Camerado Movie and Media Production

Hello all-- HAven't been updating the blog so much lately for several reasons: 1) I don't have INternet at home anymore, until/unless i get new service which thus restricts me to Internet cafes 2) Have been busy teaching this new video class at Royal University of Phnom Penh as well as working on my own other projects, bidding for a new NGO doc 3) Have been making most entries in the form of the hardcopy diary, HURRICANE... Somehow, I feel like I'm pulling away from the blog since the blog isn't tactile, and I'd prefer to print up a few hundrd pulp paperbacks out here of my experiences in the form of HURRICANE (which has been the ongoing production diary of the making of our most recent feature, SUSAN HERO, as well as other assorted "experiences") Also: the nature of bloggin is inherently exhibitionist, and I'm not sure I want to continue in this direction exclusively. BUT, with this having been said, hello again from Phnom Penh, where the new introdu...

Back from teaching at Royal University of Phnom Penh, where I'm helping put together (and teach) their brand new video production course in their communications department...am modelling some of the excercises on my own old days at NYU. Have just started building up a DVD library of movies which I think are solid, can be learned from -- and which can be acquired at the Russian Market (bootlegged) Amongst them: Taxi Driver, Lawrence of Arabia, Eraserhead, Star Wars, Rashoman, and others. Meanwhile, back in New York, G has just about finished tweaking the cut of Susan Hero, now with the 500Gigs of HD in hand, brought graciously back to NYC from Cambodia by my pal Cormac Creed who was just visiting here. So, as of today, Susan Hero has been submitted to a few fests, basically the ones who waived the entry fee due which I needed to request due to my slim Cambodian salary (though huge by Cambodian standards) Basically now waiting to hear what happens with the current fest submissions, n...

So, the one and only CC was just over for a visit form NYC; hit Angkor temples, had a great time and alas, it's sad to see him go. Anyway, also gave him the 2 250G hard drives containing all material and programs for Susan Hero. Next stop for him is NYC, where he'll give the drives to G who will take over the fine edit, mix, titles, and general finishing work (although I'm still trying to find a way to go back to oversee the final output) Thus, a watershed event in Camerado's second feature, Susan Hero. Have submitted it as is to Rotterdam and Florida Film fests...we'll see what happens!

Now that the NGO doc (link to trailer to be posted soon after it's official release here, it's very sensitive material) is don, I've been able to focus all efforts solely on Susan Hero and am now within sight of it completion. Goal is to have a solid working cut ready by Halloween, then ship off to the US to have some sort of work in progress screening there as well as here in Cambodia. Can't write much, have been writing instead in the hard copy making of diary, HURRICANE, now a year and a half old and 310 pages long! Speaking of which: what is up with all the hurricanes? Came up with the title HURRICANE last year during what seemed to be a strange peak year for Hurricane's now they seem to be getting worse and worse each year... Musct go now and change my underwear. Bought a pair of "XXL" down in Sinnoukeville last week, but they are SQUEEZING my balls off...I wonder who deemed them to be XXL? (Strange Cambodian underpants)

As I have been hauling ass to finish the NGo doc and also the rough cut of Susan Hero...have been writing instead mainly in the non-online journay HURRICANE, which is now over 300 pages--a real testamanet to the gruelling process of making Susan Hero which has led me from NYC to New Mexico, to Cambodia. Finished the NGO doc finally! Trailer link to be posted soon. Now taking a break in Kompong Som, back to Phnom Penh in a day or two.

(From a package of DORCO brand razors I bought the other day) The features of Dorco "DORCO" By adopting micro grinding method which is far different from the existing grinding methods, Dorco "DORCO" could have the edge of curve and tooth shape that assures comfortable feeling while shaving and long durability. The lubricant oozing out from the lubricating strip attached to the top cap of Dorco "DORCO" reduces friction between the razor and skin and prevents skin damage while shaving. [Diagram] Two blades are positioned in such a way that the first blade stretches your whisker out as it shaves the whisker and then the second blade shaves the remaining portion of the whisker for a perfect shave.

