The Rake in Bangkok

mao part 3

2005-11-15T10:53:00.000-08:00

Messing with Mao in Seattle

2005-11-15T09:46:00.000-08:00

Well Jerro and I are returning to Bangkok on January First. In celebration, Jerro asked me to mess around with Mao and Chinese Communist posters

Last Days in Bangkok - Panda Guys

2005-09-21T09:47:00.000-07:00

Last week, I came across this delightful little stall that had just been opened at Jatujak by a toy/t-shirt designer, who had come up with a toy he called Panda Guys. He had designed T-Shirts, clocks, key rings and a wonderul stuffed toy all around the theme of Pandas. Before leaving I went back to pick up a panda and some of his smaller objects. Here is his stall.

Last Days in Bangkok - The Thai Communist Party Stall

2005-09-21T09:33:00.000-07:00

I came across this art installation, disguised as the Thai Communist Party's official retail outlet in the heart of Jatujak, drawn by the sound of the Internationale sung in Thai, Chinese and Russian. It was as deranged as it was outrageous, but in a cool way.

Last Days in Bangkok - The Dummies of Jatujak

2005-09-21T08:56:00.000-07:00

I know I have posted images of these freakazoid other worldly wonders before, but I think it is imposssible to get enough of them.

I am not sure why I like them, if it is their manic smiles, their otherworldly hair, or the fact that there is such a mass of these creatures at the market that draws me to them.

Without further ado, here are more of the dummies of Jatujak Market

Last Days in Bangkok - The Bird House

2005-09-21T08:47:00.000-07:00

I passed this bird house everyday for a month and each time I saw it I found it iuncreasingly fascinating. It looks less like a bird hpouse than a Peter Max inspired sculpture created to provide our winged cohabitants a place to chill out

Last Days in Bangkok - The Fortune Teller on Sukumvit Street

2005-09-21T08:39:00.000-07:00

With less than a day to go before leaving Bangkok, I decided to heads out and explore a different part of Bangkok. Settling on visiting a main street, I decided to take a taxi down to Sukumvit Street and it was a horrific experience.

It was nothing but people hawking, and harassing you to buy, overpriced bootleg products. Karaoke bars selling beers for twice the price than anywhere else in Bangkok, being advertized by legions of tired looking whores and hostesses.

What was missing were the smells that I have come to associate with Bangkok, the stands selling the huge variety of barbecued and fried foods that assault the sense and stimulate the stomach.

I luckily got the hell out of there before the monsoon hit.

The Fortune Teller

This Indian Gentleman accosted me on Sukumvit and proceeded to scam me out of 100 baht, but he did it beautifully and his spiel was well worth the price.

He was about to tell me the name of my greatest enemy, the person in the world who is supposed to be trying to kill me.

Last Days in Bangkok - Sukumvit Street

2005-09-21T08:38:00.000-07:00

Sukumvit Street

Last Days in Bangkok - The Taxi Ride to Sukumvit Street

2005-09-21T08:07:00.000-07:00

The Theatre

2005-09-15T23:04:00.000-07:00

I have been passing this little theatre, in the middle of a field for a couple of days now. I do not remember it being there last week.

More Thai Signs

2005-09-15T22:42:00.000-07:00

Ok I admit it, I am enamoured by Thai signs, there is an innocence to them that seems to bely their blatant commercialism. It is the happy face of capital.

Sushi bar sign

Chinese Restaurant in a mall

I think this is for a television program

I have absolutely no idea what this is for, except that it has a very happy looking chef, so I assume it is for a kind of food.

A Thai School Seal etched in marble

Found in a Temple

This is one of the few signs I have seen here that I wish I had. It is either an ad for an energy drink or a dire warning about the consequences of drinking it.

Hairdressers Pole. Throughout the area of Bangkok I have been hanging out in, there are hundreds of variants of the pop-art hairdressers poles. This one has both male and female figures on it.

I think this was a restaurant sign, but I can not remember

I think these religious placards bless the building but I am not sure

bangkok Neon

2005-09-15T22:35:00.000-07:00

Jerro and photographed these in the block between the internet cafe and the hotel the other night

George Takes a Bathroom Break

2005-09-15T22:29:00.000-07:00

I did not want to do this, but it is just to precious. George was photographed asking Condi's permission to take a bathroom break. Isn't that cute the President has a Mammy.

This is what Editor and Publisher had to say about the whole thing:

NEW YORK With confirmation today that an accidental photo of President Bush at the United Nations on Wednesday, writing a note to Secretary of State Condeezza Rice about a “bathroom break,” was indeed real, newspapers around the U.S. and abroad are now planning to run it widely. But many, it seems, will treat it as something more than a joke.

A source at the Washington Post tells E&P that the paper is considering it for prominent play Friday morning, in the context that, at least in some minds, it raises questions about overall perception of the U.S. at the United Nations, right or wrong. Reuters reports extremely strong interest in the photo today.

The fact is, according to Reuters -- and this has not been widely reported -- President Bush did indeed take a bathroom break after passing the note to Rice.

This apparently raised some eyebrows around the room, because American representatives (among others) have a reputation for suddenly bolting, though normally for a far different reason than this latest one. Fair or not, the European press has already had a field day with the photo, often centering on the notion that Bush had to ask Rice for permission.

