Monday, September 15, 2003
Swappin' and Nappin'
September 09:
Stomach feels a little wobbly this AM. I walk down the street to ‘Superman’ restaurant and have some oatmeal, good for what ails me.
The little area I'm in though it€™s a tourist area, is pretty nice. The narrow alleyways aren’t claustrophobic, there’s more of a homey feel with lots of paintings and art everywhere.
Wobble over to the show. I bring some big hardbound books of my comics and writing. They’re useful also for keeping doors open and squashing cockroaches.
Over at the show Laine, Athonk and Agung continue translating QuickDraw. I take a look at Beng’s latest, “Salamat Pagi Urbaz!�, which takes place in Yogya. A nice accessible story there.
Agung tells me about his new book, ‘School is Dead’. School is expensive here and it is not always a ticket to better art skills or a better job.
Sell one of my big hardbound books to one of the local publishers. Yep, as opposed to Cambodia they actually have comics publishing companies here.
Bambang Toko comes by, surprise! I thought he was with the other Apotik Komik people in San Francisco. Cool to see him again. He is still teaching art at school, and has a son now.
Above: Bambang Toko, Athonk & Laine, Toto Mujio Mukmin.
Still feeling a bit slow, so I head back to Hotel Nuri for a nap. After two hours konked out I come back fresh and puzzle over the translations. We’re getting there. Now Athonk heads out for a nap.
A few cartoonists come by for swappin’. I’m starting to notice a bit of a punk influence here, correct me if I’m wrong. They’re part of a larger comic association in Jakarta.
Beng has given us some Malaysian comics, they seem to be selling well. The folks from Insist Press show up, Agung is illustrator for their ‘Che Guevera for Beginners’ book. They translated the original text but got a local to draw it, that’s cool.
I try to begin my weblog update on my laptop but it konks out and I don’t have the proper plug.
Meanwhile, Agung and I hear the sounds of the music festival outside, they’ve got quite a lineup. Some good music, wouldn’t mind getting a CD of some of them.
It’s great, not only is entry to the show free, but they feed us! Now that’s hospitality. Show winds down at 10:00pm but the music is still going strong. I figure I’d better head out, do some quick emails and crash.
On the way to web café: guys in passing to a female traveler: “You looking for something? Maybe me?�
I find an internet café but Blogger won't reload in the browser’s cache. Plus downloading pictures from my digital camera isn’t working too well. Maybe I’m trying too much technically; I came here to do art not wrestle with computers. I’ll give it another go tomorrow.
