July 6th (2020)

 

6th July

Day 114

Feeling a little odd.

I am up at 7am, approx 

I'm now seated in Common Grounds having breakfasted on Eggs Benedict, Flat White etc. I needed to be outside of Colors of Cambodia, I also needed a Flat White coffee, okay two. Nescafe is instant something or other, but Common Grounds Flat White is freshly ground espresso coffee. 

Coffee, ah coffee, a most interesting little bean. It can be rough as hell (Robusta) or as smooth as heaven (Arabica) and all combinations in between. Real (freshly roasted coffee) also acts as a laxative on me. I won't go into indelicate details, but one large Flat White is generally alright. Two large, and when I say large I actually mean a normal sized mug-full, of coffee and it's time to countdown. Somewhere around 30 minutes. I make it just in time.

I suppose that I also, kinda, like the whole Harry Haller thing going on with me living in a small room in Cambodia. I could imagine Edward Hopper painting this. I am, quite literally, 'in another land….' Is Colors of Cambodia Hesse's 'Magic Theatre' with its "pretty cabinet of pictures"?

"There's a White Man…." Sung to the tune of David Bowie's 'Star Man'.

In this afternoon's art talk thingie we are going to look at Fibonacci Sequence and the 'Golden Section', which might be a bit heavy, then I will switch to animation. I want this group to quickly look at a couple of Max Fleisher's cartoons featuring the music and dance of Cab Carroway, then Disney's 'Fantasia' and the Italian 'Allegro Non Troppo' and finally Disney and Dali's 'Destino'.

The talk stretched to three hours, as we talked about love. It was a question from one of the teachers.

We spoke about the need to research, how to present work and ideas in an indirect, metaphorical or symbolic way. I tried to impress upon them that, as artists, they had a responsibility to know their subject, and to be able to explain their reasoning