INSANITY!

So Brooke, Laurien and I were walking home tonight, and we heard a smack.
We looked behind us... Brooke and Laurien made panicked sounds... I was less worried, until I saw their faces... I assumed that it was just a can getting run over or something...
Anyway, it turned out that it was a woman slapping the hood of a minivan.
None of us really knew what happened before we looked, but what we saw after that was so bizarre, that we couldn't even walk away. We wound up sitting on a bench to watch the drama unfold.
This woman was apparently angry at the other woman in the minivan for something that happened before we looked. She leaned down on the hood, and refused to move! So the light changed, and all the cars stacked behind her... this was on like a six lane road... it was bizarre.
Then she started slapping the hood of the van, and yelling. She started kicking the bumper, and a few minutes into it, she wound up bending the license plate right in half! The woman in the minivan called someone, we assumed the police, and I saw her crying in there at one point, because she was trapped, and this crazed woman was hitting her car and screaming at her.
The police came at one point, and they just slowed down and then finally they drove away.
Finally, some guy walked out on the street and pulled her off, but she really fought him, and twisted her arm around running back to her place in front of the van.
They finally got her off the road and onto the sidewalk, and she was still trying to pull her way back onto the road, as cars were driving by, it really looked like she was going to break free at any moment and wind up throwing herself in front a car. She really seemed hellbent on getting back in front of that van.
And the weirdest thing was that the woman in the minivan didn't pull away! She just stayed there in the middle of the road.
Anyway, I finally decided to get outta there before this clearly drunk and insane woman succeeded in throwing herself in fornt of some traffic.

A note of explanation

I am in the middle of writing my first big e-mail home in more than four months.
That's a lot to report, so I thought of just referring to my blog.
Then I realized that I hadn't updates this thing in close to three months, so I went on a major updating frenzy.
Then I wound up with these huge entries with much too much information to properly reference in an e-mail.
So I broke up the large entries into smaller ones and backdates them.
So if the tenses are wonky, or the references in an entry don't make sense, that's why I'll try to fix it up at some point.
I've also left in the big entries for the sake of completeness.

and... scene.

a good day of teaching.

Sometimes I feel like I'm really not accomplishing much. Especially the last month or so, with midterms, the kids have been pretty stressed and unenthusiastic about most things I have been doing with them.
But this week I had a great idea.
Munhwa has recently introduced a new rule that says the kids can not speak any Korean in class. Every time they speak Korean, they lose 1% on their Korean tests (because penalizing the tests we give them was losing effect). Combined with their usual apathy, it was brutal combo... they were just shutting up completely!
Anyway, with exams, a lot of kids don't come so that they can dedicate more time to studying. So I can't teach curriculum, and I am left to basically kill time with the kids who do come.
I decided to kill two birds with one stone, and I got my grade sevens to make lists of words and phrases that they would like to know so they can speak in class without using Korean. We are making huge posters that I am going to put around the room so that the kids can see the words and sentences and use them in class.
The kids LOVE IT! I haven't seen them so enthusiastic about anything in a long time. They're making long lists, and they're really decorating the posters well. We have one done so far, we're doing three more at the moment, and tomorrow I'll have to go buy more paper. They're going to be poorly organized and jumbled, but it'll still be nice for the kids to have it up, and Brooke pointed out that the other classes will be interested and wind up learning a lot of things from the posters too. It'll be the best kind of learning... sneaky. They won't even realize that it's happening, and one day they'll just know all these extra words and phrases. It's also cool because it's really student directed, so I have to assume that they will be phrases that will stick, because the kids in other classes will think "Hey, I wanted to know how to say that too!"
I'm trying to get my grade eights to make time capsules, which I though they would be excited about, but they aren't. It's going so slowly that I have decided to make it a two-week project instead of a one-week one. BUt one student requested a game, and I asked "What kind of game?" He said a game that involved drawing pictures of me.
So today, I made them come up with three verbs, three adjectives and three nouns, and then they have to write a short story about me that includes all of those words, and they also have to draw an accompanying picture that explains/complements the story. But there's one more twist! They have to write those stories within a scenario that I assign them, such as "Matt can fly" or "Matt is a terrible bus driver".
THE LOVE THAT TOO!
So basically, I'm having a great teaching day.
Also, I went out to lunch to day with Brooke and Ryan. It's been a while since I've hung out with them, so that was really nice. And I got a new fridge, finally, my Lonely Planet books for India and Nepal, which cost an arm and a leg and have a combined weight of close to two kilos.
Lots of reading to do before vacation!

