Top 20 Songs of 2005 (10 - 1)

10. Jennifer O'Connor "The Color and the Light" Red Panda

Somewhere near the intersection of Hope Sandoval and Lucinda Williams lives the music of Jennifer O'Connor.

9. Cat Power "The Greatest" Matador Records

From the as yet unreleased album of the same name. Chan Marshall recorded the album in Memphis with local session players. The result recalls Dusty Springfield's classic album recorded in the same city.

8. The National “All the Wine” Beggars Banquet

The best of the song-oriented bands from NYC. Matt Berninger's voice evokes comparisons to Mark Eitzel as does the songwriting. Excellent song from one of the best albums of the year, Alligator.

7. Ponce De Leon “Snap the Gator Jaw” Thorn01

Without a doubt, this is the most absurdist song on the list. Ponce De Leon take dance punk to a new level. "Snap the Gator Jaw" infuses '80's era new wave with punk attitude and completely bizarre lyrics.

6. Spoon “The Two Sides of Monsieur Valentine” Merge

There are probably three or four other songs that I could have picked from Gimme Fiction that are just as good ("I Summon You", "Beast and Dragon, Adored", etc.), but Monsieur Valentine just won out. Brit Daniels does more with less than any musician I can think of. Also check out "I Turn My Camera On"

5. Anders Parker “I Found You” Baryon Records/Redeye

The former frontman of alt-country outfit, Varnaline, continues to impress me as the best singer-songwriter out there, or at least in Brooklyn. Following up 2004's amazing Tell it to the Dust, Anders released the EP The Wounded Astronaut earlier this year. Moving back and forth between piano and guitar on the EP, "I Found You" is as straight ahead a rocker as you could find in 2005. Also check out "Tell it to the Dust"

4. Okkervil River “The Latest Toughs” Jagjaguar/IODA

Who says New Hampshire doesn't rock? "The Latest Toughs" exhibits that this often alt-country band can do indie-pop like nobody's business. Also check out "Black"

3. Koufax “Why Bother At All” Doghouse

With all due respect to The Killers and Franz Ferndinand, Koufax does the retro new wave thing better than anybody - just listen to this song and you will know of what I speak.

2. Bloc Party "Helicopter" Vice

Also check out the remix of "Helicopter"

1. Sufjan Stevens "Chicago" Asthmatic Kitty

Sufjan is kind of a like a enigma wrapped in a puzzle encased in a riddle. I mean, what's the deal with the Christianity bit and how far does he think he can take this 50 albums for the 50 states schitk? That said, Illinoise has garnered more accolades than any other album (that I would listen to) this year, save the efforts from Spoon and The New Pornographers. While 22 songs on one album allows for a lot to choose from, it's the beautiful orchestration and harmonies of "Chicago" that sets this song apart. Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you number one.

Top 20 Songs of 2005 (20 - 11)

I am back from Cambodia, so I guess that means writing about music again. While sites like Pitchfork Media and CokemachineGlow, in addition to nearly every music/mp3 blog, have offerred their take on the best albums or singles of the year I will follow suit... because really, who loves lists more than me (answer: no one - at least no one who should really be spending the bulk of their free time with their wife and child or busy learning medicine). I decided to rank songs, not singles, because I often find at this stage of my life I am just as likely to love some random album track as I am the single released by the artist (or label). So today, I present songs 20 to 11, with 10 to 1 to follow in the next few days. When possible I have included a link to a free and legal mp3 version of the songs, so check them out.

20. The Oranges Band "Ride the Nuclear Wave" Lookout
Simple pop perfection from Baltimore's The Oranges Band. Great harmonies, smart lyrics and the feeling that this song could have been written in 1965 just as easily as 2005.

19. …And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead “Will You Smile Again” Interscope
Exploding with dueling guitars before evolving into a musical death march, this song features the best six minute build up into sonic frenzy of the year. Also check out "The Rest Will Follow" from the same album.

18. Pela “Episodes (Diphenhydramine)” Brassland
While it seems like every band from Brooklyn is the next "It" band, Pela are living under the radar playing their own intelligent brand of indie rock a la American Music Club and The National. More importantly, this is the best song featuring an antihistamine in its title out there.

17. William Elliot Whitmore “Midnight” Southern
Just like Rachel's made chamber music cool for the indie crowd, William Elliot Whitmore has made bluegrass cool for the punk crowd. Employing only an acoustic guitar and simple percussion, it's William's voice from the beyond (sort of a young Tom Waits) that drives this song.

16. Ted Leo “Since U Been Gone”
Ted's live cover of the Kelly Clarkson song (with an homage to The Yeah Yeah Yeah's "Maps" thrown in) was never intended to be a joke - He likes the original, which is actually quite catchy if I say so myself (I just shed all of the remaining credibility that I may have still had).

