Lundi, le 29 juin 2009

Although there was bright color in the paintings, they exhibited an effigy of somberness in lust. Such was the contrast of the color, the sky hued a bloody blue waiting for the moon to devour its stars. The music played in the painting, an opera singer belting her chords to shatter glass. He crouched on his knees starch naked looking towards his unknown. His temples oozed a trickle of redness, gently flowing down. He bore the expression of despair and loss. His mind was lost in thoughts of the lower heart of the woman. His left hand crushed the petals of a white tulip. A wooden bench lay empty under the starless sky. A corn field of gold spread its wings; white butterflies swam into his soul. He lay still not knowing, one thought in recurrence, We, The Living.

Finding Neverland

1984, my mom’s cousins walked into our 3rd floor apartment in the Boulevard Mohammed V of Casablanca, after finishing their day’s work at their respective shops. They did not visit us often, this was a rare occurrence. They had in their hand a video cassette. They handed it to my father, told him to play it, and said it was something incredible. They said there was this new guy who danced like crazy and his songs were just out of this world. My dad played the video cassette, and as a 6 year old, this is my first memory of pop music. Michael Jackson did the moon walk.

Michael Jackson is the reason I love music.

Growing up, I attempted the moonwalk whenever I was told, whenever there was music playing, whenever I could, my shyness getting the better of me. I wanted the famous red jacket that he wore. I even read Jackson 5 comics.

I think Billie Jean is one of the greatest songs of all time. Michael Jackson revolutionized Music Television.

Maybe this world and society was not made for a person like Michael Jackson. He has always showed he lives in a different world. Maybe, that’s why he was such a solitary or even maybe a lonely man, as the media claims. Maybe he truly did believe in an ideal beautiful world with fairies. Or maybe, he did do the things they said he did to children. Or maybe, the parents of the children just took advantage of their child’s proximity to a very rich man.

Whatever it may be, “wacko Jacko”, skin diseased Michael Jackson, was truly a musical genius.

Maybe this is another one of his stunts, and he’s watching the whole world shocked in a giant TV screen somewhere in the world and wondering if he’ll be able to surpass Elvis Presley as an icon.

Or maybe, Peter Pan has finally found Neverland.

Just being...

The penguin swam beneath the ice and emerged on the other side
It surged towards the surface of the sea
And plunged back within the water
And, it gobbled down and puffed out bubble after bubble
It turned in circles around itself
And swayed away from side to side
The penguin swam, and the universe stood still to watch
The penguin swim

Jeudi 4 juin 2009

The perceptions of things we see.

6 billion perceptions, probably in a way similar but at the same time all too different, of every thing that is existing or we think exists.

Connect with a song and everything in the world makes sense again. To be ridiculed by a person and the whole world is wrong. Our own cocoon of self lived perceived past, present and probable future life. Trying to make sense of my existence at all times. Forgetting to make sense and living the experience. Getting affected by the experience. Reliving the experience after it has passed. Projecting the future.

I think I am an unknown element trapped within a body incorporating various functions that make up the flesh and the mind. A complex state-of-the-art machine. A soul.

Silence conquers the heart. Silence fills the heart with unknown incomprehensible clarity of things as they are. Silence can integrate all words and no words. Silence can mean whatever you want it to mean. You give it a feeling, and it can mean something absolutely different than what it meant a moment prior to your new silence. Silence flows. Silence is flexible. Silence is broken by words. Silence is broken by thoughts. Silence is broken by noise. Silence can be broken by silence. And yet, you can find silence while speaking. Silence while listening. Silence in silence. Silence is the soul. My soul shouts its silence, but I hear it not. Sometimes, I get a glimpse of it. Then, more than a thousands rays of suns shine within me, near the temple of my heart. And my heart pumps hard and a feeling is created. We create millions of feelings everyday. We create thoughts, feelings, words, actions everyday. Is silence devoid of all this? Then, you cannot give silence a feeling. Or can silence coexist?

Silence has the answers. The answer is nothing.

Why am I looking for an answer?

Last night in Khao San Road, Bangkok

LE LAO

I have not lost it. I can still be seduced.
I was not touched by either Thailand or Malaysia.
Lao touched me.

Pictures of Laos.

The concept of Tubing in “the” Vang Vieng

Vang Vieng is a concept. A concept made into a town. A cluster of bars that plague a small block consisting of the town center play the series “Friends” almost 24 hours per day. One episode after the next. You can also order a “happy” meal (nothing to do with McDonalds).

Its most famous concept is however its tubing experience. 6 bars spread over 50 meters and separated by the Mekong River host every single day hundreds of hippies at around 1pm. Everyone goes into the first bar where they are usually mellow, sunbathe, drink while watching acrobatics from enthusiasts jumping into the river from a rope dangling in a tree. Slowly, people start moving to the second bar where the concept of tubing is introduced. To get to the second bar, you use a tube to float down the river where the current pushes you towards the next bar, where helpers are waiting to pull you up. At the second bar, after a couple of drinks, people have loosened up and they are usually no longer sitting but mostly standing and swaying to the music. And on we go to the next bar. At the third bar, everyone is dancing, intoxicated, drunk, happy, hugging everyone around and expressing their love for this world and its people. Of course, the more drunk, the more tubing gets difficult, but in a way, i guess also more fun.

In the words of a hippy “The river is best when on mushrooms!”

In the 4th bar, there is a lot of making out. People rarely make it to the 5th or 6th bar. I didn’t.

I felt like I got a glimpse of what it might have been like in the 60s.

Although not my kind of thing, it was very interesting to see the tubing experience.

But, don’t leave your friends drunk and alone. I had to pick up a drunk guy from the streets and drop him at his hotel and had to give up my bed for a drunk girl. And sometimes, these "people loving hippies" do not treat the Laotians with respect. They insult them.

Sometimes, I fail to come to grip with the selfishness of people, but, at the same time, there is kindness right on the other side.

The trail of butterflies towards Pougham

Have you ever cycled and a trail of white butterflies fly right towards your front wheel and then back to your rear wheel and continue playing on towards the front again? And, they continue to do this for more than 3 minutes?

And imagine this, your surroundings are lush green limestone hills, the road is rugged brown, and the place you’re going to is a blue lagoon.

Does Paradise exist?

You can even do volunteer work there.

I’ll race you to that place!

Beer and pineapple in Luang Prabang

Sweet new encounters.

It usually starts with a where are you from and how long and where have you been traveling, and it can lead to a long conversation without ever knowing each other’s name.

I was sitting in a tuk-tuk going from the bus station of Luang Prabang to the town center when she asked me “Are you traveling alone?”

Camilla and Sharon had met in the bus and had connected immediately.

Sharon, a 65 year old Canadian, has been traveling for 10 years, and would like to travel until she’s finally ready to die in Guadalajara, Mexico, her favorite city in the world. She usually only thinks to the extent of her next day in life, whether she will go around the town she’s visiting, spend the day reading, walking, being a vegetable or a radish, or move on to the next destination.

Camilla, 21 year old Danish, will have travelled for 5 months when she completes her adventure and inspires to travel and explore the whole world. An elderly colleague once told her “you can always study; go on and travel now”. With a heart as big as a mountain and inquisitive to learn from every body she meets, it is no wonder that people are drawn towards her.

When she asked me that question in the tuk-tuk, I didn’t know that I would be traveling with both of them for the next one week.

Besides the market, lying in wooden cots on the streets, with people passing by or sitting or smiling, the night market and its vendors unfolding, a book in our hands, the sun setting, good company, and the charming little town of Luang Prabang and its people, I experienced a moment of delirium happiness.

Beer and pineapple in Luang Prabang.