I had been waiting a month and a half for a good writing-mood to come but it just never came.
Right now I am in the middle of midterm exams my friends: three down, three to go. Writing for Public Information, Critical Analysis and International Communication weren't very difficult except for a mistake on the final question on my Writing for Public Information exam and horrible grammar on the multiple choice questions for my Inter. Comm. test. The writing part was a small mistake. Thinking the testing period was near an end, I squeezed out a one paragraph essay about loosing my wallet. The result was a short essay most junior high students could have written better. I cringed while doing a final proofread. I couldn't believe I had done the exact opposite of what the professor had explained to me so well: Concise writing is more interesting, if it doesn't serve a purpose, don't write it. Instead of explaining
why loosing my wallet was going to cause me so much trouble, I rushed to write "I lost my wallet. I was so bad. Really really bad." Oh well. I won't rush until I hear the 10 minute warning next time. Tomorrow I'm going to go study at the uni because my bed is simply too warm and comfortable. I know I'd read for 15 minutes, get something to eat, then sleep the rest of the day. 16, 17, 18 and the last exam days.
On the way to band practice last week my wallet fell out in one of the vans that run from Siam to Pinklao. Damn. As if I didn't have enough banking problems going on already, requesting ATM cards that never came in the mail and canceled credit cards. I went back the next day and talked with all the van drivers, looked in the vans, I just hope the person who picked it up turns it in. They can keep the money inside. Luckily I pushed the "withdrawal everything you've ever saved" button by accident on an ATM the night before loosing my wallet. Should have enough cash to pay rent and eat for a while until the new card comes. If not I'll be
selling stuff.
I'm not sure I mentioned the new band in my last post. A week or two into the new term my friends and I got the chance to audition at Ice Bar Thonglor. If we got the job we would be playing an hour long set one or two nights a week. On the day of the audition we found out that professional musicians bring their own equipment to work: entertainment venues therefore do not provide snare drums, bass pedals, or instrument cables. We borrowed them from a band auditioning after us, played 6 songs and sat down with the owners of the pub. We passed, but the male singer didn't. We needed to buy our own equipment (second hand would be fine), practice and come back. Enter P'Bom: I called P'Bom about finding decent second hand instruments. He pointed out that second hand wasn't worth the hassle of having to fix constantly or repair on stage in the middle of a concert. The next day P'Bom, my friend First and I went to Werng, an area of town selling only musical instruments. P'Bom's talked with his sponsors about us our situation and got us a 25% discount on anything we need. Por, the younger brother of P'Pea the deceased singer of Potato, was also on a shopping trip with us for the same reasons. The next day First called to tell me our singer was having girlfriend troubles and didn't feel like singing anymore and First's family wanted him to help with the family business. This was really discouraging. P'bom advised keeping my friend's band as something fun to do with friends after school. If I was serious about learning to play and make music better, I should find people that felt the same. He suggested I call up Por, who came with us shopping, and talk to him about what styles of music he liked.
Por is great. He became interested in music after his brother died in an accident a few years ago. We both started talking about looking for a band that was serious about going somewhere together and bringing new ideas to Thai pop songs. Por invited me to come play with his band for a practice to see how we played together. It felt so different. Playing with people who were serious about playing together. The bassist (Gohb) is the only bassist I have ever heard say "I felt the bass was too controlling tonight. Just a bit too loud." The singer (Boat) brought a notebook of alphabetically listed songs with him and didn't seem to have any "girlfriend problems". Playing with Bank (Por's neighbor) is like playing guitar into a mirror. I can't explain why we both think and play the same style but it feels that way. He's also an incredible sound engineer, in his fourth year in Mahidol University's music faculty. Por is incredible. When he isn't drumming or listening to music, he's thinking about how what to better what he just played or listened to. We practiced twice a week for 4 weeks and played our first job last night. The job was an
AFS Prom Night at the
Miracle Grand. Things went great. We had a lot of fun playing, and the 200-300 students that came were jumping up and down singing along. We'll practice again this Fridays after Por and I finish exams. The next challenge is to select and learn 40-50 songs together so that we have a nice mix of songs to choose from when we start accepting restaurant and pub jobs early next year. Two months of practice should feel great. I'm very happy things worked out this well.
I hope that wallet finds it's way back to me. I'm buying a wallet with a string attachment this time. Tomorrow is a study/rest day. Then exams in Consulting and Training, Political Communication, and Public Relations for Communication. I also need to pay rent... the caretaker has been in the hospital for the last month so we're supposed to wire money into the landlord's account. I'll see if I can figure that out tomorrow.