15. Fiona Apple “Red Red Red” Sony
Just because someone is crazy, doesn't mean that they can't have a beautiful voice and write great songs (see Brian Wilson for historical perspective).

14. Thievery Corporation “Warning Shots” Eighteenth Street Lounge
In the past, my interest in electronic music was somewhat limited to New Order and Stereolab, but downtempo has changed that all for me. DC's Thieverry Corporation continue to produce new and interesting downtempo fusing world music, hip hop and social activism.

13. Anthony and the Johnsons “Hope There’s Someone” Secretly Canadian
The folks at Pitchfork Media named this song their #1 single of the year so check out why THEY think the song is SO GREAT. I like it because of its' simple melodies and Antony's unique vocals. What does Pitchfork have on me?

12. Bloc Party "Like Eating Glass" Vice
The only non-American band on the list (I'm such a homer) who put out one of the best albums of the year, Silent Alarm. This is the first of two of their songs that made the list.

11. Sleater-Kinney “Entertain” Subpop
I like my Sleater-Kinney loud and angry. And while "Entertain" draws from the same energy that drove "Dig Me Out", it also exposes the band at the peak of its' maturity. Bravo Corin, Bravo Janet, Bravo Carrie.

Out With The Guys

Well, I'm in Bangkok. I can't even start to try to explain this place. It's absurd beyond most methods of description. So I will concentrate this post on my final days in Cambodia and get back to Bangkok once it sets in.

My time in Cambodia was clearly time well spent. The experience at the hospital and out in the community will clearly stay with me forever. It's my sincere hope to make it back there again in the near (or distant) future, but next time with Shannon. While I could attempt to tug at your hearstrings with one final tale of some child overcoming poverty or illness or a landmine injury, I thought I would describe for you my most insane night in Cambodia - Thursday night when we went out with the Maintenance Guys.

Let me give you the cast of characters:
1. Ben - 22 from Berkeley, California. Ben, as I mentioned in a previous post is Angkor Hospital for Children's Face Man (the Dirk Benedict character from 1980's hit action TV program The A-Team). He's confident and handsome in a way that gets shit done both at the Hospital and out at the bars. He's also the ringleader for the story I will tell henceforth.
2. Roy - 27 from Los Angeles. My trusty med student. You all know him well by this point.
3. Ian - 24 from Sydney, Australia. Ian is the boyfriend of the lovely Bernadette who is a med student working at the hospital. Ian, who is in finance by training, traveled with Bernadette and has been helping out painting as well as playing with the kids. For the purposes of the following tail, Ian will be known as my Wingman.
4. Josh - 25 from Wyoming, USA. Josh is a mechanical engineer who was backpacking in Cambodia and heard the hospital needed some computer help so he stayed in town for a few weeks to work.
5. The Maintenance Guys - 33 to 35 from Siem Reap, Cambodia although all of them can tell you where there "adoptive" parents live in America ("For the cost of a cup of coffee a day, you can help a child...). Also add to this group the Bookeeper from the hospital, his girlfriend, and the brother in law of one of the Maintenance Guys.

So Ben kept talking about how we all needed to go out with the Maintenace Guys for a night out at a real Khmer restaurant and then on to karaoke - Cambodian Style. The restaurant experience started out well enough. We were brought plates of delicious meats and vegetables and were having a grand old time. At this particular establishment, the "ladies" who served beer worked for the beer company of the particular beer they served. So each "lady" would attempt to get you to drink their beer and be quite attentive pouring and grabbing more bottles, way before anyone was ready for the next. They were quite competitive with one another and occasionally one would sit down with us and pour herself a drink. Rumor has it that they were "available" for after hours pouring, if you know what I mean.

Well, about 45 minutes into the festivities just as a nice buzz was setting in, one of the Maintenance Guys who appeared several levels of buzzed beyond myself decided to get a little handsy with me. Now I recognize there are cultural differences out there and I was chalking it up to that for about the first 15 minutes. "Hey, this guy is married with two kids, he can't possibly be gay" - sort of like the Cambodian Brokeback Mountain. As I've mentioned in previous posts humor is my best defense mechanism and I tried in vain to get Touchy McToucher to back off. Ben and Ian, of course, were having a great time laughing their asses off.

