29 November 15 – Sunday – DAY TWENTY-THREE It will be one of those long hallucinatory days that never ends – due to the International Date Line. You may remember how this worked on the way over – it’s hours and hours of staying immobile, being somewhat infantilized. It is very disorienting – the clock […]
28 November 15 – Saturday – DAY TWENTY-TWO Nyin Zar Wai, that bright young sweetheart, gets up from her crash pad at the hotel at 4:45 AM just to see us off. She hugs us all, but especially Cecilia – no one is sure why. Is it because Cecilia is enormously charismatic and who doesn’t […]
27 November 15 – Friday – DAY TWENTY-ONE Minshi and I stumble along like zombies in total disbelief that Gavin is making us do this. Though some of the shots are attractive, they are total filler material and the sound of them is 90% motorcycle-bys and 10% tiny synced material I would have to Foley […]
26 November – Thursday – DAY TWENTY It’s officially Thanksgiving in the US. Here it’s the biggest Harvest Moon Buddha Extravaganza Holiday There Ever Was. People are going nuts everywhere in town. Half of Mandalay has packed up and driven here. And it’s also, finally, a late enough morning that I can feel the recuperative […]
25 November 15 – Wednesday – DAY NINETEEN Cecilia wakes up with some kind of eye infection. Not a pink eye, but it is weepy and problematic. We tumble out of our hotel room and somehow choke through the usual hotel breakfast for yet another day that begins at the sewing shop. This time we’re […]
24 November 15 – Tuesday – DAY EIGHTEEN We’re back at Hone Hone’s for another day. The Balloon Festival is at night again, so we’ll shoot the last bits here and then head off later. Tonight we should shoot Tinmar Aung following the Ghost Gilbert through the festival. Now Gavin has finally succumbed to the […]
23rd November 15 – Monday – DAY SEVENTEEN We’re standing on the roof of the orphanage now, trying to get a shot of the school playground at recess. It’s the opening day of the Balloon Festival. After this one shot and a pickup of Gilbert – to cover the shot that had his big ugly […]
22nd November 15 – Sunday – DAY SIXTEEN The morning finds us at the orphanage again – this time with a load of tangerines for the children. And I do mean a load. Food is cheap here, remember? And an entire crate full of tangerines costs very little. Everyone loves tangerines, it seems. When we […]
21 November 15 – Saturday – DAY FIFTEEN At the orphanage I get some kitten action immediately. They’ve got a number of stray felines that wander in and out all day. Sister feeds them – usually chicken, and very often steamed rice, which they seem to eat just fine. They’re kind of skinny compared to […]
20 February 15 – Friday – DAY FOURTEEN A solid two weeks without a break is really tougher than we thought it would be. It’s more because of the monotony of the sewing shop than anything else. Here I am in Myanmar and what do I see? Mostly these four walls. Even if I were […]