The Times of London, for example, ran no less than three separate articles about it on its Web site, one at the top of its front page. (It's a Murdoch paper.) One headline reads: "Excuse me Condi, can I go to the bathroom?" Another story, believe it or not, opens: "The need to relieve oneself diplomatically has on occasion determined the fate of nations." The third discusses the sordid history of the particulatar lavatory in question, and contains this passage: "Medical experts said that the 59-year-old President was wise not to wait any longer."

The headline at the BBC news site suggested that Bush had been "caught short" at the U.N. summit. The Irish Examiner headline? "To Pee or Not to Pee, That is the Question." Der Spiegel in Germany translated a bathroom break" as "eine Toiletten-Pause."

And, of course, it made The Daily Show back in the U.S. late Thursday night.

Gary Hershorn, news editor-photos for the Americas at Reuters, told E&P today that the photographer, Rick Wilking, informed him yesterday afternoon that he had observed Bush pass the note to Rice, and a little later, rise from his seat, leave the room, and then return.

And while some have suggested that Wilking, a well-known photographer just back from taking some of the most gripping images in New Orleans, was out to embarrass the president, Hershorn said that the photojournalist had no idea what Bush was writing on the paper. Wilking assumed the president was taking notes on what some other official was saying.

“Rick had no idea what he was shooting, or what Bush was writing,” Hershorn said. “If Rick knew what he was writing we'd have 25 pictures of this, not two.”

The photo was taken at 12:08 p.m. and it was Hershorn, about three hours later, who took the trouble to examine the photo closely. It was only then that he noticed the writing and decided to put it on the wire after 4:00.

The photo, as E&P observed Wednesday night in the first story about the incident, shows Bush scribbling in pencil on a note that already holds the words: "I think I may need a bathroom break? Is this possible." Wilking is a veteran Washington photographer who has long covered Bush campaigns and the White House.

As for transmitting the photo, Hershorn says, "There was no malicious intent. That's not what we do."

There's a simple explanation, even a serious one, for all of this, he adds. Bush, he points out, is not used to attending meetings at the U.N. and probably did not know what the protocol was for exiting a room and returning. His question to Rice was “proper” and not all that surprising, “asking someone with more experience there about protocol,” he said.

Wilking told Gelf magazine today that he has not yet heard from the president—whom he says he knows very well—about the note. “I’m curious to know what the White House thinks,” Wilking said.

Jerro's Last Weekend in Bangkok - Friends and Coleagues

2005-09-11T06:25:00.000-07:00

Ok so this is my last weekend in Bangkok so I thought I would post some pictures of friends and colleagues. As I have gotten to know these chaps, they have become my friends, so if that Welsh fart makes claims that his friend such and such and his friend so and so did this or that, don't believe him because all he did was drink and sleep. The lazy fart.

I on the other hand engaged in stimulating conversations about philosophy, economics, what it was like to live in Thailand. What is more, because the Welshman had only the most rudimentary education which failed to make him a more rounded and cultured chap and left him a tad boorish, I was able to talk about him behind his back in German with Andreas and Herbert and in Thai with Lyn. He had no idea what we were talking and laughing about and he would make these pathetic attempts to join in by grinning like an idiot and making a sort of gurgling noise like a rusted car engine about to seize up that I suppose may have been a laugh or a garbled cry of anguished pain, it is so hard to tell.

This idiocy went on night after night when he would make vain attempts to get our attention and get approval for this or that story we had al heard before. There was one night however, when after a couple of beers he just seemed to curl up into a fetal position and moan. If he was looking for sympathy he was in the wrong crowd I can tell you, because after we tossed him a couple of Baht, which he scooped up to buy more alcoholic slops, we just kept ion talking about him in German and laughing.

Me, Herbert and the British Flag

Lyn and Andreas

Some Waitresses in a cafe

Herbert a little in his cups

Andreas

Me

The doorman at Town in Town

Jerro's Last Weekend in Bangkok - Freaky Dummies

2005-09-11T06:16:00.000-07:00

What is it about these really weird dummies that Thais seem so enamoured of. They display em dressed, half naked, with insane grins and in bizarre colors, here are a few I saw at the market this weekend. A couple of them look klike some I have shown you before, but they are so strange and odd they deserve to be celebrated.

Jerro's Last Weekend in Bangkok - The Orchid Theif

2005-09-11T06:03:00.000-07:00

Ok, so they made a movie based on this book called Adaption, which was a pretty cool film. But what I don't understand is, why didn't they just come to Bangkok and buy them, coz the orchid selection at ChatuChak Market is really quite incredible.

Here is a small sample of the orchids of ChatuChak.

Jerro's Last Weekend in Bangkok - Slides, Swings and Climbing Frames

2005-09-11T05:38:00.000-07:00

Walking around Bangkok, I came across this park, but would the Welshman who is enemy of all that is good and pure, and arbiter of Kitsch and all that is useless let me go there.

No he tied me to a desk and forced me to teach his classes while he kicked back and boozed his way through the last three weeks. Never let a closet dipsomaniac who hides his insecurities along with his drinking loose in a city where they sell Scotch in convenience stores. Big mistake there.

Anyway this morning, as he lay moaning whining about his hangover and whinging about how it is everyone else's fault and that he had been living on a caravan in rural Wales when he had been anally probed by an alien. Yeah, like some Alien would have travelled 25 billion light years just to poke a welsh redneck in the butt, so I decided it was splitsville.

