Princess Di, Mother Teresa and Price William

Bank in 1980 I remember my sister's excitement to see the Royal wedding - at that time it was Princess Di to Prince Charles - we were up at 5:00 am to have a look at the greatest event of that year!

Much like today's Royal Wedding of Prince William to Kate - everyone wanted to see Princess Di's wedding dress - at that time she did not disappoint. She was such a beautiful person.

I remember seeing Princess Di on TV and her humility towards the children of Africa and AIDS victims - she had a heart that was pure gold!

I also remember her death within the same week as Mother Teresea...and also that classic photo of her with the Saint.

Through the years we have seen Princess Di - really a champion of the common people, grow with her two boys - William and Harry.

On this day - may God bless Price William and Kate on their life together!

Anyways peeps - TTYL!

Patti Smith - Just Kids

"In the war of magic and religion, is magic the ultimate victor? Perhaps priest and magician were once one, but the priest learning humility in the face of God, discarded the spell for prayer".

The above is from the book "Just Kids" by "Patti Smith" - a memoire written by Patti about her relationship with Robert Maplethorpe.

The book is pure poetry, it's so beautifully written and it's one of the few books that I am enjoying reading because of how Patti narrates the story in pure poetry, poise and class - very few books are written in this way - and it's a pleasure to read!

The book and story is a passage of time through the corridor of the last fifty or so years in rock. The story describes how Patti comes across John Coltrane's funeral whilst she is roaming the streets of NYC, her meeting of Janis Joplin, Jimmy Hendrix, Grace Slick, The Velvet Underground - just to name a few.

It describes a time in NYC where poetry and art paints a unique world in NYC which makes this city the Paris of America....Patti and Robert struggle to find and keep their longing for beauty in art, poetry and music.

The book also is a coming of age - Robert had struggled for an amazingly long time with his homosexuality and despite this Patti stood by him through thick and thin - a love story where there is purity, commitment and loyalty.

This book is a NY times bestseller and won the Nonfiction Award in 2010!

Anyways peeps if you can read this memoire of Patti please do - I'm a huge fan of hers and I've blogged about her and her inspiration to me. Here's a post I did entitled "Godmother of Punk" on Ms Smith!

TTYL cuties!

Trapped - The Boss

Well folks - it's Easter Monday. I'm home chillin', taking it easy before my yoga class. I have this song on my mind and thought I'd share it with you....

I've looked for this song for a long time on iTunes and it wasn't available but I recently got it from a fellow blogger and boy was I happy. It was 1985 or thereabouts when I heard this song, and the tune has been stuck in my mind for 25 plus years.

Despite it hitting #1 on the Rock Charts I have never heard it on rock radio since....it's from "The Boss" and it's a remake of an old Jimmy Cliff song called "Trapped".

Bruce Springsteen - Trapped (for Macs - right click and download)!

Of course I'm a huge fan of Bruce - I saw him live way too long ago and I need to see him again. I also voted Bruce as one of the "Sexiest Men in Rock" today - see link here - he was #7!)

Hope you enjoy!

Good Friday in the Amazon

I did a post yesterday on my trip to the Amazon villages in Peru.

Two years ago I was their for the Easter holidays. We stayed in a village that was behind God's back - it was on the river bank of the Amazon and it was about a 4 hour sail up the Amazon from our point of departure.

This town had no power or water. It was our plan to only use wet wipes and not take any showers until we were back in Iquitos, as we feared getting an infection from these waters which were used to do everything from bathe, wash dirty dishes and off course do their personal business in there.

However, after my 1st day without a shower and the beating of that hot jungle sun on my body, I just gave in and took my baths in the beautiful, dark Amazon water - luckily I got no infection. But the girls actually held on without a bath until we reached the comforts of a modern hotel.

Anywho's - on Good Friday after a tough day of work that started with a departure at around 5:00 am - we got back to our small village and myself and two of the organisers of the missionary trip had gone to a Church service.

Our neighbours 

The Church was actually a wooden house without any power and we had service by candlelight. I'm not sure if this is true or not, but some of the residents said that the night before they all heard this loud trumpet sound coming from the sky....they said they all saw an angel blowing a trumpet and they fell to their knees, believing it was a sign from Heaven.

I'm not sure if to believe this - but these people have a strong faith and no TV to influence them - it's a humble, hard life with no materialities. They build boats from the trees around....they cook and bathe with water from the Amazon....I believe them - they were sincere folks!

Kids at the one of the villages

Anyways peeps that was how I spent a Good Friday some time ago and it was one of the most memorable!.

Here's a couple more pics to share:

What a cute kid! This kid is on a make shift canoe that they use to sail up and down on the Amazon!

More people from along the Amazon

Anyways peeps - TTYL!

