[cafe on General Uprising in Vung Tau on 5/18/24] I once owned George Harrison’s All Things Must Pass, believe it or not. Bought it as a cassette. Sitting at the cafe on General Uprising, I thought of that purchase. For the first time in two weeks, I didn’t swim in ocean or pool before setting out. All that bobble must be flushed. I don’t remember a single image or thought from
Floating in the ocean, walking barefoot on sand supposedly bring one in contact with Earth's Schumann Resonance, a low frequency electromagnetic "balancing act" within the planet. Synthetic materials like the rubberized soles of modern shoes remove us with contact from the ground and break the connection . Doing things as simple as walking barefoot on damp ground/grass, sticking your feet in mud or swimming are supposed to have regenerative, balancing effects on the mind and body. Who knows, the water and sky alone are sure to soothe. Keep bobbling and healing Linh.
I don't doubt what you say, Mr. Skaggs; but right now I'm suffering from an allergic reaction outbreak of Spring grass pollen. I've heard it said that children who's mother smoked when they, the child, were in utero tend to have more problems with allergies. Thanks, mom. I've also heard that people who are over the age of 40 and are still blaming their parents for their problems are their own worst problem.
I am living now in what is essentially a ghetto in Bridgeport, CT. But as bad as it is Seaside Park is withing walking distance with an always refreshing view of Long Island Sound available for free. One can walk barefoot on the grass in the Park or the sand along the beach and it is reviving. And free. That is unless one wants to bring one's car into the Park for which there is an entry fee. Me, I walk in with arrogant impunity. If some motherf*cker wants to charge me dinero, I've got my concealed carry to show him (or her) who's boss and let him "make my day. "
What's that you say? Too many Clint Eastwood movies? Nah. Too much Supply Side, Trickle Down, tinkled on economics.
America. Can't live with it (or in it); can't live without it (or outside of it.) They didn't want me in the Philippines; apparently I was seen as a leering, unsavory old American man trying to seduce naive, young Filipina provincial girls. They essentially told me, "Just leave your money old man and go back to where you came from."
I've been thinking of trying Vietnam but I am discouraged by the constant Visa update and fee requirements. And how could an American NOT be hated in Vietnam (at least by some Vietnamese)? After all didn't we bring them John McCain? Agent Orange and My Lai?
I'm hardly wanted in the country I was born in because I have committed the one, absolute cardinal sin in America: I am poor. You can be anything in this country: A felon, a creep, a pedophile a believer in "free" markets, a homeless wretch who gnaws severed limbs or even, God forefend, A Trump supporter. But don't be poor! Wasn't it Max Weber in "The Protestant Work Ethic and The Spirit of Capitalism" who articulated the Protestant Ethic? If one is poor one is out of favor with God and you therefore must have done something to offend God and you deserve your impoverishment. Many Americans believe that to this day.
"When I, alone, out of fortune in men's eyes, be-weep my outcast state...
And then, looking upon you, dear friend, like the lark in Spring, sing paeans to the heavens. " Pardon me for misquoting Shakespeare. I've recently read that too much allergy medicine taken for too long may cause dementia in the elderly. I will soon find out.
I was raised by responsible and loving middle class parents. Dysfunctional in many regards as they both came from meager farm backgrounds, but they really tried, probably too hard sometimes. My sister, a diligent worker and now a responsible single mom ended up being valedictorian of her class and is relatively stable if not a bit tense from imbibing the liberal arts boilerplate progressivism. Dad told me once that they never worried about me with regards to academics as a child. By my senior year, I'd hit some kind of social precipice and basically gave up. Thirty years later, I'm "in the ghetto" on a poverty level VA pension because I got drunk and bored enough to raise my right hand in 2008. Don't get me wrong, I was broke as a joke before signing up. It's been a litany of severe depression, addiction and self isolation during the bad stretches interspersed with episodes of curiosity, wonder and growth.
It's getting better and I know it. I didn't own a computer until 2010 and still struggle with the things. The entirety of my correspondence these last five years has been on a series of cheap Motorola "smart" phones. It's a poor man's slog and I'm not sure where it's going. For awhile, this really got to me. Anymore, I'm trying to take advantage of the good days and make it through the bad ones.
