Literary Life A meeting of the Cambodian Book Sector Federation. Pal Vannarirak has copies of her two new novels to share. Cool! "Sun In Nighttime", cover by Hul Sophon. "Outside of your Arms" (Literally, like upper body or torso. Will have to check this translation.) Cover by Em Satya. More info on our prolific writer: http://www.khmer.cc/community/t.c?b=1&t=894 http://www.jijigaho.or.jp/app/0402/eng/gov02.html

Saturday: Nou Hach Literary Journal Annual Awards meeting. This third time, things go pretty smoothly. (Editing the raw photos at the moment.) Nol Dara has a new poetry book out - 'My dog, Their Dog'. (Only 2000 riel - 50 cents!) Nice cover by Sam Sarath. Khing Hoc Dy spent the whole day and was a great addition to the mix. I ended up sitting next to novelist Mao Samnang. A lot of local talent has taken time out for this! And Pal Vannarirak is handing out copies of her two new novels. The afternoon saw the awards and the results of the song competition. (Ripple of enthusiasm in the audience as they recognize some TV stars are performing the songs.) Awards were for song lyrics, poems, short stories and literary research. Race off over the bridge to Prek Leap for dinner with the Nou Hach team, then back across the bridge to Mondial Center for wedding reception for pals Dougald and Ashley! Never seen so many archaeologists in one place. Then 'after party' with 'The I Love You Band'. Great to have some live rock and roll in Phnom Penh. What a day.

Friday: Getting ready for the Nou Hach Journal meeting. And also some plans on archiving of old style Khmer comics. Many of these old comics had glossy painted covers which are not given justice by the cheap printing techniques of today.

Thursday: Refugee Film Festival Another jam-packed showing of 'The Flute Player' at the French Cultural Centre. Masters Nong Chok (Bassac), Youn Mec (Wedding Music), Kung Nei (Chapei Dong Veng) and Yim Saing (Flute) were there. Many questions from the mixed audience of foreign and local viewers. Great response, and the Refugee Film festival added another showing! I crossed the street to see how the Cambodian Book Sector Federation was doing with its childrens' book training. The students were hard at work on their art, and Friday they'll have an award ceremony. Pictures to follow. (Jeez, where's my camera when I need it?) Meanwhile, courtesy Boing Boing, a great link on Creative Commons licences. We've got to start thinking creatively about copyright in practice and actuality in Cambodia. http://www.thebookstandard.com/bookstandard/news/publisher/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000968186

Based on the novel by Mao Samnang, one of Cambodia's most prolific female novelists.

Check out that weird funky circular symbol behind the logo, it looks like one of those good luck charms so common here. Often it's got Pali words written in Khmer inserted into geometric symbols. Sometimes they're seen on tattoos. Missed this on the big screen, but am happy to see they have video CDs with English subtitles!

Nou Hach Literary Conference The Third Annual Nou Hach Literary Conference will be held at the Buddhist Institute in Phnom Penh on Saturday, July 25, 2005. This year's keynote speaker is Prof. Khing Hoc Dy who will discuss "Some Research Experiences in the Science of Texts" ( "Quelques expériences de recherche sur la science des textes")in Khmer. There will be writers workshops on the genres of poetry, song, and short story. The Conference will conclude with awards presentations to the winners of this year's literary competition. Registration begins at 7:45 am. Since seating is limited, please call Kho Tararith at 011 955 599 to register. http://www.nouhachjournal.net http://www.csulb.edu/misc/inside/archives/vol_57_no_11/f5.htm

Kuy Tiew ("Steaming bowl of Cthulhu' quoth Stefan) A noodle soup dish I usually have for breakfast. This picture was taken at a relatively upscale place that has squid with its soup. Was hoping to get a shot of a suckered tentacle amongst the various bits but not today. It's a favorite amongst locals and I'd love to get a pic of the breakfast scene, but some days you feel like being inconspicuous. This is a 'Kuy Tiew', a dish comprised of two minute noodles, broth, and then the contents beyond that vary. Usually there is some kind of meat added, most frequently pork or beef. The best shops usually add a bit of variety - there is a shrimp tossed in or some liver. Add in a bowl of bean sprouts and you've got a good combo meal. I try to ignore that there's probably MSG in the broth. You add in the chili sauce on the side to taste, then cut the intensity of it with the lime supplied. Add an iced coffee with milk and you're in business. Eat with chinese style spoon or chopsticks, disinfected by being plopped in a glass of boiling hot water. For napkins, there's an ever-present roll of toilet paper hidden by a plastic holder. Just get used to it - here 'bog roll' is quite utilitarian. In fact, 12:15 Sunday morning, that's starting to sound really good, I'm off to have one.

Buddhist Institute 75th Anniversary Colloquium A great assemblage of foreign and local research. Highlights included: “Gender and Buddhism in Contemporary Cambodia� “Haem Chieu (1898-1943), the ‘Umbrella Demonstration’ of 20^th July 1942 and the Buddhist Institute under the Vichy regime� “Recollecting Rieungpreengkmae (Khmer folklore): New takes on old tales� “Are monks and kruu Khmer psychiatrists? Cultural competence in supporting Cambodians recovering from conflict� (Click for complete program) Bravo presenters and Penny for tying it all together! Usually there are some 'yawners' in an academic assemblage like this, but I really enjoyed just about everything. Either I'm adjusting to Cambodia, or... just getting older.

