In Bangkok now. Will be away from tomorrow till 1 June on a 10 day Vipassana Meditation course at Dhamma Kamala. Unfortunately, will have to miss Sonny Rollins performing at the Esplanade on 28 May 08. Fortunately, YS is also in Bangkok so I get to stay with him for free for one night.

Other belated records:

– Bought a jazz semi-hollow guitar which I was very happy with: a Cort Joe Beck model. – Did a 3-day Vipassana meditation course at Camp Christine in late April. – Finished reading Karen Armstrong’s Muhammad and have started on Philip Zimbardo’s “The Lucifer Effect“. – Watched “Hustle and Flow” on DVD during the last day of Feb and first day of Mar 08 . My favourite movie ever. Complex movie about the lowest of the low (a male pimp who prostitutes his partners) being redeemed with the love of a woman, dream, struggles, creativity. One of the main themes in the story is about how a man needs woman who believes in them, supports and shares their dreams. The lead character is a very unsavoury guy and there are scenes of exploitation that would make you hate the lead character but in the end the movie still makes you like the guy enough. It’s really an interestingly ambiguous movie. – Attended the Singapore International Guitar Festival last year and saw my friend CC get third prize in the competition. The following quote (from a musician colleague) is taken totally out of context but it still applies to my friend’s showing at the Guitar Festival. Performance is 65% of what you play at home. – Last year’s reservist saw me sleeping in the back of truck with more than twenty soldiers. – A cancelled trip to Phuket and Beijing. – Got my new Honda Jazz off-peak car last Fri, on 16 May 08. – Downloaded Jimmy Bruno’s Maplewood Avenue. The best album I’ve heard this year. I don’t normally like all the songs in an album or sit through an entire album. But in this case, it was easy to do both. I highly recommend it. Buy it here. See also an awesome video of Jimmy Bruno playing with Joe Beck here. – Finally checked out the Modern Jazz Quarter after reading about them from Kenneth Wood’s blog (if I don’t recall wrongly) one or two years ago. I’m glad I did cos I love MJQ. Also listened to Mike Stern’s “Who Let the Dogs Out” at the Esplanade Library recently. Love it. Modern electric swing!