The last straw was the following: With Touchy McToucher on my left, I turned to my right and said to Ian "I am going to the bathroom, if this dude gets up and follows me, you must fucking tackle him". I get up and walk to the "bathroom" - I need to stop here and give you all the following background. There are about 150 people in this open air restaurant, of which five of us are Western. The bathroom consists of a toilet at one end of the dining area surrounded on three and a half sides by a four foot high brick wall (I'm 6'1 for the record). Now, I am nervous enough peeing in front of 150 strangers, but Touchy has really ratcheted up the anxiety level. Miraculously, there was no stage fright ("Hooray Beer") and I made it out alive. As I walk back to the table I noticed out of the corner of my eye, Ian forming a human shield and talking to Touchy about 20 feet from the table. As it turned out, about 20 seconds after I left for my bathroom excursion, Touchy stood up and started walking to the bathroom. Alarmed, Ian yelled across the table to Ben that he was to tackle Touchy if he were to follow me to the loo. Ben, with the assuredness of any Vietnam Vet accused of a crime he didn't commit, yelled back to Ian "well, you better go fucking tackle him!". Bravo Ian. Bravo Ben.

We then rode on to karaoke, which was not quite like hitting Cafe Japone on P Street. Hey, I like karaoke. I just like it when I am eating sushi and I can get up after a Sapporo tallboy and belt out a little Neil Diamond with crowd of strangers singing along. And yes, singing with everyone requires that you to have to listen to that horrible group of tone deaf sorrority sisters singing some awful Belinda Carlise song.

Our karoake experience was a little different. Karaoke in Cambodia is like karaoke in a lot of Asian countries as each group has their own private room complete with tv and wireless mics. This experience was different because in addition to said audio visual equipment, we were each provided with a young lay who would pour our beer and dance with us to the most god awful music I have ever heard in my life. I am quite sure that this was the most awkward I have felt since getting turned down to dance by Heather Cox at the James Fennimore Cooper Intermediate School 7th grade dance. I should also remind all the readers out there that I am a pediatrician and while everyone in Cambodia appears younger than their true age, that theory wasn't really helping my comfort level at the time. The songs were either in Khmer to some awful dance beat or were the most out of date crappy 60's faux-folk songs. That said, everyone put on a good face and tried to have a good time, and I ditched Touchy as he made his way over to Josh. Roy made the most of the evening, taking over on mic and singing songs in both English and Khmer (using the phonetic spelling at the bottom of the screen). It was not unlike a bachelor party although no one was getting married... and everyone was properly clothed, calm down. After about a hour, Ben was busy making an oragami rose for his "lady", and Ian and I were quite sure that we had enough. So we bade adieu and headed home.

A night like that only served to aclimatize (spelling?) me to the Kraziness of Bangkok. I will keep you posted.

Pulling Teeth in Cambodia

Hello all. Let me once again thank all of you for the nice emails I have been receiving. The pace is glacial in the internet world over here, so I apologize for not returning so many of your emails. Waiting five minutes for my email account to open is maddening enough. Let me also give a big shout out to my comments writers namely Nilbog (Chris D), Mike O., and Cliff. Chris, your commentaries have grown both in length and depth over the month. And no, there was no happy ending to my massage. Thanks for your concern my good man.

I decided to start out my post with a downer and then work my way towards the lighter material instead of my usual pattern. I tell you all this story not because it's any different than anything I've seen before in DC or Providence, but because I find it somewhat therapeutic to put it down in words.

So one of the best things about working in medicine is getting to meet all kinds of people and having the opportunity to make some kind of impact, big or small, on their day, or their week or their life. I'm a people person, no one can deny that so although I've been here less than a month it's been nice to get to know some of the kids and their families.

I met a really nice girl in clinic last week, she'll turn 15 next month. Her grandmother brought her in because for the last month she has had painful swelling on both sides of her neck. I was the first doctor she had ever seen in her life. Let me repeat that for effect. This girl, nay woman, had never seen a doctor in her life prior to last Thursday. She is an only child and lives with her grandmother because both of her parents died of AIDS two years ago (ed note: greater than 1% of Cambodia's population is HIV +). In my mind, I had surmised that her neck swelling was either due to a bacterial infection or tuberculosis, but was most concerned about her risk of having congenital HIV. So I talked it over with one of the head Cambodian docs and he agreed with my differential diagnosis and plan, but didn't feel that HIV testing at this time was necessary. I knew what he was saying, he truly made sense, but part of me (a big part) felt that regardless of whether or not she was ill, she deserves to know her status. So I placed a PPD (TB test) and discussed with her and her grandmother that maybe HIV testing in the near future was a good idea.

So the weekend passes and I think that the girl entered my mind once or twice, but I didn't dwell on the case. I just think I thought it sucked that she was an only child and her parents were dead. She reappeared in the chair across from me Monday morning with 15mm of induration on her right forearm - in the biz, we call that a positve PPD - thus Doctor Mike made the right call ("thank you, thank you"). As I was looking up the correct doses for her four different TB medications, her grandmother asked the interpreter to ask me about HIV testing. I was so happy she asked but scared at some level of finding out the result. I sent her to the HIV counselor for pretest counseling and then on to get the test done. She then told me that she would wait the requisite two hours for the result to come back which she would receive from the HIV counselors.

