The Relay Project

Daniel De Rogatis, Jr.:

A few years ago, 2001 to be exact, I quit my awful job at a psychiatric hospital and bought an open-ended plane ticket that would land in Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia, and leave from Bangkok, Thailand. I had six months to set a return date, so I was stoked on this journey to a land I had dreamed of seeing since I could remember (sigh). I would be gone from October of said year until March 2002, travelling through Bali, Thailand, Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. I had hoped to see Myanmar and Sumatra as well, but unfortunately that didn’t happen. There’s always another time though. My traveling companion, partner in rhyme n’ crime was my cosmic mate, Kira the Lioness. It is impossible to convey how unbelievably different the culture is in Bali, how very exotic and rich it is, and how entrancing and seductive the music and dance, how ridiculously breathtaking the land is... a paradise in the truest sense of the word! I had heard and loved gamelan music for years, but to experience it walking along through a small village with small orchestras playing under shaded bamboo open huts is quite a sight and sound to behold... metallophones and bamboo percussive bliss, ringing in the clove-soaked air... I can still smell Bali just talking about it.

In the center of Bali is a town called Ubud, which is known as the cultural center of the country. Admittedly, I was a bit annoyed at first because of how touristy it can get, but that feeling and mentality quickly disappeared. To put it simply, it is amazing there. Music and dance performances every night, great places to stay for cheap, lots of different things to do and see. We stayed at a guest house that had a beautifully decorated room, an outdoor shower surrounded by stone and hanging plants, and a breakfast every morning of fresh papaya, mango, banana, and jackfruit. Jackfriut looks like a yellow heart of palm, and it tastes just like bubblegum. Not really a fan, but heck, I’ll eat papaya all day. Another popular fruit is durian, which smells like ass, and tastes like garlic. When we first got to Bali, we sampled every type of fruit and candy, and the durian was by far the grossest fruit I have ever eaten. But now I am straying away from the real point of this written vignette.

One day, on a long stroll we decided we would walk Ubud taking photos and recording sounds. During the whole journey I sacrificed many incredible photo opps so i could get things on minidisc. It was well worth it though, for in the northern mountains of Thailand I would play recorded sounds to a hill tribe woman who actually cried upon hearing them, and laughed her head off as well, her shiny red/black-stained teeth fixed in one of the greatest smiles I have ever had the pleasure of witnessing. I had also brought a homemade mix-minidisc of songs from the Secret Museum of Mankind series on Yazoo. If you don’t have it, I recommend it beyond belief. It is my favorite album(s) by far. Songs from all over the world recorded between 1925-1948. Anyway, on. Plus, Kira had her camera as well, so i knew she would be shooting the moments I couldn’t capture. Sometimes I would do both, but it can be a real pain in the ass. So! We started our stroll on a road called Monkey Forest Road, a busy street filled with shops, guest houses, food, life in general. Total sensory overload! At the end of the road is the actual monkey forest, so we entered it, soon seeing why it is named as such&emdash;there are literally hundreds of monkeys that interact with you, no cages. They walk up to you looking for food, it is total insanity, and quite amazing to see these creatures in full mode. We saw them sleeping, playing, fighting, making beats, having sex, the whole gamut, all fantastic and strangely familiar. After we passed through the forest the area was less populated, and before long we were among rice terrace vistas and farms. We were walking through the back of someone’s farm and came across a cement wall about 7 feet high. it seemed like a good place to record sounds and take pictures. we heard a couple of oinks and snorts and knew we were onto a possible moment of serendipity. We propped ourselves up and saw that on the other side of the wall was a corral full of pigs the size of ponies, literally. I immediately put my microphone on top of the wall and hit record and listened. At first, there were sporadic noises from the pigs, and as if they sensed our presence, they started to go ballistic. Over the course of about five minutes it became a death metal roar, as brutal as Burzum. We stood there astonished, and had to cover our mouths because we were laughing hysterically. It was unbelievable. A baby was crying in the background, and it sounded like it was being eaten. I had to make sure it wasn’t really happening, and when I looked I saw that it was the baby from inside the home of the farmowner.

Contact, questions, comments, an explanation of the significance of my curious moniker, as well as a (very) detailed story on the "evil pigs" scenario… feel free to drop me a line at: popambient@yahoo.com …thanks for listening.

&emdash;Daniel De Rogatis, Jr. aka Papa New Guinea