A Coup For The Rich banned

Giles Ji Ungpakorn's book A Coup For The Rich: Thailand's Political Crisis, about the aftermath of the 2006 coup, has effectively been banned by the Thai police. Thammasat University Bookstore, the only outlet brave enough to sell the book, has received a letter from the police to the effect that the book is being investigated for lese majeste (because it quotes one word ["pseudo-economics"] from The King Never Smiles) and should therefore be removed from sale. But if the investigation is still ongoing, and the author has not been found guilty (yet), the police have no right to withdraw the book. The police request letter has been obtained and published by the FACT website.

PM Samak

It's official: Surayud's replacement has been confirmed, after a parliamentary vote today (delayed from Friday, to facilitate more lobbying). Samak is the new Prime Minister of Thailand. Oh dear.

To Catch A Thief

To Catch A Thief is in many ways a typical Alfred Hitchcock film, though it doesn't have the tension or cinematic sophistication of much of his other work. The sophistication on display here relates to the costumes and locations, rather than the camerawork or editing. The pace is extremely slow: excessive establishing shots of scenery and grand buildings, and over-long helicopter shots and chase sequences.

Cary Grant, one of Hitchcock's favourite actors, plays John Robie, a cat burglar who has retired to the French coast. Grace Kelly, probably Hitchcock's favourite actress, plays Frances Stevens, who falls in love with him. Robie is that archetypal Hitchcock figure, the persecuted innocent: he gave up burglary years before, though he is framed for a spate of recent jewellery thefts. To prove his innocence, he must catch the real burglar himself. The final revelation of the burglar's identity is hardly a surprise, and the whole plot is rather flimsy.

There are some amusing double-entendres, including Kelly asking Grant if he wants "leg or breast" (she's talking about pieces of chicken). Apparently, these moments were improvised by Kelly and Grant. There's one, however, which Kelly seems to fluff: she tells him: "I have a feeling that tonight you're going to see one of the Riviera's most fascinating sights. I was talking about the fireworks!". (Her pause between these two sentences is much too short, and thus not suggestive enough.)

Interestingly, Grant's character explains that he travelled around Europe performing in a circus during his youth - which is exactly what Grant did in his own youth. Grant is always a superbly suave actor, though he was better in Hitchcock's North By Northwest and Notorious. In this film his skin is alarmingly dark; his tan actually makes it difficult to recognise his face in some scenes. I thought there was something wrong with the colour settings on my TV, but all the other actors look normal.

Artspace Germany

Artspace Germany, organised by the Goethe Institute of Bangkok, is an excellent opportunity to see works by highly influential modern artists. Arguably the highlights of the show are the sculptures by Nam June Paik and Joseph Kosuth.

Paik is regarded as the father of video art: in 1965, he and Andy Warhol, working independently, were the first artists to incorporate video footage into their work. Two of Paik's iconic video sculptures, constructed from TV monitors, are included in this exhibition: Internet Resident and Candle TV.

Kosuth's work demonstrates the principles of semiotics, with a real object exhibited alongside a photograph and dictionary definition of the object. Kosuth first demonstrated this concept in 1965, with a real chair, a photograph of the chair, and a written definition of 'chair' presented side-by-side. In this exhibition, the same principle is applied to a frying pan (One & Three Pans).

Artspace Germany is showing at PSG (Silpakorn University) from 6th-27th February.

Tom Cruise: All The World's A Stage

Iain Johnstone's Tom Cruise biography, subtitled All The World's A Stage, has been compiled from press cuttings rather than from interviews with Cruise or anyone close to him. Exactly which press clippings he used is unclear, because no sources are provided: there are no references, there is no bibliography, and there are no acknowledgements.

There is nothing controversial or revelatory here. In fact, details which seem new often turn out to be mistakes by Johnstone. For example, he quotes Nicole Kidman describing Kubrick as "kind of stuffy", which you may think is a new interview until you realise that he's simply misquoting her from the Eyes Wide Shut DVD ("kind of scruffy"). Also, the Chris Isaac song he mentions, It's A Bad Bad World, is not some rare alternate version but rather Johnstone's inability to remember Baby Did A Bad Bad Thing. These errors, and others, mean that we have to take with a pinch of salt Johnstone's intriguing claim that Kubrick filmed an alternate take of the Eyes Wide Shut orgy for the Japanese market.

For original research, and genuine revelation, there is Andrew Morton's new Tom Cruise: An Unauthorized Biography instead.

Thai parliament in session; CNS disbanded

What we have been waiting for since Spring 2006 has now happened: the Thai parliament is in session once again. Also, we can finally say good riddance to the CNS: the junta committee held its final meeting today.

editor jailed for reprinting cartoons

Aleksandr Sdvizhkov, editor of the Belarus newspaper Zgoda, has been imprisoned for three years. His 'crime' was to have published the caricatures of Mohammed which were first printed by Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten in 2005. Zgoda was one of many newspapers which reprinted the cartoons in 2006.

