ktw

where to start... my last entry left off when I was still in Seattle, at the end of May. After leaving Seattle I visited Rhea again in Portland, then travelled south to meet Spud in San Francisco. We met up with my dear friend Sunny who's currently living in Berkeley, and Sunny's friend Mik offered us a room at the place he was staying. With the luxury of a room to ourselves and a key to the back door, we set off to enjoy San Francisco. As usual, Spud wanted to check out the dancing scene and the bridges, so we managed a very touristy trip to Golden Gate Bridge and also a visit to the Park to join in with the Sunday Lindy in the Park session. Dancing on concrete isn't much fun to me, ... read more

What to expect, of a visit to the Land Of Plenty, the Land Of The Free, the Land of Super-sized fast food and forcefully imposed democracy? I guess I expected everything, and I haven't been surprised. Landing in San Francisco from Hong Kong was my first glimpse of America the Brave. Interrogated at immigration as to who my friend in Seattle is, how long I've known him, what I plan to do in the US, why did I spend so long in China, where will I be going next... accompanied by their recording of my two index fingerprints and a slightly disconcerting retina-scan. A few booths down I heard a distinctly impatient immigration officer repeatedly questioning a Chinese man who clearly didn't speak enough English to answer him sufficiently. I expected it to be a bit ... read more

According to Wikipedia, the "brown note" is a legendary infrasound frequency that causes humans to lose control of their bowels due to resonance. There is no scientific evidence to support the claim that a "brown note" (transmitted through sound waves in air) exists. However, here in Hong Kong the Brown Note Collective is exploring the often shady boundary between music and noise, and whether we can make people shit their pants or just get shitty... Mick, Tegan and I had timed our return to the towering neon city of Hong Kong for a reunion with the BNC, performing at the Cattle Depot Artist's Collective - a strange exhibition/studio space housed in an old abbattoir. We were the last act in a series of experimental noise bands - which mostly consisted of people sitting behind laptops and ... read more

it's time to say goodbye to china... The last few weeks have been a whirlwind of sleep deprivation, long train rides, sunflower seeds and music. The three fungal horses set off from Kunming in mid-May after a couple of great gigs there and in Dali, and headed up to Chengdu. Kunming... the city of eternal spring finally pulled out the stops and gave us some good weather just before we left. Kunming was all about quebecan bluegrass, dodgy dvd's, the first snow in 10 years (eating shit on the mountain), late night ridiculousness, and flea markets. Dali, as usual, was all about Bai women trying to sell us drugs, hotpot flavored vodka, card games and music. Real rye bread and fried mushrooms, the best spaghetti bog I've had in... months. We rolled in to Chengdu after ... read more

Arriving back in China at the end of the Lunar New Year celebrations I found Kunming familiarly strange as I was re-assaulted by the smells and sights of China. I've never seen a runway like this one - 5 and 6 storey apartment buildings huddle on the edge of the grass surrounding the tarmac, and the plane descended straight into the centre of the city... Tegan and Mick met me at the airport, after the inevitable Thai airways delays, and we walked straight out of the airport and onto a bus. The grey concrete matched the grey sky perfectly, and the sun's warmth was illusionary and quickly blown away by the icy breeze. However, I was pretty excited to be back and the catchup and cerebral challenge of changing my brain's language settings again kept me ... read more

Feb 9th: Ah. I'm back on the road. This time it's a rot mai, and it's taking me around Bangkok. I'm currently staying in a pretty nice apartment in Saphan Kwai, thanks to Spud's dad's family. I get up at 6.30am, take a bus at 7am, arriving at Wat Phou at around 8 or 8.30 depending on traffic. Maybe I have time for a coffee (Nestle 3 in 1, anyone?), or a fruitshake. I could say I'm singlehandedly supporting the fruitshake industry in Thailand, only that would be a lie. Then I poke and contort my study partner for a few hours, in return being stretched and prodded until lunchtime, which if we're early enough is a Thai-stye buffet, and if we're late is whatever street food I can find when almost everyone's on holidays for ... read more

We hired bikes and dodged tuktuks all over Vientiane. It was fantastic - the best way to see this extremely bike-friendly city. We pedalled out to Tha Luang which was in the middle of the End of Year festivities, and crowded with markets, monks, tourists in rented Laos skirts to cover their modesty, and everywhere people carrying elaborate woven offerings of pandanus and flowers. After renting a modest Lao skirt we sat with old ladies in the shade watching them thread jasmin and chrysanthemum flowers onto skewers and poke them into the leaf-cones for offering. Our bus ride to Sevannakhet was frought with waiting. We were up before six for our tuktuk delivery to the bus station, which didn't come until 8am. Assured that we would still make the bus, it seemed that our tourist coach ... read more