New Films

I haven't had much time to mess with DVD collecting this trip, but here's what's been added to the Jungle collection this last two weeks, which collection now stands at 1,300 DVD's.

For a Few Dollars More, 1965
The Beguiled, 1971 (less well known Eastwood, a very good film)
Bukowski: Born into This, 2003
Peeping Tom, 1960 (Classic Michael Powell missing from the Powell box collection)
Be Here to Love Me: A Film About Townes Van Zandt, 2004
Lubbock Lights, 2005 (Lubbock alt-country scene doco)
Elvis Costello & Allen Toussaint - Hot as a Pistol, Keen as a Blade (2006)
Prizzi's Honor, 1985
The Ballad of Ramblin' Jack, 2000
Flower and Snake, 2004 (the Takashi Ishii version)
Scorpion: Beast Stable, 1973 (great Japanese trash)
Scorpion: Grudge Song, 1973 (yet more)
Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, 1970 (American trash of the finest order, Roger Ebert - Russ Meyer screenplay)
Pickup on South Street, 1953 (Sam Fuller, with a nice interview with him)
...and a couple of last minute doco additions from my brother...
The Corporation, 2005
Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media, 1992

Geez, I'm saying "doco" now. A c0uple years overseas and I'm speaking Australian...what's next?

Also picked up Black and White Night, as mentioned in an earlier post, and fresh DVD9 (meaning real dual layer, not the bogus ones for sale in PP) copies of The Kids are Alright and Quiet American (the '58 version) to replace my funkified DVD's of these.

The entire Jungle collection is always catalogued here.

Today is moving day. Having tried to sell or give away most of my stuff except books and records, what's left and worth something goes into storage until I kind find a shipping carton coming over here or get tired of the outrageous bills for storage. Looks like I'll have a nice pair of speakers coming over, and, if I'm lucky and it gets here on time a new HD-DVD player as well.

TV Hostess for Sale

The following was posted in the always amusing K-I Media blog, and I think requires no comment.

$1 million is what it takes to marry a future Cambodian millionaire TV hostess, in a country where most earn less than $1/day

Chan Sopheany (Photo: Everyday.com.kh)

27 Jan 2007
Cambodian TV Hostess Chan Sopheany: I will only marry a man who has $1 million

Everyday.com.kh
Translated from Khmer by Socheata

Chan Sopheany, the TV hostess of Channel 5 belonging the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces, made a public declaration that any man who wants to marry her must have US $1 million. Chan Sopheany told the Angkor Thom magazine that her declaration does not mean that she does not want to get married, to the contrary, she wants to get married just like any other stars, however, no men dare getting married with her because her conditions are too high. She admitted that: “To tell you the truth, it’s only when I become a rich woman with $1 million in the bank account that I agree to get married, and the man I will marry must have $1 million like me also. As a woman of my age, with my kind of wealth, with education that nobody can take away from me, why should I worry with insignificant men?”

Superbowl XLI at the Jungle

It will be Colts vs. Bears in the Superbowl, February 5th. And Jungle will be the place to be. The game will be shown on the 76" big screen, and free Huevos Rancheros, and $1.00 Bloody Mary's will be offered up to anyone who braves the chilly Phnom Penh morning walk or ride to Jungle. Our fine bottomless coffee -- you're gonna need it -- for just $1.50.

Gametime to be confirmed, but we'll be there. Assuming it's shown live, game start will be 6am (ouch!!).

PS. Yep, looks like 6am.

No Britney Policy Gains Support

Even pigs can't stand her. No word on how Dave Matthews fares among the swine community. From the India Times comes this tidbit:

A ear for classical music

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Calling a human a pig, says the dictionary, is to indicate that the person is dirty, greedy, gluttonous or cantankerous. That, in short, the person concerned lacks all the qualities which are considered in good taste. Nguyen Chi Cong may not quite agree. His pigs have a discerning ear for western classical, especially the works of Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert.

The 44-year-old Vietnamese pig farmer started playing on loudspeakers the symphonies and sonatas of the greatest of western classical composers for the benefit of his workers but found that his 3,000 pigs seemed to thrive on the music. “I saw that my pigs started eating more and that they were gaining weight faster than usual,” Cong said. One can imagine the pigs starting dinner with Mozart’s Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, winding up dessert with Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony and beginning breakfast with Schubert’s Unfinished Symphony!

And it need not just be the more traditional Vietnamese pigs which prefer classical and shun pop. Just a few years ago, a wire-service report quoted German farmer Hermann Joseph-Wecker as saying that he protected his crops from wild boars by playing audio-cassettes of numbers by Britney Spears whose fans include the likes of the heir-apparent to the throne of the United Kingdom, Prince William.