PPP set to form government

It seems that there's no stopping Samak's PPP. They won the election (though perhaps not 'fair and square'). Now, every other Thai political party, with the sole and noble exception of the Democrats, has joined in a PPP coalition. The final coalition partners, Puea Paendin and Chart Thai, announced their membership yesterday, after more than two weeks of negotiations; they had used the mourning period following the death of Princess Galyani to buy themselves more time.

The Thai Supreme Court yesterday dismissed six cases against the PPP and the Election Commission. The New Aspiraion Party had alleged that the EC was not authorised to organise absentee ballots and advance voting before last year's election. Democrat candidate Chaiwat Sinsuwong claimed that the PPP was not legally allowed to contest the election, as it is a TRT nominee, Samak is a Thaksin proxy, and PPP candidates distributed Thaksin VCDs. All of these complaints have been dismissed by the Supreme Court. (The Democrats had actually asked Chaiwat to withdraw his allegations, though he has now resigned from the party.)

Even the CNS couldn't stop the PPP winning. Their anti-PPP smear campaign was unsuccessful after details of it were leaked to the public last year.

The last obstacle was Yongyuth Tiyaphairat, one of the PPP's deputy leaders. He was among many PPP candidates accused of vote-buying, and he has been under EC investigation. The EC must endorse at least 95% of MPs before Monday, so that a new parliamentary term can begin. Thus, the EC were under pressure to complete their vote-buying investigations as soon as possible. Fearing demonstrations from PPP supporters, the EC delegated the Yongyuth investigation to a sub-committee. Then, when Yongyuth was invited to view the evidence against him (an incriminating VCD), he missed the appointment - what a great delaying tactic! Anyway, Yongyuth has now received EC endorsement. Indeed, the EC rushed to endorse some twenty-nine candidates yesterday, in order to meet the deadline. Previously, candidates had been endorsed in dribs and drabs, averaging three per day. So just how thorough were the investigations into these final twenty-nine, including Yongyuth?

The Prime Minister will be chosen on Friday, and, unless there is some last-minute miracle, it seems that it will be Samak.

30 today!

I'm thirty years old today! I'm getting old...

Sulak challenges book ban

Sulak Sivaraksa, whose book ค่อนศตวรรษ ประชาธิปไตยไทย ที่เต็มไปด้วยขวากหนาม was banned by Thai police last October, is challenging the ban in court. Police chief Sombat Suphajiva and CNS-appointed 'Prime Minister' Surayud Chulanont, no less, will give evidence to support the ban. I bought the book from se-ed.com last year, though it is no longer on sale within Thailand.

Four Minutes (live extract)

Following Candy Shop and Beat Goes On, an extract from another Madonna demo has leaked online. The song, Four Minutes, will appear on Madonna's forthcoming album, and will also be her next single. Timbaland played the demo at a concert in Philadelphia on 17th December 2007.

Four Minutes features both Justin Timberlake and Timbaland. In the leaked extract, Timbaland sings live, accompanied by a recording of the demo.

Japanese Film Festival 2008

The 2008 Japanese Film Festival, organised by the Japan Foundation, takes place from 18th-25th January in Bangkok.

The event's subtitle is The Hidden Treasures Of Japanese Cinema: Masterpieces From Its Golden Age - 1950s-1960s. The 1950s were indeed a golden age for Japanese film (as, previously, were the 1920s), with Akira Kurosawa's Rashomon introducing international audiences to Japanese cinema for the first time. However, the cinema of Japan does not begin and end with Kurosawa. The Japanese Film Festival emphasises the lesser-known directors of Japanese cinema's second golden age.

The schedule includes Gion Bayashi (Saturday at 8pm) by master director Kenji Mizoguchi, and the histroical drama Wild Geese by Shirou Toyoda (Sunday at 3pm). Also included is The Ghost Of Yotsuya (Sunday at 8pm), a classic interpretation of Japan's most famous ghost story by its greatest horror director, Nobuo Nakagawa. (The legend of Yotsuya is the Japanese equivalent of the Thai folk take Mae Nak, on which Nang Nak was based.) There are also two films by Mikio Naruse: Repast (Thursday at 7pm) and Sound Of The Mountain (Friday at 7pm). All films will be screened, free of charge, at the Grand EGV cinema, Siam Discovery Center. See jfbkk.or.th/event/jff2008_eg.html for the full schedule.

Hostel

Hostel was directed by Eli Roth, one of a group of contemporary directors known as the Splat Pack due to the graphic violence of their horror films. The films themselves have been called 'torture porn', such is their emphasis on blood and gore.

Hostel begins with a group of three male backpackers, who are told about an Eastern European hostel full of attractive women. When they arrive at the hostel, they do indeed meet three ladies, though what they don't realise until far too late is that they have been drawn into a honeytrap. The women are prostitutes, hired by a Russian company called Elite Hunting, who bring the men to a derelict factory where they are to be tortured and killed by the company's paying clients. (Elite Hunting was supposedly inspired by a Thai organisation whose website Roth saw.)

The torture scenes are dank, dark, and hard to watch the first time. (I saw the unrated edition, which is slightly longer than the theatrical version.) During subsequent viewings I always have to look away when Josh's ankles split open. Jan Vlasak, who plays a Dutch businessman who uses Elite Hunting's services, gives a chilling, casually sadistic performance.

