Rain and Sun

 

Hi John and everyone.

It's pouring rain outside my window again.  The tropics.  Last night in our bedroom there was a spider on the wall that was about 6 inches across.  No shit.  Honest.  It was huge.  I walked over to get a better look at it and the bugger started running across the wall fast.  What the fuck!!!  The tropics.

We went to fiesta in the little home village.  That was a trip.  The whole village ate and drank and sang karaoke for two day non stop.  Too much fun.  They have a basket ball court in the village and they set up speakers and played pounding dance music and everyone got on the dance floor and went crazy to the wee hours of the morning.  All Saturday and all Sunday.  Karaoke all night long.  Then on monday we all went to the beach to chill and recover.  I love the Philippines..

I felt a bit sorry for all the pigs being roasted but they tasted good hahaha.

While we were in the village I went to my first chicken fight.  I believe chicken fights are illegal but out in the middle of the jungle who's going to know.  The Filipino men LOVE chicken fights.  They drink and bet money and go nuts.  I love the Philippines.

I'm sendng the old picture of the hanging bridge you asked for. The bridge got washed out during a monsoon so now we have to take a back route to the village. They're going to rebuild the bridge soon come.

That fruit my wife is holding is cacao.  They prepare the cacao beans and brew a chocolate drink with coconut milk and it is out of this world delicious.  And mildly euphoric.  I now know why the Aztec kings drank cacao before they retired with their princess.  For real.  

The rain has stopped and I can see the sun.  Time for a walk.  I love the Philippines.

Cheers, 

Caybago 2023

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Summertime Blues

artist: Blue Cheer 

songs Summertime Blues b/w Out of Focus

label: Philips

Do you all mind if I throw out a music story?

I was raised in Los Angeles, California and went to high school in the San Fernando Valley during the late 1960's. Basically I was your typical proto-hippie valley dude. The band Blue Cheer pretty much summed up the crew I hung out with.  Their recording of "Summertime Blues" was a monster hit in the San Fernando valley. How many joints got rolled on the back of their first album "Vincebus Eruptum" is anyone's guess. 

Blue Cheer

Somehow I graduated from high school and even more surprisingly somehow I went to college.

During my college years I pretended to learn how to play the bass guitar. Hey, turn the amp up loud enough and smoke a lot of weed and your good to go.

Throughout the 1970's I played a string of engagements in assorted garages.

I did manage to wind up in a couple of bands that actually played gigs in various dingy Hollywood dives. The beer was cheap and the flies were free and what the heck, I cherish the memories.

Sometime around 1979 I was playing in a band called "The Symptoms." (I've still got our old demo tape in one of the boxes. Maybe I'll burn a CD of it and really embarrass myself). 

By that time I was in my late twenties and certainly the old man of the group. I think the next oldest was the keyboard player who was maybe twenty-one and kind of my friend but at twenty-seven I was old enough to make our association tenuous at best and when we went to clubs he pretended he didn't know me.

Our lead singer was a cool raven haired Mexican girl named Jaime who actually could sing. She was nineteen, I remember Jaime quite clearly.

We, the Symptoms, went through about five drummers. One day Jaime told us she had met a new drummer through the Recycler. He was going to drop by that evening.

That evening the drummer showed up. We were all there in Jaime's parent's garage setting up and Jaime introduced the new drummer to us.

"This is Paul." Jaime said.

I looked over at the guy.  Paul was your basic long haired drummer type and he gave us the nod as he tightened the screws on his drum kit.

Jaime was eager to sell this new drummer to us.

"Hey," she said to Paul, the new drummer, "Didn't you say you were in a band in the sixties that had a hit?  What was the song called?"

We were all busy setting up and only half listening but Paul said off hand. "Summertime Blues."

None of my younger band mates paid much attention to that but for me... time stood still and everything became quiet. 

"What band were you in?" I asked.

"Blue Cheer" he said.

Paul Whaley, Blue Cheer's drummer.

I looked at him and, my friends, I about dropped a brick.