Anyway, just thought I'd post these, a couple interesting observations about the metallic object I found in the jungle near Kebal Strung: 1) the compass on my Swiss Army knife spins wildly whenever I get within 4 or 5 feet of it 2) This morning when I woke up, I found a great deal of condensation on the surface, and a pool of water had formed around the base. It was cool to the touch--whereas everything else was room temperature (that is, warm to hot) Planning on taking it to the Royal University of P P next week, to have it looked at, determine at least the source of the inscriptions, its composition, etc.

Was back up North in the jungle near the Sesan river doing some reshoots fro the NGo video, and one of our assistants came across what looked to be some wreckage of a downed American plane from Kissinger's Cambodian bombing days in the jungle... ...the perplexing thing is, the material looked very new, was very lightweight and--I know this sounds cliche--was covered in strange markings. It was neither Khmer nor English, nor Russian. No one had any idea what it came from, but none of the guides would touch it. Anyway, we took it to the local border station, but I brought a piece back here with me and I hope to post a picture of it online tomorrow.

As I ride the humble Daelim motorcycle through the streets of Phnom Penh at night, perhaps on my way to Zeppelin Rock and Roll cafe, I catch glimpses of some shuddering moments I left behind: travelling all the way from New Mexico to New York for two job interviews, one with my Alma Mater (NYU--a mediochre use of bucks and time)the other asa potential DGA Trainee. The first, I went and interviewed buyt never even heard back from them, never even received a "thanks for coming", this again from my own Alma Mater... The other, well I made it to the next round of the very selective process, bu tthey kept asking me, based on my resume: "You like to make films, do you think you'd be happy in this program where you'd just be supporting a production?" YES--I thought and said, dying for a break, a gig in my field after starving for so long out West trying to push the picture forward. I remember the anonymous, mean highways of America...one time, Rich and aI slid off...

Yea, verily I chip away at the indigenous doc whilst I continue cutting Susan Hero; as for the latter, now figuring out how and when to load the second half of the material (15 more hours) which will be the final batch of material needed to make the picture ocme together. Will I make the Sundance submisison deadline in October? Hope so, but if not, then f*ck it, the movie's ready when it's ready. Some limitations are: very few NTSC decks to be had here, and I need one to load this NTSC footage. The Windows machine functions well, though Quicktime is a more robust format I think than .avi. Besides this: no more teaching, that gig ended as mentioned ( I think), some late night sessions at Martini's restaurant / girl-garden, installing software, troubleshooting systems...am back to the Internet cafe since we're changing our service provider, over here in Kampuchea you have to pay by the Megabyte for web traffic and this can lead to the usual corruption and overcharging ...

Rode merrily to Monirith's place to rent his deck only to discover that Allan' canon camera tapes wouldn't play on the Sony deck to to an incompatibility issue: thus, when my true nature required me to swing vine to vine, I was stuck as a computer geek AGAIN trying to figure out the problem. Finally Monrith and his younger bother showed up with a camera to use as a deck, but battery issues kept usdown. He then calleda friend who brought a new camera--but itwas a Sony, and it suffered the same fate as the deck! Finally, Monrith's friend bring s another battery and charger for the first camera, thus I can load the crucial footage-- But then the digitzer from Premiere Pro flunked out-- So then I fired up Sony Vegas andused it's digitizer, with the hope oflater importing those clips into Premiere-- But then I discovered the original clips wouldplay after all (sorry, iBook nowusedforBlog as windows machineis digitzingas Iwrite,and the iBookhas a bad space key) Went...

