Albums I have been listened lately

Got this 2 albums from a familiar reccord shop around my house. 2 different period of music but anyway giving me good time listening to both ( actually 3, the electro Jazz section came with 2 CDs) Strange but true, even I say how much I enjoy these songs, I didn't pay much attention to the song title or artists on the covers as I used to do. Maybe I am becoming what I don't wanna be when I was younger, busy! It's just the accuse, I can say. I am just being more ignorance to things around me just to keep me focus on myself. It's not good and I should improve my bad habit before too late

Movie that makes my stomach growling

Gosh! Only the movie title can kill me with food apetizing. There are scenes of a Chinese chef woking with his ingredients, fresh fish, chicken and slicing, streaming, chopping and ....etc. I have no enough torelation to finish the movie since my stomach cannot stop growling watching those scences. I heard about this movie long time ago, around 6 years ( I guess), about how good it was. But at the moment I was not so interested in the movie as I am now and it seemed not very famous among thais, moreover ,the VDO technology was quite uncomfortable with me since I have not enough money to spend for VDO while I had to spend some on my music CDs at the same time. Anyway, I just had chance to watch it around January this year (2006) and just purchased it a few days ago. It's worth spending every minute with, I can only say that. Especially for anyone who love food and cooking. It makes me more intersted in the next movie of this director, what will he do next? , since he did different kind of unpredictable movies.

Red and Green

Phaeomeria magnifica. (is it the name? it's too long to call) We simply called it Dalha. I have some amounts at the ront yard. The lines, patterns and the leaf curves catch me during I was waiting for my lunch to be delivered.

