Quick observation

The idea of surrealism in mainstream culture is a fascinating one. Surrealism is seen nearly all the time. In commercials. A quick surreal very sarty 45 second commercial is viewable to the public, but a film of the same thing running 90 minutes is deemed not. I believe this is due to knowing that you will be back to your program shortly as opposed to putting all the attention on an entire film.


My thoughts

Sicko Essay

I have just come back from watching the new Michael Moore film "Sicko"

This is a film that affirmed much of what I know and feel about our flawed not only health care, but insurance system in general.
Insurance is a big subject in the United States. My own experiences are very good only because I happen to be the son of a parent who works for the government, but only recently has a decent dental plan been issued to my insurance, before there was none. I know of many friends of mine through various sports I have played who are at very high risk when they become injured and cannot get treatment due to the high expense. Privatized insurance is a flawed, greedy and immoral system. My grandmother took a claim on her home five years ago for a plumbing problem. She has owned her home for forty four years, and never, not once, took a claim and her insurance was dropped. My sister damaged the fender of my mother's car six years ago from driving the car into a light post in a parking lot. Very low damage, but my mother made a claim for the first time in 25 years and her rates were doubled.

This is wrong. We have to look at the definition of insurance.

in·sur·ance  (n-shrns)
n.
1.
a. The act, business, or system of insuring.
b. The state of being insured.
c. A means of being insured.
2.
a. Coverage by a contract binding a party to indemnify another against specified loss in return for premiums paid.
b. The sum or rate for which such a contract insures something.
c. The periodic premium paid for this coverage.

As a country having insurance privatized is wrong. As a business of any kind your objective is to make more money than you spend. Insurance is no different. When you're fellow man is in need what is more important: A human life or more money going into a business owners pocket?

The fact that companies do try to find ways to drop you, or will not pay for medical treatments due to it being considered "experimental" is not only wrong, but immoral. I have to deal with this as a massage therapist. I do not deal with insurance. Not because I don;t want to help people, but because insurance companies try to screw me out of my earnings. My medical practice is not considered "Proper" medicine and for that I am shunned. Any help to help another person in pain is help, and the fact that companies are more interested in how they did this quarter than saving a dying man is inexcusable.

Change has to be made, and now.

I call upon everyone to say NO to insurance companies. Tell them what you want and that you will not accept anything less. A human life is worth more than any amount of money in the world.

Take a stand against this and make this the start for government insurance for EVERYONE. Regardless of class, race, income, condition, anything. Anyone and everyone deserves to be treated equal. That is what this country was founded upon and that needs to be reminded.

Let's take a stand today


-Patrick

The Epiphany

My epiphany last month will now be revealed.

I am going to pursue music, now.

This comes when I was thinking to myself; Do I want to spend all that time in school training for something I will no do for very long and will not make much more money than I am now? and I came to an answer, no.

Now comes the part where I go to the places where what I di is being done. Chicago and San Francisco are the first places of travel to scout out. I look very forward to this. My new project 9: Remaining Solice" is well underway, I expect recording to be done later in the month and a release in early September.

Many other projects are in the works, but that is the one of most note.

Destiny exists

This morning I had the most bizarre and fulfilling experience of my life.

I had an epiphany. This a strange feeling one has to feel. I now have to pursue what I have not been pursuing the last ten years.


I now realize what I am meant to do in my life.


-Patrick

Bizarre experience

Yesterday i was sitting in the middle of the university waiting for my friend(who did not show up, bitch) I was sitting at a table drinking ice cold water and eating an ice cream bar. The heat was nearly 100 degree and I had the most bizarre feeling. I felt as if I was in "Do The Right Thing" But this time the racial segregation was me.

I have found several lovely quiet areas in the city away from the madness of the city. These I enjoy very much, and give me a small sense of being.

Due to a professor I have met here, Taipei could be in the works in October.

More details soon

-Patrick

quickly

We all make mistakes in our life. Some mistakes are just bigger than others

Update very soon

Hey everyone just a quick post for my lack of activtiy lately. Server issues have forced me to postpone my update for several dyas be preapred for a HUGE update in the next day

Cave Adventures

The day started out with a delicious breakfast of dumplings and hard-boiled eggs. After breakfast I took more photos of the neighborhood



We leave the apartment shortly after to pick up several food items for that evening's dinner and my study materials

A local shopping district


Another way of saying: "Stay away intruder!"

A  bookshop used for my purchases

And on the journey to the countryside I found that Kevin Costner has joined the club of celebrity clothing designers

After the Costner discovery we head an hour outside of the city to the Yulian caves.

The journey





We arrive at the Yulian caves. Which seems to be a destination for Japanese and southeast Asian tourists.
After an introduction from our tour guide we begin the tour of the caves inhabited by an ancient tribe(or at least that was the give translation)
Folk game


Monkey and the area





The landscape


We enter the cave. The depths of this place are quite unreal. It just keeps going. We are in the cave for over two hours and emerge light deprived



After the cave we head home. Uncle and Aunt go to dinner with friends I spend the evening quietly working on music and reading.

This is an interesting place. We plan to head to Guilin for three days on Wednesday. This should prove another wonderful opportunity for more photos and introspection

the journey and in china

The Journey

The day started out in Sarasota. All packed up I was ready to go



At the airport the family people were showing me off





The plane that begins my journey.



