In dribs and drabs I am moving house. (From Tuol Tom Poung (house #1) to Boeung Keng Kang (house #2, housesitting for a friend) to near the museum (house #3 and final move)). Meanwhile, all and sundry are visiting Cambodia, like my old housemate Nicola, who's back from Vietnam with digital camera in hand. (Proof below - shrimp at the market.) Shadow Puppet show to keep an eye on, CVs to review, report to draft, office to rent, ah yes, it's the busy season. As I grab a load of clothes from near house #1 I see a curious good luck charm. Weird, but I have to remember that designs and symbols in the east often have a completely different significance than in the west. Virtually every store and house has some kind of good luck charm, of endless variation.

A Nou Hach Literary Journal weekend meeting at the Khmer Writers' Association finds us making plans for the next awards ceremony and annual meeting. OK, so we look a little sleepy but hey, it's early in the morning. And good things are in the works. Cambodiacic.org has linked to us (below), and there are plans in the works for getting some sung poetry online.

Don't be a playa hata You know Penhville is changing when places like the 'Playaz Club' appear on Sihanouk Boulevard. Snapped by pal Elizabeth as we motor back from proofreading a report by our pal Bunrith. Postscript: web site! http://www.bayonpearnik.com/PlayazClub/index.html

Crocks, Cocks and Rocks An exhibition by Sasha Constable Java Cafe and Gallery, Phnom Penh Feb 24th - April 3rd 2005 This exhibition is comprised of a range of themes, materials and artistic methods The show highlights Sasha's continual quest to create new images using diverse materials Opening 6-9 PM Thursday February 24 www.sashaconstable.com postscript: great show and some fun art! Especially liked the glass stuff.

Clear Day ----- Original Message ----- From: Sovanna Phum To: Jan R Mueller Sent: Monday, February 21, 2005 6:32 PM Subject: Small Shadow Theatre "THE LIFE OF THE WILD ANIMALS" Story Small Shadow Theatre Friday 25th & Saturday 26th February 2005 At: 7:30pm Entrance fee: Adults $5 , Children $3 Sovanna Phum Art Association nº111 St 360 ( Corner 105 ) - Phnom Penh Tel: 023 987 564 Fax:023 221 932 e-mail: sp.admin@camintel.com We have shows every Friday & Saturday. Our restaurant & puppets shop are open everyday except on Sunday.

The Overseas Press Club of Cambodia invites you to the Phnom Penh BOOK LAUNCH of /*/Getting Away with Genocide? Elusive Justice and the Khmer Rouge Tribunal/*/* **By Tom Fawthrop and Helen Jarvis** **Pluto Press********* 2005*** **320 pages*** Tuesday, 22 February 2005 6 pm at Mith Samlanh/Friends Restaurant No.215 Street 13 (Ang Eng), north of the National Museum Guest speaker: Pen Samitthy, Editor-in-Chief of Rasmei Kampuchea Web site: http://www.cambodia.gov.kh/krt/

New suit, new Suite Preparing to move to a new house near the School of Fine Arts. It's my third move in two months, (and hopefully my last for some time). Maybe now I can do Tai Chi in the morning with the big crowds down by the riverside. Below: why are Tina and I dressed up? For Linda and Sopheap's recent wedding! They are now honeymooning in Burma, and Erwan has webbed up a few pictures. http://kerwan.net/gallery/

KHMER CIRCUS The Faculty of Circus of the Royal University of Fine Arts continues its monthly series with two performances in their practice hall located at RUFA's North Campus, Street 70 next to the Old Stadium. Saturday and Sunday February 19 and 20 at 5:30pm. Tickets riel 3,000 for Cambodians and $2.00 for foreigners. Initiated by the circus students, this new series of weekend performances will take place once a month. Proceeds from the ticket sales will help augment the costs for future monthly performances and encourage their drive towards self sufficiency. The first three series of performances (December 2004 through February 2005) were sponsored by the Albert Kunstadter Family Foundation and produced in collaboration with Amrita Performing Arts and Sovanna Phum Khmer Arts Association. For more information, please call 023-220424. Please come out in support of the National School of Circus! ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Folk & Classical Khmer Dance Friday 18th & Saturday 19th February 2005 At: 7:30pm Entrance fee: Adults $5 , Children $3 Sovanna Phum Art Association nº111 St 360 ( Corner 105 ) - Phnom Penh Tel: 023 987 564 Fax:023 221 932 e-mail: sp.admin@camintel.com We have shows every Friday & Saturday. Our restaurant & puppets shop are open everyday except on Sunday.

