Monday, February 14, 2011
Independent Youth-Driven Cultural Production in Cambodia
With assistance from Arts Network Asia, I'm seeking an independent cultural producer based in the US to do a collaborative independent media/art project with me and a coalition of dedicated organizations and institutions focused on youth concerns in Cambodia. See here for details, and please forward the site along to interested parties.
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Thursday, February 3, 2011
Best Burger in Battambong
My PUC Radio Talk Show experience was a doozy—the tuk tuk got lost, which wasn't so much a big deal for me (I've done hundreds of interviews, some of them even late-starting ones) but for my host just added to her pre-show jitters. (She's only been on the air a few weeks, she told me.) Add to this the alarm of her inability to get her hands on my CV (ummm, just google me, I told her. Really there's a lot out there.) and, frankly, I'd put her in a state of panic even before I arrived. Oops.
The show went well regardless—I'll post clips when I get my hands on them—and afterwards I hitched a ride home with Soma and Chetra, who runs the dorm where I'm staying. We passed by a gas station on the way with a sign out front that read "Mike's Burgers". Soma said, "I know you don't like burgers, Anne"—I'd confessed as much by way of escaping a conversation on the comparative merits of American fast food—"but this place has really amazing burgers."
Chetra said, "Wow, that sounds good."
Still, we got home a few minutes later, and Chetra, who generally is concerned with making sure I've eaten for the day, asked about dinner. "Oh, too bad we didn't get burgers when we went by!" I said. And that was when her eyes lit up. She started telling me about some really amazing hamburgers she liked in Battambong, her home town, and by the end of her description we were on a moto back to the gas station. See above.
That was weeks ago: Since I've been back several times, with anyone I can manage to bring with me. (It's true that the place is often crowded with LDS missionaries, who in Cambodia just get called "Christians," in a way that I think might offend me a little bit, although I am not religious, the same way that "Americans" and "white people" sometimes get confused.) Mike came to recognize both of us. I ate more burgers in Cambodia than I've ever eaten in the course of my life, I swear it. That's how good they are.
And, our first trip pictured above, I even asked Chetra—whose family raises alligators, who's looking for a way to get to the States, and who got a promotion the day after I left town—what she thought of the burgers.
"Better than Battambong," she told me.
The show went well regardless—I'll post clips when I get my hands on them—and afterwards I hitched a ride home with Soma and Chetra, who runs the dorm where I'm staying. We passed by a gas station on the way with a sign out front that read "Mike's Burgers". Soma said, "I know you don't like burgers, Anne"—I'd confessed as much by way of escaping a conversation on the comparative merits of American fast food—"but this place has really amazing burgers."
Chetra said, "Wow, that sounds good."
Still, we got home a few minutes later, and Chetra, who generally is concerned with making sure I've eaten for the day, asked about dinner. "Oh, too bad we didn't get burgers when we went by!" I said. And that was when her eyes lit up. She started telling me about some really amazing hamburgers she liked in Battambong, her home town, and by the end of her description we were on a moto back to the gas station. See above.
That was weeks ago: Since I've been back several times, with anyone I can manage to bring with me. (It's true that the place is often crowded with LDS missionaries, who in Cambodia just get called "Christians," in a way that I think might offend me a little bit, although I am not religious, the same way that "Americans" and "white people" sometimes get confused.) Mike came to recognize both of us. I ate more burgers in Cambodia than I've ever eaten in the course of my life, I swear it. That's how good they are.
And, our first trip pictured above, I even asked Chetra—whose family raises alligators, who's looking for a way to get to the States, and who got a promotion the day after I left town—what she thought of the burgers.
"Better than Battambong," she told me.
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