The Big Top just got bigger

THU 07 | If you’ve read the cover story this week, you’ll already be well g’d up for this: Tini Tinou International Circus Festival is coming to town, and it’s going to be freaking huge. In a nutshell, it’s 10 days of solid entertainment, including contortion, acrobatics, hand-to-hand, juggling and more, through nightly themed shows, as well as workshops and parades. Showing in Phnom Penh from May 7-9, each night will present a slightly different performance from national circus schools (Phare Cambodian Circus and the National Circus School of Cambodia) as well as international troupes from Vietnam, Taiwan, France and Switzerland. Catch them before they bounce off to Siem Reap and Battambang. Tickets can be booked online from www.pharecombodiancircus.org, at the Phare box office, or at participating outlets. See the website for more details.

WHO: National & international circus troupes
WHAT: Tini Tinou International Circus Festival
WHERE: National Circus School of Phnom Penh, National Assembly Street
WHEN: 6pm, May 7-9
WHY: It only comes around annually and this year’s is the biggest yet

No one should work this way

THU 07 | A word of warning: this exhibition and its description is not for the feint-hearted. If you’d prefer to read about something light and uplifting then skip to the comedy or music pieces below. For those who prefer to remain informed at the cost of discomfort, you need to know about this. For the last 18 months, Bangkok-based journalist Karen Emmons and photographer Steve McCurry have been working on a documentary project to record and expose some of the abuses faced by migrant domestic workers. Their photographic exhibition reveals the physical and mental injustices suffered by workers in four Asian countries. Child labour, forced labour, trafficking, rape and starvation to both men and women are exposed in these graphic, raw, and incredibly moving pictures.

WHO: Journalist Karen Emmons & photographer Steve McCurry
WHAT: Photography exhibition opening
WHERE: The FCC, #363 Sisowath Quay
WHEN: 6pm, May 7
WHY: Some things need to be seen to be believed

Creem of the crop

FRI 08 | The concept is simple, but the occasion is as classy as they come. Networking events come in all sizes and styles. What sets this one apart from the rest is that it’s small – we’re talking invite-only – but totally high end. Expect to mingle with everyone from music and fashion profiles, to hospitality bigwigs, all while drinking free flow champagne and nibbling on canapés with a soundtrack of smooth lounge (obviously). Who’s behind it, you ask? Who else but the event-masters themselves, The Creem, of course. If you think you’re cool enough, contact The Creem on Facebook and get added to their events list, so you can be sure you’re informed when the next one pops up.

WHO: All the cool kids
WHAT: Champagne and canapé showcase
WHERE: La Maison D’ambre, #123 St. 110
WHEN: 6pm, May 8
WHY: We all like to feel like superstars sometimes

Verbal High X

FRI 08 | Although our favourite Scouser expat, Verbal High organiser Scotty Muldoon, is bidding us farewell, that doesn’t mean that the monthly comedy night he’s lovingly overseen has been left in a state of pandemonium (unless that’s a good thing, in which case, hooray, the craziness ensues!). In fact, while we were all too busy chuckling at on-stage regular Sam Thomas’ stand-up genius, little did we realise that there, before us, stood the protégé of Verbal High nights for the months to come. It’s a more than merited choice, as anyone who has seen Sam’s hilariously self-defacing, clever comedy will surely attest. Join him and your other local jokers this Saturday and pat yourself on the back for supporting both the growing local comedy scene, and the elephants. They’ll be there too (in spirit), thanks to your $1 entry fee which goes entirely toward the Elephants Asia Rescue and Survival Foundation.

WHO: Local comedians
WHAT: Open Mic Comedy
WHERE: Meta House, #37 Sothearos Blvd.
WHEN: 7pm, May 8
WHY: A night of well-crafted, intelligent comedy. And some dick jokes.

Mmm … Raggamuffin …

SAT 09 | To most locals and expats, Dub Addiction need no introduction. If you happen to be passing through the Penh this weekend though, this is one group you need to know about. Cambodia’s first and favourite reggae band, having just released their latest album Khmer Dub Empire will be putting on a show you’d be all kinds of crazy to miss, showcasing their original tunes from Khmer, African and German MCs. Never thought Khmer vocals and reggae dub riddims would be a winning fusion? You thought wrong.