There's a repurposed landfill on the south edge of South Bend that I visit frequently. I was out there in my bare feet, stoned as usual taking in a pastel sunset that is ample reward for refusing to own a tv. The freaking colors and birds were amazing. Who knows, I really don't know what I'm doing sometimes and yet I keep doing it. Maybe the ghost of Carl Jung knows.
Being poor in America is rough; spiritually, psychologically and physically more than materially. Worry only compounds the problems. I wish that I had better answers Thomas. One thing that I don't regret is the opportunity to communicate with what I consider some truly worthwhile amd interesting characters here at Postcards. I could write a separate missive.
That being said, please take care of yourself Thomas. This world can craze the best of us. Don't let it.
I'm so sorry, Mr. Skaggs. I didn't mean to imply that you had been neglected by your parents!
I agree with the theme of your original comment; I like to be out in the fresh air but, unfortunately for me right now I am really hit by grass pollen allergies so I was feeling sorry for myself and putting the blame on MY late "dearly departed" mother who smoked herself into an early grave. And I don't blame her so much as I blame Big Tobacco which I hate with a deep, burning and unquenchable passion. Both of my parents died prematurely due to their tobacco addictions. But enough of all that. Mr. Dinh will ban me for constantly crying in my beer.
No apologies necessary Thomas. I wish you didn't feel so rough. Fall hay fever allergies debilitate me yearly. It's awful. I don't cry in my beer anymore, as beer left me crying and then some. Now I just blab to my (weed) bowl. Cheers nonetheless Thomas. I hope that the allergies abate.
'Crying in my beer' reminds me of a full-page colour 'ad ' in a long-ago Mad Magazine of a totally dissipated man collapsed over a table with a can of beer to hand. Entitled: Sadder.....Bud Wiser....
My mother quit ciggies in her mid-seventies after smoking since age 15. She lived until 93. I asked her how she did it. Answer: vanity and the sure knowledge she would have to eat dogfood to pay for her habit.
Thank you for that comment. I had a great aunt (my father's mother's sister) who smoked into her nineties and died not from smoking but from self-inflicted starvation after her beloved younger sister died of a stroke.
Wonderful essay, Linh. I loved "floating on my back I feel unsnagged by time". Great photos, too. I especially loved the beautiful woman sleeping in the hammock. She looks so peaceful. Thanks so much!
George Harrison, the Quiet Beatle as he was known, also the most sympathetic in retrospect. Didn't shout like John and Paul. Didn't pander like Ringo. A fitting muse for a sad Postcard. His wife was stolen by his more famous friend. He was knife assaulted by a crazed fan at home. Hmmn, didn't anyone find that as suspicious as Lennon's assassination? No one's looked into it that I know of.
But are the Beatles themselves who we suppose them to have been? There's a conspiracy, earlier known as Paul Is Dead, which is gaining wide acceptance among the red-pilled. It effectively destroys the created myth that the Beatles were the greatest band ever and thereby throws the whole 60's musical renaissance into disrepair. Popular among cynical Gen X'ers and resisted by delusional Boomers, George is untouched by the accusation that Lennon/McCartney were fake/ghosted songwriters. He didn't have #1 hits. His songs didn't span multiple genres. He wasn't considered a genius or even much of a singer. Just a sweet, solid presence whose greatest sin was borrowing one old song's melody, My Sweet Lord (She's So Fine).
I recall reading somewhere that all the Beatles had I.Q.s above the 98th percentile. (That's about 132 and above.) Except for Ringo who was around 125 which is still very good.
It is obvious you know a lot more about music than I do, Mr Thistle. So I respect your views. I don't think anyone could legitimately deny that the Beatles were an enormous creative force. However, for me the electrification of music, especially pop music and Rock and Roll had a stultifying influence on young people. Encouraging them to squander much of their youthful energy on a wasted and enervating pursuit. But that's just my highly biased and subjective opinion. As I alluded to above, I may be starting down the path of senility aided and abetted by a plethora of antihistamine allergy medicine. "They don't call it 'dope' or 'getting doped up' for nothing.
Never heard that IQ tale about the Lovely Lads. But if they're supposed to be musical geniuses then they might as well be near geniuses as well.