Spears, however, was too much for the wild German boars. Says Hermann, “When I switch on Britney songs like “Oops! I did it again!” or “I’m not that innocent!”, the wild boars come snorting out of my fields and run for the woods.” It could even be a case of the singer, not the song! Wild boars are now a protected species in Germany but the name Spears could remind the quadrupeds of the bad old days of hunting and pig-sticking! When William Congreve wrote some 300 years ago that “Music has charms to soothe a savage beast,” he was obviously referring to western classical and not Britney Spears!

Dengue Fever in Lowell

A nice review of Dengue Fever's performance in Lowell, Mass., from today's Boston Herald. Lowell is the second largest Cambodian community in the US.

Dengue Fever spreading among new population
By Jed Gottlieb/ Music Review
Monday, January 22, 2007

If you focus solely on guitarist Zac Holtzman, everything looks as it should. With his long, bushy, ZZ Top beard, Holtzman is bouncing up and down onstage blasting out power chords and heavy garage rock riffs. But if you let your eyes wander, things get strange pretty quickly. Holtzman and his mostly Caucasian rock band, Los Angeles-based Dengue Fever, are playing a massive banquet hall surrounded by 200 Cambodian-Americans doing the electric slide.
Dengue Fever traveled east to headline GlobalFEST in New York City, but filled out the visit with Saturday night’s show at Lowell’s Pailin City Restaurant. Fronted by Cambodian-American chanteuse Chhom Nimol, Dengue Fever has spent the last five years performing Cambodian psychedelic pop in American clubs to indie-rock hipsters - the band played Cambridge’s T.T. the Bear’s Place on its last trip east. Only in the last year has the band cultivated a buzz in Cambodian communities.
“It started when we toured Cambodia in November and December of 2005,” said Holtzman’s brother and keyboard player, Ethan Holtzman.
While watching 6-foot-6-inch-tall Dengue bassist Senon Williams dance to Pailin house band H2O - who looks like Wilt Chamberlain crashing a Cambodian wedding reception - Ethan Holtzman explained that his fascination with Cambodian rock began during a six-month trek across South Asia. Upon returning home, he put together a band after discovering Nimol singing in a night club in the Little Phnom Penh neighborhood of Long Beach, Calif.
The band initially generated a lot of curiosity from young, white rock audiences, but after playing on national television and at large outdoor festivals in Cambodia the band has begun to connect with this second audience.
While most of the people feasting, dancing and drinking in Pailin’s banquet hall have never heard of Dengue Fever, there are a few autograph hounds who have pulled down the promotional posters to eagerly pushing pens into the hands of the band. But the rest of the crowd is just there for the party. About a year ago, capitalizing on Lowell’s large Cambodian community - after Long Beach, Lowell has the second-largest Cambodian-American population with about 20,000 residents - the Pailin began throwing hugely popular weekend dance parties.
But, surprising even Dengue Fever, the band is as much a novelty with this crowd as it is with young rockers. When Zac Holtzman and Nimol launch into a famous duet in Khmer, the crowd is astounded and bursts into applause. It’s something that also thrills the band.
“I hope we can keep them dancing like this,” said Ethan Holtzman during H2O’s set. “We really haven’t played anything like this before. In Cambodia, yes, but not here. When we played Boston last time there were about four Cambodians in the crowd.”
Judging by the vigor of the 200-strong electric slide, Dengue Fever will probably attract a few more fans at its next T.T. the Bear’s show.
DENGUE FEVER
At the Pailin City Restaurant, Lowell, Saturday night.

There's also an article on the band in the Boston Globe.

Heart of Darkeness, again.

There was another incident at the Heart of Darkness last night, reported on Khmer440, where it is reported that a Khmer big-wig of some sort had his bodyguard pull guns on the "guards" at the Heart and chased them away. Very effective protection they offer. Can't we all just agree to stay away from that place?

If you'd like to follow the 440 discussion, it's here.

The Tavern, Bangkok

Scott, who started this place called Jungle, has finally got his new bar in Bangkok up and running, though it's clearly a work in progress. It's a cozy, lively little place just down Sukhumvit Soi 4 from Nana Plaza.

Need a chili fix? Pay Scott a visit when you're in town and say Jeff sent you.

California Dreamin': RIP Denny Doherty

Canadian-born Denny Doherty of the Mamas and the Papas (yes, Canada is a country I've recently learned) has died.

As reported in the NY Times:

Denny Doherty, a founding member of the 1960s folk-pop band the Mamas and the Papas, died yesterday at his home in Mississauga, Ontario. He was 66.

