Bali 2001

April 6, 2001
A long flight to Singapore, 7.5 hours but Singapore Air 1st class is really fabulous and three movies later we arrived to Singapore.
A quick gulp down at the 1st class club as we were entertained by an American man wearing a platinum fish hook around his neck, who was either really pissed off or had turets because he kept on yelling “damn son of a bitch”.
One movie later we were in Denpasar with all our bags and 16 bottles of wine.  I should have been tipped off when I saw the big white chalk X’s on our bags, but I was too tired to think about it and sure enough, the customs agents made us open the bags to find lots of wine.  We told them there were 11 bottles and they said we were 8 bottles over the limit, which according to Balinese law had to be destroyed.  I tried to appeak to his sense of good will, but no luck until I handed him $50 US. He looked around the room, put the money in his breast pocket and I was able to walk out with passport in hand and all wine in our bags.  We opened one up when we got to the hotel. 

April 7, 2001
Relaxation and more relaxation.  I was a bit jet lagged but a day of lounging around in this fabulous resort did wonders to bring me back.  I discovered that I liked the workout room and after a good 45 minute workout, we treated ourselves to a balinese massage.  I was so relaxed that I fell asleep at 8:30pm.  We ordered a small dinner but I had a hard time finishing it; maybe the heat or maybe the relaxation and massage, but I was wiped out.

April 8, 2001
Awoke feeling great and refreshed, I also slept for close to 11 hours, but I am now somewhat a bit more acclimated to the island and the weather, although I can’t stop sweating.  I picked up “American Pastoral” by Philip Roth in the hotel library and I am sucked in.

April 9, 2001
Ain’t nothing to do but lie around in the sun and I like it. No cares in the world, no worries about what is happening at home; just hanging out at the pool and saturating my body with benies (beneficial rays of the sun).
We did make the compulsory trip to Ubud, but it was even worse than I remember from the last visit; loads of boys hawking newspapers, overpriced fake silk shirts, more sarongs than you could ever want to look. Ubud is the Balinesian crossroads of artist communities, where every tourist comes to get paintings, silver, cloth, wood or stone. Over the years, tourism has gotten bigger and so Ubud has gotten bigger, and unfortunately, trashier. It's getting harder to find the real art from the souvenir shops.
We went back to Ary’s Warung and had a great meal of cold vegetable soup, coconut dipped shrimp and avocado salad and chicken coconut curry.  We skipped the sorbet desert in order to catch the shuttle home. But, somehow we missed the shuttle and had to flag a transport for 25,000 rupee or about $2.  At first we were a bit taken back when he turned off the main road onto a small, short cut.  Once again the fear of being hijacked or kipnapped or just mugged, but he was just eager to show us the real soul of Ubud where painters lived and set up their galleries and where rich foreigners built their homes and where new grant luxurious resorts were springing up in the jungle where once there were only coconut palms and jungle brush. They all love to put on the tour guide hat.

April 10, 2001
“Congratulation Mr Rome, you have won the first prize in our contest”.  We stopped to talk to a survey taker in Ubud and answered a questionaire and now I find out that we have been chosen as 1st prize winners of 7 days at the new Bali Masari Resort.  All we have to do is go to their office and then spend a 90 minute tour of the property. Ah, the time share scam hits paradise.  “No thank you,” I said.  “Give the prize to someone else.”
And for us today, it is more sun at the pool, more workouts in the gym, more massage in the Spa, more glasses of wine as the sun sets and tonight we will break down and actually see the balinese dance at the lotus pond and partake of the rijstaffel in the restaurant overlooking the Ayung river; our only tourist event of the stay. The local village of Sayan has assembled a Gamelon as the small towns of America would put together a baseball team.  They say it is to preseerve their heritage in this ever changing world of modern technology and tourism.  They perform at hotels and probably local competitions and make whatever is needed to keep it all going.  It was serene and beautiful and thankfully we didn’t get too badly eaten by the mosquitos, flies and ants before it was over. By the way, the menu explanation of the rijstaffel was more impressive than the meal.

April 11, 2001
Our last workout at the gym; last large pot of torranja coffee and we checked out, back in Wayan’s toyota jeep on route to Nusa Dua. A quick stop at the apotik for some ‘Otopain’ ear medicine and some ear plugs. The Otopain is great stuff. I’m actually getting to like it.

Nusa Dua looks like Hawaii, grand lawns, polynesian/asian looking hotels and lots of colorful dress in the service.
There was the usual confusion at check in. I spoke to reservations the day before and he assured me we had connecting rooms but when we checked in they had but one room for the both of us and when they gave us two rooms, they were dark and ugly and not connecting but side by side. Well, 2 rooms later we serttled into a suite overlooking the pool. A worthwhile $80/night to upgrade.