It was the electrification of music that launched RnR into a world conquering pop sound. I know all kinds of religious people bemoaned the debasement of classical modes as serious art for the likes of Roll Over Beethoven. But I think classical was already spent as a popular force when it became modern, especially atonal, same w/ jazz. "It don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing." When you couldn't dance to it, the social appeal lapsed. The Frankfurt School and Theodore Adorno is blamed for this deliberately destructive cultural direction.
Have you looked into natural remedies instead of anti-histamines? Could be a dietary change is needed.
Natural (non Pharma) healing is a lot like Protestantism. There's no pope, no central authority, lots of different schools and ideas about healing. Chinese and Indian (Ayurvedic) traditional medicines will have their approaches. Alt Western practices too - homeopathy and naturopathy. These are the only two I have experience with. There are other, strictly dietary approaches w/o a practioner/guide, but I like having a guide I can talk to. It's a quest. Depends on where you live, what's accessible, what you can afford and what the practitioner is like - do you like them and feel comfortable w/ what they're saying? Maybe just start by searching the net for natural ways to treat allergies. Get an overview.
Definitely helped on by brain-destroying anticholinergic antihistamines. Do search out an alternative - diet (worked for me) - homeopathy (worked for a friend). Truth is out there waiting for you.
You, we, cling to the scraps of life that are left. When you are riding on the Titanic, we really have little alternative than to keep putting one foot in front of the other until the inevitable end. I think that the powers that control our earthly destiny know all too well that they can only kill our bodies. In all of their devilishness, they can't somehow conceive that the greater and more durable reality that our spirits inhabit cannot be killed.
Speaking of EV vans for less than $10,000, I've read that the Biden administration (and all the gas-bag, bloviating, free market touting American establishment types) are in a snit because China is about to flood the American auto market with cheap EVs.
The Biden administration is in a quandry. For decades both parties have paid fealty to "free-trade." But now the Chinese capitalists have beat the American capitalists at their (the American's) own game.
What will Biden do? Slap on tariffs revealing that decades of free market talk was all bullsh*t? Or let the American auto industry sink into oblivion out competed by their more efficient Chinese counterparts?
We know what Trump will do should he be re-elected: He'll simply ban Chinese auto imports thereby costing American consumers billions in higher new car costs. But Americans won't mind. They've been letting themselves get screwed by their own establishment putative leader for decades now. At least since they allowed Reagan to repel FDR's New Deal.
As the late George Carlin used to say, "Americans are too [misinformed] to sit around the kitchen table and talk about how badly they're getting screwed by a system that threw them overboard thirty [now 40] f*cking years ago." Rest in peace, George Carlin.
But the leering old American man, perhaps conveniently, was not given a helmet by his (shall we say) "escort." Maybe she has something in mind once his pockets are turned inside out? Like ditching the bike with "John" on it. In the path of on oncoming lorry.
Does it bother Vietnamese people to see the Cao Dai eye on the US dollar bill?
Certainly CIApedia would not lie of such things.. if it is to their idealist advantage.
Makes one wonder if the exploitation of Asia was the long-term plan all along?
Born to late to stop the tragedy, and too early to make sense of it all. What a wonderful world.
The man on the motorcycle looks like someone who will die in the gutter via a swift kick to the head. Certainly someone is capable of calculating the necessary force and acceleration required to deal a fatal blow. STEM education must play a role in society, even if unforgiving. At her stature it might require steel-towed shoes, or some extra help via lovely tonics. Never drunk enough to be killed easy, yet always enough to finish the job.
Well the more I see, the less I know.
Vietnam's is in the gray, before the morning's dawn. The creatures of darkness must scatter.
Is it just me and my unique morbidity or have you ever noticed how, after the sun goes down one feels more calm inside? We have evolved such that the arc of the sun across the sky drives us to distraction. I believe that is why many subversives (such as the vampire archetype) sleep (in a coffin) during the day and become active at dusk.
We yearn to be removed from the world but our evolution won't allow it.
I recall reading somewhere, (damned if I can remember where) somewhere in California, a new potential buyer of a house had to, by law, be notified if a house was haunted. It was probably just the bad, discontented spirit of my mother-in-law.
Floating in the ocean, walking barefoot on sand supposedly bring one in contact with Earth's Schumann Resonance, a low frequency electromagnetic "balancing act" within the planet. Synthetic materials like the rubberized soles of modern shoes remove us with contact from the ground and break the connection . Doing things as simple as walking barefoot on damp ground/grass, sticking your feet in mud or swimming are supposed to have regenerative, balancing effects on the mind and body. Who knows, the water and sky alone are sure to soothe. Keep bobbling and healing Linh.
I don't doubt what you say, Mr. Skaggs; but right now I'm suffering from an allergic reaction outbreak of Spring grass pollen. I've heard it said that children who's mother smoked when they, the child, were in utero tend to have more problems with allergies. Thanks, mom. I've also heard that people who are over the age of 40 and are still blaming their parents for their problems are their own worst problem.
I am living now in what is essentially a ghetto in Bridgeport, CT. But as bad as it is Seaside Park is withing walking distance with an always refreshing view of Long Island Sound available for free. One can walk barefoot on the grass in the Park or the sand along the beach and it is reviving. And free. That is unless one wants to bring one's car into the Park for which there is an entry fee. Me, I walk in with arrogant impunity. If some motherf*cker wants to charge me dinero, I've got my concealed carry to show him (or her) who's boss and let him "make my day. "
What's that you say? Too many Clint Eastwood movies? Nah. Too much Supply Side, Trickle Down, tinkled on economics.
America. Can't live with it (or in it); can't live without it (or outside of it.) They didn't want me in the Philippines; apparently I was seen as a leering, unsavory old American man trying to seduce naive, young Filipina provincial girls. They essentially told me, "Just leave your money old man and go back to where you came from."
I've been thinking of trying Vietnam but I am discouraged by the constant Visa update and fee requirements. And how could an American NOT be hated in Vietnam (at least by some Vietnamese)? After all didn't we bring them John McCain? Agent Orange and My Lai?
I'm hardly wanted in the country I was born in because I have committed the one, absolute cardinal sin in America: I am poor. You can be anything in this country: A felon, a creep, a pedophile a believer in "free" markets, a homeless wretch who gnaws severed limbs or even, God forefend, A Trump supporter. But don't be poor! Wasn't it Max Weber in "The Protestant Work Ethic and The Spirit of Capitalism" who articulated the Protestant Ethic? If one is poor one is out of favor with God and you therefore must have done something to offend God and you deserve your impoverishment. Many Americans believe that to this day.
"When I, alone, out of fortune in men's eyes, be-weep my outcast state...
And then, looking upon you, dear friend, like the lark in Spring, sing paeans to the heavens. " Pardon me for misquoting Shakespeare. I've recently read that too much allergy medicine taken for too long may cause dementia in the elderly. I will soon find out.
Hi Thomas,
I was raised by responsible and loving middle class parents. Dysfunctional in many regards as they both came from meager farm backgrounds, but they really tried, probably too hard sometimes. My sister, a diligent worker and now a responsible single mom ended up being valedictorian of her class and is relatively stable if not a bit tense from imbibing the liberal arts boilerplate progressivism. Dad told me once that they never worried about me with regards to academics as a child. By my senior year, I'd hit some kind of social precipice and basically gave up. Thirty years later, I'm "in the ghetto" on a poverty level VA pension because I got drunk and bored enough to raise my right hand in 2008. Don't get me wrong, I was broke as a joke before signing up. It's been a litany of severe depression, addiction and self isolation during the bad stretches interspersed with episodes of curiosity, wonder and growth.
It's getting better and I know it. I didn't own a computer until 2010 and still struggle with the things. The entirety of my correspondence these last five years has been on a series of cheap Motorola "smart" phones. It's a poor man's slog and I'm not sure where it's going. For awhile, this really got to me. Anymore, I'm trying to take advantage of the good days and make it through the bad ones.
There's a repurposed landfill on the south edge of South Bend that I visit frequently. I was out there in my bare feet, stoned as usual taking in a pastel sunset that is ample reward for refusing to own a tv. The freaking colors and birds were amazing. Who knows, I really don't know what I'm doing sometimes and yet I keep doing it. Maybe the ghost of Carl Jung knows.
Being poor in America is rough; spiritually, psychologically and physically more than materially. Worry only compounds the problems. I wish that I had better answers Thomas. One thing that I don't regret is the opportunity to communicate with what I consider some truly worthwhile amd interesting characters here at Postcards. I could write a separate missive.