The journey from Sarasota to Atlanta was uneventful. Atlanta, to me, an interesting and well organized airport, but just very long.

Flight from ATL to LA again uneventful, except for an englishman doing his damndest to pick up this blond girl that was sitting in front of me. This provided much amusement for the rest of the flight.

I meet with Uncle in LA.


God, what a bitch this place is. As uncle puts it "They still have this place setup for 707's" Very old and dilapidated. Now, as most security persons are socially mal-adujusted people these had to be some of the worst. They treat this place like the army when half of the people going through the security in the terminal don't speak english.

Anyway, after quite a long wait and a new pair of sunglasses purchased(Can't beat duty free prices) we finally board. Nice, older airplane.  I fall asleep far before we actually take off. Insert photo(China Southern Pre take off)
I believe we were delayed an hour taking off, but I can't be sure. We are due in about thirty minutes early. That will be nice as we have to quickly go through Guangzhou airport to get to our final flight to Nanning

We arrive in Guangzhou about thirty minutes and with much luck the change over, customs and check in were done in about twenty minute. So, not the mad dash we were expecting.

Big airport


So, after our final connecting flight we arrive in Nanning. Aunt and cousin greet us and drive us into the city


The Neighborhood



School business was finished up today and tomorrow we go shopping for books and a few other things. This will be an interesting experience.

Time to go

Well, the day has arrived. I leave for China in a little over twelve hours. Wow, I can't believe it. Many emotions have been going through me the last several months as I prepare, but I am going. No turning back now. This is an adventure of a lifetime. I head out with people missed and mixed feelings, but I go.


I can't wait.


Updates soon

One week

One week now. My how time flys

Early Morning FUNK!

When you are up until six in the morning and hear Brazilian jazz renditions of Stevie wonder songs what do you do?

Spontaneous Salsa!

My Obsession

The trailer for the new Peter Greenaway film "Nightwatching" This made me instantly achieve an erection(well, a semi at least)

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Two Weeks

Two weeks from today I will be somewhere in the sky. I'm having a rather odd feelings in terms of my life. I find this odd only due to the fact that I was so jazzed of leaving. I'm going, but I am not nearly as happy as I should be.

Woo hoo

Car sold!

China will be a very finacially stable place now! Now I continue my countdown of days before my departure. Twenty as of today

Not many things left to do around here. Just wait and go. Now I must cuddle up with Francois Rabelais

Eww

Quick one. Bill O'Reilly needs to be shot........ multiple times

Late Night Work/Reading

I continue through "Riding The Iron Rooster" By Paul Theroux.
A fascinating book dealing with his trip by train from London and through China. I was given this book on a recommendation from a friend who considered this essential reading before my trip. I must say, not essential, but a second of my time has not been wasted on it.

My work has been on a creative upswing as of late, all the better too. I continue on my progress of a "singing album" My lyrical ear is still being developed. So maybe some poet friends could help in this matter.........

One song has been completed to the rough stages thus far, a preview of said song may be put here in the near future.

tis all for now, back to work!

The mysterious world of sound

I am still wondering after my confrontation with a local music teacher who told me my work is not music. http://lamaingaucheprod.free.fr/013.htm(judge for yourself)

What must his mind set be? I wonder this as when a classical musician who is confined to sheet music, scales and rules(some of the rules are a necessity) but I wonder why when they hear something that has part of a melody, or a fractured chord that gives you a false reaction from the comfort that music is"supposed to give you." They cower. Derek Bailey is the perfect example of this. A man who played with bizarre chord changes and octaves that wildly went from one to the other, but on the occasion that he would play a note of pure beauty, his work makes sense. And he could play, no question about it. But many classical musicians would say he is just hitting the strings wildly and without purpose, but I think there is more to music than the beauty and organization of notes. I ask, Is music a series of chords and melodies, or is music just sound? Why is it we can appreciate a Bach Concerto, but the dissonance of some one like Christian Fennesz, or the brooding thunder of Keith Rowe is shunned by closed minded individuals perceptions of what music is and where it is going? Again, I ask.........


What Is Music?

Bad people

It is very funny when you meet a conservative musician. Is that not an oxymoron? I did his name is Jimmy G. He is a local music teacher in Sarasota and a "performer" and one who is stuck in the late 60's in terms of style and how he handles himself.


All that needs to be known is that he is an asshole. Not only an ignorant person, but a very stupid one at the same time. Spending too much time with 40's jazz standards (which some are fine, but move on already) he is a person who is so afraid of change and technology that he will not even touch a computer mouse. Fuck him and the horse he rode in on.

New found enthusiasm

After being gripped by the hand of exhaustion for the past five days, I feel myself again(after nearly two solid days in bed) With this energy comes my work. I still plan to take it easy for a few more days, but I jump head-first into work once again. Having a deadline to reach with my friend Llywelyn to come up with a "Sonic Playground" for him to play piano over for our next collaboration. Our first is his album "Stages". Contact me or him Aluntudor@aol.com to get a copy.

I continue with learning the language of my new country, China with a greatly positive attitude. As my departure is as of this date, 38 days away.


A few more quick project to be completed my work with My friend Dave Genualdi, heard only by few so far, but given great praise will be released soon. As we continue to attack the sensibilities of the post-rock world.

tis all for now, back to music world!

-Patrick

Getting ready

Less than two months before I leave for China. The excitement is building, but is also rather sad at the same time.