St Patrick’s Day

I went to the UN Irish pub for St. Patrick’s day celebrations and realy enjoyed it even though it seemed that there were actually rather a lot of Scottish songs being played. Who cares !! It was all great fun and a good crowd made the most of it.  Not my best video I know but…well it was St Ptrick’s Day and I was joining in !!!

Exhibition of Tribal music

Just back from Victoria Vorreiter’s exhibition including instruments, clothing and multi media stations at the Chiang Mai Arts and Culture Center behind the 3 king’s monument Chaing Mai.
In a word …GO!!! This is a well presented, dynamic insight into the lives of several of the tribal communities that are roughly centered on the Golden Triangle. Divided by borders, these people of Thailand, Burma, Laos, Vietnam and Khunming, China,  are united by songs and ceremonies that have a history stretching  far beyond the time of national division that we see now.
The exhibition will run for 3 months so no excuse not to make time to enjoy immersing yourself in this space that contains such a rich and evocative treasure of instruments, sounds and visions. More info at www.tribalmusicasia.com.

Flute Concert

Really enjoyed the Chiang Mai Flute Club concert on Saturday. It was well attended and we enjoyed music that included the full choir of 10 flutes as well as duets and other groups.
A highlight for me was witnessing two unusual flutes, tenor and alto I believe. These two made haunting sounds in the lower register and lent a great deal of depth to the overall sound of the complete choir.
You can contact the club at chiangmaiflutes@gmail.com or phone 053 820464 

Here is a sample and you will find a total of 7 pieces available on the media player on the Chiang Mai Eye website, www.chiangmaieye.com. 

Quartet op. 27, First movement, Allegro 

Chiang Mai Flute Club – He Never Sleeps 

The full choir of flutes

Please feel free to leave your comments !!!!

Flute concert

On the 30th January there will be a concert by The Chiang Mai Flute Club entitled “A choir of flutes”.
This is another in a series of very successful concerts performed by this group of flute enthusiasts…the previous ones have all been sellouts so you better book your place.

The venue is the Amora Taepae Hotel opposite Tae Pae Gate and the concert starts at 7:30 PM. Tickets are 200 baht (100 baht for students) and you can arrange your tickets via chiangmaiflutes@gmail.com or phone 081-9923360 or 089-0628912.
Mozart, Handel and Dvorak pieces will be performed and there will be some other more modern musical styles on show as well.
Yet another demonstration of the vibrant life of Chiang Mai.

Galen Garwood’s Panom

Just back from the premier of Galen’s latest film ‘Panom cousin to the clouds’. Truly excellent film… an hour of audio visual stimulation that has you calmly and profoundly learning the lesson of man’s abuse of the elephant over time and never more so than now. Bad enough to turn these intelligent family orientated giants into tractors and cranes but how sick that they are now entertainers for the tourist and the zoo and circus goers.
I liked the fact that I never felt that I was being preached to and the film had many moments when the viewer had time to reflect and actually make their own minds up.
Thanks Galen.

Plenty of people in the audience many from artistic backgrounds.  Alex Boyesen from Digital Mixes had a part to play in the making of the film and is a reminder of how rich in talented people the Chiang Mai community is.  Alex has an audio video studio here for outsourced media as well as working on local projects.

I invite you to leave your comments.

Exhibition of Tribal Music

This evening off to the Chiang Mai University Art Centre Theatre to witness the world premier of Galen Garwood’s film about elephants and humans called ‘Panom cousin to the clouds’.
The show starts at 7:00 PM and includes a draw for one of his works of art. Galen is a wonderful artist.

Just getting to hear about a new exhibition to be presented by Victoria Vorreiter:

Songs of Memory:
Traditional Music of the Golden Triangle

Multimedia Museum Exhibition

Tribal Wisdom Symposium:
Sharing and Preserving Traditional Knowledge

at the Chiang Mai Arts and Cultural Centre
12 February – 31 April 2010

www.tribalmusicasia.com

Victoria had a great exhibition running earlier this year at the Jim Thompson Art Center in Bangkok and word is that this is set to be even better as there will be symposium which promises great insights into the diferrent tribal groups that this exhibition concentrates on.

more news as I get it ……Please do leave comments!!!

Thai Birthday

Yesterday was my wife’s birthday. In the west this would be celebrated by giving (and expecting) gifts and being taken out for a nice meal. Here in Thailand my Buddhist partner celebrated by feeding the 166 residents of a home for unfortunate people aged from 16 to ?? who not only have some mental problems but also no family or families that do not support them. We drove north for around an hour to get there and took our friends Cherry, Johnathan and Beryl as well as my sister-in-law and brother-in-law and distributed the “Cow mun gai” (Chicken and rice with soup), chocolate biscuits, fresh oranges, juices and water after Cherry entertained for 40 minutes accompanying here fab voice with the guitar. 

Cherry Entertains

 

In past years we have always supported a nearby home for the elderly but the local monk suggested to Tong that this year she would do well to go to this new place because hardly anyone supported them. 

Tong and Cherry

 

I guess this is all part of making merit in this life as a preparation for the next. Whatever the reason it was inspiring to take part and see the obvious pleasure our visit brought to these happy though somewhat deprived people. 

Happy Diners

 

In the evening my wife prepared a buffet for the friends, family and relatives that support us in our lives at The Garden, our guesthouse/restaurant business.
All a bit different from a western birthday.

The Start

You can see Chiang Mai live at www.chiangmaieye.com. Follow the prompts to download plugins to get the live webcam working. You have to use internet explorer at the moment. I am working on solving these problems. The camera is looking due west across the Ping river to Doi Suteph.

Also on chiangmaieye.com there is a player in which I will show videos from Chiang Mai. At the moment I am featuring a luxury house for sale  just north of Chiang Mai, an artist that spends some time here Galen Garwood and a collage of men’s jewellery that is made here for distribution worldwide.

On 15th January at The Chiang Mai University Arts Theater there will be a showing of Galen’s film about elephants and their relationship with humans. 7:00PM…I’ll be there.

In my blog I will keep introducing you to things I get to hear about living and working here in Chiang Mai. I am manager of The Garden guesthouse if you’re looking for somewhere to stay.

Main news today….IT RAINED…It is virtually unheard of to have rain here in January. Even though it has freshened the air and the plants, I  hope it is a one off.

More news to come.