So I get back from lunch about 30 minutes early stalking the lab for the result(I think you all know where this is going). I start sifting through the completed labs and there it is - POSITIVE. Both screening and confirmatory tests. Are you f&*king kidding me? This is insane on several levels, mainly because she's lived for nearly 15 years with this virus and been, until she developed TB, asymptomatic. But any medical interest this case creates is trumped by how sad I am for this kid. Again, this kind of shit happens every day in Providence and DC and London and Berlin and Capetown and SIEM REAP, so take it down a notch Spaeder! Well, that feels a little better now.

As I mentioned getting to know kids and their families earlier, it finally came in really handy the other day. For any of you who have traveled through the developing world you have likely experienced the joy of the marketplace. It's a place of bargaining and it's also a place with absolutely no pricetags. I don't like bargaining...at all. I am the absolute worst person to have with at a garage sale or flea market. My only response to a unreasonable price is to make a joke, which never helps me lower said price. So my performance up to now in Cambodia has been poor. I spent $2 on fruit that afterward everyone said should have only cost $1 - for the record it was a lot of fruit and if I tried to buy the same fruit in the States I, a.) wouldn't be able to because it doesn't exist there and b.) if it did exist I could only find it at Fresh Fields where I would have literally paid $10-$15. So, I went to the Central Market looking for something nice for the Mrs. when all of a sudden, amid the cat calls of the market workers, I am grabbed by a woman who recognizes me from the hospital. I treated her child last week and she owns a stall at the market! What ensued was insane to say the least, as she and her sister showed me every goddamn thing they had for sale - trying things on I might add. I don't know if I got a good deal but I felt like I was getting one. And really, isn't that all that matters.

Back to my adventures with Paul the British Dentist. So he continues to be hours of entertainment for us. He has really inspired me to work on my dry humor. He also inspired me to ask him if he would show me how to pull out teeth. I've never had the slightest interest in Dentistry, but when else I am going to have the opportunity to pull teeth. So, he was all for it and had me jump right in. The first kid had a bad molar and I got almost all the way out before the pliers slipped off the tooth, so he finished that one off for me. As I was yanking out the front tooth of my second victim, the tooth was so rotten that it just broke into pieces. Not a stellar start to say the least.

So Paul, pleased that I was at least giving it the old college try invited me to go with him and his two dental assistants to a health clinic about 15km outside of town (which of course took 40 minutes, cause the roads SUCK). On a certain date, at a certain time, the people of these little "towns" know to show up at the health center if they have a tooth that needs to be pulled - let's just say for the record that any tooth in Cambodia has a greater than 50% chance of needing to be pulled. I was more than excited to go - a chance to see a little more of the countryside, learn a little dentisty - because who really is better equipped to teach me about bad teeth than a British dentist. We arrive at the health center and the young and old of the town requiring extraction were there waiting with baded breath. What ensued was an amazing display of dental prowess as Paul rid this town of tooth decay - incisors gone, canines gone, molars g-o-n-e gone! I stood in awe, silently taking all of the extraction knowledge he was imparting on me and storing it in an important place - my cerebral cortex. Thursday morning he has invited me back to the dental clinic to get my extraction on - I'll let you know how it goes.

Ed. note: I intended to end the post with the above musing on my teeth pulling exploits but as I often write the post at night and wait to publish in the AM, I had the opportunity to run into the young woman who I told you about several paragraphs above. She was coming out of the HIV office and we saw each other. She gave me a huge smile and a wave. It was the first time I ever saw her smile during this whole ordeal. Maybe she felt like a weight was lifted. I don't know.

Monks on Motorcycles

Greetings.

Well, my evening out with the crew on Wedensday (see previous post) was a fairly sedate affair. No tales of ribaldry to report. What was interesting about the night however was that as I walked to the bar after parking my bicycle I encoutered none of the usual harassment from the street kids begging. What's with that? Well, in the great tradition of shielding monarchs and VIPs from the reality of poverty, all the street kids were rounded up and trucked out of town to some sort of camp. You see, the Prime Minister was coming to town the next day and we've got to keep appearances up. The Hospital was contacted by reporters concerned about the condition of some of these kids but alas when people from the hospital tried to go out and see the kids, they were told the kids were "moved". Good stuff.

