Дневник Алекса

                                                                     Alex's Diary

27.09.02

GOOD THINGS:
camels,
beans,
Jacaranda trees,
pink shit growing,
old ladies,
mud houses,
new shades of green,
F # min 7,
Stravinsky,
roadside culture,
staff,
hammam,
the roof,
Nina Simone,
misty mornings,
mountains,
the desert,
small boy on donkey,
profound and lasting sense of peace.

BAD THINGS:
flies,
bog stench,
nonces,
dust,
dodgy dealers,
absolute corruption of officials,
hassle,
haggle,
boiled vegatables

We’ve built a state of the art recording studio on the edge of the desert. It took a week to get the big loud speakers, which were specially built in Denmark, out of customs. They lie to you and take your money. One of them lied, took my money, and then went for my arse. I thought it surely couldn’t get any worse, when Ahmed dosed me with some weird psychedelic local speciality, I had to go with it, and it took me to an enormous supermarket. I bought the biggest mirror I’ve ever seen and it’s alright now. We love it here, the pushy, pokey, grabby, hassle of Marrakech is actually fine once you realise it’s just New York in a foreign language. "Somm peoples," says Ahmed, raising his arms whilst driving, in an amused shrug, "issa gay peoples". "Some peoples issa lika lotta drugs," raises arms again, does funny lopsided smile, moving lower jaw around. "Anna some peoples are a Moss-lem peoples, anna Jew, anna French peoples," lots of arm waggling and jaw waving. "Issa lotta hall’ appen in Marrakech."
If Harpers & Queen had done the bible, it would look like this. The knackered, the exquisitely tasteful, the dirty filthy nastiness, the noise, and the smoke, and the bright lights, gentle touches and soft faces. It’s a bit like Bladerunmner, and life penetrates every nook. I’ve never seen such happy sheep.


I woke up and ran towards the biggest mountain. The sun was really beating down already and there were donkeys on the move. Ten minutes down the track and the landscape had changed from verdant to lunar. Some children were following me Forrest Gump fashion. I pressed on through the dusty nowhereness and after about a half an hour, suddenly there was Dave. In the desert. "Hi Dave, cheers."
"Cheers, Hi Als."
I kept going, it was all good. Eventually, I came to a settlement. There were skinny people with black teeth and dogs and cats. There was no evidence of trade or money. The houses were made from desert material. Everyone smiled their black teeth. These men build their own houses like we would put up some shelves; it’s what a man’s got to do here. It was reassuring and it was pleasant. You can have nothing and live in the desert and you will be fine if you take some toothpaste. It was getting stinking hot so I ran towards breakfast.