This morning the birthday boy decided to celebrate by volunteering at a community that a friend of his volunteers at regularly by teaching the children English and playing games with them and giving them snacks. This community is a slum not far from Siam Paragon and there is a train track right in the middle of the town that rumbles through the place every 20 minutes or so. One little girl was in crutches because she was hit by the train and it is easy to guess that isn't a rare instance of accidents happening since it's right in the middle of the town and people sit on the tracks and children play there all the time.

It was an interesting experience and I think the work that the volunteers do there is great but I personally would not go back there again because humanitarian work is not my passion. I am an animal rights activist and I was more saddened by the skinny cats and caged up birds and squirrels dying from heat in the sun than I was by the children who looked like perfect candidates for a "Save the Children" commercial.

I am more naturally empathetic towards non-human animals but that does not mean I don't care about human rights, I actually do and have been reading up on the huge human trafficking problem in this world that is actually getting worse due to globalization. I would like to make a move about human trafficking to raise awareness and actually "Clown Goes Mad" has human trafficking in it and even though I wrote it before doing research on it, it seems that my imagination on how that goes down was not far off from reality.

Even though I've been unemployed the past two months, I haven't done a very good job of updating this blog just because of stupid distractions and laziness and because there is so much happening that sometimes I don't even know where to begin when I see that blank white page and flickering black line.

I didn't reach the 50,000 word goal for National Novel Writing Month but I did reach about 20,000 which is still good. I'm going to keep working on the novel this month but I haven't touched it at all yet, I really need to treat it like a job because it is. It's what I want to do with my life and the reason why I get depressed when I do is because I'm not this established artist living off writing and making movies but how the fuck am I supposed to get there if I don't even have anything worth publishing yet? I can be such a stupid human sometimes.

I accepted a job that I'm not that excited about which begins January 4th. It's at an international school teaching K2 which are 4-5 year olds. I guess that's like normal kindergarten level in the States. I actually do enjoy teaching children but I hate dealing with adults and since this school has a Singapore curriculum, I am foreseeing a rigid bullshit structure to have to deal with. There have already been some red flags like the fact that they have so many job openings, the teacher I'm replacing is leaving because she protested some policy and they are taking 4% of my monthly salary until I finish a 2 YEAR contract at the end of which they will give me back the 4% and match it with an additional 4% and they have my BA degree and TEFL certificate in their vault to prevent me from fleeing without notice...all my friend are already telling me to run but since this is sadly the best offer I've been given so far and I do need a paycheck, I sold my soul. We'll see how that turns out...

Back in the Great Depression the smart people robbed banks and shit and lived the high life rather than slave away at some shit factory job or churn out kids they couldn't afford to feed so they could have someone to beat while they were unemployed. Even though Dillinger ended up getting pumped full of lead, he had fucking fun while he was alive. Too bad it's harder to rob a bank now, working is for the birds.

Working in Bangkok

2010-11-21T02:34:00.003+07:00

I've been unemployed the whole month of November and have been working on a novel version of "Clown Goes Mad" for National Novel Writing Month and playing housewife while Todd works his ass off at the university. He is getting paid well but is sweating for every single baht.

At the end of October, I quit my "dream job" working as a drama teaching at the new performing arts academy because of some serious discrepancies in regards to my paycheck.

The owner of the school is a woman from a super-rich family and like many children from super-rich families, she turned to the arts because she didn't want to do whatever boring business her family is in. Most rich people here claim to love "the arts" but if you see the kind of shit they find artistic, you'll notice that their love for art is just a farce to keep their families off their back and from being forced to get a real job.

My ex-employer was a self-professed "creative" person and has about 8 different businesses, one of them interior design...her family owns a huge car dealership, a music school and several prime properties all over Bangkok...this new performing arts school was, as she put it, "her baby" and was not making her any money so that gave her the excuse to not take paying her employees seriously.

It's sad because the idea of the school was great and I do not regret working there because I learned a lot, really enjoyed working with orphans and saw a window into a world I had not seen before: the acting world and the world of the upper elite in Thailand, which inspired an idea for the feature-length movie I want to shoot in Bangkok.

After that experience, I realized that living in Thailand is amazing but working here sucks unless you are a trust-fund brat or have a job with a foreign company and are making Western wages while living here. I turned down 3 teaching jobs because they either paid nothing for a shit-ton of work or paid ok for even more work...the work to pay ratio is incredibly skewed and even though the average Thai person makes about $200 a month, countries like Morocco, China and Vietnam also have a lot of poverty, yet their English language schools pay their foreign teachers Western wages.

One of the theories as to why Thailand pays their foreign teachers so horribly is that there are so many foreigners dying to live here and will take shitty paying jobs just so they can stay. This may have been true 3-5 years ago but with the current civil unrest and bad economy all over the world, tourism is down and the amount of farangs scrambling to live here is down as well.

These schools want quality teachers with all the credentials and experience but are only willing to pay less than what the minimum wage is in America. Even though living here is cheap, it's not THAT cheap. You get what you pay for so if you want to pay shit, your teachers will be shit.

I am being very picky about my next job. I learned no matter how fun and cool the job sounds, I need a contract up front and will never work for a "new school" again because they can just be fly-by-night jobs that will screw you over in a heartbeat.

I am applying for some jobs at international schools teaching kids again and trying to pick up some more tutoring gigs but I feel disenchanted with working here as a teacher. I'm tired of being someone's bitch for shitty money. Teaching is not bad, I actually really enjoy working with children, but there is always some problem with the employers and no matter what job it is, you always have to answer to someone and I'm sick of that. I just want to publish "Clown Goes Mad" and live off my art already and deal with my own bullshit... no one else's.

Although the employment/money aspect of my life is suboptimal, everything else has been great. I just celebrated my 28th birthday in November by having a karaoke party at my favorite gay street and going to my favorite gay dance club and have been pretty much partying since before Halloween up to my birthday and then every weekend since then.

I've definitely been living life to the fullest and experiencing as much of this country as humanly possible. Thailand is a great place to live (but not work) and there are days when I say "I'm living in Thailand fuck yeah!" Thankfully, I've been having a lot of those days and in terms of social life and settling into a different country, it's been fun and quite easy.

I also officially adopted Mark from SCAD this past Wednesday. He was re-tested for feline leukemia and tested negative! He is healthy!

Todd and I have become really attached to Mark and see him as our furry son. Mark seems a lot happier now than when he first moved in. He just needed some stability.

I hadn't visited SCAD since getting Mark because I live much further away from the center now. It was good to be back there again. SCAD will be moving to the outskirts of Bangkok in February which sucks because it'll be really difficult to get volunteers and people interested in adopting to go all the way out there. Traffic is really bad in Bangkok so I don't know how that's going to work. The animals will have more room though so hopefully it does work out.