Pat Metheny on Kenny G

I got an email from Pat Metheny homepage infoming me about his new album with Brad Mehldau and it reminded me of article I had read years ago (6, I think) about his interview that blasted on Kenny G's music and musicianship. So I did search again for what it is really about ( 6 years caused me some lost of memory, and yes from all the booze I had taken during that period; alcohol, cigarettes and joints :D ) It's really a blast(back to Pat on G, not mine). After finish reading it, I can only think that it would hurt feeling of G's fan in Thailand a lot since he has lots of fan base in Asia who think his music is so "jazz" and take his music as a romantic jazz or jazz for lovers. Pat Metheny Kenny G Read it and think for yourself Question: Pat, could you tell us your opinion about Kenny G - it appears you were quoted as being less than enthusiastic about him and his music. I would say that most of the serious music listeners in the world would not find your opinion surprising or unlikely - but you were vocal about it for the first time. You are generally supportive of other musicians it seems. Pat's Answer: Kenny G is not a musician I really had much of an opinion about at all until recently. There was not much about the way he played that interested me one way or the other either live or on records. I first heard him a number of years ago playing as a sideman with Jeff Lorber when they opened a concert for my band. My impression was that he was someone who had spent a fair amount of time listening to the more pop oriented sax players of that time, like Grover Washington or David Sanborn, but was not really an advanced player, even in that style. He had major rhythmic problems and his harmonic and melodic vocabulary was extremely limited, mostly to pentatonic based and blues-lick derived patterns, and he basically exhibited only a rudimentary understanding of how to function as a professional soloist in an ensemble - Lorber was basically playing him off the bandstand in terms of actual music. But he did show a knack for connecting to the basest impulses of the large crowd by deploying his two or three most effective licks (holding long notes and playing fast runs - never mind that there were lots of harmonic clams in them) at the key moments to elicit a powerful crowd reaction (over and over again). The other main thing I noticed was that he also, as he does to this day, play horribly out of tune - consistently sharp. Of course, I am aware of what he has played since, the success it has had, and the controversy that has surrounded him among musicians and serious listeners. This controversy seems to be largely fueled by the fact that he sells an enormous amount of records while not being anywhere near a really great player in relation to the standards that have been set on his instrument over the past sixty or seventy years. And honestly, there is no small amount of envy involved from musicians who see one of their fellow players doing so well financially, especially when so many of them who are far superior as improvisers and musicians in general have trouble just making a living. there must be hundreds, if not thousands of sax players around the world who are simply better improvising musicians than Kenny G on his chosen instruments. It would really surprise me if even he disagreed with that statement. Having said that, it has gotten me to thinking lately why so many jazz musicians (myself included, given the right "bait" of a question, as I will explain later) and audiences have gone so far as to say that what he is playing is not even jazz at all. Stepping back for a minute, if we examine the way he plays, especially if one can remove the actual improvising from the often mundane background environment that it is delivered in, we see that his saxophone style is in fact clearly in the tradition of the kind of playing that most reasonably objective listeners WOULD normally quantify as being jazz. It's just that as jazz or even as music in a general sense, with these standards in mind, it is simply not up to the level of playing that we historically associate with professional improvising musicians. So, lately I have been advocating that we go ahead and just include it under the word jazz - since pretty much of the rest of the world OUTSIDE of the jazz community does anyway - and let the chips fall where they may. And after all, why he should be judged by any other standard, why he should be exempt from that that all other serious musicians on his instrument are judged by if they attempt to use their abilities in an improvisational context playing with a rhythm section as he does? He SHOULD be compared to John Coltrane or Wayne Shorter, for instance, on his abilities (or lack thereof) to play the soprano saxophone and his success (or lack thereof) at finding a way to deploy that instrument in an ensemble in order to accurately gauge his abilities and put them in the context of his instrument's legacy and potential. As a composer of even eighth note based music, he SHOULD be compared to Herbie Hancock, Horace Silver or even Grover Washington. Suffice it to say, on all above counts, at this point in his development, he wouldn't fare well. But, like I said at the top, this relatively benign view was all until recently. Not long ago, Kenny G put out a recording where he overdubbed himself on top of a 30+ year old Louis Armstrong record, the track "What a wonderful world". With this single move, Kenny G became one of the few people on earth I can say that I really can't use at all - as a man, for his incredible arrogance to even consider such a thing, and as a musician, for presuming to share the stage with the single most important figure in our music. This type of musical necrophilia - the technique of overdubbing on the preexisting tracks of already dead performers - was weird when Natalie Cole did it with her dad on "Unforgettable" a few years ago, but it was her dad. When Tony Bennett did it with Billie Holiday it was bizarre, but we are talking about two of the greatest singers of the 20th century who were on roughly the same level of artistic accomplishment. When Larry Coryell presumed to overdub himself on top of a Wes Montgomery track, I lost a lot of the respect that I ever had for him - and I have to seriously question the fact that I did have respect for someone who could turn out to have have such unbelievably bad taste and be that disrespectful to one of my personal heroes. But when Kenny G decided that it was appropriate for him to defile the music of the man who is probably the greatest jazz musician that has ever lived by spewing his lame-ass, jive, pseudo-bluesy, out-of-tune, noodling, wimped out, fucked up playing all over one of the great Louis' tracks (even one of his lesser ones), he did something that I would not have imagined possible. He, in one move, through his unbelievably pretentious and calloused musical decision to embark on this most cynical of musical paths, shit all over the graves of all the musicians past and present who have risked their lives by going out there on the road for years and years developing their own music inspired by the standards of grace that Louis Armstrong brought to every single note he played over an amazing lifetime as a musician. By disrespecting Louis, his legacy and by default, everyone who has ever tried to do something positive with improvised music and what it can be, Kenny G has created a new low point in modern culture - something that we all should be totally embarrassed about - and afraid of. We ignore this, "let it slide", at our own peril. His callous disregard for the larger issues of what this crass gesture implies is exacerbated by the fact that the only reason he possibly have for doing something this inherently wrong (on both human and musical terms) was for the record sales and the money it would bring. Since that record came out - in protest, as insignificant as it may be, I encourage everyone to boycott Kenny G recordings, concerts and anything he is associated with. If asked about Kenny G, I will diss him and his music with the same passion that is in evidence in this little essay. Normally, I feel that musicians all have a hard enough time, regardless of their level, just trying to play good and don't really benefit from public criticism, particularly from their fellow players. But, this is different. There ARE some things that are sacred - and amongst any musician that has ever attempted to address jazz at even the most basic of levels, Louis Armstrong and his music is hallowed ground. To ignore this trespass is to agree that NOTHING any musician has attempted to do with their life in music has any intrinsic value - and I refuse to do that. (I am also amazed that there HASN'T already been an outcry against this among music critics - where ARE they on this?????!?!?!?!- , magazines, etc.). Everything I said here is exactly the same as what I would say to Gorelick if I ever saw him in person. and if I ever DO see him anywhere, at any function - he WILL get a piece of my mind and maybe a guitar wrapped around his head. source: http://everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=807027

Good? In Term of What?