After much research and scraping, bought a new windows workstation which I'll use to cut the NGO gig; nice machine, fast Asus motherboard, nice graphic card, etc...problem is I'm a Mac guy and never owned a Windos machine, thus many quirks and annoyances...two hours spent trying to network them together til my eyes got sore from the screen, felt like throwing both into the bamboo pool... Lots of stuff happening though, new gigs appearing based on the first one, which represents lots of cas$h if I get them. Paradoxically, I'm once agaiun down to my last few dollars after getting the machine setup, after getting my visa extended (another six months, in case I head up NOrth again to do something remote, want to have it already)...also offered a gig (tentatively) as a game producer for a reality TV show which will be shooting in Vitenam, Laos, Cambodia, and Thailand. The job of the game producer is to skip ahead of the rest of the crew with a technical sidekick and translator ...

Rick Sherman, pal from NYC and BookWars days, taught me once in his scattered apartment on Houston Street, how to do Powerthought. It's a kind of magic, and I don'tbelieve in magic, but I started doing it again and it has its place. Closest I can call it is a kind of creative visualation...now that I strated doing it again, things are going OK [Cause or Effect?]

Just coming back from looking at computers,need to get a Windows machine to edit the new NGO job. With my savings from teaching,and the rest of the advancemoney, I'll have just enough to squeak by with a decent machine. Still moving forward onSusan Hero, which I'll continue to edit on my old Mac laptop (keyboard dying too). Thus,I'll have two dedicatedmachines for each project. Am pitching a couple more projects, incl oneabout UXO (unexploded ordinance) and the devastating effects on the local populace -- who often seek and harvest these deadly items for 500 Riel a kilo just for the metal! Sometimes they use the explosivesinside for fishing, actually. Below, see pix from one ofmy local playmates, Ritsa!

Quickly, before I forget; here is a link to the production stills from our recent shoot up NOrth in Ratanakiri province: http://www.camerado.com/docs/ratanakiri_alienation/index.html Now, I want to let you all know I have just made a momentous decision while eating a prawnburger for lunch; I have decided to quit my remaining teaching job and focus 100% on this NGO doc and Susan Hero. ** That is, I'm taking the Kierkegaardian leap of faith back into ONLY making movies again ** I can't help it: my inner voice told me very strongly to do it, and by the time I finished the prawnburger, I knew what I had to do... Three cheers for Kierkegaard!

Back after a week in the forest of Northern Cambodia, working on the doc about indigenous land issues. Listening to Black Sabbath here in my modest lair/office and regrouping: although Phnom Penh is a small, laid back town compared to New York --which is to my liking -- it's a whirring metropolis compared to Ban Lung, the provincial capital up North and biggest town in reach of the indigenous villages we'd been exploring. Thus, I go from a Tampuan village with pigs,. gourds, and old ladies with sagging tits, to the comfort of my Phnom Penh lair where I now peck, deal with SPAM and some important emails, and assess cash flow for finishing this project. Also, now once again cutting Susan Hero, which I'm chipping away at as best I can given the continually changing circumstances of life here. [will post pix from the Ratankiri shoot soon; needto update my system software first ] Before leaving though, had a striking dream about my (long deceased) father which I must relate bef...

Check out some frame grabs from one of the tougher scenes cut so far, and it's still only rough since I haven't added the material of Dr. Morell on the road [EXT Car shots] Seen below are grabs of 1) Dr. Morell (played by Dr. alan Rice) shaving just after arriving in New Mexico 2) shots of Javier Appollinaire (jaime Estrada) and Susan Hendricks (Drea Pressley) at work in the Meadowlark Movie House. Also pictured is Sanghpop Elpee, Susan's boss (played by Carlos Cabarcas) In this scene, Susan decidesto call Dr. Morell for the first time. Although his ad indicates he works with livestock for ranchers and horsebreeders, he is also now offering his cloning services to bereaved pet owners...which is why Susan, diatraught after the recent loss of her daughter, decides to call him. Javier can only listen in as Elpee, her overbearning boss, homes in and disconnects the call: "We can't make calls on company time..." Susan flips out and soon thereafter she does somet...

