Computers at Asia's Hope Christian School 2

Here are some pictures of the children learning how to type... thank you to those of you who donated money so that these computers could be purchased... anything that will help the students to have a greater grasp of English will help them... they are also learning how a computer works as well...

Appointment with Death

"You do see, don't you that she has to be killed?"

Again in Appointment with Death, Agatha Christie comes through with a new and interesting motives for death... and the book starts with what may be her most intriguing opening line (see above)... an American family traveling in the Middle East is plagued by their dominating mother... after establishing why each person wants her to die (and that they could be in it together), Hercule Poirot comes to the aid of the police to show why it could only be one person...

Water Buffalos...

For four years I have wanted to get a good picture of a water buffalo... these are not exactly what I had in mind, but they still came out pretty well...

Take Five

One of the classic jazz tunes of all time is "Take Five" by the Dave Brubeck Quartet (Dave Brubeck - piano, Paul Desmond - alto sax, Eugene Wright - bass, Joe Morello - drums). The song was actually written for two reasons... first, Paul Desmond had been experimenting with rhythms in 5/4, and second, the group needed a song that would give the drummer, Joe Morello something more interesting to play (aside from just keeping time), but then it turned into a mega-hit. The song was actually written by the alto saxophonist Paul Desmond. One of the first things that drew me to this group's music was Desmond's sweet sax sound... here, in a performance in Germany, 1966, he adds in a few almost Arabian sounding scales for his own personal interest.. for those who didn't know, I actually met Dave Brubeck almost two years ago at a music convention... I told him then, and I would tell him now, that he truly 'opened the doors of jazz music to me'... I hope that you enjoy it...

Footprints

This song from Miles Davis and his second great quintet (the recently deceased Ron Carter: bass, Tony Williams: Drums, Herbie Hancock: Piano, Wayne Shorter: Tenor Sax) is definitley from the beginnings of his esoteric recordings... frankly I don't always understand everything, but this song takes a step further the idea (that was conceieved around Nefertiti) of the wind instruments providing the accompaniment, and the rhythm section creating constant improvisation... if you can understand that, you will appreciate what happens here... good stuff. From New York, 1966... The Miles Davis Quintet performing, 'Footprints'.

THE Pannasastra University

Everything that glitters is not gold... I still can not get my head around bowing down to a piece of painted cement... I thought that the last picture of the unfinished idol is very intriguing... the emptiness of the reality of worshipping cement...

Come on!

There are so many things in Cambodia that can make the English speaker laugh... this sign is near a kind of shady area, so I was not sure what the implications were... anyway... hope that you laugh too...

Casting nets 2...

Here is a sequence that I took...

X-Man

Here is my x ray... nothing wrong... but there is some hairline fracture somewhere... undetectible by doctors, so you and I won't find it either... my arm is doing better... this x-ray was taken three weeks ago today... I think that I have developed some tendonitis in my wrist though (from the sling)... whatever... today is the first day I have not used the sling at all... it needs a bath anyway...

Casting nets...

In Kompang Thom, Seda and I "caught" a net fisherman in the act of casting his net... she actually used my camera to take these shots, which came out very well... he only got one small fish on this cast, but the little bugger almost got away (last pic)...

Pchum Ben Day pics

I took a lot of pictures of people carrying food to the pagodas

to appease the ire of their dead relatives...

These were the food offerings to the ansestors from the day before...

I am not sure if they would be happy with how their food is treated...

Despite all of the people in these pictures,

the roads were almost deserted at different points in the day...

I never thought about idols going into retirement, but I found these sitting behind a wall...