Bad move, Jon Bon Jovi

So, I'm watching the Live Earth concert, and Bon Jovi is performing.
I'll admit to a soft-spot for Sambora/Bon Jovi harmonies. Actually, I love Jon Bon Jovi's voice... not a huge fan, but a fan, I guess.
Anyway, he just introduced the awesome "Wanted:Dead or Alive" with "Please stand for the praying of the national anthem".

wow

Dude, you don't introduce YOUR OWN SONG like that. It was cool when the Doors introduced "Money" that way, because it wasn't their song, and they were making a point.
I know he's in his hometown, but you just don't say that sort of thing about your own song without coming off as being super cocky.

anyway... the performance was awesome... ooh, not liking the next song too much though. haha. oh well, cowboys are still cool.

Getting out of the rut + PARKING LOT FIGHT!

So, I've been feeling lately like I'm in a bit of a rut...
Today I tried to get out of it. Luckily I had an awesome way to do it.
I've been reading this book, "Korea Bug", which is a compilation of article from a zine that was published in Seoul in the late 1990s with the same name. I started reading it way back when I was in Busan, but I put it down, and I never picked it up again, until just last week, and since then I have ploughed through it.
I was flipping through the newest issue of the Gwangju Times, which features a photo I took on the cover (won a contest! Got free Korean lessons!) and a quick blurb and some photos from the music party on June 23rd. I checked out the lecturers that were being brough tin by the GIC this month, and the lecturer for today was J Scott Burgeson. I thought that sounded familiar, and then I looked at "Korea Bug" and saw the author's name "J Scott Burgeson".
I've been really enjoying this book, so I definitely wanted to go hear him speak, and to meet him. I remember when I first started reading it in Busan, and Ryan and I got drunk and made all these plans to make a zine of our own. I still have the paper that I wrote down a number of names of people that I had thoought of to speak to about and/or interview for it.
Of course, it was a drunk plan that never got acted on.
Anyway, the title of his talk was "Is Cultural Revolution Still Possible In South Korea?". It was pretty interesting. Most of his 45 or 50 minute-long discussion was on the factors that led to cultural revolution in the west, and then he talked briefly about the times Korea came close, but that it didn't happen. He talked about beatniks, and the social uprisings in America in the 1960s, and the use of drugs and free love, and how those factors all contributed to a movement away from the other main revolutionary drive - capitalism. It was really very interesting, and I got a bunch of notes that I'm really hoping that I can research and learn more about.
One highlight was this guy, I don't know who he is, but he walks in, holding a very loud conversation on his cell phone, with no hint at an inside voice, totally booming out his conversation to the 20 or so people (mostly Korean) who had already arrived. Highlights included "Yeah I don't know who's talking today so I don't know if it'll be good" and then, when discussing whether his conversation partner should come or not, the shocking "I don't know, there's only two white guys here".
wow. you're a loser.
Anyway, even after his phone conversation was over, he still murmured through the entire talk and chimed in when he felt appropriate. When Scott made a point about the Beatles taking their name from the beatniks, he chimed in that there was also "the crickets". In response to a look that could best be described as "??", he said "Buddy Holly and the Crickets". It was totally beside the point. So that was fun.
Finally, after a lengthy discussion with whoever had sat next to him about something that apparently required medical attention - "Yeah, you should totally get that checked out" - Jim asked him to take it outside. Mad props Jim.
I did meet a cool lady who runs a volunteer organization here in Gwangju, and I'm going to meet with her and her group to help some new Phillipino immigrants learn to use the internet. I originally introduced myself to her because I was interested in getting any people she knew or worked with who might play folk music out to the music party.
Anyway, I feel like getting out tomorrow to volunteer will be a good way to get myself out of this rut I'm feeling. So that's a good thing. I hate feeling like I've done nothing lately. It's been good, I really needed a rest after the last few months, but I'm ready to start doing things again.
After the talk I had a good chat with Jim over some sushi, and a good walk home along the river. I crashed when I got back though, and took a nap.
When I woke up, I was greeted by a beautiful sound I haven't heard in a few months, a PARKING LOT FIGHT!
Just short little bursts of yelling that come in through the window. I opened them up to check it out, and it was full blown. It was by far the biggest parking lot fight I have ever seen.
One of the local purveyors of deep-fried and moderately delish chicken was in the parking lot, big rubber grease apron and all. He was yelling at a group of about ten people, mostly women, and it appeared that I had missed most of it, as a man from the building across the lot took him by the arm and led him out of the area.
BUT THEN (!) he rounded the corner, charged back in and headed straight for the lead woman... my immediate thought was "Holy Fuck! He's just going to drop this woman, isn't he? wow... and terrible!" He didn't hit her, thankfully, he just charged into her! Like, full shoulder bump, with minimal effect. Then she and three other women charged over to him and surrounded him. They were all yelling at him, and a man kept trying to pull him out, and a few times I thought for sure someone was going to get hit. The crowd was growing outside, and at one point I counted 25 people in the immediate area... but there was no way to count all the balcony spectators, and there were a bunch, because I could hear them from all around me as I stood on mine.
Then, the most amazing thing happened. This shaved-head guy from the building across the lot pokes his head out, and then charges down the stairs, comes out on the ramp/entrance, and does this:



I apologize for the "nudity", but how the hell else could I properly describe this?
Needless to say, it was a breathtaking display of manliness. He then walked/power walked up the guy and slapped him full on the back of the head. Like, hard. I heard it from the seventh floor!
Then, the ladies get the chicken guy against a car, and baldy runs over and tries to kick him! He must have been drunk, I mean, there's no other explanation for the shirt thing followed by a missed kick.
Anyways, there was much yelling and excitment, and he finally left, only to return about 40 minutes later to finish the shouting match with a new lead woman, but in a much more subdued manner.

Man, I wish I spoke Korean, because I would have loved to have known what it was all about.

Well, I'm off for now. Have a good one everybody!

weird barbecue cat girls

So, I am continuing to have very strange dreams.
I was telling Ee MeCha about this latest one, and she asked me if I had moved my bed recently. She said that there were different energies based on where your head was pointing... and that this could really affect your sleep. That's neat... I don't know how much I believe about different energies, but it makes sense that moving the bed would affect your dreams. There are different sounds, different spaces, different resonances when you move... you know? And if there was a field, magnetic or otherwise that affected a person, it would definitely be different if you moved the bed.
Now, let me take you on another bizarro subconcious journey...

I was at my parents' home. It was built into a sea wall. There was literally a huge tall wall, with a door, and inside was my parents' house. And on the other side of the wall, there was a beach. The beach rose right to the top of the wall, so that there was a cliff that was also the front of my parents' house. It was under the beach! strange, no?
Anyway, we're kicking around the house, and mom tells me to go out to ask if dad was done barbecuing. I go out, and across from this wall, on the other side of the driveway, is a huge rockface, and the top is covered with glowing red-hot rocks, and possibly lava. I call out to dad, and he steps out from behind some of these glowing rocks and tells me that it's almost ready, but he's not sure about the potatoes... and then he starts to step off from this high rock face! I was amazed to see him bounce down in his flip flops, like when you straighten your feet and slide down the stairs (assuming you have feet as big as mine). he bounced off the car, off the molten rocks, everything, and landed safely in front of me.
END OF PART ONE.
Then, I was in my room in the sea-wall house, but somehow it was an apartment payed for by Munhwa at the same time. In it was a bunch of old, out-of-date sound equiptment that they had furnished my apartment with. Old tape decks, a record player, ghetto microphones... a lot of crap I would never use.
I went to sleep.
When I woke up, there were two young girls with long black hair standing in my room, nude. They were both very very thin, and one had very nice smooth hair and a big dark tattoo on the back of her right leg, and the other had dry, frizzy hair (and no tattoo). They stood in my room and talked to me about all this shitty sound equipment, and we just laughed together at how useless it was to have four double tape-decks with no stereo to connect them to.
END OF PART TWO
Then, I awoke again. There was an electric keyboard in my bed with me! But, unfortunately, it was a crap keyboard too.
I got up, and noticed two kittens in my room under the desk. It was weird, but I left it alone.
Then I ran into mom, and she said she was leaving for the day soon. I said goodbye, and I went back to my room.
When I got there, it was filled with clothes hangers hanging from strings, and there were cats everywhere! I saw the kittens again, and one had a dark black mark on the back of it's right leg! I freaked out! Somehow, these cats were familiars of a witch who was spying on me!
I yelled to mom to wait for me, that I had to get out of the house, and I ran to the washroom to wash up. I grabbed the soap, and started to lather up, but something wasn't right... I looked down, and it wasn't soap, it was a sponge or something that was filled with this toothpaste-coloured paint! My hands were painted green, and I couldn't get it off!
My mom ran upstairs and yeleld at me that I was making her late, and I tried to explain about the paint and the cats and the doom, but she wasn't buying it.
Finally, we left, and got into our beaver-panelled big jeep-style SUV, and drove along the beach... I woke up just as we were trying to get into a parking lot by driving up a staircase that led to nowhere.
END OF PART THREE

So yeah, that's messed up. But how the hell do I remember so much detail? I'm not filling in the blanks here, people, I actually remember the feel of the paint being spread on my hands, and I remember (though I forgot to mention) the feel of the fur of the stray dogs on the beach behind the house. Anyway, I'm really enjoying my dreams lately, so I don't think I'm going to move my bed any time soon.

