Danger Mimes Adam popped by Friday afternoon. He wanted one of Dougald's “Danger Mimes” t-shirts, (modeled after the ubiquitous 'Danger Mines' shirts) that he sells to raise money for Heritage Watch.
Adam landed at Narin's Guest house the same month I did, May 2000. He’d cycled in from Australia. His route took him from Adelaide to the Top End, then he hopped a boat, landed in Malaysia and cycled overland to Cambodia. A bike enthusiast, he spent much of his first stint in Cambodia playing with Cylos. We both spent a fair bit of time volunteering at Cyclo Centre, in our own ways.
Now he's on his way back to Afghanistan which has a landmine problem similar (worse!) than Cambodia’s.
I’ve been reading Pangolin’s comics weblog from Afghanistan, which nearly makes me pee myself laughing. Some great moments that you couldn’t make up if you tried. (I’ve never understood why people resist reading comics in a foreign language. If you can listen to foreign music, why not read foreign comics?)
I print out Pangolin’s info and give it to Adam. It’s a small country, I hope they can meet up! http://www.20six.fr/pangolin
Beyond that, a busy day for comics, see my blow by blow over at http://jinja.apsara.org. And beyond the schedule of the day, here is the rough draft for the rest of the year. Comics 2005... July Lisa Mandel (‘Sept Mois au Cambodge’) visit to PHARE art school, Battambang.
Development of comics for collected volume August Visit from Japanese artist Makiko Sawaki
September October Lire en Fête (not scheduled yet) between 20th of Cctober and the 5th of November. - Arrival Beng Rahadian. Seminars and teaching. Exhibition.
- Premiere of Sera’s ‘Water and Earth’ in Khmer (if translated on time.)
- Possible Rencontre at Centre Culturel Français for Lire en Fête, with Beng and local artists.
- Exhibition: Heritage Watch comic book, “Grave Robbers and the Phantom Army”
November
Lire en Fête Lire en Fête (not scheduled yet) between 20th of Cctober and the 5th of November.
Beng Rahadian departure.
Socio-Cultural Research Congress, Royal University of Phnom Penh.
(Khmer comics paper? If I get off my ass.) Late November: exhibition of Pannasastra paralegal book illustrations.
December
Return Makiko Sawaki
Animation teaching, PHARE art school?
Phnom Penh Visual Arts Open
January
Nhek Sophaleap visits Angouleme Festival, France. (Takes ‘portfolio’ of local artists? Or film?)
(Sorry if formatting in this list is wonky, Microsoft programs are trying to 'think' for me again. Will have to fix later.)
Sunday, July 24, 2005
You should do a comics podcast, I've been subscribing to some podcasts
with the new itunes additions, and all the comic ones are die-hard
superhero fans with a few mentions of alt stuff, but no coverage of
small press or international comics.
Hmm.... any bright ideas anyone? Drop me an email. I've heard rumors of pirated archives of classic comics. - J
Monday, July 18, 2005
Standing Tall Jeez guys - can't I leave the states without things getting all medieval on me? Man. - J
Friday, July 15, 2005
Cut 'n Paste Cambochica uses Khmer comics for an examination of Khmer women's issues. I must update my site with more pictures... hmm...
Tuesday, July 12, 2005
We Are Mapping Your Dreams Been reading Charlie Stross' Accellerando, since it is conveniently available for free via a Creative Commons license.
It's the future on a grand and intimate scale. He writes what he knows. Which in his case, is an alpha geek's family emerging into the extropian future.
Even after the solar system is ground into dust to feed a heat-exchanging Matroishka brain, after we lose all semblance of ourselves, there are virtual worlds we inhabit. Which means that after the death of corporations, nation states and the dismantling of the planet - up until the heat death of the universe, interior design will remain an issue of some significance.
