Its came out pretty good I think, but let me know what you think, please.

MOMENTS – The new bi-monthly photography e-zine from SEA/collectiv is out and you can download it here.

Its a PDF and weighs in at about 4MB (20 pages), not too too big – and it is chock full of some pretty nice and quite diverse photography… including a modest and mysterious contribution from the Dude and his little monster Nikon camera pimped-out with a 20mm lens. Think wide-angle and big-picture.

OK, you need more of a tease than that? Say no more, nudge-nudge, wink-wink… here are a few of the photos from my series called Mysterious Little Houses in the Alley that didn’t make it into the magazine. Gotta pay a bigger bribe to the editor for the next edition (Just kidding of course, just kidding… insider Cambodian courruption humor).

I really like my small contribution, which right there is something rather unusual. Most of the time I see all the faults and very little of the good points in my own work. Call me hyper-critical if you like, but that’s just the way it is, generally. But this time I really like the series I put together right in my own backyard.

Just little houses in the alley behind my apartment here in Phnom Penh. No people, just lots of evidence of people. And lots of nice colors and textures and a certian kind of straightforward honesty, but also a bit of mystery.

Like I said, please do let me know your thoughts if you have the time. Thanks!

Ande now, back by popular demand… some fresh-from-the-steamy-hot-streets-of-Phnom-Penh Street Photography.

And my renewed commitemnt to post new photos every week from my semi-big town here in SE Asia.

 From Monday (just two days ago… osrry for the dealy, but I shot so many photos it took a few days to get ‘em processed and sorted)…

Phnom Penh street food vendor.

A kid, his sister on the bike and big brothers trying to ignore all of the above as they concentrate on their Cambodian chess battle.

A very nice kid who ought to be in school, but instead is scavenging garbage with the rest of his family.

Another nice young kid spending her days with her charcoal vendor family.

I’d like to add that these kids are not abused (Better to say that I see no indication at all of any abuse whatsoever) and are cherished by their families, but economic realities being what they are here in The Kingdom, it is very common to see small children doing hard and entirely honest work.

Groovin’ on the Chinese soap operas…

Tah-dahh!

The end.

Hey look… here comes Monday afternoon breakfast!

Heh-heh-heh.

But seriouosly folks, I was out on the street today and it was hot. Real hot. Yow. Hot. H-O-T hot (and that’s seriously hot).

Reminded me of when I came here to live 5 years ago. It was hot then too. Real hot… damnd hot.

This guy wanted to sell me some mangoes, but I was buying it.

I distracted this guy by shooting a few photos and then grabbed some of that freshly chopped garlic. Excellent!

Hey look, here come’s Sunday afternoon breakfast!

Note the Cambodia Daily newspaper from February 15th that I found rolled-up inside my camera bag.

What it is? Fried egg, BBQ pork, Cambodian city pickles, lots of rice and a Coca. The damage? $1.30.

The lady who runs the family restaurant down the street from my place just reopened today after a week off for the Chinese New Year.

What she mostly does (90% of the time would be a conservative estimate) is lounge on a sort of a poolside type of lounge chair up there near the front of the joint. What did she do during her week-off? She lounged around 100% of the time. This is Cambodia!

Uh, sorry. We’re fresh out of news here today.

OK, a small update then…

The Hellhounds rocked the house again last night at the Sharky Bar and while a good time was had by most, The dude managed to solidly break all known records for busted guitar strings in a single night. Four (4), yes four [4] { IV – for all you Roman Numeral freaks out there } strings bit the dust in short order, the first just before the climax of the first song of our first set.

This sort of humiliating show of unbridled incompetence and nincompoopery is about par for the course, so if you haven’t made it to Sharky’s on a Thursday night yet this year, you better get your cute little butt (or whatever) on down there next week. Toot sweet hunny-buns. I got a funny feeling that its gonna be a hoot and a holler and a half. Maybe a holler .75 (that’s 3/4ths for all you fractional freaks out there). Next Thursday, February 25th at 9pm – Sharky Bar in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

On other fronts The M-Dude successfully completed a number of photo-shoot gigs this month and is looking forward to the next week’s publication of the SEA/collectiv’s new PDF magazine rumored to be an every-other month affair with extra-special photographic delights.