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Showing posts from April, 2005

A most Unusual Message

Note--this message somehow ended up in my inbox the other day, thought I would include it here for kicks. Go figure... ------------------------------- On Sat, 23 Apr 2005 11:42:18 -0700 (PDT) stevie@worlddogwatch.com wrote: > Mitch > this is Steve from World Dogwatch...I'm conducting a > study > comparing the dogs of Mexico and Cambodia, and i thought > you would be an > excellant contact(considering your experience in both > lands). > I need some of your acute observations...say, the #'s of > tripod hounds(3-legged );the scratching habits (and > frequency)of said > breeds and others; diets; and general orneryness . > I appreciate your cooperation, and you will be > compensated for your help. > Steve > On Sat, 24 Apr 2005 11:42:18 -0700 (PDT) mitchellp@thirdworldcanineassistance.com wrote: Steve-- Glad to hear from you buddy, did I tell you I got my Phd? Did that online, was too busy in the field putting together

He Knows When You've Been Bad or Good

Thus, as I rode my mountain bike (aquired for $30 from the bicycle market near the Capitol guesthouse) down the riverside, I had to make a U turn to head back to the Internet cafe-- A squat, dirty blue truck is backing up into my lane-- I swerve to avoid it. The mound of spindly construction workers assembled on top of the truck idly observe my maneuver, lazily lounging in the sun like toads. As I depart, I recognize the faint strains of the tinny backup signal the truck is using: It's "Santa Claus is Coming to Town"

Return of the Clones

Just received the clones of the tapes sent by G, they arrived safe and sound at my place here in Phnom Penh. Was the second piece of mail I received in two days, by God I'm starting to feel connected to the outside world again! First package, yesterday, some CDs sent by a music industry pal of mine, and great friend and supporter, Jesper Kumberg in Gothenberg, Sweden. He'd seen the SVT broadcast of BOOKWARS a couple years ago and we've been in touch ever since. Anyway, all I need now are some hard drives and a deck for a few days to load footage, and I can start cutting again. Buying the hard drives will just about clear me out money wise, down to the last penny to my name. F_ck it. You only live once. Then again, anyone who wants to kick in some cash to help us along, just log into the Camerado website at: www.camerado.com/popes.html Your infusion of much needed cash will be most welcome...and of course, you'll become an honorary Pope of Camerado!

Back from Khmer New Year

Once I was heckled by parrots at the top of a jungle pyramid I slept that night in a black garbage bag ( I shit you not) to keep the cold out While I slept, I’d had a dream: A priest wearing a leopard skin Was standing over me Performing some kind of ceremony. A couple years later, Walking through the forest of lights In San Francisco After being told by the Pacific Pioneer Fund that “the board thought your proposal for BOOKWARS Is great, but we felt you’d have to be a genius to Pull it off—we’ll have to deny you funding” I wandered over to Carl’s Jr And bought myself a cheap hamburger Boy that burger was dry from sitting under the Red heater lamp all day, but it was still delicious Then I went back to my residential Hotel Where the crazy lady stalks the Hallway with her fingers in her ears Is she still there, I wonder? In Kampuchea tonight, cyclo drivers sprawl inside their beloved contraptions They stay like that til they wake, flocked together under the smoky moon Like skinny sheep

(((Retrograde in Kampuchea)))

Thoughts about girls in High School Going up to the chalkboard and writing: “Neal Young Rules”! The first love is the one that carries all the Monuments which we strive to rediscover One day there was a sudden shaking We thought the boiler room exploded But later heard it was an earthquake “In Ohio?” I think many a time about that Algaed lake near Charlie’s farm A place where I tented with an Italian Girl, Met her later in Santa Monica What I chiefly remember of her now is her hat collection— Anyway, Charlie always cooked up a storm, fatty creamy Czech food to put nobs on the knees and hair on the neck And the woods folded round us At dusk, gently, like a secret story some manifold chirping thing Everyone has their memories: The bulging eyed carnie when we were kids he who talked to us about his (fictitious, later learned) Chimpanzee, Shirley. Getting shitfaced on the edge of town by the derelict quarry or inhaling whippets in the cemetary under the Civil War gravestones Being a cheap

Khmer New Year is Coming

You can feel it in the air...you can see it in the smiling toothless faces of the cyclo drivers...you can sense it in the plump, taught booties of all the laughing girls. New Years is nigh. Eager families loaf in front of the Royal palace at night, chewing seeds and eating roasted corn cobs. Monks chuckle as they glide past in their orange robes. Teenagers dance in groups by the riverside at night next to big boomboxes powered by car batteries. There's an honest, authentic enthusiasm in the air: the people here haven't been trained to be cynical (yet?), and there is no such thing as ironic hipsterism--amongst the Khmers at least. (some expatriates and many of the plump NGO women in their early twenties have carried this sickness with them from their developed motherlands) Thus this is a refreshing break from the usual holidays of the West: Christmas, Thanksgiving, etc...Christmas and Thanksgiving merging like two gigantic cities to engulf all the intervening weeks into a sor