Someone just dumped 14 puppies at SCAD last week without any explanation...SCAD does not have the resources to care for 14 one-week-old puppies but they are doing their best to make sure all the puppies are vaccinated, sterilized and have homes immediately.

The puppies are adorable! I would adopt them all if I could. SCAD is having a dance-a-thon tomorrow to raise money and it's also Loi Krathong which is a festival to honor the spirit of the river. We live near the Chao Phraya River so after I'm done dancing, Todd and I will be going to there to check out the fireworks and crazy boat displays. We caught a preview of them today while riding the river ferry to a carnival:

Even without a job I've still been busy doing things I enjoy. If only I had a way to make money without actually working!

Je

2010-10-25T09:07:00.006+07:00

"Gin Je"

These are the words I must open with before ordering food from a non-vegetarian restaurant. Thankfully, since I cook most of the time, I don't need to go through the list of things I don't want in my food in broken Thai every time I need to eat:

"Mai sai naam plaa" - no fish sauce
"Mai sai naam muu/gai/khai" - no beef/pork/chicken/eggs/fish

Etc...

But for 10 straight days in October, many of the restaurants and street-food stalls all over Thailand serve vegan food for the Vegetarian Festival or "Tesagan Gin Je " in Thai. Vegetarian in these parts means vegan. No meat, milk or eggs, all vegan! Even 7-11 sells vegan food!

Even without being able to read Thai, you can spot all vegan food a mile away because it's marked with a bright yellow flag or circle with what looks like the number 17 but is Thai for "vegan".

You do have to watch out for honey though if you're not a "beegan". Typically, only some of the pastries, breads or teas would have honey and you can always ask someone who can read Thai and speak English to double check the ingredients if you aren't sure.

Also watch out for margarine. Thailand is not 100% accurate in labeling ingredients....that is....when they DO even bother to label. Sometimes you will see "margarine" or "chocolate" listed as an ingredient but no specification as to what is in that so assume there could be some milk protein and avoid it if you're a vegan.

Those are just the baked goods though, everything else is safe and and there are delicious vegan baked goods available that are definitely worth a try. You just have to look for them.

The je festival happens every year in October but the exact dates change since all Thai/Buddhist holidays and festivals go by a lunar calendar. The festival is awesome because it means that I can eat cheap-ass street food and try new dishes I would never be able to try any other time of the year!

The deep fried assortment of tofu, soy meat balls, spring rolls, corn fritters and taro are the most commonly found vegan street food.

You pick what you want with the salad tongs, put them in the bowl and the cook will dump your food in a clear plastic bag, pour some sweet & spicy sauce over it and toss in a sharp chopstick to use as a skewer.

It's delicious but I'm not a big fried food eater so I can only have a handful of deep fried vegan balls before my stomach begins to get mad at me for feeding it delicious Thai junk food.

But other je stalls offer vegan versions of traditional Thai food such as stir-fried morning glory, tofu with veggies, sweet and spicy soy meats, noodles and various curries. It's very good and super cheap!

This type of veggie Thai food is available all year at the dozens of vegetarian restaurants in Bangkok but it's loads cheaper if you buy it from a street stall. I'm talking spending under $1 for a full plate of food with rice or noodles versus spending $5-$10 at a restaurant!

It's also much more convenient to eat vegan during this time, because the stalls are all over the city and easily spotted because of the yellow flags. I had a je stall right next to work so I could pick up breakfast and lunch in seconds. Street food is typically pre-cooked and on display so you can point to what you think looks good and get it instantly.

One downside to the veggie festival is that vegans and vegetarians normally don't eat street food since there's nothing but grilled fish, meat noodles or random meat-on-a-stick, to choose from:

When you are finally able to eat street food, your stomach is not accustomed to eating something that has been exposed to the elements of the Bangkok streets.

I don't know if it's bacteria or what...omnivore foreigners are no stranger to some food poisoning when eating meat here. Too much street food and your stomach will make you regret it later if it's not used to digesting Bangkok.

I have not been poisoned from veggie festival food yet but I have gotten a little bowel loosening and indigestion. I do have a strong stomach since I traveled to Central America a lot as an omni child and am used to food not being 100% sanitary.

Despite his many travels to exotic locations, including Afghanistan, Todd's stomach is a lot more sensitive than mine so he's still paying for gorging during veggie fest and it's already been a week since it ended!

To be fair, I think Todd ate way more street food than I did since he went to Phuket this year to check out the voodoo Buddhist vegetarian rituals. Phuket is the largest island in Thailand and the place to go if you want to witness the height of the veggie celebration. The locals do more than just yellow flag the streets and pray at the temple, they go ALL the way...skewering their faces with blades and swords and throwing fireworks at each other!

I couldn't go with him because I had to work so I was pretty sad at missing out on all that pyro-self-mutilation but was happy when Todd came back from his trip and announced that the Hindus were preparing for an epic celebration outside our apartment to mark the end of the je festival.

Since we live next to the Sri Maha Mariamman Temple, we can hear when there's a Hindu celebration going on outside. Because there are so many Hindu gods and holidays, there seems to be some kind of parade or festival happening every month.

At the beginning of the je fest, there was a parade of people dressed in white dancing to Hindu music, a marching band and fat, shirtless holy men blessing people and taking offerings.

There was even a fire truck to make sure the torches didn't get out of control:

I was expecting another parade for the last day of the festival, but instead there was a huge block party that went from around noon to 1AM with Hindu music blasting and statues and portraits of all the Hindu gods surrounded by masses of flowers, fruit, candles, incense and coconuts on display along the street.

I was glad to see Kali making an appearance...

Ganesh is the most popular god here but Kali was a close runner-up that day and she's a personal favorite.

As the day progressed, the displays became bigger, the streets became packed with people and the simple praying and dancing became trance-like states which included some screaming and lots of fire.

I shot video of the parade on the 1st day of the festival and the epic celebration on the last:

After seeing that, I didn't feel as sad for missing out on Phuket. I even got to see a Chinese dragon following a fat plastic Chinese man and some skewered holy men throwing red dust at people:

As soon as that pic was taken, I got an eye-full of red Hindu holy-spice and was blind in my right eyes for the rest of the night. The things I do for the sake of documenting my reality!

Central Red World

2010-10-01T03:57:00.004+07:00

The Central World mall reopened this week after a good chunk of it was set ablaze during the Bangkok Crackdown 4 months ago.

I took pictures of the aftermath and went back there this past Tuesday to take some after-aftermath photos. I can't believe they opened it back up in 4 months! I was expecting it would take longer but Bangkok loves their shopping malls and the quicker they can cover up and forget about a shit storm the better.

