Kiwi Cyclo The Khmer Intelligence blog is very opininated, but copies virtually every news story they can find. Every now and then they unearth a cool item - like a cyclo built by a Khmer artist in New Zealand. "Relica Phantasmagoria" - click for picture. http://www.odt.co.nz/article.php?refid=2006,08,15,1,00101,034ac007828a99961f94e3ef0b81c314&sect=0 link also at: http://ki-media.blogspot.com/2006/08/one-womans-treasure-is-another-mans.html Tags: Cambodia,art

C'mon every Beatbox To the repair shop. The ingenuity of technicians in Cambodia can be really amusing sometimes, and flat-out frustrating at other moments. I love street signs. Hand painted signs are going to disappear, and most shop owners will be happy to change to a nice 'modern' computer designed/printed sign. I hope that some of the character and quirkiness will remain. (BTW: The post title comes from a Big Audio Dynamite song, and links to the video.) Tags: Cambodia

Tech Talk If you're a techie and this is your kinda thing, check it out. The world is being mapped out, and here's a rare explanation in Khmer. As with history, geography can be pretty contentious. Who does the mapping? What for? Who has access? Who gets to choose labels? Considering how people get worked up about Cambodia's border, this talk actually might be pretty relevant to the larger context. Announcement! Lectures/Talks/discussions series at Reyum GIS & Remote Sensing applied the Angkor Area by Kim Samnang (in Khmer) Friday August 18 2006 5:30pm to 6:30 followed by Q&A This event is part of a series of Reyum's public education programs The Albert Kunstadter Foundation / The Rockefeller Foundation Reyum Institute 47 Street 178 P.O. Box 2438 Phnom Penh Cambodia Tel / Fax: 023 217 149 reyum@camnet.com.kh www.reyum.org [from What's On]

Animalistic Fun Took in the Sunday performance of 'Phum Darachan' at Chenla Theatre with a french friend. The best translation I can get for 'Darachan' is 'animalistic' or the earlier 'bestial'. It is essentially based on the 1964 novel based on the event, where the French Resident's name is changed to 'Pardez'. Even though it deals with a popular revolt, this is a safe drama to produce; the book's been taught in the school curriculum for decades (and French Colonialism is an easy target). Maybe this will open the door for some more historical adaptations. The stagecraft was impressive enough that the audience laughed with surprise at moments when they should have been upset. Overall there was a good buzz at the end, I think that the crowd got its 2000 riel worth. There were only about 25 barangs in a theater with about 200 people! Bonus points to Amrita Performing Arts for providing English subtitles. (I just wish I could have taken pictures!) My rule of thumb for foreigners: if you regularly watch public TV in your home country, give Yike or Bassac opera a try. If you can't stand public TV, maybe give it a miss. Instead, you could check out the movie I went home and saw on DVD afterwards: Banlieue 13, a French martial arts film with lots of fighting and an almost nonexistent plot; practially a live action video game. Tags: Cambodia,theatre

Cambodia Blogger Interview Roundup Tharum kicked it off with his Cambodia Daily interview. http://www.tharum.info/2005/07/29/nations-%E2%80%98bloggers%E2%80%99-hope-to-facilitate-dialogue/ followed then by queries from Pannasastra Students, http://www.tharum.info/2005/09/14/my-interview-with-cambodian-college-students/ and Beth Kanter at Global Voices. http://www.globalvoicesonline.org/2005/07/27/meet-tharum-cambodias-second-most-famous-blogger/ Beth also interviewed Zarah 'Sreisaat' Almeida http://www.globalvoicesonline.org/2005/12/27/blogging-to-improve-cambodia%e2%80%99s-environment/ and Hok KaKada of KhmerOS. http://www.globalvoicesonline.org/2005/08/09/meet-da-she-is-a-software-engineer-for-khmer-os-project/ More recently, we've seen Phnomenon's Phil interviewed by Jinja, http://jinja.apsara.org/blog/2006/03/phnomenon-interview.htm 'gril genius' Keo Kalyan interviewed by KhmerOverseas, http://khmeroverseas.blogspot.com/2006/07/deedee-khmer-cyberkid-on-spot.html and Mylinh Nakry of Khmer Krom Recipes interviewed by Phil. http://www.phnomenon.com/index.php/cambodian-food/recipes/mylinh-nakry-danh-from-khmer-krom-recipes/ Tharum has also interviewed Fulbrighter Mongkol on school and travel. http://www.globalvoicesonline.org/2006/06/18/from-kingdom-of-cambodia-to-the-united-states-of-america/ Chanbopha does a self-interview, http://chanbopha.blogspot.com/2006/07/interview.html and Yours Truly discusses his 'laid back' lifestyle. http://www.expatinterviews.com/John-Jinja-Weeks.html More interviews on the way. I'm sure there's some I've missed, email or leave a comment and I'll add it to the list! Postscript: Tharum notes Vanndeth spoke to Cambodian native Lim Borey. Tags: Cambodia,blog