Not much more I can say. And I am not being melodramatic. Nor am I a rich guy from Connecticut with a hidden trust fund. I'm a guy who was reduced to a bowl of PHO a day as I slowly, trickingly, watched my money run out, after a year of unspeakable trials and tribulations trying to get my second feature off the ground. [read the physical, unrated diary, HURRICANE, to get a better idea] The grave economy in New Mexico led me to take the last desperate gamble: already reduced to Food Stamps, with my money almost gone, and screwed over by Rainbow Media and Kelly Devine to the tune of $2500, I decided to take a chance and come to Asia mainly to get some teaching experience, so that my skill set (already too narrow: film and TV? C'mon) might become more marketable. This followed months of looking for work in New mexico where the employers all agreed that "we can't hire anyone with the war goin' on and all" Nearly simultaneously do I get greenllit for the NGO doc ...

Rainy season has begun; yesterday on my way back from PTC computers with some new memory for my laptop and a power brick (backup power), some of the streets were flooded to the tailpipe of my motodriver's machine...certain streets we had to turn back, or take wheezing, wayward sloshing loops through streets on higher ground. Am now burnt out and flu-ish. Taught a lot these past few days, been meaning to quit one or more of the gigs but had to wait to make sure they all panned out an became "solid" with the new terms. Anyway, I have one particulalry huge class (over 50 students) , at the end of the day, and by the time I was teaching that class yesterday I was feeling detached, dizzy...once when I turned too quickly to point to the board, I saw a quick star flash across my vision. At one point I had to lean on the desk to remain standing without wobbling, and I did this as casually as possible. In the end, I played the tape a lot and let them do primarily listening exerc...

Came across a lost page of the Bible today, it fluttered down form the Tamarind tree... Felt like the ultimate loser yesterday, very doubtful about everything. What am I doing here? Then again, I have a place to live and a working space, whereas I was at one point reduced to living on foodstamps in New Mexico (read about it in HURRICANE) Here, I have steady work ---too much work, albeit it teaching--here in Cambodia, and I was just barely scraping by in New Mexico...also in New York. Go figure. Just some passing doubts, but as the Bard says, doubts can be our traitors in the end. More editing, I throw hours at the movie as best I can. Susan Hero is finally cooking. Nice sequences, also figured out a workaround re: the 32K ->48K audio problem. I know who I am and what I'm doing, but I don't know if I can explain it. To everyone else, the moves don't quite make sense. When the picture's done though, looking back, everyone will slap me on the back and comment on h...

And it's time to head over to NGO forum to do the paperwork for the upcoming video in Ratanakiri, finally. Now here's the rub: I've got too much work now, I think. I teach at two English schools, I'm editing Susan Hero (of course) and now I want to make this video for hire, a very important and timely doc about land alienation in the Northern Province of Ratanakiri. What to do? Take a leap and quit the English teaching? Or try to juggle everything? Also bidding for another video about a violent landgrabbing episode up in Poipet near the Thai border. If/when the money comes through, it'll be like rain in the desert, I've been so starved for cash. Amazingly, just framed my NYU diploma yesterday, first time in 13 years when I graduated. even though I think the NYU Film School degree was a waste of money (in light of its costs), I have it now and I might as well try to look impressive. So there it is: in a cheesy Cambodian gold frame perched on top of a wicke...

Continued editing the scene with Morell and Javier in Morel;l's lair. Some lighting issues, nothing severe; aciting by both is fabulous, Morell is very very real and very convincing. (Morell is played by Dr. Alan Rice, actor and scientist, who took a break from working with New York's Museum of Natural History to play the part) Javier is also very convincing, played by Jaime Estrada; I remember almost not being able to call Jaime after he auditioned because he didn't have his number on his photo! Anyway, it's the slow long marathon now in earnest, and as long as I can throw three or four or more hours aday at the picture, it'll right itself. Now attempting to download the 10.2.8 combo updater from Apple, but can only do this at the INternet cafe and I need an hour and a half here to do it. [97 Megs] More later...