WHO: Dub Addiction
WHAT: Khmer reggae/dub
WHERE: The FCC, #363 Sisowath Quay
WHEN: 8:30pm, May 9
WHY: Four years’ worth of quality local reggae at your disposal

Start your engines

SAT 09 | Been gagging to let out your inner motorhead? This weekend is your chance to go full throttle at the AP Kart Racing go-kart competition. Presented by The Creem, whose mission is a noble one – to create weekend events aside from drinking and partying ‘til the wee hours – the race is likely to go down in history as the first go-kart comp the city has seen. For that reason, it’s bound to be a biggie, so if you want to get behind the wheel of these brand new 200cc four-stroke machines, you better get in quick – tickets are limited to 30 drivers only. There’s a whole bunch of other stuff that’s tempting to include here about working the forearms and small penises and such forth, but we’ll leave you with the pure essentials: three teams of 10 drivers on a 1km track. Two races minimum for everyone. First heat is eight laps, the second is 10 laps. The three best drivers of each team will drive a 15-lap final race. Tickets for competing are $30 on +855 979 587 338.

WHO: Petrolheads and adrenaline junkies
WHAT: Go-kart competition
WHERE: AP Kart Racing (8km after the International Airport)
WHEN: 2pm, May 9
WHY: Maybe if we had more of these, there’d be less speed freaks on the actual roads

Jazzin’ it up

WED 13 | Doors continues to deliver the goods with their third Jazz Series, bringing Shanghai-based, French singer Anne Evenou. A prominent star in Asia, the US and Europe, Evenou has performed, among many others, with pianist Giovanni Mirabassi and NYC actor and producer Carlton J. Smith. On Wednesday night she’ll unleash her strong, soulful vocals, leading a trio featuring Philippe Javelle (keyboard, piano) and Richard Boisson (drums). If you haven’t yet attended the Doors Jazz Series, this is a choice night to make it your first.

WHO: Anne Evenou
WHAT: International jazz trio
WHERE: Doors Tapas & Music, #18 St. 47 & 84
WHEN: 8:30pm, May 13
WHY: You asked for international jazz musicians; you got it

Guilty Pleasures

I saw by your woolly urban perambulations, your snow-pink, over-wing clouds, and those inky pickled walnuts nestled artfully twixt a dimpled mug of artisanal stout and a good sharp cheese that many of you checked-in far from the ankle deep tar-suck of CharmingVille’s molten streets. You socialed from iced latitudes that required a nice big fleecy muff. I don’t blame you. I don’t usually take the weather personally but that Global Warming bitch has clearly decided multi-tasking is overrated and plumped for roasting just we Penhcentric fools for the forseeable. I didn’t fancy twisting in hell, counting blazing  tumbleweeds. Even those no-mates “it’s-actually-great-to-be-here-without-all-the-traffic” fabulists who normally stay put fled to the cooling beer cannon of Temple Town or down to Novy Crimea to swagger, mankinied, with their deadeyed cohort of tweaker goons.

So this annual turnover I rolled up the mittens and sundry other furry coddlers, inflated the wading pool for a panting, newly neutered Bunster, and me and Love’s Helpmeet crossed our fingers on an MH flight all the way to Oz.

Autumn downunder fartarses between steamy ay.em. sweats to the dog park and freezing your tits off predawn in a godforsaken tent woven entirely of icicles. We stay with the folks in their cosy, artsy pad in the bed where my declining granddad finally fell asleep with Jesus. I used to find lying in a dead relative’s penultimate resting place disconcerting until, after some verbal biffo with the pre-Hubster back in the early years, I slept a few nights in a 172 backpackery on a mattress which was in fact the penthouse suite of a roach condo. I was the rooftop spa and gymnasium. All night legions of oily, stinking scuttlers roamed my generous real estate. I can’t tell you anything more without retching. After that character-building seven hours of intrusive entomology, kipping in dead poppa’s snooze box is a mere bagatelle.

It was a nice change to wake up to the liquid warble of magpies and the thud of the newspaper landing on the front porch instead of the sound of angle grinders and straining aircons. Over cups of tea and crumpets dripping with Leatherwood honey me and dad did the daily quiz off the funnies pages. I’ve been away so long I had no idea what LBL is, or that cars no longer have registration stickers. Meanwhile, Mum and Hubster would hilariously miscommunicate wheeling in the overnight bins and gasbagging with the postie.