Bestial Village is the name given by Royal Decree to a town where 20-30 outraged people killed an abrasive French tax collector, Resident Bardez. The incident serves to illustrate many aspects of the time of colonial rule. (The show flyers say 'Miserable Village' for some reason.) Now Amrita Performing Arts has turned it into Cambodian Yike 'opera' - singing theater. It's an innovative attempt to use a classic format to discuss modern day issues. A great article from Michelle Vachon in today's Cambodia Daily follows the publication of a book on the incident (By Doek Keam and Doeuk Om) in 1987 to the the adaptation of it by Chean Chor Dapheak and Chan Sarin. (Amrita also cites a 1964 novelization of the story.) Last show is tonight and I'm gonna check it out! I'd actually been turned off by the title - there's been plenty of 'miserable' stories already. Komsawt nah? No thanks. Yike can be very stylized so it will be a challenge for the creators and the performers to be true to history and true to Yike performance patterns. Rock on. If I'd known it was a historical fusion play, I'd have scoped it out sooner. (Hope someone will film this, at some point. There's too many poorly dubbed Chinese kung fu dramas on TV, why not some more local content? ) http://www.sangsalapak.org.kh/whatson/2006/08/lakhaon-yike-by-amrita-performing-arts.html Tags: Cambodia,theatre

A Little Reminder The Australia New Zealand Bank and Cambodia's Royal Group conglomerate have partnered to bring Automatic Teller Machines (ATMs) to Cambodia. For 99% of the country, this is fairly irrelevant. Tourists and travel agencies are thrilled however. And if you step out of your air conditioned vehicle to use one, this is what some of the machines have been spitting out. Thought one: If you're passing through Cambodia, or in the income bracket to use an ATM, you have probably either already heard about the Millenium Development goals, or can't be bothered. Or both. Thought two: The super rich who who currently have the greatest power to enact change in Cambodia generally don't use ATMs. Maybe I'm just being cynical. I doubt I'd find this little slip in a developed country. Tags: Cambodia

Angkor Photography Festival - Submissions Open The Angkor Photography Festival is now accepting applicants for the 2006 free workshop for young Asian photographers The second Angkor Photography Festival will be held in Siem Reap, Cambodia, from November 25 th to December 1st, 2006. This international event is not just about print exhibitions and outdoor projections by renowned artists and photo-journalists. By offering free workshops for young Asian photographers and developing outreach projects for disenfranchised Cambodian youth, participants contribute their art and their time, demonstrating that photography can change lives. Based on the professional model of the VII workshops, the Angkor Festival will sponsor free workshops for young (under 30), Asian photographers. Through this program, the Festival aims to develop the skills of emerging photographers so they can better document their own societies and create a photographic network across Asia. During the week, participants will work on themes of their own choice. Their pictures will be edited and critiqued on a daily basis by their tutors and the resulting photo-essays will be projected publicly alongside those made by the participants of the VII workshop. This will become one of the Festival highlights. The workshop begins the week before the Festival, on the 20th of November and will last 8 days. Lodging will be provided for the participants. The possibility of contributing towards travel fare will be considered on a case by case basis. For those interested in applying to the Angkor Photo Festival's free workshops, please create a free flickr account with a selection of your work, then send us the link, a CV and a short letter of motivation to: angkorworkshop@gmail.com Best regards, Stuart Isett www.angkorphotofestival.com/ www.flickr.com/people/angkorphotographyfestival/ [from What's On] (What I find interesting in all this, is the essential role of photo hosting service Flickr in the Festival. 5 years ago uploading digital photos from Siem Reap on a large scale basis would have been unthinkable. Now? Heck, they've got Wi-Fi, even.)