some thoughts, few happenings

Yesterday was a pretty strange day of school.
I have a new grade five class, which is pretty neat. Grade fives are usually pretty easy, because they don't have any attitude yet. They still volunteer, even in bigger classes. The new class is also cool, because it means that I no longer have to teach the puppy killer. They're doing the usual first weeks stuff, introductions and such. Mr Kang wants me to start them on Basic One, which I think is too simple for them, so I think I'll motor through it. I was going to start them with Intermediate One, but I saw that some of them had already bought the first book without me telling them to... so no dice.
My grade six class has a new dynamic going on. My favourite class, which I have had since I got here, recently got split up and divided according to level, which is good for them, I guess, but bad for me, becuase I really enjoyed that class. Two of the students from the good class got moved into my attitude-rich grade six class, so I'm anxious about whether they will rub on the rest of the class, or if the rest of the class will rub off on them.
I gave my grade sevens easy homework because it's midterms, so it's not worth studying the book, because most kids don't come to academies so they have extra study time for school. Anyway, miracle of miracles, they did their homework. It was basically "Bring something for show and tell", and they both did! (two students attending out of about 15 or so)
One kid brought a really cute picture of himself as a baby, and the other kid had his wallet that he got for his birthday. It was a "Beanpole" brand wallet, so now I'm assuming that the kid's family is loaded. I went in there the other day for the first time, and I didn't see anything for less than $120!. Anyway, he told me that when his father gave it to him, he also got a kiss, which was pretty cute.
My other grade sevens... hoo... I was just told that the reason they are in the calss togetehr is that they are the ones the director hopes will just leave. They're apparently more trouble than they are worth. Too bad, I guess, I actually like the class compared to the one before it. haha.
I started getting sick again a few days ago. I'm pretty sure it's just a cold, but I have that really annoying nasal drip, which is just constant and unstoppable. I can't blow it out, and I can't sniff it, because it jsut keeps coming. Okay, that might have been a little graphic, but I'm jsut being honest. Today it's in my chest a bit, and tomorrow I'll have to decide if it's worth a doctor's trip or not. Luckily, today was a holiday for Munhwa, so I didn't have to go teach. Tomorrow I will, but it's a short week this week, so luckily the speaking test day will be tomorrow instead of today, and I can just say "Write dialogues!" when I arrive and then sit while they write and read to me.
My big project this week has been putting all of my photos into albums. I finished it today, about one third of the way through a third album! I have a lot of pictures. So, I ahven't been going out much lately... obviously. haha.
Actually, I've been feeling today like I'm in a bit of a rut. Too much internet TV and sitting around. It's mostly because I'm sick, but I've also been avoiding things on the social front lately, for a reason I'm not too sure of.
I've also been eating a lot of pizza lately for reasons I'm not too sure of. Like, three in about a week and a half. I've just had the most intense cravings, and actually just writing about it is making me have another one. ugh... it's like I hate my heart. haha.
One neat thing about working evenings and then coming home and eating a pizza is that they lead to awesome dreams. Awesome, crazy, messed-up dreams.
I had one the other night that I was having dinner with Vanessa, Carol, Mel and other Vanessa (haha) and Richard and Shannon, a couple from Mokpo who somehow snuck into my dream even though I have really only met them a few times. We were eating in this bizarro restaurant with moose and deer heads mounted everywhere on the walls. Everyone was shocked by how many they were, and someone started complaining about the cruelty of it all... which struck me as strange, because I had noticed that they were actually toy moose and deer heads, that somehow had antler-shaped cacti growing out of them so that they looked like real heads. Also, one wall was a gently sloped rock wall with moss growing on it, and giant lizards crawling on it. We didn't actually eat, we just sat around drinking colas.
