Hello to All Sentient Beings in the Digital Universe:

Tomiyo and I are in Kathmandu for another 5 days before heading back to India until the end of May.  This trip has been rough, after catching colds in India in January and shuttling them back and forth to each other ever since then like shuttlecocks in a badminton tournament.  We love ceiling fans and hate AC - let's put it that way.  Most of the hotels have AC with windows which can't be opened, so we suffer in silence (sometimes!)

Reaching behind her for something, Tomiyo somehow twisted her left arm in cold New Delhi in January and it has been causing her pain in her shoulder and arm ever since.  Our weaver friend Carol Cassidy, had her therapist in Laos work on Tomiyo for a couple of days, with instant relief, so  we went to Bangkok Hospital where her problem was diagnosed as a pinched nerve in the shoulder and/or neck.  She had some re-hab there over the course of 2 days, but the current net result is she cannot sleep at night.  When we go back to India, an MRI is in the cards.  I also got my lower back out of joint somehow (hauling suitcases?), got 'stretched' on a machine at Bangkok Hospital, and will investigate 'Hang-Up' when I get back to the states (an upside down traction machine for home use).  'What a drag it is getting old' ('Mother's Little Helper' by the Rollingstones).

Also in the cards for India is the final stage of my lower jaw teeth implants.  Sofar, no pain or problems.  We shall see what happens when the dentist opens up the 4 female titanium posts buried beneath my gums to attach the male counterparts and teeth.  The system will either be attached for life, or float on a rubber cushion which gets changed once a year - kinda like my own personal 'I-Pad'.  I wonder if the new installation will pick up the Internet on Wi-Fi?.  Ain't modern life and technology exciting?

In the meantime, I have not been sending out observations or even taking pictures because... I don't feel like it.  Asia is a mess of corruption and problems and you hear stories from locals that make one feel like runnning and hiding or jumping off a cliff in the Himalayas - kinda like living in the US!  Right now the 'reds' are going crazy in Bangkok and the worst violence took place on Khao-San Road where we always stay.  Thank Dog we got out of Memphis in time!  This is the second year in a row we have had to dodge a Thai government military onslaught to get out of Bangkok to the airport.  We were right in the midst of it all a week ago in downtown Bangkok and the mood was festive and unthreatening, with old ladies, children, and tourists walking around giving each other the hi-5. The Thai 'reds' are definitely NOT your tea-party crowd!  Through television and the Web, they even know about Sarah Palin around here, so I don't even have to make comments myself.  Scary Sarry!  With her new leather costume, just put a little mustache on her and you got a whole package.

Then there is Nepal, where China and India are both playing games - injecting money, illegal immigrants and with poor little Nepal stuck between a rock and a hard place.  Everywhere in southeast Asia, there are double the number of vehicles and motorcycles on the street as our trip last year - which makes walking on the street very hazardous to one's health - especially with no road repair for the last 20 years!  We take cabs, scooters, and rickshaws to provide a thin wall of protection.

On the other hand, there are many wonderful people in these parts of the world (the 'reds' in Thailand are actually poor farmers who have gotten a taste for democracy and they will not be denied).  We are working with NGO's and others who are trying to help poor women, mine victims, etc. - even if it is on a small scale some lives are being changed.

Sometimes I think it is better to be an artist living in one's own dream world and ignore outside reality - which definitely hurts the eyes, ear and brain.  As Mondrian said when asked as to why he would never walk thru the Bois de Boulange in Paris wearing a white suit, he said that he was afraid that 'reflections of the sun off the grass' would stain his clothes.  Such is the artist's view of reality.  Sounds good to me.

Looking at the US from afar, the action seems to be in Asia. Everyone is under 25 years old and on the run.  Your average sleepy mainstreet town in the US would not believe the street activity and the fantastic buildings going up in Bangkok, Phnom Penh, Vientiane, etc. in so-called 'backward, 3rd world countries'.  Unfortunately, Malthusian predictions about population are in full swing, with water expected to diminish, all the rivers down about 66% due to global warming and Chinese dams upstream. It is predicted that bottled water prices are expected to double in the next year, world wide.

We are trying to figure out the best corner to hide in this Capitalist/Bolsheviki Babylon called the modern world.  Au reservoir!