April 12, 2001,
The 2nd day of 19, and I realize I don’t like it here.  Too crowded.  I couldn’t sit on the beach, I could sit at the pool.  I ended up walking to the little village of retail shops and bought some supplies from the grocery store only to find out that my credit card was declined. The reception desk at the Four Seasons entered the expiration date incorrectly and it sent up a flag.  All is well now.  I can spend freely once more.
We are here because Gretchen has a 20 day job for a New York production company. She is the Stage Manager for the General Sessions of an IBM Incentive reward conference known as the "Golden Circle". Since the production company knew I was also there, they asked me if I could help and produce the Gamelon concert at another outdoor venue. Why not. I was already there, the pay was good and the work was easy. I studied a the Gamelon when I was in college. I never thought I'd ever use the experience for more than curious conversation at dinner parties, but what do you know. There is a beautiful little temple theatre with a tradional dance recital on one hand and on the other, a giant sound system, a big truss assembly and a mess of lighting gear.  This could be my first Rock and roll Gamelon experience.

Today I met Bryden Becker, the executive producer from the New York poducion comapny. Gretchen says, he is so full of himself, there is very little room for anything else. Well, it’s just a gig and it’ll be over soon.

April 14, 2001
We met Dr I Wayan Dibia and saw the dance recital in the University Auditorium.  Yes, there are lots of people and yes, this is going to be quite a show. Dr Dibia is a noted dancer, musician and choreographer who now heads the music department of the College of Indonesian Arts in Denpasar. He is one of the most respected people related to this artform. This shoudl be a great experience.

April 16, 2001
My crew is from a company called PCP. I tried to explain what PCP was in the American drug culture but they didn't quite understand. Anyway, it's fun to try and communicate with Pipin, Made, Joseph and the PCP boys.  I can’t understand much of what they are saying but I am amazed at what they can do.  Pipin built the dimmer racks with what amounts to radio shack parts.  The 24 channel dimmers are the size of refrigerators but they seem to work fine.  He has taken an ancient analog board and ran out a DMX cable to the rack and then converted it back to analog through a series of transistors and resistors.  It is incredible.  The instruments include Renke Strand lekos and RDS fresnels that are older than me, but they all look good and are in great shape.  In fact, Pipin is older than me and he also looks in great shape.

April 17, 2001
The show is up and running and although we have just partially focused, the lighting designer came to see us at the end of the day.  He speaks very few words of english and so when I asked Pipin to translate, he said to me, “ now, my head hurts from too much english.”

April 18, 2001
For a small island, everything seems to get bigger and bigger.  Dr. Dibia wants more lights, more microphones, more decoration.  He is such a sweet guy I want to give it all to him but it is getting a bit out of control. We are reaching the 10 lbs of shit in a 5 lb bag syndrome.

April 19, 2001
I went to the morning session at the convention center. The opening was cute; lots of local children waving flags and banners and 3 vocalists singing the show theme song. Lawrence Blair, the author and documentary film maker of “Ring of fire" was the guest speaker.

Once again, my Ampi Theatre show gets bigger.  Dr. Dibia decides it would be nice if a jegog gamelon (bamboo instruments) would greet the people as they entered the theatre.  A good idea, but he needed a deck built to support the instruments over the seating.  And so we have a 16’x4’ deck extension built.  Then the jegog showed up, or actually the monster that ate Jegog.  The main piece was easily 16’x8’ and the other 12 pieces were each 3’x4’.  We kept the monster jegog outside of the theatre and put 3 pieces inside on the decking. Dr. Dibia was a little disappointed but he understood we didn't have any more time to build more staging.
The first show went OK, kind of like a show/rehearsal. There were a few miscues with the IBM clients getting on stage before the Dr Dibia left; you got to be quick with Dibia. When the show is over, all he wants to do is bolt. Unfortunately the production company wants the honored client to go up to the stage and shake his hand. The timing is crutial. Miss the beat and Dibia is gone. After the first show, the client missed the beat.
And so I had my first experience with the legendery temper of the executive New York producer, Bryden Becker. When he began screaming at everyone, trying to find out who was to blame.  I smiled at him and told him to blame me.  “It’s my show so I guess I’m responsible” I said.  Of course, Valerie, the prouction assistant who was supposed to bring the client to the stage, said it was her fault and Jim, the technical director, said it was his fault, and Dibia said it was his fault.  Everyone took the blame except Bryden, who’s fault it really was for not explaining what to do to the client. 

April 20, 2001
Bryden took me aside and apologized for the outbreak the night before. It was sappy and went on for much too long, but I was quiet and let it pass.  I think he's manic depressive.
I left the hotel and played golf with Adrian, Edy and Edy’s son Ray out at the Nirwana Golf Club near Tanalot, the beautiful temple built on the clifts overlooking the ocean. The temple is a breath taking sight from the 7th hole, a ridiculously hard hole where you have to hit the ball 190 yds on the fly, across the Indian ocean to reach the green. We had a great day. The golf club employs girl caddies only. They greet you in their cute little uniforms and sampan hats.  Each person get their own caddy and although they don't play the game, they were unbelievably good at finding wayward balls, picking the right club on the fairway and lining up the ball for the putt.

