roadkill and other observations

Self, minimalized

For something that is not meant to exist, reducing self to a minimalized size might be the most an aspiring Buddhist can hope for.

The beautiful tears

At first I mistook the song as Angie, but it was Wild Horses.

The song almost made me cry. One song that always brings tears is Step Out by Jose Gonzalez. It’s not the lyrics or the music, but rather the entirety of the piece combined with the passion of Walter Mitty, pursuing his goal, and achieving it.

The Covidiot

As I walked down the road a stranger approached me, extended his hand, and asked, “Hey, how are you?”

My previously relaxed right hand quickly curled up into a clenched fist as my arm moved behind my back, resting against my lower spine.

Without missing a beat, my walk continued.

This is 21 July 2020. Globally 14,703,293 people have tested positive for Covid-19. 609,887 have died. Here in Singapore, as soon as you step into the public space you must don a mask. Hand sanitiser dispensers are everywhere.

And he thinks I am going to shake his hand?

Sometimes, it is difficult to remain optimistic regarding the destiny of the human species.

Photo credit

My carcass

The phone rang. The NYPD wanted to talk to me. My father’s cadaver had to be identified. I was living 3,827 miles away in Denmark. After the call, I downed some whiskey and phoned my father’s number to hear his answering machine greeting, to quell the fear that I might forget the sound of his voice (29 years later I still haven’t. We still have occasional nocturnal chats in my dreams). Meanwhile, in New York, his partner took care of the cadaver ID formalities.

Shoe Wars: Puma vs Mizuno!

Spoiler alert; Puma wins, hands down. Just consider the sole. After 6.1 km (3.8 mi) the sole of the Puma Trailfox MTS-Water is rock-solid, not a trace of separation from the shoe body. The Mizuno Wave Prophecy 3? Look at the feature photo up there. The sole is hardly hanging on after only 1,829.7 km (1,136.9 mi). You could smuggle five generations of criminal rapist South American migrants into Texas in that gap at the toe. Bigly.

Capitalism: Dead on arrival

In 1981 I saw the film D.O.A. – A Rite Of Passage by Lech Kowalski at a cinema in Morristown, New Jersey. When the possibility to own films arrived with Beta and VHS cassettes, I made several attempts to purchase it, but it was not to be found. Then came DVDs and BluRay discs, but still, no luck. A year or so ago I found a seller in Japan on Amazon offering the DVD but at an unattractive price.

the faith pandemic

faith:
1 complete trust or confidence in someone or something
2 strong belief in the doctrines of a religion, based on spiritual conviction rather than proof

This morning I was told that I must have faith. My usual reactionary response was to contend that I’d rather have certainty, obviously having been influenced by the lyrics of David Bowie’s song Law (Earthlings on Fire).

Mae Salong Vegan Getaway

You can read about Mae Salong on Wiki Travel and Trip Advisor and Lonely Planet. To understand the culture of the place you might want to read an article published by the New York Times, or another published in Chiang Mai’s City Life web news. But all that is not the same as reading about what a vegan couple did while there in November 2019. In a nutshell, we walked around a lot and ate and read. For more details, read on…

Newsletter Number 2

So, if I recall correctly, this is what’s been happening since the last newsletter.

Chiang Rai Vegan Temple Crawl

Last month my wife and I spent a few days in Chiang Rai before retreating to the hills in Thailand’s north to do nothing but read and wander around tea plantations.

So before the hills we enjoyed Chiang Rai, an urban delight for us city-wanderers who enjoy local culture, food and coffee (but not always in that order). The first evening we dropped our bags and ran to Moom Mai for a meal. That was yummy and eclectic.