Amazon in Peru

Well today is Good Friday - one of the most important days in the Christian calendar - if not the most important day. Two years ago, on Good Friday, I was on a dental missionary trip to the wild Amazon of Peru.

To get there it was a crazy trip involving planes, buses, barges and a hell of a sore butt from all that travel. First we got to Miami and our flight left at midnight to Lima, Peru (about 6 hours). Then we had a connecting flight to Iquitos, then on arrival in Iquitos, we had a 2.5 hour drive in the disaster of a bus:

This is the bus which we were on for a two and a half hour drive to some small town in Iquitos. It was about 15 of us crammed in, with luggage seeping out of everywhere. We spent the night in the dingiest of places....man was it bad. It smelled, and it was so umcomfortable and hot. I hated taking a shower in that place - it was dirty and smelly.

This is the town where we spent the night in that dingy hotel, and from here we set sail to Amazonia.

Once we got through the night, we had a 4 hour sail up the Amazon to our destination - Lupina House (it was about USD$ 6 per night).

That's me and two of the dental assistants outside of Lupina. We were all dressed for our 1st day of work. From here it was like a 2 hour further sail up the Amazon to our 1st village.

Here's some pics of us at work:

I look so much darker here because I was so burnt from the heat - and I could not shave my head as we had no power at Lupina!

Here's some random shots that I like:

This picture is priceless!

This one's pretty cool too!

Anyways peeps - I'll post a short story on Good Friday whilst I was in Iquitos, Peru!

Have a safe Good Friday! - TTYL!

Put Them in the Iron Maiden Part II

Well cuties, I'm off to Fort Lauderdale tomorrow to see Classic 80's hard rock legends.....Iron Maiden!

Growing up I've always been a fan of this band's music and their artistic mascot "Eddie". My brother had gotten the first album of the band which featured "Phantom of the Opera" - a song that's mastery in it's own right. The song was also played in a Lucozade commercial which featured British runner Daley Thompson back in 1985.

When we got "The Number of the Beast" I was torn between my religion nature and the dark side that the name of this album represented. But the music won out. The songs are complex, intricate and the musicianship of bassist Steve Harris's baseline in sync with the guitars of Dave Murray and Adrian Smith, provides a beautiful symphony of metal!

I lost track and interest of this band sometime in the late 80's as I became a new waver! But I still continued to be a rocker at heart with my crew cut, ripped jeans and denim jacket.....man I wish I had pics to show....the 80's so rocked!

I've blogged several times about Iron Maiden, so here's some links:

- Here's Part I (here);
- Here's the Iron Maiden Roadee I met (here);
- And Tampa and Iron Maiden (here)

Anyways peeps I hope I get some good pics...but I do have crappy seats!

Touch Me Now.....Ah Yeah Baby!

Does anyone remember this video....Jeez, I remember me and my sister sitting up and looking at Night Tracks on WTBS in the wee hours of the morning (from around midnite to 4:00 am) every weekend....we had our faves and we looked forward to it...my sis liked Bronski Beat, Howard Jones, Nik Kershaw. I looked forward to The Cult, The The, Gene Loves Jezebel and of course this gem of a video from Samantha Fox....

I loved that art in the music video when that cool punk dude who looks like Hwarf Jones comes on stage and dances quite provocativey with Ms Fox!

Ah yes - Night Tracks introduced me to some of the newer, obscure bands - like "The Bolshoi" *which tool iTunes long enough to get their material on), "Flesh for LuLu (See here)"....just to name a few. These bands were the modern rock gems of the time, and were not really played on main stream radio.

Also, if you are British you might remember Samantha Fox was a famous Page 3 girl for "The Sun" tabloid....that infamous page that bore a topless hottie that might have been a prelude to stardom. Samantha was one of those girls, and when I couldn't figure out straight from bent, I had a massive poster of her topless in all her glory - and trust me my friend - glory it was.

I thought it might have been to risque for my parents, so I ended up covering her boobs with a "Duran Duran" centerfold....ah yes! At that time I was just happy about music and the artists....my sexuality had no place in there or else I might have given this 80's, blonde, bombshell a complete miss :)

Anyways peeps - TTYL and thanks for stopping by!

Weekend Past with United Nations

Here's a few pics from this past weekend, with a nice twist of United Nations:

It was a great birthday bash on Saturday for Vince, Kim, another Kim and Bruce - all four celebrated their April birthdays in one bash - Kim prepared us an authentic Vietnamese meal - ummmm! So good! We were almost like United Nations - Vince is from Egypt, Kim from Vietnam and Kim and Bruce from Canada.

My friend Adi - brunch on Sunday out at the Harbour! In tune with United Nations - Adi is from Singapore!

A random shot - Jack and Kris! More United Nations - Jack's originally from Thailand and Kris is from Belize.

Anyways peeps - thanks for sharing my weekend!