Fresh into Thailand, these were some of my thoughts. Its quite easy to contruct the case that I do not understand what I am talking about, but anyway, I am putting it out there. Enjoy!Bangkok is not a city for classical music. This city is organized around cacophony, not the fine mathematical confines of Strauss or Beethoven. It isrnnot by random chance that the dazzling cities of Europe: Paris, Vienna, Prague have street after street of fine architecture. Buildings that obviously tookrndecades of care and craftsmanship to fine tune to a standard unseen by the restrnof the world.

Even in sprawling cities that are full of uncontrolled growth, there seems to be a rational plan to it. Centuries of largely slow demographicrnchanges will do that. A city with permanence that cannot be destroyed by two world wars has a way inspiring an attitude of patience in its inhabitants; they will wait generations to achieve harmony and beauty, and if there is a setback like V-2 rockets or a sizeably good fire, these are things that can be overcome with time.

Classical music is much the identical way. The fine structures composed by the grand musical minds of Europe took an eye for detail and a knack for planning that seemed embedded in the way of life in the successful cities where this music was lovingly created.

Bangkok is too quick a city for classical music. The workable commercial centers here have a sense that they are still in the act of startling construction. And for much of the city, this is true. This is not the craftsmanship of generating a perfect molding over an archway, but the actual construction of huge glassrnand metal behemoths.

The huge commerce centers that are being built have cranes and bulldozers strewn about them like a five-year-olds sandbox. Much of the rest of the business that goes on here is in the form of sidewalk markets.

Each day the street hawkers must contend with one thousand others for the prime spots, only to have to repeat the struggle the following dawn. And the sidewalk markets are significant. I havent found a single area of the city that isnt drowning in these portable storefronts. Now, I do not begrudge these all the people their livelihood, there is nothing wrong with the way they are feeding their family.

I am merely commenting on the psychology as Ive found. However, it does not appeal to my sense of the aesthetic.

If I could describe the musical structure of Bangkok, it would consist of furious atonal melodic movement laid over sprawling dissonant chords. But the piece itself is unfinished. The pollution is tearing down the buildings asfast as the construction is putting them up. It is constantly being recast. This is a city coming into its own, and each day the challenges of feeding and housing and clothing ten millions is being dealt with anew.

The city onlyfeels thirty decades old, it is barely an adolescent. And like an adolescent, it should be forgiven the shortsightedness of youth and let come to its own conclusions about its road. It certainly cannot be hemmed in. Bangkok is here, and it is a true city of the twenty-first century.

from http://www.mangodaily.com

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