Tag: The Chiang Rai Alternative Hour

The Chiang Rai Alternative Hour #39 – 23rd May 2020

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

Music from Pregnant Neck, The Fugs, 35mm Dreams, Tsushimamire, Skurge, Mudhoney, George Duke, Electric Light Orchestra, Lightning Bolt, Unknown, Thinking Fellers Union Local 282, Dennis Brown, Wild Youth, Vibrato Fetish, Spanish Dogs, beNt, Cockney Rejects and The Temptations.

Gratitude Journal

I am so happy and grateful for my shower in the morning, to cool and refresh, and prepare for the day.

To-do list

  • Continue video editing ✅
  • Enjoy Baew’s birthday party ✅
  • Record TCRAH if time
  • Find warm up video and then exercise
  • Read some more – I want to finish this book! ✅

I enjoyed learning the video editing software today. Amy was obviously in her monthly bad mood so it was good to be out of the way. She was baking cakes too. I find it hard to deal with her when she’s in these moods and even she knows that she is not herself.

She was happy when we got to Baew’s though and we started eating and drinking. I had to stop after a little bit though because I was tired and I ended up sleeping for a couple of hours!

Tomorrow – get up and go again.

The Chiang Rai Alternative Hour #38 – 16th May 2020

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

Music from Curse Ov Dialect and Kaigen, Social Distortion, Bannlyst, The Fall, Unknown, Sun City Girls, The Misunderstood, The Crime, Rancid, Eddy Current Suppression Ring, The Slaves, Billy Childish and Dan Melchior, Itch, My Dad is Dead, Heavy Vegetable, Refused and The Rattles.

Gratitude Journal

I am so happy and grateful that the men came today to look at our roof which blew away a couple of weeks ago. Hopefully, they can fix it. I don’t envy them, having to work on the roof in the blazing sun today.

The Chiang Rai Alternative Hour #37 – 9th May 2020

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

Music from Pile, uSSSy, Melt Banana, Patti Smith, Cleaning Woman, Dancebeach, Lilliput, Eric and The Smoke Ponies, Show Business Giants, Arab On Radar, Cutty’s Gym, Peter Black, Steve Harley and the Cockney Rebel, Unknown, Zachary Thrax, Obat Batuk, The Homosexuals and The Fall.

Gratitude Journal

I am so happy and grateful for the brownie I was able to eat for breakfast. It was yummy.

To-do list

  • Record new TCRAH and finish upload ✅
  • Check out Google Sheets for school ✅
  • Check out Microsoft Teams
  • Meditate ½

Both Amy and I got nicely relaxed yesterday on our cannabis brownies – I had to eat six of them to get a good effect though and felt so chocolate-sick by late evening. It was a very nice effect though and I actually sat and just listened to music which I haven’t really done for a long while. So, I was a little bit too relaxed last night to write anything!

I feel OK to go to work again tomorrow and really want to crack on with the lesson writing so I can get a good head start for when all the classes start again properly in July

The Chiang Rai Alternative Hour #35 – 18th April 2020

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

Music from Senyawa, Jamesy and Sean, Far East Family Band, Air Miami, Arcwelder, Flesh Narc, X_X, Deerhoof, Hidden Rifles, The Damned, Chepang, Lindsay Cooper, Tigermen, Fifty Foot Hose, Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros, F, Younger Brothers, Shadow Minstrels, Cypress Hill and Eddie and the Hot Rods.

Gratitude Journal

I am so happy and grateful for my computer. It enables me to do so many things. I wonder if I could live without it? Of course, I could but I don’t think I want to.

To-do list

  • More 1994ever ✅
  • Record TCRAH – spend time on this one ✅
  • Watch less TV today ✅
  • More drawing

Today is Tuesday. I haven’t been writing in here because I have gotten myself absorbed in some good TV and by the time I come to bed it’s too late to turn on the light and write.

I feel like things are coming together more in my room – nearly got all the CDs in their cases – after more than two years! Now I’m trying to get rid of the CDRs and thinking about all the DVDs I have and what to do with them.

I’m hoping to keep up with all the backlog of 1994ever and other bits and pieces of writing. It’s been enjoyable to go through all those, thinking about the past. It still feels like it happened to someone else. Even brief glimpses of mundane things pop into my head and it makes me think about what times and events that I’m part of now will pop into my mind in the future.

Life feels quite mundane and predictable though I also feel quite happy and content.

We start out loudly and go in circles, all things converging, we find an end to each day – 11th April 2020

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

High in the North in a land called Svithjod there is a mountain. It is a hundred miles long and a hundred miles high and once every thousand years a little bird comes to this mountain to sharpen its beak. When the mountain has thus been worn away a single day of eternity will have passed

Hendrik Willem Van Loon, The Story of Mankind

That little bird is our lives. Dwarfed by the magnificence of time.

We are small and insignificant. Not individual, not a group, nor a race. Not a society, a species or a thought from God. We are nothing.

The dinosaurs, the mammoths, the pharaohs, the sultans and kings, the inventors, the thinkers and philosophers, the builders, the masters and slaves, the writers, the historians, the celebrities, the murderers, the saints and the despots. You and me. Nothing.

