Tuesday

I'm working hard to put the finishing touches on my backlog of photographs. I am painfully aware that I haven't yet managed to illustrate much of my stay in Southeast Asia, and the tower of interesting things I would rather be working on gets higher every day. At the end of this week, Sunshine's mother will be visiting from Kentucky, and I'll have the opportunity to wander Hồ Chí Minh City as a tourist again: seeing some of the things we've been saving for just such an opportunity. This will probably involve taking even more photographs. In April, I'll be visiting home after six months abroad while so far no one has seen more than the slimmest evidence I've even been here. So I've spent these last days on photo-finishing. The very last of my forensic baby doll portraits from Sunshine's family farm--taken last spring--are finally posted here. These are the creepiest of the lot, in my own opinion. In lieu of actually having my own experiences to share (yet), allow me to point out some very beautiful web-based short films I happened across online. This ten-movie series is brought to you by filmmaker Daniel Robin, collected as part of the Neighborhood Films¹ project website. These two-minute movies illustrate the sounds and sights of Bình Thạnh District,² located along the Sài Gòn River just northeast of central Hồ Chí Minh City's District One. They provide a very thorough glimpse into street life--including coffee, soup, pool, kids, traffic, chicken, and street corner card players--with a real flair for the ambient je ne sais quoi of wandering down the Saigonese road. Four Stars. Note: a vendor kills and guts a fish in the second installment, so avoid that one if that sort of thing bothers you. [Cavin]