Cat's and Dogs

Rain that is. Plenty of it. Bangkok monsoons are not months of non-stop rain, but daily thunderstorms. The last week my district has flooded several times with water overflowing curbs. Rain comes down very hard, loud bursts of lightning, more rain, then it stops. Everyday. I like the lightning part unless I'm out walking.
Today I had to go to school to get a memory card from Ying before the concert tonight: out walking. I swear I was dodging lightning bolts. Car alarms were going off around me from the thunder.
Sunday night the storm came in the evening and knocked the power out. With no light to read, no internet, and no TV (what to do..) I went down to the ground floor and stood with the landlord and fellow tenants. Most of the people had been forced down by a fear of ghosts. One of my landlords, the deaf (hearing impaired? I feel un-pc here :/) father one, and I were much more afraid of the lightning. The many TV anntenas, radio tower, and new skyscraper (with crane) near our apartment complex make it a reasonably conductive spot. The hand gestures we communicated with showed many possible paths an electrical current could follow. I'm glad the power went out as I got to see who really lives in my apartment.
There is a man on the second floor, German I believe, who has been bothering me lately. Not bothering me in a literal sense, I just feel weird seeing a largely over-weight, red skinned, blond-haired, 60 year old man, naked, and starring at me through his huge sunglasses every time I come home in the daytime. He sits on the balcony naked and just stares at the horizon. Not doing any harm really, just not the prettiest of things hanging off the building.

As far as happenings: I'm sick, I took pictures of Endorphine today, I have English tomorrow, and I think I'll go to Lampang this weekend.
I have a cold, I'm taking pills for it. I had a sore throat the other day, then the nasal congestion. Yesterday I called a friend and they thought I was someone pretending to be me. I was pretty dizzy too and skipped English. Luckily Prof. Wade doesn't mind, because I don't think I would have made it that morning, I was very drowsy.
Today I worked at the Peak U Up Concert. I met Da and Ohm at Pantip Plaza and we went to the university. Nice to see the Clash guys again. We all played sharades with the school's whiteboard while people were waiting for makeup. Not as nice to see So Cool, but I won't complain. The guys are nice, their producer is just a little creepy. He doesn't play with the band, but wears eye shadow and follows the boys around looking tough. He knows (everyone keeps reminding him) that I speak Thai, yet he takes every chance to bump into me so he can say "Excuse me." in a new, exciting way. I guess he just gets his kicks off looking like he speaks English and is in a band of 16 year olds. P2 Warship was there too, along with The First Stage Project, and Lipta, but I didn't talk to any of them.

Sunday night I went to Pataya for the first time. Not excited to go back. I thought I had gone before, but I think we were always on the outside of the city. The beach area and the main strip were downright vomit-inducing. Thousands of 40+ year old white men slinging several very lightly dressed >20 year old girls in one hand, and several bears in the other. So many different "restaurants" that were just filled with people who come to Thailand just for this type of fun. Yahoo.
I went with "M" by the way. M The Star. At first I thought he was a bit of an ass, but I got to like him. No band, just P'M, Tum, a Grammy sound tech, and I. The driver too. Grammy drivers are very cool on a general basis. They are older, but still having a lot of fun, and are consistently invited to drink and watch concerts while they wait on the bands. We played an incredible 6 songs, 4 of which belonged to M, totaling 26 minutes of playtime, at this place. Then we raced back to BKK. We stopped at M's place and took his brand new BMW to Kao San. Clash's new album sounded very very good in a BMW. Kao San was actually pretty fun. Bom, Ohm (Potato Drum, Bass), and Da (Endorphine) were there along with Boy (Peacemaker). We drank and then ate Jok across the street. P'M and Tum were pretty drunk, and I secretly wasn't too fond of Da's friends that went along with them, so I took a taxi home.

Which leads me to an observation of Thai culture. The drinking culture in particular. People don't seem to connect alcohol and drunk driving too well. There are loads of signs "If your drunk, don't drive" and such, but nobody thinks they are drunk. There are at least a couple dead bodies a day per each newspapers front page. Cars hit motorcycles, pedestrians, telephone poles, street vendors, anything. It's ridiculous. ANYWHERE in Bangkok where there is a pub, restaurant, bar, or club, a taxi will pass within 3 minutes. I'll bring the stopwatch. Taxis in BKK are almost ALWAYS less than 200 baht. Even one glass of any alcoholic drink is enough to slow reflexes down. I wish I could think of a way to make people understand that you don't have to be "drunk" to kill someone with your car. I'd do a photo essay tomorrow if I had the guts. I just don't think I could handle it. I'm gonna think about that one. If I can think of a way to get the message across, I'm gonna find a sponsor and put posters up in some bars.
I started the last paragraph by saying Thai culture because we tend to see drunk as bad, drinking as do-able. Where the foreign population either takes a taxi in the first place, or knows that drinking means somewhat impaired. I've never seen police at the exits of bars, or any warnings really, besides inside a taxi. Warning the sensible people doesn't seem to efficient.

Tomorrow I have English in the afternoon, then a Potato concert at night on Rachada soi 4. Potato is doing a show in BKK Saturday, then Lampang Sunday. I think I'll go Sunday and stay for Loi Krathong in the village. This means skipping English once on Monday, but I think I can manage.