Then I was in New York. I was in a guest-house type thing with a little cafe under it. Apparently it was really hot, because I decided to wear nothing but my yellow golf shirt out that day. Like, literally nothing else. Just nude from the waist down. So I was flashing/mooning everyone, but I remember being pretty cool with the whole situation. I went out, nothing happened, then I came back and that's when I realized that I was travelling with my friends John and Brian from university. They laughed at me because I looked like a crazy person, and then (potential homoeroticism warning) they chased me up the stairs of the guest house and hit me with wiffle bats or something. Now what that means, I don't care to speculate. hahaha.
After the wiffle beating was completed, I went down to the little cafe for a drink, now fully clothed. I got my tea, and then this smoking hot blonde asked me to join her. That's strange in itself, because in real life I'm not much for blonde women... but in my dreams, I am, apparently. Anyway, she asked me to join her, and I did. I started to drink my tea, but I got a little fright when I realized that there was some sort of wriggly creature beneath the smoky/frothy surface. I told the girl about it, and she told me that it was normal, and that I should just drink it, it was part of the tea.
So I did. But it turned out that the thing was actually an alien symbiote and that was how it took control of your body! Apparently it was a sexy symbiote... because the blonde then started fooling around with her friend who had shown up out of nowhere.
Is it weird that I'm putting this in a public forum? aww, who cares, it was a crazy cool dream.
I fought like Kirk against the evil alien symbiote...
and then out of nowhere it was snowing! Very bizarre, considering that just a few moments ago, I had been wearing no pants because I was too hot. Anyways, I realized, rather suddenly, that I had to catch the bus to the airport, or I would never make it back to Korea in time! It was going to be rough, because the bus was sliding around in the icy snowness of the New York winter that had suddenly happened. I got into a bus, which quickly had an accident. So I got into a cab... but the cab got into and accident too, so I got into a second one, and it finally got me to the airport. Luckily, the travel agent had apparently given me maps to everywhere I would have to go, including the terminals... I put down my bag to look, and then, incredibly, I was at the ticket counter when i looked back up. I love miracle dream maps.
For some reason, in my dreams, there are always a lot of ski lifts in dream airports. No idea why. But I usually get taken to my plane via a ski lift. weird? yes. anyway, that's the whole dream.
I had another crazy dream last night, thanks to pizza, but I can't remember it now. Too bad. I remember thinking it was a doozy.
I went into Provence the other night after work to get my recording stuff. Ee MeCha told me that I should "come back home" which was pretty sweet. I haven't been in there much in the last month or so... without the girl motivation to practice my Korean, I've been focussing a lot on other things. Not even anything, really, I just have wanted to be home lately. Rut. haha. I'm totally in a rut lately. Maybe I need to start going back there again just to get out of it. I definitely need to have a change of pace. most definitely. Too much home time lately, not enough of anything that even remotely resembles excitement.
Hopefully I get better in the next couple of days, because I got invited out to "Super Night" on Friday, for my first Korean night club experience, which I am told will be pretty memorable. I don't know what to wear, I'm all out of fop-wear, and glitter. I'm pretty sure that my normal bar-wear of "Snoopy and Linus T-shirt" will be out of the question...
Maybe I should go shopping. hahah.
Okay, I have to stop rambling right now. Goodnight everybody!