I have been trying to do a good job taking as many pictures as possible here although I don't have a flash so I can't get anything from inside the hospital. The picture that has been most elusive to me , however, is catching a shot of a monk riding on the back of a moto. Even better, two monks riding on the back of a moto. Everytime I see this magnificient site I am either too slow getting my camera out of my bag or I've left my camera back at the guest house. Last night I stationed myself outside of the Pagoda two blocks from my guesthouse and waited to no avail - there would be no Pulitzer for me this year. Later, after returning my camera to the safe haven of my room, I once again rode by the Pagoda and to my astonishment the greatest shot of all appeared - a minivan full of monks. The motherload!

For any of you that know me well at all know that I'm a little obsessive about numbers - stats, lists, facts, figures, what have you. Now I have never understood how a certain currency is valued against another, but this month has been a nice object lesson for me in the absurdity of economics in Cambodia. It's crazy that I can get not one, but two deep fried bananas from some lady on the street for 12 1/2 cents but gas still costs $3 a gallon. The crazier thing is if the banana lady says that it's 25 cents, people will argue with her. 12 1/2 cents people! I realize that it's a 100% increase but come on, she spends all day dipping bananas into some sort of heated batter. How many goddamn bananas does she need to sell to make a living? (side note: average adult earn $1 per day in Cambodia) I don't think I need to tell you that my guest house costs $5 per night to illustrate my point any further that, in general, it's cheap here.

What is interesting however, is the influx of foreign money (whether or not it stays in the country is a different issue). I spend the majority of time here either a.) working at the hospital with insanely poor people b.) at my guesthouse with thrifty backpackers or c.) out with the other docs, who frankly are pretty thrifty as well. I was impressed as I traveled out of town to the temples last weekend at the number of unbelievably beautiful hotels along the road (of course, in between the open fields of oxen and/or trash). What's amazing is last night I went to get a drink with Varun, Ben (he's like the Faceman of Angkor Hospital) and the Australians at the Grand Hotel. Now in addition to have entertained guests like Angelina Jolie (rumored to have been there Thursday night) Charlie Chaplin and Jackie Kennedy, the cheapest room rate is $300 per night or roughly the annual income of the average Cambodian. I am not saying this is bad, I'm just floored by the numbers. Thanks for bring me down, Mike. Good work.

Well, one more week to go and then it's Bangkok.

Hump Day in Cambodia

Happy Wednesday from Siem Reap

I have been quite busy here, thus the lack of recent posts. Many of the Cambodian doctors are receiving their pediatric advance life support class taught by a bunch of Australian docs and so the foreigners are having to work double time. So I am in the outpatient department with my Australian counterpart Lee who speaks fluent Khmer (her parents escaped the Khmer Rouge in the 70's) and my buddy Marvin. Marvin is 70 and the son of Polish immigrants who grew up in NYC but has been for as a pediatrician for the Indian Health Service for the last 32 years and spent some time in Nam during the war as a doc. So he's kind of seen it all ("Were you in the shit?" "Yeah, I was in the shit"). When he says that he is floored by the craziness that walks into that clinic each day (malaria, dengue fever, undiagnosed congenital heart disease, crazy ass rashes) then I feel a little better each time my jaw hits the floor.

Our new entertainment in town is this British dentist, Paul. He's in his 50's and is a dead ringer for Terrence Stamp. If you were to look up dry English wit in the dictionary there would be picture of his face and he does that thing where he's talking at a normal volume and then starts yelling. I love it! He is semi-retired and lives in Phuket with his 19 year old girlfriend and comes to Cambodia every year to do volunteer work - last year he was here for 6 months! I cannot figure this dude out but we're going out for drinks (something tells me he can drink) tonight so I will do some recon.

I got a massage from a five foot tall blind dude over the weekend. It was great. Siem Reap has not one, not two, but three massage palors staffed soley by the blind. I have to say $4 for a hour is pretty good. The insane part of it was that the guy was so short that he just jumped up on the table and sat on my back and went to town.

On my first night in town, which was a Monday, Varun took me to this bar for a beer and I thought it was funny that they were playing "The Killing Fields" on the big screen TV. We went there again this Monday for a beer and there it was, "The Killing Fields" on TV. Dith Pran and Sam Waterston, John Malkevich and Julian Sands. Don't get me wrong, it's an amazing movie, but do you need to show it weekly in a tourist bar? I don't expect to go to the Warsaw ghetto for a beer and see "The Pianist" playing on some big screen. Monday Night is "The Killing Fields" Night. See Pol Pot turn back Cambodia to Year Zero and systematically kill 4 million people. That's just depressing.

