Leaving for Bangkok on the 3rd...

Bangkok explosions leave two dead

Bombs blasts are relatively rare in the Thai capital

A series of bomb or grenade explosions in the Thai capital has killed two people and injured about 30 others, including at least six foreigners.

A first spate of six attacks occurred at sites across Bangkok as streets were filling up late afternoon local time ahead of New Year's Eve celebrations.

Just before midnight, two further blasts rocked the city centre.

The Thai authorities had cancelled all public celebrations for New Year's Eve after the first devices went off.

Click here to see map of where blasts occurred

Police do not believe foreign groups or militants from the Muslim south are to blame, says the BBC's Jonathan Head.

Our Bangkok correspondent says many Thais suspect the attacks were the work of opponents of the current military government, which forced Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra from office in September.

There was a big bang and people started screaming and running Chalermsak Sanbee Witness Blasts in pictures

The latest explosions occurred near the Central World Plaza, a shopping mall.

Of the earlier attacks, the largest was at about 1730 (1030 GMT) near a bus station next to one of Bangkok's busiest intersections, Victory Monument.

Police said this caused the biggest number of casualties.

Reports suggest the device was planted beneath a seat at a bus stop or in a rubbish bin.

One witness who was standing nearby, 17-year-old Chalermsak Sanbee told Reuters news agency:

"There was a big bang and people started screaming and running. I saw people with blood all over their legs and faces."

Other blasts were reported:

• close to a police post in the Saphan Kwai district
• at a car park in the Seacon Square shopping mall
• at a market in the Klong Toey district
• in Kae Lai district in the northern suburb of Nonthaburi
• along Sukhumvit Road in the south-east

National police chief General Ajirawit Suphanaphesat said the authorities were inspecting other locations where suspicious packages were found.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6221177.stm

Pics from Arizona research

The visitors center for Pinal County was a tiny wooden house filled with pamphlets and memorabilia...
We drove out to where the manhunt ended and the shootout began... where the road curves into the mountains is at least fifteen miles away off in the horizon.
Is this not just the most quintessential Arizona desert picture you can think of??
the Arizona landscape... take a second before clicking away and look into the picture. There's a overwhelming stillness that takes over when you are standing in the middle of the desert. I think this picture almost captures it:

Get in the Ring

After hanging out around prisons, scavenging law libraries and media files, and trekking through Arizona's most barren and forbidden lands (pics coming soon)... I come to... The Phoenix Airport! Between winter travel and flying on the red-eye flights, my plane outta here is delayed over two hours... not scheduled to depart until 2:30am. Where is the jazz quartet when you need them? Instead, the soothing sounds of the PHX alarm system whine insync with the flashing lights turning the entire atrium blue for a split second repeatedly for minute after minute after minute after irritating minute after pounding minute after numbing minute after seething minute after futile minute after infuriating minute after... ok. the sound stopped but the atrium still looks like christmas lights on acid. except my trip hasn't even started... blink blink blink blink blink...

I suppose I should be frustrated blink but I actually like the time to sit up late at night blink when I work best and click away at blink the keyboard. Think about the things I've seen blink and learned this weekend. The slight tinge of fear as I watched blink hundreds of orange men roam predatorially blink around a massive prison yard only blink separated from me by a wire fence topped with razor wire. The aboslutely stunning majesty of the Arizona sunset where mountains glow orange and slip into unending flatness and silence. Did the blinking stop? Thank god. Where was I? Oh, right... Phoenix.

Tomorrow a holiday celebration with whomever is around and then off to Atlanta! The holidays have always been a bit of a whirlwind. Yes, you've grown taller. Yes, you look older. No, you didn't actually do that to your hair, did you? And as I wander around the country, the world, searching for something that I can't actually touch, I enjoy coming back to homebase and seeing what everyone else has discovered. And never being jealous of it. There is something beautiful in everything people do. Even if they are just fucking it all up. Which was usually me. But I'm past the point of thinking that the things I've done and said were wrong or stupid. Alright, some of them were stupid. But there's no point in not making mistakes. As we start to get older, we start to learn that there are consequences to our actions. And so our actions become more premeditated and our footsteps lighter and our decisions less bold. Because there are c-o-n-s-e-q-u-e-n-c-e-s. I opt that said consquences are there for us to learn from and if we don't make the choices that force us to embrace, wrestling, and kick the shit out of those consequences, then we must not be making mistakes because we aren't actually Doing anything. Not that we want to be wearing bright orange jumpsuits or anything, but c'mon a little orange in your life won't hurt. This from a woman who wears nothing but black, brown, white, and red. Sometimes I just talk myself into a corner, don't I? Well, come on out, put on some gloves, and let's find out what consequences are really out there. It takes more than a few black eyes to win a championship belt. How did I get here? Oh, right... time to go check on that plane.

JFK to PHX

Okay. Wow. I've had massages at the Bangkok airport, walked out straight onto the landing strip in Koh Samui, gotten lost in the airport of my own hometown, Atlanta... but this... this is really something... I'm at JFK in the JetBlue terminal (yes, they have the entire terminal) and there is a jazz quartet playing behind me. Saxophone, upright Bass, Acoustic Guitar, and Drums. Hints of Christmas songs float in and out of jazz compositions and suddenly the brake-lit ride to the airport, the hassling TSA screeners and the anticipation of what I need to get accomplished on this trip flutter away with them... thank you jetblue... i'm completely ready to go sit on my leather seat and pick a movie to watch on my in-flight television screen.

if only.

I'm off to Arizona to research documentation of a 1978 prison break that happened out of the Arizona State Prison, an event that is the starting point of a documentary I will be working on throughout 2007. Most of the records are physically located in Arizona, and I'll be digging through them to find out what actually happened, what was recorded as happening and then driving out to see where it happened. Much of this is in preparation for meeting of a key person in the investigation, whom I will be interviewing in a few weeks. I need to understand in the ins-and-outs of the prison break itself as well as the events that led up to it and the consequenting trials and investigations. A lot of ground to cover in four days.

right now, though, this john vitale quartet is the perfect calm.

Manhattan Morning

The stunning view I woke up to this morning...

London in New York

Pictures from James' family visiting New York for his birthday!

The birthday boy surrounded by his mother and grandmother at Pastis. Check out a review of this place where dinner reservations at 8:00pm are unheard of... and of course, we had Dinner at 8:00pm.














Earlier in the evening... Steph flanked by James' brothers Nico (youngest) and Simon (middle) in their loudest British best...















James' mother Suzanna and stepfather John enjoying a New York smile... plenty of those on this visit! The weather was perfect, the city was bustling, and the evenings didn't stop.














And the rest of the crew enjoying the New York scene... here, at Buddha Bar, one of our favorites... more pics at their website.















And then back at 10 Jones for a little relaxation... one of the few times you'll see them with their shoes off and feet up...