But the red shirts have NOT forgotten and had a massive rally on September 20th to show they were still here, still red and still waiting to be heard by their government.

The rally was large but peaceful. There was lots of singing and dancing:

The police were there to make sure that the reds dispersed at the appointed time but since it was a peaceful rally, they spent most of the time standing around looking bored or text messaging.

As soon as the rally was over, the reds left quietly and the street cleaners removed all traces of red:

The most interesting part of the rally was the impromptu tagging of the "We <3 Thailand, Everything is Fine, Forget Anything Ever Happened" banners. A lot of people wrote some pretty ballsy shit about the government and the monarchy which is illegal here. People can and have been sent to jail for being accused of lèse majesté without evidence so writing anti-monarchy sentiments for all to see was a pretty big deal:

There were also signs written in English for farangs which asked who the real killers were in the stand-off between the police and red shirts 4 months ago.

The next day the streets were red-free and everything returned to normal but the red shirts made it known that they have not stopped fighting for their cause and their numbers are still huge.

I'm not sure how the Thai media covered this event but seeing it first hand, it looks like a repeat of the rallies from earlier this year but with much more conviction since people have died for the cause, including one of their beloved leaders General "Seh Daeng":

I am happy that the rally was peaceful and hope all future rallies continue to be but until the government and red shirts can resolve their differences, the chances of this turning into another violent confrontation in the coming months seems high. So far, nothing has been resolved between the two parties.

Fortunately for shoppers, the still-unstable government did not deter from the reopening of the Central World shopping mall this week. I went to the reopening on Tuesday and was a bit freaked out by the marketing strategy which consisted of a lot of pink hearts, nostalgia and forgetting that anything ever happened:

And in case you needed the "CW" motto spelled out for you:

I was pretty creeped out by that but that's just how Thais deal with shit. They pretend it didn't happen and keep shopping...well at least the ones who can afford to. On my way out of Central World I happened across a child "helping" set up for the reopening ceremony:

That was a perfect end to that excursion. Will I shop at Central World? Sure. As much as I talk shit about capitalism and know that the rural poor in Thailand want rights and some of the fringe of that group burned the mall as a sign of their frustration at all the wealth they will never have, or just to start shit, I still want bras that fit me and nice clothes and healthy food and nice restaurants and all the rest of my Western comforts...those things that most of the people on the planet cannot have.

Bye Bye Khlong!

2010-09-06T22:06:00.001+07:00

The fast forward button seems to have been pressed in August. It's already September 6th!

Lots of things have happened, it's been tough to try and keep this blog updated in the middle of so many changes. Thankfully it's all been good things save for some sad news about some animals at SCAD.

First off, our vacation to Koh Chang was awesome. We woke up too late on a Thursday to make it straight there from Bangkok, so we decided to spend a night in Pattaya and head to Koh Chang the following morning...

Where last time I had felt we had not had the full Pattaya experience, after this last time, I felt if I experienced any more I'd get stabbed in a drunken brawl like an Australian, which happens often in Pataya as the local headlines will prove.

It's like Vegas where a little goes a long way. One night of vagina vaudeville and go-go bar hopping was more than enough. Pattaya is a wonderful city but in spurts. The following morning, Todd and I were glad to get the fuck out of Pattaya and into a gorgeous jungle island that was practically deserted since it was low season.

We kayaked, relaxed, swam in a warm sea, drank buckets of mojitos and got massages, it was beautiful. That's just the kind of place you can stay in for a few weeks to work on a book. Todd and I were thinking of doing just that but Todd had to go back to work on Monday and I had a job interview so we had to say goodbye to the beautiful jungle island and return home.

It was a good thing I made it to that job interview because it ended up being my dream job where I am now working. I am a drama teacher at a new drama school that opened up in the center of town. My boss and colleagues are all artsy theater actors and artists without a drop of pretentiousness. They are super sweet, smart, talented and very fun to hang out with and I have been working a total of 3 hours a day, 5 days a week but will begin working more hours once the school officially opens next month.

My "work" right now consists of me rehearsing for a skit with my colleagues which we perform at different Thai schools beginning in the middle of the month. I'm basically getting paid $19 an hour to act and learn about theater!

I could not have asked for a better gig and the location is right off the sky train and an easy commute from my new apartment...

So that's my other big news, Todd and I moved to downtown Bangkok to be closer to work and civilization. We were right at the edge of the central area and the only thing we were close to was a French supermarket so dining out and pretty much going anywhere was a commute, not a crazy one but still when it's 90+ degrees out with high humidity, walking in the elements seems a lot more of an ordeal than if it were not fucking hot and humid.

We have a nice apartment with a wonderful pool and cats are allowed! That means we also now have a cat which I am fostering for SCAD:

His name is Mark and he tested positive for feline leukemia so he had to be isolated from other cats so they wouldn't catch it. He is extremely healthy though so there is a chance he might test negative in a few months, SCAD will test him in 3 months.

Due to his isolation, he was starving for attention and due to his talkative nature, he'd let everyone know he was not happy being alone in the kennel. SCAD and I were very happy that I was able to foster him. I seriously want to adopt him and am 99% sure I will, it just depends on how the feline leukemia thing works out. If I keep him, that means I cannot have other cats so if Todd and I go back to LA, Todd won't be able to get his cat back from his dad.

The thing is I don't plan on ever moving back to LA. Todd would like to move back in a few years to be close to his mother but ideally we want jobs where we can have a "Thai compound" and be settled in Bangkok but maybe have an apartment in LA so we can travel back and forth to visit friends and family and eat real Mexican food once in awhile.

Mark is an awesome cat, very affectionate and super talky. He is only 8 months old but has already had a hell of a life. He was found with his sister on the streets of Bangkok during one of SCAD's "Catch and Release" programs where they spay and neuter the street animals and release them back. Typically the locals feed and care for the street animals so releasing them back is not as bad as it sounds. Ideally SCAD would want to find homes for them but they do not have the resources, especially now that they are being kicked out of their current location due to complaints about barking!

SCAD is in a transitional phase that has put all their programs to a halt and prevented them from being able to take in more animals although they have taken in a few.

It's a bit of a mess right now but the volunteers and staff are still working hard and the animals are getting the best care possible. There has been some really sad news of late though. First, Amy, SCAD's resident cat that lived in the SCAD office and was loved by all was killed by a dog or a group of dogs a few weeks ago.

Some SCAD dogs were running around the front yard area while Amy was outside and a few minute later she was found dead. Everyone at SCAD is still mourning her. That picture captured her personality but despite her hard ass thousand yard glare, she was super sweet and cuddly and was the perfect SCAD kitty.