I love mum and dad. They are funny and generous. Mother drops golden fifties like breadcrumbs – the trail that leads to coffee, zoo tickets, snacks. “Surely you’ll need a hot dog at IKEA.” She’s deaf, literally and figuratively, and won’t take no for an answer even when she’s “got her ears on.” Worried that they’ll run out and end up sharing Whiskas on toast, we put most of it back when she’s not looking – her purse is like a fairytale goose that just keeps egging us on.

Despite this cash splashing they hail from an era of wood rations and hand-me-down underpants made from the stuffing of next door’s hard-rubbished horsehair sofa. Having not caught up to TV, underfloor heating and flannelette jim jams, Tasmania in the ‘60s was exactly the same as London during the blitz, apparently. It was a cold old hole with few creature comforts and the warbaby olds still live back there in spirit, if not in body, up to their nostalgias in bread and dripping sandwiches. Now domiciled in the Mediterranean climes of Australia’s boganest capital, but still as environmentally conscious as they were back when they lay down in front of the dozers to Save The Lake, they’re loathe to switch on a heater or chuck another mallee root in the stove. Each chill eve they settle in for Antiques Roadshow under piles of crochet lap rugs bequeathed by Great Auntie Pat, the last of the Huon Valley’s notorious lady beekeepers. Unlike me, who packed a lightweight winter sarong and relished fall’s cool breath on my chicken-skinned shoulders, they get about with socks on their hands and legwarmers handspun from upcycled corn husks the minute the temperature dips below 18. Being a tropical person, Husband was appalled by the mercury’s vertiginous plummet. Throwing caution and street cred to the stiffening wind, he wore the duvet off our bed like a fat Michelin poncho for the entire 10 days we were there, even when he went New Year’s partying with some newfound Cambo mates at the Paradise Lakes Treatment Plant Scout Hall, requisitioned for the purpose by Adelaide’s sizeable Khmer contingent. They played nut kicking, ate a lot of eel, and hand danced to an authentically tone deaf cha-cha band. Just like home, though no ice in the beer. No matter what time of year, it’s always cold enough. Suorsdey Chnam Thmey.

Struggle no more

Sliten6ix has been recognised as the flag bearer for extreme rock in the Kingdom, yet the band’s only available songs, Into The Struggle and Nevermore, have been largely overlooked. Originally made available online to promote their debut EP, the tracks on Bandcamp are a testament to the exposure and productivity the act enjoyed before a recent hiatus. The good news for fans is that the band’s vocalist, Tin, says the group is open to the idea of emerging with a new line-up and fresh sound.

To the uninitiated, this extreme form of metal may sound like a collection of marbles being dropped into a whizzing blender, but to those of us who have mastered the horned salute and survived mosh pits that looked like human casseroles, this is fine art. More importantly, it’s the historic moment when the sensitive embryo of local metal emerges from the chrysalis as a grotesque butterfly. Decades from now, these unassuming recordings could be considered a brave coming of age for Cambodian rock.

Sliten6ix’s brand of deathcore continues the marriage of metal and hardcore punk that first appeared in the late ‘80s. There was a pivotal moment in the development of metal when bands suddenly decided they were sick of singing about evil elves and became more interested in the intensity, social commentary and self-deprecating attitude of punk. Thankfully, bands like Napalm Death and Carcass saved us from becoming vampires. The sound evolved, giving birth to metalcore, deathcore and a long list of obscure subgenres. It’s quite bizarre that Cambodia’s new wave of locally produced alternative music is of a genre that would be considered among the world’s most extreme.

A key element to the Sliten6ix sound is the aggression and intensity of vocalist Tin. He has a scream that could strip the paint off your house, and his angst is believable. I’m not sure what he’s angry about but I sure as hell hope it’s not me. The arrangement of Into The Struggle is clever, taking metal fans on an impressive journey. Say goodbye to the old two-verse, three-chorus humdrum and say hello to barely controlled anarchy. Despite riding a flaming rollercoaster, the band remains tightknit with stabbing dynamics and gritty riffery – the result of years in practice studios and on stages.

Being a relatively new devotee to the local scene, I’m impressed by the courage of local heavy rockers. In present day Cambodia, Sliten6ix’s brand of rock ‘n’  roll is more shocking than Elvis wiggling his pelvis in the ‘50s or Johnny Rotten dissing the Queen in the ‘70s. There couldn’t be anything more alien to their families than irreverence delivered via ear-shredding distortion and terrifying screams, yet here they are in all their wonderfully filthy glory, putting Cambodia on rock’s world stage.