What will you do with this information?

Our floating houses on molten granite
Our liquid planet, it is a home for us all
I’m firmly planted, my earth is solid
I feel a presence but there is nothing at all
I wanted something, down here is something
It’s really something but there is nothing at all

‘Slowly Melting’ by Nomeansno

The Chiang Rai Alternative Hour #34

Music from Tipographica, Keukhot, Chui Wan, 400 Blows, Lifter Puller, Mazaj, Geronimo, Unknown, Pell Mell, Opal, Child Bite and Debile Menthol.

Gratitude Journal

I am so happy and grateful for the space we have in our house and garden. We can move furniture around and reinvent ourselves, change our views.

To-do list

  • Talk to George ✅
  • Record TCRAH
  • One more lesson plan
  • Record more 1994ever for blog ✅
  • Write a short blog post ✅

Almost didn’t make it out to my room but somehow managed to motivate myself. I am slowly completing things, whether it is sorting out bits and pieces from my past, things I’d intended to do for a long time, reading books, watching movies and TV series, sorting out my CDs etc. So at least I have a sense of achievement.

I’m reminded of when I was about 10 or 11 years old and used to ‘race’ my Matchbox car collection and keep tables of which was fastest and kept all sorts of statistics about them. I was already organising my mind, putting things in order, sleeping everything straight.

I can pinpoint other instances of this at various times during my youth actually. Looking through old diaries has triggered some deep recollections which is interesting. I’m testing myself to see what else is hidden away in there.

The Chiang Rai Alternative Hour #32 and #33 – 4th April 2020

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

Music from Girolamo Ugolini, Dragibus, Giant Sand, The Majic Ship, Bellini, Psychedelic Furs, The Sugar Shoppe, Sax Ruins, Beefeater, The Show Business Giants, The Hoax, Lindsay Cooper, The Afterglow, Amaxonas, Delroy Wilson, Dag Nasty, David Bowie, Christian Fitness, Beekeeper, Jackie Wilson and Negazione.

Music from Here and Now, Bob Drake, Orthrelm, Per Purpose, 20 Minute Loop, Shinki Chen, Tuxedomoon, Smog, POX, Cheetah Chrome Motherfuckers, The Move, The Who, Unsane, Samla Mammas Manna, Unwound, Bob Dylan and Retox.

Gratitude Journal

I am so happy and grateful for these cushions where I rest my head on these lazy days.

We got that attitude! – 24th March 2020

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

I am so happy and grateful to be motivated to help Amy this morning. We did an hour cleaning the terrace and it was fun.

24th Mar 2023 – A disadvantage of having a relatively big house and garden is the time to maintain and clean it. When I moved to Australia and started doing more adult things (!), Bronwyn and I lived first in an apartment before relocating for work to a house with a garden. We thought that would be great – so much space to do with what we wanted. I soon discovered that that space did what it wanted with us.
As we were renting there was no real connection with space that made me what to spend too much time keeping it together.
Even now I would rather pay someone to do our garden work. I wonder how much of a step it would be for me to hire a cleaner for indoors? Somehow I just can’t imagine that unless I was incapacitated. Even considering this kind of thing is a privilege I am thankful for.

You are a human-in-training and that making mistakes and having slips of integrity and mediocre moments are a part of life, not unforgivable sins.

Dan Millman

To-do list

  • Record new TCRAH first thing ✅
  • Sort some CDs
  • Write one lesson ✅

Spent some time actually doing things today. The days go quickly either way. A few weeks ago I was motivating myself with challenges and now I feel, with more time on my hands, less challenged and therefore less motivated.

I like this feeling because I may get less done but what does it really matter? I had less time before because I was working so it was important to allocate time to getting other things done. Work can be rewarding but starting to feel unnecessary. Luckily, I’m in a position financially where it’s not a big issue.

27th Jun 2024 – I don’t know exactly how I was feeling when I wrote this because I feel almost the opposite now. I don’t enjoy not having anything in particular to do. I’m good at filling my time but feel much more motivated when time is limited.

The Chiang Rai Alternative Hour #30 – 21st March 2020

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

Music from Unknown Gender, Chaser, Vibrators, Soul Junk, They Might Be Giants, Pfaff, Bob Drake, The Dils, Y.U.P., King Crimson, The Monkees, Universal Totem Orchestra, Meat Puppets, The Who, Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band, Great Plains, The Wipers and Etron Fou Leloublan.

Gratitude Journal

I am so happy and grateful that our house is a paradise that I can stay there all day, every day.

To-do list

  • Find more topics and lessons
  • Cancel anniversary booking ✅

Lazy and happy day again – but I have a weird feeling of dread and panic – not overpowering – I guess it is just the uncertainty of the current pandemic situation. In fact, if I did get sick it is unlikely to be a critical problem for me personally. It’s just the general hysteria around and I think it’s slowly seeping into me. It’s making me think twice about even working again next semester. That could just be my holiday mood and lack of motivation though.