April 21, 2001
I have given up thinking about how much it costs to play golf in Bali.  Everything else is so inexpensive, I guess I can splurge on golf.  And so, once again I met my friend Eddie Dunk at the Bali Golf course in Nusa Dua for another 18. 

April 22, 2001
How about that, the local cable channel carried the World Heavyweight fight and so at 10am (yes in the morning), I got to see Hasim “the rock” Rohman beat Lennox Lewis with a big right handed blow to the chin.  The heavyweight title returns to the US.

April 23, 2001
There was a rain scare for our Ampi Theatre show but by 2pm the sky was bright a clear. The change of venue decision for Dibia Show 2 was scratched. However, at 5pm the clouds came in really fast and we were in hard debate on whether to put up the rain tent over the stage.  Bryden made the executive decision to put up the top which would mean 2 hours of construction and installation and1 hour of refocus. It would leave Dr. Dibia only 30 minutes of rehearsal.  Dibia said he would rather have more rehearsal and didn’t think the rain would be a problem. He would put rain stoppers around the stage. The skies remained dark, but it never rained.  The rain stoppers did their job well.
Dr. Dibia wanted the actors mics louder but Stephen (the New York creative director) and Bryden decided that we should not let the performance be too authentic and they ordered the audio on the all vocals to be turned down, saying “their voices are too invasive to the overall performance.”  Balinese dance requires an occasional grunt and roar from the evil demons. I explained their concerns to Dr. Dibia and he shook his head in disappointment, but agreed.
Well, this time we alost succeeded in getting the host on stage at the end of the show. She got up on stage after the dance was finished, but by the time she got around to thanking Dr Dibia, he was in the parking lot. You gotta be fast with Dr. Dibia.

April 25, 2001
My friend Eddie picked me up at the hotel and we took a ride through the island villages watching beautiful Balinese women dressed in shinny golden silk carrying large baskets of fruit on their heads as they walked to the temple, getting everything ready for the evening celebration. We watched as local families bathed in the river runoff to the side of the streets. We looked at farmers till the rice paddies as the sun was setting, and watched the hordes of tourists go from shop to shop inspecting the local crafts and clothing in Semanyen, Kuta and Sanur.  This is an island of crafts that probably supports thousands of craft shops all over the world, from Pier One to local neighborhood shops like we have in our home neighborhood of Noe Valley.

April 27, 2001
After a good day of sun, I made it over to the general session for the last show and met Eddie, his wife Dianna and their daughter Kita for dinner; great lobsters and beer for all of us and the meal came to less than $75. It's pretty easy to live well in Bali.

After dinner we all walked through the IBM convention final night party, a prosession of monkeys, torch bearers and 200 children in frog costumes.  It was adorable.  But aparently, the big news was that the Cirque Eloize Lighting Designer dressed up as a pirate and joined the procession. Apparently he was a bit too drunk and groped some of the Balinese girls.  He was removed by the client but the scandal went back to the production company who hired this Canadian Cirque du Soleil knockoff. Let's just say that circus performers and corporate shows might not be the might pairing.. 

I said my farewells to Dr. Dibia, Pipin, Made and the rest of my Indonesian team and made it back to the hotel. 

April 28, 2001
We were invited to Lawrence Blair's for lunch, actually it was take out from a charming restaurant called the “Dirty Duck” I can’t remember the Indonesian name.  Lawrence met us as the restaurant and with food in hand, we had the 2 cabs follow us to his house.  This was the hand made house built by his brother Loren, a mass of levels and rooms constructed of old rice drying barns, of which Lawrence explained, “you buy the buildings on the hoof and then take them apart” There was the usual kitchen and bathroom away from the house and then there were about 4 levels of staircases that brough you to any of the sitting areas, the bedrooms or the studies.  All of the rooms were open to the environment except one, which was used as a tape library and where Lawrence would write late into the night on his powerbook G3.
This was why I was there, to help Lawrence Blair fix his computer.
We had a good lunch and then went over to see the International Bamboo Foundation and a woman named Linda, a large Irish women wrapped in a white terrycloth towel who had designed several beautiful bamboo bungalows on her property and rented them out for nights at $350/night.  I went back to Lawrence's house to work on his computer. It took an hour to fix it up properly. I would have been fun to stay longer and play with his little slow lorus, a very rare indigenous nocturnal animal, but my driver was waiting.

I got back just in time for the closing Crew party on the beach, a chesy cornball event that included a mariachi band playing music at each table, bad food and not much to talk about since there were too many client types around.