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The Kingdom of Cambodia

admin — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 13:49:00 +0000

The last three weeks were spent deep within the heart of Kampuchea, formerly known as the Angkor Empire, currently known as Cambodia. I was fortunate enough to be invited for a visit by one of the finest people on earth, Alexandra E. Robbins, currently director of a supplementary school for underprivileged Khmer youth called Aziza’s Place, located in Phnom Penh.

Ali was gracious enough to take immense amounts of time off from her demanding job to show me around and ween me slowly into to the mayhem that Southeast Asia can appear to be. Above is Sambo, a resident elephant that lives at the foot of Wat Phnom, a small hilltop pagoda located in central Phnom Penh. Elephants are a rarity outside of the tourist heavy areas where onlookers can often hand-feed the animals bananas or go for a quick ride by paying a nominal fee. We met Sambo within the first few days of my visit.

After not too long Ali let go of my bicycle seat and set me loose in a few of Phnom Penh’s street markets. Often these markets will occupy entire city blocks and can be smelled a few blocks away as well. The selling of all things imaginable takes place here. From raw meats to pirated software to secondhand clothing to motorcycle parts, you can find just about anything you need in these markets if you can handle the heat and the stench. This woman was poised to slice while attending to her fly-ridden beef cuts in her business hammock.

One afternoon we took off on or bicycles to cross the Mekong river by ferry to see what we could find on the side opposite the city. It’s amazing how quickly Cambodia becomes rural when you venture a few kilometers away. We were met by dirt roads and bamboo huts, awkward stares and the unabated shouts of “hello!” from local children prodding us white folks to see if they could get a reactionary “hello” in response. A few random turns down skinny roads and we stumbled on some beautiful pagodas riddled with curious monks. Above is a naga and a dry-brushed lion/dragon capping the banister of one of these pagodas.

Being involved with a super cool NGO means you have lots of super cool NGO buddies; as is the case with Ali. Both Ali and I were invited to join her friend who works for Engineers Without Borders on a business trip out to the countryside. Engineers Without Borders works with a Khmer community that has built a floating village along the banks of a large lake in central Cambodia. The houses are designed to shift locations as the lake swells and recedes during the wet and dry seasons, but the houses themelves can often be shotty and unstable. The inhabitants use the lake as their livelihood; fishing and bathing in the lake as well as pooping and peeing in it. Engineers Without Borders has begun to implement latrines to help rectify this last fact and we went along to talk to the new latrine owners to gauge overall effectiveness in the first stages of this project.

Since the village is entirely floating the only way to get around is one boats like the one pictured here. We were ferried around to about five households to interrogate the residents. The response to the new way of going number 1 and number 2 was overwhelmingly positive. While this may be true, the unfortunate fact is that the actual use of the toilets isn’t the problem, it’s trying to explain to the community why they actually need to stop shitting in the lake that feeds them that is the true obstacle. The girls in the background here were attending a floating school and laughing at my beard as we passed.

To satisfy my lust for coastline, Ali took me southwards to get in some beach time. After spending one night in the coastal town of Kep we hopped on a little ferry to the Southeast Asian paradise called Rabbit Island. Here we laid suspended in hammocks dining on fresh seafood and coconut milkshakes for the better portion of a day. It broke my heart to leave this postcard behind but we had some temples to see.

After a 11 hour bumpy bus ride north we arrived in Siem Reap, a lovely green touristy town and portal to the ancient temples of the Angkor city complex. We took 3 days to explore the entire complex by bike. This allowed us to take full advantage of the Cambodia approach to the conservation of relics, which is that there is none. You have free reign to do as you wish in these epically beautiful ancient temples, which for me meant pretending to be Indiana Jones hanging out with Laura Croft in the Shrine of the Golden Monkey. This is one of the four gateways that leads into Angkor Thom being guarded by an obese monkey.

Getting lost in these mazes was truly unique. I mean, you could go anywhere, climb on anything and just freak out. Although this is generally a densely touristed area we did well at avoiding the crowds and sticking to some of the less frequented temples which often held secrets like this amazing doorway being swallowed by the root system of this tree. This whole experience was something else, like some real Legends of the Hidden Temple shit.

After a week of pure travel we had to book it back to Phnom Penh so Ali could get some things done and I could decompress. My last touristy visit was to Toul Sleng, the notorious torture prison operated by the Khmer Rouge in the 1970′s. This haunting building is situated right in the center of Phnom Penh still surrounded by shops and residences as well as a tangled net of barbed wire. The interactivity at Toul Sleng is very Cambodian, similar to Angkor City, very hands on. You are free to walk in and out of the torture cells, handle the shackles and torture instruments and gaze into the eyes of the mutilated victims sparsely pictured throughout the halls. Cambodia’s history is fucked. If you don’t know anything about it, look into it. It’ll blow your mind.