Also, Mark's sister, Mindy had to be euthanized a few days ago. She had a really bad viral infection and was super tiny. Mark is fully grown but Mindy was still the size of a kitten and had some neurological issue where she couldn't see very well or walk. Her health declined and she had to be put down because she was suffering. I had gotten really attached to her and was hoping to even adopt her along with Mark but she didn't make it.

It's tough hearing about shit like that. You get so attached to these animals and not all of them have happy endings. But there are still happy stories to go along with the sad ones. There are still a lot of people adopting animals every week and people have been donating a lot of money and food and there are a lot of very dedicated volunteers and staff who are working their asses off every day to keep that place running.

This is the kind of thing I'd like to capture in my documentary but haven't been able to. Some of the SCAD volunteers are kind of camera shy but some other volunteers that were out of town have come back and they are not camera shy so hopefully I'll be able to get some good footage soon and finish this documentary.

I have a long list of writing that needs to be done. My illustrator for my comic book is still working on the concept art so that project is still on hold, meanwhile I'm still trying to figure out the last piece of the puzzle missing from my script and on top of that I need to remember my drama training and learn acting again, it's been awhile and I feel I am not in top form to perform for this skit my work is doing. I want to be good and prove myself so I need to exercise that as well as think of a script for my next movie to film on Bangkok because the filmmaking bug is ripping into me. Now that I know a lot of local actors, all I need is a script and I can make a movie!

So much to do but it's not like I haven't done a lot already. It's been a busy month so far and it's going to get busier!

Life in Bangkok

2010-08-10T21:08:00.001+07:00

The Fischerspooner show was a total bust. It just consisted of Casey Spooner making an appearance at an overpriced pretentious venue, drinking free champagne while a nerdy white bitch spun horrible 90's trance music and some costumed Thai bitches danced horribly one-at-a-time on some podum.

I'd never been to Bed Supperclub before because it was too fucking expensive and everyone waiting in line to get in looked like a bunch of assholes. I don't blame Casey for this obvious misrepresentation. He didn't even mention the Bangkok "show" on his twitter, only mentioning that he was in Bangkok for a few days and stuffing his face full of local fruit....

Oh I'm sure of it baby....Bangkok is Gay Disneyland after all!

I attempted taking like 10 drunken photographs of us and this was the only one that even came close to aiming correctly.

Most of the crowd consisted of rich, highso assholes but there were still a few snazzy motherfuckers in the crowd. Take that psychadelic techno tiger vest that dude has on complete with an 80's whiplash hipster combover. Tell me that shit 'aint snazzy.

So I spent a shitload of money at a shitty venue to get some sexy pics of Casey Spooner, drunken pics of me and listen to bad techno....another night in Bangkok. This is typical of famous music makers who play "shows" here, they end up dj'ing or pretending to dj at some overpriced club, don't even throw in songs they've created and then move on to Japan to play a "real" show. WTF?

It's times like that, that I miss LA for the music scene. Shit, even Moroccan music is beautiful. Thailand has Isaan to thank for anything close to resembling good music but there isn't anything you can call a "scene" here in Bangkok unless you consider rich people listening to bad techno and Lady Gaga a scene and I do not.

But aside from the lack of good music, I forget I'm in a foreign country even when I go outside and don't understand a word anyone is saying. Most people speak English around here, at least enough to communicate simple things but I really should learn Thai.

We're going to be here for at least another year or two or more. I've been able to settle in quite well here. It's monsoon season right now which is not as bad as it sounds, it's actually quite pleasant because the weather goes from fucking hot to actually reasonable and it rains every day but not for more than an hour or so at a time.

Last week, Todd and I went to Lumpini Park and due to the heat and possibility of rain, we opted for the covered ducky boats instead of the row boats which are typically my preference.

You have to peddle the ducky boats with your legs instead of row, which is easier and and a good workout for your legs except I was wearing a skirt so I gave passersby quite a show.

I was worried we wouldn't be able to see any monitor lizards at the park because we went at lunch time and thought they only came out at dusk, but there were tons. The first one we encountered was swallowing a fat frog:

Monitor lizard are so cute. They look like dinosaurs.

It was a nice outing, I love Lumpini Park but am still a bit jarred by how different it looks now that the red shirts are no longer occupying it. As we were walking, Todd would point out where so and so got shot or where the military moved in. I recognized most of the spots from editing the footage he took:

The government's ability to clean up a mess and the people's ability to pretend it never happened is uncanny. It's much more unnerving than "the conflict" ever was. The Thai government has launched massive crackdowns, censoring everything they can left and right, blocking 113,000 websites, arresting anyone suspected of even thinking of going against the status-quo. There's even a website where you can report people for saying anything negative about the monarchy which is a criminal offense here that anyone can be accused of without proof.

I really don't think this method of dealing with the current political unrest is sustainable or doing anything to help ease the tension among the Thai people and I doubt those in power really believe it either. It's just a waiting game right now, waiting for the next conflict and civil unrest. Thailand has had many of those every couple of years. It's interesting to witness as a foreigner and despite all that, it has done nothing to alter the enjoyment I get from living here. I still think it's way better than living in America.

Currently, I'm on a month of paid vacation (in America I had ten days for the entire year) and will be unemployed by the end of the month. I'm half-assedly looking for another teaching job but I really don't want to work another year doing bullshit. I'll find something so I'm not worried. Right now my real focus is on finishing the comic book script and getting it to my illustrator. I promised to send it to him two weeks ago but he's still thinking of concepts for the scene I sent him. I do need to send that to him soon though as good faith that I'm working and keeping up my end of things.

Tomorrow I'm going to SCAD since I won't be able to go this weekend. It's Her Majesty's birthday on the 12th which is also Thai Mother's Day. The King's birthday is Thai Father's Day. Todd has a 4-day weekend this week as a result, so we're going to Koh Chang which is the 2nd largest island in Thailand and there is promise of beautiful, white sandy beaches:

Another tropical island adventure sounds perfect. We actually spent the King's birthday on an island so I like this continued ritual of celebrating the birth of Their Majesties on a beautiful Thai island. I've been able to take vacation getaways pretty much every month, even while I was working, another thing I was never able to do while in America because I never had the time or the money. It's so cheap and easy to travel here and there's a long list of places to check out, I look forward to crossing off "Koh Chang" from my list. I hope they serve good piña coladas there...

Whore Disneyland

2010-07-29T01:28:00.002+07:00

Fucking hell, Pattaya is the stuff dreams are made of. At least the dreams of a hedonistic crazy bitch.

I've never seen so many beautiful, Asian whores and fat, sweaty, drunken, white slobs stumbling around in one big city in my life. It was MAGIC!

My only regret was not having another night to spend go-go bar hopping and catching some sex shows. The first night we arrived, we took the last bus to Pattaya since Todd had to work on Saturday and we ended up getting there at ten or so. We already booked a decent hotel but by the time we met up with our Swedish friend at Lucifer, which is a club that is also in Patpong but bigger and better:

...it was too late to catch a sex show by then but we still had a chance to soak in the local culture and I enjoyed that culture greatly!