He looked back at me and grinned because he saw my expression.  No one else in that garage new but the two of us, we knew.  Paul Whaley, monster drummer grinned at me and for that one moment it was 1967 again.

An amazing moment that I will never forget.

Yes, Blogspot Massive, Paul Whaley played with my band "The Symptoms"... for a while. And for a brief period in Los Angeles musical history, Paul Whaley and Yours Truly were Drum and Bass. Maybe a month or so. Then he moved on.

I think playing garages and dive Hollywood joints was bit of a let down after Blue Cheer but still....

Los Angeles 2010

Summertime Blues bw Out of Focus

Blue Cheer:

Dickie Peterson- bass vocals

Paul Whaley - drums

Leigh Stephen - guitar

Hippie For Life

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Earth, Rain and Pork Belly

 

Last night we had Filipino BBQ.  Marinated pork belly roasted on a stick.  They set up the BBQ right on the ground under a shelter while it rained.  I ate it with rice with my bare hands.  Filipino style.  So much fun.  Hahahaha

Calbayog City  2023

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Letters and clouds

 

“How did letters get their names if they can’t be spelled?” Sean, my son, asked me.

“Well…” I though for a moment and came up empty.   I’ve actually wondered about that myself.  It’s odd.  How do you spell “W” anyway?  Dubayou?

Sean was looking up at me waiting.

“You got me kidboy. It’s just a weirdness we all live with.” I said, my mind racing through the alphabet. Did you know “W” is the only letter with multiple syllables? I had never noticed that.

“I’m going to get some fruit,” I said, “Do you want to come with me?”

“Yah!” He said and lit up.

“OK, but it’s night time so we need to be careful.”

“OK.” He said.

A couple blocks from our home is a fruit stand that sells inexpensive tropical fruits. I love the small yellow watermelons. They’re delicious. And the mangos of course. They keep trying to get me to buy a durian, but I keep telling them that my wife won’t let me which always gets a laugh.

Sean and I left the house and started down the street, me holding him by the wrist.

As we walked down the road I looked up into the sky. The sun had just set. During the day It had been raining but now the clouds were breaking up and through the breaks, over the horizon, the sky was a beautiful deep blue. A few stars were beginning to light up as well. I stopped for a moment to take it all in.

“Isn’t that beautiful.” I said to Sean, looking at the blue horizon.

“I thought you said it was nighttime.” He said by way of reply.

“Well,” I clarified, “it’s not quite night, it’s actually twilight. Do you know what twilight is?”

“Nope.”

“Twilight is that time just after the sun goes down when it’s starting to get dark but the sky is still lit up a bit. Not quite night and not quite day. It’s twilight.” I explained and looked down at him.

“The clouds follow us.” He said looking up at the sky.

OK, that threw me.

“What,” I ventured, “do you mean?”

“Well, wherever you go, there are the clouds,” he said pointing up to the clouds, “following you,” he added, “Just like the sun.”

“Wait a second.” I came to a full stop, “If the sun follows us then why can't we see it now?’ I said, pointing over to the blue horizon.

“Because it’s twilight,” he said, holding up both palms, “obviously.”

Right about then we were passing by his grandmother’s home.

“I’m going to visit Nanay,” he said and vanished.

Like a thief in the night.


Calbayog City 2023

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The devil cuts the deck

 

I'm upstairs in my office playing cards with the devil.  We have the door locked.

The devil cuts the deck and holds up his hands like see it's all fair. 

Yah right, I'm thinking. Despite you I'm still standing.  

The devil knows my thoughts and he gives me a devilish grin.  His lips are red and his teeth pearly white.

“How do your teeth get so white?” I ask him in accusation.

“I don’t drink coffee.” He replies in all innocence. “Coffee is of God," he elaborates, "an altogether bad drink from a bad man."

I looked down at my coffee.  Black as night.  

My personal Saviour.

The devil cuts the deck again.  And then again.  His hands are moving fast now.  Shuffle cut shuffle cut.  I'm watching close trying to keep up.

