Saturday, September 06, 2003
ShowTime
September 06
Travel tiredness catches up with me and I crash out until about 11:30. I sort out the fallout from my luggage a bit.
Athonk comes over about 1:00 and we head out to set up the booth. We do a little touchup on the banner and hang it up.
Then we start whacking out comics for display and reading. I suggest we get a couch, since we’ll pretty much be living at the booth for the next few days. The photocopier is not working.
Chat a bit with the show organizers. They’ve got a lot to do. This evening a government minister will come to open the show officially. Also on the way is Athonk’s wife Laine, an Indonesia academic from the USA who’s written a fair bit about comics herself.
I get ahold of the official schedule, which looks like there’s a lot planned. As the evening approaches people start to assemble outside. Athonk and Agung give translating some of my comics a shot.
Athonk blips out to collect Laine. The minister arrives and is greeted by a choreographed dance number by the members of the group ‘Moral Rabbit’ (I believe that’s what it roughly translates as). They're all in drag, dancing to a medley of pop tunes. The crowd loves it. The show officially opens.
Laine and Athonk arrive. Laine’s been working in Oecussi, the East Timorese enclave in West Timor. It’s extremely poor and there are lots of comparisons to be made to Cambodia in terms of ineffective international intervention. She’s just finished setting up a research team and now intends to chill out a bit in Yogya.
Our table gets a fair bit of traffic, many friends of Laine, Athonk and Agung catching up. Lots of new faces and new comics. There’s food provided for the show participants, can’t complain about that!
After a busy day we walk on home down Maliboro, and meet a few Komikus [Didoth Comics] also staying in the Sosrowijayan area. I have a snakefruit, something they don’t grow in Cambodia.
Ahh, good to be back in Yogya.
Travel tiredness catches up with me and I crash out until about 11:30. I sort out the fallout from my luggage a bit.
Athonk comes over about 1:00 and we head out to set up the booth. We do a little touchup on the banner and hang it up.
Then we start whacking out comics for display and reading. I suggest we get a couch, since we’ll pretty much be living at the booth for the next few days. The photocopier is not working.
Chat a bit with the show organizers. They’ve got a lot to do. This evening a government minister will come to open the show officially. Also on the way is Athonk’s wife Laine, an Indonesia academic from the USA who’s written a fair bit about comics herself.
I get ahold of the official schedule, which looks like there’s a lot planned. As the evening approaches people start to assemble outside. Athonk and Agung give translating some of my comics a shot.
Athonk blips out to collect Laine. The minister arrives and is greeted by a choreographed dance number by the members of the group ‘Moral Rabbit’ (I believe that’s what it roughly translates as). They're all in drag, dancing to a medley of pop tunes. The crowd loves it. The show officially opens.
Laine and Athonk arrive. Laine’s been working in Oecussi, the East Timorese enclave in West Timor. It’s extremely poor and there are lots of comparisons to be made to Cambodia in terms of ineffective international intervention. She’s just finished setting up a research team and now intends to chill out a bit in Yogya.
Our table gets a fair bit of traffic, many friends of Laine, Athonk and Agung catching up. Lots of new faces and new comics. There’s food provided for the show participants, can’t complain about that!
After a busy day we walk on home down Maliboro, and meet a few Komikus [Didoth Comics] also staying in the Sosrowijayan area. I have a snakefruit, something they don’t grow in Cambodia.
Ahh, good to be back in Yogya.