Finally solved the OS X problem, which had led me into single-user, UNIX command line only territory, by re-installing a system from scratch (though I was running 10.2.8 and the only replacement I could find here in Phnom Penh was 10.2) In short, I was getting what's known as a recurring "kernel panic", the rough Mac equivalent of the "Blue screen of death" known so well in the world of Windows. Spent many a red-eyed hour on this frigging problem, days and hours when I could'a been outside frolicing, but I had to stay inside and be a tech-geek. And of course it's in moments like these that you really have to hold onto your hat, because there's and incredible urge to take the whole f*cking rig and throw it in the damn bamboo swimming pool and call it off. Forgot to mention as well that, in the process of reinstalling the system software, accidentally deleted a partition which had a lot of non-critical material on it: photos, some software. **Thanks ab...

Had a couple vivid dreams last night: I the first, I was in some kind of tomb or temple, and ancient place with various relics still lying around, although the place had clearly been looted. I believe I was there with some kind of team or group: nearby, occasionaly coins littered the floor. At one point, it became apparent that we had to prepare for some kind of promotion, the launch of a new liquor which cam e in very small bottles. So we began to package each relic with a small bottle of liquor, the bottles bore a fancy French script, though I don't recall what they said. Suddenly, one of my colleagues swung open a huge panel on a sort of entertainment center, revealing a well stocked liquor cabinet behind it. "See", he said, as if to show that there were more... II I was faced with the prospect of heading home to the US; I fell into a panic, realizing that everything I'd worked for in my new world would come to an end. "Don't you see, I like this place l...

Spending heaps of time burning a bootable OSX Cd so I can repair permissions on my boot volume, "New Brain", which will allow me to continue editing Susan Hero in trouble free fashion. Next scene to cut: Morell in his lair. For all the advances the UNIX kernel offers on the platform, it's still a pain in the ass to debug and tweak things, especially here where 1) the humidity is higher and can degrade equipment including HARD DRIVES and 2) we pay for the Internet here by the Megabyte. Thus, I surf the web with images turned OFF, and I create lists of things to down load, ala apps and utilities, which I'll download at an Internet cafe. Anyway, want to continue the tale where I left off, where were we, ah yes, on our way to the hospital. So we whipped aroung the traffic circle by the grotesque Lions -- due to the French influence here in INDOCHINA, there are traffic circles everywhere, even in Rattanakiri dirt roads which lead to remote hilltribe villages you might fi...

[From "HURRICANE", the uncensored production diary of the making of Susan Hero] Anyway, just finished polishing the first real scene, the scene between Lonnie and Waseta and their powerful mysterious “moment” together. Also worked a bit on the arrival of Susan and Javier at the Motel, which I’d previously cut then put aside to ripen and mellow. Tightened it up, it has some rough edges though due to coverage which I may not be able to fix—but it also has one of the saddest and most real moments I’ve seen so far, a real film moment, no dialogue, just Susan sitting in profile on the bed with Jav in the background something about the awful silence of the shot that really does something… Finger hurting less in general, but a lumpy knob on the first joint where I cracked the taxi driver in the bone of his brow and cheek; although my main knuckles hit his brow solidly (and split it, so that the ridiculous animal cops who came to interrogate me later took digital photos of the blo...

Old Bill Blake, by the way, was a successful engraver and sold a lot of his work at his workshop by the side of the road -- an early example of vertical integration. Anyway, quick note, logged and looked at more footage; the more I see, the more my eye bewitched be. No, but really, I don't know what to make of it...it's a very mysterious project, it feels like its got a life of its own. In any case, it'll either be 1) good 2) a piece of sh*t or 3) mediochre. Tomorrow: I might head to Takao province; my friend Money, her brother was just killed in a motorcycle accident. Two girls riding with him were also killed...the impact flung them up into the trees. In light of this, what fat ass in America can deign to grasp the golden hand of Man?