On a lighter note here’s a hilarious example of a failed translation effort. To put it in context this sign is advertising a “Dr. Fish” massage which essentially entails putting your feet in a tank of flesh eating fish who nibble the dead skin off of your extremities. The sign claims that the Dr. Fish massage is better than a “people massage”… and only 8 metres away!

Obviously, this post relfects just a small fraction of my trip. Cambodia blew my mind. From seeing situations so destitute and poverty so extreme that my brain couldn’t have even conjured up the reality I was witnessing to being deeply immersed in a culture so radically different to anything I’m used to I think I can confidently say that I’ve received a healthy dose of the brainfuck I was after. My whistle is wet and I will be back.

Oh, and I scored some really awesome Khmer psyche rock from the late 60′s.. check it out.

Ros Sereysothea – Brokenhearted
Download audio file (01 – Ros Sereysothea – Brokenhearted Woman.mp3)

Pan Ron – Why Follow Me
Download audio file (03 – Pan Ron – Why Follow Me.mp3)

ATTN: Portland. THE TAINT is Coming

admin — Thu, 27 May 2010 12:39:00 +0000

Oi! Dear indie movie hungry awesomeness lovers, check it out: My friend’s friend’s friend has been working on this delightfully sloppy sillyfest thriller for the last god knows when and is now making festival circuits with it. As awesomeness has it, it’ll be screening at the Portland Underground Film Festival on June 13th. It only cost a puny six bucks and the director will be there. You can tell him Baylen Forcier made you go if you’re unsatisfied for some ungodly reason… I mean, watch the teaser. Times and tickets here.

New Music: Jeffery Jerusalem – This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things

admin — Wed, 05 May 2010 01:16:08 +0000

Dude. Why the fuck isn’t Jeffrey Jerusalem world famous yet? It can’t be just me who sees that his shit is untouchable… I’m not just blowing smoke here guys. Jeff’s first release, Grimace, was a glitchcore disco hybrid that made your average I’m-too-cool-to-dance bro go out and buy a tambourine with LEDs all over it and shake it like he was trying to ward off electronic demons. In short, it ruled. Now he’s returned to us with a whole host of freshy bangers, most of which, however, will seem familiar to some of you. The tracks that appear on Jerusalem’s second release, This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things, are all remixes of Portland artist’s tracks. Jeff has dug in to the soul of each one of these Portland gems and extracted the electronic nervous system within. Each track varies incredible from one to the next. His mix of Penguin Prison’s A Funny Thing is a soulful disco ballad as seen trough the eyes of Daft Punk. Jeff takes on All God’s Children Can Dance by Portland dirty dance thieves, Guidance Counselor and transforms it into the glitchiest most awesome freak out fest since The Mockery off of ‘Grimace’. If you like the over-produced chopped and served glitch as much as I do you’ll also love his cut of Atole’s Strike Zone. Check ‘em out below.

So yeah, go see Jeff play at your earliest convenience (most likely when he gets back from touring Europe alongside LCD Soundsystem playing percussion for supporting act, YACHT) cause next time his solo show might be sold out. Holler.

Buy this record from LaserCave please.

Jeffrey Jerusalem – All God’s Children Can Dance (Guidance Counselor)

Download audio file (07AllGodsChildrenCanDance.mp3)

Jeffrey Jerusalem – Strike Zone (Atole)

Download audio file (Strike Zone (Atole))

Meet The Royal Four

admin — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 03:19:23 +0000

The collaboration is finally finished. One of my best friends, Will Schneider, and I have been collaborating across the world for the last four months to put together this all-ukulele Beatles cover album for your listening pleasure. Have a listen to the samples below and if you like what you hear, head over to the offical website for the full album experience.

If I Fell – Royal (Me)
Please Please Me – FWS4 (Will)

NZ Update – On The Road Again

admin — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 06:35:06 +0000

It’s been a while since the last update of my New Zealand status, I know. This is mainly due to the fact that I’ve been sedentary for some time, specifically the last 2 months. I’ve been living in Wellington, the nation’s capital, holding down a job at a bar, serving locals their beverages of choice. Well, I tired of that so I quit. Wellington was great to me but it’s time to move on. And plus, my very good friends Liz and Patrick are visiting me from Oregon so I’ve since been on a little holiday within a holiday. Here’s a tiny recap:

After they arrived in Auckland I scooped up my guests and together we shot down the length of New Zealand’s North Island making stops at select points along the way. Above is Mt. Ngauruhoe, a key feature on the Tongariro Crossing.

Here’s is a dead bird in a beautiful pose. Photographed by Liz at Ruapuke, a beach outside of Raglan.

This is the view from a stop along a gravel road north of Palmerston North where we decided to spend the night. The only thing nicer than ending the day with this scene was waking up to the same one.

That night we played around with long camera exposures and writing with Liz’s LED headlamp. Beautiful stars that night. Here’s my ‘Royal’.

After racing down the length of the North Island we jumped a ferry and landed safely on the South Island. This is my first visit to what’s said to be New Zealand’s better half. Above is Liz having a successful run at driving on the wrong side of the road with Patrick in shotgun. I have to admit it’s a luxury to be driven around in the back seat of such a fine automobile.

We made a bolt to Abel Tasman National Park to get in some more beach time and do a bit of the world renowned track within. This is Patrick standing next to a tree on a rock. My words don’t quite do justice, do they..?

And for the finale, a lovely shot of me and my BRAND NEW BIKE, Buddy. I built Buddy at a free bike collective in Wellington. He and Gerty are getting along just fine, so far.

That’s all for now. I hope everyone is well and getting ready to enjoy their respective holidays.

And here’s what I’ve been listening to:

Stardeath and White Dwarfs – New Heat
Download audio file (02 New Heat.mp3)

Neon Indian – Deadbeat Summer
Download audio file (02 – Deadbeat Summer.mp3)

Chairy Arms Artwork Finished!

admin — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 00:24:39 +0000

I’ve just finished the artwork for The Chairy Arms upcoming release, Amber Street Lights. Keep yer eyes peeled for the actual, tangible release coming this winter.

The Chairy Arms Myspace

Front Cover

Inide Left

Behind the CD

CD Face

Rear Cover

Mental Shift

admin — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 08:19:38 +0000

Hi everyone. Sorry it’s been ages since my last post but often when I don’t publish for some time I get stuck in a writer’s block cycle that’s difficult to break.

However, the recent news has prompted me to return with a tiny ice-breaker. Hopefully you’ve all heard, but just in case you didn’t, I’m happy to be the first to tell you.

Scientists have confirmed the existence of water on the Moon. The above picture (although not too exciting itself) is a photograph of the plume of water and ice made by the probe that NASA shot into the Moon.

Now, I can already hear some of you saying, “So f-ing what?” I’m not gonna gush on here to try and convince you of why this is a tremendously awesome discovery… instead, I’d just like to point out that this is an incredibly substantial feature about our Moon that humans, before like yesterday, we’re not aware of. This means that from this day onward, it is every human’s task to change the way they think about the Moon. It is, in fact, not a desolate, barren rock desert like we have all been led to believe for the last century. This epic discovery shows us that the Moon is a truly dynamic and active celestial body that is worthy of our foremost attention and respect. Plus, water equals the ability to sustain life. Ever entertained the idea of living on the Moon?.. well it’s about 9 million times more reasonable a concept than it was yesterday.

I’m getting to a point here…

To elaborate on my point a bit further, I present Topic B; dinosaurs. The above illustration is of Dilong paradoxus, a tyrannosaur. You will note that it is covered head to toe in feathers. This may look strange to you because dinosaurs are supposed to have scaly, leathery, brown and green skin, right? No. Actually, surmounting discoveries over the last decade plus have taught us that a large, LARGE portion of the dinosaur kingdom was elaborately feathered. Household dinosaurs like Tyrannosaurus Rex and Velociraptor had grand displays of vividly colored feathers covering their entire bodies. Fact.

Now, I can already hear some of you saying, “Big f-ing deal.” What I’m trying to point out is that we humans all share a collective understanding the universe. This collective knowledge, what we call fact, is an ever-evolving, rapidly shifting awareness that we have to be on top of. Humans have to be prepared to abruptly rework our understanding of the way things are, the way things were, and the way things will be. It is imperative to our growth as a species to have the ability to accept a multitude of realities as they present themselves. Question everything, understand the facts, and do your homework. There’s a lot to learn.

Here’s what I’ve been listening to:

Julian Casablancas (Dude from the Strokes) – 11th Dimension
Download audio file (3.11th Dimension.mp3)

The Dirty Projectors – Ascending Melody (B-side)
Download audio file (03-Ascending Melody.mp3)

Dead Man’s Bones – My Body’s A Zombie For You
Download audio file (05 – My Body’s A Zombie For You.mp3)

Carl Sagan ft. Stephen Hawking – ‘A Glorious Dawn’

admin — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 23:04:24 +0000

Brilliant. R.I.P.

New Music: Apes and Androids – Blood Moon

admin — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 22:18:51 +0000

I’ve been meaning to write about this album for a while now. Recommended to me last summer by FWS4 it immediately presented itself as a glimmer of genius. Three descriptors come to mind when speaking of Apes and Androids’ Blood Moon; over-the-top. This record is perhaps the only existing example of glam-psyche-rock trip-hop pop. Lead by heavy bass synths and layered falsetto vocals, Blood Moon sounds like the record aliens from the 70′s would listen to while they construct a city on their newly conquered planet. Most of the songs are danceable but you’re not gonna feel too good about yourself whilst dancing… you might feel a little underdressed. The whole record has a lovely element of theatrics, from the overt vocal delivery to the robot/spaceship take-off and landing sounds introducing and leading the record out. Give this one a go for some fresh, blindsiding, nonsensical awesomeness.

Apes and Androids – Hot Kathy
Download audio file (05-apes_and_androids-hot_kathy.mp3)

Apes and Androids – Make Forever Last Forever
Download audio file (02-apes_and_androids-make_forever_last_forever.mp3)

Apes and Androids – Golden Prize
Download audio file (03-apes_and_androids-golden_prize.mp3)

Nurses Video Proposal 2 – ‘Apple’s Acre’

admin — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 08:29:09 +0000

The premise of this film will revolve around a very loose story-line which follows one main character on a romp through a non-sensical, visually overloaded, psychedelic clusterfuck. The first half of the video begins in a fruitful, stable wonderland and shows the piece by piece destruction/dismantling of the universe completed at the hands of said protagonist. At the climax, the world has been rendered a desolate, destroyed, baron, grey, wasteland due to the actions of the protagonist. At this point, the main character is struck with a visceral realization that the world stripped of everything is no good, presented as a bombardment of color and psychedelia. He proceeds to build and plant and re-implement color and chaos to return the world back to it’s original state but is quickly overwhelmed by a rapid acceleration in his restoration results. In the end he is smothered by to much stimuli.

The idea is to represent the necessity of balance. Simply, the destruction/removal of things is the negative and replacement/addition of things is the positive. When the negative/dark is over emphasized the world becomes hollow and when the positive/light is restored it is overshot and smothers, thus outlining the importance of the balance between the two.

SO, with all that being said, the visuals:

This was an attempt at capturing what the universe would be like in the beginning of the video when things are still balanced… kinda creepy but with accents of bright whacko colors. The scale of things in this world is also outta whack (beetle to human ratio).
This short running loop is our main character attempting to eliminate a rhinoceros beetle with a magnifying glass. For this particular shot I imagine the beetle being zapped quite quickly and turning into a puff of smoke. The the main character would turn to his next target in a fast-paced fashion leaving little time for the viewer to process what had just happened and allowing for a rapid change in environment. Think; pulling pins out of machinery, knocking stars out of the sky, black paint on colorful flowers, stopping the movement of windmills… frying beetles with magnifying glasses. Any negative action could work here.

Here are some reference images I thought were cool conceptually for what the world would look like once everything is removed. They’re not my drawings but I quite like the rigid, dark, obsolete style used.

And this is what the epiphany will look like. It is the climax, the realization that when everything is eliminated, the world is no good. It is the urgency to recreate what had been removed (sorry i forgot to tack music with the upload).

NOW FOR THE REALLY SWEET STUFF.

I want to render this entire video in stereoscopic 3D. Like, 3D glasses 3D. I have been doing preliminary testing with the above footage and the results are mesmerizing. The amount of added depth you can get with this technique is outta this world and I’ve been trying to experiment with it for a while now.

The sorta issue with making such films is that they are impossible to fully test without a functioning stereoscopic projector and a set of glasses. This makes testing shots a pain in the ass but I have a ghetto work-around. Essentially, you render the two stereo angles on a small scale and place them side by side. You look at them from a little distance and cross your eyes until they overlap and you can see the 3D effect. I know it’s whack but it works and will allow me to test my shots until I can get into an actual screening room. Below are some stereo stills you can try it out on. It takes a sec to get used to but it works and it’s worth it.

The other inherent problem with creating 3D films on an independent level is that venues at which you can showcase such works are limited. Fortunately for us the only independent theatre/gallery with a stereo projector in the western hemisphere is in NW Portland… and I’m buddy buddy with the VP. I’ve already sent out an email asking permission to screen there. I’m sure they’ll let us because I know they’re hungry for content.

So yeah. Let me know what you think. I am more than open to comments/suggestions/criticisms/ideas/questions so fire away. I’d love to elaborate on the concept more or explain stereo techniques further but I think we’ve gotten a bit wordy here as it is.

Andrew