I mean wouldn't you if you were in my situation and being forced to spend your last weekend in Thailand with a loser in a hotel room moaning about his head and other stuff I will not repeat for you dear readers. So I headed down to the park.

Yippie Aye Yo, Yippie Aye Yay

Cool Fun in Bangkok.

Jerro's last Weekend in Bangkok - Sporty Sculpture park

2005-09-11T05:19:00.000-07:00

having done the market, gotten a little squiffy on beer, and mucked around on the slides and stuff Jerro decided to celebrate the glory of sports by hanging out with some Thai athletes outside the National Stadium

Photo Project - New Photos Part 1

2005-09-08T05:32:00.000-07:00

Because my earlier versions of these posters were basically Illegible, I decided to repost the Students work for your enjoyment. This time I added the captions that the students included so they are more understandable. I have been very pleased with the bulk of their contributions.

Siam Orchid

Narcissus

Thai Music Festival # 3 - Version 1

Thai Music Festival # 3 - Version 2

Thai Music Festival # 3 - Version 3

Light Up Creativity, Turn on Reading

Photo Project - New Photos Part 2

2005-09-08T05:16:00.000-07:00

Stop Pollution

Gunism Sporting Club

Natural Handicrafts

Don't Leave Them Alone

Thai Red Cross Urgently Needs Blood

Beauty and the Beast

Save Ours Land

Not Behind Every Bush Such a Good Human Reveals Himself

Exhibition at the Centre of the World

King's Palace

Joey Boy - The Club

Nothing is Impossible High Flying Adore - Version 1

Nothing is Impossible High Flying Adore - Version 2

Model Search

Risk to Love

Emotion Never Lies

Photo Project - New Photos Part 3

2005-09-08T05:03:00.000-07:00

Hello Panda Girls

Twentyone Suicide Club

Emo's Night

Beautiful Imagination

Racing Car Private Party

BMX Flatland Contest

Gaynor Minden Pointe Shoes

Happy Families Don't Smoke

Thailand Traveling Festival at Queen Sirikit Center

The Poster Project - New Photos part 4

2005-09-08T04:42:00.000-07:00

Sport Eye Wear

Save the World, Save the Coral Reef

Skies Beautiful Skies - Pattaya

Stop Him Before He Kills Again

Gunsa Reggae Party

Are You Still in the Queue?

Teddy bear - Killer

Stop the Violence or I'll Kill You

Student described project thusly - "Using the ancient concept "Yin-Yan" to redefine the modern electronic world". Symbols on left from top to bottom e - internet, bottom symbols chinese letters for time. Symbols on the right top - New, second Yin, third Yan.

E'J. Bulldogs

The Poster Project Part 1

2005-09-06T06:32:00.000-07:00

My photojournalism students handed in their first project today. I apologize for the quality of some of the images, but I have never claimed to be anything but a crappy photographer. I hope you enjoy them as much as I was delighted to get them.

In looking at these please bear in mind these may have been the first poster some of the students had ever creted.

Continued in The Poster Project Part 2

The poster project part 2

2005-09-06T06:03:00.000-07:00

Thinking About Rehnquist on a Rainy Day in Bangkok

2005-09-04T02:28:00.000-07:00

While the title is snappy and I would love to vent about Rehnquist, this post has absolutely nothing to do with him and everything to do with a rainy day in Bangkok.

We are in the monsoon season here and it rains every morning and evening, and occasionally during the day. Bangkok is beautiful after it rains. Everything drips with life and Bangkok's coat of many colors seems to glisten.

The food vendors come out of the shadows of the trees and set up their stands, offering all manner of delights and treats. This city sometimes smells like the largest barbecue you can imagine, except it is not hot dogs and burger, but foods of all kinds and varieties. Some of the stalls have huge vats of goodies bubbling away in cocoanut milk. The resulting broth has this gleaming tinge to it. You can get home made breads chopped and served with sauce. There are stands selling squid, whole fish, crab claws and on some whole crabs, steaks, chicken little pork balls, pickled fruits and many other wonders of the orient.

There are 7-11s everywhere and like so many other stores they sell beer and whiskey. I am not sure if this is toogood an idea, given how Thais drink but it is most convenient if you want a beer to go to bed with.

Saw my driver today, a man who scares the living piss out of me. He calls me Teacher in a way that seems to have a hint of malice. I know he is not malicious, but misinterpretation goes a long way in this world and fuels most of outr problems. In the morning I must remember that he only wants to drive me to school.

That's all for now. Except to say, I heard a man on the radio once say that it was wrong to say bad things about the dead. In keeping with his rant, I must say that I hear Wiliam Rehnquist is dead. Good.

Return to the Market - Stuff Sacred and Profane

2005-09-03T20:38:00.000-07:00

Louis Aragon, in Paris Peasant wrote that there are places in the midst of men, where the flora and fauna of the imagination are still allowed to thrive. While I find Chat u Chak market too crowded, overly hot and the most claustrophobic place I have ever been, it strikes me to be one such place. It is driven by naked commerce, not by the surrealist other and in fact unless there was money in Surrealism, most of the shop keepers and stall owners would most likely crack up laughing at such a pretentious claim. Yet amid the bustling cacophany and undirected mass, there is a hint of something long gone and lost in the West. It certainly ain't the mall of America and has a lot more stuff than any programmed and sanitized super store or mall could ever aspire to have.