He deals.

A card for me a card for him.  A card for him a card for me.

"We're in this together baby." He laughs.

Playing solitaire.

Calbayog City 2023

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Sing while the music plays

 

"The time to sing is while the music is playing" - Alan Watts

We spent the weekend up in the mountains celebrating fiesta in the home village.  500 people or so living in the jungle, drinking, singing, dancing and eating for two days with no sleep.  I myself managed to knock off about 4 hours of shut eye on my sister-in-laws floor but the Karaoke was going full blast when I closed my eyes and it was still going when I opened them.

Before we went there my wife asked me if I was going to dance.  

"Of course." I said not knowing the full extent of that commitment.

When we got there it was already night and everywhere was music and singing and drinking with food being cooked right outdoors. 

My wife said, "Let's go for a walk."

We wandered through the village only feet from the jungle.  Darkness, people and music everywhere.  There are no roads in the village and there are no streetlamps.  Our way through the village was dimply lit by light coming from inside bamboo homes.  Over head the moon shone down through the large banana leaves.  We walked down a path between homes, my wife greeting friends and talking, laughing in Tagalog.  Then things started to get crowded.  People standing shoulder to shoulder all watching something.

I wanted to see what the crowd was about, so I wormed my way through and to my amazement I found a couple hundred people sitting in a large circle around a basketball court under a large roof.  My brother-in-law, the village chief, was addressing the crowd.  I listened, fascinated, not understanding a word.

My wife motioned me to go in.

I did.

I walked up to the ring of people and then someone grabbed my arm and told me to go sit at the head table.  As I sat down a woman to my right picked up a microphone and announce to the crowd, "We have a special guest" her hand gesturing to ... me.

I felt naked.  What am I doing here?

Then the music started.

The first person to dance was the village chief, my brother-in-law.

I watched him dance to the music.  HIs feet slowly matched the music as he circled his woman partner.  Then he begin to throw money in the air.  Peso bills flew over his head and he threw more and more.  As he did this other people from the crowd came forward and they too threw money in the air.

Sitting next to me was an older woman.  She leaned over and started talking to me.

"How do you like the Philippines?" she asked.  "How long have you been here?"  "How did you meet your wife?"  All smiling.  Her eyes digging deep into me.

"What is happening?" I asked her looking over at all the money flying in the air.

 "This is our dance." She laughed.

Gradually I got the gist of what was happening.

Each year at fiesta they have a dance.  The village leaders dance for all to see and they throw money in the air.  The money flys over their heads.  And they dance.  And as they dance their loved ones and cohorts come forward and throw more money.  The money flys in the air and then lands in the village coffers.  Having given back the village leaders are absolved and they get to stay in the good graces of the people.  For another year.

"Are you going to dance with your wife?"  The woman asked me.

Now I knew why my wife told me she wasn't going to dance.

"No," I laughed, "My wife is too shy."

"We'll find a woman for you." She replied, graciously, and leaned over and began talking to one of the men.

About then one of my nieces showed up at my side and passed me a wad of small bills that my wife had gathered for me.  My niece looked up at me, her eyes alive with excitement.

Then the next song began, and all eyes were on me.

I stood up with my knees shaking and stepped into the middle of the entire village and there I stood, face to face with a strange young Filipina.  And I started to dance.  And throw money.

I danced and threw money.  And then more money.  I circled the young woman and threw more money.

The Filipinos are jokers you know.  The guys playing the music put it on repeat.   

I danced and threw money until I only have a few bills left so I threw them all in the air thinking the song would end but it didn't.

The music just kept playing.  

And I kept dancing.

 And the crowd watched.  I suddenly felt a fool.  I felt the eyes of the whole village on me.  I danced with no more money and the crowd watched.

So I pulled out my wallet, my big American wallet, and held it in the air, and the crowd cheered.

I threw big bills in the air and people laughed and applauded.  Then I pulled out my camera and began filming the crowd while I danced.