Update September 15, 2016: Just going through old blog posts and have noticed this one; unfortunately, it still remains unresolved, so am leaving it as is until it may eventually be addressed, i.e., we get a customary kill fee for the deal that Kelly Devine, formerly of IFC Films, reneged on some time ago and ran out on. Apparently (and ironically?) she's now working with a film festival in Orlando called the 'Global Peace Film Festival'. One sure way to promote global peace, I would suggest first and foremost, is not to break written agreements with filmmakers whose livelihoods are affected by damaging, tortious issues like this . The kill fee for this deal, which I originally requested shortly after the incident occurred back in 2005, and which still remains unresolved, would not be a huge amount. The kill fee would be 10% of the agreed licensing total for our movie, 'BookWars' - thus $3500, without interest accumulated since that time. In any case, a kill ...

Have been busy logging, and working a lot, thus tired and not inthe mood to write too much, but I'm struck by the great performances of all the emerging local actors we used in the picture: Jaime Estrada (javier Appollinaire) Drea Pressley (Susan) Dr Morell (Alan Rice), Lonnie (Dave Paytayamo) everyone is spot on and very authentic, great naturalistic performances. Almost documentary like, nothing is "over the top", everything modulated well and it's really a pleasure to see after all this time-- all this frustration, agonizing waiting, hustling, worrying, scraping, trying to get by, enduring the b*llshit bogus deal from HD Cinema 10 --which was really very very diappointing and made me want to give up filmmaking... Anyway, it's like some shining fruit that's fallen into my lap, fallen from a tree like one of the juicy Cambodian mangoes. ON the downside, I'm lower in cash than I've been since HIGH SCHOOL, and word is the school where I teach will be l...

After watching over half of the footage, 20 hours thus far, again after nearly a year -- much of that due to chronic homelessness, in part caused by the unethically pulled HD Cinema 10/rainbow Media deal which SEVERELY destabilized my current revenue structure-- I can honestly conclude thus far that... ...Susan Hero will probably be a cult/midnight movie with decent sell through on DVD and limited art-house theatrical. It will perpetually bring in a modest but steady flow of revenue. It will play well at edgier "A" level fests, ala Rotterdam, but it's probable that Sundance won't want to take a risk on it seen as they are generally very conservative overall. It probably won't be hurt by piracy unless it breaks through, in which case our low overhead will probably allowe the picture to recoup itself (and efforts) fairly rapidly. We'll see though, just an estimate. Could be a piece of sh*t in the end, could have that magic. But DVD will be the main revenue sou...

Too busy (literally back to back blocks of time with no slack) to write in the blog since last time. Rented a deck from a local Khmer production house for $50 precious dollars and tried to load the first reels of footage onto my hard drive, but a mysterious firewire error kept me down. My laptop --old, weathered, creaking -- is starting to go I can feel it. Anyway, after a marathon 48 hour loading session, I discovered that all the footage would have to be reloaded, and the $50 bucks was gone as well. F*ck. Thus, after another gruelling week of teaching and hustling to survive, managed to borrow a deck from A local company here, Fit Media, one of the guys who runs the place is also an American...anyway he lent me their deck for the weekend and again, another 48 hour mrathon session... Still had the firewire bugs but somehow managed to load 225 gigs of material willload the other half in the near future. Believe the case for the firewire enclosure could be faulty, it certainly heats...

And then I watched School of Rock, a movie of the ilk that only Hollywood can make best (due to enormous licensing fees for the music--only they can afford Led Zep, etc) But it's a great movie, f*cking laughed my balls off, and also saw my good pal Mike Fewx in the opening club scene as one of the hipsters. Though we were both hired to do background (be extras) because we're both in SAG (Screen Actors Guild), Mike usually gets placed in the foreground somewhere -- he's in almost every movie that's shot in New York. So, yesterday, sitting in Mondo Burger, I took out my newly sharpened pencil, ordered a special 'Three Ply Burger" (three layers of meat, but what kind of meat?) and scoped out my potential lesson for the day, which I'd teach to my private student, a cool dude from the Ministry of Finance. He pays me an unheard of fee which is actually slightly higher than I earned recently in the States. But still, think about this: I have a better quality of l...