I apologize for the quality of the photographs, I hope I have given you a sense of what it is like, please enjoy

Return to the Market - Imported Pop

2005-09-03T20:24:00.000-07:00

Ok, so when I came to Thailand I thought it would be the Orient of my dreams. I assumed (as Abbe notes that always makes an Ass of U and Me) it would somehow be immune to the trends of Western pop culture. What did I find, MacDonalds, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Pizza Hut, Punks Not Dead and Syd Lives T-Shirts. Here are some examples from the market

Che Lives

Show me a home where the buffalo roam and I will show some Kochina Dolls

Kurt plays Bangkok

Ah to live on a dude ranch

Pop Imperialism

Barbie in Bangkok

Syd is my religion

Return to the Market - Pets

2005-09-03T20:13:00.000-07:00

A large proportion of the market is devoted to pets of all shapes, sizes and kinds. I did not find any albino crocadiles but I have never seen so many different kinds of fish or fowl in the same place at the same time. Here are some of them.

Puppies

Fighting Cocks

Bags of fish

Budgies

Tortoises

Exotic fowl

Baby Crabs

Frogs

Squirrels

Koi

Return to the Market - the Crowd

2005-09-03T19:57:00.000-07:00

After getting back to the hotel from my visit to the market I passed out with exhaustion. I woke up a couple of hours later and realized I had to return to the market and get more pictures, as one of my misions here was to write a blog and fill it with images of places I have been and seen. I asked Jerro if he wanted to come with me and he laughed and said there is no way I am heading into that sea of sharks again. Go if you must, but wear a freaking life jacket. So I went. This time, as I was not trying to buy anything, it was not such a rotten experience but I still left feling completely drained and wrung out.

The Market

2005-09-03T19:13:00.000-07:00

So jerro had this really bright idea. Lets go to the market and find some cool shit to take back wiith us. Not wanting to remind him about his attempt to visit China lst week I decided to indulge. He had heard you could buy an albino crocodile there and in keeping with his attempts to go native and live in the jungle he decided he wanted a jungle pet and an albino crocodile struck him as one which would be very hard to lose. I tried explaining that a crocodile would be a very bad idea as a pet, but Jero just started talking to me in Thai, which I still do not understand. So with the help of one of the students, who Jerro has made friends with and is not in any of his classes, we headed out to ChatuChak market. As soon as we got there Jerro told me I had made a really bad decision to go to the market and proceeded to hide and not come out complaining it was too hot and crowded.

How to describe the market. When I got there I was completely shattered. I have not been sleeping well and had not really understood before I got here quite how mentally exhausting teaching 6 hours a day could be. At the University of Iowa, I had TA'd a class but those were only an hour an a half long. So to all my friends and colleagues who have gotten and pursued successful teaching careers my hat goes off to you. My state of exhaustion has not been helped by the fact that few of my students speak anything more than rudimentary English and pronounce it as badly as I pronounce the few Thai words I have learned.

Anyway, dear readers I know you have not come here to read about my life as a teacher and instead want to hear about my impressions of Thailand. I have tried to think of good way to describe the mind fuck that I found the market to be. As I said earlier I was completely shattered and was not expecting, in spite of being warned, it to be so big, hot or crowded. There were thousands of stalls selling everything under the sun, all arranged in alley ways that the mobs were funneled through with no set direction.

It reminded me a lot of that moment when you are about to lose control of your trip and the whole world seems to rush at you with an overpowering cacophany of color, sound and motion. Your only response is to be gripped with sheer terror, you feel like you are drowning and you desperately search for a surface to stick your head above and breathe.

After getting through the market alive all I could do was return to my hotel and sleep.

Enough of my whining and saying how freaking hard my life is. I should be in New Orleans and then I would have the right to complain. Here are some pictures that I took yesterday morning

A Thai stoner

The Crowd

The Dummy.

For some reason Thais seem to like these insane grinning manikins who seem to be modeled after the joker and were made to show that fashion is not only necessary it can also be a lot of fun.

Stalls

Sculptural Stuff

The Dancer

I saw this young man busking for cash in this extraordinary costume with this huge mask that covered his head.

jerro's bus ride

2005-09-03T18:58:00.000-07:00

In Tom Wolfe's Electric Kool Aid Acid Test, Ken Kesey is reported to have demanded to know whether you on or off the bus. Jerro is definitely on this bus.

In Bangkok buses are the only way to travel. They can be maddeningly slow, or surprisingly fast depending on the traffic. There are two types of buses, one is air conditioned and has padded seats, these cost 13 baht and above depending on how far you want to travel.

The other type of bus, which is cooled by fans, costs 7 baht. 25 cents to ride the whole way across Bangkok can not be beat

Jerro prefers the latter bus because they are blue, orange or red and have wooden floors and you can stick your arm out of the window. He also says that sometimes the bus driver smokes but has not seen anyone else do it, so he thinks it might be illegal to smoke on the bus.