Siem Reap Hostage Crisis is over. Very sad that a child was killed. Very weird to see my friends quoted in the international news. I'm just glad that it's over. Quite an amateurish kidnapping attempt. This may characterize Cambodia as 'dangerous' to some people. It's a relative thing and hard to assess. Much news and wrapup on at http://groups-beta.google.com/group/camnews

75 Years of the Buddhist Institute are being celebrated with a colloquium this Friday. Including talks by Penny Edwards, Henri Locard. Hean Sokhom, Khing Hoc Dy, Maurice Eisenbruch, Gregory Mikaelian and many others. English Announcement http://www.sangsalapak.org.kh/whatson/2005/06/2005_06_15_bhudinst_en.htm Khmer Announcement http://www.sangsalapak.org.kh/whatson/2005/06/2005_06_15_bhudinst_kh.htm

Summer Bird At the email cafe I clicked on 'His Name is Alive', a Michigan area band I've enjoyed that mixes ethereal 4AD sounds with studio wizardry invoking everything from gospel to the Beach Boys. From their site: The SUMMER BIRD EP is a special sneek preview of the forthcoming HIS NAME IS ALIVE LP, containing two album tracks and two non-Lp B-sides.The A-side (track one) SUMMER BIRD is a 1970's singersongwriter flavored track written about lost love using Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge's complete destruction of Cambodia as a metaphor. A quick reference to Jackson Browne's Running on Empty serves as a reminder of the Communist's original goals of becoming solely reliant on their own natural resources, ending the undeclared war that the United States had started after branching out from Vietnam, and also as a reminder of how a beautiful well-meaning dream could quickly become a nightmare of unimaginable proportions. http://www.hisnameisalive.com/ I'm not sure whether this will be topical political pop or self-indulgence. I'll have to publish a list of pop songs and groups that reference Cambodia at some point, from SPK to the Dead Kennedys. Downloading the MP3 now. Hope this doesn't suck...

Bottled Water: Used to be you'd see people carrying bottled water around like it was a pet. Or a totem. Now bottled water is ubiquitous. I'm old enough to remember when in developed countries, people still drank from the tap. Now there's a very promising experiment: solar disinfection of water. Simple really, now everyone can lug their bottle around! Props to Ryan Hamilton for making the Phnom Penh Post twice in one weekend: once for solar disinfection, the other for his rock climbing adventures. http://cambodiamorning.blogspot.com/2005/05/sun-baked-bottled-water-could-help.html

Cambodia Blogs

An update of my list of Cambodia weblogs. I may have been the first (jury's still out on that) but I'm certainly not the last.

Santapheap http://pookaibooks.org/weblog/ Library Project & lifestyle

Tharum http://www.tharum.blogspot.com/ Cambodian student blog

Sweet Cucumber http://www.sweetcucumber.com/ High tech and daily life, lotsa cool pix.

Khmerang.com http://www.khmerang.com New kid on the block

Tentative de Blog http://www.kerwan.net/blog/ Erwan from France

Maytel 2020 http://maytel.blogspot.com/ Adopted by wolves

Communication for Development http://communication4dev.blogspot.com Techie blog

Wanna http://www.cambuild.com/wanna/ Funky Khmer Tech

Cambodia4Kids http://beth.typepad.com/cambodia4kidsorg/ Widely Read

Pepy Ride http://www.pepyride.org/journal/journ.html On a quest

living in cambodia http://www.livingincambodia.com/ Lots of background

Parish without Borders http://www.parish-without-borders.net/cditt/cambodia/dailylife/2005/dailylifekh05.htm Like it says

travel-itch http://elizabethbriel.blogspot.com/ Cameras 4 Cambodia http://camerasforcambodia.blogspot.com/ Travel and teaching by Elizabeth

Down the Road: Cambodia http://www.downtheroad.org/Asia/Journals/2Cambodia_journal.htm Travel

ThisTopia http://thistopia.blogspot.com/ Travel and teaching

Illuminating Cambodia http://www.we-blog.jp/air/yukiko/ In Japanese

Danny's Weblog http://www.panix.com/~dannyw/weblog/Asia/Cambodia/Miscellaneous/ Another techie blog

RJ's Phnom Penh Journal http://www.greatestjournal.com/users/rickangel/ PP Lifestyle

Canuckinasia http://canuckinasia.blogspot.com/ Travel and teaching blog

Karen in Cambodia http://www.livejournal.com/~karenincambodia/ Travel mayhem and mishaps

Parallel U http://ratmachines.com/travel/sk_cam02/sk_cam.htm Travel and teaching blog

The Phnom Penh http://thephnompenh.blogspot.com/ Texas, Turkey and now Cambodia.

Tan and Trev http://tanandtrev.blogspot.com/ Travelers unpack recent Cambodian history via their visit to srok kmai.

Darren Conquest http://www.darrenconquest.blogspot.com/ Ministry of Fish and Fun

Laura in Cambodia http://lauraincambodia.blogspot.com/ Legal Aid and more

Cam-blog http://www.cam-blog.blogspot.com/ News and views from young Cambodians.

Kampucheacrossings http://kampucheacrossings.blogspot.com Essays and observations on work in Penhville and provinces

That'll Do

http://www.livejournal.com/users/snazzzzz/ Busy in Battambang

Anyone for a blog pub night?

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Postscript: 'Cambodia Weblogs' threads on Andy Brouwer's forum:

http://p207.ezboard.com/fandybrouwerscambodiacommunityfrm1.showMessage?topicID=1392.topic

http://p207.ezboard.com/fandybrouwerscambodiacommunityfrm1.showMessage?topicID=1361.topic

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