That being said, please take care of yourself Thomas. This world can craze the best of us. Don't let it.
I'm so sorry, Mr. Skaggs. I didn't mean to imply that you had been neglected by your parents!
I agree with the theme of your original comment; I like to be out in the fresh air but, unfortunately for me right now I am really hit by grass pollen allergies so I was feeling sorry for myself and putting the blame on MY late "dearly departed" mother who smoked herself into an early grave. And I don't blame her so much as I blame Big Tobacco which I hate with a deep, burning and unquenchable passion. Both of my parents died prematurely due to their tobacco addictions. But enough of all that. Mr. Dinh will ban me for constantly crying in my beer.
No apologies necessary Thomas. I wish you didn't feel so rough. Fall hay fever allergies debilitate me yearly. It's awful. I don't cry in my beer anymore, as beer left me crying and then some. Now I just blab to my (weed) bowl. Cheers nonetheless Thomas. I hope that the allergies abate.
'Crying in my beer' reminds me of a full-page colour 'ad ' in a long-ago Mad Magazine of a totally dissipated man collapsed over a table with a can of beer to hand. Entitled: Sadder.....Bud Wiser....
Yes, tobacco along with caffeine have been the hardest substances to kick that I've encountered. Tobacco as commercial cigarettes is insidious.
My mother quit ciggies in her mid-seventies after smoking since age 15. She lived until 93. I asked her how she did it. Answer: vanity and the sure knowledge she would have to eat dogfood to pay for her habit.
Thank you for that comment. I had a great aunt (my father's mother's sister) who smoked into her nineties and died not from smoking but from self-inflicted starvation after her beloved younger sister died of a stroke.
Oh and she never even tried to give up caffeine.
Wonderful essay, Linh. I loved "floating on my back I feel unsnagged by time". Great photos, too. I especially loved the beautiful woman sleeping in the hammock. She looks so peaceful. Thanks so much!
Wonderful piece (wonderful peace?) Linh.
George Harrison, the Quiet Beatle as he was known, also the most sympathetic in retrospect. Didn't shout like John and Paul. Didn't pander like Ringo. A fitting muse for a sad Postcard. His wife was stolen by his more famous friend. He was knife assaulted by a crazed fan at home. Hmmn, didn't anyone find that as suspicious as Lennon's assassination? No one's looked into it that I know of.
But are the Beatles themselves who we suppose them to have been? There's a conspiracy, earlier known as Paul Is Dead, which is gaining wide acceptance among the red-pilled. It effectively destroys the created myth that the Beatles were the greatest band ever and thereby throws the whole 60's musical renaissance into disrepair. Popular among cynical Gen X'ers and resisted by delusional Boomers, George is untouched by the accusation that Lennon/McCartney were fake/ghosted songwriters. He didn't have #1 hits. His songs didn't span multiple genres. He wasn't considered a genius or even much of a singer. Just a sweet, solid presence whose greatest sin was borrowing one old song's melody, My Sweet Lord (She's So Fine).
I recall reading somewhere that all the Beatles had I.Q.s above the 98th percentile. (That's about 132 and above.) Except for Ringo who was around 125 which is still very good.
It is obvious you know a lot more about music than I do, Mr Thistle. So I respect your views. I don't think anyone could legitimately deny that the Beatles were an enormous creative force. However, for me the electrification of music, especially pop music and Rock and Roll had a stultifying influence on young people. Encouraging them to squander much of their youthful energy on a wasted and enervating pursuit. But that's just my highly biased and subjective opinion. As I alluded to above, I may be starting down the path of senility aided and abetted by a plethora of antihistamine allergy medicine. "They don't call it 'dope' or 'getting doped up' for nothing.
Never heard that IQ tale about the Lovely Lads. But if they're supposed to be musical geniuses then they might as well be near geniuses as well.
It was the electrification of music that launched RnR into a world conquering pop sound. I know all kinds of religious people bemoaned the debasement of classical modes as serious art for the likes of Roll Over Beethoven. But I think classical was already spent as a popular force when it became modern, especially atonal, same w/ jazz. "It don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing." When you couldn't dance to it, the social appeal lapsed. The Frankfurt School and Theodore Adorno is blamed for this deliberately destructive cultural direction.
Have you looked into natural remedies instead of anti-histamines? Could be a dietary change is needed.