Jerro with Lyn

Jerro with poopybutt from the Khyber Pass

Jerro of the Jungle

2005-09-02T05:26:00.000-07:00

So last week I tried going native and dumping the old fart. It did not work and he forced me back into involuntary servitude. Carrying his books, getting him food and teaching his classes. Still he refuses to get me a simple cheeseburger or bar of Cadbury's Fruit and Nut. Little known to him I have been perfecting my camouflage and I think I do a pretty good job of blending in. Escaping from bondage I headed out for China, but soon I found myself deep in the jungle where the fart in a bottle came to find me. I think I did a pretty good job of hiding. I want you to notice how I blend in with a wide variety of shades, colors and textures. I have become a regular chameleon. I especially like the way that I disappear among the orchids, which makes me a pretty rare and exotic little guy. If I had not perfected this technique, who knows what he would make me do, most likely carry his books, read the newspaper and watch the news for him.

The Carver's Studio

2005-09-02T05:14:00.000-07:00

When you set out to go for a walk in this town, as with any city, if you kep your eyes open you can find the coolest shit. So Jerro and I were walking around and we came across an Artisan's studio, where this little old man made these exquisite intricate carvings.

Baroque Bangkok

2005-09-02T04:58:00.000-07:00

So jerro and I had the day off and we decided to go out and shoot some photographs. Walking around Jerro noticed there seems to be a Baroque subtext to many of the gates in this part of town. He was wondering if this meant there had been a secret invasion of Bangkok from Florence in the late 16th century. There seems to be a definite passion for blue, black and gold gilt.

Thinking About New Orleans

2005-09-02T04:39:00.000-07:00

So FEMA was ask to assess in 2001 what the three greatest potential threats to the United States were. They suggested an attack on the Wold Trade Center, an earthquake in California and a hurricane hitting New Orleans as the events that held the greatest potential for maximum damage and loss of life.

Well blow me. I left America on September 10 2001, what happens the next day the World Trade Center is hit by two planes and it collapses. I stil have not seen the news footage of that day in its entirity and I would love to.

I come back to the United States. Stay for four years and nothing really bad happens, excluding of course Bush getting reelected and the War in Iraq started, both catastrophic events to my mind, but not ones FEMA predicted so I will ignore them.

2 weeks ago I came to Thailand, having been invited out of the blue to teach and while I am here New Orleans is hit by a hurricane and the shit totally hits the fan. Is there a pattern here. Well first and foremost, to all Americans I am sorry, whenever I leave some bad shit seems to go down, so I guess I will have to stay.

There is another and far more sinister coincidence. Before 9-11, George Bush went on his first really long vacation as president and at the end of it, the World Trade Center is hit. This year he gos on a 5 week vacation and New Orleans is hit. So perhaps George Bush should stop taking vacations. While he strikes me as a pretty brainless and useless man, it seems he causes more trouble when he is doing nothing than he does when he is pretending to be working.

Furthermore, he should read his briefing papers. FEMA suggested the World Trade Center may be a target for terrorists and George cut FBI counter-terrorism funding. Likewise FEMA suggested New Orleans might be hit by a hurricane and George cut the funds needed to maintain the Levys. The result, New Orleans has been inundted by water, looted, parts of it seem to be burning, the sick and infirm are dying, women and children being raped, and the survivors forced to choose between staying and starving or walking through water that is now a toxic stew. And what does George do, he calls this a temporary crisis and his government only sends 70 buses to rescue people in 4 days.

Hey George, please do not go back on vacation

Just a few thoughts from a very tranquil Bangkok.

James

The Neighborhood and New Orleans

2005-09-01T21:16:00.000-07:00

Well we have been here for two weeks now and the whole world outside of Bangkok seems to be going to hell in a handbasket set on overdrive.

In the south of Thailand there is a low level war going on, in which between 10 and 20 people are killed per week. Jerro and I have been watching with fascinated repulsion images of New Orleans and constantly surprised by the agonized observation of American and British commentators that this is happening in an American City. As though shit is something that happens elsewhere than America. Over here in Thailand the newspapers have been filled with a sort of resigned satisfaction that shit does happen anywhere and if America is not immune to it then it makes the shit that happens here seem a little less brutal and tragic.

So in keeping with the theory that shit happens, Jerro decided it might be fun to photograph the neighborhood between the hotel and the internet cafe where he publishes this blog, before it is levelled by a hurricane flooded by a Tsunami or devastated by a car bomb. I have tried telling him that cannot happen, but he has decided to err on the side of paranoia just in cas.

Colonel Bogie in Bangkok

2005-09-01T21:02:00.000-07:00

Because we are visitors in this country and are supposed to provide some kind of context for our stay in this blog, Jerro thought it would be cool to photograph some Thais. He is especially fascinated by the number of uniforms Thais seem to wear from the youngest school child to the variety of policemen. He is not sure, but he thinks it might have something to do with a type of social stratification.

He asked his friend Lyn about why some school children looked like boy scouts and girl guides and she told him that every child in Thailand is automatically enrolled in the Scouts and the Guides and one day a week they have a Scouting Day at School. Jerro was wondering why the Scouts don't wear kilts and I had to explain to him that the Scouts and the Scots were different. He said I am stupid and don't know shit.

Teaching

2005-09-01T20:54:00.000-07:00

Jerro suggested that I might ant to prove I am alive, and that I have students so he asked some students to take some photos of me teaching Art for Communcation in Journalism and then snapped some photographs of the students in the class.

