Jan 8

I forgot to mention some exciting events in the last post, so this can be jan7 night/jan8 morning:

Two friends from malaysia arrived, Elyssa and Kazin. We went to meet Jarnah and her friend Nadi for dinner at Dosa Corner. It was a good dinner, I ordered TWO dosas, and the second one was much better: much crisper, much hotter, more tastiness oozing out of every potato. I loved it. Then Jarnah casually mentions the fact that an MC from Jurassic 5 is playing at a club called 'Pontoon' at 8 P.M. I missed so many concerts in Edmonton, but this one made up for it.

It's with a heavy heart, and trembling fingers, that I give you the following news: I let the p-units borrow my digital camera, and my phone battery was so low, that it died before I even saw the face of "Akeela the MC". I know, so much diligent reporting with pictures and everything, and now, on the one night where it was more than just a convenience, I was deprived. Boo hoo, it was still a fun night.

When we first arrived, we joked around about dancing, but then met people we knew and conversed and met new friends, etc. Then Jarnah asked me to help her open up the dance floor, so we did - to some crazy blend of staying alive and I don't know what else. It was sweet. Pretty soon some of the drunk girls came on the floor and then everyone else followed. So Jarnah and I basked in our pride as dance-floor openers for the rest of the night.

After some wicked blends, and very fast cut/changes from an impressive Cambodian DJ (who's name I unfortunately missed), the night's performances began. It started with a hip-hop group called "clap your hands". Their set was ok. It was fun to hear the khmer rapping, and I joined in on some choruses. They had one slick little rb singer who serenaded some of the ladies in the front row - he was a solid performer, and added some class to their act. Later, when they were in-between sets, this giant black guy named Soljin(??) thanked me personally for opening up the dance floor. Seriously, he was like "I really wanted to dance, but you never want to be the first one, right? Thanks a lot man, respect" *hi-five transitioning to a grip, snap, and pound*

The next group up was amazing! A hip-hop group called "Tiny Tunes" started by a cambodian-american (Khmerican) who lived in south-central LA, learned the ways, and came back to start up a scene. He did it well. These kids could rap and break-dance so well - I loved every bit of it. To top it off, they had a female emcee from longbeach who rapped like it was the early 90's. I felt the khmer raps waaay more than I've been feeling any of the hip-hop coming out of the states recently. So I got a phone number for these guys and hope to get into the beat-boxing again. Ah, I'm charged with excitement. oh! and during their set, they made a stage out of the dance floor, and continued to break through a black-out! They started up a soul-clap, used the light from the dj's laptops to light the floor, and broke it down! I was beatboxing a bit, but the emcee seemed super-keen on the clap, and hey, so was I.

Then, Akeela's buddy "Hydrophonics" came on the dance-floor-circle-stage to perform, and he was good - very eminemish flow, solid lyricism, but the crowd wasn't feeling his stuff, so he tried a few songs, and gracefully thanked everyone and bowed out. Akeela came on finally, at like 12-12:30 (we'd been there for 4 hours already) and I got to hear a few verses before we had to go, because my guests were sleepy! So, I missed the majority of Akeela, but I felt like aI got a solid does of hip-hop for the low price of....free! ah, great night.


Today was a little more chill, but still cool. Avuth came over for breakfast, and brought Cambodian street noodles for us to eat. Cool new experience! Elyssa and Kazin had to go to Battambang today, so we went for a parting dinner with them, Jarnah, and some of her work colleagues. It was a cool place, and I find I'm developing a taste for friend morning glory and rice - and I still love stir fried mushrooms. Time was tight for Elyssa and Kazin to make the bus, as they still had to get their stuff from my place, Elyssa wanted some bread, so I offered to pick it up for her, and meet them back at my place.

What an ordeal! the people at lucky's supermarket wouldn't accept Elyssa's $10 bill because it was ugly. They seriously made me battle over the economic viability of the less-than-pristine note which I wished to give them. Also, quick aside from this aside, I don't know what's up with me lately, bu I feel like my sense of justice is is waaaay more active than it used to be. I'm becoming (at least in the last little bit) a lot less accepting of the unacceptable. So I insisted that they take my note, and after some hassle, they did. Yay, empty victory: I got to pay them 3 dollars.

Either way, bread got to Elyssa, Nadi got me the keys, and, after a quick change into work clothes, Nadi came with me to my school. He had some readings to work through, and I had some marking to do, so we found a cafe, ordered up, and settled down for a solid 2 hours of study and correction. He had to peace, and I had to teach, so we did the needful. I had fun teaching the class, they seemed to get into the activity more today than they have before...or maybe I'm still so hyped about the hip-hop that everything seems better.

I played chess against neissan again, some very good games, but, the record is now 7-1-1. It feels like the games are getting harder though, so maybe once he's back in the zone of strategic thought, I will find the numbers reversing.


acquisitions today: Settler's of catan, and a new 5th string for my dad's guitar.