That was the hottest whore of the night and believe me, the competition was stiff! And also not a sober person in site, there were even people throwing up on the street.

We soon discovered that drinking inside the bars was too expensive and the best way to go was to get drunk at the various streetside bars and then go inside random clubs to dance and leave when they started playing shitty music.

As we were doing this, I took pictures of every hot prostitute I came across and tipped the really cute ones and did some drive-by shooting after I got sick of tipping every hot piece of ass I came across, there were too many!

Drunken whore photography is a shitload of fun! Pattaya was full of amusements and when I'm drunk, I tend to catch some things I normally wouldn't notice if I were sober. Like this passed out grandpa that was sitting on a wheelchair outside of a go-go bar:

Or this 8-year old girl being taught to use a pole at a go-go bar at 5AM while her dad drank at the bar and watched:

I also enjoyed the stuffed-toy cart that kept passing by which is meant for Johns to buy for their dates as a nice gesture of fake romanticism.

Note the golliwoggs on the lower left-hand corner. I noticed these being sold at the airport when first arriving to Bangkok and they are very popular all over Thailand. While seen as incredibly racist in America and I'm sure, other Western countries, Asia doesn't have a problem with them since they hate black people. I'm not joking either, they really are racist against black people here. Don't believe me? Watch this commercial.

I'll discuss the racism further in another entry but back to Pattaya....there is even a Ripley's Believe it or Not complete with a separate Wax Museum and Haunted Adventure which we also visited. They had some Tron-like cyber maze and a 4D movie adventure but we opted to just stick to the Believe it or Not, Haunted Adventure and Wax Museum package.

The Wax Museum was actually forced upon us, like you can pick any two attractions you wanted but the 3rd one HAD to be the Wax Museum because everyone knows it sucks and no one would visit it otherwise. The Haunted Adventure was awesome though, there's nothing like walking around in the dark holding a rope with a group of Thais while getting spooked by monsters that scare you in broken Thai English.

Todd and I were laughing our asses off the whole time while the Thais in our group genuinely jumped in fright because Thais are superstitious and scare easily.

I love Ripley's Believe it or Not because it's always a time warp. I used to go to the one in Hollywood all the time. You could tell that this shit hadn't been updated since the 70's and the typical sideshow gags were on display like the furfish, flea circus and shrunken head:

There was also a random shark exhibit to promote Jaws, which came out in 1975! Time warp!

After laughing at the Ripley's attractions, we checked out the beach, which really isn't the main reason why anyone goes to Pattaya but it makes for a nice sea breeze and atmosphere.

The water isn't exactly stunning but it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be and there was some cute shit to take pics of, like this dog:

After walking around the beach for a bit, Todd and I got an amazing one hour Thai massage, ate some delicious Italian food and went swimming at the hotel pool which we had all to ourselves. I wonder how much semen was in that pool already...

So that's why we ended up spending Sunday night sleeping 15 hours instead of going back to Walking Street to go-go bar hop and see some pussy shows! We even made plans an Aussie that we met during the red shirt protests since he lives in the next beach town over and knows all the sleazy places to hang out but we were too worn out and slept the night away. So the expected debauchery level was not completely met but Pattaya is only 2 hours away and we will definitely be back, you can bet this sweet as on that!

After having visited Pattaya, it will be hard to enjoy Nana and Patpong. Pattaya is really Whore Disneyland! I was in a kid in an ass candy store!

BTW I have two more days of work left and I am done working at a Christian pre-school. How the fuck I managed to work there for a year is beyond me but the payoff is one full month of paid vacation and a chance to work on some writing and look for another job. I'm really not jumping at the chance at working another bullshit job but at least I can take my time and am not as desperate as I was a year ago when Todd and I came to Bangkok with our last Moroccan paycheck and a gamble on trying to find jobs and settle into an entirely new country from scratch.

Now that we're settled in, I have 2 months of salary to live on and I know this place a lot better, I can be more choosy about my next job and run the fuck away at any mention of Christianity!

Also, fucking Fischerspooner are playing here tomorrow night!

I'm expecting no sleep and a mean hangover for my last day of work. Perfect send-off!

Iron Fairies

2010-07-15T04:14:00.002+07:00

Found an illustrator for my graphic novel!

He's an American that was visiting Thailand for a bit and went back home to Seattle to marry a beautiful Thai woman that accompanied him while meeting with him at a restaurant. The sketches he emailed me were awesome. We met up at Bug & Bee before he flew back home to further discuss the project. He seemed really into it and we agreed to work on a 20-26 page comic book together. My next step is to get the comic script ready and sent to him.

I'm still paranoid about him backing out though. He's really talented and had that scattered artistic mind when talking about his art that I really enjoyed and he is perfect for this project. But I'm just worried that he'll back out for some reason. I'm not paying him in advance and his motivation for working on this is interest in the story and building up his portfolio which is great, but I'm worried that it won't work out. I'm still going to keep looking for other illustrators just in case but I'm really hoping we finish this project together.

Another alternative is to pay someone in Bangkok to illustrate. It would be much cheaper than commissioning someone outside of SE Asia and there are some talented artists here. Given my limited Bangkok wages, it would make more sense to find someone who will work for cheap and do a good job. I want this comic printed by the end of the year and will be shopping it around to different publishers and also finding out more info on how to self-publish if it has to come to that.

Meanwhile, on Todd's advice after reading the script, which stills needs a few holes that need filled, I am going to convert the script into novel form and print it as well. Lots of writing needs to be done and even though finding this artist brought some new motivation and optimism, I'm still being lazy and haven't done more than jotting down some notes in my journal on what I'm going to put in the comic book.

I also gave myself a deadline of today to at least have a rough draft of the comic book script but didn't do it. I'd blame having to work a day job for not getting it done, even though I'm working less hours now and do have more time to work on writing. Seriously, I have no excuse and should do less partying and more writing!

Last night, Todd and I met up with some friends at this bar where I performed the Thriller! dance for Halloween. They were having a tango night.

The music was good. They were playing some vintage tango tunes but the dancing was amateurish and not very interesting. Plus, the drinks were way too fucking expensive, so after one drink we went across the street to soak up some alcohol at a genuine Thai restaurant. I say genuine because there are the farang Thai restaurants and then there are the REAL ones that actual Thais eat at and cost half as much as the ones that cater to Westerners.

After food, we went to Iron Fairies which was a really cool spot, very reminiscent of The Edison in Los Angeles but more cozy and less pretentious.

Iron Fairies is a bar, restaurant that and welding gallery specializing in iron fairies.