After the all the village leader had danced and after all the money had been gathered the whole village got on the dance floor and the real dance began.  Loud visceral dance music began blasting and people danced and danced well past midnight, my old body in the crowd covered with sweat.

That night we slept on my sister in laws floor amid a pile of other relatives.  I crashed onto the floor at about 2 am and actually fell asleep despite the loud sounds of karaoke singing.  I slept until about 6 am and woke up to the sounds of roosters and continued karaoke.  I got up a bit blurry and made myself an instant coffee.  Three in one.  Filippino style.  I used four packages.  And it tasted delicious.

I felt great actually.  I felt like crowing with the roosters.  I felt cleansed and alive.  I put on fresh clothes and went for a walk through the village.  Everyone knew me. Everywhere I got smiles and people wanted me to drink their liquor.  

The party went on all day.  The whole village.  People singing and eating.  Everywhere laughter and jovial drunkenness.  Everywhere pigs were being roasted and food was being prepared.

 

That night we drove home in the trike.  Out from the jungle, down from the mountain and back on to the coastal highway.  Sean and I sat in the back facing backwards.  No back door.  No seat beat.  The ground moving along at 50 mph three inches below our feet as we sped home.  The streets were crowded.  Two or three motorcycles tailgating us at all times.  Each with two or three people on board.  Accelerating to pass us.  Just missing the oncoming trucks.  I had my knee wedged into a corner as a brace and my arm stretched out in front of Sean to catch him in case we hit a bump.  And it was all just a normal drive.

Calbayog City 2023

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How to catch a butterfly

"When water and fire fight, water wins." My son was explaining to me, "But when snow and fire fight, fire wins!"

It was homework time and I had the feeling he was fighting the inevitable.

"Time to do homework Sean." I said matter of factly.

Sean was sitting in his chair with his finger deep in his nose watching his iPad.  

"Daddy," he said looking up at me, "Do teachers have any idea how boring homework is?" 

There was a lot to unpack with that question but,

"Yah," I said, "I'm pretty sure they do."

"And they don't care?" he asked with the sadness of ages.

My son's questions take me to places.  Sometimes good places.  Sometimes bad places.

"Daddy, is it hard to catch a butterfly?"  He asked out of the blue.

"Yah..," I said, not knowing where that came from but curious where it was going.  "But not that hard." I reconsidered, remembering spring days.  Back in the 1950s.  Oh so clear.  The butterflies on the hedge.  They came for the honeysuckle.  Black and yellow with large red spots on both wings.  Alive and magical.  We would catch them with our bare hands and play with them until all the pigment had been rubbed off their wings and they were dying.  

And we didn't care except that they were no longer beautiful and no more fun.

"I used to catch butterflies when I was a boy with my friends." I said to him.

"Do you know what the easiest way to catch a butterfly is?" he asked me.

 I thought about that for a moment.  We would sneak up on them with cupped hands and usually miss. 

"How?" I asked.

"You catch the caterpillar."

Now THAT made me smile.

But...

"Time for homework kidboy."

Calbayog City 2023

Poly Rythmo

 

Time is the great mystery.

Time is so central to our lives, but it escapes definition.

Go ahead and try.  What is time?  You don't have the words.

Einstein taught us that time if variable.  But he couldn't tell us what time is.

I bring up the subject with my coffee.

My coffee wants to discuss entropy.

It tells me that time and entropy are conjoined twins.  

Time and entropy arise mutually and are inseparable as a boat and its wake are inseparable.  

I ask my coffee if there is a universal rate constant for entropic increase?

I gloat knowing I have it.

My coffee tells me that is beside the point.  

Everything in the universe vibrates my coffee explains.

Look to the small, look to the large.  Look at the cosmos in its greatest scale.

Everything vibrates.

Entropy is the surface of an expanding bubble of time. 

We live our lives on the surface of that bubble.  

The surface of the bubble vibrates.

The vibrations are broken into rhythms.

The rhythms become Poly Rythmo.

And we dance...  