A lot of people have written me concerning any GI distress I have encountered. Thank you all for your concern, it seems genunine - I am quite confident that somewhere back in New England there is a Mike Spaeder dysentery pool. Well, knock on wood, I have done okay while managing to eat a lot of Khmer food. The one wise decision I made was to go vegetarian when Roy (who did not) and I ate at the little (dirt)roadside cafe on our tour of the temples. I correctly surmised that no electricity = no refrigeration = bad news. I was proved correct by Roy's subsequent illness, although you can all rest easy that he's okay now.

Well, wish me luck tonight at the bar with a bunch of Australians and one crazy Brit. I will try and make us proud. USA USA. mike

Dispatch from Cambodia

3 December 2005 Siem Reap. My trusty med student Roy and I set off on our ladies bicycles into the jungle this morning in search of the ancient temples of the great Ankhorian empire. Once encompassing the whole of Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia the Ankhor empire built some of the great temples this world and Angelina Jolie have ever seen. Engaged in a virtual war with Dengue-carrying mosquitoes, monkeys, torrential rains and the constant cry of "Sir, you want cold drink?", "Sir, you want something to eat?", "Sir, you want to buy guidebook?" (said, of course in the most unapologetically politically incorrect stereotypical Asian female tone a la the famous "me so horney, me love you long time" from Good Morning Vietnam and Miami's own 2 Live Crew). We were awestruck by the scope of not only the temples, but of the shear volume of sweating we were doing during our nine hour adventure. Looking at my puffy hands at the end of the day I only wondered how soon it would be until I start seizing from hyponatremia.

A couple of other thoughts about Cambodia:
1. I mentioned monkeys earlier. We saw a bunch while we were visiting the temples. As some of my college friends know I find nothing funnier than monkeys in diapers - nothing, expect maybe joey when he's on a roll. That said, the monkeys in Cambodia, like the infants and toddlers of Cambodia, don't wear diapers. Not so funny.
2. BOOM BOOM - So the many questions that the average Barang (foreinger) faces on the streets of Cambodia include the aforemetioned ones as well as "Where you from?", "Sir, you want to buy postcard?". Sometime just after nightfall, if you are a gentleman, as I am, you get another question "You want boom boom?". Okay, so here's how it works. Say you are a white guy, originally from DC but currently residing in New England. And you're walking down the street minding your own business when another gentleman on a motorbike rides up next to you and asks (you know what's coming) "You want boom boom?". Then after a polite no thank you from said white guy he continues to ask "You want boom boom?" and then for effect adds "She nice girl". Well, when you put it that way.

Everything at the hospital is going well. I spend the first half of my day seeing kids in the outpatient clinic with the help of an interpreter. In the afternoon I spend time with the "junior doctors" or pediatric resident equivalents in the inpatient wards, ER and ICU. Things are done really differently here so I am trying to make small suggestions at the appropriate time without seeming like some asshole know it all doctor. But if these junior docs don't start laughing at my jokes soon, heads are going to roll - luckily the two American and one Australian docs I work with on the inpatient service throw me a bone or two.

It's Shannon's 32nd birthday today, so please wish her a happy birthday (spaeder@nais.org). If you're around Renaissance City be sure and and swing by and say hello to her and the little man. Finally, a big thank you to all of you leaving comments on the site - especially Chris D. (nilbog), Cliff and Mike O. It's nice to laugh out loud at Kiss Me Internet (my internet cafe) and scare the German tourists. Until then...mike

Burn to Shine, Volume 2

The basic premise of the Brendan Canty produced series of dvd's is - find a house that is about to be demolished, set up a camera crew and then have eight or nine bands come through every hour on the hour to play one song. Volume 1 of the series, shot in Washington, DC, documented the likes of Q and Not U, Bob Mould , Ted Leo and Medications. Volume 2 takes us to Chicago where indie-rock producer Bob Weston has gathered nine bands, including his own Shellac for a day of music in a house slated for demolition.

Track Listing
The Lonesome Organist “Catching Flies With Teeth”
Pit Er Pat “ The Bog Man”
Shellac “Steady As She Goes”
The Ponys “Shadow Box”
Wilco “Muzzle Of Bees”
Tight Phantomz “Ninja Talk”
Freakwater “Jewel”
Red Eyed Legends “Je M’appelle Macho”
Tortoise “Salt The Skies”

The film is shot beautifully in high definition (as was volume one) and the sound recording is fantastic. Standout performances include Wilco and Tight Phantomz, whose singer-guitarist, Mike Lust, worships at the altar of David Lee Roth, Dexter Romweber and Jack Black. The highlight performance, however, is Tortoise whose avant/indie/cool jazz/space, however you want to classify it, was jaw dropping (plus they’re bringing the xylophone back, which is cool). Check out www.trixiedvd.com for more info.