There was a whole pile of them when you walk into the place. I want to buy one next time I go. The decor was had that beautiful 20's speakeasy feel complete with a speakeasy smoking room behind a shelf of vintage-looking bottles:

The smoking room was fabulous. I fell in love with the couch and color scheme of the room.

I enjoy the aesthetic of the early 1900's so this place was fun to explore. There were vintage looking blue prints decorating the walls along with some boiler room equipment that I am not sure was there for show or actually functioning.

Also in the speakeasy smoking area, was a surveillance television with vintage style knobs next to it. An interesting touch. A bit of voyeurism is always fun.

There was random interesting shit everywhere you turned.

The whole venue was an interesting art instillation. Even the bathroom was art.

Faded fairy art pring hung along the tiles and while you taking a piss, there's an old tub that used to be filled with water with a film playing along the wall behind it.

They were playing some bullfighting film. Thankfully, it was just a matador running around and there wasn't any actual bull killing, at least not from the parts I caught.

Another notable part was the spiral staircase and intimate performance stage at the bottom of it.

Some bitch was there singing jazz....I hate jazz unless it's from the 20's to 30's. The shit she sang was alright but still not my cup of tea. I've yet to see a good live musical performance in in this city, aside from some katoey lip-synching and some Isaan performances but thankfully, Fischerspooner are playing in Bangkok at the end of the month! Really excited about that!

I've also been asked to volunteer my photography skills for the SCAD website. They've already used a couple of my pictures and I'm going there tomorrow to take more pics. It's nice to have my photography used for something other than personal blogging. I love photography and am trying to improve my skills as it does relate a lot of filmmaking. Both rely on a good eye for composition. It's also nice to be able to use my photography skills to help SCAD.

My last visit on Saturday was bittersweet. 3-4 dogs were adopted but I found out Duncan died! :(

Really sad about that. He was not looking too good the past few weeks. He had been super friendly and active while I was playing with him when we first met but recently started growling at me and just looked really sick. He had so many health problems and his body just gave out. It was really sad, I had hoped he would get better.

Another dog died too. For some reason I never took a picture of him, but he was a very cute but super thin puppy that ended up having his intestines collapse. Fucking sad.

At least they were loved and had a chance at a better life and received the best medical care possible. Most street dogs here do not have that luxury.

RIP Duncan and puppy.

Motivation

2010-07-07T01:06:00.004+07:00

We ended up going to Laos and only staying there one night because Guy had Dengue fever! He was still in the hospital when we arrived in Vientiane but he returned home a few hours after we arrived. It was shitty timing but at least he's ok. People can die from that. Dengue fever is as bad as malaria and there has been an epidemic of it recently. It's mostly been in rural parts of SE Asia so Todd and I are safe from it here in Bangkok but we were a bit wary of catching it while in Laos.

These are the only pics I took while there. Despite the pretty French-inspired architecture, there is really jack and shit to do there but drink and eat sub par food. Todd and I ended up drinking Johnny Walker Red Label all night at Guy's house while he rested on the couch with an IV in his arm. We watched Alfred Hitchcock's "Rebecca" which I hadn't seen before and really enjoyed and also ended up watching Madonna videos much to Todd's dismay. Guy and I love Madonna!

It was pretty much a wasted trip to Laos. I'm going to have to go on another visa run there soon. It was good to see Guy but he was too sick to go out and we were planning on having a fun party weekend that totally didn't work out. Had we known he was sick with a horrible tropical disease, we would have stayed in Thailand and gone to an island or beach. There still are a lot of places in Thailand we have yet to see that we really want to check out. I have another 3 day weekend at the end of the month so hopefully our next vacation will actually BE a vacation!

I shouldn't bitch though, every single trip we've taken has been amazing. So one meh trip out of dozens of amazing ones ain't bad and at least we got some cheap booze out of it! Red Label costs half as much as it does in Bangkok, so we bought a bottle to take home with us which I'm drinking right now. We should have bought more....

There really isn't much going on in Laos, I really don't know how an LA native like Guy can stand living there for 3 years but there are a lot of beautiful natural things to check out outside of the city. Had we had more time we would have taken a nature tour and gone rafting and shit. Definitely will do that next time we're in the country.

I ended up going to SCAD this past Thursday since I wasn't going to be able to go on Saturday. Now with my shorter summer schedule, I can visit the center more often during weekdays!

I took some pictures but did not do any shooting that day. It's been a challenge trying to find the right angle for the doc. I originally was trying to focus on why people volunteer but now I've decided to focus on why there's a lack of animal rights and welfare awareness in Thailand. The only animal organizations here are funded by Westerners. I think a good subject for the doc would be to figure out why Thais are not as aware of animals rights issues and why there are so many animal welfare violations in this country. This also ties in with the rampant illegal wildlife trade that happens here:

Just passing by street-side pet shops and seeing all the homeless animals shows the state of animal welfare here. It's pretty dire but I think with more awareness, things can change. I don't think people in Thailand don't care about these issues, I think they just aren't aware of them. Hopefully my documentary will raise more public awareness.

I started my summer schedule at work this week. That means I work 4 1/2 hours a day instead of 8 and I still get my full months salary. This works out well but the 4 hours is still very stressful and hectic. Most of the kids in the class are new so there's lots of crying just like the first weeks of school when I started that job. I'm also working with a different teacher so trying to figure out the proper dynamic is a challenge since we both have strong personalities. I don't think she likes me because of some stupid drama with the other teacher I was working with before but I really don't give a shit about that stuff, I just want to do my job and go home.

My contract ends in August but I get that whole month off. I'd love to visit Vietnam but it all depends on what kind of job I get and when it starts. I've had a few job leads, one of them being a job teaching kids how to read job that's supposedly close by to where I live but there's 5 days of unpaid training on the other side of town. I also have someone interested in tutoring so we'll see if that pans out.

I'm still posting ads for an illustrator for my graphic novel and have gotten some responses. I decided to start with a comic book instead and if things work out with me and the artist we can work on a longer book. I really just want to shoot the fucking movie already but of course I had to write an LA story while in Bangkok. I'm trying to think of a Bangkok story to shoot here, it's such a perfect place to shoot a movie and there are tons of stories to tell.

So right now I've been up and down in my moods. The work situation has me a bit down but I'm still thankful to be living here and I know I'll find a decent job eventually. I still have two months to find one. I also am going to devote more time to writing and making movies now that I have less working hours. Being able to create is what keeps me going, as is helping animals and being able to travel. So as long as I have those things going for me, I should be happy and not feel down. Just need to keep remembering that....

BTW I have a finally have a new banner for my blog! I'd been meaning to update it.