Calbayog City 2023

Orchestre Poly Rythmo de Cotonou

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He's holding out on us

"Daddy," My son askes a lot of questions, "are cemeteries frightening places?"

I never know where his questions are heading but I certainly know his mother is afraid of cemeteries so I said,

"Yah.." and waited.

"Then why," he asked, "do people cry instead of getting scared?"

"Good question." I laughed and looked for a piece of paper to write it down.

Later he came up to me and asked,

"Daddy, why did God even think it was a good idea to create mosquitos?"

"I have no idea why God created mosquitos." I answered him honesty, "In fact I bet God doesn't even know why he created mosquitos." Hate those little bastards.

We both started laughing and he said, "I bet if you asked God why he created mosquitos he'd be like, 'Gosh, why DID I create mosquitos?'"

My son was playing Roblox while we laughed.  He can do that.  His little fingers ran over his iPad screen directing characters while he talked.  Kid energy.  Then he looked up and asked,

"Daddy, who created God?"

That's a question I've been waiting for without any plans for a good answer.

"Sean," I started, "That's a very big question.  No one really knows the answer."

"What?" he was astonished. "Can you look it up on the internet?"

"Nah," I said, "it won't even be on the internet.  Nobody knows who created God."

"Nobody?" he asked in disbelief.

"Nobody," I replied.

"Not even God?"

"Well," I said, "I suppose God knows who created himself."

"He should tell people!" Sean demanded.

That one made my sit back in my chair for a second.  Not gonna lie, I had to agree.

"He probably should tell people." I said, "But he's holding out on us."

"Humph." my son said with no small amount of disappointment.  And then he went back to Roblox,

Calbayog City  2023

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Cacao update

 

Stop what you're doing.  Listen to me.  When we last discussed this subject we had harvested the cacao beans and my sister-in-law was drying the beans in the sun.

So, last night, just at around bedtime, my wife came to me with this mug of hot coco.

This mug of hot coco, dear reader, was perhaps the most delicious thing I have ever drank.  My mother-in-law prepared it from freshly ground cacao beans and coconut milk.  It was so good.  Rich creamy chocolate coconut flavor with a bit of grittiness from the ground beans.  Like little pieces of chocolate.  Earthy goodness sent from heaven.  Super delicious.  And mildly euphoric.  I now know why the Aztec kings drank this potion before retiring with their princess.  For real.  

Yee Hawwww!!!!

Calbayog City 2023

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Triple party

 

Dan,

Today is my son's birthday.  Just by coincidence it is also one of my brother in laws birthday and my birthday is next week. Also it's Friday.  So, we're having a triple birthday party.

We rented out the entire public pool all for ourselves and we've invited a couple hundred relatives.

We bought two pigs.  A white one and a black one.  They are both currently being roasted.

We're having the party catered with tons of food.

We are supplying the party with booze from the store.

We've rented a karaoke machine.

Right now as I write in our kitchen is a big pot of pig intestines stewing.

We must be in heaven.

Calbayog  2023

update:

I could get very used to eating roast pig.

 

Plants and Angels

 

“Plants can feel things.” Sean, my son, informed me.

I thought about that for a moment.  Plants can feel...  Should I say something... 

“Sean, where did you learn that from?” I asked him.

“From a YouTube video.” He said.

“That’s not necessarily true.” I said. 

Sean looked up at me.  Maybe I was being a bit blunt, but I get sick of that shit.  Pardon my French. 

“Why?” he asked me.

“Sean, you and I feel things because we have a central nervous system.” I explained. “Plants don’t have a central nervous system so plants can’t ‘feel’ things.”

I guess I was in a mood.

“OK.” He said.  He sounded disappointed which made me feel bad.  And made me reconsider the whole issue.  So, with my better angels taking command, I said.

“Sean, plants can’t exactly feel things... but... we don’t know everything... and they might have some…” I looked for a word...

“They might have some darker secret behind them?”  He beat me to it.

“Exactly.” I said, relieved.

And we both laughed.

Calbayog City 2023