Rhythm and Stealth

Thanks to having a new laptop and thus being able to use iTunes with my iPod, I've been taking advantage of the option to fill up the MP3 player with songs after the items you specify.
The good thing about how iTunes does this is that it tries to put in complete albums at first, which means that lately I have been listening to albums I haven't thought about in a while, to and from work.

One such is Leftfield's Rhythm & Stealth. You know, the one with the samurai armour on the cover. Mostly this evokes the same reaction it did when it came out. It's a good soundtrack to walking around a city.
However, one track stands out as not having aged well -- "Double Flash".
This song sounds exactly like the noises people make when they're doing an impression of ridiculously pounding dance music. DOOF -Tissss DOOF-Tissss DOOF-Tisss it goes, with the compression way up so there's no getting away from it. This goes on for two minutes, then there's a quieter breakdown bit. The traditional 90s 'wait for it, wait for it' rising tension then leads back into... exactly the same beat.

It reminds me of the episode of Father Ted where Fr Jack is sent away and in his place they get that priest who's really into jungle music in the parochial house.
I can imagine "Double Flash" being in a sitcom scenario involving noisy neighbours with little or no change made to the song.

DOOF -Tissss DOOF -Tissss DOOF -Tissss DOOF -Tissss
"This is insufferable! I should go round and say something. Shall I go round and say something? Oh, thank the Lord, it's stopped."
(There is silence for a few moments. The couple turn off the bedside light.)
DOOF -Tissss DOOF -Tissss DOOF -Tissss DOOF -Tissss DOOF -Tissss

I guess it seemed like a good idea in 1999.

Still, like I say, the rest of the album is quite enjoyable and walking around listening to it is like being back in the early 2000s again, only everyone has smaller phones.

Possibly misplaced loyalty

Back in March, I turned down the chance to interview for the position of chief English editor at the HK tourist board. I wanted to complete our current Chinese language project, but they wanted the position to start too early. 

The same headhunter later approached our flatmate, who now has taken the job. I wouldn't mind about that, except JW, our Xi'an native editor, has resigned. Which puts levels 3 and 4 of the series on hold until we can replace her, which will take a pretty long time. 

So now the CLT project has been pretty effectively derailed, and I feel pretty foolish for hanging on here when I could have gone and done arguably more interesting work, for better money. 

On the other hand, said flatmate's company are now hiring to replace him....

What I did on my holidays
Day 6 - 27 April


I just noticed that the timestamps on our photos are out by a day. One for future biographers to puzzle over, no doubt. 


We set out a little late, and ended up at a beach on Bali's southern peninsula. This was after some to and fro wherein I said I'd like to go sailing if possible. I was offered jet-skiing or being dragged around on something inflatable. I said jet-skiing would be OK but I wasn't interested in the others. 


We ended up at some beach where the latter two options only were available. I pointed out that "water sports" generally involved doing something, e.g. sailing, windsurfing - not holding on to an inflatable sausage while someone else does something. Neither, in my opinion, did sitting on a jet ski while someone else sits behind you and leans over your shoulders to steer constitute "jet skiing". apparently they'd had too many accidents with idiots to hire them out like normal. 
I muttered something about Malaysia being way better than Indo, and we left. 


The beach was down a long set of steps carved into a cliff, and through a cleft in the rock - very Famous Five - and something of a surf beach, like most seem to be on Bali. Quite nice though, and decent for swimming.







From there we went to Garuda Wisnu Kencana, a "cultural park" noted for having a massive statue of Vishnu - and one of Garuda, though we didn't see that. According to Wikipedia, "Currently, the statue of Vishnu is 23 m high, although the original plan was for a 146 meter gold plated Vishnu riding Garuda on top of an 11 storey entertainment complex." Tasteful. 
Sadly we got there too late to have a go on the quad bikes or Segways offered at the park. Both vital elements of Balinese culture. 


What we did do was watch a kecak performance. I was keen to do this because a) it's more or less mandatory if you go to Bali and b) it had turned up a lot in my ethnomusicology classes at uni, particularly as an example of hocketting. Well, that and spurious tradition. 
CK reckoned it wasn't 'traditional' because it had pantomime elements, but given that kecak was invented by a Dutchman in the 1920s on the basis that the Balinese should be able to make some tourist cash out of their traditional music and dance, I don't know how important tradition is on this one. 


Below: kecak, and massive statue of Vishnu. 

Now, where was I?
Ah, yes.

What I did on my holidays
Day 5 - 26 April


Now, one good/annoying thing about our trip to Bali was that the in-laws had arranged a car and driver for us, for most of the duration of our stay. This was rather luxury, and our driver was a very nice guy by the name of Budi, but it did mean we felt compelled to be going somewhere and doing something all the time. On our next visit (and we have decided there shall be one), we intend to take the more relaxed option of hiring a scooter and pootling about rather more aimlessly. 


Budi was relentlessly polite, which was a little off-putting. Maybe we're just getting in the age bracket where you're old enough for that to happen. It will take a bit of getting used to. CK was mildly upset when I told her a market stallholder had called her "Ibu" ("Madam", more or less, but literally 'mother'). 


Anyway, , stopping off at a batik factor-cum-tourist trap on the way, we went to the Goa Gajah (Elephant Caves - named for Ganesha), notable for having both Hindu and Buddhist temples, at least until the Buddhist one collapsed in an earthquake:



Thence to a temple at Tampaksiring, where they were doing some renovations:


We went up then to Mount Agung, Bali's noted volcano. The mountains are, as you might expect, noticeably cooler than the coasts, and I slightly regretted my choice of shorts as we sat at an open balcony overlooking the mountain for an overpriced, not very good lunch.


Finally, we headed towards Ubud to check out some monkeys. They were reasonably interesting.



After that, we found a drum shop near the monkey forest, and CK insisted on buying one to practise for capoeira. It was a pretty good drum and she got a good price, but it was arguably more luggage than we needed.
We had dinner at popular Ubud duck restaurant Bebek Bengli. Over-rated, sadly. It might be better for lunchtimes, though, as the pitch-black fields beyond the restaurant gave the impression they might afford a good view if you could see them.
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