When good doesn't really mean good. People tends to talk with more political way to hide their agenda. That's what I think. Why do we need good for one thing but ruin others' merit? Is it possible to have "fine" for one thing, and "o.k." with the others? Life is out of balance

Ideas from Singel Gracht: Form Follow Finance

Trips during Summer 2003 along the flower market in Amsterdam( I am not sure that it's Singel Gracht or not?) It's one of the "must visit" spots of Amsterdam seeing the whole street selling flowers...looks like Paak Klong Ta Lad in Bangkok except the fact that in bangkok the sale happen during really early in the morning 3-4 a.m. onwards but ,since the average temperature in Holland is about 12c which is good for flower, they can sold in the day time in Holland. Flower here is so beautiful, and easily found at anyplace (plus not too hot weather help everything's fine). Comparing in Bangkok, it's only be found in a quite expensive flower shop with air conditioning to save flower from dehidration. These are suveniors easily found anywahere tourists are, showing different kind of typical Dutch house which remarkbly narrow and tall. The reason why it is so narrow is that once the housing tax is calculated from the width of the facade. To solve the problem and integrating with how to live in the narrow space, they compensated the narrow facade with the more depth of the building to fit with their requirements. From that reason, it became the identity of Amsterdam houses. Form Follows Finance!

Santa Tram

It was the commercial for radio in NL during holiday on December 2001, Amsterdam

Vernacular Architecture Field Trip 2

This fence was accidentally found when I got lost from the group and walked into a farmer's house who was grinding close to the house. Kind of like the idea applying texture of bamboo fence and plants which have an interesting effect "duality" But what is more amazing was the interior behid the fence, it turned out to be a nie living space, good ventilation and semi-visual accessibility. The owner must be graduated from famous architecture school :D

Vernacular Architecture Field Trip

I took a trip with my classmate to accompany with my faculty trip to see what Thai architecture is about. The guide was my professor who has lots of knowledge about this and actually is one of the reason I kind of intersting in photography as documentation. The pictures taking during 2 days, the First day we'd been around Ratchaburi drifting along Temples and some old community seeing how architecture can be changed from the change of soceity and social behaviours. Concerning of this point I kind of believe that Thai architecture, or any traditional architecture, is essentially not about style at all but to live together with nature, not to seperate from. My Guess maybe because that we, or countries that have tropical climate, have more friendly environment comaparing to Western architecture that most of the time seperated human from more harmful natural condition which would lead to the big difference between us in using material. In general, wood and stone.

Funny Forward "Banknote"

I got this note when I was using underground. When I first read it, I giggling like crazy for 2 reasons 1. the writer wouldn't have high education and poor. He needs the education to fix his misunderstanding as soon as possible since he even spell the easy word incorrectly 2. I won't get rich PS. it said (of courese in thai) "ib(if) you got this banknote , you will get rich with 8 million (baht or dollar?) writing 8 copies more''...............why 8 ? and after writing do I have to pass to others?...... Do I take the note too seriously?

Crown Property Bureau office at Chachoengsao

The picture taken weeks ago. The original was not so vivid (maybe from scanner) so I exagerated the color using help from ACDSee. I prefer this one to the original. The buidling has history along with the settlement of this province since the area was bought by the King Rama V and this building was used by interior ministry hundred years ago fighting with French marine during colonizing period. It was once burnt down but now it is all renovated with the return of the office of Crown Property Bureau.

Natural patternized Graphics

Sunday Market in Amsterdam. There's an old joke about the Dutch that well describe dutch unique identity; God created the world, but the Dutch created the Netherlands. Most of the "nature" in Holland was created. Maybe that's the reason why the Dutch like patternizing things into graphics, even flower. Strange beauty The city is filled with beutiful patterned natural texture.

Birthday Card and Commercial Shot

Since I left the office, I seem to have more free time to do things. At least to think, and create things I forgot I have had in my hands. 2 pictures, one was taken by my friend weeks ago after we had dinner. We did the diving jump to the bean bag in one of a ,let's say, hype stores in Bangkok. Another one was taken few days ago from my cloth line. I kind of got an idea to use both picture for my personal test. The first one I did a birthday card for my cousins, putting some texts on it. They love it :) but I have to do it again next time with the more intersting action,....maybe spinning, or screw diving... Another one since it looks like a commercial shot, so I put the material care-instuction on it to accentuate the picture expression that the jeans were actually reversed. I like it though, maybe it's not that good but anyway a nice try for me.