Full Frontal!

So, it's been a lazy Sunday (no attempts at referencing intended).
Yesterday was a mess...
I went to Provence at around 4 or 4:30... I set up all the sound stuff, and finally left around 7 or so to head to the Speakeasy. I was hoping for some more downtime after the set-up before going, but I was nervous about the levels so I kept checking them again and again. I showed Seung Jong everything he had to know to work it while I was gone and how to set it up to record and then I headed out, so that I could enjoy some of the rooftop barbecue that was happening before I played at 8:30.
I headed over to the Speakeasy, and chatted with Mike and Dave about the music party and different happenings, and I spent an absurd amount of time discussing chocolate with Dave. haha. Jason Kelly was also playing, which was really nice to see, because I haven't seen him playing in such a long time, and he was so good! I was blown away with the variety he played... haha, Jethro Tull!
My set went really well. I played four or five songs with the looper, and I didn't make any mistakes! woohoo!
I even had some goofball army guys doing pushups to the beat. I can't decide if that was a good thing or not. I mean, they were out on the dancefloor, but doing one-armed pushups to the musical accompaniment of me covering Mika. Either way, it was well received, and I was really happy with how it turned out. But it was so loud, I was sorry to leave and miss the other acts, but I was happy because my ears were already starting to feel like they were ringing.
I got to Provence, and my head starting pounding. Maybe it was the cigarette smoke at the Speakeasy... I haven't been around smokers in a long long time. I hope not... that would suck. If I'm going to get a headache every time I'm around smokers, I'm going to have to cut myself off from a hell of a lot of the social scene in the world...
The Provence party was pretty neat to see. It was almost entirely candle lit, they had live piano music, poetry reading and everyone heard Ee MeCha read excerpts from the guest books that she leaves out for people to write messages in around the cafe. It was wonderful. I've actually never been to something like that before, and I really really wished in that time that I know more Korean. I felt lost for most of it.
But then I got angry... not immediately... but it sunk in a few minutes after being told by SeungJong that he had forgotten to press play on the recording program on my computer. So, my gift for Ee MeCha had bsically been eliminated. At first, I was thinking, hey no big deal, but then I realized, hey, this thing I had planned for weeks for this really nice lady who helps me so much here is now gone, and it's because my friend couldn't even remember to press play! I chewed him out baout it for a while... and we're cool now. I just needed to let him know that he let me down, and not just let it roll off my back. I'm trying to be more upfront about stuff like that lately, instead of just repressing... it's probably healthy. I hope so.
I played a bit too, and I recorded everything that happened while I was there.
It was really enjoyable, and I liked some of the new people that I met, but I didn't meet many, because it was so quiet that mingling wasn't really possible.
Unfortunately, around midnight, my headache got too bad, and I had to leave. I packed up the computer and the m-box so that I could work on the recordings that I have at home (and possibly skype with Vanessa when I got home) and headed out. I got a round of applause as I left (not BECAUSE I was leaving) and I congratulated Ee MeCha on her five years of business, and finally got a chance to tell her that she looked beautiful, which she really did.
I got home and procrastinated before going to bed, because I was hoping that Vanessa would come online... but she never did. haha, turns out she was gone camping... or something. I can't figure out the timeline.
Today, I slept in, woke up with the same headache (it's been a few days) and watched like two hours of Family Guy... then I started cleaning up the apartment. I had another pizza craving (they've been coming a lot lately) but when I called, after a few minutes of yellign at eachother, I finally got that, OH, they're not open yet. They told me at 3:30 they would open, but it didn't work, I got the same message.
I've also started work on my scrapbook, finally. I have about six months of photos to put into it... it's pretty exciting. But also stressful. I keep worrying that I will miss pictures and then wind up with leftover pictures that don't fit into the order of the book. So I turned the apartment inside out a couple of times looking for them... I started, and then of course I found another two stacks of them. But I still feel like I'm missing a stack, but I have no idea where they might be.
Anyway, back to it, before I lose the drive for it, and I put it off for another six months.
OH!
I forgot the reason for the title.
I was sitting here, working on putting pictures into my scrapbook, and two little kids from down the hall ran right into my apartment yelling "Annyeong Haseyo!" (I have to door open to air out the apartment, it's cool today) and smiling and laughing. Then they realized that they were in the foreign guy's apartment, and they kind of stopped dead and stared at me until I said "HELLO!", then they laughed and turned around and ran out again.
And they were both naked from the waste down!
Korea is a strange and very trusting place... I can't imagine that would/could ever happen in Canada.