Friday Pictures

2010-06-30T02:28:00.001+07:00

Todd and I met with Keith and Olivier at this fancy "gastro bar" on Friday and started drinking double shots of Jack Daniels at 4 in the afternoon! The Euros had arrived an hour or so ahead so we had some serious catching up to do!

Keith was being Gonzo and having double shots of Wild Turkey but it looked and tasted more like quadruple shots. They poured a decent drink there, I appreciate a bar tender who can pour.

Hyde & Seek was a pretty swanky place with a well-dressed hipster owner that provided the most amazing service.

Oliver forgot his Crackberry charger at home and needed another one right away because people with Crackberries can't go without looking at the fucking thing for more than two seconds without getting Crackberry withdrawals, so this guy actually sent someone to buy him another one while we sat there getting drunk. The impeccable service that Bangkok provides brings tears to my eyes!

So we got pretty plastered and it was still daylight. I have no idea how much money spent but it was a lot, especially for Bangkok. We only stopped drinking for an hour taco break at Sunrise Tacos.

There aren't any Mexicans in Bangkok so finding a decent Mexican place here is as rare as finding a virgin. Sunrise Tacos is the closest thing there is to real Mexican food and the fact that they had Tapatio last time we ate there definitely upped the ante!

Tapatio is the fucking shit! I should have jacked it when I saw it at Sunrise last time because when we went back on Friday it was gone! They don't sell it in Thailand but they do have Tobasco so I'm not without hot sauce options. I do miss Tapatio though. The food was pretty meh that night, I kept drunkenly complaining about it and saying how my tacos are a million times better than that shit. My food is fucking good! I should open a vegan Mexican restaurant here.

Here are a bunch of drunken pictures of Friday night. I think they really capture what it's like to be drunk on the streets of Bangkok:

Motorcycle taxis are a lot of fun because they never give you a helmet and they drive at full speed between cars so there is always the threat of having your brains splattered on the pavement. If you live in Bangkok you will use these often because they can get you through ass to ass traffic much quicker than a car taxi and most days it is too fucking hot to walk two blocks to the supermarket.

Passing by a lot of nasty, smelly food stall meat is another Bangkok staple. How anyone eats that shit without dying of food poisoning or a heart attack is beyond me.

I was just stumbling around snapping random pictures of people on the street. This guy obviously did not like me taking a pic of his smelly meats.

Yay a vegetable stall! I like those.

A sparkly golden disco wall in front of some fancy hotel.

I love Greta Garbo so this caught my drunken attention. It's really hard to find a good pen here without spending a shitload of money. I don't understand this but as a writer, a good pen is invaluable. I found some decent cheap ones but I really would like a real pen soon. Especially a Greta Garbo one!

Despite loving Hello Kitty, I actually don't own any Hello Kitty stuff. A friend said she hates when adult women have Hello Kitty shit because they look stupid and need to fucking grow up and remember they're not 4 years old anymore. As a connoisseur of cute who is now 27, it is difficult to find the right balance of adult and cute so I've stayed away from Hello Kitty for now until I find something more tasteful. I'm not about to be like those 40-year-old Canadian bitches that dress like 6-year-old crack addict muppets:

Another cute street stall. I found that instead of mass collecting the millions of cute shit that can be found here, taking a picture is cheaper and takes up less space...I still have a lot of cute shit I've brought though!

My favorite street in BKK. Soi 4 is Gay Wonderland with a bevy of cute gay servers waiting outside their bars trying to get you to come inside with smiles and short shorts and promises of cheap booze. They always call out "I love your boyfriend!" when Todd and I pass by. We ended up getting drunk at one bar and dancing the night away at a club across the way and spending way too much money.

Bangkok people know how to dress. Whether it's the Khao Sarn Road stoner with an ironically funny shirt and $1 sunglasses to the overdressed slick hipster with the perfect pair of pants and pointed shoes, it's all in the accessories and the "I'm fucking fabulous" Bangkok attitude.

Last drunken picture of the night. I enjoyed my star stirrer arrangement.

We drank from like 4pm to midnight with just that taco break and despite that, my hangover the next day was not that bad. I was too hungover to go to SCAD though, I was sad about that. But I'm getting out of work early tomorrow since it's the last day of the school year (still have to work summer school next month but at least my hours are shorter and I still get paid my full salary!).

I'm going to SCAD tomorrow after work to take pics and shoot footage since I won't be able to go there this weekend either. I have a 4 day weekend before I teach summer school. Todd and I are leaving for Laos Thursday night to visit our friend Guy. I've only been to Laos twice for only one night each time because I had to do a visa run so it will be cool to have more time to party and check out the country. One 1/2 day of work to go and I'm free!

SCADurdays and Dreaming

2010-06-14T01:44:00.000+07:00

As you can see by the happy adorable puppy, I went to SCAD again yesterday. It was a good shooting day for the documentary. I shot some footage of people looking to adopt Mr. Daeng who had been abandoned at SCAD for being too sick. I hope they end up adopting him. He's a really sweet dog:

I also took lots more pics of the current SCAD residents which you can see here! I update the gallery every week.

I love SCADurdays. It's my favorite day of the week!

My employers at the Christian International preschool confirmed that they will not be renewing my contract. They gave a lot of reasons like insinuating that I lied about getting my degree in a few years which is not true, I do only have two years left until I get a BA and I didn't lie about that but I was a bit too pissed off to defend myself at the time so I didn't say anything.

They also mentioned that they would be having two pre-kindergarten classes next year instead of one, so because they will be hiring another teacher to teach that class and I wasn't qualified to teach it myself since I don't have a degree, they would be replacing my job with a much cheaper Thai teacher instead.

I really did not plan or want to be there another year as I've said many times on this blog but it still bugs me that they "broke up with me" instead of me breaking up with them. I've never been fired or let go from any job so I found it insulting since I always do an excellent job even when I loathe what I'm doing. It was pretty obvious I didn't fit in, shit it was a Christian pre-school!

It was a miracle I was even hired in the first place and I'm glad it helped me get settled into Bangkok. Now it's time to happily move on. I'm just counting down until I don't have to be there anymore. Other teachers are leaving too and feeling the same way. No one is actually happy working there but how many people are ever happy working anywhere?

The good thing is this forces me to find something else but I am really in no hurry to find another bullshit job. I'm seriously tired of it, hence my now finally looking for an illustrator for my graphic novel. I really think this graphic novel will do well and I also have ideas for other books I want to do.

I'm still going to look for a teaching job since the graphic novel won't be completed and printed for some months. I have until the end of August to find another job. It should be fine, I've always been able to find a job but the process is always a pain in the ass and I'm kicking and screaming the whole way through.

Fuck work! I want to make art!