Was working downstairs, tweaking the Camerado website in anticipation of repackaging and reselling some old material [BOOKWARS] while hoping to picth some new doc ideas, including a new one for the Cambodian Circus, when I get a string of messages from Randolfe Wicker, on my MSN Messenger. Didn't remember at first who he is, but after a while messengered him back and recalled that he's the founder of a group called Clone Rights United Front (see www.clonerights.com), and a big advocate of human cloning...I'd contacted him a while ago regarding Susan Hero, our cloning road movie which deals with cloning issues. Anyway, Randolfe became our latest Pope of Camerado!! (actually, an Anti-Pope, as per his request) with a much needed cash infusion, sent via PayPal to our camerado@camerado.com address. ++ Are there any other potential Popes out there who can make a contribution at this critical time? If so, visit out page at http://www.camerado.com/popes.html ++ All contributors b...

Finally got wired here with my own Internet setup, actually shared through the Adventure Travel company next door, Local Adventures. Achieving this step is a great leap, roughly similar to the scene in 2001 A Space Oddyssey where the monkey/chimp (actually a dwarf in a rubber suit) discovers "tools" and celebrates by tossing--ecstatically--the thigh bone of a boar into the sky, the same bone he used to vanquish his larger bully enemy, which revolvingly and famously becomes the turning space station... Yet I too have Internet access again, no more Internet cafes (my staple necessity for the past three months). Accordingly, I have tweaked the Camerado index page (www.camerado.com) as part of an overall plan to rebrand and revitalize the Camerado entity. **Go ahead, check it out -> http://www.camerado.com On the down side, it's rainy season here which means constant humidity; bought an industrial size bottle of talcum powder from the new Pencil supersaver nearby, notice...

Quick note to say that I've landed a small office space downstairs, an unused room next to the adventure travel shop; this will be the new lair of Camerado. Total rent for my room upstairs and the office downstairs: minimal. Also, have completed the prototype of a Rattan swimming pool I had built according to my original design, and it's ready in the sweltering nick of time. It's made of Rattan--bamboo, and we just tested the liner today, actuually just a large plastic tarp. But the bamboo holds the water (with the tarp) and now we have a small pool to take editing breaks in! Am poised to buy some new firewire HD's debating whether to blow the $16 bucks on the bus ride to Bangkok (and $16 more back) in order to access a greater selection of equipment. With the free one month entry Visa into Thailand, and my unlimited re-entry in Cambodia given my new business Visa, it's basically like taking the bus from New York to Ohio and back... ...well, not exactly. Anyway, als...

Just worked on a French movie which has been shooting in town; I played a French detective / police officer., although I look more like a gangster, hence the pose for these photos. It's a period piece set in the 30's...see pix below:

From: winningsmile566@yahoo.com Subject: Re: Donovan, please stop these things!!!! Date: Sun, 1 May 2005 08:47:07 -0700 (PDT) To: "Sharon Pepper" sharonpep33@hotmail.com Sharon Ridley is never gonna land the kid's part in the new 'Chucky's Back 3'flick if we don't acclimate him now ...tryouts are real soon(june3-4) The money is huge if this flick takes off-hang in there a few more weeks.D Donovan-- Those darned puppets are scaring Ridley Jr senseless; last> night when I put him to bed, he swore he saw one of them> peeping out from his closet.>> I didn't believe him, of course, but when I went to look,> sure enough it was there! The WC Fields one, but he wasn't> smiling. He was ANGRY.>> Please remove those horrible things from my house at once!>> Sharon

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 ...

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"

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!

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 ...