CHAPTER SIX: “FRIENDS
THAT I COULD TRUST”
Let’s go back in time… this was on July 26, 2020.
I was at Joe’s Café Muine, doing our two-night residential shows with
Slowhandicap and Kyle. Peter had just left Vietnam to going study abroad again
in Australia for the second, or third time, I can’t remember. He wouldn’t go
back until 2021 and now he’s stuck here forever. He could never go back to
Australia, I think his semester ended permanently. For what I can recall, this
wasn’t a good gig to us all, but Kyle’s girlfriend, Krystal Mai, captured a few
photos of us onstage as a trio. The pickup on Malthe was broken during the
start of the second set – all thanks to Vivek of the Bohemian Basterds, so I
had to switch to Judy for the rest of the show. He apologized to me and offered
me some money to fix the pickup, but I said no.
Anyway, I was just on my own hanging around and I overheard this song
which was played many times on those speakers near the stage with music
automatically being put on. I ran downstairs and asked Kyle who was jamming with
Jay’s – the host of that night – keyboards on “I Will Survive,” also on the
speakers, that if he knew anything about that song I was talking about, but he
said no. So I tried to memorize everything in my brain and decided to search
for that song right away on my smartphone. It was “Tip of My Tongue,” a cool
1992 tune done by the Australian musician – Diesel. Yeah, that was his stage
name. I was also having a crush on Anna, the younger waitress girl working at
Joe’s. But I guess she did not just care about it one bit. I gave up. I also
played with Andy’s cat whom just hung out around there. She was very chilled.
When I was on the bus back home by the next morning of Monday – July 27,
Mom also called me on the phone and she ranted about there would be new cases
of Covid again detected. I will never forget it.
Can you believe love can really both nurture and hurt me at the same
time? Sure, I know I have been in love with many women around, whether it was
on or off the internet – real life dating, distance relationship, etc. But I
have been also in a long distance relationship with a lovely girl named Rachel
from the United States. She’s born and raised in Lexington, KY. I knew her
though, through a dating / social media app called “Boo.” Since December 2022.
But I first talked to her even on the first day of New Year of 2023. Weird,
huh? We bonded over video games, true crime / horror movies and music. Well,
mainly about music. She basically likes every song I send to her, which is a
great thing about her. When I asked her that when was the exact time she
actually fell in love with me, she told me that it was just a few days after we
talked, or “met” in her own terms. So that must be around January 3 – 5, 2023.
January 5 was also the day we did a birthday gig for my friend Thomas and
surprisingly he had also asked Johnny Be Good’s boss, J. Walker if we could be
doing live music there at the place, though I have had mixed feelings about
that. But I had to do it anyways. The plan went as it was originally planned to
be. I just think that it was ridiculous because I vowed I would never come back
there anytime, and I broke that promise. My own promise. I don’t know why, but
at the same time I didn’t want to upset Thomas. So I reluctantly agreed to it.
It was a great show – I even said hi to the boss and the chef there. Thank God
they still remembered me, particularly the chef she asked if I was still doing
live music through and through. I said yes. Ain’t that the truth… Thomas – he
had been also smoking and grilling these pork cutlets over the charcoal BBQ
grill place since 8am of that special-day. He’s such a hard working man I ever
met. Sure, the Danes they do love pork. They are the biggest consumer of that
kind of meat in Scandinavia. Then Sweden, their rival is next. The Swedes, I
think they have this thing called “köttbullar” – which translates to
“meatballs” and same as the Danish cuisine having “Frikadeller,” although the
origin of the latter dish is still controversial, rather it was originated in the
Netherlands, or in Germany. Me and Slow we played “Lilla du, lilla vän,” a Swedish folk tune by Björn Ulvaeus and Benny
Andersson of ABBA, in 1970, before they even formed ABBA and got engaged to the ladies (Agnetha
and Anni-Frid). And this was the only Swedish-language album project of the duo
they ever made. A Swedish guy whom would be sitting there at this table, just
as closer as he could get, to where the stage was at, and after the song, he
would stand up coming to us and complimented how great I was by singing such a
hard language like that. I was over the moon. I couldn’t care less anymore if
Johnny Be Good place would be giving me more pressure because the fact was
there – I still did not like the people there after I left in 2021, but I would
rather go insane in my mind until Rachel told me on Boo app that I’d look so
“handsome today.”
And that would really give me a heart attack. My mind constantly is filled with her
loving and caring. I didn’t understand why she really liked me. Maybe I do figure
it out now, but I still I can’t tell anything. She’s really cute. She taught me
a lot of things – kindness, calmness, and not to be rude towards women again,
if you must know that – well, I have been lately acting aggressively towards
the previous girls whom really hurt me – or if I wasn’t even a victim, I would
still blame them for what they did to me, and it would make me a selfish
asshole. Skye, a girl from North Carolina, or Beth from Ohio, or Jasmine from
Pennsylvania. Those are the women I will never talk to or even make friends
with, ever, again. I don’t really, honestly know when will we be going from
this – me and Rachel. But time will tell, I believe. Our love always goes
stronger than ever. Now, whenever I listen to Chicago (band), I will always
miss and think about her the most. “Fancy Colors” and “Make Me Smile” are their
two greatest songs. Let that sink in! She also introduced me to a lot of great
songs of her own choice – “Everybody’s Dying” by Joe Kapara, “The Longest Time”
by Billy Joel, or “Please Do Not Go” by Violent Femmes. I will love and
treasure those songs forever.
Also a special gift from a friend from Ohio, James, who really sent me a
package full of Lynyrd Skynyrd stuff all the way from him to my place, and it
took even four weeks to arrive. The customs held my package from December 17 to
December 30 until one day they sent a letter to my hands asking if I could come
to their office for “customs process.” I didn’t know what that was but I knew it
sounded like a real bad news. So when I came to see them, they asked me to pay
some extra fee because the package exceeded of US$100.00, which was kind of
hilarious because these two guys worked there really sympathized with what and
who I would be – a musician and a collector. I think they were just impressed.
I kindly thanked them for the service and left the post office with the package
in hands, with a smile on my face. Later on they would never ask me for any
extra fee charged at the door anymore. I think that’s how the system works – if
you can’t beat them, join them. Be their friends. And sure, just as Johnny
Ramone said in his Autobiography, “money makes things easier.” And inside the
package was not just these Skynyrd CD albums all over; there would be two
Blu-ray films in their own original package – “Cult of Chucky” and “Jurassic
Park: The Complete 5-film Collection.” Or the most special thing I ever got
from James – these Chicago albums, from their 1969 debut one – “Chicago Transit
Authority” up to the 1978-disco-oriented album, “Hot Streets.” It was when and
where my love for the band grew from and it still does. Especially for Terry
Alan Kath, Chicago’s original singer / guitarist / songwriter. He was fucking
awesome. He was prolific. A true leader of this “rock and roll band with
horns.” Back in the Seventies, you could not get a full line-up of those guys
on trumpet, flute, trombone, or with a saxophone. It’s one amazing experience
and it’s just… wild. I also watched this documentary rock film called “The
Terry Kath Experience,” which was theatrically released in 2016, directed by
his daughter, Michelle Kath Sinclair, in search of her father’s original Fender
Telecaster guitar which was endeared and cherished with the namesake “Pignose”
guitar. I am totally in love with it. Even Jimi Hendrix before he died at age
27 in 1970, he briefly called Terry one of the “best guitar players” of
all-time. I agreed. He could sing, he could play guitar, he could write such
great tunes for Chicago. It was sad that he blew his brain up by accident with
playing with a revolver and that was in 1978. A tragic passing. Strangely
enough, the man could not read any music notes. He just loved to improvise. So
when I sent my girl ‘Make Me Smile’ song, she totally would be in love with it
by saying, “This is good as hell. Definitely it will go to my playlist
tonight.” I also played the song a couple of times at our gigs at The Rabbit
Hole Irish Sports Bar throughout the first month of 2023 with Slowhandicap.
Apparently it was on January 6, 13, 20, then 27. Then another gig at Rogue
Saigon on February 10. That is it. I must say I have been blessed with lots of
love and with such great friends even if they are around me, or they just
aren’t. Thank you again, James!
But shit did happen. Rachel and I broke up, just for the record, it was
twice: March 24 – she blocked me until March 27 when she told me that her Dad
was about to find out what was going on between us and she was terrified of
him. I wonder why she still lived under that roof of that bullying and abusive
asshole. Turns out it was him providing a home for the entire family, driving
her to school and also to work. I mean, she was 18. At that age people ought to
move out and live alone and have their own place and their own car to drive to
work or to college… but this girl was a senior high school student. I was wrong
because my first thought was she would be a colleague not a senior student.
Anyway, she was still a kid. So after like two or three more weeks, we officially
parted our ways because she started acting strangely and worshipping Jeffrey
Dahmer – an infamous serial killer in the Nineties, also thinking (her personal
views on American politics) that abortions would be okay, or pedophiles and
murderers should have never been executed or prosecuted – to say the least. She
also thought that eating all kind of animals would be okay, including pets –
dogs and cats, you know, and that made my blood boiled. I was coming closer to
my breaking point, and she told me that I didn’t listen to her. So that’s that.
I will never date anyone anymore, unless she is a conservative and having her
mind similar to me or at least there won’t be any disagreements between us no
more. Enough is fucking enough.
Before all of this, though, I also had a fallout with Thomas, this Danish boss as I could not take it anymore – I quit the job, eventually, on March 21, after going back to Saigon from the Muine gig with Slowhandicap (two nights – March 18 & 19, but the bus would not be there to pick us up until 4:30am of March 20). He said I fucked up his working schedule. He kept comparing me with the other workers in his office when I still worked there, and being very stricted towards whatever I did for him. Not a single work I did was thoroughly appreciated. I felt like very much of being his fucking slave. Plus I also contracted with COVID shit when I got back home from that hotter-than-hell bus ride of shit. As I sent him the last messages to leave, he reacted angrily towards me and even trying to bully me again, this time. I told him that there would be a big price to pay as he kept harassing me because I just forgot to return the elevator keycard – that to going up and down in his apartment in District 2, so I booked a Grab ride and the driver she was just this nice woman, delivering it to the security desk on the ground floor. But this motherfucker wanted me to even come there and give the keycard to his face. I would have punched him if I had, because I hated bullies. He even left a comment on my Lynyrd Skynyrd Fanpage of one post about Gary Rossington and shit, moaning there that “the loss of Gary would be the same as the loss of his keycard.” That was totally irrelevant. Well, I blocked him on every single account on social media because of this reason, too. He deserved it. Finally on March 29, two days after I delivered the keycard to him, he said he would feel sorry for me if I thought everything he said was “bullying.” And he wished me the best with “peace and love.” A 50-year-old dude acted dumb like a five-year-old child. He needed to grow up.
I’d not recommend
that to you, everyone, people are scary – they can turn themselves into another
thing and use their force against you. Looks like that guy he was just as good
as being a bully and being a manipulator. Any problems we might have had that
we I did not have time to deal with already? Nope. Subject closed!
You don’t mess with people whom got nothing else to lose. They will fuck
you up. I will have to, if you push me over the edge!
So that’s it, I lost my job first, then the maniac girlfriend, and I
totally got nothing from this. Lately I also had feuds with people whom just
would not be cool with helping me getting those physical media formats –
Blu-Ray discs or DVDs and stuff because this country’s customs suck ass – they
would love us to bribe them in order to fasten the processes of checking out of
there for good, and I was caught twice. This was the ABBA – The Movie 2 DVD set
(2005) which I placed an order since January 28. It took that long – arriving
March 21 and custom checks would be done by April 6 – to arrive in my hands,
and I could not be happier. Seems like everything related to “movie” would be
held by them and they would ask for – maybe not a lot of money – but enough for
them to get away with all of this, because there’s no cameras allowed in their
office. It’s extortion, but this time, ladies and gentlemen – welcome to this
dictatorship country called Vietnam – legally. Also I asked a lot of friends
around me for getting the films – particularly from the eBay US store, or from
Canada, that they are not allowed to be even bought / checked out with US
dollar or Canadian dollar (USD / CAD). I don’t know why they even do that to
us. Euro and Pound sterling are accepted, but not those aforementioned
currencies. I was just – and still am – jealous with these collectors of
physical films from the US – you can look them up on Instagram or Facebook –
called Movie&Sue or Durant Cinema. I am jealous because there ain’t never a
Walmart Superstore or Best Buy, or FYE, or Bull Moose, or Target here in
Vietnam. Why? Because this country’s got nothing. Boring as hell. What can I do
to change it? Nothing. Lately James (Ohio) also sent me an article link and
they wrote that these malls will not have these collectibles on their shelves
no more, starting from January 2024. Now that I don’t know if it’s a fake news
or is it even real, but that sounds devastating. I mean, I have come a really
long way to collect what I love to collect, and suddenly one day, things changed.
What more do I have to buckle up for? A rough divorce?
My experience on Boo has been one hell of a journey. I met and talked to
many great people there. But again, my love life sucks… I talked to Jemma, a girl
from Britain. She prioritizes her work. Done. No questions asked! We are good
friends still, and we are chatting almost every day on Instagram. Kristiana –
my best friend from Greece – also another match I met on Boo. Ines, a girl from
Lower Saxony, Germany, I also matched with and talked to from August 24, 2023
to September 13, 2023. She cut me off after that lengthy three-week period by
listening to her friend that “I’ve got worries, but she told me to listen to
whatever my heart says.” Excuse me, it seemed like you’d just prefer to work
alone, and make a decision also ALONE. How about asking how I felt about that
when you were about to be leaving me first? Rude. And I told her so. She was
like, “Go ahead I know you’re hurt and I know you’re mad. I am a bad person.”
Thing is, she promised NOT to block or ghost me – but eventually she did. I
should have collected these memories – both good and bad and have I written a
novel out of these words already, because if I did that, it would be a number
one best-selling book of all-time. And a friend once told me that – remember Ian
who played bass guitar for my band – The Last Jackals back in 2021? Yeah, he
said the same thing – “your love life is like a television series, brother.” Now
that’s what I am talking about.
On February 25, we got a gig at my former boss and one of my best friends – Keoni Lambert from Hawai’I, U.S. as he got married to his Vietnamese wife in Go Vap district – that’s where Slow lives. Close enough. It was a great gig, people loved us. The food was delicious, too! The bride also transferred me the payment in a month advance. Now that’s a professional attitude, everyone. She wanted us to play at their wedding, and per Keoni’s request, I agreed to do that. I was having hemorrhoids and I was also having a hard time sitting down. So that didn’t make me happier somehow even when the show went well and I even got a contact from a French dude there who appeared to be Keoni’s close friend, but he never called me anyways. I don’t care.
But the gig at Joe’s Café Muine from July 20, 2023 to August 3, 2023 was
great. Two-week stay, ten shows in total. Yeah, it sounds impossible but it’s
true. So I played on these dates (you can count) – July 20, July 22, July 23,
July 25, July 27, July 29, July 31, August 1, August 2, and August 3. I came
home by August 4, and by the time I stepped on the bus, our former bass
guitarist Văn Thành Trung did contact me via Messenger asking when I would be
back in town, and I said I would be there in a couple of hours, roughly 3.5-4
hours of bus ride. Personally bus riding isn’t my favorite. It’s tiring and it’s
sleepy. Plus we had to stop at this random rest stop for toilet time and
grabbing some snacks and some chilling drinks. And the stay at Joe’s was great.
I mean, I was walking alone, in and out, sometimes talking to the bar staff
people there and I even hung out with them after work on the third or fourth day
there – we went out for some Pho. Two waitresses. They asked if I was feeling
lonely because most of the time they saw me like that – no girlfriend, no one
to talk to, just coming out and in to my room again, and I said yes, I did feel
lonely, but I am quite used with it. Woke up early probably by 7 or 8 in the
morning, had a quick shower, going out at the balcony to seeing the beaches,
then made myself some coffee, then going out for kebabs or banh mi (Vietnamese
baguette with meat fillings) – repeat. There’s so many South Korean tourists
there. Some of them would come to the bar by the evening listening to me doing
a one-man show. Peter George and Slowhandicap also joined me for two nights –
Slow played with me on Saturday night, July 22 and Peter did it with me a week
later – July 29. That’s it. The rest of the dates it was me. I talked to Clive
Pendock and Kreed – two veteran musicians who have been constantly doing shows
there even if I don’t come down there. I mean, they know what they are doing. They
are minding their own business. Kreed was sick, and he couldn’t sing well, yet
he did a one-man show for four hours. Kudos to the main man! Speaking of my
vocal work, I almost lost it after the first night singing it – I had no idea
why – maybe because of the air con? The ocean breeze? God knows… But when Slow
came by the afternoon of July 22, my voice was back again. I was happy. I told
Anna – the senior staff there as she takes care of the budget for the musicians
and the management in general – and Joe, that I was way too ready to singing again
that night. Slow was traveling with his friend by a scooter, and I did not like
that guy. He never said Hi to me or being sociable. They took off by the next
morning as Slow said they were heading to Da Lat – and if not – they would detour
back to Saigon.
Around this time I also talked to an Estonian girl I matched with on
Boo. She was nice at first – but then something didn’t feel right. She used the
word “decent” to describe what kind of a person she would be, but then I told
her that it was cool of her to use that word and she got mad and thought I was
mocking her English. I unmatched her right away after she said that to me
because I didn’t have time for aggressive people. You were looking for a
positive vibe, and all you got was to bump into negative people. Not cool! Be
careful what you wish for. And there’s people who wanted to check out the room
which was next to mine – and I could hear the noises they made by lurking behind
the curtain inside my room – either South Koreans or North Vietnamese. I didn’t
like that. I mean, South Koreans are fine. But I don’t feel comfortable when
there’s strangers approaching me. Back off, dude. Personal space! But actually
I liked this South Korean girl who came to see my show – I can’t remember which
exact date it was, but she was just nice. She said she enjoyed the music a lot
especially with guitars. But she was also upset that the show ended earlier
than expected – usually it was Joe, the boss telling me that I needed to do
four hours or more if there’s still guests around – from 6:30PM or 7PM until
11PM or 11:30PM. And that aforementioned show was ended by 11PM. I was totally
exhausted and I needed to give my vocal cord a rest. Man, doing solo shows ain’t
easy at all. Guess I was just this greedy when I asked Joe back in 2019 if my
band could do a long-term contract of shows there with Slow; and even Slow wasn’t
agreeable to that at the first place because he was busy with schools and other
projects. But he’s down to anything if he is able to. I guess that’s one respectable
thing about him. And that also explains why we can totally stand each other after
all those years – since 2014. Next year, 2024 by the time of I am writing this
chapter – will be the 10th Anniversary of the Last Jackals and the
Yummy Rockers.