Seeking Illustrator for Transgressive Graphic Novel

2010-06-11T18:07:00.000+07:00

"Clown Goes Mad" tells the story of three assassins hired to kill God. As a writer/filmmaker, I've put 10 years into developing this universe, its characters and their stories. With the feature-length script completed, I'm looking for an illustrator/partner who will enjoy illustrating a transgressive story into graphic novel format.

All dialogue and scenes are fully realized in meticulous detail. Very visually oriented, but I want to find a creatively compatible artist who can comfortably wield creative freedom in realizing the adaptation.

A Los Angeles native, I live in Bangkok, Thailand, and plan to collaborate via email, video conference, Skype, chat etc.

This is a labor of love that will make money once the books are sold. Given the content and current market for graphic novels, I am confident in its success. However its a job on spec because I do not have the resources to pay up front. I will print and advertise the books myself here in Bangkok because production is and marketing are inexpensive here. After first tapping the Asian and Internet market, I plan to release worldwide. The illustrator will receive a percentage of these profits, as per our negotiation. It is my hope the interested illustrator shares the same enthusiasm and passion for the the content as myself. It should be a fun process with an eye toward quality and success both artistically and commercially.

My ultimate goal is to channel the revenue into shooting this as a movie, which could mean further collaboration.

Please email me at tracyvanity@gmail.com for more info.

Khao Yai

2010-06-08T01:45:00.001+07:00

So last weekend Todd and I finally got the fuck out of Bangkok and headed to Khao Yai with some friends. One of them had an aunt who owns a gorgeous private resort next to property owned by the royal family:

The resort was 2-3 acres with about 6-10 bungalows made from endangered wood. There was some serious display of wealth happening here.

Todd took those last two pics. The place was absolutely stunning and we all wanted to stay there for at least a week but had to settle for 3 days of elated relaxation.

Khao Yai was a 30 minute drive from the resort and the weather was perfect the whole time, unlike the smoldering hellish humid heat of Bangkok. Trees do wonders for a climate and the scenery was too beautiful to look real:

In Khao Yai checked out a waterfall where a scene from "The Beach" with Leonardo DiCaprio was filmed.

It was raining a bit so the jungle was extra jungly which was beautiful but with jungle beauty comes something I had never experienced before that scared the fucking shit out of me...LEECHES!!!

We were all wearing shorts and flip flops and getting attacked left and right by those fuckers. They actually leap at you and chomp into your skin within seconds. Every few steps someone would be screaming their head off and trying to flick off a leech from their foot. 3 jumped on me and I was way too squeamish to even look at them, let alone try and flick them off me so I begged Todd to do it.

He was gallant enough to flick off my leeches and even got one stuck to his finger while trying to save me. It was so fucking gross but hilarious at the same time. Some of my friends were attacked pretty bad and were bleeding for awhile. Those bastards are ruthless. Two leeches even followed us inside the car! One of my friends had one sucking on her foot without her knowing, so when she happened to look down at her foot, it was covered in blood. She flicked the fucker out of the car and he happily danced away, fat and high on French cuisine:

I kept checking my body for leeches the rest of the night. ::shudder::

I was expecting to see more animals than we did but we still saw a few. There was a large troupe of monkeys by the road waiting for handouts from tourists.

We also some some adorable toads at the resort. I took a pic of one who was not too happy being photographed.

There are less than 10 tigers reported to be living in Khao Yai but aside from some stuffed ones we saw in the park museum, we didn't see any live ones.

This is actually a good thing, not the dead tiger but the fact that the 2 tigers that are still alive in the wild are smart enough to stay the fuck away from humans. There are less than 2,000 tigers living in the wild right now so in order for them to survive they really need to hide to keep from being murdered and sold to the Chinese for meat and medicine.

Khao Yai was awesome though. We played tennis, went hiking, got attacked by leeches, drank boxed wine, ate at a river restaurant covered with vintage toys and swam in a hotel with 5 different pools. It was a wonderful time and I can't wait to go back. It is nice to be able to drive 3 hours out of the city and feel like you're in another world.

The Thai Crisis Not Only Affects People

2010-05-28T12:51:00.004+07:00

This recent political unrest has affected the thousands of homeless street dogs and cats that live in Bangkok. Not only have the grenades, bomb, fire and gunshot battles scared the shit out of them, but when the red shirts were "cleared out" of central Bangkok, they left behind animals that were under their care who now have to fend for themselves or face starving to death.

This "red dog" was first spotted by Todd last Wednesday which was when Central Bangkok was still a "free fire" war zone. He was abandoned next to Central World which is the largest mall in Bangkok that was set on fire last Wednesday. A slogan has been spray painted on him in Thai and he is wearing a red bandanna around his neck.

When I went with Todd the following day to shoot footage of the aftermath, the dog was still there in that exact same spot. We tried giving him food and water but he was too depressed to touch it. He clearly misses the person who abandoned him and is waiting for them to come back but they've either gone back to Isan, died or been arrested.

Everyone who saw this dog was heart broken but there was nothing we could do. The Thai crisis has affected thousands of people, but no one has focused on the impact this has had on animals.

Bangkok does not have any government funded organizations to help strays and there are currently about half a million homeless dogs and cats here. Because people don't spay or neuter their animals, this number is only growing.. Given the hot tropical climate that many diseases thrive on, the poverty level, pollution and over-crowding in this city, many of the soi animals are in horrible shape and in need proper medical care and food.

I am currently volunteering at the only organization close to a Western animal shelter in Bangkok called "Soi Cats and Dogs". (Soi means "street" in Thai) SCAD not only takes in soi dogs and cats and gives them much-needed treatment for mange, parasites and other diseases that plague pretty much all homeless animals here, but they have catch and release programs to help reduce the soi animal population and programs to educate the public on the street animal problem and proper animal care. They even have an overseas adoption program.

That's why the work SCAD does is so important. I see dozens of homeless animals every time I step out of my apartment and there are thousands more all over Bangkok. It can be rather depressing. I was very happy to find out about SCAD and began volunteering at their center immediately. Unfortunately, due their underfunding, they could not help the "red dog". I called them as soon as I saw him but they said they could not take in anymore animals.

They're in a really dire spot right now and have had to reduce the number of stray animals they can take in and treat. It's been heartbreaking since they're goal is to INCREASE the number of animals they can help. They've even had to put off necessary catch and release programs in the middle of cat season because of all the crazy shit that's been going on here.

If you have any money you can donate please do so. Any little bit helps and right now they need to raise $10,000 USD just to stay afloat this month.

Please feel free to post this donation link to anyone who might be able to help. Thank you!

All the animals in my SCAD Gallery are currently up for adoption. As mentioned earlier in this post, there is an overseas adoption program so if you want to adopt an adorable homeless soi animal from Thailand, SCAD can help!

To find out more about the work SCAD does, please visit their website: http://www.scadbangkok.org/

This is also a good video about them: