Nokia Blues

No we haven't gotten out of the take-away business, but the Jungle phone has been on the fritz, so apologies if you haven't been able to get through. We'll replace the phone today.

I'm at about 50% strength but around.

Tuesday postscript: Phone's been replaced.

Dengue Chronicle

Well the week away has taken a different twist. Friday morning I'm feeling far worse than the usual hangover -- massive headache, fever -- I know I'm sick. Having plans to take off for Tapei Sunday I know I need a quick diagnosis so I head to the good Dr. Nguyen on 154. He does his usual thorough inspection, asks me where I've been lately (Kompong Cham) and after consideration says "Well, could be dengue....could me malaria...", then after another review of the symptoms -- a telltale rash on the midsection -- and their onset --- a few days after checking out of the lovely Mekong Hotel in K. Cham -- says "most likely dengue". He goes on to tell me what to take, what not to -- aspirin can cause brain hemmorage, which I opine, would be a bad thing. I call Ben to let him know the trip is off for me, hang my Blues Brothers suit I just picked up in the closet and crash at home. So I'm now on day three.

Day one was bad, two was worse with shooting pain through my arms and back to provide some interesting contrast to the fever/chills which keep me awake. I figure about two hours sleep each of the last two nights.

I figure malaria would be worse and this will pass. Hope to be back at Jungle in a few days.

Days 3-5: Sure dengue is fun, but what would make it even more so? Power outages. Yessir. Last three days the electric has been down at the apartment for 3-5 hours during the afternoon. Just what I need is to stew in my own denguified juices during the hottest part of the day. Anyway, depsite that the fever's down a little bit, headache not so bad. But whether from the dengue or the paracematol I still haven't been able to sleep. Take me lord.

Days 4-6: Fever's down, but hands look like a lobster and some red spotting is showing up elsewhere, I itch like crazy and twitch like a frog hooked up to a car batterty when I try to sleep. But at least I have my health. Thanks friends for looking after Jungle while I'm away.

Days 7-8: Feeling much better thank you. No fever, rash, swelling and itching mostly gone. Now just tired. So I expect I'll be around Jungle a little bit more this next week, but proabably will need another week or so before I'm back to what passes for normal.

Week Away

I'll be leaving for Taiwan, Beijing and Hong Kong with the ASEAN Bio Tech boys on Sunday the 22nd, and will return the following Sunday. Please, and I'm only going to say this once, do not put any Britney Spears on the computer while I'm gone.

P.S. - While I"m gone the network will be disabled (sorry). The desktop will still be there for your internet use. Bill last month: $369. You may find I've blocked some prominent download sites in an attempt to reign costs in, so for example one can no longer use Windows Update from the network. I'm hoping it helps. Nothing that will hurt our well behaved internet users.

THIS could be good

Isn't there someone who can get these guys over here?

LA band, filmmakers revive nearly forgotten Cambodian rock

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- The jubilant sound of Cambodian rock, nearly destroyed in the 1970s by the Khmer Rouge, is making a comeback.

Several American musicians and filmmakers who were captivated by the music have formed a band, gone on tour and made movies to preserve the once vibrant genre that was formed during the Vietnam War era when Cambodian artists blended the sounds of American pop heard on U.S. military radios with their traditional music.

"It's pretty incredible that somehow Cambodian musicians got rock 'n' roll right during the late 1960s and '70s," said documentary maker John Pirozzi, whose film "Don't Think I've Forgotten," is about the emergence of Cambodian rock and the fate of some of its iconic stars.

The music is a mix of surf and psychedelic rock combined with the distinctive melodies and soaring vocal styles of Cambodian folk music.

"Outside of the United States and England, there was no good rock 'n' roll elsewhere in the world, but they managed to make it their own and make it into something unique," Pirozzi said.

When the Khmer Rouge ruled from 1975-79, an estimated 1.7 million Cambodians died from starvation, overwork, medical neglect and execution in the notorious "killing fields."

Artists and intellectuals were deemed enemies of the classless society the brutal regime was trying to create. Cultural and performing arts institutions were closed, instruments and records burned. Singers who could not flee were killed or forced to sing propaganda songs. Some surviving musicians said they went to great lengths to hide their identities in labor camps.

The country's most popular female singer Ros Sereysothea died mysteriously during those years, and even today no one knows for sure what happened to her. Her life is the subject of the short film "The Golden Voice."

"I got enthralled by the music, it was like nothing I've ever heard before," said the film's director Greg Cahill. "It sounds like '60s American rock but with a totally different spin on it."

Cahill said he learned about Sereysothea by interviewing many "killing fields" survivors who resettled in Long Beach, home to the country's largest Cambodian community. He wrote his script in English, had it translated to Khmer, hired a Cambodian cast and shot the movie in the Los Angeles area.

The movie premiered in Long Beach in October and was warmly received by a mostly Cambodian audience.

"A lot of people said they were happy we made the film because it's telling this very important story that's been buried," he said.

Meanwhile, the Los Angeles band Dengue Fever is introducing Cambodian rock to an eclectic audience as it tours college campuses and hipster venues, and performs in Cambodian communities across the country and abroad.

The band was formed in 2001 by Ethan Holtzman, who discovered the music while traveling across Cambodia. He returned home and recruited his brother Zac, three other Americans and a Cambodian-born singer to help him cover some of the infectious pop and rock tunes he heard on his trip.

"I traveled all over Southeast Asia, but Cambodia really stood out from the other countries because of its history and what its people had been through," Holtzman said. "I came back wanting to pay respect to the fallen musicians and their body of work."

Their first, self-titled album is a compilation of some of the biggest hits from the era while their second album contains original songs, written in English and translated to Khmer, that fuse Cambodian rock with jazz and even a little hip-hop. Holtzman said one song pays tribute to the pop singer Huoy Meas, who was said to be forced to sing in the nude before she was executed.

In late 2005, the sextet toured Cambodia for the first time and became overnight stars after a television station repeatedly broadcast their performance to the nation.

At concerts, they said the faces of older Cambodians lit up when they played old songs, reminding them of innocent days before the Khmer Rouge took power.

Their most memorable show took place in a shantytown outside Phnom Penh, when they collaborated with a group of local students. The trip is the subject of another documentary by Pirozzi, called "Sleepwalking Through the Mekong."

"It was an emotional day," recalled bassist Senon Williams. "These kids knew all the old songs, and we were able to jam together even when we didn't speak the same language."

Back home, they're attracting a new generation of Cambodians raised in the United States.

At a recent show in Santa Monica, a large group of Cambodian college students crowded near the stage, shouting for the band to play some of their favorite tunes. They cheered when guitarist Zac Holtzman sang in Khmer, then spontaneously formed a traditional Cambodian dance circle and curled their hands in fanlike motion.

Thary Duong, a 21-year-old UCLA student, said she grew up in California listening to alternative rock and recently discovered Dengue Fever.

"I see this as being something completely American because it's so hip, but it's taking from the roots of Cambodia," she said.

Daisy Ngyuen

This Can't Be Good

Irish pop star Ronan Keating to play Cambodia

April 16, 2007

PHNOM PENH (AFP) - Irish pop crooner Ronan Keating is to perform before tens of thousands of Cambodians next month, organizers said Monday, in the country's first concert by a major international act.

Some 30,000 Cambodians will attend the gig by the former frontman of boy band phenomenon Boyzone, said Kevin Kouch, a senior producer at the Cambodian Television Network which is sponsoring the concert.

"It's our first time (hosting a headline act) ... It will be a big success," he told AFP.

Keating's performance will be the highlight of a longer trip through Cambodia, during which he is expected to visit the Angkor temples and several orphanages, Kouch said.

Although Cambodia has hosted a number of minor foreign music acts in recent years, Keating's concert is intended to open the way for greater international exposure, municipal culture office official Mom Suth said.

"We hope the group will spread information regarding our culture and tourist potential to the rest of the world," he said.

Since first hitting the stage with Boyzone in 1994, Keating has racked up 28 top 10 hits and sold more than 21 million albums worldwide, according to his Web site.

His Cambodia concert, to be held in Phnom Penh's Olympic Stadium, is part of a three-date Asian tour which includes performances in Bangkok and Taipei.

Tickets will not be available at Jungle Bar. If I must hear yet again "If Tomorrow Never Comes" -- and I really don't -- it will be by Garth Brooks thank you.

Ouch.

Two Years On

It's now been 26 months since I took over Jungle Bar and almost exactly two years since I became a permanent resident of Phnom Penh. When I decided to come, I had a goal of running Jungle for two years. Having done that, I can look back and say it was a great move to make. The business was tough the first 15 months or so, too much riding on Scott's coat-tails, but for much of the last year as I've focused on making Jungle my own it's really been a blast, reasonably successful financially and great great fun. Thanks to all my friends who have made it happen and to my wife for her patience and support. I'll continue to try to do good by all of you.

My third year here begins with two new professional ventures. As many of you locals know, my good friend Guy D2 and I will soon be taking over Sugar Shack. It's a great little bar just a block from Jungle which my former manager Sarina set up last year with a little bit of help from us and many of her friends. It didn't work out for Sarina, but we think the bar has proved itself and we're anxious to make a go of it ourselves, with Guy taking the lead. Guy returns from Belgium after new year and an opening party will be announced soon.

I'm also taking on some new responsibility as a member of the Board of Directors of a very exciting young company based here in Phnom Penh, ASEAN Biotechnologies. It's primary focus is turning waste plastic and fiber into composite building material for low-cost housing and myriad commercial uses. It's a technology with tremendous promise and meaning for the developing world, especially Cambodia, and I'm happy to be a part of this venture. I'll be in Shanghai, Beijing, Tapei and Hong Kong for ten days at the end of the month as part of this work.

So there it is. Two years. It's flown by. Thanks everyone. See you at Jungle -- and the Shack.

The Palace

The new digs. Trying to get the new big screen -- about 110" -- up in time for Khmer new year...we'll see. Nice, eh?

Why We Live Here

Lord Playboy over at Khmer440 is, as usual, spot on. So says he:

After all the negative press Cambodia receives, I decided to make a list of good things about living in Phnom Penh. Feel free to add your own comments. Phnom Penh is a place……

Continued here.

Cambodia prime minister: Bar workers didn't vote for fear of dirtying fingernails with ink

The Associated Press
Monday, April 9, 2007

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia: Prime Minister Hun Sen said Monday that many women working in karaoke bars across the country skipped Cambodia's recent local elections because they feared getting their fingernails dirty with black ink.

After casting ballots in the April 1 local elections, Cambodians had their fingers dipped in black ink to prevent them from voting again.

Only about 5.1 million of the country's 7.8 million registered voters went to the polls to choose new local governing councils.

Hun Sen's comment, in a speech broadcast on national radio, was in response to criticism from political opponents and election monitors that many people failed to vote because they were confused or frustrated with the complicated voter registration process.

"Many karaoke ladies did not go to vote because they feared getting their fingernails dirty," he said. "Some of them might have planned to go to vote but after seeing others return from voting with black ink on their fingernails, they decided to skip the polls."

"But that was their right, their freedom — freedom to vote and not to go to vote," he said.

Hun Sen seemed to be speaking partially in jest, as laughter could be heard when he raised the subject.

According to unofficial election results, Hun Sen's ruling Cambodian People's Party will continue to control more than 98 percent of the country's 1,621 communes and urban sub-districts known as sangkats.

Official results are due on April 24.

Khmer New Year

Jungle will be closing three days for Khmer New Year, April 14-16. We will be open the 17th and we'll have a Tiger promotion going, buy two get one free. Not sure if I'll be in town or not. Last year I was in Phuket and Bangkok and I know those are places I don't want to be this time round. Phmom Penh promises to be quiet, if a bit wet. It may be good time to catch up on the 5th season of 24.

Thailand Weekend

With my printer out of ink and the masa supply running low, I'm in Bangkok for a couple days doing some shopping. I'll be back on the morning flight Sunday.

Back now. Mission accomplished.

Today's Weather

I guess summer has arrived.

Current conditions as of 2:00 pm ICT:

Partly Cloudy 97°

Feels Like:
111°
Barometer:
29.71 in and rising
Humidity:
53%
Visibility:
6.21 mi
Dewpoint:
77°
Wind:
SE 9 mph
Sunrise:
5:57 am
Sunset:
6:12 pm

Current temperature in Hanoi: 64°. Guess where I'd like to be.

Dylanesque

One of my favorite playlists at Jungle is one comprised completely of Dylan covers. The newest addition to that playlist is Bryan Ferry's new release Dylanesque. You might have heard Ferry's bizarre version of Hard Rain that appeared on his first solo album These Foolish Things. Well all the tracks on the new album don't work magic, but it's a solid release, best Ferry in a long time and a worthy addition to the covers playlist.

Other new and significant additions to the library: Bonnie Prince Billy's The Letting Go, Neil Young's Live at Massey Hall (1971), Townes Van Zandt's Texas Rain, and, in preparation for Canada day later this summer -- feel the excitement building? -- most of the Tragically Hip catalog.