A DIFFERENT THAI CULTURE
By: Iris P. Concepcion
I had really sworn even before my rite to full womanhood that I was the most creative, superior-minded writer within other people's radius of about 180.
I never did equate brilliance with anonymity, not by any footlong standard. I am realizing slowly that the underpinnings of my youthful cockiness does not hold any bearing in actual reality.
This is more than traversing the homophobe themes that had filled the media air over the years.
I am currently bombarded, in fact, with images and words that had been woven and lensed in Galilean time with its telescopic capture of the world. What benumbs me is this: they are products of people I would not have talked to if I am sniffing for a Soren Kierkeegard conversation.
My altered preferences are caved in from the Natural Beauty of more heavenly diametrics. The meadows and creeks and piquant glints. Superior rainbows mitigating the anxieties of the subconscious. The guy I had dismissed as a model-lazybug turned out to be a word wizard. I do not claim to be sitting around the almighty presence of Stan Lee but I am now feeling how it is to be a creation of Spiderman.
Thailand has yielded riches overshadowing the glamour, propaganda and media events very reminiscent of Manila's hoi-polloi.
Here, rocks in moss come before canvass shoes with thin guitars. These people have embraced the wilds in hale, robust forms and they had made pacts with rivers and lakes and windmills. These earthlings have truly gone out of their cubicles in search of Bigfoot in the mountains. On a personal note, I am touched ridiculously tearsies to have been loved by these people by loving and developing my community first. I would not mind the wounds, frizzed hair and chipped nails if I can see a loo inside a school that is functioning. Riding in graveled roads, they had discovered more about a world where I had been cocooned for years as opposed to their month-long "touring." Pampered with tons of good hunt, they could name the exact diving ranges at my nose's tip with me simply dropping my jaw in wonder. No wonder one of them abhorred my urinary pan and showed enough disparagement why I could remain so blase about domestic comfort.
This is the grit of Meryl Strip thrillers with her easy switches of American/Scandinavian accents coming to the fore. Even Mr. Lee had drawn his inspiration from an image of cutting the legs of his lady innamorata that could nail him a $100 writing contest reward in that little digest.
I shall not subsume my experiences with those who had just settled in and are just discovering this foray of visual wonderment. You had been invited with the safe assumption that you can make this world a little freer and more democratic in talent sharing. I hope that this is not in vain. I have a richer source now (experience-wise) if ever arrogance becomes my amulet for misjudged naivete.
These images are nuanced, smelling of barks and feels of drizzles. The Philippine press is catching fast with the onset of this outskirt plague: those leaves in hues, being stepped on for impromptu dives in a local, untouched river in vivid glistening shots.
I am recalling the visages of Life magazine with these contours of the film. California sun, girls in bikinis with golden skin, Sundance Kid. The whole lifestyle arrow is pointing at a way of living instead of catching a trend. It is personally exciting for me as it borders almost on a sacred ground.
I enjoin then these readers to feel the warmth and magic of these collaborative outpourings:
Jason Mraz's musical videos with their newly-megged Martin Scorsese film grains. Absolutely powerful videos. With compelling stories within songs. Click the Nerd In Pink, (with his pink shirt on with the word Otaku which is the Japanese term for Nerd) I'm Yours, Remedy and You and I. He has a video with the Sesame Street cast and had changed the I'm Yours lyrics with going outdoors to embrace the world and the earth and the sky.
And Vic Damone of course. His As Time Goes By stills with dolls astound. Shuffling of faces, accompanied by full orchestra. With a solid, firm, incredibly experienced voice.
You shall never disrespect music again after watching these Thai finds. They are American but are alarmingly Thai in spirit.
Just like the very surprised baby captured above.