For Film Fans Andy Brouwer's doing a great series of reviews of Cambodia-related films (and TV!) on his weblog. Go Andy! Click for: Tim Pek's 'The Red Sense' Australian overseas Khmer drama http://andybrouwer.blogspot.com/2006/08/red-sense-view-from-down-under.html (That Wat looks very familiar - could it be the Khmer Wat in Springvale, Victoria?) also check out Antonio Graceffo's writeup in The Asia Sentinel. New Year Baby Cambodian American searching for family http://andybrouwer.blogspot.com/2006/08/new-year-baby-work-in-progress.html 'The Golden Voice' - Ros Sereyrothea bio! http://andybrouwer.blogspot.com/2006/08/ros-sereysothea-golden-voice.html Dogora (subjective documentary?) Holy Lola (french docudrama with Rithy Panh cameo) http://andybrouwer.blogspot.com/2006/08/french-look-at-cambodia.html Monsoon Wife http://andybrouwer.blogspot.com/2006/08/monsoon-wife.html http://andybrouwer.blogspot.com/2006/08/monsoon-wife-part-2.html Lord Jim (filmed in Cambodia in 1964) http://andybrouwer.blogspot.com/2006/07/lord-jim-and-peter-otoole.html The Angry Skies: A Cambodian Journey (Won best political documentary at the New York International Independent Film Festival!) http://andybrouwer.blogspot.com/2006/07/angry-skies-cambodian-journey.html The Road to Closure - Understanding the Khmer Rouge Tribunal - Tiara Delgado http://andybrouwer.blogspot.com/2006/07/tiara-delgados-road-to-closure.html The Khmer Rouge Rice Fields: The Story of Rape Survivor Tang Kim - produced by DC-Cam http://andybrouwer.blogspot.com/2006/07/tang-kims-evidence.html available for viewing at Tuol Sleng Museum in Phnom Penh. More films to follow! Tags: Cambodia,cinema

Moto Scrub For about 37 cents, get your motorcycle clean as a whistle. Tags: Cambodia

Exam Time Hmm, this usually bustling street is quiet. The shops are closed. And there's a lot of cops around. What's going on? It turns out they are holding final examinations at the local High School. In the past there have been problems with cheating, so they're keeping a watchful eye on the street. Above: anxious friends and family shoot the breeze as they wait for the students to finish. Tags: Cambodia

Viruses, Spam, Trolls & Gardening I'd neglected updating virus protection on my desktop computer for a month. Big mistake. After scanning and deleting over 700 copies of a virus that had renamed my hard drive 'BBU Student', I took it down to the shop. "Ah, 'Build Bright', I know this one," the technician grinned. Yes, we can now take pride that there are locally produced computer viruses! (I suspect the university is less than pleased at the name chosen.) http://ki-media.blogspot.com/2006/08/cambodian-student-says-he-created_25.html Meanwhile, the wiki at Global Voices listing Cambodia blogs has been under persistent spam attacks, pimping Viagra and porn sites. I've been meaning to add in some more blogs, it's due for a general update as English and especially Khmer language weblogs continue to mushroom. I think there will need to be a more restricted level of access in the future, there are simply too many 'trolls' out there. (A simple login system was the solution chosen by a New Zealand comics wiki I contribute to.) For now I've made a copy for reference at http://jinja.apsara.org/blogs/gvwikicopy.htm Maintaining a Wiki is kind of like gardening, you've got to make a regular, sustained effort and be patient as it develops. The good thing is that despite the worst efforts of spammers & trolls, search engines and archiving tools keep records virtually forever. If you post something on the web nowadays, it might as well be engraved in stone. Tags: Cambodia,wiki