Valentine's Day A HIV awareness Shadow Puppet show launch finds me scrambling to get freebies for a performance in Khien Svay. (by Sovanna Phum/Cambodian Living Arts) It's Valentines' day and it's the most heavily marketed foreign holiday I've seen in Cambodia. I get some industrial size boxes of condoms from family planning giant PSI, which made its own inimitable Valentines. (Hard to believe it's Khmer, but it says, 'All for you') My office mates and the Sovanna Phum folks took great amusement at big condom boxes as I handed out valentines to everybody. Well, today of all days it wouldn't hurt to have a few around. The show in the countryside is good fun, and it's great to see Sovanna Phum perform in the field. They are fully booked this dry season for performances, and one of their shows covers land management - who owns land, and who has the right to use it? I've just been given their lush full color comic that accompanies the show. I'll have to see how it matches up with my collection of other NGO comics.

2nd Annual Cinema Cambodia Film Festival : Samath from Cambodian Living Arts on stage with other filmmakers on Saturday. A great mix of different documentaries and stories, all centering on Camboland. Alas, most of my photos of the preceding workshop didn't turn out. Tom Chandler's 3D animation just squeezed in by FedEx to start of the show to a round of applause. (below) Some file reading error with Kirrily Schell's stuff, but there are ideas afoot for more animation. Stay Tooned...

The 2nd Annual Cinema Cambodia Film Festival will happen this Saturday. Pleased to note that we will have not one but two films by Cambodian Living Arts' Chhuon Sarin in in the Festival this weekend, at their 'Short Film' feature beginning Friday afternoon 5:30 pm. Please come out and have a look! Also included should be a piece by Patrick Fowles, Kirrily Schell and computer animation of Angkorean times from Monash University, Australia. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

The I Love You Band Managed to squeak in a spare two hours to see 'The I Love You Band' on the rooftop at Foreign Correspondents' Club. Click on the picture above for their first unofficial fan page.

Salamat Pagi Cambodia? Still awaiting word on the a grant for Cambodia-Indonesia Comics Exchange. Cross your fingers and your toes, with luck we can bring out a 'Komikus' (comic artist) for our November book festival, with some help from the Cambodian Book Sector Federation and Centre Culturel Francais. http://jinja.apsara.org/cambocomix/exposition/

A friend has 3 kittens to give away in Phnom Penh. If you're interested, please contact via this site.

January: Two Weddings and a Funeral January kept me busy. (Like I knew it would.) One friend characterized it as 'Two Weddings and a Funeral'. Unlike the the film of a similiar name, this was real life.... and as much drama as comedy. The last few days of December were taken up by submitting a Cambodia - Indonesia comics exchange, via the Cambodia Book Sector Federation. Hope they go for it, watch this space. What did I do in January? - Wedding of former co-worker Khemro at Mondial Center. - Got a suit made. My housemates Linda and Sopheap got married in a very charming ceremony at the house we shared. Lots of dancing to a live band, hand made decorations. Many local relatives arrived to take part in the event. - Back-stopped a shadow puppet show for a delegation of cultural tourists outside the Bassac Theatre. Puppets by Sovanna Phum, with a suprise opening guest starring Prach Ly, a Khmer hip hopper returning from Long Beach. Rarely have I heard such flow in Khmer - the kids ate it up. - Shortly after, found out that Vann Molyvann's historic Bassac area building (below) will have its tenants evicted to become a shopping mall. A 'crisis team' has been set up. - Moved house. With the newlyweds moving to a new house, and the house lease coming to an end, they took a new and smaller place, and I landed a house sitting gig at a friend's place in Boeung Keng Kang. - Quick visit to Siem Reap. A number of friends were up for conferences, and I got to check out some music and dance at Wat Bo. - Got an incredible gift - the collected New Yorker cartoons. Far out. - Looked for an office. Going in with a few friends to share expenses. - Looked for a more permanent house. - Felt nibbles to publish original unpublished Khmer comics in book format. More than nibbles, bites. - Exhibitions by Sandy Shum, Dana Langlois. - Found out Jerry Swaffield has a new studio in Siem Reap. - Arranged for some three-D animation to be sent to the upcoming film festival at Pannasastra University. There's some good stuff going on at Monash University, and it should blow some minds even if they see a short clip. - Observed several couples break up and get together. - Butoh performance at Sovanna Phum sponsored by a new arts centre in Saigon. Could be some exchange there. - Plans for NEW Khmer comics exhibition at French Cultural Centre, Phnom Penh. - Got my TV and DVD back from Siem Reap. - Sweated a proposal for Australian shadow puppet exchange. - Got a phone call - Ingrid Muan from Reyum had passed away. Her enthusiasm, knowledge and curiosity live on through her books. For the last week, all of the art world in Phnom Penh has been in shock. - Took a boat out on the Mekong and watched the sunset. - Fixed up the cyclo and took it for a ride. Apologies if I haven't been great on email.

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