| One of the monologues written and performed by Spalding Gray. The text was
published in 1985, and was inspired by his experiences during the filming of
"The Killing Fields".
The film "Swimming to Cambodia" starred Gray (alone, as
usual), had music by Laurie Anderson,and was directed by Jonathan
Demme (The Silence of the Lambs, Philadelphia).
One of the main points he touches on is the search for a "perfect
moment" that is a requirement when he goes to exotic places (like
Thailand)... it is this search that is the catalyst that send him in the
situations in which he lands. He describes the moment as a good ending -
something that you can't plan or expect... "kind of like falling in
love... with yourself". He talks about his meeting with Roland
Jaffee (The meeting that he references during the Russian film festival portion
of "Monster in a Box") and the manic spin that this meeting
creates in his obsessive compulsive thought process of threes- between auditions,
lounge car conversations with a die hard, all-American Navy man, and his
travels.
The book is worth a read, but I would suggest the movie. I know it's
rather odd to suggest a movie over a book but the true appreciation of his
stories come not in the words but in his telling of them. | 