Pit Er Pat "3D Message" (mp3)
Tight Phantomz “Stranded” (mp3)

Your Basic Wednesday in Cambodia

Hello All.

All is well in Cambodia after a few days. For those of you just joining us, please check out my previous post to get a handle on what the hell I am doing in Cambodia. It's only been a few days but I am starting to figure out a few things around here. The hospital gave me a bicycle to get around for the month which has proven to be quite useful. The driving around here, however, is just south of fucking crazy. Imagine a group of your average Rhode Island (or Massachusetts or whatever) drivers on a motorbike and then let them smoke crack and then, oh yeah, abolish all traffic law - that's driving in Siem Reap.

Today, I went on a series of home visits with my trusty medical student, Roy, the homecare nurse, and our driver. We took off to see some kids with chronic disease some 50 km outside of town. It was quite an amazing experience to see the countryside of Cambodia - but it was also quite incredible to see how most people live here. While I could sit back and wax poetic about the level of poverty here in Cambodia, I find that my best defense mechanism, HUMOR, can best describe what I saw today... If American Poverty and Cambodian Poverty got in a fight, Cambodian Poverty would kick the living shit out of American Poverty. No contest - like a 1988 era Mike Tyson knockout.

The trip was amazing. We went to see three different children (two with HIV, one with severe malnutrition). The first child lived in a makeshift wooden shack with his 78 year grandmother (his father was dead from AIDS and mom was making $0.75 a day harvesting rice). The kid was really cute although quite sick and living in total squalor. His grandmother allowed me to take some pictures of him that I will put up on the site once I get back to the States. After we saw the kid, we headed back to our truck only to find our driver stripped down to his boxers and wading knee deep in the water next to our trunk. While he was trying to turn around the trunk on this one lane dirt road in the middle of nowhere, the right side of the truck slide into the drainage ditch. I was really kicking myself, because I left my AAA card back in Rhode Island and I did NOT remember my account number offhand. Anywho, Roy and I watched as our driver wedged some logs under the truck ("What is he doing?"). So I look up the road and here comes a young man with an oxen-driven cart, clearly he'll help us! (right, right) - people drive oxen driven carts, is anyone else suprised?. Then comes a truck with two gentlemen (I use the term gentlemen loosely). I will from henceforth refer to the older gentleman as "the Colonel" for he wore some sort of military garb. Our driver and the Colonol rigged up some sort of cable system and for the love of God, they pulled us out of the ditch. Well, now the homecare nurse and the driver disappeared into the village to return something "we" used to get the truck out of the ditch. Here I am with Roy, my trusty med student, standing there holding a couple of bags of rice and eggs for the kids. The Colonel is starring us down, saying something in Khmer, and laughing - his gold capped tooth glaring in the sunlight- oh by the way, a crowd of some 15 villagers have gathered and they are laughing as well - very sinister like. I try to put on the Spaeder charm but found myself thinking, "If they want these eggs, they can fucking have them". So what seemed like an eternity ended when our driver returned and we paid off the Colonel for helping us and moved on to see the next kid. I joke but being invite into these kids' "homes" was quite amazing for me. One of the other American doctors I am working with say that the Cambodian have this crazy Survival gene and goddammit if he's not right.

I guess that I will leave it at that. Thanks to everyone for the emails and the comments on the website. See you all soon. big love, mike

Greetings from Cambodia

Well, I'm here in Cambodia. For those of you wondering why I am here, I'll give you the short story. There is a free children's hospital in Siem Reap, Cambodia started six years ago by a Japanese photographer. The director of the hospital is originally from Rhode Island and since everybody knows everybody in Rhode Island, I ended up here working for the month.

My trip was long and arduous. The 17 hour direct flight from JFK to Bangkok pushed the limits of my endurance due more to the lack of good movie selections. The Longest Yard, yikes! Didn't get to see too much of Bangkok before heading off again to Cambodia. The saddest part of the journey was finding the only option for breakfast in the Bangkok airport was KFC. The Thai have obtained the Colonel's secret Hot & Spicy recipe. I repeat the Thai have the Colonel's secret recipe.

Siem Reap is the town just outside the temple area of Cambodia and the location for much of Angelina Jolie's stellar film Tombraider - this was the birthplace of her Cambodia fixation and every bar in town where she drank will be sure to tell you about her.

The hospital is hard to describe. Somewhere out of a movie and a Sally Struthers commercial. Where 1-2 kids might die a month at my hospital in Rhode Island, death is a daily occurence here so I am trying to get used to that. I saw a bunch of kids yesterday with heart disease who will most likely die in their teens, but if they were only born in the West they'd live just as long as me or you. There is this 70 year doctor from New Mexico (imagine your typical New Yorker who spent the last 32 years as the pediatrician on an Indian Reservation - yeah tough for me to imagine as well) who has been trying to convince me just to block it all out. Ahh yes, repression of emotions - always healthy. Anywho, I am learning a ton - about medicine and the world.

