Prubangboy

This was the era when he was playing with a 9-piece band in bars due to crack. Those were some raggedy shows ($10 on a Tuesday -$15 on a weekend). You could have prob bought Please, Please, Please off of him for a jumbo rock or two. I have actually asked for an autograph one time in my life -from the gospel singer, Dorothy Love Coats, who's rough-style Alabama singing influenced Little Richard. It was a park concert and I had a reception invite. She wrote In HIS name, On this date, and then a big sig and the date. Yeah, that's gone with the wind too.

Women all over the world of different races? Is it true, Bob, try black and you never go back?

Broadly I agree, but a lot of stars like doing it. There's some vids of Bruce engaging and signing stuff. Ringo won't sign anything since he keeps seeing it show up on Ebay. I bought my Elvis check at a charity auction ($200). I got my Jamie Reid poster signed at his gallery showing in New York ($100 -F Forever if you want to google-image it). I would never approach an artist to ask for anything. Tho one time I saw James Brown at a traffic crossing on 5th Avenue and asked him when his old R+B stuff would be re-released. James shrugged and said, "It all about the dollar".

Gynophobia sounds like something a Fem-Domme would threaten you with. "By the time I'm finished with this riding crop, you're gonna be gynophobic, WORM!"

I had some punk rock stuff like a signed Jamie Reid poster and a check signed by Elvis. All happily now gone with the wind, post Chiang Mai-move. Anybody own anything interesting in the broad category of memorabilia? Posters, footie shirts, old souvenirs etc? I used to collect old menu's. One from The Titanic just sold for $100K: https://edition.cnn.com/style/titanic-menu-sold-auction-intl-scli/index.html I previewed this question for NextG. He said: "I am a very serious man and I do not go to prostitutes. I don't have their autographs either. Why? Why are you asking me this?".

There's a weaving/indigo dye village worth a look and a lunch. Overall tho, Korat was a bit blah. The walled city aspect did not lead to much historic preservation.

Kid Rock was asked how he avoided the paparazzi. He said "I moved to upstate Michigan. Easy". Like I said, before the usual descent into autistic morass, do you feel that moving to Thailand gave you a class-reset?

Thanks for reminding us of your existence. I mean, temporarily.

I retired from being rich. It was too much work. I like living in an older condo and ordering in now. That's like being stealth-rich. Money brings neurosis. Like in my expensive stove example, I'm no saner than the other expensive stove head cases. I still: 1) feel I have to justify it (my wife wants it) 2) want the stove-guy to think well of me. I was hoping for more funny money neurosis stories. My neighbor just bought a truck that he "needed". Because he very occasionally likes to do a DIY project or two. But did he need a truck that you need a step ladder to get into? I know the affluence-drill, so I went with, "I'll bet your kids love it". 'Yeah", he said, "I bought it for the kids".

I used to have a very expensive, six burner stove. Cooking is my wife's #1 hobby. An expensive stove is like an expensive sports car; you will be seeing a lot of your new friend, the expensive stove repair man (assuming you can even book him). If you want 1,000 degrees for pizza, that's going to put a lot of stress on that very expensive stove. Call it 4 $300 visits a year. Cheaper than having a horse, I guess. The repairman told us that he like fixing our stove because we never ruminated on whether or not we really wanted an expensive stove or what that said about us. Did we really need it? Wasn't a good ol' thousand dollar stove just the same? What message was this 2-ton status signifier sending to the kids? As he put it, "I'm a stove-guy, not a therapist". As an expensive stove porn-addict, The Guardian (of course) regularly runs articles by expensive stove agonizers. Oddly, for all of the wailing, it's very hard to buy a high-end stove second hand. People keep them to the grave. This is diff from restaurant stoves, which are likely to have been in half a dozen other places before heating up your korma. If you're lucky enough to be affluent, then it's bad taste to expect any consideration from people who are not. If you got all the money, then someone else gets all of the sympathy. If God ever offers you the reverse, don't take that deal.

Is this diff from how you behaved back home? How so? Why? I had a much younger crypto zillionaire type as a neighbor for a while. We bonged up a few times. He shagged the laundry lady and I heard about it from the building manager. This kind of interaction would be impossible in the states.

And you admire yourself as a passive-aggressive, wet blanket drip actually bothering to pooh-pooh a medium-funny joke.

Since I love you Bob, please consider packing along some kind of face-shield for when these Batman-like, crime-fixing fits overtake you.

Most def. 100%. I was in sales. Interrupting someone's pitch is a grave sin. Do you c-block Jehovah's Witnesses when they're door-stepping and start yelling that there is no Jesus too?

Do you find that you escape classism by living in Thailand? I def do.

We're talking about some of the most penniless and abused workers in Thailand -who are forced to wheedle and extort chump change just so they can clear 500 baht in a day. A day that is spent out in the heat, breathing in traffic fumes. Grab cab rendered them obsolete. The electric tuk tuk that costs the same as a cab is doing them no favors.

Relatedly, I once saw a Brit (of course) actually interrupt some taxi negotiations between two Swedish sweeties (of course) and advise them to demand to pay less. Another driver came over, gave him a shove and said, "thai boxing". And then sadly, everyone dispersed. Am I what Trump calls a race-traitor for hoping for a zesty slap around of the Brit?

Bob, while I normally view you as font of Buddha-like equanimity, you are flat-out out of your mind to be dissing and arguing with penniless tuk tuk drivers (who are undoubtedly more fit than you). Plus, other nearby tuk tuk drivers will be happy to join in on your kicking. They're hopped up on M-80 energy drinks -never forget that.

Painfully honest article in The Guardian about how wealth inequality strains friendships. Interesting: 88% of Millenials will go into debt after spending time with richer friends. The FOMO is strong. I am the most set up of all the people I know. One thing I learned, is that poor people don't want to hear my fake humility or protestations of thrift. I changed careers from a $1,000 suit job to a $200 suit job. I knew not to wear the old suits, but I couldn't resist keeping the $200 ties. So I was back to square one. I was still clearly monied. It oozed out of every posh pore of me. Likewise, when I was rich, my humble beginnings were always present. What's your favorite rich person faux-humility gesture? What's your favorite poor nouvelle rich over-reach? Do you have richer/poorer friends? How does wealth inequality affect your relationships with Thai people? I pretested this thread with NextG. He had this to say: "Whether I haver richer, poorer, or indeed ANY friends, is neither here nor there. Why are you assuming? The witness protection program I'm in doesn't allow me to say anything. Are you trying to get my credit card number?" https://www.theguardian.com/money/2023/nov/12/is-the-wealth-gap-ruining-friendships

NextG: "Why do people think stuff about me I already said about myself?" "Why do people hold commonly held opinions that most people hold -what about in the rare instances where that might not be true?" 'Why doesn't anyone ever listen to me, beyond the fact that I never say anything, just endlessly bat back what someone else said?".

They pay to be there, so they want more money from you. I mean, duh. Possibly even super-duh. Note to Bob: please never open the mini-bar fridge. They want money for that Toberone bar. Like, a lot.

"Thank you, Sir. We'll get right on it".

Archie had two good albums and then got drafted. Here's his other one you'll be humming all day

Quite the iconoclast for not picking Glen Gould. I like Keith Jarret. Relatedly, The New York Dolls covered Archie Bell's There's Gonna Be A Showdown and Bruce Willis said Tighten Up was his all time fave Soul record.

That's more of a Chiang Mai vacation than a research trip, but very solid for Grab cabs arriving in under 2 minutes. Pop into Chiang Mai hummus 2 minutes away. I eat there monthly. 2 other must-do's nearby are Stephano's Italian and Swan Burmese,