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The gall of the Gaul! Frenchman Ivan Brun attempts to capture Philippine urban life in comics form. And by golly, he’s got it right. Check out a sample of his work at Gerry’s site.

The recent riots in France by disenfranchised Muslim youth reminded me of a comic strip by French artist Moebius* called White Nightmare (”Cauchemar Blanc“) that was published in English in the early ’80s by Heavy Metal magazine. In it, inept French racists bungle their attempt to kill an Arab in the middle of the night. Here are three pages I scanned from the 12-page comic:

The story was based on a real event in 1974 wherein an Arab was beaten and killed “in the middle of a building complex of a suburban housing estate without anyone doing anything about it.” This tells me that the tension between Muslim immigrants and French natives has been simmering for many decades now. The comic was adapted into short film by the director of Gothika early in his career.

*My favorite artist. Do you guys see his influence on my drawing style?

I got a bit of downtime right now. I’ve been busy juggling a couple of projects. I’m posting here some snapshots of signs I took from our Philippine trip last month.

I saw these on the roof of the Olongapo Public Market:

This sign says “No one lazy allowed in Olongapo.”

If the above sign was somehow followed by the one below, it would be totally confusing because of the conflicting messages they’d convey.

(This says “No urinating allowed”)

  
In Baguio City, “clean restrooms” are offered in many places provided that one pays to use them. This particular one is at the Baguio Botanical Garden (formerly Imelda Park). Actual persons man this “comfort room” to collect money from desperate people like me (um… they’re the ones who clean the restrooms too, by the way). Ten pesos got me a couple of sheets of toilet paper (I even got a receipt for the transaction!).

Well, at least toilet paper was available at this joint. One rule to follow when traveling to the Philippines is to always bring your own toilet wipes (and with our toddler’s needs, we never really run out of those) because toilets in many public establishments simply don’t provide them. I stumbled upon this blog recently and I discover that toilet paper deficiency is not a unique Philippine phenomenon. France has the same problem.

Come to think of it, pay-to-use toilets have been around for awhile. This here is one of several self-cleaning toilets that were installed in San Francisco a decade ago. And guess who made them… yup, the French.

Update: Speaking of the French and toilets, I’ve had enormous hits from France (and the whole of Europe and Latin America for that matter) to the second to the last image of this post. The image has been hotlinked in several French forums (although I have measures in place to prevent it from being seen on outside pages directly). I have no idea what the fascination for the image is. It must have something to do with Tour de France and the lack of bathrooms along the way.

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Don’t mind the title. It’s an empty play of words. I actually enjoyed The Triplets of Belleville, the French animated feature that was twice-nominated in this year’s Oscars. The city of Belleville, a fictional amalgam of New York City, Vancouver and Paris, was not, however, cast exactly in a favorable light. Its inhabitants are fat, grotesque caricatures of city dwellers. Even the Statue of Liberty is depicted this way. Come to think of it, the country folk don’t fare any better. But the rich ensemble of strange characters is part of the charm of the film. Some of the characters, in my opinion, are drawn much like in the style of Peter Chung, Korean director of Aeon Flux, whose main influence is European artist Egon Schiele.

By director Sylvain Chomet’s admission, the look of Belleville borrows heavily from Disney movies such as 101 Dalmatians and Aristocats. The film can’t be any farther from the standard Disney fare, however. Belleville avoids any sort of anthropomorphism seen in Disney films. It is less grounded in reality, however, in that it is not constrained by a commitment to the laws of physics, appearing more like a Warner Brothers feature sans the talking animals. The animators had fun with this one and it shows.

The Triplets of Belleville is a delightful film. The frenetic pacing of its trailer, though not giving anything away, does not do the movie justice. This is a good thing. Watching the story unfold and the unusual animation play out was a constant source of surprise. The whole ocean scene was astounding technically. A Stomp-like number where music was produced using household items, evoked a sound reminiscent of kulintang or gamelan gongs (to me, at least). By the end of the film, the entire family* was dancing in the living room like fools to the Oscar-nominated song “Belleville Rendez-vous” as the credits rolled.

*some scenes are inappropriate for children. A cartoon Josephine Baker dances half-naked in the beginning of the film.