What a Pretentious Art Fag

2005-09-01T20:42:00.000-07:00

So you give the Rake a Digital Camera to record his time in Bangkok, and blow me after he has gone around and done the National Geographic thing and the gosh aren't I cool being a stranger in a strange land, it is only a matter of time before he believes that he has some kind of talent and is a regular Cartier Bresson. He decides he is some kind of ARTISTe, blech. He will then, as many crappy photographersd before have done decide to try and be clever, take some artistic photographs and inflict them on you, my poor visitors who came to check out what i was up to and not look at this crap. So lets get it out of the way, and before you think what a wanker, remember you have been warned these are crappy and pretentious attempts at being clever.

Not only are these overly pretentious, but in the last two photographs I forgot to turn the freaking flash off.

Teaching in Bangkok

2005-08-30T07:47:00.000-07:00

I know most of you thought I came to Bangkok to fuck around and blunder in and out of sacred spaces like the Ugly Welshman abroard, but here I am pontificating about truth justice and who knows where the chips may fall to young and impressionaable Thais

Jerro and his Thai Friends

2005-08-30T07:38:00.000-07:00

Jerro, who engenders squeals of delight from most Thai females he runs into, spent part of yesterday hrelping out in the office, going to lectures and eating Thai food with his Thai friends. I am not sure if I approve of his flirting, but hey what the hell it is a free country and I do not have the right to tell him who he can hang with

A mango tree

2005-08-30T07:31:00.000-07:00

I know this is a lame entry, but I love mangoes and I always wanted to see a mango tree. Unfortunately, I have not found a decent mango in the city, which sucks. I feel kind of like Chef in Apocalypse Now, blundering around Bangkok, having gotten off the ship busting my ass looking for freaking mangoes. But I have found a Mango tree which is going to have to stand in as a substitute. Still, one day before I leave I will find a decent ripe one. There are lots of small green mangoes though which the Thais seem to use in their cooking but I have not had the balls to try one.

I did however, have green curry last night, which gave me the worst stomach ache I have had since I have been here. It was delicious and not too spicy, but god, it ripped through me like a bull dozer.

Chinatown

2005-08-30T07:05:00.000-07:00

At Jerro's insistence, he and I headed off to Chinatown on Sunday. I have never been anywhere so crowded, tens of thousands of people funneling through these extremely narrow streets that were home to more kitsch crap than I have ever seen before. Once one got away from the main drag there were these tiny winding streets dripping with moisture which were almost deserted. Jerro was hiding the whole time lathough he insisted I say he has been to China.

Wooden Flowers

Another Temple

Some Paper Boxes

Street signs

Alleys and Interiors

Beads in Bangkok

2005-08-30T06:56:00.000-07:00

I have been asked to look for beads while I am here, not knowing a bead from a whole in the ground, so I decided to post pictures of beads I found in the most crowded public space I have ever ventured to tread. If any of my readers want any of these, please email me at james_lewes@yahoo.com

A garden of graffitti

2005-08-27T09:40:00.000-07:00

Aside from a Temple whose name I do not know, this has to be the coolest space I have found in Bangkok.

Jerro says this looks like me

A Temple in Bangkok

2005-08-27T09:15:00.000-07:00

This has to rank as one of the most awesome buildings I have ever seen. It was extremely simple, compared to some of the Bhuddist temples I have seen. It does not have a golden or an emerald Bhudda to attract the tourists and the paint is peeling off the walls. What it does have are some amazing murals which the following images are pale imitations of. I would love to be a good photographer and get in with lights, but I doubt the building even has electricity.

The outside

The first floor walls and ceiling

The Third Floor

Demons, Giants and Dragons, Jerro's search for Enlightenment

2005-08-27T08:52:00.000-07:00

After seeing the Thai Miniature show, Jero decided it might be kind of fun to seek out demons and dragons and see if he could step on the path to enlightenment. He was feeling kind of guilty about wanting to stomp the little guys

First he tried standing in front of Godheads in the mall

But they left him feeling unsatisfied and he thought they were a little overpriced. After drining a coconut. Jerro consulted a rather big man.

But jerro became afraid he would be stepped on so he gave up in frustration.

Then it came to him, as the search for enlightentment was both mythical and mystical he sought an appropriate vehicle for his search. After leaving the center of the world and all its overpriced kitschery, Jerro headed out on a quest armed only with his trusty welsh transportation and he came accross a sleeping dragon.

The dragon advised him that the true path to spiritual awareness lay inside and upward and advised him to enter the temple behind.

Not wanting to offend, Jerro entered and found a world of demons and beauty.

The tiny Thai carnival

2005-08-27T08:26:00.000-07:00

Jerro had read there was a miniature carnival at the Center of the world, which is this area of Bangkok that could be in London, New York, Chicago or Paris. There is a Hyatt, a Prada and a number of other luxurious emporiums which sell the same over priced luxury items and deny distance or difference. What the whole space reminded me of was blade runner except that the language was Thai, not the polyglot language spoken in the film. Also the weather was better. But it had the huge screens showing video advertisements.

What made the space especially weird was this Stalinist Samsung sculpture.

Inside the end of the world was this exhibition of miniature objects in plastic cases, which defeated the purpose of why Jerro wanted to go down. He wanted to stand in the middle of them and play. He dis think the carnival was kind of fun, even though he could not do a Godzilla impersonation and stomp on the litle people.

Thai Kitsch

More signs and symbols.

