Adventures In Thailand: Soar

Monday, December 3, 2012

Soar

Hi,

The rainy season is, by official proclamation, officially over but you couldn't tell by recent events. We've had a pretty wild weekend that just kept going.

Our 'Old School Friday' song was "God Bless the Child" as first recorded by Billie Holiday in 1941. There have been hundreds of covers of this song. In honor of the rain in California, here is your 'Easy Monday' song.

"I'm __ __ __ where the rain gets in, and stops my mind from wandering where it will go. I'm filling the cracks that ran through the door, and kept my mind from wandering where it will go. Hint: An action is being taken. One that I hope you don't have to take. It's those four lads again, from the invasion years.

Saturday we went to immigration at Central Plaza. It's really nice not having to drive to Mae Sai for our 90-day check in. We went from Central to the 'Tile Store', which is nothing like it was before. It has been transformed into a very beautiful, bright and spacious shopping experience. We saw a very cool bathtub, watched some young people decorate cakes, and had little chats with the family members who run the place. It will be interesting to go back on a regular day and just browse.

In the late afternoon it rained hard and then cleared out. That meant there could be a good 'Walking Street'. We don't go that often, but when it's High Season we like to think that some of the local merchants will benefit from the tourist traffic.

Sunday was our big 'jump into the unknown' day. We went to Khun Somluk's home north of town to make bamboo sculptures that would serve as lighting for a benefit. I had seen photos of these sculptures, but we had no idea what we were getting into or how to make one. We got to the compound early and saw piles of long bamboo poles. There were a few artists working on their pieces and it looked like everything was being held together with little pieces of wire. We didn't receive much instruction. Somluk told us that the students that were there would help us with the physical part, they just needed to see the concept. Sounds easy enough but just try it. We were very fortunate that one of the two students we had was very creative, and was a good problem solver. Lisa's original drawing morphed into many things before the end of the day. We had to figure out how to create a framework in bamboo that would, when covered with thin paper, give the impression of something. The one saving escape hatch was that it could be abstract and that was OK. Hmm, we actually ended up with a giant shark/sea creature. We got the frame finished near mid-afternoon, just before the rain came. It was lucky that we hadn't started gluing the paper to the frame. During the lunch break I played my guitar and sang 'direct from the back porch' to an audience of artists and students. It was the first time in a very long time and it felt good.

Life continues outside of art projects so Monday morning we had to go to Makro for supplies early, before going back to our 'shark'. When we got back to the work space there were lots of artists and student helpers hard at work. Some of the creations are very ingenious, some are huge, and some are very simple. This Friday night there will be a benefit evening of classical music and traditional dance with proceeds going to the Art Bridge Project. All of the bamboo sculptures will be the lighting for the yard. Lights will be placed inside each creation and the opaque paper will create a glowing 'thing' to illuminate the area. Our 'Kids' today were from a vocational college in town and they worked hard and smart. We just have the bottom of our piece to cover, plus some touching up in places. We have learned so much about working with bamboo that it almost makes me want to make something else. Probably won't, but it wouldn't feel so foreign to think about it now. We watched some of the kids working with a machete-type blade doing things like splitting bamboo poles down the middle, then making even smaller strips from that. They'd trim, shave, notch as if it were second nature. One of the old-timers wedged a blade in the fork of a tree and pushed, then pulled a long pole, splitting the bamboo down the middle. Very clever guy. It's been fun, but it's also been hard work and we're tired. Tomorrow should do it for us. The sky is clear so there's nothing to worry about.