As a teenager I spent a fair bit of time backpacking. This encouraged me to think in a utilitarian fashion; whether it's a smooth rock or a chair, where does it matter where you park your butt? This also alarms some of my more activist friends; I'm generally against large chain stores but am not afraid to enter one or a mall if it serves my interests.
Maybe it's sharing an office with architects, but I am beginning to pay more attention to how things look and work, to take more care in thinking about what makes an office an office and a home a home. Lord help me, I am a terrible amateur designer of spaces. I know how to design a printed page or webspace, but a home? I lean towards Early American Disaster. Or Default Punk/DIY Everything Everywhere.*
Did William Gibson's descriptions of decaying geodesics touch a chord? This weekend I took two hours to check in with Khmer Architecture Tours. It was great to see some of the decaying modernist architecture, soon to be destroyed forever. Try these elaborations of traditional Khmer architecture via the 1960s and Paris. There was a Moment here where something really different happened. If we're smart, we'll hang on to what documentation we have.
Avatars in the Matrix, farm workers sitting in plastic chairs around a tin table.... what we as Westerners crave is that which is most hard to find in a world of Starbucks and McDonald's: authenticity. As we upload our brains into a computer world, we'll want to have mapped our special places and spaces, to reconfigure and reinhabit. Fabrics, textures, designs, sounds, smells, all that indivduates an environment, virtual or real.
And if this ring of authenticity is so important, why pack it up and reproduce it, when we can live in the here and now? There is something to be said for real time and real places. Perhaps extropian apotheosis is appropriate for an alpha geek, but does it have appeal for a rice farmer?
Tags: Extropianism; Interior Design;Khmer Architecture
*(No, Punk hasn't hit Cambodia yet but we are working on that.)
Sunday, July 10, 2005
Good Mail Day
A welcome package yesterday from New Zealand's Strawfellow, including a complete run of Christchurch's perennial Mopy. The content belies the title, there are plenty of amusements to be had within the covers. It's fun to read the whole batch in one sitting, a precis of sorts of the high and low points in our 'toonist's life.
How he manages to do this while managing a PhD and about twenty web sites is beyond me.
My whinging about getting decent indie tunes in Camboland seems to have paid off. Cheers for a hand-picked selection of music! Don't blame the media - BE the media.
More at:
http://www.lonely.geek.nz/
http://funtime.comics.org.nz
Friday, July 08, 2005
London Calling Most of my London pals have checked in. Still on my mind, on everyone's mind, today.
Thursday, July 07, 2005
Beaucoup des BD
A welcome visit from French cartoonist Lisa Mandel, who is passing through Phnom Penh to discuss printing plans for a comics workshop at Battambang's Phare Art school. If you're one of the tiny handful of people who read this blog regularly, you'll remember Lisa was one of the artists from 'Sept Mois au Cambodge' (Seven Months in Cambodia).
She and her friend Saneesh (hope I spelled that right) are thinking of a side trip to Kracheh. But first we've got to figure out the cost and sizing of the comic, and make a few much overdue Phnom Penh connections. I finally get to introduce her to the French Cultural Centre folks, they are a very suppportive crowd. She is full of plans and ideas. I'm happy to oblige with local comics and info about what's happening locally.
Here's Lisa uploading a story for her publisher in France. Lots of discussion about French comics, Khmer comics, Anglophone comics and the gaps between. It's great to chat comics practice and theory with someone equally (if not more) enthused.
We do a bit of searching around - maps, translators, language books. It's great that I can understand a little French, Lisa and Saneesh don't feel obliged to speak English all the time. ( Lisa's Khmer is starting to come back. Cool!) I'm still terrible at spoken French but one must continue, step by step. Lisa suggests I visit France for some proper practice. I'm game, I'll just have to figure out a good excuse to visit. Strasbourg, Angouleme, Marseilles - oh yeah.
With luck we may be able to have her visit the Cambodia Book Federation's 'Special Interest Group' on comics, more to follow!
Wednesday, July 06, 2005
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