Top to bottom: (1) Stage setup on July 27, 2023 at Joe's; (2) Peter swimming in a cold, rainy morning of July 30, 2023 at Joe's. Photos courtesy of Mikey Ramone Archives. All rights reserved.
Back to the beach trip, and by July 26, I got mine a VHS tape from Michael Jackson – “Video Greatest Hits HIStory” that I placed an order two days earlier from a seller in Long Thanh, Dong Nai province which would be a few kilometers away from Muine – where I was staying at. Starting from July 29 until the day I got home, I was hanging out of this cool coffee house called “Choi Oi!” which was owned by a couple and they were super, super nice. They had the best food and the best coffee with condensed milk – just what I’d been waiting for. They also offered a private car ride back to Saigon but that was a lot of money, so maybe sometimes soon I can totally contact them if I come down to Muine again doing shows there – with a reasonable price – 1,800,000 VNĐ for the whole “one-way-ticket” ride here. I mean, I was doing shows that living also on my per diem, so that’s a nope. Too much for me to handle it. After breaking off with the Polish girl named Karolina (she lived in the UK since she was two years old) by July 4, I was having a deep depression because I was just recovering from that shit by early June (I met Karolina by June 24 on Boo) – this was again a disaster to me. And Mom was making a withdrawal of every cent from her bank – including my own expenses she collected since I was a kid – totally of 20,000,000 VNĐ but after deducted to her as the debt I had to pay, I only got 9,000,000 VNĐ left to keep. And again, I burned that so quickly that now I have to lay down some rules to myself that I will never spend that much anymore – I was having an eye for a new CPU desktop and I blew that chance in less than two fucking weeks. Somebody needs to whip my ass for being a big spender! But starting from August after I got home from the beach trip, there weren’t so many gigs coming up anyways. Only maybe one – August 19 at Peace Café in Da Lat. That was a remote place and it’s too far from my town – 7 hours of driving there on bus and 9.5 hours of going back to Saigon – simply because they didn’t allow buses to drive back to the big city from 8:30PM until 10:30PM – but eventually the driver he had to make a bold move, but to drop everyone off not so far from the original station where he parked his vehicle there. I overheard if they got caught by the traffic cops it might be a big fine – 40,000,000 VNĐ for a ticket. That doesn’t sound good…
And the gig in Da Lat wasn’t a good idea either. It was
cold, raining almost every day I was staying there – well, three days in total.
August 18-20. The weather dropped down to 16-17 Celsius degrees, it froze you
even you’d have your blanket on, and you didn’t even need a shower. There was steam
on the door, everything was so moist and wet. I hated that weather. I mean, I
like the cold weather like playing in a snow or something, but I hated when it
rained and it was cold like that. No, it wasn’t cold. It was fucking frozen.
But the food there was good – we wandered around the neighborhood and found
some cool food vendors either in daylight or in the evening. My niece was tagging
along because she loves Da Lat. Now she doesn’t like it anymore. You can easily
guess why. Then the bus was another problem. The bed was too small, me and her
were trying to share it but it wasn’t big enough and she was complaining the
whole trip back home. And again, Trung was calling me after I got back to
Saigon and we hung out for some Hu Tieu Nam Vang (Phnom Penh-style noodles) and
it was so good. We kinda love it – especially he does, and it is expensive as
hell. Just one bowl it costs you like 100,000 VNĐ if you order an extra side
pasta in a smaller bowl. Then the payment from the lady boss was not also
processed until the next day – August 21. She asked me constantly if I could
share the posts on Facebook about her bar and giving her a good review – I said
yes but it was too much to ask for, so I refused to play there as her second
invitation on September 30 to October 1. And I never wanted to come back there
again. The need to take a piss when you are on a nine-hour bus ride is a
nightmare. Never again. I wish her the best business, though.
END OF CHAPTER SIX
Comments
Post a Comment