2005-08-25T23:48:00.000-07:00

Happy Food

Alcohol

Odd sods and mods

Viva Las Vegas

2005-08-25T23:38:00.000-07:00

There are these restaurants and public spaces in Bangkok that seamlessly combine classical modernist kitsch with happy food in a way that is quite awesome. It seems t5o be done intuitively and all I can say is Mr. Venturi eat your heart out.

The Shock of the new - Postmodern spaces

2005-08-25T23:24:00.000-07:00

I realize it is quite a pretentious thing to use postmodern, but hey what the hell Thailand seems to embody all the contradictions that gave birth to the very idea of postmodernism in the first place.

Here people easily navigate the distances between street vendors selling a massive variety of finger foods, as has probably been done here for centuries, and internet cafes where they play virtual realities whose dominant discourse is English in spite of the fact they speak no English at all.

As far as I can fathom, the Thai language has no past and future tenses only tones. Consequently signs are not arranged according to the boundaries imposed by the west in a vast three dimensional web of meaning with a recognizable past and a potentiality of action. Here it all depends on intention and interpretation as well as where in the sentence the word is situated in relations to the words that precede and follow them.

I have been wading my way through a mass of papers given me by my students. In reading these I have to remember that while they are writing in English, they are thinking in Thai and then running their finished product through spell check to make sure all the words were spelt properly. The result is interesting to say the least.
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Here are some buildings, I hope you enjoy them.

Jerro has decided to go native

2005-08-25T22:55:00.000-07:00

After a week of making sure I show up in class on time, nattily dressed and having checked my xyz, Jerro thought it would not be toom much to ask to have a couple of his favorite things.

But no, and inspite of the fact he always helps me out when I need him, I have been denying him his Cadbury Fruit and Nut Bars and regular mcdonald's cheese burger. Instead I am forcing him to live on a suprasistence diet of Tom Yam soup and Tsnghai Beer.

Quite frankly Jerro has had enough decided to go native. He thinks he can find his own way to the store that sells his chocolate and burgers and what is more that he can do so by blending into the vegetation.

I knew this was coming but I decided for scientific purposes to let try out his plan and encourage him to do what he wants to do. So for those of you who wonder where Jerro is, he thinks he has gotten camouflage down and cannot be seen by me.

Jerro has not only achieved seamless inegration with a multimedia environment, but he has done so standing on his head

Here he is with the fishes

He is especialy impressed by his ability to turn terra cotta.

Here he is being a variety of plants

Now a computer

Now he's an orchid

The Philosopher King in a Monkey Puzzle Tree

Thai Wild Style

2005-08-25T22:47:00.000-07:00

I have taken to walking around Bangkok, to both save money and find nooks and crannies of the city I would never see if I was driving around in a taxi. I came across this awesome wasteland this morning with these two graffittied buildings. Sadly I only had a couple of photographs left in the camera but I am going to go back and take some more pictures.

Lions, tigers and elephants, well elephants and a few other creatures

2005-08-25T22:39:00.000-07:00

Here I am deep in the pristine jungles of Thailand and around the camp I can here the wild creatures crawling. I know that if I let my guard down they will creep into the camp and render me from limb to limb. Ok I am in Bangkok and in no danger, but here are some of the birds and beasts Jerro and I have seen

Food Food Glorious Food

2005-08-24T04:30:00.000-07:00

Man the Thais like to eat. Not only do they like to eat but they like to eat everything and in great quantities. There are food stands of every type and variety you can think of and they literally overflow with sweet smelling wonders. I have only dared buy food from a stand once, it was some kind of a flattened pork thing that was sweet and spicy. Anyway to give you some idea of the temptations that surround these sweet people at every step of their way, I set out and photographed a bunch of the stalls that I found opposite the university. These were all taken within a ten minute walk of the school and while they are only a small selection of the street vendor's stalls, I hope give some kind of sense of a part of the street life that flourishes in every nook, alley and sidewalk of this vibrant place.

More signs

2005-08-24T04:11:00.000-07:00

Bangkok is really quite an amazing place. It is an amalgalm of high and low tech; shacks abut mansions and on one street you can easily find postmodern, classical modern and shanty town architecture in the space of half a block Anyway one of the things I have been trying to do as I wander round is photograph as many Thai street signs as possible and here is the latest batch, I apologize for the poor quality of many of he photographs.

Painted Signs and flyers

Happy Food

At Work Rest and Play

2005-08-24T03:45:00.000-07:00

Dr jerro, our man in Bangkok has continued to document his life in Bangkok and has decided to show himself at work rest and play. Here are his latest photos.

here he is teaching a class

Sitting down to eat a nourishing and fulfilling breakfast while he prepares to teach a class on art for communication in journalism

mmm an English Breakfast in Thailand, life is good for Dr Jerro

Here he is in his office consulting the Artifacts of the Improbable

On the way home he decided to hang out with a 4 headed Bhudda

The top of the 4 headed Bhudda's shrine

Having sweated all day he decided to chill out and go swimming

He finished his day off looking for lions tigers and elephants

Then he decided to go to bed.

Goodnight to one and all from Dr. Jerro

jerro in the garden of delights

2005-08-21T06:02:00.000-07:00

Here are some more images from our trek around Bangkok yesterday.

The first three images were taken en-route to this large and delightful temple complex. The others, except for the last were taken inside the complex. The last picture is an 'omage' to Beavis and Butthead. I realize that toilet humor is most often derogatory and the last refuge of the imature, but it was just begging to be taken.