Name This Tune 'Volcanic Tongue' says: Enos Slaughter Saloth Sar Sound @ One #72 CD £10.99 Second album from these No Neck Blues Band/Sunburned Hand Of The Man/Izititiz affiliates. Recorded live at WFMU radio in New Jersey, Saloth Sar comes adorned with photographs of Khmer Rouge prisoners taken from Cambodia’s S21 prison archives and invective against America’s involvement in the ‘secret’ war there. The music itself is a whole other program for liberation with Marc Orleans’s guitar, David Shuford’s moog and bouzouki playing and Carter Thornton’s what-the-fuck combining in huge non-idiomatic gestures that refuse any convenient forms or ideologies. Comes in a handscreened cardstock digipak. Jinja says: Why do I have a sinking feeling I've heard this song before? Like His Name is Alive, SPK and other remote commentators, have they actually come out for a visit? These guys could benefit from a 'Holiday in Cambodia'. Or some collab time with Cambodia musos. Also on the music angle: Jeff at Jungle Bar Blog notes there is a new film on Ros Srey Sothea on the way! Awesome. Previously: http://jinja.apsara.org/blog/2005/11/summer-bird.htm http://jinja.apsara.org/blog/2006/01/blue-cambodia.htm http://tinyurl.com/navxt http://www.qdcomic.com/music/2005/07/khmer-power-pop.html Tags: Cambodia,music

A Thief in the Night I wake up hearing what I think is 'Out! Out! Out!' (Are the foreigners next door having a 'domestic'?) But once the haze of sleep clears it's 'Jao! - Jao! - Jao!' ; robber. I stumble to the window as the whole street springs to life at 2am. I spot a shadow running for his life down the street, chased by two men with sticks. They eventually break off pursuit and everyone loudly assesses the situation. Fifteen minutes later all is quiet again. In 2002 I saw the police prodding a shirtless man around Siem Reap market, so everyone would get a good look at his face for future reference. He had a piece of cardboard with the word 'thief' written on it. He looked pretty roughed up, by whom I don't know. Thieves can get beaten to death here; people don't really have a lot of faith in the legal system. The idea of spontaneous gatherings - 'flash mobs' - are touted as a digital age concept. Want to see a flash mob in Cambodia? Just shout 'Jao'. Tags: Cambodia

Keys More street sign fun. 'Love laughs at locksmiths', but here locksmiths have the final laugh, they are quite competent in finding keys for any situation. Tags: Cambodia

Art opening on 4th August probably from 6:00pm - 8.30pm

The Art House Upstairs at the Warehouse Old Market- Siem Reap - Cambodia

Contemporary Art Mixed Media Exhibition By Graduates of the Royal University of Fine Arts August 4 - November 2, 2006 www.thearthousesiemreap.com

[courtesy What's On / Sasha Constable]

From Prey Sar to Wat Koh How did I end up here? I thought as the police started pushing the crowd back. We were near Prey Sar prison. Several of my friends had mentioned this protest and I'd come along as if it was a book launch. Foolish Jinja. Half of the people - Khmer or Barang - seemed to have a camera (or a camera phone). They were prepared; just as there's a little sub-culture of arts people in Cambodia, so there's a network of activists. In a Western country there'd be more overlap but here there is very little political activism in the art world. I can't say the police were exactly chasing the protesters, as KI-Media highlights in red type. But they certainly weren't happy. As they hustled people along, whistles tweeting, shouting, I couldn't help but look at the direction we were going. "Are they going to herd us to Soriya Centre?" Nope, sorry, no demonstrations; why don't you go shopping instead? We ended up in Wat Koh, and I could see the police and crowd begin to visibly relax once we were on the grounds. While not everyone here is a devout Buddhist, conflict inside a Wat would break all kinds of social rules. The protesters unfurled their banners and the family members released birds into the air, an act of symbolic merit that would have been much more appropriate outside the prison. After some photos and talk people began to melt away due to noonday heat. You can read more of the backstory at http://www.amnestyusa.org/news/document.do?id=ENGASA230082006 or at the Licadho or CCHR sites. Lasting impression? The quiet, polite determination of the family members of Born Samnang and Sok Sam Oeun, awash in noisy press, shouting police and chattering Phnompenhois. Tags: Cambodia

Electric Bike Many people in Siem Reap ride these "Hello, I'm a Tourist" electric bikes. But I'm starting to see more of them in Phnom Penh, being used by locals, not foreigners. The beginning of a trend? Tags: Cambodia