I know nothing about natural remedies for allergies. Thank you greatly for the "heads up" I will look into it. Nevertheless can you perhaps elaborate?
Natural (non Pharma) healing is a lot like Protestantism. There's no pope, no central authority, lots of different schools and ideas about healing. Chinese and Indian (Ayurvedic) traditional medicines will have their approaches. Alt Western practices too - homeopathy and naturopathy. These are the only two I have experience with. There are other, strictly dietary approaches w/o a practioner/guide, but I like having a guide I can talk to. It's a quest. Depends on where you live, what's accessible, what you can afford and what the practitioner is like - do you like them and feel comfortable w/ what they're saying? Maybe just start by searching the net for natural ways to treat allergies. Get an overview.
Definitely helped on by brain-destroying anticholinergic antihistamines. Do search out an alternative - diet (worked for me) - homeopathy (worked for a friend). Truth is out there waiting for you.
You, we, cling to the scraps of life that are left. When you are riding on the Titanic, we really have little alternative than to keep putting one foot in front of the other until the inevitable end. I think that the powers that control our earthly destiny know all too well that they can only kill our bodies. In all of their devilishness, they can't somehow conceive that the greater and more durable reality that our spirits inhabit cannot be killed.
Speaking of EV vans for less than $10,000, I've read that the Biden administration (and all the gas-bag, bloviating, free market touting American establishment types) are in a snit because China is about to flood the American auto market with cheap EVs.
The Biden administration is in a quandry. For decades both parties have paid fealty to "free-trade." But now the Chinese capitalists have beat the American capitalists at their (the American's) own game.
What will Biden do? Slap on tariffs revealing that decades of free market talk was all bullsh*t? Or let the American auto industry sink into oblivion out competed by their more efficient Chinese counterparts?
We know what Trump will do should he be re-elected: He'll simply ban Chinese auto imports thereby costing American consumers billions in higher new car costs. But Americans won't mind. They've been letting themselves get screwed by their own establishment putative leader for decades now. At least since they allowed Reagan to repel FDR's New Deal.
As the late George Carlin used to say, "Americans are too [misinformed] to sit around the kitchen table and talk about how badly they're getting screwed by a system that threw them overboard thirty [now 40] f*cking years ago." Rest in peace, George Carlin.
The bottom photo captures the ugliness of sex tourism.
But the leering old American man, perhaps conveniently, was not given a helmet by his (shall we say) "escort." Maybe she has something in mind once his pockets are turned inside out? Like ditching the bike with "John" on it. In the path of on oncoming lorry.
Does it bother Vietnamese people to see the Cao Dai eye on the US dollar bill?
Certainly CIApedia would not lie of such things.. if it is to their idealist advantage.
Makes one wonder if the exploitation of Asia was the long-term plan all along?
Born to late to stop the tragedy, and too early to make sense of it all. What a wonderful world.
The man on the motorcycle looks like someone who will die in the gutter via a swift kick to the head. Certainly someone is capable of calculating the necessary force and acceleration required to deal a fatal blow. STEM education must play a role in society, even if unforgiving. At her stature it might require steel-towed shoes, or some extra help via lovely tonics. Never drunk enough to be killed easy, yet always enough to finish the job.
Well the more I see, the less I know.
Vietnam's is in the gray, before the morning's dawn. The creatures of darkness must scatter.
All exploits must pass.
All exploits must pass away.
All exploitation must pass.
None of life's strings can last
So, I must be on my way and face another day
Now the darkness only stays at nighttime
In the morning it will fade away
Daylight is good at arriving at the right time
It's not always gonna be this gray
Is it just me and my unique morbidity or have you ever noticed how, after the sun goes down one feels more calm inside? We have evolved such that the arc of the sun across the sky drives us to distraction. I believe that is why many subversives (such as the vampire archetype) sleep (in a coffin) during the day and become active at dusk.
We yearn to be removed from the world but our evolution won't allow it.
Always a great read, Linh. One of my favorite albums, ATMP.
Beware of darkness 😉
I recall reading somewhere, (damned if I can remember where) somewhere in California, a new potential buyer of a house had to, by law, be notified if a house was haunted. It was probably just the bad, discontented spirit of my mother-in-law.
Damn, bro; you ain't got nuthin' goin' fur ya...