A godhouse that I saw in a garden

Some wind chimes

Another type of godhouse without the house

The first large building in the temple complex

Just visiting

A group of young thais who found Jerro delightful and followed us for a few minutes

Jerro under a gold leafed lotus growing below a window

The entrance to one of the buildings that was either being renovated or built. There were about 20 persons on scaffolding painting it red and gold

Jerro in one of the many small shrines in the complex

The same shrine

A lintel

One of the buildings showing the fruits of devoted labor

Jerro and what I think is the '6 armed Bhudda', unfortunately all the placards were in Thai, so I am most likely wrong about which Bhudda this is.

The '6 armed Bhudda'

More Bhuddas

A fat and jolly happy Bhudda. The trick with this Bhudda was to try and get money inside his belly through his belly button. We tried twice but our aim was distracted by earthly karma, much to the amusement of an old lady who rolled with laughter at my pathetic attempt to bribe the Bhudda for his attention

Jerro leaving the temple

The Temple complex at night showing the building that I referred to earlier that was under construction

The sign says poo hunh, hunh

Signs and symbols

2005-08-20T16:48:00.000-07:00

Sunday.

Here I am in an internet cafe in Bangkok, which I have been using as a home away from home to post updates to this blog and I suddenly realized I am in Freaking Bangkok and all I am writing is lame and turgid shit. Here I am an over educated englishmen in the Orient, with a possibility of following in the rich and varied tradition of travel writers before me and all can do is write today I went here or there I have made no attempt to capture the essence of this place or my emotions and experiences. What kind of weak shit is that. If I do well I might get invited back, but this may also be my only opportunity to ever be here and I am wasting it.

Here goes for some observatons.

Bangkok traffic seems like a multicelled animal which works without a brain in spite of the fact it has blood vessels (roads) and red and white blood corpuscles (cars) there is little logic to it as far as I can see. Lghts are few and fa between, there are even fewer pedestrian crossings, the sidewalks are too small for the throngs of humanity that are chenneled through them, traffic policemen do not exist and everyone seems to make for the same space or break at the same time. In spite of this the creature does have some kind of nervous system because it seems to work without too many hiccups, by that i mean in the four days I have been here there have been no accidents and little if any evidence of road rage.

All the Thai people seem to do is sleep work and eat. Nothing goes to waste here, be it space or refuse. Every house is either a workshop of in the process of becoming a workshop. Anybody not working in an office, factory or front room is either driving a cab (there are two kinds here car and motorcycle, I cannot speak to the latter because I have not had the balls to ail one of them) selling food from a stall or scavenging. This is going on amid a veritable tidal wave of people trying to ebb and flow in extremely tight channels so the mass of humanity is forced to flood on to the streets. The only havens from this onslaught of a society in hyperdrive are the temples and mosques which are cool and quiet. Anyway here are some photos from yesterday, they are aranged according to a number of categories, outsider art/grafitti; signs; thereligion and flora.

Symbols and Signs - Thai Outsider Art

Symbols and Signs - Commercial Signs

Bangkok Day 3

2005-08-19T20:12:00.000-07:00

Well I spent most of yesterday and this morning wandering the highways and byways of bangkok with me trusty companion Jerro, who seems to speak Thai better than me. He suggested we should take some photos of temples, flowers, grafitti and things that just grabbed our attention so here are some of my terribly shot images

Thai Tiki Town, just because we are in the East does not mean we can not enjoy the fruits of our forefathers in the west. Custer has nothing on this monstrosity and it proves he did not die for our sins alone

Here is Jerro King of the Jungle, dusplaying his uncanny knack for camouflage

See how he masterfully blends in with the concrete wildlife

Not east nor west tiz grafitti

Here is jerro paying his respects to the Hindu Gods that may reign supreme one day

More Grafitti

Some flowers for your erudition and joy

Jerro said this reminded him of Rousseau and wanted to show he knows his stuff

Jerro Jerro riding on a godhead

Well that is all for now. For the continuing adventures of Jerro King of the jungle stay tuned

I have gotten to Bangkok

2005-08-19T05:12:00.000-07:00

Well I finally got here and Thailand is quite a trip. The weather is pretty damned close to a hot house, the flora is intense and the Thais are extremely polite.

I came across the weirdest cowboy themed bar that was not open when I tried to go in so I shall be checking it out this evening. I am sure that Robert Duvall's character from Apocalypse Now would fit right in and if I am lucky I may run into Kurtz's ghost.

Took a long walk around the neighborhood that the hotel is in. There are temples everywhere as well as these little structures called 'god houses' that seem to be in front of every business and house. I even found one in front of a garbage heap.

From what I can gather, they are Hindi in origin and are erected by the home owner even if he or she is Bhuddist or Muslim. What I have seen no evidence of, thank god, are fundamentalist christians. However I am sure it is only a matter of time before I see some mormon missionaries bringing the word of Joseph Smith to the unwashed heathens of the world.

I hope to post pictures tomorrow, till then ciao my friends and go in peace

The Rake in Bangkok

Saturday August 14

2005-08-13T10:59:00.000-07:00

It is broiling in Philadelphia and I am finishing up my preparations for the trip to Bangkok. This blog will document my time as a teacher and tourist in Bangkok and will be updated daily with photographs and ephemera after I get there on Thursday. Until then ciao and god speed.