ALL THINGS BIG AND SMALL 2.0

  A MONSTER ARCHTOP. I got this monster made-in-China Farida 18" archtop from a friend in the UK relocating to Hong Kong and wanting to get rid of excess baggage. Farida is more well-known for their acoustic guitars, this archtop is no longer in production. You can gauge how huge this thing is by comparing with the '68 Morris copy of a Gibson ES175 (Left) which has a lower bout of 16.75 ", and the '78 Yamaha copy of a 17" Gibson L5-CES (Right) The Farida is heavy and won't fit into any standard archtop gig carrying-case. It is very well-made with an Ebony fingerboard, and very loud when played unplugged. And has an old-fashioned sound like those rhythm guitars in a 1930s big band going comp comp comp before electric guitars were invented. Looking at the tail-bridge, it's a copy of the 1939 D' Angelico New Yorker which probably has a valuation today of at least $50,000. Walking Down an Aisle with Eighty-Eight Guitars on the Celiing At the Hard Rock ...

 While insects as a source of protein is now widely recognized, it still takes some getting used to. But the rural population of South-East Asian nations like Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Mynmar have been eating insects for hundreds of years. Here is my gallery of insects as food.  See captions for descriptions though I can't make out what some of the creepy crawlies are.  The meal we bought for out pedicab driver: Assorted insects with glutinous rice. A closer look at the meal Beetles  with Chili and Garlic The Pupae of some insects Spiders and Water Beetles Grasshoppers and Black Dung Beetles I think there are Crickets amongst the Grasshoppers