Provence's 5th Anniversary Party

There's a party tomorrow at Provence that is pretty exciting. I should say... it's now June 29th. I'm back at Starbucks sipping an iced Tazo chai tea latte, which is the longest-named beverage I have ever had. So anyways, this party is on June 30th and it's being held to celebrate the 5th anniversary of the cafe. As a member of the "Provence Family" (guilt over Starbucks visits increasing) I have been invited to perform and hang out with the rest of the regulars. It's pretty nice.
Unfortunately, this is on the same night as the Canada Day celebration at the Speakeasy. Dave asked if I wanted to come out and perform, and I said yes, then I had to cancel because the Provence party got moved to the same day, and I really want to play and hang out with the Provence Family. So anyway, a week or so later, I got news that Jeong Hyeon's grandmother had died, so he would not be able to come on the 30th, so it would be moved to another day.
sidebar - this guy just walked by Starbucks in leather pants with zippers all over them, long dyed-red hair, a black mesh shirt with a black wife beater under it, studded riding gloves and big black boots on. Did I mention that it's about +30 degrees and humid as a locker room out there? Oh, and he was carrying a gift bag that was pink. I love this country, if only for it's bizarro entertainment value.
anyways... the party was cancelled. Awesome, now I could play at the speakeasy. So I called Dave and put my name back in the hat there. Then I told Ee MeCha, and she told me that the party was back on. I can't cancel at the Speakeasy again, so I have to do both, which will involve a lot of very hot running.
It wouldn't normally be a big deal, but I told Ee MeCha that I would record the night at Provence to make her a CD. So I now have to leave a lot of my equipment unattended, which I'm not too pumped about. But... it'll be great to have a CD of that for her. It'll be a great souvenir form her party.