The cause was not immediately known, his daughter Emberly said. But she said her father had recently suffered kidney failure after surgery for a stomach aneurysm.

With chiming guitars and rich, meticulous harmonies that could be tinged with darkness, the Mamas and the Papas became one of the most popular and influential American bands of the era between the Beatles’ arrival and Woodstock. Their enduring hits, like “California Dreamin’,” “Monday, Monday” and “Dedicated to the One I Love,” mixed the gentle jangle of folk with a rock backbeat and sweet, layered pop vocals.

Though John Phillips was the group’s principal songwriter, Mr. Doherty sang most of the male leads, in a clear, friendly tenor that he occasionally punctuated with rock ’n’ roll growls. In “California Dreamin’,” the group’s first hit, the singers harmonize about being stuck among the brown leaves and cold gray skies of winter, and pining for sunny respite. But Mr. Doherty’s lead on the verse suggests that his wishes may go unfulfilled:

"Well, I got down on my knees
And I pretend to pray
You know the preacher likes the cold
He knows I’m gonna stay"

The song was released in late 1965 after the group signed with the Dunhill label. After stalling at first, it entered the charts the next year in the dead of February — with particular popularity in the Northeast — and reached No. 4.

continued here

I never did meet Denny, but I did have a couple beers in '82 with a very wasted Mackenzie Phillips backstage when the regrouped Mamas and Papas were on the bill with my friend Dulcie at L.A.'s Palamino club. I remember thinking, man she got some bad genes (Mackenzie, not Dulcie). Her mom was gorgeous . Can I hang with her?

The American Music Club, a band I liked quite alot, covered California Dreamin'. It's on the Jungle Podcast. The best version of the song I've ever heard was done by this guy named Sean at Smog Cutter, my L.A. Karaoke bar. Wish I had that one for the podcast. This'll have to do. Matthew Sweet and Susanna Hoff's do a nice version of Monday, Monday on their new record which you'll hear often at the Jungle.

And my friend Dulcie is still singing and recording. You'll find her here.

That To Which We Aspire

Research, research, research.


Tax deductible.

Coming Soon

Masa: $1.99 per 4 lb bag.
Tortilla Press: $10.99 (Solid Silver no doubt)

Of Suits and Screen Caps

My Quixotian quest for the "If I Can Dream" suit in Bangkok was foiled, in part because I had neither a tailor willing to work with DVD images, the proper software to extract a decent image of the suit to work with, nor the time in Bangkok to work through it all. So I'll have it made in Phnom Penh.

Meanwhile, the latest version of PowerDVD I've acquired now does indeed capture screen images well enough, as you can see from the Quiet American screencap here. You'll also see from the screen cap that the original film is in dire need of restoration in its DVD release. I believe it has been restored but just not released.

I've had several requests to rescreen the original Quiet American with Audie Murphy. My copy went bad so I have another on order, and it will be among the screenings we'll do at Jungle when I get back.

DF News

A few new Dengue Fever shows in the US to report, and a new podcast with the band from the good folks at National Geographic featured on their World Music site.

Unfortuantely I'll miss the L.A. show by a day. Rats.

Upcoming shows:

Jan 20, 2007
Palin City Restaurant
Lowell, MA

Jan 21, 2007
Webster Hall (Globalfest)
New York, NY

Feb 2, 2007
Temple Bar
Santa Monica, CA

Feb 20, 2007
CSULA
Los Angeles, CA

You will find the National Geographic show here on the Jungle Podcast. Click and play. The National Geographic site you'll find here.

Chilly Winds: Loan Me a Dime

LOS ANGELES (AP) – A fast-moving cold storm dropped snow in the mountains above Malibu, left white coats of hail in the city and unleashed a blizzard Wednesday that closed Interstate 5 north of Los Angeles.

It was the latest blast from a cold snap that has kept California in an icy grip for a week.

Well good friends, I am jet lagged but safely ensconced in chilly Los Angeles where it's now 38F degrees in Northridge. Which is fine because I haven't yet left the house: paperwork with the attorneys trying to get rid of my deadbeat tenant, paperwork regarding the sale of the house, sleeping odd hours, burning a few DVD's (Lubbock Lights for Craig, the Townes Van Zandt and Ramblin' Jack docos, Prizzi's Honor for Grant, among others), downloading 1.5gb of new music (Neil Young at Winterland, Beatles Live in Hamburg included), putting out ads to sell all my stereo stuff (listing here Paul and Ken)....I'm a wreck for stress and lack of sleep. Must be time for a beer. Off to Smog Cutter and Thai Town tonite for a visit with the old gang there.

