[Phnom Penh, 4/6/24] Pity the man without access to SouthEast Asian alleys. To those who have come all this way just to avoid the same, I blast you with an evil eye! As for natives who would rather pay four bucks for a caramel macchiato at Starbucks, they’ve already given themselves the death penalty!
The description of your neighbour, Dzuy, was illuminating.
For the first time I realized that the entire time they were slowly taking down the USA, they were simultaneously projecting a fantasy-image of a non-existent "Promised Land" to the rest of the world.
What was that expression about a sucker being born every minute? Terrible thing is that this nasty circus they've been setting up for all of us is about to get very real.
I miss the alleys of Eastern Asia. Even though more jammed together than the rest of the city, they provide a sense of a vibrant small town in the midst of even massive cities. The alleys in my current US town are barren and are not a place I would want to be after dark.
Regarding Dzuy, Huxley made a great observation. No one wants an ugly fact to get in the way of a beautiful idea.
So, Dzuy is really no different than most people. Expats tend to create a virtual country that may have little to do with the actual foreign country in which they live. Talk, for example, with gringos in Mexico and they are living in paradise. Anyone who disagrees is a racist and should leave. Talk to Mexicans and you get a very different picture.
Dzuy reminds me of people who lived outside of San Francisco in their view of San Francisco for men. Men in other parts of the country felt San Francisco had only homosexual men and women were desperate to even get a glimpse of a heterosexual male. Sort of like they would stand by the freeway just to watch them drive by.
I found that when I would explain that among the hetero pop men outnumbered women in part because of the image of all homosexual men, they would just laugh. Even though I lived in San Francisco I obviously was a loon who didn't know what he was taking about. The beautiful idea of a paradise for heterosexual men where women are desperate to meet them was more powerful than any ugly fact.
Before I read a word, I almost went to the comments and asked, "Is that a monk smoking a cigarette?"
Reminds me of a faux energy drink that I fantasized about once whose can would have a Buddhist monk riding a motorcycle with Jenna Jameson on the back as it's logo. Maybe this is the guy.
Can someone explain why Linh never shows up in my feed anymore when he is one of two of my paid subscriptions? Does it look like SubStack is blacklisting Linh to anyone else?
Your photos of the human stream deserve a book of their own - Asian Alleys. First there's the smartly clad back street goddess, tall and elegant w/ meat cleaver in hand. Then there's that other diminutive worker w/ the scrawny triangular titties plus the young hottie squirting mustard w/ casual duck mouth concentration. For contrast that dismaying sequence of the pitiful whore from Camden deserving of an ironic title like "Meanwhile Back in America."
Not that it should all be working women. There are the colorful male customers too. That rendition of a Cambodian speaking the pidgen English was a riot. And the pose of that jolly monk in the crimson robe made me think of James Baldwin. Is his dark skin color at all typical of Southeast Asians? He seems like a guest-starring anomaly.
Smoking is certainly a vice and I am not advocating it...however...it is a human activity. It may be dirty and disgusting and all that, but only humans do it (except for that famous photo of the smoking chimpanzee). I have a thesis that there is a link between the decline of Western civ and the forced eradication of being allowed to smoke cigarettes in Western countries.
The description of your neighbour, Dzuy, was illuminating.
For the first time I realized that the entire time they were slowly taking down the USA, they were simultaneously projecting a fantasy-image of a non-existent "Promised Land" to the rest of the world.
What was that expression about a sucker being born every minute? Terrible thing is that this nasty circus they've been setting up for all of us is about to get very real.
I miss the alleys of Eastern Asia. Even though more jammed together than the rest of the city, they provide a sense of a vibrant small town in the midst of even massive cities. The alleys in my current US town are barren and are not a place I would want to be after dark.
Regarding Dzuy, Huxley made a great observation. No one wants an ugly fact to get in the way of a beautiful idea.
So, Dzuy is really no different than most people. Expats tend to create a virtual country that may have little to do with the actual foreign country in which they live. Talk, for example, with gringos in Mexico and they are living in paradise. Anyone who disagrees is a racist and should leave. Talk to Mexicans and you get a very different picture.
Dzuy reminds me of people who lived outside of San Francisco in their view of San Francisco for men. Men in other parts of the country felt San Francisco had only homosexual men and women were desperate to even get a glimpse of a heterosexual male. Sort of like they would stand by the freeway just to watch them drive by.
I found that when I would explain that among the hetero pop men outnumbered women in part because of the image of all homosexual men, they would just laugh. Even though I lived in San Francisco I obviously was a loon who didn't know what he was taking about. The beautiful idea of a paradise for heterosexual men where women are desperate to meet them was more powerful than any ugly fact.
Before I read a word, I almost went to the comments and asked, "Is that a monk smoking a cigarette?"
Reminds me of a faux energy drink that I fantasized about once whose can would have a Buddhist monk riding a motorcycle with Jenna Jameson on the back as it's logo. Maybe this is the guy.
So cool, just let this life happen.
I just wanted to wave to the fellow with the cigarette. Good picture
Can someone explain why Linh never shows up in my feed anymore when he is one of two of my paid subscriptions? Does it look like SubStack is blacklisting Linh to anyone else?
The photo of the little girls made me smile. Alas, the photos of Amanda made me cry.
Your photos of the human stream deserve a book of their own - Asian Alleys. First there's the smartly clad back street goddess, tall and elegant w/ meat cleaver in hand. Then there's that other diminutive worker w/ the scrawny triangular titties plus the young hottie squirting mustard w/ casual duck mouth concentration. For contrast that dismaying sequence of the pitiful whore from Camden deserving of an ironic title like "Meanwhile Back in America."
Not that it should all be working women. There are the colorful male customers too. That rendition of a Cambodian speaking the pidgen English was a riot. And the pose of that jolly monk in the crimson robe made me think of James Baldwin. Is his dark skin color at all typical of Southeast Asians? He seems like a guest-starring anomaly.
Smoking is certainly a vice and I am not advocating it...however...it is a human activity. It may be dirty and disgusting and all that, but only humans do it (except for that famous photo of the smoking chimpanzee). I have a thesis that there is a link between the decline of Western civ and the forced eradication of being allowed to smoke cigarettes in Western countries.
great adventure to a place i will never see
You still stick? What's up?
Have you given up booze entirely now?