Let’s hope the hiatus ends soon because this band is deserved of the media exposure they’ve enjoyed. Phnom Penh needs mosh pits crammed with local kids who will start believing that the only thing between themselves and their heroes is a second-hand guitar, a hundred hours in a garage with likeminded friends and a venue that will give them a chance to express themselves.

Sliten6ix’s Into The Struggle and Nevermore are available for download at http://sliten6ix.bandcamp.com/

Le cafard in Phnom Penh

BookreviewAlthough the word is rarely used, the spirit of “le cafard” permeates through Anna Jaquiery’s new crime novel Death in the Rainy Season, with anxiety, depression and base desires seeping out from between its pages. It’s almost enough to have you reaching for the Xanax and booking tickets to Bali before the wet monsoon kicks in.

In this novel, like Jaquiery’s first, The Lying-Down Room (2014), the police officer on the case is Commandant Serge Morel. Holidaying in Siem Reap, Morel is called down to Phnom Penh to help cover the case of a murdered NGO executive whose uncle, a French Minister, is concerned over the scent of scandal. Reaching Phnom Penh, Morel is quickly drawn into the world of NGO office politics and personal intrigue, which serve as the ingredients for the unfolding plot.

Death features a grab-bag of Cambodian ills that will be familiar to anyone living here – land confiscations, corruption, paedophilia, violence, police incompetence – which leave you wondering if the author could have been more imaginative. Nor is the book’s leading protagonist, Commandant Morel, a man of mixed Khmer-French descendent, entirely convincing, coming across as formulaic and superficial at times. Jaquiery is on more solid ground with her writing though, scribing a novel that weaves together plots and sub-plots to present a tale that unfolds slowly and in a compelling fashion, at least until the final few chapters.

It is at this point that things go awry. In short, Death’s climax is, well, anticlimactic. This is especially so with one of Death’s more tantalising sub-plots, which comes to a resolution way too swiftly and neatly, especially given the effort made by the author to develop its characters and back story. The main plot, fortunately, has a more compelling end, but even here one retains a feeling that angles and revelations revealed earlier in the novel deserve a more fitting end. As a result, one leaves the final page of Death feeling strangely dissatisfied and unfulfilled.

Interestingly, Death is the second crime novel set in the Kingdom published in the last six months, following K.T.Medina’s White Crocodile (The Advisor, Feb. 12-18). Unsurprisingly, there is the temptation to compare the two, and while Jaquiery is a more seasoned writer and shows a better mastery of syntax, Medina’s raw style, especially as one approaches the climax of her tale, is much more agreeable. All of this means that, while there is great potential in Death, it is let down by its damp ending. In this sense, the book is, in its own way, very “le cafard.”

3.5/5

BookreviewQ&AQ&A

1. What inspired you to create a lead character of mixed Khmer/French descent?
AJ: It made sense to create a character of Eurasian descent because of my background. I’m part-French, part-Malaysian. I grew up mostly in Southeast Asia and Europe, and feel at home in both regions. Morel and I have little in common – I wasn’t interested in creating a character that might resemble me – but I did want him to have that mixed background.

2. When writing Death, how much time did you spend in Phnom Penh? What were your impressions of the city?
AJ: I’ve been to Phnom Penh a few times. The most recent trip was two years ago. That time, I only spent five days in Phnom Penh. I did a huge amount of walking and met up with old friends who have been there for a long time, and who shared their stories with me. To me, Phnom Penh is vibrant, full of life, and yet still retains a laidback charm. I would love to be able to spend more time there.

3. Where will your next book take Commandant Serge Morel?
AJ: I’m working on a third Morel book, set this time on a housing estate in a troubled suburb north of Paris. I wanted to be able to write about immigration and I was also interested in the relationship between the French capital and its suburbs. One of the things I like about writing in this genre is that it allows me to plot crime stories and, at the same time, look at contemporary issues that interest me.

4. If you were to pick an actor to play Serge Morel in a film, who would you chose and why?
AJ: I’ve often said, only half-jokingly, that I’d love to see Benedict Cumberbatch play Morel. I think he could pass as Eurasian – with a little help from a make-up artist! He’s a great actor, and I can easily picture him fitting in Morel’s shoes.