Before I do, I'm putting on the Jungle Podcast a great and not terribly well known tune: 22 year old Duane Allman's incredible performance on the 1969 Boz Scaggs track "Loan Me A Dime". If my tenant doesn't vacate soon this may become my theme song. Blogcritics Magazine, as part of their "One Track Mind" series did a remembrance of the track which you'll find here.

Have a listen. And light some incense.

I''m off on the evening Bangkok Airways flight tonite, so If I miss you today, have a great couple weeks.

Good News in the Food Chain

Refried beans and flour tortillas are back. Go for the Huevos Rancheros in the morning. Maybe a fish burrito. Anyway, sorry for the brief gap in availability.

Beer Lao Promotion

In addition to our 4-9pm $.75 draft Happy Hour, we now have also a second happy half hour: 1 free Beer Lao, 10:00-10:30. Come on by at 10 and enjoy a fine brew.

Jungle VOIP

I should mention that in addition to the laptop links being disabled while I'm gone the next two weeks, the Internet Phone will be as well. I'll be taking that with me. I'll have a small-form server when I come back and software with the ability to limit downloads so the laptop links should be up and running again soon as I'm back around the 4th. Leaving for Bangkok tomorrow night.

To those who I don't get to see before I leave here, have a great couple weeks. I'll keep up the blog from California.

Ain't Justice Grand

Convicted pedophile Gary Glitter's so popular with his fellow inmates (all great guys themselves I'm sure) that it looks like he might be out sooner than later from his Vietnamese prison. Terrific. Just posted from the Associated Press:

Gary Glitter May Get Early Release

HANOI, Vietnam (AP) -- Disgraced British rocker Gary Glitter, convicted of molesting two Vietnamese girls, may be released early from his three-year prison sentence, a prison official said Wednesday.

Glitter, 62, is on a list of inmates being considered for early release as part of next month's Lunar New Year celebrations, said Tran Huu Thong, director of the Thu Duc detention center, where Glitter is being held. Vietnam traditionally reduces the terms of inmates with good prison records at that time of year.

If his sentence is reduced, Glitter could be released as early as May.

Glitter, whose real name is Paul Francis Gadd, was convicted in March 2006 of committing "obscene acts with children." The incidents involved two girls, ages 10 and 11, from the southern coastal city of Vung Tau.

Under Vietnamese law, prisoners can be nominated for early release if they have behaved well and their fellow inmates recommend it. Nearly everyone in the jail voted for Glitter's early release, Thong said.

"He meets all the criteria," Thong said of Glitter, the aging British glam-rock star whose 1970s hits included "Leader of the Gang" and "Do You Want to Touch."

Nearly all the prisoners recommended for early release receive it, Thong said. Under Vietnamese law, however, prisoners must serve at least half their term, meaning Glitter, cannot be released before May.

Glitter was arrested in November 2005 in Vung Tau, where he had been living for about six months.

Glitter hit his musical peak in the 1970s, but his crowd-pleasing anthem "Rock and Roll (Part 2)" is still played at sporting events.

He was convicted in Britain in 1999 of possessing child pornography, and served half of a four-month jail term.

He later went to Cambodia but was expelled from that country in 2002. Cambodian officials did not specify a crime or file charges against him.

Laptop Links

It is my intent to continue to make availalble the laptop internet links we maintain at Jungle. I love it, customers love it. It has continued to be a very expensive proposition, however. Despite signage, some customers continue to abuse the privelege afforded this feature by downloading video or music, internet gaming, Skyping or using VOIP for long periods, and internet bills are consistently runninng over $300 per month, and this is while I'm here. It's not something I can afford at Jungle unless customers are upfront about their intentions and let me cover my $.08/MB charge and it doesn't seem to be working on the honor system. By the way my cost works out to about $9 per hour if you're downloading at 32KB/s which would be a typical data transfer rate with your 256kbs connection.

So during the period I"m gone, when monitoring becomes much more difficult - 14 January - 4 February, the desktop internet will remain availalble but the laptop links will be disabled. They'll be back up when I'm back to keep an eye on things and sort out a solution.

We are working on a couple of different ways to limit downloads without going to the full-fledged internet cafe network software, but we're not there yet.

If you have massive downloads to do -- like you want to install Service Pack or download season 8 of the Simpsons, please, by an Online card and do it at their office on Norodom where you'll get high speed and not have to worry about a data limit.

P.S. In the comments section Noghoot points out that auto-updates of your software, which may not be so visible to the user, have the same effect. True enough. In any event, a fix is in the works.

DVD requests?