Keep checking back. mike

Teenbeat Records 20th Anniversary

While the official celebration of Teenbeat Records 20th Anniversary took place back in February, I felt it necessary to celebrate one more time before the new year. Started by Wakefield HS (Arlington, VA) student Mark Robinson in 1985 quickly rose to prominence in the late 1980's and early 1990's as the DC area's second indie label behind Dischord (currently celebrating their 25th anniversary). Along with another Arlington run indie Simple Machines, Teenbeat put out record after record of infectious indie pop. Led by Robinson's own Unrest, the label's roster included acts as diverse as Eggs, Versus, Cath Carroll, The Rondelles and Romania. While Unrest's 1992 release Imperial ffrr probably remains the label's most critically praised record, I would really encourage any lover of indie rock to check out Versus' 1994 album The Stars are Insane - an mp3 for the album track "Deseret" included below.

The Ropers "You Have A Light" (mp3)
Unrest "Cherry Cherry" (mp3)
Plus/Minus "Ventriloquist" (mp3)
Versus "Deseret" (mp3)

Pretty Girls Make Graves east coast tour

The best band ever named after a Smiths' song, Pretty Girls Make Graves, is heading out on the road in the next few weeks and will be making their way through the northeast/mid-atlantic region. I've seen them twice and they are definitely worth trying to catch live. Of course, they are going out of their way to hit Providence and luck has it that I will be in Cambodia. Anywho, I've posted two of their songs for your listening pleasure. The first is from 2003's The New Romance while the second is from 2002's Good Health, which is still my favorite record from this decade.

12-05 New York, NY - Knitting Factory
12-06 Brooklyn, NY - Warsaw
12-08 Washington, DC - Black Cat
12-09 Bellmore, NY - Live Trax
12-10 Providence, RI - The Living Room
12-11 Cambridge, MA - Middle East
12-12 Philadelphia, PA - North Star Bar

"All Medicated Geniuses" (mp3)
"Speakers Push the Air" (mp3)

Just a Quick Note

Interesting article from the Post about the Bright Eyes show in DC and Conor's anger towards Bush. It's funny how many friends I've heard from in the last 24 hours that have reminded they're Republican. I still love you guys.

Received a nice email from the Wrens' guitarist, Greg Whelan, regarding my review of their show in Providence posted below. Hobnobbing with rockstars!!!

The Wrens live 11/18/05

I had the good fortune of seeing New Jersey's finest, the Wrens, this past Friday at Alumnae Hall at Brown University. Not well publicized to the public and requiring a college ID to gain entry, I was a little nervous about going in solo - but a show's a show, right? Luckily as a quasi-faculty member, my ID and $5 gained me entry into not only a great show, but some excellent people watching conditions. As I sidled up to the "bar" to purchase a $1 Stroh's from the young fraternity pledge I was fascinated by the eclectic crowd of Ivy League smarties dressed to the nines in their alterna-wear. I particularly loved the two young ladies in their Olivia Newton John a la` "Let's Get Physical" ensembles, complete with teal leg warmers - is this supposed to be ironic? Anyway, I kept telling myself that the band members are even older than me so I need to just get over the age thing (where are all the grad students?).

One of 2003's best albums, The Meadowlands, was the centerpiece of the show. Hightlights included "Happy", "Hopeless", "Faster Gun" and "Everyone Choose Sides" - many of the songs deviated from their recorded arrangements but to uniform success. Bassist/Keyboardist/ Singer Kevin Whelan was clearly the linchpin, looking like a boyish cross between Colin Firth and Jim Carey as he spazzed out on stage - unbelievable energy which could be reigned in for beautiful songs like "Boy, You Won't Remember". Greg Whelan (lead guitar and Kevin's big brother) and Jerry MacDonald (drums) were clearly the yin to Kevin's yang. All the while, Charles Bissell (Guitar/Vocals) was creating crazy sounds with his Strat while strumming as if his right elbow was on some sort of swivel. Although the acoustics of the room left something to be desired, the energy and song selection more than made up for it.

Everyone Choose Sides(mp3)

A New Morning, Changing Weather

Welcome to Despite the Times. The name is a reference to a line from R.E.M.'s "These Days" on 1986's Life's Rich Pageant. That song, released during my freshman year in high school, has always served as source of creative inspiration for me. I hope that spirit lives on as I rant and rave about issues of interest to me - music, politics, entertainment, culture, my crazy son. So, check back when you can and let me know how I'm doing.

Enjoy and big love.