Prosperity For 2008

A new short film by Apichatpong Weerasethakul is available at Thunska Pansittivorakul's website thaiindie.com. The film, Prosperity For 2008, is a beautiful, abstract work, in which a dot of light travels slowly across a black background (and is perhaps a firework in the night sky).

sameskybooks.org shut down

Same Sky's website, sameskybooks.org, has been shut down by its host server, following a demand from MICT.

The site's forum contained comments which have been interpreted as anti-monarchy. For example, some members noted that recent Thai newspaper headlines about the whole nation mourning the death of Princess Galyani Vadhana were exaggerations.

Under the terms of the Computer Crime Act, a court order is required before a website can be blocked, so MICT's actions may be illegal. Fortunately, some forum pages are still online, and a new Same Sky forum has opened at getmorestudio.com/samesky.

TITV Thaksin interview pulled

An extended interview with Thaksin, conducted by Jom Petchphradub in Hong Kong on 24th December last year, was commissioned by TITV and due to be broadcast two days later. However, after an un-named government officer telephoned the channel, the interview was not broadcast. Of course, the same thing happened this time last year, when CNN's interview with Thaksin was blocked from Thai television.

Josephine Baker In Art & Life

My Madonna website has been referenced in the notes and bibliography of a new book by Bennetta Jules-Rosette, titled Josephine Baker In Art & Life: The Icon & The Image. The book explores the creation of Baker's public persona, and analyses its influence on modern culture.

In my online Madonna discography, I discuss the Catholic reaction to the confluence of sex and religion in the Blond Ambition concerts, which Jules-Rosette compares to Baker's world tour of 1929-1930.

PPP government?

Samak's PPP won the Thai election, though they don't have enough seats for an outright majority. Samak has announced that he is ready to form a coalition government alongside three smaller parties, and that two other parties (Chart Thai and Puea Paendin) are also welcome to join the alliance. Chart Thai and Puea Paendin are reportedly considering the offer, and will announce a final decision in the next few days. If they do decide to join, this will leave the Democrats as the sole opposition party, and the only party with any principles.

Before the election, candidates and factions were grouping and regrouping on a daily basis, with seemingly no consideration of ideologies whatsoever. The current PPP coalition would surely not have been possible without millions of baht provided by Thaksin, who is (allegedly!) funding the PPP.

I'm not particularly anti-PPP, only anti-Samak. He supported the massacre of students in October 1976, he is openly corrupt, and he shows arrogant contempt for others. And in a few days he will probably become Prime Minister! Looking on the bright side, at least he will have been democratically elected, and the military coup will have finally ended. Although, as the PPP is basically a reincarnation of TRT, the military may decide to launch a coup all over again. (The current army chief has denied this possibility, but, of course, Sonthi also denied it, right up until the eve of his 2006 coup.)

There are currently several investigations into various shady PPP activities, and their outcomes could potentially lead to the dissolution of the party. Also, numerous PPP candidates are being investigated for vote-buying, and they will lose their seats if they are found guilty. So there is still hope!

Kaplan students

Here are some of my Kaplan students (and Liz, another teacher), an exceptionally fun group whose course finished at the end of last year. [Thanks to Sai for the photo.]

Jackass II

I had seen neither the Jackass MTV series nor the original Jackass film, so I had little idea of what to expect from this sequel. Basically, it's a group of raucous men daring each other to perform a variety of risky stunts, directed by Jeff Tremaine.

What surprised me was how scatological many of these activities were - bodily fluids (both human and animal) were required (and ingested) for several stunts. The version I saw was the unrated DVD, and I don't know how much of this material was missing from the theatrical version.

The team are so over-enthusiastic that it's difficult to laugh at them too much, though it is genuinely fascinating in a disgusting kind of way, if only to wonder at how they cleaned up and recuperated afterwards. Also, there's a cameo by director John Waters, whose film Pink Flamingos rivals Jackass II for sheer abjection.

Casino Royale

Casino Royale was the first of Ian Fleming's James Bond novels, though the film rights to it had always eluded Cubby Broccoli, who produced films based on all of Flemings subsequent Bond books. A film of Casino Royale was made in 1967, though it was a spoof version featuring a huge, chaotic ensemble of directors, writers, and stars. When the rights finally passed to Broccoli's company, a canonical version could finally be made, directed by Martin Campbell.

Campbell had previously directed Pierce Brosnan as an ultra-suave Bond in GoldenEye. Brosnan's replacement, Daniel Craig, is more reminiscent of Die Hard's John McClain than the traditional James Bond character. (Does he want his Martini shaken or stirred? "Do I look like I give a damn?" is his iconoclastic answer, though he does do the obligatory "Bond, James Bond" line at the end.)

happy new year!

We celebrated the new year at Central World in downtown Bangkok, at an event called Hands 2008: Bangkok Countdown. Fortunately, unlike last year, there were no bombs this time. Best wishes to everyone for 2008.