The months fly by...it's already time for another trip back to California. I"m selling the house -- have a buyer already -- which is blowing my mind. Big changes. I haven't figured out yet whether I"ll bring back a carton of stuff by ship, or dump what I've got. Anyway, I always come back with two or three dozen new films so get your requests in if you're looking for anything you can't find here and I don't already have in the Jungle library.

I'll be leaving the evening to of the 14th, returning on 4th of February if all goes well...

Amazon adventures continued

Based upon a comment on the utility of getting a tortilla maker, just out of curiosity I went to Amazon US to see if they would ship one at the quite reasonable prices they ship DVD's. Nope. They ship books, CDs, DVDs, VHS videos, music cassettes, and vinyl records only. And the non-US sites are not so generous in their shipping policies. Here are the details from the US Amazon site:

Asia & Pacific Islands

This page details information on shipping to Asia & Pacific Islands destinations. Check the country list at the bottom of this page to see if these terms apply to your destination country.

We are currently able to ship books, CDs, DVDs, VHS videos, music cassettes, and vinyl records to Asia & Pacific Islands addresses. Your packages may be subject to the customs fees and import duties of the country to which you have your order shipped. See both International Shipping Restrictions and Customs Information for more details.

The total shipping charge will be displayed on the last page of the order form, before you submit your order. Here is the equation we use to calculate the total shipping cost:

(Highest Applicable Per-Shipment Cost) + (Number of Items x Per-Item Cost) = Total Shipping Fee

For more information about total delivery time, click here.

Standard International Shipping

• 11 to 40 business days
• When will my order arrive?

Per Shipment Per Item CDs, DVDs, music cassettes, VHS videotapes, vinyl $3.99 $2.49 Books* $6.99 $4.99 Any combination of the above items Highest applicable per-shipment charge As above

*Books with listed availabilities of more than 3 weeks may incur an additional shipping fee of $1.99 per item.

Expedited International Shipping

• 5 to 23 business days
• When will my order arrive?

Per Shipment Per Item CDs, DVDs, music cassettes, VHS videotapes, vinyl $8.99 $2.99 Books* $9.99 $6.99 Any combination of the above items Highest applicable per-shipment charge As above

*Books with listed availabilities of more than 3 weeks may incur an additional shipping fee of $1.99 per item.

Priority International Courier

• 2 to 4 business days
• When will my order arrive?

Per Shipment Per Item CDs, DVDs, music cassettes, VHS videotapes, vinyl $24.99 $3.49 Books* $29.99 $8.99 Any combination of the above items Highest applicable per-shipment charge As above

*Books with listed availabilities of more than 3 weeks may incur an additional shipping fee of $1.99 per item.

Give Me Tortillas or Give Me Death

Two items of some import to Jungle eaters have turned up missing in the markets of late: refried beans (doh!) and flour tortillas (doh! again). While the tacos are still great, you'll have to bear with us (it's a problem for all of us here in Phnom Penh) while we experiment with substitutes. Indian Roti and rice paper of the kind used for spring rolls work ok if not perfect being substitutes. I'll be guinea pigging for a while again til it all gets sorted out. Fish tacos.

...and Marcus on Williams, Like a Rolling Stone

Still on the subject of rock criticism, another discussion we had at the Jungle the other day surrounded Greil Marcus, the merits of his books -- Mystery Train is my favorite book of rock criticism ever, the more recent (Lipstick Traces, Old Weird America) not so hot -- his nasty opinion of Lucinda Williams, who I kinda like just fine, and his newest book on Dylan which I haven't read yet.

Anyway, I found the source of these comments about Ms. Williams and if you're interested in an extended conversation with Greil Marcus, you'll find one at RockCritics.com. An interesting collection of his out of print writings is archived on In the Attic: The Official Greil Marcus Homepage.

I'm looking for a copy of his Like a Rolling Stone in town if anyone sees it around I'll buy it off you. Craig your copy's already been sold. There's a conversation with Marcus from last April and some excerpts from the book on the National Public Radio site.

Gould on Clark

As is obvious to all who visit Jungle, music is as much a part of this place as the fine food and drink. And all are great I am proud to say. We talk a lot about music and last night I happened to mention to one of my few friends who has the slightest interest in this kind of thing, that the famously eccentric Canadian classical pianist Glenn Gould (he of 32 Short Films About) had a particular fascination with 60's British pop diva Petula Clark. Gould was a fairly prolific music critic and I loved the essay he wrote about Pet Clark in a collection of his writings I had back in California. If neither name means much to you this will be of little interest, but for those who find this as interesting as I do, I've posted on the Jungle Podcast a 30 minute 1967 conversation with Glenn Gould, from CBC, about Petula Clark.

For better or worse, only at Jungle.