Mine’s pork blood, please!
Lunch today was with M, the pianist/singer who I was put in touch with before I came out here. As I told him today, planning to meet up with someone, only to do it two months later, is very ‘London’. Who knew that life in sleepy Penang could be so similar?
M took me to a place in Georgetown which is a sort of souped-up (as it were) hawkers’ foodstall gathering. A cross between this place and a food court, I guess:
I ate great veggie curry, a pancake with peanuts, syrup and sweetcorn inside it - which tasted not unlike like Snickers, with sweetcorn - and ice kachang (sp?), a dessert which seems to consist of water, ice, milk and kidney beans (no, really) and which tastes of bubblegum. And which looks like this.
My favourite dish’s name - by which I mean favourite name, as opposed to favourite dish - in Malaysia remains this, however:
Although this comes a close second:
So that was lunch.
The gig tonight was… surprisingly low-key, in many ways. The band has an energy about them, and tonight it was… well, yes, low-key. Nothing very wrong with that; but I think I’ll do a different setlist for tomorrow night and make sure it’s pretty uptempo all the way.
The bar was half-full (as opposed to half-empty: that’s the kind of gal I am) and CC turned up with R, the jazz singer he performs with at another restaurant - who’s probably sixtysomething, and very glamorous, and sounds like Nancy Wilson. Not to talk to, you understand, but to hear sing (CC once played me a live recording of her at the Penang Jazz Festival). It was lovely to meet her, and a discussion on the Great American Songbook writers led to me lending her my book on the subject.
T2 and HH also came along tonight; as did T and C and E. As with me, they had picked E up at KL (OK, now this initial thing is getting *really* silly) and had driven her up here. It was really good to meet her, and she seems very nice. She quizzed me about how things were, and I filled her in, before she retired to bed; she’d barely slept on the flight. I told her about the benefits of remaining in jetlag, because it seamlessly becomes musicians’ hours, but she didn’t seem very convinced. And she also told me that she (and her boyfriend) had been reading my blog every day. So if you’re reading this back in Austria: gruess Gott! Sie ist sicher angekommen. (Can you tell my degree is in German?)
(The funny thing is, E even looks like me. Someone pointed her out, and there she was, a pale-skinned, dark pony-tailed, sweeping-fringed woman in the bar.)
As you can tell by the time this will be posted, I stayed up late after the gig. T had brought a couple of guys with him to do some filming; so they were shooting during the gig and afterwards interviewing me (on film) downstairs in the lobby. This ultimately led to being the place where we night owls hung out; and ultimately led to a big argument-slash-discussion on morals and rights and wrongs and, well… I won’t bore you with it here. Suffice it to say: I wish I’d had you with me, Peter or B or Rachel or Sarah, to back up my views against a vociferous Malaysian male ;-).
So now it’s 6am, I’ve just heard a Muslim prayer calling outside my window, and that must surely mean it’s time for bed. Not that I think that’s what they’re praying about… but hey, it works for me. Once again: night night, all.
March 30th, 2008 at 3.43am
P, S, B and I (that is me rather than someone called Ian or Isabelle masquerading under an initial) would have been there in force with relish (to add to the pig blood). We, not having been to Malaysia would have been brilliant. Or at least I (as in me) would have, being well versed in talking about something I (as in me) know little about. I am about to wake up, lunch, tea, supper and go to bed by prayer calls. The Andalucian flamenco singer accompanying Israel Galvan evoked many of these thoughts today. What’s good is that the Mosque outside our flat in Al Ayn uses live singers (rather than recorded ones) and sometimes they have the 13 year old trainee which leads to interesting sudden octave changes!
March 30th, 2008 at 6.18am
Is that Joe Cocker or Jarvis Cocker they are offering (both natives of sheffield btw)?
March 31st, 2008 at 9.26pm
Hi Andrea.
Posted my comments earlier in Jazz.com instead!
While writing this, I have yet to see a picture of you though I did see some hypertext link which should have you taken with others, which I will be visiting after this.
I live just 30 minutes from Ipoh, where T lives? I find the write-up rather mysterious, using initials instead of first names, at the least.
UK brings back fond memories as a student/trainee in 1973-81, 1984 to sell our house in Leeds which if kept till today, would have made me a millionaire in Ringgit. Recent visits were in summer of 2006 (Colchester) and summer of 2007 (Canterbury) for my daughters’ convocations. My eldest, son, lives in London working for a college.
I think as a Jazz singer, you have it all - travelling, meeting new people and so on, but in my opinion, very damaging to one’s emotional state unless by nature, you are footloose and fancyfree. Even then, you would have left a trail of broken hearts for those who fall in love easily!
All the best in your career!
April 1st, 2008 at 2.14am
hi KS - thanks for your comments. I just posted a reply to your other one, but to respond to this one, too:
the use of initials rather than names is something of a blogging etiquette. it also gives a degree of anonymity to the people I’m discussing, which seems only fair as this blg is obviously public and yet none of them agreed to being written about! :-). I suppose somewhere in my head, also, I wanted this to read something like a story, with you the readers fleshing out the characters in your head. hence not putting pictures of them in the posts, either.
funny, the British connection - I have fond memories of the place, too ;-). how did you find the blog, out of interest?
and you are right - as a jazz singer, I do have it all, and I feel hugely lucky, especially when i get to sing every night, as on this job. but as I wrote on the other post: I’ve never done the travelling-with-my-work thing before. and the life which you describe - constantly moving from place to place - really doesn’t appeal. so don’t worry… I’ll be fine!
thanks again for commenting, and for all your good wishes.
Andrea